How you can lose yourself while remaining professionally and lovingly devoted to everyone else.
LLi · LISETTE LUCAS INTERNATIONAL PODCAST · 293
From caring for everyone… to living from your own truth, with Irene Hoekstra
After thirty years in healthcare and twenty-two years in intensive care, Irene Hoekstra knew how to carry responsibility. In this open conversation, she shares how she found herself again, moved to Friesland, started a business and learned to live from her own truth.
13 August 2026English editorial · Dutch audio
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THE CORE IN ONE MINUTE
What changes when service no longer requires self-abandonment?
Someone who has cared for others for years can be exceptionally capable and professional while gradually placing themselves on the sidelines. Irene shows that inner authority does not make you less devoted. It helps you hear the signals that have spoken for years, choose what truly fits and translate that truth into relationships, home, work and entrepreneurship.
IN THIS EPISODE
No more noise. A clearer distinction.
Why the body often recognises what no longer fits before the mind can explain it.
What becomes possible when inner truth is allowed to shape concrete choices.
How Irene integrates medical expertise, energetic perception and entrepreneurship.
The woman who had lost herself
When Irene entered Lisette's world in 2021, she had been through a divorce and no longer fully knew who she was. Beneath her professional strength lived a burning desire for which she did not yet have words.
When you reach a point where you have lost yourself and no longer feel love for yourself, how can you still give it to someone else?
Thirty years in healthcare. Twenty-two in intensive care.
Irene worked for decades in a world where speed, science and responsibility are essential. She loved the work, yet saw how continuous service gradually moved her own life into the background.
The body speaks before the mind
Every time Irene drove to Friesland, space, breath and song returned. On the drive back, the constriction returned. Those physical signals were no longer a side note, but information she learned to trust.
Choosing what fits at the core
Irene moved from the Randstad to Friesland, bought a home in her own name with a hectare of land and built a new way of living. Not as an escape, but as a concrete translation of what she had known inside for years.
I preserve the calm. That is truly beautiful.
From medical professional to entrepreneur
The same alignment gave Irene the courage to start Boto Luxury & More, combining decades of medical professionalism with aesthetics, integrity and the inner transformation she has lived herself.
From IC to Identity Glow
Her intensive-care career taught Irene how often love, truth and life are postponed. Identity Glow became her bridge from external refinement to rediscovering one's true identity.
Later is a dangerous illusion. The only moment we truly have to choose what is right is now.
PERSONAL REFLECTION
What do you already know?
- Where has caring for others become so automatic that you have placed yourself on the sidelines?
- Which signal has your body been giving you while your mind keeps finding reasons to stay?
- What would you choose if you no longer had to prove that you can carry everything?
EDITORIAL TRANSCRIPT TRANSLATION · EN
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A transparent editorial translation of selected passages from the Dutch recording. It is not presented as a separate English audio edition.
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I lost myself. I no longer really knew who I was. I felt a burning desire, as if there were a lid on a pan and something underneath needed to come out.
I was always devoted to others. When someone is in need, you run. I loved that work. But when you eventually lose yourself, you have to return to the essence.
Every time I visited my parents in Friesland, something fell away. The moment I crossed the Afsluitdijk, I started singing in the car again. On the way back, the constriction returned.
My heart wanted to return to the space, the land and Friesland. Every time my thoughts went there, I felt calm. Then I knew: I simply have to go.
I would never have dared to become an entrepreneur if I had not come into alignment with myself. Ultimately, you still have to drive to the Chamber of Commerce yourself. You have to begin.
I was able to buy a home in Friesland in my own name, with a private access road and a hectare of land around it. The greatest difference is that I preserve the calm.
I saw how often life and love were postponed. Later is a dangerous illusion. The only moment we truly have to repair what is broken or choose what is right is now.
ABOUT THE HOST
Lisette Lucas
HIGH END SUCCESS MEDIUM® · HIGH FREQUENCY BUSINESS MENTOR
Lisette is the leader for leaders who have built a great deal, yet lost full access to their own signal along the way. As creator of Perceptive Intelligence™ and founder of Inner-Medium™ for Leaders, she helps leaders restore inner authority and translate it into clear decisions, visibility, business and impact.
Meet LisetteYOUR NEXT MOVEMENT
You no longer need to abandon yourself in order to keep growing.
Explore during a personal Soul Connection Call where your own signal is being overridden, what is truly at stake and whether Inner-Medium™ for Leaders is the right field for your next level.