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.

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Resources Mentioned:

Laura Vasquez Bass — AtlanticEditorial.com