Putting People First: Andrew Zahn on Building a Business Model Around Trust 

What changes when an organization puts people first and builds its business model around that belief? 

On this episode of Doing Good by Doing Better, Andrew Zahn, Development and Community Relations at Servant Stage, shares how a people-first approach can shape not only an organization’s culture, but the way it operates, grows, and measures success. 

For more than a decade, Servant Stage has challenged conventional assumptions about what a sustainable theater company should look like. Through its pay-what-you-will model, the organization has removed financial barriers to professional theater while growing to serve more than 60,000 audience members annually and operating in the black every year since its inception. Rather than prioritizing growth at all costs, Servant Stage has built its model around accessibility, community trust, financial discipline, and a belief that people come before product. 

The conversation explores what that philosophy looks like in practice. From waiting until funding is in place before making strategic hires to measuring success by how people were treated, not simply how an event performed. Andrew also shares what leaders outside the arts can learn from Servant Stage’s willingness to question traditional business assumptions and ask a different question: What if part of what your organization has to offer could simply be a gift? 

Key discussion points include:

• Building a Sustainable Pay-What-You-Will Model: How Servant Stage combines accessibility with financial discipline, growing organically rather than pursuing scale for scale’s sake. 

• Putting People Before Product: Why Servant Stage evaluates success by how people are treated and how that philosophy shapes decisions across the organization. 

• Building Trust Through Community: How a model supported by individual donors and 95% volunteer hours transforms audiences and supporters into active participants in the organization’s mission. 

• Challenging Traditional Business Assumptions: How the “magic if” can help leaders question conventional thinking and experiment with giving their time, talent, or resources without making every interaction transactional. 
• Redefining Growth and Success: Why Servant Stage has chosen not to make growth its primary measure of success and how financial patience can create a more sustainable organization.
  

Whether you lead a business, nonprofit, or team, this conversation offers a different framework for thinking about growth, community, and the relationship between purpose and financial sustainability.