How to Make Smarter Business Decisions with Dawn Kennedy
Mission Driven Business
Most entrepreneurs make major business decisions without a reliable framework to guide them. In this episode, Brian Thompson sits down with Dawn Kennedy, attorney, entrepreneur, and author of Before You Decide, to explore the pre-decision tools she developed after losing her first business overnight and spending years translating enterprise-level decision frameworks for small and mid-sized business owners. Dawn's story is both practical and deeply personal. After her husband suffered a catastrophic accident in 2013 that ended their consulting business instantly, she realized how much she did...
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Five Questions To Ask About the Future of Your Business
Mission Driven Business
Ten years into building a business, the questions you ask yourself need to change. In this episode, Brian Thompson wraps up the BTF tenth anniversary series by looking forward, sharing five questions every entrepreneur should ask about the future of their business, and the power of writing a letter to your future self. This is not a strategic planning session. There are no revenue projections or growth targets. It is an honest and personal reflection on what intentional entrepreneurship looks like when survival is no longer the primary question. In this episode you will learn: ...
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What I Believed About Business in 2016 and What I Know Now
Mission Driven Business
Ten years of entrepreneurship changes the way you think about almost everything. In this episode, Brian Thompson shares ten belief shifts that shaped his journey from 2016 to 2026, and what they might mean for wherever you are in building your own business. Brian introduces two versions of himself: 2016 Brian, the guy who just walked away from a comfortable legal career with a vision and a lot of assumptions, and 2026 Brian, someone who has spent a decade building a business, serving clients, making mistakes, and learning along the way. The result is an honest and personal reflection on what...
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A Decade in Business: Lessons, Gratitude, and What Comes Next
Mission Driven Business
Ten years ago, Brian Thompson walked out of his law firm for the last time with a vision, a lot of fear, and no guaranteed paycheck. In this episode, he reflects on a decade of entrepreneurship, the lessons that shaped him, the people who made it possible, and what the next ten years of mission-driven financial planning looks like. This is not a strategy episode. It is a personal and heartfelt thank you to everyone who has been part of the BTF journey, and a reminder that meaningful businesses are not built overnight. They are built one conversation, one client, one courageous decision, and...
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How to Review Your Business Finances Mid-Year
Mission Driven Business
The halfway point of the year is one of the best moments to review your business finances, and most entrepreneurs let it pass without taking action. In this episode, Brian Thompson shares the CASH framework, a simple mid-year review you can complete in under an hour, that helps you understand where your business stands and make better decisions for the second half of the year. Brian gets honest about his own relationship with numbers and why most entrepreneurs avoid their finances, not because the news is bad, but because looking feels uncomfortable. This episode is a practical and...
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How to Make Better Business Decisions Using a Simple Framework
Mission Driven Business
Most entrepreneurs treat business problems as money problems. In this episode, Brian Thompson makes the case that they are almost always alignment problems, and that better decision-making starts not with tactics, but with mission, vision, and values. Brian shares the alignment framework he uses with entrepreneurs across industries to help them make decisions with more clarity, confidence, and purpose. If you have ever felt like your business decisions are harder than they should be, this episode will help you understand why, and what to do about it. In this episode you will learn: Why...
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Why Better Systems Won't Fix Entrepreneurial Burnout
Mission Driven Business
Refining workflows and checklists cannot solve every foundational business hurdle. In this episode, Brian Thompson explores why a focus on optimization often leads to the avoidance of deeper personal and operational challenges, and what actually builds true resilience over the long term. Brian opens up about navigating a profound capacity problem during a period of intense personal transition and business growth. If you have ever felt exhausted despite having a perfectly organized schedule, this episode explains why the solution often requires subtraction. In this episode you will...
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Choosing the Right Business Structure for a Mission-Driven Business
Mission Driven Business
Choosing the right business structure is one of the most important decisions a mission-driven business owner will make, and taxes are only part of the story. In this episode, Brian Thompson walks through every major business structure available to entrepreneurs, viewed through the lens of ownership, profit sharing, decision making, and mission protection. Whether you are just starting out, growing your team, or thinking about the best way to share profits, this episode will help you ask better questions and make a more informed decision about the structure that fits the business you are...
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People Before Profit: The Co-op Business Model
Mission Driven Business
Most entrepreneurs have never seriously considered the cooperative business model, even though some of the most recognizable brands in the world are co-ops. In this episode, Brian Thompson sits down with D.G. Safeer Hopton, entrepreneur, healer, and author of Creating a Co-op Village, to explore cooperative economics and what it could mean for mission-driven business owners. Safeer has spent decades building co-ops, studying cooperative economics, and helping communities create prosperity through shared ownership. This conversation is a practical and eye-opening introduction to a business...
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Why Revenue Growth Isn't Making You Feel Safer
Mission Driven Business
More revenue does not automatically create financial security. In this episode, Brian Thompson explores why so many entrepreneurs still feel anxious even when business is going well, and what actually builds business stability over the long term. Brian gets honest about the gap between revenue growth and emotional security, drawing from his own experience and years of working with entrepreneurs at every stage of business. If you have ever hit a goal and still felt like everything could fall apart, this episode will help you understand why, and what to do about it. In this episode you...
info_outlineBrian Thompson chats with Coss Marte, a former inmate turned business magnate. Coss is the founder of CONBODY, the first fitness method developed in prison. Through CONBODY and his two other ventures, Coss is fulfilling his mission to aid and uplift the formerly incarcerated community.
On the episode, Coss shares how he found his passion for fitness after losing 70 pounds during his incarceration as well as his struggle to start a company as someone in and out of the prison system. He also discusses how his “figure it out and survive” motto has spurred him to create three ventures, including one in the legal cannabis industry.
Episode Highlights
Mission-driven businesses do good from front to back.
Coss defines a mission-driven business as one that doesn’t just say it's doing good upfront -- but also does something good on the back end.
“You want to make money and do good as well,” he said.
For Coss, the tripartite mission of CONBODY is to destigmatize the formerly incarcerated community, ease their transition back to society, and change the criminal justice system -- all barriers he’s faced as a formerly incarcerated person himself.
“I saw the pain I had to go through, and I really didn’t want people who were my friend or my people that were coming out of the system to go through that,” he said.
You don’t need a formal business plan.
Coss created his business plan for CONBODY while in solitary confinement. He didn’t have a formal mission, list of values, or vision statement. But he did write down the extensive workout he used to get fit while incarcerated and how he could turn that into an opportunity.
“I did what I wrote,” Coss said. “I came home and I started doing it in the local park where I grew up, and eventually, one person turned to two, to three, to five, to six, and my mission started evolving.”
If you don’t ask, you don’t eat.
Coss’s mother always told him: If you don’t ask, you don’t eat. It’s a strategy he took to heart when developing CONBODY.
“When I came home, I validated by getting one customer in the street, and just stopping them and talking to them and telling them what I’m doing,” Coss said. “I got a gazillion nos, but fortunately enough, I’ve had a few yeses.”
Coss eagerly shares his mother’s advice with fellow entrepreneurs who have smart but unvalidated business plans. That includes Ivy League MBA students who have incredible, technical business ideas but have yet to ask whether anybody wants their products.
“You gotta ask,” Coss said. “If you go to the market and nobody wants this shit you just lost a lot of time.”
Resources + Links
- CONBODY: Website, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube
- Second Chance Studios: Website, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn
- CONBUD: Instagram, Facebook, Forbes write up
- Conbody the book
- Coss’s Social Media: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn
- Brian’s Social Media: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook
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.