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168: Pitchfork Marketing & Ending the "Anti-Coach Era"

Courage & Clarity

Mon Dec 08 2025

Summary

Podcast Summary: Courage & Clarity

Episode 168: Pitchfork Marketing & Ending the "Anti-Coach Era"
Host: Steph Crowder
Air date: December 8, 2025

Episode Overview

In this powerful and unfiltered solo episode, Steph Crowder addresses a divisive trend in the online coaching and entrepreneur space, which she dubs "Pitchfork Marketing." She critically examines the recent surge in public call-outs—especially against high-earning women coaches—accusing them of being "scammers," "unethical," or "predatory." Steph reflects on the personal and industry-wide impacts of this phenomenon, connects it to larger societal patterns of policing women's ambition and success, and advocates for ethical women to take up space unapologetically. With tough love and clarity, Steph unpacks why this trend hurts women entrepreneurs and why it’s time to move past the "anti-coach era."

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Defining "Pitchfork Marketing"

[03:00] Steph introduces and defines the term:
- “Pitchfork Marketing is my catch all term for this trend of accusing every high earning woman ... in coaching of being a scammer or of being unethical.”
This strategy “creates distinction” by tearing others down rather than lifting oneself up or demonstrating unique value ([04:20]).

2. The "Anti-Coach Era" and Its Implications

Steph notes a multi-year trend online to “cancel” or “shame” coaches, particularly women, for charging high rates or achieving big successes.
She observes:
- "The bigger a coach gets, the more they're called a scammer...I'd love if somebody can think of someone who's a high profile, successful coach who isn't called a scammer by somebody." ([07:15])
This phenomenon keeps women "small, scared, and self-doubting”—especially those with integrity and bold ambitions ([05:10], [12:45]).

3. Pitchfork Marketing as an Attention Strategy

Steph analyzes how scam-calling operates less as a service and more as a marketing tactic:
- “Scam calling has become an attention strategy. . . What they're mostly trying to do is create distinction. . . But it's really a cheap strategy.” ([04:15])
Those who call out others as unethical almost inevitably are selling something themselves, positioning themselves as the "ethical" alternative ([08:00]).

4. Gendered Nature of Criticism

Steph points out the criticism falls disproportionately, if not exclusively, on women in coaching:
- "For some reason, it's always women... God forbid that a woman be so bold as to charge multiple six figures." ([09:10], [14:50])
She contrasts reactions to male entrepreneurs like Alex Hormozi versus high-earning women.

5. Personal Impact: Steph’s Story

Steph shares her own experience of internalizing anti-coach rhetoric, which led her to step back from her business out of fear of being “the bad coach”:
- “My fear of becoming the quote, unquote bad coach that the whole Internet would crucify made me so afraid that I decided to exit. Right? It cost me time, it cost me money, and it cost me my confidence.” ([13:32])
Self-doubt led her to shrink her ambitions and take on a “safe,” lower-paying job.

Notable Quote:

"Women internalize moral criticism really deeply. . . we’ve been taught to be the good girl, to not step out of line, to do what's right." ([15:10])

6. Consequences for Women Entrepreneurs

The cycle Steph outlines:
1. External criticism →
2. Self-doubt →
3. Shrinking ambitions (charging less or making less impact) →
4. Underrepresentation of women at the top ([15:30])
Harsh moral policing does not increase ethical coaching—it suppresses women’s reach and financial potential.

7. On Real Scams vs. Bold Pricing

Steph distinguishes honest coaching (with real results) from genuine scams:
- "If you sell something and then you ghost somebody ... that’s not what I’m talking about. . . What I am talking about is when a woman is bold enough... to charge high ticket for her IP, for her experience ... and people don’t bat an eye when men do it.” ([17:45])
Transparency in deliverables and results is key.

8. Signs of a Positive Shift

Recently, there has been some pushback against Pitchfork Marketing, with more people supporting or being inspired by women charging bold prices.
- “A lot of people are kind of clapping back at the initial descent of criticizing this woman who was charging this high ticket price.” ([22:00])
Steph is optimistic:
- "2026 could be the year where this, like, the jig is kind of up. Like, we've heard it, we're over it ... it's not gonna be effective." ([25:12])

9. Call to Action: Take Up Space Unapologetically

Steph urges listeners to:
- “Make it your career to be really good at your craft. … Stay in your lane.” ([24:40])
- Let adults make their own buying decisions.
- Don’t shrink to appease those not building what you’re building.
"Ethical, thoughtful women doing meaningful work in this world deserve to take up space, and I will die on that hill." ([29:10])

Memorable Quotes & Moments

On resisting the urge to shrink:
“Don't let Internet moral panic be the thing that keeps you from sharing your genius. You know yourself, you know your results that you help people get.” ([27:45])
On women and money:
“Women deserve to be unleashed. Not ethical, but broke. Not good, but quiet. Not safe, but small. And not making 80k because someone on the Internet said that expansion was harmful.” ([20:38])
On ambition and impact:
“You can want to make a lot of money for yourself, for your family ... and the money that you earn [can] be a reflection of how much impact you are creating.” ([21:22])
On Pitchfork Marketing as a dead-end:
“People who make it their entire career to spend lots of time tearing other people down... they will not last in the industry. I haven’t seen it.” ([23:20])

Timestamps for Key Segments

[01:51] – Introduction: Why Steph feels “fiery” and called to address this issue
[03:00] – What is “Pitchfork Marketing”? Definition and context
[06:38] – How moral panic is weaponized in the coaching industry
[09:10] – Gendered policing: High-earning women vs. men
[12:45] – The impact of anti-coach rhetoric: Steph’s personal story of self-doubt
[17:45] – Differentiating real scams from bold, transparent entrepreneurship
[22:00] – Emerging support for bold women: Signs the tide is turning
[24:40] – Direct advice: Focus on your craft and let others be
[27:45] – Pep talk: Don’t let moral panic shrink your dreams
[29:10] – Final rallying cry for women to take up space unapologetically

Episode Tone

Steph delivers this episode in her signature encouraging-yet-direct style, blending vulnerability with unapologetic advocacy. She is candid about her own journey, occasionally peppering in humor and gentle sarcasm, especially when discussing industry double standards.

Final Takeaway

The episode is a clarion call to ethical, ambitious women: refuse to shrink in the face of moralized Internet criticism. Instead, take up space, charge your worth, and trust in the value (and results) you provide. As we move into 2026, let’s make room for women to expand their impact—and earnings—with confidence and integrity.

For further discussion, Steph encourages listeners to DM her on social media (@heystephcrowder) or reply by email.

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Transcript

A (0:00)

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A (1:05)

Welcome to the Courage and Clarity podcast. I'm your host, Steph Crowder. I'm a former sales training director who's helped thousands of entrepreneurs earn a living doing something they love over the past 10 years. On your journey, you'll need the courage to be bold, to take risks, and to do what looks crazy on paper. You'll also need the clarity, the brass tax simple strategies that actually work. And on this podcast, we deliver both in equal measure. Oh, and by the way, we've got absolutely no time for bs, gross marketing tactics, or get rich quick schemes. Just sustainable business strategies for good humans with big dreams. If that sounds like you, you're in the right place. Let's go.

A (1:51)

Hello. Hello, my courageous listeners. Welcome to the podcast. I am so excited about today's episode. Pull up a chair. Let's get cozy. This one is maybe a little bit fiery, a little bit spicy. And yeah, if I'm being totally honest with you, I've been a little nervous to record this episode. But it's time. It is more than time. This is something I've been thinking about for a long time. Honestly, probably most of this year has been leading up to this moment where I want to dig deeper into a topic that I think is so important. I've been silently watching. Maybe not silently. I've been maybe talking to friends and trusted peers about my opinions on this matter. And I think it is High time for us to talk about this trend that I've been seeing that you all may have seen as well, and the implications of seeing this trend, participating in this trend, not calling this out for what it is. And what I'm talking about today is what I'm calling and I'll explain in a minute, but I'm calling it Pitchfork Marketing. You need to know about this. You need to be able to spot it when you see it so that you can understand it. And you really want to make sure you're not participating in it because as we will dig into, it's really not in your best interest as far as if you want to be successful and if you want more clients in 20, 26 and beyond, which I know if you listen to my podcast, you follow me, that's likely what you're here for is to learn how to be sold out. Learn how to get as many clients as you want and serve them. And serve them well. There has been this trend. Again, I'm calling it Pitchfork Marketing. And it's related to what I would consider the Anti Coach era. And I'm hopeful, I'm feeling hopeful as I record this episode. I've been observing some things recently that we might be nearing the end of the anti Coach era and I want to talk about why and why I'm in support of that and just kind of make my case for why. This rhetoric that I've been seeing passed around on the Internet, it's not new and it's probably not ever fully going away, but it's really important that we have this conversation. Okay? So Pitchfork Marketing is my catch all term for this trend of accusing every high earning woman. And by the way, it is always, it's always women. Okay? The trend of accusing every high earning woman in coaching of being a scammer or of being unethical. These are the top words. Scam, unethical. Oh, predatory. That's another fan favorite. Okay, and today we're going to go over what this is, what it looks like and why it keeps all people, but in particular women small. It keeps women small, scared and self doubting, especially high integrity women. Ironically. I am going to tell you about how I fell for this and how it cost me deeply. And I don't want any of you to go through the same thing. And so that's why I feel so compelled to talk about this more openly. And again, it is nerve wracking because part of me is like, I'm not trying to call in any trolls over here, but I'm willing to risk it in order to speak on it. Okay, so first of all, what I want to say is that scam calling has become an attention strategy. Okay. You might see this for some reason, I'm seeing it mostly on threads. It is definitely other places as well. And what that looks like is you'll see people tearing down other businesses, other coaches, and calling them unethical, calling them a scam. And what they're mostly trying to do is create distinction. I mean, this is something we teach in marketing. This is marketing 101. Is you want to differentiate yourself, right? Like, that part's good. But I can promise you, trying to. There are, I swear to you, there are better ways. So much better, like higher energy ways to differentiate yourself than having to tear other people down. It really is a cheap strategy. It's taking shots at other people and saying, well, this person or this type of coach is preying on people. And it's really turning them into the villain of the story. And there are people who have entire talk shows and podcasts and they spend a lot of their time and energy on calling, quote, unquote, calling out the industry. This is so.

A (6:38)

Like, layered. Because one of the. One of the interesting things about this is some of the people that you'll see doing this are so certain that they are the ones who are in integrity. They're here to warn you, right? They're here to help you from getting scammed. But what ends up happening as this really hit me, as I've been thinking about it this week, what they really end up saying if you go down the rabbit hole is that everyone else is unethical. But you can trust me, right? Like, and so what. What that ends up happening is they portray that as integrity, but really it's marketing. And in my opinion, what ends up happening is it's every bit. It's actually more predatory than the original topic of conversation. Right? Especially because what a lot of times folks are coming after is women daring to charge. High ticket women daring. It seems like the bigger a person, a big. The bigger a coach gets, the more they're called a scammer. There's literally. I don't know that there's, like, I'd love if somebody can think of someone who's a high profile, success, successful coach who isn't called a scammer by somebody who isn't called unethical. And so what's fascinating to me is we see this scam calling and then you see everybody saying, like, oh, yeah, that happened to me. Like, it Seems to attract this energy of victim mentality, right? Where it's like, oh, yeah, like I've been burned by that, by this coach too. Like, let me come over into your world person who's calling out the industry. And so what you've done is you've attracted people who have been burned and now you're gonna turn around and sell them something. Because I promise you, I will go sometimes and I'll look out of my own curiosity at people who are using these Pitchfork marketing strategies. And guess what? They have a website where they sell something, but they're the exception in their own mind from being a scam. Cause they're calling out how everybody else is a scam, but they're not a scam, right? And so this isn't even about, like any one particular person or any one particular platform at all. But if you have been on the same side of threads that I have been on recently, you might know and you might have seen that for me, like, what pushed me to finally actually talk about this more deeply is there is a woman on threads who mentioned that she charges $225,000 a year for coaching. I believe she charges corporations. And a lot of people have been up in arms about that, right? Like, coaching could never be worth amount of money. That's predatory. That's a scam. That's insert your word. And it's just really, this is kind of getting to the part I want to talk about with what we're actually doing with that. A lot of people have convinced themselves that they're protecting other people from the greed of the coaching industry. When really, if you think about it, we are just asking women to stay small. Like, God forbid, God forbid that a woman be so bold as to charge multiple six figures. God forbid that a woman be so certain and confident in her abilities. And this particular person, we've connected on threads since this happened. She's been doing the work that she does for like 20 years. Like, she's very credentialed. But God forbid that she, you know, have that level of confidence in herself to be able to say, the work that I do is worth $225,000, right? And what ends up happening when we see this and we call it out and we tear it down is women read it, internalize it, and then think to themselves, am I a scam? Like, any of you who consider yourself coaches, you probably see this happening to other people. You probably, if you're like, you have mentors that you look up to who have entire, like, message Boards dedicated to how much they're a scam. And when you look up to somebody who's getting that kind of hate, it's naturally gonna, maybe it's gonna tempt you to shrink down and it's gonna. What this does is it asks the question, how much can I charge where I can carve out a living for myself? But not so much that it upsets other people. Because I would never wann integrity, I would never want to create hardship for somebody else, I would never want to scam somebody, I would never want to be a predator, right? And what ends up happening is you then. So you shrink, you undercharge and you stop leading. So calling other people unethical, calling the coaching industry unethical, doesn't create more ethical coaching. It just makes everybody not realize their potential and create the impact that they actually could have with the genius in their brains, which is the entire like, that's my whole mission and the impact that I'm here to create is to help more brilliant people across many different industries disseminate a much as much of the information that they have in their beautiful brains as possible and to touch as many corners of the world. And that requires being big and bold and visibility, right? And I really want to share this personally because I have lived this and I know the cost, right? So I've shared this before in smaller circles. I don't know that I've. Maybe I've talked about it a little bit on the podcast, but truly we see this in waves. I think a few Years ago around 2020, there was a big. That was really the first time that I started to see a lot of like trying to cancel the coaching energy, coaching industry and energy. And I became very afraid of being swept up into that. I had a podcast, I had, you know, followers like I'd been in the industry for five years at that point and I, someone who considers myself a high integrity person who would never want to be a predator. I became very afraid of doing harm. I thought to myself, well, if that person's a scammer, like all of these big names, like they're a scam, then they're a scam and they're problematic and they're. And I remember thinking, well, if they are, then like maybe I am. What if, what if I'm selling something that's wrong? And my fear of becoming the quote, unquote bad coach that the whole Internet would crucify made me so afraid that I decided to exit. Right? It cost me time, it cost me money, and it Cost me my confidence. I believed those narratives. That fear really ate me alive. I did not want to go through that. And so when I had the opportunity to have a job that would earn me $80,000 a year, I thought, well, let me just take that, right? Like that felt safe. Then I couldn't get into trouble. And the truth is that kept me small. That kept me earning a relatively small amount of money comparative to my potential in this world when I could have been leading, right. I could have been creating more of an impact because of this story. And I think that the pattern that creates the most harm for women in this particular with this topic is first is the self doubt. Because here's the thing, women internalize moral criticism really deeply, right? We've many of us have been taught to be the good girl, to not step out of line, to do what's right. And so he seeing this is going to create for a lot of us self doubt. And self doubt leads to shrinking, which leads to undercharging, which leads to not leading, right? And so I think it's so important I want to be able to like, if I could speak on this and help even just one person avoid this same trap, then I think it's, it's worth me talking about because what ended up happening for me is I exited and then when I came back in is when I decided to become a certified life coach. And believe me, there, if you want to talk about like anti coach rhetoric, there's a lot of that aimed at the life coaching world. And I personally have gotten so much value from life coaching. I've gotten so much value out of being a client of life coaching. I've gotten so much value of earning my certification, which was not cheap and was an ama. I like would make that investment many times over. When I think about what I've gotten back from it, how much better of a coach I am. And I just remember the exact moment when I thought to myself, I even created a reel about it. Like way back, some of you may have seen it where there was like a trending audio at the time that was like switching sides. And when I had made my exit, I had thought like, oh yeah, yeah, no, coaching is like, coaching is bad. I don't want to be part of that. To then saying this is one of the biggest, best like things I've ever done for myself and for my brain, my thoughts, my happiness, my ownership over my life. Like you cannot tell me. I mean, listen, I am sure like what I should caveat this and say, like Certainly. I'm not saying that scams don't exist. I'm sure that they do. Like if you sell something and then you ghost somebody or you don't deliver or you don't actually have client results. That's not what I'm talking about. If you have been hanging out with me, you're one of my clients or you've been in my world, you know that one of the number one things I teach is client results. If you go on my website, you will see client go on my podcast. Client result after client result after client result. I see delivering client results as not just a nice to have. I see it as my responsibility. I see it as my report card. I am not here to say I'm not one of these coaches, if they even exist, who are like, well, if, you know, people get results or don't get results, like, that's kind of on them. I don't believe that I double down on creating client results and I teach my clients how to do the same. So that is not what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about actual scams. I'm aware that actual scams exist. What I am talking about is when a woman is bold enough, audacious enough, and brave enough to charge high ticket for her ip, for her experience, when a man will go and do it and people don't bat an eye, Alex Hormozi will go and, you know, have the webinar that sells the most books in an hour that's ever happened. And everybody's taking notes and then a woman does it and suddenly it's problematic and we just, again, it's. It is so internalized that we can only be so big. And it is my strong belief down to my bones that women deserve to be unleashed. Not ethical, but broke. Not good, but quiet, not safe, but small. And not making 80k because someone on the Internet said that expansion was harmful. Okay? You can want to make a lot of money for yourself, for your family, and you can desire to make a. Have your impact in this world. Be a reflection. Have the money that you earn be a reflection of how much impact you are creating. Right? I want women with real talent, ethics and heart to make lots of money unapologetically, just like a man. Okay? And so I just. And anyway, if we. If there's my rant. I knew it was going to be in here. If you kind of pay attention, if you know the trend I'm talking about. But again, you don't need to go looking for this trend on Threads because this happens every few months. There's like a big moment like this. But what I'm seeing that's been really encouraging to me is a lot of people are kind of clapping back at the initial descent of criticizing this woman who was charging this high ticket price. A lot of people are chiming in to be like, hey, like that inspired me, like maybe I'll have a six figure offer. Like maybe I could be that bold, right? And what I have seen is this anti coach, this original comment has kind of blown up in this person's face. Like I don't think it's effective but. And you know, another point that's been made that I very much agree with is this doesn't work long term. Okay? I have been in this industry long enough to tell you I've seen people who make it their entire career and they spend lots of time and energy tearing other people down. They will not be here, okay? They will not make it. They will not last in the industry. I haven't seen it. You know, they might have their moment of again attracting attention by name calling. But just like we teach our children, like that's not a strategy. Like, that's not a strategy that creates the energetics are not going to be in your favor. You could take that same energy and learn how to differentiate yourself not in your ability to call out other people. Please don't make it your career to call out other people. You're so much better than that. Make it your career to be really good at your craft. Every time I see a post like this, I'm like, wow, that person is taking time out of their day to criticize somebody else when they could be taking that same time and investing it in getting better. How about you become the best at your thing and stay in your lane? And the other thing is like for this woman who's charging 225k, like let adults make a decision about whether or not they want to buy something. I need. There's somebody, at least one person out there, probably multiple, that need to hear this. You putting your price out there and like sharing very transparently what people get when they put down that money. That's the thing is you have to be transparent about what they're going to get and then you have to deliver on it, right? Like, absolutely. But here's the thing. Making big promises means or like, you know, making bold, like claiming bold results means that you will help your clients get that bold result. Like that's what they actually want. Okay, but you, like sometimes I Think that by even daring to put your price out there, there's nothing unethical about that, right? There's. Don't let anybody tell you that it's not okay, that it makes you greedy, that it makes you anything to charge a high price for something people don't have to buy it. You're not holding the gun to anybody's head and saying, you have to buy this. And that's what I find so comical about this whole idea of calling anybody a scammer just for having the boldness to even try. Right? So when I see other creators speaking boldly, it gives me relief and excitement. And I also think that the tide might be turning. I don't think that there will ever truly be, like, a final. Unfortunately, I think to some degree, Pitchfork Marketing will be out there. But I think 2026 could be the year where this, like, the jig is kind of up. Like, we've heard it, we're over it. Like, it's. It's not gonna be effective. So if you're, you know, I doubt you are someone who participates in this if you're listening to this podcast, but when you see that, I want you to be able to call it out for what it is and be able to say, like, oh, that's just. That's little more than Pitchfork Marketing. Right? That's all this really is. And so, Please, let's let 2026 be the year that we stop telling women to stay small. Right? Don't let Internet moral panic be the thing that keeps you from sharing your genius. You know yourself, you know your results that you help people get. And if you want to get better at getting people results, that's great. Like, you should do that. Right? That's a huge. This is all dependent on having a program that actually benefits people. Like, that's a given. Okay? But don't let the panic keep you from sharing. Ethical, thoughtful women doing meaningful work in this world deserve to take up space, and I will die on that hill. Do not shrink to appease people who aren't even building what you're building. So little bit of a different episode than the normal CNC world. But I promised I would do more hot takes in 2026, and I'm getting an early start. So if you liked this episod, I hope you'll share it with someone. I hope you will let me know. You can message me on the socials I'm at. Hey, Steph Crowder, you can email me. You can reply to any of the emails that you receive. In your inbox from me if you're on my email list, what you think? Do you agree? Do you disagree? Let's discuss. All right, my friends, I'll see you next time. And until then, I'm wishing you the courage and the clarity to go after what you love.