Building Community and Connection in Business with Noah Smock

**Mike Liwski** (0:00)
Community Outreach Works.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:05)
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** (0:19)
Well, welcome back to the podcast, everyone. I'm Stephen Sakach here with my co-host, Mike Liwski, and our special guest today. Many organizations, especially in the nonprofit and service sectors, face resource constraints that limit their ability to fully serve their communities. Our guest today is helping serve those who serve our communities, and we're going to get into that in a little bit. Today, we're exploring what it takes to build strong, connected communities and how leaders can create systems that support collaboration and amplify impact. Mike, introduce our special guest today.

**Mike Liwski** (0:55)
Oh, Steve, I'm delighted too. With us today is Noah Smock. He's actually the Director of Resource Development at ToolBank USA. Interesting, Noah's career in social justice actually began in Baltimore way back in 2008
Really because he went on to serve from there for more than two decades as the Executive Director of the Baltimore Community ToolBank. Where he really helped to expand access to tools and resources for organizations that are serving their communities. And then now today, through his work with ToolBank USA, he supports a broader movement focusing on equipping really nonprofits and first responders with the tools, equipment and expertise they need to strengthen and celebrate diverse neighborhoods. In addition to all of this, his leadership roles, in his leadership roles, Noah has really served on multiple boards, contributed to behavioral health and community organizations and has been recognized for his impact, including honors from the Baltimore Orioles, as well as Baltimore Homecoming. So Noah, with that, we are so delighted to have you on our show. Welcome to The Bliss Business Podcast.

**Noah Smock** (2:18)
Oh, it's so nice to be here. Thank you.

**Mike Liwski** (2:21)
We're glad you're here. So Noah, just maybe let's just jump right in, I guess, to the topic that we're talking about today. Why is the topic of community building so important today?

**Noah Smock** (2:32)
Yeah, it's, well, it's interesting for me. I've had the privilege in my career working in the community, as you mentioned, since 2008, which feels like yesterday, but also feels like a long time ago. Yeah, I really came in to a role that helped facilitate meaningful engagement with the business and higher ed communities. And through that, in the lens of the nonprofit, but also the overlay of the business community, I really got to see how multiple sectors have to combine efforts intentionally to build what, you know, the community they want to live and work and love in. So I just feel like I've gotten a front row or maybe like a side view seat of what that looks like in action. Good examples, you know, examples that have grown over time that maybe weren't so successful, but just a really, it's an important topic to me because everything we do, all the decisions we make, impact our neighbors, and then we put the overlay of this community on top of it. So it's really important that people think intentionally and then move with intention towards the community they want to build.

**Stephen Sakach** (3:43)
When you think about that, when you think about building community, what does that mean in practice beyond the idea itself?

**Noah Smock** (3:50)
Yeah, right. So it could be super abstract, community, what is it? But I think in the small terms, and I think of one big word that comes out is authenticity. So to me, authenticity implies that you have a point of view, and then you represent it in a way that is true to that. And I also think about it in the daily from how you drive, where you throw away your breakfast. All of these things impact kind of the greater community that we live in. And when we highlight challenges, to me, the next sentence is always, what solutions do we have? There are some things to be careful of when we talk about solutions. There's the people who want to go right into solution mode, and they don't do the listening.
But to me, it's important that there is some intentionality and some listening to multiple sectors within society to really come up with the community that we all want to thrive in.

**Mike Liwski** (4:49)
Yeah, I mean, certainly with the state of the world that it's in today, it definitely seems like a very important work for us to be doing.
I think of it as well as almost like you were saying, this feeling of fellowship that you get with others, that results in maybe similar attitudes, interests, but as well, what are the goals within that community? So Noah, maybe I was curious, want to dig in a little bit more in terms of the work that you do. You focused on providing access, as I mentioned in the intro, to tools and to resources that are empowering others. So just curious, how does that access play a role in building stronger, more connected communities? And even what are some of those tools? Because I think our audience might be even curious about that. Sure.