I’m so pleased to share that my fourth podcast, a co-hosted show with Dr. Sara Langworthy called AcademiGig (now Make Your Way), is now available for you to download!
AcademiGig is a podcast for new and aspiring academic creatives, freelancers, and entrepreneurs — in other words, it’s my outlet to chat about all things small-business.
If you’re interested in academic small-business, I hope you’ll take a listen to the show (and feel free to rate us in iTunes to help spread the word)!
The first season of eight episode has been released all at once, so you can binge listen to your heart’s content. Here’s what you’ll find:
Episode 1: The State of Our Businesses
In this first episode, Sara and I offer a general run-down of our businesses, including how long they’ve been up and running, how we make our money, and what we’re hoping to do in the immediate future. This episode offers a kind of baseline for changes that you might see in our business (hopefully growth!) in the coming seasons.
Episode 2: Following the Creative Energy
In Episode 2, Sara and I chat about how and when we knew we didn’t want to pursue traditional paths in higher education (i.e. tenure-track roles). We talk about some of the driving forces of our business (hint: creativity) and also how we establish credibility outside of academic spaces.
Episode 3: Should I Stay or Should I Go?
In Episode 3, Sara shares about her decision to leave her full-time job to pursue her small business full time. I share why I’ve decided to keep my full-time job and nurture my side business. This episode is all about why we’re choosing to be where we are right now, and what that means for the future of our businesses.
Episode 4: Wearing Different Professional Hats
In Episode 4, Sara and I discuss some of the challenges of having different professional identities, especially when you have a full-time job with a college or university. We also tackle the topics of branding and website design in this episode as well.
Episode 5: Our Biggest Business Fears
In Episode 5, Sara and I get super honest about the fears we have about our businesses. Not too surprisingly, some of these fears are related to failure, but we also talk about our concerns about how other people see us and being stuck doing work that we don’t love.
Episode 6: How Do You Start an LLC?
In Episode 6, Sara and I dive into the details of the logistics of launching a small business. We talk about our processes of establishing LLCs, hiring lawyers and accountants, and the things we wish we had known about the process from the very beginning.
Episode 7: Goal Setting for Success
In Episode 7, Sara and I chat about how we set goals for our businesses and some of the metrics that we use to measure success. In this episode, we also talk about the challenges of generating revenue that’s consistent and how we plant seeds for future opportunities with clients.
Episode 8: Planning and Launching New Projects
In the final episode of Season 1 of the AcademiGig podcast, Sara and I continue our goal-setting discussion from the previous episode with a focus on launching new projects within our businesses. This episode also includes a discussion about content generation and what it means to call yourself a “writer.”