120: How to Secure Funding to Hire an Academic Coach

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

Hi everyone, today I have a short solo episode all about how to secure funding to hire an academic coach. Now, let me tell you a little bit of a backstory on kind of how this topic came up for me.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

Recently, I had someone, a tenured full professor who has been supportive of me in the past, messaged me to let me know that they were wary of individuals who charged students for their services, they wanted to learn more about my company about my work, and what I offer. So I replied back, and I was, you know, really honest with the person about, you know, what it is that I do about what my company is, its mission, kind of like I started.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

And I mentioned that I believe in transparency, and that I too have my own code of ethics, because they were saying that they weren't sure if what I did was in line with with their ethics. And so, yeah, of course, I said that I understood what they were coming from when they express their weariness about my business. I see that coming up a lot, actually, in the coaching industry, because coaching, like life coaching, there's so many types of coaching is an unregulated industry. Anybody can call themselves a coach, you don't need to have a particular certification, you don't need to have any credentials, you don't need to have a particular degree to call yourself a coach. Anybody can call themselves a coach.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

And so because of that, I understand there's a lot of weariness. You know, about folks who are out there, selling services, you don't know what you're getting, you don't know what their background is, their experience, you don't know if you're gonna get kind of the outcome that you that you want from working with them. So again, I understood their weariness. And then I said that, of course, that that's why I have a website, I've got my services listed. I also include my rates on my website, and that my services are fairly priced. They're fairly priced based on market value, based on my knowledge and experience.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

And I also believe in being paid as a woman of color. So many of us are underpaid or undervalued. I've been there, I believe in being paid for my time for my knowledge for my services, especially now, because I no longer have a full time salaried academic job that subsidizes my service work. And so this conversation prompted me to want to bring up the topic of funding, specifically securing funding to work with an academic coach. Why? Because I know firsthand how hard it is to be able to afford these types of services.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

I was that grad student who could barely afford to work with someone who had to save up. And yet I still went for it. I still applied for scholarships to get the funding, I still, you know, organized events to secure the funding. I, I recall, kind of trying to figure out different sources and save up from my own part time jobs, because unfortunately, my graduate department, like so many others, did not and could not provide the type of support hands on support that I needed to thrive. So I've mentioned in a previous episode, about my experience, working with coaches and consultants and receiving document review services, receiving editing, support support with my job application process. So I've benefited a lot from coaches and consultants in that respect.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

And I was thinking, well, if you're someone who's interested in working with coach, or if you're interested in working with me, and you're if you're interested in hiring my services, and at this time, you cannot afford to hire me. Here are some ways for you to consider securing funding for it. So if you want to work with me or anyone else, one on one. Here's a way for you to secure funding, you want to identify and apply for professional development funds. Yes, you can reach out to your graduate division to ask about what types of professional development support they offer, and if they have any funding available to graduate students.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

You can also look for graduate fellowships and apply for fellowships that include pockets of funding for professional development. In fact, one of my clients right now, they're able to work with me because they got one of those fellowships, I don't know the name of the fellowships, I can't tell you to go and apply for it. But they have been able to work with me, one on one for the last couple of months, thanks to the support of this fellowship.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

Another thing you can do is write a letter to your department. This is more common among professors who are seeking professional development support, but it does happen and it is viable as a graduate student, if you reach out to your department chair, and you can request for funding. In fact, here's some sample language that you could use.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

You could say Dear Professor X, I write to request funding for professional development. I would like to work with Dr. Yvette Martinez Vu, an academic coach with over 10 years of experience assisting first-gen students of color, like myself with successfully navigating grad school. My aim is to hire her services to receive support with my writing, organization and time management skills, which will help me reach my goal of graduating much faster than if I were to do it on my own. I can also share any knowledge and skills that I gained from this experience with my fellow colleagues. Thank you so much for your time and consideration.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

Again, this is just sample language that you can use to send an email to reach out. And what's the worst that can happen, the worst that can happen is that the person will say no, that the person will say, no, we don't provide funds for external sources, or for academic coaches or for this type of support. But maybe that could prompt a conversation about other types of support that they can offer. And maybe you can still get what you need, which is hands on support to help you go from point A to point B, that might be to help you finish your master's thesis, help you finish your dissertation, how to get an academic job, or a non academic job, and so on.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

So you get what I mean, the point is to reach out and see what types of resources are available to you. And sometimes you'd be surprised how many pockets of funding are actually available on your campus that don't require you spending money out of pocket to get the academic coaching that you need. So that's what that's how I would encourage you to secure funding for one on one coaching services. Now, here's another avenue or another option if you want to hire an academic coach for certain set of services. And maybe it's getting really hard to secure funding for the one on one support.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

Another strategy is to hire that individual to put on a workshop. So this is really common to hire someone to give a workshop to a group of students. Um, anything. I mean, for myself, I do workshops on anything related to applying to grad school, and anything related to setting up systems organizational, organizational, standard operating procedures, and also workshops to help you prepare for the non academic job market. So for a job outside of academia, I have all of the different topics of the workshops that I can facilitate on my website.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

But if you know you want to hire someone for one of their workshops, one common way that people secure funding for this is through your student group. So if you're involved in some sort of student group, there is some funding that you get every year to put on certain activities. And one of them could be a workshop. Another way that you can do this is by reaching out to university centers to see if they can hire someone like me for one of their big annual events.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

Maybe they have a big first-gen event every year. Maybe they have a big event for students of color every year. Maybe they have a big event all about time management, or a big event I'll have like careers and career fairs. If you know there's an event that aligns with the mission of the coach that you're interested in getting to your campus, why not reach out to the University Center to collaborate and to have the coach that you're interested in, come on to your campus and give a workshop on something that they're an expert or an expert on. So that's another option.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

A third option is actually to go ahead and organize your own event. Maybe you are putting on your own writing retreat. You want to have a guest speaker for your writing retreat. So maybe you are trying to organize your own undergraduate or graduate student conference, and you want to have this person be one of the workshop facilitators or a co panelist. And in this case, if you're trying to secure funding, you can always get co sponsors. So you can get cosponsorships via different centers via different university departments, because sometimes they don't want to take on the full cost of one speaker. But if you say that they're cosponsoring it, you'll put their logo on all of your flyers and marketing, and they only pay a fraction of the cost, then there's a good likelihood that they'll say yes to that. Yeah.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

So those are some suggestions for how to secure funding to hire an academic coach, like me for one on one coaching services, or for workshops or speaking events. Now, another thing I wanted to mention, is the topic about what goes into our fees, because sometimes, you know, folks go, and they look at the rates, and they think, wow, that's really high, like, how come they charge so much for their hourly rate. And you know, when someone else might be making a lot less for their hourly rate as a salaried employee?

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

Well, I want to tell you a little bit about what I have learned thus far, as a small business owner, I have learned that at least 1/3 of my paycheck goes to taxes, as small business owners are taxed at a much higher rate than other types of workers. So that means we have to save at least a third of what we make to be able to pay our quarterly taxes.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

Another thing that comes up is that as business owners, because we are not an employee, we are in charge of paying for our own health insurance, we are in charge of setting up our retirement accounts and paying for our own saving for our own retirement. And so that's another thing that gets added to people's fees. This is accounting for health insurance and retirement costs, which is actually health insurance is a big reason why I decided to move abroad, because it's just no longer sustainable for me to be able to afford health insurance for my family of four in the US without salaried job, you know, as a business owner, it would be very, very hard to afford it.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

And now, that third reason, the third thing that goes into our fees is our years of experience. So as someone gains more experience, as someone gains more of a skill set, many times their rates end up going up. Why? Because if you can have an hour with someone who will teach you a skill, or who will provide you with a service that will save you multiple hours, then is it worth it? or what have you have one session or a few sessions with someone, and the outcome of that completely changes your life? How much is that worth? I just want you to think about that for a little bit.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

And this episode is not to convince you to work with me to convince you to work with a coach, I know that the industry is saturated. I know that like I said earlier, you don't need any credentials or certifications to officially call yourself a coach. I know there's also a lot of what is it like conflation between what a coach is versus what a mentor is versus what a consultant is.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

And for me, the way I define coaching is someone who is there to support you in setting and achieving your goals. It's your advocate, it's someone who's going to be hands on with you and helping you identify what are the things that are getting in the way and helping you overcome those hurdles. So that's how I define coaching. And, you know, everybody has their own expertise or specialization. So in my case, I'm very much a huge, huge very much into supporting people with their writing, empowering them in their writing, supporting people with the organization empowering them with their time management and also their mindset with motivating them with identify limiting beliefs. We're helping them again, not say no to themselves and achieve the things that they want to achieve.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

So like I said, it's up to you to vet the person that you hire, if you so choose to work with the coach, it's up to you to read the reviews, it's up to you to look at their background, consume their content, see if they're a good fit for you. But I'll tell you something. Coaches and the coaching industry are not going away. In fact, you know, one thing that I was listening to earlier, I was listening to a podcast about this change in the way that the employment industry functions globally, that there are a lot of jobs that are being automated right now.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

And what's not being automated are the types of jobs that involve human connection. So the work of coaching is a kind of job where you need a human connection you to build a relationship you to trust in that person. So I really don't think that this is going to be going away. That's why I say it's up to you to decide if you want to work with someone. And if you do want to work with them, don't let money get in the way definitely tried to find funds to figure out a way to work with them.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

I also wanted to mention, because I thought this is a really fitting example, that I recently started working with a new client, who has been listening to my podcast for over a year. Yeah, over a year. So when we had our consults, she was already ready to work with me. I was like, oh, okay, sure. Let's get started. Why? Because she took the time to get to know me. She took the time to listen to my podcast, she's a loyal listeners, she found something valuable in what I share. And because of that, she wanted to invest in my business.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

And more importantly, because of that she wanted to invest in herself. So just just wanted to put that out there. And I can't tell you actually, how many times I have sessions with people who walk out say, wow, this was so helpful, or, wow, you really know what you're doing. Well, yeah. I've been doing this a while. Or, wow, this session was so good.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

And that's why I keep doing it, despite the pushback, despite the naysayers, despite people question what I do, because when you do work, that matters, work that you know, as they say, que vale la pena, the folks that matter will notice. So I'm going to leave you with that. I hope that you found this episode helpful. And I will talk to you all next time.