WP167 | Staying the Course (Part 1 of 4): Faithful Leadership When the Numbers Feel Unsteady
As we step into a new year, it’s easy to feel pressure to move faster, do more, and fix everything all at once — especially as a private practice owner. But what if faithful leadership doesn’t look like reacting quickly… and instead looks like staying steady?
To start 2026, I’m sharing a January solo podcast series called Staying the Course: Faithful Leadership in a Practice That Ebbs and Flows. This series is all about slowing down, discerning wisely, and leading your practice with consistency, faith, and stewardship — even when the numbers feel uncertain.
In this first episode, Faithful Leadership When the Numbers Feel Unsteady, I talk openly about the fear that can surface when profit drops, caseloads fluctuate, or staffing changes shake your confidence. Drawing from my own experience as a solo and group practice owner, I explore why ebb and flow is not a sign of failure, how fear can disguise itself as “wisdom,” and what it actually looks like to lead faithfully during unsteady seasons.
We’ll talk about:
Why fluctuating income is normal in private practice
How to avoid making reactive, fear-based decisions
When to slow down — and when not to pull back
The role of discernment, leadership teams, and faith in business decisions
Why consistency matters more than intensity over time
This episode is an invitation to pause, breathe, and reframe how you view uncertainty in your practice. Faithful leadership isn’t about controlling outcomes. It’s about steady stewardship, wise investment, and trusting God through every season of growth, loss, and change.
If your practice feels uncertain right now, you’re not behind. You’re right where many faithful leaders find themselves, and you don’t have to navigate it alone.
Ebbs and Flows Are Not a Personal Failure
One of the most common mistakes I see practice owners make is assuming that uncertainty means they did something wrong.
A slower season?
A dip in revenue?
A wave of clinician turnover?
Our instinct is to panic or self-blame. But the truth is, ebbs and flows are built into business ownership. They always have been, and they always will be.
Scripture reminds us that there is a season for everything. Business is no exception.
Faithful leadership begins when we stop reacting emotionally to every fluctuation and start responding with wisdom, discernment, and steadiness.
Fear Loves to Disguise Itself as Wisdom
When numbers feel unsteady, fear shows up fast—and it often sounds reasonable.
Fear tells us to:
Pull back on investments too quickly
Pause marketing out of panic
Make rushed staffing decisions
Or do the opposite and freeze completely
Neither reaction leads to good leadership.
Fear pushes urgency. Faith invites discernment.
One of the most important leadership practices I’ve learned is slowing myself down before making decisions—especially financial ones. I regularly use a 24-hour rule before committing to changes or investments. That pause has saved me from many fear-based decisions I would have regretted later.
Faithful Leadership Is Consistent, Not Flashy
Faithful leadership doesn’t mean ignoring your numbers. Stewardship matters. We should know our finances, review them regularly, and make thoughtful decisions based on reality.
But faithful leadership is not about reacting to every spike or dip.
It’s about:
Consistency over intensity
Thoughtfulness over urgency
Stewardship instead of control
Stability isn’t the absence of change. Stability is how you respond in the middle of change.
Some of the best decisions I’ve made in my practice came during seasons that felt financially uncomfortable. I kept investing, kept hiring, kept moving forward—not recklessly, but prayerfully. And looking back, those decisions shaped the healthiest growth I’ve experienced.
Slower Seasons Can Be Strategic Seasons
We often treat slower seasons like emergencies, when they can actually be opportunities.
They can be a time to:
Invest in your systems
Strengthen leadership structures
Focus on marketing foundations
Care for yourself and your team
Prepare for the next season of growth
Pulling back too quickly in a slow season often costs more later. Faithful leadership recognizes when to wait, when to invest, and when to trust that fruit comes after planting—not before.
Staying Steady When Things Feel Unsteady
This January, I’m inviting you into a slower, steadier way of approaching leadership.
You don’t have to fix everything at once.
You don’t have to react to every fear.
You don’t have to let numbers dictate your identity or calling.
Faithful leadership is about staying grounded, discerning wisely, and continuing to steward what God has entrusted to you—even when the outcome isn’t fully clear yet.
This is the heart behind our new series, Staying the Course: Faithful Leadership in a Practice That Ebbs and Flows. Over the next few weeks, we’ll talk about wise investment, leading when you’re tired, and what it really looks like to remain steady through changing seasons.
If your practice feels uncertain right now, you’re not behind. You’re not broken. You’re simply in a season—and seasons always change.
Let’s learn how to stay faithful in the middle of them.
Links and Resources
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[00:00:00] Whitney Owens: Hi, I am Whitney Owens. I'm a group practice owner and faith-based practice consultant, and I'm here to tell you that you can have it all. Wanna grow your practice, wanna grow your faith, wanna enjoy your life outside of work, you've come to the right place. Each week on the Wise Practice Podcast, I will give you the action steps to have a successful faith-based practice while also having a good time.
[00:00:25] Now, let's get started.
[00:00:29] Jingle: Where she grows your practice and she don't play. She does business with a twist of faith. It's Whitney Owen and Wise Practice Podcast, Whitney Owen and Wise Practice Podcast.
[00:00:48] Whitney Owens: Welcome back to The Wise Practice Podcast and happy New Year. I'm so excited for what's to come in 2026 and really excited about how we're gonna start out the podcast.
[00:00:58] As I've been reflecting on the show and looking at the past year, thinking about what you need, looking at the downloads that you've been doing, I put together a series. Based on kind of how I feel like we need to be focusing as practice owners. So for the whole month of January, I'm gonna be doing solo shows, mostly because I've done a lot of interviews and they've been awesome.
[00:01:21] But I really wanna get back to just hanging out with you, really sharing my heart with you, giving you advice, giving you leadership, and really specifically talking about faith-based practice ownership. So in the month of January, we're gonna be doing a series called Staying the Course, faithful Leadership and Practice that ebbs and flows.
[00:01:38] 'cause certainly our practice is in an ebb and flow and that can be really challenging for us as practice owners. I've been doing this work for many years. I've had a group practice since 2019. Certainly have been through a lot of ebbs and flows as a solo practice owner for, I don't know, five, six years before that.
[00:01:57] And then as a group practice owner. So I'm gonna bring a ton of knowledge to the table of what I have learned, but also things that I'm still learning constantly in a place of growth, but also bringing in biblical understandings, bringing in business as we talk about faithful leadership in our practice that ebbs and flows.
[00:02:13] So I wanna slow things down. As we jump into January a little bit, so this is why I'm talking directly to you, because as practice owners, we are always looking at numbers, capacity, energy. We are entrepreneurs. We are pushing ourselves faster and faster, harder and harder, and it's not always a bad thing, but I also think there's moments that we need to kind of slow down and think about things, right.
[00:02:42] And really steady ourselves, but also not be too impacted by all the things. Right? So over the next few weeks, we're gonna talk about what it actually looks like to lead faithfully in your practice, especially when it feels unsteady. We're gonna explore why pulling back in a slower season often costs a lot more later.
[00:03:01] Okay. And how to lead people well when you're feeling tired, and what faithful, wise investments look like over the phases of your practice ownership. So this series isn't just about pushing you harder, telling you more things to do. It's about reflection, about steadiness, about discernment, and not staying the course.
[00:03:22] So today is the first episode in this podcast series. That'll be all solo shows from me. So today we're gonna do faithful leadership when the numbers feel unsteady. So I wanna start by talking about faithful leadership when your numbers are unsteady, because that is where fear shows up. The first thing, I see this across the board with practice owners over and over again, and I feel it myself when those profit first numbers hit my email, woo.
[00:03:56] I'm like, what is that? Why was that? What's this doing? What's that doing? Right? And so it's like all these questions, all these fears. We certainly want to pay attention. Like I don't want you to bury your head in the sand, but I don't want everything to be driven by our numbers or by our fears, right? So we wanna make good consistent decisions.
[00:04:20] So we're gonna be looking at that today. So if you've ever felt the pressure to react quickly, which I'm sure you have, 'cause I have, or you've questioned whether you're doing something wrong, just because things are feeling uncertain, you're not really sure where you're going. This episode's for you. So one of the first things that I wanna do is to name this reality without panic, right?
[00:04:43] This is not something we need to be fearful about. As practice owners, it's so normal that your practice E and flows. It's also very normal that you would feel up and down. The other day I was thinking about being an entrepreneur and I was like, if you're not okay with making mistakes and if you're not okay with setbacks.
[00:05:03] Really setbacks, then you shouldn't be an entrepreneur because setbacks are expected in owning a business. So just go ahead and partic anticipate that, but that's gonna be coming. The ebbs and flows are part of it. So they always have been. They always will be. So we as practice centers have gotta figure out how do we stay steady when things don't feel steady?
[00:05:26] T we know as practice owners that there's always fluctuations based on time of year. So for example, you just got through December. I'm gonna guess that you're spending more than you're making, right? I mean, we're buying all these gifts. We're thinking about Christmas, but then we look at our practices, less people coming in, less income coming, and so that doesn't always feel so great.
[00:05:51] But then we know that March is coming just a few months from now, or October. We have consistently found those times of the year. Woo. There's just so much going on. Our practices flourish. They're going really great. So summer, fall, those look different, different times of year. And so we start to get into.
[00:06:09] In an experience of that, I even have to train my clinicians on that. 'cause sometimes they're like, what is going on? Why don't I have clients? Or, what's going on? I have too many clients. Put me on a hold and I'm like, get ready. Because that's not how it's gonna be a few months from now. Right. You have to just kind of, I think of it as embracing the ebbs and flows.
[00:06:27] Allow those times that are slower. To be good times for you, because those are times you can invest in other things, right? But you don't want to freak out when things get slower. It doesn't necessarily mean that you've done anything wrong. It's just part of running a business, y'all. Right, so kind of talking about this idea of ebbs and flows, I want to also share personal stories throughout this podcast series, and last year was by far one of my hardest years in running a private practice, especially a group practice.
[00:06:59] Really? I had seven therapists. Leave the practice. Right. That is almost half the clinical staff. Now you're probably thinking, Whitney, why did people so many people leave? It was so many different things. We had one person who needed more time with his family because he was working too many jobs. Another person who had a baby needed to move.
[00:07:19] Another person who had some medical concerns that needed to be taken care of and didn't feel like she could work Another person retired. We also had a few people leave in not so pleasant situations, you know? Thinking that we were asking too much of them, or that they didn't wanna see full caseloads or, you know, they had all these ideas in their heads of what their job was gonna be, and it really was something different.
[00:07:38] And so there was just a variety of different things. And so as this was happening, of course, as a business owner, I'm questioning myself like, do I know what I'm doing? And am I a good boss and am I hiring correctly? And what do I need to change? And just feeling so discouraged. But also looking at the numbers, you know, every person that leaves your practice, that's a pretty significant amount of money down the drain, right?
[00:08:04] And now, of course, more than that, we care about the clients, right? It's clients that aren't getting good care, they're having to switch therapists. A lot of times they drop out. And so those things we're discouraging. But I wanna focus on the ebbs and flows of this, right? I could have freaked out and let's just be real.
[00:08:21] I did sometimes, but. Also knowing that this is part of running a business, this business is not for everyone. People will come and go in your practice, and you have to expect that. And so what do you do when that happens? And so, yeah, our profit margins might have gone down a little. Our revenue went up and down.
[00:08:42] And was I gonna allow that to dictate the financial choices that I made with my fluctuating numbers? But I had to stay steady and true because I knew that this was, this was a practice that God had given me something that I, I love and I know that I'm doing good work, right? I know it. And so even in the midst of all that, we kept hiring.
[00:09:03] We kept pressing on even when it was super hard emotionally, but also financially. 'cause hiring is an investment. And if those people leave, you sure do miss a lot. It takes time for them to grow a caseload and to get to where you need to be. Fortunately, I didn't let my fears of money dictate my decisions, and actually we, I'm recording this podcast here at the end of the year, we are actually gonna have more revenue than we ever have before and still have profit, which blows me away, right?
[00:09:33] To lose that many therapists, almost half your clinical staff in one year, and still come out making more revenue than you did the year before. That does speak to honestly, these therapists and the leadership team that I have in place. So looking at, looking at these seasons though, that was, this has definitely been a season of growth for me.
[00:09:52] Transformation within my heart, and also learning that this is just the ebbs and flows of what happens in my practice. Scripture consistently talks about this seasons, right? I'm sure as soon as I said that you thought, Ecclesiastes, you know, there's a season for everything. Business is no exception to that.
[00:10:08] There's a season for the way your practice is gonna go, and I want you to maximize on those seasons so that you can really invest in your practice and also invest in yourself. Sometimes when it's slower, that's a really good time to take care of you. Just yesterday, one of my therapists was like, yeah, I just had a few cancellations, and I was like, oh, I'm sorry.
[00:10:27] She goes, no, it's great. Now I can go do some self-care, and I'm like, yes. I love that attitude that you're bringing to the table. It's easy to assume that something's wrong or broken and look, sometimes there is, sometimes it is a time to, to kind of discern, and we'll talk about that in a second, but don't always assume that something's super bad just because something happens.
[00:10:47] It's not always about us, right? I know that I did that when these therapists left. I was like, what did I do wrong? It's not always about me. Sometimes it's about them and what they need and what works best for them. So stability. Isn't the absence of change 'cause change is going to come. Stability is how we respond in the midst of change.
[00:11:12] So in the midst of what's happening in your practice, you wanna be stable and grounded and we know that God is that stability for us. And so leaning on him and having discernment is key. So when your numbers are feeling unsteady, this fear often is gonna show up. Maybe looking like wisdom. Okay. We do not want fear to dictate our decisions.
[00:11:36] I know you know that. We do it every single day, right? We look at our anxiety and we let it rule the roost and we really just wish that we would slow down and pay attention. And then I look back and I'm like, dang it. Why did I let the anxiety be the be the thing that dictated those decisions? And so we want to work on this idea of discernment, slowing down.
[00:11:58] So you wanna be practical. You wanna be responsible, reasonable. And I do strongly encourage you to have a leadership team that helps you. Discern that helps you see when you're acting reasonable and unreasonable. Maybe even though in our minds are reasonable, but I consistently have to go to my integrator and say, am I doing the right thing here?
[00:12:17] Like, what do you think about this? But it's super helpful. So when you are looking at your fear, fear is often telling you to make rash decisions. So it's that thing saying, hurry, do this thing differently. Right? That is never good in your business. Being erratic is confusing, especially if you're a group practice owner.
[00:12:40] But oftentimes you could be on the verge of something great and then you freak out and pull back. And then you miss out on something that's on the other side. So a lot of times fear is saying, don't invest anymore. You've invested too much money. Now some of us maybe are investing too much money, and I want you to think about that.
[00:13:02] But I would say in the majority of situations when I talk to practice owners, people are not investing enough and then they pause their marketing because they don't know what to do next, or they're scared or they pause their consulting when really those pauses. Are setting 'em back a lot. And if you just continue to invest and move forward, eventually you'll push through a wall, right?
[00:13:25] So, and a lot of times fear says, I can do this all myself. I got this right? So then we start letting go of employees, or we don't delegate out. We don't ask for help. We take on more than we can chew, and that's not good either. So slowing down. Is wise, right? We don't wanna push ourselves too hard. We wanna take time to be thoughtful about our decisions.
[00:13:49] Another rule that I have for myself is a 24 hour rule. So before I make an investment, before I make a decision with a team member, when they're asking for something, I say to myself, I need 24 hours to think about this. 'cause oftentimes, that ends up changing the very thing that I was gonna do, right? That discernment slows me down.
[00:14:07] So it also helps me realize, am I acting out of fear or not? And you don't want fear to create analysis paralysis, right? So we have two different things we're talking about here. Sometimes fear causes people to push forward and make decisions. Erratically, right? And then sometimes fear creates analysis paralysis.
[00:14:28] So they're doing absolutely nothing and they're just sitting there hoping things will change. We wanna find that middle ground as a leader in that place of slowing down and discernment. And I find, at least for the analysis paralysis part, really putting a timeline on when we're gonna make decisions can really help in that process.
[00:14:47] So yes, I don't wanna make this decision, I wanna put it off, but I'm gonna make it in three days or I'm gonna make it in one week. And that can really kind of help spur you on. So we're gonna talk a lot about money because I think it's a big part of our faith journey and our practice. Of course. And I'm here to help you.
[00:15:05] With running your practice? So looking back on this past year, and I was talking about all the people that have that left and I, I could have been really fixated on the money, but believe it or not, I have invested more money in my business in this past year and I truly attribute the success of this past year to that being one of the reasons because.
[00:15:28] I invested in me and I didn't pull back when I got scared. So I actually put more money into my website. I actually redid my website, which was very expensive, but very nice. So private practice elevation, y'all are the best. But it really was a huge investment. And there were definitely times that I was like, eek, like am I gonna be able to do this?
[00:15:49] And now looking at my site, I'm like, oh my gosh, it is gorgeous. And by the way, I get lots of compliments on it and it's functioning so much better. And. I've also invested more in search engine optimization, working with multiple companies, doing blogs, doing pages, and that's been making a big difference, but it's been a huge marketing investment every single month.
[00:16:09] I also hired an integrator for my er, kinda like a business coach. And that has made a big difference and that is also super expensive. The most I've ever invested in coaching for me, but has gotten my practice to a much better place than it ever could have gotten. And we're making more money than we've ever made before so that those investments.
[00:16:29] That I trusted and moved forward and actually got my business to another place. So many people come to me and they say, Whitney, why? How are you so successful? And look, it's been risk after risk, but my risks are within stability. My risks are within God. I pray about 'em, and I wait on God. Right. I even think back to when I was a solo practice owner and I knew God was leading me to start a group practice, y'all.
[00:16:55] I was scared. So scared, and I needed a business coach to tell me what to do. 'cause look, I had no idea what I was doing and I'm so glad that I invested in that. In fact, I was in coaching for two years and I got my practice from being a solo to all the way to, I think about eight therapists at that time, in that two year period.
[00:17:14] And so coaching made the world of difference, but I seriously remember. Agonizing over this decision to invest in the consulting, and I remember hitting the button and making my monthly first monthly payment and then I just knew this was it. I knew I'd made the right thing. And, and to tell you the truth, I wouldn't be sitting here having this discussion with you if I hadn't made that investment in my life.
[00:17:36] 'cause it helped me get everything. Helps you get to where you are, right? So don't let yourself sit in fear. Pay attention to it. 'cause it could be telling you something, but don't let it dictate the decisions that you make, right? You want to be in discernment and waiting. I'm also remembering the opposite here.
[00:17:54] I was kind of telling you about discernment, slowing down. There have been times that I didn't invest in things that I thought I was going to, and I can remember hires that I was really needed somebody, but I decided not to. And then recently someone came along that I was like, oh, I really wanna hire this person.
[00:18:12] This just seems like the best fit. And, and they were kind of saying the same thing. But then I just started listening to the spirit and I was like, okay, I'm pushing this too hard. This needs to wait. There's a perfect timing for this. And so I slowed down and I paid attention to that, and God has really blessed that.
[00:18:29] In fact, what was even more interesting was in that particular moment where I felt this urgency to hire, we were getting in flooded with inquiries. And so I was like, oh, reaction. I gotta hire, I gotta hire. And then all those inquiries, like for whatever reason, weren't panning out. And I was like, okay, okay.
[00:18:48] Like as soon as I listened and slowed down and said, okay, Lord, I'm not gonna move forward on this 'cause I feel like you're telling me to wait a few months. That was exactly when the other things didn't pan out right after I made the decision. And so I think that there's also an element of some things we just have to listen and let go of and God will bring them back at the right time.
[00:19:08] Now, we don't wanna ignore our numbers, but we want them to help us make wise decisions within what we're doing. So faithful leadership isn't flashy. It's consistent. It's consistent instead of intense. It's thoughtful instead of urgent, it's stewardship instead of control. It's slowing down and paying attention and doing the things over and over again.
[00:19:34] I'm always telling practice owners, make sure you run your numbers. Make sure you're looking at 'em every single week. That stewardship and consistency, investing in your practice, watching how things are going and making decisions is so important. We see this over and over in scripture, the importance of investing in waiting, right?
[00:19:51] And I just love, of course, the analogy of planting, which we see many times in scripture. Tending, sowing, and waiting, right? So you're investing in client lives, investing in your business, investing in yourself, and you're con and you're consistently watching and looking at how things will grow, right?
[00:20:09] You're not being over controlling, but you're stewarding, and then you're giving it back to God and saying, okay, Lord, show me how to lead this. Show me how to invest in this. So faithful leadership often looks like staying steady when you're tempted to react, slowing down, listening to your gut and listening to your leadership team, others that care about you.
[00:20:30] Maybe it's listening to your business coach. Maybe it's the wise practice community. Within that community, people consistently ask questions. They come to our q and a calls once a month and we talk about these things. Hey, should I put Christian counseling on my website? Hey, should I invest in this thing?
[00:20:46] And we talk through it. So I want to reframe January, right? So you're coming into the year, there's all this pressure, like you probably created all your New Year's resolutions and you're like, yeah, I'm getting it done. And look, I hope you do get a lot done. I think it's gonna be great. I also just want you to know that you don't have to jump on everything immediately.
[00:21:06] You could take a pause and a breath, but I want you to move forward at the same time, right? Not allowing. Chaos around you and that chaos might feel like numbers or emotions or things happening to be the dictation of what you do. Your practice will ebb and flow and you will stay steady through it 'cause Christ is your steadiness.
[00:21:32] So I want January to be a month of looking at new things, being excited a month for noticing. A way for you to be intentional in your waiting. And if you haven't created your goals yet, I encourage you to do so. Take a few days to kinda walk away and relax before things get too busy in your practice.
[00:21:54] This time of waiting creates clarity, it creates excitement, and honestly, it creates this steadiness where you're doing your steps, putting 'em in place. Not just kinda running around doing things, but it actually saves your energy and time over the over the long haul, right? So I want to offer you this permission today that you don't have to fix everything at once.
[00:22:22] I want you to be clear about what you're doing and how you're leading, and I want you to watch your numbers and what you're investing in. I don't want you to make rash decisions and pull out of things simply because you're scared. Right. 'cause that consistency over time builds something to credible. So as you move through this week and as we kinda, as we kinda move through this course, I'm looking forward to sharing with you over the next few weeks, ways for you to stay steady and have faithful leadership in the ebbs and flows of your practice.
[00:22:56] So we're gonna keep talking about this. We're gonna talk about why pulling back in these slower seasons sometimes actually costs you more in the long run. So look forward to that episode. We're also gonna talk about leading people. Well, even when you're tired. 'cause I can definitely tell you that was happening to me going into the end of the year.
[00:23:14] And so how do we care for ourselves and lead our practices? And then what does wise investment look like? We talked a little bit about this on the episode, but, but I wanna go more into what are those wise investments that you wanna make in the coming year? So if you're kind of feeling uncertain in your practice, navigating these hard steps, I'm so glad that you've tuned into the podcast and I'm gonna continue to invest in you over the next few weeks as we learn how to remain steady and faithful leaders going into 2026.
[00:23:45] And just thank you for listening to the podcast. It truly means so much to me, and I consider it an honor. And if you have found this podcast helpful, I really ask that you would just take a few minutes now that we're concluding the show and give me a review. Wherever it is that you listen to podcasts, it makes a huge difference in people finding the show.
[00:24:07] We wanna help as many Christian practice owners as possible, and that helps more clients, right? Find good Christian therapy. So I wanna make sure that you are taking those steps so that we can grow together. And so please rate and review the show if you found this helpful. And you know, another practice owner who maybe is feeling discouraged, maybe having a hard time making decisions in their practice.
[00:24:31] Or maybe things are going great for 'em. Make a get the copy link and then send it to them in a text and say, Hey, this show helped me. I know it'll help you. I really appreciate each and every one of you. If you ever have questions, feedback for me about the podcast, I'm always open to that. Shoot me an email, whitney@wisepracticeconsulting.com.
[00:24:50] It means the world to me when I hear from you and I respond to all those emails, especially when someone tells me what the podcast meant to them and that they listen to the show. I just think that's the coolest. So again, thank you for listening to me looking forward to this series together and looking forward to a great 2026.
[00:25:09] Jingle: So click on follow and leave a review and keep on loving this work we do with Whitney Owen and The Wise Practice Podcast, Whitney Owens and Wise Practice
[00:25:24] Whitney Owens: Podcast. Special thanks to Marty Altman for the music in this podcast. The Wise Practice Podcast is part of the Site Craft Podcast Network. A collaboration of independent podcasters focused on helping people live more meaningful and productive lives.
[00:25:41] To learn more about the other amazing podcasts in the network, head on over to site craft network.com. The Wise Practice podcast represents the opinions of Whitney Owens and her guests. This podcast is for educational purposes only, and the content should not be taken as legal advice. If you have legal questions, please consult an attorney.
