Connecting With Purpose

About Connecting With Purpose

Connecting With Purpose is a place for consequential conversations about doing what matters most in times when our families, workplaces, and communities need us. On the PurposeFused podcast, our partners host conversations with leaders from multiple sectors about what's possible when we invest in leading and living with purpose, for ourselves and our teams. By learning from guests' experiences in the purpose journey, as business leaders and humans beyond the workplace, the show serves as a catalyst for action. Connecting With Purpose inspires and guides discovery to embed purpose into people's work and lives, improving wellbeing and performance for themselves, their organizations, and their worlds. We help leaders create the impact they seek and inspire a ripple effect of purpose activation.

Publisher

Mark Griffin

Category

business · education

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

29 Aug 2023

Latest episode

20 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

63 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   20 Oct 2026

   Tell the Truth: How Radical Transparency Drives Performance in an ESOP | Mike Cordova

   What happens when every employee is an owner? In this episode of Connecting with Purpose, host Mark Griffin sits down with Mike Cordova, CFO and independent board director of Anvil Corporation, a 100% employee-owned (ESOP) engineering and design firm. Together, they explore what it takes to lead through uncertainty, build high-performing teams, and create a workplace culture where transparency, accountability, and employee ownership drive meaningful results. With more than 25 years of executive leadership experience, Mike shares lessons from navigating organizational challenges, developing talent, and building teams that understand how their individual contributions impact the bigger picture. In this episode, you'll learn about: Leading Through Uncertainty: What Mike learned from joining a company that went bankrupt just nine months later, and why effective leadership requires clear communication during difficult times. Building High-Performing Teams: How Mike uses his "whiteboard exercise" to encourage employees to develop solutions, take ownership, and strengthen accountability. Financial Transparency & Employee Ownership: Why teaching employees to understand financial statements can build trust, improve decision-making, and strengthen organizational performance. The Business Impact of Small Improvements: How a 1% improvement in utilization can translate into $1 million in company valuation. Leadership Lessons That Last: Why Mike believes three simple words are essential to building trust and leading effectively: "Tell the truth." From building a finance function in just 90 days to navigating critical inflection points, Mike offers practical insights for leaders who want to develop their people, strengthen their organizations, and create a culture of shared success. ABOUT OUR GUEST Mike Cordova is an independent board director and CFO of Anvil Corporation, a 100% employee-owned engineering and design firm providing engineering, procurement, and project management services nationwide. With more than 25 years of experience as a CFO and CEO across industrial manufacturing and service organizations, Mike is passionate about leadership development, succession planning, financial transparency, and employee ownership. He is also a longtime soccer referee and a frequent speaker at the National Center for Employee Ownership. Connect with Mike here:   / mikecordovacfo CONNECT WITH PURPOSE Connecting with Purpose, hosted by Mark Griffin, explores leadership, performance, and the people and experiences that shape how we lead. Subscribe for more conversations with leaders sharing practical lessons, personal experiences, and insights that make a difference in business and beyond. If this conversation resonates with you, give the episode a like and share your thoughts in the comments. What role does transparency play in building trust within your organization? #EmployeeOwnership #ESOP (https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/esop) #Leadership (https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/leadership) #ConnectingWithPurpose #FinancialTransparency

2. 

   14 Oct 2026

   Playing in Position: Are We Getting The Best of Our People?

   What if your biggest leadership problem is not effort, but misalignment? Mark Griffin argues that high-performing people often get pulled out of position, doing more than they should, diluting their impact, and draining the very energy their team needs most. Drawing on founder experience and lessons from rugby, Mark unpacks the idea of "playing in position" as a practical leadership framework for individuals, teams, and organizations. He shows why capable people can still underperform when they're using the wrong strengths, why some leaders become trapped as the "doer" instead of the enabler, and how teams lose momentum when specialists, decision-makers, and support roles are not working in sync. You'll discover: —The three self-level elements of playing in position: what you contribute, what energizes you, and the leadership maturity to adapt under pressure —Why moving from "me" to "we" changes everything about how strong teams create value —How complementary strengths like challenging thinking, making sense of complexity, driving decisions, and filling blind spots build real resilience —Why systems, rewards, and promotion paths often sabotage performance even when the people are talented —What changes when founders step back, leaders shift from delivering to enabling, and employees start behaving like owners Mark also breaks down the hidden cost of asking people to collaborate while rewarding individual output, or promoting top performers without preparing them for the identity shift that leadership requires. If your team is full of talent but not getting the results you expect, this episode will help you see the problem differently. Essential listening for founders, executives, team leaders, and anyone asking how to get the best out of good people without burning them out in the process.

3. 

   7 Oct 2026

   What Founders Get Wrong About Succession & Employee Ownership | Jason Wiener

   In this episode of Connecting with Purpose, Mark Griffin is joined by Jason Wiener, founder of CurrentShift Legal, a legal and business consulting firm serving mission-driven companies, social impact organizations, and environmentally focused enterprises. Jason specializes in employee ownership, worker-owned and stakeholder-owned business models, business formation, capital raising, restructures, and complex transactions. He is deeply passionate about using better-designed ownership models to redistribute wealth, increase employee agency, and build organizations that are both commercially strong and socially responsible. But this conversation goes far beyond legal structure. Mark and Jason explore the human side of founder transition, including identity, purpose, succession planning, leadership readiness, culture, decision-making, and the risk of founders becoming bottlenecks inside the businesses they built. Jason has lived this personally. He has stepped away from his own business, re-engaged with it, and written extensively about the complexities of founder transition. He shares why succession is not simply about transferring ownership or authority, why culture and psychological safety must come before legal mechanics, and why employees need more than compensation to feel truly invested in the future of a company. They also discuss how employee ownership can create greater agency, dignity, voice, and accountability, especially during a period of economic disruption, AI-driven change, and major generational wealth transfer. If you are a founder, business owner, senior leader, employee ownership advisor, or anyone thinking about succession, purpose, organizational culture, or the future of work, this conversation offers a thoughtful look at what sustainable transition really requires. In this episode, you'll hear about: • Founder transition and succession planning • Employee ownership and wealth redistribution • Leadership readiness and reducing founder dependence • Purpose, values, and identity • Culture, communication, and psychological safety • Decision-making and employee agency • Preparing employees to become future owners • Why legal structure alone cannot fix a broken organization • The role of ownership in building more resilient businesses • Jason's perspective on legacy, family, and long-term impact Connect with Jason Wiener: Instagram https://www.instagram.com/jwpcpbc/ CurrentShift Legal on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/currentshift-legal Jason's LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jrwiener/ Website https://currentshift.legal/ If this conversation resonates, subscribe to Connecting with Purpose for more conversations on leadership, purpose, performance, founder transition, employee ownership, and what it really takes to build organizations that can thrive beyond the founder.

Who has been a guest on Connecting With Purpose

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Miren Oca
• Keith Bearden
• Jacob Brown
• Carlette Patterson

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

6,469

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

1 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

26 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 63 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

76

Social presence

0

YouTube

74

Engagement

51

Contact Connecting With Purpose

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

Questions about Connecting With Purpose