WP168 | Staying the Course (Part 2 of 4): Why Pulling Back Costs You More Later
There’s a moment every practice owner faces—the numbers wobble, referrals slow down, and fear quietly whispers, “Maybe now is the time to pull back.”
In today’s episode, I’m continuing our January series on faithful leadership during the ebbs and flows of private practice, and we’re tackling a decision I see practice owners make every single year: pulling back when things feel uncertain—and how that choice often costs more in the long run.
We’re talking about why slowing down feels responsible, how fear can disguise itself as wisdom, and how to lead your practice with discernment instead of reaction. I’ll walk you through the real impact of pausing marketing, delaying systems, stepping away from support, and taking everything on yourself—plus how Scripture invites us into patience, consistency, and long-term vision.
If you’re in a slower season, feeling unsure, or wondering whether the decisions you’re making now will help or hurt you later, this conversation is for you. My hope is that this episode helps you stay rooted, steady, and faithful—without burning out or retreating from the very things that help your practice grow.
Let’s dive in.
Why Pulling Back Feels Like the “Right” Decision
When things feel uncertain, pulling back brings immediate relief.
Fewer expenses.
Less risk.
Less pressure.
It can even feel like the faithful or wise choice — being cautious with money, protecting your family, not making reckless decisions. And to be clear: discernment and wisdom matter deeply in private practice leadership.
But here’s the problem.
Fear is really good at disguising itself as responsibility.
And fear tends to push us toward short-term relief instead of long-term stability.
The Areas Practice Owners Pull Back First (And Why That Matters)
When practice owners start pulling back, it usually shows up in very specific places.
1. Marketing and Visibility
This is almost always the first thing to go.
Marketing feels optional when the practice is slow — but in reality, it’s the worst time to stop. Marketing momentum doesn’t disappear overnight. It fades quietly, and then months later you’re wondering why the phones are silent.
Marketing is a long game:
SEO takes time
Blogs compound
Referral relationships build gradually
When you stop, you don’t feel it immediately — and that’s what makes it dangerous.
2. Consulting, Education, and Support
Another common reaction is pausing consulting or professional education.
I understand the logic: “If I’m not making what I want yet, I shouldn’t invest in help.”
But often, clarity and guidance are exactly what’s needed most in slower seasons. Just like we encourage clients to stay consistent in therapy, growth in private practice also requires consistency over time.
Short bursts of support rarely produce lasting change.
3. Systems and Infrastructure
Systems often get labeled as “nice to have” instead of essential:
Phone systems
CRMs
Automation
Policies and procedures
Pulling back here may save money in the moment, but it usually creates more work and burnout for the practice owner, especially when growth returns and the systems aren’t ready.
4. Hiring and Delegation
When things feel tight, many owners stop hiring — or take everything on themselves.
This can feel noble, but it often creates a bottleneck. When you’re answering phones, handling admin, seeing too many clients, and managing the business, you don’t have capacity to lead or grow.
The fastest path to burnout is trying to do everything alone.
5. Self-Care and Sustainability
Pulling back doesn’t just show up in business decisions.
It shows up when:
You stop resting
You extend work hours
You say yes to clients you don’t have capacity for
You sacrifice sustainability for survival
None of this is inherently wrong — but context matters.
The Hidden Cost of Cause-and-Effect Delays
One of the hardest parts of running a private practice is the delay between decisions and results.
You don’t feel the impact of pulling back right away.
You feel it months later.
SEO is a perfect example.
So is hiring.
So is systems.
What you’re experiencing today is often the result of decisions made three, six, or even twelve months ago.
That delay makes fear louder — and wisdom harder.
Faith, Wisdom, and Staying the Course
Scripture consistently points us toward patience, counsel, and long-term vision.
Wisdom isn’t erratic.
Faith isn’t panic-driven.
Leadership is built gradually.
Staying the course doesn’t mean you operate at full speed all the time. It means consistency over intensity.
It means:
Maintaining core marketing efforts
Continuing support and guidance
Strengthening systems slowly
Asking for help before burnout
Making decisions rooted in discernment, not fear
How to Discern: Is This Wisdom or Fear?
When you’re unsure what to do, here are a few questions worth sitting with:
Am I seeking short-term relief or long-term stability?
Does this decision bring peace — or just temporary comfort?
If nothing changed for three months, how would I feel about this choice?
Will I look back with regret or gratitude?
Faithful leadership allows space for adjustment — but not reaction.
The Long View of Private Practice Leadership
Pulling back may feel responsible in the moment.
But staying rooted is often what produces growth.
Faithful investments are rarely flashy.
They’re quiet, consistent, and patient.
If you’re in a slower season right now, hear this clearly:
You’re not behind.
You’re not failing.
And you don’t need drastic changes to prove you’re being wise.
Sometimes the most faithful thing you can do is hold steady when fear tells you to retreat.
And over time, that consistency builds a practice — and a life — that truly lasts.
Links and Resources
Join the Wise Practice Membership Community
Learn More about Wise Practice Consulting
Connect with Wise Practice on Instagram
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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
[00:00:45] Whitney Owens: Podcast. Hello and welcome back to The Wise Practice Podcast. I'm so glad that you are here with me today. And this is part two of a four part series where we are talking about staying faithful as leaders in our private practice through the ebbs and the flows.
[00:01:02] So today we're gonna be talking about why pulling back. Often costs more in the end, right? Or costs you more later. Last time we kinda had a little bit more of an intro. We talked about discernment and fear and making our decisions and the ebbs and flows of private practice. And then today we're gonna really focus on kind of what are we missing out when we are delaying decisions or when we make decisions too quickly sometimes, right?
[00:01:28] So this episode is part two of the January series, so if you miss the first one, I really wanna encourage you to head back and listen to that one. And where we talk about kind of your numbers being unsteady, how to create steadiness in the midst of those seasons when it's up and down. So today I wanna talk about something that I see happening every single year.
[00:01:49] But before I get into that, I just want to encourage you, if you have not rated and review the show, if you can take just a few minutes, stop the podcast, whatever it is. And rate and review the show. Whatever podcast player you listen to, it means so much to me. I go in and I read those reviews and they really inspire me and they help me get ideas and ways to help do wise practice.
[00:02:12] So really appreciate you taking the time to do that. And if you found the podcast helpful, share it with a friend. Share it with another faith-based practice owner that might feel alone in their practice. All right, so let's jump into the content of this episode because I'm gonna talk about something I see every year with really good, thoughtful intentions with practice owners, but really things that make big mistakes.
[00:02:33] This is when people pull back, when things are slow, tight, or uncertain. You may have felt like doing this within your own s within you're in practice, especially when seasons are slower. I see this a lot within, even within the consulting business, we were looking at what are the themes that we have seen.
[00:02:49] We consistently see practice owners pull back on their marketing and in the investment of themselves. When their practice slows down in December and in the summer months. What's so funny though is we know that our practices are gonna have ebbs and flows. We know that for every up there's a down, and for every down there's an up.
[00:03:08] And there are definitely seasons of clients reaching out more and less. And so we want to be thoughtful about those seasons and not just have reactions based on the season. So it's the instinct to pull back when things are slower. But pulling back often feels responsible at the time, right? You're feeling like, oh, I'm making a wise decision with my money.
[00:03:28] I'm freeing up this amount so I can invest in this, or I can take care of my family. And sometimes you might even be thinking to yourself, this feels like the faithful, right, godly decision, right? But I'm also gonna say that over and over again, what I see people doing is pulling back too quickly or.
[00:03:47] They're pulling back in the wrong places, the very areas that actually would make them move forward. And so it costs them more later, you know? And the sad thing is we don't ever really know what it costs us. 'cause we don't know what we would've gained, right? So today we're gonna talk about why that happens.
[00:04:05] How do we recognize it? And how are we gonna approach slower seasons with discernment instead of living in a place of fear? So let's just start. I wanna say something really important to you. The instinct to pull back usually comes from a place of care. It's not that you want to cause a problem in your practice.
[00:04:29] None of us want that. We actually feel like we're taking better care of things. Maybe we feel like we're being more diligent with our money when we pull back, right? So you're caring for your finances, you're caring for your practice, you're caring for your family. You don't wanna make reckless decisions, right?
[00:04:47] And sometimes these decisions are really hard. So you see your bank accounts lower, you see less clients on your schedule, and so your energy drops. You become discouraged and you're looking for something to make you feel better, right? Your uncertainty is going up, so you pull back feeling like you've made the mature choice.
[00:05:07] So a couple of ways that I often see pulling back is marketing. Oftentimes people pause on their marketing just for now. It is the very opposite of what you wanna do when your practice is slow. Right. Better to get ahead than slow down. Right. And I, I'm just like, as I'm saying this, you kind of have this analogy of you're, you're hiking up a mountain, right.
[00:05:32] And when you stop hiking, you start going back, sliding down. It's like being on a river. If you're not paddling forward, you're paddling backwards. Someone told me one time I thought this was great advice, that if your practice isn't growing, it's dying. So when you pull back on your marketing, that's basically what's happening.
[00:05:55] You're gonna start going in the opposite direction of where you wanna go, because look, everyone else is marketing. Everyone else is growing their practice. It's kind of like in a race, you're all running together and you're doing great, and then you decide to stop or walk slower or tie your shoe. And then you're behind and everyone else is ahead.
[00:06:12] Now, that's not an analogy to say, I want you to hustle every second all the time, more just to say that when you stop, you're not having that consistency. So another thing I often see is canceling consulting or education. So maybe you're trying to get a certification and you stop that process. I see it a lot with consulting people who are getting help growing their practice, but then they're not making the money that they wanna make.
[00:06:35] So they stop getting that help for their practice and then they don't make those improvements forward. Now, of course, I don't want you investing in something for long periods of time that's not working. But you know, if you just only invest in a short time, you don't give it enough time to work. It's kinda like what we say to clients, right?
[00:06:52] Clients come in and they'll start out and they say, well, you only wanna come for a recession every other week or once a month. And you're like, that's really not gonna help you. Like, you've really gotta come consistently. So you want to make sure that you're consistently investing in your education, you're consulting to move forward.
[00:07:08] Just like we want clients to invest in therapy every week. So delaying system improvements is also when we pull back. So not allowing things to move more effectively in your practice, not spending time in improving your practice, you're taking more on yourself, not asking for help, so not delegating.
[00:07:26] That's often what pulling back looks like. Pulling back also looks like not hiring. And that could be maybe more for group practices, not looking to hire more therapists. Maybe it's not moving into new space when you know that you need to move into a new space 'cause you delay that 'cause you're scared of it.
[00:07:42] But it's the very thing that's keeping you from growing. And another, this is work related but kind of not, is lack of self care. So when we pull back, we stop taking care of ourselves. So that could be maybe you get your nails done or, and, and that could be things like that. Or get a massage or. Maybe you go out to eat with your family once a week and you stop those things, but it doesn't have to necessarily be a financial thing.
[00:08:04] It could be that you feel this pressure to see clients in the outside of your work hours because you're, you're pulling back from taking care of yourself, right? So none of these things are inherently wrong, but context matters. The challenge is that fear often pushes us back and it pushes us back real quick.
[00:08:26] Without fully considering the long-term impact, I am a huge fan of Profit First, and so every two weeks we get our Profit First Report. And on the months that the expenses are higher, it's like the whole leadership team cringes. When we get the report, we're like, oh no, like our expenses are too high. What do we need to do to change things?
[00:08:45] You know? And, and then I'm like, wait, wait, wait. Like, it's okay. Like long-term impact, you know, one, one payroll at a time, you know, and, and not making those rash decisions, but allowing it to build over time and then really looking at, at those numbers. So scripture. Makes a lot of this stuff clear that wisdom is patience, right?
[00:09:06] Wisdom's, not erratic decisions. Proverbs talks about seeking out counsel, weighing your decisions, and thinking ahead. So take the time to consider how your decision is making the impact in the long run. Talk to other practice owners that you trust that have successful practices, maybe also faith-based, and see the things that they've invested in over time.
[00:09:27] Or chosen not to ask them for their opinion. Maybe you have a consultant or maybe you're in the Wise Practice community. Those are great places to find people to ask these questions to. So fear though, right, often leads to rash decisions and leads us honestly to feel relief at first, right? So one of the hardest things about being a practice owner is this cause and effect delay.
[00:09:55] So it's hard for us to know how something's gonna turn out because it takes time for it to turn out. Right. And look, running business is a risk consistently. So you're, what you might be experiencing is often the result of decisions that we made months ago, right? So I, I think that SEO is. One of the best examples of this, like I always say, SEO is a long game, so invest, invest, invest.
[00:10:23] And then all of a sudden it works out. Like I had a practice owner I worked with and she was starting her group practice really struggling to get calls and she took a class with simplified SEO consulting she did at the online class. On her own. And then she started doing the implementing of what she was learning on blogging.
[00:10:42] And so every Tuesday night she would go home and she would blog and she hated it. She'd always complain about, ah, I had to blog again. You know, because she's a mom. And so her kids would go to bed and then she'd blog every Tuesday night. She did it for months. For months. And then. Her practice started exploding.
[00:10:59] In fact, about a year later, after she was done with that mastermind group, I connected with her and was like, how are you doing? She had eight therapists. I was like, oh my gosh. So it was all that work she put in on the front end, and she could have thought to herself, I'm too tired, or I need to make more time for clients, or I need to do these other things.
[00:11:17] But that consistency paid off. I know another practice owner who had invested a lot in SEO. Became anxious, invested less, you know, stopped actually, and then all of a sudden no more calls, even though calls have been coming in consistently before that. And so once you've lost that. It's really hard to get it back.
[00:11:38] Right. So then to start investing in SEO again, you have to come back out of that. So that is such a great example for that kind of cause and delay effect. 'cause when he stopped investing in SEO, it wasn't an immediate thing. It was a couple months later. Right. And when this other practice owner started blogging regularly, it wasn't immediate, it was months later.
[00:11:58] So much of how we run our practice decisions are shown in that way. So marketing is not instant. Systems, processes in your practice aren't overnight. Training doesn't come up immediately. You know, your revenue's not gonna spike immediately necessarily. There is usually consistency over time, right? Mm-hmm.
[00:12:16] I can think of a time that I waited way too long to do something, which was hire my first assistant and I assistant, and I feel like so many people say that to me and they're like, oh, I don't wanna pay for it, or I don't wanna train the person. I don't have time for these things. I can't, I can't remember one time where someone came back to me and said, oh, I should have never hired an assistant.
[00:12:40] I always hear them come back and say, I'm so glad I hired an assistant. Right. I also think about this idea of delay with starting a group practice, and I use this example a lot, but practice owners who wanna start a group practice, they will call me. I'm thinking about one in particular. She, she got on the phone with me.
[00:13:00] And she was like, I wanna start a group practice someday. And I'm like, okay, well let's talk about where you're at in your practice. So we, we were doing a clarity call and I said, oh, so you're, you're getting, you're getting clients. You're, you know, getting full, like, you know, you wanna start group practice.
[00:13:15] And then I, I flat out said, when do you wanna start it? She was like, six, 12 months from now. And I'm like, why? She's like, I don't know. I don't think I'm supposed to yet. I don't feel like I'm qualified or whatever. And I said, look, you're already doing all the things. If you start your group practice in January, you already, you know, if we start working together, you're already gonna have two people hired by June, more than likely.
[00:13:39] You'll be making more revenue than you did if you had just been solo till June, right? Then when we get from June to the end of the year, you've got six more months to grow that practice as opposed to waiting till June to start that practice, right? So that's six months of lost time, money, education by waiting six more months to do the thing that you already know you wanna do, right?
[00:14:01] So there's that lag there. Lost time and lost money. And look, I'm talking business here, and that is important. But let's also remember that's a loss of investing in people's lives. It's a loss of investing in the therapists that are gonna work for you, the clients that are gonna come to you. When you stop investing in your marketing, you're gonna stop investing in people that find you online, money that you could spend investing in your church, investing in your family, and nonprofit situations.
[00:14:30] We want to be diligent about these things. And so when practice owners pull back in these slow seasons, they often don't feel the impact immediately. There's this temporary sense of relief, right? Fewer expenses, less effort. They're feeling better months later. This is when these things happen that we're talking about.
[00:14:49] Caseloads become harder to fill, right? 'cause you don't have that marketing in place. You didn't hire a therapist. Then you don't have anyone to see clients. A lot of people get scared to hire more therapists or their first therapist because they think of the financial investment, but the truth is that therapist is gonna help you grow more.
[00:15:07] I remember so clearly when I had a group practice and there was a moment where I had to, people quit and I had to hire some more people and I didn't have enough, and somebody called and I took on a client because I had fear that we weren't gonna have enough money and I better see these clients. Woo, that client had a lot of trauma, and of course I'm glad that I helped her, but in the end, I just did not have the capacity to help her.
[00:15:33] She was, it was stressful for me trying to run the practice and see as many clients as I was seeing, especially seeing a client that had a very complicated situation going on, and I was like, man, I should have, I should have hired another therapist, or I should have waited to give her to somebody else. So sometimes we take on those clients, right?
[00:15:52] We get more involved in things than we should when we could create processes and systems for that. Our systems are outdated, our policies and procedures are outdated, and then we're not investing in our team, right? So the growth returns, but the infrastructure isn't ready. That is, that is when we're in a bad place.
[00:16:13] So a lot of times people haven't set up their practice to be able to. Handle that growth. And then practice owners are overwhelmed. They're making poor decisions, and they don't really enjoy what they do, right? So we have got to put our time, money, and energy into these infrastructures that are gonna help your practice be successful.
[00:16:33] As we think about biblical concepts for this, I mean, Galatians reaping what you sow. We are gonna invest in something, knowing that something will come later, there will be that delay, and that's really hard to wait on. But in the end, something great will grow. So let's look at where pulling back is gonna cost you.
[00:16:55] So in my experience, there are a few specific areas we're pulling back. Tends to be especially costly, and I've kind of mentioned these, but I want to get 'em all here together for you. The first one is marketing and visibility. So when the marketing stops, that momentum is slowing down. Trying to restart.
[00:17:09] That takes a lot more energy and consistency, which is what I was telling you about the story with the SEO and that investment there. But it could be a lot of different investments in your marketing. It could be investing in your website and getting it looking good writing service pages and blogs on a regular basis.
[00:17:26] Maybe it's reaching out to referral sources on a regular basis. Maybe it's investing in your social media posting regularly. And so we pull back on those things and we lose that consistency and we lose where we were going. Right? I see this a lot with emails. Emails. So like a lot of people with their newsletters, they stop doing their newsletters and then they start 'em again and wonder why nobody's reading or following them, right?
[00:17:51] While that consistency with newsletters is really important for people seeing you in their inbox and remembering you. So it's a another example of consistency. So we're pulling back costs the most with systems and support. So the systems are often the first thing to go when things aren't feeling right.
[00:18:08] And these systems might provide you a little bit of relief at the time because, hey, I'm saving up money. But it actually creates more burnout for the practice owner in most cases, sometimes for the rest of the team. So the first example I thought of for this was. Like a CRM. So that's a customer relationship management system.
[00:18:25] So people pull back on it because it's not absolutely necessary, but it does help organize things on the front end or with phone lines so people don't wanna pay for a phone line that has more automations. So then they pay for a more simple phone line. But then the practice owners having to do more on the front end to be able to take care of, take care of the calls and the texts and the things that are coming through.
[00:18:47] Right. So. There's something to be said for investing in systems and processes to make life easier on the practice owner. And yeah, that's gonna cost a little bit at times, but it's gonna save you time, money in the long run and let's get real practice owners. Seeing clients does make more money for the practice.
[00:19:04] Not that I want you seeing too many clients, but I always try to think of, look, I could see one client and be able to pay for this thing that's actually gonna save me four hours, as opposed to one hour of seeing a client. Right? I think it's a really good way, especially for solo practice owners to be thinking about where they invest their time and money in their practice.
[00:19:24] So we're pulling back costs the most is learning and guidance. So often practice owners pause their education, their consulting, when that clarity is what they need the most. I had a practice owner just the other day who was in the membership community. Email me and tell me they needed to stop the membership community because their practice was not doing as well as they had anticipated.
[00:19:46] And I was so sad 'cause I thought, oh, I really wanna help this practice owner so that more people can find Christian therapists, of course, but. He's in this community that I have so many marketing, you know, courses and paperwork, and really it just takes one client coming in one time a month to pay for the community.
[00:20:06] I try to price it low enough to make it accessible to everyone. I understand it's not for everyone, but. It made me sad to think, oh, here are all these courses that are readily available to you, and if you watched them and did the course, you would be able to implement this and actually get your practice growing more.
[00:20:21] And, uh, I know it's challenging, but, but when we pull out of things like communities or like things that are giving us resources to help us, it kind of creates the opposite effect. Right? You're not feeding yourself anymore. Right. And then. You're struggling, so make sure that you're investing. It doesn't have to be with wise practice, of course.
[00:20:41] Just somewhere that you're learning and getting guidance on growing your practice. So, or pulling back also costs the most is taking on everything yourself. We all fall for this one, right? It and, and sometimes we might feel like it's noble, but the truth is that the path, the fastest path to burnout and exhaustion is when you take on everything yourself.
[00:21:02] Another practice owner. I know. Answers the phones for their practice because they, they wanna be able to take care of everybody and they believe they're gonna do the best with it. And they think that they're doing something kind for their practice. But really that becomes the bottleneck, right? Because then they can't help the practice move forward 'cause they're answering the phones.
[00:21:22] You wanna do the things that only you can do. Right. And then hiring people to do the other things. So when we don't hire or contract out, we take on everything. That costs us a lot more in the end because we can't do the things that would actually bring in more revenue as practice owners. So we do see in scripture that wisdom builds gradually when you think about building a house, and there's so many references to a solid foundation in the Bible, but when you are building this thing and you've got to build it one step at a time, and when you start pulling things away, tearing things down.
[00:22:01] Changing too many things that can create confusion. You're not all building a house together and the foundation can get shaky. So you wanna be really consistent in the things that you're doing. So how do you know if it's time to pull back? Right? Or are you living in fear? So here's some questions that I have here for you, some kind of discernment questions that you could sit with.
[00:22:25] I. So I guess if you are at home or you have a journal, these would be some questions to write down or come back to later. Am I making a decision because I'm looking for short-term relief or long-term stability? Y'all, I fall for this one all the time. Oftentimes in my practice, I know there are things I need to focus on and work on that are long term.
[00:22:50] But y'all, I'm just too tired. I don't wanna do it. So I look for that short term relief. You know, I don't have to do that thing, right? But really. Those things are the things that are gonna get me long-term stability. So like right now trying to get a loan for another building and look at buildings, like I just would rather not do all those things right?
[00:23:10] But that's not bringing me the long-term stability I need for my practice. And, and a lot of times if we live in fear, that fear can just get compounded, 'cause things can get worse with Tom. Yikes. And then something is in your face and you haven't planned for it, and that's even worse. So another question to ask yourself, does this choice increase my peace or create discomfort?
[00:23:32] Right? So what are you feeling in your gut, in your spirit, and what direction do you feel like is best to go next? And if nothing, another question is, if nothing were to change in the next three months, how would I feel? Right? Are you gonna look back on this decision and feel, regret, or feel at peace? And hopeful?
[00:23:49] So faith doesn't mean. You don't ever adjust anything because faith and stability go hand in hand, but so do faith and adjustment, right? It's learning to pivot and learning to trust Jesus in that process that you don't let panic numbers, emotions dictate decision. Your decisions. You let data, wisdom and thought dictate your decisions, so staying the course.
[00:24:17] That's the theme that we're in for this series. This does not mean that you do everything at full speed. A lot of this series is about slowing down, but it does mean consistency over time and consistency over intensity. So what does it look like to stay the course in your practice? Maintaining your basic marketing strategy, don't completely change it overnight.
[00:24:46] Continue getting the support that you need for your practice. So even if you simplify it, don't just walk away from the support that you need in your practice. Make sure you've got someone or something giving you that. And I know that it, there are other practice centers that you can get that from, but if that's not their career, their job, that's not, it's not just that they don't know even.
[00:25:07] 'cause some of them do really know how to run a practice, but they're not getting paid for it. It's not within their capacity. So just like when you go to a party, you don't want someone to treat you like your therapist, right? So we don't wanna treat other people like a consultant that they're not getting paid for that.
[00:25:22] So I would encourage you to make sure you're getting that extra support from someone that's in the field and experienced and can kind of give you that energy that you need. You know who has that to give consistency and staying the course looks like keeping your system steady, adding new ones as needed, growing your policies and procedures in your practice.
[00:25:43] Keeping systems that automate things within your practice or systems that are making things easier. Don't just jump to something that's cheaper. Just because it's cheaper. Do it because it really helps your practice and ask for help before you're burnt out. Don't let burnout be the best of you. Ask for help.
[00:26:03] Hire for help. So I want you to make faithful investments. Oftentimes these are not flashy. They're kind of quiet, and it takes time to see the impact of those decisions. It's rarely dramatic. I listened to a TED talk about leadership, and one of the things they talked about was good leaders. Are often not publicized.
[00:26:28] You know, people don't hear about them because they don't have high drama. They're consistently doing things and consistently moving forward. The stories you often hear are the flashy leaders, right, who make big risks and do things, and so then we feel like we need to be that. But really those are often times the less successful leaders, you know, they make big jumps, but it's not consistent over time.
[00:26:48] And so being able to just provide that faithful leadership is. Really key to your practice growth and key to your sanity build. You're building capacity over time to make these decisions, and you're growing in your own knowledge. So if you're in a slower, uncertain season right now, I want you to know that you are okay.
[00:27:07] You're not behind, you're not failing, and you don't need to make a drastic change to prove that you're responsible, right, or to prove that you're something Faithful. Leadership often means holding steady when fear says to retreat. It's about being rooted and grounded within your faith and trusting this process and that God is doing a work within you during the slow and busy seasons.
[00:27:35] He's growing roots so that you can be the stable tree by that water, right? I think that's an image from Psalm, if I remember correctly. So as you move through the week this month. Here's some things to be thinking about. Where are you tempted to pull back and retreat? You might wanna rethink that. What decision would serve you better three months from now?
[00:28:00] So what can I do now to have greatness three months from now in whatever it is that I'm doing? And what consistency, what does consistency look like in this season that you're in? The next time that we meet? Next week, I'm gonna talk about the third part of this series, which is leading people when you are tired.
[00:28:20] So many of our hardest leadership decisions show up when our energy is low. I can attest to this, not when things are going smoothly. So we're gonna talk about how to lead well in those seasons of exhaustion. And so that could be a group practice owner, any kind of practice owner leading our clients, right?
[00:28:39] So thank you for being here, and I really appreciate you listening to the series. I'm glad that you're walking through these conversations with me, and I'm looking forward to the next time we're together.
[00:28:51] Jingle: So click on follow and leave a review and keep on loving this work we do with Whitney Owens and Wise Practice Podcast, Whitney Owens and Wise Practice
[00:29:06] 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.
[00:29:23] 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.
