Impactful Podcast Strategies for Success: Dan Levy's Expert Guide for Beginners

Whether you know it, or not, you may have already heard national voice talent, Dan Levy—a seasoned radio host, voiceover artist, and communications expert—who’s been shaping stories behind the mic for over two decades. 🎙️

In this episode, Dan unpacks how he went from being the shy “new kid” to building a thriving career in radio and podcasting. 

He shares his no-fluff approach to storytelling, tips for getting comfortable on camera, and why your unique voice (yes, yours!) is the secret sauce in today’s crowded content world. 

Dan even maintains that anyone with a business needs to have a podcast. It's an audio business card, if you will, because your podcast allows the world to get to know you and what you do. Your podcast builds trust, and trust is the foundation layer to every business.

If you’ve ever hesitated to put yourself out there, Dan’s practical advice and infectious energy will help you finally hit “record.”

Let’s get real about building confidence, crafting your message, and creating content that truly connects. 🚀

📽️ To watch this episode:  https://youtu.be/7ZK0DM29S5g

🔗 To connect with Dan Levy: 

📲 Website: https://www.danlevymedia.com

📲 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danlevyvoiceover

📲 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bassonair

#theamberstittshow #danlevy #amberstitt #bassonair #danlevymedia #podcastproduction #takeactiontoday #amberstittmediacompany 

📻 Thank you for tuning in to The Amber Stitt Show!

🔗 Connect with Amber on Social Media:

• AMBER’S INSTAGRAM 
• AMBER’S LINKEDIN 
• AMBER’S FACEBOOK 

📲 Be sure to visit Amber's website:

www.AmberStitt.com

🎬 And remember, let's take action today!!!

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Transcript

Dan Levy [00:00:00]:
And when you actually have a plan of attack, your voice doesn't matter anymore. The way you look doesn't matter anymore. You're starting to get hungry for how to become a better storyteller. And that's what this is. This medium is storytelling. We're all just telling stories of our lives. We're all, "I got something to tell you. I'm going to give you the story and you're going to digest it."

Dan Levy [00:00:19]:
Hopefully it's entertaining enough for you to subscribe to me. And that's kind of what the game is.

Amber Stitt [00:00:22]:
Welcome to The Amber Stitt Show. I'm so happy that you're here. I have a friend of mine of many decades, Dan Levy, on the show and I'm going to try to be very "Dan" in my voice and say, "Welcome, Dan. Go Bears!"

Dan Levy [00:00:36]:
Go Bears! Hi, Amber. How are you? It's, it's sad when I hear you say that we've known each other for decades.

Amber Stitt [00:00:43]:
Decades. So yeah, it's true. We could do some math, but let's...we don't have to do that. But in a million years...

Dan Levy [00:00:51]:
I still feel like the 16 year-old kid that used to try to hang out with you in high school. You were older than me and I was like, "I want to hang out with her and her friends." And I was like, "I think I'm too young for her crowd."

Amber Stitt [00:01:02]:
Okay, so now you're calling me old, but I'm embracing it because...

Dan Levy [00:01:05]:
No, you were the cool people. You guys were cool. You were the cool people in high school.

Amber Stitt [00:01:10]:
Well, since we're going to go back to that era, we're talking about Omaha, Nebraska.

Dan Levy [00:01:14]:
Yeah.

Amber Stitt [00:01:15]:
For the record, we both don't live there anymore. We have friends there still though. I think we talk about that a little bit. Did you know that girls were mean to me in high school? Did you know that?

Dan Levy [00:01:26]:
No.

Amber Stitt [00:01:27]:
Yes. And recently I've been talking about that on panels and business because what happened through that is I would kind of downplay my energy. Did you ever think I was like, pretty quiet? I mean, you didn't think that, right?

Dan Levy [00:01:38]:
No. You were like the coolest girl that I wanted to get to know. And I was so shy. I used to be a very shy person.

Amber Stitt [00:01:45]:
Okay. I thought I remembered that. But you know, we've talked multiple times over the years. I think that's important really, as we've talked about what to podcast about and I want to talk about communication, tone, getting on the camera. You know that in our conversations that I'm like, "Hey, when it comes to speaking, sometimes I black out podcasting." I can do it. And you're like, "I can help anybody, Amber." You've kind of said that.

Amber Stitt [00:02:08]:
But how did you figure this out about yourself? If you're going from being shy into this whole profession you've had for over a decade.

Dan Levy [00:02:15]:
This profession I've been in for almost 25 years.

Amber Stitt [00:02:20]:
Well, so what was it?

Dan Levy [00:02:22]:
I'll say this. Number one, I was just shy around you. It was you I was shy around. I was never a shy person, in general. We moved around a lot when I was a kid. Omaha was the last place I lived before I went on my own. So I think me just being a new kid every couple of years at a school, I learned how to become friends, learned how to do what it is that I do. My parents were very outgoing people.

Dan Levy [00:02:44]:
My dad was a ventriloquist. He was involved in communities. My mom, very New York, very Jewish circles of just very entertaining people. And my uncle was lawyer in New York. And we were always just very east coast, boisterous people. And when I met you, I was at an awkward kid going into becoming a man. And I was just like, I was in high school, and I was also the kid who, when his parents went away, I would throw the parties. And I was trying to get to know everybody and everybody.

Dan Levy [00:03:15]:
So I kind of became that. But I remember I never really had problems talking to people in general unless it was in certain situations. And then when I finally moved out of New York or, I mean, Nebraska, my brother was in Chicago, and I was doing telemarketing in Omaha because it was the telemarketing capital of the world.

Amber Stitt [00:03:32]:
I think we all do that. That's the first thing that you got to do in sales. Omaha Steaks, or there were a few others, I can't remember.

Dan Levy [00:03:40]:
Sitel was the place I was at, but I remember getting it because it was the only job you can have in high school back then. In the 90s, every job was minimum wage was like $7-$8. And telemarketing was like $13. And that paid for all the extracurricular activity I wanted to do. And I remember I had a couple buddies that I worked with, and we were just horsing around. And by then, my voice had changed, and I remember getting called to the manager's office.

Dan Levy [00:04:04]:
He's like, "Have you ever thought of doing radio?" And I was like, "No," "I was listening to your voice. You sound amazing." I was 16. He said, "You should look into radio." So before I graduated, it was. My parents were moving back to New York, my brother was in Chicago, and I had a couple interviews with a couple of broadcasting schools. And the one in Chicago that my brother...my brother was in Chicago.

Dan Levy [00:04:25]:
And he's like, "There's one right by me. There's no SAT act required. All my buddies who fell out go to this school and they end up getting a degree, and it's pretty easy." And I was like, "All right, I'll try it out and maybe I'll move around the country and do a radio thing." And I've never left. I've covered all the major sports in town and Super Bowls, and I've met everybody I've ever wanted to meet with. And I've never had a fear of talking in front of certain people. There's only one person that was very, very shy and awkward, not just you.

Dan Levy [00:04:51]:
But Michael Jordan was the only one I couldn't say anything to because I was like, "Oh, my God, that's the one I've always wanted to meet. And I can't talk." I did shake his hand. I couldn't do it. But I became friends with Kobe Bryant. I became friends with Shaquille O'Neal.

Dan Levy [00:05:04]:
I became friends with a lot of these guys because my job became radio. I became a guest booker and production and voiceovers and interviewer. And through this, because radio is on and off jobs, I lose gigs, I get jobs. My wife is in radio, as well. She loses jobs. She gets jobs. So I've had to find my way in different...

Dan Levy [00:05:23]:
All kinds of different circles of sales jobs and things of that nature. And one of the things I've done was I've become a teacher at a couple of colleges and institutes here about podcasting and radio. I've started working with all kinds of...from stay at home moms to professionals like you and people that are really good one-on-one, but then when they get in front of a camera, they're like, "I'm not really sure what to do. I don't know what to say." I've always walked the line with people that are interested in doing this. And I always say, "You have to, first and foremost, don't think about your voice at all."

Dan Levy [00:05:54]:
Everybody gets very skittish when you hear your voice, "I don't like my voice."

Amber Stitt [00:05:57]:
Oh, sure.

Dan Levy [00:05:58]:
I love mine but it makes me a lot of money. But with that regard, don't worry about the voice, because the voice is an instrument. God gave you an instrument of a voice. It's going to sound how ever it's going to sound. Get over that. If you're going to do sales and you're going to call people and you're going to be trying to network, they're already hearing your voice, they're going past your voice. No one's paying attention to your voice except for you.

Dan Levy [00:06:20]:
So you have to let that one go and let it glide over you. The getting used to the camera thing is always a thing. I'm a guy, I don't put that much effort into what I look like. I know women are very, everything's gotta be perfect to the nine. But I'll say this to you, if you were to go on TikTok, if you go on Facebook, if you go on any of these videos and whatever you're scrolling and you see a video of somebody that you're listening to, are you really listening, or watching because of what they look like, or what it is that they're saying? How they're trapping you. I mean, we're now in that situation where there's a million hot women and guys all over the world that you can see at a second of a glance through a scroll. What gets me to stay is the message.

Dan Levy [00:07:00]:
What's the bait? What are you talking about? So I always try to focus with people when they say, "I want to do a podcast," and I try to flush that out with you, "Okay, what's your podcast going to be?" Because I'm sure you've already felt this already. You've been doing this for quite a while, so congratulations. Not a lot of people I work with can keep a podcast going as long as you have. A lot of people I talk to, they don't really flush the podcast out. What is the idea?

Amber Stitt [00:07:22]:
Talk about that, unpack that. Because I think you've touched on a couple really important things you might have been in your craft, your voice. You had some humor, too, behind it. So just having some fun.

Dan Levy [00:07:32]:
Yes.

Amber Stitt [00:07:33]:
So have some fun. And then I think people think that they don't have something to share, so they get kind of hyped-up on their voice. Their story doesn't matter, but part of their voice and how their content, their message...people need that. We need each other's stories. And so that's what I think you're saying, unpackage the box to be on the podcast.

Dan Levy [00:07:51]:
The reason why you're saying I want to do a podcast is because you have something to say. The reason I always say that radio is full of narcissists just like myself, it's because, "Not only do I have something to say, but it's so important I need the entire world to hear it. And it needs to be just my voice." Now, being on the radio, and I do a lot of different radio shows and I'm a host, and I'm a talk show host, I'm a radio DJ. I have to think about what's going on every day. I could talk about daily events all day, and so can you. But when you start to unpackage, like you said, the world of what you're in, you are doing a very niche content, so you have something that's ever growing. You're talking about how people can invest their money, what to do to become financially free.

Dan Levy [00:08:29]:
There is so much content with that. And then I flush out even more. What is so special about your content? What can we do to make yours more different than every person out there that's trying to get my attention and trying to get my money and trying to get your message. I always try to tell people that if you're going to do this and if you want to do the podcast, fantastic. I'm just glad you want to get in the spectrum and you're confident enough that you think you can do it. Number one, it's fun. It's fun. I'm sure you've already had it, too.

Dan Levy [00:08:55]:
You probably already had a little bit of the fever the minute you get done and people say, "I listened to something," there's a rush, there's a high to it. You can't pay for that rush. You can't get paid for that. It just feels good when you know you've hit something and you've hit on a good conversation. You feel it, it's in your bones. And once you do that, you're like, "There's so much more I could do with it." But I think a lot of people just get so tied up in your own mind of, "What am I going to say?" You forget to just say it.

Dan Levy [00:09:17]:
Just turn on the mic and talk. Your phones can do it, your computers can do it. We all have devices around where we can record ourselves and just do it. So I always tell people, just go simple. For your first podcast, make it five minutes on the dot. Don't make it 4:58, 5:03. And just talk about your favorite food.

Dan Levy [00:09:35]:
Start with your first name, maybe your contact info, maybe your Facebook, or whatever social media handle my name Is Dan Levy. I'm "Bass On Air" on social media. Just want to talk to you why my favorite food in the world is a steak, or a burger.

Amber Stitt [00:09:48]:
Is a steak, not...okay.

Dan Levy [00:09:49]:
Mac and cheese, ice cream. I love everything. I love all foods.

Amber Stitt [00:09:54]:
I'm trying to think about the pictures I've seen, but...

Dan Levy [00:09:56]:
There's a lot! I live in Chicago. There's a lot of...look at the size of me. I'm 100 pounds heavier than what I met you. There's a lot of things that are out here. But again, you have people go out and then they do the 5 minutes. They go, okay, some people love that. And they go, "I could have gone 10, 20 minutes." And some people say, "After two minutes, I'm done.

Dan Levy [00:10:13]:
I don't know what else to say." And then when you do that, you go, okay, if you didn't have too much to say, well, then let's bullet point it. What else could you have done? Where else could you go with that? How do we open it up? And for those that are really, "I could have gone 10, 15 minutes." Let's get it down to the final punches so you know what it is. And that's how you start to branch it out. And when you actually have a plan of attack, your voice doesn't matter anymore. The way you look doesn't matter anymore.

Dan Levy [00:10:36]:
You're starting to get hungry for how to become a better storyteller. And that's what this is. This medium is storytelling. We're all just telling stories of our lives. We're all, "Have I got something to tell you. I'm going to give you the story and you're going to digest it. Hopefully it's entertaining enough for you to subscribe to me." And that's kind of what the game is.

Dan Levy [00:10:53]:
So the minute you can figure out what it is and be organized about it, the rest of it is cream cheese.

Amber Stitt [00:10:57]:
Yeah, you've got that frame. I mean, so if you can get the 5 minutes, it's like you're flexing that muscle and then you build that frame. I know that I have 5 steps. I'm like, "Okay, got the 5 steps. It's going to be easy. If I black out, I'm going to go back to one of those steps and my training wheels." For me, I do the bios post-production because remembering people's names and all their story, I can't get to the meat of the content. I'm really excited to get you on the show.

Amber Stitt [00:11:21]:
I want to get into the juice. So sometimes for me, I cut that out. I do post-production so I don't waste time, be too fluffy.

Dan Levy [00:11:27]:
Smart. Well, you also have...you also are good at what you do. There's a team around you and you're organized and you're at the point now where you know how to do what you got to do and things will get taken care of in different areas. A lot of people, when they're starting out, it's not as fleshed out as you do, but you can get there. You can get to that. It's just a matter of you do it enough times where you're like, even I know, okay, I'm an audio production guy, so I know exactly how to make it sound good.

Dan Levy [00:11:51]:
I make templates, and I'm a voiceover guy, so I can voice it if I need to, and I can make it sound really good, or if I'm doing video, I've taught myself some of it, but I partner up with a guy who does video a lot better than me. So you outsource some of those things.

Amber Stitt [00:12:05]:
Like you said, that you can make it simple. You got the TikTokers, people that are really great on their cell phone. I have to work off my computer to really feel organized. But some people can edit and do things off their...I mean, there's so many apps. So you could start simple. You can eventually work up to a team, but you got to get over the hype of, "It's too saturated." Thank you for tuning in to The Amber Stitt Show.

Amber Stitt [00:12:26]:
Please give us a "Like" and subscribe to the channel if you enjoy what we do. Your support goes a long way towards helping us bring you more compelling content. Remember, let's take action together! Now, let's jump back into the conversation. You mentioned something, do you feel that..., because we started talking about podcasting back in 2020, a lot of people were doing it from home, and then it kind of fizzled off. I don't have stats anymore. So do you think people...

Amber Stitt [00:12:53]:
I mean, why not start a podcast? Or do you think it's too saturated?

Dan Levy [00:12:56]:
I think it's almost to the point where if you don't have a podcast, you're wasting your time doing whatever it is, whatever you're doing. Unless you really are like, "I'm so successful, I don't need to do this." I think in order to brand yourself out and to get yourself noticed and for people to recognize who you are...that's why you have so many lawyers on television. That's why you have so many different, "You've been in a car accident." There's about 90 different jingles I can sing to you. Because branding is, "Oh, I know that person. I've heard of that person. I trust that person."

Dan Levy [00:13:22]:
And trust is something that we're all trying to figure out how to get. Because once you get trust, you get loyalty. Once you get loyalty, you get money. And once you get money, it's recurring income. So I think that all kind of boils...I'm a voiceover guy. I reach out to so many people. How do people know who I am? Well, I've been on the radio for 25 years.

Dan Levy [00:13:39]:
I'm a national voice guy. I've been on every radio station in pretty much the country, or some commercial somewhere or the other. And I sound familiar, and I sound like somebody you've heard of before. I know my strengths, and I know whatever I'm lacking in it, I know how to make up for it.

Amber Stitt [00:13:53]:
Well, let's talk about that. So if someone doesn't come in, introvert, maybe, public communication, I mean, public speaking, I think is like the number one...one of the worst things for people. So if they're not gifted in that, then you hire a coach, or you hire someone to help you flush it out, like build the frame. And then you practice. And there's ways to do it. We can do it with just a clip on mic, something so simple, you're seeing it everywhere. Then I think the other part of it is like a website. You're going to look up people, maybe Google my business reviews.

Amber Stitt [00:14:21]:
Maybe you're going on Yelp to look at that restaurant. Whatever it is, the podcast is something that's just, as a business person or consultant, freelancer, it's a great way for people to understand you and meet you before they might want to work with you. It could be just to learn. It could be business. I think as the hot topic being AI in '26, even '25 to '26, you talked about multiple jobs and you're like, it's cool. This is the nature of it. I think without a corporate ladder really anymore in business, if your communication skills are not continuously being improved and perfected, I think that's going to be a problem for people. This is really important for people to stay relevant into the future.

Dan Levy [00:15:01]:
I also think that a lot of people don't necessarily understand that when you're doing a podcast, the best part about it is that you don't need to have 20, 30, 40, 50 minutes of it. It could be 5 minutes, could be 6 minutes, could be 2 hours. The content is yours to own. So if you're an introvert out there and you're not really sure what to do, get a co-host. Get somebody who's a little bit fun. Maybe the podcast is somebody interviewing you and you're just answering the questions. I've done that for clients that have paid me. There's a guy that I was working with who was big into car selling, and he's a big car sales guy, but he has no presentation skills.

Dan Levy [00:15:33]:
But he just wants to be that guy that you're watching, and he's answering the questions.

Amber Stitt [00:15:37]:
Yeah.

Dan Levy [00:15:37]:
So then I become not just the guy who's working on his podcast but, "Hey, tell me about what happens when somebody comes in your dealership and what's the first move you do to not scare them away?" And then they go into it. So the podcasting field is whatever you want to do, whatever you want to make it, however you want to do it. I think people focus too hard on, "What's the name going to be? How do I advertise? How do I do this?" And the other thing I tell people is, do 3 podcasts that you'll never publish. Do 3 episodes no one's ever going to see it because the first one is nothing but mistakes. I have no idea what's going on. I've messed up the content. The technology doesn't work.

Dan Levy [00:16:11]:
People text you 20 minutes before saying, "I'm not sure if this is going to work. Do we do something else?" Or the two others, all of a sudden you're talking about and you're like, that 3rd episode, "I just figured out a better name for this, or we just discussed something. I have a better bit." For now on, we're going to do the top 3 of this and also top 5s, top 3, top 7 biggest mistakes. Things to know. Those will always get digested.

Dan Levy [00:16:32]:
So if you ever are like, "What should I do for a podcast?" What are the top 3 things? A guy who's 45 years-old, who doesn't have a retirement, "What could I do right now to set myself up for life?"

Amber Stitt [00:16:42]:
There you go. Well, we've talked about that sidebar.

Dan Levy [00:16:45]:
I know you have. That's what I'm lobbing that to you. I see your content, but I see other people talking. There's times I want to hear Amber talk. I want to hear you be the star of your podcast. So a lot of times people do interviews and you try to meet other people, but a lot of the times I want to pay you. I want to hear you.

Amber Stitt [00:17:01]:
We start with income protection, Dan. And then we bring our strategic partners in, so we got to protect that paycheck. Nobody wants to talk about insurance, Dan.

Dan Levy [00:17:10]:
I got you. I'm just telling you that it's the podcast field in the industry, it doesn't always have to be just the spotlight on other people, but the spotlight could just be that person. If someone is scared and they're not really sure what to do, they could just be, "You know what? I'm going to go on for seven minutes, and I'll give you the top three products, 2026. Water will never go out of style."

Amber Stitt [00:17:29]:
Yeah.

Dan Levy [00:17:29]:
Here's a cool pen that has this and this in 2026 that's going to help you. Here are 3 things here. Here's the biggest thing you're going to need. It can be a 5 minutes, 6 minutes, 7 minutes. I mean, TikToks are 30 seconds.

Amber Stitt [00:17:39]:
Yeah. I mean, I think I see Pocket Cast coming out kind of as a thing. Those are more like 5 minutes. And so I think that's a good point, because we talk about, on the Pathways framework, we talk about focusing on talents, and that's really that first initial step. So talk about pivoting. That's really been a big thing, is like, the pivot. So I talk with people about how I thought a pivot would be a complete course correction, but if you look it up, it's really a strategic move into enhancing something you're already doing. I think for people, working on communication skills it's a key thing.

Amber Stitt [00:18:08]:
And we talk about focusing on talents, and that can be really, like you said, you knew you were talented with your voice, and somebody really kind of lifted you up and let you see that. So empowering others. But if you don't love a part of this, say, podcast process, well, like you said, bring other people in, do a joint project, have someone interview you. You can pay for it. There's so many ways to divvy it up. But I think what you're saying is, "The answer is, you got to do it."

Dan Levy [00:18:33]:
And also the answers are, a lot of times, if somebody were to ask you how to do it, what would you give them? Advice on how to do it. A lot of times we are afraid to take our own advice, and we go, "Oh shoot, I don't know what to do in this point." But then somebody else will say things to me, and then I'll go, "What if that person came to me and they asked me how to do this? What would my advice be?" And then you just, you take your own advice from there. If it's not me, who do I talk to? And there's times I ask you for advice and I'll look and all of a sudden there's like 20 text messages about what I need to do. And I'm like, I already know these things, but it sounds better because it came from you. And I'm like, "Oh, duh." Sometimes it needs a different person to say it to you. So a lot of times you already have answers to whatever it is that you're going to be doing.

Dan Levy [00:19:11]:
It's just a matter of doing it. But I always say this all the time. Here's what it really is. You just have to turn the mic on.

Amber Stitt [00:19:18]:
So how do people find you, Dan, to work with you?

Dan Levy [00:19:21]:
You can find me on social media at: bassonair B-A-S-S-O-N-A-I-R, or you can go to my website with all my fun voice stuff and podcasting DanLevyMedia.com.

Amber Stitt [00:19:32]:
Well, you are a perfect pathways partner for those listening. So I really love that we finally got time together.

Dan Levy [00:19:38]:
This was sweet. Thanks for having me.

Amber Stitt [00:19:40]:
Thanks, Dan.

Dan Levy [00:19:42]:
Later, Amber.

Amber Stitt [00:19:43]:
Thank you for joining us for this episode of The Amber Stitt Show. Please check out the podcast page at: AmberStitt.com for more episodes and content like this. Until next time, keep taking action on your unique path!