Why Purpose, Why Me?

I launched Just Drive Media in pursuit of work-life balance. I wanted to start a family, and I thought #WFH and essentially freelancing would give me that opportunity. 

As soon as I started telling friends and colleagues what I was doing, the business started rolling in. I found myself with a growing virtual agency, and before I knew it, we were a team of 20. 

It’s funny - I’m not a very anxious person, but that first year was anxiety-ridden. Passing by the small business storefronts around town made me nervous. Who was I to think I could start my own business? What made me think I would be successful? Would I be able to keep afloat? 

About a year in, as I was traveling on behalf of a client, noticing I was comfortably able to pay my bills, I realized I was doing it. I just had to keep going. Like Einstein said: “It is the same with people as it is with riding a bike - only when moving can one comfortably maintain one’s balance.”

Fast forward about 15 years, and I started to feel disconnected from my work. No longer was I doing what I loved about comms and marketing: advising, brainstorming big ideas, or landing wins for clients. Instead, I spent most of my time working on the operations of running a business, dealing with legal, HR and personnel issues, and worrying about all the vital benchmarks for a successful agency.

After reading Chip Conley’s PEAK, I began thinking about how to bring more meaning to my work—and my team’s. At the time, it seemed like a fantasy. We weren’t putting people on the moon. We weren’t saving lives. Essentially, we were helping tech companies make more money. And it wasn’t an easy job. We work demanding hours, constantly on deadline, juggling inputs from multiple stakeholders, and pouring all our energy into producing outstanding work.

Other founders I met spoke about the importance of company values. Admittedly, I struggled with this. The company values I came across all felt generic and phony. Given that Catcher in the Rye is one of my favorite books, I had a deep aversion to anything that felt insincere. We ultimately identified a handful of values that felt substantive, but something still wasn’t quite right.

Then, in early 2022, everything changed. I signed up for a course with the Flow Research Collective called Zero to Dangerous. We learned about the neuroscience and psychology of purpose — that it isn’t just a philosophical ideal — it’s a science-backed driver of performance, resilience and life satisfaction. And we learned how to find our Massive Transformational Purpose.

Coined by futurist and entrepreneur Peter Diamandis, the concept of a Massive Transformative Purpose refers to a powerful, clear, and potent statement that guides, empowers, and inspires a person or an organization. It’s more than a mission statement. Your MTP acts as a filter for your actions, decisions, and aspirations. It’s the essence of your raison d’etre — your reason for being.

Having a clear north star to guide who you want to become and how you want to show up in life is a ferocious competitive advantage. It taps into your pattern recognition system to help you gravitate toward what you’re attempting to achieve. Finding your purpose helps you ensure that what you do with your time, whether it’s building something new (a new company) or building something with others (as an employee), aligns with your values and mission in life, helps you visualize and attract success, and enables you to articulate your vision in a way that will attract others who are like-minded to your mission.

Here’s mine: To help those I employ, coach, mentor, and parent unlock authentic potential, while anywhere possible, serving the greater good.

I realized that for the most part, everything I was doing at Just Drive Media was enabling this purpose. I just wasn’t focusing on it. This simple reframe made everything I did feel more impactful. When I communicated this to my team, it did exactly what it promised: helped me gravitate towards the more meaningful aspects of my role - the learning, coaching and creating; attracted others who were aligned with my mission and values; and provided new opportunities to live my purpose.

Out of this exercise, I created a new, more compelling mission for our company: to feed 10 million people in 10 years. We’re well over a million thus far, and have big plans for continuing our mission. We’ve refined our values (you can read more about them here), extended our philanthropic efforts, and found a number of ways to create more balance, meaning and fulfillment for our team members in the work we do.

If you believe in the law of attraction, you might say our values and purpose drew X, the Moonshot Factory, to us as a client. The work they’re doing couldn’t be more impactful, and we’re fortunate to play a part in it.

This is a great start, but I know this work has even greater potential—and that's why I'm here. I want to help as many people as possible find purpose and meaning in their lives and bring that same clarity to their teams. At the risk of sounding idealistic, I genuinely want to make the world a better place. Lofty? Absolutely. But why not aim high?

I can offer guidance on everything from comms and marketing to building businesses and brands, hiring and firing well, scaling up, and shaping a strong culture, but I view all of these things through a lens of purpose. That’s where it all starts.

If you’ve ever felt stuck—questioning your path, searching for more meaning in your work, or struggling to build a culture where people truly thrive—you’re not alone. Let’s talk. Book a call, and I’d be honored to help.