When Joy Becomes A Business Strategy

For a long time, business success was framed in blunt terms: hit the numbers, keep shareholders happy, grow at all costs. Profit was the destination, and everything else was negotiable.

That story is changing. Research on purpose driven companies continues to show that organizations that put meaning and mission at the center tend to outperform on profitability and retention. Yet many leaders still approach purpose and values as a marketing layer rather than the engine that drives decisions, culture, and growth.

Conscious capitalism invites a different starting point. Instead of asking, "How do we extract more value from customers, employees, and communities" it asks, "How do we create more value for them, together" and trust that profit will follow.

Few industries make that tension as visible as franchising. Franchise brands sit at the intersection of corporate strategy, local entrepreneurs, frontline employees, and families whose daily lives are affected by the experience they receive. When leaders choose to center joy, safety, and dignity in that system, the ripple effects can be profound.

On this episode of The Bliss Business Podcast, we sat down with Neal Courtney, CEO of Cookie Cutters, a fast growing children's hair salon franchise, to explore what it looks like when joy and responsibility are treated as serious business. His story is a vivid case study in conscious capitalism in action.

The World Of Children's Haircuts

Neal did not start his career in a feel good sector. He came up through classic business school thinking, working inside public companies during the era when "maximize shareholder value" was the mantra. The focus was on the next quarter, not on the full set of stakeholders who make a business possible.

Today, he leads a brand that performs nearly two million children's haircuts per year across a growing network of franchise locations. On paper, it is a simple service business. In practice, it is a platform for building confidence, reducing anxiety, and giving families a place where their children are seen, welcomed, and celebrated.

Neal describes the core purpose of the brand in one word: joy. The haircut is the transaction. The real product is the experience a child and parent carry out the door, and the way that experience shapes self esteem over time. That clarity becomes the lens for decisions about training, culture, growth, and crisis response.

Redefining Success: Joy As The Purpose, Profit As The Outcome

In a typical franchise story, the main metrics are unit counts, revenue, and margin. Neal does not ignore those, but he orients around a different flywheel: joy for the child, relief for the parent, and purpose for the franchisee.

He talks about the moment when a child looks in the mirror and feels good about themselves after a haircut. That small boost can lead to compliments at school, a little more confidence, and a positive association with care and self expression. That, in turn, feeds joy back to the franchisee, who sees they are doing more than selling a commodity service.

From there, the business fundamentals take shape:

• Acquisition is driven by reputation and word of mouth from delighted families.

• Retention grows as parents build trust and see consistent care for their children.

• Frequency increases because hair keeps growing and families choose to return to a place that feels safe and kind.

In this model, profit is not an afterthought. It is protected by an operating philosophy that says, "If we execute with the customer in mind and deliver joy consistently, growth will follow."

Designing Experiences That Actually Care

Leaders often say "we care," but the real test is in how the most vulnerable customers are treated. In Neal's world, that includes children with sensory sensitivities or special needs, anxious parents, and families living through financial stress.

He shared stories that reveal what care looks like operationalized:

• Stylists building ritual and trust with a child on the spectrum, greeting them outside, walking them in, and following a predictable routine so the experience feels safe.

• Salons opening earlier or staying later to accommodate children who need a quieter environment.

• Locations building simple sensory friendly spaces to reduce overwhelm.

None of these are line items in a marketing campaign. They are choices that put human needs at the center. The payoff is loyalty, referrals, and a brand reputation that no ad spend can manufacture.

Leading Through Crisis With Conscious Capitalism

The pandemic became a stress test for every franchise system. Before Covid, Cookie Cutters was on a tear, having opened around one hundred locations with contracts for many more. Then, almost overnight, the network was forced to shut down.

Neal and his leadership team faced a familiar crossroads. They could furlough staff, keep pushing external development, and hope the system survived. Or they could pause growth and pour energy into helping franchisees stay alive.

They chose the second path.

He shifted from CEO as visionary to CEO as field operator:

• Daily town halls to keep franchisees informed and connected.

• Hands on help with relief programs, landlord negotiations, and cash flow triage.

• A deliberate decision to halt new development until existing franchisees were stabilized.

From a short term growth perspective, this meant giving up speed and allowing competitors to open more units. From a conscious capitalism perspective, it was an expression of loyalty to the people who had already invested their savings and trust in the brand.

Years later, the payoff is culture. Neal describes looking out at a franchise convention and seeing not just business partners, but people he went to war with. The shared hardship, and the choice to prioritize franchisees, built a level of trust and love that now underpins the next phase of growth.

Emotional Intelligence, Safety, And Modern Franchising

Neal is honest about his own evolution. Early in his career, he wanted to be the voice in the boardroom, to be heard and impressive. Over time, particularly through franchising, he learned that leadership in a human centered system requires a different muscle: listening.

Emotional intelligence in his context looks like:

• Putting himself in the shoes of the franchisee or stylist on the other side of the table.

• Recognizing that each owner and employee comes with a different background, personality, and risk tolerance.

• Adapting communication and support to the individual, rather than leading through one size fits all directives.

He frames safety as a form of empathy. Parents need to feel safe bringing their children in. Stylists and staff need psychological safety and physical safety at work. Franchisees need to know they will not be abandoned when circumstances shift. When leaders focus on safety at every level, empathy stops being an abstract value and becomes a design principle.

Love, Listening, And Culture By Design

The language of love in business can make some leaders uncomfortable. Neal has come to see it as a necessary lens. Love in his world is not sentimentality. It is expressed through:

• Listening more than speaking, especially when things go wrong.

• Choosing to define culture intentionally rather than letting it form by accident.

• Acting quickly when communities are under strain, such as mobilizing system wide food drives when families risked losing essential support.

• Treating franchisees, stylists, and families as people first, economic actors second.

He acknowledges that not every day is easy and that both joy and hardship will pass. Love, in that context, is the commitment to show up for people anyway. It is also the courage to believe that conscious capitalism, with its focus on multi stakeholder flourishing, will outlast the older model of extractive, short term capitalism.

Key Takeaways

• Purpose before profit is not idealism. It is a practical operating system. When joy and responsibility are clear, profit becomes more durable.

• Experience is the real product. In service and franchise businesses, how people feel often matters more than what they buy.

• Conscious crisis decisions define culture. Choosing franchisee survival over aggressive expansion during Covid built a trust dividend that compounds over time.

• Emotional intelligence is now a core leadership skill. Listening, adapting to individuals, and creating safety are strategic advantages, not soft extras.

• Love belongs in business. Acts of care, inclusion, and community support are powerful drivers of loyalty, retention, and long term brand equity.

Final Thoughts

Conscious capitalism is not a slogan that sits on the wall. It shows up in who leaders prioritize when pressure hits, how they define success, and what they are willing to sacrifice for the sake of people they serve.

Neal's story is a reminder that even in something as ordinary as a child's haircut, leaders can build companies that heal trauma instead of creating it, nurture confidence instead of insecurity, and prove that joy is a serious business strategy.

Check out our full conversation with Neal Courtney on The Bliss Business Podcast.