Some of the deepest leadership lessons do not come from boardrooms. They come from kitchens, apprenticeships, repetition, observation, and the quiet moments when someone learns by watching closely.
In this episode of The Bliss Business Podcast, we welcome Kaz Matsune, sushi chef, founder of Breakthrough Sushi, bestselling author, business mentor, and keynote speaker. Kaz founded Breakthrough Sushi in 2012, beginning with a small Craigslist-advertised class of three people that grew into a team-building sushi experience serving corporate groups, events, and organizations.
Kaz has spent more than 25 years studying sushi, teaching the craft, and exploring a bigger leadership question: how do you help knowledge move from one person to another? Through Breakthrough Sushi, he has hosted more than 1,500 events and worked with major companies including Amazon, Adobe, and Facebook.
His framework, Steal With Your Eyes, brings lessons from the sushi counter into business leadership: watch closely, learn through observation, practice with humility, teach what you know, and reduce the risk of too much knowledge living inside too few people.
In Sushi Lessons for Stronger Teams, we explore:
• Why empathy is essential when transferring knowledge
• How leaders can reduce dependence on a few key people
• What sushi apprenticeship teaches about observation and humility
• Why “press down less to cut better” is also a leadership lesson
• How teams learn faster when people teach what they know
• Why great leaders help others see, understand, use, and pass on knowledge
📅 Tuesday, September 29, 2026
🕚 11:00 a.m. PST
🎙️ Hosted by Stephen Sakach and Tullio Siragusa
🎧 Produced by Martha Huerta
Empathy in leadership is not only about understanding people’s feelings. It is also about understanding how people learn, where they struggle, and what they need in order to grow.
#TheBlissBusinessPodcast #EmpathyInLeadership #KnowledgeTransfer #TeamBuilding