In this Owner’s Room episode, Dr. Tara Vossenkemper is talking about a weird (and honestly relieving) leadership shift: when the noise inside you gets quiet. Not because you’ve checked out — but because you’ve finally settled. The decision is already made internally, so you stop doing the whole “pre-explaining/pre-justifying/pre-narrating” thing to your team like you’re presenting a legal defense.

Tara walks through what self-trust actually feels like in the body (not just in your head), why some leaders feel compelled to explain themselves to death, and what it costs to keep translating yourself so other people stay comfortable. She also digs into the discomfort of letting people have their own interpretations — and what changes when you stop managing reactions in advance while still staying values-led and transparent.

If you’ve been feeling that quiet steadiness in yourself and also wondering, “cool, but do I owe everyone a 12-slide explanation?” …this one’s for you.

Timestamps
00:00 Introduction to Quiet Leadership
01:04 Exploring the Owner's Room
01:42 Trusting Yourself: Brain and Gut Alignment
06:00 Explaining Yourself to Others
17:11 The Cost of Translating Yourself
22:25 Handling Others' Interpretations
24:29 Understanding Misinterpretations
25:56 Dealing with Discomfort
28:20 Leadership Without Managing Reactions
35:17 Scenario: Leadership Shift
45:46 Final Thoughts and Farewell

Everything Tara is doing runs through her email list. Link is here if you want to stay in the loop!

There’s a strange, quiet moment in leadership that doesn’t get talked about nearly enough.

It’s the moment when the vision that once gave you momentum… just stops organizing you.

In this Owner’s Room episode of the Culture Focused Practice podcast, I answer unscripted leadership questions about what happens when a vision loses its pull — not because you failed, and not necessarily because the vision was wrong, but because you’ve changed.

We explore how to tell the difference between burnout and genuine misalignment, how your body signals when something no longer fits, and why questioning a vision is not the same thing as questioning your competence as a leader. I also talk candidly about the fear of destabilizing your team, the responsibility leaders feel to “know,” and what it actually looks like to lead in the in-between space — when the old vision has dissolved and the next one hasn’t fully formed yet.

This episode is for leaders who are still showing up, still leading well, but quietly realizing that the internal organizing principle they’ve relied on is no longer there.

Timestamps
00:00 Introduction to the Culture Focused Practice Podcast
00:32 Understanding Vision Stagnation in Leadership
01:17 Question 1: Identifying When a Vision Has Run Its Course
10:18 Question 2: Physical Sensations of Misalignment
16:02 Question 3: Leadership Identity and Vision Constraints
27:35 Question 4: Perceptions of Leaders Without a Clear Vision
29:34 The Importance of Vision in Leadership
30:33 Navigating Certainty as a Leader
31:55 The Dynamic Nature of Leadership Decisions
36:00 The Living Practice Framework
38:10 Addressing Leadership Challenges
42:30 Scenario Analysis: Leadership and Vision
53:21 Final Thoughts and Podcast Wrap-Up

If this episode resonated, subscribe to the podcast so you don’t miss future conversations like this — and share it with a leader who might be quietly sitting in this same in-between space and wondering if something is wrong with them.

Marketing is one of those things every practice knows it needs — and almost no one feels confident doing.

In this episode, I’m joined by John Sanders from RevKey, a Google Ads specialist who works almost exclusively with mental health practices. Together, we pull apart why marketing feels so murky, emotionally loaded, and ethically fraught for therapists — and why so many practice owners feel like they’re throwing money into a black box and hoping for the best.

We talk about the emotional baggage therapists carry around money and visibility, why “doing it yourself” often costs more in the long run, and how marketing is actually made up of multiple distinct professions that too often get lumped together. We also get into ethical boundaries in mental health marketing, what Google actually allows (and doesn’t), and how to think clearly about delegation without spiraling into fear or avoidance.

This is not a how-to episode. It’s a how-to-think episode — about clarity, specialization, ethical visibility, and building marketing systems that actually serve both you and your clients.

You can also learn more about John and RevKey at http://www.revkey.com/podcasts.

Timestamps
00:00 Introduction to Marketing and Mental Health
00:35 Meet the Guest: John Sanders
01:11 The Challenges of Naming a Business
02:46 Diving into Marketing Strategies
03:48 Emotional Aspects of Marketing for Therapists
06:18 Technical Hurdles in Marketing
07:09 Common Fears and Misconceptions
13:19 The Importance of a Good Website
24:14 Ethical Marketing Strategies
30:11 Emotional Stories Therapists Carry About Money
30:45 Fear and Hesitation in Business Investments
36:20 The Importance of Delegation
41:08 Questions for Overwhelmed Practice Owners
43:49 The Complexity of Marketing for Therapists
49:23 Core Focus and Avoiding Distractions
56:08 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Books Mentioned in This Episode

• The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle
  https://www.amazon.com/Culture-Code-Secrets-Highly-Successful/dp/0804176981
• Traction by Gino Wickman
  https://www.amazon.com/Traction-Get-Grip-Your-Business/dp/1936661837
• The Legendborn Series by Tracy Deonn
  https://www.amazon.com/Legendborn-Tracy-Deonn/dp/1534441606
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
  https://www.amazon.com/Harry-Potter-Order-Phoenix-Book/dp/0439358078
• The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni
  https://www.amazon.com/Five-Dysfunctions-Team-Leadership-Fable/dp/0787960756
• Enshittification by Cory Doctorow
  https://www.amazon.com/Enshittification-Cory-Doctorow/dp/1250866842

If this conversation helped clarify even one stuck place in your thinking, subscribe to the podcast so you don’t miss future episodes — and share this one with a practice owner who’s quietly overwhelmed by marketing and doesn’t know where to start.