The Cofounders Story
It was a January night in Denver. From the black sky fell a spitting, heavy snow. It started south of town where the altitude is 1200 feet above the Mile-High City.
Driving 40 minutes down the hilly, curvy highway to Denver was a bad idea, and yet that’s the out-of-character choice Lindsey O’Connor made that evening. She was headed to a bar on Santa Fe Ave., a trendy street on Denver’s west side populated by art galleries, Mexican restaurants, taco trucks and a museum of Mexican history. She needed the companionship of other writers more than she needed to stay home, warm and safe.
On Santa Fe, Elaine Appleton Grant had just parked. Like Lindsey, Elaine was seeking a writing community, visiting the group gathered at the bar for her first time.
That one night would change the course of their lives.
Elaine stepped out of the car and onto the curb, pulling her jacket tightly, blockading herself against a biting wind. It didn’t seem like a night to be out.
She stepped from the dark and cold into light and warmth. About twenty women were navigating the tight space, finding seats and drinks. This was a meeting of Denver Binders, a chapter of a national group of professional writers. Both women would agree later that they immediately felt like the gathering was a refuge from isolation.
Eventually Lindsey called to Elaine. “Sit down,” she said, gesturing with a glass of cabernet in a virtual toast. Her smile was huge. “Tell me what you do.”
A shared interest: life-and-death decisions
It was a brief but revelatory conversation. Both of us had been radio reporters, producers and hosts. We each loved the magic of audio storytelling, the way sounds and intricately structured narratives and character revelations transported us into different worlds. We were sparked by those sudden, intuitive moments that happened when we were lucky enough to marry the perfect clip with the just-right sound effect or music, or simply with a dead-honest conversation.
And we shared one more surprising experience: We’d each spent years writing about life-or-death medical decisions, researching, agonizing and even celebrating some of the most profound questions human beings can ever face. We had no idea how close to home our research interests would come to be.
Lindsey had recently published The Long Awakening, her reported memoir about the two-month coma she was in after childbirth complications 14 years earlier. Elaine had spent a year creating Hard Call, a new kind of interactive, narrative podcast series exploring how people choose impossible choices: death by heart failure or a risky operation to implant a device that keeps your blood flowing – without a pulse, and with an electrical cord coming out of your body.
To say we were surprised at each other’s passions is to put it mildly. In the coming months, over margaritas and chips and steaming cups of coffee, we named each other “my professional twin.” We spent hours talking about craft, about our next steps in the burgeoning world of audio storytelling, about making good livings as artists. Lindsey proposed we start a business together.
We want to hold your hands
It took a year for Elaine to say yes, but when she did, Podcast Allies was born.
We named the company Podcast Allies because people were increasingly approaching each of us asking for help. They wanted guidance on how to turn an idea into a successful podcast. Sure, people could teach themselves – already there was plenty of material online.
But it was clear that what people really needed — and wanted — was an ally who would take them by the hand and transform a glimmer of a concept into something real, a conversation or documentary or a narrative series that would compel people to listen and tell their friends, “You have to hear this!” Something whose foundation was a great story, honestly told.
Without support, the journey seemed overwhelming. With us as allies, people could bring light to ideas in their infancy and mature them into something tangible—and magical.
We opened our doors in February 2019 with a workshop. That year, pre-COVID, we taught and spoke about podcasts.
Later in 2019, we began developing podcasts for mission-driven organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics (Pediatrics on Call) and the Environmental Defense Fund (Degrees: Real Talk About Planet-Saving Careers).
Fast Growth
We kept learning, traveling together to conferences and networking with others in the booming industry. We celebrated each other’s wins – like the pilot Lindsey made with Gimlet (now part of Spotify) and the series on the Tulsa Race Massacre that Elaine wrote for Wondery (now owned by Amazon).
As partners, we were creative muses who helped each other make more inspired work. Pacing her office, Elaine consulted with Lindsey – a self-professed “story structure geek” — on how best to create a satisfying narrative arc that spanned 180 years of American history over four episodes. Lindsey passed a podcast development proposal by Elaine’s editorial eyes multiple times. We edited each other’s scripts and created things together that didn’t exist before.
We produced instructional materials for clients, created a systematic framework that can be adapted for any project, wrote and designed custom “show bibles.” We coached hosts to become better, more inviting, harder-hitting friends to tens of thousands of listeners.
Even the best partnerships are no fairy tale
As magical things sometimes do, though, our creative partnership faced challenges. Don’t believe any entrepreneur if they tell you partnerships are easy. Life often gets in the way. Elaine worked half-time for Wondery, ultimately producing more than 600 episodes of the hit show Business Wars Daily with David Brown. Lindsey continued developing her own narrative projects.
It was tough to juggle a rapidly growing business with our other pursuits, but we were excited about our growth. We soldiered on during the hard parts, working long hours — even as we discovered — as most partners do — some areas of business where we weren’t professional twins.
One beautiful day in November 2020, we met photographer Kalen Jesse at Denver’s City Park for our first photo shoot. We planned to use the images for our first publicity campaign, to be timed with the launch of EDF’s new show, Degrees.
But only two days later, Lindsey called Elaine. “I’m not feeling well,” she said. Her voice was thin. Although test after test initially came back negative, Lindsey had caught a severe case of COVID. And that would change everything.
Life – or death?
About two weeks later, hungering to breathe, Lindsey went to the hospital. She spent Thanksgiving in a hospital bed, desperately hoping not to be put on a ventilator. Everyone was scared — her family, her friends, Elaine, and, of course, Lindsey.
Thankfully, Lindsey finally returned home. But she spent close to three months healing — including another hospital stay. We barely saw each other for months, communicating by text, phone, and the occasional Zoom. Elaine hired help and continued managing the company, producing Degrees’ first season and developing a new podcasting course, Podcast Liftoff.
Finally, in the spring, Lindsey was back to her vivacious self. But if COVID has done anything with a vengeance, it’s to remind all of us how short life is. Lindsey was no exception. In March 2021, she offered to sell her stake in the partnership. She needed to write again, create more podcasts, and spend more time with her five kids.
In May 2021, we closed the sale. Elaine is now the full-time CEO of Podcast Allies, and Lindsey is pursuing new creative projects. We remain creative muses, even though we are no longer business partners. Lindsey is “consultant emeritus” of Podcast Allies and will always be the optimistic force who sparked the genesis of Podcast Allies.
Ending a partnership is hard in more ways than we can express here. But we couldn’t be more grateful for our clients, our champions, and our students. And we couldn’t be more proud of what we built together.
Write to Elaine at elaine@podcastallies.com. Lindsey can be reached at contact@lindseyoconnor.com. Her book, The Long Awakening, has never been more relevant, and I — Elaine — urge you to read it.