294: How to Thrive in Academia and Build a Consulting Business with Dr. Ramon Goings

294: How to Thrive in Academia and Build a Consulting Business with Dr. Ramon Goings

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Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Welcome

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: to the award winning Grad School Femtoring Podcast, the place for first gen BIPOCs to listen in on inclusive grad school stories and learn about personal development and productivity tips. This is Doctora Yvette Martinez-Vu, a certified coach, consultant, and author, and I will be serving as your femtor, providing you with insider knowledge to help you reach your personal and professional [00:02:00] goals.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Welcome back, everyone, to the Grad School Femtoring Podcast. This is your host, Dr. Yvette. Today, we're going to cover the topic of how to thrive in academia and how to build a consulting business. I'm really excited about this episode today. Our guest is Dr. Ramon Goings. He is an associate professor in the Language, Literacy, and Culture Interdisciplinary Doctorate Program at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and founder of Done Dissertation, a dissertation consulting organization students, doctoral programs, and graduate student organizations break down the dissertation process into manageable pieces so that doctoral students can finish their dissertations in record time. Welcome to the podcast, Dr. Ramon.

Dr. Ramon Goings: much for having me. I really appreciate it.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Happy to have [00:03:00] you here. I would love to hear more about you, about your backstory, who you are, what you do, and , how did you get into all of this? I know you're a scholar, but you're also an entrepreneur, so love to hear more about all of

Dr. Ramon Goings: All this stuff sometimes happens just by chance. It was never, you had told me when 10, 15 years ago, I'd be doing anything around business and then also even getting a doctorate. I was, that was not necessarily on my radar. So the fact that I'm here has definitely been a journey. But you know, as a background, I actually started out as a teacher.

Dr. Ramon Goings: So I initially went to school when I was a kid, my, my passion was music. And so I love music. I would listen to music. I learned how to play every instrument. It was something I was, I was very passionate about. And I said, you know what? I want to become part of the music industry. I want to be a music producer.

Dr. Ramon Goings: And when I went to undergraduate school Lynchburg college part of my backup plan was like, Oh, I'll just do music education just in case the music industry thing doesn't work out. And lo and behold, my sophomore year, I walk into a second grade classroom and I fall in love with kids and [00:04:00] working with them.

Dr. Ramon Goings: And so it kind of pushed my whole decision around the music industry to say, you know what, I'm actually going to be an educator and teach. And so I spent a number of years as a music education teacher and special education teacher. And so I have a passion for teaching folks. And so I found that just from those beginnings of.

Dr. Ramon Goings: You know, teaching people, sometimes when you're good at what you can teach, people are like, teach me more of that and teach me more. And so, you know, it got to a point where when I was in my classroom, I was like, there's gotta be something more than just being in the classroom. And someone was like, Oh, you realize that maybe you might become the principal.

Dr. Ramon Goings: And I was like, that sounds like a great idea. I might become the principal. And then I decided, Oh, principals need to have a doctorate. I don't know where I got this idea from, but I just thought that that was the path that you went. I realized that the doctor had nothing to do with being a principal. I definitely didn't need this degree, but it made me fall in love when I got into my doctoral program with research.

Dr. Ramon Goings: And you know, trying to figure this thing out. I was always intrigued by understanding something and figuring something out that I didn't know before. And so going into the doctoral program, I just started to really immerse [00:05:00] myself in the work. And at that point, after I finished, all my professors started to send me their students like, Oh, Ramon has figured this thing out.

Dr. Ramon Goings: Go see him. And so by going, seeing me for these, you know, a couple of years after I finished it birthed into a company. I've done dissertation. So it's like a matter of, I never intended to do any of these things. It just so happened that, you know, I love teaching. It got me to a doc program for an adult program.

Dr. Ramon Goings: I got good at what I was doing. So I started helping people in teaching. And then from there, it just grew into, you know, six, seven years later to full fledged companies help hundreds of students, you know, get to the process.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: I love to hear that. It's interesting because I feel like we have some parallels in that I started out in theater and I started out thinking that that was where I was going to go in theater practice performance. And also, I'm currently in home, a homeschool educator and a mother to an autistic child.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: And so the world of special needs is a world that I've been exposed to actually from the public school setting as [00:06:00] well. And so I have a lot of respect and admiration for educators because it's, you know, It's a lot of work and it's also, it takes a lot of skill to be, especially classroom management.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: I have a lot of friends that are also educators in the public school system, so I understand to some extent have an idea of what it's

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: like. And also in graduate school, I was that person, people would come to me. Can you edit my paper?

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: That became my little editing side

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: hustle and somehow eventually it became coaching and consulting.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: So I appreciate you sharing more about your story. I love that you have this music background, this special education background, and that now you, you have found a way to bring all of these things into your academic work and your consulting work, which is also academic in a different way.

Dr. Ramon Goings: For sure. And it's funny, this is what I'll add. This is funny and real quick for folks like Hal. Sometimes your past where it's like, it feels disconnected, but it all comes together. So just, for example, when I was teaching music, I ended up getting a [00:07:00] job. I needed to move. So I moved from Connecticut, where I was from, to Maryland.

Dr. Ramon Goings: And the first job I got, the guy, the person who hired me at the school said, Alright Mr. Goins, I can hire you. Part of your job is going to be music education. And teaching music, but also part of your job is going to be the being the video production teacher. At that point, I knew nothing about video. I knew nothing about editing any of that stuff.

Dr. Ramon Goings: You asked me about final cut pro any of these things. I knew nothing about it at the time. So I literally had to teach myself all of these things so that I could teach my students. But lo and behold, 20 years later, I use all those same skills now as a content creator on, you know, doing content, having been able to edit my own, if I needed to edit my own work and understand how all the audio, all how everything works, it's all that stuff that happened in my background.

Dr. Ramon Goings: And so it's just interesting how it all comes back together at some point.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: It really does. Yeah. So I, you told us a little bit more about what inspired you to pursue a doctorate, but I'm curious. I know you also shared a little bit more, how folks are reaching out to you. At what point did you transition into [00:08:00] formally starting a consulting organization? At what point did you make that pivot?

Dr. Ramon Goings: Yeah. I started to make the pivot because just like you, how you mentioned that you were doing editing. And so a lot of times I was, when I was a student and the interesting part is I actually struggled when I first started my doc program, I was a struggling student. So it was a challenge for me to write.

Dr. Ramon Goings: I had troubles with writing. And so, one of my professors, even on a page of my paper, put a big X on it and said, Ramon, you're going to need a writing coach or editor in order to improve this document. And so I took on that challenge. So for the next year, year and a half or so, I really like immerse myself and study the craft of academic writing.

Dr. Ramon Goings: And so that allowed me to improve. And then again, I was editing people's papers. And then as I was finishing up my program, I was writing. I started to publish. I was out publishing the faculty, but then all the students are coming. Hey, can you edit my paper? Can you edit my paper? And these are my friends.

Dr. Ramon Goings: I was doing it for free, but it got to a point where I, I got a lot of work going on, I got to start charging for this stuff. And initially it was like, I was doing people's editing work and I was just, you know, just editing and editing [00:09:00] dissertations. All that type of stuff when I finished. And what I noticed is that a lot of times people needed editing support, which is what they thought.

Dr. Ramon Goings: And then I have to actually sit down with them and go through my edits and why did certain things, or I know

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Mm hmm.

Dr. Ramon Goings: Like, Oh, your theoretical framework is not aligned to, Your research problem or your research questions. So it's a misalignment. That's the issue beyond editing. And so I found myself doing more coaching.

Dr. Ramon Goings: And then at some point, my wife leads me like, Ramon, just, just like start charging people to coach. Like, it seems like you're doing that already, you know, put an infrastructure around it. And so that then put me on a journey to like, go in more into business development and figure out how do I even start this thing?

Dr. Ramon Goings: How do I package what essentially my intellectual property to. Be able to sell. And so I just went on a journey for a couple of years, like going, doing different business courses. So I understood that landscape and it just grew into done dissertation.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Now that you have built this business and it sounds like it's pretty solid at this stage, I'm curious, what are some of the [00:10:00] lessons that you've learned in the years that you've been doing this about the dissertation process in particular? A lot of my listeners are graduate students.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Some of them are undergrads, but a good number of them are grad students and they're first gen, they're BIPOC. A lot of them could probably benefit from dissertation coaching. Again, it's just an assumption because I know it can help everyone. But yeah, what, what are some of the lessons that you've learned about managing the dissertation process and finally getting to finish completing in whatever their version is of in a timely manner?

Dr. Ramon Goings: The interesting thing, and so, and I learned this from my own process, and so just so people have the back end backstory, I wrote my dissertation in seven months start to finish. Like I finished and understood and got through it pretty quickly, but there were some things I learned along the way which helped me form how I think through the coaching process.

Dr. Ramon Goings: One is that I recognized Writing a dissertation is actually 80 percent thinking and getting clear in your head and 20 percent the mechanic of doing, sitting at the computer typing. I think for a lot of [00:11:00] students, what I see from coaching hundreds of students is that sometimes they approach the process as a challenge.

Dr. Ramon Goings: Tasks they need to do, and they're looking at the mechanic of writing. And so they don't always take a step back to say, well, if my, my head is not clear, then of course, what's going to come out is not clear. And so for a lot of people in terms of doc students, you're probably managing you know, families, work responsibilities, and trying to figure out how to balance and juggle it all, but not recognizing that something's going to have to be sacrificed a little in order to finish.

Dr. Ramon Goings: And so I find when people are willing to make that sacrifice, Especially around things that take up a lot of time and energy, they're able to reclaim that time and then push it back into their writing, into their thought process. So that was like a thing I had for me. I was a public school teacher up until I got towards my dissertation process.

Dr. Ramon Goings: And I recognized quickly that if I wanted to get out, I was gonna have to move out of teaching. It was just too much to do, like just the day to day of being a classroom teacher. So I transitioned to a staff position in higher ed and I literally took like a 20, 25, 000 pay cut to go to higher ed only because I knew that if I could reclaim [00:12:00] my time and finish.

Dr. Ramon Goings: It was almost like a slingshot. I would recoup that plus more when I finished. And so that was a sacrifice, again, I even had to make as part of my journey. It was the reason why I finished. And so that, that's a key component. And then part of it is, and I just had a workshop with a university yesterday.

Dr. Ramon Goings: We were talking about writing practices. And a lot of times as a doc student, you don't recognize who your audience is that you're writing to. So sometimes you can make mistakes because you might be thinking your audience is scholars in your field, or the audience is, you know, someone else, but your audience are those three to six committee members that are reviewing your work.

Dr. Ramon Goings: And so with that, you have to be able and willing to study the craft of what those people do. So like look at your chair and your committee members dissertations, look at their research. They're like giving you the answer to the test. Like just look at how they write, how they think through writing, because they're going to approach probably that.

Dr. Ramon Goings: In terms of how they review your writing. So it's like some of those things were like a lot of the shifts that I think a lot of docs students make. Then the last one I'll leave with this one is that if you're struggling, if docs students start [00:13:00] struggling with the writing component, sometimes it's also a result of the reading aspect.

Dr. Ramon Goings: I find that a lot of students. You know, may not have either read enough or, you know, where it comes to when you sit down to write, and if I look at your one page, you know, part of your document, and I see the same author cited four times the same paper, it's like a red flag to a chair or a faculty member, like, oh, this person doesn't really know either the literature in this area or how to integrate the literature appropriately.

Dr. Ramon Goings: And so some of those things are really at the foundation of what trips up a lot of students.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Right. And I know you've already, you started to share the things that, that can impact, actually, I really liked that 80 20 rule, by the way, about like 80 percent is just dealing with the

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: mind stuff and even thinking about like giving yourself credit that that also takes time and energy because a lot of times I.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: find myself like working with graduate students where they're not giving themselves credit. They're only giving themselves credit for words on a page, and they spend all this time and energy working on other aspects that's still part of the dissertation process. [00:14:00] So I appreciate that. But I'm curious, actually in addition to naming the lessons that you've learned in supporting so many graduate students, what are, Specific strategies that could be helpful to help students and scholars thrive.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: So thriving in grad school, thriving in academia. I know you mentioned in graduate school, you do have to make some sacrifices, which I understand to be true if you want to finish on time, especially, or if you have a tight deadline, something's got to give. And that can impact your ability to thrive, but it's a temporary sacrifice. But I'm curious again, just like broadly speaking, what are some strategies you would recommend that, you know, may help others to figure out how they can thrive?

Dr. Ramon Goings: I think first is you have to have your definition of what thriving looks like for you. I think a lot of times in higher ed, and I have a lot of conversations with our clients about this, we see what, like, our, say, top scholar in our field is doing, and we see that as what's thriving. [00:15:00] And then because you're trying to achieve that goal of success, you don't know what that person's goal is for themselves.

Dr. Ramon Goings: So they may have a very different end result than what you want for you. And so I think it's important as you know, folks in grad school or even early career folks. It's like figure out what is it that you want out of this? For instance for me being in this space where I'm a faculty member and I thrive in the faculty position.

Dr. Ramon Goings: So like, if you looked at my CV, I write a lot, write more than a lot of faculty, but I also knew I wanted to build, you know, and have a business that helped people. And so that's a very unique pathway that not a lot of folks in my space might take. And so I had to be comfortable with knowing where I wanted to go and what vision I had for myself so that if I heard the noise, I could just, you know, Kind of, you know, tune it out.

Dr. Ramon Goings: So I think that's a, a, a critical component if you're trying to thrive. And then also part of it is getting help in places that you might find that you're, you know, struggling in. So for instance when I was a student, I knew, and even when I first started my faculty position, I knew nothing about going after grants.

Dr. Ramon Goings: I was trying to figure out, and then I had a mentor shout out to Dr. Chance Lewis at University of North Carolina, Charlotte. He was like, Hey, [00:16:00] Ramon, you're doing a lot of writing over there. I see that CV looks great, however, you're trying to go to the next level. Where for me, I wanted to be an endowed chair.

Dr. Ramon Goings: He was like, you got to be able to go after the funds as well. And so I kind of went on a journey to learn. And so I just sought out help from folks who have secured grants. And then I started going after them. I got very successful at that. So I've gotten millions of dollars in grants. So like, just from being willing to like start and recognizing I needed help from people who have been where I'm trying to go.

Dr. Ramon Goings: So I think that's another component. And then also just being mindful that. You don't have to speed through this thing. Sometimes it's like, I hear folks like grad school. I gotta write all these papers. I gotta do all these things. Like, don't do so much as you burn yourself out. And so I think part of it, and it's a bad culture in higher ed about just like trying to take on all of these things and not doing them well, cause you're just burnt out and tired.

Dr. Ramon Goings: So I think for a lot of folks, it's just reevaluating what's important. Do those couple of things, do them really well, and then you gotta leave the rest alone. Yeah,

Dr. Ramon Goings: I

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: want to ask you to expand on one of the things that you touched on today [00:17:00] because it's something that comes up a lot for the folks that I personally work with that are predominantly women of color. The, that, that you sought out help, you sought out help from folks, especially in the areas you needed more support in, particularly grant writing.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: And since then you have been very successful at getting millions of dollars worth of grant grants, which is great. That's incredible. But I'm thinking to myself about a listener that is currently struggling to ask for help. And struggling to find mentors, especially mentors that look like them or sound like them, or that could serve as role models, even if they don't have the exact same identity markers. So I wonder if you could expand a little bit more on that process of seeking out help and what, yeah, what does that look like to seek out help? Especially If you're talking to someone, let's say you're, just talk to me as an example. I, when I was a graduate student, I struggled with [00:18:00] asking for help because I felt like I bothered people.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: I now understand that I don't necessarily bother people and that I have my own worth and that it's a reciprocal relationship and that I have a lot to offer. I understand that now, but I know that not everybody. Is there when they are a graduate. So is feeling that way that I am enough and that I have a lot to offer and that I deserve to get help. But anyway, I wanna hear from you to just expand a little bit more about this

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: I've got

Dr. Ramon Goings: a couple ideas.. Sorry, I'm jotting them down as you were talking. Some things that just came up in some strategies and things I've implemented. So a couple of pieces. I think when we think about mentors, sometimes I find that it's not for everyone, but I see sometimes folks look at mentors as like the one stop shop for everything.

Dr. Ramon Goings: Yeah. And so I think you have to think about it more like a team effort. Like, who is your mentor team? And so you may have someone that fits the slot. Like, oh, I want to help, you know, I want to work with someone or need help from someone who knows a lot on, like, publications and journals or writing. Sorry, I have a person that helps me with that.

Dr. Ramon Goings: You [00:19:00] know, I may have another person who helps me like, I want to build my consulting practice. I may have someone who's done that as a faculty or wherever I'm trying to go. I have a person for that. So it's like being mindful what you need and then identify a person for that particular task. You're always going to have people that are going to help broadly on everything, right?

Dr. Ramon Goings: I have those people as well, but sometimes you just need like, kind of like you're just folks who have a particular skill set. So I think that's important because then it becomes not just the question. Can you be my mentor? It's like, no, your question becomes more specific. Okay. Oh, I'm looking to apply for more grants from the National Science Foundation.

Dr. Ramon Goings: You know, can you walk me through one of your proposals and how you went about doing that? Now you're asking a very specific question and then tied to that once you do that part, because sometimes, especially when you don't know the person, it's hard to make that particular ask. However, what you could do, or I think that the same scenario makes it a little bit easier, is let's say the grant was the grant opportunity.

Dr. Ramon Goings: You would say, actually, I've identified this particular grant where I can have a mentor and advisor on this grant as long once I write it up. I would love to write you into [00:20:00] this grant if you can just show me the process of the writing process and how you approach it. So now it becomes not you taking from someone else.

Dr. Ramon Goings: It's like, it's reciprocal. Now you provide an opportunity. And they are providing opportunity to you. I think more people, especially senior folks are more open to those type of things versus you just saying, be my mentor. I need, I need everything in your head, in my head type of thing. So that, that's one aspect.

Dr. Ramon Goings: And then I take this from the music industry because again, our past comes back. So I did spend some time going into the industry as a producer. And part of the thing I had to learn in that space was you got to shoot your shot. You got to let the person hear your music, let them hear those tracks and see if they're going to buy it or see if they're going to write to it or not.

Dr. Ramon Goings: And so you got to take the same approach with finding mentors. Just know that people may not reach out and I used to get upset about it and have my little list of people that was like, no, I'm not helping them if it happens. But now I'm on the other side, I get it sometimes just people are at capacity.

Dr. Ramon Goings: So you have to recognize everyone's a person. They have lives. You may not fit always into what's happening at that point in time. So don't take it personal [00:21:00] necessarily. This is why I ask a lot of different folks. That way you have a wide variety of people that you can reach out to, but you got to shoot your shot because if you don't Your answer will always be no.

Dr. Ramon Goings: And so that's, that's always in my mind about anything. Applying for fellowships, applying for anything. I'm like, I might as well apply because if I don't, I surely won't get the opportunity then.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Yeah. I love that. You gotta shoot your shot. And it reminds me also of how you gotta take initiative too, and you gotta follow up. And that's one thing that I was.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Just having,

Dr. Ramon Goings: so important. That's the, that's where you win. That's where you win.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: yes. And I only mentioned that because I was talking to a grad student earlier today and the topic of mentorship came up too. And I was telling her that for me over time, as I've continued on in my career, I found myself to have more mentees and mentors.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: And because there's been so many mentees that I've accumulated over time, I do encourage them to be the ones to take initiative because it's just really hard for me to. Keep track.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: I just, I don't have a spreadsheet of dozens of mentees. I don't. So [00:22:00] the folks that follow up, the folks that check in are the folks that nurture that relationship. And so I wanted to remind her that because she said, there's people that said yes to being my mentor, but I haven't touched base with them.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: And I said, I said, what are you waiting for?

Dr. Ramon Goings: I literally was, I was with graduate students. This was like five or six years ago at a conference. I just finished up. I was my first year as a faculty. I was talking to graduate students and it was a room of 73 people. I remember that I had to count and out of the 73 in that room, I said, I gave everybody my contact information.

Dr. Ramon Goings: I said, everybody, please let me know I could be of support. One person out of that room reached out. I still keep up with them to this day. I actually talked about a couple, a couple months ago about it. I still bring it up to her like, every time Dr. Henderson I see you, it's because you're the only person in that room that followed up.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: You know what? That's so true. When I give workshops to undergrads, I say you know, create your LinkedIn account. I'll be your first connection. Send me a connection request. Here's my link. And it's always one or two out of 70 people.

Dr. Ramon Goings: That's how it goes. The win is in the follow up for sure.[00:23:00]

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Exactly. All right. So I, I know you've clearly found a way to leverage all of your skills and bring this all into what you do today. I want to hear a little bit more about Done Dissertation and how you have leveraged all of your skillset into this entrepreneurial role, because I know that there are some folks that are curious about that as another option or as something to supplement their academic career as another part of their trajectory in their career.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: So I'm curious for you. How have you leveraged your skill set to build this business?

Dr. Ramon Goings: So the first thing is interesting when people ask me this question is that I take all the skills that I learned in my doctoral program and I apply it to business. I see a lot of overlap between business and what you go through to get your dissertation done. And this is how I would explain it. So imagine when you're writing your dissertation, the first thing you have to identify is what your topic is and what you're going to explore in your study.

Dr. Ramon Goings: The same thing in the business. You first have to figure out what is my niche? What is my area of expertise that I want to focus my business in? [00:24:00] But just like you would do in your dissertation, the next step is like to explore the literature and see what have people talked about previously to help set up what I want to do in my dissertation.

Dr. Ramon Goings: Cause I want to contribute something new. The same thing in business. You literally take us, like, if you're in a particular area, you look around and say, all right, what are other people doing in this area? What could I do an offer that's unique to the marketplace? That, you know, consumers or whoever your, your other buyer is would be interested in and find value in.

Dr. Ramon Goings: Once you do that, like the, the whole process is mirrored. So for me, it made sense as to how to identify my niche, how to, you know, figure out who my target audience was, like all that started to make sense. Cause I was doing that as a writer anyway, in terms of what I would do in my doctoral program. So that's one thing.

Dr. Ramon Goings: And I think just generally there are so many overlapping skills just that you learn. Through being in a doctoral program, your research and analysis skills, just that alone in these doctoral programs can be leveraged if you want to be an evaluator on folks grants. So there are a lot of folks, I have a team that I work with and we evaluate people's grants and [00:25:00] that just comes from our skill set as just people.

Dr. Ramon Goings: Folks who know how to analyze data, like that's just something very simple and it's actually can be quite lucrative if that's the route you want to go. You can make 8 to 10 percent off someone's grants and think about that. How much people are applying for these days. Those are easy opportunities there.

Dr. Ramon Goings: And then also, I think, for me, some of the skills from the doctoral program is just how to identify a problem. And what Dr. Porno sometimes do and don't do is it's kind of mixed bag, but like, what's the solution because business is all about being solution oriented where sometimes as researchers, sometimes we just kind of play around with the problem a lot.

Dr. Ramon Goings: And so if you're someone who can be solution oriented and you really find a problem, that is a pain point for people. It's quite easy. To make money if, you know, you can make it for as a side business too. It could be more than your nine to five job, you know, depending on how you want to go about it.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Yeah. You know, I hear you talking about all the ways that you have leveraged the skills that specifically the ones from your graduate [00:26:00] program, from writing a dissertation, how they can be applied into a business and across other industries too. And I will say this, I know a lot of folks who have trouble with translating those transferable skills and that they have skills, but maybe they haven't been affirmed or validated in their skillset.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: So they don't feel like they have skills. They're like, Oh, I, you know, I can teach, but you know, it's no big deal. Everybody else can teach, or I can analyze data, but everybody else around me analyzes data because they're so caught up in the subject area expertise

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: They lose sight of the skill set. But I'm, I'm curious if there's any other ways that you can think of, of PhD grads in particular, folks who are recent grads, that they can leverage their skill set, especially if they are feeling that way of, I don't know enough, or everybody else around me has these skills, who's going to pay me for this.

Dr. Ramon Goings: [00:27:00] There are so many other ways. So just to not even necessarily be research related. If you're someone who has a lot of practitioner experience, that's another way to leverage that skill set. So. My wife and I, we have what's called our business accelerator where we help folks who have their doctors like develop their business.

Dr. Ramon Goings: So one of our last clients, she was a former superintendent of a school, a small school district and gotten her doctorate and it was trying, you know, had already had a business in place and was looking to grow. But literally what she did is took her expertise from cultivating what she did in her school district as the superintendent.

Dr. Ramon Goings: All those skills and her recent combined it with her dissertation explored issues around conflict conflict resolution and conflict transformation in organizations. She takes exactly what she did and actually implements it with other organizations, but it all stems from initially her foundation as a practitioner.

Dr. Ramon Goings: She built on it from her research and, you know, put it together. So this practitioner experiences that folks have that I think sometimes we're Not looking at, you know, quite in the right, right way. Even just something simple as if you've ever taught a class or been an instructor for a while, you have [00:28:00] curriculum design experience,

Dr. Ramon Goings: you are able to teach.

Dr. Ramon Goings: So what you could even do stuff where and this is in the entrepreneurial space. There are a lot of people who create these programs, but don't have any background in curriculum design. They're just throwing stuff together. So like you can lend, I have a couple of two colleagues who do that for other businesses.

Dr. Ramon Goings: They literally help them develop and design their curriculum because that's their background. They do it day to day in their job as a professor or as a teacher. So there's so many just simple skills that we already do that you can, you know, turn into an income opportunity. This is actually endless. It's just a matter of which one you want to do and just being willing to put yourself out there and continue to push yourself out there.

Dr. Ramon Goings: Cause I think the confidence comes from the doing part of it.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: In light of speaking of endless opportunities, I'm going to get back to you now. I want to hear about your long term goals, about your vision, your vision for a Done Dissertation, your vision for your career. This is, I know this is a big question. [00:29:00] Feel free to answer however you like. I know for me, I struggle with a big picture thinking, not everybody's like

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: this, but it's exciting to consider, you know, what's, what's to come. So in light of everything that you've accomplished to this day, what do you still hope to do? What, what are your long term

Dr. Ramon Goings: Yeah. So on my personal side, in terms of faculty because I like being fat, I'm still faculty, I'm a tenured faculty. I went through all that process, got tenure, get ready to go for a full professor. And so. I still like the faculty route. At some point, I might want to be an endowed chair. That's always been my goal.

Dr. Ramon Goings: In terms of faculty, I just thought that was a great position in terms of how it's structured. It works well for how I like to live as a faculty member. And so that is definitely on that side, part of the vision there. And then for done dissertation, I just see us, you know, we're expanding rapidly now, but just becoming like the go to for every university.

Dr. Ramon Goings: Who has a doctoral program so that we can provide the support because we just see it. And we were, at this point, we've proven our model. We see it from hundreds of students across all different types of institutions, from all different subject areas that the need is [00:30:00] there. And so now it's just working with the universities and also working with you know, our research organizations to provide that infrastructure and support for more students.

Dr. Ramon Goings: You know, my initial goal was a thousand helping a thousand doctoral students finish. And I know we'll get to that in like two or three years here. And then at that point, it's like just how many more can we help support? And then from there, it's just really the graduates. Now I get to see, like, I have folks who have graduated, I have folks who are themselves, tenured faculty members who have come through our program at this point are now coaches in our program and or out there just like doing great work.

Dr. Ramon Goings: So that, that part for me is even more fulfilling, I think, than some of the other stuff that we will do as a company.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Yeah. I mean, that's great. I, that's very exciting. I love to hear that. We need more folks in these roles and the endowed chair roles, especially folks like

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: you, like we need

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: more folks, black, brown, indigenous,

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: you name it.

Dr. Ramon Goings: for sure.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: And also institutions desperately need this kind of support. So I know that the work you're doing is really, really important. It's critical and it's changing lives. [00:31:00] So I'm glad that you're doing this. And I appreciate you for being here to share more about that work. As we get close to wrapping up. Is there any other question that you were hoping that I would ask you today?

Dr. Ramon Goings: That's a good one. You know, I was thinking about that. I'm not sure you really asked some great things. We had some good conversation about just what the future looks like. One thing I will add to kind of the future part I was, as I was thinking is a lot of times for the students, I think you'll be glad to hear this.

Dr. Ramon Goings: I know a lot of what we've been doing is a student centered and that's where we always will remain. But at Dundas Station, we're also adding a faculty component because we know that there is a relationship there to you as a student and your faculty members. And so, Actually, I just finished writing the first draft of the book that I'll have coming out sometime, I don't know, early 2025, called The Finish System.

Dr. Ramon Goings: And it's a dissertation chair's guide to helping their students from start to defense. And so now I'm going on the faculty side. I've been testing out a model for chairing that I've been working with my own students through and just so now I kind of put it together in a book that I can share. Easy read.[00:32:00]

Dr. Ramon Goings: And so now I'm going on that side to really for us to be able to be able to support both ends, faculty and students. So I did want to add that to the kind of future of what we're going to do at the company. But in terms of questions, no, this was a good conversation. Please

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: I was gonna say, wait, wait, wait. You just mentioned your book. When is it coming out? So that the folks know.

Dr. Ramon Goings: Try to see how fast we can get this thing moving. I'm hoping we initially had a February 1st of 2025 as the release. It might happen a little earlier. It's been all fast. I can get through the editing process. Anybody's written stuff you just know, and books are just, this book is not long, but it's just a, it's just a.

Dr. Ramon Goings: Slug to get through. And my first book, I wrote a book, 14 secrets to a done dissertation. That was easy. They're easier to do this one. I don't know. Was this a challenge for me to get through that process for some reason this time, but you know, we're here. The first draft is done. So now I'm just editing and trying to get it out.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Well, congratulations on

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: getting to this stage. Excited to hear about it. Coming out in the spring of 2025. And okay, final closing [00:33:00] words. Any final words of advice you want to share to our listeners, especially those currently in. The process of navigating grad school and also anyone who's interested in entrepreneurship.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Yea

Dr. Ramon Goings: so for my grad students, if you're in your doc program, please don't try to go through this thing alone, especially if you found that what your approach and way of doing it right now has not been getting you the result that you want. Get help somewhere. Done dissertation, we have plenty of content like on our YouTube channel.

Dr. Ramon Goings: It's free. You can get access to it. That might help you think through some of the mindset issues, some of the tactical strategies that you can implement. You know, some of you might need more help than that. We definitely have a program to help support or find someone somewhere. And we have some videos too, just to be mindful.

Dr. Ramon Goings: I want to put this out there as a caveat, be mindful of some of the folks that say they're coaches out here. I, we continuously get students who come to us and we hear that they've gotten like taken advantage of, so just do your due diligence. I just, all I ask is that you do your due diligence on folks that you're going to work with us included.

Dr. Ramon Goings: I always say that. So that's going to be important for you all. And then for folks who might need some support, we do have a training is called elevate your [00:34:00] academic writing. If you're listening, you can get access to this. I'll give you all the number to put the text. If you text the word, hashtag elevate, E L V A T E to 301 701 2466, you get access to this free training about improving your academic writing.

Dr. Ramon Goings: Cause I know that's usually a part where graduate students are trying to figure out the writing component. So I try to provide a solution in the training. Easily that you can implement in terms of writing strategy. So you can get access to that. And then for folks who are exploring entrepreneurship, first things first, do it is definitely worthwhile.

Dr. Ramon Goings: It's something about being and having control over your destiny that I love about entrepreneurship. It's really important to me. So I think it's something that you should explore and just be mindful that not everyone understands this journey that you're on if you go this route. So just be willing to, again, just.

Dr. Ramon Goings: Find a community and find that support that you can amongst, you know, folks who are also entrepreneurs. Cause trust me, you find the right entrepreneurs. We all know the struggle of trying to get sales and trying to navigate marketing. How do you keep this business moving? Bring on team, like all this stuff that happens as [00:35:00] you're building a business.

Dr. Ramon Goings: Definitely find the infrastructure. And if you need support, if you're someone with a doctor that needs that support feel free to reach out to us at go on www. thedundasportation. com. If you fill out the contact form, just let us know that you're someone with your doctorate who's looking for help to build your business.

Dr. Ramon Goings: And my wife Renee, who is a co owner of Done Dissertation, she can help kind of lead you in a direction there in terms of support for on the entrepreneurship side. So yeah, it's just so many opportunities. Is y'all just, please make sure that you do do something. Cause I think a lot of. Things that we can do with our skill sets that not only bring us impact, income, but also help other people get to where they need to be.

Dr. Ramon Goings: And I think that's the best.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: right. Yeah. Well, we're going to make sure that folks have access to the links and the information that you shared in the show notes. But in any case, for folks that resonated, who want to hear more, who want to support your work, want to connect with you, how can they reach you?

Dr. Ramon Goings: Yeah, I'm usually on linkedIn if you find me, Dr. Ramon Goins on LinkedIn and then Done Dissertation, we're just about on most of the platforms, YouTube, [00:36:00] LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, just find Done Dissertation. You'll find us there. And so again, a lot of content online there.

Dr. Ramon Goings: And then the folks, you know, Want us to come to your university, do workshops and those types of things. So please feel free to reach out. You can reach out through LinkedIn or my website at ramongoings. com and you can just fill out a contact inquiry and we can get you set up and yeah, love to help support people again.

Dr. Ramon Goings: We don't see people win. That's our whole goal is like see people win, whether you work with us or not. That's, that's the goal of this thing for sure.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Thank you so much, Dr. Ramon for being here today for sharing all your insights, your journey, all the advice. I know that there's going to be a lot of folks who are going to resonate with what you shared and who are going to gain a lot from this conversation. So thanks

Dr. Ramon Goings: again.

Dr. Ramon Goings: Thank you.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Thanks so much for listening. If you liked what you heard, here are three ways you can support the show. The first is to make sure you're subscribed and [00:37:00] leave a review on Apple Podcasts. The second way is to get your copy of my free resource kit linked in my show notes. This kit includes tools, worksheets, and podcast playlists on all things grad school, productivity, and personal development.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: The third way to support my show is to follow me on social media. You can find me on Instagram with the handle at gradschoolfemtoring and on LinkedIn by searching my name. Thanks again for listening. And until next time.