Scaling with Purpose Kit: Building Community Around Your Purpose

**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** (0:17)
Welcome back to The Bliss Business Podcast series, Scaling with Purpose. These are short 10 to 15 minute podcast episodes where we explore how to embed purpose into every level of your organization.
I'm Stephen Sakach here again with Tullio Siragusa and Ash Maher. Hey, guys. Hey. Hello. Today's episode is about one of the most powerful outcomes of leading with purpose. This is one I often think of when we discuss this. It's building a community around your purpose. How do you attract and nurture a group of customers, partners, and advocates who don't just buy what you sell, but they believe in why you exist? Let's get into it.

**Ash Maher** (1:01)
Thanks, Stephen.

**Tullio Siragusa** (1:03)
Ash, it looks like you added a guest to our show. What's the name of that character behind you?

**Ash Maher** (1:09)
Oh, this?
That is Deadmau5 behind me. Deadmau5. Yes.

**Tullio Siragusa** (1:17)
Okay, there we go.

**Ash Maher** (1:18)
I thought I actually invited someone to our show. I'm like, wait, who's thinking in here? No, I appreciate you, Stephen. So when your organization has a clear and compelling purpose, it naturally becomes a magnet for like-minded people. So customers want to support brands that reflect their values, employees want to work for companies that stand for something meaningful, and partners want to align with organizations that make them proud. That's the power of purpose. It doesn't just sell, it gathers people around you.

**Tullio Siragusa** (1:50)
Exactly, and you know what? We've seen this over and over again, and you can just check in with your own self. It's just, it's always true. When people feel like they belong to something bigger than themselves, something bigger than the initials of the transaction, they become emotionally invested. So when customers become advocates, employees become culture carriers, and vendors become mission partners, that's when you really are becoming very purposeful. And that's when the purpose becomes foundation for living and breeding community.

**Stephen Sakach** (2:26)
Yeah, and that community is really one of your greatest assets, right? It's what gives your brand resilience during hard times and that momentum during growth. So the real question here for today's show is, how do you intentionally build a community that's fueled by your purpose?
So let's kind of break it down. There's three strategies I want to cover here to build a purpose-led community. So the first one is really to lead with transparency and invite participation. People don't want to rally, you know, they don't rally around perfection, they rally around your authenticity. I mean, this is what it's all about. It's your authenticity and you want to share your mission, your goals and even your challenges openly. Let your community be part of that journey, you know, not just the recipient of your products. You can build trust when you say, hey, here's what we stand for, here's where we're headed and here's how you can help us get there. It may not always be, you know, a clean process but they'll be there with you in the ups and downs.

**Ash Maher** (3:30)
You know, Steve, a company that's really good at this was Albert. Their literal purpose was create better things and a better way. So knowing that that was like their mantra, everything that they did in terms of what they put out on social media, their content was literally the materials that they source, the carbon footprint that they're decreasing, the different types of ways that they put things together. I mean, they're bringing their audience, their community, to the whole process and showing them, hey, this is why we create better things is that we go after the better products, this is the experience that we go through. So it brings them into that journey. And to your point, not everything is perfect, which I think is great content, right? And people don't understand that with all businesses, there's challenges along the way. And when the community is a part of that, they're like, hey, you guys are working towards something good. They support that vision.

**Tullio Siragusa** (4:21)
Yeah, and you know, that's really the beginning, that transparency in bringing people into that process. That's how you create a community forged on shared experiences. You host events, you're both virtually or in person, and gives an opportunity for the community to connect over a shared purpose, you know, and that could be, you know, aligning the purpose for volunteer days or educational sessions, storytelling campaigns or overall brand experiences that go deeper, deeper than just a product pitch. You want to make people part of your story and also even co-contributors to your story. That's the end goal on how you create great community.