Humility as an Operating System: Faith, Growth & Leadership with Kenny Wyatt

How do you grow a company without losing your culture, your mission, your faith—or the people you're called to serve? In this episode of the Profitable Christian Business Podcast, Doug Greathouse sits down with Kenny Wyatt, CEO of Pushpay, for a practical conversation about faith-driven leadership, company culture, customer focus, stewardship, innovation, goal setting, and sustainable growth. Kenny describes one of his foundational leadership principles as: "Humility as an operating system." For Kenny, servant leadership isn't the opposite of high performance. Leaders can set ambitious goals, hold people accountable, make difficult personnel decisions, and build high-performing teams while still leading with humility, love, and purpose. Kenny also makes a strong case that CEOs and founders cannot allow growth to disconnect them from the customer. He argues that leaders need to spend significant time with their ideal customer profile, listening closely enough to recognize when the company is beginning to drift from its mission. In this episode: What fly fishing taught Kenny about adaptability, instinct, and leadership Why culture matters even when you're a company of one Why Kenny hires for mission and values before skill What Pushpay does and how it serves churches How Pushpay evaluates AI and emerging technology Why your ideal customer profile should guide innovation Why CEOs can't outsource their relationship with customers How to recognize when a high-growth company is drifting How to create and use a customer advisory board Why in-person customer conversations still matter Kenny's Philippians 2 approach to servant leadership What "humility as an operating system" looks like in practice How to hold people accountable without abandoning grace How to handle difficult firing decisions with dignity Why stewardship includes time, talent, and treasure How to identify your company's stewardship metric How faith shapes Kenny's approach as CEO Why your leadership team matters so much A radically different approach to annual goal setting Why Kenny believes you should rebuild the business every single year Why leadership retreats create better thinking Why Christian entrepreneurs need to keep prayer in the driver's seat Kenny closes the conversation with a deceptively simple challenge for every Christian business leader: How's your prayer life? Because sustainable growth isn't simply about better technology, smarter goals, or stronger systems. It's about becoming the kind of leader capable of stewarding the growth God has entrusted to you. Connect with Kenny Wyatt