Thriving Practice with Tracy Cherpeski

What if burnout isn't really about overwork — and has more to do with being stuck at the wrong altitude? Join us for our upcoming Masterclass, Prevention Paradigm: Catching Burnout Before it Catches You. https://www.tracycherpeski.com/prevention-paradigm Read the full show notes, memorable quotes, and key takeaways. In this solo episode, Tracy introduces the Altitude Shift: the skill of moving, on purpose, between zoomed-in execution and zoomed-out vision. It's the practice that sharpens your decisions, protects you from burnout, and keeps you connected to the reason you built your practice in the first place. You'll hear the story of Dr. M — a thriving solo practice owner who couldn't remember the last time she wasn't in firefighting mode. Tracy shares the two altitudes, why most bad decisions come from the wrong one, and a simple audit you can use before any significant choice. She also gets into the neuroscience of why slowing down isn't optional — and the daily practices she architects into her own life to keep the horizon in view. If you've been running on will power, feeling reactive, or sensing that you've lost the thread of what you're building — this episode is for you. Is your practice growth-ready? See Where Your Practice Stands: Take our Practice Growth Readiness Assessment Read the full show notes, memorable quotes, and key takeaways. Connect With Us: Be a Guest on the Show Thriving Practice Community Schedule Strategy Session with Tracy Tracy’s LinkedIn Business LinkedIn Page

With acquisition offers arriving, reimbursement cuts looming, and colleagues selling, a lot of practice owners are quietly asking: is staying independent even worth it? In this SNACK episode, Miranda Dorta sits down with Tracy Cherpeski to get her unfiltered take on that question. See Where Your Practice Stands: Take our Practice Growth Readiness Assessment Read the full show notes, memorable quotes, and key takeaways. Tracy shares her framework for helping practice owners separate burnout from a genuine readiness to sell—and why making a major life decision from a place of exhaustion or fear is never the right move. She talks about what independent ownership actually gives providers that a hospital employment contract can't, why cash reserves and a 12-month plan are non-negotiable right now, and what due diligence looks like if selling really is the right path. Tracy also opens up about the personal story behind her mission—her daughter's health journey and the independent provider who changed everything—that explains why this work is more than professional for her. See Where Your Practice Stands: Take our Practice Growth Readiness Assessment Read the full show notes, memorable quotes, and key takeaways. Connect With Us: Be a Guest on the Show Thriving Practice Community Schedule Strategy Session with Tracy Tracy’s LinkedIn Business LinkedIn Page

What if the biggest obstacle to your health isn't time or willpower—but the fact that nobody ever taught you how to take care of yourself? In this episode, Tracy Cherpeski sits down with Dr. Hannah Brandt, a doctor of physical therapy and founder of Physique Triage, who helps women in healthcare build sustainable fitness and nutrition habits without turning their lives upside down. See Where Your Practice Stands: Take our Practice Growth Readiness Assessment Read the full show notes, memorable quotes, and key takeaways. Dr. Hannah lost over 60 pounds herself—and discovered that even with a doctorate, she had to figure out healthy living the hard way. Now she helps other women in healthcare do it smarter. Her approach: find your gaps first. Assess your hydration, movement, and eating before changing anything—then make small, sustainable shifts that actually stick. In this episode, you'll hear why healthcare providers are conditioned to put themselves last, what a realistic first step really looks like, and why 'okay' and 'fine' are a lot closer to 'great' than most people realize. Read the full show notes, memorable quotes, and key takeaways. See Where Your Practice Stands: Take our Practice Growth Readiness Assessment Connect With Us: Be a Guest on the Show Thriving Practice Community Schedule Strategy Session with Tracy Tracy’s LinkedIn Business LinkedIn Page

What separates a thriving private practice from one that's perpetually stuck? According to Paul Vigario, founder of SurfCT and strategist to over 12,000 healthcare practices worldwide, it comes down to two things: attention and compliance. Getting the right patients in the door, and building systems that keep them—without the owner burning out in the process. Read the full show notes, memorable quotes, and key takeaways. See Where Your Practice Stands: Take our Practice Growth Readiness Assessment In this episode, Tracy sits down with Paul to unpack what branding really means for independent practice owners (hint: it's not your logo), why flat revenue is actually a loss, and how awareness—not intelligence—is the true driver of business success. Paul also shares the surprising lessons his wine vineyard taught him about patience, vision, and building something that grows on its own timeline. If you've been wondering why your practice isn't growing the way you imagined—or you're ready to stop being an operator for someone else's system—this episode is for you. Read the full show notes, memorable quotes, and key takeaways. See Where Your Practice Stands: Take our Practice Growth Readiness Assessment Connect With Us: Be a Guest on the Show Thriving Practice Community Schedule Strategy Session with Tracy Tracy’s LinkedIn Business LinkedIn Page

If you make good revenue but still feel like there's never enough money in the practice, you're not broken—you're probably just missing financial clarity. In this SNACK episode, Tracy Cherpeski and Miranda Dorta get into one of the most common and least-discussed gaps in independent healthcare: the difference between having a great accountant and having a real financial strategy. Read the full show notes, memorable quotes, and key takeaways. See Where Your Practice Stands: Take our Practice Growth Readiness Assessment Tracy talks about why even accomplished practice owners avoid their numbers (it's not laziness—it's cultural, professional, and deeply human), what to look for when revenue looks fine but money is always tight, and why she sees money as a tool rather than a moral statement. You'll also hear about the newest offering from Tracy's team: fractional CFO support for practice owners who are ready to move from financial survival mode to strategic, forward-looking growth. See Where Your Practice Stands: Take our Practice Growth Readiness Assessment Read the full show notes, memorable quotes, and key takeaways. Connect With Us: Be a Guest on the Show Thriving Practice Community Schedule Strategy Session with Tracy Tracy’s LinkedIn Business LinkedIn Page

Most practice owners know they need to market their practice—but far fewer know how to evaluate whether it's actually working. In this episode, Tracy sits down with Cameron LiButti, founder of Bidview Marketing, who brings an engineer's precision to healthcare practice marketing strategy. Read the full show notes, memorable quotes, and key takeaways. See Where Your Practice Stands: Take our Practice Growth Readiness Assessment Cameron shares how he uses local SEO data to assess competitive landscape before recommending any budget, why results realistically take 6–12 months (and what changes that timeline), and why your front desk team is a critical piece of your marketing success—not just your operations. He also covers the costly pattern of turning marketing on and off without giving it time to work, why rural and urban practices need entirely different strategies, and how newsletters consistently hit 50%+ open rates when they lead with relationship over promotion. If you've wondered whether your marketing dollars are doing anything—or where to even start—this is an episode worth your time. Read the full show notes, memorable quotes, and key takeaways. See Where Your Practice Stands: Take our Practice Growth Readiness Assessment Connect With Us: Be a Guest on the Show Thriving Practice Community Schedule Strategy Session with Tracy Tracy’s LinkedIn Business LinkedIn Page

You were trained to put yourself last. Not explicitly—nobody handed you a brochure. It happened through culture, through modeling, through what got rewarded in medical school and residency and every clinical environment since. And by the time you opened your own practice, you were running yourself exactly the way the system trained you to: straight into depletion. Read the full show notes, memorable quotes, and key takeaways. In this solo episode, Tracy Cherpeski names what most providers already feel but rarely say out loud: the conditioning that made you extraordinary in the clinic may also be what's driving your burnout. She breaks down why early-stage burnout looks nearly identical to excellence, what it costs the practice when the leader is operating from last place, and what genuine sustainability actually looks like in a thriving independent practice. This isn't about working less. It's about leading smarter—treating your capacity as a real variable, building structures that don't require superhuman endurance, and finding the kind of community that actually getsit. See Where Your Practice Stands: Take our Practice Growth Readiness Assessment Read the full show notes, memorable quotes, and key takeaways. Connect With Us: Be a Guest on the Show Thriving Practice Community Schedule Strategy Session with Tracy Tracy’s LinkedIn

Perfectionism can feel like a strength—until it starts quietly costing you time, momentum, and peace of mind. In this SNACK episode, Tracy Cherpeski sits down with Miranda Dorta to talk about one of the most persistent challenges for practice owner CEOs: knowing when good enough actually is good enough. See Where Your Practice Stands: Take our Practice Growth Readiness Assessment Read the full show notes, memorable quotes, and key takeaways. Tracy shares her 80% rule for getting things out the door, how the Time Leadership Quadrant helps clarify what belongs on your plate (and what doesn't), and why celebrating incremental progress is often more powerful than holding out for a perfect outcome. She also draws the line between high standards—which are non-negotiable—and perfectionism, which is really just rigidity in disguise. Plus, Tracy shares a real-time story from a current client opening a second practice location: how letting go of control and trusting her lead clinician created a launch so strong they were nearly fully booked before the doors even opened. If you've ever wrestled with handing something off, sitting with a decision too long, or holding your team to a standard that's more about fear than excellence—this one's for you. Read the full show notes, memorable quotes, and key takeaways. Connect With Us: Be a Guest on the Show Thriving Practice Community Schedule Strategy Session with Tracy Tracy’s LinkedIn Business LinkedIn Page

What if the most healing thing a healthcare provider can do has nothing to do with a diagnosis or a prescription? In this episode, Tracy Cherpeski sits down with Dr. Fred Moss—a psychiatrist with 46 years in the mental health system who believes that human connection, not medication, is at the heart of all healing. Read the full show notes, memorable quotes, and key takeaways. See Where Your Practice Stands: Take our Practice Growth Readiness Assessment Dr. Fred is the founder of Welcome To Humanity, a coaching practice that helps people undiagnose, unmedicate, and step away from conventional mental health models that treat discomfort as pathology. He shares why he calls himself an “undoctor,” how diagnoses can become identity traps, and why discomfort is a feature of being human—not a sign that something is wrong with you. In this episode, you’ll hear about Dr. Fred’s journey from childhood communicator to psychiatric rebel, his work in prisons, orphanages, and homeless shelters, and why he believes anyone can practice the art of genuine healing through connection. Tracy shares a personal aha moment that will resonate with any provider who’s questioned the limits of conventional care. Read the full show notes, memorable quotes, and key takeaways. See Where Your Practice Stands: Take our Practice Growth Readiness Assessment Connect With Us: Be a Guest on the Show Thriving Practice Community Schedule Strategy Session with Tracy Tracy’s LinkedIn Business LinkedIn Page

If you opened your practice to help people heal but spend most of your day checking, correcting, and redoing your team’s work, this episode is for you. Tracy explores why this pattern isn’t a team problem—it’s a leadership identity problem rooted in your clinical training. The same precision and thoroughness that makes you an exceptional clinician can quietly erode your team’s confidence, initiative, and desire to stay when applied to every aspect of how you manage people. Is your practice growth-ready? See Where Your Practice Stands: Take our Practice Growth Readiness Assessment Read the full show notes, memorable quotes, and key takeaways. In this solo episode, Tracy walks you through three practical shifts you can implement immediately to change how your team experiences you as a leader—without upending everything you’ve built. You’ll learn the critical difference between managing micro details that genuinely need your eyes and micromanaging the people you hired to be competent professionals. Plus, Tracy shares a powerful client story about a practice owner expanding to a second location and the coaching conversation that shifted everything. Whether you’re struggling with delegation, dealing with team turnover, or realizing that your clinical instincts might be holding your practice back from its next level of growth, this episode offers a clear, compassionate path forward. Read the full show notes, memorable quotes, and key takeaways. Connect With Us: Be a Guest on the Show Thriving Practice Community Schedule Strategy Session with Tracy Tracy’s LinkedIn Business LinkedIn Page

If you’re a healthcare practice owner who’s ever been told to “just pick up the phone and start calling,” this episode is for you. Cold calling has been a go-to tactic for decades, but for independent practice owners trying to build trust-based patient relationships, it can do more harm than good. See Where Your Practice Stands: Take our Practice Growth Readiness Assessment Read the full show notes, memorable quotes, and key takeaways. In this SNACK episode, Miranda Dorta interviews Tracy Cherpeski about why cold calling falls flat in healthcare and what actually works instead. Tracy breaks down the key difference between cold calling and cold outreach, why 82–86% of patients start their journey online, and how to attract your ideal patients through relationship-first strategies. You’ll hear practical alternatives including community involvement, referral partnerships, and intentional digital marketing—plus why the instinct to get out there and connect is actually a good thing when it’s properly redirected. Whether you’re opening a new practice, expanding your services, or rethinking your growth approach, this conversation will shift how you think about patient acquisition. Read the full show notes, memorable quotes, and key takeaways. Connect With Us: Be a Guest on the Show Thriving Practice Community Schedule Strategy Session with Tracy Tracy’s LinkedIn Business LinkedIn Page

Marketing your healthcare practice doesn't require expensive campaigns or overwhelming social media strategies. In this episode, Kurt Hoffmann, founder of Abra Marketing, explains why consistent, authentic marketing is part of your mission as a healthcare provider—and how to make it manageable when you're already stretched thin. See Where Your Practice Stands: Take our Practice Growth Readiness Assessment Read the full show notes, memorable quotes, and key takeaways. Kurt shares his journey from healthcare marketing to the music industry and back, bringing fresh perspective on what really works. He addresses the overwhelm practice owners feel and offers practical advice: pick one or two channels that feel natural, show up consistently every month, and remember that your patient experience is your marketing. We discuss why focusing your marketing on specific services actually expands your reach, how to respond to negative reviews in ways that improve your reputation, and why human connection is becoming your biggest competitive advantage in an AI-driven world. If you're struggling with how to grow your profitable medical practice without adding more to your plate, this conversation offers permission to start small and stay consistent. Read the full show notes, memorable quotes, and key takeaways. See Where Your Practice Stands: Take our Practice Growth Readiness Assessment Connect With Us: Be a Guest on the Show Thriving Practice Community Schedule Strategy Session with Tracy Tracy’s LinkedIn Business LinkedIn Page

What happens when a policy leader, a strategic CFO, and an AI innovation specialist all arrive at the exact same conclusion about healthcare leadership - independently? You get validation of what Tracy has been teaching for years. In this episode, Tracy breaks down her recent roundtable with three heavyweight experts: Marc Chow (CEO of Santa Clara County Medical Association), Aaron Gold (strategic CFO), and Stephen Fogg (healthcare marketing strategist and AI specialist). Despite approaching practice management from completely different angles, they all confirmed the same fundamental truth. Read the full show notes, memorable quotes, and key takeaways. The consensus: Choose what needs the most work. Break it down to a simple, implementable task. Build from there. Whether you're dealing with Medicaid cuts, prior authorization burnout, financial pressure, or innovation overwhelm - the methodology is the same. You don't need more information. You need clarity on what to prioritize and a simple next step you can actually take. Tracy shows you exactly how Stephen Fogg's four-quadrant framework maps onto the Time Leadership Delegation Quadrant, why complexity is the enemy of implementation, and what to do this week to start future-proofing your practice. Resources mentioned: Roundtable replay + downloadable highlights doc, Time Leadership Quadrant Read the full show notes, memorable quotes, and key takeaways. See Where Your Practice Stands: Take our Practice Growth Readiness Assessment Connect With Us: Be a Guest on the Show Thriving Practice Community Schedule Strategy Session with Tracy Tracy’s LinkedIn Business LinkedIn Page

Running a profitable medical practice requires more than clinical excellence—it demands financial clarity that most healthcare providers were never trained to achieve. Many practice owners find themselves caught in a frustrating paradox: their accountant tells them they're profitable, yet their bank account tells a different story. Is your practice growth-ready? See Where Your Practice Stands: Take our Practice Growth Readiness Assessment Read the full show notes, memorable quotes, and key takeaways. In this episode, Tracy sits down with Sean Healy and Keith Campagna from Accounted For LLC to explore the critical difference between cash flow and profitability. Sean and Keith have spent seven years developing a comprehensive approach that goes beyond traditional bookkeeping to include insight extraction and strategic coaching specifically designed for private practice owners. You'll learn why hope isn't a strategy (but your gut instincts are usually right), how to quantify your actual profit needs based on your specific goals, and why asking for help is one of the most strategic moves a practice owner can make. Keith shares a powerful client story about finally sleeping better after gaining financial clarity—a reminder that understanding your numbers impacts far more than just your bottom line. Whether you're struggling with cash flow management, trying to make sense of your practice finances, or simply want to build a thriving practice without constant financial stress, this conversation offers practical frameworks you can implement immediately. Read the full show notes, memorable quotes, and key takeaways. Connect With Us: Be a Guest on the Show Thriving Practice Community Schedule Strategy Session with Tracy Tracy’s LinkedIn Business LinkedIn Page

More than half of healthcare practice owners report burnout, and the traditional response—working harder, seeing more patients, adding more services—keeps them trapped in a cycle that never delivers the freedom they imagined. In this SNACK episode, Miranda Dorta interviews Tracy about the 10x practice owner mindset and why sustainable practice growth requires subtraction, not addition. Read the full show notes, memorable quotes, and key takeaways. Tracy breaks down the core problem keeping practice owners stuck: the belief that they're responsible for doing everything, even when they have capable teams. She introduces constraint-based thinking with a powerful question: "If I could only show up two or three days a week, would the practice continue to grow?" For most practice owners, the answer is no—and that reveals exactly where the mindset shift needs to happen. In this episode, you'll discover: Why subtracting is the key to multiplying your practice The first thing to eliminate when reducing your clinical time How one psychologist maintained billable hours while working less by focusing on high-level cases only she could handle The smallest mindset shift that creates the biggest ripple effect Read the full show notes, memorable quotes, and key takeaways. See Where Your Practice Stands: Take our Practice Growth Readiness Assessment Connect With Us: Be a Guest on the Show Thriving Practice Community Schedule Strategy Session with Tracy Tracy’s LinkedIn Business LinkedIn Page

Dr. Kenneth Pierce didn't just fill a geographic gap when he opened Veterinary Vision Center in underserved Shreveport, Louisiana—he identified a nationwide crisis. The shortage of veterinary specialists means general practitioners often lack access to expert guidance for complex cases, leading to stressed veterinarians, suboptimal patient outcomes, and frustrated pet owners facing long drives and high costs. Read the full show notes, memorable quotes, and key takeaways. See Where Your Practice Stands: Take our Practice Growth Readiness Assessment His solution, Vespecon, offers unlimited virtual face-to-face consultations with specialists across all veterinary fields through a membership model. This empowers general practitioners to deliver specialist-level care locally while building confidence and strengthening client trust. In this episode, we explore how Vespecon's model creates wins across the board: veterinarians gain knowledge and confidence, pet owners save money while getting better outcomes, and specialists extend their reach and impact. Dr. Pierce also discusses the business advisory services Vespecon now offers—recognizing that practice owners need support beyond clinical knowledge to truly thrive. Whether you're in veterinary medicine or any healthcare specialty, this conversation offers insights about leveraging technology to bridge access gaps, the importance of asking for expert support, and how comprehensive practice support prevents burnout while improving care delivery. Connect With Us: Be a Guest on the Show Thriving Practice Community Schedule Strategy Session with Tracy Tracy’s LinkedIn Business LinkedIn Page

Dr. Shelina Jaffer's physician burnout journey is textbook—until it isn't. This London-based GP normalized stress and physical symptoms for months before a moment of emotional darkness forced recognition: this was advanced burnout. Her recovery story and the creation of HavenWithin offers a roadmap for healthcare professionals seeking sustainable wellbeing. Is your practice growth-ready? See Where Your Practice Stands: Take our Practice Growth Readiness Assessment Read the full show notes, memorable quotes, and key takeaways. Shelina shares the classic burnout progression many physicians experience: taking work everywhere, dismissing new health issues as "just stress," and pushing through until the body demands attention. Her immediate physical improvement after changing roles highlights how directly occupational factors impact health. But full recovery took three years—a timeline that challenges quick-fix wellness approaches. Today, Shelina works with organizations and universities through experiential programs focused on respect, trust, and reconnecting with inner wisdom. One university student's feedback captures the impact: "You taught me to be bold." This episode explores why organizational culture matters more than wellness perks, how limiting beliefs hold professionals back, and why the shift toward human-centered healthcare is accelerating globally. Is your practice growth-ready? See Where Your Practice Stands: Take our Practice Growth Readiness Assessment Read the full show notes, memorable quotes, and key takeaways. Connect With Us: Be a Guest on the Show Thriving Practice Community Schedule Strategy Session with Tracy Tracy’s LinkedIn Business LinkedIn Page

In this candid SNACK episode, Miranda turns the microphone around and interviews Tracy about her recent speaking tour across California. Tracy spoke at multiple events with the Santa Clara County Medical Association and Fresno Madera Medical Society, teaching burnout prevention at the CME level—and what she learned surprised even her. You'll hear about the practice owners who started their own practices after burning out in large integrated systems, the generational divide that's causing friction in healthcare workplaces, and a surprising discovery: residents in California can unionize, but attending physicians cannot. Tracy also shares her perspective on why burnout prevention programs often miss the mark by putting the onus on individual physicians when burnout is, by definition, a workplace problem. Plus, she poses a provocative question she asked a room full of employed physicians: What would happen if 50% of you walked out? This episode offers fresh insights on systemic healthcare challenges, the commodification of healthcare, and what Tracy is learning as she builds the Thriving Practice Community. Is your practice growth-ready? See Where Your Practice Stands: Take our Practice Growth Readiness Assessment Read the full show notes, memorable quotes, and key takeaways. Connect With Us: Be a Guest on the Show Thriving Practice Community Schedule Strategy Session with Tracy Tracy’s LinkedIn Business LinkedIn Page

If you're a healthcare practice owner who made New Year's resolutions this January, only to watch them crumble by February, you're not alone—and more importantly, you're not failing. After nearly 16 years of coaching highly credentialed business owners, Tracy Cherpeski has seen the same pattern: resolutions fail not because practice owners lack discipline, but because resolutions themselves are fundamentally flawed for creating sustainable change. In this episode, Tracy breaks down why traditional resolutions set practice owners up for failure and offers a strategic alternative that actually works. You'll discover the real science behind habit formation (it's not 21 days), understand how your nervous system responds to change, and learn the three-pillar framework successful practice owners use to create lasting improvements. Is your practice growth-ready? See Where Your Practice Stands: Take our Practice Growth Readiness Assessment Read the full show notes, memorable quotes, and key takeaways. Key topics include: the 66-day reality of habit formation, why willpower fails but systems sustain, four critical mindset shifts for sustainable change, how your personal approach to change mirrors your practice leadership, and practical questions to ask instead of making traditional resolutions. Whether you're struggling with boundaries, delegation, or exhaustion despite working harder than ever, this episode provides strategic thinking tools to make 2026 different. Read the full show notes, memorable quotes, and key takeaways. Connect With Us: Be a Guest on the Show Thriving Practice Community Schedule Strategy Session with Tracy Tracy’s LinkedIn Business LinkedIn Page

The end of the year brings more than holiday obligations for healthcare practice owners—it often brings exhaustion that ripples through your entire practice. When you're running on empty, your team feels it, and suddenly everyone's pretending their way through December while practice culture slowly fractures. In this episode, Tracy reflects on meaningful wins from 2025—including CME accreditation, partnerships with medical associations, and the Joy of Medicine Retreat—while addressing the reality of seasonal stress in healthcare practices. She shares the story of Dr. Cheri's OBGYN practice, where one honest team huddle revealed that everyone was drowning separately, each convinced they were the only one struggling. Tracy explores why most January goals fail by mid-February and what actually works instead: smaller, repeatable systems that fit into how you already operate. She introduces the Energy Audit Workbook for tracking what depletes versus restores you, and discusses why rest is foundation, not reward. Looking ahead to 2026, Tracy shares two opportunities to build sustainable practice growth: the Community Open House on January 13th and the Future Proofing Healthcare Leadership Roundtable on January 27th. Read the full show notes, memorable quotes, and key takeaways.

Are you seeing more patients than ever but wondering where all the money is going? You might be caught in the revenue trap. In this candid SNACK episode, Miranda turns the mic on Tracy to explore why practice growth doesn't always translate to better profit margins or more freedom. Many healthcare practice owners are busier than ever—maybe even adding providers or locations—but when they look at their actual take-home numbers, something doesn't add up. Tracy shares a real client story about how being "too busy" to look at the books led to a simple system glitch costing thousands per month. She also breaks down what practice owners need to audit before considering expansion, why trading time for dollars has a ceiling, and how to know if growth is actually serving your goals. Whether you're considering adding another provider, opening a second location, or just trying to understand why you're working harder but not seeing the financial rewards, this episode will help you think differently about practice profitability. Is your practice growth-ready? See Where Your Practice Stands: Take our Practice Growth Readiness Assessment Read the full show notes, memorable quotes, and key takeaways. Key topics include: The first question to ask before pursuing growth Why efficient systems matter more than patient volume What to evaluate before opening a second location How to escape the time-for-money trap Read the full show notes, memorable quotes, and key takeaways.