Building Community and Connection in Business with Howard Waterman

**SPEAKER_1** (0:03)
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** (0:16)
So yeah, Mike got interrupted. I think we're all talking property taxes. And Mike, do you want to continue that conversation or should we save that for later?

**Mike Liwski** (0:24)
I really don't think property taxes is in line with our show.

**Stephen Sakach** (0:30)
Welcome back to The Bliss Business Podcast, everyone, where we explore how empathy, connection, and purpose transform business from the inside out. I'm Stephen Sakach, joined again by Mike Liwski, who's been gallivanting around the world recently.
According to Edelman's Trust Barometer, 81% of consumers say they need to trust a brand before making a purchase decision. Trust and connection are built not just through products and services, but through consistent communication and authentic leadership and storytelling. Today, we explore how businesses can build lasting relationships by leaning into connection and strategic storytelling. Mike, introduce our special guest today.

**Mike Liwski** (1:16)
Super excited. Today on our show, for our listeners and our followers, you'll have the privilege of listening to Howard Waterman.
For those of you who are familiar with Howard, he's the founder and the CEO of The Waterman Group. Howard's also an influential communication strategist. He's an award-winning board advisor with two decades of experience at top US brands like Verizon, the Moody's Corporation, and a number of tech startups that he has helped out. He's also recognized for building thought leadership campaigns, as well as crisis communication strategies, and working on brand reputation initiatives. And through all of that work, he's helped organizations really to be able to scale. And then more importantly, in line with the themes of our show, is to really lead with authenticity, which we know is critical to building trust. So Howard, with that, welcome to the show. We're so happy to have you.

**Howard Waterman** (2:18)
It's my pleasure. Thanks for having me.

**Mike Liwski** (2:21)
Looking forward to the conversation today. Maybe to help just get us started with a little bit of a softball. Can you just maybe share a little bit when it comes to your career in communications? How was it shaped, I guess, in the sense of with your belief on the importance of building community and creating connection in business?

**Howard Waterman** (2:48)
Well, communications is fundamentally about building trust and relationships, right? So for me, it started as a journalist. I was fortunate enough to start my broadcast career at 19 years old. I was still in college and I got a job at 1010 Winds, which is an all new station in New York City. Working those 4 AM shifts was a lot of fun, but I was just thrilled to do it. It was an entry-level job. It was hard to sleep, wasn't easy to date, but it was something that that's where it started for me. Then my first gig at a college was as the night news editor, assistant news director at an AM news talk station, just above Manhattan in Rockland County. Sharing news that we believe with our audience and we obviously have county residents, businesses, legislators, was ultimately designed to build community and connection with those 335 newscasts every morning and throughout the day. Then at Verizon, I learned firsthand how reliable communications plays such a key role. The global network and technology team, I'm sure they still are, but have been so amazingly dedicated to building the best network as I'm sure their competitors are.
But I raise that because when you think about it, when you want to use your cell phone, we use it a lot for texting and other things. But if there's an emergency, the call has got to go through. Just looking today, 657,000 calls are made every day to 911 Eighty percent are on a wild's network. Those calls have to get through.
That's a couple of examples. Let's face it, when people feel are seen and heard and are valued, they could become more of part of community than even your customer base. So good stuff there.

**Mike Liwski** (4:39)
Yeah, for sure. I mean, key points when it comes to communication, that's the intent and at the end, being able to build community is critical.

**Stephen Sakach** (4:49)
Howard's given me flashbacks to my early journalism days. So the low pay and bad hours that we had this long day. You have to love the work people. That's for sure. So Howard, you've worked with, as Mike mentioned, some global brands and startups alike. So how does storytelling play a role in building authentic connections with customers and the investors and employees, the whole group of stakeholders in any business?