Your Purpose Is the Strategy
A reminder that even good advice can lead you off course when you stop trusting yourself.
→ This is a story about how easy it is to lose your voice when your focus is on trying to do everything right.
🙋🏻♀️ Hi! I’m Amy Zwagerman—Fractional CMO, brand strategist, and founder of The Launch Box. I help founders and creative experts build brands that feel like them—and actually work.
→ If your brand feels scattered, stuck, or off-center, and you’re ready to step off the merry-go-round of “best practices” and get back to the work that truly feels like you, let’s talk. You can book a free discovery call or explore my services here.
TL;DR
We all do it—listen to the loudest voice in the room and ignore the quiet one inside. We follow best practices, chase the right way, and wonder why it suddenly feels harder to breathe.
This is your reminder that clarity lives where purpose leads.
You don’t need a new strategy. You just need to come home to your own.
The Fork in the Road
At some point, every founder hits that familiar crossroad.
One path says trust yourself.
The other says trust the expert.
And sometimes, both look equally right.
I recently watched two founders — both seasoned experts, both deeply mission-driven — hit that moment as they decided to enter the podcast arena. Each had something real to say, something their audience needed to hear. And they both hired the same podcast consultant to help them “do it right.”
They got the same advice, set out with the same good intentions, and—surprise—ended up in two very different places.
When Purpose Gets Outsourced
At the start, both leaders felt clear and confident. They knew their message. They had purpose running through every word. But as the expert’s feedback came in — what to say, how to say it, which topics to drop or double down on — one of them started to second-guess.
Not because the advice was wrong. But because it was louder than their own.
They began to shape their episodes around what they thought they should do, instead of what they wanted to do. It was subtle at first — a tone change here, a format tweak there — but over time, their podcast stopped feeling like an extension of them and started feeling like something they were performing. And what was once a source of inspiration and joy became a source of frustration and stress.
I recognized it instantly.
Because I’ve done it too.
In fact, I did it just… last… month. 🤦🏻♀️
When “Doing Good Work” Becomes Losing Your Way
Here’s the part I don’t love admitting: I’ve fallen into this trap myself — not with a podcast, but with client work.
Yep, I’m human—and imperfect. It’s okay, I can admit it. Just… maybe don’t call me out on it before I’m ready to do so myself.
It always starts innocently enough. A deadline, a request, a genuine desire to deliver. A client says, “We really need this by Tuesday,” or “Can we focus on X instead of Y?” and I think, Sure, I can make that work.
Next thing I know, the work is steering me instead of the other way around. My creative north star—the one that helps brands reconnect with their purpose—gets dimmed by project plans, timelines, and good intentions. And that’s when I feel it: that quiet disconnect, that creeping sense of something’s missing.
It’s never about the client — their needs are valid. It’s about how easily we can lose our own alignment when we’re not proactively steering the ship.
And that’s exactly what I saw playing out with these two podcasters.
One integrated the expert’s advice, but stayed rooted in their own voice — their podcast evolved, but it still felt like them. The other tried so hard to get it “right” that their voice got quieter. Not lost — just buried under noise, so it took them a moment to find it again.
I don’t want to get all metaphysical on you (spoiler alert: I’m going to anyway), but I want to share something I picked up from a talk by Gabby Bernstein.
The gist? We all lose sight of our north star sometimes. It’s part of being human.
Gabby’s message—and the one that feels especially relevant here—is that the goal isn’t to avoid getting off track. It’s to focus on our comeback rate: how quickly we realign once we’ve drifted, instead of wasting energy on the coulda, shoulda, woulda talk that keeps us stuck facing the wrong direction.
The Real Lesson
Getting back to this story, the takeaway isn’t don’t take advice. It’s don’t abandon your inner compass while you do.
We all need sounding boards, frameworks, and outside perspective. But, if the process starts to feel like contortion instead of expansion, I want you to know that’s your signal to pause. You’re not wrong to ask questions. You’re not wrong to think differently. And you’re certainly not wrong to listen to your instincts and say no.
Because the right strategy doesn’t erase your voice — it amplifies it. And your purpose doesn’t need protection from experts. It just needs to stay in charge.
For those who are new here, I like to build what I call a Purpose Play into my signature posts. It’s a quick pause—a chance to step back from the strategy talk, check in with your gut, and see where your inner voice wants to lead next.
Purpose Play
Think about one place in your business where you’ve bent too far in the name of “doing it right.” Maybe it’s a client project, a business plan, or a piece of advice you’ve followed even though it didn’t sit quite right.
Ask yourself:
“Where did my voice go quiet here?”
“When did this stop feeling exciting and start feeling heavy?”
“What would it look like to give my purpose the mic again?”
Now, take one small step that realigns you — no drama, no guilt, just truth.
The Wrap Up
The good news: I’ve learned that purpose doesn’t disappear — it just waits patiently for you to remember it.
And when you do? Everything starts clicking again. The ideas feel sharper. The energy comes back. The brand feels like home again.
Because you can hire experts, chase best practices, and deliver until you drop — but if your purpose isn’t steering the ship, you’ll always end up off-course.
So maybe the real strategy isn’t about finding your voice. It’s about returning to it — over and over again.
Yep, I just doubled down on the comeback rate spiel. What can I say? It’s a concept that shapes how I show up—to my work, my clients, and myself.
So let’s keep this conversation going. When have you followed “expert advice” that ended up dulling your own instincts? What helped you find your way back to your voice—and your purpose? Share your story in the comments or send me a DM—I read every one.
Because the truth is, I don’t just teach this stuff; I live it. Every time I help a founder reconnect to their purpose, I find myself doing the same.
Your purpose isn’t just part of the strategy. It is the strategy.
If your brand has started to sound more like a carbon copy of best practices than you, let’s change that. Book a free discovery call or explore my services here.
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Integrity Pledge 🙋🏻♀️: The books, newsletters, shows, podcasts, and client work shared here are 100% reflective of my world. I will always disclose if and when I have a relationship with a brand I mention in a post or am sharing an affiliate link.