Small Team, Big Mission: How Karen Stubbs Operates Birds On a Wire

Most businesses start with a business plan. Karen Stubbs started with seven moms in her basement.

Karen is the founder of Birds on a Wire (www.birdsonawiremoms.com), a ministry built to equip and encourage mothers with practical, biblical wisdom. What began as a small group she pulled together at her local church has now grown over 15 years into a worldwide organization with a podcast, annual curriculum, books, and a conference coming in September. On Episode 58 of the Entrepreneurs Blueprint, Karen sat down with Courtney to talk about the operational realities of building something that big with a team that small, and what faith actually looks like when it is woven into the day-to-day work of running a ministry.

It Started with a Prompt, Not a Plan

Karen was not looking to start a ministry. She was on staff at her church, managing the children’s department, when a younger mom stopped her in the hallway and said she needed to write a book. Karen laughed it off. But the idea stayed with her.

“I thought, I could have a small group in my basement,” she said. “So I invited about seven to eight moms that had toddlers and preschoolers. My oldest was in middle school and that age seemed very easy to me now. So I could just teach them what I learned.”

That group grew. Then it split. Then both groups grew again until she had 65 moms across multiple groups. She brought the need to her church leadership. They told her to keep doing what she was doing. So she did, until 2011, when she felt a clear prompting to leave her job and start the ministry full time.

“I sure did not want to start a ministry,” Karen said. “That felt very daunting. How would I do it? I’m not very good in business. I’m definitely not good at raising money.” But she took one step, then another. A business-minded woman from her church staff walked her through getting her 501c3. A lawyer donated their time. The doors kept opening.

Birds on a Wire launched in August 2011, and it has not stopped growing since.

The Real Moving Parts of a Small Ministry

Fifteen years in, Karen runs Birds on a Wire with two staff members and a network of contractors. The day-to-day involves the Wire Talk podcast (now 10 years running), annual video curriculum, speaking engagements, social media, fundraising, and this year, a full conference called SOAR happening in September.

That is a significant amount of output for a two-person staff, and Karen is clear-eyed about it. She has learned to manage capacity by watching her team closely.

“I’m a very spontaneous person,” she said. “I can throw out five ideas before lunch. But I’ve had to learn that as we get closer to a conference, my assistant Amanda, who is very organized and detail-oriented, starts to feel the stress of new ideas piling up. So I’ve had to tell myself, and tell Erin on my team too, who is also spontaneous, we are two months out, no more ideas.”

She attributed a lot of this to understanding personality temperaments, something she teaches through Birds on a Wire using a color-based model. Knowing that Amanda is a green (peaceful, organized, averse to sudden change) has helped Karen lead her better. “I’ve had to learn myself and learn my team and learn what their strengths and weaknesses are. And also keep very short accounts. Apologize a lot.”

Diversifying Revenue in a Donor-Funded Ministry

One of the more operationally interesting parts of this conversation was how Karen is thinking about revenue. Birds on a Wire is a nonprofit, which means donor fundraising is a core part of how it sustains itself. But the podcast had grown into the organization’s single most expensive line item, more than curriculum production, more than anything else. Audio production, video, YouTube shorts, social media clips. It adds up fast.

Earlier this year, Karen and her team launched Wire Talk Plus, a Patreon subscription at $10 a month that gives listeners access to extended content. The goal is to reach 400 subscribers by December 2026. At the time of recording, they were at 200, halfway through the year. “We just decided we’ve got to start raising some money and not have it all be donor based,” Karen said. “The moms were asking for more content anyway, so we put it in Patreon and gave them more.”

The premium content is not just bonus audio. It goes deeper. If a guest like child psychologist Sissy Goff comes on to talk about a book, the free episode covers the main conversation. Wire Talk Plus subscribers get a continued conversation where Karen and the guest break the content down by age ranges, get into more detailed examples, and answer follow-up questions the free format cannot accommodate. Karen also shares personal parenting stories in the Plus feed that she does not share in the free version, because the longer-form format gives room for the kind of nuanced, example-heavy content that actually helps a mom in the middle of a hard parenting season.

A New Audience She Did Not Set Out to Reach

The newest initiative at Birds on a Wire is a curriculum aimed at grandmothers, and its origin story mirrors exactly how Birds on a Wire began: people kept asking for it.

“Grandmothers are getting younger and younger,” Karen said. “And they kept saying, you don’t have anything out there for us. Nobody does.” So in 2025, Karen started a focus group. It opened with six grandmothers around a restaurant table. By the third meeting, there were 24.

“I said, okay, there is definitely something here.”

The grandmother curriculum is filming in July at a lake house on Lake Lanier, complete with all nine of Karen’s grandchildren in attendance for B-roll footage. The content will cover purpose in the grandmother season, healthy boundaries with adult children, time management (because empty nesters, she noted, somehow have less free time than they expected), understanding your child’s temperament, and finding contentment in your current stage of life rather than wishing for someone else’s circumstances.

Karen has already pitched it to Right Now Media. They have expressed interest in taking a look.

What She Prays Every Morning

Near the end of the conversation, Courtney asked Karen what she talks to God about in her business and ministry right now.

Her answer was direct.

“I just remind him every day, you started this ministry. So you’re going to have to keep it up. You’re going to have to bring in the donors. I’m happy to be your hands and feet. I’m happy to spread this message. Just bring me the people who believe in what you’re doing through me.”

She also shared a phrase she carries from a friend who worked alongside Beth Moore: stay in step with the Lord. Do not run ahead, and do not lag behind.

“That is what I pray every morning,” Karen said. “Help me stay in step with you.”

The story that stuck was from eight years ago, when Karen’s father got sick at Thanksgiving and died three weeks later, right at the height of year-end fundraising season. She made a decision: she would not fundraise that December. She would stay with her family.

“I told the Lord, if you bring the money in, great. But if you don’t, this is what I’m going to do. I’m going to honor my dad.”

That year, Birds on a Wire raised more money than it ever had.

“Some of this is really not on my shoulders,” she said. “It’s really on his.”

Where to Find Karen and Birds on a Wire

If you want to learn more about Birds on a Wire or subscribe to Wire Talk Plus, visit www.birdsonawiremoms.com or search Wire Talk on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Questions can be sent to info@birdsonawiremoms.com.

For more on building systems and structure in your own business, visit www.monarchcoo.com and follow along on Instagram at @monarch_coo.