Leaving Academia: Becoming a Freelance Editor

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 sin...

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...

Your website is losing you clients before they even scroll down. If your editing or coaching website leads with your credentials, your degree, your publications—you're doing it backwards. And it's probably costing you inquiries you don't even know you're missing. In this episode, I'm breaking down the StoryBrand framework—one of the most effective marketing approaches in the world—and showing you...

Is the fear of losing your health insurance keeping you trapped in academia? This worry keeps a lot of chronically ill academics stuck in jobs that are making them sicker—and the premise is worth questioning. In this episode, Paulina talks with D. Scott, PhD, JD, a former academic who developed a chronic illness during a postdoc at the University of Edinburgh and slowly realized the tenure track w...

You've been doing everything right—teaching, advising, serving on committees, even organizing a union—and still hitting a wall. Annie Brubaker did all of that for 20 years, watched her salary get frozen for 12 of them, went on a 29-day strike, and finally decided she was done waiting for an institution to value her. Then she landed 7 editing clients in her first 12 weeks as a professional editor....

You're worried AI is going to kill academic editing and coaching. Here's what's actually happening—and why it might be the best news you've heard all year. If you've asked yourself, "Should I even bother starting an editing or coaching business when AI is taking over?"—this episode is your answer. Paulina Cossette has been watching the industry closely, and the picture is more nuanced (and more ho...

You spent months preparing to launch your editing or coaching business, and you still haven't started. Or maybe you launched, got crickets, and shelved the whole idea. Here's the truth: it's not your idea, your niche, or your credentials holding you back. It's a single question your PhD brain has been trained to ask on repeat–and it's functioning as a verdict before the trial has even started. In...

⏱️ Stop doing this academic work for free. Every Tuesday, you wake up, drink your coffee, read a dissertation chapter, meet with a struggling grad student, teach a seminar, peer review an article, and edit a colleague's grant proposal—and you call it "being a professor." But each of those tasks has a name in the freelance world. And a price. And a market full of people who would pay you handsomely...

Does selling your editing or coaching services make you feel gross, salesy, or like a fraud? You're not alone, and there's a reason behind that discomfort, but it has nothing to do with selling itself. In this episode, Paulina explains why so many academics struggle to charge for their knowledge, and how to reframe selling as service so you can finally build a sustainable freelance business withou...

You spent years building your credentials—the PhD, the publications, the speaking engagements, the teaching experience. So when you launched your freelance editing or coaching business, it felt natural to lead with all of your experience on your website. Here's the problem: those credentials are exactly what's repelling the clients you want. In this episode, I break down why leading with your CV i...

You stayed. You pushed through. You asked for help—and got gaslit instead. If that just hit a little too close to home, this episode is for you. Julia Gray's post-academic path included a government job before she began building her business as an editor and a communications and culture specialist. In this conversation, Julia gets honest about what it feels like to reinvent yourself after academia...

You've been sitting on a course idea for months. Maybe years. You know it could help people—but you haven't launched it yet because it doesn't feel ready. Here's the thing: building your course first and selling it later isn't just inefficient. It might be the reason you never launch it at all. In this episode of Leaving Academia: Becoming a Freelance Editor, Paulina shares the behind-the-scenes s...

You posted on LinkedIn. Got 2 likes. Felt like a failure. But what if that post was actually working, and you just couldn't see it? In this episode, I'm pulling back the curtain on a real LinkedIn post I shared about hitting my first $10,000 month as an academic editor—and walking you through the analytics in detail. With only 746 impressions and 535 people reached, the vanity metrics looked terri...

You think marketing will be gross. But what if it doesn't have to look the way you imagine? If the word "marketing" makes you cringe—if it conjures images of pushy salespeople, empty promises, and Instagram influencers claiming you can make $250K from a $47 mini course—I get it. Completely. But here's what I want you to consider: the resistance most academics feel toward marketing isn't really abo...

Think you want to leave academia and go freelance? You should watch this. Most academics who dream of leaving their job focus on the exciting stuff—landing clients, working from home, finally having freedom. But there's a whole other conversation that almost nobody is having: the financial one. What happens to your retirement accounts? Can you actually afford health insurance? When do you really n...

He had no coaching packages. No clients. No idea how to run a sales call. And then, in week 5 of his BAE cohort, he signed his first client to a 6-month coaching contract. 🥳 In this episode, I'm walking you through one BAE student's journey—from "I have no idea what I'm doing" to landing a real, paying coaching client faster than he ever thought possible. I'm calling him Michael to protect his pr...

You love teaching. You love the research. So why does it feel like academia is suffocating you? In this episode, I sit down with Kelly Merritt—education PhD, former K–12 teacher in Switzerland, and founder of Define Your Lines—to talk about what it really looks like to build a freelance business from the ground up—while navigating toxic workplaces, health crises, expat life, and the slow, complica...

You did everything right. So why does academia feel so wrong? In this episode, I'm sharing data I've been collecting for over a year: raw, unfiltered responses from academics all over the world who answered one simple question—What's going on in your life that brought you here? What I found wasn't two-word answers. It was grief. It was burnout so deep it had started destroying people's bodies. It...

Hosting Your First Writing Retreat? Here's What You Need to Know to Make It a Smashing Success You've built an editing or coaching business. You love working with academics. And somewhere in the back of your mind, you've been wondering: Could I host a writing retreat? Short answer: probably yes. But the logistics are important. In this episode, I'm talking with Kimberly Hale, PhD—interpreter educa...

Burned out, overworked, and secretly Googling "alternative careers for PhDs"—but not sure what you actually want to do next? This episode is for you. In this conversation, I sit down with Jen Polk, one of the most well-known and trusted post-academic career coaches, to talk about what it really takes to figure out your next move after academia. Jen has been doing this work since 2013, and she has...

💡 When you're starting your freelance editing or coaching business, the instinct is to offer everything to everyone. But what if niching down is what gets you more clients? In this episode, I walk you through the counterintuitive truth about developing a profitable niche—and why your credentials aren't what's going to sell your services. What You'll Learn: 💡 Why "being for everyone" is actually...

What happens when everything looks perfect on paper but your life feels like it's falling apart? Today's guest, Daniel DeRock, was a successful assistant professor of international political economy at a "dream" university—yet he walked away. Why? In this episode, Daniel shares the truth about burnout, the hidden costs of chasing credentials, and how he's now building a thriving freelance business...

🎯 SETTING BOUNDARIES AFTER ACADEMIA: Why Freelance Editors & Coaches Struggle (and How to Fix It) When you're in academia, you're trained to sacrifice---your time, your health, your family, your peace. You're made to do more with less. You're "voluntold" to serve on committees and take on projects, all without extra compensation or appreciation. But here's the problem: when you leave academia...

You’re overworked, underpaid, and doing way too much "service" for zero recognition. Burnout isn’t a surprise—it’s the system. So what if the real problem isn’t you, but the way academia exploits your labor? In this episode, former professor Rachel LaTouche shares how she went from a traditional tenure-track path to launching a thriving consulting business. She didn’t even know what "consulting" w...

You just got your first client inquiry—congrats! But now what? If your excitement is quickly turning into panic, you’re not alone. Many new freelance editors and academic coaches freeze when it comes time to respond professionally and quote their first project. In this episode, I walk you through exactly what to do (and what to avoid) so you can handle that first inquiry with confidence. I’ve help...