The story behind the work
Liz Hartke is the founder and CEO of Luminary Leadership Company, where she advises entrepreneurs on business growth, leadership, and the transition from overloaded operator to visionary leader. For more than a decade, she has worked with ambitious business owners around the world, helping them build companies that support a meaningful life instead of consuming it. Her approach connects strategy with personal calling, family priorities, and the kind of leadership capacity needed to grow without becoming the permanent bottleneck.
Liz works alongside her husband and team while building family life into the way they operate their businesses. Her teaching challenges the assumption that success requires a clean separation between work and home or a constant push toward someone else's goals. Frameworks such as her Clarity Matrix help leaders distinguish work that feels easy but heavy from work that is difficult yet energizing. She also encourages choosing a long-term trajectory that can hold different seasons rather than treating every temporary slowdown as failure.
On the YES! Women's Network Podcast, Liz joins Michele for a conversation about building a values-aligned life. They discuss burnout, motherhood, zones of genius, changing definitions of success, and the practical work of protecting what matters while a business grows. Liz's perspective gives women a way to examine whether their current commitments reflect their gifts and calling, then make room for the next chapter without dismissing the realities of the season they are in.
