The Private Practice Success Podcast

69. The Q1 Reality Check: Are you where you said you'd be?

• Gerda Muller • Episode 69

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In Episode 69, Gerda invites you to pause, reflect, and take a hard but necessary look at the first quarter of this calendar year. If January started with big intentions but you have since found yourself pulled back into the day-to-day of clients, team challenges, and everything else going on, this episode is for you. 

Gerda holds up the mirror and walks you through a powerful Quarter 1 audit to help you get honest about what’s working, what’s not, and what needs to change before another quarter slips by. This isn’t a spreadsheet-heavy episode, it’s a practical reset to reconnect you with your goals and step into Quarter 2 with clarity and intention.

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

  • Why getting off track isn’t a failure and what’s really behind it.
  • The key areas to reflect on from Q1 and what might be holding you back without you even noticing.
  • A simple framework to help you reset and move forward.
  • Why the next quarter matters more than you think and how to get clear on what to change.

Special Bonus:

Join me for the FREE Private Practice Business Assessment. This is a Diagnostic Assessment of how your business is tracking, as reflected across the 10 Growth Accelerators found within Allied Health Group Private Practice. Join me on Thursday, 30 April 2026 at 11am AEST. Register HERE.

Who This Episode Is For:

  • Practice owners who started the year with strong intentions but feel like they’ve drifted off course.
  • Allied health business owners ready to break old patterns and make the next 90 days count.

If you’re ready to stop second-guessing yourself, gain clarity, and take control of your next 90 days, then this episode is a must-listen, because the strategies you’ll hear aren’t just about reflection, they’re your roadmap to building a practice you can’t stop smiling about 😍

FREE LIVE Webinar: The Private Practice Business Assessment

For more details or to register CLICK HERE. 

Connect with Private Practice Success & Gerda here:

 Well, hello there spectacular private practice owner. My name is Gerda Muller, and you are listening to the Private Practice Success Podcast and this is episode number 69.

The title of today's episode is The Quarter 1 Reality Check: Are you where you said you'd be? Now normally our podcast episodes are very, very practical, because it's always my goal for you to know that if you press play on a Private Practice Success Podcast episode, that you're going to walk away with something really tangible to use in your business. But that is not what business is all about. You can have all the tangible things, but if you do not spend the time reflecting on whether what you are implementing is working or not, you are just going to be wasting your time, so we are not going to do that. Which means that today we're going to take a bit of a pause and I'm going to say thank you for allowing me today to hold up a bit of a mirror for you.

Normally when we look in the mirror, it can be a bit uncomfortable, especially if we are seeing stuff that we don't really like. Within our business right now, we have reached the end of March, which means that we are now officially three freaking months into this calendar here. And I want to ask you today one very simple question: Are you where you said you'd be right now? Because when you started 2026 - we all know that January energy is very real, and it's exciting - you've had a break, and had some time away from your business. Maybe you went on a bit of a holiday with your family, maybe you went camping, maybe you went traveling. But you really got time to just switch off, and had some time to think. And maybe you told yourself when you got back into the swing of things in January, back into business, that this here is the year I'm going to get on top of things. This year is the year that I am not going to be overwhelmed. This is the year that I'm not going to get to the end of the year feeling totally burnt out. Or this is the year that I'm finally going to build a freaking business that doesn't rely on me for absolutely everything. Things are going to be different this year. I know I've thought that a lot starting the year. I think it's very normal to have those thoughts when you come back from holidays feeling reinspired.

And then what happens? Life happens. Clients happen. Team issues happen. NDIS changes happen. Other funding changes happen. The cost of living and political things happen. And before you know it, you're back on that hamster wheel and it's like deja-freaking-vu. If I've just described what's happening for you right now, please this is not about judgment. I'm not judging you and like I said, been there, done that, got the t-shirt, okay? The purpose of me talking to you about this today is to help you step into that awareness of what's happening for you. Because only once you have that, and you take ownership of you being the one that's in the cycle, only then can we reset what is happening for you. And I want you to reset it because we are now entering another quarter, so now is the time to change things. 

Alright, but let's rewind, let's go back to January, 2026. I really want you to mentally take yourself back there in order for this to work. Now, some of you might have joined me at my Blueprint Planning Session that I ran. I normally run that on the second Friday of January. Maybe you were there, maybe you weren't. Maybe you had your own version of planning for the year ahead. What I do know is that if you are a business owner, you would've done some planning. You would have at the very least, set some intentions for yourself for the year. So I want you to ask yourself: What did I say I wanted this year to look like? What did I say I was going to change in this year, after I had that time away where I could actually come back and think more clearly? What did I say I was going to be no longer available for? What was that stuff? I'm a private practice owner myself, and I've been working with practice owners for the last 10 years, and I know that when you don't achieve your goals, it is not because you don't know what to do. It is just because you have drifted off track. You have not stayed connected with what it is that you decided you were going to do, because of all of those things that I've mentioned earlier, stuff that happens. But that is also why this is so important for you to do this check-in. To do a bit of a quarter one audit. To step into a quarter one reality check with me today.

If you're listening to this and you're driving, I would actually recommend that you come and listen to it again when you may be sitting at your desk, sitting next to the pool, or sitting on your balcony - get out a bit of a journal and really reflect on these things, because this is a business audit that's not going to require a spreadsheet or a fancy sheet dashboard or anything like that, all it requires is you to be honest with yourself. So I'm going to ask you a couple of questions here, and these are the things I need you to reflect on.

The Quarter 1 Audit

First question: How am I actually spending my time right now? Your time as the business owner. Am I still stuck in the clinical chair more than I said I would be? Am I still stuck doing tasks that I know I should be delegating.

The next question that I want you to ask yourself: What progress have I made towards my business goals? Those 12-month goals you set for yourself in January, 2026. And I'm talking about actual progress. What progress have I made? Can I quantify that progress?  

Next question: What have I been avoiding? If you can answer this one, you're going to get a lot of insight as to what's happening for you, because when you become mindful of what you are avoiding, or why it is that you are procrastinating on something, that is where a lot of the gold lies. Because when we avoid making a decision or to take an action, there's stuff that lies beneath. And until you address that stuff, you can't do what you need to do and you will stay stuck, and I don't want that for you. So again, you need to bring this out to the fore. What have you been avoiding?  

Next question to ask yourself: Where have I slipped back into old patterns? Old patterns such as overworking. Old patterns, such as undercharging, over giving, under leading, just doing everything myself because I think it is faster and more efficient instead of delegating. Because those bloody neural pathways, that's the easy way to go. It's much harder laying down new neural pathways. Both in terms of how you think, and in terms of your actions and behaviours. It's very hard. It's actually, let's be honest, it's exhausting laying down new neural pathways, so it is extremely easy to slip back into old patterns. Hence me doing this Q1 reality check with you. Really trying to pull you out of the doing, and off the hamster wheel. It's like I'm taking the stick, you know, like if a stick goes into your bicycle wheel, it just immediately stops it and you're going to just go tumbling forward, I'm putting a stick into your freaking hamster wheel today. Your hamster wheel of business ownership, and you might be falling down not very eloquently, but this is what needs to happen in order for you to see what's going on.

I also want to say if you are answering these questions, and you're going, ‘You know what, I'm actually doing really well. It's surprising, but you know, my answers to these questions, Gerda, is actually not what I've. Thought it would be. It is so much better because I am actually spending less time in the clinical chair and more time working on my business. I have actually made progress towards my goal. I have actually avoided way less than I would normally do. And I have actually been really disciplined with not going back into all patterns.’ If that is you, let's celebrate it. And ask yourself: How have I managed this? Especially if this is new. What are you doing differently right now, in order for you to be able to say this, that is what you need to unpack, because you want to freaking keep doing that gold, because it is obviously working. 

But I'm guessing that for a lot of you listening, that might not be the case. Maybe you have slipped back, or drifted off the tracks that you have laid out for yourself for this year. And I want you to know that this doesn't happen, because you are lazy, or because you don't care, or you are not disciplined enough or whatever judgment or critical thought your brain is giving you as the reason for it not happening. And a lot of the time that is a very critical voice that is talking to you when you are judging your own performance as a business owner. I want you to be clear that you are a normal human. You probably have a family as well that you need to look after. And a lot of the time we drift off track because we don't have structure. We don't have accountability, and we don't have the right type of support around us to help us stay on track. It just is what it is. It's why our clients come to us. Our clients come to us for help and support, for structure and getting a clear plan for accountability. Have we done what we said we were going to do for the right level of support? But for some reason we forget that we need that as well, because we do, and that's okay.

That is actually a really good segue into the next point I want to make. And that is that a lot of practice owners, because I speak to a lot of you, often sit in that space of shame. 

The Shame Trap

You often judge yourself with words such as the following - I should be further along. I should have figured this out by now. Look at all these other amazing practice owners around me. I see them talk in Facebook groups. I see them show up at trainings and events and CPDs. Or I'm looking at other people who have started practices in my local area and look at their amazing websites. These other practice owners are doing so much better than me. You are comparing yourself, you are judging yourself, and then you are shaming yourself as not being as good or good enough. And I'm pretty sure that this is probably not happening consciously. You're probably going, ‘No Gerda, this is not happening.’ I'm sorry. Good. As a psychologist, I want you to look deeper because this could be happening unconsciously or consciously for that matter. 

When we think about ourselves in this way, that is when you stay stuck, that is when you just stay in your little box, it's like just over there in that little box, quiet, and you just keep doing what you're doing. Because you're now doing it and you're stuck, you now have responsibilities and you just need to keep earning money, looking after everybody else, but you don't have the bandwidth to step out of it and be more, because you just don't have the bandwidth for it. That's just what it is. Because somewhere along the way you might have decided, again, whether that is consciously or unconsciously, that maybe I don't deserve more. Maybe I'm actually not really cut out to do this, and if I can't do this, that probably means that I'm not a good business owner or that I'm failing at doing this. If I need help to do this, this thing that everybody else is doing so successfully, there must be something wrong with me. And I want to challenge that today, because the most successful private practice owners that I work with within Private Practice Success Australia, and my Private Practice Success Academy, they are the ones who are saying, ‘I am not doing another here like this. I'm getting the support I need. I'm putting up my hand and saying, I cannot do this alone. I need somebody to help me close the gap on the things that I can't see and that I don't know.’

Why This Quarter Matters

 So, this moment right now for you as you are auditing your quarter one, this moment is very important for you - because right now, all of us as business owners, that includes me - we are now heading into quarter two of this calendar year and, this quarter, two of the calendar here is also quarter four of the financial year in Australia. This is not the time to just cruise or get off track. This is the time for you to decide, okay, what needs to change? What do I need to stop doing? What do I need to change, what do I need to implement. Because what you're going to be doing in the next 90 days, in this next quarter, is going to impact how you end this financial year - which is really, really important, okay.

It's also going to impact your stress levels going into the new financial year, and a lot of things normally change within our industry come the 1st of July. If there's legislation changes, funding changes, all of that stuff. So this quarter and the next one actually are really anchor quarters within your business.

The Quarter 1 Reset

So let's do a proper reset. Yes, I said today is about reflection, and I've given you some prompts, but when we reflect, we can actually also step into practicalities. So this is a really great reset framework that I'm going to encourage you to use, and you've probably seen this before or heard this before, but my question is, have you actually done this before? And if you've not done it, this is your prompt to do it. So it's three questions that you want to ask yourself. Now that you've done this reflection, and this is where you really need to get out pen and paper, we are going to look at three areas, and that is keep, stop, start.

So 1 is Keep. What do you want to keep?  Reflecting on quarter one for this calendar year, what has been working for you in quarter one that you need to keep doing? Maybe it's been working so well that you might even want to double down on it, and do more of it. What is that? Remember I said earlier, if things are going really well for you, we want to celebrate it, but we want to become conscious of what that is. Yeah - so we can keep doing it. Okay. If something's working, don't stop. Don't try and change it. Don't try and do more other stuff. If something's working, keep doing it, or even better double down on it.

Second question is all about Stop. This is where you ask yourself what is no longer serving you that you need to stop doing? What if you've been tolerating also, that you need to stop tolerating? What are those things? Make a list, so we can stop doing that. Because it's not serving you, it's not serving your team, not serving your clients, your family or your business. 

Then the third one is, what do you need to Start doing? What do you know you need to implement but you haven't? What do you know you've been avoiding and procrastinating that you need to get started with? Put that on your to start list. 

So those are the three areas that are a really great way to reset what you are doing. But I'm going to add in a fourth one. So we've looked at what do I need to keep, what do I need to stop, and what do I need to start? And I want to add number four, which is all about support. 

Where do you need help? Ask yourself that. Where do I need help? And I know this is a hard question for you, and you might not believe it, but I know it's true because you are a helping professional. You are used to being the helper. You are used to being the support person - that is your identity, it's who you are. Now, one might think that that should mean that you get the importance of seeking help, that you get the importance of seeking support, but when your identity is linked to being the helper, it's really freaking hard to step into being the helpie…. I don't even know if that's a real word. I'm just making it up here as I go, but being the helpie, the person that needs to accept help. 

I can tell you if you can do the support, if you can put up your hand and say, I would like some support, even if it's just like an entry level of getting support as the business owner - oh my goodness, that is when your practice, your business is going to start growing with leaps and bounds. That is when you're going to start getting joy from being a business owner. I know it's true because I've seen it happen. So what support do you need? Journal on that, reflect on that one as well. 

And then the thing that's more important than everything else that I've just said, is what is the decision you're going to be making right now? Because you can do all the reflection, all the journaling, but unless you actually decide which of these things you're going to do, nothing's going to change. You need to consciously choose to implement. You need to consciously choose to decide. Because not deciding is making a choice as well. So I need you to make a decision, and write that freaking decision down somewhere. Somewhere that you're going to see it everyday.

But let's be honest, the facts are that you can continue as is, and you can just continue being satisfied with what your business looks like right now, and you can just keep going, and life will keep going. But what I have seen as a business coach, having worked with allied health practice owners now for 10 years, is that it is so easy to get another 12 months into your business, and you look back and you go, it was another 12 months of the same old, same old challenges. And it was another 12 months of just second guessing myself, of just working harder and harder without getting to where it is that I want to get to. And I can tell you nothing is more demotivating than that.

So if you are listening to this and you go, ‘Okay, Gerda, I get all of this, but I actually don't know the answers. I've been doing this for so many years, and it's like, I think I'm doing everything that I should, and maybe that means that I don't know what I don't know.’ So I'm going to make an invitation to you.

The Private Practice Business Assessment

I am going to invite you to a free Private Practice Business Assessment. I have looked at my diary, and I'm going to run this on the 23rd of April, so it gives you a couple of weeks. That would mean that you have totally concluded quarter one of 2026. I'm going to invite you to come and spend, it'll probably be 60 minutes, maximum 90 minutes with me, and I'm going to walk you through an assessment of your business. I'm going to take you through what I consider the 10 Growth Accelerators within an Allied Health Private Practice, and this is for any type of allied health private practice, not only psychology, yes, my businesses are psychology, but it's any type of allied health business. You're going to come in, and we can assess it together. It's going to be very practical. It's going to be very clear. It's going to be very structured, and it's going to be free. Because I do not want you to have any excuse whatsoever not to do this. 

The outcome that you're going to get at the end of that 60 to 90 minutes, and I say 60 to 90 because I like to answer as many questions as I can. The actual assessment is not going to take more than 60 minutes, but I want to always leave time for me to make sure that you don't leave with any unanswered questions. But the purpose of this is going to be for you to really know what area of my business, maybe I thought I was doing the right thing, but I've been missing certain areas, missing certain steps, certain strategies, certain tactics. I'm going to help you with that. So I'm going to do it on the 23rd of April. Where's my diary? Let me open up my diary. What day of the week is that, that is a Thursday, the 23rd of April. Then I thought to myself, okay, what is the best time of day to run this for my group practice owners? Because this is for group practice owners. You most certainly can attend if you are a solo practice owner, but everything isn’t going to be applicable to you. And I don't want you to come and go, ‘I've wasted my time, Gerda.’ It will never be a waste of time, even if you're a solo practice owner, but there's going to be certain sections that's not going to be relevant to you because, for example, you don't have a team of clinicians, and I'm going to have to talk about that, because your team is an integral part of being a group practice owner. So you're welcome to come, like I said, it's free, okay. 

So I thought to myself, what is the best time of day to run this? because I want as many of you as possible to have the opportunity to come and attend. So I went, okay, do I run it during the daytime? Then I went, so a lot of practice owners are probably still doing clinical work. So you've got clients booked in, maybe you're doing all the supervision of your team, you've got supervision booked in. Maybe you've got meetings that's pre-booked, all of that's booked in. So, okay, do I do it after hours? But then I'm thinking, oh, most group practice owners are females, because we are a female dominated industry. A lot of you probably have got kids, not all of you, a lot of you have got kids. And after hours means it's dinner time, it's bedtime. It's family time. And let's be honest, sometimes you are probably chomping at the bit to have an excuse to go, ‘Oh hubby, I can't do bedtime or dinner time tonight because I've got this training so you can step up and do it.’  But, I always loved doing dinner and particularly bedtime. I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed that cuddle time, story time. Those are those special moments. I can't tell you how many photos I have on my iPhone of bedtime selfies that I've taken with my kids. You know, the phone gives you all these memories, and I see them so often. My youngest is now 15 and he'll be very embarrassed if I were to make him do bedtime stories with me now, but it's just, it's that warming of the hard photos that you get as memories in terms of spending that time with your kids.  So I went, no, okay, there's no right time of the day, there's no right time of the day.

I've made an executive decision, and I'm going to run this on the 23rd of April at 11:00 AM, because family will always trump business in my world, and I'm guessing in your world. And if you're going, ‘Oh, Gerda, 11 o'clock, it's the middle of my day.’ You know what? You are the business owner. You are allowed to cancel a meeting or reschedule a meeting. You are allowed. You are allowed to cancel a client session or reschedule a client session just like your team can have a sick day. You can have a sick day to work on your freaking business. So do not give me that excuse. Alright. You are allowed. If you are telling me that you can't clear out 90 minutes in your schedule to work on your business, then you've got a bigger problem than we both realise. I know that might be a triggering thing for me to say, but it's true. It's true. If you're telling me that you cannot do that, you've got a bigger problem, and it probably tells you that you should be there. So take that as you may. It's the truth. 

So 23rd of April, 11:00 AM to 12:30 PM. This will not be recorded. Yes, I'm doubling down on you showing up. It won't be recorded because it's freaking free. All you need to do is show up. The choice is yours. It's all about choices. Life is all about choices. So I invite you to be there. It's going to be really helpful. It's going to be really insightful. It's going to be really practical. I will leave the link to register in the show notes of this podcast episode. You are always welcome to also email me. My email address is also in the show notes. It is gerda m@private-practice-success.com. I can tell you that that might be the best thing that you can do for your business in 2026 is to show up for that session, and really get clarity as to where the gaps are within your business, so that you can actually make sure that you are focusing on the right things. Those things, it's going to move the needle of progress for your business. 

Alrighty, I think we are going to leave things there for today. Thank you so very much for tuning in.  If you found value in today's episode, I would love for you to share the existence of this podcast with at least one other practice owner. Let's break that industry, isolation, mold. Let's get everybody on the same page that allied health private practice matters. 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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