Hala Taha - Host of Young and Profiting Podcast

SPEAKER_02 0:04

This is the Beyond the Story Podcast, a show that goes way beyond the story. And now, Sebastian Frost. Hey, what's happening, everybody? Welcome to the show. I really appreciate you taking some time out of your day to listen to me. Chat about things that I find interesting that I hope you'll find interesting. This show is brought to you by my friends at Self Publishing School.com. I'm currently writing my second book with Self Publishing School. They've got an incredible program. They put over 2,000 people a year through their program. That means 2,000 people a year are writing a book with their proven system and program. You too can write a book just like I am. Find out more information. Schedule a free consultation call with a book launch specialist just like I did. And uh you too could be making your book dreams come true. More information at self publishingschool.com forward slash Beyond the Story. All right, I think we're live here, ladies and gentlemen. What is happening? This is yet another episode of the Beyond the Story podcast. You're probably watching this from my profile, but I'll introduce myself anyway. My name is Sebastian Rusk. I'm the host of this podcast and all these crazy ideas. And today I've got the unique privilege of sitting down with one of my newest LinkedIn connections. She's a she's a big deal, too. So I was really stoked when we had the opportunity uh to connect. Uh my guest today is a host of Young and Profiting Podcast. I think that name is pretty self-explanatory in and of itself. Please, friends, please help me welcome to the show, Hala Taha. What's happening, Halla?

SPEAKER_00 1:47

Hey, Sebastian. Thanks for having me on the show. Excited to be here.

SPEAKER_02 1:50

Oh, it's exciting to get you here and uh and to chat with you. You're a busy girl. Uh you don't just podcast. You you actually have a you have a you have a pretty cool job too, don't you?

SPEAKER_00 2:00

Yeah, I work full-time at Disney Streaming Services, and I also have my own podcast marketing agency. So I kind of have three jobs my my podcast, my agency, and my full-time job.

SPEAKER_02 2:11

Fantastic. Well, this podcast is all about telling stories. So you didn't just get to Disney Interactive uh yesterday and start doing podcast marketing, have your own podcast. There's always a story behind that. So let's help our viewers, viewers, because we're going live here. And if you're listening to this as the actual podcast episode, you're tuning in uh to hear a new story. And that's exactly what we're gonna do. So we can back up. I'd say, let's just go back to high school. What happened after high school and what did the career path look like from there? I know a lot of the stuff because I've listened to some other interviews and I did some LinkedIn stalking. I mean, like any good podcast host would do, right?

SPEAKER_00 2:43

Of course, of course.

SPEAKER_02 2:44

So let's bring everybody back to high school and then what happened after that and how it brought us to present day, and then we'll just see where this fun conversation goes from there.

SPEAKER_00 2:51

Sure. Um, so I would say in high school, I was pretty average. Like I was, you know, like medium, cool in terms of like popularity. Um, I was like a B student. Um, you know, I I tried out for a lot of things and actually didn't make it. Um, I tried out for the volleyball team, I didn't make it. I tried out for the play. I'd always get like, you know, just a regular role, even though I probably had like the best voice in school. Um, you know, and there was like I tried out for cheerleading, I didn't make it. And so there was a lot of like failure in my high school years um and a lot of like not shining. I think it had to do with multiple reasons. I think one of the reasons was like that was a time like right after 9-11. And so I think that I was facing a little bit of discrimination in terms of being of Arabic descent, and I think that I didn't really get the same opportunity to shine as I would if that hadn't have happened. So I think that was one slight reason in terms of like why I didn't really get to shine in high school. And then I think the other reason was like my confidence. Like, um, I don't think I necessarily had the aura of somebody who really believed in themselves and had the confidence to be the lead in the play or the captain of the cheerleading team or whatever it took. So I think it was like a a combination of those two. Then when I got to college, um, you know, I was still the type of person that like, even though I kept failing, I kept trying out for things. Like I tried out to be the president of my uh, you know, freshman year, like to be the president of the student council in college, whatever that was called back in college. Um, I didn't make it, but like I, it was like I was a very close runner-up and that gave me some confidence. Um, you know, I tried out for the cheerleam team, I got on it, that gave me some confidence. I got a like leads in the school plays and stuff like that. And at that time, I really got into the law of attraction. And so I think that really shifted my mindset where I started to really believe that I could achieve whatever I thought was possible. And I got really into it, and um, I think that really helped me kind of shift my mindset to actually believe in myself. And in that time, I landed an internship at Hot 97. It's uh the number one hip hop and RB radio station, at least at the time. I'm not sure what it is now.

SPEAKER_02 5:01

And um dying a slow death is what it's doing. Yeah, it's it's dying, but at the time in general, not the station, just radio in general.

SPEAKER_00 5:08

Radio in general for sure. And um, you know, even back then radio was kind of dying, but it was still like a big deal to work at Hot 97, and all the DJs, especially in New York, were you know really popular. And um, so I I started out in the production side, like on the corporate side, and then I got promoted to be Angie Martinez's like assistant. And Angie Martinez was like the voice of New York, um, you know, number one show in America in terms of her ratings and things like that. And so it was a big deal to kind of be her production assistant slash intern. And I ended up uh dropping out of school for two years and working for free at the radio station and just being her assistant, um, doing anything for her, whether that was working. Yeah, I was working. I was feeding the meter for the DJs, I was getting them coffee, I was doing the research for the shows, I was answering the phones, doing the contest, working the delet boards, just doing anything. I would come in, you know, I had cards to the studio where there's only like, you know, 12 people who had that permission. I could go in in the middle of the night. Sometimes I would have to do like the delette boards from 1 to 4 a.m. And like I was just hustling and I was just like a young girl who had a dream and wanted to be in radio. And at the time, and I think even now, um, it's really commonplace for people in radio to just work for free and kind of be an apprentice and kind of be everybody's bitch for like to 10 years.

SPEAKER_02 6:32

No, you're not getting in the door unless you do some some major free work and and uh and become an ass kissing, you know, extraordinaire.

SPEAKER_00 6:39

Exactly. And so that's like a lot of the path that a lot of the people that you hear on the radio, especially at Hot 97 and radio stations like that, that are kind of like more homegrown than like iHeartRadio, um, it it's really about working for free for like five, 10 years. It's not even about who's most talented, it's like who worked for free for the longest, and then you get like your spot on the radio. And so um, you know, something happened where um Angie fired her producer. And um I was thinking, even though I was like 23 years old, barely any experience, I was working there for free for three years, and I thought, you know, well, there's a job now. Can I have a job and get paid for my work? And uh they actually brought in somebody who's a little older than me who never worked on the studio side and worked on videos, and they asked me to train him how to be the producer and because I was doing it while there was no other person to do it. And I was uh, you know, upset. I was young, I was immature, and he was my friend, and so I texted him, like, you know, I don't feel like going to work today. If you want to learn how to be a producer, like why don't you learn how to do it on your own like I had to, like, good luck type of thing. And it was really immature, and he ended up showing that to Angie Martinez, and uh, she fired me. And um, you know, my cards were cut before he begins, right? Yeah. Like my cards were cut. I wasn't allowed to go to the studio anymore. Um, I, you know, was devastated. Hot 97 was like my identity at the time. Um, I had like a decent Twitter following, and like everybody knew me as like the girl who worked at Hot 97. It was like how I identified myself, and everybody thought like it was so cool that I had this job and all my friends and college and things like that. And everybody knew I had dropped out for Hot 97 and all this stuff. And so I was like extremely devastated because I had totally tied my identity with working at Hot 97, and um, all of my mentors and things like that were also working there, and I still had a good relationship with a lot of the folks, and me and Angie ended up making up very shortly after that. I think she was just trying to teach me a lesson, uh, kind of like, you know, you should have appreciated what you had. Um, even though I was working for free and it's like actually like very illegal.

SPEAKER_02 8:48

She fired you, yeah, I know, like very illegal.

SPEAKER_00 8:51

And you want to know why they and like that's probably one of the reasons why she fired me is because she realized, like, I've been this girl's been working for free for me for three years. It's like a liability. Let me like just get this off my phone.

SPEAKER_02 9:04

She would have been in that, yeah. That would have, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:06

I know. I I always think about like what should I have really done back then? But it's all good, you know.

SPEAKER_02 9:10

Whatever. Who is this Angie Martinez?

SPEAKER_00 9:14

I can't believe it's you, Bozo the Cloud. Yeah. Um exactly.

SPEAKER_02 9:18

But what's Angie up to these days?

SPEAKER_00 9:20

I have no idea. I and I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 9:22

I was just curious.

SPEAKER_00 9:23

Yeah, I think she's she's on um she's on 105.1, I think. But I honestly like calling me for a podcast soon. I have interns now, and like the way that I was treated, I would never treat my interns. And so, like, now that I've gotten older and I see what it is, I'm like, damn, I was used when I was younger.

SPEAKER_02 9:41

Oh, it's awful, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, no one would ever get away with this in cancel culture these days.

SPEAKER_00 9:46

Like exactly, exactly. So, you know, it is what it is, it's it's over, and I've grown, and I'm happy that you know, I'm probably making five times more than everybody who works at that station now. So it's like whatever. Right. Um, it's all good. And so uh yeah, so I I left Hot 97. And at the time I felt like I was being like blackballed from the industry because I used to wait make my money outside of Hot 97. I used to like host these like showcases with uh the other DJs, and like essentially, like once Angie let me go, even though I was never officially part of the station, it's like nobody could talk to me anymore. That's what it was like. It was like nobody can talk to Holla, Holla's not involved in Hot 97 at all, nobody speaks her name, like type of thing. And it was like I was like, I was just getting blackballed from the industry. And I was like, you know what? I don't deserve this. I didn't do anything wrong. I I had one bad day, like everybody has a bad day. And so I decided I was gonna start this thing called the sorority of hip-hop, and it was gonna be an all-female platform. And anybody who worked in the industry, um, you know, I was inviting them to be in this sorority of hip hop, and we were gonna be like women's empowerment for this industry because there was other women like me who were kind of like used and abused, and I wanted to like bring us together. And so within like two weeks, I put out solicits on Craigslist on Twitter and I recruited like 14 girls. And some girls were from Complex, some girls were from Def Jam, um, you know, from all over. I used to work at Hot 87, and we started this thing called the sorority of hip hop. And uh I went back to school. Um, I finished my senior year, and at that time I started this website and I learned how to code websites, I learned how to build websites, and within three months, we were like one of the most popular entertainment sites in the world. And I and basically I like uh hacked Twitter in a way where every time we put out a post, we would like at the celebrity and it would be like automated, and we were like the first ones to do that. And so, you know, if Drake had like 14 pretty girls tweeting at him, what was he gonna do? Retweet. So it's like we got very popular very fast, and all of us kind of had like micro communities. It's like at that time, I had like 5,000, 6,000 Twitter followers. At that time, that was this was like nine, like seven years ago or something. That was actually like a decent following back then. Now it's like you need a hundred K or whatever, but it wasn't like that back then. So it's like altogether we had like a hundred K when we first started, like followers, and then so we got big really fast. And um, at the height of it, you know, I did that for three years. We had 50 female bloggers, and it was like this whole movement, and we used to host parties and concerts, and uh we had showcases, we almost got a show on MTV twice, and it was just a really cool experience. Um, and I was the president of this uh thing called the Sororative Hip Hop. And some of you, uh, if you've been around for long enough or in the New York, New Jersey area, you might have known us by uh Strawberry Blunt or the Strawberry Blunt girls. So uh that was us.

SPEAKER_02 12:39

Right. So what what happened then? What happened with the with the with the whole uh squad and events and stuff that you were doing?

SPEAKER_00 12:47

Yeah, so um and uh so mtv scouted us right away. So once we got very popular um and we were like visible online immediately within like three months, uh this lady Tiffany from MTV, she was a producer, she reached out to me and she was like, you know what, we want to shoot a pilot. Uh we want to follow you guys around. We had like online radio shows at the time. And so for like a week, they followed us around and did a pilot. Um, we didn't get it, but it wasn't a big deal. Like it didn't even like, you know, we we got like matching shirts and things for the recording, but it wasn't that big of a deal. Then two years later, MTV re-signed us, but this time they were like, You're definitely gonna get a show. We had to like sign all this paperwork. We were already getting paid. They shot us all summer, they got us a studio on Broad Street. If you could imagine like how they do like the real world where there's like neon signs and all this cool furniture, and we got our hair and makeup done every day, and and they followed us at restaurants and we threw a concert and we had to dance, and it was like this whole thing that they did that they made us go through. They came to my family's house and filmed. Um, and unfortunately, uh we went through all this, and there was like five, I was the lead in the show, and there was like five other girls who were signed to MTV. And um, you know, we went through all of this, and then they didn't give us a show. And again, it was like this thing where it was like this massive devastation for me because it it was like three years out. I had all these girls under me. I I kind of grew it too big because it's like how was I gonna be able to pay 50 girls like from a blog site and like hosting parties? It's it doesn't really work. Like the top girls were getting paid a little bit, but like it it wasn't really working. I didn't really figure out how to monetize everything. The blog like boom was going down and like nobody was really reading blogs anymore. And so I was like at this crossroads where like if we get the MTV show, everything's great because the main girls are gonna get a big check every week and we made it, and like that's it, you know, and then we'll just take it from here and go our separate ways after the show's over and and we're done and we made it right. And um like stuff, yeah, exactly. That was it was and it was right after Jersey Shore ended, and so we were like, we're gonna be the next Jersey Shore. And at the time, looking back, like I'm really glad I didn't get a reality TV show because they were really trying to make us go at it like cats and dogs, and we were fighting.

SPEAKER_02 15:05

That's why I was on a show about uh four years ago, no, not four years ago, 2014, uh on Fox, a dating show. Me and 30 women, it was called Take Me Out with George Lopez. And one the one takeaway that I had from that is that reality TV is not reality, everything is scripted. Two, two, it was two takeaways. The first was Hollyroot operates one way and one way only. Hurry up and wait. First of all, they never show you any definitive anything, they just say we may need you in New York on Sunday. Keep Thursday through Sunday open. I'm like, didn't you say Sunday? Yeah, but it may be Thursday, Friday, or Sunday. We're not sure yet. The producers want to have a conversation about what it may look like to bring you on the show. They never tell you or finalize anything, which is the craziest part. Because talk about anticlimactic, because you get into there and you're like all fired up and jazzed about it. Yeah, you really don't know what the next step is. So, and it's not reality at all.

SPEAKER_00 16:00

It's not like for us, they didn't script everything, but they would be like, say this angry or uh they would like be like fight with Nikki, like you know what I mean? Like, just they just wanted us to fight, and they even wanted my family to fight with me. They wanted to posit all my siblings are doctors and my dad's a doctor, and so they really wanted to position me as like the black sheep in the family. And they would like they were trying to tell my mom, like, what do you hate about Holla? And she's like, I don't hate anything about my daughter, like you're not gonna get me to say it. And so I think that's another reason why we didn't get the show because like my family was like not into kind of like positioning me as like the sorry, I don't hate my kid.

SPEAKER_02 16:34

I apologize.

SPEAKER_00 16:36

So it didn't work out, I didn't get it, and but then again, I um you know, at that point I just switched gears. I decided I need to take a break from the sorority of hip hop, I need to focus on myself, I need to focus on my education and my career. I can't think that I'm gonna like elevate 50 girls at the same time before I elevate myself. I have no career, no nothing going on. Um, I was banking everything on the sorority of hip hop and you know, and I it just like didn't work out. So I went and I got my MBA. And um at the time I used my MBA to get an internship at Hewlett-Packard, and I got a really good internship where I was getting paid like way more than I would have at a full-time job. And uh I ended up getting a 4.0 in my in my MBA, and so I like killed it and I got hired at HP and I kept getting promoted there and really became like the face of the young employees at that corporation, and all my entrepreneurial experience and digital marketing experience really helped me shine and also all the networking skills that I learned. I just like immediately was like an entrepreneur within the company and immediately got attention of like all the C-suite executives and uh started this thing called the Young Employee Network, where I was the president and I and at my chapter um and in my office in New Jersey, we I started like our first company picnic and our first holiday party and our first toy drive and our first like all these different charity events that they still do today. And it got me a lot of visibility, and so I ended up doing really well when I got into corporate. Um, and then I got the itch. I I like three years in, four years in, I was like, I I never thought I would get back on the mic. I, you know, I had online radio shows that whole time when I was uh doing strawberry blunt and the sorority of hip hop. So like I was always doing radio and then I did corporate and I thought like that's it, like that's my entertainment career is over. Now I'm this normal person and I'm just gonna be normal now. And so like I thought that was like the rest of my life. Exactly. And then and then, you know, uh three, four years in, I got the itch and I was like, I want to get back into broadcasting. I have all this business experience now. I still want to be the voice of you know, young people out there. I think I have a lot to teach people in terms of like how to be successful. I just kind of pivoted so many times and now I'm very successful. I want to I want to give back. And so um I decided to start Young and Profiting podcast, and you know, the rest is history.

SPEAKER_02 18:56

When was that?

SPEAKER_00 18:57

That was in 2018. So Young and Profiting is like two years old.

SPEAKER_02 19:00

Very cool. So when did you and so in your so you're still in the corporate world because you're at Disney Interactive, right?

SPEAKER_00 19:05

Yeah, I'm at Disney streaming.

SPEAKER_02 19:06

And so what year was what year I'm trying to try to figure out because it hasn't always been sure, let's let you know, this individual start in a head up this. It hasn't always been as culture focused um with you know in the corporate world. It's more been like, you know, you're this is your job and do as you're told and that's who you report to. So what year was was HP?

SPEAKER_00 19:28

HP was like uh 2014 to 2018.

SPEAKER_02 19:32

Very cool.

SPEAKER_00 19:33

And then I started in Disney like Feb of 2018. Um I think. Or February, Feb of 2018, and I still work there.

SPEAKER_02 19:41

Very cool. Yeah, so that was almost the beginning of uh, you know, well, social media really started to become relevant. I would say around 2010, people were like, what's this? What's Twitter? And most brands started to activate, I would say, by by 20, by 2014, 20, I'd say 2013, 2014. It's it's when that 25% marketing budget went from marketing to now, let's put over 15% towards digital, and then everything eventually shifted on there. So a couple things showed up for me as you shared the great story, by the way.

SPEAKER_00 20:10

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 20:10

Couple things is you know, you got to do the fucking work. If you're not willing to do the work, you're not gonna get anywhere. And I'm talking work. That is go fetch dry cleaning, feed meters, get fired, go get there. There's a number of there's a number of things that involve doing the work. And I think you're right out of college, putting college on hold too, and being able to go do grunt work because you're believing in yourself enough to say, you know what, I know where I should be and what I deserve. That's where the law of action uh attraction started to play, I'm assuming. Yeah. And but at the same time, when you got in and you realized that's what that's a lot of people don't do. And somebody told me this earlier this week. You know, Sebastian, being right can be very, very expensive, both monetarily and emotionally. So choose your battles carefully. And I I I already known that, I experienced that that being right is is not some sort of rite of passage by any means at all. But when something wasn't working, you said, you know what, this isn't working. And I'm gonna go back to what I know for a minute and I'm gonna let the wheels continue to spin until I figure out what the next move is. Not a lot of people do that because it's like this is where it's at, and I don't care what anybody says, but sometimes the writing is clearly on the wall. So I commend you for number one, doing the work. Number two, realizing, you know what, if it if it's not working, then I need to go back to what I know until something is working. So going back to school was phenomenal. And then and then and then getting back into that entrepreneur spirit again and saying, hey, listen, I don't care if I got fired and did grunt work and I went back to school. I want to continue to stay in this space in some form or fashion, going, doing it, growing it, getting a shot like MTV, which is a one in a million shot, and being able to get in there. And I when I look back on that that journey was like a month or two that I ended up, I didn't end up the goal was to get a date. If you got a date, you went on a second episode, and after that, that you were done. It wasn't like the bachelor, it was me and 15 guys and 30 women. So I didn't get a date. But I I did fly to New York to meet the producers for the day before we filmed the show. And the meeting was like, I tell this story constantly because it's really truly part of my journey. Is that I flew into New York City, no idea what I was going into. I get to there, I had a 1015 meeting at the Marriott. They go upstairs, everybody's sitting in the lobby, three guys staring at each other. You know why you're here? No, nobody knows why they're there. They don't know what's going on. I walk in, big linen table, long table with water pitchers and two guys sitting at the end, super cool dudes, seem like Hollywood guys. And they're like, why do you want to be on national television? And I said, Why not? And they said, Why do you, why are you looking for love on national television? And I said, Because you never know. They go, Great, we'll see you in LA in a couple of weeks. And the meeting was over. And I went downstairs in my bow tie the whole nine. And I, it was Sunday morning. It was 10 o'clock in the morning. I had the whole day. My flight wasn't until seven. So I walked over to Times Square and I'm standing in the advertising mecca in the of the world in my bow tie. And everyone's looking down at their phone. And I'm thinking, oh my gosh, I don't care if this show works or it doesn't work. The path that I'm on that I've chosen to be able to say this digital stuff is not going anywhere. And I'm going to do something about it and I'm going to build on top of it. It was that reassuring moment. But I did, I took that journey. And it was the hard joke, it was the hardest $250 that I've ever earned. I think I did it for the experience. The person that's a mentor of mine that I don't know, but is still a mentor of mine is Ryan Seacrest. And as you know, Ryan is great. Ryan does multiple, multi-layered brand, impeccable on camera, and just an all-around good dude and somebody really great to model. And I studied American Idol for years, how he would take the stage, how he held the mic, how we would exit camera, how we'd interact and talk to people. And I just studied him just ferociously to the point of becoming obsessed with how he rolled. And I said, you know, that that's possible for me. I'm able, I'm eventually going to get there. But I took the the reality show deal because it was a it was a primetime slot on Fox, Thursday night, 9 p.m. on Fox. I flew to LA. We shot in a sound studio somewhere where somebody's filmed some show somewhere. And I'm in a freezing cold sound studio with a bunch of people that I don't know, but we're friends forever now because we were locked in a green room for 11 hours. I got to meet George George Lopez and experience what's possible. Yeah. So I always said if I I for a long time I said I'm gonna be the next Ryan Secrest until I had a mentor check in one time and said, How about being the next Sebastian Rusk? And I thought, huh. But I did it because of the experience. And I think a lot of that plays into your into your story with the whole MTV thing.

SPEAKER_00 24:29

It's like, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 24:30

Who cares that it didn't work out?

SPEAKER_00 24:32

Oh, yeah. The fact that I got filmed for three months and I was treated like a like celebrity. I remember we walked into the MTV studios and it was like such a big deal that we were there. And like I just wish we could get access to that film, honestly, because I'm sure it would be so entertaining now to to look back because we don't have access to any of the film that they tell us.

SPEAKER_02 24:52

Of course, of course not, you know? Of course, of course not. But it's that you you look back on your journey now and you're like, I wouldn't trade one part of it, not one single part would I trade about because without that, it's it's like one block, you know, one step leads to the other.

SPEAKER_00 25:07

Exactly. I would never, I probably would not have Young and Profiting Podcast. And I don't know, and who knows? I could have sabotaged my reputation. And like, I feel like now I can really become like I always say, like, just like you, I say I want to be the next Tim Ferris, I want to be the female Tim Ferris. I know I need a reality check, I need to be the next Hala Taha, but I feel like there's not many females in the self-improvement space, especially podcasters. You know, a lot of them are very geared towards women if or children or or parenting or something, if they're in that space. Almost all my listeners are male, and I feel like I have a very good chance to be like that next face of self-improvement. And um, I think that's a much better reputation than being like the next snooky or something.

SPEAKER_02 25:50

Right, 100%. I was about to say the same thing. Had that reality deal, whatever you mean, do you I mean, listen, uh granted, they did get cast, the show was a success, they're still doing the family reunions, and I'm really shocked that everybody like has kids and has settled down. Like the situation was probably the best out of all of them, have turned out the best on their so it was somewhat of a happy ending, I guess, with how they ended up. But you gotta you you've gotta think that every meeting that they walked into with sponsors and additional deals above and beyond Jersey Shore were like, we're just doing this because we know it's a guarantee that they are on a hit show, but we really don't take them serious. I mean, they fist pump and they, you know, they beat the beat up, you know.

SPEAKER_00 26:27

Exactly. And I think that now I have more of a like professional brand, which is great. And on it, and I didn't uh I forgot to mention this, but you know, I had Mona Scott begging me to be on love and hip hop as well at the same time, and I decided to go with MTV. And so I also could have been on love and hip hop, and you you know how big Cardi B got. So there's a lot of like what ifs, like where what would I be now had I had those opportunities or went the other path. Uh, but you know, you can't go backwards, and all I can do is just be positive and uh try to make it now.

SPEAKER_02 26:59

Right. No, 100%. It's just great. I just love every aspect of uh the fact that you've you've got a story, we all do, and that you share that story, but you're also leveraging that story to make sure you're continuing to pour into your life, not waiting for the network to call. I am the network, not looking for the opportunity, I am the opportunity. Exactly. Cardi B is a phenomenal example for those of you listening and watching right now that anything is possible because I don't even understand what she says when she talks. So there we go, folks. You know, there there we go. I hear the songs and I'm like, what is this? And people are it is a phenomenon, allegedly. So um come out, hats off to you, head headphones off to you, I guess. There we go. There we go. So um so the Young and Profiting Podcast, what kind of conversations are you having? Who are you interviewing? What's one of the coolest things that's happened with the show so far?

SPEAKER_00 27:47

Yeah, so um Young and Profiting Podcast is all about helping you profit financially or professionally. And so we interview CEOs, best-selling authors, um, FBI agents, um, basically anybody who's got expertise that I think will be valuable for my listeners. Um, so we've got huge guests that have to come on the show. Robert Green, uh, Mark Manson, Seth Godin, um yeah, like Jim McKelvey of uh Square. Um, we're having the CEO of Chipotle, the CEO of Hint is coming on. So it's like lots of big CEOs and lots of big authors, is typically the guests that I have on my show. And we're moving into like celebrities and athletes and things like that as we get bigger and bigger. Um and yeah, we're like a number one how-to podcast on Apple on any given day um in multiple countries. Also have a big following on Castbox um and uh growing my following on other platforms too. And um yeah, I've got an amazing team. I've got a team of almost uh 30 people right now who's working on my podcast and my clients' podcasts. I I focus on like CEOs and top podcasters, um helping them put out all their marketing material around their podcasts, audio production, video production, research, things like that. So um things are going really good.

SPEAKER_02 29:02

I love that. Speaking of podcasts, Hollow, why should someone start a podcast?

SPEAKER_00 29:07

Um, because it gives you an opportunity to talk to people that you would otherwise never be able to reach out to. So uh Robert Green is somebody that I've been reading his books uh for years since I was a kid. You know, he's been writing books since I was a child. And um, you know, I had the opportunity to have a two-hour conversation with him and uh only because I had a platform and I was able to scale that conversation. And it it gives you the ability to network with these high-value people um and grow your network in a way that you would never be able to do if you didn't have this platform because nobody who is uh you know that big or that busy has the time to really just like chat with you on LinkedIn DMs or have a coffee with you, like a lot of people ask me. Like nobody has time for that. And but if you say I have a platform that, you know, 10,000 people are gonna hear, uh, then they'll be like, okay, yeah, I'll take half an hour or an hour to talk to you because it's gonna scale this conversation and it will be worth their while. They could talk to 10,000 people at the same time instead of just talking one-on-one. So I think that was a really big deal for me being able to get people on my network. But my initial reason for wanting to start Young and Profiting Podcasts was really pure. It was just to help people. I I wanted to give back, I wanted to interview really smart people to give insight and actionable advice to other people and just help people grow and and and learn. Um, and so it just depends like what you want to do. It's also a great lead magnet now that I have a podcast marketing agency. Almost all every single client uh has come on the podcast and then turns into my client. So for me, it's become this like lead gen engine very recently only. Yeah, uh, yeah. I mean it's amazing. And and and it's the best is that it all happened naturally for me. Like it's like I didn't start my podcast marketing agency first. It's like all the my people that came on my podcast were like, Holly, you do the best marketing, like you're as good as Gary Vee. Like, how can I get your services? And then I was like, Okay, I need to figure this out because everybody's asking me the same thing.

SPEAKER_02 31:08

Sure. Yeah, I um I never thought that I would have a podcast agency ever. I just I initially started back in 2010, and I just thought I gotta figure this social media thing out because nobody knows what it is. And I had a guy call me one day and go, I read this book, you got to connect with this guy. It was in 2000, late 2009. His name's Gary Baynerchuk. I'm like, Gary, who? And um he's like, listen, yeah, his book's called Crush. And I'm like, listen, I can't even afford to buy a book. He goes, not a problem. I'll give you my audible login, you can download it. And I did that, and I put it on my iPod, not to be confused with iPad. And I just listened to Gary um just just spit complete fire on Crush It, his first book. And I immediately, no one knew who Gary was at all. I mean, he was you hit the the wine world did and the YouTube following did, but like the majority of people know everyone knows who he is now. But yeah, before they were unclear on where that was at. And I thought this this guy can be a very pivotal part of my journey. I don't know where the hell I'm going, but this guy are similar personality, similar energy levels. So I reached out, was able to connect with them, and we had stayed in touch via email. And then thank you, Economy dropped, his second book. And I found out that the book signing was going to be around the corner from my house. And I was like, what? So I'd learned a long time ago, if you can't connect directly with the person, which I did connect with him, but there you still you still had a team around him. It was a small team, but there was still his team around. So I connected with his assistant, and I was like, hey, can when I interview him, like, you know, flip cam style, like in the hallway before he goes in for the interview. And they got back to me the Friday before that Tuesday, the book signing, and they said, Yeah, Gary, I'll do it. No problem. Uh just meet him, you know, at Books and Books about six o'clock because the book signs at seven, and we'll figure it out. A day later, a video production company called me and they're like, Hey, we've seen your work. We want to work with you. We did Russell Simmons book signing at Books and Books a couple months ago. And I'm like, Really? What are you guys doing on Tuesday night? So they came in with full lights out the whole nine. Gary just strolls up like nothing on the street, gives me a hug, like we'd known each other forever and a day. And we had sat down for like an hour for the interview. We have a whole room of people waiting for him to go in and like talk about the book and the whole nine. And here I am sitting with him in a bookstore with a camera crew interviewing him and having a conversation. And that was really the beginning of I felt like it was full circle, but it was really only two years into the journey. Now, uh, as an event MC and him keynoting while pre-COVID, of course, um, we run into each other in other cities in the green room because he's keynoting and I'm the MC. So wild, crazy journey. But it all started with me going, I I need to reach out to this person somehow, some way. And my only way to give to get to Forge that conversation was to interview him because he was a content machine, still is and love to be able to do that. So I always tell people if if you call someone and ask ask for something, it's a little more difficult. If you're trying to get a meeting with someone to do business with them, it's going to be a little more difficult if you're just asking. If you call and say, hey, listen, I want to have you on my podcast and I want to talk about you and stroke your ego and make it all about you. By default, you're building that relationship with the person and you're also building rapport, and they're more inclined to be able to stay in touch with you, you know, after that, after you talk to them. So exactly podcasting, where it's at. And I still feel like it's just getting started. The stuff's like seven.

SPEAKER_00 34:16

I know it's it's so funny. It's so funny that you say that. When I started my podcast two years ago, everybody was like, Don't you think podcasts is so saturated? It's too saturated or look at look at me now. I'm a freaking number one podcaster and one of the biggest podcasters that are on LinkedIn. And it's it's anything is possible, and it's not too late, even now in 2020.

SPEAKER_02 34:39

Yeah, but do you think there's too many podcasts? I go, there's only a million. They're like, a million. I go, there's 15 million YouTube creators. Do the math. I mean, it's it's plain and simple right there. But as far as like um I feel like it's just the infancy. I went in all I went all in with podcasting, having had a podcast about 10 years ago, or excuse me, four years ago, and launched the podcast launch lab because I had a friend challenge, had an internet radio station, and I'm like, How's that going? She's like, Oh, it's great. And I'm like, How do you know? And she goes, I don't.

SPEAKER_00 35:06

Yeah, internet radio was like this like lip of like waste of time. I did so much internet radio, it was a complete waste of time.

SPEAKER_02 35:14

Total. And I'm like, You should start a podcast. She's like, How do you do that? And I walked her down to her car. She had stopped by my office where she was recording the show at the station at the time. And she I walked her down to a car and she goes, You know what, Rusk? Why don't you start something to help people start a podcast? Like create a solution or like a course. And I'm like, I'm not creating a course. Like that's the that's the last thing the internet needs, another course. But I ran upstairs and I put the whole business plan together for the podcast launch lab. And it was actually on the fifth floor of this building. And then I came back four years later, rented a space on the sixth floor, converted into a studio, uh, and went all in uh with podcasts. Amazing, amazing crazy to see where the world of podcasts is at. My my dad was in radio for 29 years, and I don't really have like an awesome relationship with him, so it's not like I'm inspired by you, daddy. It wasn't that at all, but I grew up in a radio station uh by default because he would go uh sell the ad, come back to the station, record the ad. And I spent most of my childhood recording, you know, weekend ads on the radio. So I and then with with with the speaking and the MC stuff and and having a podcast, I thought, well, you know what, maybe. And I always wanted to, I've I've been trying to, I was trying to carve out that niche within the social world because I mean, let's face it, the lowest barrier of entry of any position out there right now is social media manager, you know, next to realtor and and and personal trainer. And I just not that those positions are bad at all, but I was designed for greatness. Come on, somebody. And um, and I knew that, and I just didn't know where I was gonna do, where how what how to segue into that. Now, I don't I I don't know if I define myself as greatness as of yet. I feel like I'm just getting started, but I think podcasting was that one thing that allowed me to find that really shine. Yeah, totally, totally the riches are in the niches, and I really believe that.

SPEAKER_00 36:56

And you've been doing it for a long time. I mean, like you're like an OG now.

SPEAKER_02 37:00

Well, I started three times. So that you talk about internet radio. We started with Blog Talk Radio, then that platform is garbage. So I had to uh I had to go elsewhere. So I stopped the show downtime. Then I got an AM radio show deal. Yay, AM radio here in Miami. Station manager came up, corner me one day, said I was talking about my brand too much and not about the radio station on AM radio, mind you. And uh I should be talking about selling more advertising. So um I threw the clipboard at him, told him to go talk about his own radio station, walked out and restarted my own podcast um again for the third time. And then when I launched the podcast launch lab, I'm like, who am I to sell a podcast to somebody when I don't have a podcast? So let's get consistent with it. And then I rebranded it to the Beyond the Story podcast.

SPEAKER_00 37:41

Oh, cool, cool.

SPEAKER_02 37:42

So it's been like a and I tell that story. I'm like, listen, my show is no raving success at all, but it's there and I make connections with people and I leverage the relationships that I've had um uh or that I experience through my through my travels and through my MC gigs and people that I meet at these amazing events that want to connect further. And a podcast is just such an amazing way uh to do that. I don't do you follow um Marie Forlio.

SPEAKER_00 38:05

I know of her. I do. She used to be like a CEO or something, right?

SPEAKER_02 38:09

Yeah, she was in the corporate world, stock trader, whole deal, trying to get you know, it was a tough, tough world for her to be taken seriously as a woman and eventually, you know, pivoted into launching her own brand and launched B school about 10 years ago and has put well over like, I don't know, 75,000 women through her program. But she's a total freaking absolute badass, and I'm a giant fan of hers. And I had a gig in San Diego, and sure enough, I was going down for a production meeting at 7 a.m. and I look over to the right, coming out of her door in like ripped jeans, shelter Adidas, and like a t-shirt, and like seven o'clock in the morning was her. And I go, shut the front door. And she's like, You're doing a good job up there with your bow tie, mister. I'm like, I'm doing a good job. Like, you're doing a good job at crushing life. And I'm like, Wow, we're gonna ride the elevator down anyway. I go, I reached out to you a couple years ago, asked you if I could get you on the podcast, and you told me no, which was total bullshit, and I think we should totally make that happen. She goes, you know what? We can totally make it happen. So um here's the here's the uh the contact you need to reach out to. So it just so happened, like at an event. That's awesome. I ended up connecting, but you just never know the people that you're gonna be able to have conversations with and be able to connect with and what's gonna happen from there.

SPEAKER_00 39:14

And I I think you bring up a great point. You never know unless you're gonna ask. Everybody always says, like, how are you able to get such huge guests on your podcast? Like, uh, and it's like, I just ask. I didn't decide that I needed to have like yeah, I didn't decide that like I just needed Joe Schmoe on my podcast. I said I decided I was gonna start with big authors and CEOs, and and then they see that other big authors and CEOs came on. So even before I had the downloads, it was more like a perception thing. Sure. And I just asked and made it happen, you know.

SPEAKER_02 39:42

I don't believe in fake it till you make it. I think that's the shittiest advice you could ever hear from someone or give someone, but I firmly believe in playing the part. And if you play the part long enough, you become the part and you act as if I moved back to it. When I first started, I didn't have any money and I didn't have a car. I didn't I'm a I was a single dad to a little girl, and uh, I was doing this all on my own with a skateboard and a bus pass. But you know what? I would stash my skateboard in the bushes and I would put my bow tie on and I would walk into that networking event at Morton's and and I would with my fake Rolex and just start having conversations with people and selling them the dream on where I'm this is where I'm at, but this is what I'm building and enrolling people into it. And I saw that opportunity there because people didn't know what Twitter was or Facebook. So even if I was like, well, who is this kid? It didn't matter who I was. My enthusiasm and energy was enough to draw them in. And the unknown of not of them not knowing what they don't know was was able to create value. So it's just an exciting time to be alive. Gary talks a lot about that. There's never been a more exciting time to be alive than right now. Technology, we are in the still in the midst of an incredible shift in the way that we communicate through podcasting, through video, through Zoom. And then you let's just throw a pandemic in the mix, and everyone was forced to adapt. So if you weren't embracing technology pre-COVID, you are 100% probably a technology enthusiast uh by now. So it's funny how that worked out. Did you see that podcast equipment sold out on Amazon like shortly after COVID hit?

SPEAKER_00 41:10

Yeah, I mean, so many new podcasts popped up after that, uh, which I think is funny. And then all of a sudden, I feel like the existing podcasters kind of like leveled up because there was there's been so many new podcasters out there that like I feel like that all the other podcasts that were already out kind of leveled up because we've got so much more experience and and content out there. Um, that's how I felt at least.

SPEAKER_02 41:32

I got on this LinkedIn kick about a year ago because I started seeing people crush it on LinkedIn and Gary kept saying, dude, LinkedIn, LinkedIn, LinkedIn, LinkedIn. I'm like, do you have stock in LinkedIn too? Because it's like every time he goes in on something, I there's not that he's has that hidden agenda by any means at all, but usually when he's going hog wild on something, there's a vested interest. Uh, and for a good reason, he usually ends up talking about it, but it wasn't. He's like, No, man, I'm telling you, this is going to be uh they're like a restart of an actual social media platform. It's not gonna just be resumes in business anymore. So I started getting interested in that, and there I started to discover um people that were LinkedIn influencers. And I think Shay Robottom was one of the first people that I came across. And I started to look a little bit further in it. And I'm like, oh my gosh, she's in Miami. So then I started to pursue her and reach out and get a hold of her, and I couldn't do it. And we linked up, but I couldn't get a hold of her and like get her on the horn to get her on the show. And I'm having coffee with a client of mine, and he's telling me, you know, I'm working with this LinkedIn influencer, it's local here in Miami. And I'm like, I don't know if you can tell me or not, because he was a coach and he said, um, and I said, Is her name Shay? He goes, Yeah, it is, totally is. And I'm like, I've been looking for her, like the DA looking for child support. And I want to get her on my show. And he goes, like, not a problem. So two days later, she texts me and she's like, Hey, what's up? You know Dom. If you know Dom, then we're all good. I I there's a tons of people, and I apologize for ignoring you. I just, it's very difficult to get back to everybody the whole nine. And I'm like, not a problem. I'm opening a podcast studio here in Miami. I'd love to have you as the first guest. So she came in at the end of February and we went and grabbed a drink after. And I was walking into her car and I said, A lot of things happen when I walk people to their car downstairs from my studio. I don't know what it is. Monumental moments, but I said, uh, you know, you should really start a podcast. And she's like, Yeah, I got a lot going on with my LinkedIn and LinkedIn. And two months later calls me and she goes, You know what? I'm a LinkedIn marketer and I create content and I teach people how to do all this stuff, but I have a story to tell that I haven't told. And it's not just about narcissism and LinkedIn marketing and all the other depression and things I talked about. It's my gnarly childhood and the journey that I had as a child and a traumatic most traumatic childhood that people can even begin to imagine. And I'm like, that's unfortunate. I'm sorry. Thanks for sharing that with me. And she goes, No, I want to start a podcast and tell the whole story, and you're gonna help me launch the podcast and ended up hiring me to start.

SPEAKER_00 43:43

Amazing. That's amazing.

SPEAKER_02 43:45

But the power of the the power of I do have to brag about Shay because she's freaking awesome. I don't know if you're connected with her, you know Shay or not, but um it's funny.

SPEAKER_00 43:53

I we we are friends with all the same people, but uh we're not friends yet.

SPEAKER_02 43:57

Yeah, yeah, it's it's I mean, it's there's a lot of noise out there. tough to tough tough to connect on here but um every time she mentions something about me producing the podcast we still produce a show and we launched it too people come out of the woodwork and like for good reason some you know for the most part people reach out and they're like hey I saw show Shay's podcast and you were the one that launched it I want to start a podcast say no more let's go and it's not like your normal like qualification process that other people's are edifying you based on the work that you've done and that's totally that we're that that we're living in here so I'll have to we did a skit video a few months back called Things Podcasters say I'll have to send it over to you it was hysterical.

SPEAKER_00 44:35

I'm sure I'd love it that's awesome you know kudos to you for working with her and launching her podcast um I think it's doing well so that's great.

SPEAKER_02 44:45

5,000 downloads the first day oh nice yeah she's got a great following absolute 100 like cult following like it's it was funny we got to do we we I showed we shot the the um the uh skit video at her house and I show up there all prepared thinking like we're gonna shoot this skit video and she's like so you're not gonna be in it and I'm like she's like you gotta realize dude like my community wants me and I'm like okay cool but we can like we can meet me halfway like a cameo screenshot at the end with a call to action she goes done but it's funny that it's it's all about knowing your audience right she goes I listen I know what works and what doesn't work and I was like I totally believe you she's like I've tried a couple of different times and my network wants me and I said for good reason on here but uh it was so funny and I really didn't care because I didn't know it was going into it side unseen she's like the skit girl and it was fun to see how that thing like came unc unpacked and I ended up filming it for her but it's it you know skit videos come to life with several takes of the same line and I didn't even think about that. I always think oh I'm gonna say it this way no let's do it again but she would say something over and over and over again like four times and go okay cool we got it let's go move on to the next one and I thought gosh that was so cool how that ended up coming together. But yeah LinkedIn is uh wow and I hope it stays that way I think this was a good investment for Microsoft and I think that they've got the ability to make sure that it is going to be a success.

SPEAKER_00 46:12

I mean it's been around LinkedIn was truly the first social media platform I think they were right before MySpace like oh wow I didn't realize that yeah I hope so too I hope the organic reach stays the way that it is because it it's really helpful for me I've grown such a big brand just off of LinkedIn. Are you exclusively on LinkedIn or do you utilize Facebook and I use Instagram and I'm getting more focused into YouTube but LinkedIn is really where I put most of my chips I'm just now like starting to do more Instagram.

SPEAKER_02 46:40

Right right right so I I've just I've Facebook and the same thing Facebook and Instagram and then mainly LinkedIn LinkedIn's about consistency. You know it's crazy I'll post something and get like 30 likes and then I'll send Shay a link and be like hey can you do me a solid and she'll go comment and it'll get 5,000 likes and views on it from one comment it's my mind by like are you understanding this if you're watching this right now like Shay's a friend of mine with a giant following and I just ask her to comment on my post and it explodes my post. So if you're wondering how the algorithm works on LinkedIn nobody really knows. But you being consistent and and and engaging on other content is just because I don't know that Facebook totally and it it really helps when an influencer comments on on your post.

SPEAKER_00 47:23

That's why people have all these engagement pods and things like that.

SPEAKER_02 47:25

So right right right right right well we uh we're we're out of time here I know that I said we're gonna chat for 30 minutes and here we are 45 minutes in but it was a great conversation that exactly the conversation's happening here why try and disrupt it that's the that's the best part about you know this world and making new connections on here uh and I do the same thing you get people on the podcast I'd love to know more by the way side note about what you're doing with the podcast marketing stuff because we help people with one-on-one not the end part of actually getting the show and and going it we there's plans to be able to do that but I'd rather align myself with people that are already doing it know what's going on there so we'll have to have a conversation offline I have to have you come back to the show uh too I I feel young uh and profitable so I'd love to be on yours too uh at my ripe age of 21 I feel 25 so awesome well it was so nice to chat with you so much great to chat with you too where can all of our followers connect with you obviously LinkedIn is the best place correct yeah you can search for my name it's Halla Taha I'm on Instagram at Yap with Hala and then check out Young and Profiting podcast uh you'll find us everywhere uh Apple, Spotify Google Play the whole nine uh just search young and profiting and Google and you'll you'll find it fantastic hey and listen if you're following you're connecting with Halla and you hear her podcast make sure you're leaving a review if you see one of her posts on LinkedIn or on Instagram say hey hey I saw you on the Beyond the Story podcast with Sebastian and engage with her. She's very engaging with her content and her community she doesn't abandon them. She's very very interactive and look at everything you got going on full-time job and still has the side hustle going with a team of 30. So if you're not pursuing your dreams if you are running after your dreams and pursuing them right now and you're not seeing the results that Halla is seeing right now you're not running fast enough. Okay I'll leave it all with you right there. I think that's a great uh end note to be on Halla. I appreciate your time I know we had some scheduling logistics uh on both of our calendars here so I really appreciate you taking time out of your busy day and making it happen to be on the show. And will you come back soon?

SPEAKER_00 49:18

Of course Sebastian thank you so much.

SPEAKER_02 49:20

Thanks again Holla friends thanks so much for tuning into this episode of the Beyond the Story Podcast be sure to appreciate it. If you haven't done so already make sure you're subscribed to the show this way you'll get updates as new episodes become available. If you feel so inclined please leave us a review be sure to appreciate it. Signing off from the podcast launchlab.com studios we'll talk to you next time