How To Freelance In The Audio Industry Today: With Claire Tighe

There are some *gems* in here about the trends of the industry, how to create a work strategy, pull together clients and define the way you want to be hired. Read on to find all the goods.

This year has been a bit of a blood bath for the podcast industry.

For a while, it seemed almost weekly that there was another announcement about job loss, corporate shrinkage, right-sizing, or mergers that resulted in some kind of restructuring.

Maybe this is about the industry right-sizing. Maybe this is about truly coming back to the office after the pandemic. Maybe it was just a convenient time to slash jobs to increase corporate profit. It was also like watching a slow-motion funeral of some companies.

Or maybe the industry correction stems from the fact that the public doesn’t really want to hear long-form narratives anymore and that we’ve all jumped ship to and now only listen to Spotify Exclusives from the latest celebrity.

I heartily disagree with this.

After all, the “dumb money is gone.”

Anyway you slice it, the industry has been changing. This might mean that your previous job has ended, or you see that writing on the wall, and you need to find a new way in this industry.

I’ve got you covered. Actually, Claire has you covered.

Anyone can freelance. But surviving out there as a freelancer is a whole other thing. Thriving, well that’s a distant shore.

Today I’ve got some help, by way of some great practical advice, for all of you who are thinking of leaving your job to freelance, were forced into this position from a layoff, are lining up your ducks to get ready, for are working out how to up your freelance game.

Meet Claire Tighe.

TL;DR

• Be brave and send that cold email to your dream boss

• Yup, outsourcing is a reality

• So is contract labour

• Don’t be scared of branded content

Read on to figure out how Claire plans her work in Thirds….and what those thirds are.

If you remember one thing from this post, take this with you:

When you’re hired on a project, it’s about the project; it’s not about you.

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The following is a transcript from a Zoom interview. It has been edited for length and clarity.

[Samantha Hodder]: We’re going to talk about how to freelance in this industry, and how to do it well…but let’s first talk about how you got into this industry.

[Claire Tighe]: My bachelor's degree is in Women's and Gender Studies. 

I always wanted to work in media, or generally to do something positive for the world. But I didntt really have a “beat.”

People would ask me: What's your beat? And for a while, I thought that meant that I couldn’t be a journalist because I don't have one.

But that's farthest from the truth, especially in the world we're in now.

Not having a beat, or a specific vertical, has been really helpful, because you can make these lateral moves. Like a rock climber traversing.

[SH]: Did you get any audio training specifically? 

[CT]: After my undergraduate, long before I worked in audio, I did a lot of jobs: I worked in food service, software, and the nonprofit industry. I did that for about four years.

That whole time, I was freelancing with written pieces. I had a body of published writing work in Ms., Bitch, The Village Voice, Rewire, and other places, but that in no way would add up to a full freelance income in media

Before doing my master's program I had not worked in audio in any serious way and I really didn't have any training.

The first podcast episode that I made was in undergrad for a class; it was basically an audio essay. But this was the early very days (when iPod equaled podcast).  

And then I hit a wall, where my dream job would have been to be a staff writer at one of these publications, but I just couldn't get in.

So I found myself constantly googling about journalism programs….and [that’s how] I ended up at the NYU Grad program. I started in fall 2017 and graduated in the fall of 2018.

[SH]: Wow. So you're in New York City. You've gone through NYU, you're at the right place at the right time. And then something happens that connects you to the podcast industry. What was it? 

[CT]: It was a cold email to Jenna Weiss-Berman [co-founder of Pineapple Street]. I was like, Hey, this is who I am…would you ever have me as an intern? That was February or March 2018. I was lucky…she actually wrote back and said…We're probably going to start to look for someone and I’ll throw you in the consideration pile. And then they picked me!

On the first day…they were literally building the desks in their new office space. It was just like very much the beginning of something, or the middle of the beginning, you know? They gave me and my fellow intern a key…he was a very sweet college student, so there was literally 10 years apart in age…it was definitely Right Place Right Time for sure.

[SH]: So your first media/podcast job, your internship, is at Pineapple. Do you end up working for them, or do you end up somewhere else?

[CT]: I just sort of stayed on as an intern basis. At some point sort of crossed over into being a producer on a day rate. I ended up spending about a year there in total.

My first media staff job was at NBC. I was one of the first hires there to start their audio unit….it was almost like a startup inside NBC Universal’s news business development team.

My trajectory has definitely reflected where the industry has gone.

[SH]: What has been the last 12 months for you? Does it also mirror what else is happening in the world?

[CT]: Yeah, it definitely does. I saw two things NBC: One was that we were partnering with other brands to do production work. So NBC was bringing the IP and the editorial and creative ownership, but they were not staffing the production. Southlake was a copro, between NBC who had the IP, and Wondery, who had the production mechanism.

Then the other thing was that we were outsourcing some of our originals, like The Oath with Chuck Rosenberg to production companies, to have them make it. 

I thought, cool. I'm going to go to NBC audio, and it's going to be like the NPR of audio, but it’s a television company, right, so they're going to staff up all these producers. And for me, as an associate producer, I'm gonna get to work on all these things, and I'm going to grow here and be here for 20 years. And that was my goal.

But what I saw was basically outsourcing what the stuff I wanted to do, which was make the things, pitch new shows, develop new stuff. 

Meanwhile, all of these deals were being made, all of this amazing stuff was being created. And I was like making a twice weekly, or three times weekly, show with the same host over and over—who was a joy—but what I saw was basically this outsourcing model. 

And what I wanted to make limited series narratives so that I could really work with a lot of different hosts and different creators, pitch my own stuff, and do more 9-to-11-months on a enterprise-level project, and then move on to the next one.

[SH]: So then I'm guessing we're somewhere around 2021 by this point.

[CT]: Yes…in spring 2021, I was offered an opportunity to come and work on a bunch of different limited series shows. I left my staff job and all the perks of stability that come with that. I kissed it all goodbye and basically started this two-year journey of flipping back and forth between long-term contracts, staffing roles, and then also freelancing, teaching and doing like a ton of stuff all at once.

[SH]: So you said: I'd rather be on a treadmill while juggling.  

[CT]: Pretty much.

When I was on staff at NBC, people externally kept coming to me, internally and externally, saying…I have this idea, can you help me?

In the early times, I just like gave knowledge to for free, which is in a certain context, totally fine.

But then it was literally every day getting messages: I have this idea, can you help me? And I thought: Okay. I want to say yes to people, and I should get paid to do this.

[SH]: Now let’s talk about the freelancing reality.

How do you how do you fill your plate?

And how do you know when the plate is too full or too heavy?

[CT]: I kind of think of it like a pie chart, where it's thirds.

30% of my time is teaching.

30-50% is production on long-term projects(limited series narratives or things that will launch long in the future).

The other 20-30% is miscellaneous. So that's anything from working with people one-to-one, pitching and producing my own stuff, pitching and producing long-form projects that I want to make, or maybe publish some writing, that kind of thing

There's a strategy behind each one. The first third, is the bread-and-butter client. When I look at a year's projection, I can say: I'm going to make one third of my income from teaching this year. 

And then the second third is the projects I know are going last 9 to 12 months. That's another guarantee. 

And then whatever I make on top of that is the risk range; so I'm able to manage a certain amount of risks because I already have that base level guaranteed.  

[SH]: I'm curious about this random 20-30% stuff, the miscellaneous things. Can you give a couple of examples of the miscellaneous stuff that you've managed to land? 

[CT]: I consult with quite a few clients on a 1-1 basis. I also do this work I call “Podcast Doula.” If someone comes to me and say: Hey, I have this goal in the industry…can you help me get there? I figure out how to help them…birth their idea, or project, or career transition, or whatever.

This past winter I produced an event called Sounds of New York, which was a hands-on, in-person, one-week event for French podcast industry professionals. It was basically like producing 12 episodes of a show, but it was an event.

Then there’s that middle 30%. It’s also stuff that a typical journalist might balk at, but it's just a core part of what the industry is right now; I’m talking about branded or sponsored content. For example, I produced the first two seasons of a white-label podcast for Adobe.

The strategy that I'm doing is actually a strategy that many companies (even Pineapple), have proven is workable, which is to say…just do a little bit of everything.

But one of the core strategies of the mix is: to take higher paid projects, for example, a branded or sponsored show, so that that will supplement only getting paid $1,000 [by someone else]. 

This makes my hourly, much higher after I average it out. Plus, it’s more rewarding.

[SH]: You're, you're quite a few years into this, and you weren't starting when you were 20, which means you arrived here with greater maturity and a background doing other professional work.

But if you were to give some advice…what are YOUR best practices for how to begin to freelance? 

There are so many people, talented people, who have been laid off or furloughed or contracted instead of hired in the past year.

What's your best advice for them?  

[CT]: ​​One thing is, the global economy is moving more toward contract labor, global…contract labor is not going to go away. If anything, it's just going to become more of a thing. Whether or not that's correct or right, or fair, or equitable, is a different matter.

The second thing is: No need to reinvent the wheel. There are models for being a sole proprietor, or being an independent business owner, on a small scale. You don't have to struggle and feel alone. 

There are proven models that work. If we can free ourselves as creatives…follow the advice that's already out there.  

If you're trying to grow or scale or even just survive as a business owner, you could try doing everything yourself. Try, but you won't scale (I heard a version of this in an interview recently).

So for example, for things like planning and some logistics stuff… I didn't need to pay my hourly rate. I could pay another very, very smart person to do part of the admin for me. It’s about not being afraid to spend a little bit. 

I think the other thing is: I was in this Zoom for investigative journalists and I just kept hearing people ask: should I not do branded and sponsored work, like, should I not do it? And I just think, for me, and for many other companies out there, branded work has allowed them to leverage making original content.

Embracing the stuff we don't want to do can give you a little more freedom. I had a brand client, a white label group making the Adobe show. It was a weekly commitment. But it's also allowed me the freedom to pitch and think and read and do these other things.  

Last piece of advice: But when you're being contracted to a company, to a team, it's not all about you. You're being hired because you're awesome. It's way more about the product, way more about the client, or way more about the team than it is about you. Focus on that.

[SH]: Some younger producers really feel like the best their time is best spent getting their own stuff out there and pitching their own stuff.

I can see from the way you talk about your career trajectory, that you've done a lot of work on other people's work. What have you gained from working this way?

[CT]: The definition of a producer is the person who makes someone else's ideas happen.

It doesn't mean you can't have your own.

It just means you're really good at executing ideas.

[SH]: What’s your secret weapon?

[CT]: Airtable is my best friend. Everyone who works with me knows how much I love Airtable. 

I made myself this little Airtable called “All Clients,” because I wanted to see what type of leads were inbound or outbound; [I discovered] 75% of my projects are inbound.

[SH]: Ultimate goal?

My ultimate goal is to get to a place, like famous audio engineers, or artists, who don't have a website, or it's like just one page. They are basically unlisted.

The people who know how to reach them can reach them. I’m aiming for that.

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Need somewhere to start, or some more inspiration?

The Business of Being A Writer, by Jane Friedman

Managing financing and doing your own planning: On My Own Two Feet: A Modern Girl's Guide to Personal Finance

Or you need some inspiration…Kehinde did it…Read about it here.

If you want to support this work on an anonymous, one-time donation, please feel free to buy me a coffee.