Passion, Purpose, Profit — When Healing Becomes a Business
I launched a new podcast to learn more about how to marry passion, purpose and profit. This first one was an absolute banger.
Episode 1 Recap with Tim Ringold
There’s no better way to launch a podcast about purpose-driven entrepreneurship than by starting with a story rooted in real pain, real transformation, and real impact.
In the first episode of Passion, Purpose, Profit, I sat down with musician, retreat facilitator, professional pickleball player, and grief specialist Tim Ringold for a conversation that set the tone for everything this podcast is about: what happens when personal struggle becomes purpose — and how that purpose can evolve into a sustainable business.
This wasn’t a surface-level conversation about success. It was a deep dive into the realities of building a life and career around helping people.
Where Purpose Begins: Pain, Loss, and Meaning
Like many people in the helping professions, Tim’s work didn’t start as a business idea. It started as survival.
At 22, Tim lost five of his closest friends in a tragic series of events. In the middle of unimaginable grief, he turned to music — the one thing that had always been a constant in his life. He performed a song at each of their funerals, and something shifted. Not just for him, but for everyone listening.
He realized music had the power to heal.
That moment became a lifelong mission: help others access healing through music during their hardest seasons.
It wasn’t a business plan. It was a calling.
And like many callings, it came with resistance — especially from family and culture that didn’t understand how “helping people” could translate into a viable career.
The Wellness Entrepreneur’s Dilemma
One of the biggest themes of our conversation was something many wellness professionals quietly wrestle with:
You’re encouraged to help people.
You’re discouraged from making money doing it.
Somewhere along the way, many of us absorbed the idea that:
Doing good and earning well are separate paths
Profit somehow dilutes purpose
Charging for healing work feels wrong
But the reality is simple: you can’t sustainably help others if you can’t sustain yourself.
Tim spoke openly about the long journey of deprogramming his own relationship with money — learning that impact and income don’t cancel each other out. In fact, they often amplify each other when done right.
Because the truth is:
Helping people for free isn’t noble if it burns you out.
It’s unsustainable.
Manifestation vs. Execution
We also touched on a common trap in personal development and wellness spaces — the idea that mindset alone creates success.
Yes, clarity matters.
Yes, intention matters.
Yes, energy matters.
But none of it replaces execution.
You still have to learn marketing.
You still have to learn sales.
You still have to learn how to deliver value consistently.
As Tim put it, you can visualize a check all you want — but if you don’t build the skills and systems behind it, that check never arrives.
The intersection of inner work and outer action is where real businesses are built.
The Power of Investing in Growth
One of the most pivotal moments in Tim’s career came when his entire business model collapsed after changes in the healthcare system.
Within a year, a thriving six-figure practice disappeared.
Instead of retreating, he invested in high-level coaching — the biggest professional investment he’d ever made. It was uncomfortable. It was scary. But it forced him into growth.
Within months, he rebuilt his business in a new way and hit a $40K month in coaching revenue.
Not because he changed his mission.
Because he changed how he delivered it.
The lesson?
You don’t pay for coaching just for knowledge.
You pay for speed, clarity, and avoiding mistakes you don’t even know you’re about to make.
Reinvention Through Play: The Pickleball Chapter
In one of the more unexpected turns in Tim’s story, injuries from years of soccer forced him to step away from the sport that had defined his identity.
That loss created a void — physically and emotionally.
Enter pickleball.
What started as curiosity quickly turned into obsession. Within two years, Tim had progressed from beginner to ranked senior pro, secured sponsorships, and built a podcast around performance and recovery.
But the deeper lesson wasn’t about the sport.
It was about reinvention.
About staying a student.
About following curiosity.
About allowing new passions to reshape identity instead of clinging to old ones.
The Missing Piece: Recovery
A major insight from Tim’s work in both music therapy and athletics is this:
We don’t grow from effort.
We grow from recovery.
Whether it’s grief, business, or sport — transformation happens in the space after the intensity.
That’s a big reason why retreats, community, and structured environments matter. They create space to unplug, reflect, and rebuild in ways daily life rarely allows.
Passion, Purpose… and Profit
At the heart of this conversation was a question many people quietly ask:
Can I actually make a living doing work that matters to me?
The answer, demonstrated through Tim’s journey, is yes — but not without:
confronting limiting beliefs
developing real business skills
investing in growth
and being willing to evolve repeatedly
Purpose isn’t static.
It grows as you grow.
And profit isn’t the enemy of purpose — it’s often what allows it to scale.
Final Thought
The biggest takeaway from this first episode is simple:
Most people who help others started by helping themselves.
Pain becomes insight.
Insight becomes purpose.
Purpose becomes service.
And with the right structure, service becomes a sustainable business.
You don’t have to choose between meaning and making a living.
You can build both — intentionally.
And that’s exactly what this podcast is here to explore.
link to the episode on spotify https://open.spotify.com/episode/6paSI1qvHe316pcfM0cg0Z?si=400cGw_8RzmfMeTInw-3Zw