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Mission Driven Business

Mission Driven Business

Auteur(s): Brian Thompson
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 Diverse entrepreneurs share their experiences, strength, and hope to help mission-driven businesses thrive. In a series of intimate conversations, attorney and CFP Brian Thompson and his guests provide practical steps to create businesses with impact and profit. Gestion et leadership Économie
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  • Reclaiming Your Time with Boundary-setting

    Reclaiming Your Time with Boundary-setting
    Feb 3 2026
    In this solo episode, Brian Thompson outlines practical steps for business owners to take back their time, including auditing their calendars, defining a 'hell yes' filter for opportunities, using scripts to say no gracefully, and starting small with boundary-setting. He stresses that reclaiming time is an ongoing practice that requires accountability, energy tracking, and celebrating small wins. By protecting their time, entrepreneurs can create space for joy, clarity, and purpose in their lives and businesses. Why do boundaries around time management matter Time is your most valuable resource. You can always make more money, but you can't make more time. And when you waste your time or give it away without thinking, you're robbing yourself of energy, creativity, and alignment. Also, busy does not equal productive. Entrepreneurs often confuse packed schedules with being effective, but being intentional with your time is what leads to real impact. In addition, burnout is real. When you say yes to everything, you eventually hit a wall. Your body knows, your creativity dries up, and your business suffers. Intentional time equals aligned action. When you reclaim your time, you make space for work that lights you up, moves your mission, and actually grows your business. 4 ways to take back your time as a business owner Here are four ways to start taking your time back, starting this week. Audit your calendar. Pull up last month's calendar and look at every meeting, task, or obligation. Highlight what you want more of and flag what needs to go. Define your hell yes filter. Hell yes may be easy to define in some circumstances, but with most things in life, there's a lot of gray. When a new opportunity comes in, check: does it support one of my values or goals? If not, it's a no, or at least a not right now. Use scripts to say no. You don't have to ghost people or be rude. You don't owe anyone an explanation, justification, or apology. Not wanting to is reason enough. You're allowed to protect your time because it matters to you, period. Scripts can be helpful training wheels, but over time, your no will stand on its own. Start small. If saying no feels scary, start with something low stakes, decline in casual coffee, shorten a meeting by 15 minutes, or block one morning a week to focus on work. Small wins build your boundary-setting muscle. How to stay on track with protecting your time Making this commitment is nothing without accountability. Reclaiming your time isn't a one-and-done move. It's a practice. Do a weekly time check. What drained me this week? What felt aligned and energizing? What do I want to do differently next week? Journaling or voice noting works wonders here. Track energy, not just time. Rate how you feel after each meeting or task. Patterns will emerge and they'll guide your decisions. Get an accountability buddy. Whether it's a business coach, friend, or mastermind group, share your hell yes commitment with somebody. Have them check in with you monthly. Celebrate every win. Each time you say no to something that's not aligned, pause and celebrate. You protected your time and your peace. I'll leave you with this. You are the steward of your time, not your clients, not your email box, not your calendar, you. The more you protect your time, the more space you create for joy, clarity, and purpose. Your mission deserves that, and you deserve that. Your action step to setting boundaries and taking back your time Schedule a 30-minute calendar audit this week. Look at what's a hell yes and what's not, then make one change. That's all it takes to begin. Resources + Links Newsletter Sign Up Follow Brian Thompson Online: Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, X, Forbes Follow & review the podcast: on Spotify and Apple Podcasts About Brian and the Mission Driven Business Podcast Brian Thompson, JD/CFP®, is a tax attorney and Certified Financial Planner® who specializes in providing comprehensive financial planning to LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs who run mission-driven businesses. The Mission Driven Business podcast was born out of his passion for helping social entrepreneurs create businesses with purpose and profit. On the podcast, Brian talks with diverse entrepreneurs and the people who support them. Listeners hear stories of experiences, strength, and hope and get practical advice to help them build businesses that might just change the world, too.
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    6 min
  • Close The Books, Open The New Year

    Close The Books, Open The New Year
    Dec 23 2025

    In this solo episode, Brian breaks down one of the most overlooked but essential parts of running a mission-driven business: year-end bookkeeping. You'll learn a simple, practical framework for cleaning up your books, organizing your finances, and setting up systems that actually support you and your business. If you've ever felt overwhelmed by accounting software, unclear categories, or messy receipts, this episode will help you start the new year with clarity and confidence.

    Episode Highlights Why year-end bookkeeping is a big deal

    The way you close this year directly affects how you start the next one. Clean books make tax season easier, help you avoid missed deductions, and give you a real-time view into how your business is doing.

    3 steps to get your books in order

    There are three, key steps to get your books in order before the end of the year:

    1. Clean up the basics: Dig deeper into the fundamentals, including double checking your business and personal expenses are separate, removing overwhelm from your chart of accounts, reconciling your accounts, organizing your receipts and documentation, removing old or inactive accounts, and making payroll corrections.

    2. Review your financial reports: Analyze your Profit & Loss (Income Statement) report, Balance Sheet, and Reconciliation report for accuracy, red flags, and wins.

    3. Prep for tax season and next year: Review your accounting method, confirm expense categories, talk to your tax professional, plan upgrades, and schedule monthly processes.

    Take action now

    Don't delay on getting your books in order. If you manage your own books, block 60-minutes on your calendar this week for a year-end bookkeeping session to work through the 3-step process, and if you work with a professional, schedule time for a year-end review. Even if you only complete one task, that's progress.

    Resources + Links

    • Accounting Software: QuickBooks, Xero, Wave

    • Newsletter Sign Up

    • Follow Brian Thompson Online: Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, X, Forbes

    About Brian and the Mission Driven Business Podcast

    Brian Thompson, JD/CFP®, is a tax attorney and Certified Financial Planner® who specializes in providing comprehensive financial planning to LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs who run mission-driven businesses. The Mission Driven Business podcast was born out of his passion for helping social entrepreneurs create businesses with purpose and profit.

    On the podcast, Brian talks with diverse entrepreneurs and the people who support them. Listeners hear stories of experiences, strength, and hope and get practical advice to help them build businesses that might just change the world, too.
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    8 min
  • How To Define Your Niche with Theresa Pablos

    How To Define Your Niche with Theresa Pablos
    Dec 9 2025
    Brian Thompson chats with Theresa Pablos, CFP®, about the early-stage realities of building a business. A former journalist and freelance marketer, Theresa transitioned careers to financial planning in 2023 and ultimately earned the CFP® certification mark in 2025. She recently joined Equalis Financial as an Associate Financial Advisor and is just starting to build her client base. In this episode, Theresa and Brian discuss the excitement, fear, and the uncomfortable but necessary work of defining a niche. You'll get practical tips for finding your target audience, learn how to provide real value, and get reflection tools to help you grow and scale your own business. Episode Highlights Defining your niche starts with understanding your "why." Choosing a niche allows business owners to serve clients more deeply, efficiently, and sustainably. Before you figure out who you want to serve, you need to identify why you want to build a business and what you like to do. Theresa knew she wanted a people-oriented career that made complex data easy to understand and improved people's lives. After some deep reflection, she discovered values-based financial planning as a career that could help her and others use their resources to create more freedom in their lives. "I want to build my book of business because I want freedom and because I want to be an expert on a topic," Theresa said. Identify your target customers and provide them with value. Once you've defined your why, you need to identify the type of person that you want to serve. While Theresa is still figuring it out, she's thinking about focusing on being a financial planner for creative solopreneurs or a financial planner for tech employees and other professionals who earn equity compensation. However, knowing who you want to serve is only half of the equation. It's equally important to ensure the services you offer solve a real pain point for your target audience. "A lot of my clients seems to fall into this creative solopreneur category, and something I've been reflecting on is that if you're a creative solopreneur, you have a need for financial planning in a way that justifies you going out and actually hiring me or someone else," Theresa said. "While I enjoy working with stock options, a lot of tech employees are DIYers and aren't actively seeking advice unless something big happens to trigger the need." Don't let fear of making the wrong decision stop you. After you know how you want to serve your target customers, it's time to test out your solutions. One way to do that is by having 100 conversations, as recommended by LeSean Smith in Episode 69. And if you're nervous, like Theresa, then you just have to do it scared. "My takeaway is that I just need to trust myself and that being nervous is part of the process," she said. "Fortunately, my journalism background very well prepared me to get a lot of 'Nos' from people, and that's okay because you have to get the 'Nos' to get the 'Yeses.'" Resources + Links Episode 69: Building A Business For Financial Independence with LaSean Smith Why Choose a CFP® Professional Equalis Financial: Website, Instagram, Facebook Theresa Pablos, CFP®: Website, LinkedIn, Instagram Follow Brian Thompson Online: Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, X, Forbes About Brian and the Mission Driven Business Podcast Brian Thompson, JD/CFP®, is a tax attorney and Certified Financial Planner® who specializes in providing comprehensive financial planning to LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs who run mission-driven businesses. The Mission Driven Business podcast was born out of his passion for helping social entrepreneurs create businesses with purpose and profit. On the podcast, Brian talks with diverse entrepreneurs and the people who support them. Listeners hear stories of experiences, strength, and hope and get practical advice to help them build businesses that might just change the world, too.
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    40 min
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