how I got here
My friends call me a recovering overachiever.
For more than a decade, I lived the kind of life ambitious people are told to want. Ivy League degree, consulting job, fast promotions. I helped build one company through an IPO to a $12B valuation (and an Emmy - long story), then helped scale a YC-backed education startup to a 9-figure acquisition. I was making more money than I'd ever imagined.
Quietly, I was falling apart.
I was burned out, anxious, sleep-deprived, and increasingly convinced that if I kept going, I was going to look back on a life I didn't actually want.
The harder I pushed, the more I felt like I was pretending to be someone I wasn't.
Outside, I looked successful. Inside, I was deeply dissatisfied and starting to suspect that the ladder I'd been climbing my whole career was leaning against the wrong wall.
So, with guidance and support, I began questioning and unlearning the scaffolding of my identity: inherited programming from society, family, and industry.
I began to see more clearly. Every moment of insight brought a little more connection to a more honest version of me.
In time, the work that changed me became my work. In the years since, I've partnered with leaders at some of the most innovative companies in the world, ranging from fast-growing tech startups and top venture firms to leading non-profits and the Fortune 100.
But that's not the real story.
The real story is that I feel more ME than ever.
I'm more clear on what I stand for, and what I won't. More accepting of myself. More loving in my relationships. More effective at my craft. Less reactive when heated. Less afraid of not being enough. Better at taking big swings. Better at not taking myself too seriously.
I'm in my 40s now. The biggest thing I've learned is that the true journey is the inner journey - and that it turns out to be good for business, too. When leaders operate from a place of inner clarity, they become more effective, creative, and alive. And they give the people around them permission to do the same.
Today, that's the work I do with ambitious leaders and their teams.
If that's the kind of conversation you've been wanting to have with yourself, I'd love to have it with you.
Warmly,
Leland
Leland is a remarkable human being.
I have the privilege of being a mentor to him during his Journey of life. Leland has not only successfully navigated several major career changes, but has done so in the pursuit of his own truth and higher purpose. He has a capacity of energetic sensitivity and awareness that belies his 'youth', in other words, he is an Old Soul in a young body. Anyone who works with him in any capacity would be very lucky and dare I say even privileged, to benefit from his intuitive and loving guidance.
my craft
I named my business after kenshō, from the Japanese 見性, "an insight towards one's true nature" - which I love because it captures the essence of subtraction as a means to remember who we really are.
My specialty is creating unique, immersive experiences that wake leaders up to their true nature - so they can see how capable, powerful, and loving they already are. From this place, they create magic all on their own. All they had to do was strip away the stories, beliefs, and behaviors that they innocently allowed to keep themselves stuck.
I use an evidence-based, insight-led approach, focusing on real-life experiential shifts rather than theory and intellectual frameworks. Nature tends to be a big part of our work - ascending mountains, hiking through forests, polar bear plunging in oceans, even jumping out of airplanes - as a means to catalyze this process of deepening connection with oneself.
speaker bio · as requested
Leland Franklin
Executive Coach · Founder, Kenshō Leadership
Leland Franklin is an executive coach and the founder of Kenshō Leadership, an executive coaching and leadership development firm. A Professional Certified Coach (ICF), Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CTI), and Certified High Flow Meditation Guide, he has coached senior leaders at high-growth startups and iconic companies including Google, Apple, Anthropic, SpaceX, and LinkedIn - and, increasingly, at mission-driven organizations and impact investing funds including Breathe For Change, High Resolves, Acumen America, and Social Good Fund. He has worked with over 45 teams and coached over 2,000 hours, and has facilitated and trained more than 750 people managers on five continents, for companies including Dow Jones, GoFundMe, Lululemon, and Oura Ring.
Before becoming a full-time coach, Leland spent 12 years inside hyper-growth tech companies. He joined GoPro in 2013 as the first software PM; the team he built shipped 8 flagship HERO cameras and 50+ features that drove the two highest revenue years in company history, a 2014 IPO, a $12B peak, and an Emmy. He then led Partner Engineering at Clever, a YC-backed edtech platform used by 95,000 K-12 schools and 22 million students a month, en route to its $500M acquisition. Earlier, he led 30+ enterprise technology projects for Fortune 500 companies at Citrix as a technical consultant and systems architect.
Leland holds an MBA with Honors from UC Berkeley Haas and an economics and org behavior degree from Brown University, studied behavioral science at Yale School of Management, and is a Stanford-certified Advanced Project Manager. He mentors founding teams through Berkeley SkyDeck, UC Berkeley's startup accelerator, and guest lectures at Berkeley Haas on operating at sustainable peak performance and living a meaningful life.
some of my lenses
why I do this
At the end of this life, I want to look back on memories of all the wonderful people I've served, knowing that our time together created ripples we'll never fully see. I'm tremendously honored to work with the people I do - each is an inspiration and a gift.
Thanks for reading this far. If you want to keep going, I've written up the principles I strive to live by and the teachers and mentors who got me here.