The Incredible Disappearing Advisor, Fate, and Wite-Out with Dr. Jennifer Gardella
Dr. Jennifer Gardella [00:40:13] Right.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:40:14] Yeah. Cool. What are you doing when you mentioned the book. What are you doing with with that? How are you approaching that part of the process for that goal?
Dr. Jennifer Gardella [00:40:22] So I have to be honest with you, I’m not in a position to talk about exactly what I’m writing. However, I will share and this is sort of what happened in my dissertation. So you would think I would have learned the lesson. And it’s come back now, almost 10 years later to bite me get I started writing a book and it was three hundred and eighty five pages into Google Drive pages, eight and a half by 11, single spaced, twelve point font.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:40:47] So many many more pages in a book.
Dr. Jennifer Gardella [00:40:50] What?
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:40:51] That would be many, many more pages in a book.
Dr. Jennifer Gardella [00:40:54] Like a thousand pages, right? And it’s kind of autobiographical. So I said, OK, let me put on my qualitative dissertation research hat here, pull out the themes. So rather than tell the whole story, which I intend to at some point, it’s the most important points that I want to get out there to the world right now. And to your point about getting through the dissertation, the question that you have is how can you help as many people as soon as possible? Putting out a thousand page book is not going to help everybody quickly. It’s an interesting story that’s much harder to sell, much harder to publish. God knows, I would need like an editorial staff of twenty five to catch all the typos. So what I was able to do is pull out those themes and I’m having the time of my life writing the book now because one of the things that I do well in the world is make fun of myself, write self-deprecating humor kind of gets me through most days and a little bit of New Jersey New Yorker sarcasm. And I’m able to interject that into a story that is not all that happy and say, look, I got to here and you can as well. And so, again, we draw I drive back to the ability to help people. And, you know, as when I created my TED talk, it’s the Martin Luther King, JFK, Jr. There’s a cadence and a process to the way that they wrote their speeches. And that’s the way that you write a book. It’s OK. This is where you want to be. But now you’re down here. So let me tell you a story and then tell you how to fix it. And so I’m putting that in every chapter. And it’s a fascinating process because it’s actually fun. And I’m writing to my ideal client, my ideal reader, who is really going to be able to read this. And it’s going to be a huge difference.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:42:45] Yeah, so many important things in that folks that are coming out of the dissertation process, they get they get beaten with a stick about how you’re supposed to write in a way that’s so constrained and boring and and and clinical. And then when you come out and you want to write again for something else, particularly, you want to write a book that anybody’s going to read. Because, you know, one of the questions I asked folks sometimes when they they’re putting this love and attention to their dissertation, how many people to read your dissertation after you graduate and
Dr. Jennifer Gardella [00:43:16] no one.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:43:17] One that’s one guy told me. I know one. It’s like you talking about your mom and he’s like, yes, your mom is not reading your dissertation. She’s going to tell you that she read it. And you’re going to be nice enough not to ask or anything about or quiz her on it. And you guys are both not going to talk about it again. So nobody’s going to read your dissertation when you graduate. That’s just the way it is now. Somebody says, oh, somebody read my dissertation break. It does nothing. I mean, there’s a community out there. But in the real world, the ninety nine percent of people who don’t have their doctoral degrees don’t read dissertations for any reason whatsoever. So you’ve got to write a book if you want to talk to those people. And when you do, you want to talk to them like you’re talking to stories, anecdotes, jokes, humor, personality. And that’s something that sometimes doctoral students have a hard time, like switching that other thing off after they got kind of electroshock therapied into, OK, I got to do it this way. Well, now you want to you want to be more of a person again. You want to to to really express yourself so that those people feel like they have a relationship with you and you’re not just teaching them. The most important thing you’re communicating is to entertain. And again, my business brought this up. Who gets paid more money? The president of Harvard or any actor you know? And by all accounts, Harvard is one of the best institutions we have in the country. And the top person there is probably making less than any actor that, you know, so entertaining. That’s what we value in this country. Entertain and sneak the education in with the entertainment.
Dr. Jennifer Gardella [00:44:51] Right.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:44:53] Well, Dr. Gardella told folks how they can reach out to you if they have questions for you, if they want to continue this conversation, if if they have some issues, the fledgling businesses or their own thriving businesses, what’s the best way for you to reach out to you?
Dr. Jennifer Gardella [00:45:11] So I love for people to communicate with me as they like to communicate. And I’m all over the Web, so you can definitely reach me through my website. JenniferGardella.com. There’s a very simple way right now to book a call with me, and I’m happy to talk to you. If you’re more of a your person. I’m on Twitter and Instagram is DrJennyLynn. Talk about good branding. Right. Might as well use that. And then you can also reach me on email at Jennifer@YourSocialMediaHour.com, or I’m all on LinkedIn and I love to connect with people on LinkedIn because LinkedIn provides a way for me to get a really good sense of who you are before we even get on the phone. So it’s neat.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:45:47] Very cool. Well, we’ll put all that in our show notes if anyone wants to go to our blog at DissertationDone.com/blog, you can find Dr. Gardella’s episode there and we’ll have all the social media contacts. The TED talk we’ll link that in so we can see that. I want to thank you for for joining us here today. It’s been a been a great talk and a lot of fun.
Dr. Jennifer Gardella [00:46:08] Well, thank you. This is great. I think you’re doing great work with people, helping them with their dissertation and then helping them find very nontraditional degrees and careers outside of the standard academic path.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:46:20] Yeah, I mean, for me, the main thing is for folks to understand that, listen, this stuff is hard. So understand that if you’re if you’re struggling, that doesn’t make you different. Everybody struggles. So don’t feel like you’re alone. Do get a support structure. If that’s us, if it’s someone else, if it’s to find people who have been there. Because if it’s just your mom and your brother and they’ve never gone through a doctoral degree program, as great as they might be as being cheerleader’s psychologically, you do need support from people who’ve been there or we were going through it with you and make sure you think about that. But but with those things and just some tenacity, you can get through this and then all the cool things that people are doing on the other side, as some of you are pursuing a doctoral degree. Keep going. Don’t stop.
Dr. Jennifer Gardella [00:47:02] Absolutely.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:47:03] The Winston Churchill quote, right. If you’re going through hell, don’t stop.
Dr. Jennifer Gardella [00:47:07] Yeah, I think there’s a couple of a few country songs about that. So if you’re going through hell, just keep going.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:47:12] Keep going. Keep going. So I’ll remind folks once again that today’s episode and brought to you by Dissertation Done. So if you’re thinking about working on or struggling with the dissertation, reach out to us t DissertationDone.com/done. We’ve got our Fast-Track Your Dissertation coaching program, and I’d be happy to talk to you, see if you might be a good fit for that. And if you are interested in really being a part of the expert space, you want to be a coach, a counselor, a public speaker, whatever it might be. Get your book done and we can help you with that, go to DissertationDone.com/book. Once again, Dr. Gardella, thank you so much. I had a wonderful time.
Dr. Jennifer Gardella [00:47:48] Thank you very much also.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:47:50] And for everyone else, I would like you to have a wonderful day and go out and live your unconditionality.
Outro [00:48:01] 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.
