You can create a business with impact and profit. The Mission Driven Business podcast is designed to show you how. In this introduction, host Brian Thompson, JD/CFP, outlines the five principles for creating successful mission-driven businesses. You’ll also hear his goals for the podcast, and what you can expect to learn in each episode.
Episode Highlights
Hello! And welcome to the mission driven business podcast!
I’m your host Brian Thompson. I’m an attorney and certified financial planner who created a successful financial planning firm for LGBTQ entrepreneurs who run mission driven businesses. Now I’m on a mission to help others build their own businesses with purpose and profit. On this podcast, you’ll hear from diverse entrepreneurs and the people who support them. You’ll get practical advice and a little motivation to help you build your own profit-generating business that might just change the world, too.
I can’t tell you how excited I am to start this new project. I love talking with other entrepreneurs and hearing their experience, strength and hope around how they are building a business that serves their great life and also makes a difference. Today, I’m gonna take a few minutes to introduce the podcast, including who it’s for, what you can expect we’ll cover and my hopes for its impact.
Who this is for
This podcast is for those people who feel called to start their own business that allows them to live the life that they want and truly make a difference in the process.
Owning and operating your own business is hard.
You may want a business that aligns with your values and authentically represents you. Yet, you don’t know how to get started. We will help you get clarity around your vision and guide you through the steps to structure your business in a way that serves your life.
You may already have a business that makes good gross revenue but that doesn’t provide much profit. It may also look very different from what you initially imagined. We outline the systems that allow you to get back in control and keep moving towards the progress you want.
Or maybe you just feel stuck in the business and need help making ongoing decisions to ensure your business thrives and rewards you with the life you aspire to. In any case, this podcast will help serve as your guide, advocate and thought partner helping you thrive in business and in life. And I do mean partnership. I would love to hear your feedback and insights, to help make this podcast as beneficial as possible.
As a business owner you’ll have a tangle of conflicting obligations, as well as a lot of opportunity for richness, joy and choice in the future.
Whether you’re starting your own business, trying to grow an existing one, or realigning your vision altogether, this podcast will offer tips, strategies and insights on how to thrive in your business now and in the future by making good decisions today.
What we’ll discuss
In my work with small business owners, I’ve found that there are five key elements that show up consistently in successful mission driven businesses: Passion, Vision, Values, Strategy, and Tactics. I and my guests will explore these elements, how they have employed them in their business, and what you can learn from their experience.
Passion: Passion is about tapping into your inner motivation, and using that energy to take action. In short, it will feel satisfying and fulfilling to do what you’re doing.. This is especially important when you consider that staying in business requires a lot of little actions performed on a consistent basis. We’ll delve into entrepreneurs’ different whys and how they have used that to create their business and keep it going through the tough times.
Vision: After you’ve clarified your passion or why you want to create this business, you move next to your vision. Here you’ll be specific about how your business will embody and reflect your passion. This process is a bit different from the normal vision statement that is commonly thought of as concise, inspiring statements that make good taglines. This kind of visioning usually creates an emotional reaction, which allows you to see, sense and most importantly feel what achieving this vision would be like. That’s the motivation you will need to take action.
Values: Next, to refine and implement your passion and vision, it’s important to create a set of values that you can use as a lens to navigate the various obstacles and opportunities that come your way. We’ll talk about how you can choose your business values and how to use them practically in day-to-day operations.
Strategy: Once you have identified your why, know your vision, and established your values, it’s time to start developing a strategy. This is your roadmap for how you achieve the vision you’ve put together. We’ll talk about what strategies have worked for guests, as well as what strategies that have missed the mark.
Tactics: Finally, we will also talk about the minutiae. In other words, what steps and actions will you actually take within your strategy to accomplish what you need. That will include looking at elements like your ideal client, your ideal day/week/year, business structure, cash flow, tax planning and succession planning among many other things.
Using these five principles as a framework, we’ll give you the information you need to succeed.
My hope for you
I chose to focus on serving mission-driven businesses because I believe that if we all can harness and focus on our individual talents, as a collective, we can create the change that we want to see.
I hope you can tell that I hold a special place in my heart for small-business owners. I spent a decade defending them against the IRS as a tax attorney and have become one as a financial advisor. It’s a position filled with hope and opportunity. It gives you the most flexibility to create the life that you want. My hope is that you can get the wisdom and insight that you need in order for your business to thrive.
Whatever your reason for listening, if you feel like you’re being called to create and/or run a mission-driven business this is the place for you. Right now feels like a significant inflection point. I’m hearing from more and more people who want to serve a higher purpose through entrepreneurship. Together, I know we can continue to move the needle forward by creating businesses that serve us and the greater good. Welcome, I’m glad you’re here.