Ep 355: Living Out Your Purpose with Brandon West

Are you ready to explore the extraordinary journey of a purpose-driven entrepreneur? In this inspiring episode, join Elzie as he sits down with Brandon West, the Chief Purpose Officer and Founder of PHOS Creative, which is a remarkable marketing agency with a mission to restore dignity, purpose, and freedom to those impacted by extreme poverty and sex trafficking. Discover Brandon's unique insights on entrepreneurship, from building a successful business to intertwining profit with a profound mission. Explore the concept of the "care matrix" model, where revenue generation and meaningful impact converge at local and global levels. Dive into the essence of leadership, the importance of purpose, and making a difference both at work and at home.Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur seeking a purposeful journey or an established leader aiming to create a positive impact, this episode holds valuable insights. Brandon's profound experience as a purpose-driven entrepreneur offers a blueprint for intertwining business success with transformative missions. Learn how to align your heart with your skills, discover your true purpose, and create a meaningful legacy through leadership when you tune in!Episode Highlights:03:57 - I have found that neither one of those are all that exciting for me. Neither one of those ideas of building an equity business to sell it out or a lifestyle business just so I can go play a bunch of golf, I hate golf. Top golf is like the best–I don't like fishing, like I love what I do. Neither one of those two perspectives on business have been enough to sustain me. We have built something exceptional and different at PHOS. It's a different type of business. It's not equity, It's not lifestyle. We call it business as a ministry. BAM. Business as a ministry. What if business wasn't just about equity and you living a lifestyle that you wanted to live? What if your business and your life and your leadership was actually about other people?10:52 - We had grown to such a size that I had delegated so much of my roles and responsibilities away. I was walking and going, "What do I do here again?" I had delegated so much away and people are like, "Oh, well done. A leader worth following. Delegation is such a great leadership quality." Until you're looking at it and you're just like, "I don't even know what I'm supposed to do when I wake up tomorrow morning." I went to my leadership team. I shared this with them, my executive team. I said, "Here's what I'm struggling with." And they were like, "We know exactly what you're supposed to do here, Brandon."  I was like, "Well, please tell me." "You're supposed to guard our purpose." 15:19 - That's why leadership is hard. In the middle of all that, you're trying to figure out purpose. You're trying to figure out, how am I supposed to do? What am I called to? What an interesting blend of roles and responsibilities. For me, as I've tried to answer that question about purpose, one of the best tools I've seen for doing so, Andy Stanley, great leadership guy in my life, he says that purpose is found at the intersection of three things. What breaks your heart? Start there. You want to understand your purpose, then be willing to go on all. It took me years to answer that question.20:07 - I have more potential inside of me, and I choose not to pursue that because of the things that that potential for business or for leadership, or for influence or for growth, or for revenue, or for impact, or for ministry would threaten the things that are most acutely I'm called to in life. I would willingly lay aside potential for the sake of purpose, and people who God's called me to minister to. The life most wasted is not the one who wastes the most amount of potential but spends their potential on the things that they were never meant to spend it on.