Episode 33: Purpose-Driven Entrepreneurship with Brad Nardick

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As a leader, phrases such as “higher productivity, increased employee engagement and retention” are things we want to hear. Combine that with a feeling across a team that they are changing lives every day and things begin to feel “infectious” as Brad describes.

Brad Nardick, president of the Bazaar, Inc., shares how the company integrated helping people with disabilities as a shared purpose across the organization, effectively creating sustainability for what might be considered charitable work, while delivering the company’s core products and services.

During this episode you will learn:

Some of the early pain points of their journey (where they lost 50% of their new disability hires) and how to avoid them.
The tangible and intangible benefits of introducing purpose-driven efforts
Brad’s #1 tip on what you must get right in order to implement this successfully.

Key Points

01:50 – Brad shares fun facts: 16 days of living in the Amazon jungle with a tribe and that he practices Tai Chi four times a week.

05:35 – Brad shares his “why” in terms of the pursuit of driving purpose into his business. He connects it back to his childhood years, kids in his class with autism and other disabilities, as well as some of his own challenges.

10:30 – Brad talks about joining the company and beginning to turn his purpose into work at the company. Through discussion with his executive coach, he was reminded of how much he enjoyed studying and working directly with people with disabilities. She asked him “is there some marriage between what you’re doing today and what you were doing then?”

14:30 – “The purpose will meet you half-way.” Brad shares his strong belief of following your passion with intent and good things often follow. Further, he shares a store of a fortuitous meeting that turns into a partnership that helps them bring disabled employees into the business.

20:33 – Brad shares his point of view on the importance of purpose-driven work being self-sustained through a business model and thus his preference versus running a charity.

22:30 – Brad talks about some of the positive, tangible impacts on the business, as well as the value of having social impact built into entrepreneurship.

27:00 – Brad talks about some of the benefits he has seen from their work around helping people with disabilities.

31:25 – Advice on how to introduce a purpose-driven program into your company, including some key lessons learned from Brad’s journey.