You've always assumed that niching down will scare clients away, but you're getting it wrong.

I know it's counterintuitive, but Erin Schleiden, PhD, is the perfect example of why narrowing your niche is the way to grow your audience and expand your client list.

After grad school, Erin picked one tiny slice of the dissertation--the literature review--and became the go-to editor for it. That's what got her from a business idea to more clients than she could take on.

In this episode, Erin, founder of The Academic Writing Coach, walks us through her journey, from burning out while teaching six classes in grad school, to freelancing on Upwork, to building a successful business--including 11,500 followers on Instagram.

She also explains why having an ultra-specific niche worked in her favor when she was scared it would backfire, and how a year of posting on Pinterest every single day contributed to her success.

Whether you've spent decades in academia or you're just finishing your PhD, it IS possible to use the skills you've developed to build the life you've always wanted.

In addition to editing, Erin offers a Lit Review Writing Bootcamp and a 14-Day Methodology Momentum Challenge. Get more info and join her email list at the links below.

Resources Mentioned:

The Academic Writing Coach: https://theacademicwritingcoach.com

Erin on Instagram: @theacademicwritingcoach

Want to end burnout and become an academic editor or coach? Go to AcadiaEditing.com/map

Timestamps

00:00 - Meet Erin Schleiden, the Academic Writing Coach

02:58 - Burnout from teaching six courses at once

04:48 - Freelancing on Upwork back in 2012

07:33 - Building a basic website beyond Upwork

09:50 - Niching into literature review editing

11:40 - Why niching down brings in more clients

13:57 - Pinterest SEO and posting daily for a year

16:14 - Officially launching The Academic Writing Coach

18:05 - Growing Instagram from 300 to 10,000 followers

21:17 - Using a VA for voice-of-customer research

24:02 - Inside her 1:1 coaching and editing packages

26:46 - Running the 30-day dissertation writing challenge

31:48 - Her teaching background as a business asset

34:06 - Where to find and work with Erin

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You're fully booked with editing or coaching clients. Revenue is good. And somehow you still feel like something's about to fall apart.

If that sounds familiar, you haven't done anything wrong—you've hit a point that almost every academic entrepreneur hits after the early growth stage.

In this episode, I walk through the four signs that your editing or coaching business has outgrown the "figure it out alone" phase:

1. doing everything yourself

2. being too busy to market

3. trading time for money, and

4. decision fatigue and shiny object syndrome

I share what each one looks like day to day, why the skills that got you here stop working past this point, and what changed for me once I stopped trying to solve all of it solo (hint: my business grew well past $100k).

If you're past the launch phase and starting to feel the ceiling pressing down on you, this episode will show you that it's time to make a change so you can keep growing.

Want to end burnout and become an academic editor or coach? Go to AcadiaEditing.com/map

00:00 - Why scaling has no one-size-fits-all formula

03:00 - The BAE roadmap and why early growth is simple

07:15 - Sign 1: doing everything yourself

09:30 - Why delegating feels harder than it should

13:25 - Sign 2: fully booked but no time to market

16:30 - Building a marketing system that runs in the background

19:00 - Sign 3: trading time for money

21:30 - Pricing on value instead of hours

23:20 - Sign 4: decision fatigue and shiny object syndrome

26:30 - The shiny object syndrome story with my coach

29:30 - Refining what already works instead of chasing new offers

33:00 - Recapping all four signs

36:00 - What changed after getting the right support

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you're still charging 2 cents a word for academic editing, this episode is going to make you uncomfortable—in a good way.

In this episode, I break down the two beliefs that keep editors underpriced ("I'll lose clients" and "who am I to charge more?"), why the EFA rate chart is training the whole industry to undercharge, and exactly what I charge now for copy editing, developmental editing, and coaching.

I also share real rates that editors inside BAE are landing right now, from US$350 journal article edits to US$2,300-a-month coaching clients.

I explain why a client who leaves when you raise your rates was never the right client to begin with (and how you can attract the right clients who value your expertise).

And I offer the "house cleaner" analogy to help you stop feeling guilty for raising your rates.

Watch the full episode or listen wherever you get your podcasts. And be sure to register for my free training on Sept 2:

"Where Are All the Private Clients? How to Stop Relying on Agencies and Start Attracting Clients Who Value Your Work"

Get the Zoom link at: https://acadiaediting.com/editorslive

Resources Mentioned:

Editorial Freelancers Association (EFA) rate chart: https://www.the-efa.org/rates/#ratechart

**A note on the EFA rate chart:

Since recording, I've been thinking about my comments on pricing and the EFA rate chart, and I want to clarify some things.

First, I've heard from dozens of editors who charge very low rates (around 2 cents a word) because they think that charging less will get them more clients. These are experienced editors who should be learning how to market themselves, instead of keeping their prices low. This is the audience I was thinking about when I recorded this episode.

Second, I think the 4-6 cents per word that the rate chart quotes for line editing in the humanities is in line with the pricing that I see among BAE members (brand-new editors), but I do think that editors with a year or more of experience and positive client feedback should be charging closer to 7-8 cents per word (yes, even in the humanities and social sciences). Furthermore, the EFA chart's rates for STEM, legal, and medical are far too low. Editors with 6-12 mos of experience (and positive client feedback) in these fields should be charging 7-12 cents per word, especially for shorter articles.

Finally, I'd like to repeat my call to the EFA to release more data from the survey: what is the sample size (total and per category), what does the distribution of rates look like (total and per category), etc. The medians are helpful but they are not the whole story.

Timestamps

0:00 - Why raising your rates feels so scary

2:00 - The two beliefs driving underpricing fear

5:00 - Beliefs vs. facts: unmaking the fear

8:30 - How Paulina went from 2 to 8 cents a word

11:30 - What editors in BAE are actually charging

15:00 - Clients who leave are a fit problem, not a price problem

18:30 - The house cleaner pricing analogy

21:30 - What premium clients are really paying for

24:30 - Why pricing for everyone prices you for no one

27:30 - Why the EFA rate chart is too low

31:00 - Real BAE member rates and project examples

34:00 - How to actually price editing and coaching work

37:00 - Community, confidence, and the free Sept 2 workshop

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Leaving academia can feel like admitting the whole thing was a mistake. It isn't—and the fear that says otherwise isn't an accident.

In this episode, Paulina sits down with career coach Jen Polk (From PhD to Life) for an honest conversation about the stigma around leaving academia: where it comes from, whether it's actually loosening, and how to push through it if it's holding you back.

You'll hear the "you can never come back" fear-mongering both of us heard firsthand, why the tenure-track benchmark is more arbitrary than it feels, and practical ways to rebuild your sense of identity and community outside a university.

Watch the full conversation, subscribe for more real-talk about life after academia, and check out Jen and Paulina's Monday YouTube Live series for weekly conversations on leaving academia.

Resources Mentioned:

Jen Polk — From PhD to Life.com

Want to end burnout and become an academic editor or coach? Go to AcadiaEditing.com/map

1:21 – Today's question: does the stigma persist

3:45 – Catching up before diving in

6:43 – Paulina's story: fear-mongering to stay put

9:10 – "You can never come back" myth

11:33 – Stigma exists to keep academics trapped

14:21 – The "such a shame" irony story

17:37 – Coaching clients who wait for tenure

18:51 – Ticking the box before feeling free

22:38 – Hiding your job search from colleagues

24:14 – Publishing outside academia gets you shunned

31:38 – Nobody outside academia cares about tenure

32:22 – Who are you without the title

35:36 – Reframe: pick your top three hats

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Thousands of moms around the world are getting their PhD while juggling many (or all) of the parenting responsibilities.

In this week's episode, I spoke with Laura Vasquez Bass, of Atlantic Editorial, about how she defended her dissertation and launched her editing business--while being a toddler mom AND an international student.

Laura is a September 2025 BAE grad who came to the US as an international PhD student, spent years as a managing editor at a peer-reviewed journal, and eventually realized that "an intellectual is who I am, not where I am." That reframe changed everything.

Here's what we cover:

🤱 How Laura turned her research background in race, gender, and postcolonial studies into a niche that lets her charge for expertise, not just proofreading

🤱 How to find your coaching niche by drawing on your own life experiences

🤱 Why the real value editors provide has almost nothing to do with fixing commas—and why that's exactly why AI won't replace you

🤱 Why you don't need to be an "expert" to coach—you just need to be a few steps ahead

If you're burnt out, underpaid, and wondering whether there's a version of academic life that will give you the life you actually want to have—this conversation is for you.

▶️ Watch, then subscribe for a new episode every week.

Resources Mentioned:

Laura Vasquez Bass — AtlanticEditorial.com

Instagram: @atlanticeditorial

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-vasquez-bass-phd/

Want to get my free training and find out how to become an academic editor or coach? Go to AcadiaEditing.com/live

1:49 Meet Laura Vasquez Bass, PhD

2:41 From London to a US PhD program

5:27 When academia stopped being the plan

6:53 Discovering editing through an academic journal

9:20 An intellectual is who I am, not where I am

10:31 Rethinking what it means to be an academic

11:08 Building a niche around social justice scholarship

14:38 Why editing isn't about fixing commas (and why AI won't replace you)

16:09 Two client stories: expertise and emotional labor

19:58 Launching a coaching practice for academic moms

25:58 The loneliness of mothering in academia

32:44 You don't need to be an expert to coach

35:04 Being realistic: business is an iterative process

37:35 The marketing lesson: content vs cold email

46:07 Delayed gratification and the 3.5-year cold email

48:17 Where to find Laura + outro

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You keep hearing there's no editing work out there. Let me be clear: That is NOT true—and if your calendar has been empty, the problem probably isn't the market. It's that your ideal clients don't know you exist... yet.

In this episode of the Leaving Academia podcast, Paulina debunks the "no work" myth.

Although agency work is drying up as AI floods the low tier of the editing market, people in the higher tier—the scholars and writers who want to work with a real, talented human editor and want nothing to do with AI—are still hiring.

The catch? Those clients won't Google their way to your website on their own. You have to put yourself in front of them.

Paulina walks you through the three categories where high-tier private clients actually spend their time, and exactly what to do once you get there.

What we cover:

🚨 Why "there's no work" is really a visibility problem (and why agency contracts are disappearing)

🚨 The three categories of clients most editors overlook

🚨 How to reactivate past clients without feeling like a pest (the accountability-partner reframe that makes them grateful you emailed)

🚨 How to use LinkedIn and Facebook groups to find and connect with ideal clients, instead of posting into the void

🚨 Why "sales is service," and how showing up consistently beats showing up frantically

🚨 The 10-second elevator pitch that makes people remember exactly who to refer to you

If you've ever said "I don't know where to start," this is your roadmap.

👉 Watch, then hit subscribe so you don't miss the next episode.

Resources Mentioned:

Ep 94: The Two Tiers of the Editing Market (listen first if you haven't already)

Ep 90: Building your editing website with the StoryBrand framework

Buffer — free tool for scheduling your marketing posts so you stay consistent

BAE: Becoming an Academic Editor or Coach — 12-week program, September cohort (also January & May 2027)

Want to end burnout and become an academic editor or coach? Get my free training at: AcadiaEditing.com/live

0:00 - "There's no work out there" is a lie

2:20 - Why agency work is drying up (and where AI fits in)

4:25 - Warm connections & referrals: your academic network

10:45 - Reactivating past clients (the accountability nudge)

14:45 - Referrals from other editors & adjacent pros

17:40 - Getting visible on LinkedIn (connect, don't just post)

23:10 - Finding clients in Facebook groups

25:40 - Slack, Discord, Reddit, newsletters & podcasts

28:00 - In person: conferences & campus events

31:55 - Libraries, book fairs & everyday conversations

35:20 - Sales is service: what to do once you're there

38:00 - Consistent beats intense: stop the spam cycle

41:20 - Run it like an experiment: test, tweak, repeat

43:45 - Ready to build this? Join BAE

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You've been editing for an agency since 2020, and you're still making the same 1.5 cents a word you started with.

Meanwhile you're staring down another year of barely cracking $40K for work that's eating away all of your evenings and weekends.

In this episode of the Leaving Academia podcast, Paulina lays out the real numbers most editors never see—and the way out that nobody taught you.

She's not mincing words here. This is a raw look at what agencies pay, why so many talented PhDs stay stuck taking scraps, and how private clients pay 4-8 times more for the exact same skill set.

In this episode, you'll hear:

🎯 What a 50,000-word dissertation earns you at agency rates versus what a private client pays for the identical job

🎯 Why agencies have frozen their rates for six years and what that really tells you

🎯 The truth about AI in editing: why it's eating the bottom tier of the market, not the segment you should belong to

🎯 The two very different types of editing clients and which one you've never been shown

🎯 The three things standing between you and private clients who pay well and treat you like a professional (hint: it's not your skills)

If you've been convinced that agency rates are as good as it gets, it's time to stop believing that lie.

▶️ Watch, then hit subscribe so you don't miss what's coming next. New episodes drop weekly.

📌 Resources Mentioned:

Episode 90: How I use the StoryBrand framework on my editing homepage

Free website wireframe to build a homepage that attracts and converts private clients: AcadiaEditing.com/blueprint

0:00 Intro: editing rates and the agency trap

3:57 Rates haven't budged since 2020

4:52 What agencies actually pay per word

5:51 The $250 dissertation: doing the math

8:01 Cranking away for barely $40K a year

9:08 Why agencies never raise pay: it's exploitation

9:55 The editors who defend the system

14:46 My story: the fear underneath "how do they find clients?"

16:22 Teaching myself marketing (StoryBrand, ETD lists, cold email)

18:12 Raising my rates to a $10K month

19:24 What I teach editors to charge

23:17 The flinch: "you just get referrals"

25:08 Your clients already pay these rates

30:13 Two pools of clients, two kinds of buyers

32:49 The role of AI: why agency work is drying up

34:28 AI is eating the bottom tier only

36:16 Why higher-tier clients won't switch to AI

38:56 The bottom is shrinking, not the profession

40:05 The 3 things you actually need

45:25 BAE, the blueprint, and 1:1 coaching

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After a Yale University Press internship where a supervisor told her she had "a strange brain," and six months of applications with zero interviews, Hannah Bartlett stopped trying to fit into a system that wasn't built for her.

She launched a freelance editing business instead—and has doubled her income every year since.

In this episode of the Leaving Academia podcast, Hannah shares what it's like to build a business as a neurodivergent, disabled editor—and why freelancing can fit your brain in ways a traditional job never will.

We discuss:

🧠 How posting about neurodivergence and disability on Threads became Hannah's #1 client source

🧠 The communication boundaries that protect her energy ("book editing is not an emergency")

🧠 How email templates and inquiry forms eliminate the dread of client communication

🧠 Why her autistic directness is a strength clients seek out—not something to hide

🧠 How to unlearn academia's validation trap ("I don't need an A in freelance editing")

If you've been struggling to find a job that's a fit, this conversation will show you it's the environment that's the problem—and that you can build one that truly works for you.

🎧 Subscribe so you never miss an episode, and share this one with an academic who needs it.

Resources Mentioned:

✅ Episode 89 with D. Scott (chronic illness, health insurance, and freelancing)

✅ Hannah's website: https://www.hannahbartlettediting.com/

**Check out Hannah's website for a link to the Writers’ Self-Care Guide and the upcoming Editors’ Self-Care Guide.

✅ Hannah's Instagram and Threads: @hannahbartlettediting

✅ Editor's Tea Club: https://www.editorsteaclub.org/

✅ ACES: https://aceseditors.org/

✅ Beeftext (free PC app for email templates): https://beeftext.org/

Want to end burnout and become an academic editor or coach? Go to AcadiaEditing.com/map

Intro: Disability Pride Month + meet Hannah Bartlett

1:52 Hannah's path: pandemic college and the MFA plan

2:42 The Yale University Press internship

3:24 "You have a strange brain"

5:37 Hundreds of applications, zero interviews

6:59 Landing the first clients: communities and free edits

8:31 Why Threads works: marketing that fits your brain

12:21 Vulnerability as marketing

16:41 Full-time work vs. freelancing while neurodivergent

20:42 Doubling income every year (and the AI question)

23:09 "Book editing is not an emergency": communication boundaries

24:58 Email templates and systems that kill the dread

30:08 Neurodivergence as a strength

35:40 Advice for new freelancers: community and listening to your body

41:40 "I don't need an A in freelance editing"

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You did everything right—the degree, the publications, the cross-country moves—and academia still didn't deliver the flexible schedule, job security, or financial comfort it promised you.

In this episode, I walk through the five promises academia made to every one of us, exactly how each one got broken, and the part nobody tells you: running your own editing or coaching business delivers every single thing academia promised but never provided.

In this episode, you'll hear:

➕ The 5 promises academia made (flexible schedule, job security, financial comfort, intellectual freedom, meaningful work)—and why the system was designed to break them

➕ Why the "you can only be a professor" story is a lie built to keep you underpaid and overworked

➕ How the risk of starting a business compares to the risk you already took getting a PhD (spoiler: your business can't be defunded)

➕ Real numbers: how I went from $45K as an agency contractor to $100K+ with 55 private clients working just 30 hours a week

➕ Two detailed examples of academics who turned skills they already had into editing and coaching businesses charging $75–$100/hour

➕ Why the identity shift—not the skills—is the hardest part of leaving

If this episode hits home, subscribe so you never miss a weekly episode, and share it with a colleague who's been facing these same broken promises.

Want to end burnout and become an academic editor or coach? Go to AcadiaEditing.com/map

1:00 You did everything right—so where's the payoff?

3:11 Promise 1: The flexible schedule

4:50 Promise 2: Job security and the tenure dream

5:56 Promise 3: Financial comfort

8:43 Promises 4 & 5: Intellectual freedom and meaningful work

10:25 The story that there's only one path for a PhD

14:12 Reality check: The laptop on every vacation

17:52 Reality check: A job market in crisis

19:34 Reality check: Frozen salaries and second jobs

22:30 Reality check: Where did the freedom go?

25:29 You're not stuck—your skills can move

28:47 How your own business keeps promise 1: your calendar

30:54 Real security: your business can't be defunded

34:33 The money: from $45K to $100K+ at 30 hours a week

42:20 Two real examples: editor and coach

45:34 The identity shift—leaving is choosing yourself

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You know you're ready to leave academia. What you don't know is whether you need a program with a syllabus and a group cohort, or one person in your corner helping you move at your own speed.

Here's the thing: BAE (my group program) and 1:1 coaching aren't "better" or "worse" than each other. They solve different problems. One gives you structure and community. The other gives you speed and total focus on your specific situation.

For example:

One of my 1:1 clients retired from academia this spring. No website, no cohort, no waiting until our program resumes in September.

We spent a month together defining her niche and building her offer—moving at her pace, not a syllabus's pace.

Two weeks after her website went live, she'd landed $8,000 in committed coaching clients. A month in? She'd secured $16k in contracts—almost entirely from the academic network she'd spent decades building.

That's what 1:1 coaching is built for: fast, focused, built entirely around you.

In this week's episode, I walk through exactly how to know which path—group or 1:1—is right for you. If you have questions, reach out.

If you've been waiting for the "right" timing or the right amount of courage to reach out to people who already know you—this episode is your roadmap to move forward.

🎧 Watch the full episode and subscribe for new episodes every week.

Resources Mentioned:

🐦‍🔥 Free 3-day workshop July 13-15, 11am-12pm ET — register at AcadiaEditing.com/live

Interested in 1:1 coaching? Email Paulina: [email protected]

BAE September cohort — AcadiaEditing.com/map

01:26 My client: from academia into coaching

03:22 Activating her academic network for trust and referrals

05:10 Why she skipped the wait for the next BAE cohort

06:37 From niche to launched website in one month

07:37 The numbers: $1,000 and $2,000/month, $8K in two weeks ($16k in 4 weeks)

10:02 Yes, Paulina does 1:1 coaching too (and what it looks like)

13:48 BAE by the numbers: 2 years, 9 cohorts, 120+ members

16:02 Reason #1: Pace — group syllabus vs. your own speed

20:33 Reason #2: Life happens — flexibility when things get hard

23:54 Reason #3: Group dynamics — community boost vs. overwhelm

26:25 Reason #4: Time zones and scheduling realities

28:42 Who thrives in BAE's group program

35:09 Who thrives in 1:1 coaching

40:31 What working together 1:1 actually looks like

46:15 Paulina's own story: from burnt-out professor to founder

50:03 Wrap-up: free workshop July 13-15 and how to reach out

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.