Episode 134: Defend Your Dissertation

Show Notes:

This week on the podcast, Marvette talks about her new program Defend Your Dissertation and goes over the shifts in your mindset you have to go through in order to complete your dissertation. 

Follow along on Instagram:

 https://www.instagram.com/marvettelacy/

Join the discussion on Facebook:

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/qualitativedissertationsmadesimple

Enroll in the program:

https://www.qualscholars.com/defend-your-dissertation

Transcripts:

Introduction: 

Hello, welcome back. Y'all how y'all doing. I am excited for today. We have been teasing for the past few weeks about our new program and our new announcement. And today is the day Defend Your Dissertation is now open for enrollment. But before I tell you about this program, there's a few things I want to talk to you about first, right? Because especially for those of you who have been following me for awhile listeners of the podcast for awhile, you know, you know that what we do here at Qual Scholars is about not only helping you to finish your dissertation, but it is about you owning your expertise as doctor. You owning the identity of being doctor way before the defense, Way before the hooding ceremony, way before everybody's like, congratulations, doctor, we help you finish in a way that makes you better. That builds you up where you don't believe that this process has to be one that tears you down or that you have to be sad and miserable.

1. Believe that you will graduate: 

We are in the business of helping you own that shit. In order for you to do that though, here's some things that you're going to have to work on, getting yourself to a place to believe. And I wanted to start this episode, this episode off here, because I know that this program is amazing. I know that this program would transform your life, but I need you to know it, right? I am not in business because it's all about money for me, I'm in the business of helping people. But the thing is you cannot help someone who doesn't want that help. And I know you've heard that before. What I mean by that is if you haven't prepared yourself to receive help and support, no amount of programs, courses, webinars, office hours is going to help you finish because you have to believe it. And I'm not saying that you 100% have to know without a shadow of a doubt that you're going to finish. I am saying though, that it does take a little bit of faith, a little bit of belief in yourself, right? So that is number one, that you have to believe that you will graduate like a little percent of you has to believe and hold on to that tiny belief that you will graduate, right? And it begins with making one decision, letting that decision be good enough and being willing to keep going. Even when it feels wrong, even when it feels like you're doing it wrong, or something's not quite right, or you don't all the way, get it. But being willing to still putting one foot in front of the other people think like, oh, that's not important. I just need a writing plan or I just need help in my time management. Or I just need someone to look at my writing and give me feedback what I want you to know though. People are doing that for you, but you can't see it right now. And so to go back to my earlier point, that's no amount of support that can help you see that you have to see that. So, number one, you have to believe that you could still graduate. And for a lot of you that you could still graduate. Like you could still meet the requirements to graduate in 2021. So that's number one.

2. Be willing to accept support and help: 

Number two, I mentioned this, but you have to be willing to accept, support and help, right? Like you gotta be willing to, to accept it. Here's a, uh a way, indicator for you to know if you're accepting it or not. When someone reviews your writing and they give you feedback and you open up a document and you see the track changes, are you immediately closing it and being like, uh, F that, are you being like, oh, that's too scary. They told me I was a bad writer. Cause all of these, you know, track changes are there or are you taking the time to read it? Even though it's hard to sit with. Even if you feel a little bit uncomfortable, are you allowing yourself to review the feedback? And then are you, are you making an intentional decision to either accept that feedback and incorporate it or being like, not it ain't for me fam thank you though, because that's different than you've not opened in the document at all, or you're not reading a feedback at all, or you deciding like, I'll just do it later. That's you fell in ahead of time. What it looks like to put one step in front of the other is to look at the feedback and decide for each piece of feedback. Am I going to take it or am I going to leave it? That's different energy.

3. Deciding to do ONE thing: 

And then number three, again, being willing to follow, like to decide one thing, one small thing that you can do doing that one thing, learning like, did you like it? Did you not? And then deciding what your next thing is going to be. So people, the students who are going to do the best in this program, are the people who are not only going to show up and watch the videos and read the actual, um, workbook that comes along with it and do the exercises, but also someone who is willing to write, not just consume, but also right. Follow the process, right? Because we have broken it down in a way that does not require you to have to like work long hours, work all week. Even if you just simply follow the process that is outlined, you will finish your chapters four and five and graduate and be done. But I do not want students to come into this program who are like, let me see what this is about. I don't know, nothing else has ever worked for me before. I'm not a good writer. So what's the point. I don't want that energy. You can keep your energy over there. I only want people to come into this program who are like, I'm scared, but I'm willing to do it anyway. I believe that I can graduate. I just need somebody to walk me through and here's the program that's gonna help me do that. I'm willing to show up for the calls and ask questions. Even when I think it's a dumb question or I'm nervous, I'm willing to show up for the writing sessions. Even if I can't make all of them, I'm committing to making one, like coming to one a week. I'm committed to that.

That's what I want. I just want people who are willing to try, who are willing to take one step, learn something and take another step. Not someone's going to come in and like do it all and then fall off and ghost us. No, because we are here to support you to help you. But again, you have to be here and you have to be open to receiving that. Now I'm coming off strong in something. But I, I just want to be clear. We are not just looking for anyone to come into the program. We are looking for the people who are committed. Not that you have all the answers, not that you're the perfect student and you've got the perfect planning habits and you're type A no, I'm looking for someone who's willing. Who's willing to try something they may have not like may have not tried before. Or maybe we tell, we told you to do something. And you're like, I did that. It didn't work. But being willing to do it, being willing with our guidance to try it because we make doctors over here. And not only doctors, we make people who are like, I have never felt so much alignment in my spirit. So much wholeness in my spirit as I do now, y'all have heard them on a podcast.

How is that working for you?: 

And if you are someone who is considering joining defend your dissertation, but you're like, I don't know, why am I going to pay for this? I got my program, I got my advisor. This nothing's going to work. I'm too broken. If you're doing that, I want to ask you to ask yourself and to consider how is that working for you? How has that going for you? Is it getting you any further to where you want to go? Or is it, are you getting stuck in place? And even if you decide not to join Defend Your Dissertation, what's going to be your plan still? What's going to be your next step? That's what you want. That if you take nothing else from this episode, that's what I want you to sit down and consider. But as far as the Defend Your Dissertation, it is a 12 week comprehensive program that is designed to take you step by step through your findings, chapter, your discussion chapter, and help you prepare for your final defense. We have detailed videos and workbooks and support available to you to walk you through each of those things. And while this program is 12 weeks, it doesn't require you to have to take 12 weeks to do it. You can create your own timeline. Like if you want to do it shorter than 12 weeks, or you want to go longer, that's available to you, but we have designed it in a way that 10 hours or less a week, you can show up and you can have all three of those things done. Your findings, your discussion, and your defense presentation and preparation done.

So this program is for folks who, if you have finished or you're coming to the end of data collection, or you're like, I'm preparing for that. And I just want to start writing. Maybe you collected data awhile ago, whatever. It is going to work best for people who have a good amount of data to be able to start writing from. I created this program because at the end of the dissertation is a whole different mindset or a set of obstacles that you have to overcome. Then the ones you did at your proposal, and a lot of students falsely think that, well, I wrote the proposal and that was the hard part. The literature review was the hard part. So I'm good. And I collected data. I mean, all I have to do is write these last few chapters and what they quickly find out is, oh, these two chapters, it's a different beast. Not that you're not capable of doing it, but it requires you to own a different mindset, which is what we've been talking about for the past two weeks on this podcast. And so if you haven't listened to the last two episodes, I invite you to go do that because that go in some more detail about what is required, required in terms of the actual strategies and what is required in terms of your mindset in order to finish your dissertation.

Join Defend Your Dissertation!: 

I also created this 12 week program to Defend Your Dissertation for people who were interested in working with us, but maybe thought like one-on-one, wasn't the right option for them because I usually work with people who, if they're at the end and they're writing their findings and discussion, I usually work with them one-on-one to help, you know, help them craft what they need to do. And for whatever reason, if that wasn't maybe that just wasn't your jam to do one-on-one. Maybe it was about affording one-on-one cause that's significantly more, but you still want some assistance that I strongly strongly encourage you to join this program. So to go over the logistics, the program is 12 weeks. You will have lifetime access to the actual material in the program, but you will only have 12 weeks of access to the writing groups that we have. So what you get once you sign up for the defend your dissertation, you will go into the orientation module, which will explain everything that you get into the program, which I'm about to explain right now, it will tell you how you can access everything and how you can get the support you need. All of that is already ready to go. Plus all of the courses and lessons are already there for you to review. So you don't have to wait. You just sign up and you get started. We also want to make sure that structurally you have what you need to finish this in 12 weeks. So we are giving complimentary access to our writing sessions. We have writing sessions twice a week, every Sunday and Wednesday from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM Eastern. And that is your time, your dedicated structure, time to come in and work on your findings and discussion and defense presentation.

Yall, the alarm is going off and we're just gonna roll with it. It's not a fire. They're just testing the fire alarms. And I tried to do this before they did that, but we don't roll with it. But yes. So you have access to those writing sessions. You also have access for 12 weeks to unlimited writing feedback. So no matter how many drafts you submit and how, no matter how small or large we will look at that and give you personalized feedback, we will tell you if that will pass, we will tell you if your ideas are clear, we will do some, um, grammar and spelling and things like that. And we will do some APA stuff so that you can feel more confident submitting that to your chair and your committee, and feel good about going into your defense. And then, um, we will also be doing some surprises because y'all know, I love to give surprises.

We will be doing some extra calls and some extra, um, providing extra space so that you can ask your questions. That's that's in addition to the two sessions we have every week. So I am so proud of my team. I'm so proud of us creating this. And I know that this program will blow your mind, but again, you're going to have to make the choice. If you're willing to show up for yourself and for your dissertation.

Investment Info:

Now, some questions that I get, what is the investment for the program? So the investment is you can either make one payment of 997, or you can make four payments, which are monthly payments that comes out on the same day of every month for $250. How long does the program take? You get immediate access to the program. And the program is designed to take 12 weeks, but remember you can take a short or as long as you need, because you will have lifetime access to the core materials. The only thing that you will not have lifetime access to are the writing sessions and the unlimited writing feedback. But you will be presented with an option to continue that if that is what you want, do we offer refunds? We will give you a 14 day money back guarantee. What that would include is if you show us the work, we'll give you your money back. No questions asked, but the reason why that guarantee is the way that it is, is because we, like I said, in the beginning, we only want folks to come into this program who are committed. Don't want people who are like tire kickers or who, like, I just want to see what they're talking about. No sign up for this program, if this is what you need. But if you come in and you're like, nah girl this ain't it,, I thought it was going to be something different.

Then show us your work within the 14 day grace period from when you signed up and we will gladly give you your money back. So let me know if you have any more questions, the doors are now open. You can either go into the show notes and click the link, or you can come over to www.qualscholars.com/defend-your-dissertation, and you'll be able to sign up. It'll take you straight to the checkout page. And once you submit your payment information, you'll go straight into the course. No waiting, no nothing. I cannot wait to see what the students who join us do over the next 12 weeks. And of course, we're going to keep y'all up to date on the podcast, but that's going to do it for me this week. You can come over to Instagram at qual_scholars. If you have any questions you want to connect with us and I will talk to you next week. Bye.