About LumiTalent

ILLUMINATING A NEW PATH FORWARD

Derived from 'Lumi,' meaning light, our name signifies our mission to shine a light on innovative talent strategies that drive lasting organizational impact without sacrificing your people’s well-being. We can help with:

  • Job crafting & work redesign

  • Fractional and flexible staffing

  • Remote and hybrid work structures

  • Outsourcing to artificial intelligence

  • Leadership development, trainings, and workshops

  • Individual & cohort-based leadership and mindset coaching

  • Custom supports for various life stages like parenting and retirement

  • Whatever else we can dream up to hold on to your high performers

Without better ways of working, mission-driven organizations lose out. Burned out leaders leave and top talent opts out of doing good.

This makes it impossible for mission-driven organizations to achieve their full impact on their communities and the world.

Nonprofits and education organizations continue to experience major issues in recruitment, staffing, and retention. It’s time for leaders to get creative to compete for top tier talent.

But when you’re already at capacity, how can you design and implement sweeping and systemic change? LumiTalent can help.

Hi, I’m Danielle Pickens

Founder and Chief Strategist for LumiTalent.

I see it over and over again. Friends, coworkers and colleagues reach a breaking point in their social and public sector jobs…They know the way they’re working is not sustainable, that the hustle and grind is killing them, but they don’t know how to fix it. So they hope that things will get better next week or next month and stay stuck.

There is another way.  A more sustainable way. I know this because I’m living it as a mom of three with a thriving career.

My own professional  journey is nontraditional.

In my 20s — before remote and hybrid work were even a concept — I sought flexibility & part-time work to support my health and home life.

I was juggling work and a challenging fertility journey to build our family (3 kids and a dog), and the 40+ hour-a-week grind wasn’t possible alongside doctors’ appointments, injectable hormones, pregnancy, and childcare. 

As my family grew, so did my frustration with traditional work structures. I left my job in education to launch my consulting business, and it became my mission to push against cultural norms and give other leaders permission to do things differently. 

Now, I’m still caring for my children, AND I’m caregiving for my dad. All while building a successful consulting business for those who are struggling to make work work for them.There will NEVER be a time when life stops throwing us curveballs. Why not create the life we love NOW and design our work structures to support it? 

At LumiTalent, I help our clients revamp how they work and free them from any guilt in the process. It’s a matter of “both/and”...

I’m an ambitious worker AND I’m willing to cut corners. 

I’m known for my “do less” philosophy.

I use AI to help with our kids' homework, ruthlessly say no to work requests, leave clean laundry in the basket week-by-week, and skip kids’ birthday parties as a rule. But this doesn’t mean I don’t have ambitious goals or high standards (that’s not how you get degrees from the University of Chicago and Harvard) — it just means I have clear priorities and know when to put in a C+ effort.

I’m an expert consultant and coach AND I’d never pretend I have it “all figured out.”

In order to have the greatest impact, I’ve had to unlearn all of my perfectionist tendencies and become more comfortable with less effort and thinking beyond the obvious and trite solutions most experts throw around for managing your time and attention. I’m great at what I do, and still, I know that together we may need to imagine entirely new possibilities that work best for you and your team.

I believe in the monumental impact of education and nonprofit work
AND I know the way we work in mission-driven organizations
is especially broken.

Purpose-led leaders know that education and nonprofit pay is well below where it needs to be and unreasonable workloads and overstuffed job descriptions prevent companies from recruiting and retaining high quality talent. Even if you’re under-resourced and over-worked, I still know we can fix your talent acquisition and retention. And those fixes are the key to amplify your impact and achieve your mission.

Danielle is a savvy program strategist with deep expertise regarding talent best practices.

She is also a gifted facilitator who is always attuned and responsive to participant and client needs. I hope to have many more opportunities to work with and learn from her in the future.”

— Gianna Bruno, Education Pioneers

Let me be your guide toward a better way of working.

  • Want to better support and sustain the best talent on your team?

    We offer strategic guidance, retreat facilitation, leadership development, and group or individual coaching for leaders in the public and social sectors.

    Learn More

  • Want to make intentional changes to build room for caregiving alongside your professional ambitions?

    We coach individuals to avoid burnout and find purpose, freedom, and flexibility in their lives in and out of work.

    Learn More