Service as Infrastructure: The Heart of a Blissful Business with Julie Budkowski & Brian Baird

**SPEAKER_1** (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** (0:18)
Welcome back to the show, everyone. I'm Stephen Sakach here again with Tullio Siragusa, and we've got a couple of special guests today.
So organizations today are being asked to do more than deliver results. They're expected to contribute to the communities they serve. According to Deloitte, purpose-driven organizations are more likely to build trust, drive engagement, and achieve long-term success. And at the center of the conversation is service, not just as an initiative, but a foundational element of how organizations operate. And as we approach the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, there is also a broader lens to consider. Service has long been a defining part of democratic societies, shaping how individuals contribute to something larger than themselves. And today, we explore what it means to treat service as infrastructure, not just only in business, but as a principle that strengths in the communities and leadership and civic life. Tullio, introduce our guests today.

**Tullio Siragusa** (1:22)
Yes, excited to. Our guests today are Julie Budkowski and Brian Baird from the National Museum and Center for Service. Julie is the managing director bringing more than 15 years of experience in education and nonprofit leadership. She has led large-scale service learning initiatives, including managing programs across more than 4,000 schools and focuses on scaling mission-driven work, operational excellence and community impact. Brian is the founder and executive director of the National Museum and Center for Service, a former member of the US. House of Representatives. He holds a Ph.D. in clinical psychology and has served as a clinician, Arthur, university president and advisor to the National Academies. His career has been shaped by firsthand experiences with individuals dedicated to service, which continues to inform his leadership and vision. Julie, Brian, welcome to the Bliss Business Podcast. Nothing like doing an introduction while you're live. There's no mulligans. Thanks for being here.

**Stephen Sakach** (2:35)
Brian, let's start with you. When you talk about service as infrastructure, what does that mean and why is it so important today?

**Brian Baird** (2:42)
Well, it's a great question. First of all, thank you both for having us on and for your leadership. It's been, I've had the chance to listen and watch many of your podcasts in there. Really, you touch at the heart of very important topics. When we think of it as foundational, I want to lay it out in two ways. First of all, as individuals and really as a society, we have a choice to make. Are we going to be selfish, mean, and angry? Are we going to be kind, generous, and compassionate? We make that choice every day. We make it in how we structure our interactions and how we prioritize what we do and how we do it. So at a personal level, services really helps define who you are. If you're there to serve, you're there to give of yourself to make things better for everybody, not to just accrue wealth or power or fame or something really peripheral. But what's the core purpose of being here? So it's foundational in that way. But we really believe it's foundational to any democratic society. And you mentioned that we've got the 250th anniversary of the Declaration. Democracy really only works if people are committed to service, to the greater good, not just to selfishness. Because democracies fail when people of selfish purpose use democracy to gain power and then use that power to undermine the democracy. But you don't have to take my word for it.
You can find the most powerful call to service ever written in the closing line of the Declaration of Independence, which includes we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. And the framers capitalize lives, fortunes, and sacred honor, and then they sign their names and said, we're all in on this. And then they followed that up with a constitution that begins, we the people, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and posterity. So from the very start of the country, service has been foundational. And what we're trying to do, and working very diligently with some great success, is to honor all forms of service, people whose work involves service, people whose businesses involve service, people who volunteer, or people who donate their resources in time to charity. So that's the foundation. Who are we? Why are we here? What are we doing with our lives and our time and our resources?