Culture Focused Practice

Tara Vossenkemper, PhD
  • 5.0 (3)
  • Entrepreneurship

The Culture Focused Practice is where business and humanity collide. Hosted by Dr. Tara Vossenkemper (group practice owner and consultant), this podcast dives deep into how practice culture drives business success. Learn actionable strategies to shape a thriving team, implement and use the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS), and tackle the tough leadership decisions that come with growing your group practice. Whether you’re scaling up or streamlining, this show offers real-world insights to help you build a people-powered practice that lasts. Join Tara for candid conversations, expert interviews, and no-fluff coaching that puts your culture first.

  1. 5d ago

    How Leadership Teams Confuse Reporting with Ownership

    In this episode of Culture Focused Practice, Dr. Tara Vossenkemper tackles a leadership team dynamic that quietly creates a whole lot of frustration: confusing reporting with ownership. Tara breaks down why leadership teams can get really good at talking about problems, sharing updates, and making sure everyone feels informed—while somehow ending up in the exact same conversation week after week. She explores the difference between visibility and movement, why awareness alone doesn't create change, and how leadership teams accidentally reward feeling informed instead of creating accountability. Tara also discusses what ownership actually requires: decision-making power, prioritization, a willingness to act before certainty exists, and the ability to learn from mistakes when things don't go according to plan. Using a therapist retention example, she walks through how to identify where ownership actually belongs on an accountability chart and why getting the right metric attached to the right seat can dramatically reduce frustration across the leadership team. If your meetings sometimes feel productive but nothing seems to change afterward, this episode is for you. Timestamps 00:00 Welcome and Topic 01:28 Reporting Versus Ownership 02:33 Visibility Without Change 05:57 Meetings That Feel Like Groundhog Day 09:07 Teamwide Ownership Trap 12:29 Who Owns Which Metric 16:05 What Ownership Requires 20:22 Scenario: Retention Stalls 22:10 Assigning the Right Seat 26:13 Wrap Up If your leadership team keeps having the same conversation over and over again, there's a good chance the issue isn't communication—it's ownership. Send this episode to a leadership team member who needs to hear it, then take a look at one recurring issue in your organization and ask a simple question: Who actually owns creating movement here? And if you're ready to build healthier leadership systems, clearer accountability, and a culture that doesn't rely on overfunctioning and guesswork, learn more about working with Tara here: https://www.taravossenkemper.com/work-with-tara

    27 min

  2. Jun 4

    [Encore!] The Owner's Room: When You Realize Your Business Is Alive (and Not a Machine)

    Encore Episode (Originally released In this episode of the Culture Focused Practice podcast, Dr. Tara Vossenkemper steps into the Owner’s Room — her unfiltered space for talking about the real, raw side of leadership. No polished playbooks. No bulletproof strategies. Just the messy truth of what it feels like to lead when your business isn’t a machine but a living, breathing organism. Through five self-reflective questions and two honest scenarios, Tara explores what happens when you feel bogged down, disconnected, or stagnant in your leadership role. She digs into identity shifts, decision-making, team dynamics, and that gut-punch moment of wondering if the practice you built still feels like yours. This episode is for every leader who’s ever thought, “What the hell am I even doing?” and needed a reminder that leadership isn’t about fixing all the time — sometimes it’s about listening, stepping back, and remembering your practice is alive. 00:00 Introduction and Welcome00:08 Owner's Room Special: Unfiltered Leadership Talk01:06 The Two-Part Structure of Owner's Room01:53 Question 1: Decisions That Feel Alive05:31 Question 2: Team Behavior Reflection11:04 Question 3: Leadership Frustrations13:41 Question 4: Business as a Living Organism16:08 Question 5: Fixing vs. Listening to Your Business23:21 Scenario 1: Disconnected Tasks and Vision31:24 Scenario 2: Leadership and Culture Alignment41:15 Conclusion and Final Thoughts 👉 Don’t miss future episodes that go deep into leadership, culture, and the messy middle of practice ownership. Subscribe to the podcast now

    42 min

  3. May 28

    [Encore!] The Living Practice Framework™ (How I Actually Lead a Group Practice)

    Encore Episode (Originally released in August 2025) In this episode of the Culture Focused Practice Podcast, we’re talking about why your group practice is not a machine (no matter how “well-oiled” you think it is) — it’s a living, breathing organism. I introduce the Living Practice Framework™ — my way of blending the structure of EOS with the cultural, leadership, and people pieces EOS doesn’t fully capture. I walk you through the origin story, the five main elements, a real-life scenario of what it looks like in action, and the ridiculously small, doable steps to start implementing it without burning your practice down in the process. Whether you’re running on EOS, winging it, or somewhere in between, this is about nurturing your practice’s ecosystem so you’ve got more clarity, trust, and alignment — and way less “what’s missing?” energy. 00:00 Introduction to the Culture Focused Practice Podcast00:08 The Concept of a Living Practice01:08 Agenda Overview01:33 Origin of the Living Practice Framework04:51 Five Elements of the Living Practice Framework10:58 Scenario: Applying the Living Practice Framework14:28 Steps to Implement the Living Practice Framework17:34 Recap and Membership Invitation ➡️ Want to actually build a living practice — not just think about it? Join me inside the Inside the Living Practice Membership at www.taravossenkemper.com/the-membership. Twice-monthly live trainings + Q&As, on-demand resources, and a community of group practice leaders doing business with humanity at the center.

    20 min

  4. May 21

    You Know You're Avoiding It – Here's What to Do Next

    In this episode of Culture Focused Practice, Dr. Tara Vossenkemper explores the hard conversations leaders keep avoiding — and why insight alone doesn’t magically make those conversations easier to have. Tara breaks down the gap between awareness and behavior, the way self-protection lives in both the nervous system and leadership identity, and the stories many leaders unconsciously tell themselves to justify silence. Things like: “I’m the kind of leader who supports my people.”“I don’t want to make this about me.”“I don’t know if I’m reading this right yet.”She also talks about how avoidance slowly shifts standards over time, why insight without action often turns into shame, and what it actually looks like to approach difficult conversations with more honesty, clarity, and care — without making the conversation mean something catastrophic about who you are as a leader. Timestamps: 00:00 Avoided Conversations Intro01:14 Awareness Isn’t Enough01:42 Knowing vs. Doing02:42 When Insight Turns Into Shame04:47 Nervous System Protection06:35 Identity Threats and Leadership Stories08:35 “I Support My People”11:07 “I Don’t Want to Make It About Me”13:02 “I Don’t Know If I’m Reading This Right”17:37 What To Do Differently17:48 Name The Story Early18:34 Separate Identity From Outcome20:59 Lower The Bar For Certainty22:11 Recap If this episode hit a little too close to home, there’s probably a conversation you already know you need to have. Send this episode to another leader who’s been circling the same hard conversation for weeks (or months). And if you want support building a healthier culture, stronger systems, and leadership practices that don’t rely on avoidance and overfunctioning, learn more about working with Tara here: https://www.taravossenkemper.com/work-with-tara

    23 min

  5. May 14

    What Happens When Survival Mode Ends

    What happens when the business finally gets quiet enough for you to hear yourself think again? In this episode, Dr. Tara Vossenkemper explores the emotional space that opens up after survival mode starts to loosen its grip. Not the chaotic version of survival mode — the competent version. The nonstop producing, solving, carrying, and maintaining that slowly becomes normal. Tara reflects on:why the first thing that surfaces in quiet is often guilt, worry, or discomforthow maintenance work drains creativity, joy, and connectionwhat starts re-emerging once the right people are in the right seatsand the existential questions that only appear once the fires stop demanding constant attention She also talks about the relief of finally having real support in key leadership seats — and why having time back can feel strangely untethering before it feels freeing. Timestamps 00:00 Welcome and Setup00:18 Beyond Survival Mode02:05 Hearing Yourself Again05:21 Maintenance Buries Desire10:58 Reemerging Self and Support14:08 Questions After Stability17:37 Admitting New Wants22:12 Scenario Feeling Untethered24:57 Sacred Time and Clarity27:15 Wrap Up and Next Steps If this episode resonated, share it with another leader who might need the reminder that stability can feel uncomfortable before it feels freeing. And if you want support building healthier systems, stronger leadership, and a business that doesn’t depend on you carrying everything, learn more about working with Tara here: https://www.taravossenkemper.com/work-with-tara

    28 min

  6. May 7

    The Owner’s Room: Processing What Became Clear After the Conference

    What if the thing slowing your business down… isn’t effort, but structure? In this Owner’s Room episode, Dr. Tara Vossenkemper reflects on the clarity that hit after the EOS conference — not because EOS was new, but because something finally clicked about why the practice has been hitting a ceiling despite using the system for years. Tara unpacks the difference between simply reporting numbers and truly owning outcomes, and how leadership accountability had slowly drifted into passive metric updates instead of active problem-solving and ownership. She also realizes the accountability chart itself has been incomplete: a full finance/admin leadership seat never actually existed, which meant too much responsibility quietly routed back to her as visionary. She explores: why the vision may not be big enoughhow rocks have been misassignedwhat happens when visionaries stay stuck in maintenance workthe discomfort of handing over financial visibilityand why stepping fully into a visionary role suddenly feels possibleBecause sometimes the problem isn’t that people aren’t working hard enough. It’s that the business has outgrown the structure holding it together. Timestamps: 00:00 Post-Conference Clarity01:39 Owner’s Room Format02:11 Relief and Impatience04:02 Accountability Finally Sharpens11:12 Bigger Vision and Real Momentum14:53 Realizing She Doesn’t Belong in Finance/Admin18:05 Resisting the Urge to Rush the Process19:50 Stepping Into the Visionary Role21:54 Closing Thoughts and Next Steps And if this episode had you realizing you’ve become the default owner of everything in your business, send it to another practice owner who might need to hear it — and subscribe for more honest conversations about leadership, ownership, EOS, and building systems that actually support growth.

    22 min

  7. Apr 23

    You Don’t Have a Capacity Problem — You Have an Ownership Problem

    What if the thing that feels like a capacity problem… is actually an ownership problem? In this episode, Dr. Tara Vossenkemper is reflecting on something that became clear only after she was forced to step back a bit: parts of the business don’t clearly belong to anyone. And when that happens, growth starts to stall. Using marketing as the clearest example, Tara unpacks the difference between execution and ownership. Posting content, reporting numbers, checking boxes — that’s not the same as someone truly owning outcomes. Real ownership means having authority, visibility, accountability, and responsibility for moving the metric. She also names a dynamic many owners know intimately: when nobody clearly owns something, it quietly routes back to the owner. Loose ends, weird numbers, unclear decisions, background anxiety… all roads lead back to you. This episode explores what stepping back can reveal, why “the team owns it” usually means nobody owns it, and how clearer roles create cleaner businesses. Because often the issue isn’t that everyone needs to do more. It’s that the right things need to belong to the right people. Timestamps 00:00 Welcome and Why This Matters00:18 Stepping Back Creates Clarity01:21 Capacity vs Ownership Problem02:04 Marketing Feels Like a Fog05:55 Reporting vs Real Ownership07:44 Why Shared Ownership Fails09:08 Owner Becomes Default Integrator11:52 What Feels Off in the Structure16:56 What Real Ownership Looks Like19:06 Escalation and EOS Leadership Flow20:32 Key Takeaways and Wrap22:16 Final Thoughts and Share And if this episode had you realizing you’re carrying things that don’t actually belong to you, send it to another practice owner who needs to hear it — and subscribe for more honest conversations about leadership, structure, and building a business that can actually breathe.

    23 min

  8. Apr 16

    Stop Owning Marketing: Build This Role Instead

    In this episode, Dr. Tara Vossenkemper is working through something that’s very alive for her right now: What if inconsistent or unclear marketing in your practice isn’t a strategy problem… but an ownership problem? She walks through what happens when marketing is shared across roles — how responsibility fragments, results become inconsistent, and the owner becomes the default bottleneck. Even if the owner isn’t supposed to be doing the marketing, it still routes back through them — decisions, direction, and accountability — which slows everything down and turns marketing reactive. This episode blends structure with real-time reflection. Tara names what’s currently happening inside her own practice and uses that to walk through the bigger system: where marketing is still shared instead of owned,what breaks when no one owns the numbers,and why activity without accountability doesn’t actually move anything. She also unpacks what changes when a marketing strategist role is in place — not just someone executing tasks, but someone owning the client acquisition pipeline, the metrics, and the outcomes. From there, she connects it back to leadership:what it looks like for the owner to step out of being the bottleneck,and what opens up when that responsibility is fully owned by someone else. Timestamps 00:00 Marketing Ownership Problem 01:23 Shared Marketing Breakdown 03:10 Fragmented Metrics Confusion 04:52 Owner Becomes Bottleneck 08:01 Activity Without Accountability 10:01 Letting Go as Visionary 12:53 What Strategist Owns 16:36 Vendors and Leadership Rhythm 17:40 Role Changes Everything 21:19 Outcome Based Marketing Shift 23:59 Protect and Scale Growth 26:23 Recap and Next Steps You can download Tara’s Living Practice Framework here:https://www.taravossenkemper.com/living-practice-framework-overview And if you want to keep thinking about your practice this way — not just what to do, but how it’s structured and owned — subscribe so you don’t miss what’s next.

    28 min
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
3 Ratings

About

The Culture Focused Practice is where business and humanity collide. Hosted by Dr. Tara Vossenkemper (group practice owner and consultant), this podcast dives deep into how practice culture drives business success. Learn actionable strategies to shape a thriving team, implement and use the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS), and tackle the tough leadership decisions that come with growing your group practice. Whether you’re scaling up or streamlining, this show offers real-world insights to help you build a people-powered practice that lasts. Join Tara for candid conversations, expert interviews, and no-fluff coaching that puts your culture first.

Information

  • Creator
    Tara Vossenkemper, PhD
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    97
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2024 Vossenkemper Consulting, LLC
  • Show Website
    Culture Focused Practice

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