What if the key to success isn’t hustling harder, but flipping a mental switch? In this inspiring episode of
Executive Connect, Melissa Aarskaug sits down with Terri Maxwell—founder of Succeed On Purpose
and Share On Purpose. Terri has built over 50 brands and now helps entrepreneurs and leaders discover
how to grow with purpose and profit. From a troubled childhood to becoming a growth strategist, Terri
shares the science-backed “Success Switch”—a 3-step framework to rewire your mindset and unlock
purposeful achievement.

Chapters:
0:00 – What If Success Isn’t More Hustle?
1:15 – Terri’s Wake-Up Call After Corporate Success
2:20 – The 3 Pillars: Persona, Passion, Purpose
4:35 – Rethinking Success Beyond the 9-5
7:20 – Purpose Is a Verb, Not a Noun
10:30 – Are We Entering the Purpose Era?
12:20 – Examples: Purpose-Driven CFOs and Engineers
14:36 – Why Personal Growth Drives Business Growth
17:03 – Terri’s Childhood & The First Success Switch
20:32 – The ABC Framework: Acknowledge, Breathe, Claim
25:29 – Reprogramming the Mind in 7 Days
26:45 – Final Words: There Are No Limits But Your Own
28:22 – Where to Find Terri

Melissa Aarskaug (00:01.997)
What if the secret to success isn’t more hustle, but a switch? On today’s Executive Connect podcast, we’re connected with Terry Maxwell, the growth strategist behind over 50 brands and the founder of Share On Purpose, which is like a purposeful shark tank. And she also founded the founder of Succeed On Purpose, a training company for individuals and leaders

who want to create more success on purpose. She’s flipped the traditional business model on its head, fueling purpose driven companies that scale and serve. If you’ve ever wondered how to build meaningful success without selling your soul, this is your moment to flip the switch. Welcome, Terri.

Terri Maxwell (00:54.599)
I’m so glad to be here. Thank you so much for having me.

Melissa Aarskaug (00:58.395)
Terri, your journey from corporate leader to purpose-driven entrepreneur and investor is incredibly inspiring. Can you share with us a little bit about the success switch and what it means to you and really what sparked this for you in your life?

Terri Maxwell (01:15.182)
Yeah, great question. was, um, it was a series of things that led to it. The first one was when I left corporate America and started my first business in 2002 was right after nine 11. And I was like, you know what, if life is this crazy, I’m going to go out and do my own thing. Fortunately, I ended up being very successful with that business, grew it to about just under 10 million in revenue, and then started kind of this weird wake up call that.

I’ve built my own business. I’ve got plenty of money, but I was miserable in my own business. And that really led me to thinking there has to be a better way to have success, but do something that made the world better in some way. So that’s what led to all of this. And ultimately what’s buying the success switch.

Melissa Aarskaug (02:04.313)
Now, Succeed On Purpose has inspired thousands of business and leaders. Let’s talk a little bit about what it takes to grow a business that’s profitable and purposeful. Walk us through that journey.

Terri Maxwell (02:20.706)
Yeah, everything that I do in share on purpose, which is kind of like the purposeful shark tank in the holding company. all started in succeed on purpose. was truly the genesis of everything I started in 2009. So I’ve been doing this for a while. And what I identified first in my own life, it was like, I want to have more success, but I want to, call it meaningful money. I want to have more success, but I want to do something that matters and something that’s meaningful. And so I realized that.

purposeful success or meaningful money, you need three things to exist. The first is knowing who you are. And I call that persona. For example, I’m a builder and that’s my persona and I need to build something. I can’t just solve problems. I really need to build it. I’m not happy unless I’m building something. you know, I, I, I, that I know that about myself, I can build a strategy in my career and business to ensure that it includes

building something. The second is passion, which is really, what do you love to do? mean, life is short. If anything, the last five years we’ve realized is anything could happen. So if anything could happen, I want to do something that I love to do. And then finally, the most important of these three components of purposeful success is purpose. The funny thing about purpose is most people get very confused. They think purpose is a noun.

Like I’m a teacher and that’s my purpose. It’s not a noun. It’s actually a verb. And when you, when you make your purpose into a verb, so my purpose is to inspire potential. When I treat it like a verb, I could be doing any job. I could have any business. And as long as I’m approaching my actions from this larger why of inspiring potential, then what happens is I’m more fulfilled. make a bigger impact.

Wow, that ultimately causes my passions to go up. And then ultimately I have more success. it’s persona, which is who you are, passion, which is really what you love, and purpose, which is why do you love it? And the key to purpose is it’s a verb, not a noun.

Melissa Aarskaug (04:35.097)
And I love that. think it really is a mindset shift because I know, like I think back to the old narrative, go to school, get a good job, work the eight to five, nine to five, take your one hour lunch break. But I think what I’ve learned is the people that are kind of shifting from that mindset to more of this purposeful, driven, whatever it is that they’re passionate about, they’re less likely to burn out.

and wear out. And I feel like the ones that are actually doing what you’re talking about are the happiest people I know. The work they’re doing, they could do it all day, every day, and they’re really passionate about it. So what is the mindset shift do you believe that is essential when you kind of switch and turn the narrative on the head?

Terri Maxwell (05:23.842)
You know, it’s so funny because I think people really see it as a good, bad, right, wrong. I got it. I didn’t got it. And for me, what I found is it really was unpacking who I am and why I’m here. And I’ve had incredible success and incredible failure. But what I found is that when I’m doing something that matters and when I’m doing what I’m really meant to do,

Success or failure becomes less important. And what happens is the meaning is what leads me to success. Now, it wasn’t easy for me to figure that out. It took me a lot of, you know, broken roads and over the river and through the woods. But once I cracked the code and said, if I will focus on why am I here? What do I love to do? And who am I? And really align my pursuits around that.

Success is going to come. If you get the mindset right, which I know we’re going to talk about, if you get the mindset right, success will come.

Melissa Aarskaug (06:27.951)
Yeah, and think if you can get the mindset right, you’re less fearful to make the jump. feel like if your mind’s in the right place, you’re grounded in who you are and what your purpose are is. I feel like you tell me, does it really shrink your fear to really?

Like, and why does it matter? Like, why would that matter to somebody? Because a lot of times you’re like, okay, these are my skills, I’m gonna find a job that is in this bucket. But when you pull that back and say, okay, I may be a marketer or an engineer, but when you pull it back and say, well, I like building brands because of this, or I like, you know, building and designing bridges because of that, and you’re grounded in your purpose. I think it doesn’t become a job, like you were saying, it’s not.

Is it a noun, is it a verb? Shifts, right?

Terri Maxwell (07:19.874)
Great question. So if I use my purpose as an example to inspire potential in my corporate career, before I knew purpose was a thing, those moments when I was inspiring my team or speaking on stage or delivering some insight or challenging people to tackle a goal, those moments, I felt like I was on top of the world. The challenge was the rest of my job didn’t necessarily take advantage of that.

And so what most people do once they have that awareness is they start to treat their purpose like a noun. If I could just change my job or if I can just start this business, then I’ll be happy. Which is what I did is I left corporate America. We had taken a company public, know, nine 11 happened. I’m going to go do something meaningful. So I quit this very successful corporate career, go out and start a business, built that business. And I was miserable in my own business.

because I wasn’t focusing on the purpose. I was focusing on what I knew how to do. I was focusing on what I was good at. I wasn’t really focusing on why am I here? And again, in my own business, I would get these little flashes of moment when we’d have our consultants together and I was teaching them something or we were doing a case study on a business and they were lighting up and I was lighting up and I would have these moments in my own business.

where I felt that sense of fulfillment. And I was like, how do I get more of that? And of course, you know, that’s the key to how you really have to unlock who you really are and really work through the mindset, because we’re not really taught to really listen to that internal inspiration. We’re taught to chase the dollars, chase the title. But when I could really tune into that internal vibration of joy,

That’s when I realized, a minute, I gotta unpack this. It’s not gonna be instantaneous. I gotta unpack who I am and why I’m on this earth and follow that.

Melissa Aarskaug (09:25.253)
And I’m curious your perspective on this. I know, I feel like everybody’s really looking for that. like everybody’s really looking for what is my purpose. No matter, you know, in 2020 when the pandemic happened, for the first time in a very long time, we all stopped no matter what’s your job or how old you were or what your age was, everybody stopped and we had time to really unpack who we are, what our purpose is. And those of us that were traveling,

you know, 50 or more percent of a month. It was like, my gosh, we have all this time now. What are we gonna do with it? So we picked up new purposes and new hobbies and new interests that we therefore would not have had in our life. do you, maybe just curious, do you think that we’re moving into a phase where people are really questioning who they are and what their purposes are? is it just kind of, where are we with that? I feel like,

This has become more of dialogue in my conversations with executives. like, well, I’ve been in corporate America and I’m leaving to start this business because it’s my purpose. But what is that shift?

Terri Maxwell (10:34.54)
Yeah. So, yeah. So that, that’s where I feel like the disconnect is number one is people do just like you described, which is what I did is I’m going to leave my job and I’m going to start this business and this business is going to fulfill me. That’s when we’re treating the purpose, like a noun, the business is going to fulfill me. What I realized is it isn’t the business. It’s how I approach everything. So.

for me, that’s the purpose is a verb part is my purpose is to inspire potential. do that when I go to the grocery store and I can tell somebody is discouraged and I, I focus on, you know, your eyes are pretty or wow, you know, that shirt looks amazing on you or wow, you just kind of light up the room and, and, and I’m bringing out their potential that is fulfilling. And so that’s the disconnect is people treat it like it’s, if I get this job, it will be fulfilling. If I start this business, it will be fulfilling.

it’s quote unquote on my purpose. It’s not that. mean, again, I started a business, it was very successful and I wasn’t fulfilled. But when I really cracked that nut and said, it’s how I, how I’d be and how I’m acting in my job or the business or whatever, that you begin to really craft a life that is purposeful and meaningful. And when you put that together with the belief,

that you can also be make money on your purpose when you really, really believe that. And I know we’ll talk about that later that you can have what I call meaningful money on your purpose. You put that together, you know, it’s joy and success and prosperity and fulfillment.

Melissa Aarskaug (12:19.545)
Yeah, that made me think of the quote that people may forget what you say, but they’re not gonna forget the way you make them feel. And so you just saying, wow, you have pretty eyes or wow, that shirt is so nice on you. You never know if they ever get compliments or had a compliment. And they might walk away feeling like, wow, look how great I look. you’re really, you’re empowering them to feel good at that exact moment and inspiring somebody.

to maybe make a shift in their life, or maybe they were fearful to take the jump and host a dinner, or take the jump and apply for a promotion, but really what you’re doing is you’re laying the foundation for them to take a step, no matter what the step is, is what I’m hearing you say.

Terri Maxwell (13:06.092)
Yeah. And I’ll give you two examples. one of the, one of the folks that we worked with and succeed on purpose and his purpose was to create value. And he was in engineering and he was trying to find, you know, a job that he enjoyed more. And when we unpacked that his purpose was to create value, I said, it’s not the job that’s going to be fulfilling. It’s finding a job that allows you to create value, that allows you to be who you are.

Another example is our CFO, our CFO’s purpose as crazy as it sounds is to create love. And you’re like a CFO and their purpose is to create love. But when she’s actually working with the leaders of our brands and walking them through how you did a great job here and look at that and you know, wow, I really want to pour into you here and let me help you understand the numbers. She’s using her gift for numbers, but she’s using it in a way.

that brings fulfillment to the people that she serves. And so those are two great examples of don’t treat your purpose like a job or a business or a container. It’s really how you approach what you do every day. That’s where the fulfillment is. It’s a verb, not an ad.

Melissa Aarskaug (14:22.297)
I love it. So through Succeed On Purpose, you’ve guided individuals to find fulfilling work and create their own abundance. So why do you think personal transformation is such a big piece of the professional mission?

Terri Maxwell (14:36.46)
Well, you know, I, I have a belief, that your business, and your prosperity grow as you evolve. I really do believe that. And I teach a lot of entrepreneurs, through succeed on purpose and other brands. And I emphatically can say your business grows as you evolve. The challenge is that we’re also stuck in the imposter syndrome and

70 % of leaders struggle with imposter syndrome. And so we have all these beliefs that, shouldn’t do that, or I need a degree to do that, or it has to be this way, or it has to be that way. And I just don’t believe that. I believe that you have the ability to switch your mind and focus on what it is that you wanna focus on and be who you are. And I think that’s really the key is learning how to switch your mind away from the disempowering stories and turn on.

the more empowering mental script.

Melissa Aarskaug (15:37.915)
That’s so, so good. I love that. Because I think about all the people that have been in my life that really have me focus on solutions and what is the goal? Okay, you want to win the race. how do we win the race? What’s our strategy? And so I love that you said that. I think there’s so much in that. I want to unpack it a little more. Was it something like that switch for you? Was there something in your life that

you know, happened that made you think that way. Because I do think as we get older, like you said, everybody has imposter syndrome, whether you’re, you know, your first job, your second job, your first management job, having kids, getting married, whatever we’re doing in our life, all of it, we don’t, we’re not experts in yet. So there is that beginning phase of imposter syndrome. But the difference between those, in my opinion, that have

and those that don’t are the ones that take the risk to step out and say, yep, I don’t have all the answers to do this thing, but I’m going to learn every day and I’m going to figure it out and I’m going to put my purpose and heart in it. And so I guess that was a long-winded question answer. how do you think it works for people? Was it something specific for you? And maybe you could walk us through how you coach your clients specifically.

Terri Maxwell (17:03.79)
I’m so glad you asked that because the first time I felt that kind of power, I’m going to tell a very personal story. I grew up with alcoholic and abusive parents. We were very, very poor. I would, I’ve been abused in every way possible, mostly by my parents, my father in particular. And in one particular case, he was doing something very horrific. I was about 13 years old. It was horrible.

And something inside of me shifted and I just said, I’ve had it. And everything in my being, just basically went like, pulled in and went like that and just shot him across the room. I don’t know where the power in me came from, it boom. And I remember getting up and going, never again. And I felt this switch.

And then I never felt it again. And I was an athlete and I was good, but I wasn’t great. I got decent grades, but I didn’t think I was smart. I got lucky, went away to college and through some wonderful circumstances had some help. My aunt and uncle stepped in and helped me. And I remember when I think it was my first or second semester and I was struggling. was the class that I was really struggling with.

And I walked out feeling defeated. It was one of those professors that everybody in here is going to fail and only five are going to get an A, know, kind of garbage that happens. And I walked out and I was feeling all of that failure. And why am I here? I should never be on this college campus. I was seeing myself as that poor broken little girl. And I was walking and carrying my book bag and it was sun was shining. And I just started looking up and something, and I felt that same thing happen again. And I said, no.

I’m going to figure this out. And instead of, think I was going to go to the registrar’s office and drop the class and something in me. Switched. And I said, no, I’m not going to go drop the class. I’m going to go over to the library and I’m going to find somebody that will help me. And I just marched up to the library and started looking for solutions. And I shifted myself out of that victim mindset into, I’m going to make this happen. Lo and behold, I found a tutor. The next thing you know, I’m graduating with honors and

Terri Maxwell (19:26.06)
was on the Dean’s list and the Chancellor’s list and the whole bit. And so I became obsessed as an adult, you know, having these two instances once at 13 and once at 19, how do I recreate that? How do I make that switch happen where I can do it on command? And quite honestly, that’s what Succeed On Purpose is all about. It’s teaching people how to switch. There’s a way to do it.

And I’ll be happy to do it with your audience if you want. There’s a way to do it to switch the negative program off and turn on the more empowering thought and mental script. And you feel it in your body and you feel it in your mind. And once you align your actions with that mindset, you can do anything.

Melissa Aarskaug (20:10.585)
Yeah, I totally agree. I would love to run through it with you. But I do think there’s so much negativity around us. Everything in the world, our brains are kind of, you know, there’s psychology behind that. There’s science behind it and how our brains are wired that way. And so I love to kind of get, let’s run through it. Let’s do it.

Terri Maxwell (20:32.93)
Yeah, so it’s the success, which is really simple. And it’s A, B, C. So the A stands for you have to acknowledge whatever the belief and the feeling of the belief is. So you say, it’s a prompt and you say it out loud. The truth is I feel, and whatever comes up, comes up. So you can say the truth is I feel discouraged. The truth is I feel frustrated.

the truth is I feel sad, whatever it is, whatever that subconscious program is. And people are shocked when they take this first step because they, they know that they’re not in their power, but they, and they know they’re stuck, but they don’t really realize the minute you truly acknowledge that some conscious belief, you know, it’s, shocking. Like the first time I did it, the truth is I feel, and I felt, and I said a failure and I had had a lot of success, but at that particular moment I was stuck in this failure program. So.

You say the truth is I feel and the cool thing is when you say that prompt exactly that way and when you allow yourself to let that subconscious belief come up, the amygdala, which is the part of your brain that runs the imposter syndrome, it runs the negative program, it starts to downshift and it literally goes,

Okay. You acknowledge the program. I need to stop and I need to wait for new information. And so when you say the truth is I feel, so that’s the first step. A the amygdala starts to downshift and it literally goes down, down, down, down. And you just wait about 15 seconds and you’ll feel your brain pause. And it’s the coolest feeling in the world. The first time I felt it, I was like, my God, it’s quiet up there. Finally. Then you move to step two and step two.

You activate the prefrontal cortex and the parasympathetic nervous system by simply taking four deep breaths. You breathe in through the nose and out of your mouth. We’ve all heard that breathing and meditation helps, but here’s why. When you breathe that way and through the nose and out of your mouth, it activates the prefrontal cortex and it turns on the parasympathetic nervous system.

Terri Maxwell (22:55.532)
which then floods your bloodstream and floods your body with this reaction where you actually, and it literally will create almost like a chemical reaction. You’ll feel it. Like the first time you do it, you’ll feel your blood pressure come down. With the second breath, you start to feel calm. And then just four times in through the nose, out through the mouth, nice and slow. And all of a sudden you’ll feel like lightheaded. You’ll feel calm.

The really cool thing is after you’ve done that second step, so A, acknowledge B, breathe, the really cool thing when you’ve got that, all of those hormones, serotonin and dopamine kind of flowing through your bloodstream, they start to kind of make the amygdala very, very programmable. And anything that you tell the amygdala at that point, when you’ve got it, serotonin and dopamine in your bloodstream, in your brain at that moment.

Anything you tell the amygdala it will believe and this is the coolest parts that takes you to step three is step three you just claim a new empowering belief and The belief is I have the power to create what I want or something along those lines I have the power to overcome the situation I you know and some people say I am I personally have found it saying I have the power is more empowering and and and you you you send that in there you

I take like a power pose, you know, in there and I kind of feel it in my body. Again, this whole thing takes four minutes. And then all of a sudden you’re like, yeah, baby. And when I go back to that moment, uh, in college at 19, what was happening to me is I acknowledged, felt like a failure. I was breathing. This was the thing that took me a while to remember. I was breathing because I was walking really fast and

and kind of pumping my arms feel, but I was acknowledging that I was a failure. And then I claimed that new empowering thought. And then it was like, literally you feel a switch happen and now you’ve activated all circuits in your brain and your body to connect energetically mind-body connection with that new powerful thought. So that’s what I call the success switch. It’s unbelievably effective. I usually tell people do it twice a day for seven days. It’ll break any

Terri Maxwell (25:16.908)
disempowering thought that you have. And you’re really just using mind body connection to do it.

Melissa Aarskaug (25:23.447)
I love it. You even gave the recipe. That’s fantastic. So twice a day for seven days.

Terri Maxwell (25:29.07)
Twice a day for seven days. It’s unbelievable how quickly you can reprogram your mind. And again, I’ve studied this and I thought it would take forever and I had all the therapy, but I kept going back to those moments where I felt the power flowing through me and I’m like, what do they have in common? The first thing is I acknowledged it. The second thing is there was something about my breath. And so I just practice different breathing techniques. Ironically, it’s four breaths in through your nose and out through the mouth, nice and slow.

And then you claim a new belief and that connection when you claim that new belief, when your amygdala is juicy and very, it’s not busy, you know, thinking about something else, but it’s really in that programmable state. You can completely put a new pattern in place very quickly.

Melissa Aarskaug (26:19.343)
That’s fantastic. I think there’s so much in that. I’m going to have to practice it. Usually what I do, Terry, is imagine the worst case scenario and make sure I’m OK with it and work backwards. But I think I like this ABC much better than imagining worst case scenarios. I want to ask, is there any final thoughts or any nuggets of wisdom you want to leave with our listeners?

Terri Maxwell (26:45.55)
You know, I think the, the thing that I would say is what I have learned again, grew up very, very poor, abused in every way possible. The only limits that we have are those that we place on ourselves. And when I started share on purpose, I had been president of an internet company that had gone public. you know, I had had a great corporate career.

I had then built my own business and sold it. When I started Share On Purpose, everyone told me I was nuts. They were like, what are you doing? You should go do X, Y, Z. And I remember almost believing that. And I just started saying, no, wait a minute. If this is what I’m supposed to do, I’m going to find a way. So the only limits that we place are on ourselves. And the last thing that I would say, of bringing it back

full circle is when you really know who you are and you really know why you’re on your planet, why you’re on this planet, which is purpose, and you act in accordance of that, that is more powerful than any fear that you have. And that’s what breaks the limits is knowing who you are, knowing why you’re here and moving forward on that.

Melissa Aarskaug (28:04.613)
And I think the right people show up, right? When you know what you want and know where you’re going, it’s amazing how quickly people, the right people show up in your network. So I love that you said that. Terry, how can our listeners connect with you and what’s the best way for them to find you?

Terri Maxwell (28:22.742)
Yeah, succeedonpurpose.com. There’s also a handout there under resources that walks you through the success switch. It’s the simplest thing I’ve ever done that gives people the most impact. And then you can also find us on Facebook and then also on LinkedIn.

Melissa Aarskaug (28:41.211)
Thank you so much for sharing your time and your knowledge with our listeners. That’s the Executive Connect podcast.

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