The Podcast
Lead Better: Grow
Your Practice,
Live Your Purpose
Conversations on building, running, and scaling health-based practices — without burning out, breaking down, or becoming the front desk.
EPISODE LIBRARY
Real talk from practitioners who figured it out.
Every episode comes with show notes and a full, searchable transcript — so you can skip straight to the part that applies to your practice, quote it to your team, or revisit the moment that hit home.
Amplifying a broken practice won't fix it. (with Molly Cahill)
If you've ever looked at a slow month and decided the answer is posting more, this one is for you. Molly Cahill runs Instagram for nearly thirty health and wellness practices — and she opened our conversation by saying the thing most marketers won't say out loud.
You can't hand off a business that only lives in your head. (with Dr. Kela Smith)
If your practice is growing and you can feel the ceiling getting close, this conversation is for you. I sat down with Dr. Kela Smith, a wellness doctor with a PhD in natural medicine who runs two businesses side by side, the Hormone Puzzle Society on the clinical side and Grow Your Wellness Business where she coaches practitioners, and we dug into what actually changed for her between six figures and seven.
Your niche isn't where your business starts. (with Elyse Wagner)
Elyse Wagner has worked with more than 6,000 health coaches globally, and in this conversation she flips the usual 'start with your niche' advice on its head — starting with values instead. We dig into why your values are the roots of everything in your business, how to use them as a compass, and why embodying the work matters more than any borrowed blueprint.
Delegation is my favorite form of self-care. (with Michelle Rogers)
Michelle Rogers has taken a full week off every single month since 2018, and when I asked her how she pulled that off, the answer was so much simpler than I expected. She cut a 60 hour work week in half, and then in half again. What we kept circling back to is everything you are carrying that never shows up on a task list — every client detail, every decision, every question somebody else handed you to hold. The real unlock is not another tool. It is getting all of that out of your head so you can be fully present with the person in front of you.
Teaching too much is what's costing you the sale. (with Kendra Perry)
If you have ever poured weeks into a launch and ended up on the bathroom floor wondering what you did wrong, this one is for you. I sat down with Kendra Perry, business strategist and founder of the Wealthy Coach podcast, to talk about what actually makes a launch work for a health practitioner, and how to read your numbers so you know the difference between a real flop and a completely normal result.
Stop posting tips nobody acts on. (with Hailey Rowe)
If you know you should be showing up more but freeze every time you sit down to post, this episode is going to feel like a relief. I sat down with business coach Hailey Rowe, who helps health coaches and practitioners simplify their marketing, to talk through which platforms actually matter and what to post so people do more than scroll past.
Your patients already asked ChatGPT. (with Sarah Cook)
If your patients are showing up to appointments having already run their symptoms through ChatGPT at 3am, this one is for you. I sat down with my friend Sarah Cook, a former naturopathic doctor turned AI copywriting mentor, to talk about what that shift actually means for how you talk about your work.
More patients won't fix this.
If you've been in practice a few years and every new patient somehow lands as more weight on your plate, this episode is for you. When growing your practice starts to feel heavier instead of lighter, that heaviness is almost always pointing at something specific, and it's rarely a shortage of patients.
Stop patching the practice you've outgrown. (with Laura Schoenfeld)
If you've looked at your practice lately and realized the version you built a few years ago doesn't quite fit the one you're running today, this episode is going to feel like a permission slip. I sat down with Laura Schoenfeld, who is in the middle of tearing her own business down to the foundation and rebuilding it for who she is now.
10 myths keeping you stuck under $10K months
If you're working hard, showing up consistently, and still stuck under $10K months, this episode will help you understand why. Most practitioners don't have a motivation or skill problem, they have a structure problem. The business model and systems that get you to your first few clients are often the exact things keeping you from scaling.
Fix this first if you want to scale your practice
If your practice is growing but still feels busy, stressful, or mentally draining, this episode will hit. The problem isn't your leads, your content, or your offer. It's that your business still depends on you to function. Nicole shares the behind-the-scenes realization that changed everything in her own business after repeated cycles of growth followed by burnout.
What tf is a growth system and why do I need one?
Most clinic owners think they have a growth problem. They assume they need more leads, more visibility, or better marketing. But what's actually happening behind the scenes is something very different. Nicole breaks down why most practices don't have a lead problem, they have a systems problem, and how this is the hidden reason growth feels harder, heavier, and more dependent on you than it should.
What to do when your business feels like your entire life.
When your business starts to feel like your entire life, it's not a motivation problem, it's a structural one. Nicole unpacks why so many clinician CEOs feel fused to their practice, mentally, emotionally, and operationally, and what to actually do about it.
Freedom is something you practice.
What if freedom in your business isn't something you earn someday, but something you practice by design? Nicole breaks down why freedom isn't spontaneity, it's structure, and how the ability to step away from your practice reveals the true architecture of your business.
Boring systems create freedom in your practice.
Freedom in your practice doesn't come from being more flexible or more available — it comes from structure. Nicole breaks down why boring, repeatable systems are the real path to time freedom, mental freedom, and nervous-system freedom for clinician CEOs.
Marketing harder won’t solve your problems.
If marketing harder actually fixed growth problems, most clinicians would already feel free. Instead, more leads usually mean more overwhelm, more decisions, and more dependence on the owner. Nicole explains why more ads, content, and visibility won’t solve your growth challenges — and how systems are the real path to freedom.
Stop doing everything yourself.
There's a belief quietly trapping many clinician CEOs: "If you want it done right, you have to do it yourself." Nicole breaks down why this belief keeps practices overworked, fragile, and dependent on the founder — and how to replace it with systems that create freedom, leverage, and sustainability.
Repeat after me: "I am the bottleneck in my clinic"
In this episode of Lead Better, Nicole Harlow walks clinician CEOs through one of the most confronting — and liberating — leadership realizations in business growth: you're most likely the bottleneck in your own company. Not as a failure, not as a flaw, but as a predictable developmental stage of leadership.
The growth paradox (or why you always feel like you're starting and never actually growing)
If you feel like you're always 'building,' but never truly expanding—this episode is your reframe. Nicole breaks down the Growth Paradox through the lens of the clinician CEO: why constant launching, tweaking, and chasing the next strategy can keep your practice stuck in perpetual start-up mode. You'll learn how to shift from dopamine-fueled initiation into compounding, sustainable growth—by building systems your nervous system can actually sustain.
Watch on YouTube
Every episode, on video.
You know what you think happens when a new patient finds you.
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