Leaving Academia: Becoming a Freelance Editor6 Elo

How to Finish Your PhD and Launch Your Editing Business (with a Toddler at Home)

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.

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