Are you ready to build an ethical business in an inherently unethical world?
If you said, 'hell yes!' Say, no more, we've got you covered.
That's exactly what we'll be covering in this 14-week course, discovering what it takes to build and sustain an ethical business owner in today's world.
You can apply straightaway right here.
That's exactly what we'll be covering in this 14-week course, discovering what it takes to build and sustain an ethical business owner in today's world.
You can apply straightaway right here.
Introducing Sowing Post-Capitalist Seeds for Business
Perfect For: Business owners, community organizers, and non-profit founders—anyone who works with teams, clients, and communities who are ready to engage in ethical and sustainable can all benefit from this course.
We'll look how how we can thrive in our businesses as we integrate the ethical and sustainable business practices in world that prioritizes profits over people.
Yes it's a important topic AND the rad people who show up make the class a memorable and fun one.
The Fact Is Profitable businesses and Ethical businesses CAN co-exist.
However, we must shift the goal from being exploitative to being a regenerative business. A business that enhances the lives, lands, water, air, and world that we live in. Instead of funneling profits upwards, we should be sharing profits.
You might be thinking, how do we do that?
Perfect For: Business owners, community organizers, and non-profit founders—anyone who works with teams, clients, and communities who are ready to engage in ethical and sustainable can all benefit from this course.
We'll look how how we can thrive in our businesses as we integrate the ethical and sustainable business practices in world that prioritizes profits over people.
Yes it's a important topic AND the rad people who show up make the class a memorable and fun one.
The Fact Is Profitable businesses and Ethical businesses CAN co-exist.
However, we must shift the goal from being exploitative to being a regenerative business. A business that enhances the lives, lands, water, air, and world that we live in. Instead of funneling profits upwards, we should be sharing profits.
You might be thinking, how do we do that?
Let me give you an example...
A conventional business has to exploit its labor force by overworking its labor, underpaying wages and benefits, and extracting from the environment to become profitable.
Instead, they can use innovation, technology, and cost savings to offer additional benefits to their employees such as extra vacations days, fewer hours + higher wages, and zero deductibles on your insurance.
In practice, grocery shops and libraries have embraced self-checkout technology in conventional businesses. They could instead give extra paid time off to their staff or invest in their staff instead of laying off ‘unnecessary’ staff.
The problem is the board of directors of a corporation is expected to legally prioritize the shareholder value and profits at the expense of their labor force or the environment. They ultimately fire their staff and replace them with technology.
Instead, they could choose to reward their staff for the time saved and give them paid time off each week and the company could redistribute a percentage of their profits to give to the local Indigenous groups or rehabilitate the lands or create more sustainability in their supply chains.
Instead of moving their profits offshore to avoid taxes and lobbying for more corporate welfare, they could choose instead to be a force for good by supporting a living wage in their community or pushing for reparations to Black communities.
A conventional business has to exploit its labor force by overworking its labor, underpaying wages and benefits, and extracting from the environment to become profitable.
Instead, they can use innovation, technology, and cost savings to offer additional benefits to their employees such as extra vacations days, fewer hours + higher wages, and zero deductibles on your insurance.
In practice, grocery shops and libraries have embraced self-checkout technology in conventional businesses. They could instead give extra paid time off to their staff or invest in their staff instead of laying off ‘unnecessary’ staff.
The problem is the board of directors of a corporation is expected to legally prioritize the shareholder value and profits at the expense of their labor force or the environment. They ultimately fire their staff and replace them with technology.
Instead, they could choose to reward their staff for the time saved and give them paid time off each week and the company could redistribute a percentage of their profits to give to the local Indigenous groups or rehabilitate the lands or create more sustainability in their supply chains.
Instead of moving their profits offshore to avoid taxes and lobbying for more corporate welfare, they could choose instead to be a force for good by supporting a living wage in their community or pushing for reparations to Black communities.
The problem is greed.
Society glorifies billionaires and excess. They are rewarded with tax breaks and corporate welfare for being ‘job creators,’ while insisting historically disenfranchised individuals are forced to pull themselves up by their bootstraps…
But, it doesn’t have to be this way! You can be a part of the solution. And it starts here, right now.
Through deep conversations, exploration, and intentional strategy, we can step into post-capitalist paradigms while remaining aware of and acknowledging our own needs to make a living in the world.
As we move into life, work, and relationships beyond capitalism, we need places of possibility, vision, and space holders to grow something new.
What our past participants have said:
'My friend Anuradha Kowtha is an incredible teacher, with such a powerful offering: Sowing Post-Capitalist Seeds for Business. I've taken this course (actually a version of it) TWO TIMES because Anuradha takes her students against the grain of a deeply embedded culture.
[In the course] you will likely be in a cohort of people who will both challenge and link arms with you.
If you're a small business owner, or part of an organization that's attempting to conduct business ethically, PLEASE get yourself some support. It's so good, the guest speakers are so good, and the manner in which Anuradha holds the space is really remarkable - worth the price of admission.'
- Laura Halpin
[In the course] you will likely be in a cohort of people who will both challenge and link arms with you.
If you're a small business owner, or part of an organization that's attempting to conduct business ethically, PLEASE get yourself some support. It's so good, the guest speakers are so good, and the manner in which Anuradha holds the space is really remarkable - worth the price of admission.'
- Laura Halpin
Inside this course you’ll:
- Learn historically, how did we get here, to late-stage capitalism.
- Understand how the indoctrination of capitalism shapes us as business owners.
- Experience a hands-on space for us to learn to navigate your business in a new way.
- Recognize the roots and history of capitalism
- (Re)evaluate where you are in kyriarchy (linkages between power and oppression)
- Gain clarity on where we are in our own ecosystems, niches, and cosmos (these spaces are often rich for amelioration and attention)
- Cultivate practices around grief & gratitude and create supportive rituals and rhythms
- Contemplate prompts for reflection to face the truths of the world without turning away
- Embrace anti-capitalist practices throughout our relationships, projects, and communities
- Connect with other rad people in their exploration and praxis in community with others.
What’s Inside Sowing Post-Capitalist Seeds for Business:
A place to explore the history of how we got here, understand how events, beliefs, and laws impact us, and how to navigate towards a regenerative business going forward.
Module 1: Introductions and Planting Seeds - We will start our journey together in planting our seeds of intention and diving into the curriculum.
Module 2: The Roots of Capitalism - Exploring how capitalism impacts business, historically and in this moment.
Module 3: Reclaiming Ourselves from the Legacy of Colonialism - In this module, we'll look at the ongoing impact of colonialism.
Module 4: Grieving & Releasing - In this week, we'll explore ways we can bring grief and ritual into our work.
Module 5: Integrate/ Q&A - Our first of two integration weeks where we'll have space to explore and discuss.
Module 6: Finding Our Place - In this week, we'll dive into finding the ecosystem and niches of your business within the wider conversation.
Module 7: Mutual Aid: From Theory to Praxis - We'll be exploring how to use and participate in mutual aid as a business or non-profit.
Module 8: Bodies, Relationships, and Labour - This week we look at bodies and labour and the ways they intersect in business.
Module 9: Team Building - We will be exploring ways to create an inclusive environment for you, your team, your customers, and the wider community.
Module 10: Integrate/ Q&A - This is our second integration week for questions, discussions, feedback within the group.
Module 11: Money & Profit - In this week, we will look at how our ethics around financials can be anti-capitalist.
Module 12: Land Ethic & Approaches to Marketing & Sales - We will explore the importance of land ethic, decolonization, and Earth's resources in how we do our work.
Module 13: Cooperative Approaches to Business and Community - In our penultimate week, we will dive into the powers of collectivism and keeping pressure on the government and industry to meet the needs of the community.
Module 14: Carrying Our Seeds into the World - In this last week of the course, we will share what seeds we have planted in our business and beyond, and explore ways we can continue to make an impact.
What you’ll Get:
- 14 Live Calls
- Pre-recorded Modules and Guest Speaker Interviews
- Several Bonuses
Bonus Materials:
- One 90 - minute work session with Anuradha. - We can work on whatever is more pressing for your organization.
- A chance to share your praxis or case study via guest blog post and/or our upcoming podcast.
- Alexis P. Morgan has generously created a resource called, A Bowl of Soup, a booklet and mini-workshop on magic and money for all Sowing Post Capitalist Participants.
- Six Post-Capitalist Guideposts document written by Moriah & Anuradha
Investment: £900 - £1400 for 2023 cohort
*All calls will include auto-generated closed captioning. In addition, all the modules and calls will be recorded, with closed captioning and transcripts available.
Course Details:
When: 14-Weeks Course, starts June 23, 2022.
14 Live calls 1 - 2:30 pm Eastern time via Zoom, Tuesdays, June 23 - September 22, 2022. Recordings, closed captioning, and transcripts will be available.
Place: Discussions on Mighty Networks.
Materials: Our curriculum is based on open source or publicly available articles and texts, our own practices and tools, and we will also be using some excerpts from the book Caliban and the Witch by Silvia Federici. We ask participants to purchase the book or use our Lending Library.
Investment: (Sliding Scale & Pay-What-You-Can)
We have a few payment options. We trust you to select the payment plan that works for you.
£1400 (allows us to be fully paid for our labor, support the scholarship fund, and allows us to grow)
£1200 (allows us to be fully paid for our labor)
£900 - allows us to pay for
(covers the admin support/Zoom & other direct course costs)
There is space for upto 16 people, including business owners and team members.
What people are saying...
When I get to learn from Anuradha, I always feel I am tilling up a field and Anuradha is helping me plan and strategize what to plant. Anuradha is filled with ideas and knowledge for how to craft a life and work that is truly more satisfying and inclusive. We met individually and Anuradha helped me come up with a multi-stage plan for a troublesome aspect of my business that left me feeling confident and clear and like I was working from my values rather than having them be separate from my work. Anuradha is showing me how to plant the values in the field that is my work. I am immensely grateful and highly recommend Anuradha’s teaching and consulting.
Anuradha helps me to envision a better world for my small business to be part of - I leave and immediately have the ability to better discuss my values and ethics for my business. Almost every time after hearing Anuradha speak I have gone directly to make improvements to my website, my mission statement, my inclusivity statements, etc. I am not only inspired to take action, I have concrete ideas from Anuradha in how to do it.'
- Joseph Kindred
'Anuradha has a powerful perspective on building an ethical business that is grounded in knowledge, experience and embodiment - and well worth paying close attention to and learning from!'
- Romek Goj
Anuradha helps me to envision a better world for my small business to be part of - I leave and immediately have the ability to better discuss my values and ethics for my business. Almost every time after hearing Anuradha speak I have gone directly to make improvements to my website, my mission statement, my inclusivity statements, etc. I am not only inspired to take action, I have concrete ideas from Anuradha in how to do it.'
- Joseph Kindred
'Anuradha has a powerful perspective on building an ethical business that is grounded in knowledge, experience and embodiment - and well worth paying close attention to and learning from!'
- Romek Goj
About Your Facilitator
Anuradha Kowtha, (Pronoun: Anuradha) Educator, Catalyst, Human, Chief Liberation Strategist
Anuradha is a speaker, catalyst, and the Chief Liberation Strategist at The Kowtha Constellation. Anuradha helps small business owners build ethical, accessible, and inclusive practices into their systems so they can sustainably grow their bottom line, do their work with more boldness, and improve customer and team retention.
My work’s thread could be described as undoing the impact of the inherent indoctrination from capitalism and colonialism on who we are and how we do our work in the world. I illuminate and liberate individuals and small teams from the indoctrination and cookie-cutter thinking that comes from capitalism and colonialism to provide bold and innovative solutions that are rooted in justice for their clients and communities.
Since childhood, I've had a passion for running ethical businesses. At aged 11, I designed and sold greeting cards as my first viable business. My arents had a small business aside from their day jobs and I helped out as I could, learning the ins and outs of client relations, finances, and legal aspects. As a senior in high school, I was awarded the 'Senior in Business' award because of my excellent performance. I have been director of my own limited company for over 10 years and have worked with dozens of individuals and business owners to create more authentic lives and equitable and inclusive business practices.
Guest Speakers
Anu Priya (she/they) is a values-based anti-oppression and EDI trainer, facilitator and consultant with over a decade's experience in the not-for-profit sector in India and the UK. Central to their experiences as a queer, migrant, person of colour is a strong understanding and lived experience of systemic oppression. All of their work is rooted in and driven by their experiences and values of authenticity, transparency, accountability and learning. Find out more about her work here.
I'm Lakshmia (she/her). I am a Product Manager + Career Coach.
I work with folks who want to transition out of their current jobs into something that fills them up, pays the bills, and allows them to get more joy out of the work they do. I also work with business owners + stakeholders to help them create a work environment that is equitable, truly inclusive, and allows them to retain talent + great people. I currently live in Chicago, IL with my family (friend family) and Sammy the dachshund.
If you would like to chat with me further, book a session.
I work with folks who want to transition out of their current jobs into something that fills them up, pays the bills, and allows them to get more joy out of the work they do. I also work with business owners + stakeholders to help them create a work environment that is equitable, truly inclusive, and allows them to retain talent + great people. I currently live in Chicago, IL with my family (friend family) and Sammy the dachshund.
If you would like to chat with me further, book a session.
Faith Clarke (she/her) helps organizations cultivate the value-driven, diverse teams they need to consistently deliver on their business and social impact promises.
Faith started her career as a computer programmer on Wall Street, but quickly identified her passion for teaching. Her fascination with human motivation and her personal experiences as a mom of a child with autism led to her doctoral studies in performance psychology. She has also taken her talents a step further, writing a best-selling book and becoming the Co-founder/CEO of an educational organization helping families with autistic children.
Faith’s academic research and her numerous experiences with organizational teams have helped her curate a high-touch, systematic approach to human thriving and teamwork in the workplace, which has helped her clients improve operations, maximize productivity, and double their revenue.
Find out more about her here.
Faith started her career as a computer programmer on Wall Street, but quickly identified her passion for teaching. Her fascination with human motivation and her personal experiences as a mom of a child with autism led to her doctoral studies in performance psychology. She has also taken her talents a step further, writing a best-selling book and becoming the Co-founder/CEO of an educational organization helping families with autistic children.
Faith’s academic research and her numerous experiences with organizational teams have helped her curate a high-touch, systematic approach to human thriving and teamwork in the workplace, which has helped her clients improve operations, maximize productivity, and double their revenue.
Find out more about her here.
At the end of the course, you will experience a paradigm shift that will help you see endless possibilities of things that were never on your horizon, and empower you to make different choices about the way you do business. Instead of focusing on conventional or sustainable business models and approaches, you will embrace regenerative models that nourish you, your team, your customers, and your communities.
By undoing the indoctrination of colonialism and capitalism in how we run our businesses, we can be like trees holding each other below the surface of the ground, bracing and supporting new life. We need containers to grow seedlings of ideas into whole ecosystems, like micro-economies that can support all of us abundantly.
What people are saying..
'Sowing Post Capitalist Seeds utterly changed my relationship with capitalism and money. The seeds are still growing- but it shifted something deep inside me.'
- Meg Lightheart
'Sowing Post Capitalist Seeds was like Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”. We time traveled with the ghosts of capitalism’s past, present and future and saw the chilling threads. We also saw the threads of resistance and possibility. We had the opportunity to reflect and share along the way.'
- Katie Manaras
- Meg Lightheart
'Sowing Post Capitalist Seeds was like Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”. We time traveled with the ghosts of capitalism’s past, present and future and saw the chilling threads. We also saw the threads of resistance and possibility. We had the opportunity to reflect and share along the way.'
- Katie Manaras
COURSE DETAILS
When: 14-Weeks Course, start TBD 2023
14 Live calls 6:00 - 7:30 pm BST/1 - 2:30 pm Eastern time via Zoom. Recordings, closed captioning, and transcripts will be available.
Place: Discussions on Mighty Networks and Learn (Thrive Cart).
Materials: Our curriculum is based on open source or publicly available articles and texts, our own practices and tools, and we will also be using some excerpts from the book Caliban and the Witch by Silvia Federici. We ask participants to purchase the book or use our Lending Library.
Investment: (Sliding Scale & Pay-What-You-Can)
We have a few payment options. We trust you to select the payment plan that works for you and your organization.
Investment:
£900 (covers our guest speakers fees, scholarships)
£800 (covers the admin support for the course and covers our costs like the website, Mighty Networks, Zoom)
BIPOC Scholarships or Work-Trade Positions
Other payment details:
Read more about our economic and accessibility statement to understand our philosophy. For this cohort we will have real time closed captioning provided by Otter.ai and transcriptions available afterward. All calls are recorded and available to re-watch in the Mighty Networks forum. In addition, we will be donating a minimum of £150 to a mutual aid efforts.
Read our FAQs and what our past participants have said.
14 Live calls 6:00 - 7:30 pm BST/1 - 2:30 pm Eastern time via Zoom. Recordings, closed captioning, and transcripts will be available.
Place: Discussions on Mighty Networks and Learn (Thrive Cart).
Materials: Our curriculum is based on open source or publicly available articles and texts, our own practices and tools, and we will also be using some excerpts from the book Caliban and the Witch by Silvia Federici. We ask participants to purchase the book or use our Lending Library.
Investment: (Sliding Scale & Pay-What-You-Can)
We have a few payment options. We trust you to select the payment plan that works for you and your organization.
Investment:
£900 (covers our guest speakers fees, scholarships)
£800 (covers the admin support for the course and covers our costs like the website, Mighty Networks, Zoom)
BIPOC Scholarships or Work-Trade Positions
Other payment details:
- All of these have payment plans (we don't add any additional costs to the payment plans). Payments will be handled in GBP. Exchange rates may vary.
- Outside of those options, if you would like to propose an alternate payment plan send it to us here.
- We have 1 Black, Indigenous, and People of Color Scholarships available. We have 2 Work-Trade positions available. For the work trade, you'll be supporting cleaning up the transcripts on Otter.ai and similar types of tasks. Make a note in the application if you would like to be considered for these options, they are first come, first served. They will be a pay-what-you-can option, starting at £40 to cover the basic administration of the course.
Read more about our economic and accessibility statement to understand our philosophy. For this cohort we will have real time closed captioning provided by Otter.ai and transcriptions available afterward. All calls are recorded and available to re-watch in the Mighty Networks forum. In addition, we will be donating a minimum of £150 to a mutual aid efforts.
Read our FAQs and what our past participants have said.
What people are saying...
'Sowing post capitalist seeds with Anuradha Kowtha is an absolutely life-changing course and program, and I am so glad to be a part of it, to learn from Anuradha, the incredible guest speakers and community.
If you are an entrepreneur or professional or parent or just any human invested in healing internalized capitalism, moving ethically and, particularly if you're BIPOC, really prioritizing being ethical and kind to yourself in and outside of business, I couldn't recommend a program more. An instructor like Anuradha is a complete gem.
The course, the readings and discussions also deeply enrich my own professional work with burnout recovery coaching for professionals and entrepreneurs, with many clients being ND and/or chronically ill.
Most business related programs out there are woefully inadequate at covering the historical impact of capitalism and helping folks craft an individualized roadmap to healing, while also learning how to run their businesses ethically under capitalism. If I am being honest, many folks (looking at you wheat ppl) don't know enough about the history of capitalism, antiblackness, anti-indigeniety and colonization to be teaching any kind of anti-capitalist business courses.
Sowing post capitalist seeds however is a game changer and can change your life in ways you'd never anticipated. It's helping me emerge from a cycle of chronic overworking and undercharging, something I've worked on with my own burnout recovery healing as a deeply marginalized person.
Oh and the guest speakers are phenomenal as well. So next time the course is offered, do not miss it. There is nearly nothing else like this program in the market that I've come across in the last couple of years. Also Anuradha has taken great care to make sure the course is accessible to folks with various access needs.
Truly an absolute pleasure to be a part of the course and community.'
- Jay Asooli
If you are an entrepreneur or professional or parent or just any human invested in healing internalized capitalism, moving ethically and, particularly if you're BIPOC, really prioritizing being ethical and kind to yourself in and outside of business, I couldn't recommend a program more. An instructor like Anuradha is a complete gem.
The course, the readings and discussions also deeply enrich my own professional work with burnout recovery coaching for professionals and entrepreneurs, with many clients being ND and/or chronically ill.
Most business related programs out there are woefully inadequate at covering the historical impact of capitalism and helping folks craft an individualized roadmap to healing, while also learning how to run their businesses ethically under capitalism. If I am being honest, many folks (looking at you wheat ppl) don't know enough about the history of capitalism, antiblackness, anti-indigeniety and colonization to be teaching any kind of anti-capitalist business courses.
Sowing post capitalist seeds however is a game changer and can change your life in ways you'd never anticipated. It's helping me emerge from a cycle of chronic overworking and undercharging, something I've worked on with my own burnout recovery healing as a deeply marginalized person.
Oh and the guest speakers are phenomenal as well. So next time the course is offered, do not miss it. There is nearly nothing else like this program in the market that I've come across in the last couple of years. Also Anuradha has taken great care to make sure the course is accessible to folks with various access needs.
Truly an absolute pleasure to be a part of the course and community.'
- Jay Asooli