20. Beyond the Revenue: Building a Business with a Why Worth Fighting For | Leadership

When you started your business, there was probably a moment when you pictured what it would feel like to be your own boss. Maybe you thought about income. Maybe you thought about freedom. But on the hardest days -- when the client cancels, the equipment breaks, and you haven't slept -- none of that is what gets you off the floor. In this episode, Ginny gets honest about the one thing that does.

Ginny opens by sharing the story of Dean, a decades-long friend and mentor to her husband Joe, whose consistent and selfless presence quietly shaped the kind of employer and leader they both want to be at Cavalry Appliance Service. It's a real, grounded example of how our deepest business values often don't come from a strategy session. They come from watching someone live them out.

From there, Ginny walks through the actual whys behind all three of her businesses -- Cavalry Appliance, Highland Business Center, and Outcome Academy -- with the kind of specificity that challenges you to go deeper than "I want to make money" in your own thinking. Because money is a reward, not a reason. And when a business is built without a reason, it tends to crack under pressure.

Three takeaways from this episode you can put to work right away:

• Your why has to survive the hard days. If you can't name what keeps you going when things fall apart, that's your first priority. Not your marketing, not your next hire. Go find your why first.
• Profitability and purpose are not opposites. You can have a servant's heart and still charge what you're worth. In fact, you have to. You cannot give from empty.
• Answer the three questions Ginny gives at the end of the episode honestly. Write them down. What would be lost if your business closed tomorrow? Who are you specifically trying to help? What gets you back up on the worst day?

If you want to continue this work, check out Episode 3 on mission, vision, and values, and Episode 8 on defining those things personally. And if you're ready to stop building in isolation, the Eight Thousander Mastermind at OutcomeAcademy.com is the place Ginny'd point you next.

Thanks for listening to The Outcome Academy Podcast.

If you enjoyed this episode and want to keep learning how to work ON your business with systems, strategy, and practical tools, here are a few ways to stay connected:

Website: https://www.outcomeacademy.com/ 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ginny.outcomeacademy 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ginny.outcomeacademy/ 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@outcomeacademy 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/outcome-academy

If this episode was helpful, be sure to follow the show so you don't miss future conversations. If you know a local service business owner who could use this, share it with them.

Your outcome isn't a wish. It's a decision.

Transcript

If you started your business because you wanted to make money, I need to have an honest conversation with you today. Because I’m not going to lie, money is a terrible reason to start a business. What keeps you going on the days everything falls apart, the client cancels, the equipment breaks, and you have not slept? None of those are a dollar amount. It has to be something much bigger than that.

Welcome to the Outcome Academy podcast. I am Ginny Seeley. I’m a business strategist and longtime process improvement expert. I also co-own an appliance service business and a coworking space with my husband, Joe. So I understand what it looks like to juggle growth, leadership, family, and big dreams all at once.

If you're a service-based entrepreneur or executive who wants to stop putting out fires, work on your business, and build momentum with systems, smart marketing, and practical tech, you are in exactly the right place.

Well, hello, my friends, and welcome back.

Joe and I have a friend named Dean. Dean is the kind of person who shows up. Not just when it’s convenient, not just when it’s easy. He’s literally there waiting in the hospital waiting room for you. He’s at your bedside praying with you when you’re facing a health challenge. He’s cheering at your kids’ scouting ceremony when they achieve something awesome. And he was even there at Joe’s mom’s funeral literally the day after his own son passed away.

He just shows up every time for his people. No fanfare, no agenda, just presence.

Watching that over the decades that Joe worked for him, and being on the receiving end of that kind of friendship and love, started a real conversation between Joe and me about the kind of team we’re building at Cavalry Appliance.

Dean, and who he is as a friend and as a leader of the company Joe worked for for three decades, is the kind of person we want to be to our team.

It’s kind of not something we really set out to do when we started our business. But I think when somebody has been such a big part of your life, you can’t help but be influenced by them.

One of the “whys” we have at Cavalry Appliance, which we didn’t even fully realize or name at first, is showing up for our team members not just as employees, but as people. Walking alongside them through life, mentoring them, letting them know they matter far beyond what they produce on the job.

That conversation Joe and I were having made me want to talk about this episode today with you, because what’s the real reason we’re building our businesses?

Everybody starts a business, unless you're a nonprofit, to make money. But the revenue number has not brought us the kind of joy that we’ve gotten from the personal connections we’ve developed with our team.

So that is just one of our core whys at Cavalry Appliance. And today, my goal in this episode is to help you find yours.

Here’s what I see happen over and over in businesses. And I say this with so much compassion because I’ve watched it happen to really talented, hardworking people.

Someone decides they want to start a business. Maybe they’re super great at their craft. Maybe they got laid off and decided to go out on their own. Maybe they saw what somebody else was charging and thought, “Hmm, I can do that.”

And their whole vision for the business is built around what they’re going to earn. They picture the income, they picture the freedom, they picture not having a boss anymore.

And then reality hits.

A client doesn’t pay you on time. A competitor undercuts you. You work 60 hours in a week and net less than you would have at a 9-to-5. And your dream starts to crack.

Money is not a reason to get up at 5:00 in the morning and keep going when everything else is hard. Money does not sustain you through the seasons where the business is not working yet.

Money is an outcome. It’s a result. It’s important, yes. We are really going to talk about that. You cannot serve anyone from a place of financial ruin, of course. But money is not a reason. It’s a reward.

And I want to be really specific about who I’m talking to right now, because not every business advice conversation is for every business owner.

If you are the person building a software product and hoping to sell it for $10 million, that is a really great legitimate path to business, and I wish you well. But that is not the world I live in, and it’s probably not yours either.

I’m talking to the local service business owner. The plumber, the bookkeeper, the photographer, the personal trainer, the home health aide, the cleaning company owner, the marketing consultant — the person whose business is built on showing up for real people in their community and doing real work.

That kind of business, done well, changes lives. And it deserves a why that is worthy of it.

The business owners who make it — the ones I’ve watched build something really wonderful over the years — almost universally have a reason that is far bigger than their bank account.

They are building something. They’re solving something. They’re serving someone. They’re proving something, whether it’s to themselves or to somebody else. And they’re creating something bigger than themselves, something that outlasts them.

If you cannot name that reason, I want you to really pause before you go any further.

Because those hard days are coming. If you haven’t already experienced them, I promise you, you’re going to have some really hard days. And you’re going to wonder why you’re even doing this and whether you should go on.

Those days always happen.

And your why is the only thing that is going to carry you through them.

So I shared a little bit about how our dear friend Dean impacted us on the employee side of business ownership because, for over three decades, Joe was one of his employees. And I had the great privilege of walking beside Joe as his wife over most of those years.

Now I want to share the other whys for Cavalry Appliance Service besides carrying on the great impact Dean had on us to love our team members the way he loved his team members for the 40-plus years he was in business.

If you’ve ever had a repair person show up late with no call, give you a vague answer about what was wrong, leave your house a mess, or talk down to you without really explaining things, or if you’ve ever felt like you couldn’t trust somebody and wondered whether they were ripping you off, these are some of the reasons Cavalry exists.

The trades, in general, unfortunately have a reputation problem. And that reputation didn’t come from nowhere. It came from years of low standards being accepted as normal.

Homeowners brace themselves before the technician even arrives, expecting to feel like a burden in their own home.

Joe and I decided we were not going to participate in that.

And I’m super excited to report that in our town, members of our Chamber of Commerce, our BNI group, and community members we’ve worked with also have very high standards for the level of service they deliver.

But the bad actors are still out there.

Our why for Cavalry is to be so professional, so communicative, so respectful, and so ethical that we actually shift how people experience service in their homes.

We want customers to hang up the phone and think, “That was different.”

We want them to open the door and feel like someone who matters is standing there.

We want the person doing the work to feel that way too.

This isn’t just about appliances. It’s about dignity.

It’s about proving that showing up with excellence and treating people well is not just possible in the trades. It’s the standard we are choosing to set.

And the team we are building reflects that.

We are not just hiring technicians. We are investing in people.

We are the kind of employer that shows up when life gets hard, that sees the whole person and not just the job they fill.

Because that is the kind of business worth building.

And honestly, it’s the kind of business worth working for.

And on the really hard days, it’s the kind of business you show up for even if you’re not making any money that day, because you love the people you’re serving and you love the team you’re building.

Now at Highland Business Center and Coworking Space, we have a little bit of a different mission.

Starting a business is super hard. It’s hard enough without also trying to figure out where to do it, especially in a smaller community.

The barrier to having a real professional place to work, meet clients, and grow can feel enormous for someone just getting started.

Highland exists to lower that barrier.

Here, we create a space that is genuinely affordable, genuinely warm, and genuinely supportive of businesses in their early and middle stages.

Not just a desk to rent, but a place to truly belong.

What I love most about what we’ve built at Highland is the relationships.

The person working near you is not your competition. They’re your community.

They’re the one who cheers when you land a big client and talks you off the ledge when a deal falls through.

Some of the most meaningful connections I’ve seen come from people simply showing up in the same building and choosing to be in each other’s corner.

That’s the why.

Not square footage. Not lease revenue.

The why is that a small business owner in New Bern should be able to walk into a space that says, “You belong here. You can do this. And you do not have to do it alone.”

And finally, the why behind Outcome Academy.

And this one’s really personal.

I’ve always been drawn to a particular kind of business owner.

They’re not cutting corners. They’re not trying to squeeze every dollar out of the people they serve. They work really hard, and they do right by their clients.

They care about their reputation, their community, and their team.

They have what I can only describe as a servant’s heart.

And somehow, in spite of all that, they’re still struggling. They’re overwhelmed, and they feel like the system is not working in their favor.

That’s who I built Outcome Academy for.

And believe me, I’m not criticizing all marketing businesses or saying they’re all predatory. But new business owners have so many decisions to make, and every service provider believes their service is the most important one.

I built Outcome Academy to help people figure out what to focus on right now.

I want ethical, hardworking service business owners to win.

Not just survive. Win.

Because when good business owners win, the ripple effect is enormous.

Their clients are treated with professionalism and care. Their team members have meaningful work. Their communities gain contributors, not just takers.

One good business doing well creates dignity and opportunity for every person it touches.

And I want to be part of creating that.

I want to help someone build a brand that sets them apart. I want to help someone’s phone start ringing because their marketing finally works. I want to help people stop feeling alone in the climb.

At the core of all of it is my heart to serve.

My faith is central to everything I do. It’s not something loud or performative, but it is woven into my life and the foundation underneath everything.

Giving back to my church and community is not optional for me. It’s how I’m wired.

And I can’t do that if Outcome Academy is not healthy.

I can’t give, help, or serve if I don’t charge for the work.

So as you’re building your business and answering your why, don’t be afraid to charge what you’re worth.

There will always be people undercharging in your industry.

Do not compete on price.

Compete on quality.

Invest in training. Invest in your team. Invest in tools and systems that create a beautiful experience for your customers.

Profitability matters — not because money is the point, but because serving people well requires resources.

And honestly, that has been hard for me to learn.

If it were up to me, I would coach and teach for free forever because I genuinely love helping people.

That’s one reason this podcast exists.

Every episode has something actionable you can take and apply in your business right away.

But if someone wants to go deeper through masterminds, courses, or coaching, then yes, there’s an investment attached to those things.

You can do the same thing in your business.

At Cavalry Appliance, we share free blog posts and answer customer questions for free over text or phone.

But if we send a technician to someone’s home or install parts, of course we charge for that work.

You can have a servant’s heart and still charge appropriately for your expertise.

I truly believe business owners need what we create here at Outcome Academy.

They need Brand Builder Blueprint to build a professional image. They need Compound Marketing Machine so customers can find them without overspending on ads.

And most importantly, they need community.

If Outcome Academy stays small and underfunded because I don’t take the business side seriously, then the people who need it most will never find it.

And I’m not okay with that.

So if you want to help me grow and serve more people, share this podcast with another business owner.

That alone helps more than you know.

A why that is only money tends to show up in very specific ways.

It shows up in pricing that constantly drops because every negotiation feels easier to lose than win.

It shows up in bland marketing because there’s no conviction underneath it.

It shows up in business owners emotionally checking out after a few hard quarters because there’s nothing deeper holding them up.

But business owners who know exactly why they do what they do?

They price confidently. They speak with energy. They stay through the hard seasons.

Because they are not just describing a business.

They are describing a mission.

Your why is your summit.

And on the hardest days, it is the only thing that keeps your feet moving.

So here’s your homework assignment for this week.

Get out your notebook or your notes app and answer these three questions honestly:

1.  Why does this business exist beyond making money? What would be lost in the world if you closed your doors tomorrow? 
2.  Who specifically are you trying to help, and why do those people matter to you personally? 
3.  On the hardest day you can imagine in this business, what is the reason you get back up? 

If you can answer those clearly and specifically, then you have a why worth building on.

And if you’re still staring at the page, that’s important too.

I’m not saying you should quit. I’m inviting you to go deeper before you go any further.

Before you spend another dollar on marketing.

If you want to continue this work, I’d encourage you to listen to Episode 3, where we talk about mission, vision, and values for your business, and Episode 8, where we talk about defining those things personally so your business reflects the life you actually want to live.

And if you’re in the early stages of business, Brand Builder Blueprint is where I’d point you next.

If you’re further along and looking for community with other intentional business owners, check out the 8000er Mastermind.

You can find both at outcomeacademy.com.

As always, thank you so much for being here today, and thank you for listening to the whys behind our businesses.

I hope you found it inspiring.

Now go find your own why.

As you move through this week, notice where this shows up in your own business.

If you want to go deeper into this work, including the mastermind and other ways we support service-based business owners, you can explore everything at outcomeacademy.com.

Thanks for listening, and I’ll see you in the next episode.