How to Fuel Your Life and Work with Purpose with Author and Founder Dr. Alise Cortez
Oct 30, 2025
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For this episode of Dominate Your Day, I chat with Dr. Alise Cortez—organizational psychologist, author, speaker, and founder of Gusto, Now!, a human and organizational transformation consultancy. Her mission is to help people come alive through their values, strengths, and purposeful contributions at work and in life.
Alise shares how her top CliftonStrengths—Input, Maximizer, and Relator—fuel her journey as a prolific writer and podcast host. She explains how her input strength drives her to read voraciously and take detailed notes, which then becomes research for her books and speaking engagements. We also explore how her experiences, including divorce and the loss of her parents, have shaped her personally and professionally. Alise provides guidance on discovering core values as a foundational step to finding meaning. Through her lens as a logotherapist, she outlines how meaning comes from our contributions, our experiences, and our mindset—all anchored in our personal values.
If you're a leader or an individual searching for deeper connection to your work, Alise offers incredible insight on how to navigate these complex times with clarity and energy. As she says, today’s workplace must evolve to meet people where they are—from fractional work to purpose-driven culture. Her words are a strong reminder that meaning is not just a nice-to-have, it's a powerful source of energy we can all access.
Episode Minutes:
- Minute 5:00 — Alise's Journey to Purpose
- Minute 15:00 — Organizational Purpose and Culture
- Minute 25:00 — Leadership in the New Workplace
- Minute 35:00 — The Future of Work and Fractional Employees
Links + Resources from This Episode:
- Visit gusto-now.com
- Connect with Alise on LinkedIn
- Get your copy of Alise’s book, Purpose Ignited: How Inspiring Leaders Unleash Passion and Elevate Cause
- Learn more about all of Alise’s books
- Get your copy of Dana’s new book, The Internal Revolution: Lead Authentically and Build Your Personal Brand from Within
- Learn more about The Strengths Journal
About Dr. Alise Cortez
Dr. Alise Cortez is the Chief Ignition Officer at Gusto, Now!, a human and organizational transformation consultancy specializing in unleashing business results by igniting and growing high-performance teams passionate about delivering on the organizational mission. The resulting rewards? Higher engagement, performance, innovation, retention, customer delight, and thus profitability. Dr. Alise is also an organizational psychologist and logotherapist, inspirational speaker, researcher, author, and host of the Working on Purpose podcast, and she is bent on awakening people and organizations to their passion and purpose and inspiring them to make a contribution worthy of their one, precious life.
She is the author of:
- Purpose Ignited: How Inspiring Leaders Unleash Passion and Elevate Cause (2020)
- Passionately Striving in “Why”: An Anthology of Women Who Persevere Mightily to Live Their Purpose (2021)
- The Great Revitalization: How Activating Meaning and Purpose Can Radically Enliven Your Business (2023)
- Coloring Life: How Loss Invites Us to Live More Vibrant Lives (2023)
- The Power of Soulful Healing: Turning Wounds into Wisdom (co-author Arthur Ciaramicoli, 2025)
Having developed her expertise within the human capital / organizational excellence industry over the last 25 years, she is focused on “raising the game” of organizations and individuals to live and work with “gusto,” step into their purpose to realize their potential, and make the impact they crave that betters the world.
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