In Episode 82, Gerda sits down with Tahnee Witt from ReachLife to talk about something so many practice owners struggle with:

How do you grow your practice, without burning yourself out?

Tahnee shares the mindset shifts, uncomfortable decisions and lessons that helped her move from “I have to do everything myself” to actually feeling confident in her role as a business owner and, most importantly, creating a practice that gives her more choice, freedom and time back.

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

• What was driving Tahnee’s initial business burnout.
• The mindset shift that helped her step into her role as a business owner.
• The practical changes that helped move her practice forward.
• How to make more confident business decisions without getting stuck in fear and “what ifs”.

Who this episode is for:

• Practice owners who feel burnt out or stuck in the day-to-day.
• Business owners who want to build a more sustainable, future-proof practice.
• Practice owners who want to grow their practice while creating more freedom and flexibility.

If you’ve been wondering whether it’s possible to build a practice that feels sustainable, profitable, and genuinely freeing, then Tahnee’s story will give you hope and a very real example of what it can look like. 

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 🙂

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• Would you like Gerda’s help in growing your practice? Step 1 is to complete this short form HERE. Gerda will personally go through your answers and will respond asap.
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• Ready to work with Gerda? Send in your details HERE and she will be in touch.

 

 

 Well hello there amazing private practice owner. My name is Gerda Muller, and you are listening to the Private Practice Success Podcast, and this is episode number 82.

As I’m talking to you right now, it is about 10 days out from the 2026 two-day Private Practice Business Intensive. So needless to say, my whole world right now is about preparing for those two days, and the theme for this year is future-proof your practice. I’m pretty sure you can understand why that is important in 2026. But as I was working through all the presentations, all the content, making sure that everything is exactly like it should be, it reminded me of an interview I did with an amazing practice owner, and this practice owner is actually going to be attending the two-day event. She also runs our Rest and Restore sessions at the event, and she is an absolutely amazing example of somebody who has gone from business burnout, to having a future-proofed private practice. And I just thought, “Okay, I’m going to share this interview on the podcast.” 

Previously I did this as a video interview, so if you want the video version of it, reach out to me, I can send it to you. I’ve previously recorded it, but I re-listened to it this morning, and every time I listen to it, I smile. Because she is so inspirational and such an amazing example of the fact that you can go from business burnout to business freedom, and if she can do it, each and every one of you can. 

So drum roll, I’m excited to share with you this interview I did with Tahnee Witt, from ReachLife, located in Perth, Western Australia. They are a team of compassionate and experienced psychologists, occupational therapists, counsellors, social workers, therapy assistants, and support workers. I encourage you to most certainly listen to this episode, and I’m hopeful that this is going to inspire you, and also put a smile on your face as you listen to this.

Gerda: Welcome. I’m so excited to have Tahnee Witt here from ReachLife, all the way from Western Australia.  Tahnee, thank you for making the time to chat with me. Can you please introduce yourself and your practice to any person listening? 

Tahnee: My pleasure to be here having this conversation, Gerda. So ReachLife is a group private practice. It started by myself 10 years ago, and we have grown to be a team of allied health professionals, including mental health OTs which is my background, psychologists, social workers, therapy assistants, therapy support team members and psychiatry most recently. And very excited in the future, in the coming months to add GP to our team. So it’s a really wonderful multidisciplinary team. 

Gerda: I can’t recall, but we’ve been working together for quite some time. I can’t recall the exact date or, like, year. I’m just not good with those, but it’s been, you know, quiet, quite a while. You’ve done a bit of my, standalone courses. We’ve had the pleasure of working together closer during Ignite Your Practice. I think you did two rounds possibly of Ignite? 

Tahnee: Yes, I did, and I did a little bit of sprints with you, back when we were doing the 90-day sprints, and I did lots of those short training sessions with you Gerda. And it’s hard to put an exact date down. I think it was perhaps around 2017-2018, because I was, of course, like, cyber-stalking you for a while. Just what we do when you’re listening to someone and you feel, or you’ve been listening to their podcast, or you’ve been watching their training, and you feel like you’ve been working with them. Which of course you have. 

Gerda: Yeah. I have this thing. I don’t know who said it, but there’s a saying that your free content will help more people than your paid content ever will. And I think it’s the same for us as clinicians. The stuff that we put on social media has the potential to impact so many thousands of people versus the people that actually pay for our services, and that’s why it’s so important to be out there and sharing. And I do find a lot of people coming to the paid coaching and mentoring that I offer once they’ve consumed quite a lot of the free stuff that’s out there. So I’m interested to know for you particularly, because you’ve done some work with me, great progress during those courses and stuff, and implemented, and then you decided to join the Private Practice Success Academy. What made you decide to join the academy at that point? Were there any specific problems that you were struggling with at that specific time? 

Tahnee: Well, I think it was a seamless transition for me to join the Academy, because I’d already been working with you in those programs. I’d already learnt the hard way that you’re not just, like, done and dusted, that there’s these cycles that come in business. So I kind of go back, I guess, to where I started working with you in a really paid way, was that I was feeling that business burnout. I really was feeling business burnout, and I was feeling really lonely. And in fact, I actually came across you, Gerda, in a LinkedIn little video that you did, and I know I was feeling business burnout when I reflect, because my reaction to your post was irritation. So you were sharing something about, like, you know, you used to say – You Can Build your Private Practice and, and there was that invitation. I remember watching this and going, “This woman is mad, and people should not just jump into private practice, because it’s-bloody hard and it’s exhausting, and this is really reckless,” you know? And so it piqued my curiosity.  And then I think I was like, “Well, what is she? What’s in her water that’s not in my water,” you know ? And I think that was it. 

So it was fundamentally that burnout and loneliness. And if I drilled down into the causes of those, cash flow was a problem. I had, I guess, a lot of recognition of skills deficit. But I had huge amounts of shame and imposter syndrome, you know, that I had started this business idea, and people had been really supportive, but also doubting. And you get both of those sets of stories, and I really felt like, Oh, my goodness, I’m not succeeding at this, and it was really embarrassing to admit that and ask for that. So when I found your paid membership group, which then was just a transition for me into the Academy, I really knew the value of community. And I really knew that I also had to work with a coach that challenged me, that perhaps was quite different, you know. And so the fact that your initial post made, like, this irritation rise for me, I know now that that’s actually the sign of the coach that you need, not the coach that will reinforce and validate you. That’s also, of course, what you offer. But you want the coach that’s going to really challenge you, because I needed to think and do much differently to how that was happening for me. 

Gerda: Yeah, that’s interesting. I don’t think you’ve ever told me that before. 

Tahnee: I haven’t ever shared that with you, right? I don’t know if you remember, but I remember you had the beautiful purple in your hair then, and you were like, “If you’re dreaming about starting your practice, just do it.” And yeah, I don’t think I ever shared that with you. But I was like- No … “What is this? This is bad advice. Don’t do it.” And thank God I did do it, because that is, of course, why I had originally started, and that’s why I meant by being at burnout. We forgot the why, because we’re just so caught in the trenches of our business. It’s a bit like clinical burnout for people, yeah? So definitely that was an interesting introduction to you. But it piqued my curiosity, which then made me Google and find, oh, no, there is some wisdom and some, unfortunately, some hard facts that I had to face about how I was running my business back then. 

Gerda: So if you had to think about if we wanted to put it, I guess, in practical terms, you know, what somebody might be experiencing, what were, like, your top three obstacles as a business owner that you were really struggling with and trying to overcome pre-private practice setup? 

Tahnee: I’ve thought about this a lot, and I think that you know, ultimately it was mindset, Gerda, because without that mindset shift, I wouldn’t have been able to apply any of those tangible fixes that needed to happen. So the tangible fixes like increasing my fees, you know, the tangible fixes like stopping bulk billing you know, that as a practice. All of those kinds of things, being able to create my policies and procedures that were really aligned to how I wanted to do things rather than what other people were saying in different Facebook groups, et cetera, et cetera. And without that mindset change of beginning to think like an entrepreneur and a business owner rather than purely from a clinician, those necessary system changes that have created those really tangible results in our practice wouldn’t have happened. 

Gerda: I do think it, it all comes down to that, whether it’s a money problem, a marketing problem, a team problem, at the end of the day, if you want to be successful with the strategies, whatever that is that you’re implementing, if you don’t have the mindset right, it almost becomes impossible,  and setting yourself up… so to speak. Because the thing is,  if I think of practice owners that’s on that hamster wheel, they’ve got all these problems they’re working so very hard to do it, but they’re still staying stuck, and they find it so hard to get off that hamster wheel, and it’s the mindset. Unless you do the mindset shift, you won’t be getting off, and that’s what would also lead to that burnout. And unfortunately, I’m really scared for our industry, that burnout for practice owners, for clinicians, yes, but for practice owners that has that additional responsibility, in terms of where they’re going to land if they don’t start accepting help, and get off that hamster wheel, and step into a space where they can work on their business more proactively. 

Tahnee: I love the fact that you used the word, like, stepping or that, that description of stepping into the space, Gerda, because that’s what we need, and this is what we tell our clients, right? You need to zoom out. You need to take that bigger approach. And it’s a little bit like for our clients where it seems counterintuitive to stop and go for a walk and relax, it seems sometimes counterintuitive for business owners to stop and invest both money and time in themselves and how they’re doing the business. But it’s truly the way through, isn’t it? You know, well, definitely for me it was the way through, and it was realizing that without that space that I was staying in, and this is what I see a lot of practice owners unfortunately experiencing, is they stay in a really reactive mode, and they make decisions, yes, some decisions need to be made quickly, but they make decisions, like, really emotionally instead of head and heart-connected decision – and that’s what I think causes relapse in business practices. Because that’s also been the part for me of, like, why have I stayed as long as I have working with you, is it’s recognizing that it’s not just a linear progression, that every time a new fear comes up, every time a new stage of growth comes up for the business with me, it challenges some of those mindset things again, and, you have to break through new mindset patterns as well with that. So yeah, absolutely, the space is what’s been most precious for me.

Gerda: I know you said that it was a bit of a seamless transition from working with me into the Academy, but was there any, any hesitation at all in terms of jumping- Yeah … in? And if so, what was that? And how did you overcome that? 

Tahnee: I think working with you was the first time that I’d ever paid that really high-level investment, you know, for high-quality coaching, and it was a bit of both because I knew that I needed to change. As I said, I was, like, at this place of burnout, and I was like, Oh, I’m creating this business which is going to be a legacy. But I realised I needed to actually have some quality of life along the way. I needed to. You know, while I’m working towards that 10-year vision, I needed to be able to make sure that I was having super, and paying myself well, and having breaks, and you know, getting my weekends back instead of working seven-day weeks. And so I knew that it was choiceless in some ways, but it was so nerve-wracking to actually invest that money, especially when it’s not just, oh, well, I can pay and do this course, and that’s like a two-day course. Or I can pay and do this six-week program in marketing or whatever, or whatever that was. This was like a commitment where I was going to have to pay this money each month for 12 months, you know, for that first 12-month period. 

So as much as it was choiceless, in that it was a no-brainer in that I needed to do this, it was scary. And I put it on my credit card. I had to. I didn’t have that cash lying around. But I put it on my credit card, and when I did that, honestly fundamentally something changed. Because I’d invested this, it then gave me an incentive to push my sales goals, like, I had to. And you know that, that idea of pressure makes diamonds kind of thing, to borrow a cliche from someone else. It’s true that I actually had to then level up and step up. But yeah, it wasn’t without fear. Absolutely not, wasn’t without fear. 

Gerda: I almost feel like you, you need to have that, because for me, every time I do something new, if there’s not some level of uncomfortableness, it’s not really new. It’s not really new to me, right? So it’s hard to deal with it in the moment, but at the end of the day, being able to move through that process and to see where you land up at three months time, 6 months, 12 months, 18 months time, that’s where that rewarding sense of, “Yes, I did it,” comes in, which you did. 

Tahnee: Yeah, so not just the investment that felt like a risk, but it was vulnerable. It was as much as I knew that I was feeling really lonely and needing support, it was also kind of having to admit, like, maybe some of the bad habits, you know? I remember one of our very first one-to-one conversations, and me just fearing the judgment of what’s Gerda going to say when I tell her what my average session fee is, or what’s Gerda going to say when I admit that, yes, you know, a large amount of the work that we’re doing is bulk billed. And so it was kind of really needing to break through that shame and that doubt of, like, I should know this stuff, and, and those myths about, well, it must be that I’m not working hard enough. And, you know, as we know, that’s what keeps you on the hamster wheel. That idea of it’s just a matter of me doing more appointments and doing more hours and, and writing more-policies myself. So it was money and also my fears of what that was going to be like to expose my bad business- behaviours. 

Gerda: And you survived that. You got through it. 

Tahnee: I did survive that. 

Gerda: You did survive. 

Tahnee: I did survive that. 

Gerda: But look, look what you’ve achieved since then.

Tahnee: Yeah, and that kind of real sense of that’s one of the reasons why it was choiceless for me to stay and continue on with the Academy too, Gerda, is that real sense of community and belonging and connection that I get from all of your programs. And that validation of, like, “Oh, okay, other people, it’s fine. We fail forwards together. Oh, they’ve also made that mistake that I’ve made.” As well as the wisdom of those that are a little further along, who try and, like, help us from creating or at least getting out of those leg traps much quicker, if they themselves have been caught by them, right? 

Gerda: Totally. I mean, people often tell me that the general private practice community is really amazing and supportive, but the community within the Academy is just that, that next level of people being inspirational for you, supporting you. It’s part of that community.

Tahnee: And I don’t notice this so much in the general Facebook community of yours, Gerda, but certainly when I go back to that, like, when I first decided I need to do something different and recognised I was in that business burnout kind of place, is that it does bring this irritableness. It brings this defensiveness. And I kind of found that, like, you know, you put your hand up to ask a question in a group, and you suddenly get smashed down by people, you know? And then that kind of perpetuates that, “Oh, I must be doing something wrong.” So, yeah, whereas I think when people are investing money it kind of ups that level of, and time, you know, like, they’re showing up to attend these forums together, and to give each other advice and counsel, is it kind of naturally means that you’re valued, aligned with like-minded business owners, and they’re supportive in their understanding of that. So I certainly think that there’s a lot of value in the Facebook community groups that are all out there. But that was the major point of difference for me, is it just felt safe to be myself in that group, to ask questions that were not too silly that just, came with so much support rather than judgment.

Gerda: Totally. It is just different, and I think a big part of the difference is that mindset being of like-minded people, in the Academy Facebook group. Okay., s if we had to get a bit more practical, how has being in the Academy helped your practice grow or achieve things , over the last 12 months? 

Tahnee: I’ve just looked, you know, just came from a meeting with my lovely bookkeeper yesterday, and when I look just very tangibly at August, you know, our total sales revenue for August is four times what it was when I joined the Academy, which was, like, perhaps even 18 months ago. So let alone what it was two years ago. So let alone what it was from when I first started coaching with you. And I guess also, though, my learning now is about to not just look at that number. You know? Like, I think that’s one of the things that you’ve taught me is what numbers to look for so that I’m not wandering around blind in this business world. So that it’s like, yes, we want to see that number increasing, and also how is our profit margin looking? What are those other numbers? So that from a very tangible point of view. The fact that we’ve been able to expand the team so that that recruitment, but also knowing with confidence the sustainability of the business to be able to then open the doors to have other team join you know, that’s, that’s really significant for us. 

And I think what’s also the third thing that’s really tangible is that the business has been able to grow and have profit and sustainability. To be able to move out of a shared kind of business incubator space where I’d been safe and secure for several years, to then have our second location, which is our very own premise, and everything that comes along with that. So, those are really tangible growth measures for me. Oh, and probably the fourth since I started working with you was that I have a salary, and a good salary. You know? Like, a salary that’s comparable to my peers that have stayed within the health department doing the work that they’re doing. And that only has come in the last 18 months or so, that I’ve got super and that I’m salaried, which is so nice.  

Gerda: That’s amazing. 

Tahnee: So nice… and to be able to have annual leave and not need to phone and check into the practice. So many things that I can’t stop listing, Gerda. 

Gerda: I love all of that, but I also, if I had to add, based on what you said earlier on, the fact that you’ve really established your brand, you’ve become that employer of choice, but the brand as an employer but also as a service provider, to that extent. MultiD is now beyond just our standard OT and psych and speech right? To actually have medical professionals, willing and able, and excited to come on board and be part of the service that you’re providing to the community is really amazing. 

Tahnee: Thank you for that reflection, because that is so true. You know, when I think about the GP that is looking to come on board with us, they have approached us. So we wouldn’t have imagined and gone advertising and gone looking, and I do think that that’s a really important part of your coaching program, is it’s teaching us to think beyond our own identity, because if we stay with that, then clients will always still want to stay booking in with us and we will never get out of that hamster wheel. So it is thinking about the business as your client, and that organisation as your client now, and how you continue to grow and help it develop through those different stages of development, which then builds the brand. 

Gerda: At the start you mentioned before starting to work with me as part of Private Practice Success and The Academy, there was a shame attached, an imposter syndrome about being a business owner. Some fear in terms of putting your hand up, asking for help, and then having to do all these uncomfortable things. How do you feel these days about your practice and your business that you have created as a result of being part of the PPS Academy? 

Tahnee: I obviously just feel so proud of the organisation and the people that work within the team that we’re creating. You know, a really significant thing for me also that has changed is that I now have a business partner. So I took a business partner on 12 months ago, so I’ve been able to make saleable a part of my asset already, which was exciting. And it’s like you just feel like, it’s so lovely. It’s hard to put into words, nurturing and growing these clinicians who are then serving the community in way vaster ways than I could have individually, as one person alone. So that just fills me with delight. Pride doesn’t sound like the right word, something like that. Really grateful, I guess. I think also what’s fundamentally different now is the confidence that I have in myself as a business owner, and whereas in those early years it felt like most of my decisions were fear-based. Like, “Oh, no, I can’t put my fee up because what if people.. Oh, well I, I better have people join because what if referrals dry up?” You know? 

Because business coaching is one of the myths that you have to keep growing and scaling your business. But actually, really great business coaching, which is the coaching that, of course you advise, is always about staying connected with your personal mission and the why, and making decisions that are coming from a place of abundance, rather than fear. And so that’s the big thing for me now. So if I feel like I need to make a decision to let a team member go, for various reasons, I can make that. It’s still nerve-wracking, I have to admit. I still keep growing, but I can make that from a place of abundance rather than like, “Oh, but what if people don’t understand my decision, and I need to tell everyone, and then it’s going to cause bad culture. That’s one example. But that kind of confidence in my ability to make wise mind decisions, I would say. 

Gerda: Once you have that type of thinking, that type of your energy field, so to speak, it makes it so much easier to decide, rather than having that constant second-guessing of yourself. And what I hear you saying is that, you’ve been at this for 10 years? 

Tahnee: 10 years if I think about, like, when I first started doing my ATAPS work as it was back then, you know, good old primary health networks were great for getting contractors started, and I was like, “Let me just add a date.” Yeah, so that officially is 10 years in November this year that I did that.

Gerda: And you’re still going to be around for another 10 years at least? 

Tahnee: My goodness, yeah. I’m hoping that, well, you know, I’m creating something that will outlive and outlast and outgrow me. 

Gerda: The point I’m making is that what you told me is that you’re already achieving that stuff that you set out – helping more people, impacting people, impacting your own family, impacting your team in terms of bettering people’s lives. It’s a delightful feeling, that sense of I’m actually living what I’m here to do. I’m actually living my purpose. I don’t have to wait until I retire in my 60s. Tahnee’s got it right now. Which means that Tahnee can choose to retire next month if she so wishes, or she can continue to do it and multiply that impact even further. But I love the fact that you are able to bring forward that sense of, you know, I’m actually doing this. I’m actually living the dream, so to speak, in terms of, as a helping professional, we all went into this industry and profession to help. I’m doing that now already, and I can see those results. Amazing. 

Tahnee: Yeah, and that’s a beautiful reflection, Gerda, because it makes me realise that the biggest takeaway for me from coaching has been freedom. So it’s freedom to kind of get out of a lot of those myths that are in my head, those, you know, unhelpful schemas that operate for all of us. Freedom for time. You know? Like, this thing of actually no, you know, it’s not sustainable for you to work on seeing clients Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Tahnee. You know, that’s not sustainable. And then to do your bookkeeping on a Sunday, and your marketing on a Sunday. Not sustainable. So it’s that freedom in very practical ways, but also in some of those intangible ways, where I now get to make choices based on, as I was saying before, like this more abundant mindset that I’m having versus that reactivity. And that means you can still make decisions quickly. Doesn’t mean that you, you know, everything slows down. You can still make decisions quickly for the right reasons, though. 

Gerda: Yeah, definitely. That’s awesome. Okay, last question. If somebody was listening to this and they’re going yeah, I hear you, Tahnee, but I’m still on the fence,” what would be the last bit of advice you would give them around making a decision that’s right for them? 

Tahnee: Well I think I would just channel that same, like, energy that I saw in the Instagram post with that lady with the blonde hair and the purple streak who was telling people, “Just do it. You can have your own private practice,” right? I would channel that and say, “Just do it.” Like,  I absolutely, hand on my heart, know that you will get a greater return on your investment than you even think possible right now. Because I would not have imagined being where I am now looking back three years ago. It was unimaginable to me. I think what you did Gerda was help me create some actual measures of where I wanted to get to from that other side to bridge. I have done some other short coaching sessions within the industry and outside of the industry, and hand on my heart, this community is the most generous in terms of their advice, and their resources. That alone is a reason to just do it, yeah? And I also acknowledge that you kind of do need to make a bit of room for that fear. But I promise you that you won’t look back. Promise. 

Gerda: That’s amazing. Thank you so much. It is my hope that this will help somebody make a good decision that’s going to …

Tahnee:  Oh, me too. Me too. My motivation is also that I don’t want business owners to feel like I was feeling – lonely, embarrassed, disconnected, and not sleeping at night. The industry needs these healthy, wholehearted business owners now more than ever. 

Gerda: Totally. Could not have ended on a more truthful note. Thank you so much. I totally appreciate you. 

Tahnee: Oh, my pleasure. 

Gerda: 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 😊