The Intersection of You with Dr. Sarabeth Berk
Dr. Sarabeth Berk [00:40:31]
Yeah, great question. People can find me at MoreThanMyTitle.com. The book, the course all the information is out there. I have some free downloads. An identity wordlist, an elevator pitch, some things that people ask me for all the time. I’m like, here, here you go. And I think getting on my newsletter just get more weekly ideas and tips. I mean, the core questions I start with people on are how do you answer the what do you do question. If you’re feeling stuck. If one question is scary to you, then it’s definitely time to do identity work. Identity, something that constantly shifts and career paths are not linear anymore. So if you’re you’ve got to update your resume, but the identity influences your resumes. You’ve got to do both. And the other key question after what you do is what are your professional identities? Most people can’t answer that in a succinct way. And so work on that. And the third part is, once you know your identities, who are you in the intersection of those work identities? So start to think about those questions and you need help answering them. That’s what I’m here for.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:41:39]
That’s awesome. I mean, you’ve got me thinking about this because I know I have all of these different work identities and there are some of them I’m trying to get rid of. But I have to do this. I need to get done. And some of them I know really resonate. And and and just thinking about this is is really cool. So I really enjoy having you today. Thank you so much.
Dr. Sarabeth Berk [00:41:59]
Oh, my gosh. I love hearing. It’s so unique to be able to talk about the background of how I got here with an audience who understands dissertating and the Ph.D. struggle. So this is very pleasant for me.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:42:10]
Oh, yeah, the empathy is here, but I’m entitled. Sorry. Go ahead. What was that?
Dr. Sarabeth Berk [00:42:17]
I not that many audiences. I do interviews with care about the dissertation side of this.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:42:23]
But it’s it’s how you got there. It is part of the identity. It is a vital part of the identity for you, I’m sure. So I think it’s important that people understand that as they’re going through the dissertation process that this is an identity issue. One of the things I caution folks about is if you’re really thinking about stepping away, understand that this is going to be gnawing at you lik later on. It’s going to pull you back in. Like Al Pacino from Godfather Three. I thought that I was out, and they’re pulling me back in. It’s who you are. So you’ve got to you got to recognize that and do what you need to do to make it happen.
Dr. Sarabeth Berk [00:42:58]
And you’re going to be a different person. On the other side of the Ph.D. That who started with is not how you end and so, reflect. Who are you?
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:43:07]
People will ask me, like, I don’t know why my committee will let me graduate or something like that. And like, you’re not a doctor yet. There’s a transition that you’ve got to make then and you’re not there yet. You might be making it. You may not have started the transition yet, but once you have, you’ll certainly be able to look back and tell what happened. I can’t tell you what’s going to look like going forward because each person is going to be on their own journey. But definitely when you look back, you will know unequivocally, yes, I’m different now than it was when I started this.
Dr. Sarabeth Berk [00:43:38]
One of my favorite things, someone told me in the processes you learn all the things you didn’t know, you didn’t know that it’s the truth and that you’re at the end.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:43:47]
Yeah, I have a story from when I was a graduate student that one of my professors had a saying like that. He said that basically undergraduates graduate thinking that they know everything and graduate students graduate, realize that they know nothing.
Dr. Sarabeth Berk [00:44:02]
Totally!
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:44:06]
Being confident enough to say you don’t know something is important. Saying it all the time is a problem. But when you’re in your area of expertise you know it and you can shine and when you’re out, you just be confident of saying, I don’t know that I can either help you figure it out or we can figure out together or whatever, but. It’s no big deal to not know something because nobody comes anywhere close to knowing it all.
Dr. Sarabeth Berk [00:44:28]
It’s so true. Saying I don’t know is OK.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:44:31]
MoreThanMyTitle.com We’ll make sure that folks can just click the link in the show notes, if they want to. The book is More Than My Title, as well. And now reach out and and find out what your hybrid identity is all about, because I bet most of you listening to this show are hybrids like I found out I am. So definitely do that. I’ll just remind folks briefly that, again, this episode has been brought to you by Dissertation Done. So if you’re a doctoral student working on your dissertation, about to start your dissertation, go to DissertationDone.com/done. And we can see if you might be a good fit for our Fast-Track Your Dissertation coaching program. And if you’re outside of the of the doctoral process now and you want to be known in this expert space, getting that book published is a really important step in that process. And we take people through rom the blank page to published author and we hold your hand along the way. So and we do it in a strategic way to help you build that expert credibility. So that’s something you’re interested in. Check us out a DissertationDone.com/book. My guest today has been Dr. Sarabeth Berk, and we had a wonderful conversation about identities. Thank you again so much for for being here today.
Dr. Sarabeth Berk [00:45:48]
Thank you, Dr. Strickland. Enjoyed.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:45:51]
You’re quite welcome. I enjoyed it as well. Have a great day. And for all of you out there listening, go out and live your unconventional life.
Outro [00:46:04]
This has been An Unconventional Life. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed today’s episode, subscribe now to keep getting inspirational stories of unconventional lives as soon as they’re released. Until then, go out and live your best unconventional life.
