Featured Guest Series Episodes
Welcome to the Guest Series on The Bliss Business Podcast! In this series, we spotlight exceptional leaders of companies that embody the core values of Belonging, Love, Inspiration, Service, and Sustainability. These organizations set the standard for empathy and people-centric business practices, creating positive and inclusive work environments.
Join us as we explore the stories and strategies of these remarkable companies, and gain valuable insights on integrating BLISS principles into your own business practices. Subscribe and follow us to stay updated on the latest episodes and be inspired by leaders who are making a difference.
Join us as we explore the stories and strategies of these remarkable companies, and gain valuable insights on integrating BLISS principles into your own business practices. Subscribe and follow us to stay updated on the latest episodes and be inspired by leaders who are making a difference.
Feb. 12, 2026
Fostering a Culture of Inclusivity with Fredric Abramson
Fredric Abramson, founder of Golden Thread Technology and a Johns Hopkins instructor, joins Stephen Sakach and Tullio Siragusa to redefine inclusivity as belonging at work, and to share ARCAR, the five step conversation method behind it.
Guest: Fredric D Abramson
Feb. 10, 2026
The Role of Empathy in Leadership with Kim Gubera
Kim Gubera, President and CEO of PIRTEK USA, joins Stephen Sakach and Mike Liwski on empathy and high standards. She visited every franchisee, asked them to tell her their story, then went home and rebuilt the support they had been missing.
Guest: Kim Gubera
Feb. 5, 2026
Balancing Profit and Social Responsibility with Joe Dent
Joe Dent, CEO of Everything Pets, a division of Loyalty Brands, joins Tullio Siragusa on purpose driven franchising. Three decades in the pet industry taught him that the partners who follow the system and keep the passion are the ones who build something profitable and worth doing.
Guest: Joe Dent
Feb. 3, 2026
The Role of Empathy in Leadership with Chris Steer
Christopher M. Steer, founder and CEO of Steer LLC, joins Stephen Sakach and Tullio Siragusa to make the case that empathy is not niceness. It is perspective taking in service of the mission, built with reps rather than personality, and it pairs with accountability instead of replacing it.
Guest: Christopher M. Steer, Esq.
Jan. 29, 2026
Building Trust with Responsible AI with Dominique Shelton Leipzig
Dominique Shelton Leipzig, founder and CEO of Global Data Innovation, joins Stephen Sakach and Tullio Siragusa on AI quality control. She has advised more than 300 companies, and her argument is blunt: raw models drift, so governance is not the brake pedal, it is part of the steering.
Guest: Dominique Shelton Leipzig
Jan. 27, 2026
Sustainable Business Practices and Ethics with Shelby Parsons
Shelby Parsons, COO and co-owner of Premier Inspection Services, joins Stephen Sakach and Tullio Siragusa on sustainability in decades rather than quarters. She started working with her dad at 13, and her test for any decision is whether it still holds up when the building is full of students.
Guest: Shelby Parsons
Jan. 22, 2026
The Role of Empathy in Business with Karen Price Owen
Karen Price Owen, executive and life coach, joins Stephen Sakach and Mike Liwski on armored leadership. She spent 25 years believing effectiveness meant armoring up, and the shift came when she stopped performing a work self and started leading whole.
Guest: Karen Price Owen
Jan. 20, 2026
Building Community and Connection in Business with Michael Browning
Michael Browning Jr., CEO and founder of Unleashed Brands, joins Stephen Sakach and Tullio Siragusa on connected loneliness. Serving 20 million kids a year across 1,500 locations taught him that belonging is getting rarer as connection gets louder, and that empathy never scales by accident.
Guest: Michael Browning Jr.
Jan. 15, 2026
The Power of Emotional Intelligence in Business with Kelly Roddy
Kelly Roddy, CEO of WOWorks, joins Stephen Sakach and Mike Liwski on emotional regulation for leaders. Running six restaurant brands through delivery upheaval and GLP-1 taught him that staying regulated is part of the job, not a personality trait.
Guest: Kelly Roddy
Jan. 13, 2026
Building Community and Connection in Business with Craig Moody
Craig Moody, Founder and President of Shoot 360, joins Stephen Sakach and Mike Liwski on technology that builds community. Machine vision measures every shot, and the thing that keeps members coming back is still being known by name.
Guests: Craig Moody , craig
Jan. 8, 2026
Building Community and Connection in Business with Carl Comeaux
Carl Comeaux, CEO of Crust Pizza Co., joins Stephen Sakach and Mike Liwski on community driven franchise growth. Thirty eight locations in, he can name exactly which decision makes community real and which one makes it a slogan.
Guest: Carl Comeaux
Dec. 16, 2025
The Power of Emotional Intelligence in Business with Jania Bailey
Jania Bailey, President and CEO of FranNet, joins Stephen Sakach and Mike Liwski on emotional intelligence in leadership. When a decision costs someone their life savings, reading the person is the job, not a soft skill beside it.
Guest: Jania Bailey
Dec. 11, 2025
Building Community and Connection in Business with Paul Flick
Paul Flick, Founder and CEO of Premium Service Brands, joins The Bliss Business Podcast to unpack franchise culture and belonging: the communication systems, autonomy, and purpose-driven Kids Lift initiative that turn a distributed home-services franchise network into a real community.
Guest: Paul Flick
Dec. 9, 2025
The Role of Empathy in Leadership with Teresa Johnson
Teresa Johnson, CEO of Color Me Mine, joins The Bliss Business Podcast to explore empathy in franchise leadership: the open-ended questions, diagnostic habits, and "dream manager" mindset that scale care across more than 150 studios.
Guest: Teresa Johnson
Dec. 4, 2025
Building Community and Connection in Business with Heather Neary
Heather Neary, President and CEO of Taco John's, joins The Bliss Business Podcast to explore guest experience and community: the authenticity, recognition systems, and standing Thursday gratitude ritual that turn a 56-year-old QSR brand into a small-town institution.
Guest: Heather Neary
Dec. 2, 2025
Innovative Work Models for the Future with Alex Filipuk
Alex Filipuk, CEO and Founder of Ideal Siding, joins The Bliss Business Podcast to explore innovative work models in construction: paid half-day Fridays, same-day pay for crews, and the trust systems built for a franchised home-improvement business.
Guest: Alex Filipuk
Nov. 25, 2025
Conscious Capitalism: Business Beyond Profit with Shane Jackson
Shane Jackson, President of Jackson Healthcare, joins The Bliss Business Podcast to explore conscious capitalism in healthcare: the Others First value, skip-level meetings, and the two-part purpose statement that keeps a 20-plus company family accountable to patients.
Guest: Shane Jackson
Nov. 20, 2025
The Power of Emotional Intelligence in Business with Jennifer Lemcke
Jennifer Lemcke, CEO of Weed Man, joins The Bliss Business Podcast to explore balancing data and empathy: the E-Myth systems, franchisee business plans, and hard-work ethic that scale a 700-plus location lawn care franchise without losing heart.
Guest: Jennifer Lemcke
Nov. 18, 2025
Innovative Work Models for the Future with Patrick Cowden
Patrick Cowden, Chief Relational Officer and Architect of Warmspace, joins The Bliss Business Podcast to explore restoring workplace connection: why trust is an outcome, not an input, and the 70-second rituals that rebuild it at scale.
Guest: Patrick Cowden
Nov. 13, 2025
Conscious Capitalism: Business Beyond Profit with Neal Courtney
Neal Courtney, CEO of Cookie Cutters, joins The Bliss Business Podcast to explore joy driven franchise leadership: how a children's haircut brand pivoted through the pandemic to protect franchisees first and built a business where joy is the strategy.
Guest: Neal Courtney
Nov. 11, 2025
Building Community and Connections in Business with Mark Van Wye
Mark Van Wye, CEO of Zoom Room, joins The Bliss Business Podcast to explain community as infrastructure: how a dog training franchise builds belonging on purpose and turns connection into retention, referrals, and growth, with practical advice for leaders in any industry.
Guest: Mark Van Wye
Nov. 6, 2025
Building Community and Connection in Business with Brian Kellerman
Brian Kellerman, CEO of GoGather, joins The Bliss Business Podcast to share how intentional event design turns meetings into movements. He explains how to build connection on purpose, extend it beyond the closing session, and measure the return on belonging.
Guest: Brian Kellerman
Nov. 4, 2025
Conscious Capitalism: Business Beyond Profit with Rachel Fine Wilson
Rachel Fine Wilson, Founder and CEO of Gigglewaters, joins The Bliss Business Podcast to explore purpose driven hospitality: how a restaurant and movie theater turns food into community care, from COVID meals to hurricane relief, while building a franchise on five core values.
Guest: Rachel Fine Wilson
Oct. 28, 2025
The Power of Emotional Intelligence in Business with Kim Daly
Kim Daly, Founder and CEO of The Zee Suite and a top-producing FranChoice advisor, joins The Bliss Business Podcast to explain mindset mastery for franchisees: how she grew 350% in a year by changing her thinking, and how any leader can do the same.
Guest: Kim Daly