How To Freelance In The Audio Industry Today: With Claire Tighe [REPLAY...with some additional bits 'n pieces]
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.
Good morning folks. It’s the first official day of Spring, which reminds me about planting and growing….also about nurturing what’s already in the ground, figuring out how to prune the bushes to grow well, and dusting off the earth to find my perennials.
So today I’m playing forward a popular post from last fall that I think is still timely today, especially because there are many more of you… my glorious subscribers…and I wanted to make sure this one wasn’t missed by you.
Inside you will find some incredibly helpful tips on how what it means to freelance in the audio industry today….a couple of rules to abide by, some practical advice, and maybe even a wee bit of inspiration. Scroll down to see the Zoom interview transcript below.
First, let’s start off with 3 different layers of recommendations:
Newsletter recco of the week:
Sounds Like Impact, from
often takes up where Bingeworthy leaves off the conversation.
Website Reference for the week:
Speaking about freelancing because your job situation recently changed….what about applying for a journalism fellowship?
I’m finalizing a post about a conversation that I recently had with Nieman Fellow Julia Barton…and while researching this post, I found this website which has a giant trove of fellowships, grants and other interesting opportunities. If you have the ability to mobile, if you’re academically curious or have a big project that demands some more concentrated time…spend a bit of time wandering around these halls:
Three things I’ve listened to lately:
Ripple: Part environmental caper, part climate actuality doomsday report, part good old-fashioned door-knocking journalism. For those who think they recall the largest oil spill in North America, the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill off the Gulf Coast of Alabama in 2010, but can’t exactly remember all the horrid details, this series is here to remind you. Also, it appears you missed some of the facts (but this was on purpose).
Untold: The Retreat. Finally an investigation about how the “wellness” industry is also quite sick sometimes. Also, I’m terrible at meditating. There. I said it. And I’m ok with being bad at it because I’m just good enough to get a wee bit of benefit from it, without having the desire to get lost inside it. Apparently, that is possible, as you will learn with The Retreat…note….*this series discusses suicide and is tricky emotional terrain in many places…* If this is an uncomfortable subject for you, this is not a series for your quiet enjoyment.
Home Cooked: A series that brings you into the family kitchen, where the best recipes are made and shared—with you. This three-part series works on multiple levels at once. It’s a family story, an ancient history of harvesting, a pandemic recovery tale and how a way of life was hidden out of legal requirement, until very recently. Listen with headphones on to hear the sizzle of the stove that will make you hungry.
Feature Interview
Anyone can freelance. But surviving as a freelancer is a whole other thing. Thriving, well that’s a distant shore.
Meet Claire Tighe
Here’s some great practical advice for anyone who is thinking of leaving their job, was forced to leave their job, or if you’ve watched it wither on the vine and disappear.
Claire Tighe has some ideas for you about how to up your freelance game.
TL;DR
Be brave and send that cold email to your dream boss
Try to publish some pieces on the side on your own as you go
Having “a beat” doesn’t matter
Yup, outsourcing is a reality; so is contract labour
Don’t be scared of branded content
Get yourself organized with something like AirTable so that you can keep track of your leads, your inbound/outbound clients…and then use it to plan yourself out.
Plan out your work in Thirds
Key takeaway for freelancers:
When you’re hired on a project, it’s about the project; it’s not about you.
The following is a transcript from a Zoom interview. It has been edited for length and clarity.
[Samantha Hodder]: 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.
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
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.
[My first job came from] 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]: You began freelancing around 2021… tell me how that began.
[CT]: 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 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 a freelance career chapter?
[CT]: One thing is, the global economy is moving more toward contract labour, global…contract labour 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 feel like 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.
Thank you so much for the shoutout Samantha!
Thank you, Samantha!