The Private Practice Success Podcast

65. Leading Through Uncertainty

• Gerda Muller • Episode 65

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Irrespective of whether you’re a solo or a group practice owner, uncertainty is part of the allied health business landscape.  Cue funding changes, policy shifts, a lingering cost of living crisis and the multitude of unexpected curveballs life throws your way. 

This episode isn’t about theory - it’s a practical, real-world guide to leading yourself and your team when the path ahead is foggy and the stakes feel high. 

In this Episode, you will learn (among others):

  • Why uncertainty is a normal part of private practice, and how to become more comfortable with it.
  • The five pillars of leading through uncertainty
  • How to regulate your own emotions so you can support your team
  • Ways to make thoughtful decisions under pressure and protect your practice.
  • Why self-care and building a support network are essential for any leader.

Who This Episode Is For:

  • Practice owners navigating funding changes, economic uncertainty, or any season of challenge and change.
  • Leaders who want to inspire confidence and stability in their teams, even when they don’t have all the answers.
  • Anyone ready to swap anxiety for clarity and chaos for calm, as they steer their business through uncertain times.

Tune in for a practical conversation that will help you lead with courage, clarity, and compassion and build a practice you can’t stop smiling about.

Want more info on The Ultimate Admin Training Course?

Email Gerda at gerdam@private-practice-success.com and she’ll send you all the details. 

Connect with Private Practice Success & Gerda here:

Well, hello there brilliant private practice owner. My name is Gerda Muller, and you are listening to the Private Practice Success Podcast, and this is episode number 65. 

Today I want to talk to you about something that each and every practice owner out there, whether you are a solo practice owner or a group practice owner will be facing at some point in time - because whether you've been in private practice for two days, two weeks, two months, two years, or like me, almost 20 years - the time is going to come that you are going to have to lead during times of uncertainty. Now, if you have been in this industry for a while like I have, you will also know that that uncertainty is not the exception, it's also not the rule, but it's also not the exception. Because when you are a business, uncertainty is just part of business, it's just how it is when you're in business. And then if you are in a business like ours, which is allied health, which is related to funding streams like Medicare, NDIS, all of those things, then it just becomes part of the landscape, where you start to recognise that these things are going to happen whether we like it or not. 

I will be honest, none of us likes uncertainty, I don't like uncertainty, but it's always going to be there. And as soon as we can accept that uncertainty is part of business, part of allied health private practice, the sooner we can get to be ‘comfortable’ with it, because you're never going to love it. But it's going to be, okay, here we go again, but now I know how to navigate this uncertainty. If I think of the times of uncertainty that I've had to go through, I mean, I started my solo private practice back in 2007, and in 2008, the start of 2008, I made the leap into group practice ownership. So I went from a one person show, one room practice to a practice with three rooms, so I basically tripled the number of clients that I wanted to serve, and tripled the floor space and I had to get more clinicians on board. So, when you go from a solar practice owner to a three-room private practice, there's a lot of additional expenses and overheads that goes into that. And I made that jump in 2008.

Now, if you are as old as I am, you would know what happened in 2008 - cue the global financial crisis. So I was like going - Oh, I don’t know whether that was a good decision, Gerda, but here we are. The lease has been signed. You've employed people, and my very first two clinicians were actually employees. So it's not like I could just go, sorry, I don't have clients for you because you're a contractor. They were permanent employees. I had committed to expanding into group practice ownership. Now, I don't know whether it's a good or bad thing, but the global financial crisis was happening at that global scale, but the consequences of it only filtered through like on the ground during 2010, and that was a really interesting realisation. because in 2008 you were hearing about all this stuff and you were just waiting for the other shoe to drop. And it's like, no, nothing's happening, nothing's happening, and it would have been really easy to just go, Okay, now we're all good, but no. It actually took a full two years for all those economic impacts and consequences to really filter down to people in the community.

And what started to happen, is more and more people were telling us that they couldn't afford our services. Asking for reduced fees, asking to be bulk billed, cancelling their appointments, shifting appointment times out, because they just couldn't afford it - and that was happening in 2010. So that then led to a lot of uncertainty of going… What is this? Because the global financial crisis happened in 2008? And then that was that realisation, Ah, this is how those things work. When I think back of that time, I can remember having had a lot of conversations with my team - there was a lot of fear at that time in terms of what this meant for our livelihoods, right. What does this mean for our clients that need our support? How should we be navigating this time? So that was one big period of uncertainty that actually lasted quite a number of years. Because like I said, it happened in 2008 and it was just hanging around, hanging around, hanging around, and then bam, 2010 comes and it's like: Oh, okay, this is the impact of what was happening in the global markets, and now we have it in our community.

Another standout period of uncertainty in my memory is the many multiple funding changes that we experience in private practice over those years. Particularly funding that is now linked these days to primary healthcare networks. I might speak here under correction because I didn't actually check, but what is now called Primary Healthcare Networks have probably undergone at least two or three name changes since I started private practice back in 2007. Initially the funding that your clients could access through what was then the primary healthcare networks, were called better outcomes in mental health. These days, every primary healthcare network calls it something different. It's got a totally different name, so I can't even tell you what it's called in your neck of the woods you would need to go check. For us, in Brisbane, in our primary healthcare network, it's called psychological therapy. Here where I live now in Agnes Water where I've started a local practice to support our community, it's called Healthy Minds. So I would encourage you to go find out what this is called in your neck of the woods.

But anyway, initially when I signed up for the better outcomes in mental health, it was so easy, right? You did a form, you got signed up, and then you started to get referrals - done and dusted. And then all of a sudden there were tenders, and it's like, oh shit, there go all those referral types. That's the first thought you have at that moment, right? So, we've had to navigate a lot of those types of funding changes over the years. I've had those moments when the news breaks where I went: Oh my golly, we're done for. Because one of my practices for many, many years was always located in a low SES area, and a lot of our clients relied on that specific funding stream. I clearly remember when one of those announcements were made and I was just thinking to myself, Shit, what are we going to do here? Because clients, these clients, this community needs that funding stream, and it was a huge part of our revenue. But the thing is, you learn from all of those situations, right?  

And then of course we had COVID. I didn't have to tell you about COVID. Let's not go there. Let's not re-traumatise everybody.  But because I've been through those scenarios and if I come back to 2026, you know, NDIS, there's so much strife being caused with NDIS changes - particularly right now with the whole thriving kids announcement that happened last year, and waiting to find out how this is all going to look. Do you know that I do not worry about that at all. And I know this is going to sound so bad, because I know how this is impacting so many people on the ground. When I say people, I'm talking about practice owners. Even clinicians being so stressed about what this means, yes, for their clients, but also for their team and for their business, and therefore for them. And it's causing a lot of sleepless nights, and a lot of emotional and mental anguish, and therefore I feel bad saying that it's not doing that for me. And I say that as a practice owner whose work is at least half child and adolescent work in my practices on the ground. We've always done child and adolescent work, I'm extremely passionate about it.

Our two main niche areas in my practices are trauma work, and child and adolescent work. Although I am not a NDIS registered provider, my practice - when I say I - we do a lot of NDIS work, we see a lot of plan managed and a lot of self-managed clients, and a lot of our clients are going to be impacted by thriving kids. You know what? I'm not concerned about it. Not one bit. Not for my business. Yes, I'm concerned in terms of how it's going to impact the clients. But when it comes to the impact on my business, I'm not concerned. You know why? Because I've had a lot of exposure to uncertainty, and I have seen that we can, and we will navigate it. So having had that exposure has been helpful for me. Yes, it wasn't fun going through the COVID stuff. Going through the changes in the primary healthcare network funding - where at that time I thought I was going to lose my business. I had those moments. But in retrospect, all those experiences, including the global financial crisis, have taught me that, you know what? This doesn't have to be the end. And you know what? I know how to navigate through this. 

I also have a fundamental belief that I will work through it, and that I will get a solution, because a lot of the time what happens when these types of uncertainties show up, is that we start to make decisions out of fear - and if you've been doing that, you are a normal human being, that’s human. But it's really about going, I need to acknowledge that what I'm feeling right now is fear. A lot of times uncertainty is just fear. And it's about going: Okay, my job as the business owner is to go: Yeah, I can feel the fear as well, I'm really scared. But when it comes to leading during that time, I cannot make fear-based decisions, because that is the thing that will tank your business - not the change, not the uncertainty - the way that you're going to navigate AKA, lead yourself and your team through that period, that's what's going to get you to the other side. And it takes a lot of self-belief in you to know that you can do this. I will admit it's much easier when you've had to do it previously, because you've learned, you've made mistakes, you've gathered insights, and you've been exposed to it, and you realise that it doesn't have to be the end, that's not the only outcome here, because when you have particularly a group private practice, your role is to regulate the emotional climate within your business - and that starts with yourself, and to support your team with that - and you do that by providing clarity and holding direction for both yourself and your team.

So today we're going to talk about what I think and believe are the five pillars of Leading Through Uncertainty. This is not theory-based stuff. This doesn't come from a freaking textbook somewhere. This is me sharing with you what I have experienced, and what I have learned. Which has led me to this place where things like thriving kids show up, and my first thought is not - I'm going to have to close my business. It's like: Okay, that's the worst-case scenario, but that's never going to happen because I won't allow it to happen. And again, I know this might sound like, ‘How dare you say that, Gerda, when I can't sleep at night worrying about these things.’ But I want you to borrow some of my belief, that if you learn how to lead through uncertainty, and you implement the right strategies and decisions, that you will be okay and your business will. Alright, so let's get stuck into this really important conversation.

Pillar 1: Be Brave Leadership

Pillar one is what I call: Be Brave Leadership. This actually comes from one of the values that we have at my group private practice, The Psych Professionals. At the practice, we want our clients to be brave - if you think about some of the work that they need to do, (being a trauma practice), it's really hard dealing with that stuff, and you need to be brave to deal with your trauma. You need to be brave just to put your hand up and say, ‘Hey, I need some help.’ You need to be brave to show up for each and every appointment, we need to do that work. And we want to acknowledge that, and it's the same with our clinicians, they need to be brave in the work that they do. They need to be curious, they need to be open to learning, to growth. and they need to be open to feedback informed therapy for clients to go: ‘That didn't work, I need something else.’ 

At our practice, we have a culture of being brave. So the same needs to apply to me, as the owner of the business. I need to be brave when it comes to the work that I do. I need to be brave in my role, and a lot of that is that leadership.  And what Be Brave leadership really means to me is to act in service of our purpose, and to do that even when I feel afraid. And a very important part of this is that story you are telling yourself during times of uncertainty, because it's really hard to be brave when the story in your head is: This is the beginning of the end. We are in trouble. I'm going to lose everything. There's no answer here. I have no idea what to do. And when that's the story in your head, your team's going to start feeling it too. I don't care how good of a poker face you've got, our team members are clever cookies, they can read you, they can just feel it - even if you never say those things out loud. So you have to work on that story you are telling yourself. I want to encourage you to maybe write some of these reframes down, and really find something that's going to work for you. 

First thing is: This is a season. Second one: We have navigated change before. Now, if you've not navigated change before, that's okay. Then you go with, this is a season, or third: There is a next right step. Because take it from somebody that's been in this business for, it will be 20 years in 2027, which is just next year - there's always a right next step. I know it, and I've seen it. I've experienced it in my own business, and I've experienced it with many practice owners that I have supported, coached, and mentored over the last 10 years. Yeah, I've been doing this coaching thing for 10 years, I know there's always a right next step. It doesn't matter how certain you are that that does not apply to your business, I know it does. I want to encourage you to borrow some of my belief that that is possible for your business, if right now you are sitting in immense uncertainty. Because if you are able to start shifting those stories and those beliefs, then you will be able to walk into a team meeting, being brave - sitting in, Be Brave Leadership, and going: ‘Hey everyone, I want to acknowledge that this quarter has felt different. I want to acknowledge that we are all concerned about thriving kids, or I want to acknowledge that cancellations are up, and those diaries have been looking really empty AND here's what we are seeing that tells us that we are still okay. That we are still going and moving in the right direction, that we are still strong - and this is why. This is what I'm thinking.’ 

So being brave in this scenario involves bringing things into the open and talking about it - but also showing that you have a plan, that you have that vision that you can see the way through. And I know what's hard, sometimes you don't want to do it. Sometimes I sit on my phone, I'm going to admit it and scroll doing - we all do a bit of doom scrolling, right? It's a great way to switch off the brain. I've seen those videos of these big ships on the big ocean and it's showing how they're navigating these bloody waves, and I'm looking at that video and thinking, you cannot pay me enough money to sit on that boat during one of those storms. I do not care how much money you throw at me, that is not happening. For me, it's like I'm going to have to work really hard to be brave in that situation, and maybe that's what this feels like for you right now, in the time that you are in. Irrespective of when you are listening to this, your uncertainty might have nothing to do with thriving kids. Maybe you've got uncertainty in your personal life, and it feels like you are on this ship and there's one wave after the freaking next. So I want to say, I get it. I want to acknowledge that it is hard, and it is scary, and sometimes it feels like you just don't want to do it. But I want you to connect back to that purpose, because that is what being brave is all about. 

It is easier to be brave when it's connected to purpose. Like me being on a ship from the open ocean in a storm that's not connected to my purpose. So, like I said, I don't care how much money you throw my way, I'm not doing it. But making sure my private practice survives, that's connected to my purpose, because I'm here to help people. That's why I became a psychologist, why I went into private practice. I want to be able to help people in better and more effective ways, and I want to help as many people as I possibly can. So in order for me to achieve that, I need to be freaking brave. It doesn't matter what's happening around me, that is what I need to do, and that is what I will be doing. And when you are clear on that, it helps you to be regulated. And when you are emotionally regulated, it becomes easier for you to support your team to be emotionally regulated. 

I want to remind yourself if you are going through uncertainty right now, you do not have to solve everything right now. You do not need to know all the answers right now. And sometimes it's because we want those things, that it is so stressful. We want to know exactly what's happening, how it's going to impact us - it's like that's impossible to know right now. What you need to focus on right now as you're being brave, is what is the right next step. And then you do that and you go, what is the right next step and the right next step? Because especially when it comes to big funding changes and political environmental changes, you know you can't control all of that stuff, and you might be making plans right now based on what's in the news currently or what's just been announced, and next week they go and change it all again, it's like - you've put all this freaking effort into it. So my advice, and this is what I do is the right next step - that is where you need to be brave.

Pillar 2: Be Brave Communication

Pillar two is very much linked to pillar one. So we've just spoken about Be Brave Leadership. Pillar two is Be Brave Communication, and that is communication that is honest, transparent - but also empowered. Because during times of uncertainty, your team doesn't need spin, we are not politicians. I don’t know about you, but I see straight through politicians when they're engaging in spin, and I'm going to guess that your team is very clever. They're going to see straight through it - so don't spin them. Don't try and go, Oh, I need to be very inspirational here and motivate them and get them through it. They can see straight through that shit. Don't do it. You need to engage in Be Brave Communication, which is going to require you to be vulnerable at times. I'm not saying burst out into tears in front of them, there's a balance. Because in times of uncertainty, everyone knows when something is off, but nobody's talking about it - that's the worst thing you can do is to not address it. Because we've just spoken about stories in your mind, and the mind of practice owners when things are happening, but what's the stories in your team's mind? They might be wondering: Is the business okay? Should I start looking for another job? Is it time for me to put myself first and my family, and jump ship to a job that might offer more security? They're thinking about those things - they might not tell you about it.  

So really ask yourself if you are going through a time of uncertainty right now in your world of business, what are you doing to communicate to the team, to bring those concerns to the forefront. In my PPS Academy, I speak about The Founder's Address. Now, that can look different for each of us, but that is where you, as the business owner, actually talk to the team. You can do that in an email, you can do that in a video - especially if you have a lot of hybrid team members that might be working from home - maybe you've got a mobile team or a telehealth team. You need to have a means of communicating to them whilst being transparent and honest, but also empowered.  This is where you can say things like: ‘Okay team, this is what's happening in the industry. This is the news article that's been going around. This is the conversations I'm seeing in Facebook groups - and here is what that means to us at this practice, in this location, in the work that we do with the clients we serve. And this is what we, as a business, are doing about it. And this is why I am confident of us achieving these outcomes.’ They need to hear this from you. Not spin, not just ‘Don't worry about it.’ It's about going - we acknowledge that this is what's happening. I know what the right next step is, and this is what it is, this is what we are going to work on together, and we are going to navigate through this. If you can just do that, then your team isn't going to go, ‘Oh, I need to get a new job.’ They're going to look at you and go, ‘Yeah, she's got this I can see, and I know that there's a lot of shit happening out there, but my person, my leader, she's got a plan.’

You know what your team does when you engage in Be Brave Communication, that's when they come to you and go, ‘Hey, is there anything I can do? Hey, how can I help? Thank you so much for saying all those things. We are here with you.’ And there's nothing more heartwarming to you as the leader when you feel like the team has your back. Yes, we all know that it's your job to have their back, but we also know how lonely it can be as the business owner. I can tell you now, I know that you desire the team to have your back. I know that's the one thing that you wish for and pray for every night. But you are only going to have it when you communicate in the way that I've just described. Because I've been there, I've experienced it. And you know when your team has your back, it really empowers you, and it emboldens you as the leader to step into uncertainty with so much more courage. So I really want to encourage you, if you've not spoken to your team recently about what's happening, then this is your invitation to do that.

Pillar 3: Strategic Consolidation 

Pillar number three is Strategic Consolidation. Now I want to be really clear when it comes to strategic consolidation. This does not mean retreating. This does not mean going into hiding. This is not what I'm talking about. I'm also not talking about cutting, so a lot of people engage what I would call panic cutting - so it's like, I need to stop spending money. No more money towards marketing. I'm going to cancel all the professional development budgets. I'm going to reduce the admin shifts. I'm going to get rid of the VA - no, no - that's the worst thing that you can do. When I say strategic consolidation, what I mean is you are shifting your business focus from grow, grow, grow, grow, grow - and growing is exciting. It helps us live that purpose of helping more people -  but during times of uncertainty, your focus might need to be sustaining momentum. And you know what momentum means? Momentum means you keep moving forward. So again, it's not retreating. It's not going backwards. It's not going sideways. It is sustaining the momentum that you have, but not going bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger. This is probably not the time to start a new location. This is probably not the time to purchase your own space - and those are just two examples. It's about” Okay, I need to engage in strategic consolidation, which means we want to sustain our current momentum. 

What that will require, is for you, as the business owner, is to protect your core business assets. So what is that? First and foremost, your team, hence we've just spoken about: Be Brave Communication, those are the people that you need to look after Also, another core asset is your referral relationships. Who are they? Is it GP’s? Is it support coordinators? Is it schools? Is it lawyers? Depending on the work that you do, it's going to be somebody - you need to look after those relationships. Also, and this is the part a lot of people miss, is your brand, and your brand presence - that actually is a core asset, not just from a client perspective, not just from a referrer perspective, and not just from a team clinician perspective - brand presence is important across all of those three areas, so you need to look after that during this period, Now, remember I previously spoke about the right next step, that that is what leadership needs to be about during uncertainty. So again, for each of you, depending on what's happening, depending on your unique individual business, your right next step is going to look slightly different. 

I just want to give you some examples, when you step into strategic consolidation, what it could mean is not launching new services. Not making this the time to do a complete new rebrand. Not chasing new platforms and programs right now, but instead focusing on - team engagement, client experience, referrer connection, you know, coming back to those core assets. This is what you want to focus on right now. Then if you do that - and I've actually recently worked with a client to do that. We actually went into strategic consolidation with her practice for only three months, but she did it really, really well. The consolidation that we worked on was really targeted and focused, and after that three-month period. everything's stabilised. Everything is clearer. They've got a better direction. and everybody's on board. And they achieved that, not because they did more and new things, (and that's sometimes what people think needs to happen), but because she protected what matters most. On a really detailed level, that could be stuff like - removing duplication in workflows, consolidating systems, optimising systems, simplifying processes like your intake - all of those things are really important things that need to happen. and a great time to do that is during strategic consolidation.

Pillar 4: Ask Better Questions

Pillar number four is to Ask Better Questions. Because the thing is this, uncertainty and all the emotions around uncertainty - particularly when paired with urgency like this is happening now or it's happening next month - that creates bad decisions. So how do we ask better questions then Gerda? By zooming out. During times of uncertainty, when you are in that leadership position, you have to give yourself the opportunity to zoom out - to get out of the weeds and sit on the mountaintop as I like to say, and ask: Is the decision that I'm making right now (in terms of that right next step), Will this decision make sense 12 months from now? How is this going to impact us into the future? Another question that I always ask, which I think is really, really vital, is the following: In this period of uncertainty (what I'm having to deal with right now), Is this a storm, or is this the new climate? I need to know which that is, because if it's a storm, it's going to pass. Some storms last an hour, and some storms can last 24 hours, and in business, a storm can last a week, or it can last six months. If it is a storm, I know it will pass, so my behaviour during this period of storming will be different to: Is this the new climate? Is this a long-lasting change that we need to adjust to? 

The decisions that I need to make for my business are going to be different. I will tell you that 9 out of 10 times uncertainty that shows up in my experience over the last 20 years were storms, and some of those storms lasted freaking way too long. And every now and then, it's what I would refer to as climate change. It's interesting speaking about this topic,  because in December I actually made a decision in my own group private practice that something was climate change - so not climate change in the environmental earth related stuff, you know what I mean right. Climate change in terms of the environment of business for my allied health group private practice. It led to me making a really interesting decision - that's maybe a topic of discussion for another day, but it's still very new.  I made that decision in December, and I can see how that decision has impacted subsequent decision making in what it is that we are doing in 2026 within my own group private practice.

So I really want you to ask yourself the uncertainty that you have, whatever that is for you - is this a storm or is this the new climate? And then also another question that I like to ask as part of asking better questions is: What is the real cost of not acting? Or what is the real cost of waiting? So when you're thinking about stuff such as, Should I stop hiring new clinicians? So a lot of people might be thinking about that, especially in the current biggest uncertainty in our industry right now with NDIS and Thriving Kids. And you might have found yourself going, should I freeze the hiring of new clinicians? The better question to ask, for example, is: If demand continues or returns in three months, what will it cost me to have no recruitment pipeline? What's the cost of that at that point in time? So you really want to ask better questions in order to inform better decision making, when you need to lead during periods of uncertainty. And sometimes it's hard to ask those questions when you are the one in the midst of it, which therefore brings us to pillar five, which is making sure that you as the leader also have your very own strategic support.

Pillar 5: Strategic Support

In pillar three, we spoke about strategic consolidation, and I mentioned that part of that is protecting your core assets, and I shared with you what those are. But very often I find practice owners forget that they are actually an anchor core asset. Because guess what? No practice owner, no freaking business. No practice owner, no other core assets. So it is incredibly important that you look after yourself. I've just spoken to you about all these things that you need to do, that's on your shoulders, and that can cause a hell of a lot of stress and pressure. And you know that all of us deal with that stuff differently. Some of us get all fired up - that's me, get all fired up and passionate. Some of us just go, I just want to curl up in the fetal position in the corner there - and what I will say is that I’ve been there and done that as well, especially in the early days. What I found is that over time, I spent less time in the corner. These days I look at the corner and I go, ‘Yeah, I see you. I see you, but I'm not going there.’ I will say that, as with most things, the more experienced at something, the easier it gets. So you might be listening to me talking here today, and you go, ‘Well Gerda, you're totally disconnected, because this is really shit and really hard.’ And I want to tell you that if that's how all of this has come across, (speaking about my experiences and how I currently react to it), that was not the intention. The intention is to tell you that you can get through it. The intention is to tell you that things do pass, and that 9 out of 10 times it is a storm, and that you can get through it. 

But I know you and you are prioritising your team, as you should. You are prioritising the clients, as you should. You are also prioritising your family at home, as you should. But it's also my job to tell you that you also matter. You, the owner, the leader, the person doing all the caregiving within your business, and most probably at home as well. And maybe you go, I've got a great and very supportive spouse or partner, amazing, but you're still caregiving there. So please pillar five is about strategic support. You need to ask yourself, what support do you need right now, and you need to give it to yourself.  I'm really going to be strict with you here, because I know what practice owners do, especially if they're going into strategic consolidation particularly. They go, ‘I want to cut.’  You remember I spoke about panic cutting. I'm not going to engage in this type of business support for me as the practice owner, because I want to direct that elsewhere to the team, to clients, that type of thing - and then you take your support away. Which is the worst thing you can do. If I think about clinically, one of the biggest things for me as a psychologist and the thing that would always cause me frustration over the years is, when I see that a client has cancelled in my diary and I ask reception, ‘Did they say why they cancelled when they rang in? And reception will tell me, ‘They're really feeling overwhelmed, or there's a lot of stuff going on for them at home, and they couldn't come in.’ And then I'm going, ‘That's why you should be in session. It's what I'm here for - overwhelm - I can help you in that 50 minutes’ and you can walk out ready to deal with what it is happening.’ Again, when stuff is happening in your world, I can empower you to go back home and be more emotionally regulators - like, that's why you should be in session. 

I feel very similarly about my business coaching, consulting, and mentoring clients, that a lot of time when they need help most is when they retreat and they go, ‘No, I don't matter as much as the other people around me, so I'm going to direct all the support and help towards them, and then I either run out of time, energy, or money to invest in me.’ So if you honestly want to lead during uncertainty, you cannot forget pillar five, which is strategic business support for you. Now if you're thinking, what does that involve? I want you to go and listen to Episode 64, the one I did right before this one, the one from last week. The title of that episode was The Five Most Important People in the Life of a Practice Owner. So ask yourself: Do you have those five people? If not, do you need to establish a relationship with them so that you can have that help and support because you deserve it. And by having that help and support, guess what? It will be easier to lead during uncertainty. It would be easier to Be Brave - to communicate clearly, to engage in strategic consolidation, to ask better questions. A big part of my job, for example, as a business coach, is to help you ask better questions. And sometimes when you're stuck in the weeds, when all the emotions are running around and riding a rough shot over you, it's hard to think of those things, okay. And sometimes you just cannot see what there is to see, not because you don’t know what you're doing, just because you are the person in the weeds really struggling and carrying all of it on your shoulders.  

So if you are listening to this and you're thinking, ‘You know what, Gerda, you are right. I don't want to do this alone, or maybe I can no longer do this alone.’ Then please reach out. This is what I do within the Private Practice Success Academy, and there's three different ways to work with me in there, which includes one-on-one support, because I think we both know what you don't need is more information, we are all struggling with information overload. What you need is clarity. Clarity around the right next thing for your business. Also, structure in terms of how to make that happen. The right tools and resources so you don't have to reinvent the wheel. Perspective to really see the forest for the trees and the trees for the forest and Support, not for if, but for when you get stuck. Because the nature of business is that you will get stuck. That is not a failure. It doesn't mean you don't know what you're doing. It doesn't mean you're a bad business owner or practice owner. When you get stuck, it's just business. It's going to happen. Just like you need a GP because you are going to get sick, and you might go through long periods of time where you don't get sick, but the day you get sick, you need to know, who am I going to call? Let's make an appointment. Let's go and see them. They've got my history. Yeah, I'm going to get sick. And in business you are going to get stuck.  So make sure that you've surrounded yourself with your own support people that's going to have your back, that's going to be there for you to help and support you to lead through uncertainty.

Alrighty, we are going to leave it at that. Thank you so very much for tuning in. If this episode was of any help to you, I would really appreciate it if you could share it with another practice owner that needs to hear this. Please share it with them. I really appreciate you helping me help more people in better and more effective ways, and right now I am doing that through the work that I do within Private Practice Success Australia.

Thank you for tuning in, and as always, remember that I am here to help you build a practice you can't stop smiling about.  😊

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Gerda Muller

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