Left Standing

A peek behind-the-scenes of how I launch

Hello dear ones, I get asked constantly whether people are still buying coaching in 2026. And I have thoughts. A lot of them. Including actual numbers from my business, which I am going to share with you because I think you deserve to make decisions based on real data and not vibes (though personally I have wasted a lot of money buying because of vibes…). This episode is a sneak peek behind the strategy I use to launch — not the inspirational version, the actual version. What I spend on ads, what my conversion rate is, why my October launch made $30k instead of $50k and what I did about it, and the behind-the-scenes of an $108k month in February. Here is what we get into: The real math. 650 webinar signups, $2,500 in ads, an 8% conversion rate, a $108k month. What all of that actually means and why you can’t just copy the numbers without understanding the system underneath them. Why ads will not save you if your organic marketing isn’t already working. I know that’s not what you want to hear. I’m telling you anyway. Why free calls are basically dead as a lead gen strategy in 2026 and what actually works instead. The meta thing I do when I teach a webinar that most coaches never figure out — which is that I’m selling the entire time and it doesn’t feel gross, and that is not an accident, and you can learn how to do it. What happened to my October launch when someone threatened to sue me over my podcast name in the middle of open cart, got it deleted from the internet, and how I made the revenue back anyway. Why entrepreneurship is a gamble no matter how long you’ve been doing it — and what it actually feels like from the inside when you’ve been at it long enough to stop fully panicking about that. Feminist Business Framework is open now [https://carakovacs.com/business-witch]. This is the last round at this price — it increases permanently after this cohort. Doors close May 20. 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 [https://carakovacs.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

A Woman In A Male Dominated Industry, AI and her first 5-figure launch

Stacey Champagne [https://www.secureherfuture.com] is a cybersecurity executive, an insider risk specialist, and the founder of Women’s Cybersecurity Alliance — a private network built for experienced women in cyber who are done being the most qualified person in the room and somehow still getting passed over for the next thing. She joined the Feminist Business Framework [https://carakovacs.com/business-witch] in September 2025, became a 1:1 client, and had her first five-figure launch in March 2026. This episode is her telling you exactly what that journey looked like from the inside. Some of what she said that I’m still thinking about: She originally underpriced her offers because of the feedback you may have gotten, too (someone insinuating they were “too high”). The low prices felt safe. What she didn’t realize until we worked through it together was that the low prices were building the wrong room — attracting people whose values weren’t aligned with hers, who had opinions about what she should be charging, who were never going to be her people. The moment she priced for who she actually wanted to work with, those people showed up. Immediately. She also talked about the days mid-launch where nothing was happening. No sales, just silence, and a completely relatable inner dialogue of “what if nobody buys.” I told her what I tell everyone: people buy on the last day, often in the last hour, but there is no fix for normal feelings. And then the launch closed and she had her first five figures. We got into the coaching industry, specifically the gap between what ICF certification programs teach you — essentially, ask good questions and never share your own experience or expertise — and what people actually need when they hire a coach. Stacey is a coach herself and came into the Feminist Business Framework partly to learn the tactical stuff nobody had given her, and partly, in her words, to watch how I sell so she could understand it from the inside. That part of the conversation is worth the listen if you have ever felt like the business side of your practice is a language you were never taught to speak. She is also a decade deep in cybersecurity and has things to say about using AI tools as an entrepreneur that are not scary and not hype — just: here is what you are actually opting into by default, here is why clicking allow all is the kind of decision that feels fine until it isn’t, and here is why the idea that women are behind on AI might be less of a data point and more of a narrative someone is running on purpose. Stacey is brilliant, honest, and very funny. This is a good one. If you want to get into the work that took her from underpricing to a five-figure launch, I’m hosting a free workshop next week. Details here. [https://carakovacs.mykajabi.com/burn-it-down-and-build-it-better-2026] 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 [https://carakovacs.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

Leah Gervais on Passive Income, Pragmatism, and the Part of Business Nobody Warns You About

Leah Gervais [https://leahgervais.com] has built close to $4 million in revenue all while being the stay-at-home-parent of two kids under five in New York City. She is strategic, pragmatic, and genuinely one of the most generous people I know. She showed up in a big way the morning my grandmother died and didn’t ask a single question. That’s the kind of person she is. In this episode we get into the mechanics of scaling: * What it actually looks like when you decide to go from $50k months to $65k months. * Why the first thing you often have to do to scale is spend more money * How to tell the difference between a business decision that needs data and one that just needs you to trust yourself. * Leah shares what her top five lead generation sources actually are right now (freebies didn’t make the list — listen before you panic) * And, why webinars aren’t dead, they’re just slower than they used to be. We also talk about something that I think will land differently depending on who you are and where you’re coming from: the tension between holding a structural critique of the system you’re building inside of, and actually building inside it anyway. Leah and I are not identical in how we hold that tension. She is pragmatic in a way I deeply respect and occasionally push back on. I carry more of the systemic weight in how I frame this work, in part because of the specific clients I serve and in part because of my own lived experience as a disabled person who built this business because I needed to, not because it sounded freeing. We don’t resolve the tension neatly. I don’t think it can be resolved neatly. But I think it’s one of the more honest conversations I’ve had on this podcast about what it actually means to build a values-aligned business inside a system that was not built for most of us. If you have found yourself stuck between your politics and your pragmatism — or between your grief about the system and your need to build inside it anyway — this one is for you. Leah Gervais is a business and marketing mentor based in New York City. Find her at leahgervais.com [http://leahgervais.com/] and on Instagram. 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 [https://carakovacs.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

Grief, Work, and the Performance of Being Okay

This episode is a continuation of my last post [https://open.substack.com/pub/carakovacs/p/the-groundhogs-day-of-grief?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=post%20viewer]—about grief, work, and what it means to keep showing up inside a system that doesn’t pause when things fall apart. Today, I’m speaking more directly about the tension I think so many of us are quietly holding: What it means to be a human being living through real pain… while also being someone who is expected to function, produce, lead, and show up. (Also show up for who? For our community, for ourselves, for the capitalist?) We’re living in a time where grief is not rare. It’s not exceptional.It’s ambient. It’s layered. It’s ongoing. And yet, most of us have never been taught: * what grief actually does to the body (I think this and classes on how to have hard conversations and do your taxes would have been more relevant than say, geometry…) * why your capacity changes when you’re in it (from a biological perspective) * how to navigate work, relationships, and visibility while your internal world is fundamentally altered (as it would be, of course, if something traumatic happened to you) So instead, we make it mean something about us. That we’re less disciplined.Less focused.Lazy, even. What if nothing is wrong with you? What if the exhaustion, the brain fog, the emotional volatility, the desire to pull back—or the need to keep going—are not personal failures, but biological and psychological responses to what you’re carrying? I also talk about something I don’t think we name enough: The way capitalism—and more specifically the attention economy—intensifies our experience of grief. Not just because we’re expected to keep producing,but because we’re continuously exposed to crisis, trauma, and information in a way no human nervous system was designed to process. So we’re not just grieving our own lives. We’re absorbing the world. And then asking ourselves why we can’t focus. This is not an episode about doing grief perfectly. It’s about removing the expectation that you should. If you’re in a season where things feel heavy—personally, collectively, or both—this episode is for you. 🤍 A Note You don’t owe anyone a perfectly articulated explanation of what you’re going through. You don’t have to perform being okay. And you are allowed to both: * need support * and continue showing up in ways that feel sustainable Those things are not in conflict. 🔗 Sources & Research Mentioned * Stahl, S. T., et al. (2019). [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31023129/]Bereavement leave and its impact on employees. [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31023129/] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31023129/ * National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (2022). [https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12841508/]Impact of repeated exposure to trauma and stress. [https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12841508/] * NBC News – [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEcaUhxAH2g]Your Brain on Grief [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEcaUhxAH2g] (video segment on neurological effects of grief) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEcaUhxAH2g] * Reuters (2026). [https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/journalism-media-and-technology-trends-and-predictions-2026]Attention economy, infinite scroll, and user engagement research [https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/journalism-media-and-technology-trends-and-predictions-2026] 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 [https://carakovacs.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

Magic Is Everywhere with Xenia Viray

This week’s episode is a conversation with Xenia Marie Ross Viray [https://substack.com/profile/9894188-xenia-marie-ross-viray], who is the creator of the platform and iterations of Myths of Creation, [https://mythsofcreation.com] an interdisciplinary artist who—quite literally—gets paid to be herself. Not in a “personal brand” way. In a devotional to creativity, consciousness, and resonance kind of way. We talk about what it actually looks like to build a body of work—and a business—without contorting yourself for the algorithm. Inside the episode: * Why your “content” might actually be your laboratory, not your marketing * The difference between authenticity and unmasking (and why one of them is much scarier) * How trying to “perform for the algorithm” quietly erodes the very thing that makes people choose you * What it means to create from resonance instead of strategy—and then translate it into something people can understand * The trap of constant visibility, especially now We also go deeper than business. Into the emotional, political, and psychological reality of being online right now: * The dissonance of building a business on social media while being harmed by it * What it means to be a sensitive, creative person in a time of constant crisis and information overload * How algorithms fracture reality—and why it’s getting harder to actually talk to each other * The grief of losing intergenerational understanding (and the question: where are our elders?) And then—because we can’t not—we go cosmic. We talk about: * Creativity as a portal for new consciousness * Art, music, and even the Olympics as evidence that joy and expression can shift collective energy * The idea that we’re not just resisting broken systems—we’re being asked to create entirely new ones One of the most grounding threads throughout the conversation: You don’t have to do it all the same way. Some people are here to resist.Some are here to rebel.Some are here to create. Most of us are doing all three—just in different proportions, at different times. And none of those roles are more valuable than the others. If you’ve been feeling: * burnt out by social media * confused about what to share (or whether to share at all) * caught between wanting to grow your business and wanting to opt out of the noise * or quietly craving a more human, more magical way of moving through your work this episode will meet you there. Not with a formula. But with a reorientation back to yourself. PS. At the end of this episode I got a push notification that reminded me it was recorded on my grandfather’s birthday. When you get to the end, you’ll be glad I mentioned that. 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 [https://carakovacs.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]