Left Standing

• Is Coaching A Cult?

  On this episode of Left Standing we explore the topic of life coaching as a cult.If you follow me on Instagram, you know this is one of my favorite things to talk about/poke fun at. For example…I love critiquing the coaching industry, partially because I think it is necessary (we need people to educate from within our space) and partially because as a woo-loving, astrology-obsessed millennial in Los Angeles, one of my insecurities is that people think I am like these folks. So, I attempt to make it abundantly clear I am not by being the vocal example of a coach who knows there’s some sketchy shit in our industry…and that this is not that.So many of my clients feel cringe about calling themselves coaches…and I think that is the fault of the co-opting of this word for bad faith business practices that give our business a bad rep…not because there is anything bad about coaching.In this episode I attempt to distinguish between trauma-informed, ethical coaching and some weird ass shit people have commodified under the moniker of “coach”.I would LOVE to hear your thoughts…because this is a controversial topic and deeply personal to the lived experience of those of us who have been swindled (hello!).Also, the word “cult” doesn’t have a well-defined scope. It is sort of subjective what a cult is…see this episode’s cited resources for more information on this.Which is why I would love to have an open dialogue with folks! Tag me in your thoughts!If you want non-cult, trauma-informed, ethical coaching tools, you can sign up for free emails and get an ethical sales guide here.Cited Resources:BBC — Life Coaching Industry BoomA data-driven look at the rapid growth, lack of regulation, and financial stakes of the coaching industry.https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20230418-life-coach-self-help-industry-growthNew York Times — “They Spent Their Life Savings on Life Coaching”An investigation into predatory sales tactics, high-pressure upsells, and financial exploitation in popular coaching programs.https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/02/business/life-coach-debt-savings.htmlThe Guardian — Lighthouse Coaching Group ShutdownReporting on the closure of Lighthouse after allegations of isolation, coercion, and financial pressure on members.https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/mar/11/lighthouse-global-life-coaching-group-ordered-to-close-cultU.S. Department of Justice — Nxivm Conviction SummaryOfficial documentation of the criminal case against the founder of Nxivm, originally marketed as an executive success coaching program.https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/leader-nxivm-sex-cult-sentenced-120-years-imprisonmentInc. Magazine — “The Cult Language Coursing Through Business”An analysis of cult-adjacent messaging, aspirational manipulation, and the rise of unregulated coaching culture.https://www.inc.com/sam-blum/the-cult-like-language-thats-coursing-through-business.htmlBritannica — Definitions & Characteristics of CultsA scholarly overview of what constitutes a cult and the key behaviors associated with high-control groups.https://www.britannica.com/topic/cult This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit carakovacs.substack.com/subscribe

  --------  

  52:41

  --------

  52:41
• Kate Belew is The Word Witch

  Kate Belew and I met in July of 2018 on Governors Island in New York City. We were both members of The Poetry Brothel-an immersive art, esoteric, and burlesque production that still exists internationally today. Kate, a poet in the show, and me the card reader for the brothel’s monthly productions.I was just starting my business and Kate was doing social media consulting for a witchy shop we both frequented in lower Manhattan. All these years later I wanted to celebrate the launch of Kate’s second book Word Witch with an episode where we get into our favorite ritual magick! As Kate’s first business coach when she decided to go out on her own all this years ago—Kate was int he very first round of my mastermind—it is so exciting to get to watch the iterations of her work. From co-conspirators as “poetry whores” in the brothel to badass business owners and friends, our journey is one I cherish!I hope you love this episode! Guest episodes are always my favorite (because I don’t have to research anything and I just get to talk to cool people!)Follow Kate on Substack and InstagramBuy Word WitchAs a reminder, guest and feminist exploratory episodes are free of charge. To get mini-lessons (and to support a small, women-owned business!) consider becoming a paid subscriber (some archived episodes with Kate are also available with your subscription!) This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit carakovacs.substack.com/subscribe

  --------  

  47:57

  --------

  47:57
• Everything Sucks And You Can Still Make Money Right Now

  In a world of wild contradictions multiple truths I hold as a feminist business owner who hates, but wants to thrive in spite of late-stage capitalism include:* It is insane that we have to work to make money to live in a culture that doesn’t even afford many people basic needs AND there is no one more deserving of being paid for their labor than feminist care workers.* I have resented having to work in my business during personal tragedy, but have had no choice because of capitalism AND I am deeply grateful/privileged to make a high salary doing meaningful work with people I respect and admire.* It feels bizarre to have to advertise on platforms that support authoritarianism and the destruction of the environment AND I know so many of my friends, collaborators, peers and mentors exclusively thanks to social media…* People are facing extreme economic hardship due to unfair and unsustainable rising costs AND I am unapologetically having my second highest year in business, with my eye on funding my mother’s retirement even in a broken economic system.* The online services industry has changed dramatically as people require more trust building to invest than ever before AND I think this is a good thing—even though it makes selling harder—because we should have to earn people’s trust in an industry that has abused it.In our first mini-business episode, I share about these contradictions and how to make money anyway. Both because we need to AND because we get to do the work we love as we do it. It is a mind fuck and having conflicting feelings about that makes sense.A regulated nervous system is your most important tool for making decisions in this moment from the headspace of a CEO—which is what you are at work, not your inner child, anxious self saboteur, or procrastinating perfectionist. On November 18 for $33 I am teaching a workshop called Regulate to Rise which will both regulate your nervous system and give you my favorite tools I use both with clients and for myself to come to the work from CEO headspace while protecting and honoring all of our parts in times such as these. 1/2 the proceeds will be donated.Additionally, when you subscribe to this space you get access to all archived episodes and once-a-month mini business lessons like this one. Please note this is the only mini business lesson that will be free. To continue to access this kind of content, please consider becoming a paying subscriber and supporting a small woman-owned business. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit carakovacs.substack.com/subscribe

  --------  

  19:17

  --------

  19:17
• West End Girl and the Women Left Standing

  Lily Allen’s viral new album, West End Girl, digs deep. It catalogs the unraveling of her marriage and the deeper pain that lives between the lines of her lyrical prose. This isn’t tabloid fodder—it’s what Pitchfork called her most “brutally candid” work, a rare space where a woman can hold an abuser, a system, and her own art in the same frame.While Allen insists the record is “fictionalized,” it’s unmistakably laced with real life—even with the unavoidable layer of my own parasocial projection. The title track name-drops the couple’s designer—“Found ourselves a good mortgage / Billy Cotton got sorted”—a pointed nod to their now-infamous Architectural Digest home tour, which, in hindsight, aged about as gracefully as Harbour’s opening “bit,” greeting the camera crew like a mistress at the door. (Iconic, for all the wrong reasons…and very worth the watch. Psst. All relevant links are down at the bottom!)With almost no pre-launch marketing, the album shot up the charts, hailed by Variety, The New Yorker, and countless fans as her best work yet. (Personally, I’ve been devoted since her early-2000s protest anthem “Fuck You,” written about George W. Bush.) Still, West End Girl took over my social feed overnight. Yours too, maybe? This is because it touches something deeper than celebrity gossip or divorce voyeurism.Those of us who have spent years minimizing our needs, over-explaining our emotions in an attempt to have them recognized, or trying to contort ourselves into palatable versions of dominant cultural scripts feel a shock of recognition in every song. Allen articulates the quiet grief of being gas-lit into gratitude for crumbs.West End Girl isn’t just about Lily Allen and David Harbour—it’s about the way patriarchy teaches women to negotiate with our own erasure to serve the agenda of systems of oppression. She’s writing from the same ache that so many of us have been metabolizing privately for generations: the manipulation, the gaslighting, the subtle minimizations that we stomach under the guise of love in an attempt to find it/have it/keep it.And that’s exactly what the cultural moment is naming out loud. As Vogue recently asked in its viral essay, “Is It Embarrassing to Have Boyfriends Now?”, there’s a growing recognition that heterosexual love has long demanded women trade dignity for proximity. Asa Serasin even coined a word for this in 2019—heterofatalism, or the idea that heterosexual relationships are doomed to fail, because women are too often expected to shrink our brilliance, temper our boundaries, and laugh off harm to keep men comfortable.Enter Left Standing: The PodcastI actually recorded the first episode of my new podcast, Left Standing, before West End Girl dropped—but they’re part of the same conversation, and I knew I had to discuss them as such.The show is about the reclamation of our narratives: the language, myths, and cultural scripts that have been rewritten and manipulated to serve the false ideals of systems of oppression. In episode one we will trace the etymology of words like gossip (originally meaning “god-sib,” a woman who stands by you in difficult times), and hysteria (from hystera, the womb). We will also discuss the way in which patriarchy rewrites myth, starting with my favorite goddess, the true, often-erased story of Medusa—a survivor punished for being violated.The first episode unpacks these histories and the lineage of tone-policing that still shapes how we hear women like Lily Allen: as “dramatic,” “unladylike,” or “sharing too much.” In it, I quote Melissa' Febos’ book Body Work: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative. She writes:Listen to me: It is not gauche to write about trauma. It is subversive. The stigma of victimhood is a timeworn tool of oppressive powers to gaslight the people they subjugate into believing that by naming their disempowerment they are being dramatic, whining, attention-grabbing, or else beating a dead horse. By convincing us to police our own and one another’s stories, they have enlisted us in the project of our own continued disempowerment.Because when survivors tell the truth, someone will call it embarrassing, dramatic, attention-grabbing, unnecessary, not lady-like, or a lie.And every time we tell it anyway, we reclaims our power—and gives others permission to do the same.As this is our first episode, your shares, comments, likes and subscribes mean OH SO much to me!Details and resources below!Thank you Jacquline Burtney for designing this! If you want to know why we went in this direction—listen to the episode for the feminist story of the iconic Medusa!Housekeeping Notes:* What happened to Business Witch? Well…a random woman who said she owned the trademark for “The Business Witch” demanded I rebrand. In lieu of litigating over the matter, I did. And I like this title way better…what about you? That being said, our old episodes have been archived and are available on this platform for paid subscribers only. Additionally, I’ll be releasing a mini business lesson in the form of a podcast once per month. To access this content, you also must be a paid subscriber. As a thank you for subscribing, if you join at the annual level you’ll get access to my upcoming nervous system regulation class, Regulate To Rise happening on November 18. If you subscribe as “A Real Witch” you’ll be entered to win free birth chart readings with me 2x a year PLUS all other paid subscriber benefits. This community space is subscriber-supported. To get access to archived content and exclusive business lessons, upgrade your subscription.* What does this mean for Business Witch: The Course? It will henceforth be known as The Feminist Business Framework. It relaunches in early 2026 and will be getting a make over! I’ll be updating all course material, adding a module on Launching, and generally making the entire thing even better. When you Subscribe to this space, not only will you get access to old and archived episodes, you’ll get first access to the re-launch and the ability to apply the cost of your Substack subscription to your course enrollment fee. Join the waitlist here.Resources mentioned in this episode:Melissa Febos’ Body Work: The Radical Power of Personal NarrativeThe Feminist Origins of Gossip by Ashley D’ArcyThe History of Hysteria by Ada McVeanDemetra George’s Mysteries of the Dark MoonVogue Is Having A Boyfriend Embarrassing NowLily Allen’s AD Home TourLily Allen’s West End GirlNew York Magazine: The Trouble With Wanting MenGo deeper with me…I have a few spots left for birth chart readings for the year. If you want to see where Medusa, or other such goddesses live in your chart, grab a spot before they sell out!I’ll be running a special on intensives for coaching for Black Friday—there are limited spots…if you want to grab one before they go live, message me.I am so curious if you have a personal goddess of resonance…let me know if a story has spoken to/through you!What is your favorite track on West End Girl? Comment and let me know! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit carakovacs.substack.com/subscribe

  --------  

  36:26

  --------

  36:26
• How I Help New Business Owners

  Ever wonder why your certification didn't come with a manual on how to actually get clients? In this episode, Cara gets real about the profound gap between being a gifted practitioner and a successful business owner. She explains why most certification programs fail to teach the crucial arts of marketing and selling, leaving mission-driven entrepreneurs feeling lost and disheartened.The Feminist Business Framework:Tired of hustle culture? Learn how to build an ethical, impactful business that supports you without causing burnout. Join The Feminist Business Framework, a free, live Zoom workshop on October 7th and 8th from 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM PST / 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM EST. Book your space here. Business Witch The Course: This episode is brought to you by⁠⁠ Business Witch The Course⁠⁠Additional Resources:⁠⁠Learn about working with me and subscribe for business tips.⁠⁠⁠⁠Apply to be a 1:1 client.⁠⁠Follow me on Instagram!⁠

  --------  

  26:25

  --------

  26:25

More Business podcasts

Trending Business podcasts

About Left Standing

Left Standing: Podcasts in Family