Acadium Review: Get A VA, Business Coach For Free

Acadium Review – Can you really get an intern/virtual assistant for free from this app? Can you really get a business coach/mentor for free from this app? Yes and yes. But there’s more to it than that.

You don’t just ‘get a VA/coach for free’ exactly. Instead, you exchange your services for a mutually beneficial partnership. Which is really cool!

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Last year, I heard about a startup called Acadium that was changing the scope of marketing and business.

It was advertised as a mentorship program where business owners offer up training and mentorship free of charge with a student marketer who wants to learn.

In exchange, the student takes on an area of the business owner’s company, projects, and campaigns. The business owner gets some help, and the student gets real-world experience and coaching.

Acadium Review – I’ve Been Using It For Months!

It sounded like an interesting program, so I had to try it. And I am so happy that I did, as I ended up having a wonderful experience and meeting some amazing and talented people on the app.

My business HerPaperRoute.com has been growing like wild in recent months, and I was in need of some help.

I also had a ton of things I wanted to share, teach and mentor on, so it was the right time.

I have been an Acadium mentor for over a year now and have had a good amount of experience using the program.

So I will share my experience here from the perspective of the mentor.

I am also happy to announce that Margherita who is an Acadium mentee is here today to share her experience from the student marketer side as well.

Are you a business owner thinking of joining Acadium to become a mentor to get some help from a student?

Or you are a student wanting to join Acadium to get some real-world business training?

Either way, this Acadium review has you covered.

What Is Acadium?

Acadium is an app that matches up companies/business owners (mentors) with people who want to learn new skills (mentees aka apprentices).

It’s sort of like a Tinder for business apprenticeships. No, actually that’s exactly what it’s like!

Except instead of awkward dates, you get to help and work with someone teach/learn business skills and scale your business.

If you are wondering where to get a VA or where to find a business coach, Acadium is an excellent place for both!

How Does Acadium Work?

Here’s how Acadium works.

• Mentors create a profile about themselves and their company, and what they are looking for in a mentee/student.
• Mentees create a profile about themselves, their current skills, and what skills they want to learn from a mentor.
• Both parties can send and receive chat requests, and X or √ if they want to accept said chat request.
• When a mentor finds potential candidates, they set up an interview to get to know the potential mentee more
• When a match is found, the mentee and mentor enter into an apprenticeship contract
• They work together for 3 months
• After which the mentee gets certain certifications from Acadium

The mentee works unpaid for this three-month term in exchange for learning from their mentor, and getting real-world training working for a real company.

As mentors swipe through potential mentee candidates, they can see what skills the mentee currently has, and what areas they want to learn more about, from a mentor.

Where Are The Acadium Student Marketers From?

Most of the student marketers on Acadium are from USA, and English speaking.

But you can find a mentee from many other countries too. Anyone can sign up.

Mentors can select specific locations when searching for candidates that suit their needs and time zones. Mentors can also search by language, skills/tools, type of work, certifications and more.

 

Acadium Review Pros – What’s In It For The Mentee?

The mentee (student) gets 3 months of coaching and training, working with a real company, performing real campaigns and projects.

They can then use this experience towards future job applications.

When I was in University, we used to have to make up pretend companies to work for, for our projects. Something like Acadium would have been great at the time. To actually have a real company to perform marketing campaigns for, while learning.

In addition to the training they get from their mentor, they also get many other benefits from Acadium directly.

Margherita will explain in a moment.

Acadium Review Cons – What’s A Con For the Mentee?

The point of the program is that both mentor and mentee provide a service to the other with no monetary transaction.

Something that many people would find attractive on both sides.

But, if you a student who is hard up for money at the moment, 3 months of unpaid work could be difficult to maintain.

The mentee is expected to work 10 hours per week for the full 3 month term.

This could be seen as a con if you need that time to be working a regular job.

So this is worth mentioning, the time commitment Acadium requires needs to make sense for your current situation.

Acadium Review Pros – What’s In It For The Mentor?

The mentor gets the benefit of having extra help around the business.

The mentee could help with SEO, manage a promotion, write content, manage the social accounts, anything.

Acadium Review Cons – What’s A Con The Mentor?

The student marketer you work with is someone who will be at any type of skill level, as they are learning.

So you need to be flexible and know that some projects will take longer, and some things may not go smoothly.

So you’ll need to delegate what part of your business can afford to take a chance if newbie errors happen to be made.

This isn’t really a con, but it needs to be said.

How Much Does Acadium Cost?

Acadium is free for mentees.

Acadium is free for mentors to have a mentee. Mentors do not pay their mentees.

The only cost is $49/month fee for mentors to use the app itself.

That fee goes towards the Acadium training and courses that are provided to the mentees.

Mentors can also pause their membership at any time, as to not pay the member fee, while not using it / not having a mentee.

Tips For Being A Great Acadium Mentor

Have patience, be available to answer questions, and make sure you are providing more than you are taking from the apprenticeship.

Being a mentor takes work, as well as takes time away from your business too.

As a mentor, you need to be aware that your role as a mentor requires your effort.

A mentor must teach, coach and help the mentee.

You can’t expect just to have ‘free help’ as that isn’t the deal. You need to provide value in return.

Tips For Being A Great Acadium Mentee

Show eagerness, willingness to learn and try. Deliver your work on time and ask lots of questions.

Your mentor wants to teach you what YOU want to learn, not just what they want you to know to be able to do their tasks.

Advice From A Acadium Mentee

Margherita is here now to share her experience as a Acadium mentee, and to offer up some advice for anyone considering joining the app.

1. Why did you originally sign up for Acadium?

I was looking for an opportunity to learn more about digital marketing.

Previously, I had some experience as a freelance ghostwriter but I never had the chance to learn digital marketing from business owners and experts.

When I found out about Acadium, I became really interested because it allows me to learn and gain experience remotely, which I thought was unique.

2. How did you hear about Acadium? How was it advertised to you?

To be honest, I forgot how I found out about it.

But I am pretty sure I was looking for an online digital marketing course and I ended up seeing Acadium‘s ads on Facebook after that.

So, I clicked on it and the rest is history.

3. What sort of incentives are mentees given to join Acadium?

Acadium provides different programs/training that include Intro to Marketing, Paid Advertising, Email Marketing, SEO, Content Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, and many more.

These courses allow the mentees to prepare themselves before signing a contract.

They are beneficial especially for mentees who never had experience previously.

After completing the 3-months apprenticeship, the mentees will be rewarded with a Acadium’s Digital Marketing Certificate that we can include in our portfolio, resume or even display on our social accounts such as LinkedIn.

4. What is the sign up / approval process like for a mentee?

After signing up, I was asked to complete my profile and submit my application.

It took about 24 business hours for my application to be approved.

After that I had to go through a verification stage to verify my profile and based on the answers, Acadium would rank the mentees’ profiles differently in Discovery.

The better your answers are, the higher your profile is ranked in the marketplace.

5. Does Acadium give you support as you go through your mentorship?

They are very supportive when it comes to answering questions and helping the mentees out.

Although personally, I do think their system can be improved more, overall my experience with Acadium has been great and they are very helpful.

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6. What was your overall experience like? How would you explain your
time on Acadium, to someone who is thinking about becoming a mentee?

Because I have a really good experience with Acadium, I’ve been telling my friends (who are interested in gaining experience in digital marketing) about Acadium.

With the tight schedules that people tend to have these days and the desire to continuously learn and grow new skills, I really think Acadium serves its purpose in helping connect mentees and mentors/business owners.

I love Acadium, and this is my honest Acadium review.

Because without it, I wouldn’t be able to connect with my amazing mentors.

7. Anything else you’d like to add that you think a potential mentee
should know / words of advice?

I would say just go for it.

If you know digital marketing is something that you want to learn, you need to give your full 200% effort into the apprenticeship.

Nothing comes easy but if you are dedicated, disciplined, and highly motivated, you will realize that it’s all worth it.

Acadium is a great platform for mentees who are self-starters and willing to take new challenges as something that will help them grow.

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How To Join Acadium

Joining Acadium as a mentor as simple as signing up for an account here.

Or, to join as a mentee/student join here. 

You will be asked a few questions, and then set up with an account in a matter of minutes.

From there you can start searching for a mentor or mentee and start messaging.

Look no further. Where to get a VA? Where to get a business coach? I highly recommend Acadium!

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