Welcome to Thriving Practice, the show where we discuss all things business for practice owners, and we show you how to grow your practice without burning out or working more. I'm your host, Tracy Trepesky. I'm a business owner, consultant, executive coach, mom and bonus mom, and an avid trial-by-error gardener. I am on a mission to transform the way medical professionals excel in their fields while becoming decisive, profitable business
owners. I very much dislike that your training has set you up to expect grueling, soul-depleting hours, minimal satisfaction outside of work, and limited earning potential in private practice. My team and I are here to change that by showing you how you can slow down to speed up, grow your practice while taking back your time, and achieve an increased sense of satisfaction both at work and outside of work. Because what is the point of any of this if you're not enjoying it?
So happy new year. Today's episode is the first episode of 2024 and the first episode of Season 7. Before we preview what's in store for the season and year ahead, I want to take a moment to review 2023. Ah, 2023. It was a transitional year, both business-wise and in my personal life. Behind the scenes at Tracy Trepesky International, we spent a good portion of last year upgrading our back-end systems, implementing new project management software, conducting research, and
fine-tuning our strategic vision. We do this to support our current and future clients while achieving our business goals. I just want to share a little gratitude here. I am forever grateful to our team. They make it easy for us to serve, surprise, and delight our clients at the elevated level that we had always envisioned. Our team is so tuned in to the vision and mission that even during parts of Q4 when I felt like I was traveling more than I was working, they kept
the company humming along. They have also moved several projects forward with incredible follow- through and attention to detail. I feel fortunate to work with a remarkable team that not only has my back but also has our clients' backs. They're tech-savvy, creative, organized, and very motivated. They inspire me every day. On a personal note, 2023 was a bit of a roller coaster year for my family. We moved two of our college kiddos into their first apartments within two weeks of one
another, one in Pennsylvania, one in Massachusetts. We traveled up and down the East Coast by car eight times, crossing 10 to 12 states each time depending on our course and side trips, and we racked up about 7,500 miles on land traveling between North Carolina and the various cities in the Northeast of the U.S. where our kiddos are. We also managed to squeeze in a few trips by air for a celebration of life gathering, family visits, and a vacation to Aruba that just
my husband and I took together. By the way, Aruba most definitely, certainly is one happy island. I highly, highly recommend visiting if you love tropical places with virtually no hurricane season. If you're in the Americas, it's pretty easy to get there, so now you have no excuse. You're welcome. We are definitely going to go back. Let's step in to 2024, shall we?
I am thrilled to share with you that in addition to having stellar back-end systems and an amazing team, we are bringing some new energy to our services and to the podcast this year. On the podcast, you'll notice some changes like new music and a few slight format changes. We're also going to be shaking up the format with some special features, guests, and surprises for you. So if you've not subscribed yet, this is your chance to take care of that so you don't miss out.
Now for the juicy bit. In a few weeks, we will open the virtual doors to the thriving practice community, a modern community of practice for ambitious practice leaders who want to do things differently. If you don't know what a community of practice is, it is a dynamic ecosystem where practice owners will come together to learn, collaborate, and grow. Think of it as the best of all worlds combining mastermind, consultancy and advisory, executive coaching, roundtable
gatherings, masterclasses with guest experts, retreats, and much more. We are bringing together provider owners from around the world in various specialties. Now, our company and services focus on the business of leading a healthcare practice and the community provides opportunities to connect and collaborate with provider owners who are at the top of their game just like you, which potentially opens the doors for clinical and research collaboration with an international
community of peers. How can it get any better? So we have a waiting list that is filling up and we're beginning to review applications for founding members. If you want to request information, go to thrivingpracticecommunity.com and get yourself on the waiting list. Now you may recall if you've been listening for a while that we have been conducting surveys for the white paper that we're writing. We're nearly at the end. We're in the completion stages of our research and the
responses to our survey questions have been very enlightening thus far. I want to share some highlights with you. So here we go. Provider owners feel pretty isolated and under supported as business owners and healthcare practitioners. A huge challenge that many of our respondents have shared is feeling underprepared for business ownership and wearing so many different hats.
Another significant pattern we saw was that even though most of our respondents thought or expected that having their own practice would free up their time and make their lives at least a little easier, the reality is that they're experiencing a lot of overwhelm and burnout. And some of the respondents shared that hiring highly qualified and reliable staff has been a challenge. They feel under-resourced in terms of time, energy, and skill to lead their teams
toward their vision and mission without significant personal sacrifice. Again, this theme of sacrifice keeps coming up. And then something that I've noticed, which is aside from the white paper, but it's part of what prompted us to do the research and to conduct these surveys is when I tried to find data about small privately owned practices and the practice leaders,
the data does not represent you. It's almost like the system is designed to steer individuals toward larger hospital, research institution, or corporate owned practices, and to make it increasingly difficult and complicated to lead an independent, successful, growing practice.
It's just a head scratcher, that one. But the isolation and overwhelm, the impression that there's no success without great personal cost, and just the simple fact that there's so little support for practice owners, this is what drove us to create the thriving practice community. Our clients and the survey respondents have shared that they would love to be part of a community of peers that understands the challenges of being at the top of your professional game,
while also learning and mastering the ropes of business ownership. Now, even if you have a degree in business, being a full-time provider and CEO is a lot, a lot, a lot. And we wanted to create an environment where you all can come together to learn how to grow your practice
without sacrificing your wellbeing and your life outside of work. We are business operation folks, so we bring a great wealth of business savvy to you, as well as opportunities to learn from the best of the best in marketing, finance, outsourcing, hiring, training, revenue cycles, and all things business, so you don't have to go it alone. To say we're excited is an understatement. Thriving practice community helps us fulfill our mission to support more practice owners in taking back
their time and energy, while leading a successful, growing, profitable practice. As I said, we'll be opening the doors in a few weeks, so get on that list so you can apply to be a founding member. You can go to thrivingpracticecommunity.com and get all the information you need. We will be hosting a few meet and greet sessions, so getting on that email list is where you'll get all the
details. If you have been craving a community and you would love to connect with other practice owners to learn together and from a wide variety of healthcare business experts, this could very well be what you've been looking for. So again, happy new year, welcome to season seven, and thank you for being here with us. If you're new to the podcast, welcome. Make sure you hit subscribe so you know when our latest episodes air. I hope you're as excited about the new season as we are.
If you want to take back your time and energy while leading a growing, profitable business, schedule a strategy session with me. It is possible, and I'd be honored to help you get to the place you want to be business-wise. See you at the next episode.