Building Community and Connection in Business with Jennifer Kaplan

**SPEAKER_2** (0:04)
The Bliss Business Podcast, the show about empathy, connection, and consciousness in business. Today's episode is brought to you by Zero Company, your paid search, social media, and programmatic ad experts.

**Stephen Sakach** (0:18)
Tullio's camera is shaking there if you're watching. This is us yesterday at around this time, at least all of us in California, in the Southern California area going through an earthquake.
We're in the middle of a staff meeting. I think that's Tullio's view of me.

**Tullio Siragusa** (0:36)
That was while I'm watching in the background shaking. I'm like, what is happening? Why is everybody's screen shaking? It's like, oh, there's an earthquake.

**Jennifer Kaplan** (0:45)
It was a long time since we get the aftershocks here in Arizona.

**Stephen Sakach** (0:49)
I was wondering if you might have felt that they're not on this one because it's San Diego based. But welcome to The Bliss Business Podcast, everyone. I'm Stephen Sakach joined by my co-host Tullio Siragusa. Today, we're focusing on something foundational to business success, but often misunderstood, and that's community.
In a world full of automation, AI, and when you're in the middle of rapid growth, maybe building real human connection can feel like an afterthought. But what if it's actually your greatest advantage? So we're diving into it with our guest. Tullio, introduce our guest today.

**Tullio Siragusa** (1:29)
Yes, it'll be my pleasure. We are joined today by Jennifer Kaplan, who's the founder of Evolve PR & Marketing. She has over two decades of experience in PR & Marketing. She has helped hundreds of brands go from unknown to unforgettable. I love that, by the way, unknown to unforgettable. By helping them build deep, trust-based relationship with their audience. Her firm specializes in purpose-driven storytelling, community engagement and social impact. Jennifer, welcome to the show. Let's start here. What inspired you to create a PR firm that focused so deeply on community and mission-aligned marketing? What was the genesis of that?

**Jennifer Kaplan** (2:11)
I think my family just growing up was always very involved in the community, and instilled that in my brother and I who's also an entrepreneur and does a lot in the community, whether that's just philanthropy and giving back or just finding other ways to engage, you know, with the audience and demographics that he's looking to attract and do it in an authentic way that's from his heart. And so, that's something that my family has always been about. So, sort of ingrained in me and then just had the opportunity when starting a business to really lean into that with that mindset from not only myself with our company and then getting into PR and really showing our clients the way to engage as well in order to build their brand and awareness.

**Tullio Siragusa** (3:07)
I love that.

**Stephen Sakach** (3:09)
Let's talk a little about storytelling because it's kind of more than a marketing tack. It's how communities are built. What makes a story resonate today, especially when maybe attention spans are short and competition is high? What would you say?

**Jennifer Kaplan** (3:26)
That's a good question. The essence is storytelling of what we do. So, I think just for us initially, it's extracting those elements that we feel are going to stand out. And part of that is maybe something that's trending or topical that we know people want to hear about right now. Some of it is our knowledge of certain outlets, writers, reporters to know what they're looking for. And then not that the client is last because it's not in any order, but then where are the client's needs? Where can we impact them the most in their business?
To where we focus on that element, it's really going to maybe not transform, but just help move the needle and show the benefit of the PR as well.

**Stephen Sakach** (4:21)
This takes me back to my J-School days journalism, understanding the different things that us reporters were looking for and what made a story stick out. Like you said, it can vary quite a bit.

**Tullio Siragusa** (4:37)
I love when there's studies done on these kinds of things too, because there's some people, it's not enough to be a story teller. They want to know the stats, give me the stats, give me the stats. Turns out, 72% of consumers are more likely to recommend the brand that tells a meaningful story according to Headstream. Why do you think storytelling has become such a central pillar of trust building as well?

**Jennifer Kaplan** (5:03)
Well, I call that cause marketing in a way. I mean, marketing is a huge umbrella. PR is under that, so I know we're talking about PR. But marketing as a whole, I mean, cause marketing, if it feels good for people and they're supporting an entity or a business that is giving back and doing good in the community that they live in, I think it also makes the person want to connect with that brand. Tom's Shoes did that a hundred years ago. They were kind of a pioneer, I guess, if you will, in buy a shoe and then they're going to donate a shoe. That shoe is not the most, I mean, I'm not going off of judging anyone's style, but it isn't just in general, the most stylish shoe. It might have comfort, it might have some cool styles, fabric, all that. But I think at the end of the day, you know, people like to know that maybe they're buying that shoe, and then there's that give back element. And the PR for something like that is tremendous.