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April 22, 2025 16 mins

It’s the Easter holidays in the UK so this is a behind the scenes update with just Sarah.

Sarah talks about 

  • The recent Challenges miniseries
  • Upcoming episodes and future guests, including a special collaboration with Papa PhD
  • The Research Adjacent Community for freelancers and the Research Adjacent Directory
  • What she does when she's not podcasting and her Gathering with Purpose research events newsletter

Find out more

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Sarah McLusky (00:04):
Hello there. I'm Sarah McLusky, and this is
Research Adjacent. Each episode,I talk to amazing
research-adjacent professionalsabout what they do and why it
makes a difference. Keeplistening to find out why we
think the research adjacentspace is where the real magic
happens.

(00:25):
Hello there, and welcome to theResearch Adjacent podcast. I'm
your host, Sarah McLusky, andthis is a solo episode today,
and that's because this episodewill be coming out on the day
after the Easter Bank HolidayMonday in the UK, and regular
listeners will know that I don'treally like having a guest on
when it's the holiday period,especially because when this

(00:48):
comes out, I'm actually going tobe on holiday myself as well. So
I feel like I can't promote itas I would like to, but I like
to take these opportunities tojust give you a bit of a general
update on where I'm at, what'sbeen going on with the podcast,
what we've got coming up soon,what I've been working on behind
the scenes, and today, also, I'mgoing to tell you a bit about

(01:08):
what I do, and I'm notpodcasting and an email
newsletter that you might beinterested in signing up for.
So thinking back then the lasttime I did one of these solo
episodes. It was the one thatcame out in just in the new
year. So I think it came out onNew Year's Eve or New Year's Day
or something like that. Itreally was like right around New

(01:30):
Year. And in that episode, Itold you about some of the
things that were coming up for2025 and some of those things
have happened already. Some ofthose things are still to come.
So one of the things that hashappened already is the
challenges series that I didwhere I had four episodes
looking at some of the regularchallenges that come up for

(01:53):
people working inresearch-adjacent roles, so we
covered imposter syndrome, well,imposter moments, as we are now
calling them thanks to JennyBrady. We covered finding
community with Jeni Smith. I hadOrla Kelly and Joanna Royle in
talking about influence. And Ialso had Andrew Millar talking

(02:15):
about navigating change allthings that are really relevant,
no matter what kind of researchadjacent work you do, I'm so I
really enjoyed creating thatlittle series episodes, and I
really hope that you did aswell. I think what was
particularly interesting for meis that I usually just interview
people about their careers. AndI really love that I really am

(02:36):
really interested in people,which is exactly why I started
the podcast in the first place.And I always love hearing about
people. Hearing about people'sstories, but we don't often get
to go really deep into aparticular topic. And so what I
really enjoyed about thoseepisodes that we could really
focus on digging in to thatspecific thing that we were

(02:57):
talking about. And I'd love todo future episodes like that. So
if there are particular thingsthat you would like me to do an
episode on, then please do letme know. Always in the show
notes for any podcast episode,you'll find a link to email me
or it's alsohello@researchadjacent.com you
can also leave a little audiomessage via something called

(03:20):
Speakpipe, where you just go andyou can just record 90 second
audio, or you can just leavecomments on social media as
well. And it would be great tohear about some of the things
that you would like me to coverthat you feel I haven't covered
already.
One of the other things that Isaid at New Year I would cover
was an episode about me and mycareer. I'm going to tell you a

(03:42):
little bit about that today, alittle bit about what I do when
I'm not podcasting later ontoday. So do stay tuned for
that. But also, in a couple ofweeks time, there's going to be
a really exciting doubleepisode, which I've done in
collaboration with the Papa PhDBeyond the Thesis podcast. So in

(04:02):
that I go into a lot about aboutme and what I do, not the full
story, but, um, certainly, buthow I came to do the podcast. So
if you're interested in me, makesure you stay tuned for that
one. Um, it's going to be areally different format for me.
So it's quite exciting. And Iam, at the moment lining up some
of the future guests. So if youwould like to be a guest on the

(04:26):
podcast, if you know somebodythat you think would make a
great guest for the podcastagain, please do get in touch.
There is actually a form on thewebsite that you can just fill
in to suggest guests. So youcould do it that way, or just
drop me an email or anythinglike that as well. And I'm
particularly always reallyinterested to hear from people

(04:47):
who've got an unusual story ormaybe an unusual job title,
something that we haven'talready covered on the podcast,
is always fantastic. But I thinkthat, as I say, I think
everybody's got an interestingstory. So if you fancy being
involved, please do get intouch. Obviously, I can't always
have everybody on who applies,because I need to sort of

(05:08):
balance the content and thingslike that, but you can always
throw your hat in the ring. Soyeah, get in touch if you or
somebody you know would like tobe a guest on the podcast.
In the update episode inJanuary, December, whenever it
was. There were other thingsthat I told you about that was

(05:31):
going on behind the scenes. Oneof them is updating the website
and making it easier to searchthe archive. That's proving a
little bit trickier than Iexpected. So it is still
ongoing, but I'm getting sometechnical support with that, so
hopefully that will be availablesoon. The research-adjacent
careers quiz, though, is live,so if you haven't taken it yet,
make sure you pop along thereand give it a go. It's

(05:53):
specifically designed at peoplewho are not currently in a
research adjacent role, but arethinking about it. And what it
will do is it asks you a fewquestions, a bit about who you
like, what sorts of things youlike to do at work, basically.
And then it will give you somesuggestions for podcast episodes
to listen to for a bit ofinspiration. So do go and have a

(06:15):
look at the quiz if you haven'tdone it already. It is just
researchadjacent.com/quiz. Andanother thing that I've been
working on on the website, itisn't quite ready to publicly
launch it, although the page islive. And that is, I have been
creating a directory of researchadjacent self employed people

(06:36):
and freelancers. So once Istarted to get into this role,
and I started to meet lots ofother freelancers who do similar
kind of work, who would describethemselves as research adjacent,
we discovered that there is noplace on the internet, anywhere
that you can go and find a listof these people. And I know that

(06:57):
a lot of you listening are selfemployed or freelance. I also
know there's a lot of peoplelistening who work in places
like universities, researchorganizations, learned
societies, charities, placeslike that, who will be looking
for freelancers to help themwith specific roles. And so I'm
putting together this directory.If you're not currently on it,
it's something that you wouldlike to be on. Then I'll tell

(07:19):
you a bit more about that in amoment. But yeah, if you are
somebody who might be interestedin employing freelancers in the
future, and then, yeah, staytuned. You can have a look at it
as it stands now. It'sresearchadjacent.com/directory.
We're not quite there yet. Thebones of it are there. It's a
little bit empty just now, butwe're working on getting that

(07:39):
filled up, so hopefully that'sgoing to be a really valuable
resource.
So speaking of, as I said,people who are self employed,
and if you're listening to thisas somebody who's self employed,
or, you know, somebody who isself employed, who would
consider themselves researchadjacent, or I have heard, I
mean, it's sad about the stateof affairs currently, in

(08:02):
particularly higher education,that there are a few people
who've been made redundantrecently who are then thinking
of becoming self employed afterthat. So if that is you, I'm
really sorry, and that's areally well, unless you've taken
it by choice, but I'm reallysorry that's happened to you,
but if you are going into selfemployment, then there is help

(08:25):
out there. And one of the help,the sources of help that is out
there is the Research AdjacentCommunity. Now this is a private
online community that I have setup following a few initial
conversations and meetings thatI organized back in 2024 so
we've created a little fledglingcommunity in a private space

(08:49):
called cCircle. Although wedon't just stay in Circle, we
have actually had real lifemeetups as well, which have been
fabulous. And the community isthere to provide support.
There's a private discussionboard. There are little videos,
little bits of learning to helpyou figure out how to navigate
things like university financesystems or what to do if people

(09:12):
don't pay you on time, or allsorts of stuff like that. So
we've got little videos andthings there. We have a monthly
online catch up call, and if youare in the community, you also
get listing in the ResearchAdjacent directory. So that
public directory that I was justtalking about, which you can

(09:34):
anybody can go and search tohelp them find people. So I'm
hoping that will help the selfemployed community get more
work, which would be fantastic,and also make sure that people
who are in employed researchadjacent roles can get really
fantastic support, and they canget people to come and support
their projects who reallyunderstand research and not

(09:58):
rather than just being a sort ofmore non-specialist freelancer.
So if that sounds like you'resomebody that you know, then
come along and check out theResearch Adjacent Community. If
you go toresearchadjacent.com/community
you will find all theinformation there and a link to

(10:18):
come and join us, and it wouldbe fantastic to see you there.
The final thing that I wanted totalk to you about today is the a
little bit about what I do whenI'm not doing the podcast,
because the podcast is far frommy only job. It's not my job at

(10:45):
all. I don't get paid to do it.So what I have to do the rest of
the time is other stuff to helppay the bills. And I think I've
previously said that Ispecialize in doing broadly
research communications, whichis what I used to say. But

(11:10):
actually I have been goingthrough, I got a little bit of
business development governmentgrant funding to get some a bit
of rebranding done and to get abit of work done on my website.
And actually what doing goingthrough that process has really

(11:36):
made me understand is that whatI do that's really special and
unique to me is that I helppeople to gather. And by gather
I mean everything from meetingsto events to workshops, whether
it's research teams comingtogether, whether it's an

(12:02):
academic conference, whether itis a co creation workshop,
working with people in a publicinvolvement type context, I help
people to make the most of thetime that they have together. So
whether that is helping them tospeak the same language and

(12:28):
effectively communicate witheach other, whether it's helping
them to co-create something new,whether it's just helping people
to meet other people, that isthe thing that that really
lights me up, and the thing thatI'm really good at. So this,

(12:54):
when it comes to a little bit ofthe the backstory of what I did,
I didn't even quite realize howfar it went back until I started
doing this work with the thepeople who were helping me
redevelop the website. And Irealized that I organized, like

(13:21):
when I was 16, I organized a busto take people to my birthday
party in a nightclub in anothertown. So I've been organizing
events since I was 16. When Iwas a student, I worked in the
student union and I organizedthings. There were crazy events

(13:47):
where we'd get a marquee and putit in a field and we'd have to
get, like, outdoor drinklicenses and all kinds of stuff.
So it really is something thathas a real golden thread that
has run through everything thatI have done throughout my whole

(14:13):
career, and even now that one ofthe other jobs I do is as a yoga
teacher. And I think each eachone of them is like a little
event in itself, and you have tocreate that safe space for
So that is everything I wantedto cover in this just little
people to come and get what theyneed. So I've realized that that

(14:35):
short update episode today. Um,as I've said, check the links in
the show notes. There. You canfind the social media links. You
is my special talent, and as aresult, I have kind of rebranded
can come and find me there. Youcan drop me an email
my main business newsletter tonow be called Gathering with
hello@research adjacent.com. Onsocial media, it's
@researchadjacent, pretty mucheverywhere. But the only place
Purpose. And so what that is, isI've been doing a fortnightly
that I really hang out to anyamount of time is on LinkedIn.

(14:58):
So come and find us there. And.And do the quiz. Sign up for
newsletter for a little while.It was very broadly research
Gathering with Purpose. Join theResearch Adjacent Community if
communication. It's now going tobe a bit more focused on events,
they sound like they might bethe right things for you. And
yeah, keep sending me anyquestions or suggestions. I love
although there will be still becommunication in there, because
to hear about who's listeningand any kind of ripples that the

(15:19):
podcast is creating out in theworld. I recently loved it when
obviously great communication isa huge part of gathering well
guest Joanna Royle went off andwrote a blog post based on her
and gathering with purpose, butit's all going to be about tips
experience in the podcast. And Iabsolutely love it when stuff
like that happens. Makes me sohappy. And so, yeah, if you're
on how to make the most of thetime that you have together with
listening to this in real time,I'm well done, because this is,

(15:40):
like, these kind of I don't knowif anybody listens to these solo
people, so that you everybodygets they need to out of that
episodes. I feel like it's justme talking to myself. Thank you
opportunity. So if that soundslike something you would be
for listening. I hope you had alovely long weekend. And yeah,
we'll be back on the nextepisode with next guest coming
interested in, you can go andsign up. This is on my my other
up is Laura Evans-Hill fromNifty Fox creative. So that is a
website, which issarahmclusky.com/gathering-with-purpose.

(16:00):
really fantastic conversation.So tune in that one. But for
now, bye.
Thanks for listening to ResearchAdjacent. If you're listening in
I'm pretty sure that's the rightlink. Um, I will put a link in
a podcast app, please checkyou're subscribed and then use
the show notes for this as well,so you can go and find that and
the links in the episodedescription to find full show
notes and follow the podcast onLinkedIn or Instagram. You can
then, yeah, that's a little bitabout what I do when I am not
also find all the links andother episodes at

(16:22):
www.researchadjacent.com.Research Adjacent is presented
doing the research adjacentpodcast. So that might just be
and produced by Sarah McLusky,and the theme music is by Lemon
Music Studios on Pixabay. Andyou, yesyou, get a big gold star
interesting as well from thatpoint of view.
for listening right to the end,see you next time.
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