When Life Collides with Practice: How to Keep Your Firm Afloat Through Personal Crisis
Not every challenge in practice has a playbook.
At the Growth Club Summit, Rachel Fisch and Kylie Parker delivered one of the most vulnerable and powerful sessions of the day. They shared what it looks like to keep a business afloat while navigating deep personal crises, from partnership breakdowns to divorce, death, and burnout.
This was not a session about perfection. It was about resilience, honesty, and learning how to keep moving forward when everything feels like it is falling apart.
When Personal Life Impacts Your Practice
Rachel and Kylie both opened up about times when life outside the business collided with everything inside it. They spoke about grief, confusion, and the strain of trying to hold a business together while going through personal loss or trauma.
Running a firm is demanding, even in good times. When you add unexpected loss or crisis, the basics of daily work can feel impossible. Decisions become harder, motivation fades, and the emotional toll affects your ability to lead and deliver.
Grief is Not Just About Death
One of the most powerful ideas from the session was this: your nervous system does not know the difference between grief from a breakup, grief from a business collapse, or grief from losing a loved one. The stress feels the same in your body.
Rachel spoke about how walking away from her business felt like losing part of her identity. Kylie reflected on how grief from personal loss changed how she saw her priorities and her practice. Both reminded attendees that exhaustion, sadness, or lack of focus might be signs of unprocessed grief, not weakness.
Create a Backup Plan Before You Need One
Crises do not schedule themselves. They arrive unannounced. That is why both speakers urged attendees to prepare for what Kylie called a "business estate plan."
This includes:
• Sharing passwords and logins with a trusted person
• Clarifying ownership of systems and client records
• Documenting critical workflows and responsibilities
• Identifying someone who could step in if you are unavailable
Even if you never need this plan, having it will give you peace of mind and help protect your clients, your team, and your reputation.
Be Honest with Your Clients
It is not easy to talk to clients when your life feels messy. But transparency matters. You do not need to share every detail, but you can let clients know what to expect: slower response times, temporary delegation, or a pause in services.
Some clients may not understand. That is okay. The ones who do are likely the ones worth keeping long term.
Do Not Compare Yourself to the Highlight Reel
On social media, it can look like everyone else is thriving. But what you are seeing is only part of the picture. Kylie reminded everyone that behind most polished posts are people facing real challenges.
Your quiet season, your hard day, or your personal crisis does not make you a failure. It makes you human. Stop comparing your real life to someone else's curated update.
Lean on Your Professional Community
Rachel and Kylie both emphasized the importance of having people to turn to. Sometimes that means emotional support. Sometimes it is practical help — someone who can access files, talk to clients, or help you get back on track.
Whether it is a colleague, a peer group, or a network like Growth Club, having people around you who understand the pressures of the job can make all the difference.
There is No Rush to Recover
One of the final messages of the session was simple but powerful: You do not need to bounce back right away. Sometimes all you can do is survive. You can pause. You can take time. You can rebuild slowly when you are ready.
Your business will wait. The right clients will understand. And your strength is not in how fast you recover, but in the fact that you keep going at all.
What to Remember as a Firm Owner
• Prepare your practice for disruption before it happens
• Share essential access with someone you trust
• Be honest with clients about what is happening
• Accept that stress and grief show up in many forms
• Stay grounded in your own values and capacity
• Ask for help when you need it
• Let go of perfection
• Choose progress over pressure
Final Thoughts
The stories Rachel and Kylie shared are a reminder that running a firm is as much about resilience as it is about revenue. No practice owner is immune to personal challenges, but with preparation, honesty, and the right community around you, it is possible to weather the hardest seasons and come out stronger. You do not have to do it all, and you certainly do not have to do it alone.
