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A conversation on empathetic AI and Marketing
18 Plays11 days ago
In this episode of The Entrepreneur Speaks, we get into a conversation that blends heart, strategy, and innovation in a way that few entrepreneurs dare to explore.
Meet Stephen Sakach, Founder and CEO of Zero Company a marketing agency on a mission to redefine how brands connect with their audiences. At Zero Company, it’s not just about clicks and conversions it’s about connection, kindness, and what Stephen calls bliss.
Stephen takes us on a deeply authentic journey through the highs and lows of building a business rooted in empathy and purpose. He shares powerful insights on how to create “wow” experiences that transform clients into loyal brand ambassadors, why love and authenticity are the secret ingredients to real growth, and how AI can complement and not replace human-centered marketing.
If you’re a founder, creative, marketer, or simply someone who wants to build with more meaning, this episode will challenge and inspire you to see business differently.
Get ready to rethink how you market, how you lead, and how you connect with your audience, your purpose, and yourself.
Don't forget to like , subscribe and leave your key takeaways .
This podcast is powered by Sprout ESG Consult
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Transcript
Introduction to Dreams and Builders of Tomorrow
00:00:07
Speaker
Dreams light up the sky tonight.
Courage, Risks, and Avoiding Regrets
00:00:11
Speaker
Builders of tomorrow shining bright. I think like as there's a couple things here. One of my personal values is courage, right? And so if you aren't willing to take a little bit of risk from time to time to take that bold step, like you said, you're going to ask yourself later on in life, you know, why didn't I do
Success Through Failures and Impactful Systems
00:00:29
Speaker
that? Why didn't I try that?
00:00:30
Speaker
You know, a lot of success stories have 13, 14, 15 failure stories before they were a success. So don't be afraid to do it. The mere fact that you tried doing it is a success.
00:00:41
Speaker
And so understand that much, even if you fail. The mere fact that you tried is success. The second thing... Would be if you want to leave a mark or a legacy, you know, of some type. This is where I think you can do it is with that bliss concept is by if you build love into some kind of system around you. You know, whatever you're doing at work right now, you can ask yourself that question. Whatever you're doing in your life, is there a system where you could add just a little bit of love to?
00:01:06
Speaker
that will run on its own when you're not even there. So this is a mark that you've left in the world in some way that is now having this ripple effect as it's touching people, even when you
Meet Stephen Sarkach of Xero Company
00:01:16
Speaker
aren't there. So do that once, just do it once in your life and then do it again and do it again and keep finding ways to do that. And that's how you're going to leave a legacy with some kind of impact. And anyone can do that right
00:01:30
Speaker
now. The entrepreneurs
00:01:44
Speaker
Hello and welcome to another inspiring episode of the Entrepreneur's Peaks podcast. The podcast that brings you the voices behind some of the most innovative and purpose-driven ventures around the globe.
00:01:57
Speaker
I'm your host, Kofi Anymedo. Today, we are diving into a conversation that blends heart, strategy, and innovation in a truly unique
Empathy and Purpose in Marketing
00:02:07
Speaker
way.
00:02:07
Speaker
Joining me is Stephen Sarkach, the founder and CEO Xero Company, a marketing agency that's redefining how brands connect with their audiences, not just through data, but through empathy, purpose, and what Stephen calls bliss.
00:02:25
Speaker
Stephen's entrepreneurial journey is one of resilience, vision, and authenticity. From the highs of client wins to the lows that tested his resolve, He's built a company that believes marketing isn't just about conversion, it's about creating meaningful experiences, communicating with kindness, and building businesses with love, not just algorithms.
00:02:47
Speaker
In this episode, we'll explore how to create wild experiences that turn clients into loyal ambassadors, how bliss and kindness can be powerful tools in business, and why the best brands get connection rights.
00:03:01
Speaker
We also unpack how AI and human-centered marketing can coexist to build businesses that truly matter. So whether you're founder, marketer, or simply someone looking to build with purpose, this episode is for you.
00:03:18
Speaker
Let's dive into the story of Stephen Sackatch and the magic behind Zero Company. Welcome to my show, Stephen. Hey, Kofi. you Glad to be here. this is going fun. All right.
00:03:29
Speaker
So to start our conversation, can you tell us a bit about your background and what really inspired you to start
Transition from Print to Digital Marketing
00:03:35
Speaker
Zero Company? Yeah, so I can go way back to the days before internet. I think even in college, we were... um you know, studying analytics and how people read newspapers and things like that. So this is, you know, back in the print days when that's how information was, um you know, primarily consumed. And I was trained to be as a reporter.
00:03:56
Speaker
And then we get the internet comes along and everything turns digital. For me, it's just seeing how search was become this dominant thing like Google and all this. And this is where I realized, yeah, there's a lot of opportunity here. No one knows where it's going to go.
00:04:11
Speaker
And then as soon as the advertising started integrating with search, I was like, okay, this is the future. This is going to be the next decade or two. And certainly and that's where, we're fast forward, that's where we are now. It's like Google's very dominant with all the data. and And way back when we used to have to pass around a disk to get analytics, but everyone has their phone now and this thing's got Tells you so much about what a person's doing, where they're going, what their interests are. And it's really kind of fascinating how much marketing has evolved during that process. And sometimes things can be a little creepy with with the phone and the kind of data that you get. So we really try to figure out where's the ethical boundaries and, you know,
Balancing Data with Ethics
00:04:48
Speaker
what's too much information to know about a person? Because, yeah, a lot of marketers are the more the better. Yeah.
00:04:53
Speaker
Yeah, i can it can tell you a lot about a person. So this is how we kind of work is trying to figure out, you know, someone's product and how it's relevant to someone else. And we want to do that a little differently and than others. And that our approach really is around kind of higher purpose and building meaning into what you're doing.
00:05:12
Speaker
All right. so So let's talk about your company and its beginning. But to start off, let's start with the name. I'm always fascinated about the story behind names, especially the story behind company names.
00:05:24
Speaker
So your company is known as the Zero Company. Why that name, Zero Company? Yeah, it goes back, you know, i boy, we probably bought that domain way back, you know, 20 something years ago, 25 probably.
00:05:38
Speaker
But it goes back to, there was this Gandhi quote about humility and all my life I strive to be zero. And so it's basically this grounding yourself in, you know, ah being humble and working from there. And so um that's kind of the the importance of zero for me personally, is just to start from,
00:05:59
Speaker
This base of being humble and how can we grow from there and be open to growing and, you know, exploring things like radical love and marketing. So so so still talking about your company.
00:06:11
Speaker
So what was the moment that really made you take that leap from the idea to
Higher Consciousness in Marketing and Bliss
00:06:17
Speaker
execution? Boy, there's probably a yeah several steps in that journey, I think, to that. I do remember like the first time I ran like ah just a paid search ad back in the day. It was this unnerving experience where you're going out there and you're saying, OK, I'm going to put up an ad and anyone can just click on it and it's going to hit the cash register for me again and again. And it's like, well, let's just try this, see how it works. And I remember like within spent like three or four dollars and got a sale for something made like
00:06:46
Speaker
$20 on that. And I'm like, oh, you could scale this really easily. And so just jumping right in and playing with that early days of Google search. It wasn't even Google back then. It was there's a company called goto.com that invented this pay-per-click process and they became Overture and they were bought by Yahoo. And then Google and Yahoo battled it out.
00:07:04
Speaker
But back in the Wild West days, anything would go and you'd be in these bidding wars with people, ah know especially around the holidays. You'd be on your computer 24-7 just battling for positioning on the search engines. It was a little bit of madness. But, you know, just taking that taking that first leap and getting into that digital marketing space because there was only...
00:07:27
Speaker
Maybe two or three, four weeks old when we jumped in, when it was this first pay-per-click thing came along. And so taking that leap was a big one. And then there's another moment, I think, in my career where I'm really interested in like consciousness and studying higher consciousness. And I was at this event where we were talking about business consciousness.
00:07:47
Speaker
and, you know, how how oneness and integral theory and all these things and, this you know, these concepts. And they're like, well, how do you plan on using that in your business? And I'm like, I just do a Google ad. How am I supposed to bring oneness and all this to that, right?
00:08:01
Speaker
But it was a question, though, that just kind of lingered throughout my career is, yeah, how do we bring these these conscious these concepts of higher consciousness to what we do? And so keeping asking that question really led me to understand that it's all these other things around are our company there we that we stand for.
00:08:21
Speaker
You know, it's these, our employees and empathy with our customers and empathy with our employees and empathy with our community that we're in and you start understanding these bigger picture type of things and over time all that will eventually in a way could come out into that little tiny google ad if you want because this is a story about your company and how you're you find meaning in the world and your higher purpose and so i think those you know jumping in at first way back when you know taking the risk of trying some digital marketing but then really trying to figure out well how can we do digital marketing
00:08:55
Speaker
with a higher purpose and and more meaning. Okay. So I always say that entrepreneurship, as you know it so well, is not a walk in the park. There are a lot of highs, lows, and a lot of lessons you pick up.
00:09:07
Speaker
so So let's start off by talking about your high moments. Can you share some high moments of this journey so far with us? High moments. So I would think... um I remember like around eight, nine years ago, articulating this concept of bliss, which we're going to get into, I think, um and sitting in this conference room with our employees and kind of having this idea that is a little bit radical. So bliss for us stands for build love into scalable systems.
00:09:36
Speaker
And so we were at this point in our business journey where we're starting to scale. We're starting to systemize things. And there are growing pains when you're doing that, right? And, you know, I didn't want us to lose our culture, which is really based around empathy and love. And so it was like at this key stage for companies, how can you really focus on what matters most?
00:09:57
Speaker
while you're scaling and so i articulated this concept of bliss so build love into scalable systems how can we build this and so in this staff meeting just kind of throwing it out there and i have no idea how this is going to be received uh by the company and everything you know it's like one of those was i up at midnight just coming up with a crazy concept or or something um Afterward, I just got all this response from everyone in there.
00:10:22
Speaker
Even one of the employees said, this is why I'm staying here. It's because of this kind of thing. And so this was just a huge kind of, you could say, yeah, aha moment, I think, for us was...
00:10:33
Speaker
was understanding, hey, what if we keep asking how we can build love into our business in different ways? and started And that really started that journey um for the past eight, you know, nine years. So that's been kind of one of those key moments for me as an entrepreneur is really diving deep into radical love and empathy and how we build that into a business. and um Certainly some things didn't work, but we all try and keep it organic. What works with each other and our staff and what doesn't.
00:11:04
Speaker
um And so that's been pretty
Burnout, Meaning, and Emotional Connections
00:11:07
Speaker
life-changing. If we want to get to the the low points, thinking about the low points was prior to this, when you'd go to work daily, I could feel the grind a lot, right?
00:11:16
Speaker
Like you just felt the weight of of everything you're doing and kind of the slog, the day after day thing. And I think the real reason for feeling all that was that it was hard for me to find the meaning and fulfillment in what we were doing at the time.
00:11:29
Speaker
But until we took this real empathetic approach and understand our higher purpose, that's when suddenly all the energy came back. right And it's really, we didn't do anything different as far as how we operated, but it was just this tiny mindset change in how we viewed viewed our business. And I think um there are a lot of examples of that with people now that I've talked to over the years of how it was just this tiny mindset change.
00:11:53
Speaker
that they made in their business, realizing maybe they're in service to others in some way, in some higher way. And that made all the difference for them um and there are in their entrepreneurial journey. Okay. so So you've talked about the highs, you've talked about the lows, but I know that on this journey, you've picked up a lot of lessons.
00:12:11
Speaker
Can you share some of these lessons with us? Yeah, I'd say turns out doing the kind thing, the good thing is almost always the profitable thing in the long run. If you think about it that way, there's so much data out there now that shows that if you're taking an empathetic approach or a compassionate approach to what you're doing, you know, kindness can really be this differentiator for you, for your business, where you can kind of stand out. And what happens in that process is as you start Start to make emotional connection with your customers and you and your employees as well.
00:12:44
Speaker
And your employees are going to stay with you longer. you know, you're going to retain your employees longer doing that. Your customers, there's data around this. If you make an emotional connection with your customer on, you know, kind of this higher level...
00:12:57
Speaker
you're going to have 306% higher lifetime value for that customer versus just the satisfied customer. Hey, I sold them this. They were satisfied with the product. But if I'm really able to go deeper and make this you know emotional connection, which is usually around your higher purpose or kindness in some way, that that person is going to stay with you longer. They're going to tell their friends about you. These are the people that are the real advocates for your business.
00:13:21
Speaker
And that's kind of the holy grail in marketing is when your customers are doing the marketing for you because they've connected with you on an emotional way. So I think if you can get to that point where you can define your higher purpose in your business and use that audit the heck out of your company according to that higher purpose, right? Say, hey, every little process, every little system we're doing, how does this work with our higher purpose in mind?
00:13:45
Speaker
And you get to that way, then you start becoming an authentic company according around that higher purpose. And your customers will feel that. They will feel it all the time. And that's how you get to that emotional connection that I think is really important. Okay.
00:13:56
Speaker
So you talk about creating experiences to wow and win clients. What does this really mean in practice? Yeah, that's a good question. Um... but One of the things you want to do is when we talk about these emotional connections, there are really like 17 emotions when someone's consuming a product or service.
00:14:17
Speaker
Some of those are negative. Some of those are positive. What you really want is these positive consumption emotions to to be involved in your products. There are things like that you can add to your company and your process that are like a a surprise and delight kind of element where someone you you did something totally unexpected that someone wasn't, it you know, even thinking was going to happen and it delighted them. And now suddenly I've kind of elevated our relationship.
00:14:45
Speaker
in a way. And so we've recently launched this AI software. It's the AI chief marketing officer at AICMO.io. But this, one of the elements that has in there is sort of purple goldfish, you know, purple cow. You may have heard those phrases, that kind of thing. It develops those kinds of ideas for your business to where you can make this, these surprise and delight elements of your business doing something extra, something that someone didn't expect. It comes up with all kinds of creative ideas, depending on what your business is.
00:15:12
Speaker
And it's designed specifically, though, to build that emotional connection and to really, ideally, it's tied around your higher purpose again so that people understand, oh, and they really walk the talk.
00:15:23
Speaker
This is what they're about. And now they've they've amazed me. They've wowed me know with this. This little extra thing that they did for their or me that I wasn't even expecting. and Okay. So, in your know opinion, on what do you think are some principles or values you believe are essential to consistently deliver wow experiences?
00:15:42
Speaker
I think, first of all, kindness should be like one of those things. And this shouldn't be like a wow thing. It shouldn't be something that differentiates you in the world. But it... There's so much noise out there. There's so much just transactional relationships, right? That someone doing something that's a little extra kind that you didn't expect, that makes a kind of a wow thing. And I think, you know, you and I could probably even think of just every now and then something like that happening with a company or a product or a service. Usually it's the person there just being nice, just being a nice person. This is who they are. And it's not necessarily like the company's system.
00:16:19
Speaker
It was just, this is a great person. They light up the room every time they go. When they leave, they take that with them and they take those random acts of kindness with them. And so that's really when we think about bliss is can we build these random acts of kindness?
00:16:32
Speaker
Can we make them a system of kindness so that the next employee in that same spot has kind of some ideas on how to how to you know treat the customer or go the extra mile for the customer or is empowered to do something loving or kind within their They're reaching you start asking that question over and over again, really do think kindness is one of these, one of the customer experience you'll find just kind of elevates your game.
00:16:58
Speaker
And so there is some data around this. 70% of buying experiences are based on how the customer feels they're being treated. I mean, that's a pretty big thing. And for for leaders, I think it kind of starts with you a lot of times.
00:17:12
Speaker
You got to kind of set the tone or set the systems in place or help, you know, people know that this is how you want to act. And there's data all around that, um you know, for for companies that are known for compassionate leadership.
00:17:24
Speaker
They're seeing 41% higher customer satisfaction. So all this stuff trickles down, right? All this kindness kind of has this ripple effect. And I think if you start auditing your business for kindness, for empathy, for love, this is how you're going to find maybe even the higher purpose you didn't know you had. So I still want us to dwell on your response, an aspect of your
Building Internal Culture and Kindness
00:17:43
Speaker
response.
00:17:43
Speaker
Because you speak a lot about using Blaze to transform kind customers into brand ambassadors. So what does Blaze really mean in a business context?
00:17:54
Speaker
I think a lot of things. So first, sometimes your first customer should really be your employees. Like this this should be the first one that you're focusing on. um You know, building that internal culture, culture is often your product.
00:18:09
Speaker
You may not be aware of it, but culture is often your product. This is what, you know, can separate you and your competitor. Very simply, maybe you're offering the same things, but your culture is something that sets you apart.
00:18:21
Speaker
So I think operationally, first start with all those internal systems, all those things of how you treat each other as employees. Be disruptive, because right now we're all thinking that this hierarchical, you know, I'm the boss, I've got the managers, all that. That's the pretty typical standard form of company.
00:18:38
Speaker
But if you look at some of these um next level purpose-oriented businesses, they They blow up that structure. They make these self-managing teams so that people feel empowered and they can be leaders themselves when they need to and be followers themselves. And so look at everything internally. If you're asking what's the loving thing to do here, oftentimes you're going to find some of these going find your way to these some of these same places that and these great companies that have evolved consciously or where they're at. So first off, absolutely focus on yourself. Focus on your leadership. Focus on your staff or your company's emotional intelligence or their EQ, making sure that they understand what it means to be empathetic.
00:19:17
Speaker
Start with all that first and foremost. um That's where I would say, you know, if you're starting with bliss, look at all that stuff that you're doing. We do things in our company where we've got peer-to-peer giving, where everyone gets a little bit of allowance of a budget every month.
00:19:30
Speaker
And you know they're using Slack and we're communicating. But when someone does something extra for them, you know or you know does something does them a solid, they they like send them a little bit of, ah call bliss bucks, for for being nice and showing that kindness. And this is really this sort of way they can show gratitude to and employee. And this is how you build some of that teamwork in there. And So instead of, you know, me being the head of the company, having to, you know, be the one who says, hey, great job on this. And I'm the only one saying that all the time. That's just one torch. If I've got, you know, 40 people as a staff, you know, 100 people as a staff, and now they're saying it to each other, that's, you know, 100 torches, right?
00:20:10
Speaker
And they're all carrying And that really builds that culture into. from the inside out. And so that's where you want to start with that bliss so that when you're going out with your message, you're authentic, you're you're walking the talk, you're about it, right? So work on yourself know and your your leadership. If you're leadership, work on yourself. Your employees don't need to deal with your your issues, your trauma, all that. they That doesn't need to be revisited upon your employees. So work on yourself. That would be a definitely a bliss approach to leadership for sure.
00:20:37
Speaker
And then, yeah, and then let's let's get you to tell ah a story about your business has a lot more meaning. And so, again, that's like with our ai chief marketing software. We've got tools in there to help you with that purpose to maybe you've never been asked these questions about your company, but it helps you think about your higher purpose and your purpose in the world and things you find meaning and fulfillment in.
00:20:58
Speaker
And so then once you've got that figured out, then we're going to come with some ideas for you on how to create campaigns and marketing around some of that higher purpose. But we do need you to kind of walk that talk, you know, because otherwise, if you're just saying you're about something and you're not, that marketing will backfire on you badly.
00:21:17
Speaker
You've also mentioned that marketing needs a kindness communicator. What really inspired this idea and how does it reshape the traditional marketing approaches?
00:21:27
Speaker
I think a lot of times, like right now, first off, we're the most marketed to generation ever right now. Like everyone... It's got the phone or something and they'll be constantly blasted. We're on social media. we're We're constantly blasted by images and stuff like that.
00:21:41
Speaker
And there's so much noise out there. And so much of that is just talking about, you know, here's the features of our product or here's the benefits or buy this, buy that. How do you cut through all that noise?
00:21:52
Speaker
I mean, so, you know, if you're if you're just saying the same stuff for everyone else is saying, you're just adding to the noise in the world. And A lot of times we know that that can be even damaging.
00:22:03
Speaker
Like, you know, but i'm and um I've got a daughter, you know, and we know on social media, all these images of what ideal beauty looks like can really impact young young, you know, there's been studies on all of that. And if you're an advertiser and you're putting that out into the world, you're just contributing to that.
00:22:20
Speaker
Whereas you've got, you know, maybe someone like a dove, you know, they've got their dove real beauty where they're talking about what real beauty looks like. So they're spending millions and millions of dollars and putting out billions of ad impressions that are actually putting good and kindness into the world. And And naturally, I think their stuff went viral because people like to share something that they find good, as well as the things that outrage them, right? The internet's all about, hey, this is what outrages me. This ah is what I'm mad about. You see that more than everything.
00:22:48
Speaker
Every now and then, though, you see something like, this was amazing. Look at how beautiful this is. You know, look how kind this is. And that can go just as viral. But I guess it's a harder story for people to tell, or it's a harder thing for people to share or find.
00:23:01
Speaker
So really, that's kind of what we want to do is put more of that into the world, I think. Okay, so so so still talking about this and how you utilize this in their in your company.
00:23:11
Speaker
So how does your company, your company's zero company, how does it ensure authentic lasting relationship with its customers and also your collaborators? Yeah, I think, you know, it's funny, we just got out of a meeting, even just talking about this stuff. and you know, the what's what's one of our differentiators really is that culture of ours, you know, so much based around kindness and understanding our customers on a deeper level.
00:23:37
Speaker
Yeah, they want they want to double double their revenue. you know They want to cut their ad spend at the same time. But also understanding that if we do that, well, now this person is going to be able to send their kid to the school they want, right? Our client's going to send the kid to the school they want, or they'll be able to take that vacation that they've been dreaming about. And so that puts a little more weight on us to understand the importance of what we do.
00:23:59
Speaker
And I think there's a lot of agencies out there that don't go to that level And they're just thinking, hey, yeah, here's all the numbers, whatever, call it kind of churn and burn where they get a client in and if they leave, whatever, as long as we keep getting more in. But for us, it's like we don't sleep at night if we know something's not going well because we understand the ramifications of what it means to this person, you know, to their family, to their relatives, to, you know, there's a ripple effect on what we do. And if we do it right, we can impact that.
00:24:28
Speaker
And so we definitely make sure all of our account executives and managers kind of understand that relationship that they have so and try to build it on a deeper level there are times when things go sideways in marketing for instance like the pandemic right stuff happened when you have that trust built up in these key moments some of the best decisions can be made for your company like if things were going we had a ah client that i'm like hey i know the revenue is looking bad but all of our metrics are looking amazing and they're like okay
00:24:59
Speaker
We believe you. let's Let's double the the ad spend right now. They doubled it. They came out the other side of the, you know, just a few months later, doubling there their company's overall revenue. And we're talking billions of dollars here.
00:25:11
Speaker
But as if we didn't have that trust built in before that and that working relationship, that would have been a huge missed opportunity for any other agency, I think. In your earlier submission, you talked about IA and how you are utilizing it in your organization.
AI Enhancing Human Qualities in Marketing
00:25:25
Speaker
I still want us to talk about that into a bit more details. As we all know, AI is changing the way we do our things and it's changing the way we even market our things. How is your company leveraging AI in your campaigns?
00:25:39
Speaker
Can we talk about the earlier tool you talked about? Yeah, i'd love I love talking about AI. um So in the digital marketing space for years, like even a decade, we were using ai and machine learning, you know, just in like the Google platforms and things like that.
00:25:54
Speaker
That's kind of what AI was for a while. And then a couple years ago, we had the generative AI that comes in that just kind of changed everything. And so for us, we understood that whatever AI is going to do, it's going to amplify it.
00:26:07
Speaker
Like it's going to be, you know, ten x or 100x, whatever you were doing before. And so for us, you know, we're asking, hey, how can we build love into this? How can we put good into the world?
00:26:18
Speaker
How can we scale love? And so what we wanted to do was develop a marketing product that will, instead of us prompting it, it's going to prompt us to do the loving thing in our marketing, to find our higher purpose. So we're goingnna we're using it to coach us as marketers um constantly. With our AI CMO, we've programmed in like 100 different expert techniques. So we're going to level up.
00:26:43
Speaker
I've been in the marketing forever, but I don't know off top my head a hundred different techniques for a hundred different things. I know a lot, but it's just like, that's, there's so many, you're always learning. Everything's fluid.
00:26:54
Speaker
But if you have a tool that says in plain language, Hey, which of these things do you want to try on this campaign? These are all expert backed things. So now AI is going to level up your expertise, right? At the same time, we want it to level up the good that you're putting into the world, the kindness that you're doing at the same time. So by asking you questions around that.
00:27:14
Speaker
So I really do think instead of, you know, us prompting AI, what we really want is good AI to prompt us to be better humans. And I think we're seeing a little bit more of that, but it's pretty dang rare because I Everyone, they just want to use ai to optimize toward that sole thing of profit all the time. It's like, how can I make more money?
00:27:33
Speaker
Problem is, AI, from what we've experienced over the past decade, when you're telling it this is the one singular goal, it will do that at all costs and it's not going to think about anything else.
00:27:43
Speaker
So now when we get into generative AI, maybe it's not going to think about your employees. It's not going to think about the environment or your community. It's not going to think about, you know, these other business stakeholders out there, but it's going to think about profit.
00:27:55
Speaker
And if it's just optimizing toward that, it may not care about employees. It may not care about the environment. you know, people, the planet. It may not care about anything else. So we want you to have ai that cares about kind of a higher purpose. So we want to care about purpose, people, planet, and profit, all those things. And it can do that.
00:28:14
Speaker
And it can put that into its algorithm. So if we use it in ah in a way where we're building love and kindness into it, it can do that if we let it. We just have to realize there's things we can do beyond profit and when we're using AI. Okay. So still building on the point you just made. As we know, we we we we are all aware, AI is here to stay.
00:28:32
Speaker
but But how do we really strike that right balance between automation and maintaining that human purpose-driven kind of voice in marketing? Yeah, I always think of this as, can artificial intelligence make us more real in some way? And I see AI as kind of a jazz session, right, where you've got a few people playing instruments. So it's me and the AI playing a couple of different, and we're kind of riffing in this jazz session, and that is co-creation. So I'm bringing my humanness, it's bringing its AI-ness into it.
00:29:03
Speaker
And it's prompting me, I'm prompting it, right? And so I think as long as you're bringing your humanness into the process, that's going to be a good thing. But if you're just on chat GPT and you're asking the same question, hey, write a blog article for me for my carpet installation business.
00:29:22
Speaker
Someone, you know, 100 miles away is like, i have a carpet business, write a blog article for me. These are going to be very similar, very not human kind of things. You know, it'll just be the same old stuff, adding more noise out into the world and without any meaning behind it. So with our software, that's what we're trying to do is like put some guide rails in there that's going to differentiate.
00:29:43
Speaker
You know, tell us what your higher purpose is. Let's figure out what your higher purpose is. Let's figure out how you're different from your competitors. Let's figure out how you like to speak and what you're what you're your brand voice is like.
00:29:54
Speaker
Bring all these things in and now let's come up with some creative ideas on a campaign that might resonate with you. And so we're going to come back. it It'll bring back a whole bunch of creative campaign ideas and you'll be like, OK, yeah, this one really resonates with me. Let's do this.
00:30:07
Speaker
And what it'll do is take that one campaign using your voice, using your higher purpose, all those things and build all these different things for your Google, for your blog and your email and all that. And ideally that helps bring out the human, the humanity in you in this process versus just going to like the chat GPT and doing that single prompt.
00:30:25
Speaker
This is going to bring out more of who you are in the, in that jazz session. And so I think if we think about it that way, that we're prompting AI, but it's prompting us and we want it to to put more good into the world in our way and how our business sees meaning. I think that's going to be probably one of the more human things we're going to see that could come out of all this. yeah
Love in Business Processes for Engagement
00:30:46
Speaker
Okay. so So you've spoken about scaling businesses with love, not just data.
00:30:51
Speaker
What does that look like in action for you as a leader? Yeah. So I try to keep like this list of all these things that we've done, you know, that I would consider like bliss related things going on.
00:31:02
Speaker
And there are so many different elements to that from, you know, I've talked about those peer to peer things to, um you know, we're now kind of a hybrid remote office, but it's where people can, you know, work with flexible hours and things like that.
00:31:16
Speaker
There's all these little things you can be doing in your in your your day-to-day business life. As long as you're asking that question, how can I build love into this? We have at the beginning of our staff meetings once a week where we talk about some gratitude. Like, hey, we verbally say, hey, I want to shout out this person.
00:31:34
Speaker
They really helped me you know, do this one thing together. Or I saw this person do this other standout thing. These are little moments of of stuff that helps build your company soul.
00:31:45
Speaker
This is what brings your company to life. If you aren't doing those things, if you're just running business as usual, this is how you get those soulless businesses that, you know, right now only 21% of the world's workforce population is engaged at work.
00:32:00
Speaker
So that means four out of five people just hate it. They hate going to work. They are not engaged. There's a percentage of those that are actively against you, even at work. So this is a huge problem. This is a huge problem. And the reason is is because they don't find meaning and fulfillment in their work because they're treated like a cog.
00:32:17
Speaker
You know, they're not empowered. They're not being seen or heard a lot of times. And I think when you're thinking about that concept of bliss, this is what's going to bring the soul back into your business. When we're thinking more about these relationships and this connection that we have with each other and understanding, you know, what's going on in someone's life, you know, personally and caring about them. And this is how you bring that back into that process.
00:32:41
Speaker
So, but right now, like I said, four out of five employees are just not engaged with work because of the way we've been treating it. I know from studying consciousness, I know what the future of business looks like because we've seen businesses that have this higher consciousness.
00:32:55
Speaker
We've seen the young people coming into business looking for meaning more so than previous generations because of the gravity of all the work we've put in, you know, consciously and where we've evolved to. They're coming up so fast to that that gravity that we've worked so hard to build and they're going to be pushing the envelope even further.
00:33:12
Speaker
But they're coming into work looking for meaning, looking for something that speaks to them, looking for empathy and and even love. we don't We don't like to say it a lot in work, but they are looking for that love and that compassion and something that gives them meaning. So I really think, you know, this is where you've kind of got to start if you want to bring that that soul back into your business, if you want it to be more of a living organism versus this machine that just grinds away on people all the time.
00:33:38
Speaker
Okay. so so So how do you sustain your company culture and also emotional intelligence while growing operations and also expanding your client base?
00:33:49
Speaker
I think they're one and the same. a lot of times I think culture is your product. You know, a lot of times you may not realize that. I've got like just massive documents of how empathy and work and compassion and work, how it makes, it's actually the more profitable thing too.
00:34:04
Speaker
So if you're cold hearted out there and you're you're thinking, ah you know, this sounds like fluff. No, there's study after study after study that shows that you're going to be more profitable taking this approach.
00:34:15
Speaker
So, you know, I think no matter what part of your business you're working on, just go to Google and just type in, how do I apply empathy to this situation? And you'll probably find some stats or data that's backing that up. So there's, we're talking data, but we're talking to empathy data.
00:34:31
Speaker
right? And that this empathetic approach is actually going to hit your bottom line in a positive way. So you can combine these two things of, you know, being loving, being empathetic, being compassionate, because so many studies are just showing, you know, time and time again, that it's going to be the more profitable thing too.
00:34:50
Speaker
So if If you aren't sure, you're you're not sure, you know, you haven't done the the EQ training at work as a leader and all those things that we talked about earlier. If you're not sure and you're just looking at this data points, well, there's data points for empathy being more profitable.
00:35:04
Speaker
So look it up, do it, do it. Trust me on this. This is how you can grow your business. And so, like I said, they aren't mutually exclusive. They can help you grow and level up together, I think. and ah And in a way that's more meaningful to you, I think, in the long run.
00:35:18
Speaker
Okay, so we're just about wrapping up our conversation But you've been on this journey for quite some time now. So looking back, is there anything you would have done differently on this journey?
00:35:30
Speaker
Yeah, I wish I knew some of the stuff I just talked about, like from day one. You know, my my my grandfather, when he was 80, he kind of knew this. And I remember this conversation he had with me.
00:35:41
Speaker
You know, this is near toward the end of his life. He was all, no matter what you do in business, he said, do it with love. Right. And so it just inherently spoke true to me. But this is someone with 80 years of you know work experience telling someone at the time who is probably 20.
00:35:57
Speaker
I don't know, in his 20s, you know, and I understood it, but I didn't understand the levels and the nuance to like I do now on just how important it is and with empathy and compassion, all those things and how much meaningful my work will will get. It finally they got onto me, grandpa. And so, you know, but that was that took a while before I really understood the nuance of all that and how much better it made running a business, working with people, i'm making impact in people's lives. All that stuff came out from that. But yeah, looking back, if I had the full 80 years of wisdom there and it resonated and hit that right tone and I understood all the nuance. That would have been great. But I mean, that's what life's about, think, is taking that journey, figuring it out along the way.
00:36:38
Speaker
Okay, so we're just have about wrapping up. I always want to end my conversations with my guests sharing pieces of advice to our audience and our audience, people in business, people with that desire to start, people kind of have, there's fear. So they're unable to take the bold step to be able to go forth and achieve whatever they have inside of them.
00:37:02
Speaker
So I would like us to share a few moments before I sign off with you offering pieces of advice.
Final Advice on Risks and Legacy
00:37:09
Speaker
What would be your piece of advice to my audience before we sign off?
00:37:13
Speaker
I think like as there's a couple of things here. One of my personal values is courage, right? And so if you aren't willing to take a little bit of risk from time to time to take that bold step, like you said, you're going to ask yourself later on in life, you know, why didn't I do that? Why didn't I try that?
00:37:29
Speaker
You know, a lot of success stories have 13, 14, 15 failure stories before they were a success. So don't be afraid to do it. The mere fact that you tried doing it is a success.
00:37:40
Speaker
And so understand that much, even if you fail. The mere fact that you tried is success. The second thing would be if you want to leave a mark or a legacy, you know, of some type. This is where I think you can do it is with that bliss concept is by if you build love into some kind of system around you.
00:37:58
Speaker
You know, whatever you're doing at work right now, you can ask yourself that question. Whatever you're doing in your life, is there a system where you could add just a little bit of love to that will run on its own when you're not even there? So this is a mark that you've left in the world in some way that is now having this ripple effect as it's touching people, even when you aren't there. So do that once, just do it once in your life and then do it again and do it again and keep finding ways to do that. And that's how you're going to leave a legacy with some kind of impact. And anyone can do that right now.
00:38:26
Speaker
All right. So before I sign off, would be your last words to my audience? Last words to the audience. um I'm going to say, think about radical love. What does that mean? What does that even mean? Think about just that concept. Ask yourself, what does radical love mean?
00:38:39
Speaker
Think about humility, being humble. Those two things together. If you're humble, this is how you're going to grow. This is how you're you're going to be open to things. And if you're loving, this is how you're going to grow healthy.
00:38:50
Speaker
ah fear If you're arrogant and you're not as loving, you're going to have some painful lessons in life because love will find a way. And sometimes it's going to run up against your your rigid response to things.
00:39:01
Speaker
And it's going to be painful. But for smooth sailing, be humble, be loving. All right. Be humble, be loving. And these are the parting words of my guest. Stephen Sarkash.
00:39:12
Speaker
Stephen, thank you so much for spending your time with us today and for sharing your rich experience with us on the Entrepreneur Speaks podcast. We wish you the very best. Thank you, Kofi. So this has been another exciting episode of the Entrepreneur Speaks podcast.
00:39:27
Speaker
I'll come your way next time with another inspiring episode. I remain your host, Kofi Animedu. As always, do take good care of yourself and let's continue to keep hope alive.
00:39:38
Speaker
Cheers. Please be sure to subscribe to the Entrepreneur Speaks podcast on all your favorite podcast channels. And if you have any questions or feedback, feel free to reach out to us on social media or in the comments section below.
00:39:57
Speaker
Dreams light up the sky tonight. Builders of tomorrow shining bright. Every land they find their beat.
00:40:08
Speaker
Yeah, it's the entrepreneur speaks.