Elevate Daily

Alexia Usgaard

Elevate Daily is the podcast where we explore the art of living and loving with intention, purpose, and radiant joy. Hosted by Alexia Usgaard, this show is your permission slip to unapologetically savor the beauty and richness of life. In each bi-weekly episode, we dive into modern rituals, self-leadership, and the transformative insights of the Gene Keys—designed to help you elevate your health, wealth, love, and leadership. Through a mix of solo episodes and interviews with thought leaders and visionaries, Elevate Daily offers personal insights, actionable practices, and inspiring conversations to reset your energy, ritualize your life, and recalibrate to your highest potential. Subscribe and join us on this journey of elevation, one intentional day at a time. https://www.instagram.com/alexia_usgaard https://www.alexiausgaard.com/

  1. 5d ago

    54. The Ritual Tracker That Changed How I Live

    What if you had a single tool that gave you a clear, honest dashboard into how you are actually living your life? This is one of those episodes I keep coming back to...practical, grounding, and one that has genuinely changed the way I structure my weeks. I am walking you through my rituals tracker, a one-page dashboard that has become one of the most powerful tools in how I show up week after week as my most intentional, most elevated self. At its heart, this tracker is a get-to-do list. A weekly ritual that gives you visibility, focus, and the freedom that only comes when you are truly honest about who you want to be and what you are committed to creating. In This Episode We Explore: Why a rituals tracker is completely different from a to-do list and why that distinction changes everything.The five core sections of the dashboard and how to use each one to design a week that truly reflects who you want to be.Why commitments are more powerful than goals and how anchoring to them creates more trust, more freedom, and more flow.The invitation to try this for just one month and notice what shifts when you finally have visibility into where your energy is actually going. Connect with Alexia: Visit Alexia's website - alexiausgaard.comFollow Alexia on Instagram - @Alexia_usgaardExplore ILLUMINATE - 90-Minute Gene Keys ExperienceDownload the free Rituals TrackerListen to the full episode - The Weekly Ritual Tracker: Your One-Page Dashboard for Living as Your Highest Self Loved this episode? Share it with someone who is ready to stop drowning in their to-do list and start designing their weeks with real intention. I would love to know how this lands for you. Send me a DM or tag me on Instagram with the one commitment you are ready to honor this week. Let's elevate together, one intentional day at a time. With love & devotion, Alexia

  2. Aug 6

    53. Wealth is a Frequency: Your Peace Number, Work Optional Living, and the Art of Dreaming Big with Kaitlyn Carlson

    What if the most powerful thing you could do for your financial future had nothing to do with a spreadsheet? This is one of the most powerful conversations in the Elevate Daily archive, and it felt like exactly the right time to bring it back. In this episode, I sit down with Kaitlyn Carlson, Founder and CEO of Theory Planning Partners, a boutique wealth creation firm for the top female entrepreneurs in the United States. She is a Certified Financial Planner, a Certified Exit Planning Advisor, and an Accredited Wealth Management Advisor. But beyond all of that, she is a spiritual seeker, a devoted mother, and someone I deeply respect for the way she leads with integrity, tenderness, and truth. She will talk about nervous system regulation and net worth in the same breath, and she does it in a way that makes the whole conversation feel like a permission slip. In This Episode We Explore: Why wealth is so much more than money and why it always starts from the inside out.How to calculate your peace number and why most of us don't have clarity on it yet.What it really means to live a work optional life and how to start building toward it from wherever you are right now.How to hold the vision without being attached to the how and why Kaitlyn's athletic background shaped her entire financial philosophy.Why numbers are neutral, clarity is free, and the sooner you stop being afraid of your finances, the more power you reclaim. Meet Kaitlyn Carlson: Before founding Theory Planning Partners, Kaitlyn’s career began in asset management with Putnam Investments. She then spent the majority of her career at UBS Financial Services, holding roles across both the southern and northeastern regions of the U.S. There she developed more than 300 financial plans for clients with assets ranging from $500,000 to $1 billion, before becoming an advisor on a private wealth management team overseeing more than $600 million for a select number of families. She holds her CFP, CEPA, and AWMA designations, and brings to all of it a deeply spiritual approach to what it truly means to create wealth. Outside of work, she teaches yoga, travels, and is ravenous to understand why we are here and how to make a meaningful life. Connect with Kaitlyn: Visit Kaitlyn's website - theoryplanning.comFollow Kaitlyn on Instagram - @kaitlyn.carlson_ Connect with Alexia: Visit Alexia's website - alexiausgaard.comFollow Alexia on Instagram - @Alexia_usgaardExplore ILLUMINATE - 90-Minute Gene Keys ExperienceListen to the full episode - How To Create Aligned Wealth (Without Shame, Hustle, or Scarcity) With Kaitlyn Carlson Loved this episode? Share it with the woman in your life who is ready to stop being afraid of her finances and start building real wealth on her own terms. I would love to know what landed most for you. Send me a DM or tag me on Instagram with your biggest takeaway and the shift you are ready to make in how you relate to your wealth. Let's elevate together, one intentional day at a time. With love & devotion, Alexia

    53. Wealth is a Frequency: Your Peace Number, Work Optional Living, and the Art of Dreaming Big with Kaitlyn Carlson
  3. Jul 30

    52. Rituals, Partnership, and the Art of Choosing Each Other Daily with My Husband Zunaid

    Something my husband and I have spoken about a lot over the years is that what truly cultivates a partnership is intention. A commitment, day in and day out, to each other, to ourselves, and to showing up as our most elevated versions…for one another and for the future we are building together. I invited my husband Zunaid onto the podcast for a raw, real conversation about what that actually looks like in our daily life. We were cozied up on the couch and pulled back the curtain on the specific rituals that keep us grounded, connected, and operating as a true team…even on the hard days. In This Episode We Explore: Why intention is the foundation of a truly elevated partnership. So much of what holds a relationship together isn't the grand gestures...it's the small, daily acts of showing up with presence and care.How to build a ritual framework around your natural strengths as a couple. Z is a morning person. I am a night owl. Rather than fighting that, we sat down and honored it, structuring our rituals accordingly.The evening ritual that creates the conditions for true rest and connection. Every part of it is done with presence and joy.Why staying committed on the hard days is one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself and your relationship.The invitation to start with just one ritual. Not a full tracker. Not an overhaul. Just one conversation with your partner this week where you listen deeply, reflect on each other's strengths, and commit to one shared ritual together. Connect with Alexia: Visit Alexia's website - alexiausgaard.comFollow Alexia on Instagram - @Alexia_usgaardExplore ILLUMINATE - 90-Minute Gene Keys ExperienceListen to the full episode - Episode 7: Finding My Hell Yes Partner: Our Journey of Intentional Love & Rituals Loved this episode? Share it with someone who is ready to bring more intention into their relationship and their everyday life. I would love to know what ritual you are committing to after listening, whether it is something you are doing solo or something you are building with your partner. Send me a DM or tag me on Instagram with your biggest takeaway. Let's elevate together, one intentional day at a time. With love & devotion, Alexia

  4. Jul 23

    51. Rituals Over Habits: How to Bring Joy Back to the Things That Matter Most

    If you've ever found yourself moving through your days on autopilot, checking things off a list that genuinely matter to you, yet somehow feeling disconnected from the joy of it all, this episode is for you. It's one of those conversations I keep returning to, because the shift it invites is profound. The difference between a habit and a ritual isn't about what you do. It's about how you show up to do it. Habits automate. Rituals intentionalize. When you begin to ritualize the areas of your life that matter most, something opens up. Your days start to feel less like a series of things to get through and more like a life you are genuinely experiencing. In This Episode We Explore: Why high-performing leaders are especially susceptible to the habit trap. The culture of optimization...wearing the same thing every day, eating the same meals, systematizing everything. This can strip the aliveness out of the very things you care most about.A simple three-step process for turning any area of your life into a ritual.Real examples of what ritualization looks like in practice. From the way I prepare before recording this podcast, to how my husband and I wind down for sleep, to the practice of sending a payment with genuine gratitude.The invitation to identify the one ritual that would create a ripple effect everywhere else. Not ten rituals. One. The one area that, if you found joy in it, would lighten everything around it. That is where to begin. Connect with Alexia: Visit Alexia's website - alexiausgaard.comFollow Alexia on Instagram - @Alexia_usgaardExplore ILLUMINATE - 90-Minute Gene Keys ExperienceMore Elevate Daily - Episode 42: From Heavy To Holy: Turning What Matters Into Ritual. Loved this episode? Share it with someone who is ready to stop just getting through their days and start truly living them. I'd love to know what ritual you are committing to after listening. Send me a DM or tag me on Instagram with the one area you are choosing to ritualize and why it matters to you. Let's elevate together, one intentional day at a time. With love & devotion, Alexia

  5. Jul 9

    50. Arianna Huffington Decoded: Success, Recalibration, and the Courage to Evolve

    There are certain women whose evolution gives the rest of us permission to unapologetically elevate as we're uniquely meant to. Arianna Huffington has been one of them for me. I saw her speak live in San Francisco years ago, back when I was deep in my Silicon Valley days. The room was full of founders and investors, charged with the usual questions of scale, speed, and what's next. She walked on stage and spoke about sleep, the body and about what we were doing to ourselves in the name of building something meaningful. I remember sitting there feeling something soften in my gut, a tightness of stress that I hadn't realized was clenching. It was the first time I had heard a female leader I deeply respected name rest as leadership. I have never forgotten that. When I sat down to decode her specific Gene Keys, I smiled…I understood the power of her leadership on another level. What moves me most about her arc isn't the scale of it. It's her commitment to staying true to herself. The early rise, the pivotal moment of recalibration, the global movement she now leads around wellbeing. When you look at her life through the lens of her Gene Keys, none of it reads as a contradiction. It reads as a woman who trusted that her next chapter wasn't smaller than the last one…just a deep trust in the wisdom she learned and who she was becoming. In this episode, we explore: Her Mission Code Gene Key 62, moving from Intellect to Precision to Impeccability. How she took deep research and made it embodied...accessible enough to become a movement. Her Money Code Gene Key 37, moving from Weakness to Equality to Tenderness. Why her wealth and reach expanded the moment she widened the circle instead of narrowing it. Her Meaning Code Gene Key 32, moving from Failure to Preservation to Veneration. How she honored everything she'd built while receiving the insights about her next chapter. Her Magnetism Code Gene Key 25, moving from Constriction to Acceptance to Universal Love. Why her influence deepened the more she let herself evolve, publicly, in real time. For each of the Four M's, I explore the shadow, the gift, and the siddhi, illuminating that her four codes tells the same story in a different way...that the truest version of your leadership lives just on the other side of what you've been afraid to let go of. You may share one of her Gene Keys. Someone in your life certainly does. Let this episode be an entry point into your own chart and a reminder that your own evolution is allowed to feel as delicious as it is true. Explore The Celebrity Gene Keys further: Decoding Oprah Winfrey Decoding Beyoncé Decoding Dr. Brené Brown Decoding Taylor Swift New to the Gene Keys or curious how I work with them? → Episode 14 - The Gene Keys: Your Personal Blueprint For World-Class Success Without Over-Effort Connect with Alexia: Visit Alexia's website → alexiausgaard.comFollow Alexia on Instagram → @Alexia_usgaardExplore ILLUMINATE → 90-Minute Gene Keys Experience Loved this episode? Share it with the woman whose success is asking for refinement...the one who is ready to stop leading from her shadows and step fully into her gifts. I'd love to know what landed most for you. Which of Arianna's four codes resonated with you most deeply? Send me a DM or tag me on Instagram with your biggest takeaway, the permission you're choosing to hold close, or the part of yourself that is ready to evolve. Let's elevate together, one intentional day at a time. With love & devotion, Alexia

  6. Jun 25

    49. How to Build Magnetic Visibility Without Being Everywhere with Brielle Cotterman

    A woman who knows she’s not meant to be seen by everyone. She’s here to be known by the right ones. There is a version of visibility I wish someone had shared with me earlier. Not the kind that measures your worth in posting frequency or asks you to scatter your presence across fourteen platforms just to stay relevant. This week's conversation with Brielle Cotterman is an invitation to show up with depth, self-assurance, and the unshakable certainty that presence, not volume, is what creates the rooms worth being in. What I love most about Brielle's approach is that it honors the woman you've already become. It doesn't ask you to start over or hustle harder. It asks you to discern. To know what you stand for, to choose the rooms that genuinely move your mission forward, and to build a network of people who speak your name when you're not in the room. In This Episode We Explore: The four pillars of an Influential Leader: credibility, visibility, communication, and network, and why every thought leader you admire has all four dialed in. These aren't separate strategies but an interconnected system.Why both traditional and non-traditional credibility markers matter and why the non-traditional ones are often what make you the one people remember. Traditional credibility comes from education and career achievements. Your life experience is a credibility marker too, and it's often the one that creates the deepest human connection.The myth of being everywhere, and what twelve intentional visibility moments a year can do instead. Showing up consistently on the right indexed platforms, podcasts, and stages, even just a dozen times a year, will have people feeling like you are everywhere.The kind of network that has people speaking your name in spaces of opportunity even when you're not in the room. You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. When you show up in service with genuine care for the people around you with real presence, referrals, introductions, and opportunities follow.The ritual Brielle offers for anyone who is ready to start sharing their story. First, tell your story to someone who can help you. Then, begin writing it in third person. Placing yourself one arm's length away from the emotion allows you to see yourself clearly, with compassion and pride for everything you have overcome. Light a candle. Open a journal. Write for five minutes. Start there. Meet Brielle Cotterman Brielle Cotterman is an Inc. 5000 speaker, TEDx speaker, Publicity Expert, and Founder and CEO of the Influential Leader Agency. She has spent nearly fifteen years helping clients craft and scale dream careers to multiple 7 figures and beyond by using her trademarked methods to build world renowned personal brands and leverage their stories to create speaking tours, author award-winning books, procure media placements and inspire millions. A World's Champion Equestrian and mother of three, Brielle owns and operates a horse farm where she lives with her husband, three children, 12 horses, mini cow, 3 cats and two dogs. Brielle is also a survivor of attempted murder and domestic violence, and a devoted advocate for a world where intimate partner abuse is not tolerated and survivors are met with empathy. She doesn't speak about her story as something we extract for visibility. She speaks of it as something we take ownership of when the timing, the healing, and the truth within us are finally ready. Brielle's Gene Keys Illuminated In This Episode Gene Key 20 - Superficiality → Self-Assurance → PresenceGene Key 13 - Discord → Discernment → Empathy Connect with Brielle Follow Brielle on Instagram → @briellecotterman (DM the word "podcast" for a free personal brand resource)Learn more about the Influential Leader Agency → influentialleaderagency.comThe Power of Storytelling & Publicity → Join hereTEDx Talk → The Stories We Don’t Tell Connect with Alexia Visit Alexia's website → alexiausgaard.comFollow Alexia on Instagram → @Alexia_usgaardExplore ILLUMINATE → 90-Minute Gene Keys Experience Loved this episode? Share it with the woman who is ready to expand her visibility and own her presence without having to be everywhere. I'd love to know which of the four pillars you're feeling most called to right now. Send me a DM or tag me on Instagram with your biggest takeaway; the shift in how you see your story, the room you're ready to walk into, or the way you're ready to show up as a category of one. Let's elevate together, one intentional day at a time. With love & devotion, Alexia

    49. How to Build Magnetic Visibility Without Being Everywhere with Brielle Cotterman
  7. Jun 11

    48. How I Hold Big Ambition and Keep It Spacious and Sustainable

    For a long time, I believed that leaning in was the whole game. That the more I created, launched, showed up, and gave, the more successful and fulfilled I would feel. And for many years, on paper, it was working. Until something in my body knew it wasn't the whole story. What I was experiencing was a cycle of full activation followed by full depletion. Pushing hard, then crashing. Creating from overflow one week and running on fumes the next. What I didn't yet have language for was this: I was living almost entirely in one energy and I was starving the other two. What I was really longing for wasn't a smaller life. It was a life that could actually hold my expansion. This week's episode of Elevate Daily is one I've been wanting to record for a while. It's all about the three energies that shape how supported, spacious, and sustainable your expansion actually feels. In This Episode We Explore: The push-hard, crash-hard cycle that so many high performers get caught in and why it's not sustainable. If you've ever found yourself swinging between total activation and total shutdown, you're not broken. You're just over-indexed in one energy. The real desire isn't work-life balance…it's harmony. And that requires understanding all three energies at play.Lean in energy: the activation energy of creating, leading, and putting yourself out there. This is where momentum lives. It's the energy of launching, showing up for clients, initiating in your relationships, and doing the high-intensity things that make things happen. It's also the energy most high-achievers have made their entire identity and when it's the only gear you have, burnout becomes inevitable.Lean back energy: the receptive energy of reflection, integration, and true discernment. This is where your unique voice and wisdom actually live. It's where downloads arrive, where clarity on your authentic path emerges, and where you finally get to exhale. In business, it looks like intentional reflection after a launch. In your relationships, it's allowing others to move towards you. In your health, it's the slow, restorative movement that lets you simply be with yourself. For high performers, this is often the first energy sacrificed and the one most worth reclaiming.Lean on energy: the energy of real support, real delegation, and real trust. This is the one that changed everything for me. It's the energy of hiring team members, setting up systems and automations, asking for help, and allowing others to hold what you've been convinced only you can hold. When you resist lean on energy, your capacity is capped at what you alone can carry. When you honor it, expansion becomes boundless and the journey starts to feel as good as the destination.How to identify your dominant energy and the one you've been avoiding. There are no should’s here and no hierarchy between the three, just an honest, loving look at where you naturally gravitate and where you've been out of balance. I offer you a simple invitation: pick one tiny action to honor the energy you've been neglecting most.Why these three energies are designed to work together, not in competition. Lean in creates momentum. Lean back cultivates wisdom. Lean on creates sustainability. The goal isn't perfect, equal distribution. It's knowing which season you're in, what your priorities require, and being radically honest about what your capacity needs most right now to feel genuinely held. Connect with Alexia: Visit Alexia's website → alexiausgaard.comFollow Alexia on Instagram → @Alexia_usgaardExplore ILLUMINATE → 90-Minute Gene Keys Experience You may also like: Episode 46: How To Create Freedom That Feels Expansive.Episode 25: Why I Choose Rituals Over Habits (And How It Changed My Life) Loved this episode? Forward this to the woman who is building something beautiful and deserves to feel held while she does it. I'd love to know what resonated most. Send me a DM or tag me on Instagram with your biggest takeaway, which energy you're being called to cultivate more of, or the one small action you're committing to this week. Let's elevate together, one intentional day at a time. With love & devotion, Alexia

  8. May 28

    47. Aging in Crescendo: Health, Self-Love, and the Energetic Body with Kristin Rowell

    There's a dynamic I see so often with ambitious women...and I've felt it myself too. You know you're leading a big life. You know your mission matters. AND you desire to feel resourced while you do it. Recording this powerful conversation with Kristin Rowell felt like a deep exhale. Because what moves me most isn't just that she's fit. It's the way she relates to her body. Kristin has a powerful way of honoring both the physical body and the energetic body, inviting us to honor our bodies as the beautiful temples they are. She invites us into caring for ourselves from a place of self-love, not performance. To trust that you are 99.99% energy. To remember that simplicity is the highest expression of self-love. And to see this human body as a vessel that just holds your divinity in form. In this week's episode of Elevate Daily, I sit down with Kristin to pull back the curtain on what it really takes to lead resourced, not depleted. In This Episode We Explore: Why high-achievers get stuck in information overwhelm when it comes to health. Should I eat eggs or are eggs going to kill me? Should I be vegan or carnivore? Is HIIT going to spike my cortisol? There is no shortage of conflicting information online, and for the woman running a family, a household, and a mission, it becomes its own full-time job. Kristin shares how to cut through the noise. The difference between caring for your body from self-love vs. treating it like another performance metric. Your mission, whether you realize it or not, is so about self-love. Making it to the gym in the morning is an act of self-love. Everything shifts when you care about yourself so much that you are the priority, not another optimization project. What it means to nourish the energetic body, not just the physical body. You are 99.99% energy. Until you get at the root patterns energetically that have kept you stuck, the physical thing is showing up as a manifestation of what's happening with the energy. This human body is a vessel that just holds your divinity in form. Kristin's three practical non-negotiables for cultivating health & vitality. Hydration with electrolytes. More healthy fats instead of empty carbohydrates. And strength training, which she calls one of the most spiritual things you can do because it puts you fully into the present moment with your body. Simple, specific, and powerful for women leading big lives. Her simple morning rituals to resource yourself before the day takes over. One physical, one energetic. A 10 to 15 minute meditation in that in-between space when you're kind of awake but kind of asleep, followed by lemon water with electrolytes. The more complex they are, the less likely you are to follow-through. Start with simple, notice how good you feel, and expand from there. Why simplicity is the highest expression of self-love. Kristin's Gene Key 23 moves from the shadow of complexity to the gift of simplicity to the siddhi of quintessence. She is a living embodiment of cutting through the noise to what actually matters most, and her invitation is for us to do the same with our bodies. Meet Kristin Rowell Kristin Rowell is a business trial lawyer turned Functional Nutritional Therapist and Energy Healer and the Founder/CEO of Energetically Efficient™. She believes that each of us is responsible for taking control of our own health and longevity, and she firmly believes that doing so starts with tuning in and listening to the signals our bodies are always sending us. As a former high-stress business litigator turned health coach, Kristin serves what she calls the “old” her: high achieving, stressed-out professionals who desire to prioritize their health and wellness but need accountability and support from an expert. She is the “go-to health coach” for many successful executives around the country. Kristin's Gene Keys Illuminated In This Episode Gene Key 23 - Complexity → Simplicity → Quintessence Connect with Kristin Visit Kristin's website → energeticallyefficient.comFollow Kristin on Instagram → @kristin_rowell_Listen to The Energetically Efficient Show on Spotify or YouTubeWork with Kristin 1:1 → ApplicationLearn about Hot and Fit AF Over 40 → Join the waitlist Connect with Alexia Visit Alexia's website → alexiausgaard.comFollow Alexia on Instagram → @Alexia_usgaardExplore ILLUMINATE → 90-Minute Gene Keys Experience Loved this episode? Forward this to the woman who needs to hear that health doesn't have to be complicated. We're keeping it simple over here. I'd love to know what resonated with you most. Send me a DM or tag me on Instagram with your biggest takeaway, the practice you're going to start with, or the way you're ready to relate to your body differently. Let's elevate together, one intentional day at a time. With love & devotion, Alexia

    47. Aging in Crescendo: Health, Self-Love, and the Energetic Body with Kristin Rowell

About

Elevate Daily is the podcast where we explore the art of living and loving with intention, purpose, and radiant joy. Hosted by Alexia Usgaard, this show is your permission slip to unapologetically savor the beauty and richness of life. In each bi-weekly episode, we dive into modern rituals, self-leadership, and the transformative insights of the Gene Keys—designed to help you elevate your health, wealth, love, and leadership. Through a mix of solo episodes and interviews with thought leaders and visionaries, Elevate Daily offers personal insights, actionable practices, and inspiring conversations to reset your energy, ritualize your life, and recalibrate to your highest potential. Subscribe and join us on this journey of elevation, one intentional day at a time. https://www.instagram.com/alexia_usgaard https://www.alexiausgaard.com/

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