The Grip Problem: What White-Knuckling Your Practice Is Really Costing You – A Special Snack Episode, EP 258

Learn how the grip of control in healthcare practice ownership quietly drains profit, stunts team growth, and leads to burnout—and how to release it.

Tracy CherpeskiMay 22, 2026Comment

Stop Giving Away Your Energy: Phil Johnson on the Real ROI of Emotional Intelligence, EP 257

What if the biggest gap in your healthcare practice isn't clinical—it's emotional? In this episode, Tracy Cherpeski sits down with returning guest Phil Johnson, founder of the Master Business Leadership program, for a direct and data-driven conversation about emotional intelligence and why most high-achieving healthcare professionals have barely scratched the surface of developing it.

Tracy CherpeskiMay 20, 2026Comment

Keep the Main Thing the Main Thing: Dr. Peter Kevorkian on Purpose-Driven Practice and Burnout Prevention, EP 256

What does it look like when a healthcare practice owner stays connected to their purpose for over four decades — and then pours everything they've learned into shaping the next generation? In this episode of The Thriving Practice Podcast, Tracy Cherpeski sits down with Dr. Peter Kevorkian, President of Life Chiropractic College West and a chiropractor who spent 42 years in private practice, to talk about the one thing that sustainable, burnout-proof practice ownership comes down to: keeping the main thing the main thing.

Tracy CherpeskiMay 13, 2026Comment

What Med School Never Taught You About Running a Practice—And How to Close the Gap – A Special Snack Episode, EP 255

Medical school taught you how to care for patients. It didn't teach you how to run a practice. In this SNACK episode, Miranda Dorta interviews host Tracy Cherpeski about the business knowledge gap that's quietly costing independent practice owners—and what you can do about it whether or not you have a business degree.

Tracy CherpeskiMay 8, 2026Comment

The Diagnostic Eye: Reading Your Practice's Recurring Problems, EP 254

There's something in your practice that keeps coming back. You handle it, move on — and there it is again. In this solo episode of The Thriving Practice Podcast, Tracy Cherpeski reframes every recurring problem in your practice: those problems aren't malfunctions. They're messages.

Miranda DortaMay 6, 2026Comment

You May Be the Bottleneck: What a Telehealth Entrepreneur Wants Every Practice Owner to Know Featuring Paulina Riedler, EP 253

What does it cost when a skilled provider spends their afternoon doing compliance paperwork instead of treating patients? In this episode, Tracy Cherpeski sits down with Paulina Riedler — founder of SpaKinect and a registered nurse turned entrepreneur — to talk about telehealth compliance, practice efficiency, and the real cost of being the bottleneck in your own medical spa or aesthetic practice.

Tracy CherpeskiApril 29, 2026Comment

The Ick Factor: Why Practice Owners Avoid Fee Conversations — And What It's Costing Them – A Special Snack Episode, EP 252

If you've ever looked at your fee schedule and felt a knot in your stomach, you're not alone. Fee setting is one of the most avoided conversations in private practice — and it's not about not caring. It's about the discomfort that runs deep in helping professions, where talking about money can feel like it conflicts with the commitment to care.

Tracy CherpeskiApril 24, 2026Comment

If You Don’t Ask, You Don’t Know: A GP’s Case for Making Menopause Care a Practice Priority Featuring Dr. Danielle Hunte, EP 251

What if the physician best positioned to help women through perimenopause is the one they’re already seeing — their GP? In this episode, Tracy sits down with Dr. Danielle Hunte, a general practitioner from Barbados and founder of Midlife Meridian, to explore exactly that.

Tracy CherpeskiApril 22, 2026Comment

18 Years in the Insurance System, Then She Built Something Better: Dr. Samantha Mekrut on DPC and Women’s Midlife Health, EP 250

After more than 18 years in insurance-based healthcare, Dr. Samantha Mekrut made a decision a lot of physicians dream about: she left to build something better. The result is Meristem Family Medicine — a direct primary care practice in Medfield, Massachusetts, where patients pay a flat monthly membership fee, appointments run 30 to 60 minutes, and the administrative machinery of insurance billing is nowhere to be found.

Tracy CherpeskiApril 15, 2026Comment

The Real Burnout Prevention Framework for Independent Practice Owners – A Special Snack Episode, EP 249

Burnout is one of the most talked-about topics in healthcare — and still one of the most misunderstood. In this SNACK episode, Miranda Dorta turns the mic around and puts Tracy in the hot seat for an unscripted conversation about what burnout prevention actually requires. Not the surface-level version. The real one.

Miranda DortaApril 10, 2026Comment

Fork in the River: Leadership, Loneliness, and What Healthcare Can Learn from the Rise and Fall of Company Towns Featuring Lisa Prior, EP 248

What if your practice is one of the last true neighborhoods your patients have access to? In this episode, Tracy Cherpeski sits down with Lisa Prior — leadership and change consultant and author of the forthcoming Rubber Avenue: When Work Was the First Neighborhood — for a conversation that reframes where practitioner burnout really comes from.

Tracy CherpeskiApril 8, 2026Comment

From the Weeds to the Horizon: The Altitude Shift That Sharpens Every Decision and Protects You from Burnout, EP 247

What if burnout isn't really about overwork? What if it's about being stuck at the wrong altitude — so deep in the day-to-day grind that you've completely lost sight of why you built your practice in the first place?

Tracy CherpeskiApril 1, 2026Comment

Is Independent Practice Worth Protecting? Tracy's Unfiltered Take on Staying Independent in 2026 – A Special Snack Episode, EP 246

With acquisition offers arriving, reimbursement cuts looming, and colleagues selling, a lot of practice owners are quietly asking: is staying independent even worth it? In this SNACK episode, host Miranda Dorta sits down with Tracy Cherpeski to get her unfiltered take on that question.

Tracy CherpeskiMarch 27, 2026Comment

You've Done Nothing Wrong: A DPT's Practical Guide to Fitness and Nutrition for Busy Healthcare Providers Featuring Dr. Hannah Brandt, EP 245

What if the biggest obstacle to your health isn't time or willpower—but the fact that nobody ever taught you how to take care of yourself? In this episode, Tracy Cherpeski sits down with Dr. Hannah Brandt, a doctor of physical therapy and founder of Physique Triage, who helps women in healthcare build sustainable fitness and nutrition habits without turning their lives upside down.

Tracy CherpeskiMarch 25, 2026Comment

Stop Being an Operator for the Insurance Company: Paul Vigario on Branding, Awareness, and Practice Growth Featuring Paul Vigario, EP 244

What separates a thriving private practice from one that's perpetually stuck? According to Paul Vigario, founder of SurfCT and strategist to over 12,000 healthcare practices worldwide, it comes down to two things: attention and compliance. Getting the right patients in the door, and building systems that keep them—without the owner burning out in the process.

Tracy CherpeskiMarch 18, 2026Comment

Good Revenue, No Money: The Financial Clarity Gap in Healthcare Practices – A Special Snack Episode, EP 243

If you make good revenue but still feel like there's never enough money in the practice, you're not broken—you're probably just missing financial clarity. In this SNACK episode, Tracy Cherpeski and Miranda Dorta get into one of the most common and least-discussed gaps in independent healthcare: the difference between having a great accountant and having a real financial strategy.

Miranda DortaMarch 13, 2026Comment

Data Over Guesswork: What a Marketing Engineer Knows About Growing Your Practice Featuring Cameron LiButti, EP 242

Most practice owners know they need to market their practice—but far fewer know how to evaluate whether it's actually working. In this episode, Tracy Cherpeski sits down with Cameron LiButti, founder of Bidview Marketing, who brings an engineer's precision to healthcare practice marketing strategy.

Miranda DortaMarch 11, 2026Comment

Leading From Last Place: Why Self-Neglect Is a Practice Problem, Not a Personal Failing, EP 241

In this solo episode of The Thriving Practice Podcast, Tracy Cherpeski names what too few people in medicine are willing to say out loud: the training that made you an extraordinary clinician may also be the very thing driving your burnout. She breaks down the paradox of selflessness—how the self-less provider actually delivers less sustainable care—and what it looks like to lead your practice from a place of genuine capacity rather than chronic depletion.

Tracy CherpeskiMarch 4, 2026Comment

The 80% Rule: How Practice Owner CEOs Stop Perfecting and Start Scaling – a Special Snack Episode, EP 240

Perfectionism can feel like a strength—until it starts quietly costing you time, momentum, and peace of mind. In this SNACK episode, Tracy Cherpeski sits down with Miranda Dorta to talk about one of the most persistent challenges for practice owner CEOs: knowing when good enough actually is good enough.

Miranda DortaFebruary 27, 2026Comment

The Undoctor: Why a Psychiatrist Says Human Connection Heals More Than Any Prescription, Featuring Dr. Fred Moss, EP 239

What if the most healing thing a healthcare provider can do has nothing to do with a diagnosis or a prescription? In this episode, Tracy Cherpeski sits down with Dr. Fred Moss—a psychiatrist with 46 years in the mental health system who believes that human connection, not medication, is at the heart of all healing.

Tracy CherpeskiFebruary 25, 2026Comment