An Interview With Chad Silverstein
Purpose is what gives the work meaning, but profit is what keeps the lights on. You need both to survive.
The most successful modern CEOs are rewriting the rules of leadership. They’re not only building profitable companies but building purposeful brands with personal voices behind them. These leaders understand that in today’s world, people invest in people. Their stories, values, and visibility fuel loyalty, attract opportunities, and drive business growth far beyond traditional metrics. In this interview series, we’re sitting down with leaders who’ve learned to balance purpose, profit, and personal brand — and who are using their influence to shape the future of business leadership.
As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Mary Hagen.
Mary Hagen is a lifelong entrepreneur who is known for turning a big idea into reality — and a little healthy competition into millions raised for good. As CEO of Colossal, she builds high-energy, purpose-driven campaigns that change lives, spotlight rising talent, and prove that ambition and impact belong in the same sentence. Equal parts visionary and doer, Mary thrives with grit, generosity, and going all in.
Thank you so much for joining us in this series. Before we begin, our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you share your backstory and what led you to become the leader you are today?
I’ve had a lot of opportunities in my life. Not because we had money (we didn’t), but because I had people who were willing to invest in me. Parents, teachers, coaches, employers. As a young professional, I quickly gravitated towards entrepreneurship because I believed I could do anything, thanks to just enough people along the way who had told me so. I don’t have a degree, I didn’t climb the corporate ladder — I work hard, I’m still learning, and I give 100% to being the strongest leader I can be. I believe my greatest responsibility as a CEO is to provide opportunities and lift others up, as so many have lifted me throughout my lifetime.
What’s the “why” that drives your work? How has your personal sense of purpose evolved as your business has grown?
My “why” has always come from a simple belief: People shouldn’t have to suffer to earn a beautiful life. For too long, we’ve normalized the idea that relationships have to be exhausting, work has to be miserable, and success requires sacrificing our well-being. I’ve never subscribed to that mindset. At Colossal, we feel doing well and doing good are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they should go hand in hand. The work we do creates real opportunities for people, elevates meaningful voices, and celebrates human potential — and that’s deeply aligned with my personal mission. Colossal and I were made for each other. My purpose is to elevate others, and through every corner of this business, I get to live that out every single day.
Let’s now move to the core of our discussion. This series is about balancing purpose, profit, and personal branding. Can you help explain why each of those three matters, and why they can sometimes pull against each other? If possible, share a real example from your experience.
Purpose is what gives the work meaning, but profit is what keeps the lights on. You need both to survive. Without a solid business model, even the most meaningful mission can’t survive long-term. Personal branding matters because trust matters. People today aren’t looking for a polished corporate statement; they’re looking for a person. They want transparency, and the CEO is usually the clearest window into what a company actually stands for.
I’ve lived this. When rumors or misinformation start spiraling online, a press release won’t cut it. People want to hear from a human. I’ve stepped in personally by going live to address concerns and clarify the truth. That kind of raw transparency builds the credibility that traditional PR can’t.
Many CEOs focus heavily on strategy and profitability but hesitate to invest in their personal brand. What do you think about that? What have you seen work best?
It’s so funny to me how “corporate CEOs” tend to hide behind their title and make it someone else’s job to represent the company they lead.
We entrepreneurs know that your personal brand is your only brand when you’re starting a new business. Investors, employees, and consumers alike are investing in you as much as they are investing in your business. But I don’t think that logic goes out the window just because you didn’t start the company, if you’re the CEO.
I think one of the duties of a CEO is to represent your company — and that means investing in your personal brand. It’s work, and there’s certainly a balance to how much focus you put on personal branding vs. time and attention at the office. We live in a time when the world demands transparency, visibility, accountability, and access. Consumers want to know who’s steering the ship, and whether that person aligns with their values. Some of the greatest leaders of our time have clearly invested in their personal brands as leaders and demonstrated how who they are and what they believe in to their core is reflected in the companies they lead. As a consumer, I think it’s easier to support a business whose leader is proud and willing to represent it. Some of the best examples in my book are Bob Iger with Disney, Richard Branson, and Sarah Blakely.
What are some misconceptions you’ve encountered about personal branding in the C-suite, and how do you challenge those narratives?
It’s better to be “mysterious” or “inaccessible” as a C-suiter. My reaction to this thinking is — yuck. That’s an ivory tower, I’m too important to be bothered with real-life kind of thinking.
That personal branding is a distraction from the real work. Fully disagree (as stated above), as personal branding and how the world perceives YOU as a CEO is synonymous with how people will perceive your company.
What’s one specific way your visibility as a leader, through interviews, speaking, or social media, has directly impacted your organization’s success? Walk us through what happened. How did you know it worked, what changed in measurable terms?
In 2024, we launched the inaugural Baby of the Year competition. Someone started a rumor in a private Facebook group one night, just days after the campaign had launched, that Colossal was somehow using the competition as part of a human trafficking scam. Naturally, I was mortified and disappointed that someone would speak so irresponsibly about a business or any person just to get attention. This was the first instance where I felt a real sense of duty to put MY neck on the line for the business I believed in. I went live on our Colossal Instagram at 7 pm that night, addressed the audience directly and unscripted, to demonstrate that the business was led by a normal human being with strong values, pride in the work the business was doing, and a moral compass that points due North. The noise almost immediately stopped, many of the people who dropped out of the competition came back the next day, and the campaign went on to raise over $24M for Baby2Baby in the weeks following.
Balancing profit and purpose is easier said than done. What practices or principles guide your decision-making when those two goals seem to conflict?
Truthfully, managing up is often the greatest challenge here. Owners, board members, shareholders, etc. all have financial expectations of any business they’ve invested in, and as a CEO, it’s my job to deliver on those expectations without compromising our principles. I’m lucky enough to be the CEO of a company where the people I report to are people of principle. We never compromise our principles in the name of making a profit. When it comes to balancing purpose and profit, the reality is (like any business), we can’t continue to fulfill our purpose without making a profit. I lead all decisions with a purpose-first mindset, knowing that our actions must also make sense for the business and support longevity.
Can you share a story about how aligning your personal values with your company’s mission created a breakthrough in performance or growth?
At Colossal, our purpose has always been to raise money for charitable causes while celebrating extraordinary people. Aligning that purpose with how we scale the business has led to some of our biggest breakthroughs.
One example is a project we call “Quest” — which is a more scalable, proprietary tech platform that allows us to run more competitions with lower operating costs so that our pass-through rate to the charities we support can increase. Because our model is built around charitable fundraising, expanding our ability to run more campaigns means we can create even more impact consistently while continuing to grow the business. Quest has allowed us to align our values with performance — supporting more causes, spotlighting more individuals, and building sustainable growth at the same time.
In your view, what separates a leader who simply “runs a company” from one who builds a movement around their message?
Investment. Not financial — I’m talking about emotional, personal commitment to and belief in the business.
How do you integrate storytelling into your leadership, both internally with your team and externally with your audience or clients?
I’ve learned and continue to learn so much from my own experiences and from the experiences others choose to share with me, so I always look for opportunities to share stories from my life internally to provide insight, empowerment, encouragement, whatever I can for our team. Externally, we really go great lengths to bring Colossal to life for those who are interested. We have a lot to share from our champion’s stories, to the impact stories of our charity partners, to the “why” statements from our corporate partners and celebrity advocates.
Can you share a time when taking a public stand or sharing your story authentically strengthened your credibility or influence?
In the early days of building Colossal, we didn’t have corporate sponsors, celebrities, or charities lined up to work with us. We were cold-calling brands, agents, and nonprofit partners to pitch an idea that was still largely unproven. Without a public reputation or long track record, credibility had to come from authenticity. I often jumped on calls or even flew out to meet prospective partners in person to introduce myself and explain exactly what we were trying to build. Those early conversations built the trust that launched our first relationships. Five years later, many of those connections have grown into deep collaborations; I now serve on some of their boards, and many of our newest opportunities are coming to us organically. It’s a powerful reminder that trust compounds over time.
What are your “Top 5 principles for balancing purpose, profit, and personal visibility?” (Please include a short example for each, plus one action a reader could try this week.)
1. Don’t chase visibility for vanity. Build a reputation by serving the mission.
Example: At Colossal, every campaign we run is designed to elevate real people and raise meaningful funds — not just generate headlines.
Action: Before posting anything, ask yourself: Does this serve the mission, or just my ego?
2. Purpose without profit is a hobby.
Example: When a competition performs well financially, we are able to raise millions and scale our impact rather than operate from scarcity.
Action: Identify one area in your business where improving efficiency would directly expand your impact.
3. Prioritize long-term trust over short-term attention.
Example: You can buy traffic, but you can’t buy reputation. The strongest companies are built on integrity behind the scenes. The leaders people trust most show up personally, speak honestly, and don’t hide behind their titles.
Action: Have one honest conversation you’ve been avoiding.
4. Protect your time and energy.
Example: Burnout doesn’t serve purpose or profit — sustainable leadership does. When your personal values align with your company’s values, balance stops feeling like a juggling act and starts creating momentum.
Action: Write down your top three personal values and compare them to how you actually spend your time.
5. Build something bigger than yourself.
Example: When the mission is bigger than the individual, visibility becomes a megaphone for the work — not a spotlight for the leader.
Action: Before your next big decision, write the “why” behind it in one clear sentence.
Finally, if you could summarize your leadership philosophy in one sentence, what would it be — and why?
Grammar, customer service, and Excel can be taught — optimism, passion, and drive have to be modeled.
Leadership isn’t just about setting strategy; it’s about setting the tone. Teams learn far more from what leaders demonstrate every day than what they say in a meeting.
How can our readers continue to follow you or your company online?
Colossal.org
maryhagen.com
IG: @themaryhagen | @colossal_Impact
YT: @Colossal-Impact
TikTok: @Colossal_Impact
Thank you so much for sharing all of these insights. We wish you continued success and good health!
About The Interviewer: Chad Silverstein is a seasoned entrepreneur with 25+ years of experience as a Founder and CEO. While attending Ohio State University, he launched his first company, Choice Recovery, Inc., a nationally recognized healthcare collection agency — twice ranked the #1 workplace in Ohio. In 2013, he founded [re]start, helping thousands of people find meaningful career opportunities. After selling both companies, Chad shifted his focus to his true passion — leadership. Today, he coaches founders and CEOs at Built to Lead, advises Authority Magazine’s Thought Leader Incubator.
The New CEO Playbook: Mary Hagen Of Colossal On Purpose, Profit, and Personal Brand was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.