Clarity Before Strategy: Getting Your Mission Straight

Loren Richmond Jr. is a mission-driven leader, consultant, and founder of Resonate Purpose, where he helps churches and nonprofit organizations gain clarity, strengthen communication, and align their strategy with meaningful impact. His work centers on helping leaders move from confusion to clarity so they can lead with confidence, focus, and purpose.

Loren brings a unique blend of theological depth and strategic insight, holding both a Master of Divinity (M.Div.) and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) with a focus on nonprofit leadership. This dual perspective allows him to bridge the gap between mission and execution—helping organizations not only define why they exist, but also how they operate effectively.

With experience spanning church leadership, chaplaincy, nonprofit consulting, and media, Loren understands the real-world challenges leaders face. He has worked with teams navigating growth, transition, and organizational complexity, guiding them to develop clear messaging, aligned strategies, and sustainable systems.

Through Resonate Purpose, Loren equips leaders to clarify their mission, communicate it effectively, and build structures that support long-term impact. His approach emphasizes clarity before strategy, believing that organizations cannot execute effectively until they understand their core purpose.

Loren is passionate about helping leaders cut through noise, focus on what matters most, and create organizations that are both effective and faithful to their mission.

More about Loren Richmond, Jr. at – https://www.resonatepurpose.org/

Interview Summary

The Interview Transcript

Hugh Ballou
Don’t record. Here we go. Welcome, friends. This is the Nonprofit Exchange. I’m Hugh Ballou. This is where we bring conversations with leaders who are transforming organizations through clarity, strategy, and purpose. Today’s guest is Loren Richmond Jr., founder of Resonate Purpose, where he helps churches, nonprofits clarify their mission, strengthen communication, and build sustainable strategies for impact. Lauren brings a unique blend of theological insight and business strategy, holding both an MDiv and an MBA with nonprofit emphasis. His work spans church leadership, chaplaincy, non-profit consulting, and media. Helping organizations move from confusion to clarity so they can lead with confidence and purpose. Lauren, welcome to the show. Let’s start out with, you work with leaders who feel stuck or unclear about their direction. So before we talk about strategy, what does clarity really mean in the context of mission-driven leadership?

Loren Richmond, Jr.
Yeah. Yeah. Thanks. Thanks for having me and looking forward to this conversation. Glad to be here. I think clarity just is clear direction and knowing what your purpose really is about. I think in mission driven organizations, there’s so much that needs to be done. There’s so much that could be done. That’s easy to get spread out, spread thin and diluted in your impact because you’re chasing after every good idea and every need that comes in front of your, you know, in front of you or on your desk.

Hugh Ballou
We’re grouping all nonprofits together. We all have, we have nuances for each one of them, but generically leadership is the same, whether you’re leading a local church or synagogue or large or small cause-based charity, we call nonprofits. They’re all a difficult place to lead because you’ve got a whole lot of variables here. So what are the most common signs the nonprofit or church has lost its mission clarity?

Loren Richmond, Jr.
Yeah, I think you could say this two different ways. One is they don’t know how to say no to anything, or they say yes to everything. I mean, I suppose I should elaborate, but I think really it’s so important to be able to say no to things that are good, but not in line with your mission or vision.

Hugh Ballou
So people, we have it clear in our mind, but we haven’t really transferred that to other people’s minds and written it up. So, we tend to want to go right to implementation or right to strategy or right to the work without first clarifying our mission. Do you see that often and what’s the problem with that?

Loren Richmond, Jr.
Well, I do and I think it’s because like most humans we have a We have a desire to do something. Like when there’s a tragedy, when someone you know well, like suffers a loss in their family or their loved ones, like we all like want to do something. We want to say something. So certainly there’s that drive within us to want to take action immediately. And I think that’s where a lot of it comes down to. And if we’re not careful, we’ll find ourselves doing things that are not necessarily like helping out our long-term mission or vision or really pulling resources, time, energy, all those things away from what we really need to be focusing on. So that’s why when there’s so much pressure, especially like in times of crisis or in times of uncertainty to do, that’s where it’s especially important to even pause if only just for a few moments to think about like, is this really what we want to be about?

Hugh Ballou
Thinking is good. You referred to it early. I’m going to come back to this in the common behaviors that we see. I want to say right here, I teach this stuff. That doesn’t mean I’m not guilty of doing the same thing. So I learn something new every day. But coming back and when I have conversations with people like you, so I would say to those people out there who are leaders, say, I know all this. Well, wait a minute. Just get a refresher because there might be something that you’ve lost your focus about. Right. You talked about not me. I’ll say no, but we, I asked entrepreneurs of all types, which nonprofit leaders are social entrepreneurs. Who’s your market? Well, everybody. Well, wait a minute. What’s the consequences of trying to be everything to everyone?

Loren Richmond, Jr.
Yeah, like this is this is something that I like I’ve I talked about this because I’ve lived this out myself. This idea of trying to be a generalist and I’m someone who loves to learn and to imagine and think about ideas and take in information from all across the spectrum. Uh, like one of my favorite things to do is just like, you know, scroll social media, watch the news because I feel like I’m taking in random ideas that I find connections to, but I realized like, I can’t just spam out random information all the time. Like if for one, it doesn’t connect with my audience, uh, who I’m intending to reach. So for me, like I I’m wanting to connect with nonprofit leaders. I’m wanting to connect with church leaders and they may not necessarily care about like, you know, um, the new automated ball strike system in baseball, for instance. So I’ve got to make sure if I’m communicating with them that I’m making a clear connection to, again, like how I think of the automated ball strike system or the pitch clock in baseball, we’re right at the start of baseball. So baseball is in my head here, but how that connects and what might be a parallel to the organization that are leading. So again, this is something I’ve been thinking about. In how many industries do things improve by making them shorter or by doing less? And something that’s fascinating, I think, about Major League Baseball late is the last couple years, they’ve had a pitch clock and it shortened games and made the product a lot more, I think, palatable to watch on television and especially in person. So again, the tendency is to do more, take in more, expand, but baseball by Shortening the game, I think, is made a lot more valuable to watch and be a part of as a consumer.

Hugh Ballou
Let me go back again to something else you said. You said thinking several times. And one of my mentors, who I studied facilitation with, I was proud to present a plan to him. And he said, Hugh, I knew right there I was in trouble. Pause. You didn’t give yourself time to think. So what are the consequences of not spending time thinking through things?

Loren Richmond, Jr.
You know, I actually feel this myself when I don’t give myself enough time to think. Like I’m one to overcommit myself. So again, perfect analogy here for a nonprofit leader. It’s like to overcommit yourself to things. So for me, when I feel like I’m over committing and over involved, I’m feeling scattered, I’m feeling run down, I’m feeling over committed. Whereas if I have time to think about something, and process it, and again, that time’s gonna vary for different people, but then I can go into an endeavor knowing like, hey, I’ve done the work on this, I’ve done the math, whatever kind of process you need to go through to know that it’s a good decision for you and for your organization.

Hugh Ballou
You work with leaders helping them either redefine or maybe in some cases define or clarify their mission. So a mission statement is words on paper. So talk about what it takes to clarify your mission. And then part B of this, how do you make that mission statement actionable?

Loren Richmond, Jr.
I mean, I think to answer the second part first, that’s like the hardest part is not having them just words on a page. So making sure they’re something you can hold yourself accountable to. So I’m going backwards here in your question, but, you know, for, again, I work with churches often too, and it’s like, we want to, we want to show the love of God. Well, that’s, I mean, that’s great. Like I want everybody to show the love of God. How are we going to show the love of God? That might be something to clarify, whether or not in your mission statement or in a follow up document. Now, I think the first part of your question was about trying to figure that out, trying to figure out what your mission statement is. My big thing is listening, whether that’s listening to your community, listening to one another, listening in my context, working with churches, listening to where they believe God is directing them. So I think listening, again, I’ve said before, curiosity is important and trying to pay attention to what the needs are in your community and how you can be a part in helping that.

Hugh Ballou
How does this, um, that’s one of your superpowers you talked about earlier is curiosity. Yeah. That’s really a good thing. Cause we, we tend to get, and I’m including myself, we tend to get locked into some sort of blind spots where we aren’t curious enough and we think we got it all figured out. How do you inspire people to get out of that syndrome?

Loren Richmond, Jr.
Well, I think it really, like you really have to begin to shift. really have to begin to shift your mindset to that when you walk into a space or into a group setting you’re not familiar with. I mean, we all want to make snap judgments. And I think we might say scientifically, there’s reasons why our brain does this. And it’s probably for a good reason to shape our our ability to respond to whatever comes next, whatever stimuli comes at us next. But let me give you an example. Like a few weeks ago, I went to get a haircut at somewhere that it was clear, like walking into the space of the haircut, like it was clear that this person voted very differently than me, right? Probably have very different political opinions than I did. And just looking around, I was like, oh, this is interesting. So rather than to make a snap opinions about what kind of person this barber was, whether my conversation would be welcome or even this is a person I wanna hang out with, I try to be curious and ask questions and learn about their perspective. And interestingly enough, In the middle of the conversation, this woman told me about the tragic loss of her son on a motorcycle a couple of years ago. And I think that was a moment that I never would have had, A, if I would have immediately said, oh, this is the kind of person that I shouldn’t talk to. I should just, A, avoid her altogether, B, walk in the space and been shut down rather than curious.

Hugh Ballou
That’s really good, because underneath leadership, underneath fundraising, underneath communications is relationship, isn’t it? Right, right. So that’s a very good observation. I think we all have biases. We just have to realize what they are and try to overcome the ego part of that. So there’s a lot of options. A couple of things. I help people describe in my work as a vision, which is your concept. Your mission is, OK, this is what we do. This is how we achieve it. I don’t know how you define it, but still being clear on those two things. What are we? What do we do? So we want to hone in on who it is we serve and what value that we provide them. So where does discernment come in this? Because we can do, I thought leaders want to do everything. I said, okay, you can do anything you want, but you can’t do everything. So how do you help people drill down to what’s doable and what’s doable next?

Loren Richmond, Jr.
Well, let me say one quick thing just about talking to your ideal clients, because this is something even pastors can do, or a nonprofit leader, because in communication, there’s often this suggestion of find your target demographic you’re talking to. Even in church, I’m a part of a preaching cohort for pastors and listening to the conversation of like, some of the pastors have come to this realization like, oh my goodness, even if I find that I’m talking to this one person in mind, somehow it resonates for other people. Like it’s counterintuitive, right? So I think like with that discernment piece is thinking about like, What are you really wanting to communicate? Who are you really wanting to communicate it to? How do you want it to impact them? So for me, I think about my ideal client is a nonprofit leader or a pastor who’s just stuck. They just are doing the facepalm thing. Like that’s my image. Someone who’s just like, you know, elbow on their desk, their, their face is buried in their palm. And they’re just like, I don’t know what to do. And that’s who I try to communicate to.

Hugh Ballou
So talk more about the stuck thing, because I think all of us, at some point, have felt like we’ve been stuck. So what does stuck look like? And how can you inspire people to find the pathway out of that?

Loren Richmond, Jr.
Well, gosh, I think it looks like sometimes different things to different people. And the stuckness thing resonates so much for me, because I’ve been stuck myself. I’ve really been stuck in a bad way. And it’s something where, you know, Like when you’re stuck, you just kind of get stuck in these routines of like doing things the same way, assuming the same outcomes, not looking for alternatives. And I think, especially when you’re stuck, taking big leaps feels all the more ridiculous and all the more impossible. So for me, what’s been helpful, and I think this is helpful for in all and very, very many contexts is trying to find small bets. Cause like when you’re, when you’re stuck, you need like those small wins to give you encouragement and confidence to move forward. So if you can find some like small wins for me, like when I was in a really bad stuck place, like one of my small wins was just like meeting my step count on my watch. And I could feel good at the end of the day, like, Hey, I got my step count in.

Hugh Ballou
So let’s go back to clarity a minute. All these things tie together. So it’s a circular conversation because they all fit together. So I spoke about relationships. So we’re building teams. Teams would be your staff, your volunteers, your board, your stakeholders, all of them, your donors. So how do you build alignment from this mission through your strategy that engages people. Can you ask that question again? Well, you’ve got a lot of things. We’re doing a lot of things. So, we’re talking about the clarity of what it is we’re doing and why we’re doing it and the impact of our work. So, why is all of that important in building the team unity, building the synergy with all these different factions. I use the word team, but it could be board, it could be staff, it could be your stakeholders, donors, could be anything. So why is this clarity important alignment for those?

Loren Richmond, Jr.
Sure. Let me say it perhaps this way. I’m seeing this right now in a nonprofit I’m working with where it just feels like there’s not alignment. There’s this person out here doing that thing and this member of the nonprofit board doing another thing. These are good things. like they’re not bad things per se, but it’s just like, it feels like wasted energy. And I think what happens when there’s not wasted energy per se, or not at least synergistic energy alignment, like people get worn out because they feel like, oh, I’m doing all this stuff. And like, it’s not, there’s not seeing like a bigger win at the end where when folks are in alignment, like they see their energy and efforts working together to bring results. And again, that usually happens when people are clear about what the expectations are, what the goals are, and how each of their parts works together to get to that end.

Hugh Ballou
That is so important because people can feel overwhelmed. But part of the, let’s move into the strategies. The strategy really is an engagement tool. People want to know what you want me to do, but really you created that in the strategy. So talk about the strategy building process. It comes from your clarity. And so how do you keep from getting it too complicated and confusing people?

Loren Richmond, Jr.
Well, I think that’s the, that’s the, the tension, right? Is you want some level of clarity so that people know what they’re doing, but also things that can feel too rigid, also like restrictive and binding and kind of, um, limit imagination. So, uh, that’s where I think like regular communication, just reminding people, Hey, this is what our, our broader mission and vision is like, um, Is this opportunity in front of us something that fits with it? Is it something we need to say no to again? Like, like you said about a donor, like a donor might say, Hey, yeah, I’m, I’m open to the idea, but not now. So that could be a thing. Like, again, it’s a, maybe it’s a not yet. Uh, so to make sure that folks are. Clear on what they’re working together on.

Hugh Ballou
That’s really important to create the energy of people working together. So we’re not doing it all ourselves, isn’t it? Right. So talk about burnout. How do we create this situation where we burn out as leaders?

Loren Richmond, Jr.
Yeah, I think really burnout is just doing a bunch of things that don’t, like, So let me say this again, burnout tends to be, at least in my experience, doing a lot of things that don’t align with kind of our gifts and callings or what have you. So I know others I’ve read talk about job stacking or job crafting to making sure like your work, at least the majority of it is rewarding to you. Like there’s all things like we have to do that are just not fun. You know, whether that’s, I don’t know, uh, going over the budget or, writing a donor letter, what have you. Like there’s parts of the job we don’t like connect with, but I’m just not convinced that it’s time. Like I’m a person who really like would work. Like I don’t like vacations. I don’t like weeks off. Cause then I’m outside my routine. I’m outside of what I like to do. So to me, it’s, it’s not like that work or time is the, the thing that leads to burnout, it’s doing a bunch of things that don’t align with your calling and your passion. So making sure that you’re crafting your job, your work week in a way that you’re doing more things that reward you rather than take away from what you enjoy.

Hugh Ballou
So folks, if you got that one, that’s a, that’s a gem right there. So he said a lot of really useful things, but then I want to highlight that particular thing. See the joy. It’s right in front of you. So capture the moment, enjoy that moment, because maybe you’re doing better than you think you are, and you’re not really burned out. So if you. want to write down all these great things, just remember there’s a transcript on our website at thenonprofitexchange.org. So Lauren, where can people find you, your website? I’m going to, for people that are watching this, they can see it, but there’s people listening to this on the podcast. So give us the URL for the website and tell us what people will see when they get there.

Loren Richmond, Jr.
Yeah, so I have a couple different sites folks can connect with me. One is my website resonatepurpose.org where I have more stuff about, um, you know, as you’re showing right now, kind of that stuck image of that person and that leader, you know, head desk, which is why I found that image so important. Um, and then I write a lot around, uh, church and mission and leadership at Substack at the church nerd. So those are two great places where people can connect with me.

Hugh Ballou
There’s a guy there. I’m not going to use the word you used, but yeah, you know, we’re all in a ministry of sort, because we’re working to improve people’s lives and to take them on a journey of personal fulfillment and personal growth. It’s a beautiful website. So it’s resonatepurpose.org is the primary, and there’s a contact button, so if people contact you, do you respond to them? Yes, absolutely. That was a mean question, wasn’t it? So, Lauren, I want to end up- Well, I like to leave them hanging, you know, just to tease them. That’s it. I want to end up with some rapid fire questions. Yeah, let’s do it. A quick answer. One word for you that defines great leadership? Curiosity. One habit that every nonprofit leader should develop?

Loren Richmond, Jr.
Have a habit. Make sure you have a habit. That’s more than one word.

Hugh Ballou
That’s right. One sentence is fine. So what’s a most influential book that you’ve read lately and why?

Loren Richmond, Jr.
Oh, I mean… I have to look at my books. One, of course, is the Bible. I regularly read the scripture. And then this book, I want to recommend the stories congregations tell was written by some sociologists out of Canada. I think this is really important. This is more than one sentence, but it’s talking about the importance of narratives. They talked about a church, but this applies to nonprofits, too. Like, what is your what is the narrative, whether explicit or implicit, that is in your organization? Pay attention to that.

Hugh Ballou
Got a couple more here. What’s the biggest mistake people have in defining a mission?

Loren Richmond, Jr.
Lack of clarity. If you can’t say no to something, it’s not clear enough.

Hugh Ballou
And may I add specificity to that?

Loren Richmond, Jr.
Yes.

Hugh Ballou
Sorry. Couldn’t stay out of that one. One piece of advice for struggling leaders.

Loren Richmond, Jr.
I think something that I have to do myself all the time to think about every couple months is a workload scrub. I got this idea from a consultant named Steve Kuss and he talks about Going through what is on your plate, what you can, what can you, uh, delegate, what can you eliminate? Um, so, you know, there’s different tools, but I think making sure like your, your time is aligned with what your ultimate purposes is so important.

Hugh Ballou
As a closing thought, what is one thing every leader should remember about mission and strategy?

Loren Richmond, Jr.
I mean, we’re all. We’re all called to something different. So find a way to support yourself, but also those you work with in different ways.

Hugh Ballou
So, Lauren, great advice today. Really, really good. There’s a lot of soundbites. So, if you’re in the audience, you can find all these great soundbites at thenonprofitexchange.org. Just look for Clarity Before Strategy in the list of the shows. There’s a few of them. This one will be toward the top. We’re recording this in the first quarter, end of the first quarter, actually, of 2026. You might be looking at it sometime in the future. And Lauren’s website is resonatepurpose.org. Resonate, R-E-S-O-N-A-T-E, purpose.org. This is Hugh Ballew. I’m the host for The Nonprofit Exchange. Remember, you don’t build a high-performing organization by accident. You orchestrate it with clarity, purpose, and intentional leadership. So Lauren, thanks for being my guest today.

Loren Richmond, Jr.
Yeah, thanks so much. Thanks for having me.