When Jackson Balling ‘16 was laid off for the second time, he wasn’t sure he wanted to keep writing, despite it being the primary skill he’d built his career on. His response: start a music publication from scratch.
Today, the Creative Media graduate is the Content Marketing Manager at CPA.com, the founder and editor-in-chief of Blank Tapes, an independent North Carolina music publication, and the owner of Balling Creative, the freelance LLC that kept him afloat between jobs. Here’s how creative entrepreneurship carried him through, and how the skills he built at Champlain made it possible.
“Every job that I’ve taken on has relied on the skills that I either built or grew at Champlain,” shared Balling. A few months after graduation, he landed his first professional job as a copywriter at Dealer.com. Next, he worked at the startup Spiffy, a mobile car care company, growing from writer to content manager, working on everything from content strategies to social media and press releases. “I kind of grew into a true content manager there… just wearing every single hat possible from a marketing context.”
This reality of having to “wear every single hat” is not uncommon for marketers. Jackson shared how the interdisciplinary approach of Champlain’s Creative Media program helped prepare him. “I got exposed to so many different disciplines and collaborative styles through the Creative Media program… professional writing, audio production, film editing. It exposed me to different people, and the way that they work, and taught me how to give feedback in a way that not a lot of people know how to give.” These experiences and his Champlain education laid the foundation for Jackson’s career in content production and marketing, and gave him the skills to pull through not one, but two layoffs. Here’s what these skills look like in action.
Building Balling Creative
Balling Creative began as a way to stay afloat after Jackson’s first layoff. A manager who ran her own LLC saw the writing on the wall at their company and encouraged Jackson to start freelancing or looking for other jobs. Jackson decided to set up Balling Creative LLC and took on a former employer, Spiffy, as his first client. The safety net was built.
When a second layoff hit, Balling Creative was already in place. Jackson explained, “I had the LLC still going, so I was able to just kind of jump right back into that, get some new clients, and bring in income while continuing to look for full-time work.” Since joining CPA.com, where he currently works full-time, the LLC has been in what he calls “hibernation status,” though it is still open. Jackson has now turned his attention to Blank Tapes.
Creating Blank Tapes
Blank Tapes began after his second layoff, when Jackson was questioning what to do next. “I was kind of at a standstill. I didn’t know if I wanted to continue to write, which is kind of scary, because that’s my primary marketable skill.”
To test the question, he returned to music journalism, connecting a passion with experience he gained during his time at Champlain through an internship and radio show with Big Heavy World. He interviewed a former bandmate and fellow Champlain alum Phil Smith ‘16 (you can read the follow-up here). “That just kind of felt like the best use of my writing skill and like a way to keep it sharp as I was applying for jobs and dealing with the kind of insane job market,” shared Balling.
“From there, it kept growing. And now, over a year into being back full-time employed, it’s continued to grow, and we have more contributors and pieces going out every week.”
Blank Tapes launched in September 2024 as a nonprofit, independent publication focused on North Carolina music; a response to the shrinking state of local music journalism. Beyond publishing album reviews, essays, and interviews, Blank Tapes organizes an annual compilation album series called Mountains to Sea, which donates all proceeds to local charitable causes.
Since launching almost two years ago, Blank Tapes has published nearly 200 articles and built up a monthly readership of over 1,500.
Looking Ahead
For Jackson, Blank Tapes remains the largest motivating force in his professional life. “Things that I’m most proud of lately have all been Blank Tapes related. That’s the source of most of my pride and joy at this point in my life.”
He is also candid about what makes it possible, stating, “Not everyone can afford to deliberately have a passion project that will never make money for them. That is certainly a privilege.” He is equally firm about keeping Blank Tapes independent, and says he will not let it be “co-opted by a venture capital firm or put behind a paywall.”
More is on the way, including second-birthday shows, next year’s Mountains to Sea compilation, and a “pipe dream” of a free festival with an educational workshop component. For a Champlain graduate who once wasn’t sure he would keep writing, the page is certainly anything but blank.
