PATREON PREVIEW: Sarah & Nippy Answer Your Questions

[00:00:00] This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be considered legal, medical or mental health advice. The views and opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the podcast and are not intended to malign any religion, group,

[00:00:12] club, organization, business, individual, anyone or anything. Sarah here. Here's a short preview of a bonus episode. You can hear the whole thing on Patreon and fun fact, every time someone joins our Patreon party, they get access to all new

[00:00:26] episodes ad free. See the show notes to learn more or go to patreon.com slash a little bit culty. This is from Emily Lynn Paulson, who wrote a book about her MLM experience called Hey Hun

[00:00:43] coming out in the spring. She said, was there anything culty about being on Glennon's podcast? For those who don't know, I was on We Can Do Hard Things, which was very exciting for me

[00:00:50] because I really like Glennon and Abby. But Emily says she has what so many people describe as a cult following. And I know many people who are into empowerment journeys are into her. She's

[00:00:58] somewhere on the culty slash girl power Venn diagram. And I agree. And this is something that we're constantly talking about in terms of what makes something culty. Culty in that people follow

[00:01:08] her and put her on a pedestal. Does she abuse her power? Not that I can see. Not that I can see. And of course, just because I can't see it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. But so far there's been no

[00:01:19] smoke or fires around Glennon and Abby. And I think that they're good people trying to do good things. And having a cult following is in and of itself a problem. It's just what people do

[00:01:28] with the power when they have a cult following. Would you agree or do you have anything to add to that? Yeah. TV shows have cult followings, right? And I think a broader question that might

[00:01:36] apply to this is how do people use content when they go on to look for a podcast or they go to the internet itself? Do you go to confirm your own belief system and then find a like-minded group

[00:01:49] in an echo chamber and bubble? They have their demographic and they have their lane. The same way we do in the cult space. If people want to come listen to our podcast because of our

[00:01:59] story and our wisdom, then maybe we've earned it in that regard. But how they get online and go search their content is something that it's difficult for us to be sensitive to. And if they

[00:02:10] have a little bit culty group following, I don't think it's any fault of their own in as much as they just produce a podcast that people like to listen to. Yeah. And like Steve Hassan says,

[00:02:19] what happens when you leave? If people from the pod squad don't listen to Glennon and Abby, are they going to be ostracized or shunned? I don't think so. Same thing with us. That's it. But that's a key factor there. OK, your turn, babe.

[00:02:31] Aaron's story. You both seem so well-adjusted and able to put your past cultiness in its rightful place. What has helped you the most? Being open and honest? Therapy? Talking to others who have been through it? Reading or something else entirely? I left a 19-year marriage that

[00:02:46] nearly killed me and practically robbed me of my soul. It's been seven years since I started the process of leaving. I have trouble opening up about it and have limited funds and time,

[00:02:55] which has made it hard to have consistent therapy. Your podcast and others have given me loads of golden nuggets and helped immensely. I'm wondering if you had to choose, say, your top three necessities for continued healing and progress, what would they be? I think, and this might be

[00:03:10] the subject of a second book, we're not sure yet. But I think for me, it's a combination. And this isn't a path for everybody. I think there's a lot of people who do better resolving things

[00:03:20] privately. For me, being public, especially because I was so loud as a recruiter, being open and honest, A, yes. Therapy, yes. And then I think just an intense amount of self-care, which encompasses a lot of things like, in self-care is walking in nature, hot baths, eating grounding

[00:03:41] foods, those things I find a big part of my healing process. It's not necessarily a specific thing. That's me trying to get six things on my top, instead of top three. How about you?

[00:03:54] It's case by case. For me, I found going to something that I was enjoyed and doing it intensely was good for me. That was sports, playing a lot of basketball and doing things

[00:04:06] that I otherwise didn't have a whole lot of time for and would've been doing anyway was good. But I think in terms of what works for me or giving you a process, I read a lot too. That helped. And

[00:04:18] I listened to other stories. And ultimately I gave myself permission to feel the way I felt. But I think you got to go figure that out. And if you have time to go figure that out,

[00:04:29] do things you like and do them intensely is one way to do it, I think. That's good advice. And then also, I had a tendency to go a little harder myself. And I was less judgmental that,

[00:04:42] and I decided to go harder on myself and figure out what was it that got me into this situation? How did you choose it? If you can trace it back to that point, figure out what it was that

[00:04:55] inspired your decision, that cause that led to this, and get okay with it. And then extract the wisdom from that bad choice. And I put bad in air quotes around it because it led you to this

[00:05:08] point. That I think is the origin or what was it, the interview we just had, the source of it. And then sitting there and figuring it out and playing with it until it's gone. And it's a process.

[00:05:19] Just to break it up a little bit, something less serious from Christine and Steve Pitsley, non-Nexium question, could be considered culty by non-sports fans. Hubby and I are huge sports fans, want to know how the Cougars football season ended and what sports next?

[00:05:33] Oh, I saw that. We went out of town for a week upstate for a wedding, Troy missed the practice and he came back and there was a certain part of the offense that had been replaced

[00:05:43] that he was throwing in. And he was like, dad, how come I'm not throwing it? And I said, part of me was pissed it happened, but I was like, you know what? If he enjoys it,

[00:05:50] he enjoys it. And I said, well, you got to be so good they can't not use you. And so I watched him get bothered by something that he wanted not happening. And you saw it,

[00:06:00] Sarah, had a ball, he carried it everywhere with him and wanted to throw with me to the point where I was like, you know, stop. And sure enough, they knew he could throw it and they wanted to work

[00:06:11] them in the offense. And then they did and he got in there and just started slinging it. They ended up losing to the team that won it, which was like, had eight dads and was like,

[00:06:22] it was like the cliche dad who takes it too seriously thing. And the team steamrolled a lot of people, but Troy went in there and took him down the field on one drive through three

[00:06:33] passes and then hit on like a fourth and 15 bomb for a touchdown. And I was like, I don't care what happens at this point. This is great. Just only because of what he overcame in his own mind.

[00:06:42] Needless to say, I learned a lot watching Nippy and Troy really embrace this new part of our lives. I was also very relieved when it was over, because it was a big time commitment, but now we're doing basketball and we'll update you guys for those who care.

[00:06:58] Well, he won his game last night. He won his second game. He was, yeah, they went 14 to 10. He's having fun. Basketball is better because I'm less involved. It's also less intense. It's less intense too. Football is serious down here. Well, football is also an intense sport.

[00:07:11] I'm struggling with my relationship to football. I'm not going to lie. We might do an episode on the culty aspects of football down the road, but not now. I think you just turn on your television on Saturday afternoon in any state and you'll

[00:07:22] see the culty aspect of football. Anyway, so we're onto basketball and it's fun. Okay.