The Private Practice Success Podcast

73. You Don’t Need More Busyness - You Need a Business Break-Through

• Gerda Muller • Episode 73

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In Episode 73, Gerda speaks directly to the practice owner who knows deep down that ‘business as usual’ isn’t working anymore.

Consider this…. Maybe your practice is ticking along, but it’s not really growing. Your revenue, profit, client numbers and even your personal income just feels like it's stuck. Yes, it might look ‘fine’ from the outside, but (again) it’s not growing. 

Or maybe you’re on the other end of the spectrum. Here you are flat out, constantly dropping the ball, feeling like you’re the bottleneck in your business, and wondering how long you can keep operating at this pace.

Either way, Gerda’s message in this episode is very clear: something needs to change,  because this IS NOT sustainable.

In this episode, she unpacks what a real business breakthrough looks like (and why it’s not just ‘doing more’), explores the sneaky ways practice owners stay stuck - including fear of success - and challenges you to get honest about what’s really going on in your practice right now.

In this Episode, you will learn:

  • The difference between true ‘business as usual’ and being stuck masquerading as stable.
  • The warning signs that you’re operating in a way that isn’t sustainable (cue the overwhelm, guilt, constant bottlenecks, and being always behind).
  • Why many practice owners don’t need more strategies, but instead need the space to step off the hamster wheel and think clearly.
  • How fear of success can quietly keep you playing small (especially for female practice owners).
  • How to start creating your next breakthrough by shifting your thinking, your decisions, and the way you lead.

Who This Episode Is For:

  • Practice owners who feel stuck, overwhelmed, or like they’ve outgrown their current way of running the business.
  • Owners who want to grow, but in a way that protects their time, energy, family, and long-term sustainability.

If you’ve been telling yourself that the solution to your current business challenges is to just push harder, then this episode is your reminder that the breakthrough you need might come from doing the opposite: stepping out, zooming out, and leading differently.

Here to help you build a practice you can’t stop smiling about 😍

The 2-Day In-Person 2026 Private Practice Business Intensive

For all the details or to get your ticket CLICK HERE.

Want Gerda's Help with your Business?

Gerda helps allied health group practice owners go from overwhelmed, overworked, and underpaid to fully empowered and financially thriving. If this is you, then make today the day you reach out. Complete this super short Triage Form here bit.ly/triageformpps and Gerda will personally reach out to you. 

Here to help you build a practice you can't stop smiling about :)

Connect with Private Practice Success & Gerda here:

Well hello there, passionate private practice owner. My name is Gerda Muller, and you are listening to the Private Practice Success Podcast, and this is episode number 73. 

Today, I want to be talking to a very specific person. So I'm going to give you a bit of a description, and I'll let you decide whether this is you. The person I'm talking to is that person that requires a business breakthrough. So maybe for you, it has been business as usual at the practice, but somehow business as usual is not doing it for you anymore. Maybe you just know that something needs to change because it's been business as usual, but the business isn’t growing, whether that is revenue, whether that is your personal income, whether that is client numbers, whether that is profit. Things are chucking along, but that's all it is doing. 

Now, if you are happy with that, I don't have a problem with it. That's perfectly fine. But if your current business as usual feels like maybe it is actually stuck masquerading as business as usual. Maybe this is me being stuck in behaviours, mindset, decision-makings, and therefore I'm not growing, and I am painting it with the, "Ah, this is just business as usual," brush, or the, "Ah, we're just in a, you know, consolidation phase of business," brush, because people do this. And my job here is just to make you aware of these things. Maybe you are somebody listening to this and you're going, "Jeez, Louise, I wish I could say things are business as usual, Gerda, because I'm totally running off my feet. Things are just crazy busy. I feel like I'm constantly dropping the ball and everybody wants something from me. I feel like the consistent bottleneck in the business and the pressure, I, I just can't take it anymore. There's too many things all at the same time." If that's you, then I'm thinking what you might need is a business breakthrough.

What I do know you need, is something needs to change, because that is not a sustainable business. You can't operate like that over the long term. And if you're feeling like this, really reflect and get honest with yourself in terms of how long have you been feeling like this? Is it just the last month? Is it this year? Is it the last 12 months, last 24 months? Or does it just feel like this has become your business as usual - feeling overwhelmed, dropping the ball, having to be okay with that, consistently apologising for being late or consistently feeling guilty because you're not getting stuff done that you promised to get done or deliver on? I've been there, so I know how that feels. Or maybe you're listening to this and you're going, "You know what? My business has been growing. Things are on the up and up, but I'm always ready for a new challenge. I like to always be climbing the mountain. I like a new challenge to overcome. I like actually setting new goalposts for my business." And maybe you have found yourself thinking too small for whatever reason. Because interesting fact, I think we all know that there's this fear of failure, but did you know that there's this other sneaky little bugger called fear of success? And fear of success is actually very, very prevalent amongst female business owners, especially female business owners who are also parents - because if I think too big, if I grow too big, what impact is that going to have on my family? And therefore, there's a lot of fear of success, which sometimes doesn't show up consciously. And maybe you're none of that and you want to continue listening, please do so. 

So I want to talk about your next business breakthrough. If you don't know by now, I might be a clinical psychologist. I'm also a fellow group practice owner. But my day job is to do business consulting, coaching, and mentoring with other allied health practice owners like yourself, so I help practice owners grow, build, and scale their version of a self-running practice. That's what I do. So that you can have more time, more money, and more energy to invest back into your impact work, and to invest back into your family. So that's what I do. So it is my job to help facilitate a business breakthrough for all the paying clients that I work with. I'm hopeful that if you are a consistent listener to the podcast, that you've had some mini breakthroughs over however long you've been listening, and that through my free content, like this podcast, I can help you to have mini breakthroughs. But I also challenge myself in terms of going, "How can I up-level and uplift the work that I do?" 

I'm not sure if you've heard, you might have, but last year and the year before - so for the last previous two years, I have run a two-day in-person business intensive, and I am running a third one in twenty twenty-six - and it's called the Private Practice Business Intensive for Impact-Driven Practice Owners. And my goal through this event is to spend two days with you to create the business breakthrough that you need in your business, and in your life. Now, when I say that this is for impact-driven practice owners, I know people's first thought is, "Is that for solo or group practice owners, Gerda?" Now in 2025 and 2024, across both years, we welcomed both solo and group practice owners to the Business Intensive. But in full transparency, the majority of the work that I do as a business consultant is with group practice owners. I also do work with a lot of solo practice owners that want to expand into a group practice, and they want to do things right - right from the start.  They want to avoid the headaches, okay? 

I don't do ongoing business consulting, for example, with somebody that has decided, "You know what? I want to be a solo practice owner, and that is what I want to do, that is my thing." But I can tell you for a fact that we have had solo practitioners attend the Business Intensive, and they found it of value. Now, there will most certainly be aspects of the Business Intensive that are not applicable to you, because the majority of the people there are going to be group practice owners, and therefore we're going to talk about topics and subject areas relevant to group practice owners. For example, managing your clinical team, building culture within your business. So there's topics like that, and I never want you to come and go, "Oh, I just sat through a presentation. It wasn't helpful." I always feel like it doesn't matter where you go to attend any type of conference, there might be five minutes where you go, "That's not directly relevant." But if you challenge yourself, you will probably find some transferable skills. So I just wanted to clarify that.  So big picture, this is for group private practice owners, but solo practitioners are incredibly welcome to attend, especially if expanding into group practice ownership is on the cards for you and your practice over the next six months. 

Now, the goal of the Business Intensive is to help you have that business breakthrough so that you can fast-track your business growth, your knowledge around building a business, and therefore also the joy that you get from it - the warm and fuzzy feeling that you get from having your business. If your business, your practice only gives you frustration, annoyance, anxiety, and stress, then you need a business breakthrough, because there needs to be joy. There needs to be that inspiration of getting up and going, "Yes, what are we doing today?" If that is missing, that's a red flag that something is amiss in your business, and you need to address that. So I wanted to give you some insight into the Business Intensive because you might have seen it out there on social media. Maybe you've got an email from me in your inbox, and you've been to-ing and fro-ing about coming. So I thought, let's just use this opportunity to chat with you through the Business Intensive from somebody that's now attended and from the person that hosts and facilitates the Business Intensive. 

The Venue: Crystal Brooke Byron Bay 

So the 2026 Private Practice Business Intensive is happening at a beautiful resort called Crystalbrook Byron Bay. And now you also know the location. It is in Byron Bay in northern New South Wales. And this is an absolutely amazing venue. It is a subtropical rainforest and it is within walking distance to the beach for you to see the ocean. So in my books, it is the best of both worlds. You get the forest and you get the ocean. So, this is a two-day live in-person event and it's happening on the 19th and 20th of August 2026. 

Who It's For 

This is really for practice owners who have that desire to connect with other practice owners. To step out of Zoom rooms and into an in-person setting to connect, to learn and to grow. To grow over the course of those two days, but also to walk away and continue growing for the next 12 months. So if you're a practice owner who does in actual fact desire to have a practice that will give you that personal and that business time, money and freedom - whilst having a continued impact, a life-changing impact on the clients that your business serves. Then keep listening because this is the event for you. 

This is not a traditional conference. I'm a psychologist. I have to do a lot of continuing professional development. I go to a lot of conferences and honestly, they are extremely tiring. They're fun. But at the end of each day, and at the end of two or even three days, you are freaking exhausted. And because there's so many people, there's so much stimulation and there's so much overwhelm, and maybe it's just me because I'm an introvert, right? But I'm very mindful of wanting to create a business intensive where people aren't overstimulated. Where it's the right level of stimulation. Which is why the business intensive is never, ever - well, maybe I shouldn't say never, ever - but currently, I can't imagine ever this becoming a 200, 300, 400 person event. It's just not what it is. And it's the same thing with my Private Practice Success Academy Mastermind. That is never going to be a program with 200, 300, 400 people in it, because I want to know each and every practice owner in my Academy personally. I want to know who they are, where their practice is located, who the clients are that they serve, what their current 12-month goals are, what are the challenges they're working on… me, Gerda Muller, wants to know that. I don't delegate it out . I'm across all our members. And that's a really big part of what differentiates the Private Practice Success Academy with other similar programs and masterminds within the allied health industry. 

And I think that's good to be different, because each of us requires something different in terms of a level of support. So it's my job to tell you what it is that I can offer, right? And because my membership will never be those huge numbers, I can't see that the Business Intensive is ever going to do that. Because I always want to balance the business intensive with my paying clients that's in The Academy and they get tickets to the event versus also bringing people into the event that's also there as public community members. Because I know not everybody might want to join a mastermind, but they would be really excited to come and spend two days in a room with other like-minded group practice owners to learn, to connect, and to grow. So I also want to provide that opportunity by inviting somebody like yourself that's maybe not a paying client of mine, but to come and join us across those two days.

Why This Matters 

So what can you expect over the two days? First, and very importantly, dedicated time for working on your business. It has never been as important as it is right now for us, me, you, all of us to get off the hamster wheel, because the hamster wheel is the thing keeping you stuck. It's keeping you in exactly the same place. Probably for the last 12 months, even 24 months, because you can't move forward unless you've stopped, and you've taken stock of what's happening and you plan a plan forward, and you devise and you create a plan forward. And if you're sitting there and thinking, “I cannot take two days out of my schedule, probably three, four days, Gerda, because I have to travel there and I need to travel back.” That's a freaking red flag. If you can't take two freaking days out of your schedule, if you cannot take a week, I'm going to, I'm going to be like catastrophize here. Let's say you take the whole freaking week.  

You come a day early to actually de-stress and you stay a day later to actually go and use the very fabulous spa that they have on site. I've already booked myself in for Friday, just so you know. I got in very early. If you can't do that for yourself, somebody that runs a group practice, there's a freaking problem there.  I know I'm coming across very strong and opinionated here, but it is what it is. If you cannot do that, there's an issue. And you can either choose to look at that issue or you can choose to ignore it. It's up to you. I've now done my job and I flagged this with you. So that's the first thing. That's why it's the first thing on my list, dedicated time for working on your business. And don't tell me you're going to do it by yourself. Don't tell me you're going to take two days’ time out. I've tried that myself. It's not the same. You need to get out of the office. You need to get away from home. I say that as somebody with three kids. It's really hard being in the same space. You elevate your thinking when you step out of the space that you are normally in. And if you then surround yourselves with other elevated minds, that's when the magic happens. 

Second thing that you're going to get from our time together is ethical business strategies and tactics. When you work with me, you don't just get these general big picture blue sky suggestions. Anybody that's ever worked with me will tell you that I am very specific. I am very detailed. I am very structured. If you tell me you've got a problem, I can give you very specific suggestions. And whether you take it or leave it, that's up to you. I actually help problem solve. And I do that because I know that running a practice can be easy when you know exactly what works, and what works not only in business, but in the highly regulated allied health field. I'm a business coach that still owns my own practices. I've actually, breaking news here for you, I've actually just bought another practice. So I've added to my practice footprint. It is a four-room practice, on Brisbane's north side. So I own two practices in the south of Brisbane, and this is our first north side location, which means that I need to be constantly across any new happenings and changes within the allied health industry. I still have my ear on the ground. I don't work in the business other than spending one hour on a Monday with the person that runs the business for me. That is what's called having a Self Running Practice. So yes, I still do that hour, and I love doing it because it means that I know everything that is happening. So that's what you'll get, ethical business strategies and tactics that actually work in our industry. 

The third thing you're going to get is elevated leadership. Because like I said earlier, when you step into the space and you step into that confidence required to lead your team and to grow your business, especially during uncertain times, and we are currently in freaking uncertain times. We cannot deny it. It is what it is. So you need to give yourself opportunities to step into a leadership space, and that is what we do there. 

Number four, meaningful connections. Because this is not a two, three, four-hundred-person event, you get to make meaningful connections more than just the speed dating thing of, "Hey, hello. What do you do? Where are you from? Okay, let's, you know, now we need to talk to the next person." You get to deepen relationships. You get to actually exchange ideas with other like-minded practice owners, and I've seen this happen over the last two years that we've done this. You will build partnerships with others in a supportive and inspiring environment, partnerships that are going to last beyond these two days. 

And number five, relaxation and rejuvenation. You will get to take a well-deserved break from the daily grind, from the freaking hamster wheel, so you can move out of burnout, so you can probably prevent further burnout, so you can rediscover the joy of business ownership. And like I said earlier, I encourage you to extend your stay. Do what I'm doing. I'm definitely arriving early, and I'm definitely only leaving on the Saturday. I do that every time. I'm not rushing back home. I give myself that time beforehand and afterwards. And because I know what it takes for you to say yes to taking two, three, four days out of your schedule, the Business Intensive is designed to deliver practical takeaways. Takeaways and strategies that will transform your business, but we are also there to create memories. Yes, we want to create memories with our kids, right? With our family. And I'm hoping that you're doing that already. But who says you can't have great business memories? Memories with other practice owners who get practice ownership within the allied health private practice industry.  Let's create some memories in that part of your world as well. So I really encourage you to seize this opportunity to come and have your next business breakthrough with us in Byron Bay. Now, if you are intrigued, keep listening, because I'm going to go into a bit more depth in terms of what happens during our time together. 

What To Expect 

I thought it might be helpful to take you through how this event normally unfolds for the majority of people that come and attend. So most people, what they would do is they would arrive on the Tuesday. So this year it will be Tuesday the 18th of August, 2026, which will be officially Day One. Now, Crystal Brook Byron Bay allows you to check in from 3:00 PM, so that allows you to arrive, settle in, and, you know, do a bit of exploring of your surroundings, maybe have a great little walk to the beach, maybe even see if there's already other people that you know that you want to catch up with. 

Then at 6:00 PM on the Tuesday night, we have a welcome dinner. So this is for our Gold ticket holders only, and I'll tell you a bit about the difference between the two tickets a bit later on, but I'll also tell you about it as I go. So the Welcome Dinner is for the Gold ticket holders and people that are generally staying on site, they would get the Gold ticket. Then the next day, Day Two, is the first day of the Business Intensive, and this year that happens on a Wednesday, which will be the 19th of August. Now, the first day runs from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Day three is on the Thursday, this year, that is on the 20th of August, and this also runs from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. 

So the format across the two days are similar but different. We always start day one with a welcome address. Both Day One and Day Two, we start off with some grounding and intention setting. Remember I said at the start, I want this event to be different. I want you to learn, but I also want you to recharge. I want to give you the best of both worlds when you come and do this with me. After our grounding and intention setting, we go into the first workshop of the day. Then we break for morning tea. Then we go into our second workshop for the day, and then we have lunch. So what I've done is really scheduled all the workshops during the morning, when most of us are nice and fresh and we're taking everything in. Because we all know what happens during lunch, or let's say after lunch. It's that after lunch slump, right? Now the afternoon looks a bit different across day one and day two. 

On Day One, after lunch, we kick off and we do our mastermind tables, which is small group masterminding. Then we go into a session where people can actually choose one of three things to do. They can either have an implementation session, where they go and sit either with another group of people or maybe one or two other people or maybe even by themselves, whatever floats their boat, and start implementing based on what they've now learned earlier on this day. And there will be myself and other people that I assign to go around and make sure that nobody gets stuck at any point in time. Then we also have an admin breakout. So any person that wants to learn and talk and ask questions around admin, goes to that breakout room that is run by the fabulous Ashley Davison, who is my Director of Strategy and Operations. Ash worked her way through the admin team all the way to the freaking top of my practice. So if there are practice owners that have brought their admin team, they will spend their time with Ashley. We often have practice owners that haven't brought their admin team and also spend their time with her. So that's where you get to bring any admin and practice management related questions, and it's a great conversation that people always have. That is a very popular breakout session. And then similarly popular, the other choice is the rest and restore session. That one is run by Tahnee Witt. Tahnee is a group practice owner, and she is a long-term member of the PPS Academy. She is incredibly passionate about burnout prevention and just supporting allied health professionals and practice owners, particularly by enhancing their longevity in the industry. So she runs our Rest and Restore session. And then we've got afternoon tea, and then we finish the day, as we always do, with our Expert Panel Session, and then we go into the daily debrief, and that gets us to the end of the first day of Actual Business Intensive. 

Then the next day, which is Day Three of the whole week, but Day Two of the Business Intensive, the Thursday, as I said, the morning's the same as the Wednesday, but in the afternoon after lunch, we again go into implementation, Admin, or Rest and Restore session. So if somebody maybe decided on Wednesday, Oh, I want to do rest and restore, they can go and do admin the next day, or they can do the same, or they can jump from one to the other. Whatever you choose, you get to decide on the day. Then later that day we've got a co-working session. So that is, again, an implementation session where you get to implement and work with everybody else that is in the area, and there's people assigned to go to every table, and make sure that each and every question that you might have, has been answered. Then we've got afternoon tea, and then we go into an Expert Panel sSssion, the daily debrief, and then it's the end of the day. 

Now, on the Thursday we have a very special event, and that is our Celebration Dinner, and that starts at 6:00 PM. Not only do we have a celebration dinner, we also do what we refer to as the Private Practice Success Awards. So, these awards are given out to members within the Private Practice Success Academy. Now, the celebration dinner is open to anybody that has purchased a Gold Ticket. So you don't need to be an Academy member to take part in it, but you do get to come and join us in sticky beak and hear about all the amazing things that people are doing and as we celebrate them and their achievements. But we are also celebrating you. Even though you're may not be in the Academy, we're celebrating you, that you've taken two days out of your work schedule and you came and sat with us at the top of the mountain, as we like to refer to it in The Academy, where you sat in that strategic space. Where you got your head out of the sand and you went, "Let's have a look around. What's happening in the industry?" What's coming our way? What do we need to look out for? And there's going to be a ...  and I don't want to give too much away right now because I've actually not shared with you any subjects or topic titles that we're going to be talking on. I've just given you like a broad outline of it. As that gets locked in, I will share that with you. 

But I am 99% sure that I personally will be running a session on Future Proofing Your Allied Health Business because it's incredibly important for us as allied health professionals to know what's coming and to not just react, but strategically lead during these times. And you can only do that when you're in a space where you're sitting at the top of the mountain and you can see what's happening on the horizon. What is that storm that's coming? Or maybe it's not a storm, maybe it's sunshine. What does it look like? How dark are those clouds? So that you can make informed, proactive decisions that you can take back with you to the practice. And we celebrate the fact that you've gone, "You know what? I need to do this, and I want to be a practice owner that leads." So in essence, the Business Intensive, it's called Business Intensive rather than conference or any, any other word for that matter because there's no fluff, there's no wasted time. Everything is carefully designed to give you exactly what you need, and to help you extract exactly what you need from our time together. So that's the Thursday. 

And then the final day, Day Four, is the Friday, which is the 21st of August in 2026. And, normally what happens on that day, people start departing from early morning until 11:00 when the official checkout is. I always stay until the Saturday, which means I go to breakfast, I get to say goodbye to a lot of people that's still there also having brekkie, so it's a really beautiful Friday morning always, just nice and relaxed, and, by then everybody's really so connected with one another and a majority of people will generally leave on the Friday. Like I said, if I were you, I would also do what I do, stay, go to the spa, and I drive back home on the Saturday. So I hope that gives you a bit of an idea of what we are doing. Needless to say, it's so different. I love Zoom. I love telehealth. I love the accessibility that it gives to all of us, including our clients, but certain breakthroughs, let's be honest, only happen when you are face-to-face. No screens. No Zoom fatigue. Just real conversations sparking game-changing ideas. And there's no better place to do that than Byron Bay, I'm going to say. 

So if you say yes to being in that room, I know that there's no guarantees, but you know what? I'm pretty confident that magic will happen, because there's going to be brilliant ideas on tap. You are going to get to chat with passionate practice owners who actually get it. You're going to unlock the momentum you need right now because you're going to be able to walk away with clarity, confidence, and a plan for what you need to do next. And I honestly hope and, and I do know that you're going to be making connections that stick - not just networking for the sake of networking - real lasting relationships, relationships forged over cozy conversations and cocktails. I love a good cocktail. I do limit myself when it comes to cocktails during Business Intensive because I need to facilitate and host the event, so I can only have one per night, but I love a good cocktail. 

So yeah, I will encourage you to go to the show notes and check out the website to see even more details. As I mentioned earlier, there's two tickets. You get your Gold Ticket, which is your VIP admission, which means you get access from the first night Welcome Dinner all the way to the Celebration Dinner. A Silver Ticket is basically like for day admission, where you just come for the nine-to-five, and I often find that people in the local area sometimes might get a Silver Ticket, but the majority of people do get the Gold Ticket, which of course is the one that I also recommend. If you do get your ticket before, I think, what's the date? The 15th of June, you will be able to claim the early bird rate, which is always a great deal. We also have an early bird bonus, which is all about Service Offer Mastery, which is one of the workshops that I actually ran at last year's event, which means that you will get a bit of a snapshot of the type of content that you can expect, and you will already get amazing value just from listening to that recording and starting to implement that in your business right now. 

So the tickets are available on the website. It will take you through what's included, what's not. It gives you extra information on the venue. And we've got a whole list of FAQs that I've compiled. So now having done these two years, things like how to get there, how do I get great coffee? Just as important, what's the dress code? What's the weather like? Who can attend? Can I bring my family? Can I join via Zoom? It's a no to that one. Can I claim CPD for the event?  If you've got any other questions, there's an email that you can send those through to us. I know that for a business owner, buying a ticket is an investment, but even more so, taking the time and the energy to get there is a larger investment. So if there's anything that's unclear, please reach out, I'm happy to answer any and everything that you need to know.  

Alright, so if you have been seeing my emails and social media posts and you've been on the fence, I'm hoping that this has given you a tad bit more insight into what's involved at the Private Practice Business Intensive. Go to the show notes, i've got the link to the website in there and just get your ticket and come and join me. It is going to be amazing.  Thank you so very much for listening. 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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