Teaching Lifeskills

When 22-year-old Maverick Levy started his podcast The Best of the Best: Maverick’s Guide to Success last August, he wanted to help others his age learn the basics of everyday life.

By exploring topics like how to file taxes, secure a mortgage and understand health insurance, Levy, who attends Michigan State University and grew up in Commerce and Bloomfield Hills, helps teach listeners about the things they didn’t learn in school.

He interviews subject-matter experts — whom he appropriately calls “the best of the best” in their fields — to add background knowledge and personal perspective to each episode.

Now, Levy’s podcast, which is in its 22nd episode, has been picked up by Los Angeles-based DBPodcasts and is charting among the top 200 business podcasts in the country.

There was a void, he explains, surrounding education in life skills that are necessary in adulthood to be successful. Through his podcast, he aims to close that gap.

“I always say there’s no possible way that within a 45-minute interview you’re going to learn everything [about that topic],” Levy says. “But you’ll at least know the terms that the real estate agent or the mortgage company are talking about after listening to the show. You’ll know what to expect and how the process works.”

Each episode sees Levy asking the subject matter expert about what they wish they knew when they were in their 20s about their respective fields. He’s interviewed private jet brokers, vice presidents of mortgage companies, rappers and entrepreneurs in mental health care, to name a few. “It’s just been taking off like crazy,” he describes.

The concept was born when Levy, who always wanted to start a podcast, made an Instagram post asking general questions about taxes. He had a social media following of mostly teens and people in their early 20s. One of his followers replied that he should start a podcast about taxes, and the idea clicked.

“It automatically hit me about 10 minutes after that I can transition the idea of doing a podcast [about taxes] to teaching things that aren’t taught in school,” Levy explains, “whether that’s starting a business from the ground up or talking about how life insurance works.”

Maverick Levy works on his podcast.

COURTESY OF MAVERICK LEVY

What You Didn’t Learn in School

New business podcast teaches people in their 20s how to be successful in life.

ASHLEY ZLATOPOLSKY CONTRIBUTING WRITER

“YOU’LL KNOW WHAT TO EXPECT AND HOW THE PROCESS WORKS.”

— MAVERICK LEVY

SUCCESS STORIES

Levy also spotlights individuals on his podcast who have extraordinary business success stories, diving into their journey and the steps they took to create their brands. He focuses heavily on industries either growing or remaining steady throughout the pandemic as well, such as the episode about the private jet broker and his career path.

Getting a slot on Levy’s podcast isn’t easy, though. He means it when he says he only wants to include “the best of the best.” The young entrepreneur rigorously vets applicants before deciding to do an episode with them.

“It’s the best of the best in every industry so you can build a basic level of understanding of how these things work in reality,” he explains. “As long as you’re the best figure skater in the world and you have some information to offer the audience, I’m down to have a conversation with you so others can learn from you and be inspired by you.”

In both his podcast and personal life, Levy, who attended Temple Israel, has two values that he sticks by: always be learning, and lead by example. “I’m trying to fill the gap,” he says, “of what’s not taught in school but is essential.”

His long-term goal with the podcast is to create a worldwide community and platform that people his age can go to when they need support with everyday matters.

“I really want to continue to be a resource that the younger generation can always rely on,” Levy says, “to give them that information that they need in life to succeed.”