Power Through Purpose: TJ Johnson Edition

Episode Overview

CFO-coach Tabitha Smith sits down with TJ Johnson, founder of PTP – Power Through Purpose Counseling & Mental Performance. TJ helps entrepreneurs and athletes stay mentally fit, make values-aligned decisions, and power through purpose when business and life collide—without sacrificing relationships or yourself.

Featured Guest

TJ Johnson - PTP Founder grew up with a single mom in Houston, built a family business, then spotted the gap: lots of "performance" talk, zero whole-person support for owners and athletes. PTP focuses on leadership psychology—identity, pressure, decision-making—so results don't cost your relationships.

What You'll Learn

Work/Life Isn't "Balanced"—It's Seasonal - Forget 50/50. Some seasons demand obsession; others restore connection. The fix: proactive communication. Tell your partner the season you're entering, set expectations, name an end date. Build a village (friends, sitters, peers, the Tribe) so you're not doing it alone.

Conversations That Save Relationships (and Companies) - Connection costs discomfort. Have the awkward talk before resentment builds. When you mess up, show up in repair mode: state the miss, propose the new plan ("next time I'll…"), and ask if it works. Don't just say "sorry"—demonstrate change.

Run on Data + Dialogue - Track revenue, margin, cash flow. Also track turnover and replacement costs ("cheaper to keep 'em"). Hold weekly open office hours for the team; empower managers with metrics and safe channels for truth-telling. If people stop talking to you, that IS a metric.

Film Study for Founders - Like athletes, review tape. Do weekly retros: What worked? What didn't? What will we change? Attach identity to effort, not just outcomes. Progress compounds when you iterate.

Purpose > Outcomes (Set a Destination) - "No wind is favorable to a ship without a destination." Define a vivid vision (values, impact, lifestyle), then bite-size it. Decisions get simpler when aligned with purpose and boundaries—especially under money or status pressure.

Feelings, Triggers & Capacity - Emotions happen; feelings are stories we attach. Learn your triggers (money scarcity, abandonment, status). Build capacity through rest, support, and honest self-talk so you respond by values, not autopilot.

Key Takeaways

• Work/life is seasonal, not balanced—communicate the season you're in
• Repair means proposing new behavior, not just apologizing
• Silence from your team is the worst metric
• Weekly retros compound progress like compound interest
• Vivid vision simplifies decisions under pressure
• Triggers reveal themselves when money or status enters the room

Action Prompt

Pick one: (a) Schedule a 20-minute "season talk" with your partner, (b) Put a 30-minute weekly team open hour on the calendar, or (c) Write a 3-sentence vivid vision. Then do a 10-minute solo "film study" Friday to review how it went.

Reading & Listening

Books: The Social Animal, Status Anxiety (next up on Tab's stack)

Podcasts: Diary of a CEO

Who This Is For

Founders burning out while scaling, leaders losing their teams to silence, entrepreneurs whose relationships are straining under business pressure, or anyone realizing outcomes without purpose feel hollow.

TSAT Tell'em Tab—mental performance meets CFO truth bombs.