What happens when the life you’ve worked so hard to build no longer feels like the life you’re meant to live?

In this episode of Notes From the Edge, host Lisa Lacy sits down with Luke Mickelson, founder of Sleep in Heavenly Peace, to explore purpose-driven leadership, community service, personal identity, vulnerability, and how one small act of kindness can grow into a movement that changes hundreds of thousands of lives.

Luke had everything he thought success was supposed to look like. A six-figure career, financial stability, a family, and a comfortable life. But something was missing.

Then a simple project to build a bunk bed for children sleeping on the floor changed everything.

Luke shares the unforgettable story of Haley, a six-year-old girl who had been sleeping on her school clothes because she didn’t have a bed. When she received her very first bed, she wrapped her arms around it and kissed it.

That moment transformed Luke’s understanding of success, service, and what it means to make a difference.

What began as a small community project became Sleep in Heavenly Peace, an international nonprofit dedicated to ensuring that no child has to sleep on the floor.

But this conversation goes far beyond building beds.

Lisa and Luke explore the loneliness that can exist behind professional success, the unexpected fulfillment that comes from helping others, and the personal cost of believing that leadership means always having the answers.

Luke also opens up about letting go of pride, ego, and the identity he spent years performing, discovering that vulnerability may be one of the greatest strengths a leader can develop.

In this episode:

• Success vs. Fulfillment: Why achieving everything society calls success can still leave us questioning our purpose.
• One Bed, Thousands of Lives: How Haley’s story helped ignite a community movement addressing childhood bedlessness.
• The Five Steps to Finding Purpose: Luke’s approach to meaningful action: see it, feel it, act on it, repeat it, and share it.
• Community Service and Human Connection: How volunteering creates belonging, shifts our perspective, and reminds us that we’re not meant to navigate life alone.
• Leadership, Identity, and Vulnerability: Why letting go of the need to be strong, have every answer, and perform for others can be profoundly freeing.

This is a conversation about ordinary people doing extraordinary things, not because they have all the resources or answers, but because they decide to act.

And perhaps the most powerful reminder is that you don’t have to change the entire world to change someone’s world.

Connect with Luke Mickelson

Learn about Sleep in Heavenly Peace, find a local chapter, volunteer to build or deliver beds, donate, or start a chapter in your community.

https://shpbeds.org/

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https://www.lisalacy.com/inside-the-edge

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