The Purpose Matrix

The best leaders didn't all share the same story, but a lot of them share the same principles. In this special midyear highlights episode, Phil revisits some of the most impactful conversations from the first half of the year, featuring business owners, athletes, military leaders, and men committed to building stronger families and communities. Together, they explore what it means to lead with cha...

Isaac Klopfenstein spent more than a decade as a teacher and coach before realizing something was out of alignment. The life he said mattered most (faith, family, and work) was no longer reflected in how he was spending his time. So he walked away from the security of a stable career without knowing exactly what came next. In this episode, Isaac and Phil discuss career transitions, identity, mento...

Drew Wiard thought he was making the smartest move of his career. After years of success in real estate, he expanded into manufacturing acquisitions to accelerate growth and cash flow. Instead, he found himself in one of the hardest seasons of his life. What looked like a great opportunity became a source of anxiety, sleepless nights, financial pressure, and leadership challenges he couldn't c...

Mike Guarino has built successful businesses, led thousands of physicians, testified before Congress, and met presidents, popes, and CEOs. But the moment that changed his life happened in a church during his nonverbal daughter’s First Communion. What he witnessed in that moment reshaped the way he thinks about success, money, leadership, and responsibility. Since then, Mike has spent decades mento...

Six men started with a simple goal: Stay consistent with fitness after Exodus 90 ended. Two years later, that small accountability group has become something much bigger. They meet at 5:15 every other Friday morning, track habits together, read books and scripture together, challenge each other’s blind spots, and refuse to let one another drift into complacency. The discussion follows how the grou...

Dr. Jeremy Mathis watched two highly successful physicians die while the system around them barely slowed down… Their careers had consumed their lives, their families were struggling, and when they were gone, their schedules were simply filled by someone else.  That experience forced him to confront a difficult question: What if the default definition of success leads somewhere you never intended...

Most people are living from a mindset they never intentionally built. A spilled glass of milk. A road rage moment. A bad test score. Phil Moeller walks through how the way we see situations shapes how we think, feel, and act. Over time, those reactions become identity. Drawing from As a Man Thinketh, Focus 3 principles, and personal experience, Phil breaks down the mindset cycle that quietly drive...

Bo Parfet was told he would never graduate high school. He struggled with dyslexia, ADHD, speech impediments, and years of feeling behind everyone else. But those same struggles became the foundation for everything he’s accomplished today. After building and exiting a successful real estate business, Bo realized success alone wasn’t enough… A conversation with his wife, a hospice chaplain, forced...

Kyle Ahrens spent five years inside Tom Izzo’s program at Michigan State where discipline was expected, accountability was constant, and nobody was allowed to coast. Then injuries hit… He broke his foot, came back too early, broke it again, and lost an entire season after working all summer to earn his spot. That experience reshaped the way he thinks about adversity, preparation, and what actually...

A 22-year-old suddenly passes away in a basement before a night out. No warning. No chance to do anything he planned… That moment never left Matt King. He’s a husband, a father of three young kids, a CEO, and a leader responsible for people, companies, and decisions that don’t slow down. At the same time, he’s training for a 2000-mile ride from Mexico to Canada (despite never being a cyclist). Alo...

A college senior sits with a professor and admits he has no clear career path. The advice is simple: Watch who’s successful and do what they do. Brian Seitz leaves that conversation and starts paying attention to one person in his hometown. It leads to a conversation in a local bar and a job (that he had no experience for). What follows is years of rejection, relationship building, and learning ho...

Two in ten people love what they do. The other eight show up disconnected, going through the motions, or actively working against the team. Jeremy Pietrocini pulls from Gallup data to show how leaders misread this problem. They try to fix teams instead of looking at the energy they bring into the room each day. He and Phil discuss the difference between employees who are simply present and those w...

Tom Burden built the company, got the recognition, and stepped onto Shark Tank at age 26… But it still didn’t settle anything internally. Even at that level, he found himself dealing with imposter syndrome and a persistent sense that something wasn’t adding up. So the question became: what actually changes that? Today, Phil and Tom unpack why success doesn’t resolve unworthiness, and how it often...

Leadership is often pursued through success, but sustained through suffering. Dr. Daniel Tataje joins Phil to trace his path from building a fast growing dental organization to confronting the cost of neglecting his role at home. He describes chasing success until it lost meaning, facing breakdown in his family, and rebuilding through discipline, self denial, and a reframed understanding of love a...

Here’s a question most people don’t actually answer: What level are you leading at? Early in his career, Phil could get work done just by writing instructions and handing them off. The job got done, but not much beyond it. Most leaders never move past that pattern (even when they start getting results). That’s where the ceiling shows up. In this episode, Phil walks through the five levels of leade...

Pat Hiban meets a stranger while tying his shoes before a run in Chicago. That moment turns into a business partner years later. Another introduction leads to the CEO of a company he co-founded… None of it was planned, but those moments stacked. Real estate conventions. random trips. accountability partners. Each connection built into GoBundance and multiple businesses. The pattern is simple but u...

Michael Durant’s helicopter was hit by a rocket propelled grenade over Mogadishu. And if you’ve seen the movie, you know what happened next…  The crash left him with a broken femur, crushed vertebrae, and surrounded by enemy fighters. Within minutes, the crash site was overrun and he became the only surviving crew member. In his conversation with Phil, Durant recounts the events of the Battle of M...

Brian Murray built and managed over a billion dollars in real estate. From the outside, it looked like the pinnacle of business success…. Internally, it felt empty. In his conversation with Phil, Brian explains how reaching a major financial milestone forced him to confront a difficult truth: Professional achievement did not deliver the joy he expected. That realization, combined with a serious ca...

David Osborn built extraordinary success, but real freedom didn’t come from money. It came from trust. In this conversation with Phil Moeller, David reflects on the long process of proving himself to himself. From growing up between scarcity and privilege to raising children in abundance, he shares how purpose, example, and personal responsibility shape the kind of person success can flow toward....

A whopping 70% of the workforce is disengaged…is that you? Is it the people you lead?? Kate Volman, CEO of Floyd Consulting and steward of The Dream Manager framework, believes most leaders are diagnosing the wrong problem because they’re trying to fix performance at WORK instead of asking what happened to someone’s dreams at HOME. Today, Phil and Kate discuss why people check out at work (long be...

Could your drive to succeed actually be the thing keeping you stuck? Phil sits down with clinical psychologist and author Dr. Kelly Flanagan, whose work has resonated most with an unexpected audience: high-achieving entrepreneurial men. Dr. Flanagan breaks down the difference between guilt and shame, and how shame quietly hijacks careers, marriages, and parenting. He explains why achievement does...

Most of us don’t feel stuck because we’re failing. We feel stuck because we were trained to be. Trained to stay busy. To do it alone. To worry about how it LOOKS instead of who we’re becoming. That realization led to one word that kept resurfacing: broken. Not as a flaw to hide, but as a starting point that we all have in common. In this episode, Phil reflects on the ways society shapes our habits...

Dreamers don’t fail because they lack ideas. They fail because they don’t have a Driver owning execution. Today, Phil talks with Stephanie Brackett, COO of Gobundance and a lifelong operations leader who has spent decades turning vision into finished work. From her early years at Home Depot to scaling real estate teams and executive partnerships, Stephanie has thrived in the second-in-command seat...

When Jason Duff returned to his hometown, 80% of downtown was vacant. So what did he do? Bought a building, opened a restaurant, and started learning…fast. Today, he runs Small Nation, a real estate company focused on rebuilding small towns by backing the entrepreneurs who make them thrive. In this episode, Jason breaks down the business model behind Bellefontaine’s transformation, including how t...

What separates good leaders from great ones? Today’s guest says it comes down to purpose and authenticity…and most people are missing both. In this episode of The Purpose Matrix, Phil sits down with Tim Cole, veteran corporate exec turned founder of The Compass Alliance, to explore what truly makes leaders worth following. From confronting disengagement in the workplace to building a “career compa...