Marketing With Purpose Kit: Bringing Purpose and Empathy into Marketing

**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.

**Mike Liwski** (0:18)
Welcome back everyone to the Marketing With Purpose Kit. This is a series of The Bliss Business Podcast, where really we explore what it takes for marketing leaders to create impact that goes beyond just the numbers. I'm Mike Liwski and I'll be hosting today. In each episode, we sit down with a marketing expert to really explore, one, their leadership style and their approach, and the strategies that they use to not just really drive performance, but as we love to talk about on this show, really resonate with their audience. Together, we'll dive into what is working, what's not, and really how purpose and empathy can transform the way a brand connects with people. Let's just get started. Today, I'm privileged to be joined by Julie Green. She is the Vice President of Marketing at Heights Wellness Retreat. Julie brings with her more than 15 years of franchising and marketing experience, and she's led actually the pivotal rebrand from Massage Heights to Heights Wellness Retreat.
She really better connect in today's wellness focused, experience driven consumers. Now she combines as well this data driven strategy with the other side of storytelling, digital innovation and influencer partnerships to really help build that brand loyalty and the growth that the franchise has experienced. Now at Heights, Julie also focuses on enabling franchise owners with tools and strategies to strengthen their presence in the local community and create the right connections. We're going to explore today a topic that is really dear and near to my heart. It's bringing purpose and empathy into marketing. I'm excited to dive in. Julie, welcome to our show.

**Julie Green** (2:11)
Thank you. Thanks for having me.

**Mike Liwski** (2:13)
We're excited. I'm actually really excited on the topic that we're discussing today. Before we really dive into all things marketing though, I want to ask, before we were talking about this idea or this topic, why was bringing purpose and empathy into marketing the topic that you selected that we'd explore today?

**Julie Green** (2:36)
Yeah, I love this topic.
I will say I don't have a work, Julie, and a home, Julie. I am the same person across every room. So whether I'm in a marketing meeting or if I'm on the football field cheering my two boys on or we're doom scrolling on the couch, my husband and I, to me, though, empathy is the thorough line that connects all of those versions of me. It's how I lead teams, it's how I parent, and it's just how I show up for people. I think it's hugely important. And when you lead that way, you're not switching personas. You are bringing your whole self to what you do. And I think that's what makes the best leaders. When you're not switching between that personal and professional, your authenticity. And we know marketing has shifted from being about attention to connection. Like that's so important. And I think purpose and empathy are also how brands earn trust in this, you know, you and I have discussed this noisy world that we all live in. They don't want another sales push. They want to know that they're understood. And so for me, that's that's empathy is the compass that that guides that strategy, because just like I want my team to feel seen, supported and inspired, I want my campaigns to do that with people like our members, our guests as well. And so, you know, when we when we started this evolution to Heights Wellness Retreat, that's really what we wanted. That's what we were setting out to do, promoting a way to live better, not just a service.

**Mike Liwski** (4:11)
Yeah, absolutely. You know, I was so happy to hear that you made the connection, not just to marketing, but also the way that you lead the team, right? Yeah, I think that's that's so critical in the world that we live in today. Just because, you know, when business leaders behave in that more authentic way, I think, you know, their teams as well feel that. Yeah, and they're more, you know, they're more invested in the work that they're doing. For sure, you know, we love to, in the agency, love to think about it as, you know, instead of being this Blair horn in someone's ear, just really being more of a magnet.

**Julie Green** (4:50)
Yes. Yeah. Yeah.

**Mike Liwski** (4:53)
So maybe, Julie, switching gears a little bit and bridging over to strategy and growth, right? A lot of CMOs, you know, were often pulled from this short-term campaign results, right? Quarterly numbers, shareholder value, and as well building the long-term brand. So I'm really kind of curious, like how do you ensure that your marketing stays aligned with the growth goals that a company has, at the same time, where do you find that you're moving in the right direction towards the brand growth? Where are the most, the biggest points of friction, would you say?