In case you haven’t noticed, the world needs mission-driven, visionary business owners and entrepreneurs more than ever.
It needs changemakers, conscious leaders, healers, and luminaries who use their power and influence for good. The importance of a mission has never been more clear.
Maybe you’re one of those people. Maybe you have the passion and the dream, but you have some doubts and some questions. You might wonder, “Is this possible? How is it possible? Can I really make a good living doing what I love and making a difference in the world?”
It’s wise to ask these questions because the journey toward building a business rooted in service that’s also financially abundant isn’t easy. It’s not for everyone.
But if you are ready to start making your dreams a reality, you owe it to yourself to get started. The first step is to get inspiration. How did other people launch purposeful careers? What led them there? What were their challenges, and how did they overcome them?
That’s why we want to share some advice from our founder — Jim Carter III — and share how he transitioned from service-oriented Boy Scout to tech titan and back to conscious leader.
As a recent guest on The Relentless Growth Podcast with Chris Goodman, Jim revealed what sparked the transition away from a steady, lucrative career to the dynamic, rewarding world of service.
Are you ready to take the next step on the journey to your success? Let’s get started!
Rediscovering Your Foundational Values
When we reach a certain level of internal growth, our external growth needs to catch up.
For example, maybe doing things solely for your own benefit is no longer fulfilling. You may have realized that giving to others is so much more satisfying, but your external world has a lot of catching up to do — that isn’t easy.
You might even have a little bit of resistance to the internal changes, especially if they are so faint that you can barely feel them. As you connect to passions you discarded in the name of practicality, they might seem out of place in your reality, which might consist of a mortgage, family, student loans, or all of the above.
But what starts as dissatisfaction with your current life often begins to build. It doesn’t just go away. Instead, it compounds and causes you to question your path even more frequently.
“You know when you feel the weight of something, and you’re like, ‘Yeah, I can do this,’ and then it gets heavier and heavier? … [There’s] that tipping point. Then you really question it. And you’re like, ‘I can keep doing this, but at what cost? Is it worth holding onto? Is it worth persisting?’”
– Jim Carter III
Sound familiar? The thing is, if you’re putting in long hours (especially if you have no work-life balance) for a career that’s lost its luster, it’s a sign that something needs to change. Now, the change might just be making more time in your life for the things that are meaningful to you. It could also mean that it’s time to change up your career.
“It dawned on me that I was chasing the money, and I was going after all of these tangible things. I’d kind of gotten rid of the intangible aspect of it. And it hit me one day. … ‘What would it be like if I went back to that service-based thought of, ‘How can I give more than I can receive? … I was so much happier when I was in service. Why don’t I try that again?’ And I went back to being a student of life again.”
– Jim Carter III
In Jim’s case, the pressure he was under and the discomfort it produced was actually a blessing. It was a blessing that reconnected him to his purpose.
Recommitting to a Life of Service
The path to purpose isn’t linear — it doesn’t follow a predictable path.
Sometimes life takes us down a few meandering roads before we get the sense to reorient, redirect, and recommit to our life purpose.
Jim had always been a service-oriented person who loved to use his talent to help people. Growing up as a Boy Scout, he made cherished memories of giving back to his community.
“I remember campouts. I remember fun experiences and things, but it’s hard for me to forget nearly any of those service projects. In my heart, I can viscerally feel [what it was like to do them]. I remember the feeling of working hard and that sense of gratitude that I got at the end of it. It took me a lot of years to make sense of that.”
– Jim Carter III
Then Jim’s world changed completely with the arrival of an inspiring book: The Promise of a Pencil. It was about an ordinary guy named Adam Braun who was on track to be a Wall Street Banker but ended up founding Pencils of Promise.
During a travel trip to India, Braun encountered a child and asked him what he wanted more than anything else in the world. When the kid told him “a pencil,” the course of Braun’s life changed forever as he set out on a path to bring education to kids around the world.
Jim was incredibly inspired by the book, and, just like the kid asking for a pencil changed Braun’s life, the book changed Jim’s life. He was up all night reading it, inspired to the point where he checked out the website immediately after finishing the book.
“The next morning, I went to the website, and [it] was slow and … insecure. [The site] was crashing. And I was just like, ‘Man, this sucks for this guy. Poor guy pours his heart out on the pages. It’s the top of the New York Times bestseller list. I bet all these people are going to check it out and they can’t see anything. They can’t donate, they can’t get involved.’”
– Jim Carter III
While Braun’s mission was extraordinary, he might never have had an impact if it hadn’t been for Jim because he immediately called his friend to ask about the site. Shortly after, he volunteered his services for free. This was life-changing.
“It dawned on me that I could actually give my time or my talent [to] make … a difference for an organization [and that the] butterfly effect is profound. … I was like, ‘Wow, I actually do know some stuff and I’m really damn good at a few of these key things. What would it be like if I just showed up in that energy, in that spirit, and gave more of that?’”
– Jim Carter III
It turns out you can do much more than just give money to an organization. You can give your time, your talent, and your expertise. There’s no need to limit yourself. How do you want to make a difference?
It Takes a Village to Build a Business
Long story short, Jim set off on a new journey after that awakening — he set out to become a conscious, mission-driven entrepreneur.
“I just decided I’m going to make this call for myself because if I can be a better human being, if I can be a better father and a better husband, then I can be a better business owner. And more wealth has come into my life because of it. Nothing happens overnight, but man, it was so worth the wait.”
– Jim Carter III
Was it worth it? Yes. But let’s just say it didn’t happen overnight. When Chris asked Jim what it’s like to go from Boy Scout to tech maven to conscious entrepreneur, he emphasized that it’s an unpredictable journey.
“I think the real answer is it’s never just A to B — it’s like A to J, and we don’t realize that all of these other steps go in between. But it’s fundamentally impossible for us to figure out what those letters are or where the letter ends until we actually show up and do the work.”
– Jim Carter III
However, one thing that made the transition easier was getting support. Building a business, or doing anything new and worthwhile for that matter, is something you really shouldn’t do alone.
If you ask most successful people, someone, somewhere, gave them a leg up. That doesn’t mean they were rich or used 1% connections, but it does mean that we typically don’t get very far without other people.
So the best way to be successful is to seek out mentors, coaches, networks, and other forms of support. You need information to help you make decisions, emotional support for difficult days, accountability for when things get tough, and camaraderie when you want to celebrate.
Having a tribe of other conscious, service-oriented people will also give you endless inspiration and opportunities for collaboration beyond what you ever thought possible.
In fact, the community was one of the biggest factors in Jim’s success. Early on in his entrepreneurial journey, he joined Fast Foundations Mastermind — which he now co-owns.
In its current iteration, the Mastermind helps podcasters, health coaches, authors, marketers, chiropractors, public speakers, social media strategists, and many, many more passionate people. With a combination of group calls, coaching sessions, and live events, it helps people turn side hustles into thriving businesses, bring failing enterprises back to life, and create empowering, effective networks.
What would it be like if you could tap into a network of other driven entrepreneurs and get invaluable guidance to avoid pitfalls and fast-track your success?
Build a Culture of Service
As a conscious business leader, you also want to build a service culture within your company. That might mean having open communication, trying new management leadership styles, or having a fully remote company so your team members can thrive.
The way you treat your team should reflect your values. To attract mission-driven, passionate people to work for you, you need to show them that you value conscious leadership.
For example, to build a culture that values mental health and well-being, you might experiment with having a mental health day for employees.
“Everybody has a four day weekend this month, and I really hope that nobody checks Slack. I really hope that nobody answers an email. I am going to give myself the grace to probably go golf or do something and not feel guilty. … I just feel like the more that we can show up and be ourselves, be leaders, and show others that it is possible to build what you want on your own terms, the more it’s acceptable and it’s okay. We’re creating a life that we want.”
– Jim Carter III
You also want to demonstrate a culture of self-care with clients, partners, and associates. Jim shared how impressed he was when someone with whom he had a meeting canceled for a very honest reason:
“She was just like, ‘Hey Jim, the day got the best of me. I lost touch. I need to get back to you, and we’ll reschedule this.’ And I was like, you know what? I totally hear you.”
– Jim Carter III
If there’s anything we learned over the past few years, it’s that self-care is no longer a luxury. It’s a priority. By normalizing taking care of yourself, you help to build a world that will benefit everyone, where values take precedence over the bottom line.
That’s the world we want to live in.