Purpose vs. Profit: Do You Really Have to Choose?

Purpose vs. Profit: Do You Really Have to Choose?

I remember the moment vividly. It was 2019, and I was looking out into the marketplace, seeing the stark polarity between two worlds: on one side, profit-driven businesses focused on the bottom line at any cost, and on the other, purpose-driven nonprofits trying to do meaningful work, often struggling to survive.

I remember thinking: Where do I fit?

Was Sacred Changemakers going to be a for-profit business, or was it going to be a nonprofit? I felt like I had to choose. But neither path fit what I truly wanted to do.

And it wasn’t just in 2019. This question had haunted me for decades—through different businesses, different roles, and different times in my life. It was the same internal conflict: If I truly wanted to serve, did that mean I had to sacrifice financial success? And if I wanted to be financially successful, did that mean I had to compromise my integrity?

Looking back, I realize that this dilemma is one of the greatest illusions we’ve been conditioned to believe.

And I know I’m not alone.

The Purpose-Driven Entrepreneur’s Dilemma

If you’re a changemaker, a coach, or a conscious entrepreneur, you’ve probably felt this too.

I hear it all the time:

• “I don’t want to feel pushy.”
• “I hate sales—it feels manipulative.”
• “I’d rather give my work away than sell it.”

It’s as if, deep down, we’ve been taught that money is separate from impact. That the moment we put a price tag on something, we somehow diminish its value. If we truly care about our clients and our work, then profit shouldn’t be a factor.

But what if the real problem isn’t marketing or sales? What if the real problem is how we’ve been taught to think about purpose and money?

Breaking Down the Myths

We need to dismantle some deep-seated myths about business, purpose, and profit.

Here are the three biggest ones I see:

Myth #1: If You Truly Care, You Shouldn’t Charge for It.

Many changemakers feel guilty about charging for their work, as if making money somehow taints their integrity. But let’s flip the script:

Profit isn’t the opposite of purpose. It’s what makes purpose sustainable.

This is exactly why I never went down the nonprofit route. A nonprofit often feels like a car without an engine—it’s full of vision but constantly reliant on external funding to keep moving. I knew that if Sacred Changemakers was going to have a real impact, it needed the financial engine to sustain it.

Charging for your work doesn’t take away from its value—it enables you to expand it.

Myth #2: Selling Means Being Pushy and Manipulative.

Let’s be honest—traditional marketing has created a lot of toxic narratives. Fear-based sales. High-pressure tactics. Manipulative messaging that plays on people’s insecurities.

No wonder so many purpose-driven entrepreneurs resist selling. They think that to be successful, they have to “be loud,” “push harder,” or “convince” people.

• But what if we redefine selling?
• What if selling isn’t about pushing?
• What if it’s about resonance?

What if your work speaks so deeply to the right people that they come to you—not because you manipulated them but because your work is exactly what they need?

True value-driven sales doesn’t feel like selling. It feels like alignment and service. Helping people who need your help - I'm not sure it gets any complicated than that.

Myth #3: Purpose-Driven Work and Financial Success Can’t Coexist.

For so long, I saw purpose and profit as two separate things—as if I had to choose one or the other. But I was looking at it from the wrong level of consciousness.

If we zoom out, we see that purpose and profit exist on different levels of understanding.

1. Self-Consciousness Orientation:?At the lower frequencies, we find the belief that purpose and profit are separate—that you must choose one or the other. This is where many changemakers get stuck.
2. Transpersonal Consciousness Orientation: In the mid frequencies, we soon realize that purpose and profit can be integrated—that profit fuels purpose and makes it sustainable.
3. Unity Consciousness Orientation: At the higher frequencies, the recognition that business itself can be sacred work begins to emerge and that the highest potential of leadership is not just making money but creating a sacred economy that benefits all.

This is the shift we need to make—not just in our individual businesses but in the world. The market is awakening. Consumers are more purpose-driven than ever. They don’t just want transactions; they want transformation.

Our job is to step into this new paradigm of business.

The Data on Purpose-Driven Businesses

Research shows there are many tangible benefits to moving towards purpose.

Purpose-driven businesses demonstrate significant benefits across multiple performance areas. Evidence shows that companies with a strong sense of purpose outperform their competitors financially and enjoy advantages in employee engagement, customer loyalty, and market share growth.

• 133% - Purpose-driven brands outperform the stock market by 133% (Havas Media).
• 97% - of purpose-driven companies report significant incremental value, including preserved brand value and reputation (EY).
• 4X - Consumers are four times more likely to purchase from companies with a strong purpose (Deloitte).
• 79% - of consumers would be more loyal to a purpose-driven company (Deloitte).

But purpose must be authentic and deeply embedded in a company’s operations to create meaningful impact. When treated as a superficial marketing tactic or a short-term strategy, it not only fails to deliver real benefits but can also undermine trust and credibility.

A Hard Lesson on Fear-Based Marketing

I’ve been in many masterminds with very successful leaders, and they challenged my belief that fear-based marketing wouldn’t work with my audience. About 10 years ago now, they challenged me to test it, so I did.

On the surface, the launch was a success—by their definition. We generated more revenue than we had ever had before, but something felt wrong.

Half of my audience loved it. The other half? They hated it so much that they wrote to me, asking what had happened to me—wondering why I had lost my humanity.

And here’s the thing: my usual way of doing business, which is more organic and value-driven, results in almost zero refunds. But in this launch? We had the highest number of refunds we had ever seen.

When I shared my results with the mastermind, they all celebrated. They saw it as a win. But for me? It felt like a loss.

Yes, we made money. But we had attracted the wrong people—people who weren’t aligned with our work. And I had lost the trust of the people who truly mattered.

That was the moment I knew: I would never let someone else define success for me again. The profit-only approach comes at too high a cost for me (not to mention the world!).

The First Shift: Owning Your Value

So where do we start? The first shift is simple but profound:

Recognizing that charging for your work doesn’t diminish your purpose. It fuels it.

And beyond that, we need to rewire how we see business. Because business is not just about transactions—it’s about relationships. It’s about impact. It’s about creating something that truly matters.

We now have data that clearly shows the financial success of many purpose-driven businesses.

Maybe it’s time we stop asking whether purpose and profit can coexist.

Maybe it’s time we start leading the way in creating businesses that prove they do.

What’s Next?

If this resonates, let’s continue the conversation.

?? Have you ever felt like you had to choose between purpose and profit? Let’s talk in the comments.