How can Purposeful Partnerships turn your Passion into Profit?

In this episode I sit down with Kim De Coster to explore how purposeful partnerships can help you turn passion into profit—without losing sight of meaning.

We talk about Kim’s compass of passion, purpose, and profit, and how to navigate its four quadrants: from the Profit Trap that keeps us stuck, to the Power quadrant where passion meets impact. Together, we dive into finding your right crowd, knowing your values and non-negotiables, and the difference between a simple collaboration and a true partnership.

You’ll also hear how to test partnerships safely, have the money and vulnerability conversations that matter, and why profit is about more than money—it’s about joy, energy, and freedom.

This conversation will inspire you to create aligned, impactful partnerships that strengthen both your business and the change you want to see in the world.

In this episode we discussed:

• The balance of passion, purpose, and profit – the trifecta for meaningful work
• Kim’s compass with four quadrants: Pitfall, Profit Trap, Progress, and Power
• Why the Profit Trap feels safe but keeps you stuck, and how to move out of it
• The importance of being in the right crowd and finding your people
• The difference between collaborations and partnerships
• Knowing your values, principles, and non-negotiables before stepping into partnership
• How to test partnerships with small experiments (like co-hosting an event)
• The role of vulnerable conversations around money, concerns, and expectations
• Why profit isn’t just money—it’s also joy, energy, time, and freedom
• The reminder that good people making good money creates more positive impact
• Practical first steps: start with your existing network, ask for introductions, or join/create the right “room”

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Speaker 0: hey, kim. it's good to hang out with you and talk about 

Speaker 1: passion, profit, and partnership. 

Speaker 2: hello. it's great to be here. thank you for the invite. it's always a pleasure. 

Speaker 1: yeah. um, we're here because you're part of the humane marketing circle community. and during our last expo, you proposed a great workshop, which i missed, but luckily there was a replay. so i got to see that, um, around this topic of passion, purpose, and profit. right? it's kinda like this trifecta, those three things that, uh, go together. and, um, i yeah. i just thought it was such a great topic and it fits my seventh p of the human in marketing mandala, which is partnership. and so i thought it'd be really great to talk about it here on the, on the podcast. to people will be listening. and so you just have to kind of explain the four different components of this compass. 

Speaker 2: um, so for me, first of all, the compass is kind of before you start going into partnerships and so on and so on. i think the first very step is where am i currently at? and that's what the compass is for, to kind of see where do i start from. so you have, um, two things we'd be measuring somehow, which is on the one hand, you have passion on the lower end, and then you have purpose. and, obviously, you can work low on passion, or you can work high on passion. and then the same thing for purpose. low on purpose or high on purpose. before i explain, like, the four quadrants we've made, i do wanna make it clear what i mean with purpose and passion. so purpose for me because you hear the word a lot and also passion, they're a bit overused probably. but, um, purpose for me is not just what is my purpose, it's a positive impacts purpose on planet and society, so on planet and people. right. and because i'm all about sustainability. so that for me is, are you working alone? does it have not really an impact, a positive impact on planet or society, on humanity, or does it really have a high impact? so that's where the purpose lies. and then passion, we can all be passionate about stuff and let's be honest, everybody that has a business or has a job, there's always things even if you're passionate about what you do, there's always things you like more and you like less in every single job. but let's say that, like, 85% of