Today we’d like to introduce you to Lindsay Collins.
Hi Lindsay, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I was born in South Carolina in a very small town called Williston. My two sisters and I were homeschooled and I began taking piano lessons at the age of 5. My middle school years were devoted to the arts, competing in State piano competitions and performing in community Theatre productions. I started writing my own music and recording myself (primitively) in middle school and high school. After one semester at the College of Charleston, I was really unhappy at school and applied to Berklee School of Music in Boston, thinking that the change of scenery would breathe new life into my struggling academic career. I was accepted and in between semesters I took a course at Midlands Technical School for audio engineering. Fast forward a few years and I had dropped out of yet another school but remained in Boston and Cambridge playing in bands and recording myself and my friends when I wasn’t working. I got a job at a fabled restaurant in Harvard Square called “Upstairs on the Square” where I fell in love with the high energy, delectably dynamic environment of this particular restaurant that boasted regulars like Julia Child and Yo Yo Ma. The two women who owned it were unusual and had a unique vision for the way they wrote their menus and created fantastical experiences for their guests. I grew restless again and moved (without ever visiting) to Seattle, a place I had obsessively admired from afar for it’s alternative musical prowess but arrived during the housing market crash of 2008 and only lived there for 4 months before moving back to the east coast completely broke. My older sister had moved to NYC and agreed to let me sleep on her couch while I regrouped and after applying to what seemed like every restaurant in the five boroughs I eventually landed an interview at Thomas Keller’s restaurant ‘ per se’. I miraculously got the job (and struggled to keep it ) but eventually worked my way up and learned the intense and intricate ways of working in Michelin Star restaurants. Two years into my time at ‘per se’ I was awarded a scholarship and was sent to work at Noma in Copenhagen, Denmark. At that time Noma was the number one restaurant in the world and this experience changed my trajectory completely. When I returned to the US I told my Chef that I wanted to become a chef, and at his behest I moved to Napa Valley to train at his flagship restaurant ‘The French Laundry’. Not long after I become pregnant with my first son and decided it was too difficult to raise a family so far from home and moved back to South Carolina to be near my parents. When my son was two we moved back to Charleston and I started working at FIG. It was there that I came up with the idea of Effin B Radio. Podcasts were very new and my partner, Jeremy Croft, (who is an incredible artist and painter in his own right) was sitting on the porch with two co-workers (Nikki Fairman and Philip Michael Cohen) and myself after a shift. He was listening to us talk and laugh about the night’s service and then causally said “This could be a podcast. Someone would listen to this”. Because I had a background in audio engineering, I was able to record the podcast at a professional level and it quickly gained traction in Charleston, NYC and beyond for being a hilarious and real look at the restaurant industry. We would interview chefs, somms, Servers, Server’s Assistants, Bakers, anyone who was witty and had a tie to the industry. Two years into Effin B Radio, I started getting requests from other people who wanted me to help them launch their own podcasts. It was an accidental thing that I got out of restaurant work altogether but I started getting so many clients that it became my full time job and almost 10 years later I have opened my own studio and production company, ‘LMC Studios’ here in North Charleston at The Navy Yard.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Entrepreneurship is a grueling road. The scene and the challenges are ever changing. Podcasts are a strange type of media because people expect to consume them for free but they cost money to produce. There’s also the very real fact that just because a client has the budget to pay for production, doesn’t mean they are a naturally compelling podcast host, the content has to be good or shows don’t do well. So, I feel like I’m always spinning plates to find the right client who has the capability to host an amazing show and the budget it to support it while it’s growing. This translates to fits and starts and wildly inconsistent income that is really hard to manage when you’re a small business owner. Hiring quality editors has been insanely difficult. No one will ever care about it as much as you do. It’s tough.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I’ve always been performer. My early childhood was spent writing plays or movies and filming them with my siblings on our Sony Camcorder. I’ve taken every level of Improv class, I just finished writing my first novel, I write sketch comedy and still play piano to this day. I love to create in anyway that excites me. Effin B Radio was such an outlet of creative expression that sort of encompassed all of my inherent gifts and it helped me realize that just because I didn’t follow a traditional approach to a career or know exactly what I wanted to do with my life didn’t mean that I couldn’t forge my own way. I think I’m most proud of the fact that I choose to focus on what interests me and put my energy there instead of labeling myself as one type of artist, which can be so limiting.
What would you say have been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
Things will go wrong. You can’t let this deter you.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.effinbradio.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lindsaycollinz/?hl=en
