Episode 61: The Importance of Community and Self-Care during Dissertation with Dr. Shaquinta Richardson
Introduction:
Hey friend, the time has come to finish your dissertation, graduate and become doctor. Welcome to office hours with Dr. Lacy where we talk about how to finally master this time management thing so you can stay on top of it without losing your mind. Every Wednesday you can find a new episode wherever you listen to podcasts. Make sure you hit the subscribe button to make sure you never miss an episode. I'm Dr. Marvette Lacy, your dissertation writing strategist here to be with you along every step of the way and I would like to thank you for coming to today's office hours. Let's get started on today's episode. Hey, before we get in today's episode, I want to let you know about finish your dissertation. Do you know about it? It is my signature group designed to take you from being candidate to doctor. I'm talking about getting the structure you need in your dissertation process so that you can show up every week consistently and focused on achieving your dissertation goals. We meet on a weekly basis to really make sure that you're maximizing your time and that you know the exact activities you need to focus on to move your dissertation forward and best of all the community is the best thing out there. I mean, we're talking students who are dedicated, who are supportive, who will hold you accountable when you need it, crushing their dissertation goals . So if this sounds like anything that you would be interested in and you could use a little bit more focus and accountability in your dissertation process, then you need to come on over to Marvettelacy.com and learn more about the finish your dissertation group? Also, you can schedule your next step call while you're there so that we can have one on one time to talk and discuss skill your dissertation in your needs to make sure that finish your dissertation is going to be a good fit for you. Again, you can go over to Marvettelacy.com to learn more. Now let's get on to today's episode.
Dr. Lacy:
Welcome back everyone to office hours with Dr. Lacy. So excited. I know I say this every week, but I am really, I'm excited for many of reasons. Today's guest, uh, we met back in Athens, we both were in our doctoral programs and if you ever meet someone and you're like, soulmates, that's a thing we're kindred spirits. Like she doesn't know that. In my mind, I made up this whole story, like when we first met I was like, she doesn't know that she has to be my friend, which is a theme that I'm seeing in these interviews. But just, I'm not that creepy y'all. I'm just, these are the conversations I have in my head, but it was like she has to be my friend. We connect on so many levels. And how did I not know about her before now? I was like, I feel like I like somewhat, what's the word I'm looking for? Like someone hid my gift or something like a prize for me. Um, because I didn't, I didn't meet you till what the last year.
Guest: Um, but maybe like a year before that I'd say, yeah.
Dr. Lacy:
Yeah. I just feel like, but I'm so thankful. And ever since then building a beautiful relationship and fun fact, she was my very first client ever. I mean like ever ever after months and months of trying to figure out this whole business thing. It was labor day. I sent out an email saying I was celebrating my dad his birthday and I was doing a special discounts and she took me up on the offer to help her with her dissertation. So that was the beginning of this whole dissertation based business. So I'm excited for you to get to know her and hear all the amazingness that she has to share with us. But let's get started with today's episode. So Dr. Shaquinta Richardson, thank you so much for being on today's show.
Guest:
I am so excited to be here. What you don't know is I had that same conversation in my own head.
Meet Our Guest-Dr. Richardson:
That is so funny. Thank you. So tell the people a little bit about who you are, where you are, maybe not right now, but in general where you are and what you do. Feel free to interpret how you wish.
Guest:
Okay. So right now I'm a professor, uh, Converse college. Uh, uh, my, my PhD is in marriage and family therapy, well, specifically human development and family science with an emphasis in marriage and family therapy. So I am a family therapist and marriage therapist. So I am clinical director for a master's program in marriage and family therapy. I also practice therapy as well, um, in both the community based clinic and my own private practice. And well to extend that question a bit. I do. You have my own private coaching business as well?
Dr. Lacy:
Woop woop, yes, we will talk. Hopefully I get her to talk a little bit more about that. Yeah, because it's dope. So one of my favorite questions to ask folks is why would you in your right mind decide, you know what I'm going to do? I'm a sign up for a PhD program.
Why I Got a PhD (Guest):
You know, I get this question a lot and my answer usually doesn't change, but I'm not even fully sure that it is the true true answer. Um, so I remember being in my master's program, um, you know, the, the semesters, I guess the year before applying and being in that space of thinking about being from a first generation college graduate. You know, of course I've am first year generation college graduate first to get my masters. And so I had those moments of I'm a Black woman, you know, all of the statistics if you will. My father, uh, wasn't there when I was growing up all the time. He was in and out of prison, that kind of thing. Like all of those things that say that I shouldn't be on this trajectory. And I was like, well, if I'm here, I need to keep going. I need to, uh, you know, move into my fullest potential and live out that fullest potential and not stop just because, just because, and so I did a little research and I'll be honest, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. It just sounded good. So I talked to a few people before that just you know to get some ideas, but I had no idea what I was really signing up for. But I just knew that I couldn't stop where I was.
Reality Check? (Dr. Lacy):
Absolutely. I can relate to that so many levels. So you got into the program and even if you didn't have any, like you didn't know exactly what you were getting yourself into, you probably had an idea. How when you get into like your first year and you really started to understand like, Oh this is what this looks like. How did the reality match or not match with what you expected it to be?
Guest:
So I would say based on the conversations that I've had with some of my professors who've gone through PhD program, I had one professor in particular who was also a black woman. And so she, she told me a little bit, um, they did emphasize the idea that a PhD is a research based program. My master's was very clinical focused. It still is. We didn't do any research. We had a research class and it was like, here's what a research method is. Like it's very, very basic. And so as I was thinking, I was like, Oh, I could do research. That sounds cool. I don't want to do a dissertation, but I can figure it out. Probably. So in that, I guess in that sense I had some idea that it would be really research heavy, but getting into the coursework and like, wait, I have no idea. I don't know what these theories are. I don't know how to apply a theory to research. I don't know how to do a literature review. I don't know how to do any of these things. And I've always been what people think, quick learner, whatever. And I typically thought of myself as someone who catches on to things quickly. But it didn't, it wasn't coming to me. I didn't, and I couldn't grasp it in the first few classes as quickly as some of my peers did coming from research master's programs. And so there was a bit of a learning curve, quite a bit of a learning curve. So I had an idea. But like with anything, you don't know what you don't know, you don't know what something is really like until you get into it. So it was a bit of a shock.
Support Looks Like Buddy Systems (Dr. Lacy):
Absolutely. And what were some of the things and/or people that helped you to navigate that shock and really find your groove?
Guest:
So a major part of it was talking to, so they assigned us, buddies in our program and mine just happened to be the only other Black woman in my program. And so this was, this was another Black woman who is a, is a dear friend of mine now. And she was very instrumental in kind of getting me up to speed, helping me understand how do I do this? How do I talk about this? You know, what kind of resources will help me sending me things? Okay, this is how you do a literature review. This is how you do this, X, Y, and Z. And challenging me on some of the ideas that I had already had and why they weren't what they, they, the faculty were looking for. I can be a bit stubborn sometimes. And so a lot of times she would have to tell me, no, that's not what this is. And I'd be like, but but but I really want to do this. And so I came in thinking, research, I'm going to help people. I'm going to do this thing. My therapists save the world, you know, that kind of thing. Um, and so I had to rethink how I was thinking about what research is. And she really helped me with that. And of course the professors did in some ways, but we don't have to get into this. But my classes were actually turning me off from research and making me not like it because of a lot of things that were being said in classes, in relation to research and essentially using research in ways to just really talk down about, about Black people, about Black bodies and so I was just like, I don't want, I don't want any parts of that. Y'all are all full of, you know what
Two teams (Dr. Lacy):
When you think about just in general or the field you're in, right, we can have, that could be a whole other podcast episode. Did you ever feel like you had to make this decision between like I'm a researcher or I'm a clinician?
Guest:
Yes. Yes, absolutely. And I think that came from a lot of it came from my own department politics. I try to, I won't go too deep, but, so our department is split into human development and family science. And then marriage and family therapy is a subset of human development and family science. And so the majority of the faculty and the majority of our teachers were the human development and family science, HDFS, people who expected the research. But then we also had our clinical faculty over here saying, you need to be seeing clients. You need to be formulating these conceptualizations, et cetera, et cetera. And so there was this constant pull, tug of war from the department saying, you need to focus on research, you need to focus on research, but we're still having to do all these clinical hours and do all these things that the reasons we became therapists in the first place. Absolutely. That was a huge challenge the whole time. And then looking at our counterparts who didn't have to do the clinical work, we didn't want them to like out research us.
Tell Us About Your Dissertation (Dr. Lacy):
That makes sense. And thinking about like this sort of sort of, um, tension between research, practice and then there's other tension of, okay, in the research world, the way you talking about Black folks, we know we need to do some a little bit different. And so as a segue, I feel like your dissertation was a natural, like natural answer and a rebuttal against all of that. So would you mind telling us a little bit about your dissertation topic?
Guest:
Yeah. So I'm that person that like finished my dissertation and like threw the thing to the side. Like I'm not looking at this anymore, is I gotta you know how to pull back into that space. I chose to go the qualitative route, um, because I do feel like a lot of the research, a lot of times go for these large quantitative studies and we miss the nuances that are actually impacted people. We don't fully understand the depth and the breadth of people's experiences to understand where to intervene, what to do, what policies to implement, et cetera, et cetera. And so I felt like with the population that I was studying. So in addition to my marriage and family therapy, I also had disability studies specialization that I was working on. And so looking at specifically Black families who have a family member with a disability. And the disability that I focus on for my dissertation was um, autism spectrum disorder when the person that was a part of my dissertation was diagnosed, it was still Asperger's. That's not the official diagnosis anymore, but that's the diagnosis that she was given. And so that's the diagnosis that I used in my dissertation. I didn't want to change that for somebody. And so I focused on the intersection of race, disability and gender within a black family and did a multi part case study with the family over a period of time and really went in depth with the family, did some dyadic interviewing as well as individual and photo voice. So I use multiple levels of triangulation within the study and want it to also make it an inclusive methodology so that the person with the disability would be able to participate as an equal participant with everybody else. Because a lot of times in disability related research, the family member or a family member, usually the parent would speak for the person and so I wanted to make sure that it was inclusive. I wanted it to be relational because I'm a systemic therapist and I wanted it to be as in depth as possible to get a full understanding of what this looks like.
Push Back Problems (Dr. Lacy):
Yes, I have. I mean as someone who has read it, absolutely feel like you met those objectives. What was the response like from the program in general? Faculty, your committee? Cause when I think about clients that I have now who are doing very similar topics and similar types of programs, they're getting a lot of push back from faculty. One because it's a qualitative project. And then two, like not fully understanding why is this about race, how race get here when we're talking about a diagnoses and the impact of that.
Guest:
Yeah, so the biggest thing for me during my doctoral process is the advisor that I chose. She was absolutely amazing in so many ways. Um, and she definitely, I know in my spirit that she fought for some things behind the scenes that the others may not have wanted. In general, disability is one of the least understood areas of diversity. And so having her as my chair, I think she advocated for conversations and analysis and inquiry that they might not have understood and why it was important. I also was intentional about choosing a Black woman to be on my committee. I was, I was looking up not to have to necessarily so defend why it's important to focus on race, but I think some of this, maybe some of the statements and the claims that I'm have made might've been challenged a bit more if I didn't have a Black woman faculty member on my committee. So I had two when I have four members, yes, I had two actually. And so I think being intentional about who I chose to be on the committee helped me with that. But there was definitely a lot of like, why is this important? And I got that question a lot along the way. Um, particularly before I chose my chair. Like why does this even important? Why do we care? We know that families is, um, experience this, this and this when they have a person with a disability and like, do we know that there's, here's the literature to show that, that we don't know that. And I didn't know how to do that early on but I figured out how to do that later on. So again, did I answer your question?
Support During the Diss (Dr. Lacy):
Yeah, yeah it does. What would you say were the most helpful, maybe supports for you throughout your dissertation process? Cause you know, people talk about it being isolating and they talk about it being so hard and uh, you know, I was just going to be like the worst year of your life. So just curious what helped you to navigate that?
Guest:
So there are three/four main things. Um, the first one was absolutely the support of the Black women that I was connected to. Of course you were in that group. I had a very, very strong network of other Black women around me that, you know, I had only a small, small number of them were in my department. But having women from different departments around the university, I know that that kept me sane a lot of times. I know that that um, helped to normalize an experience that was a major source of support, social interaction. I'm an extrovert. So, you know, I need that time being able to call upon one of 10 plus women at any given time and say, Hey, what's going on? Do you mind having a writing buddy or do you need a ride buddy? Um, who's bringing the wine or you want to come over and barbecue, let's throw something on the grill. Um, I had a bad day, how do you navigate this situation?That was a big part. The second one, which was more personal after a certain point. The actual academic part wasn't what was the most stressful for me. I had a lot of challenges, a lot of personal challenges throughout my PhD that my advisor was really, um, a huge support with. My first year I had a lot of financial issues to the point where I, I had, I had dropped out.
There wasn't, there was no like I'm thinking about, I had dropped out, I was looking for jobs, I put applications I was ready to go. And so I had some come to Jesus meetings with my advisor and some other situations and things that came up. Um, so she was a huge support. Um, I know that some advisors, so let me back up during let's say about second, third year or so, that was around the time that a lot of the shootings were happening with, with like Trayvon Martin and Eric Garner. I'll just say , Eric Garner and um, yeah. So when those things would happen, I didn't have to explain them to my advisor, she understood why I couldn't focus. She understood why I was having a hard time, why I was sitting in my desk crying, those types of things. Um, and I know that there are other advisors who would not have responded in similar ways. This is an older white woman. Like she, yeah, she, she was um, a huge part of it. Even with some financial things that I won't get into, but like she, she was there for me. The third thing during the dissertation, and I'm not just saying this because I'm on your podcast, you helped me get to the end of that thing because I was just out here swimming and it's not that my advisor wasn't there, but like I think the reason that coaches like you exist is because they're not in that nitty gritty.
They may give some like high level feedback, but they're not in that nitty gritty. And I really needed that like focus of, okay, here's what you need to be doing. Here's what you need to be focused on. Here's how to think about this. And even just that like boost of you, you got this, be bold in what you're writing. This is where, you know, be bold in what you're saying. Um, that was really helpful for me. And the reason why I say there was a fourth, something that I told myself from the beginning was, this is my own internal resource. Something that I told myself in the beginning is, at the end of the day, this will not break me down. If I come out of this, this process broken, then it is not worth it. I was very intentional about and good about not working myself into dust for this goal. That's, that wasn't something I was willing to do because I had other options, you know? And so I was always very intentional about attuning to what I needed, um, for my mental health, from my body will still be accessible, but like if I needed rest and more sleep or time with friends or you know, all those different things, I was very intentional about making sure that I took care of myself so that when I came out of this program, I came out as a whole person.
Dr. Lacy:
Absolutely. I thought we could just end it right there. You talked about community, you talk about the, you know, having a supportive advisor, you know, going and getting the extra support you needed through a coach and it also putting your, your peace, your health, your wellbeing at the forefront. Um, and you still look, I mean it wasn't like she was there for years and years and years and years and she, she finished. It's possible. I mean cause people will say like I can do all that when I'm done and I'm like, well you probably won't finish cause you're not putting yourself first. Like, you only get one you and I, and I think about my own experience and I just learned so much because I did the opposite. I did not put my wellbeing first and I paid for that and that it took a long time, like a couple of years to heal from that. Um, and so that is the big why for me in terms of doing this business and the way in which I do because I would never want anyone to have to do that. I do believe and I've seen over and over with you with other people, like it is possible not to say that you're not going to have some wear and tear because you're going after such a big goal, but it doesn't have to come at the expense of like your core like health and well-being and peace. So thank you for sharing all of that and being open with us. When I think about again like me, my journey, um, always knowing I was the quote unquote smart Black girl, but really just a small girl because where I grew up, it was Black, Brown folks primarily. So, um, like I used to being in, you know, whatever the gifted track was and that was so much of my identity of you know, my family. Like, Oh she's smart.
She going to college. And even in the master's program it was like my particular program, it was, it was like glorify undergrad. Like it was, it was cool. I was making grades, whatever. But then I got into the PhD process and I was like, wait a minute, we're all smart, number one. And number two, you, you start to realize that it's not, and you alluded to this earlier, it's not the coursework that takes you out, you can do that. It's all the other stuff, all the other life things that you haven't really had to necessarily contend with at the same time that your academic level, like the difficulty level has arisen and you lose your identity as a smart, well I was losing my identity as a smart girl and I found myself lost, which was then , it was showing up in class that I wasn't doing things that I know I could do, but it had nothing to do with that. And so I know you, you work a lot with Black women and Women of Color just trying to figure out like my identity I don't, what's happening and it's showing up here and I'm used to achieving and I'm not either, I'm not feeling like I'm achieving in the ways that I'm used to or I don't know what that next level, all of that. So I don't know what really my question is just more of what are your general thoughts about that? If anyone is dealing with that right now as a student where they're transitioning from their program. Words of encouragement?
Guest:
Absolutely. Absolutely. And and as you were talking about being like that gifted child and that um, that smart kid like that, that was me too, like growing up, not academics came easily like that wasn't an issue but definitely came to my PhD program and then like everybody here is smart. I have some of those same thoughts and I remember looking at um, and some of our mutual friends and thinking like, Oh my gosh, she was so brilliant. And thankfully I don't, I think I was at a place in my own personal journey where I didn't look at them and say, you know who she thinks she, like that kind of thing. Like it was more like, Oh my gosh, like she is so brilliant. Like I want, I want some of that, I want more of that for myself. And so that was another like beautiful thing about our experience that at UGA of all this brilliance is around me. How can I, how can I absorb some of this? How can I learn? How can I develop some of these skills? What can I offer them? Because I also had to come to the realization I have things to offer as well. So yeah, definitely being in that space and understanding that for a lot of high achieving Black women and hearing other women's stories that are similar feeling like we have to be smart, we have to know it all. We have to be able to have all the answers. We have to work, work, work, work, work. We have to achieve, achieve, achieve, achieve. Um, or just or, or we don't know who we are or we're not successful enough or we're not working hard enough. We have to work twice as hard to get half as much. You know, all these different messages, superwomen, all these different things are constantly coming at us.
A lot of our attention when we were growing up came from our achievements. Oh you won this thing. Oh you did this thing for academically or whatever the case may be. It doesn't have to be academically, but you were recognized. You got praised for those things. So those are the things that solidified in your mind. That's what you have to do to be cared for to be loved. So I think for a lot of women we have internalized that and said, okay, that's all I can do. That's all I can be. And there is so much more to us. So there's so much more to life. What I've seen with my clients a lot of times is I can ask them the question, just what do you do to take care of yourself? And they don't have an answer. And that is so scary. For one, it's sad for two and it's not sustainable, it's not sustainable. And I have to recognize that there was a time when that was adaptive for us. There's a reason that some of these things developed, but we are in a different space, especially where there's still things going on. But a space nonetheless where we, we do have more room to explore, to move into more fullness for ourselves too. Expand our ways of seeing ourselves and our identities. But there's room for that. And so that's a lot of the work that I do with my clients.
First of all, figuring out out where the barriers are to feeling like you can't take risks, you can't care for yourself, you can't take a break. You have to always be looking at the next thing. And I'm not saying don't look for achievement when I say don't try to, you know, reach goals and things like that. Absolutely not saying that, but there is a balance. There's a way to be cared for and care for yourself and to reach your goals. And so yeah, that's a lot of what I do with my clients. Um, so you kind of, you kind of alluded to this, but that's also why I develop my coaching business as well. Um, Beyond Achieving, which is geared towards women who you just described, women who feel like all they have is work, you know, their career, that's been their main focus. And so struggling to figure out how to balance their life, how to take care of themselves, how to have fulfilling relationships, relationships where they feel they have healthy communication or that they are being supported or you know, whatever the case may be. And those relationships, family relationships, all those different things that go into the fullness of a person. And so that's why I developed that. Um, cause there's a need.
Scholar Basics Overview (Dr. Lacy):
Absolutely. There's a need. In my experience, what I have found is that people are like, Oh I don't need to worry about that Black girl over there. She got it together. She always seems like she's so strong. She always is on top of everything. So no, I don't need to worry about her. I'm going to worry about everyone else who, you know, is in my office and trying to figure out life. I don't need to worry about her. And I think that's, you know, people don't understand it just because I show up or I present this, I'm used to doing this. I, it is a survival mechanism. So yes, it looks that way. But like you still have to ask people. And so because people do that, what I have my clients do every time we come onto a call is I have them check in and they have to um, rate their level of energy that day, um, focus and their peace. Um, and then I also have them rate their level of what is called the scholar basics. And I thought about the scholar basics because people say take care of yourself, but most people don't tell you what does that mean, what does it look like? And so are the basics are for anyone who is curious is that you have to take at least one hour a day for yourself to do something for you. Not needing work related or, or chores or anything like that. It's like something that fills you up. So I know, um, Shaquinta you are planners or there's something about your planner like playing around with your new, you gotta new plan, you got a new stuff like doing that for at least an hour a day. And the second thing is drinking at least 64 ounces of water. The third thing is, um, journaling for at least 10 minutes. And I highly encourage people to just write out their thoughts. Don't even try to tell a story, just write out what you're thinking. The fourth thing is moving, moving at least 10 minutes a day. And you might think like 10 minutes is nothing, but when you are working on your dissertation and you're like, I just need to focus. And you realize 16 hours have gone by and you didn't move, you didn't eat and drink, like you didn't do anything. It's helpful to say, Oh I can do 10 minutes, which ends up usually being more than 10 minutes. And then the fifth thing is doing your top three, which is your three most important tasks of the day to take 20 minutes or less to complete. And so we do that and ask them to rate themselves on how well they've been doing that. And it's not so much that I'm looking for people to say, Oh, I'm tens across the board. It's about building awareness of it. Have I checked in with myself? Am I taking care of myself so that I can have the energy and be the person who can get these dissertation related goals finished.
Guest:
Absolutely. Absolutely. I love that you said that because so the part of the model I use in both therapy and with coaching is looking at these different dimensions. One of the, I think one of the challenges right now, sometimes I have to preface with my clients of, you know, I know self care is a buzz word right now. Everybody's talking about self care, but self care isn't only bubble baths and massages. It can be that, but it's not only that, there are different dimensions to self care. So you mentioned the like nutrition or the physical piece, there's the emotional piece. There's an intellectual piece. There's also an environmental and contextual piece. Like there are different dimensions to it and making sure that you are attuned to those different areas. You may be doing great in one area, but another area is lacking and missing something. And so being able to one, learn how to recognize when that's happening. And so that's part of developing that awareness, developing both that mental, physical, the physical and mental awareness around those areas. Uh, so absolutely. I love that. That's important. When you like you're working on a dissertation that is draining, taxing, it's hard. And so I love that you do that.
Words of Wisdom (Dr. Lacy):
That's a, it's actually um, I need to buy some more cause they're all out and I've been using these, what is it, the flare, the paper there. I got things randomly and they were different colors and I'm just more about colors. But yeah, I need to get more of these. Yeah, it's fine. People might, I mean, you know, I guess you attract who you are business. And so most of my clients, they love this conversation, don't worry. They're all things planners and pens and we get on tangents all the time. So as we wrap up two parts, one, any encouraging words that you will give people as they go through this dissertation process and finishing. And then the second part is if folks are interested in working with you, learning more about your services, what would be the best way for them to do so?
Guest:
So words of encouragement, the dissertation will get done it will get done. You have Dr. Lacy to help you through that process. You have other tools and resources that will get done. Take care of yourself if you need help figuring that out, seek out help to figure that out. But you need to take care of yourself because there is, I don't like absolutes but I can't think of very many things in this world that is worth your mental health that is worth your physical health, that is worth breaking you down, tearing you down to the point where you are a shell of yourself and so take care of you. You deserve it. You are worth it. It is important. It is just as valuable. Just as important as this PhD. You will thank yourself for making sure that you had what you needed when you come out of this, you'll be more suited for the job market. Be ready and put ready to go.
And you won't look back on your process with so much dread as I've seen some people do. That's my big message. Just prioritize yourself as much as you prioritize this writing. Yeah. And if you want to work with me, um, so you can find me on Instagram at Beyond Achieving. Um, and if you wants to work with me, um, I will have a link in my bio too connected with my um, calendar to set up a clarity call. As right now I have a 30 day program to balance your life, which is focused on helping you move from being career focused and kind of identifying yourself only by your career to really expanding your identity for yourself and moving beyond that, um, career focus only and so that you can, you know, strengthen your relationship with yourself as well as the relationships around you. And so yeah, you can reach me Beyond Achieving Shaquintaatbeyondachieving.com by email or if you want to book a call with me, it's calendly.com/Shaquinta
Final Thoughts (Dr. Lacy):
Yay. Um, as I have many of many people I run into who are like, and I'm taking a moment to go off for a minute cause I think it's helpful for context purposes. I have a lot of people who come to me and I'm like, man, when I finish this dissertation, I'm going to do this. I'm gonna have the relationships, I'm a live the life, I'm going to do all the things. And unfortunately when you get there because you've been putting it off, there's no magic thing that happens once you, you know, you defend your dissertation and you get hooded, there's a whole transition that has to happen. And if you're not intentional about building the life that you want, you just end up repeating who you were as a doc student. I mean, I've seen it in countless faculty and just people in general, it's life just doesn't automatically get better. And so you have to be intentional. And I would also encourage you to start that work before you finish your program. And that's why it's important to work with someone like Shaquinta who can help you really be intentional about that. And really think about who you are, how you're showing up now, and how you may want to tweak some things or just even be aware of some things so you can start to transition over to being that person who's not just about, okay, what is my career just about like school and that being a part of your identity. We are not our work. And so we have to be intentional about building the people who we want to be. And this is why this 30 program, 30 day program, excuse me is so awesome. And that you definitely should book a call.
It's a free call this you're getting on the call so that you can learn about more about the program and if it's going to be a right fit for you. So do it. The links will be in the show notes of the episode as well as on the um, as as well, on the website if you need that information. So thank you so much Dr. Richardson. It was a pleasure having you. We have to have you back because I want to do a whole series on caring for yourself. I mean, that's where we spend most of our time talking about inside of the finish your dissertation program. So I know you'll be a a guest in there and so we do a guest every month. Um, so if any of you are thinking about it, don't block your blessing. Sign up. Yes, I'd love to have you. Yes, that's going to do it. Have a good everyone. Thank you for joining in for today's office hours. Make sure you come on Instagram and tag me at Marvette. Lacy, let me know what your thoughts were on today's episode. Until next time, do something to show yourself some love. I'll talk to you next week. Bye for now.