‘We quit our full-time jobs and now perform sold-out shows to thousands’-Alicia Adejobi-Entertainment – Metro

The Receipts and 90s Baby Show are two podcasters who took a leap of faith (Picture: Getty, The Receipts podcast, 90s Baby Show podcast)

When you have a Spotify billboard in Leicester Square like The Receipts do and are selling out live venues like the 90s Baby Show, you can probably safely say you’ve made it. 

This is the reality for these two popular podcasts, which have accumulated millions of listeners across various platforms in just a few years. 

They are undoubtedly among the most successful Black British podcasts around. Still, there are so many more like them, building lucrative brands and sustaining full incomes off the sheer popularity of their shows. 

However, the podcasting industry is relatively new and it wasn’t always a certified money-maker.

‘When I quit my full-time job, I don’t think I knew I could do it then,’ Tolly T, one-half of The Receipts podcast, admitted to Metro. 

It was about taking a leap of faith but one that clearly paid off; The Receipts launched in 2016 with Tolly and Audrey Indome behind the mics alongside Milena Sanchez and Phoebe Park who have since left the podcast. 

Tolly T (l) and Audrey are the faces of The Receipts podcast (Picture: The Receipts podcast)

Due to their unprecedented success, Spotify signed The Receipts to an exclusive deal in 2019 with listeners craving their unfiltered, relatable and hilarious discussions about life, relationships and pop culture. 

So yes, it was a leap of faith worth taking. 

‘The reason I quit is because I wanted to see what this looked like if someone gave it all the attention,’ Tolly continued. 

‘I left my job so prematurely, we weren’t making any money yet. I just wanted to see what it looked like,’ she added, noting that they hadn’t even hosted a live show at this point. 

Audrey, more hesitant about her own career path, added: ‘I was a little bit more scared, it took me ages to quit my 9-5. For me, when we started getting money from Spotify, I knew I could do this full-time and not really need my job as a crutch but I think that was a mixture of greed and fear. 

‘One of the guys from 90s Baby joked, “Wow, you still work? You’re greedy”. 

‘When we started getting income when we signed our deal, I knew I was making way more than I was at my 9-5.’ 

The 90s Baby Show are basically the new rockstars (Picture: 90s Baby Show podcast)

Speaking of those 90s Babys, Fred Santana, Temi Alchemy and VP aka Dennis offer a similar brand of familiarity that The Receipts ladies bring to their audience – the male-centric podcast is comprised of childhood friends who just happened to stumble upon the industry. 

Through their unique brand of humour, the 90s Baby trio share their thoughts on entertainment topics, marriage, fatherhood and even debunking random science facts, making for wholesome yet hilarious listening in equal measure. 

Dennis explained: ‘The way our podcast is, we argue, we crack jokes but if you argue with people you’re not actually friends with, that can go the wrong way but because it’s us, it can be more entertaining rather than it getting to serious places.’ 

Their podcasting formula is so natural that it’s surprising that Fred admitted: ‘I didn’t actually listen to podcasts before starting one.’ 

It’s similar for The Receipts who say authenticity is the key to their blossoming brand. 

Tolly said: ‘For so long there’s always been this version of what womanness is. It’s either this back-in-the-day rom-com version of the prim and proper woman, but The Receipts fills this version of girls who are just trying to figure it out. 

‘It feels like the really nice bits of girldom. When you’re drunk and you go to the toilet, you see a bunch of girls and have a little chat. It feels like a really lovely WhatsApp group and because we’re genuinely friends you can feel that too.’ 

Audrey agreed: ‘It’s the authenticity because we really are ourselves and that’s what’s kept us going for so long as well. When you’re being organic, no one can take that from you. The audience can sense what’s genuine and what’s fake and we’ve always been very true to ourselves and that lands really well.’ 

‘There’s no pretentiousness, we’re not trying to teach you anything. We hold your hand as we go through this thing through life and we’re not above holding our Ls,’ Tolly added. 

The 90s Baby Show was born in 2014 but it wasn’t until the end of 2022 when they received funding from YouTube Black Voices, which supports rising creators. 

‘From there, we gambled on ourselves. It was a lot of money but we thought, it’s something anyway,’ Dennis explained. ‘We can try this for a month and if not we can go back to finding jobs. 

‘Luckily for us, as soon as we went full-time in November, we had a trial with PlantMade as a sponsor and that went really well for them so fortunately we didn’t have to struggle to find funds after that. That rolled into the next year and allowed us to get our foot in and from there, we went from strength to strength.’ 

Entertainment – MetroRead More