Life, Values & Legacy: Our Chat with Lee Cholodenko of Los Angeles, CA

We’re looking forward to introducing you to Lee Cholodenko. Check out our conversation below.

Lee, so good to connect and we’re excited to share your story and insights with our audience. There’s a ton to learn from your story, but let’s start with a warm up before we get into the heart of the interview. What is something outside of work that is bringing you joy lately?
One of the greatest sources of joy in my life is my relationships with friends and family. I’m deeply grateful for close friendships that feel like family, as well as having my actual family nearby. One of the things I appreciate most about these relationships is the depth and range of connection — these are people I can laugh with, cry with, reflect with through life’s challenges, and celebrate wins. Spending time with the people I love is one of the most fulfilling and grounding parts of my life.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m a leadership consultant, coach, and entrepreneur focused on helping leaders cultivate presence, clarity, and strategic capacity so they can lead with greater impact. I’m the Executive Director of the Kollner Academy, where we partner with organizations to develop leaders at all levels through coaching and workshops that support the deeper personal work needed to lead effectively in today’s world.

What makes my work unique is bridging deep personal development with practical leadership training. I draw from psychology, adult development, contemporary leadership theory and wisdom traditions to help leaders become more self-aware, emotionally intelligent, and strategically effective so they can create purpose-driven businesses that better our world.

At the heart of everything I do is a belief that leadership isn’t just about what we do or what we know, it’s about how we show up. It’s about who we are and how we care for the people in our organizations and consider the broader impact of our decisions on society and the planet.

Great, so let’s dive into your journey a bit more. What was your earliest memory of feeling powerful?
I don’t usually share this, but I used to be a professional magician when I was nine years old. I performed at birthday parties, at a charity event that was covered in the newspaper, and eventually was invited to perform on a television show called VIP. The episode featured two other magicians and Milt Larson, the owner of The Magic Castle.

You might expect a nine-year-old to be terrified performing on TV in front of cameras and a magic legend, but surprisingly I wasn’t. I remember feeling completely confident and steady. After my performance, which included sawing half of my arm off, and making ping pong balls vanish inside a velvet pouch, I was interviewed by the host of the show and Milt himself. Even that didn’t rattle me.

Looking back, that was maybe one of the first times I remember feeling truly powerful. Not because I had power over anyone else, but because I was fully expressing myself. I was being creative, playful, and unapologetically me, and I could feel that it brought genuine joy to others.

That experience shaped how I understand power today. True power isn’t something taken from others, it’s something shared. It doesn’t diminish anyone’s wellbeing, it expands it. Real power is reciprocal. It grows when we show up as ourselves fully and invite others to do the same.

What did suffering teach you that success never could?
I’d say a lot of my success has grown out of my suffering. When I was younger, I experienced deep emotional and spiritual pain, including intense fear, anxiety and shame. At the same time, I had beautiful moments of feeling connected to something greater than myself, to a spiritual essence. The contrast between these two realities created a sense of disconnection, and it sparked a real desire in me to heal and understand myself more deeply.

That desire sent me on an inward journey that ended up shaping my life. It led me into self-inquiry, toward unconditional love, and into building a much more compassionate relationship with myself.

Looking back now, I believe that my suffering was a wake-up call, as Paul Ferrini likes to say, and it opened the door to some of the most meaningful experiences and blessings in my life.

Today, it’s clear to me that any success I’ve had came from the awareness and growth that emerged because I chose to turn toward my suffering and explore it, instead of pushing it away. Any success I’ve experienced didn’t happen in spite of my suffering, it happened because of it. I still see this as an ongoing practice of meeting pain as opportunities to grow, a process that continues to shape both my life and my leadership work.

Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. What are the biggest lies your industry tells itself?
One of the biggest lies in leadership development is that the key to better leadership is simply adding more intellectual knowledge. While knowledge matters, it barely scratches the surface of what actually shapes impactful leadership. Real leadership growth comes from developing self-awareness, emotional maturity, and presence, the inner capacities that determine how someone shows up under pressure, relates to others, and makes decisions.

Another illusion is that we can separate the personal from the professional. Leaders don’t leave their emotions, fears, or biases at the door, no one does. Who we are as human beings shows up directly in how we lead. Ignoring that truth may be convenient for organizational training programs, but it’s one of the reasons so many of them fall short of creating lasting transformation.

Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. If you knew you had 10 years left, what would you stop doing immediately?
This is a juicy question. I would stop waiting. I’d stop waiting for the right conditions, the right opportunity, or some ideal set of circumstances before fully stepping forward my vision. I see how easy it is to postpone the things that matter most while telling myself I’m just being patient or practical.

Instead, I’d be more bold about following what feels alive. I’d test more ideas, say yes faster and take more risks. What I’m learning more and more is that growth doesn’t come from waiting until things feel safe. It comes from moving forward while I’m still uncertain and discovering who I become along the way.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://leecholodenko.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leecholodenko/?hl=en
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lee-cholodenko-32824127