[chuckles]

Right? I mean, but the interesting thing is, actually what we found, and I've been-- again, we've been working with Leap Academy, we've been working with thousands of people, and what we found is actually really profound.

So in order to get out of a bucket that you've been put in, right? And I was like the engineer, I was the technical sales, or I was a VP product, like you're always put in a certain bucket.

But the interesting thing is, you know how, David, if you see a kid and you see them every single day, you don't notice the difference.

But if you see them suddenly after a year, you're like, "Whoa, what just happened?" And what we need to create is the whoa effect.

And in order to create that, we need to create a pattern interrupt in people's head about how they perceive you, how they see you.

So the interesting thing is that when you wanna get out of the bucket that you've been put in, so for example, if you've been, I don't know, whatever, product and you wanna move to sales, or sales, you wanna move to marketing, or marketing, you wanna move to entrepreneurship, or you wanna be known as a coach or consultant or whatever, right, private equity, whatever it is, right? In order to do that, what you need to do is a big shift and a change that is really, really fast.

[laughs]

It's.

It is profound.

So if I'm going a little bit to my story, I think you kind of alluded to it, right? Like I ticked a lot of boxes of success, if you will.

And first of all, that does come with a little bit of ego, I admit, we'll talk about it, right? But also maybe a little bit of naive, like it's all going to be easy for me.

And, um, but the truth is I did work really, really hard.

I was always a very hard worker.

Um, as vice president at that point, I was flying all the time.

Sure, sure.

What was it with a startup? Could you tell us a little bit about that? I mean, you had everything going and then all of a sudden, whammo, it just kind of blew up on you, didn't it?

You can say that again.

So yeah, so to give some context for the listeners, I did leap again, again, again, from Intel to startups and all the way in different roles in those startups.

And it's interesting, Shelley, because every single time I found myself stuck.

And I was like, you know, every time you get good at something, you get stuck in it because they see you in that box, right? And, you know, and finally I got out of the engineering box into technical sales and product management and marketing.

And there's a reason why I'm telling the story.

And eventually I was vice president.

Would you mind sharing those with our listeners? Yeah, yeah.

Of course

... you know, or versus somebody that will tell me, "I wanna maximize." Like, this is...

I, I, I, I have a little bit of breathing room, but I really don't...

Like, if I can avoid doing the same thing that I can do in my sleep and it sucks my soul to start again, I want something different.

With him, we tried a very similar strategy.

Here in the Berkeley University, he started mentoring in start of their startups and some of their students.

He started teaching a little bit.

[laughs]

But how do I find my zone of genius? How do I connect with that thing or those couple of things that I do exceptional? What's the advice you have for them?

Oh, such a good question.

So first of all, I will say that many, many, many times, like I said, that a jar cannot read its own label.

And leaning on somebody else to kind of share some of their perspective, again, not in a beautiful setting and people that are positive in the world, right? Like don't take their victimhood, but it's good to listen to what are people saying about you.

For me, it was like suddenly I realized that some of the recommendations on LinkedIn that I had put in words things that I didn't even think of right or some of the thank you thank you that people will send you in messages or people will come and say hey Lana do you have a few minutes I want to talk to you and the interesting thing about it is people will already hint you kind of what we said success leaves clues people will already hint you what they're intrigued by you And the question is, I don't know if I, you know, the question is, what is that? What are those moments? And for me, it's really about really distilling it to what are those pieces that actually makes me unique? What makes me different? What are people already, you know, like drawn to me and what makes me excited again? And again, I think the truth is you will not necessarily know one thing.

until you start doing it, get clarity, get more conviction, more.

Like, it's not that I knew I want to start Leap Academy.

So the floor is

Yeah

...

I mean, I'm covered with this, like, incredible Silicon Valley vibe.

So, um, at that point, I was already vice president in, in, you know, a very successful company.

I literally built it from, you know, buying the printer and the router to, you know, this mega five sites, multi-million dollar deals.

Like, it was incredible.

But I was burned out, I was tired, I was flying every week.

So, so how does that person that's comfortable, they know they need to reinvent themselves, they know they need to take themselves serious as a brand, how do they go from comfort to having that courage muscle to actually do the thing?

Is this step two? Is this step three? Is this step four? Just walk me through how people do this.

Yeah.

So the very first thing is that you want to try to figure out what on earth do you want to do with your life? The people that come to us many times feel like they should have been further on.

They should have been further along.

They should have more seat at the table.

They should be more accomplished and they don't know how and what.

And I think today with the endless plateau of opportunities, they don't even know how do I even get started? How do I know what's even on the menu? and this was me i had blinders on all i could see is that director role or vp role that i wanted like i didn't even know what are the options and when you understand that there's more options the first thing is to understand what it is that you want to do and what do you want to be known for and And that's sometimes really hard, Guy, because we're wired based on what society expects and what people want us to be and what's cool to be and not necessarily what we really want.

How do I reinvent myself as a kick-ass woman who should be in the executive suite?

What should we be looking for when it's time for us to consider a pivot or a leap?

leap?It's a great question because I think sometimes, like you said, timing is everything.

And you don- it doesn't mean that when you're leap ready, it doesn't mean that I need to pack my bags and go.

But I still remember a time when one of my big bosses came to me and said, "What do you want to do next?" Even within the organization, right? And I had no clue.

Now, that was a beautiful opportunity.

We were just acquired.

I could probably have maneuvered anywhere if I only knew, right? So for me, a big part is I want to get people into a habit of not necessarily looking for a leap, but always being intentional, strategic with their career and thinking, what's next? Where am I trying to go? And I do believe that in this pace of change, people will change careers even within, again, responsibilities, titles, whatever it is, right? Even within the same organization, but they will change it every year or two.

What's your approach to helping someone figure out what they really want to do next? We've talked about how to figure out when the time is ready for that next thing, but how do you really find that clarity about how you wanna reinvent yourself? Do you have some specific advice?