Scaling with Purpose Kit: Evolving Purpose for Long-Term Success

**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** (0:17)
Welcome back to The Bliss Business Podcast Series, Scaling with Purpose. These are 10 to 15 minute short episodes where we explore how to embed purpose into every part of your organization. I'm Stephen Sakach here again with Tullio Siragusa and Ash Maher. Hey, guys.

**Ash Maher** (0:35)
Hello.

**Stephen Sakach** (0:37)
All right. So today's episode is all about evolving purpose for long term success, how to let your company's purpose grow and shift as your organization expands and keeping it relevant, grounded and meaningful. Let's dive in.

**Ash Maher** (0:53)
Well, thanks, Stephen. Well, to begin, purpose isn't static. It's a living, breathing part of your business. What you stood for at day one might still be true, but how you express it, how you serve it and how it fits into the world may need to evolve. And if you don't evolve with it, your message can start to feel out of touch or overly narrow, which is a challenge that that's probably why it keeps people from following their purpose. Things get a little bit narrow and then they lose face.

**Tullio Siragusa** (1:22)
The only static thing in life is change.
So companies grow, markets change, technology advances. I mean, look at the advancements we've had in technologies in the past few years. Society values also shift. I mean, we've seen that too, post-pandemic, during the pandemic. And organizations that endure are the ones that stay true to their essence. So it's about having the essence of what you stand for. You know, it can evolve, it can change, you can adapt. But the essence, that's always there, right? So while expanding your understanding of what purpose looks like in action, staying true to the essence is key.

**Stephen Sakach** (2:04)
Yeah, so it's debt, taxes and change, Tullio. Those are the three we've discovered. So think of your purpose as your organization's DNA. It should inform every decision. It can express itself differently depending on your stage of growth, the challenges you're solving or the community you're serving. So how do you know if it's time to evolve your purpose? Not abandon it, but refine or expand it. Here are a few signs. So maybe you're entering new markets and your original purpose doesn't fully encompass the broader impact you're now creating.
Your team or customer base has changed. So there may be a disconnect between your messaging and what people care about today. Maybe your internal culture feels unclear or disconnected from your brand promise. Or maybe your purpose was always implied but never fully articulated, and now your scale demands that clarity.

**Ash Maher** (3:06)
Steve, let's be clear. Evolving purpose isn't about chasing trends.

**Stephen Sakach** (3:11)
Say that again. Say that again, Ash. Say that again.

**Ash Maher** (3:14)
Evolving purpose isn't about chasing trends, which again, everyone tends to do that for whatever reason. Oh, I just saw this video from this person and so on and so forth. Now we got to do it this way. No, it's about reflecting more deeply on who you've become and who you're here to serve now.

**Tullio Siragusa** (3:30)
Absolutely. There's no such thing as opportunistic purpose, guys.

**Ash Maher** (3:34)
Nope.

**Tullio Siragusa** (3:35)
That's when you're chasing the trend to be an opportunistic and you could try to justify that you're being purposeful. No, that's not what we're meaning here. Let's talk about what's the difference? How do you really define this? It could be as simple as your business that develops educational apps. Is that really your purpose? Well, the purpose might be we spark lifelong curiosity in every child regardless of where they start. And part of sparking that curiosity could be developing educational apps today, might be something else later tomorrow. But the essence of sparking that curiosity stays true. Or it could be we offer HR software. That's exciting. Versus we empower people first cultures through data that honors the human experience. That's an elevated purpose. Now, that could be through HR software or it could be through something else in the future. The other pattern about this is that when you have clearly defined your essence and your purpose, your business can also evolve and expand with it. It's not limited. Being purposeless is actually running a limited business. So let's do another example. We do interior design. So exciting. We do interior design. Or we turn spaces into stories of who people are and what they value.
That could be through interior design today, it could be something completely radically different tomorrow. But the essence stays true. So it's important to capture something like a core ideology of what the essence of your business is that can evolve with the times and even expand what you do with the times. So it's so important to get it right.