Purpose before profit: the benefits of running a purpose-driven business.

“Finally, decide your filter and opinion and put it out there, and don’t compromise that. Don’t make it complicated, keep it simple and real.”

In today’s competitive business landscape, the race for profits often takes center stage. However, there are some leaders who also prioritize a mission-driven purpose. They use their business to make a positive social impact and recognize that success isn’t only about making money. In this interview series, we are talking with some of these distinct leaders and I had the pleasure of interviewing Adrian Power.

Adrian Power is a Founding Partner and Brand Strategist at Good Stuff Partners, a purpose-driven brand growth agency that helps clients have a greater impact on the world by creating simple, bold, and memorable brand stories. Adrian has worked in the world of marketing since 1995, supporting clients ranging from Pepsi, Salesforce, Toyota, Ericsson, Lexus, HSBC, Nokia, Hyundai, Philips, UK Department of Health, Audi, and most recently, Tipping Point, The Tides Foundation, The Global Fund for Women, Marin County and Ritual Coffee.

What drives Adrian is taking all of his great experience working with giant corporations and using it to build brands with bigger purpose and meaning. Since co-founding Good Stuff Partners a decade ago, Adrian and his team have been helping “build brands that give a damn” across sectors like social and political impact, human services, healthcare and more.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you tell us your “Origin Story”? Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?

Well, I think I can cast my mind that far back!! I’m a Londoner and grew up in the late sixties in north London. My parents were the post-war generation who wanted Britain to be a fundamentally different place after the war and like so many they worked in public service all their lives. My dad was a social worker and social scientist and my mum was a special needs teacher for over 50 years. Although I went in a completely different direction working for large corporations, I know I’ve come full circle now in the work that I do and I hope they’d approve of how I now spend my time and efforts.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company or organization?

I’ve always worked for pretty big companies with a department or team for everything, so when my partner, Aimee, and I started Good Stuff in our living room with a couple of laptops it was a massive shock to the system. But it’s the best thing I’ve ever done. I think of it as my ‘apprenticeship’ in my fifties. I had to work out how every little thing works, experiment, and build from scratch. Once you know what every nut and bolt under the hood does, you can pretty much fix anything and transfer those skills to any client and any situation.

We often learn the most from our mistakes. Can you share one that you made that turned out to be one of the most valuable lessons you’ve learned?

20:20 Hindsight is a wonderful thing for sure. In the early 2000’s I left an amazing experiential agency for a rival, basically because I was hot-headed and too impatient. Of course, the grass turned out to be a lot less green than I imagined and it made me realize what a great agency experience should look like for your team and your clients. Although that job didn’t work out, it brought me to California, where I met Aimee, started a new life, and found something infinitely better.

As a successful leader, it’s clear that you uphold strong core values. I’m curious what are the most important principles you firmly stand by and refuse to compromise on. Can you share a few of them and explain why they hold such significance for you in your work and life?

I think the most important one is who we decide to work with at Good Stuff Partners. In my previous life, I had no control over what clients we worked with, and on occasions, I’d end up working in industries for clients where I really didn’t feel good about it. I learned a lot, but as soon as Aimee and I had the chance to start our own agency, we realized that we just didn’t want to have to put on a facade and act like different people every day as soon as we sat down at our desks.

Our filter on the world is super simple — if you’re doing good things for people, animals, and the planet then we’re all in. It’s never completely as cut and dried as that, but we do as much due diligence as needed, and it pays off for us, our team, and ultimately our clients.

What inspired you to start a purpose-driven business rather than a traditional for-profit enterprise? Can you share a personal story or experience that led you to prioritize social impact in your business?

That’s hard, it is not just one thing or experience but I just had a feeling once I hit my fifties there must be more to work than this. Moving to the Bay Area and the US really inspired me. I was impressed by the people I met every day and their care for their communities and neighbors.

When the government doesn’t step in, people fill that void and work so hard to provide the support needed. What quickly became clear to me was that nonprofits just didn’t have access to the right agencies to help them grow and scale their impact. We had no idea back in 2012 if our business model would work but what we found was that super talented people just needed the right support and skills to bring their brand communications to life.

Can you help articulate a few of the benefits of leading a purpose-driven business rather than a standard “plain vanilla” business?

Our clients humble and inspire us every day. Their tenacity in the face of big barriers is unbelievable. If they can do what they do, we have it easy by comparison. That makes getting out of bed each day worth it.

We’re also a B-Corp and proud of that and our team is exceptional at backing us. They’re here for the same reason, and they make our agency and lives all the richer for knowing them. We can bring our ideas to life quickly because we’re all aligned with our purpose. We’ve just started a 4-day workweek pilot and everyone’s commitment to that just reflects what we want the agency to feel like for the team.

How has your company’s mission or purpose affected its overall success? Can you explain the methods or metrics you use to evaluate the impact of this purpose-driven strategy on your organization?

At the simplest, having an opinion on the world and the work we want to do helps you stand out from the crowd. Compared to ten years ago, there are a lot more agencies making purpose-driven claims, but we just advise all potential clients to look under the hood and really care about the client company you’re going to be keeping when you’re choosing an agency partner. You’d be amazed how many times they have clients who are working opposite each other. For example, an environmental nonprofit rubbing shoulders with a fossil fuel industry client. It sounds mad, but it does happen.

Like any business, we have to grow to prosper. So yes, we’re measuring our delivery, profitability, and utilization for the team. We run open-book accounting so everyone on the team has clarity about our performance and their role in it. We measure the impact and effectiveness of our client’s communications. This can take time so building long-term relationships is critical, and we partner with clients who are ready to create the long-term impact they are looking for. Finally, understanding how our team is feeling about their work experience is really important. We ask them to scrutinize everything we do. Does it pass our test? If so, we’re good to go.

Can you share a pivotal moment when you realized that leading your purpose-driven company was actually making a significant impact? Can you share a specific example or story that deeply resonated with you personally?

It works on two levels. Firstly, when our clients’ communication work pays dividends. We work with a nonprofit here in the Bay Area, Pivotal, helping young people in foster care overcome immense odds to achieve amazing things in their education and careers. We completely redesigned their brand from the ground up and launched a brand new website. Following that, they received three big unsolicited donations from tech companies in just a matter of months. No grant application, no process, just written checks. All three said the power of Pivotal’s story on their website was enough.

It’s good to be reminded of the power of great communication from time to time. For the same client, we provided internship opportunities for young people. Getting the chance to work with them was fantastic and helped our entire team learn from and be inspired by them. Seeing their subsequent success is what it’s all about, really.

Have you ever faced a situation where your commitment to your purpose and creating a positive social impact clashed with the profitability in your business? Have you ever been challenged by anyone on your team or have to make a tough decision that had a significant impact on finances? If so, how did you address and reconcile this conflict?

I really can’t think of anything specific, but, we do turn down quite a few opportunities that come our way that don’t align with our mission. We see this as a positive because as soon as you compromise on your mission that purpose doesn’t mean anything anymore. So I’d say so far so good!

What advice would you give to budding entrepreneurs who wish to start a purpose-driven business? What are your “5 Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Purpose-Driven Business.”

1 . Find your core purpose and then expand out.

For me, it was human rights, for Aimee it was animal rights. That’s where we found our first few clients.

2 . Be as transparent as possible.

Our vegan dog food client was the first to dabble with compostable packaging but unfortunately, the materials technology at the time just wasn’t up to the job of retaining freshness. So even after extensive testing in the market and then launch they had to withdraw it. They could have tried to cover up what went wrong but they just held up their hands, explained the situation, and pledged to get back there as soon as the technology caught up. Their consumers appreciated the honesty and straightforward approach and indeed thanked them for trying.

3 . Build your purpose into your recruitment and benefits.

Ask each candidate why they want to work for you and explore their motivations. For us in the Bay Area, strategists, project managers, and designers can earn a lot more working for a big tech company, so although we try to stay as competitive as possible on salary, the work you do, and the culture you build are equally if not more important. For example, we’re trialing a 4-day workweek, 100% pay 80% time, and 100% productivity. We think it’s aligned with our purpose and is about better, focused creative work for our clients and a better, sustainable work experience for us and the team.

4 . Ask yourself the question, what is it about your current work or business that you’re not satisfied with?

I’m not sure this advice necessarily has anything to do with being an entrepreneur, but it’s a good question about wanting more control of your impact. For me, it was about choosing who I work for, and what types of clients I wanted to partner with. Find out what’s driving that feeling.

5 . Finally, decide your filter and opinion and put it out there, and don’t compromise that.

Don’t make it complicated, keep it simple and real.

I’m interested in how you instill a strong sense of connection with your team. How do you nurture a culture where everyone feels connected to your mission? Could you share an example or story that showcases how your purpose has positively influenced or motivated people on your team to contribute?

Firstly recruit by purpose, equally to skills and experience. Then give people the opportunity to demonstrate it. We partner with a youth theatre in Marin City. It’s run by an amazing creative director who is a full-time teacher at a local school. The team has mentored students, helped with marketing, and taken it in whatever direction they felt was right for the partnership and what the students wanted support with. I think it’s a first-hand experience of what impact we can make via our clients.

Imagine we’re sitting down together two years from now, looking back at your company’s last 24 months. What specific accomplishments would have to happen for you to be happy with your progress?

I see it as four achievements: For the team to have grown their skills, and range of experience, and to be delivering even more impactful work for our clients. For the agency to progress, it’s all about the team’s progression.

For our 4-day workweek to be fully embedded and as successful as we hope it to be today. And lastly, for our digital growth services to be amplifying our clients’ impact even more.

You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

Well firstly, I have very little influence, flattering though that is, it’s not true. For influence read impact, I guess. I’d like to see our frontline clients who are working for equity in their communities be as well funded as the for-profit sector. Only then will they be able to deliver the impact needed in education, housing, justice, and economic empowerment. They are the ones who have influence every day, and I am inspired to work with them!

How can our readers further follow your work or your company online?

Please check out our agency’s website at www.goodstuffpartners.com! You can also find us on Instagram and LinkedIn.

This was great. Thanks for taking time for us to learn more about you and your business. We wish you continued success!