Thriving Practice Podcast: Practice Leadership - Balancing Professional Demands and Personal Needs - Special Snack Episode, EP 174

In this special "snack episode" of the Thriving Practice Podcast, our Manager of Operations and PR, Miranda Dorta, turns the mic around to interview Tracy Cherpeski, examining the reality of healthcare practice leadership. This candid, unscripted conversation explores how practice owners can achieve sustainable growth without sacrificing personal well-being. Tracy shares her evidence-based approaches to sustainability, effective boundary setting, and the systems that support healthcare practice owners, offering valuable insights on achieving harmony between professional demands and personal needs.

Main Points:

• Well-being vs. Work-Life Balance: Tracy defines well-being as the complete picture encompassing physical, mental, and spiritual health along with business health. She challenges the concept of "balance," suggesting that harmony with one's life goals is more realistic for business owners.
• The Importance of Slowing Down: Tracy emphasizes that the first step to protecting time and energy is slowing down to gain "crystal clarity" about personal and professional goals, which allows practice owners to prioritize effectively.
• Recognizing When Growth Threatens Well-being: Through reflective questioning and coaching, Tracy helps healthcare professionals recognize patterns that compromise their well-being and guides them to meaningful "aha moments" about self-care.
• Addressing Perfectionism and Control: Tracy normalizes the control tendencies common in healthcare entrepreneurs while helping them learn true surrender—not abdication but rather building trust in themselves and their teams.

Notable Quotes:

"Well-being is really the entire picture of the human being's health—physical, spiritual, and mental—as well as the business."

"I just don't believe in balance... Most of us spend more of our waking hours working than we do being home. So right away we're out of balance. So are we in harmony with what we want out of life and the business that we want?"

"The most important piece of the puzzle is to slow down... It's really important to slow down so that we can get really clear. And this is the key to everything—crystal clarity."

"Physicians in particular are trained like never to let anybody see them sweat... It takes a while to sort of crack that facade and allow their real deep humanity to come out."

"When we put it back on them to look at themselves and to trust themselves, it changes the responsibility... They double down then on the responsibility to ensure that their team has what they need so that they can take their hands off of it."

"Most of the time, the desire to control ends up being the Achilles heel... when they recognize that it's probably the cause of a lot of their challenges and energy drains, it becomes a little bit easier to let go."

Miranda’s Bio:

Miranda Dorta, B.F.A. (she/her/hers) is the Manager of Operations and PR at Tracy Cherpeski International. A graduate of Savannah College of Art and Design with expertise in writing and creative storytelling, Miranda brings her skills in operations, public relations, and communication strategies to the Thriving Practice community. Based in the City of Oaks, she joined the team in 2021 and has been instrumental in streamlining operations while managing the company's public presence since 2022.

Tracy’s Bio:

Tracy Cherpeski, MBA, MA, CPSC (she/her/hers) is the Founder of Tracy Cherpeski International and Thriving Practice Community. As a Business Consultant and Executive Coach, Tracy helps healthcare practice owners scale their businesses without sacrificing wellbeing. Through strategic planning, leadership development, and mindset mastery, she empowers clients to reclaim their time and reach their potential. Based in Chapel Hill, NC, Tracy serves clients worldwide and is the Executive Producer and Host of the Thriving Practice podcast. Her guiding philosophy: Survival is not enough; life is meant to be celebrated.

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