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In today’s episode, we’re talking about how to integrate online entrepreneurship into your alt-ac career path and we’re doing that with Dr. Katie Linder, from drkatielinder.com.

Dr. Linder has a BA in English literature, an MA and a PhD in Women’s and Gender Studies from Ohio State University. She’s a certified coach through the International Coach Federation and is currently the Executive Director for Program Development at Kansas State University Global Campus. Dr. Linder is also the coauthor of [Affiliate] Going Alt-Ac: A Guide to Alternative Academic Careers.

Dr. Katie Linder is an entrepreneur in addition to maintaining her academic career.

Dr. LInder started her business several years ago, first as a speaker, and a workshop facilitator, while she was directing at the Center for Teaching and Learning in the Boston area. When she moved to Oregon, she took on more of a research role. It was there that she began expanding the business out to include coaching and online course products. More recently, Dr. Linder has begun a coach training program for academics and higher education professionals.

“People in alt-ac positions have a PhD, but they’re really repurposing their skills toward a different kind of role that’s outside of that more traditional research and teaching position.” 

In addition to alternate academic positions, many graduates work in non-academic roles. These are the folks who also may have a PhD, but they’re often using it outside of the higher ed space. They could be in adjacent fields, like museums, or like national disciplinary organizations.

Some alt-ac roles are a little further afield, like government positions or corporate positions. Dr. Linder explains it as a range of opportunity, “You can think about it as a spectrum of how you’re using your PhD and how close are you to the path that was traditionally set out for what you might do, versus, on the other side of the spectrum, you can really go outside of academia and still be really successful”.

Mapping out your route to alternate academia

Dr. Linder is a big fan of setting big goals and then breaking them down into smaller pieces through a multi year plan. She often meets with clients to do a five year map, 1000-day, or a 500-day map, depending on how far into the future they’re working.

“I start with recommending that you think about your personal life first and I think that this is something that’s surprising to some people when they think about a multi-year career map to really integrate the personal life but I think that it’s really important to have that kind of integration.”

1. Start with how old you’ll be in five years, or 1,000 days or whatever your span is. If you have children or you have a partner, how old will they be, and if your parents are still living, how old will they be? 

2. Determine if you have any major financial milestones that you’re working toward, like paying off your student loans or buying a house. 

3. Identify health or wellness milestones that you’re working toward.

4. Review the personal development milestones that you’re working toward – where are you headed and what are you really looking to do? 

5. Determine professional goals that you have for yourself that you really want to move forward in that time period.

Your goals could include moving up to a new title or a new level of responsibility in your job or managing more people, managing a bigger budget. Sometimes it’s publishing a dissertation or other work of scholarship or expanding your skill set in a new direction, through public speaking, or grant writing or consultation.

Dr. Linder shared an example from her own path, when she saw coaching as a growing field. “I decided to pursue my coaching certification so that I could really be ready to engage in that industry, having a credential and really feeling like I was situated with a lot of credibility as I was moving into that space. I knew it would take me a while to get there. I took a full year of coached training and as that was kind of being layered into my business, that was definitely a longer term strategy that I had.”

Identifying the gap in skills – what you have versus what you need to continue your route – is where you’ll find the smaller steps of growth.

As Dr. Linder says, “Always thinking ahead and looking a few years out allows you to kind of develop those skills that are not necessarily something you can do overnight. It can take a couple of years to really get the experience you need to feel like you can say with confidence, yes, I am somebody who can do this thing.”

Dr. Linder offers a  program called Slow Hustle. It’s an annual mastermind focused against hustling so hard you lose your balance. She’s a proponent for building a business step-by-step and piece-by-piece.  “I literally did one thing and then I added one more thing, and then I saw how that went. Then I added one more thing, and now I’ve sunset some things, I’ve removed some things from what I do, I’ve added other things. I think that when you, I’m not the most patient person, but I think you do have to approach business building with a little bit of patience, especially if you’re doing it on the side and you know that it’s not necessarily going to be an income replacement, or that’s not really where you’re headed.”

Sometimes it’s the  intentionality of saying ‘I want to learn about this thing’. 

When considering your goals, think about how you can do a deep dive in that area to really build up skills. Moving forward step-by-step may seem slow and dull, but six months to a year later, you will have much more confidence in the area than before. It can be really exciting taking something that you’re not good at and getting good at it. 

For those who are dissatisfied with the traditional academic route, explore alternate academia as a side hustle can help identify new paths, new goals and new growth opportunities. For Dr. Linder, alt-ac has allowed her to build “a life design in a way that my partner and I can move and we can be flexible about where we go and what I do with my job”.

To learn more about Dr. Katie Linder, visit her website www.drkatielinder.com or find her on Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram. You can also check out her new course, blendbydesign.com and her co-authored book [Affiliate] Going Alt-Ac: A Guide to Alternative Academic Careers.

Are you designing the business you want, whether that’s alternate or traditional academia? Tell us about it in the comments!