Freelance Radio Episode 1



52 Comments

Here is the first of our new podcasting series! Whether you want to learn while you work out or to make that commute useful, Freelance Radio is the place to hear all the tips, tricks and news of freelancing.

iTunes subscriptions to the podcast are available here and an archive of all podcasts will appear in the podcast section. We hope you enjoy it!


Subscribe to Freelance Radio on iTunes

Special thanks to our sponsors, Mozy and Krop!

In our inaugural podcast, you will hear:

  • Money Matters: Kristen talks about contracts and their importance – check out her own contract.
  • Word of Mouth: The panel reveals how they all became freelancers, back in times of yore.
  • Fantastic Forum Post and Mailbag: John announces that, every episode, we’ll feature a great forum post or two as well as answer listener questions and comments on the air. Please send it to us via the Radio Freelance form. If you’d like to hear yourself on the podcast and have a microphone, feel free to send an MP3 file with your question/comment to that same email address.
  • Review of the Week: The panel takes a close look at GoodWidgets.com, a photo widget site.
  • Good Client/Bad Client: Cyan shares a story about a client that was not too keen on fulfilling their end of the bargain. Kristen suggests a drastic solution.
  • Giveaway: Dickie announces our Giveaway of the episode, and John describes the conditions for winning.
  • Outro Song: This weeks outro song is Lest We Forget, by Scott Wills. The song is from his new Album Evolution and is available on iTunes, Napster and Rhapsody.

And that’s it for the first episode! If you like it, please feel free to rate it in iTunes or your favorite podcast aggregator, and don’t forget to email your questions/comments via the Freelance Radio form. If you’d like to record a question/comment or submit an original outro song, you can upload them via the form too!

Tags:
PG

John Brougher is a freelance technology and new media consultant and speaker from Washington, DC. John eats, sleeps and breathes technology, from his (ever-obsolete) Mac laptop to his always-playing iPhone (not to mention the myriad of gadgets strewn throughout his workspace). His consulting business lives online at johnbrougher.com. John is beyond proud to contribute to Freelance Switch as the host of Freelance Radio, the official podcast of Freelance Switch, as well as helping to manage a variety of content for the site. He always loves to hear from readers and listeners--please feel free to contact him via the Freelance Radio form. You can follow John on Twitter at twitter.com/johnbrougher. John likes putting things in piles, the Sacramento Kings basketball team, hamburgers and taking new gadgets out of boxes.



Discussion Post a Comment Get a Gravatar
  1. PG Ink Master
    October 3rd

    Finally a podcast! w00t! – great job guys :)

    Reply
  2. PG Wayde Christie
    October 3rd

    Enjoying the podcast so far, but I’d rather you pointed out that “now we’re going to hear a word from our sponsor” rather than try and have a (clearly paid for) discussion about your sponsors products. Felt a bit icky to me.

    More Aussies! C’MOOOOOOONNNNNNNN!

    ;)

    Reply
  3. PG Nathan
    October 3rd

    Great podcast, listened to the entire thing while working out today.

    Reply
  4. PG Nathan
    October 3rd

    PS: Upload the sample contract!

    Reply
  5. PG Wayde Christie
    October 3rd

    Is there no way to subscribe to this in iTunes?

    Reply
  6. PG Cyan
    October 3rd

    Hi guys,
    I’m glad you’re enjoying it so far!!!

    For iTunes, we’re waiting to be approved so we’ll announce the feed ASAP. We just couldn’t wait to get the podcast up!

    The sample contract is good to go now – we’ve been having some technical difficulties with the new design :)

    For the ads in the podcast – I do get what you’re saying, Wade. Having said that, I was 100% honest with what I said in the sponsor spots! But we’ll be sure to make it clearer that the spots are paid for – thanks for letting us know that it wasn’t 100% clear!

    Thanks guys :)

    Reply
  7. PG Dixyt
    October 3rd

    Great! finally something I can listen to while dealing with the dull part of the job!
    Cool!
    Thx
    Keep on!

    Reply
  8. PG miwkawi
    October 3rd

    awesome! thank you very much

    Reply
  9. PG riki
    October 3rd

    Excellent Podcast, bloody Aussies are everywhere :)

    I’m personally not too keen on contracts, I don’t think you can legislate for goodwill. If a relationship breaks down they can still pick a contract to pieces.

    I think the best way to protect yourself is not to accept fixed bid quotes, make it clear that you charge an hourly rate and submit small incremental invoices throughout the development period, rather than one massive bill at the end. Also make it clear that slow payments will add delays to a project.

    Reply
  10. PG Luyza
    October 3rd

    Ice cream makes me sick also!!! …. After I’ve had 10 of them ^_^;;;

    *licks lips*

    Reply
  11. PG Andrew Fleming
    October 3rd

    I don’t mean to be a pain, but in iTunes the episode showed up as being 1:01 long, so I was kinda sad at first.. but no problem :-)

    Reply
  12. PG kristen
    October 3rd

    iTunes shows up 48:36 for me.

    Reply
  13. PG Limitless
    October 3rd

    This is great! congratulations for your new Podcast ;)

    Reply
  14. PG Chris Vasquez
    October 3rd

    Thanks for the podcast guys. I’m just getting into freelance, and feel really out of my depth. Listening to you guys today helped assuage my nervousness a little.

    Reply
  15. PG Arun
    October 3rd

    Great work guys! Congrats!

    Cheers
    Arun

    Reply
  16. PG allan branch
    October 3rd

    Please set all the links on the page of the podcast to target=”_blank”. I clicked on a link while listening to the podcast and lost my place on the podcast because the page reloaded.

    Reply
  17. PG Mark
    October 3rd

    Great perspectives! Great stories! Great info! Really well done! (Subscribed!)

    Reply
  18. PG Doug
    October 3rd

    I loved the first show, but already I’m turned-off by the pushing of sponsors. I get that you have them, but it’s one thing to thank them for their support and another to push how truly great they are. I tracked down one of them, which I won’t post publicly here as I don’t want to bash a sponsor, but they fell far far short of the boasts you’d made on your show. I’ll be much less likely to check out future sponsors as a result.

    The show is great though and I love the chemistry.

    cheers!

    Reply
  19. PG Andrew Fleming
    October 3rd

    N/M, its working now… :-/ odd!

    Thanks for a great show!

    Reply
  20. PG Will
    October 3rd

    Hey guys,

    Great podcast! I especially loved the part when kristen talked about a “drive by” and everybody was like “woooooooo!”. And when she talked about driving by with a client contract and you all went “ahhhhhhhhhhhh!” in unison. Priceless. Looking forward to future podcast.

    Reply
  21. PG Will Stumpf
    October 3rd

    Great job! It was excellent

    -Will

    Reply
  22. PG Dor Dan
    October 3rd

    Awsome, listening to it right now! I must thank you for your accent ;) It’s not exaggerated. hehe

    Reply
  23. PG SR
    October 3rd

    Any chance you will offer a transcript of the show?

    Reply
  24. PG Ryan
    October 4th

    Awesome podcast. I loved it.

    (Subscribed)

    Reply
  25. PG Prescott
    October 4th

    Well done guys! As a podcaster myself, I know how hard it is to get episodes produced — let alone with multiple people on the line like that. Looking forward to many more.

    Reply
  26. PG riki
    October 4th

    btw Krop doesn’t seem that “international”. I couldn’t find any listings for Freelancers in Japan. I guess international in terms of English speaking countries.

    Reply
  27. PG Rob
    October 4th

    Super stuff FS! I enjoyed the relaxed banter and funny stories of shocker clients and payment. Looking forward to the next podcast..

    Reply
  28. PG Shanna
    October 4th

    NIce work, folks! Looking forward to the next one. And the next. and, well you get the idea :)

    Reply
  29. PG David Finch
    October 4th

    Great information and stories. I look forward to episode #2. Congrats and much success!!

    Reply
  30. PG Aaron
    October 4th

    Awesome Podcast! Can’t wait for the next episode!

    Reply
  31. PG Phillipe Calmet
    October 4th

    Great! This is definitely a MUST for all of us freelancers :D
    I do not have iTunes, so thanks for the direct mp3 download :P

    Reply
  32. PG Dan
    October 5th

    Congrats on the 1st podcast.

    In regards to the payment issue/talk, the best and I think only way to solve it is to get payment upfront. That sorts out your clients from those who are fair dinkum, from the time wasters.

    And finally, that scott Willis song at the end has very similar beats to the Back Street Boys track Incomplete.

    Reply
  33. PG James
    October 5th

    Great podcast! Just one question – how did you encode the streaming mp3 version. I’ve just published a podcast for a client and have only so far provided links to subscribe in iTunes. Cheers!

    Reply
  34. PG John Brougher
    October 5th

    Hey folks!

    Thanks for all the kind comments. They’re really appreciated. Just a few quick answers…

    @SR

    Sadly, we don’t currently have a transcript for the show–my talents lie in Macintosh computing, design, and video games…not transcription. You can see the show notes for a quick rundown, and then subscribe in iTunes if you like. We’re also expanding on multiple fronts and to be candid, we just don’t have the time to transcribe every episode. That’s not set in stone, though.

    @Dan

    Payment upfront is nice (people have mentioned offering a discount for payment upfront, which is a great idea), but many clients may not go for that–even a percentage upfront is not acceptable to them. That’s why a contract, even for payment upfront clients, is really 100% necessary.

    @James

    The encoding for the streaming mp3 version is done by Podpress, a Wordpress plugin. You don’t need to use that particular plugin–almost any audio player plugin for whatever blog platform you use will allow you something like that functionality.

    As always, feel free to give us a shout through the Freelance Radio form!

    Reply
  35. PG eberlin
    October 9th

    Excellent podcast. It covers everything I could have asked for! Lots of useful tips and advice.

    Interaction between all the presenters is great.

    I look forward to future episodes.

    Reply
  36. PG Eric
    October 10th

    Fantastic! Great job everyone! Looking forward to the next episode…

    Reply
  37. PG Martin
    October 11th

    Just heard the word. Great work – thanks to you guys.

    Reply
  38. PG Keith
    October 13th

    Great podcast guys. Just a note, it doesn’t seem to be appearing in itunes, or is this just me who is having this issue?

    Looking forward to the next segment.

    Reply
  39. PG John Brougher
    October 16th

    @Keith

    Thanks for the update, Keith–I’d been seeing this happen too, and I’m still not sure why. We’ve changed to a different RSS feed, and now the iTunes problem should be resolved.

    Reply
  40. PG Dan
    November 15th

    @John

    If a client doesn’t want to pay a deposit, then they are not a client I’d want to work with. There are just too many tyre kickers out there.

    Reply
  41. PG Ben Gribbin
    December 14th

    haha, we have cornetto’s in the UK.

    Reply
  42. PG Curt
    December 26th

    This is a valuable resource, and the podcast format is a great way to learn about freelancing while I’m working!

    I’m a little concerned about one of the panelist’s suggestion to “work for free” when you’re starting out. This sets a dangerous precedent for clients who gradually come to expect to pay little or nothing for our services. This is an ongoing problem for many freelancers who are promised intangible compensation like “exposure” and “experience” in lieu of payment. Sure those things are important, but they should be thought of as fringe benefits, not compensation. Ultimately, working for free dilutes the value of freelance work for everyone. Pro bono work aside, if you’re good enough to hire, you’re good enough to charge for it.

    Keep up the good work, though. I’m eager to listen to them all!

    Reply
  43. PG aadil
    February 19th

    hi guys
    it’s possible to download this podcast bcoz i wanna listen to it on my mp4?

    Reply
  44. PG cholo
    April 6th

    hi guys, been searching for the notes coz they told that there are sample contracts on notes page and the problem is, i can’t find the where it is. any leads? Thanks

    Reply
  45. PG oscar
    June 3rd

    Hello, I love freelance radio, Im a new listener and i see there’s tons of catching up to do.
    there is so much interesting and useful information for people looking to make something of themselves (heee) i must subscribe and thank you for providing us like minded individuals with some thing to boost our confidence in what we do and to look forward to our future.

    freelance radio! woot!

    Reply
  46. PG Laura Tamayo
    October 6th

    Love it! Definitely a chocolate chip girl. I agree that contracts are important. I do it more to as a way to make sure we are both clear on what the project does and does not entail. And of course, it protects both parties. Though I’ve found my best protection is finding out as much as I can about the client and getting to know them.

    You’re style is fun and the info useful. Go you (pl)! :-)

    Loved the episode. You just got a new listener tonight!

    Reply
  47. PG Sarah
    February 6th

    Love the podcast. A great way to learn to speak english better since English is not my first language.

    Reply
  48. PG Chris N.
    May 12th

    Honestly, John, you’re a really good host. Attentive, good listener, funny. Knowing when to turn the page to “funny/witty mode” when things can get overly serious takes some kind of talent. Really nice job!

    Reply

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