The Messy PhD Group Coaching Hive
Close coaching, community and support
for your best #PhDLife
You’re here to do excellent, impactful research.
You know you deserve a joyful PhD experience that’s full of creativity, flow, and support.
Now’s the time to make it happen.
Is this you?
You’re feeling overwhelmed by how much you need to do in your PhD (in such little time, arg!)…
You’re feeling fed-up, frustrated and can’t figure out how to get your #thesis motivation back…
You’re spinning your wheels, don’t have time to clean your house and feel like you’re getting nowhere with your research…
You’re worried that you can’t actually do this PhD, that you’re a fraud and they’re going to find out…
You’re scared of messing things up or failing your PhD…
You don’t know what the @^&$ you’re doing!
You’re kept awake at night overthinking the best way to fix, control and ‘perfect’ every element of your research…
What if I told you there’s another way to do the PhD?
A way that’s full of clarity, ease, pleasure, support and joy?
Read on…
Let’s have a chat about why your PhD feels so darn messy…
The pressures in academia can be next level stressful. It’s a terribly competitive place filled with highly intelligent, capable people doing highly demanding, challenging work.
You’re probably surrounded by high-achievers and perfectionists, people who are not only very good at what they do, but who also constantly believe that they “should be better”.
Add to that the countless myths and memes about how much of a struggle the PhD is, how academics have no lives and how suffering is inevitable…
… and you soon feel like you’re constantly having to ‘catch up’ and reach impossible goals.
It’s no wonder you’re burnt out and exhausted.
It’s no wonder you sometimes feel ground down and small.
It’s no wonder you’re searching for a better way to do this.
Welcome to a new way of doing research
Introducing…
The Messy PhD Group Coaching Hive
Sound good?
Great! This is exactly what you’ll get in the Hive
My coaching offers you the additional support that most universities don’t offer. I help you to meet the messier emotional components of doing research with a level head and a renewed confidence in your own brilliant abilities to meet any PhD challenge.
PhD students I have coached report going from feeling overwhelmed and demotivated to:
“[getting] back on a path of clarity”
“loving this PhD process”
“taking away practical suggestions for change which have already started to make a real difference to the way I’m working and living”
I’ve no doubt that you already have the know-how, skills and abilities to do deep, thoughtful, excellent research.
The only thing getting in your way is the surrounding messiness: overwhelm, imposter syndrome, lack of motivation and confidence, doubt, the fear of failure, difficulty saying no…
And while many supervisors and universities are less forthcoming about addressing these uncomfortable parts of doctoral research, I’m here to help you bust through them to enjoy more confidence and clarity than ever.
Get ready to enjoy all this once you’re in the Hive:
This isn’t just wishful thinking. A joyful PhD journey filled with clear-sighted focus and ease is absolutely possible.
It’s time for you to claim this fulfilling, happy PhD life for yourself and make it a reality.
The Messy PhD Group Coaching Hive is here to show you how.
The five pillars of the M.E.S.S.Y Framework
The Messy PhD Group Coaching Hive is based on my signature M.E.S.S.Y coaching framework, which comprises 5 key pillars to help you meet your PhD and life goals, find more clarity, joy & ease, and just feel bloody good about yourself and your research.
Are you ready? Let’s get M.E.S.S.Y:

Over the next three months, you’ll…
- Discover creative new solutions, opportunities and magic at every stage of your PhD, even in the problems and challenges
- Recall your own magic by recognising and expanding your existing strengths, talents and skills
- Work through the difficulties of research to emerge with even greater confidence and more finely honed skills that you can take forward into any career path

During this coaching programme, you’ll…
- Create nourishing routines that make space for plenty of rest, reward and relaxation
- Beat overwhelm and stress, by learning new ways of working less while making more progress than ever before
- Invite greater ease into your research experience so you always enjoy a constant, effortless flow of creativity

When you’re in the Hive, you’ll…
- Build your own routines and rituals so you can create and sustain motivation more easily – both in and out of your PhD
- Reignite joy, pleasure and passion in and around your research
- Reprioritise fun and play in your research, so you’re going into your work every day with fresh energy and excitement

Through this group coaching programme, you’ll develop…
- A renewed confidence in your own ‘enoughness’, capabilities and the value you bring to the table
- Crystal clear clarity to discern exactly what goals, activities and relationships will best serve and support you
- Firm boundaries – the focus to pursue what is most aligned with your aspirations and values, and the ease to release what isn’t

Alongside your fellow Hivers, you’ll…
- Be introduced to simple but hugely transformative steps to design your PhD experience exactly the way you want it
- Build a safe, loving community that will support you to smash your research goals and reach your highest research potential
- Learn to connect with your greatest and wisest guide – your own research intuition
Extra Sparkle Up
I incorporate a spiritual element into all my coaching. I’ll work with you to strengthen existing practices in your own faith and/or to introduce you to concepts like manifestation, visualisation and meditation; affirmation, mantras and prayer; tarot and oracle readings; and human design.
You don’t have to have any prior experience with any of this (I’ll explain everything once you’re in!) and I promise that you’ll never have to do anything you’re not comfortable with. Just be aware that this is a strong component of my coaching approach and practice, and get ready to experience some super electric magic!
In the hive, you’ll get all of this:

Close-up support
I am deliberately keeping the Hive small, with a minimum of 6 people and a maximum of 12. So you’ll get plenty of intimate support directly from me as well as connection and friendship with your fellow Hivers.

2 live group coaching calls a month
Each month, you’ll get to join 2 x 90-minute live Zoom calls for intimate hot-seat coaching support where I’ll deep-dive your current PhD challenges

Daily group messaging support
You’ll have access to a private messaging group to ask and get your questions answered daily (Mon-Fri). This means you’ll get both my direct coaching support outside the group coaching calls and the continued support of your fellow Hivers.

Resources galore
You’ll be given lifetime access to a collection of journal/reflection prompts, mini trainings and worksheets, covering many aspects of doctoral research – from Creating an Effective Daily Working Plan, to Setting Boundaries in the PhD, to Checklists for a Joyful PhD. I’ll also be creating new resources specifically to meet the needs of Hive members!

Community
The strength of the hive lies in its community and the peer support you will get from other PhD Hivers on the same journey as you. You’ll have a PhD family to keep you accountable, share encouragement and celebrate your wins.
The benefits of a messy coaching approach
From the close coaching you’ll receive and working intimately alongside other PhD folk, you’ll be equipped and supported to….
Oh, wait, you want more?
Okay, strap in for the bonuses!

Just Write: 4 Training Videos for Writing Your Thesis
Whatever stage you’re at with writing the PhD (and even if you haven’t started), this collection of trainings offers an unconventional (but effective!) way of approaching thesis writing. You’ll learn how to:
– craft a writing plan that will work best for the way you work
– produce excellent, creative writing without rigid plans
– set the most energising intentions to bring into your writing
– stay on track with the fundamental requirements of academic writing at every stage of your thesis.

Webinar: Managing procrastination and building motivation in research writing
Delivered by academic writing coach Dr. Lara Wallace and me, Dr. Jamie Pei, this 2-hour webinar offers 4 key tips for beating procrastination and demotivation in your research writing. It’s absolutely jam-packed with tips and practices you can implement straight away to start seeing rapid progress in your writing – whether you’re working on your dissertation/thesis, writing a journal article or preparing a conference paper.

5 Steps to a Winning Presentation
The handiest, most compact little guide you’ll ever need to create impactful presentations. Whether you’re preparing for a conference paper, public speaking competition or public engagement talk, this guide shares my 5 best tips for writing and delivering a punchy, smart pres that your audience will remember long after you’ve stepped off the podium.
The Messy PhD is unlike any other
doctoral training you’ve attended
Universities already provide plenty of excellent training on ‘how to’ do the PhD. Whether it’s workshops on writing literature reviews, learning SPSS or understanding research ethics, you’re probably sorted.
What’s less commonly addressed are all the messy in-betweens of doing research and being a researcher. The messy anxieties of not being good enough, lack of confidence, imposter syndrome, overwhelm, demotivation, procrastination, the fear of things going wrong… the list goes on.
It is these uncomfortable, grubby in-betweens that messy coaching deals with.
This is PhD coaching. It is also life coaching.
Messy coaching works with that strange (yes, messy!) space where the two collide: doing research while juggling life, and navigating all the other demands of life while doing research.
It is geared towards helping you be the best researcher you can be, while also enjoying your very best life as a gloriously, messy, complex, feeling, loving, living human being.
Hello!
I’m Dr Jamie Pei (but just call me Jamie!) – your messy coach and host of the hive,
I’ve done a PhD in Women’s Studies (Social Science/qualitative research) and for 4 years, I enjoyed the most joyful, enriching, fulfilling PhD experience.
Throughout that time, I also got to present at numerous conferences, run workshops and trainings, won awards for speaking about my research, and developed a kickass yoga + weight-lighting routine.
But I also had some pretty awful moments during those 5 years, dealing with bereavements, health issues and finally, the viva that nightmares are made of, followed by a horrible pandemic-themed year of corrections.
So, I understand both the incredible highs that come from doing really deep, pleasurable research AND the terrible lows of feeling stuck, hopeless and overwhelmed.
More important, I’ve found ways to increase and sustain the good bits, and deal peacefully with the bad.
I’ve since developed my own signature M.E.S.S.Y framework for working through the PhD (and life!) with the greatest ease, clarity and joy. And now I’m here to share all that goodness with you.
The Messy PhD Group Coaching Hive is for you if…
And it’s not for you if…
Your investment
A quick recap of what you’ll get in the 3-month Hive:
2 monthly live group coaching calls
Close community for friendship and accountability
Daily messaging support
Additional PhD training resources
Access to any of my public workshops during the time of the Hive
3 cool bonuses
Fees
Early bird pricing (until 30 June 2023)
Pay in Full
USD 688
3-month payment plan
USD 288/month x 3
After 30 June, prices increase to:
Pay in Full
USD 888
3-month payment plan
USD 358/month x 3