WP188 | The Loneliness of Leading a Practice Nobody Around You Understands - Podcast Takeover with Amy Dover
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Leading a practice can feel lonely in a way most people don’t fully understand.
In this special Amy Dover takeover episode, Amy kicks off a four-part series for the month of June by naming something a lot of practice owners feel but don’t always say out loud: the loneliness of leadership.
Whether you’re a solo practice owner or leading a group, there are decisions you carry that your spouse, friends, team, or even other business owners may not be able to fully understand. You’re holding clinical complexity, financial responsibility, ethical decisions, leadership pressure, and, for Christian practice owners, faith and calling, too.
Y’all, that is a lot to carry.
Amy shares honestly about a hard season in her own practice when Dover Counseling became a seven-figure practice, the culture began to shift, and she found herself sitting alone in her office trying to figure out what had gone wrong. She talks about the pain of leading through that season, the decision to move from 1099 to W2, and the relief that came when she finally found consulting and community with other practice owners who truly understood.
This episode is for the practice owner who looks like she’s holding it all together but feels alone behind the scenes.
Practice Ownership Can Feel Lonely, Even When You’re Surrounded By People
Leading a practice can be one of the loneliest things you do, even when your life is full of people. It is not always the kind of loneliness that comes from being physically alone or unsupported. It is a very specific kind of loneliness that comes from being the person who carries the weight of the business, the clients, the team, the finances, the ethics, and the future of the practice.
If you are a solo practice owner, you may feel it in the quiet middle of the day when you are sitting between clients, wondering who you can call who would actually understand. If you are a group practice owner, you may feel it while sitting in an office full of people, knowing there are things you cannot process with your team. You may love the people around you deeply and still feel like nobody fully understands what it costs to lead.
You Are Holding More Than One World At Once
One of the reasons practice ownership can feel so isolating is that your decisions are rarely simple. You are not just making a business decision or a clinical decision or a financial decision. Most of the time, you are holding all of those pieces at once, and each one matters.
You are thinking about clinical care, legal and ethical responsibility, payroll, overhead, client needs, staff wellbeing, sustainability, and the long-term health of the practice. And for Christian practice owners, there is also the layer of faith, biblical values, prayer, and calling. That means the decisions you make are often more complicated than they look from the outside.
The hard part is that many of the people around you may only understand one piece of the puzzle. Your spouse may understand the emotional weight but not the clinical nuance. Your therapist friends may understand the clinical side but not the business pressure. Your business owner friends may understand profit and operations but not why you cannot always make the most financially efficient choice and move on. So even when people care about you, they may not be able to fully sit with you in the complexity.
Your Team Cannot Be Your Processing Place
For group practice owners, there is an added layer of loneliness because your team cannot be the place where you process everything. You may love your team. You may care about them deeply. You may want them to feel supported, respected, and valued. But there are parts of ownership that are not appropriate to bring to them.
As the owner, you are carrying things your team may never fully know. You are thinking about staffing decisions, culture problems, money, liability, compensation, sustainability, and sometimes hard conversations that directly impact the people you lead. That does not mean you are being secretive or cold. It means you are being responsible with the role you hold.
That can feel especially lonely when you are the person everyone comes to, but you do not have a clear place to go yourself. You are leading, supporting, encouraging, and making decisions, but behind the scenes you may be wondering who is going to help you carry the weight.
When Something Shifts In Your Practice
In this episode, Amy Dover shares about a painful season in her own practice. In 2022, Dover Counseling became a seven-figure practice, and it should have been a moment of celebration. Amy wanted her team to see what they had built together, how many people they were serving, and how much good was happening in their community.
But after she shared that milestone, something shifted. The energy in the practice began to change. Entitlement started showing up. Cliques began forming. There were moments of rudeness and tension that caught her off guard. What had felt like a shared mission started to feel different, and Amy found herself sitting in her office wondering what had happened to the practice she loved.
At the time, she was still operating under a 1099 model with a 70/30 split. She was carrying the overhead, the liability, the administrative burden, and the responsibility of keeping the practice running. But somehow, hearing one large revenue number changed the way some people saw the practice. What Amy had intended as a celebration of impact became the beginning of a painful culture shift.
Sometimes You Can Feel Something Is Wrong Before You Can Name It
One of the hardest parts of leadership is sensing that something is wrong before you have language for it. Amy describes sitting in her office, praying and asking God for wisdom, guidance, and protection over the practice she had built. She could feel that something had entered the culture that did not belong there, but she did not yet know how to name it or how to stop it.
That is a deeply lonely place to be. You cannot fully talk to your team about it. You may not be able to explain it to friends or family. Even other practice owners may not fully understand if they are not carrying the same size, stage, values, or leadership burden.
And if you are relational or a people pleaser, it is easy to turn that pain inward. You start wondering what you did wrong, what you missed, or whether you somehow caused the problem. But sometimes leadership means seeing what is broken before anyone else can see it and having to make decisions before anyone else understands why.
Change Can Be Painful And Still Be Right
Eventually, Amy reached out for consulting for the first time, eight years into building her practice. That step led to major changes, including the decision to transition from a 1099 model to a W2 model. It was not easy. During that transition, nine therapists left, and the practice took a serious financial hit.
Amy does not pretend that season was painless. It was costly, emotional, and hard. But on the other side of it came a healthier culture, new people, and a practice that felt aligned again with her values and calling. The transition created space for something better, even though it did not feel that way in the middle of it.
Sometimes the right decision is still painful. Sometimes obedience, wisdom, and stewardship come with loss before they bring clarity. Amy looks back now and sees that God was pruning and making space, but from her office in 2022, all she could do was pray, hold on, and take the next step.
Stewardship Requires Sustainability
Christian practice owners often carry a unique tension around money. There can be this quiet pressure in Christian spaces that talking about profit is somehow unspiritual, as if wanting your practice to be financially healthy means you are not truly serving. But Amy names this clearly in the episode: that is not true.
Stewardship requires sustainability. You cannot keep the doors open on good intentions alone. You cannot pay your staff, serve your clients, support your family, or continue the work God has called you to do if your practice is hemorrhaging money. Financial health is not the opposite of kingdom work. It is one of the things that makes kingdom work possible.
This is one of the reasons Christian practice ownership can feel so complicated. You are trying to make wise business decisions while also honoring your values, your calling, and the people you serve. You are not choosing between faith and finances. You are learning how to steward both well.
Christian Practice Owners Often Live In The Middle
There is a particular in-between place that many Christian practice owners occupy. You may feel too business-minded for some Christian circles and too faith-driven for some business circles. You may be building something profitable and sustainable, but you are also making decisions through prayer, mission, values, and conviction.
Your mission statement is not just marketing copy. Your faith actually shapes how you lead. It influences the way you think about clients, employees, money, conflict, growth, and sustainability. But not everyone has a framework for that.
That is why finding the right kind of community matters so much. You need people who understand the clinical complexity, the business responsibility, and the faith-based calling underneath it all. Not just one piece. All of it.
Finding People Who Get It Changes Everything
For Amy, things began to change when she finally reached out for consulting and found herself in conversations where she did not have to explain every piece of the context first. She could bring a staffing decision, a financial tension, or a values conflict, and Whitney understood because she had lived it too.
That kind of relief matters. There is something powerful about sitting with another practice owner who immediately understands the weight of the decision in front of you. You do not have to spend all your energy explaining why it is complicated. You can simply be honest about what you are carrying.
Amy also talks about the grief that came with finding that kind of support. Grief that it had taken eight years. Grief for all the decisions she had made alone. Grief for the weight she had carried unnecessarily. But out of that grief came a resolve that she does not want other Christian practice owners to spend years building in isolation when they do not have to.
Loneliness Does Not Mean You Are Doing Something Wrong
If you have felt lonely in practice ownership, it does not mean you are too much. It does not mean your problems are too complicated. It does not mean you should have figured it all out by now. It simply means you are in a role that very few people fully understand.
The solution is not to need less. The solution is to find your people. You need people who can sit with you in the complexity, people who understand what it means to build something profitable, sustainable, ethical, clinically sound, and rooted in faith.
You were built for this work, but you were never meant to build it alone. Practice ownership will always carry weight, but it does not have to be carried in isolation.
Built to Last: Growing From a Solo Practice to a Group
In this episode, Amy also shares about her upcoming mastermind, Built to Last: Growing From a Solo Practice to a Group. This group is for Christian practice owners who are moving from solo practice to their first hire, or who already have one therapist and are ready to grow with more clarity and support.
The mastermind begins July 9 and runs for six months, with live Zoom meetings every other week. The group will cover systems, financials, marketing, admin and clinical compensation strategies, money mindset, interviewing, hiring, onboarding, and the important mindset shift from clinician to CEO.
More than anything, it is designed to be a room full of people who get it. People who share your faith, understand the business realities, and know how complicated this work can feel. If you are tired of trying to figure everything out alone, this may be the kind of support you have been needing.
You Are Not Alone In This Work
The work you are doing matters more than you probably give yourself credit for, especially on the hard days. Practice ownership is sacred work, but it is also heavy work. You are carrying more than people see, and you may be making decisions that most people around you will never fully understand.
But you are not alone. There are other practice owners asking the same questions, carrying the same tensions, and praying through the same decisions. There are people who understand this work, and there is community for you.
You do not have to build this by yourself.
Show Sponsor SamBright
This episode is brought to you by SamBright, the growth solution for practices that want to get found.
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Amy’s Resources
Built to Last: The Solo to Group Mastermind (Grab $50 Off if you register before June 12th)
Links and Resources
Learn More about Wise Practice Consulting
Connect with Wise Practice on Instagram
Connect with Whitney Owens on Facebook
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[00:00:46] Hi, I'm 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.
[00:01:09] Now let's get started.
[00:01:13] Jingle: Where she grows your practice, and she don't play. She does business with a twist of faith. It's Whitney Owens and the Wise Practice Podcast. Whitney Owens and the Wise Practice Podcast.
[00:01:31] Whitney Owens: Hello, friends, and welcome to the Wise Practice Podcast. Today is a really special follow-up from last week.
[00:01:37] So if you missed the episode last week, I encourage you to head there and listen to it. Either stop this and go back or after this episode, because Laura Long, one of the consultants with Wise Practice, is doing a podcast takeover last week and this week. So last week we talked all about is now the time to build an additional stream of income.
[00:01:55] A lot of times we have these ideas outside the therapy chair that we're trying to figure out, is this what I need to be doing? You know, something in addition to seeing my clients. So Laura walks you through that. Now today, in this episode, we kind of flipped roles. Even on my own podcast, I was interviewed.
[00:02:14] So this was all Laura's idea, that she wanted to spend the episode interviewing me and diving into what we actually need to know before we build multiple streams of income. 'Cause here is what we see with practice owners. We get really excited about an idea. We're passionate. It's meaningful. We really do feel called by the Spirit to do this thing, and we are in very many ways.
[00:02:37] But we struggle with implementation to know how to do the thing that we're passionate about, right? So it's that slowing down, asking ourselves, "How do I invest my time and energy in this? What is this really gonna look like?" Right? Before you're diving in. Do you have the strategy, the structure, the capacity?
[00:02:55] To make it sustainable. So that is what our conversation is about today. Laura and I take time to really think through the practical side, what does it take to build something outside of the room, but also the spiritual side. How do we discern what we're called to? So this is such a fun conversation, and honestly, one that I think will give you tons to reflect on.
[00:03:14] I truly enjoyed it. Lots of nuggets. So if you didn't catch last week's episode, again, I encourage you to go back to listen so you can get to know Laura a little better and understand more about building sustainable income. And I don't want you to miss this experience as well, is that Laura Long is leading an incredible mastermind group starting in just a few weeks.
[00:03:35] This is a six-month experience where she will walk with you closely through the discernment process to identify your ideas and put steps into action so you can build that additional stream of income. If you are thinking about another stream of income and you're not really sure, head to wisepracticeconsulting.com to learn more about that mastermind group that starts in June.
[00:03:55] Thank you again for your faithful leadership, for following God as you grow your practice and your additional streams of income, and thank you for being with me on the show. Now let's dive into the episode.
[00:04:13] Laura Long: All right. Welcome back to the Wise Practice podcast. I am Laura Long, taking over for Whitney Owens, who has so graciously agreed to join me today because I wanted to have a conversation that I wish I could have listened to earlier in my career. Now, we're not talking step-by-step process or anything like that, but I do wanna talk honestly with Whitney about what it actually looks like to build income streams beyond the therapy room.
[00:04:42] So as you all know, Whitney is our fearless leader here at Wise Practice. Do you have anything that you wanna say further, Whitney, to introduce yourself? I mean, y- you pretty much don't need an introduction to your own podcast.
[00:04:54] Whitney Owens: That's funny. No, I'm just e- enjoying this. It's fun to be on the other side on your own show and to have the amazing Laura Long giving me my interview.
[00:05:03] I'm really happy to have that as well.
[00:05:05] Laura Long: It's very much a full circle moment, isn't it-
[00:05:07] Whitney Owens: Mm-hmm ...
[00:05:08] Laura Long: that I'm the one interviewing you? And so if you're listening to this, you probably have been thinking about doing something more than your private practice, but you're not quite sure where to start, what that means.
[00:05:20] And odds are it's not that you don't have an idea, you probably just have too many ideas. So Whitney, I wanted to ask you some questions, and this'll just kind of be like a back and forth because you and I both have our own different journeys into- Mm-hmm ... not just private practice, but starting multiple income streams.
[00:05:37] So I wanna talk about the good, the bad, the ugly, the things that we wish we would have known before diving headfirst into these different forays in, of alternate income streams. And hopefully by the end of our conversation together, people will feel really clear on whether or not this is something that they might wanna pursue.
[00:05:59] Whitney Owens: Yeah, that's great.
[00:05:59] Laura Long: Yeah. So my first question for you, Whitney, it's like, you know, a ask me anything episode. I love this. When did you first realize that you wanted to build something beyond your private practice?
[00:06:15] Whitney Owens: Good question. I think it was 2018 or '19. I was in a mastermind group, and I was starting a group practice, and during the group I, I wasn't really getting a lot of direction faith-wise.
[00:06:32] I was getting a lot of instruction on the business side. But I- Yeah,
[00:06:37] Laura Long: the tactical ...
[00:06:38] Whitney Owens: Yeah. And I'm in this group, about six other people, and I'm like, "Faith is why I do it. That is h- gonna impact my hiring, it's gonna impact my values, it's gonna impact my website, my branding, all the things." And not that I was being told that I couldn't talk about that, but it was very uncomfortable to talk about that in this group.
[00:07:00] Laura Long: Mm.
[00:07:01] Whitney Owens: I also didn't sense that the person leading the group really knew much about that or felt, had an alignment in that.
[00:07:08] Laura Long: Yeah.
[00:07:09] Whitney Owens: I was like, "Am I really gonna try to get advice from someone who isn't really understanding this about me?" Right? 'Cause that's an important component of why we're called. M- exactly what we're talking about, called to more.
[00:07:21] Like- Mm-hmm ... I felt called to more, and I needed someone to lead me in that, and I didn't have anybody. Um, and so I went on a retreat. I'm gonna go a little bit past your question here.
[00:07:30] Laura Long: I wanna know, we want to know all of
[00:07:32] Whitney Owens: it. Okay. Um, so I'm thinking through all this, and I'm like, "Maybe I should do some consulting for practice owners that have a faith-based perspective."
[00:07:41] I, I remember thinking, "Someone needs to do this." I actually didn't wanna do it. I wanted somebody else to do it. I am-
[00:07:48] Laura Long: I wish someone would just take this from me so I don't have to be the one to do it.
[00:07:52] Whitney Owens: Oh, yeah, because I was not in a place in my life to be doing that. I actually- Go ahead.
[00:07:58] Laura Long: You sound like Moses right now 'cause I remember reading all this scripture in Exodus where Moses is like, "Dang it, God."
[00:08:04] Like, "I do not wanna do this. Why? I am not the person for this job." That's who you sound like.
[00:08:10] Whitney Owens: That is exactly what I was thinking. At that time in my life, I had a very newly diagnosed autistic daughter. She was two. Mm. She had a hearing loss. I mean, it was like you couldn't sleep at night. It was terrible.
[00:08:23] And then, um, I had my other daughter, who was, like, six. My husband's a full-time pastor. I'm running a group practice. Like, who has any capacity or energy to take on starting another business, right? So at the time I was like, "Ugh," and I, I remember going to Gordon Brewer actually, and I was like, "Oh, he'd be really good at this," you know, that he's a minister, um, and a consultant, and he was like, "Nope, I've already got my own thing going on."
[00:08:47] I was like, "Dang it. Who's gonna do this?" And so I'm on this retreat, I'm walking by the Lake Michigan, up on a mountain, and I look over the water and I'm just like, "Wow," like, "this is big. This is big" Mm ... and, and I felt the Lord, like, impress on my heart, uh, you- y- you're called to this. Like, you need to do this.
[00:09:08] And I was reminded of the story of Mary and Martha, where M- Martha is all in the busyness. She's doing all the things.
[00:09:16] Laura Long: She's cleaning up. She's getting ready.
[00:09:19] Whitney Owens: That's right. And Mary has selected the best thing. And h- it was like an analogy to me that I was so focused on my group practice and the details and the doing, that I wasn't seeing the bigger thing, the more important thing, which was doing faith-based consulting for practice owners, and that is where I have grown so close in my relationship with God.
[00:09:43] So in the same way that Mary sat at the feet of Jesus, it's, I feel like I get to experience that leading Wise Practice.
[00:09:50] Laura Long: Wow. Oof.
[00:09:52] Whitney Owens: I'm a little emotional today.
[00:09:53] Laura Long: What? No. I mean, how can you not be emotional recounting that story and how the Holy Spirit essentially came upon you that fateful day in Lake Michigan where you were just looking out onto the mountain and being told, being impressed upon, "This is for you"?
[00:10:09] Jingle: Yeah.
[00:10:11] Whitney Owens: Yeah, I know it was a journey to get there
[00:10:13] Laura Long: because- Oh, yeah. We're gonna talk about that.
[00:10:15] Whitney Owens: Yeah. I try, I still continue to try not to do it.
[00:10:19] Laura Long: I love how you're actively trying not to do the thing that is continuing to grow and, and impacting the lives of hundreds, even thousands, of therapists across the world.
[00:10:29] So for you, and I think for many others who dabble in ulti- alternative income streams, it wasn't really about leaving therapy at all. It was simply about expanding your impact. That's what I'm hearing.
[00:10:44] Whitney Owens: I love how you said that. Yeah. Mm-hmm. It, it truly, as I even look at it now, Wise Practice and Water's Edge, they complement and feed each other.
[00:10:52] They both make both better. So if I hadn't done Wise Practice, Water's Edge probably wouldn't be as great as it is now 'cause of the way it helps it. Yeah.
[00:11:01] Laura Long: Right. And I also love how you pointed out that the mastermind group you were a part of didn't understand, didn't align with how important your faith is to you, because you're right, it a- it touches everything.
[00:11:13] Every decision you make as a leader, as an entrepreneur, is rooted in and grounded in your faith. And so if you're gonna be a part of a business building group that doesn't take that into account, you might run the risk of building something that actually isn't aligned with your faith and doesn't feed the bigger mission, right?
[00:11:32] Yeah. Yeah. So you knew to step back and say, "Wait a minute. Just because this, this doesn't fit the narrative of this mastermind doesn't mean that I give up on it." So what did you do next?
[00:11:44] Whitney Owens: Which part of the story am I gonna tell? Um, so, so next I was like, "Huh, is there really people that want Christian-based consulting for their private practice?
[00:11:55] Are these people out there or is it just me?" So I had an SEO expert with me at the time, and so we... I just happened to have one right beside me. And we said- Who
[00:12:03] Laura Long: happens to be one of your best friends.
[00:12:05] Whitney Owens: Yeah. And so we said, well... And we became friends shortly after this. But she, she sat down and she did a search.
[00:12:12] She was like, "Over 700 people every month specifically search for that." And I was like, "Oh." Now remember, this was back before the world of AI the way we know it, you know? Mm-hmm. Um, I was like, "Wow, that's a lot of people. Wow." So then I went to my... I was on the retreat with my consultant at the time, and I went to my consultant and I said, "I'm gonna do this.
[00:12:38] There's a need, I feel a call. Are you gonna help me do it? Help me build this business?" 'Cause I knew I had to build the business. And then he was like, "Oh, well why don't you just join my business and do faith-based consulting?" And at the time I was like, "That's like a dream come true. I get to do what I wanna do, and I don't have to start my own business."
[00:12:58] Mm-hmm. I don't have to do my marketing, get an email list, get followers, all the things which maybe we'll talk about in a little bit.
[00:13:04] Laura Long: Mm-hmm.
[00:13:04] Whitney Owens: I was like, "Great." And he's gonna help me do it under his platform. This all seemed like perf- perfect alignment. Um, so I went down that road, and I went down that road for three years, two and a half years.
[00:13:17] Mm-hmm It was good for a while Yeah ... and then it became very clear that his agenda, values, alignment, business model was just not lining up with the faith-based desire that I had. And so that was at that point that I had to make a really hard decision to leave that position. Yeah. Which meant leaving the email list I had grown, the podcast I had created, uh, the groups I was leading, and I walked away because I was like, "I've gotta make something that is more aligned with what I know to be true about me- Yeah
[00:13:48] and what I want to do." So then I started all over.
[00:13:52] Laura Long: Talk about a pivot. I mean, your intention didn't pivot, but you essentially had to just burn the house down and rebuild in a new place.
[00:14:00] Whitney Owens: That's right. And that was, you know, when we were in Nashville, and I was at that conference, and you were speaking.
[00:14:06] Mm-hmm. And I was sitting there, and I was like, "I've gotta do this. I've gotta start this business." 'Cause at t- when I left that other business, I was so just broken. I was like, "I can't. I'm tired." Mm-hmm. "I don't wanna do it." And God was like, "No, get up and get this done." And that actually is kinda what you said.
[00:14:22] And I pulled out my computer, and I purchased the LLC while you were speaking, and Wise Practice was born.
[00:14:29] Laura Long: Oh, I was speaking on impulse momentum.
[00:14:32] Whitney Owens: Okay.
[00:14:32] Laura Long: Yeah, and imperfect action and just taking the next step even if you- Yes ... don't know what the one is after that and after that and after that, and even if you don't have all the an- answers, you, you'll never have all the answers, so just do the thing.
[00:14:44] And so you did. Yeah. You opened up your laptop, and you did the thing right then and there.
[00:14:47] Whitney Owens: Yeah. Which
[00:14:48] Laura Long: is another reason why this conversation is so full circle.
[00:14:50] Whitney Owens: It's so cool, yeah. And I do have to just point out, that hotel in Nashville is where we're gonna have the summit, maybe in that exact same room.
[00:14:58] I'm not 100% sure, but that's just, um, it's really special to me to be able to go back to that place where- I
[00:15:05] Laura Long: want you to sit in that same seat if they have the tables arranged the same way and just sit there and speak to 2019 Whitney.
[00:15:15] Whitney Owens: Yeah. It's
[00:15:16] Laura Long: gonna- Yeah. Which I s- I guess is a perfect segue into my next question.
[00:15:21] What is something that you wish you had understood before starting Wise Practice Consulting?
[00:15:28] Whitney Owens: I wish I had believed in myself more. I, I don't think that I made a wrong decision necessarily by joining this other group, and it got me growing in my confidence, my ability, meeting people, but I also coulda just started it right then.
[00:15:46] Laura Long: Yeah. And so-
[00:15:46] Whitney Owens: And
[00:15:46] Laura Long: maybe you were scared.
[00:15:48] Whitney Owens: Oh, I was so scared. And so thinking about the two to three years that I worked under somebody else, though I learned a lot, and I c- I'm grateful for all that that was, that was for me, as I said it to you and I was reflecting, 'cause I've actually never reflected on this before until we just said it right now.
[00:16:05] Laura Long: Mm-hmm.
[00:16:05] Whitney Owens: I just told you about all the reasons why that leader wasn't in alignment, but then I still moved forward with it, you know? Mm-hmm,
[00:16:13] Laura Long: yeah.
[00:16:13] Whitney Owens: And I think I took the easy way out. Easy way's not always bad But I wish I had just said to myself, "You know what, Whitney? You don't need somebody else." Yeah. "You can do this on your own."
[00:16:23] And I wish I had just... I mean, I need other people, like consultants, but I didn't need- Mm-hmm ... another business to do it under.
[00:16:29] Laura Long: Yeah. So you wish that you had trusted in your own capabilities and, you know, the Lord's guidance was gonna be there with you the whole time.
[00:16:39] Whitney Owens: Yeah.
[00:16:40] Laura Long: You still learned a lot, so that's something important to consider, too, and I, and I want your listeners to hear that, that if you're in a, a season of life where you're contemplating adding a different income stream or pivoting your business, no matter what you do, you can always change it again.
[00:16:57] Whitney Owens: Yeah.
[00:16:57] Laura Long: You know, you weren't locked in, that you had started doing faith-based consulting under someone else's umbrella and then you just s- couldn't do it. It just, it took a lot more effort that you had to start over.
[00:17:09] Whitney Owens: Mm-hmm.
[00:17:09] Laura Long: You were still able to continue, though, and you could have pivoted at any point.
[00:17:13] So I almost wanna give people that permission slip as well-
[00:17:16] Whitney Owens: Yeah ...
[00:17:16] Laura Long: that you can start anywhere. And who knows? Maybe six months down the road or 18 months, or in your case, three years, you realize that it's not working the way that you had hoped. You can always change it. Yep. You're in charge here. It, it...
[00:17:29] You're not married to it.
[00:17:31] Whitney Owens: Yeah. God has a reason. Like, every season, God can give something to us.
[00:17:35] Laura Long: Mm-hmm.
[00:17:36] Whitney Owens: Um, but I also think that it's important to say I sorta lost two and a half years of building Wise Practice.
[00:17:44] Laura Long: Mm-hmm.
[00:17:44] Whitney Owens: Right? So I think a lot of us don't wanna move forward 'cause we think we're not capable, I don't have all the things I need, and then when you wait, you've lost that time.
[00:17:55] Yeah. And time is so important.
[00:17:57] Laura Long: I'm glad you said that because that's, that's actually my answer to what is something I wish I had understood before starting, is that the time it takes to, to do anything when it comes to a different income stream, it takes so much more time and effort and energy than we might realize- Yeah
[00:18:16] going into it. You know, like, even building an email list. Yeah. I was talking to a consulting client just the other day, and she has 17 subscribers on her email list, which is not nothing, 'cause it's not her mom. You know, these are actual people who wanna hear from her and are- Yeah ... getting value. I mean, she's new to the whole thing, um, and she was just given an opportunity that might really exponentially grow that email list.
[00:18:41] And what I told her is your first thousand are the hardest. Have you found that to be true?
[00:18:46] Whitney Owens: Yeah.
[00:18:47] Laura Long: The first thousand are the hardest. After that, it gets a little easier because people start talking about the value that you're providing and- Mm ... and the results that they're seeing from, whether it's your emails, your blog posts, your videos, your podcast, anything that you're putting out there to solve a problem, people start to talk.
[00:19:01] They start to share.
[00:19:03] Whitney Owens: Yeah. You know what I have noticed lately? It is really hard, and I don't think people understand this part, to get people to listen to you. You can have so much value- But knowing the right way to communicate that to people in a way that is engaging with the world the way it is.
[00:19:21] There's just so much out there.
[00:19:23] Laura Long: Yeah.
[00:19:24] Whitney Owens: Yeah. Yeah The email list is so important. I think people put too much value on all the other things, but yeah.
[00:19:32] Laura Long: Yeah, I think your email list is one of your most important assets if you have an online business anyway.
[00:19:36] Whitney Owens: Sure
[00:19:36] Laura Long: do. You know, if you're selling informational products.
[00:19:38] It can just be difficult. So that, that's something that I wish I had understood. It wouldn't have changed what I did. I think it just would have helped me set realistic expectations if I had known that this might take longer than just a few months to grow an email list to 10,000 people.
[00:19:53] Whitney Owens: Yeah. Speaking of growing an email list, we do have a handout on this episode in the show notes, the call to more with additional streams of income.
[00:20:03] If you wanna go grab that, it'll put you on the email list for Wise Practice.
[00:20:07] Laura Long: Yep. Yep. And you're gonna get all kinds of goodies and valuable input from Whitney on a regular basis, which you are great about sending not just, like, regular communication, but really helpful nuggets. Yeah. I find myself reading every single one of your emails and taking away something.
[00:20:21] Oh. So I lo- I love that about your email list, is you're not just... You're not, like, selling something every single week and just being like, "Here, buy this thing, buy this thing." That's not it at all. You're there to actually help people and really help them to get to the next level, whatever that is for their businesses, whether they're starting a solo practice or going from solo to group or doing something like what we're talking about today where you're building different streams of income.
[00:20:43] You're really just coming from this place of service, and you really do have a servant's heart, which is why I think that this business is perfect for you.
[00:20:51] Whitney Owens: Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. I, I certainly think when you're doing an additional stream of income, as it grows, it's... And I guess in any business, what are the things that are the most important for you to be a part of, and which ones are less?
[00:21:02] And so all my social media posts, it's usually somebody else posting all that for me, right? But my emails, these are my people, right? So I do sit down and write each one personally and consider the faith-based practice owner that's reading this email. So I'm glad that, I'm glad that's communicated.
[00:21:20] Laura Long: Mm-hmm.
[00:21:20] All right, next question. What is something that surprised you about your income stream once you got into it? So for you it was the faith-based consulting. What surprised you?
[00:21:36] Whitney Owens: Oh, that's funny, the first thing that came to mind, that I'm really good at it.
[00:21:41] Laura Long: You're, as much as you- ... pushed it away and tried to not do it, it actually turns out that you're good at
[00:21:49] Whitney Owens: it. Yeah. I kept thinking, I can't... I mean, when I talk about the capability part, I think a lot of that was, like, am I capable of building another business?
[00:21:56] Laura Long: Mm-hmm. I
[00:21:57] Whitney Owens: think I was capable. And then I started doing it, and I was like, I'm really good at it and I love it. That experience of fullness of joy that you can have in your heart when you do something, when you love... Like I remember the first client I ever sold in my private practice- even though, like, the heat didn't work and I I was like, "What the heck am I doing?"
[00:22:16] I drove home. I remember driving back to my house over the, over the bridge and being like, "I love the work I do. This is it" Yeah. "This is what I was made for." And I'll tell you, Laura, I still feel that way when we do a Wise Practice meeting. Like, the- Mm-hmm ... meetings, I still am like, "I love this." I-
[00:22:36] Laura Long: When I- ... am
[00:22:37] Whitney Owens: amazed by it
[00:22:38] Laura Long: when I see you at these summits, 'cause I've been to two of them now. I think you've had maybe, have you had four?
[00:22:44] Whitney Owens: Something
[00:22:45] Jingle: like
[00:22:45] Whitney Owens: that.
[00:22:45] Laura Long: Something like that. Three or four. Uh, every time I see you at one of these Wise Practice summits, I just see you lighting up the whole weekend. So it's, it's no surprise why at the end of it all you have this, like, dip in emotion, right?
[00:23:01] It's heavy, because the whole weekend you're just, like, on cloud nine, and I can tell that you're doing exactly what, what God put on your heart to do that day on Lake Michigan.
[00:23:12] Whitney Owens: Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I, I would say that, and I don't know if, and you can speak to if you feel like this, I feel like Wise Practice is this, like, dear, intense love that I feel, but also one of the hardest things I've ever done.
[00:23:30] Laura Long: So you mean it's not, it's not passive income? It's not just-
[00:23:35] Whitney Owens: What? I mean- You
[00:23:36] Laura Long: don't just set it and forget it and, and you just make $100,000 a month?
[00:23:42] Whitney Owens: Oh, that that would be very nice. I do think there are some more things I could do to make that happen that I haven't done yet, but yeah. Did, does that relate to you when you started doing additional streams of income where you, like, loved the thing but it was so hard?
[00:23:58] Laura Long: Oh, absolutely. And the reason you love it is why you keep pushing through despite- Right ... how hard it is. I don't think there, there's an easy one.
[00:24:07] Whitney Owens: Yeah, and-
[00:24:07] Laura Long: You know, pick your hard.
[00:24:09] Whitney Owens: Yeah. And I do think people think that. They think, "Oh, passive stream," I mean, even the word, it just makes it, "Oh, yeah, laxa-daysical.
[00:24:16] I'm just gonna do- Mm-hmm ... this thing and put it out there. I'm gonna make all this money" And oh my gosh, it's so freaking hard to sell something. I've, you know, I have Lit Book and I was
[00:24:25] Laura Long: like- Yeah ... "
[00:24:25] Whitney Owens: Surely I got this email list. People love me. It's on the... How many books am I gonna sell?" I can't remember exactly.
[00:24:31] I think I sold 37.
[00:24:34] Laura Long: Well, it's, it's still more than zero, you know?
[00:24:36] Whitney Owens: Still
[00:24:36] Laura Long: more
[00:24:36] Whitney Owens: than zero.
[00:24:37] Laura Long: I do think that there are, there's a, and I said this in a, in a previous episode where I did another takeover. Yeah. I don't know if it's the one before or after this one even, but I talk about, you know, the, the online messaging about passive income leads people to believe that.
[00:24:52] So it's not their fault, you know, if they're listening to this podcast and they, they were thinking that it was gonna be whatever their idea is, is just gonna be this passive thing. You just put together a workbook or a couple of videos, and then you can monetize it. I think part of the reason that belief exists is because there are people selling that idea-
[00:25:12] Whitney Owens: That's what I was gonna say.
[00:25:13] Yeah? Mm-hmm.
[00:25:14] Laura Long: So-
[00:25:15] Whitney Owens: Yeah ...
[00:25:16] Laura Long: another thing that I think surprised me when it came to online entrepreneurship is there was a bit of an identity shift for me, because I went from being a therapist to now I'm a coach or a consultant, and in that I also became this, like, online entrepreneur, and I'm like a builder, a creator.
[00:25:35] It, it was just like all these different hats I felt like I had never worn before, because it... You're right, the skillsets required to build an online presence are a bit different. You know, building an online email list is different than just trying to get more clients in your practice.
[00:25:52] Whitney Owens: It is, yeah.
[00:25:53] Laura Long: Yeah.
[00:25:54] That's a big thing, yeah. So there's a bit of an identity shift.
[00:25:56] Whitney Owens: Mm-hmm. I'm realizing those things came a lot more naturally to me than I thought they would.
[00:26:01] Laura Long: Mm-hmm.
[00:26:02] Whitney Owens: I would say the identity issue that I have had is, this is gonna sound a little arrogant, I don't mean it that way, is the whole micro-celebrity thing.
[00:26:12] That was what my husband told me. He's like, "Whitney, you're a micro-celeb." I'm like, "Oh my gosh." So when I, especially if I see people, like grad school people, you know, people I knew- Mm-hmm ... before I started doing consulting, I just feel all this, like, discomfort-
[00:26:28] Laura Long: Mm-hmm ... of my
[00:26:29] Whitney Owens: success.
[00:26:30] Laura Long: Yeah.
[00:26:31] Whitney Owens: Yeah. In fact, at the conference I went to a few years ago, I go to the state LPC conference, um, every year, and we sponsor it as Wise Practice, and, uh, the, a therapist that I'd had before, she literally came up to the table, which I'm kinda like, mm, should she have done that?
[00:26:50] She comes up to the table and she goes, "Do you remember me?" And I was like-
[00:26:54] Laura Long: Mm ... "
[00:26:55] Whitney Owens: Hello." And she- That's
[00:26:56] Laura Long: a little ick
[00:26:57] Whitney Owens: Sorry. I know, right in front of my coworkers, right? And she's like, "I am just so proud of you." Like, it was just this discomfort of my success and, and her influence, and it was like-
[00:27:10] Laura Long: Mm-hmm ...
[00:27:10] Whitney Owens: what is going on here?
[00:27:12] Um, but I had multiple people at that conference come up to me and make me feel that way, and so I've had to have a real identity shift that it's instead of that pulling back, like, that's people's way of being close and trying to understand you, and, you know, just embrace it and be with people instead of pulling back, which is what I still do sometimes, but-
[00:27:30] Laura Long: Mm-hmm.
[00:27:31] Yeah. That was a little strange for me. I actually have a, a poster in my office, you can't see it 'cause it's on this wall over here. Right. But it says, "You don't know me, but I'm famous." Because that's how, that's how it felt when I was a consultant myself, where, you know, in very specific circles I was well-known, and, you know, to the world I, no one knew who I was.
[00:27:51] Uh, but it was a little strange, and what I think that discomfort that you're talking about, what that came from or where that came from at least for me, was that I now felt a shift in responsibility. Like, there was now more- More eyes on what I was doing and why I was doing it, and I just felt a little bit heavier.
[00:28:07] Like, I couldn't just hide in my own little fishbowl of my private practice anymore. I was now a bit more visible, and so the decisions that I made or the way that I showed up online was now also more visible. Mm. So I felt a little bit more responsibility over the things I did or what I said or what I claimed.
[00:28:24] Whitney Owens: That makes a lot of sense.
[00:28:25] Laura Long: Yeah. All right, so key themes so far, just to kind of c- circle back around to this conversation so far. It takes longer than expected to build a different income stream or a new income stream. It ain't passive, y'all. You will likely experience a lot of emotional resistance, like in Whitney's case.
[00:28:46] She had a lot of fear, a lot of doubt. We talked about that discomfort that comes from the visibility. There's also an identity shift that might occur depending on what your income stream is and how you choose to pursue that. And another thing that I kinda touched on is that you don't need to know everything upfront.
[00:29:05] Anything else you wanted to add to our conversation so far before we segue?
[00:29:09] Whitney Owens: I think the other thing that people really miss, and we've kinda touched on this, is how hard it is to get a following. A- and so I think people need to be very... You could be, you could have the best thing, but if you don't have the following, no one will know.
[00:29:25] And so really, uh, spending a lot of time understanding who those people are and nurturing them and providing for them before you're throwing things at them, I think is- Mm-hmm ... very important.
[00:29:38] Laura Long: And that's why I think when I'm working with a therapist who's in this place of discerning what their next steps might be outside of the therapy room, we spend a little bit of time first talking about low-hanging fruit.
[00:29:50] And what I mean by that is that there are already people in your sphere of influence, people that you're serving or helping, there are already people coming to you, and I spoke about this on the previous podcast episode. There are people in your life who aren't clients, but people who are coming to you already asking questions about how to do this or, "This seems so easy for you."
[00:30:10] Yeah. "Can you help me figure it out?" Even if it's unrelated to your therapy practice, you have so many skillsets that people are already coming to you for. So if you have an idea for a different stream of income, maybe think about, what are the things that I'm already doing? Maybe I'm already doing this for free, and I didn't even- Yeah
[00:30:29] realize that this is something I could charge for or monetize. You know, if you're someone who loves to connect people together, there are paid networking Opportunities and groups, or if you have a pr- particular treatment modality that you feel really good about and you're really confident in, or you already are a consultant if there, if that title is available in that modality, there are a lot of things that you can do that don't require a completely different skill set and may not even require building an audience from scratch.
[00:30:59] So there are just so many different ideas. It doesn't have to just look like consulting, which I know we've talked about so far because that's what you've done, Whitney, and that's also what I've done. But there are just so many other ways that you can build alt streams. It could be, like, teaching and mentoring.
[00:31:16] It could be sort of the content creation that we've talked about. It could be key partnerships, um, the writing a book. I mean, there are so many different things. So I do wanna make p- sure that people who are hearing this episode understand that the world's your oyster, and I said that before, but I'm gonna keep saying it.
[00:31:35] Whitney Owens: Hi, I'm Laura Long, one of the consultants at Wise Practice, and over the past decade, I've helped hundreds of therapists develop and launch their own programs,
[00:31:44] Laura Long: workshops, intensives, and other income streams beyond the therapy room. If you've been feeling like God may be inviting you into a new season of growth or a greater impact, but you're stuck or overwhelmed on where to start, you're not alone.
[00:31:57] The Call to MORE Mastermind is a six-month experience where we'll help discern your direction, design a simple first offer, and actually begin building it without burning out your life or your practice. If you're ready to move from thinking about doing it to actually doing it,
[00:32:11] Whitney Owens: head over to wisepracticeconsulting.com and apply today.
[00:32:14] Okay, so what
[00:32:14] Laura Long: I wanna do now is shift a little bit from just overall high-level insight to maybe some real guidance for someone who's maybe listening and has an idea, but they're just, like, stuck in step one, like, "What do I do? I, I know I wanna build this thing. I think it needs to exist." And so what I would ask you, Whitney, is what would you tell a therapist who's just starting to think about building another income stream?
[00:32:44] Whitney Owens: Mm-hmm.
[00:32:44] Laura Long: What matters most early on, you think?
[00:32:46] Whitney Owens: Going back to what we said at the beginning is really honing in on what you're passionate about. What is your motivator? I would spend some significant time alone just thinking about that, journaling about that, praying about that, letting it sit within you, and experience it, what that feels like in your body, what you're thinking about moving forward.
[00:33:08] Write your dreams down, like, it, it could be literal dreams, um, but I mean the dreams of what you want it to be. Mm-hmm. And then I would sit with people that love you and tell them about it. Get feedback on, "Does that sound like me?" You know, "Is that something that you see passion surrounding? What is, what are my motivators behind this?"
[00:33:28] Um, and get that support that you're looking for.
[00:33:31] Laura Long: I love the words you used in that question to people. Instead of saying, "Does this sound like a good idea?" Saying, "Does this sound like me?"
[00:33:39] Whitney Owens: Yeah.
[00:33:40] Laura Long: That's such an important distinction. Because depending on who you ask, if you say, "Does this sound like a good idea?"
[00:33:45] Like if you had asked your former consultant, "Does this sound like a good idea?" You probably would have gotten a, "No, that sounds like a weird idea, Whitney. I don't think you should do that." Right? Uh, but if you asked your husband, "Does this sound like me?" Or if you asked your top five trusted confidantes, "Does this sound like me?"
[00:34:05] You would have gotten a much clearer answer that would have given you more clarity.
[00:34:09] Whitney Owens: Yeah. Yeah, and, and you have got to have someone by your side, especially when talking about spouses, you know, or your partners, that believe in what you're doing.
[00:34:19] Laura Long: Mm-hmm.
[00:34:19] Whitney Owens: And this gives them an opportunity to speak to that early on.
[00:34:23] You know, like my husband has got to sacrifice a lot for me to do Wise Practice.
[00:34:28] Laura Long: Yeah.
[00:34:28] Whitney Owens: But he believes in it and he sees how much I love it and the difference it makes, and so he can get behind that.
[00:34:34] Laura Long: And even though you do, I agree, you have to have really strong support in your corner, it's also important to be able to discern who that support is and who it's not.
[00:34:44] Because sometimes your spouse is not the most supportive person about this idea. Because if you're in maybe a financial position where you adding an additional income stream would create a bit more financial stress on your family, it's possible that your spouse may not be the person that you need to be going to for every, you know, big decision.
[00:35:04] Of course, you would wanna loop them in. I also think it's important to have someone who maybe doesn't have as much skin in the game to bounce ideas off of. And that could be a consultant, right? It could be someone that's maybe, uh, traversed this path before you and can give you a little bit of, of a roadmap but isn't so financially dependent that- Right
[00:35:24] that they might steer you towards what would be considered a safer option, when really the better option, the one with the higher return on investment, might be the one that's a little bit more risky. And so I think ha- just having a blend. Like having, if you're married, you know, having your partner bought in and having their support is so important.
[00:35:44] If it's difficult for them to be able to provide you that support, it's understandable. It just means that you also need to get some additional supports elsewhere from people- Yeah ... who know you, who love you, who know your heart.
[00:35:55] Whitney Owens: Yeah. Yeah, you brought up an important point, and this is what I was get- my next thought is having a guide.
[00:36:02] And I see so many people, especially with passive streams or additional streams of income we'll say, or I see it especially with people starting a group practice. People start these things because they don't wanna pay for consulting 'cause it's expensive. And then they get down the road and they have made so many costly mistakes.
[00:36:24] And so I would say go get help. Of course, we want you to do it at Wise Practice 'cause we bring in the faith and the spiritual component along with- The business- Mm-hmm ... side of things and bring that clarity. But even if it's not us, get a guide to help you do the thing so that you're not spinning your wheels, wasting your time.
[00:36:44] We can get you from month one t- we can g- the thing that you're doing when you're with us, you might get it done in six months. It might take you a year if you did it by yourself. Spending all the research, the time, the... and just the accountability, you could get so much further along and not make all those mistakes.
[00:37:01] Laura Long: It's the rabbit holes.
[00:37:02] Whitney Owens: Yeah.
[00:37:03] Laura Long: You know, when you're doing it by yourself, you're just at every turn, every, you know, wind gust- Yeah ... you're being pulled somewhere else.
[00:37:12] Whitney Owens: Yeah.
[00:37:12] Laura Long: So having that focused support is so important. And I would say, you know, one of my next questions for you, Whitney, was gonna be, what do you think is the biggest mistake that people make early on?
[00:37:23] And you're speaking to it right now. I think it's that people tend to overcomplicate it in the beginning.
[00:37:28] Whitney Owens: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
[00:37:28] Laura Long: They have this vision maybe for what they hope or dream this thing could look like, but they maybe believe that it has to look like that on day one. Yeah. And that is maybe what leads them to make a lot of costly mistakes early on, and to really overcomplicate it.
[00:37:43] So what I was once told, and I continue to use this when I'm consulting with others, is that your goal is to create a simple business that you deeply understand.
[00:37:55] Jingle: Mm.
[00:37:55] Laura Long: And that really stuck with me, because it keeps me from... 'Cause I have a tendency, too, to overcomplicate things. Don't get me wrong. It does help me.
[00:38:02] It's almost, it's an anchoring statement-
[00:38:06] Whitney Owens: Yeah ...
[00:38:06] Laura Long: to remember that your job is to build a simple business that you deeply understand. So we don't need to overcomplicate it. We don't need to have 14 different offers and seven tiers, and here are all the different ways that people can find you. Start small.
[00:38:20] Yep. Choose one thing. And the clarity that you get comes through the actions that you take. And expect there to be a lot of iterative processes here with whatever it is you do. Mm-hmm. Do
[00:38:33] Whitney Owens: you have
[00:38:33] Laura Long: anything that you would wanna add to that?
[00:38:36] Whitney Owens: That was really great. S- tell me the question again.
[00:38:38] Laura Long: It was why, what is a mistake that people tend to make in the beginning?
[00:38:43] And my answer was I think people tend to overcomplicate it.
[00:38:46] Whitney Owens: You said a lot of it. I don't know if this is really a, a mistake, it's more of a mindset, but people, they don't realize how many setbacks they're gonna have, or... J- I'm not doing a great job putting my words to this, but risks. You cannot be a successful entrepreneur without taking risks and without falling on your face, and you should anticipate it.
[00:39:11] So I think sometimes people start this process, and, "I didn't sell what I wanted," or, "That didn't look the way I wanted," and, or that, you know, first consulting client I had, that didn't go very well. And so then you think to yourself, "I stink. I can't do this. I gotta go backwards." And really- That's part of the growth.
[00:39:30] That's part of becoming who you need to become so that you can lead this business well, if that makes sense. I even... Gosh, I was just running, um, I, I... This was the email that I just sent out, I think this week, when I was running my half-marathon, and I was thinking about my business while I was running, which I'm normally doing, unfortunately, um, doing my business processing.
[00:39:52] And I was like, "You know, I made some mistakes." And I was thinking about my mistakes, but I was also thinking, "I'm in such a good place right now." Mm-hmm. And I would never be where I am right now if I hadn't learned all those other things.
[00:40:05] Laura Long: Absolutely. We learn through the doing, we learn through the mistakes.
[00:40:09] And Whitney, as you were just talking, I quickly did a Google search of the word entrepreneur, and every... Like, I'm scrolling down the entire first page of Google, okay, so I'm not just relying on the AI definition. I'm scrolling and I'm looking at Webster, Cambridge Dictionary, the Li- Library of Economics and Liberty, and I'm reading just their meta tag at the top of what an entrepreneur is.
[00:40:34] Every single source has the word risk. So the actual literal definition of an entrepreneur is someone who takes a risk.
[00:40:46] Whitney Owens: Totally.
[00:40:48] Laura Long: So you can't, you can't have it both ways. You can't do this safely. You can't do this with guaranteed outcomes. Yeah. And I think I would even go so far, you know, this might be, uh, this might be a bit risky for me to say, but I would say that the reason we do this, the reason we identify and pursue a different income stream is not for the guaranteed outcome.
[00:41:12] It's for the opportunity to make a bigger impact. Yeah. Like, I'm, I'm scrolling right now and it's like, risk.
[00:41:18] Whitney Owens: You know, but the Bible is also full of risk.
[00:41:21] Laura Long: Mm-hmm.
[00:41:21] Whitney Owens: You know, you mentioned Moses earlier, and the disciples following Jesus, sharing the gospel. It's a risk all the time.
[00:41:31] Laura Long: Every single chapter of the Bible probably shows how someone took a risk.
[00:41:35] Yes. And it didn't always go well, right?
[00:41:38] Whitney Owens: That's right.
[00:41:40] Laura Long: All right. So what I'm hearing from you, just to kinda recap, it's important to start small, to maintain a mindset of I, I wanna help, I want to have a lasting a- and expanded impact on my community, whether that's a local community or an online community.
[00:42:02] Clarity comes through action. Expect to fail at times. There will be roadblocks. That's kind of what makes this worth it, is going across that, you know, and figuring it out. Yeah. Um, something we didn't talk about that I also just wanna highlight is... And maybe we did when we were talking about working alongside someone or having people in your corner.
[00:42:24] What I would say is don't build in isolation. Don't try to be that, that lone person in your, in your basement trying to build something all by yourself, and you're not bringing anyone into it or not telling anyone about it. Building in isolation, to me, is a recipe for burnout. Uh, but it, it's just hard to see the forest for the trees if we're not-
[00:42:45] Whitney Owens: Yeah
[00:42:45] Laura Long: having anyone in on our idea or helping us or supporting us, and we're just kind of building this thing off to the side. Mm-hmm. So don't build in isolation. Bri- bring along people. You know, I think that most people, therapists especially, they don't struggle with having ideas, they just struggle with clarity and support.
[00:43:04] Whitney Owens: Yes. Mm-hmm. Yes, it's that implementation.
[00:43:07] Laura Long: Yes.
[00:43:07] Whitney Owens: And I'm learning more and more as, as I grow as a consultant, w- the hands-on, they need the hands-on doing it with them.
[00:43:16] Laura Long: Mm-hmm. Um,
[00:43:17] Whitney Owens: and that's what we do.
[00:43:19] Laura Long: That is. And, you know, that is exactly why we have created the Call to More Mastermind because so many therapists are sitting in this space of, "Okay, I know I'm meant to do something more, I just don't wanna figure it out all alone."
[00:43:35] Yeah. So I think now would be a perfect time to talk a little bit more about that. Mm-hmm. So I've touched base on it in my previous episode. I know you all have probably seen a, a commercial or two about it on the podcast. But really, the Call to More Mastermind is a six-month experience where we help you actually discern your direction and begin building something.
[00:43:57] Not just talking about it high level, this is about implementation, like Whitney was just talking about. However, we're not gonna let it take over your life or your practice. So this is a small, high-touch group designed for therapists who are ready to move from thinking about the thing and researching the thing to death, and looking at other people who are already doing the thing, and it moves you through implementation to actually doing the thing.
[00:44:26] Uh, and not only that, but unlike the experience you had, Whitney, so many years ago, this will have the faith lens. So we're going to find out what do you need so that this new idea of yours is aligned with your faith and builds upon it rather than competes with it.
[00:44:46] Whitney Owens: That's right.
[00:44:46] Laura Long: Yeah. And I'm so glad that you are letting me do this.
[00:44:50] Whitney Owens: Oh, I'm excited about it. Just thinking through who's gonna join and the ideas that they have, and how it's gonna impact the kingdom for greater. Mm-hmm.
[00:44:58] Laura Long: You
[00:44:58] Whitney Owens: know, that's a really exciting thing.
[00:45:01] Laura Long: Yeah. Now, question for you, Whitney. Not put you on the spot or anything. Why do you think this experience, this Mastermind Call to More can be so impactful to your community?
[00:45:17] Mm. To faith-based therapists and, and practice owners.
[00:45:20] Whitney Owens: Oftentimes, God puts something greater in our hearts, like he did with me And we need a space to explore that, to understand it, to speak it into being, but also someone to guide us along the way. And it's like you said, it's not just a... It's specific to us because it's not just, "Here's the business.
[00:45:41] Get to it."
[00:45:42] Laura Long: Mm-hmm.
[00:45:42] Whitney Owens: But how is the Lord speaking right now? How do we sense that? How do we build something in line with that communicates more of who He is in the world through you?
[00:45:54] Laura Long: Yeah.
[00:45:55] Whitney Owens: I, I'm so excited for you.
[00:45:57] Laura Long: And so I'll be, I'll be your, your guide, your facilitator along this six-month experience. And Whitney, I would love to have you maybe once or twice join us and- Oh, I'd love that
[00:46:08] and pray over us and give us some additional tools for how we can discern next steps. That would be awesome.
[00:46:14] Whitney Owens: Yeah.
[00:46:14] Laura Long: Uh, so if you are listening to this episode and you're thinking, "Wow, this is exactly where I am. I have these ideas. I don't know where to start," or, "I have this one idea that I've been thinking about for years..."
[00:46:26] Because for many people who work with me, this is... They didn't just come up with the idea a month ago. They've been pining over this one idea or these five ideas, and they had no idea, no traction, no direction. And so here we are five years later, and what I wanna tell you is if you're listening to this episode and you're one of those people, five years from now is gonna come regardless.
[00:46:48] So you're gonna be in one of two camps. You're either gonna be five years later still thinking about the thing, still praying about the thing, but not taking any action and going, "Ugh, now it's been 10 years that I've had this idea and I haven't taken any meaningful action on it." Yeah. Or you're gonna be five years into this new idea, and you will have learned so much along the way, and you're gonna learn more than you ever could have by just sitting behind your screen doing the research.
[00:47:12] Whitney Owens: Yep.
[00:47:13] Laura Long: The learning comes in the doing. So you don't have to have it all figured out. You just have to be willing to take the next step. And so if you're someone who's l- who's listened to this episode and you're like, "Okay, sign me up. I'm ready," you can head on over to wisepracticeconsulting.com/mastermind, and I'm sure we'll have a link in the show notes as well for you.
[00:47:32] We try to keep it frictionless.
[00:47:35] Whitney Owens: That's right. Simple.
[00:47:36] Laura Long: Yeah.
[00:47:37] Whitney Owens: Uh, so what you're saying is they might have to take a risk.
[00:47:41] Laura Long: Yeah. They will.
[00:47:44] Whitney Owens: Okay.
[00:47:44] Laura Long: But you know what? You can impact so many people by taking that risk.
[00:47:50] Whitney Owens: Mm-hmm.
[00:47:52] Laura Long: Thank you so much for joining me, Whitney. I so appreciate this conversation and getting to know you just on a deeper level.
[00:47:57] I feel like I learned a little bit more about you and your journey even more than I knew, than I knew b- kind of heading into this call. Um, and so I just really appreciate you taking the time and being vulnerable with not just me, but all your listeners, you know?
[00:48:08] Whitney Owens: Oh,
[00:48:08] Laura Long: well. Thousands of people who are tuning in every single week, you know, and I think that's part of what makes you great is that you're willing to step into that and be vulnerable and not just say, like, "Oh, yeah, here I am, and I have all the answers, and I never struggled once."
[00:48:20] Whitney Owens: Yep. Oh, all the time. Thank you. I appreciate you and having this opportunity.
[00:48:25] Laura Long: Yeah. All right. See you guys next time.
[00:48:30] Jingle: So click on follow and leave a review, and keep on loving this work we do with Whitney Owens and the Wise Practice Podcast. Whitney Owens and the Wise Practice Podcast.
[00:48:49] Whitney Owens: Special thanks to Marty Altman for the music in this podcast. The Wise Practice Podcast is part of the SiteCraft Podcast Network, a collaboration of independent podcasters focused on helping people live more meaningful and productive lives.
[00:49:02] To learn more about the other amazing podcasts in the network, head on over to sitecraftnetwork.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.
