Every entrepreneur hears the same message when they start a business: grow, grow, grow. More revenue, more clients, more recognition. In this episode, Brian Thompson asks a different question. How much is enough?

Drawing from a presentation he gave at a conference for independent financial advisors called The Business of Enough, Brian shares his personal journey toward defining enough, three mantras that have shaped his business decisions over a decade, and a practical three-step framework for pursuing enough in your own intentional business.

In this episode you will learn:

• Why the default message of more, more, more may not be serving your business or your life

• How Brian's divorce changed the way he thought about entrepreneurship and what he needed his business to provide

• Three mantras for building an intentional business: there is no there, you can build whatever you want, and build, measure, learn

• Why comparison is one of the biggest obstacles to defining enough and how to reframe it

• Why enough changes over time and what to do when your definition evolves

• A three-step framework for defining, building, and revisiting your own version of enough

• Three questions every entrepreneur should sit with when thinking about what success actually means to them

Entrepreneurship gives you the freedom to build whatever you want. The challenge is deciding what that actually is, on your own terms, in this season of your life, rather than following a script someone else wrote for what success is supposed to look like.

This episode is for every mission-driven entrepreneur who started their business for reasons that had very little to do with maximizing revenue, and who wants a framework for staying connected to those reasons as the business grows.

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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.

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 not know. What came next was decades of developing decision tools that help entrepreneurs see the full picture before they say yes, no, or not yet.

In this episode you will learn:

• Why decision-making in business requires a framework tailored to your specific business
• How the CLARITY framework helps entrepreneurs evaluate decisions before they leap
• Why cash matters more than EBITDA when evaluating whether a decision is sound
• What the pendulum problem is and how it keeps entrepreneurs from making good decisions
• What most entrepreneurs don't know they don't know when starting or growing a business
• Why forming an LLC is easier than understanding what it actually requires
• How losing a business shaped the way Dawn built her second one more intentionally
• Why not every decision needs deep analysis and how to tell the difference

Good decision-making is not about eliminating risk. It is about understanding what you are volunteering to carry before you commit.

Whether you are just starting out or navigating a major growth decision, this episode will help you slow down in the right places and move forward with more clarity and confidence.

• Connect with Dawn Kennedy: LinkedIn
• Explore Dawn's book Before You Decide: The Field Manual for Durable Decisions Under Pressure
• Convoy Road Coffee Roasters
• Newsletter Sign Up
• Follow Brian Thompson Online: Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, X, Forbes
• Follow & review the podcast: on Spotify and Apple Podcasts

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.

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:

• Why the shift from survival to sustainability is one every entrepreneur eventually faces

• Five questions worth asking about the future of your business and your life

• How to think about what you want to keep, what you are ready to leave behind, and where you can create more impact

• Why asking what kind of life you want should come before any business planning

• How writing a letter to your future self can serve as a compass for the next chapter of your business

• Why business growth and personal growth are not separate journeys

Entrepreneurship has a way of teaching you things that no business plan can anticipate. After ten years of building BTF, the most important question Brian is asking is not what he wants his business to become. It is who he wants to become while building it.

Whether you are in your first year of business or your tenth, these five questions will point you in the right direction.

• Anniversary Ep #1: A Decade in Business: Lessons, Gratitude, and What Comes Next
• Anniversary Ep #2: What I Believed About Business in 2016 and What I Know Now
• Newsletter Sign Up
• Follow Brian Thompson Online: Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, X, Forbes
• Follow & review the podcast: on Spotify and Apple Podcasts

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.