The Purpose Profit Shift

Welcome to The Purpose Profit Shift, the podcast that’s reshaping how we think about business success. Hosted by Rachel E. Bernier-Green, MST - social entrepreneur, speaker, and founder of EJ Consortium - this show explores what happens when purpose and profit move together.In each episode, Rachel sits down with visionary founders, bold investors, and community change-makers who are building thriving businesses rooted in equity and impact. They share real stories, hard-won lessons, and the strategies behind building operations that uplift communities, close wealth gaps, and grow without losing sight of values.If you're ready to scale responsibly, lead with intention, and transform the way business is done, this is your place.Subscribe now and join the movement toward a more just, sustainable, and profitable future.

The Purpose Profit Shift is a business podcast hosted by EJC, with 46 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

EJC hosts The Purpose Profit Shift, a business show with 46 episodes published.

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  Episode #47

  Your Business Shouldn’t Be Your Boss | Build a Brand That Actually Sells

  Oct 2, 20261h 5mS1

  What if the business you built for freedom has become the thing controlling you? Too many founders build their businesses around what they think customers want, what looks “professional,” or what everyone else says a successful brand should be. Somewhere along the way, they lose themselves in the process. In this episode of The Purpose Profit Shift , Rachel Bernier-Green sits down with Meg Joyce, Founder of inKind Design , a brand strategist and self-described “Brand Therapist” who helps purpose-driven founders build businesses and brands around who they actually are. Meg shares how she built a successful graphic design business that was slowly draining her because it reflected what everyone else wanted—not what she wanted. That experience completely changed how she thinks about branding. For Meg, your brand isn’t simply a logo, color palette, or polished website. It should communicate your value, attract the right clients, repel the wrong ones, and start selling for you before you ever get on a call. Rachel and Meg also unpack what happens when founders stop shrinking themselves to appear “professional,” why trying to appeal to everyone can weaken your brand, how kindness and collaboration can coexist with profitability, and why authenticity can become a genuine competitive advantage. Because the goal isn’t just to build a business that looks successful. It’s to build one that actually feels like yours. IN THIS EPISODE 00:04 – Meet Meg Joyce & inKind Design 01:18 – Can Kindness Actually Make You More Successful? 02:54 – When Your Successful Business Is Making You Miserable 07:25 – Should You Blow Up the Business You Built? 08:23 – Why Your Business Shouldn’t Be Your Boss 10:34 – Building Your Business Around Who You Actually Are 14:27 – Why Meg Thought Love Was “Unprofessional” 17:40 – Stop Shrinking Yourself to Fit the Room 20:54 – Building a Brand That Wasn’t Really Her 24:12 – Why Authentic Brands Attract Better Clients 28:36 – Stop Trying to Fit Into the Competition 29:26 – Can You Be Kind AND Make Money? 34:34 – Your Brand Is More Than a Logo 37:56 – What Is Empathetic Brand Building? 40:55 – Why a Beautiful Brand Still Isn’t Enough 46:16 – Should Your Brand Repel Some Customers? 52:21 – How Better Positioning Changes Your Business 55:13 – Your Brand Should Be Selling for You 58:56 – The Three Words at the Heart of Your Brand 1:02:17 – How to Reconnect With the Business You Built CONNECT WITH MEG JOYCE Website: https://www.inkind-design.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meg-joyce/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/inkinddesign/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/inkinddesign Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/inkinddesign/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-OG8_4sqdZCSCRqXlIPnpw FOLLOW RACHEL BERNIER-GREEN & THRYVO Website: https://jointhryvo.com Instagram: https://instagram.com/jointhryvo LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/jointhryvo Listen to The Purpose Profit Shift on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. #Branding #BrandStrategy #BrandIdentity #PersonalBranding #EmotionalBranding #BusinessBranding #Entrepreneurship #PurposeDrivenBusiness #ThePurposeProfitShift

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  Episode #46

  Why Most Business Partnerships Don’t Make Money… And How to Fix Yours

  Sep 30, 20261h 2mS1

  What if the problem isn’t that you need more customers — but that you’re not doing enough with the relationships you already have? For many business owners, partnerships look like networking events, introductions, collaborations, or the occasional referral. But without a real strategy behind those relationships, they often never turn into meaningful business growth. In Episode 46 of The Purpose Profit Shift , Rachel Bernier-Green sits down with Erika Rodriguez, Founder & CEO of Nadi Marketing , a Certified B Corp and partnership marketing agency helping sustainable and purpose-driven businesses grow through strategic relationships. Bio, socials, website, company … Erika breaks down what partnership marketing actually looks like — from identifying opportunities within your existing network to turning customers, vendors, collaborators, and aligned organizations into genuine growth partners. She also shares why simply “networking” isn’t enough: you have to ask for opportunities, nurture the relationship, and have a system for tracking the partnerships you’re building. But Erika’s approach to business goes beyond revenue. She shares how surviving a Category 4 cyclone in Fiji changed the direction of her life, eventually inspiring the creation of Nadi Marketing and her commitment to building a company where sustainability and social impact are part of the business model — not just something you talk about on Earth Day. From losing her job and launching a business during the pandemic to becoming a B Corp founder and helping bring San Diego Climate Week to life, Erika’s story shows what can happen when relationships, purpose, and profit work together. IN THIS EPISODE 00:00 – Meet Erika Rodriguez & Nadi Marketing 01:50 – What Is Partnership Marketing? 04:12 – Growing Up in a Family of Entrepreneurs 11:01 – Surviving a Category 4 Cyclone in Fiji 20:00 – How the Cyclone Changed Erika’s View of Climate Change 24:31 – Building a Career Around Purpose & Impact 42:07 – Getting Laid Off & Becoming an Entrepreneur 48:09 – Why Erika Niched Down Her Marketing Agency 50:05 – Building a Purpose-Driven Business 55:18 – Becoming a Certified B Corp 56:11 – The Difference Between Sustainability & Greenwashing 59:46 – How Partnerships Built San Diego Climate Week 1:06:43 – How to Find Business Partnerships in Your Existing Network 1:08:30 – Turning Business Relationships Into Opportunities 1:10:00 – Why You Need to Track Your Partnerships 1:11:21 – How to Connect With Erika Rodriguez CONNECT WITH ERIKA RODRIGUEZ Website: https://www.nadimarketing.com LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/erikanadimarketing Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nadi_marketing/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@nadi_marketing Partnership Pod: https://nadimarketing.com/partnership-pod FOLLOW RACHEL BERNIER-GREEN & THRYVO Website: https://jointhryvo.com Instagram: https://instagram.com/jointhryvo LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/jointhryvo Listen to The Purpose Profit Shift on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. #BusinessPartnerships #PartnershipMarketing #RelationshipMarketing #BusinessGrowth #PurposeDrivenBusiness #SustainableBusiness #Entrepreneurship #ThePurposeProfitShift

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  Episode #45

  Business Transformation: What to Do When You’ve Outgrown Your Business

  Sep 18, 20261h 4mS1

  What happens when the business you worked so hard to build no longer fits the person you've become? The clients are still there. The business is still making money. From the outside, everything may even look successful. But something doesn't feel right anymore. In Episode 45 of The Purpose Profit Shift , Rachel Bernier-Green sits down with Jess Sato , Principal and Strategic Advisor at Jessica Sato Consulting , for a conversation about business transformation, strategic pivots, purpose-driven entrepreneurship, and what to do when you've outgrown the business you built. Before becoming an entrepreneur, Jess spent nearly a decade at Boeing working in high-stakes strategic planning and leadership development. Today, she brings that experience to accomplished women entrepreneurs navigating what she calls a professional inflection point —when what they've built no longer matches who they are or where they want to go next. But that doesn't mean you have to burn everything down. Rachel and Jess explore how founders can transform what they've already built, why changing direction doesn't mean you've failed, and what happens when traditional measures of success no longer feel like enough. They also get into business alignment, asking for help, AI, building a business for impact, and Jess's Built to Last Egypt Retreat. Sometimes the friction you're feeling in your business isn't a sign that you need to work harder. It may be a sign that it's time to build what's next. IN THIS EPISODE 00:00 – Meet Jess Sato 01:00 – From Boeing Strategy to Entrepreneurship 03:00 – Making Better Decisions When You Can't Do Everything 06:00 – How Living Around the World Shaped Jess's Perspective 10:00 – Leaving Corporate Without Having It All Figured Out 15:00 – How Jess Found Her Way Into Consulting 20:00 – Why Jess Shifted Her Business Toward Women Entrepreneurs 24:00 – Why Changing Your Business Doesn't Mean You Failed 28:00 – Building a Business That Does More Than Make Money 32:38 – What Is a Professional Inflection Point? 37:38 – When Success No Longer Feels Like Success 42:00 – Purpose, Profit & Building a Business for Good 45:38 – Why Successful Founders Struggle to Ask for Help 48:19 – What AI Can't Do During a Business Transformation 51:16 – The Story Behind the Built to Last Egypt Retreat 58:56 – When Business Friction Is Trying to Tell You Something 1:01:20 – Where to Connect With Jess Sato FOLLOW JESS SATO & JESSICA SATO CONSULTING Website: https://jessicasato.com Jess on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jess-sato Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jessicasatocoach Built to Last Egypt Retreat: https://jessicasato.com/built-to-last-retreat FOLLOW RACHEL BERNIER-GREEN & THRYVO Website: https://jointhryvo.com Instagram: https://instagram.com/jointhryvo LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/jointhryvo Listen to The Purpose Profit Shift on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. #PurposeProfitShift #BusinessTransformation #BusinessStrategy #BusinessPivot #BusinessAlignment #StrategicPlanning #WomenEntrepreneurs #PurposeDrivenBusiness #BusinessTransition #Entrepreneurship #Leadership

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  Episode #44

  Employee Engagement: Your Team Doesn’t Need Another Meeting

  Sep 11, 20261 hourS1

  What if the problem with employee engagement isn't your team—but the way you're asking them to spend their time together? We spend a huge part of our work lives in meetings. Team meetings. Check-ins. Retreats. Workshops. Offsites. Strategy sessions. But how many of those gatherings actually change anything? In Episode 44 of The Purpose Profit Shift , Rachel Bernier-Green sits down with Tes Cohen , Founder and Chief Gathering Officer of Gather Better , for a conversation about employee engagement, team meetings, workplace culture, reflective leadership, productivity, and what it actually takes to bring people together with intention. Tes has spent more than 15 years gathering and facilitating across industries, organizations, and even continents—from facilitating women's empowerment trainings as a Peace Corps volunteer in rural Costa Rica to leading an 80-person CSR summit for Gap Inc. Her work today through Gather Better helps purpose-driven organizations rethink the meetings, retreats, workshops, and gatherings that have become such a routine part of how we work. In this episode, Tes challenges one of the most common assumptions in the workplace: just because we've always held a meeting a certain way doesn't mean we should keep doing it. When people dread the meeting on their calendar—or walk away wondering why it couldn't have been an email—that may be a sign that it's time to question the meeting itself. Rachel and Tes also explore why reflection may be one of the most overlooked leadership skills. From debriefing after meetings to giving employees room to evaluate what's working, Tes argues that slowing down long enough to reflect isn't wasted time. It can be the difference between a team that's simply functioning and one that's actually thriving. The conversation also gets into four-day workweeks, no-meeting days, productivity, rest, AI in the workplace, and the pressure to constantly do more. Rachel and Tes challenge the idea that more hours automatically mean better work—and discuss what can happen when leaders become more intentional about how their teams spend their time. And when it comes to retreats and offsites, Tes makes the case that the gathering itself isn't the finish line. The real question is what happens after everyone goes home —and whether anything actually changes as a result. IN THIS EPISODE 01:04 – Meet Tes Cohen & Gather Better 02:23 – Why Gather Better Is Changing How It Works 03:22 – “Lightning Bolt” Work vs. Lasting Change 06:11 – How Tes Turned Gathering Into a Business 08:04 – The Problem With Back-to-Back Meetings 08:20 – The Meeting That Should Have Been an Email 09:26 – Why Every Meeting Needs a Clear “Why” 10:17 – Building Connection Before Your Team Needs It 11:59 – Could Your Company Use a Meeting Audit? 13:48 – Why Reflective Leadership Matters 16:25 – How Better Meetings Changed Rachel's Team 20:12 – The Difference Between Functioning and Thriving 27:11 – Can 15 Minutes of Reflection Improve Performance? 31:17 – No-Meeting Days & Designing Work Differently 33:15 – The Case for a Four-Day Workweek 36:40 – Rest, Leadership & Rethinking How We Work 51:32 – Why Reflective Practice Is a Core Leadership Skill 52:00 – What AI Can't Replace in the Workplace 1:00:12 – Tes's New Meeting Audit Concept 1:00:33 – How to Give Your Meetings a “Gathering Glow Up” 1:02:31 – Why the Real Work Happens After the Offsite FOLLOW TES COHEN & GATHER BETTER Tes on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tescohen/ FOLLOW RACHEL BERNIER-GREEN & THRYVO Website: https://jointhryvo.com Instagram: https://instagram.com/jointhryvo LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/jointhryvo Listen to The Purpose Profit Shift on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. #PurposeProfitShift #EmployeeEngagement #TeamBuilding #WorkplaceCulture #Leadership #TeamMeetings #EmployeeEngagementStrategies #ReflectiveLeadership #WorkplaceProductivity #TeamCommunication #FourDayWorkWeek #FutureOfWork

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  Episode #43

  Ethical Banking: What Does Your Bank Do With Your Money?

  Sep 4, 202653 minS1

  Ethical Banking: What Does Your Bank Do With Your Money? What if the money sitting in your bank account is helping fund things you would never personally support? Most of us think about banking as a place to hold our money, pay bills, or access credit. But your money doesn't just sit there. In this episode of The Purpose Profit Shift , Rachel Bernier-Green sits down with Terra Neilson , Executive Vice President and Chief Impact Officer at Beneficial State Bank , for a conversation about ethical banking, sustainable finance, racial equity, responsible lending, and what actually happens to your money after you deposit it in a bank. Terra describes banking as “the original form of crowdfunding.” When you deposit money into a checking or savings account, those dollars can ultimately help finance everything from affordable housing and renewable energy to industries and projects that may be completely at odds with your personal or business values. That means choosing where you bank can have a much larger impact than many of us realize. In this episode, Terra explains how Beneficial State Bank approaches banking differently through a triple bottom line of people, planet, and profit. Rather than treating impact as a marketing initiative, the bank has built its mission into its governance, lending practices, accountability standards, and approach to sustainable financial performance. Rachel and Terra also dig into some of the deeper inequities built into our financial system—from redlining and traditional underwriting standards to the way historical bias can become embedded in modern lending decisions. Terra shares how Beneficial State Bank and its foundation are working alongside other financial institutions to rethink how creditworthiness is determined and prove that more equitable lending doesn't have to mean abandoning responsible banking. And as artificial intelligence becomes increasingly involved in financial decision-making, Terra explains why addressing those problems now is so important. If AI models are trained using historical data created by an inequitable system, technology could make existing biases even harder to identify and unwind. Ultimately, this conversation challenges founders and business owners to ask a question many of us rarely consider: Does where you bank actually reflect what you believe? IN THIS EPISODE 00:00 – Welcome to The Purpose Profit Shift 01:18 – Terra's Journey From Social Work to Banking 03:45 – What Working With Youth Experiencing Homelessness Taught Terra About Money 05:30 – Creating Systems Change Through Banking 06:53 – Why Mission and Profit Don't Have to Compete 09:24 – What a Triple Bottom Line Actually Means 10:57 – What Does Your Bank Actually Do With Your Money? 11:26 – Banking Is the Original Form of Crowdfunding 13:45 – Is There a Trade-Off With Ethical Banking? 16:32 – Why Beneficial State Bank Answers to a Nonprofit 19:43 – Building Mission Into the Infrastructure of a Bank 20:29 – Rethinking Creditworthiness and Lending Standards 21:59 – How Historical Bias Gets Built Into Modern Lending 24:37 – Could AI Make Bias in Banking Even Worse? 27:32 – ESG, Impact Investing and the Current Political Climate 30:21 – Why the Community Reinvestment Act Still Matters 34:13 – “The Machine Is Working as Intended” 36:34 – B Corp, CDFI and Building Accountability Into Banking 40:42 – What Would a Regenerative Economy Look Like? 44:25 – How Founders and Business Owners Can Help Change the System 47:33 – What's Next for Beneficial State Bank EXPLORE YOUR BANKING IMPACT Want to see what your deposits could potentially help support? Deposit Impact Calculator: https://www.beneficialstatebank.com/impact/deposit-calculator Beneficial State Bank Impact Report: https://www.beneficialstatebank.com/impact/report FOLLOW TERRA NEILSON & BENEFICIAL STATE BANK Website: https://www.beneficialstatebank.com/ Terra on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/terraneilson/ FOLLOW RACHEL BERNIER-GREEN & THRYVO Website: https://jointhryvo.com Instagram: https://instagram.com/jointhryvo LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/jointhryvo Listen to The Purpose Profit Shift on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. #PurposeProfitShift #EthicalBanking #SustainableBanking #SociallyResponsibleBanking #ImpactInvesting #SustainableFinance #CDFI #BCorp #RacialEquity #ResponsibleBanking #PurposeDrivenBusiness #Entrepreneurship

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