Most people end the year trying to add more; more goals, more offers, more strategy. But expansion doesn’t come from addition. It comes from editing.

In this episode, I’m walking you through the 5 D’s I use every December to reset before I build. We’ll talk about what it looks like to delete distractions, delegate with intention, digitize what matters, document your wisdom, and decide what’s next — so you can start the new year leading from clarity, not clutter.

This isn’t another systems checklist.

It’s a leadership reset.

A chance to clear space so your next level has room to land.

Because when everything has a place, you finally have the peace to lead from vision instead of reaction.

Inside This Episode

• How to finish the year clean instead of just “strong”
   
• The 5 D’s framework that simplifies your systems and restores your focus
   
• Why clarity, not more effort, is your competitive edge for 2026

Remember
“You can’t build a new vision on old systems.
 Before you expand, you have to edit.”

If this episode challenged you to simplify, share it with another leader who’s building for peace and profit. Then tag me @drnikkicottis on instagram with your “D of the week” - what are you deleting, delegating, or finally deciding on before the year ends?

In this episode of Aligned for Success, Nikki Cottis breaks down the difference between being busy and being productive - because they are not the same thing.

We live in a culture that glorifies hustle, where “busy” has become a badge of honor. But busyness doesn’t move the needle — alignment does. Nikki shares real talk, gentle truth, and practical steps to help you trade the chaos of doing for the calm of intention.

If you’ve ever said “I’m just so busy” but still felt stuck, this one’s for you.

What You’ll Learn

• Why being busy doesn’t always mean you’re making progress
   
• The mindset shift that turns chaos into clarity
   
• How to say no without guilt
   
• Why rest and stillness are key to true productivity
   
• Simple ways to bring purpose and peace back into your schedule
   

Connect with Nikki
Instagram: @drnikkicottis 🎧 Follow Aligned for Success for more episodes that help you align your work, energy, and purpose.

What happens when someone breaks your belief system - when they hit a level you didn’t even realize was possible?

That moment when you hear, “We did four million this year,” and suddenly your version of success feels… small.

Not because you’re jealous, but because you just witnessed the limits of your reality snap in half.

In this episode, Nikki unpacks what really happens when someone shatters your ceiling - and how to use that moment as fuel, not frustration. You’ll learn how to:

• Recognize when your beliefs have quietly capped your potential
   
• Recalibrate your mindset and nervous system to hold more
   
• Turn other people’s breakthroughs into your own evidence of what’s available
   
• Shift from “why not me?” to “how soon me?”
   

If you’ve ever had your entire definition of “big” rewritten in a single conversation, this one’s for you.

✨ It’s not envy - it’s expansion. Let it stretch you.

💡 3 Key Takeaways

1. Your limits aren’t real - they’re learned. Most of us build comfort zones and call them goals.
    
2. When someone breaks your ceiling, it’s a permission transfer. What you can see is what you can step into.
    
3. Expansion requires recalibration. You can’t hold the next level with the same identity, habits, and systems you built for the last one.
    

And if you’re ready to stop playing inside other people’s limits, make sure you’re registered for our free Masterclass! Sign up here!

In this episode of The Aligned for Success Podcast, Nikki dives into the messy middle - the threshold between where you are and where you’re going. As she preps to travel for a seminar, Nikki shares the real, unfiltered side of staying committed when life feels chaotic. She opens up about the moments when quitting feels easier, the temptation to coast, and the truth about being stretched thin while chasing growth. If you’ve ever felt like you’re “in between” the old version of yourself and the next level you’re building — this episode will speak straight to you. Through stories from her week, lessons from The Wealthy Practitioner, and honest reflections on burnout and identity, Nikki reminds us that being in the threshold isn’t a sign to stop — it’s proof you’re expanding.________________________________________

💡 Key Takeaways

• The threshold is not a setback — it’s a signal that you’re leveling up.
• You don’t have to wait for clarity to take action.
• The moments of chaos are often the doorway to your next big move.
• Even high performers feel resistance; what matters is that you show up anyway.
• Your growth rarely feels glamorous — it feels gritty, but that’s what makes it real.

 Follow me on instagram: DrNikkiCottis

In this episode of The Aligned for Success podcast, Nikki breaks down why most practitioners lose momentum in their businesses and shares practical mindset shifts to keep it for good, recorded while sick to practice what she preaches about consistency.

In this episode of The Aligned for Success podcast, Nikki shares a raw moment of frustration from a team meeting that led to a realization about how she had accidentally become the bottleneck in her own business growth.

During a Monday team meeting about systems and procedures, Nikki reached her breaking point and told her team she was tired of filling in the gaps for every position in the office-being responsible for that final 10% of everything from schedules to printed materials. Despite having comprehensive systems, SOPs, ClickUp tasks, Looms, and checklists in place, she remained the person everyone turned to for every question, issue, or decision.

Throughout this candid conversation, Nikki reveals her uncomfortable realization that this wasn't a systems problem, it was a Nikki problem. She had accidentally trained her capable, smart, amazing team to depend on her by creating a "Nikki will figure it out" culture. Drawing a parallel to her 6-year-old daughter who sometimes asks for help with tasks she can already do independently, Nikki recognized she was empowering her child but disempowering her team by always providing immediate answers.

Nikki explains how being needed can feel good at first, you feel useful, like the glue holding everything together-until you realize you've become the bottleneck on your own growth. The business can't grow beyond your capacity to keep fixing things, and by always stepping in to solve problems, you're teaching your team not to solve them themselves.

She shares her new approach of responding to questions with: "Do we have a Loom on that? Is there an SOP on that? What would you have done if I wasn't here?" This shift revealed that 9 times out of 10, her team already knew the answers-they just needed space and permission to trust themselves.

Addressing the ego component of leadership, Nikki emphasizes that leadership isn't about being the smartest person in the room, but creating a room full of people who don't need you to solve every problem. She challenges listeners to notice when team members ask questions they already know the answer to and point them back to systems instead of providing solutions.

This episode delivers a crucial reminder that businesses don't grow through doing more—they grow through developing more, making it a must-listen for any business owner stuck as the fixer rather than the founder.

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Still time to join Full Send! Access all recordings until October 31st—link in show notes or DM Nikki on Instagram with questions!

In this episode of The Aligned for Success podcast, Nikki challenges listeners to stop half-sending their lives and shares personal stories of full send moments that completely changed her trajectory, from choosing Penn State to opening a practice with terrible credit.

Recorded as The Wealthy Practitioner prepares to launch their once-a-year Full Send program, Nikki explores what it truly means to live a full send life—emphasizing that it's not about reckless decisions or saying yes to everything, but about bold, aligned, wholehearted choices that move you closer to the life you're actually craving.

Throughout this vulnerable conversation, Nikki traces her full send journey from age 15, when attending a Penn State football game sparked her decision to attend college three hours from home where she knew no one. She shares the cascade of full send moments that followed: choosing kinesiology without knowing what she'd do with it, moving to Georgia for chiropractic school, relocating to Alabama for a boyfriend, breaking up with that boyfriend and marrying Jonathan less than a year after meeting him (despite her parents' strong disapproval), and opening a practice with $8,000 and a 40% interest rate loan.

Nikki identifies the three main reasons people avoid full send moments: fear of failure, fear of judgment, and comfort zones disguised as responsibility. She argues that staying safe is actually the riskiest choice because time passes whether you make bold decisions or not, and the regret of not trying is always heavier than the fear of attempting something.

She provides practical guidance for living a full send life: choose your vision over comfort by asking if decisions align with your 5-year goals, practice aligned action by saying yes only to things that align with your values and priorities, and demonstrate faith and follow-through by sticking with decisions even when they're no longer exciting.

This episode delivers a powerful call to action for anyone stuck saying "someday," feeling uninspired, or knowing they're playing smaller than they were meant to, making it a must-listen for those ready to stop dabbling and dive full force into their vision.

Join Full send! Click the link to join! 

Ready to go full send? The Wealthy Practitioner's Full Send program launches October 8th-DM Nikki with questions or click the link to sign up!

In this episode of The Aligned for Success podcast, Nikki welcomes Colin Carr, founder and CEO of CARR, the nationwide leader in healthcare real estate, for an eye-opening conversation about the costly mistakes healthcare providers make in commercial real estate.

Colin shares his unique journey from representing landlords to advocating exclusively for healthcare providers after witnessing countless doctors get "completely annihilated" in commercial real estate negotiations. Operating from Castle Rock, Colorado, Colin's company was born in 2009 from his realization that healthcare providers were going up against highly sophisticated professional negotiators without proper representation—creating what he calls "a completely unfair fight."

Throughout this revealing conversation, Colin exposes the three biggest mistakes healthcare providers make: not hiring professional representation (the number one error), failing to negotiate with multiple landlords simultaneously, and accepting whatever terms are initially presented without understanding market alternatives. He breaks down how easily doctors can lose $100,000-$200,000 on standard-sized spaces through overpaying just $3 per square foot, missing free rent opportunities, or accepting unfavorable annual increases over a 10-year term.

Colin explains the critical difference between simply "getting a lease signed" versus securing favorable economics and business deal points, emphasizing that major corporations like Starbucks and Amazon never handle their own real estate negotiations. He details how the strategic approach of working with multiple properties simultaneously in non-binding negotiations puts healthcare providers in control rather than at the mercy of a single landlord's terms.

The conversation also covers essential considerations for practice transitions, including lease assignability clauses, timing of renewals relative to practice sales, and the importance of matching lease terms to loan periods. Colin delivers powerful insights on when to consider purchasing versus leasing and how proper representation can position both current owners and future buyers for success.

This episode serves as a wake-up call for any healthcare provider who has handled their own real estate negotiations, making it a must-listen for anyone approaching a lease renewal, expansion, or practice transition.

Join Full Send here! Sign up here for $33!

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Ready to protect yourself in your next real estate negotiation? Visit https://carr.us/ for expert healthcare real estate representation and educational resources.

In this episode of The Aligned for Success podcast, Nikki tackles the controversial topic of mom guilt, sharing why she doesn't experience it and challenging the societal narrative that guilt equals good motherhood.

Inspired by a conversation with Stephanie Wigner in a London pub, Nikki explores the myth that mom guilt comes standard in the "motherhood starter kit." She argues that guilt doesn't equal love, and feeling guilty isn't proof you're a good mom—just as not feeling guilty doesn't mean you're disconnected or love your child any less.

Throughout this candid conversation, Nikki shares how her own mother's career success shaped her perspective on working motherhood. Discovering her mom had a corner office at USA Today when she was 25, Nikki realized her mother was "a total badass" who modeled that women can have both successful careers and be devoted mothers. This experience taught her that showing your children what's possible can be more valuable than constant presence.

Nikki explains her approach to work-life integration, emphasizing quality over quantity time with her daughter Hazel. Rather than pieced-together moments throughout the week, she prioritizes longer stretches of uninterrupted family time—vacations, weekend trips, and boat rides that create lasting memories. She views her business success as enabling these experiences rather than stealing from family time.

Addressing listeners who do experience mom guilt, Nikki provides practical strategies: block family time in your calendar first, build business systems that protect vacations and weekends, learn to say no to things that don't light you up or move your business forward, and communicate openly with your children about work commitments while reassuring them they're a priority.

This episode delivers a powerful reminder that your children won't remember the exact hours you worked—they'll remember the memories you made and the example you set, making it a must-listen for working mothers seeking permission to build meaningful careers while raising confident, capable children.

Join our Facebook group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/wealthypractitioner
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Do you feel mom guilt or not? Nikki would love to hear your perspective—share this episode with a mom who needs this reminder!

In this episode of The Aligned for Success podcast, Nikki commemorates her 10-year practice anniversary by sharing ten powerful lessons learned from a decade of accidental entrepreneurship, vulnerability, and growth.

Recording just after her September 8th office anniversary, Nikki reflects on how she went from the "accidental entrepreneur" who opened secretly without even a Facebook page or sign to building a practice that has delivered over 150,000 adjustments. From seeing 5 patients on her first day (two of them family members) to treating 107 patients on her anniversary, her journey illustrates the compound effect of consistent growth and reinvention.

Throughout this milestone conversation, Nikki vulnerably shares both triumphs and regrets, including leadership moments she's embarrassed about—like firing someone via email because she was too scared to face them, or getting angry and terminating an employee for making a mistake. She emphasizes that leadership is a muscle requiring consistent practice, just like working out, where some days you nail it and others you "drop the weight on your foot."

Nikki's ten lessons span the emotional, practical, and strategic aspects of business ownership: fear usually means you're on the right track; people always come before profit; systems save your sanity more than hustle ever will; your team will make or break you; mistakes are inevitable learning opportunities; community becomes your best marketing strategy; reinvention is survival; boundaries protect your vision; and celebrating wins builds essential momentum and gratitude.

Drawing from real examples like navigating COVID's challenges, implementing disastrous systems like Weave, and evolving from saying yes to everything to setting clear boundaries, Nikki delivers honest insights about the beautiful, messy reality of building something meaningful. This episode serves as both celebration and roadmap, reminding listeners that the scary process of entrepreneurship is ultimately worth it.

Join our Facebook group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/wealthypractitioner
Follow Nikki on Instagram: @Drnikkicottis

Thank you to everyone who has supported Nikki's journey—here's to the next 10 years!