Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Dee Daniels. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Dee, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What sort of legacy are you hoping to build. What do you think people will say about you after you are gone, what do you hope to be remembered for?

I want our legacy to be this – Dee Daniels Media helped me find and use my voice. As a radio personality, podcast host and producer for 27 years, I had the opportunity to work closely with small business owners and nonprofit leaders in the market I served in Richmond, Virginia and Washington, D.C. After watching these business owners and nonprofit leaders struggle with affording long-term advertising and getting their message heard by a wide, loyal audience – we saw a clear avenue to help. By using our experience with storytelling, interviewing, building audience engagement, marketing, and community involvement – we were able to help these businesses and nonprofits develop their own professional long-form platform that would live forever.

Dee, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Dee Daniels, and along with my partner Megan Mason, we are proud to be the founders of Dee Daniels Media. Our media company focuses on “Podcasting for a Purpose”. We produce and develop podcasts for businesses, nonprofits, entrepreneurs, creatives, and individuals who want to have a meaningful platform for growth that also lives forever.

I leaped into the media industry almost 30 years ago in Richmond, Virginia when my Mom encouraged me to reach out to my high school art teacher and inquire about jobs at a local radio station – where my art teacher’s husband just happened to be the General Manager. I started out learning how to run the sound equipment and would occasionally DJ music sets between on-air baseball games. Needless to say, after getting phone calls from excited listeners about my personality, my voice, and my style – I fell in love with radio pretty quickly! I spent the next 27 years building my brand and honing my craft in local radio.

It was during my last 13-year morning show in Fredericksburg, Virginia that a huge need in the community started to become very clear to me. The local business community and nonprofit community that I worked with on a regular basis was finding it very difficult to afford impactful advertising on the radio stations. I had a built such a close relationship with these communities and I could see their pain points. They had a message, a need, and a service – and they just couldn’t reach the audience they wanted to reach.

After many discussions with my partner Megan, who was also deeply involved with our local business and nonprofit communities in Northern Virginia, we decided we could do something to help. With her background in marketing and building businesses and nonprofits paired with my background in radio shows and audience development, we knew we could start our own media company that would give these businesses and nonprofits their own affordable platform – a podcast!

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

We started Dee Daniels Media while we were still living in Virginia – and while both of us were still working other full-time jobs. I was still running my morning show along with two other shows that focused on local businesses and local stories. Megan was working in healthcare marketing and admin for a physical therapy office along with continuing to work with many local nonprofits. In order to grow our clientele, we started exactly where we were.

We approached friends, business acquaintances, and colleagues about the idea of having their own podcast. We talked about the huge need that we saw for these business owners and nonprofit leaders to not only get their message heard, but also to move the people listening to their message into action.

Starting in our inner circle proved to be very successful. In just a couple of years, we had developed a handful of podcast clients. We slowly built our own mobile studio that we could take anywhere. Our mobile studio really made a huge impact. We were able to make the podcast process easier for small business owners and nonprofit leaders by taking the studio right to them.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

We were only a couple of years in to running our media company when COVID hit. As the world was spinning in panic mode, the local business and nonprofit communities were hit very hard. Many of them were not only cutting their marketing and advertising budgets because of the pandemic, but a lot of them were facing heartbreaking decisions around whether they could even keep their doors open. In light of these events, most of our podcast clients had to stop or pause their business with us.

While this time during the pandemic was so difficult for everyone, we took that period to really focus on building our future. Before COVID hit, we already knew we wanted the next chapter of our lives to include moving to Savannah, Georgia. We wanted to live near the beach and enjoy warmer weather. We had visited Savannah for years, and we knew we loved the landscape – but we also fell in love with community. Over the years we had become friends with many people in the business and nonprofit realm, and we both saw great potential for growth personally and professionally.

In August of 2021, we made the leap! It’s been just over two years now, and we couldn’t be happier. We continued to build the media company in year one – still as a part-time business. Then after we started establishing our reputation, and getting the word out about the services we provide, we went full-time. After only one year of running our media company full-time, we are so proud to say we are producing over 10 podcasts currently for some of the biggest businesses and nonprofit organizations in Savannah – as well as several podcast clients doing virtual work with us from other areas. In addition, we have already successfully scaled our business to now include creative messaging and social media coaching as well as Podcast Coaching and Consulting for already-established podcasters looking to level-up. We have also expanded our podcast services. We are now also offering three tiers of podcasting: Full-Service Top Tier Podcasts, The Mini-Cast, and The Family Legacy Cast.

Contact Info:

• Website: deedanielsmedia.com
• Instagram: @deedanielsmedia
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deedanielsmedia/