What Kind of Academic Are You — and What’s Standing Between You and the Career You Want?
After over 17 years in academia and 6 years coaching scholars across the career spectrum, I've seen patterns. The same barriers show up again and again — not just in early career researchers but also in seasoned professors, department chairs, and ambitious academics with big visions.
Here’s what I know for sure:
Success in academia doesn’t just come from hard work or passion. It comes from having the right systems, mindset, and support to execute your ideas consistently — without burning out or getting buried in pseudo-productivity.
Here’s how I categorise the scholars I work with, and what they need to thrive:
👩🎓 Early Career Scholars
You’re in your first post or just starting the tenure track. It’s sink or swim, and you’re expected to juggle teaching, research, admin, mentoring, publishing, and carving out your academic identity — fast.
What you need: a proven writing habit, smart project execution, work management strategies, and a mentor to help you focus on what actually moves the needle (aka: tenure-critical outputs).
🧑🏫 Mid-Career Academics
The "squeezed middle." You're no longer new, but you're not senior either. You've collected admin duties and grown into roles without shedding anything. The PhD-era systems you relied on have broken down.
What you need: to stop defaulting to busywork, restructure your writing practice, and redefine success on your terms — without burnout or guilt.
🧓 Senior Scholars
You’ve been managing departments, research centres, maybe even faculties. You’ve worn every hat. But your own research? That’s taken a back seat. The writing habits you once had are rusty or lost altogether.
What you need: a full reset. A new way to integrate research, writing, and leadership in a way that reflects your impact — and reclaims your joy.
🌟 The Ambitious Academic
At any career stage, some scholars want to play bigger. Whether it’s publishing your 4th book or creating a research legacy beyond academia, you’re ready to optimise everything with expert guidance and support.
What you need: strategic mentorship, advanced writing development, and a system to create, elevate and leverage your research for real-world impact.
The 6 Non-Negotiables for a Thriving Academic Writing Career
No matter your level, you need:
✅ A rock-solid, drama-free writing habit
✅ Clear project selection, execution, and sustainable focus
✅ A system to do deep work and avoid pseudo-productivity
✅ High-level project ideation before execution
✅ Advanced pre-writing, drafting, and revising techniques
✅ Writing excellence as a non-negotiable skillset
This is the foundation of my SCRIBE Framework — and it’s all inside The Academic Writer’s Collective.
I didn’t design the Collective to be “motivational.” I designed it to transform how you work — with accountability, strategy, and expert-led training that takes you from busy to brilliant.
🧭 Want to know where to start?
Here’s how I recommend working with me based on your career stage:
🔹 Early Career:
Start with The Writing Accelerator or join The Collective. Need journal articles or a monograph for tenure? Try my writing-genre-specific programmes.
🔹 Mid Career:
The Collective will help you restructure your writing system. Add 1:1 coaching or genre programmes if you’re targeting major outputs.
🔹 Senior Scholars:
1:1 coaching or a VIP Day is the deepest, most targeted support. Let’s reboot your writing practice together.
🔹 Ambitious Academics:
Apply for Elevate — access all my programmes, my eyes on your work, and a high-touch coaching programme designed to fast-track your biggest goals.
If you want to stop spinning your wheels and start creating the writing life — and academic career — you actually want… let’s talk.
📩 Book a consult call here
Let’s find out where the real work needs to begin.