Emotionally connected customers deliver 306% higher lifetime value than merely satisfied ones (Harvard Business Review). In financial services, that number jumps to 800% .

Yet too often, ROI is measured only by short-term clicks and conversions. These snapshots miss the bigger picture: loyalty, advocacy, and resilience that come from building trust over time.

In this week’s Marketing With Purpose Kit from The Bliss Business Podcast, we explore how purpose-driven marketing reframes ROI with a long-term lens, showing why emotional connection is not just brand love — it’s smart economics.

🎙️ Hosted by Stephen Sakach, Tullio Siragusa, and Mike Liwski
🎧 Produced by Tullio Siragusa

🧭 In this episode, we cover:
• Why short-term ROI can erode long-term trust
• How emotional connection drives loyalty, advocacy, and resilience
• Examples from REI, Apple, and Nike on playing the long game
• Metrics beyond conversions: lifetime value, retention, advocacy, and brand equity

🎧 Whether you’re a marketer, founder, or leader, this Kit will help you shift from chasing transactions to building enduring relationships.

Companies that embrace conscious capitalism outperform the market by 10x over a 15-year period (Firms of Endearment study).

Yet as AI adoption accelerates, many leaders face a critical question: How do we ensure innovation serves humanity rather than undermines it?

In this episode of The Bliss Business Podcast, we’re joined by Kevin Surace, Author, Keynote Speaker, CEO, and widely recognized as the father of the AI Virtual Assistant. Kevin has been named INC Magazine’s Entrepreneur of the Year, a CNBC Top Innovator of the Decade, and a World Economic Forum Tech Pioneer, with 95 patents and decades of trailblazing work across AI, energy, and sustainable innovation.

🎙️ Hosted by Stephen Sakach and Mike Liwski

🎧 Produced by Tullio Siragusa

🧭 In this episode, we explore:

• Why conscious capitalism is more critical than ever in the age of AI

• Risks of unchecked innovation and how values can anchor progress

• Systems leaders can implement to align profitability with purpose

• Real-world lessons from Kevin’s pioneering AI and sustainability projects

🎧 Whether you’re leading a startup, enterprise, or community, this conversation offers practical insights to balance innovation, profit, and humanity.

Is your leadership model aligned with purpose, or just performance?

Only 32% of employees feel engaged at work (Gallup). And yet, companies with strong purpose report 30% higher innovation and retention (McKinsey). So what gives?

Join us on The Bliss Business Podcast with guest Bob Gappa, Founder & CEO of Management 2000, as we explore how great leadership starts with purpose, and why that purpose must be operationalized to build real engagement.

🎙️ Hosted by Stephen Sakach and Mike Liwski

🎧 Produced by Tullio Siragusa

In this episode:

• Why most purpose statements fail to inspire action

• How to build systems of commitment, not just compliance

• The leadership legacy question every CEO should ask

• Practical ways to embed values into everyday decisions

If you're a founder, executive, or people leader, this conversation will help you rethink how your organization lives its values, not just talk about them.

💬 What’s one way your company puts purpose into practice?

73% of consumers say they are more likely to trust brands that act consistently with their stated values across every touchpoint. But when promises outpace proof, audiences call it purpose washing.

In this week’s Marketing With Purpose Kit from The Bliss Business Podcast, we break down how to keep your purpose real, measurable, and aligned across your entire organization. We also look at brands that back it up with action and transparency.

🎙️ Hosted by Stephen Sakach, Mike Liwski, and Tullio Siragusa
🎧 Produced by Tullio Siragusa

🧭 In this episode, we cover:
• What purpose washing is and how to spot it
• Examples of action-backed purpose, including transparency-led models
• Five guardrails to stay authentic: consistency, evidence and transparency, employee alignment, long-term commitment, and clear boundaries
• Practical steps to align marketing, ops, HR, and product with your stated values

🎧 Whether you lead brand, run growth, or guide culture, this Kit shows how to turn purpose into proof points your audience can trust.

90% of top performers have high emotional intelligence, yet only 36% of people can identify their emotions as they happen (TalentSmart).

Emotional intelligence isn’t a “soft skill.” It’s the foundation of effective leadership, stronger cultures, and better business outcomes.

In this episode of The Bliss Business Podcast, we’re joined by Michael Ward, Founder and CEO of Paminga, a modern marketing automation platform built as a simpler, more powerful alternative to Marketo, Eloqua, HubSpot, and Marketing Cloud.

Michael brings decades of diverse experience as a database architect, UX designer, coder, and sales and marketing leader, and today he shares how emotional intelligence fuels both innovation and culture in business.

🎙️ Hosted by Stephen Sakach and Mike Liwski

🎧 Produced by Tullio Siragusa

🧭 In this episode, we explore:

• How EQ reshapes leadership and business outcomes

• Systems leaders can use to embed EQ into everyday practices

• Common mistakes leaders make with EQ and how to avoid them

• Why emotional intelligence is essential for building purpose-driven organizations

🎧 Whether you’re leading a startup, a global enterprise, or your own team, this conversation will give you actionable strategies to strengthen leadership with EQ.

Only 36% of employees in the U.S. say they feel engaged at work, and lack of empathy from leadership is often cited as a leading cause of disengagement (Gallup). Yet research shows that leaders who practice empathy foster stronger trust, improve retention, and drive higher performance across teams.

In this episode of The Bliss Business Podcast, we’re joined by Katharine Manning, Author, Public Speaker, and President of Blackbird. Katharine is the author of The Empathetic Workplace: Five Steps to a Compassionate, Calm, and Confident Response to Trauma on the Job and teaches at American University.

With more than 25 years of experience working on trauma and victimization, including 15 years at the Justice Department supporting cases like the Boston Marathon bombing and the Pulse Nightclub shooting, Katharine brings a wealth of expertise on empathy as both a human and organizational imperative.

Her work has been featured in the Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, Newsweek, CNBC, Business Insider, Thrive Global, and CEOWorld. Through her company Blackbird, Katharine provides training and consultation that helps organizations build cultures rooted in compassion and resilience.

🎙️ Hosted by Stephen Sakach and Mike Liwski

🎧 Produced by Tullio Siragusa

🧭 In this episode, we explore:

• Why empathy is not a soft skill but a leadership superpower

• How leaders can respond with compassion to employees facing trauma or stress

• The connection between empathy, psychological safety, and organizational performance

• Practical steps leaders can take to integrate empathy into decision-making and culture-building

🎧 Whether you’re a founder, executive, or people leader, this conversation will give you concrete strategies to elevate your leadership through empathy and build workplaces where both people and businesses thrive.

73% of consumers say they are more likely to trust a brand whose tone of voice feels authentic and consistent across every touchpoint (Edelman Trust Barometer).

In this week’s Marketing With Purpose Kit from The Bliss Business Podcast, we explore how tone and voice bring your brand’s purpose to life, not just in what you say, but in how you say it.

📅 Wednesday, August 27, 2025 | 🕗 8:00 AM PDT

🎙️ Hosted by Stephen Sakach, Tullio Siragusa, and Mike Liwski

🎧 Produced by Tullio Siragusa

🧭 In this episode, we cover:

• Why tone and voice are the bridge between your purpose and your audience’s experience

• Examples from brands like Liquid Death, Mailchimp, Tom’s, and Oatly

• How to avoid mixed signals that weaken your purpose

• Steps to document and train teams to communicate in purposeful, consistent ways

🎧 Whether you’re shaping ad copy, customer support scripts, or social campaigns, this episode shows how tone and voice can transform every interaction into a proof point of your purpose.

Emotional intelligence accounts for nearly 90% of what sets high performers apart from their peers (Harvard Business Review). Yet too often, EQ is dismissed as “soft skills” instead of being recognized as the foundation of effective leadership, culture, and business growth.

In this episode of The Bliss Business Podcast, we’re joined by Kath Allen, Founder of Hike Doggie Inc & Hike Doggie Franchising LLC, and Abbey Lee, Partner of Hike Doggie Inc & Hike Doggie Franchising LLC. Together, they are scaling a purpose-driven brand that combines adventure-driven pet care with empathy-centered leadership and franchising.

🎙️ Hosted by Stephen Sakach and Mike Liwski

🎧 Produced by Tullio Siragusa

🧭 In this episode, we explore:

• How emotional intelligence strengthens leadership and team dynamics

• The role of empathy and trust in scaling Hike Doggie’s franchise model

• Systems that foster connection and resilience during rapid growth

• Why purpose and compassion are cornerstones of sustainable success

🎧 Whether you’re a founder, executive, or team leader, this conversation will inspire you to integrate emotional intelligence into the way you lead and grow.