Rising Up By Your Own Rules with Heidi Hartman Artwork

Shift Out Loud with Tracy Spears

Hosted by Tracy Spears, speaker, co-author of two best selling leadership books, founder of The Leader Lab, coach, and head cheerleader for anyone trying to play bigger. Shift Out Loud is a podcast designed to inspire you to play bigger. You'll hear from real live people sharing what their shift was, when it happened, and why it was out loud. What you think is true, and when you move from the external locus of control to the internal locus of control, your shift can happen and anything becomes possible. This podcast is your invitation to listen to others who have made the shift, and also serve as a catalyst for you to play bigger.

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Shift Out Loud with Tracy Spears

Rising Up By Your Own Rules with Heidi Hartman

December 02, 2025 • Tracy Spears • Episode 68

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What do highly successful people do differently? Is it possible to build a thriving career entirely on your own terms? In this episode of Shift Out Loud, I’m joined by Heidi Hartman, a sought-after speaker, leadership coach, and author of Her Rise Her Rules: 7 Secrets of Successful Leaders, an incredible book that reveals the success strategies of over 100 high-performing women leaders.

Heidi and I talk about her fascinating authorship journey and interview process, how she helps her clients transform their biggest what-ifs into what’s possible, and the crucial assessments that will help you identify your best next steps for playing bigger in your career, without compromising your core values or wasting time and money on unhelpful tangents or distractions. Heidi also shares her important research into Oklahoma’s high rates of female incarceration — a topic that is close to my heart.

Ready to play bigger? Listen now to discover:

Some of the key strategies explored in Her Rise Her Rules (and how to apply them to your life)
How Heidi learned from poor-fit opportunities and created a career that plays to her strengths and passions
The challenges of monetizing your expertise when you’ve been sharing it for free

Guest bio: Heidi Hartman published her first book, Her Rise Her Rules: 7 Secrets of Successful Leaders, in September 2025. After two decades in corporate leadership and HR, Heidi ventured out to pursue her greater purpose — building better leaders and businesses from the inside out. She puts her experience and extensive training to work for clients to understand the unique opportunities they face and offer tangible solutions that lead to wild success.

Timestamps:

02:00 Intro

04:17 Meet Heidi Hartman

07:32 Camping & RVs

10:24 University of Oklahoma

13:13 Lessons from retail & inspired friction

17:31 Shift to organizational development

20:01 Policy work & consulting

22:06 Playing bigger in your career

24:27 Her Rise Her Rules

30:47 Blessed by a bad fit

35:14 Monetizing expertise