Leaving Academia: You Are Meant for More

You have a great idea for a paid program, but it only works at a certain time of year, and that time of year is almost here. Do you scramble, or do you wait another 12 months and hope the idea is still good?

In this episode, I walk you through a "minimum viable playbook" for testing a program idea when you're short on time, have no audience yet, and are tempted to let perfectionism make the decision for you.

I cover:

⏱️ Why waiting a year costs you more than launching imperfectly (no data, no market language, no idea what your buyers care about)

⏱️ How to build a simple interest-list landing page, and why to leave the price off it

⏱️ Where to share it (hint: academic Facebook groups are a goldmine) and how to write posts that lead with your ideal client's struggles

⏱️ Which numbers to watch, including the conversion rate I use as a starting benchmark with academics ⏱️ How to tell whether your problem is the idea, the posts, or the landing page copy

⏱️ How to sell once people raise their hands, and what call to action to use at under $500, $500+, and $1,000+

Also, you may have noticed the new podcast name and cover art. We're now Leaving Academia: You Are Meant For More, because this community is bigger than editors. Welcome, I'm so glad to have you here!

Like this episode? Subscribe so you don't miss the next one, and visit AcadiaEditing.com/map to find out more.

Resources Mentioned:

Kit (email platform used in this episode for landing pages and email automations): https://partners.kit.com/koj113xbly45

Academic Entrepreneurs Studio (six-month group program for women+ academics growing and scaling an existing business): https://acadiaediting.com/studio

Becoming an Academic Editor or Coach (BAE): https://AcadiaEditing.com/map

Timestamps

00:00 - Podcast rebrand: you are meant for more

02:15 - Great idea, but the timing's tight

04:30 - Job market season example scenario

06:00 - What waiting a full year costs

08:00 - Choosing imperfect action over perfect timing

10:00 - Step one: build an interest landing page

13:00 - Setting up Kit with one email

15:30 - Step two: share it everywhere

19:00 - Step three: watch your conversion data

22:30 - Is it the idea or copy?

24:30 - Step four: sell the transformation, not logistics

27:00 - Calls to action by price point

29:00 - Recap and finding your weak points

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

You've probably been told you have two choices: stay in academia and hope for flexibility, or leave for a 9-to-5 job in industry. There's a third one nobody talks about, and it's a lot more fun.

In this episode, I talk with Marie Gasper-Hulvat, a tenured art history professor at Kent State and the founder of Soulstar Attunement. She also created the Ivory Tower Inner Fire Summit, a free online event for academics who are disenchanted and want a livelihood that sustains them.

When Marie asked online whether anyone else felt caught between academia and the woo, hundreds of people answered. Then, 740 signed up for her first summit.

Now Marie is hosting a second round of the Summit, and this one is focused on the "vow of poverty" that faculty take, even if they don't realize it.

You'll hear us gab about:

🐦‍🔥 Why so many academics keep parts of themselves closeted and masked at work

🐦‍🔥 How Marie teaches a full course load and runs a business, and why finding a supportive co-working community changed everything

🐦‍🔥 Why "abundance" is almost heretical in faculty meetings, and how the scarcity stories in academia keep us small

🐦‍🔥 What's happening at the summit (Oct 9–11): 24 pre-recorded presentations, live Q&A panels, hot-seat coaching, and a fabulous community of people like you

🐦‍🔥 Why "nobody's going to pay me for that" is usually a story, not a fact

Register for and access the Ivory Tower Inner Fire Summit here: https://ivorytowerinnerfire.com/2-summit-registration?am_id=paulina2538

Resources Mentioned: Ivory Tower Inner Fire Summit, Oct 9–11 (free to attend, or get your VIP pass for extra goodies): https://ivorytowerinnerfire.com/2-summit-registration?am_id=paulina2538

Soulstar Attunement (Marie's business): https://soulstarattunement.com/

Flow Club (the online co-working space Marie mentions): https://in.flow.club/?inviteCode=marie698

Want to turn your academic skills into paying clients in 90 days? Go to AcadiaEditing.com/map

01:45 - Teaching art history 100% online

03:30 - Founding Soulstar Attunement and human design

06:45 - Are academics open to woo?

08:00 - The Venn diagram post that started it

09:45 - Academics with PhDs who read tarot

12:00 - Wanting a livelihood that sustains you

14:30 - Marie's group programs and offers

18:00 - Doing both: Flow Club co-working

20:15 - How the summit came together

23:00 - Who the summit is for

27:00 - Summit schedule, VIP pass, and gifts

29:30 - Changing the story you tell yourself

31:30 - The third option beyond academia or corporate

33:30 - Scarcity versus abundance in academia

35:15 - How to register (it's free)

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

You've been trying to grow your reach on LinkedIn—posting consistently, following the experts' advice, tweaking your hooks—and nothing's working. Each post gets 8 likes and disappears into the void.

Christos Efthymiou, PhD, knows that feeling. After a random rant went viral on LinkedIn, he thought that maybe there was something to the platform that could help him grow his consulting business.

But then he spent two months struggling to strike gold with another LinkedIn post before he finally figured out a formula that works.

Now he has over 13,000 followers and gets hundreds of likes per post. And he's sharing his step-by-step framework with us here!

In this episode, Christos breaks down exactly how he plans and writes his posts, as well as:

-how long it really takes to find your LinkedIn voice,

-the post structure that works for an academic audience,

-why the "one line per paragraph" advice might be wrong for PhDs,

-how to handle links without killing your reach, and

-why authentic comments beat formulaic engagement every time.

Have you been struggling to expand your reach on LinkedIn? What tactics have you tried? Share them in the comments!

Subscribe and hit the bell so you don't miss new weekly episodes.

Resources Mentioned:

Follow Christos on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christos-efthymiou/

BioVectoral (Christos's Substack): https://biovectoral.substack.com/

Connect on Threads: https://www.threads.com/@christos_efthymiou_phd

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

TIMESTAMPS

0:00 - Meet Christos Efthymiou, PhD

1:30 - Leaving computational biology for entrepreneurship

3:45 - How one frustrated post went viral

6:15 - Why personal brand matters for academics

9:00 - The no-cost barrier to entry on LinkedIn

11:30 - Two months of struggle before finding his formula

14:00 - Where post ideas actually come from

16:45 - Why specific moments beat general topics

19:30 - The hook is 70% of your post's success

22:00 - Finding your genuine writing style (stop copying)

25:15 - Post structure: get to the point by the middle

28:30 - Should you put links in LinkedIn posts?

31:00 - Why CTAs in every post can backfire

34:00 - Dealing with negative comments and haters

37:00 - Workflow: writing and posting same day

39:30 - Does posting time actually matter?

42:00 - Authentic commenting vs. formulaic engagement

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

If you're an academic, have you ever wondered what your spouse really thinks about the countless moves, job insecurity, stress, and burnout that are likely shaping your life together?

In this episode, my husband, Travis, sits down with me on our back porch in Maine to talk about what he saw—from the outside looking in—during my entire journey through academia and into business.

We moved six times in seven years chasing tenure-track jobs and a prestigious fellowship. Travis left a 12-year research career in Florida to follow me to Washington, D.C. He watched me grade papers seven days a week, pump breast milk between lectures, and slowly lose myself to a system that demanded everything and gave back very little.

And then he watched me leave. Build a six-figure business from our kitchen table. Take summers off with our kids.

This is a conversation about what the people closest to us notice before we do—and what it looks like when you finally choose your life over your academic career.

In this episode, you'll hear:

💕 What it was like for Travis to be the "trailing spouse" through 6 academic moves

💕 How academia's career-first culture affected our marriage and family

💕 The moment we finally said "let's just go" and moved to Maine

💕 Travis's perspective on watching me build a business vs. watching me survive academia

💕 His honest advice for the spouse of someone considering leaving

Want to identify your transferable academic skills? Go to AcadiaEditing.com/map

0:00 Intro

3:14 Meet Travis

4:14 Dating during the dissertation

6:38 The first academic move: St. Augustine

8:22 Jacksonville and the trailing spouse question

10:00 Leaving Florida for Washington, D.C.

15:54 Travis's career pivot to vet medicine

19:04 Back to Jacksonville—and hitting bottom

23:37 The decision to try Maryland

25:40 "Let's just go"—moving to Maine

27:39 New baby, teaching overload, breaking point

32:04 Starting over: job hunting and freelancing

35:31 The book proposal course flop

37:38 Launching BAE and diving into business

39:15 Academia's overwhelm vs. business's overwhelm

40:07 Choosing summers off with the kids

43:03 Dinner table business talk and hiring a coach

47:48 What this business gave our family

49:15 Travis's advice for the trailing spouse

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

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.