COACHED with Coach Keren

In this very special episode of Coached, host Coach Keren Eldad shares something she's never done before: the complete first chapter of her brand new book, Gilt Free: Ditching Your Gilded Cage for Good.
This isn't a summary. This isn't a teaser clip. This is the real beginning.
Chapter 1, "Debunking the Great Folly," is the moment where everything starts to shift - where we finally tell the truth about what isn't working and begin to understand why. If you've ever felt the quiet friction of a life that looks successful on paper but doesn't quite feel like yours, this chapter was written for you.

In This Episode
The Gilded Cage revisited - Keren's first book, GILDED, named the phenomenon: a life that looks good but doesn't feel good – and was about breaking free of that “gilded cage” resulting from a life of Ambition, Perfectionism and a Relentless Pursuit. Gilt Free answers the harder question: how do you actually STAY out?
Chapter 1 in full - "Debunking the Great Folly," read by Coach Keren, unedited and unabridged
The questions at the heart of this work:
Why do I stop circling the same patterns, even when I "know better"?
How do I begin to identify what is happening – so I can stop rebuilding shinier versions of the same cage?
Why should I aim at building a life that not only looks good - but feels genuine? What’s the payoff?

About the Book
Gilt Free: Ditching Your Gilded Cage for Good is Coach Keren Eldad's second book - and a direct answer to the question her highest-performing clients have been asking for years.
It's not about insight alone. It's about transformation: releasing the patterns, identities, and attachments that keep you circling — and stepping into a way of operating that is grounded, open, alive, and deeply self-trusting.

📖 Available now on Amazon and wherever books are sold. Find it here → Gilt Free: Ditching Your Gilded Cage for Good.

Book a Free Consult With Coach Keren
Ready to take this work even further? Book a complimentary 30-minute consultation — just you, just Keren.
📅 Book your session → calendly.com/KerenEldad

Don't Miss an Episode
Subscribe to Coached on your favorite podcast platform and leave a review if today's episode resonated with you.
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/coached-with-coach-keren/id1467079024
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@kereneldad2960
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/770Q1dwdX3CsTvTEziX3Al

Coached is hosted by Coach Keren Eldad. New episodes drop each week.

In this very special episode of Coached, host Coach Keren Eldad shares something she's never done before: the complete first chapter of her brand new book, Gilt Free: Ditching Your Gilded Cage for Good.
This isn't a summary. This isn't a teaser clip. This is the real beginning.
Chapter 1, "Debunking the Great Folly," is the moment where everything starts to shift - where we finally tell the truth about what isn't working and begin to understand why. If you've ever felt the quiet friction of a life that looks successful on paper but doesn't quite feel like yours, this chapter was written for you.

In This Episode
The Gilded Cage revisited - Keren's first book, GILDED, named the phenomenon: a life that looks good but doesn't feel good – and was about breaking free of that “gilded cage” resulting from a life of Ambition, Perfectionism and a Relentless Pursuit. Gilt Free answers the harder question: how do you actually STAY out?
Chapter 1 in full - "Debunking the Great Folly," read by Coach Keren, unedited and unabridged
The questions at the heart of this work:
Why do I stop circling the same patterns, even when I "know better"?
How do I begin to identify what is happening – so I can stop rebuilding shinier versions of the same cage?
Why should I aim at building a life that not only looks good - but feels genuine? What’s the payoff?

About the Book
Gilt Free: Ditching Your Gilded Cage for Good is Coach Keren Eldad's second book - and a direct answer to the question her highest-performing clients have been asking for years.
It's not about insight alone. It's about transformation: releasing the patterns, identities, and attachments that keep you circling — and stepping into a way of operating that is grounded, open, alive, and deeply self-trusting.

📖 Available now on Amazon and wherever books are sold. Find it here →
https://www.amazon.com/Gilt-Free-Ditching-Your-Gilded/dp/B0GY5ZNHPK/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3CMVEU61MMU95&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.O8lznFRgSVPGPq0ECJz4zun5BsfHCEFaTuoRaiyatFpvFU34v0eIFyL_YOOyTXgr.94FqKntWfsk2BMS0w93GQ5b661aq4XT6qPwb5y3-JwQ&dib_tag=se&keywords=gilt+free+keren+eldad&qid=1779317315&sprefix=gilt+free%2Caps%2C222&sr=8-1

Book a Free Consult With Coach Keren
Ready to take this work even further? Book a complimentary 30-minute consultation — just you, just Keren.
📅 Book your session → calendly.com/KerenEldad

Don't Miss an Episode
Subscribe to Coached on your favorite podcast platform and leave a review if today's episode resonated with you.
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/coached-with-coach-keren/id1467079024
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@kereneldad2960
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/770Q1dwdX3CsTvTEziX3Al

Coached is hosted by Coach Keren Eldad. New episodes drop each week.

What if the patterns you keep trying to escape are patterns some unconscious part of you is still invested in?
In this provocative and deeply philosophical episode of Coached with Coach Keren, Coach Keren Eldad sits down with Carolyn Elliott for a conversation about shadow work, suffering, individuation, spirituality, power, and the unconscious pleasures hidden beneath human behavior.
Carolyn - bestselling author of Existential Kink and founder of Immortal College - shares the personal experiences that led her to develop one of the most confronting frameworks in modern personal development: the idea that we may unconsciously derive pleasure from the very situations we consciously reject.
Together, Keren and Carolyn explore the relationship between shadow integration and freedom, why high achievers often remain trapped in repetitive cycles, and how true transformation begins when we stop performing healing and start telling the truth.
In this episode:
What “existential kink” actually means
Why the unconscious creates recurring life patterns
The hidden pleasure inside suffering, struggle, and martyrdom
Carolyn’s journey through addiction, recovery, and depth psychology
Why many people use spirituality as another achievement identity
The difference between performative healing and true integration
The role of humility, groundedness, and honesty in real growth
The connection between suffering and awakening
The danger of bypassing discomfort in coaching and personal growth
Why freedom often begins by embracing the parts of ourselves we fear most

Mentioned in the episode:
Existential Kink by Carolyn Elliott
Awaken Your Genius by Carolyn Elliott
Answer to Job by Carl G Jung
The Way of Integrity by Martha Beck
Kabbalah (Kabbalah.com), individuation, and mystical Christianity

Connect with Carolyn Elliott:
ExistentialKink.com
Immortal College

If this episode resonated with you, share it with someone who is ready to stop running from themselves — and start becoming whole.
Mentioned in this episode:
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What if the reason your success hasn't landed isn't a strategy problem — but a resonance problem? In this episode of the Coaching Masters Series, Coach Keren sits down with Michael Trainor, the cultural architect and teacher who co-created Global Citizen, bringing Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Coldplay, and 70,000 change-makers together in Central Park to raise over $40 billion for programs fighting extreme poverty. Then, at the height of his momentum, his father's illness called him toward something deeper — and he walked away from all of it.
What followed was five years in the proverbial cave, emerging with his book Resonance and a framework for a question that is more urgent than ever: in a world more connected than ever, why do so many of us feel profoundly alone? And what does it actually take to find your song, your band, and the people you're meant to play with?
This is one of the most wide-ranging, soul-stirring conversations in the Coaching Masters Series — touching neuroscience, ancient wisdom, the Beatles, the Dalai Lama, Global Citizen, AI, and the revolutionary act of simply being in tune with yourself.

KEY TAKEAWAYS
Resonance, not effort, is the real multiplier. Achievement and fulfillment are not the same thing. Chasing output without alignment to your values is a Faustian bargain — and the universe notices when you refuse to make it. Michael turned down significant money that didn't feel right, volunteered at a gala instead, and met his Global Citizen co-founder that same night.
You have a unique song — and it's yours to discover, not manufacture. The "more" is the music that wants to live through you. Like The Beatles, whose individual greatness alchemized into something much larger, your work in the world becomes most powerful when it flows from what is genuinely yours to give.
Resistance knows all your weak spots — and that's okay. The bigger the vision, the more formidable the resistance. The question isn't whether you'll fall prey to it, but whether you get back up and find your way back into tune. Nature, trusted friends, deliberate practice — these are tuning mechanisms, not luxuries.
Show up at 9 AM anyway. The muse is mythological and practical in equal measure. You listen for what wants to move through you — and then you show up with your boots on every single day. Some days it's beautiful. Some days it's crap. But the process compounds, just like the market.
Loneliness is a public health crisis — and coherence is the medicine. Loneliness carries the same health risk as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. The Harvard longitudinal study confirms it: the single greatest predictor of long-term health and happiness is the quality of your relationships. Blue zones around the world prove that social cohesion literally outranks biology.
Find your band. Internal coherence alone isn't enough. Resonance asks: once you've found your song, who are you meant to play with? The people you surround yourself with regulate your nervous system. Iron sharpens iron — and that is literally, neurobiologically true.
Double down on your sphere of influence. The more we fixate on what we can't control, the more we diminish our agency. The more we invest in right relationship — our circle, our band, our song — the more that sphere of influence naturally expands into the world.
Childlike wonder is your tuning fork. The Dalai Lama at 80 was still stopping to marvel at a leaf. The real teachers, Michael says, are always quick to laugh. Ask yourself: what lights me up? Where does wonder show up? Follow that song.

MOMENTS FROM THE CONVERSATION
"What is my unique song? What is mine to give?" — Michael Trainor
"The more we double down on our sphere of influence and find the others who can support us, the more that we expand our influence into the areas where we now have agency." — Michael Trainor
"Transformation doesn't scale through systems. It scales through souls recognizing other souls." — Coach Keren Eldad

BOOKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
Michael Trainor → Resonance: The Art and Science of Human Connection — available on Amazon & Barnes & Noble
Steven Pressfield → The War of Art
Elizabeth Gilbert → Big Magic
Matthew Lieberman → Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect

LEARN MORE ABOUT MICHAEL TRAINOR
Social → @MichaelTrainor on all platforms
Book → Resonance — available wherever books are sold
Nonprofit → Global Citizen
Charity → Charity Water

LEARN MORE ABOUT COACH KEREN
Coaching → KerenEldad.com
Book → Buy GILDED / The Gilded Journal on Amazon
Book → Order Gilt Free — Amazon link coming soon
Audiobook → Get Gilt Free FREE on Audiobook/Spotify — link coming soon

If this episode found you at the right moment — share it with someone who's been asking bigger questions. And if you love what we're building here, a review on Apple or a follow on Spotify helps more souls find their way to this conversation.
Subscribe & review on Apple → Coached with Coach Keren
Follow on Spotify → Coached with Coach Keren
Mentioned in this episode:
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This episode is not going to just inspire you. It is going to initiate you.
Amberly Lago was a professional dancer, fitness instructor, and fitness model living her California dream when a single motorcycle accident in May 2010 shattered everything. What followed was 34 major surgeries, a 1% chance of keeping her leg, a diagnosis of complex regional pain syndrome — an incurable neurological condition of relentless pain — and eventually, a quiet spiral into alcoholism that she hid from her husband, her clients, and herself.
She didn't choose this work. She was dismantled into it. And what she built on the other side — a life, a message, and a body of work centered on joy, resilience, and radical self-acceptance — is the kind of testimony that changes people.
This one is for everyone who has lost an identity, a body, a marriage, a belief system, or a version of themselves they thought they were forever — and who is ready to face the realest question life can ask: who do you become when the thing that defines you is gone?

KEY TAKEAWAYS
Acceptance is not the end — it's the beginning. Amberly spent years in denial, anger, hiding her scars under knee-high boots in 100-degree LA heat. The turning point came when her surgeon held her leg in his lap like a masterpiece. If he could see it that way, maybe she could too. That reframe changed everything. Acceptance is where all transformation starts.
Grit without grace is just resistance. High achievers are often experts at powering through — until their bodies stop them. True grit isn't white-knuckling your way forward. It requires the give of grace, the softness of self-compassion, and the wisdom to know when pushing harder is actually the problem.
The inner work is harder than the surgeries. Amberly underwent 34 major procedures. She'll tell you that wasn't the hardest part. The hardest part was looking inward — at unprocessed trauma, at shame, at the addiction she'd used to numb a pain that couldn't be outrun. Pain demands to be heard. It will find a way out — through the way we love, the way we lead, the things we can't stop reaching for.
Numbing comes in many forms. Alcohol. Workaholism. Scrolling. Overexercise. Sex. You don't have to have your life fall apart to be avoiding yourself. If you can't stop reaching for something when things get hard, ask what you're not letting yourself feel. All craving comes from a self that is incomplete. Wholeness is the antidote.
Connection is the opposite of addiction. Asking for help saved Amberly's life. So did showing up — to meetings she didn't feel like attending, to communities that held her when she couldn't hold herself. Grit with connection is resilience. Grit without connection is just more suffering.
Resilience is not bouncing back. It's embracing the change. The old version of you is gone. Resilience doesn't mean returning to it — it means asking: what brings me joy now? What do I love? And building from that place, even if you have no idea how.
Three things for anyone whose old life no longer fits: give yourself grace, drop the comparison (it is the thief of joy), and guard your company fiercely. Stick with the puppy uppers. Let go of the doggy downers — even if it's uncomfortable, even if they're upset. The integrity of your inner circle is everything.
You are a walking permission slip. When you show your scars — literally or metaphorically — you give everyone around you permission to do the same. That is not a small thing. That is the whole thing.

MOMENTS FROM THE CONVERSATION
"Grit without connection is resistance. Grit with connection is where you find resilience — and asking for help saved my life." — Amberly Lago
"Pain pushed me until purpose pulled me." — Amberly Lago
"Acceptance is the beginning of any transformation." — Amberly Lago
"God takes away what we're wrapping our identity around so that we can learn how to really, truly walk." — Coach Keren Eldad

LEARN MORE ABOUT AMBERLY LAGO
📖 Joy Through the Journey → https://www.amazon.com/Joy-Through-Journey-Amberly-Lago/dp/1394265549 📖 True Grit and True Grace → https://www.amazon.com/True-Grit-Grace-Turning-Tragedy/dp/1683506235 🤝 Work with Amberly → https://amberlylago.com/ 📸 Follow Amberly → @AmberlyLago https://www.instagram.com/amberlylagomotivation

LEARN MORE ABOUT COACH KEREN
Coaching → KerenEldad.com
Book → Buy GILDED / The Gilded Journal on Amazon
Book → Order Gilt Free — Amazon link coming soon
Audiobook → Get Gilt Free FREE on Audiobook/Spotify — link coming soon

If this conversation moved you — and we suspect it did — please share it with someone who needs it. And if you're not yet subscribed, now is the moment. A review on Apple takes sixty seconds and helps more people find their way to conversations like this one.
Subscribe & review on Apple → Coached with Coach Keren
Follow on Spotify → Coached with Coach Keren
Mentioned in this episode:
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