Latest / The Side Hustle Career Podcast with Fexingo: Second Income, Freelancing While Employed / How a Marketing Manager Built a 5000 Monthly Side Hustle in Podcast Editing
Transcript
- Lucas: So we get a lot of questions about creative side hustles that don't require you to be a designer or a coder. And one that keeps coming up — and honestly surprised we haven't covered it yet — is podcast editing. Luna: It's such a natural fit for this moment. There are like four million podcasts now, and a huge chunk of hosts have zero interest in learning a DAW. Lucas: Right. And the numbers back that up. According to a 2025 survey by Podcast Insights, about 40 percent of podcasters outsource at least part of their production. Editing is the number one thing they hand off. Luna: So if you can edit audio competently, you've got a built-in market. Today's guest — well, case study — is Rachel. She's a marketing manager in Chicago, and she built a podcast editing side hustle to about five thousand dollars a month over two years. Lucas: Five thousand a month, part-time, while holding down a full-time marketing role. And she didn't have any formal audio background. She started by editing her own show — a little interview podcast about sustainable fashion that maybe got a hundred listens an episode. Luna: But that hundred listens taught her the mechanics. She learned to cut ums and ahs, balance levels, remove background noise. And she realized she actually enjoyed that more than hosting. Lucas: Exactly. So she put together a simple portfolio — three before and after samples from her own podcast — and started reaching out to other podcasters on LinkedIn. Not cold pitching, more like commenting on their posts, sharing insights about audio quality. Luna: That's smart. Builds a relationship first. Her first paid client was a B2B SaaS founder who'd been recording episodes on Zoom with his laptop mic. She charged him seventy-five dollars per episode, which for a thirty-minute interview was probably two to three hours of work. Lucas: Seventy-five dollars an episode, and she did that for about six months. Then she raised her rates to a hundred and fifty after she got a few testimonials. That's a key lesson — don't stay at your starting price once you have proof of quality. Luna: And what tools does she use? Because I think a lot of people assume you need a full recording studio. Lucas: Surprisingly minimal. She uses Adobe Audition for the heavy lifting — spectral frequency editing, noise reduction, compression. But she also uses Descript for quick transcript-based editing, especially for removing filler words. And Auphonic for the final loudness normalization. That's it. No fancy plugins. Luna: Descript is such a game-changer for speed. You can literally delete a phrase from the transcript and it cuts it from the audio. Lucas: Yeah, but Rachel says you still need to listen to the result. Automated edits can sound choppy if you don't add crossfades or adjust timing. So she uses Descript for the rough cut, then polishes in Audition. Luna: Smart workflow. So how did she go from one client to five thousand a month? Lucas: Referrals. She did such a good job with that first SaaS founder that he recommended her to three other founders in his network. Within a year she had ten recurring clients, each paying between one fifty and three hundred per episode, depending on length and complexity. Luna: And the marketing background helped, right? She knew how to communicate value. Lucas: Massively. She understood that podcasters care about audience retention — they want episodes that sound professional so listeners don't drop off. So she framed her service not as 'I edit audio' but as 'I help your show sound as good as your content.' That's a marketing mindset. Luna: That's a great reframe. And at some point she had to scale. Five thousand a month with ten clients means she was editing what, maybe fifteen to twenty episodes a month? That's a lot of hours. Lucas: Yeah, she capped at around twenty hours a week. That's when she hired a junior editor — a college student she trained — to handle the basic cleanup passes. She pays him twenty dollars an hour and still does the final quality check herself. That freed her to take on more clients without burning out. Luna: So her effective hourly rate went up because she's leveraging someone else's time. And she still keeps the client relationship. Lucas: Exactly. She's the face, the quality control. And that's a model anyone can replicate once you have steady demand. Luna: I love this story because it's not about having a rare talent. It's about learning a specific skill that plenty of people need and being reliable. Lucas: And the barrier to entry is really low. You can learn the basics of Audition or even the free software Audacity in a weekend on YouTube. Rachel learned from channels like Podcast Engineering School and The Podcast Host. Luna: Quick honest thing — a handful of listeners chip in monthly through buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo, and that's literally what funds making this many of these episodes. If we've helped you think through a career move or a side hustle like this, that's the way to keep it going with no ads and no sponsors. Lucas: It really does make a difference. Keeps us independent, keeps the advice practical. And we're grateful. Luna: So back to Rachel — she's now at a point where she's thinking about turning this into a full-time business. But she's hesitant because she likes the stability of her marketing job. Lucas: Which is a totally fair tension. Her side hustle is profitable, but it's also dependent on her personal brand. If she quits her day job, the safety net disappears. So she's actually testing a higher rate — she's pitching new clients at four hundred an episode — to see if she can replace her salary with fewer clients. Luna: That's a smart experiment. And worst case, she stays where she is, earning an extra five grand a month. Not a bad problem to have. Lucas: Not bad at all. So for anyone listening who's curious about podcast editing, the takeaway is: start with your own show or a friend's, get three solid samples, and then find podcasters who already have an audience but sound rough. They're everywhere. Luna: And don't undervalue your time. Start at seventy-five if you need to, but raise your rates as soon as you have testimonials. Rachel went from seventy-five to one fifty to three hundred in two years. Lucas: That's the curve. And as you get faster with the tools, your effective hourly rate goes up even if your per-episode price stays the same. Rachel's first episode took her three hours. Now she can edit a thirty-minute interview in about ninety minutes. Luna: That's a hundred dollars an hour at two hundred an episode. Pretty solid side hustle math. Lucas: It is. And the market keeps growing. Edison Research says podcast listenership grew another 8 percent in 2025. That means more shows, more need for editors. Luna: So if you've got an ear for audio and a willingness to learn, this could be your next side hustle. We'll put a few resource links in the show notes. Lucas: Great episode. Until next time, keep hustling smart. Luna: Take care.