What does it take to build a business that lasts 50 years?
For this episode, I’m sitting down with someone who has shaped so much of the way I think about business: my mom, Gina Hutchinson.
Fifty years ago, she started what would become the Red Stars baton twirling program. She wasn't setting out to become an entrepreneur. She was a schoolteacher who agreed to coach a high school majorette team, started giving 50-cent baton lessons after school, and eventually found herself with a growing business of her own.
Over the next five decades, that business evolved in ways she never could have predicted. Her teams competed nationally, traveled around the world, performed in places like Spain and the Soviet Union, and created opportunities for generations of young women.
And along the way, she learned a whole lot about running a business.
You Don't Have to Have It All Figured Out
When my mom started teaching baton, there was no grand business plan. In fact, she says pretty clearly in this episode that she had no intention of starting a business.
One opportunity simply led to another.
She took on the majorette team. Parents started asking for lessons. Someone offered her space above a furniture store. She suddenly had rent to pay, which meant she had to start thinking about pricing, expenses, and what it actually meant to run a business.
Sometimes we think we need to know exactly what the business will become before we begin.
Her story is a pretty great reminder that you can start with what you know, pay attention to what's working, and allow the business to evolve from there.
Sometimes You Have to Jump Out on a Limb
One thing I've always admired about my mom is her willingness to ask, How could this work?
That willingness took her teams from New Hampshire to national competitions at Notre Dame and eventually around the world.
She didn't always know what would happen when she said yes. She hadn't competed herself when she first brought her team to a competition. She had never been to nationals when she decided to take a group there. And when an opportunity came along to take the Red Stars to Spain, she had no idea whether the families would even agree to go.
She explored the possibility anyway.
As she says in this episode, sometimes you have to “jump out on a limb.”
Sometimes the limb holds. Sometimes it doesn't. Either way, you learn something. These situations can reveal where your business boundaries need to be strengthened. You don't have to change everything at once. Start with the one area that's creating the most friction.
Build Your Business Around a Standard
One of the biggest reasons the Red Stars have lasted for 50 years is that my mom has always been clear about what the team represents.
Talent mattered. Winning mattered. But how the kids behaved, how they treated one another, how they represented the team, and the kind of people they became mattered, too.
Over time, those expectations became the standard of the business.
And that standard helped her make some difficult decisions.
There have been students, parents, and even team situations over the years that simply weren't the right fit. Walking away sometimes meant taking a financial hit. But protecting the culture and the long-term health of the business mattered more.
That's a lesson that applies to any business.
Sometimes keeping the wrong client, employee, or opportunity costs far more than letting it go.
Find People You Can Trust
For years, my mom did everything herself.
Eventually, she built a team of coaches who understood her expectations because many of them had actually grown up in the Red Stars program themselves.
That became incredibly important in 2025 when a major health issue unexpectedly took her completely out of the business.
Her staff had to step in and run it without her.
And they did.
The business kept going because she had spent years teaching them the standard, giving them responsibility, supporting them, and building a team she could trust.
For any business owner who has ever thought, “My clients only want me” or “Nobody will do it the way I do it,” there's an important lesson here.
Your team needs the opportunity to learn how to carry the business with you.
Build Something That Can Evolve
My mom will be the first person to tell you that the business she runs today isn't the business she imagined 50 years ago.
It evolved.
She learned. She adjusted. She took opportunities she hadn't planned for. She figured out what she was uniquely good at. She brought in people who could help. She made difficult decisions when something no longer fit.
And after 50 years, she's still thinking about what comes next.
That's probably one of my favorite lessons from this entire conversation.
You don't need to know exactly what your business will look like five, ten, or fifty years from now.
You need to keep paying attention, keep learning, and be willing to let it evolve.
WHAT YOU’LL LEARN FROM THIS EPISODE:
- How my mom turned 50-cent baton lessons into a business that has lasted 50 years
- Why you don't have to have everything figured out before you start
- How taking risks created opportunities she never could have planned for
- What imposter syndrome looked like in the early years of her business
- Why your standards matter when you're building a business and a team
- How to know when a client or customer is no longer the right fit
- Why building a team you trust can protect the business when life takes you out of it
- What 50 years in business taught her about pricing, expenses, growth, and longevity
- … and more!
LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE:
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