The Power of Emotional Intelligence in Business with Kath Allen and Abbey Lee

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
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** (0:15)
Hey, welcome back everyone. And if anything goes sideways on this show, we're just going to blame our producer who's on meds with dental issues. And we're talking a lot of dentistry before show, so we won't trigger you with that word anymore. But welcome back to the show where we explore how empathy, connection, purpose transform business from the inside out. I'm Stephen, joined as always by my co-host Mike. According to Talent Smart, 90% of top performers score high in emotional intelligence, but only 36% of people can accurately identify their emotions in the moment.
And at the same time, businesses that invest in cultures of empathy and connection consistently outperform competitors in retention, satisfaction, and long-term profitability. So today, we're diving into how emotional intelligence can drive success, resilience, and culture in business. Mike, introduce our guests today.

**Mike Liwski** (1:19)
Absolutely delighted to, Stephen. And as we can see, we have two guests today. So first off, we have with us today Kath Allen. She's the founder of Hike Doggie Incorporated and Hike Doggie Franchising LLC. Quite interesting, Kath has transformed her love for adventure, service, and pets into this thriving brand that is redefining pet care through structured dog hikes. And as well, just this year in 2025, she was recognized as in the Titan 100 list of top executives in Colorado. As well, she now leads Hike Doggie's national expansion with a recent partnership through Royalty Brands. And as well, we have today with us Abbey Lee. She's a partner of Hike Doggie Incorporated and Hike Doggie Franchising LLC.
Quite interesting as well, Abbey brings, with her background in education, international experience and a passion for animals to the company. And as well, she's developed franchisee training programs, streamlined systems, and plays a very vital role in the operations and the move in the national growth. So welcome to the show. We are so delighted to have you with us today, Kath and Abbey.

**Kath Allen** (2:43)
Thank you so much. We're super psyched to be here.

**Mike Liwski** (2:47)
So it's going to be a good show.

**Stephen Sakach** (2:49)
Yeah, it's going to be a fun one. I got to tell you. So just this past Wednesday, I was driving with my daughter. And we were following this van that has this dog. And it's got barbells on it, the picture on it, and this is mobile dog, Jim. And my daughter is joking about getting your dog shredded and tracking gangs.
And I'm looking up, I'm like, what do they do mobily? And they have like a treadmill in there and stuff. I guess it's good for some dogs. Maybe that can't walk very far. But I was just thinking, like, you know, my dog loves to get out and loves to, you know, get the full sensory experience of, you know, the smells and the breezes and everything, you know, getting out into the, on these long walks. And he's almost 18 years old and he still does three mile walks. So I'm excited to be on this topic. Before we get into the topic, Kath, tell us a little bit about Hike Doggie, if you could.

**Kath Allen** (3:50)
Yeah, yeah. So Hike Doggie, we are a professional dog hiking company, obviously, but our mission kind of leads the parade there because our mission is to make dogs as happy as they make us, which they always say you should pick a mission that you can't achieve because dogs are so darn cool, you know, that we love them and you wake up in the morning. And I don't know about you, our dogs sleep in our bed and they're licking your face and it's just like a big love test before you even get out of bed. So we really devote our life to making them happy. And we do that via dog hikes. We in Golden, Colorado, that's where we're based. We take them up into the mountains a couple of hours. We're loving on them. We're spooning with them in the forest and the meadows. We're laughing with them, take tons of pictures for the parents and give them treats afterward. We wash them up. Everything we do is really focused on the dog. Like even our Hike Doggie buses themselves, they're light blue for a reason because dogs can only see three colors. I don't know if you know that, but blue, yellow and shades of gray. So imagine you're a dog like sitting on the back of the couch waiting in the morning, waiting for your Hike Doggie bus to come by. They actually see their super cool ride pull up and they get super excited and the dog parents go nuts. So we pick them up in the morning, they're super full of energy, take them up in the mountains for a really enriched day. They're hanging out with their pals, they're having a lot of fun.