Dr. Erica MachulakFor those of us in the humanities, the world of entrepreneurship can seem entirely foreign. The very mention of hustling sets our teeth on edge, and if you bring up revenue streams and project rates, we’re just about ready to run out the door. Erica Machulak’s new book, Hustles for Humanists, seeks to dispel that discomfort and prove to us that entrepreneurship is not only a viable potential career alternative, but one that many of us are doing already. Dr. Machulak’s own path into entrepreneurship was not linear. She received her PhD in English from the University of Notre Dame, where she studied Arabic influences on Middle English literature. About halfway through her PhD, a series of professional and personal hurdles made her realize that she wasn’t interested in pursuing the academic path. Instead, she took on jobs in public humanities and grant writing. In 2020, she struck out on her own, founding Hikma Collective, an organization that helps scholars and research professionals attract funding, connect with new audiences, and build partnerships. I sat down with Dr. Machulak to ask her advice for taking the first steps into freelancing, balancing entrepreneurship and graduate work, and setting expectations with clients. Our conversation has been edited for concision and clarity. What is the central message that you want humanists who read this book to take with them? There are a few key messages that are really critical, but one is you get to choose how and why and where you want to be a scholar. It doesn’t have to happen within an academic institution. Those things that you love and that you’re good at within academia have critical applications elsewhere, and your skills are needed across sectors now more than ever. And the other piece so many graduate students struggle with is that you already have everything you need to design a career that works for you and where you can make critical contributions to the world. So start with the strengths that you already have before you start stressing about what else you need to learn. One of the things you discuss in the book is the aversion many humanists have to “hustling” as a concept and all that it implies about making and prioritizing money. Could you describe some of those concerns, and how would you address them? Definitely, it’s a tricky one. The book talks about a number of myths that exist within the academy that are hard to break through, and one of them is that money is dirty. I think it’s important to reframe money as a tool that you can use to care for yourself and have a sustainable life. Because even if what you want to do is really deep, purpose-driven work in the world, you can’t do it unless you can feed yourself and pay your rent, and you can’t do it well unless you can really care for yourself. You’ve got to fill your cup first. The reality is that we all need money, and you can’t exist beyond it. So thinking about what you need in order to survive and thrive is important. And your goal doesn’t have to be to make as much money as possible, but you have to get comfortable thinking about those economic necessities as you’re deciding what kind of career is meaningful and sustainable for you. One of the most helpful reframes for me as a reader was when you talked about how the short-term freelance work that many graduate students engage in, such as editing, indexing, and translating, already makes us entrepreneurs. I had never thought about that work in an entrepreneurial context. For graduate students who take on those roles, what are the basic steps you would recommend taking to make sure that our work and time are fairly valued–even if we’re not interested right now in building out those “accidental side hustles” into a full-time career? Exploitation of freelancers is a real problem, and one of my key pieces of advice is to set boundaries by defining a really clear scope of work. It’s so easy when you agree to do a task to let these extra requests for additional things expand the work that you had originally anticipated doing. That’s one of the ways you get spread really thin, and what you can do to prevent that is be very explicit about exactly the things that you’re willing to do for the rate you’ve agreed to. So, for example, you need to say, “I’m going to edit one chapter of exactly this many pages, and the editing consists of X, Y and Z. It’ll be copy editing, not developmental editing, and here’s how I’m defining copy editing. This is what I need from you in order to be successful, this is the timeline, this is the format in which I will send you these things, and you will pay me this amount.” It doesn’t need to be a massive, elaborate proposal. It can be a few bullet points, it can be an email, but you need to be really clear about the terms of what you’re offering, including the deliverables themselves, the nature of the services, the timeline, and the price. And you get to choose whether, when additional requests come in, you say a polite no, or you say, “yes, absolutely, I can do that, and here’s what it costs.” It helps to set that framing up front for clients, who often don’t realize that they’re asking for extras because they’re not in your head, looking at your scope and thinking about it from your perspective. Building off of that, how do you navigate the additional friction that comes when these clients aren’t just people who you don’t have any other relationship with, but your advisors or people you rely on professionally in some way? Do you feel that power dynamic changes the conversation, or do you treat them like you would any other client? It’s definitely harder when you have a personal relationship that you value. Academic culture isn’t great at defining deliverables or timelines or messaging around boundaries and accountability, and it’s important to have that conversation with your supervisor, or your Director of Graduate Studies, or whoever it is. No matter what your work is, you need boundaries. So the same logic applies. But try to remember, when you’re working with people in positions of power who you respect and want to have relationships with, that they are also your mentors and very invested in your success. The more you can see them as colleagues and humans, the easier it becomes to have a conversation about what works for both of you and how you can achieve your shared goals together. And that includes saying, “This is what we originally discussed. I really want this to be successful, but this is affecting my ability to pursue X, Y, or Z. Can we talk about how to make this work together?” If someone has very limited time and is just starting out thinking about entrepreneurship, what are the 2-3 activities from the book that you would recommend they start with? My favorite way to think about this from an entrepreneurial lens is to imagine that somebody from your network comes to you and says, “Hey, I know you can do this thing. I need it by tomorrow. Can you help me out?” What is that thing that you could deliver in eight hours or less? It’s so common to be asked to think about our skills in terms of what we want to be doing five or 10 years from now, but think about the value that you can offer immediately. You don’t have to set a price to it, but just learning to talk about your skills in terms of what you can offer right now is empowering and can help break through some of that analysis paralysis and imposter syndrome. [Watch Dr. Machulak’s lecture in the Career Tools Webinar Series, where she expands on this activity.] Another one of my favorite exercises from the book is a writing prompt about analyzing feedback that you’ve received, whether it’s positive or constructive. Observing what people who have seen your work think is valuable, and then thinking about what that feedback means to you and what it tells you about what you’re good at is an effective way to a) take a second to celebrate what you’re already doing, and b) reach some clarity and new language to describe yourself as a professional. I also have some tips in my book for informational interviewing, which is something else you can do. The key pieces to keep in mind with informational interviewing are coming up with really personalized questions and thinking about what you want to learn from people. Figuring out how to leverage your own curiosity to have conversations that will both be useful to you and that the people you’re connecting with will remember is a skill that humanists in particular are really good at and can really benefit from developing as they’re exploring their options beyond the academy. In your time in the entrepreneurial space, have you noticed shifting trends, either in the types of entrepreneurship that humanists go into or in the needs that clients have? That’s a really good question and a hard one to answer, especially right now. I can certainly speak for myself on this and say that the requests I get from clients and my approach have both evolved considerably since I started in 2020, not so much because of external factors in the world, although they do play a role, but based on the relationships that I built. I started with services that people already knew I could do, like grant writing. Grant writing was my bread and butter, and it still is a big part of what we do at Hikma, but getting to know clients better and building up a little bit more confidence in my skills has opened up a whole world of cool stuff that I get to do all the time that is consistent with what I wanted to do from the beginning, but also totally transformative in ways I hadn’t imagined before. I’m working with clients in all different kinds of areas. I’m developing new courses that weren’t what I pictured teaching. And I got to write this book because I discovered that there was a demand for it. So I think it’s not so much about having to respond to particular external trends. It’s way more valuable to your clients, regardless of the kind of freelancing that you’re doing, to use the skills that you have and your own intuition to learn and adapt to the context. You talk about the importance of an National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) internship in your own professional development and the importance of grants (including federal ones) in the growth of your business. Now that so many of those programs, like the NEH, have lost so much of their funding, what are the organizations that humanists can still turn to as they dip their toes into the alt-ac space? I think the next year is going to require us all to meet the moment and think more creatively and expansively about how we bring the humanities forward. Personally, I’m curious and a little anxious about what that’s going to mean for my business. The Mellon Foundation has committed $15 million in emergency funding to try to help the state humanities councils recover from some of their cuts. But one of the things that I have learned from working with humanities freelancers who are often going it alone is how much more effective we can be when we find each other and work in community, and that’s the best way to build resilience. The world needs humanists everywhere, and so thinking more creatively about how we attract resources beyond the traditional channels is going to be critical as we move forward. — Yana Zlochistaya is a sixth-year PhD candidate in the Department of Comparative Literature and a Professional Development Liaison with the Graduate Division. She is also a former co-director of Beyond Academia.
Dr. Erica MachulakFor those of us in the humanities, the world of entrepreneurship can seem entirely foreign. The very mention of hustling sets our teeth on edge, and if you bring up revenue streams and project rates, we’re just about ready to run out the door. Erica Machulak’s new book, Hustles for Humanists, seeks to dispel that discomfort and prove to us that entrepreneurship is not only a viable potential career alternative, but one that many of us are doing already. Dr. Machulak’s own path into entrepreneurship was not linear. She received her PhD in English from the University of Notre Dame, where she studied Arabic influences on Middle English literature. About halfway through her PhD, a series of professional and personal hurdles made her realize that she wasn’t interested in pursuing the academic path. Instead, she took on jobs in public humanities and grant writing. In 2020, she struck out on her own, founding Hikma Collective, an organization that helps scholars and research professionals attract funding, connect with new audiences, and build partnerships. I sat down with Dr. Machulak to ask her advice for taking the first steps into freelancing, balancing entrepreneurship and graduate work, and setting expectations with clients. Our conversation has been edited for concision and clarity. What is the central message that you want humanists who read this book to take with them? There are a few key messages that are really critical, but one is you get to choose how and why and where you want to be a scholar. It doesn’t have to happen within an academic institution. Those things that you love and that you’re good at within academia have critical applications elsewhere, and your skills are needed across sectors now more than ever. And the other piece so many graduate students struggle with is that you already have everything you need to design a career that works for you and where you can make critical contributions to the world. So start with the strengths that you already have before you start stressing about what else you need to learn. One of the things you discuss in the book is the aversion many humanists have to “hustling” as a concept and all that it implies about making and prioritizing money. Could you describe some of those concerns, and how would you address them? Definitely, it’s a tricky one. The book talks about a number of myths that exist within the academy that are hard to break through, and one of them is that money is dirty. I think it’s important to reframe money as a tool that you can use to care for yourself and have a sustainable life. Because even if what you want to do is really deep, purpose-driven work in the world, you can’t do it unless you can feed yourself and pay your rent, and you can’t do it well unless you can really care for yourself. You’ve got to fill your cup first. The reality is that we all need money, and you can’t exist beyond it. So thinking about what you need in order to survive and thrive is important. And your goal doesn’t have to be to make as much money as possible, but you have to get comfortable thinking about those economic necessities as you’re deciding what kind of career is meaningful and sustainable for you. One of the most helpful reframes for me as a reader was when you talked about how the short-term freelance work that many graduate students engage in, such as editing, indexing, and translating, already makes us entrepreneurs. I had never thought about that work in an entrepreneurial context. For graduate students who take on those roles, what are the basic steps you would recommend taking to make sure that our work and time are fairly valued–even if we’re not interested right now in building out those “accidental side hustles” into a full-time career? Exploitation of freelancers is a real problem, and one of my key pieces of advice is to set boundaries by defining a really clear scope of work. It’s so easy when you agree to do a task to let these extra requests for additional things expand the work that you had originally anticipated doing. That’s one of the ways you get spread really thin, and what you can do to prevent that is be very explicit about exactly the things that you’re willing to do for the rate you’ve agreed to. So, for example, you need to say, “I’m going to edit one chapter of exactly this many pages, and the editing consists of X, Y and Z. It’ll be copy editing, not developmental editing, and here’s how I’m defining copy editing. This is what I need from you in order to be successful, this is the timeline, this is the format in which I will send you these things, and you will pay me this amount.” It doesn’t need to be a massive, elaborate proposal. It can be a few bullet points, it can be an email, but you need to be really clear about the terms of what you’re offering, including the deliverables themselves, the nature of the services, the timeline, and the price. And you get to choose whether, when additional requests come in, you say a polite no, or you say, “yes, absolutely, I can do that, and here’s what it costs.” It helps to set that framing up front for clients, who often don’t realize that they’re asking for extras because they’re not in your head, looking at your scope and thinking about it from your perspective. Building off of that, how do you navigate the additional friction that comes when these clients aren’t just people who you don’t have any other relationship with, but your advisors or people you rely on professionally in some way? Do you feel that power dynamic changes the conversation, or do you treat them like you would any other client? It’s definitely harder when you have a personal relationship that you value. Academic culture isn’t great at defining deliverables or timelines or messaging around boundaries and accountability, and it’s important to have that conversation with your supervisor, or your Director of Graduate Studies, or whoever it is. No matter what your work is, you need boundaries. So the same logic applies. But try to remember, when you’re working with people in positions of power who you respect and want to have relationships with, that they are also your mentors and very invested in your success. The more you can see them as colleagues and humans, the easier it becomes to have a conversation about what works for both of you and how you can achieve your shared goals together. And that includes saying, “This is what we originally discussed. I really want this to be successful, but this is affecting my ability to pursue X, Y, or Z. Can we talk about how to make this work together?” If someone has very limited time and is just starting out thinking about entrepreneurship, what are the 2-3 activities from the book that you would recommend they start with? My favorite way to think about this from an entrepreneurial lens is to imagine that somebody from your network comes to you and says, “Hey, I know you can do this thing. I need it by tomorrow. Can you help me out?” What is that thing that you could deliver in eight hours or less? It’s so common to be asked to think about our skills in terms of what we want to be doing five or 10 years from now, but think about the value that you can offer immediately. You don’t have to set a price to it, but just learning to talk about your skills in terms of what you can offer right now is empowering and can help break through some of that analysis paralysis and imposter syndrome. [Watch Dr. Machulak’s lecture in the Career Tools Webinar Series, where she expands on this activity.] Another one of my favorite exercises from the book is a writing prompt about analyzing feedback that you’ve received, whether it’s positive or constructive. Observing what people who have seen your work think is valuable, and then thinking about what that feedback means to you and what it tells you about what you’re good at is an effective way to a) take a second to celebrate what you’re already doing, and b) reach some clarity and new language to describe yourself as a professional. I also have some tips in my book for informational interviewing, which is something else you can do. The key pieces to keep in mind with informational interviewing are coming up with really personalized questions and thinking about what you want to learn from people. Figuring out how to leverage your own curiosity to have conversations that will both be useful to you and that the people you’re connecting with will remember is a skill that humanists in particular are really good at and can really benefit from developing as they’re exploring their options beyond the academy. In your time in the entrepreneurial space, have you noticed shifting trends, either in the types of entrepreneurship that humanists go into or in the needs that clients have? That’s a really good question and a hard one to answer, especially right now. I can certainly speak for myself on this and say that the requests I get from clients and my approach have both evolved considerably since I started in 2020, not so much because of external factors in the world, although they do play a role, but based on the relationships that I built. I started with services that people already knew I could do, like grant writing. Grant writing was my bread and butter, and it still is a big part of what we do at Hikma, but getting to know clients better and building up a little bit more confidence in my skills has opened up a whole world of cool stuff that I get to do all the time that is consistent with what I wanted to do from the beginning, but also totally transformative in ways I hadn’t imagined before. I’m working with clients in all different kinds of areas. I’m developing new courses that weren’t what I pictured teaching. And I got to write this book because I discovered that there was a demand for it. So I think it’s not so much about having to respond to particular external trends. It’s way more valuable to your clients, regardless of the kind of freelancing that you’re doing, to use the skills that you have and your own intuition to learn and adapt to the context. You talk about the importance of an National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) internship in your own professional development and the importance of grants (including federal ones) in the growth of your business. Now that so many of those programs, like the NEH, have lost so much of their funding, what are the organizations that humanists can still turn to as they dip their toes into the alt-ac space? I think the next year is going to require us all to meet the moment and think more creatively and expansively about how we bring the humanities forward. Personally, I’m curious and a little anxious about what that’s going to mean for my business. The Mellon Foundation has committed $15 million in emergency funding to try to help the state humanities councils recover from some of their cuts. But one of the things that I have learned from working with humanities freelancers who are often going it alone is how much more effective we can be when we find each other and work in community, and that’s the best way to build resilience. The world needs humanists everywhere, and so thinking more creatively about how we attract resources beyond the traditional channels is going to be critical as we move forward. — Yana Zlochistaya is a sixth-year PhD candidate in the Department of Comparative Literature and a Professional Development Liaison with the Graduate Division. She is also a former co-director of Beyond Academia.