Self-Compassionate Professor

In the spirit of self-care, self-compassion, and wellness, I re-release my interview with Dr. Laura Froyen.  Dr. Laura Froyen discusses a powerful moment where she was flooded with compassion for herself and in that moment, she realized leaving academia would be in her family's and her own best interests. She talks also about her life purpose: helping families to make respectful parenting  decisions and the critical need for children to learn how to make healthy and productive life choices. Laura offers fantastic advice about creating stronger boundaries and finding a more balanced life.

In the spirit of self-care, self-compassion, and wellness, I re-release my interview with Dr. Rebecca Shisler Marshall.  An Associate Professor at University of Georgia, Dr. Rebecca Shisler Marshall introduces herself not just by academic title, but also as "a  life coach, a Reike practitioner, a mindfulness instructor, and a  Shamanic practitioner." In this episode, she explains feeling powerfully drawn to integrative wellness work and after some years as an academic, she finally surrendered to a wonderfully unique career path--a path  that was paved with self-compassion, self-care, a surrender to a deep and powerful calling, and an absolute willingness to step fully into her integrity. Rebecca blends together all of who she is in order to create a career that fits well. Check out Rebecca's podcast, Centered Living, and find her at https://www.centeredyou.com/. 

Cheryl Lau is a PhD student who runs a six-figure business as a side-hustle coach. She explains how learning how to take care of herself was an important first step to building a strong and thriving business and she argues that people with a lot of other responsibilities from full-time jobs to caring for children can build their own side-hustle businesses with very little time by keeping it simple. She advocates for trying on new career pieces and letting them help you to grow into the best version of yourself. Find Cheryl on her podcast, The Side Hustle Club, on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/cheryltheory/, or on her website at https://cheryltheory.com/program/.  (If you are interested in starting a side-hustle and want to hear other stories about academics with side hustles, check out Episodes 22, 46, 68, 77, and 84. All use their side-hustles to contribute to the world in ways they most care about.) 

Dr. Sarah Hutchinson once felt stuck in her academic job, but began exploring her options and trying out different positions. And as she followed her curiosity over the years, she gained a unique set of skills. Now, after having moved from Toronto to Oregon for family reasons, she was excited and surprised to find the job search much easier than it had been in the past, noticing that her expertise was quite sought after. In this interview, she discusses how she built her confidence, how she networked, how she developed her career in small manageable pieces over time, and the mindset shifts she made that helped her to pivot out of academia.  

Dr. Anna Clemens describes the differences she felt in her PhD program between her lab work and her writing work, realizing that when she was writing, she felt happier and more accomplished. It was at this point, after completing her PhD and taking some time to reflect on where her career might go, that she realized writing would be a center piece. Over the next three years, Anna tried on many different pieces of scientific writing and eventually, after much learning and experimenting, she built her own business as a scientific writing coach. She attributes much of her success to her optimism, vision, and the clarity she has about her own needs. Find Dr. Anna Clemens on LinkedIn or at her website, https://www.annaclemens.com/. Also, check out her course, "The Researchers Writing Academy" for STEM researchers at https://www.researcherswritingacademy.com/. 

Dr. Angela Gist-Mackey explains that her career journey began in advertising, but eventually she realized that not only was academia a better fit for her, it paved a path for her to fulfill a larger purpose. While in her advertising career, she experienced bullying by supervisors and was struck by the sharp differences in the organizational cultures in which she worked. Angela was fascinated by these organizational dynamics and so began her PhD in organizational communication some years later. Now, as a tenured professor at the University of Kansas, Angela has much wisdom to share about the career wellness lessons she has learned over the years. At the core of it all though, her sense of legacy and purpose steers her career as both a professor and co-founder of her family business. Find Dr. Angela Gist-Mackey at https://angelagistmackey.weebly.com/ or https://www.mackeyconsultingllc.com/. 

Sarah Dobson tells her story about how her health challenges changed her career trajectory, how she maintained a foot in her research even after leaving the traditional academic path, and how she ultimately turned that work into her own business: helping researchers to write strong and persuasive grant proposals. Sarah also discusses how she has learned--and continues to learn--about self care. She explains that we live in a challenging moment in history, where we are all at great risk of burnout and in light of this, she offers advice about how to approach our work with wellness in mind, from listening to our bodies to working within our own unique zones of genius. Find Sarah Dobson on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/sarahcdobson or Twitter at @sarahcdobson.    

Michelle Wilson describes her own experiences with toxic workplaces and bullying as well as her research and coaching on the topic. She explains that people who find themselves in such environments should do four things: 1) find a support system, 2) document, document, document, 3) engage in self-care, and 4) create an exit plan as soon as possible, even if it's ultimately not used. Find Michelle Wilson on LinkedIn and/or email her at highimpactstrategiesllc@gmail.com.  

Dr. Jane Jones discusses her work as a book-writing coach to academics, how she came to create and build a business, and the identity work she did in order to feel strong and stable in her new work. Jane talks about why academia was not a good fit and how once she left, the heaviness of the burnout she had accumulated in academia dissipated quickly. Jane also explains why "alt-ac," as a term, is problematic and argues that her career pivot was simply a career change, not an "alternative" to academia. Find Dr. Jane Jones at http://www.upinconsulting.com/. 

Dr. Jennifer Scott tells her story about turning down her dream job for her "dream life." She also discusses how her love for teaching sustained her while she was on the difficult academic job market and describes how her post-ac job presented itself after someone who liked her tweets, offered her a job. Jennifer also imparts invaluable wisdom about creating and sustaining a career/life vision including feeling your way into a vision, living the vision in bite-sized portions even before it's come fully into fruition, and giving the vision structure. Find Dr. Jennifer Scott at https://www.jenniferejones.work.