In this bite-size conversation, Liz Hartke reflects on growing up in a multi-generational entrepreneurial family and how that early exposure shaped her deepest value: family. Liz shares the tension she’s lived firsthand—seeing entrepreneurship used as a powerful vehicle for freedom and presence, but also watching it quietly erode marriages, health, and connection when left unchecked. She opens up about building her own business “for her family,” only to realise she was sacrificing the very relationships she claimed to be doing it for. The result was a slow series of wake-up calls that forced her to question not just what she was building, but how she was building it.

The turning point came when a trusted mentor challenged her during what should have been a celebratory milestone, telling her she was underperforming—not financially, but as a leader and human being. That moment sparked a deeper shift in Liz’s work: moving from pure business strategy to helping founders scale themselves. She explains why leaders are almost always the bottleneck, how growth stalls when inner work is ignored, and why true success comes from building from alignment rather than force. At the heart of the episode is a simple but confronting truth: how you build the thing matters just as much as the thing you build—and if success costs what matters most, it isn’t success at all.

Links to Full Episode:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/33dqQXojyAo7LvfjApkXnO?si=PJitbnC6RCmGe57_uhJ1CA

https://youtu.be/DiDBpPfTQR4?si=2U10r97LbggNNykS