Lindsay Czarniak on Sports Journalism

Intentional Performers

If you live in the Washington DC area, Lindsay Czarniak is a name that you’re probably familiar with. She’s an Emmy Award winning broadcaster who spent several years as the sports anchor and reporter for NBC Washington. Also, if you’re familiar with NBC Washington, you’ll know that they have become somewhat of a factory for talent in the sports broadcasting world. That really traces back to the days of legendary broadcaster and sportscaster George Michael, who started the George Michael Sports Machine, and it really was one of the first pioneer sports shows. George Michael called Lindsay the best hire he ever made, which is pretty high praise coming from a legend. After NBC, she decided to move to Connecticut, where she worked at ESPN from 2011-2017. She anchored SportsCenter, Sports Nation, and NASCAR Now. We’ll talk about NASCAR in today’s conversation and how it impacted her journey and how she really loves the sport and all that comes with travelling and also being a mom and having a career. So, this conversation gets into Lindsay’s background, her personal life, she’s married to Craig Melvin who hosts The Today Show so we’re going to talk about his perspective and Lindsay’s perspective and how they’re a bit different, and how Lindsay has had what she calls a zigzag career. She said it’s zigzag, but from my perspective, Lindsay is someone who has range. She loves to look at new things and new ideas and new concepts and create. She’s very creative and very curious as to how she can continue learning and growing and developing. She’s also worked for the NFL on FOX and as a NASCAR reporter. A lot of her roots and her history involve NASCAR. She talks in today’s conversation about working at the Belmont. Currently, she’s a freelancer, so she bounces around from different sporting events. You may be familiar with Lindsay, but if you’re not, this is just a real genuine conversation that gets into interviewing, that gets into growth, that gets into mindset, and I think you’re going to love learning with Lindsay on the podcast today.

Lindsay had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include:

“I’ve become obsessed with interviewing two people at the same time because I find it such a challenge and there’s such an art to trying to do it well” (7:55).

“I do think I have a certain amount of shyness. I know I do. And I worry about what people think” (13:25).

“[When you’re interviewing someone], you are setting [them] up to have this internal video of what they’re talking about” (15:45).

“It’s a special thing if you can give someone the opportunity to do something and talk about something that they don’t normally get the opportunity to do” (19:55).

“More often than not I never even look down at my paper [during an interview] because you’re just in it” (23:15).

“If I’m holding it lightly, it’s usually because it is something I really want to ask” (26:25).

“[I try to think a lot about] who is my audience, who is really listening to this?” (29:40).

“It’s a complicated place to be all of a sudden freelancing” (42:30).

“I really think there’s other stuff within this sports broadcasting thing that I would love trying” (43:25).

“At some point, freelance is scary” (44:20).

“You have to give stuff up if you want to be there with your kids” (46:15).

“You can’t do it all, but you also have to say yes to some stuff you might not want to do if you want to follow that trajectory” (46:20).

“Loyalty is valued” (46:40).

“The work I’m doing now is some of the most fulfilling stuff I’ve ever done” (50:40).

“I love live TV. I love interactions with co-hosts” (56:45).

“It’s so important in those jobs (like sideline reporting and broadcasting) that you’re taking your time to get to know the players, to get to know the coaches” (1:03:25).

“Sometimes it’s okay to just love what it is that you’re doing” (1:05:05).

“You can’t fake the amount of work you put into it” (1:10:55).

“Things change for no reason” (1:11:45).

“If you see it, go be it” (1:12:20).

“One word to define success: camaraderie” (1:13:25).

“Camaraderie and human connection to me are so big” (1:17:10).

Additionally, you can connect with Lindsay on Instagram and Facebook. Also, when you tune into the Olympics, make sure to watch Lindsay’s broadcast on USA Network.

Thank you so much to Lindsay for coming on the podcast!

I wrote a book called “Shift Your Mind” that was released in October of 2020, and you can order it on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Additionally, I have launched a company called Strong Skills, and I encourage you to check out our new website https://www.strongskills.co/. If you liked this episode and/or any others, please follow me on Twitter: @brianlevenson or Instagram: @Intentional_Performers.

Thanks for listening.