The Purpose Promise Podcast

What is wealth and how does the obtaining of it guide your career path? In this episode, The Purpose Promise founder John McCarthy interviews Pastor Isaiah McKinney. Coming from different cultural backgrounds, John and Isaiah explore the four components of wealth: material wealth, relational wealth, motivational wealth, and spiritual wealth.

Is your definition of success rooted in the world’s complexities or your own unique complexity?

This episode features a conversation with Purpose Promise Founder John McCarthy and Rob Keefer CTO at the tech firm POMIET and author of Harmonics Way. This wide-ranging conversation explores the myth of career stability and how embracing the complexity in our leadership and our relationships leads to a deeper sense of career satisfaction.

Is your view of success prescribed or uniquely described?

This episode features a conversation with The Purpose Promise Founder John McCarthy and Kendra Ramirez, Executive Coach and Founder of the Kendra Ramirez Digital Agency. Kendra discovered that her career valleys, the times she veered off the prescribed path, actually led to the mountaintops of her most important seasons of growth.

Is your approach to dreaming about the future wise?

In this episode, career expert and The Purpose Promise founder John McCarthy outlines the common traps of “comparisonitis” and “FOMO” that can cause career-seekers to go off track. He’s then joined by Jake Thomas who faced a career crossroads and discovered, by going through The Purpose Promise process, a new approach to move into his future with purpose.

What type of assets are you concerned about accumulating for your ideal future?

In this episode, career expert and The Purpose Promise founder John McCarthy describes a more comprehensive way to view the assets you acquire throughout your career.

He’s joined by John Jordan, who after a long career, chose not to retire, but instead to “re-fire” to pursue fulfillment in the fourth phase of his career journey.

Is the desire to be in your comfort zone negating your impact?

In this episode, we unpack Trishia Ralston’s winding journey from Hurricane Katrina, to missions in Africa, to motherhood, to photography.

Trishia describes how those stirrings – some voluntary and some involuntary – took her out of her comfort zone and allowed her to understand that our sense of purpose changes in different life seasons.

What motivates you in this season of your career?

In Season 2 of this Podcast, career expert and The Purpose Promise founder, John McCarthy digs deeper into the success myths through in-depth conversations with people in The Purpose Promise movement. In this episode, certified Purpose Guide Laura Jackson joins John to discuss the importance of identifying whether you are being intrinsically or extrinsically motivated.

Are you living for today or tomorrow’s legacy?

In Season 2 of this podcast, career expert and The Purpose Promise Founder, John McCarthy digs deeper into the success myths through in-depth conversations with people in The Purpose Promise movement.

In this episode, he is joined by Paul Spencer, the owner of Second Nature. They discuss Paul’s powerful vision for a “family charter” that intentionally draws out career wisdom across multiple generations. 

Are you confined by declared or undeclared expectations?

In Season 2 of this Podcast, career expert and Purpose Promise founder, John McCarthy digs deeper into the success myths through in-depth conversations with people in the Purpose Promise movement.

In this episode, he is joined by Nate Krugman of The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Nate has a powerful story of wrestling with the declared career expectations he felt from his father and the undeclared career expectations he felt from society – and how an expected medical diagnosis forged a new path to his purposeful career.

Do you have what it takes to be you?

In Season 2 of this Podcast, career expert and The Purpose Promise founder John McCarthy digs deeper into the success myths through in-depth conversations with people in the Purpose movement.

In this episode, he is joined by Tom Busch, the founder of Tom Busch Coaching and a Purpose Promise Guide. Tom is a deep thinker whose transition from business owner to business coach required brave introspection and new habits.

John had a front row seat to this transformation and shares his insights into how Tom’s journey illustrates the habits you need to cultivate to forge a career truly aligned with your purpose.

Will you conform to the world’s path of career success?

In Season 2 of this Podcast, career expert and The Purpose Promise founder, John McCarthy digs deeper into the success myths through in-depth conversations with people in The Purpose Promise movement.

In this episode, he is joined by Spencer Hogan, a Purpose Promise guide who specializes in helping young professionals find purposeful employment.

Their conversation explores the concept of owning vs. renting your career aspirations, the common challenges young people face as they navigate college, and the importance of knowing yourself—even at a young age.

Is your future focus robbing you of life-changing moments? You might believe the myth that success is a destination.

In Season 2 of this Podcast, career expert and Purpose Promise founder, John McCarthy, digs deeper into the success myths through in-depth conversations with people in the Purpose Promise movement.

In this episode, he is joined by The Purpose Promise’s own Robin Hannigan. Together, they explain how you can learn to recognize life’s big and small Kairos moments which will lead you to an integrated life and purposeful employment.

Season 1 of The Purpose Promise Podcast explored the top twelve myths people believe about success. The degree to which you believe one or more of these myths will keep you from living an integrated and purposeful life, trapped in the rat race. In this capstone episode, career expert and Purpose Promise founder, John McCarthy sits down with our podcast producer, Liz Driscoll, to discuss favorite moments and memories from Season 1. Clips from this episode include cameos from James Lenhoff, D. Michelle Thompson, Tom Thatcher and Susan Carson.

Most job seekers believe they need to navigate their career journey on their own. The individualistic ideal is sewn into the fabric of American culture. And there are barriers to finding trustworthy mentors or sponsors to guide you. But the notion that your career is a solo journey is a myth. To build a career of purpose, you need other people to speak into your life and to help you make key decisions. In this episode, career expert and Purpose Promise founder John McCarthy discusses why “it takes a village” to build a purposeful career. Then, he is joined by Liz Driscoll, a business owner and producer of the Purpose Promise Podcast, to describe how the solo journey myth impacted her life journey.

You may be seeking a new job, hoping a new situation will make you happier and more fulfilled. Most people think the grass will greener with another employer. But greener grass is a myth. Without self-awareness, job seekers move from job to job only to find themselves trapped in the rat race, unfulfilled again and again. In this episode, career expert and Purpose Promise founder John McCarthy explores the root causes of this myth and describes how the greener grass myth was instrumental to the founding of the The Purpose Promise. Then, leadership development professional Dan Link describes how the myth of greener grass affected his career journey.

An idealistic vision of a relaxing and stress-free retirement can be the powerful motivator that keeps you stuck in an unfulfilling job. However, there is growing evidence to suggest this view of retirement is actually a myth. Even worse, by chasing after this myth, you can make unhealthy sacrifices during your second phase of life – the work and family years. In this episode, career expert and Purpose Promise founder John McCarthy suggests a holistic reframing for the concept of retirement. Then, Jason Goodall, financial planner, and comedian joins him to describe how he combats this myth with his clients.

Your beliefs – and the stories you tell yourself about them - have a powerful effect on your actions. Your beliefs and narratives about success may be anchored in your earliest memories of how you saw success in the adults around you. In this episode, career expert and Purpose Promise founder John McCarthy explores the impact of that memory, belief and narrative plays on your path to purpose. He is then joined by Laura Jackson, a Training Director, Coach and Purpose Guide, who shares how she overcame her limiting beliefs and narratives in order to live more fully in her purpose.

You like being comfortable. Who doesn’t? The success myth we are tackling today is that success means increasing levels of comfort. In this episode, career expert and Purpose Promise founder John McCarthy explores three common ways people seek comfort and describes how the pursuit of comfort might derail your life purpose. He is then joined by Ron Touby, a Director at Cru City, who shares how his career was impacted by choosing purpose over comfort.

If you are a parent with a kid heading off to college, or if you are a student considering college, this is a must-listen episode for you! One of the most challenging decisions you will face in life is the pursuit of an education after high school. Most young people head off to college without an intentional consideration about whether the credential they are pursuing aligns with their life purpose. In this episode, career expert and Purpose Promise founder John McCarthy explores the difference between renting and owning your sense of purpose. He is then joined by Dr. Tom Thatcher, an educator, and college provost, who shares his insights into the educational system and how to navigate it to gain the right credential for your life purpose.

Your view of success is shaped by multiple forces and you may not even be aware of them. Some expectations are placed upon you, consciously or unconsciously, by your family of origin. Other expectations come from society.

In this episode, career expert and Purpose Promise founder John McCarthy examines why the myth of fulfilling expectations might be keeping you from living your true purpose. He is then joined by Tom Busch, a certified Purpose Guide and life coach, who describes how he wrestled with expectations on his journey to purpose.