CV

Innkeeper/owner of the Blue Ridge Inn in Blue Ridge, GA
Video maker & picture taker in Miami, New Orleans & Los Angeles
Hospitality ace on Tiktok (book forthcoming)
Bon vivant, raconteur, mischief-maker, host and occasional actor

As a native Southerner- born in Louisiana, raised in Tennessee, educated in Alabama- I’ve spent several decades traveling hither and yon collecting the experiences that would eventually lead me back to the Southern Appalachians and a new chapter in the long history of this old house. My career over the last 25 years has been in marketing and entertainment, moving from New York to Los Angeles, New Orleans and Miami. Like many others, Covid presented an opportunity to leave corporate life behind and pursue my passion full time. I purchased the Blue Ridge Inn in 2021 and began creatively growing the lifestyle brand that I’d want to live in: woodsy, comfortable, charming, historic, swanky, interesting, beautiful, fun, social, adventurous, moody, dramatic, sexy, classy, textured. Masculine & feminine; town & country; refined & wild.

I spent two decades as a video content producer and photographer with a passion for travel, history, culture, food, music, architecture, art and antiques. Shooting and editing short pilots for producers to sell their reality show concepts to networks, traveling all over the world and meeting fascinating people was a dream job. I was the in-house editor for Endemol USA and have made well over 100 sizzle reels on just about every topic under the sun. This led me to create my own show, Restored, which aired seven seasons on DIY Network (later Magnolia). I directed and edited a feature documentary, Hollywood to Dollywood that has played over 50 film festivals, picked up 25 awards and secured distribution. Dolly gave us the rights to 15 of her songs for the project.

I love sharing my knowledge and experience, my unique perspective on the world, whether via my Tiktok channel (100k), our antiques and vintage gift shop, Porch & Parlor, or hosting folks from all over the world at the inn. We’ve just launched our new signature line of candles and hand wash and by the end of next year we plan on publishing our coffee table book The Blue Ridge Inn Guide to Southern Hospitality. Our monthly newsletter has evolved into a digital brand zine that covers all aspects of this mountain lifestyle we’re curating and growing.

While it may have taken root as a quaint mountain inn, the ability to expand creatively in multiple directions presents the opportunity to introduce this brand, under the Mighty Fine umbrella, to a much wider audience. And so after a couple of decades spent renovating interesting homes in the desert outside of Palm Springs, historic Victorians in New Orelans and swanky high rises in Los Angeles and Miami, the Blue Ridge Inn is an ideal location to foster growth.

I’m happiest when I’m enjoying delicious meals with friends and family and I manage to take fairly frequent trips to Chattanooga and New Orleans to do so. My favorite thing about living in North Georgia is the daily access to trees, mountains and rivers that the area provides.

What is the most important skill a director can possess?

The ability to tell an engaging story. Everything can be a story, whether it’s a corporate EPK, a music video or a narrative feature film. If the audience can hook into an arc with a beginning, middle and end, they will have an experience. And the director will have done his job. And I say an engaging story, because you don’t want to bore your audience, ever. That’s the worst sin.

Is there a common thread to your projects?

Other than hopefully always telling a compelling story, when I look back on my work, if there’s a common thread, I’d say it’s music. I begin nearly every project by pulling together cues that form the tone I want to create. Many of the subjects of the work I do deal in some way with music. And there’s not much I love more than cutting a montage to a killer song.

What's unique about your approach to projects?

I really believe in finding the truth in every moment, so there's as little artifice to the work as possible. My background is in non-scripted/reality/documentaries, and helping "real people" remain honest when a camera is on them has been fantastic training. Audiences crave authenticity, and true, organic moments, whether in a scripted piece or otherwise are where the gold is. Everything in pre-production, on set, and in the edit is geared to discovering and illuminating those instances. On every kind of project.

If you could work with anyone, who would it be?

John Waters. And Aretha Franklin. And Freddie Mercury…

What five things could you not live without?

Trees, mountains and rivers. Yeh, that’s pretty much it. The rest is negotiable.

Favorite symphony: Bizet - Symphony in C, Leonard Bernstein conducting the NY Philharmonic Orchestra

Favorite concerto: Tchaikovsky - Violin Concerto in D major, Itzhak Perlman

Favorite opera: TBD… maybe Candide, but that’s more of an operetta

Favorite book: The Corrections (Franzen), The Line of Beauty (Hollinghurst), tough one…

Favorite movies: Citizen Kane, Interstellar, Goonies, many more…

Favorite playwright: Tennessee Williams

Favorite composer/lyricist: Stephen Sondheim

Favorite musical: Sunday in the Park with George

Favorite artist (visual): David Hockney

Favorite artist (musical): Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Aretha Franklin, Jimmy Buffett, Brandi Carlile, Avett Brothers, Sturgill Simpson, so many more…

John Lavin

I’m happiest when I’m enjoying delicious meals with friends and family and I manage to take fairly frequent trips to Chattanooga and New Orleans to do so. My favorite thing about living in North Georgia is the daily access to trees, mountains and rivers that the area provides.