Transcripts
welcome to the mesmerizing marketing podcast, where we take a deep dive
Speaker:into the latest marketing trends, tools, and tips, and provide you with
Speaker:the top resources you need to thrive and make your marketing mesmerizing.
Speaker:And now here's your host.
Speaker:Dimple.
Speaker:Dang.
Speaker:hello everyone today.
Speaker:I am so excited to have Hala Taha, who is the princess of podcasting on
Speaker:the mesmerizing marketing podcast.
Speaker:And we are so excited to welcome this princess.
Speaker:Although I almost wanna call her a queen, cuz she is definitely a seasoned
Speaker:PODER and she's got one of the.
Speaker:Podcast out there.
Speaker:And let me tell you a little bit more about Hala.
Speaker:She is one of the biggest influencers on LinkedIn and her podcast, which is
Speaker:called young and profiting is the number one trending podcast in the education
Speaker:category on charitable also abbreviated as yap for young and profiting.
Speaker:She has gotten over 3 million download.
Speaker:On all platforms.
Speaker:And she has interviewed celebrity guests, such as Matthew McConaughy,
Speaker:Deepak Chopra, Seth Godin, mark Manson, Ryan, sir, hunt, and more.
Speaker:So you definitely wanna make sure that you subscribe to her podcast as
Speaker:well before you finish listening to this episode and you might as well.
Speaker:Subscribe to the me izing marketing podcast as well.
Speaker:And if you've been thinking of launching your own podcast, make sure you check
Speaker:the show notes for my next launch, your podcast masterclass, so that
Speaker:you can also have a show like we do.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So Hala, it's such an honor and pleasure to have you on the show.
Speaker:Welcome.
Speaker:I'm super excited to interview you.
Speaker:This is so amazing.
Speaker:Welcome.
Speaker:I'm very excited as well.
Speaker:Please tell the audience.
Speaker:I'm sure most people know who you are, but we always get the new listeners who
Speaker:might be like, who is this amazing woman?
Speaker:So give us a brief intro.
Speaker:Sure.
Speaker:So my name is Haah.
Speaker:I am the CEO of yap media and the host of young and profiting.
Speaker:And I've been nicknamed the podcast princess.
Speaker:And you know, I'm gonna ask you for the audience.
Speaker:How did you get that nickname?
Speaker:The podcast princess.
Speaker:Oh, I got that nickname from podcast magazine.
Speaker:I got on the cover and they coined me the Palestinian podcast princess.
Speaker:And then people started just calling me the podcast princess and I liked the name.
Speaker:And so I started referencing myself that way too.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:And it is a title well earned and well deserved.
Speaker:So I absolutely love that.
Speaker:And let's go back in the day.
Speaker:Let's talk about when you first thought about the idea
Speaker:of launching your own podcast.
Speaker:How did that all come about?
Speaker:I wanna hear the story behind it.
Speaker:What was your inspiration behind it?
Speaker:Sure.
Speaker:So I started young and profiting podcast in April of 2018.
Speaker:And at the time I was working corporate at Hewlett Packard, but I
Speaker:actually started my career in radio.
Speaker:I started my career at hot 97, the world's number one, hip hop and R V station.
Speaker:And that's where I first grew my love.
Speaker:Of podcasting.
Speaker:And, and that was back when I was 19 years old, I worked there for free for
Speaker:three years and I always had that love.
Speaker:I had lots of online radio shows throughout the year.
Speaker:So I would host with my friends and other up and coming DJs I'd
Speaker:have different online radio shows and interview music artists I've
Speaker:interviewed like soldier, boy, fabulous.
Speaker:This was.
Speaker:Pre young and profiting.
Speaker:And I used to even have a YouTube show at one point pre young and profiting.
Speaker:And so I was always into that kind of thing.
Speaker:And even when I was in corporate and I thought I would never get back on
Speaker:a mic, I was the girl that was like interviewing the CEO for the town hall
Speaker:and like still doing the same type stuff, just in a different way, translating
Speaker:my skills into a different way.
Speaker:And then.
Speaker:I didn't get an opportunity that I really wanted a Hewlett Packard.
Speaker:It was this volunteer organization that I was working in for two years and
Speaker:they didn't give me the opportunity.
Speaker:And that triggered me to want to start something new that I owned,
Speaker:where there was no gatekeeper that I could control and grow as I wish.
Speaker:And that's why I started young and profiting podcast.
Speaker:I love that you created your own path when there was none.
Speaker:Because sometimes people get discouraged and they just wanna give
Speaker:up instead of like finding a way.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And I feel like I wanna go back to even like, way, way back in the day
Speaker:when you were five years old, if you can remember when you were five,
Speaker:I have a feeling that you were.
Speaker:Very entrepreneurial and very inspired to do your own thing even back then.
Speaker:So can you talk to us a little bit about the childhood and what
Speaker:you were doing while you were growing up besides going to school?
Speaker:Of course.
Speaker:So I was always the type of person who loved to put on a show.
Speaker:So there's a big joke in my family that I sang before.
Speaker:Spoke and I was always singing.
Speaker:I actually wanted to be a singer when I was older and I was always a hustler.
Speaker:I always wanted to work.
Speaker:I came from a family of doctors, everybody in my family is doctors, my
Speaker:siblings, all my cousins, my uncles, my dad, like everybody was a doctor.
Speaker:And you were kind of expected to just study, study, study and work
Speaker:after you graduated med school.
Speaker:And like your job was to.
Speaker:Become a doctor or maybe a lawyer or an engineer, but like the whole idea
Speaker:was to do well in school and not worry about any extracurricular activities
Speaker:and just study and go to med school.
Speaker:And for me, I was never like that.
Speaker:I demanded to work.
Speaker:Since I was 13 years old, I would even before that set up shop at the park.
Speaker:And like when everybody was in summer camp at the park, tried to sell
Speaker:stuff to like the other kids, whether that was bracelets or slushies.
Speaker:And I would put everybody to work and I was always this
Speaker:like little entrepreneurial.
Speaker:Spirit that would recruit other people to help me create a business.
Speaker:Like that was always my thing since I was a little girl.
Speaker:And so, yeah, I mean the beauty of life is that you just layer on skills
Speaker:and experiences and, and you use your skills in unique ways as you
Speaker:get older and get more experienced.
Speaker:And I kind of have just leveraged that kind of mentality.
Speaker:My whole.
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:That's amazing.
Speaker:And at the time were you thinking like, Hey, I wanna go to college
Speaker:and what did you wanna become?
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Because you knew that you're like, well, I don't know if I'm willing to go
Speaker:the doctor route or the lawyer route, but what was your dream like job?
Speaker:So to appease my parents, I decided I was gonna go to N G I T.
Speaker:And that was a school in New Jersey and I would study how to make makeup.
Speaker:And so my first degree was.
Speaker:Being organic chemistry.
Speaker:It was.
Speaker:And I want, I wanted to make makeup and be an influencer that way, but my real
Speaker:passion and what I wanted to do, like as my dream was to become a famous singer.
Speaker:And so when I was in school around 19 years old, I fell in
Speaker:love with the law of attraction.
Speaker:And when I really got into.
Speaker:And started to believe in myself and really believed that life was
Speaker:limitless and let go of the beliefs that like my parents and my family
Speaker:kind of trained me to have in terms of like expectations of life.
Speaker:Then I was like, oh, I'm gonna be a famous singer and be famous.
Speaker:And, and then I got the internship at hot 97 and like all these crazy
Speaker:things almost got shown MTV, all the, all these things happened, like
Speaker:in my early twenties, because I had shifted my mindset at one point.
Speaker:But to answer your question, I originally went to school to be.
Speaker:A chemist and to make makeup, cuz it, I thought it was the funnest thing
Speaker:that my parents would allow me to do.
Speaker:that is interesting.
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Makeup is fun.
Speaker:I mean we, girls love our makeup of course.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And here you are today and I mean, you are definitely thriving, but of course
Speaker:people only see where you are today and along the way, there's a lot of adversity.
Speaker:There's a lot of struggles that come up.
Speaker:And if you think back to your journey of becoming a podcaster of
Speaker:starting your own media company, what adversity did you face?
Speaker:Like is there something that stands out and how did you overcome that?
Speaker:Yeah, 100%.
Speaker:I mean, I feel like I've faced so many adversities in my life and so many
Speaker:rejections and failures, everybody, to your point, they see the highlight reel.
Speaker:They see 10, 12 years later after all the hard work, the blood, sweat, and tears.
Speaker:So in terms of the adversity, I.
Speaker:Number one is nine 11, right?
Speaker:I'm Arab American.
Speaker:I'm Palestinian American.
Speaker:Even since I was a little girl just being Palestinian, my, my
Speaker:nationality is controversial and I remember being a little girl growing
Speaker:up in a white and Jewish school and going over to my friend's house.
Speaker:And I thought that I was just a normal kid and they'd be like, where are you from?
Speaker:And I'd say, Palestine.
Speaker:Palestine doesn't exist.
Speaker:Like, what are you even talking about?
Speaker:Like adults would say this to me as like a seven, eight year old girl.
Speaker:And so just all those little things add up.
Speaker:I remember being, and I'm only thinking about this because I wrote a post
Speaker:about this the other day on LinkedIn.
Speaker:I remember being at maybe like first day of school, you know,
Speaker:first grade or second grade.
Speaker:And I'm announcing my name to the kids that I'm about to spend the next 10
Speaker:years with 12 years of some of my life.
Speaker:What's your name?
Speaker:Oh, my name is hella, right?
Speaker:That's how you actually say my name in Arabic.
Speaker:And I remember the gym teacher was like, hell as in hell, like hella as in hell.
Speaker:and then like, one of the girls who was friends with me was
Speaker:like, no, hella as in helicopter.
Speaker:And then like, she was like, and it's just so funny because like you remember those
Speaker:things and it's those things that, that you remember in terms of like, just the
Speaker:little adversities, just even my name.
Speaker:I remember it was so hard for me to get a job after college
Speaker:because of my name and wow.
Speaker:Actually, if I got the interview where if my picture was on it.
Speaker:I would get the call back, but if there was no picture of me and
Speaker:they just saw my name, they would assume, I didn't know English, or I
Speaker:looked weird or I didn't look like them, or they couldn't relate to me.
Speaker:And so all my resumes have a picture on them.
Speaker:Otherwise I would be discriminated against just because my name is strange.
Speaker:And by the way, why do I go by Haah now?
Speaker:Because I was made fun of, of when I was a kid, just because of my name.
Speaker:So adversities, I think mostly have to do with my ethnicity, honestly.
Speaker:And like the setbacks that I.
Speaker:Based on prejudices that other people had about Arabic people.
Speaker:I think the main point of my adversity, other than just like rejection from people
Speaker:along the way, gatekeepers telling me no, you know, not getting opportunities
Speaker:that I deserved being a minority woman in general, I think was my biggest adversity.
Speaker:Yeah, because racism, it was really prevalent.
Speaker:They're like, no, you can't have this opportunity because we looked
Speaker:at your name, scratch next re.
Speaker:Resume or next, whatever, but then you put your photo there.
Speaker:They're like, oh, she's beautiful.
Speaker:She's attractive.
Speaker:And if you were like, say, if it was a sales job, they're
Speaker:like, oh, she'll do well.
Speaker:And again, that's like this constant judgment that we get from, from the world.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And even in corporate America, They're judging all the time and, they're
Speaker:playing favorites and they're giving promotions to people who maybe just
Speaker:kissed up to the boss and it wasn't really because they deserved it.
Speaker:Mm-hmm . And, and I know, like, I know you've experienced that as, as
Speaker:well, and it happens all the time.
Speaker:And, going back to when you were working in corporate at all these big brand name
Speaker:companies like Disney and Hewlett and other companies, what was your opinion
Speaker:of the whole corporate America thing?
Speaker:Did you ever say to yourself, you know, I don't like the way they run things.
Speaker:I don't like that.
Speaker:Literally they act like they own you.
Speaker:I don't want any part of this anymore.
Speaker:Like what was going through your mind?
Speaker:Yeah, I mean, my first leg of corporate and I entered corporate pretty late
Speaker:because before corporate, I was working at a radio station and then I had a.
Speaker:Blog site and was hosting parties and concerts.
Speaker:And so like I started my career very late, but when I did start my corporate
Speaker:career, I started at Hewlett Packard and I actually loved their company culture.
Speaker:And I really thrived.
Speaker:And I remember being in my corporate career, starting late and thinking
Speaker:that I was gonna be so behind everybody who had started their career earlier.
Speaker:But because I had learned everything on the internet,
Speaker:I was really digitally savvy.
Speaker:I was so much more technically advanced, especially in things like
Speaker:social media, which was like so hot when I first started corporate that
Speaker:like, I just skyrocketed in my career and I got promoted left and right.
Speaker:But the thing is Hewlett Packard was the CEO at the time was a woman.
Speaker:So it was a very like open culture.
Speaker:Like women were really respected and treated like leaders and everything
Speaker:was kind of like fair game gender wise.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And also like, HP was just like open minded in terms of like
Speaker:cultural differences and, and people were really trained on like how
Speaker:to deal with like discrimination and all those kind of things.
Speaker:So I just feel like the company culture was actually conducive to have
Speaker:like a minority woman thrive in it.
Speaker:And I did, I, I really thrived at Hewlett Packard.
Speaker:I ended up leaving because I didn't get some opportunity that.
Speaker:HR director didn't give me because of a personal issue with me.
Speaker:Not necessarily like, just like wider, circumstances happening when
Speaker:I went to Disney, that's when I actually decided to start a side
Speaker:hustle that was other than my podcast.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Media, my agency that actually like enabled me to quit my job and like
Speaker:start making enough money to actually build an empire that I built with.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Media.
Speaker:Disney triggered me to do that.
Speaker:And that's because when I went to Disney, it was a total boys
Speaker:club and it was so obvious.
Speaker:I was there for two years.
Speaker:Imagine I was at Hewlett Packard and getting promoted every six months.
Speaker:I was like leading people twice my age, like I was given so
Speaker:much respect and responsibility.
Speaker:I go to Disney and like, they're literally treating me like an intern.
Speaker:That's how I felt, even though I was such a high, well paid job, but I felt
Speaker:like I was treating like an intern.
Speaker:I was seeing like men that were younger than me, like
Speaker:getting promoted over me and.
Speaker:All these boys, like hanging out with VPs and stuff like that.
Speaker:And me not getting invited to the bar and like all those kind of things.
Speaker:And like just getting passed up for opportunity.
Speaker:Didn't get promoted in two years and then COVID hit.
Speaker:And I started yeah.
Speaker:Media and it like took off immediately.
Speaker:And I was like, well, I'm out of this shit hole.
Speaker:Like , I'm not gonna waste my time.
Speaker:I know my worth.
Speaker:And so I just left.
Speaker:So had I stated huah Packard, I might.
Speaker:Stayed until I became CEO.
Speaker:Like that was what I felt at Hewlett Packard at Disney.
Speaker:I was like, this is not for me.
Speaker:I'm not being valued.
Speaker:I don't see any sort of pathway to anything extremely extraordinary.
Speaker:And I want to be extraordinary in my life, so I can't stay here.
Speaker:And I figured I was really getting some momentum with the
Speaker:podcast and I leveraged that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I really love that because some people, they just get comfortable
Speaker:and they get complacent and they're just like, you know, I have a job.
Speaker:It pays a paycheck every two weeks and they just stay whether they're happy or
Speaker:not, whether they're fulfilled or not.
Speaker:And, and I love that you unapologetically said, listen, I'm not gonna stay.
Speaker:I am better than this.
Speaker:I'm gonna be able to accomplish way more on my own.
Speaker:And I'm outta here, like byebye, see you later, you know, and, I
Speaker:think that takes courage.
Speaker:It really, really does.
Speaker:And I think a lot of people stay in opportunities.
Speaker:They stay in relationships because they don't have the courage to
Speaker:leave, or they don't have that belief and confidence in themselves.
Speaker:That's so important when you're like, Going out to venture to
Speaker:do something on your own, right?
Speaker:Because for you, I'm sure that was the first time you're starting a company of
Speaker:your own, if that had to be an exciting experience, but it also had to be a little
Speaker:bit of a scary experience and, and nerve wracking and listening to some of your
Speaker:other interviews, Heather Mohan, she was the one that put the idea in your
Speaker:head and said she saw something in you.
Speaker:And she gave you that little push, just that little push that you needed.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And now.
Speaker:You've got such a successful media company and I'm gonna let you
Speaker:tell me a little bit about that.
Speaker:And I wanna dig a little deeper after that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:100%.
Speaker:So Heather Monahan did encourage me to start my business.
Speaker:So when I started younger profiting podcast, just to like back up,
Speaker:so I, I started this podcast.
Speaker:The podcast in, in itself is a business now, right?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I get sponsorships and it's its own company in itself.
Speaker:And when I first started the podcast, I literally thought
Speaker:that I would never make a dollar.
Speaker:I didn't even understand the podcast business model, even two and a half
Speaker:years ago, when clubhouse first started, I was touting on clubhouse.
Speaker:You can't make a business out of a podcast.
Speaker:Like that's a pipe dream.
Speaker:You know, now I realize like, no, it's not, you can definitely make
Speaker:a business out of just podcasting if you know what you're doing.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And if you understand the business behind podcasting, but regardless,
Speaker:I had pure intentions when I first started and I always thought that
Speaker:it was just gonna be a hobby now.
Speaker:One thing that I did want, and that I did put out there and knew
Speaker:that would eventually happen.
Speaker:I knew that it would eventually be a company, but I thought I was gonna
Speaker:have a podcast network, which I do now, but I didn't realize there was gonna
Speaker:be this step of an agency in between, which eventually I think my agency is
Speaker:just gonna almost power my network.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And so.
Speaker:This marketing agency was birthed from the fact that I had
Speaker:grown my influence on LinkedIn.
Speaker:And I was really standing out with innovative videos and audiograms, and
Speaker:was one of the first podcasters that was utilizing video, especially on LinkedIn.
Speaker:I be quickly became one of the biggest podcasters on LinkedIn and
Speaker:Heather Monahan came on my show.
Speaker:And when Heather came on my show, we hit it off.
Speaker:It wasn't anything that special, but what happened was, is she was a huge influencer
Speaker:on LinkedIn, maybe three times my size.
Speaker:And she would constantly comment on my videos and she'd be like,
Speaker:ha, I need you to do my videos.
Speaker:Ha when, when am I, when are you gonna teach me how to do this?
Speaker:Ha how are you making those, these videos?
Speaker:I wanna chat.
Speaker:So I was like, Okay, Heather, we can talk at the time my dad
Speaker:was in the hospital COVID it was a really hard time in my life.
Speaker:I was actually at my parents' house.
Speaker:I'd left my boyfriend's house in Brooklyn and was basically
Speaker:quarantined at my parents' house.
Speaker:I got COVID myself.
Speaker:My dad was in the hospital and.
Speaker:Nobody wanted to hang out with me for like three months, because it was just when
Speaker:COVID happened, this was may of 20, 20.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:And everybody was very afraid of COVID.
Speaker:It was actually April of, of 2020.
Speaker:And everybody was really afraid of COVID.
Speaker:And so nobody was hanging out with me.
Speaker:And so I had all this time stuck at my parents' house and Heather was like,
Speaker:trained me to do it is I'm like, sure.
Speaker:I have nothing better to do.
Speaker:I'll train you how to do videos.
Speaker:We had a call and I was showing her around.
Speaker:I showed her my slack channel.
Speaker:At the time I had volunteers and interns who were just
Speaker:working on the show for free.
Speaker:I have a little knack of recruiting teams like we discussed earlier.
Speaker:And so I literally had maybe 15 to 20 people in a slack channel
Speaker:that were volunteers and interns helping me with the show.
Speaker:Maybe it was less, maybe it was like 15 at the time.
Speaker:And then.
Speaker:Heather looked at all my stuff.
Speaker:My slack channels files my headliner, my Canva templates.
Speaker:And I taught her what I was doing and showed her around.
Speaker:And she was like, Hola.
Speaker:Like, this is better than Vayner media.
Speaker:I just had a call with Vayner media.
Speaker:And this is more impressive.
Speaker:If not, just as good as what Vayner media is doing.
Speaker:Like, I want you to start.
Speaker:Making my content.
Speaker:I want you to manage my LinkedIn.
Speaker:And I was like, whoa, whoa.
Speaker:I don't think I could do that.
Speaker:I have a full time job.
Speaker:I have a career, but I can start with your videos.
Speaker:And so she started paying us like 700 bucks a month, like 500 to
Speaker:700 bucks a month, nothing big.
Speaker:And then it ended up.
Speaker:Taking over all of her LinkedIn then taking over all of her podcasts, her
Speaker:Instagram, and then we just landed client after client, after client.
Speaker:And it was actually my podcast that became my lead generation tool.
Speaker:And so whether people invited me on their podcast and then it became my.
Speaker:Client like Jason Waller, who happens to be a billionaire.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:See, that was the only one that that ever happened.
Speaker:And then it's usually the guests that come on my show and like Kara
Speaker:golden, the CEO of Hintwater Brian Scudamore the CEO of 1-800-GOT-JUNK.
Speaker:Kim par, Alex Carter, the, the world's number one negotiator for females.
Speaker:Marshall Goldsmiths is my client.
Speaker:He's a huge author.
Speaker:I manage all of his social channels.
Speaker:So basically we.
Speaker:Kept landing, bestselling, author CEO, high ticket, social
Speaker:media and podcast services.
Speaker:And it just grew overnight, six months into it.
Speaker:I had 30 employees around the world.
Speaker:I have a creative team in Philippines, an ops team in India, my social
Speaker:team and production teams in the us.
Speaker:And six months into it.
Speaker:I was still at Disney.
Speaker:Still not promoted, even though I really worked just as hard as at
Speaker:Disney while I was working at the company, I just had no commute.
Speaker:And a lot of extra time, I, I had 30 employees by the time I decided to quit.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:And full time us employees, by the time I decided to quit, I was that safe with
Speaker:everything I really waited until there was really no risk, even though being an
Speaker:entrepreneur in itself is, is very risky.
Speaker:I've learned yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:It seems like you definitely have the building a team.
Speaker:Down to the core.
Speaker:And I wanna dive into that a little bit.
Speaker:So for, our listeners who are maybe in the process of trying to build out
Speaker:their own teams right now, first of all,
Speaker:. You know, in terms of getting interns,
Speaker:Do they go look at a college website?
Speaker:Who do they ask for like talk to us about the intern part of it first?
Speaker:Yeah, sure.
Speaker:So when it came to my intern program, I really just put out a solicit online.
Speaker:And typically what I do is.
Speaker:I give them a stipend, a monthly stipend for working as an intern.
Speaker:When I first started, we weren't making any money and it was just
Speaker:all volunteers to be transparent.
Speaker:Nobody was making any money.
Speaker:So it wasn't weird.
Speaker:And if anything, it was way easier to keep that team motivated and excited
Speaker:and everything like that, because we were just all working towards
Speaker:giving back towards a common mission.
Speaker:And it was me teaching everyone how to have really valuable skills and
Speaker:me working very, very, very hard.
Speaker:And.
Speaker:The dynamic was just like, let's learn from Hala and
Speaker:support this mission for wider.
Speaker:Good.
Speaker:And then once we were actually getting money, it was a whole different story.
Speaker:Then it's like, everybody's on payroll, everyone's getting a stipend.
Speaker:It's more official, right.
Speaker:Because it's actually a company now.
Speaker:So in terms of getting interned, we would put out solicits on LinkedIn.
Speaker:That's where I grew my following.
Speaker:And so I would just hop on video and be like, what's up everybody.
Speaker:We have.
Speaker:Quarterly internship program.
Speaker:I'm gonna teach you how to do X, Y, and Z.
Speaker:And the way that it works is that if you do a good job after three or
Speaker:four months, you basically have full time job ready for you, especially
Speaker:if you're like a senior in college or something, because we're a service
Speaker:based business, a social media agency.
Speaker:As soon as I get a new client, I usually have to hire more people.
Speaker:So I love having interns that get trained and, you know, we
Speaker:teach them valuable skills.
Speaker:They can either.
Speaker:Get a job with me or they'll be trained up to go get a job somewhere else.
Speaker:So it's a beautiful program and internships are amazing.
Speaker:Now what's surprising is that a lot of people don't care about college credit.
Speaker:I offer it, but a lot of them don't even want it.
Speaker:And a lot of the people that I interned are actually people who graduated
Speaker:school and they couldn't get a job.
Speaker:I was able to give them the skills that they needed to get
Speaker:a job, whether it was me with me or someone else that is amazing.
Speaker:I mean, that's a win-win for both parties and especially for them
Speaker:because they have options, right.
Speaker:They can come work for you if they want.
Speaker:And if, if they don't, they can take those skills and they can get
Speaker:a position somewhere else, but it's really valuable use of their time.
Speaker:So I think that's amazing that, you know, Did that.
Speaker:And then in terms of even hiring like teams from all over the world, right.
Speaker:You've got some in India, some in the Philippines, how did
Speaker:you, build out these teams?
Speaker:Like how did you find them and could have been again, could be
Speaker:in LinkedIn cuz you really, you know, had a big presence there.
Speaker:I'm just curious if it was LinkedIn, if it was something else.
Speaker:Yeah, 100%.
Speaker:So I did start, I guess, with LinkedIn.
Speaker:And everything that I did was building small one step at a time.
Speaker:So my creative team in the Philippines, which is now like 25, plus people
Speaker:all started with one video editor.
Speaker:And I remember I had this service.
Speaker:This is actually a really funny story.
Speaker:I was using this service called video Husky and.
Speaker:I didn't have anybody that was hired at this point.
Speaker:I just had my volunteers, but like, nobody really knew how
Speaker:to video edit, except for me.
Speaker:And that's like a really hard skill to train.
Speaker:I would try and like, nobody would do it good enough.
Speaker:And so I eventually needed to outsource that.
Speaker:And so I looked to this company called video Husky, which apparently had.
Speaker:Unlimited video editing.
Speaker:This is before I had an agency, it was just my podcast.
Speaker:And so I wanted to do like two, three videos a week and apparently
Speaker:unlimited video editing is just one video a week or so it was something
Speaker:ridiculous and it was $700 a month.
Speaker:And, and they ended up firing me as a client, cuz they said that
Speaker:I was too demanding and they.
Speaker:Said to me, you should go get your own team.
Speaker:You need your own team.
Speaker:And so I was like, all right.
Speaker:So I literally went on LinkedIn and I went and I poached their video editors.
Speaker:You can actually go on LinkedIn and you can see people who work for a company.
Speaker:So I went to video Husky and I found the girl who I was working
Speaker:with and she got laid off.
Speaker:The girl that was doing my videos was amazing.
Speaker:Got laid off.
Speaker:And I reached out to her and I was like, Hey, I was wondering
Speaker:if you're looking for a job.
Speaker:And she's like, actually I just got laid off from video Husky.
Speaker:And I was like, wow, how much were they paying you?
Speaker:And she was like $550 a month.
Speaker:And I was like, cool, I'll pay you 700.
Speaker:And so instead of doing one video a week, I started doing like four
Speaker:or five videos a day with her.
Speaker:And then she ended up training the next, like, as we were growing,
Speaker:she would train the next person and they were doing videos and graphics.
Speaker:And then eventually I got just graphic designers.
Speaker:Then my team in the Philippines started helping me recruit
Speaker:other people in the Philippines.
Speaker:And then I met my creative director, Trish on clubhouse who's from
Speaker:the Philippines and she's like a, more of a higher up executive.
Speaker:And she runs my entire creative team.
Speaker:And took it off my hands after I built it up to like 10 people, then Trish took
Speaker:it and now it's even bigger and better.
Speaker:And like so many different roles at that team.
Speaker:And it's just crazy.
Speaker:It all started with one video editor who I was like, Hey, like they're screwing you.
Speaker:I'll give you a job and let's do this.
Dimple:I love that.
Dimple:You're just such a badass.
Dimple:I mean, I absolutely love that because it just like, it
Dimple:just makes me so happy to see.
Dimple:You're like, you know what?
Dimple:Okay, well you told me to start my own thing.
Dimple:I will.
Dimple:And I'm actually gonna take your people with me.
Dimple:And then I started, I got so many of their employees who on their own guard come and
Dimple:work for us and I'm like, sure, you could.
Dimple:I know you're well trained.
Dimple:Let's do this.
Dimple:I'm sure they hated you.
Dimple:they hated you.
Dimple:They're like who is this woman?
Dimple:Okay.
Dimple:She's beautiful.
Dimple:And she's smart, but wow.
Dimple:She's also dangerous.
Dimple:You have to watch out for this one because you come in and, and if you say
Dimple:something to her, she will literally.
Dimple:Take it and run with it where, you know, if they said that to somebody
Dimple:else, they'd be like, okay, whatever.
Dimple:Right.
Dimple:But it, it seems like every time someone's told you no in
Dimple:life, you're like, hell yeah.
Dimple:You know, like, hell yeah, like I'm gonna do this.
Dimple:And it just seems like that almost like drives you internally.
Dimple:Like, am I right?
Dimple:Like, is there this internal thing in you where somebody tells you no.
Dimple:You're like, hell yeah.
Dimple:It's not really somebody telling me no, it's more that I don't sit on
Dimple:rejection and like wallow in rejection and decide that somebody else's opinion
Dimple:of where I ought to be or belong.
Dimple:Isn't the truth.
Dimple:Right.
Dimple:And so I just know that like my power is in me and you're not gonna stop me.
Dimple:No one person telling me no is gonna stop me.
Dimple:So it's not necessarily like you told me no.
Dimple:So I'm gonna do it.
Dimple:It's more like, I know I'm gonna do it no matter who tells me no in the
Dimple:process, you know, Yeah, exactly.
Dimple:Love that.
Dimple:with that, with like success too, like when you're on the way up and
Dimple:you know, you're just growing and growing and growing, I think a lot
Dimple:of stuff happens along the way.
Dimple:And sometimes like people who you think are your friends
Dimple:are not really your friends.
Dimple:And then you get maybe haters that are out there, like.
Dimple:How did you handle all of that?
Dimple:Because, I mean, it happens to everyone, so I can imagine it it's probably
Dimple:happened to you as well, but how did you deal with the haters, the naysayers
Dimple:or the friends that are like, because they're jealous now, all of a sudden.
Dimple:They're criticizing what you're doing, cuz they don't understand it.
Dimple:They don't understand podcasting cuz they've never had a podcast.
Dimple:They don't understand running a media agency cuz they don't have a media agency.
Dimple:Maybe they still work in corporate.
Dimple:And even if I've had people like that, it's like, oh I was making Instagram
Dimple:reels and they were working in corporate and they never knew anything about it.
Dimple:They didn't understand it.
Dimple:So instead of like understanding, they were like criticizing.
Dimple:Right.
Dimple:I remember.
Dimple:One day, it was like a Tuesday morning, 9:00 AM.
Dimple:And I get this message on Instagram.
Dimple:And it's this girl that I know, that's a friend of a friend, so
Dimple:I've known her for many years.
Dimple:I'd call her like an acquaintance.
Dimple:And she messages me the nastiest message on Instagram and
Dimple:says, dimple, you look crazy.
Dimple:And I'm like, oh, I look crazy because I'm making an Instagram real like, okay.
Dimple:And you know, it's funny cuz she was on a plane.
Dimple:At 9:00 AM getting drunk, sending these messages.
Dimple:But it was like, so upsetting, like I just blocked her and everything because
Dimple:it's like, I was like ready to have a great day and it just threw my day off.
Dimple:You know what I mean?
Dimple:Yeah.
Dimple:But people, but people like that, I think the thing is
Dimple:like, I realize later, Secretly.
Dimple:She was jealous of me and she didn't like me.
Dimple:Right.
Dimple:But she was pretending like she was okay.
Dimple:And I just, I figured that out later,
Dimple:so, have you experienced friends who have changed, you know,
Dimple:based on when you started to get bigger and grow with success?
Dimple:Yeah.
Dimple:I mean, I would say that.
Dimple:It's definitely hard to change and transform and expect that your circle of
Dimple:friends and people that you're surrounding with isn't gonna change either.
Dimple:And so, as I've evolved into like this new phase of my life, I feel
Dimple:like I've shed a lot of friends.
Dimple:And honestly, it's been really hard.
Dimple:Like I hate talking about it because it's been hard.
Dimple:Like it's been, I lost my boyfriend of 12 years.
Dimple:I have a new boyfriend and he's amazing, but it's like, that was still my family.
Dimple:You know what I mean?
Dimple:And it's like a person is no longer in my life and I don't think he's
Dimple:ever gonna be in my life again.
Dimple:And it's also like my best friends from high school.
Dimple:Like it's like, people just can't see you the way that you are now.
Dimple:They see you as what you were, especially if you went to high school with someone.
Dimple:They, can't acknowledge who you are now or, believe it or wanted or relate to it.
Dimple:And I don't think it's necessarily jealousy because I feel like
Dimple:everybody has good intentions.
Dimple:And I feel like I genuinely believe that my friends have good intentions,
Dimple:but I feel like it's just unrelatable.
Dimple:Annoying.
Dimple:And I feel bad for people like my sister, like my sister's so supportive,
Dimple:but I went to her birthday party.
Dimple:The first thing that her friends say is like, oh my gosh, like you're so famous.
Dimple:Right?
Dimple:We go, I go to Jordan and my cousins are like talking about
Dimple:like same kind of a sentiment.
Dimple:You know what I mean?
Dimple:I'm not even that.
Dimple:Famous yet.
Dimple:Like, I feel like it's gonna get so much worse for everybody in my life.
Dimple:And it's cuz it's like, I feel like I'm barely scratching the surface.
Dimple:Like I don't think I made it yet.
Dimple:You know, and even my sister's like was like, I'm just surprised.
Dimple:Like I felt very jealous when we were in Jordan.
Dimple:I felt like everybody kept talk, talking about your podcast and your business.
Dimple:And I'm a doctor and I felt unsuccessful and it's just like really weird.
Dimple:It made me realize that like, well, no wonder, like a lot of people that
Dimple:was friends with me don't wanna be my friend, but it's really easy to make new
Dimple:friends, but it's also hard to determine who's really my friend and who's not.
Hala:So it's hard to navigate like really transforming.
Hala:And I feel like had I chose something that was not necessarily like
Hala:putting myself out there so much when it comes to social media or just
Hala:being like more of a personality.
Hala:I don't think I would've gotten the same pushback.
Hala:I don't think it's about entrepreneur or corporate, cuz I feel like.
Hala:Friends and my family, they want me to be successful.
Hala:I think it's the clout that comes with the type of stuff that I'm doing,
Hala:that people are uncomfortable with.
Hala:Yeah.
Hala:Yeah.
Hala:And, and I think sometimes it's just, they haven't experienced it
Hala:themselves and they don't understand it.
Hala:And I think that part of it even, you know, makes them uncomfortable, but
Hala:they're probably gonna be a whole lot uncomfortable because I know you've
Hala:got a lot more, you're gonna be accomplishing and a lot more goals on.
Hala:And things because you're not done yet.
Hala:I mean, you are like ready to take on the world and, you know, speaking of
Hala:that, what are some things that you're really excited about that have happened
Hala:in 2022 that you wanted to share?
Hala:Well, I started my podcast network, so to me that is.
Hala:One of my number one priorities.
Hala:It's so exciting.
Hala:So basically I figured out how to monetize my podcast network and really
Hala:Y really blew up two years ago in terms of the, the size of our show
Hala:and the ability to get sponsorships.
Hala:And I independently learned how to get sponsorships and I've worked with
Hala:all the different sales channels.
Hala:And then I grew a couple other shows to my size.
Hala:I learned how to do podcast media buying and, and really being able to control
Hala:the size and the growth of my clients' podcasts and monetize their shows.
Hala:And then that triggered me because there was one point in the year
Hala:when things were really hot.
Hala:And I was like, I'm out of inventory.
Hala:I have no more spots to sell.
Hala:And all these brands are knocking at our door.
Hala:I should start a network.
Hala:And so I started recruiting other shows and now I have.
Hala:Seven or eight exclusive shows.
Hala:I've decided to keep it small, grow them big.
Hala:And we're about to sign a very cool deal that I'm really excited about.
Hala:We're getting signed exclusive.
Hala:I'm gonna be no longer independent, which I'm very excited about.
Hala:You know, it's been hard doing it all by myself and I feel like I
Hala:got it so far and I'm like, okay.
Hala:Yes.
Hala:Some help.
Hala:So I'm very excited.
Hala:that?
Hala:Congratulations on that.
Hala:That is super exciting.
Hala:And yeah, I mean, it's like, you can do it alone, but for how long
Hala:eventually, you can experience burnout.
Hala:And I think sometimes it's just fun to have somebody there by your side
Hala:too, who's there to support you.
Hala:And then you feel like, okay, well, You know, I'm not in this all alone.
Hala:And, and I have someone to support me.
Hala:I have someone that believes in what we're building together and, and that's amazing.
Hala:So I'm super excited for you.
Hala:Does your podcast network have like its own name or anything like that?
Hala:Yeah.
Hala:So it's called the yep.
Hala:Media network.
Hala:Okay.
Hala:Everything is yep.
Hala:Media.
Hala:So it's yep.
Hala:Podcast.
Hala:Yep.
Hala:Media.
Hala:Yeah, media network.
Hala:And I love our name by the way, because Y I just feel like it's such a cool name
Hala:to have to own in podcast industries.
Hala:Everything is under that yap umbrella.
Hala:And then in terms of the partnership, I mean, it's gonna be an exclusive
Hala:sales partner, so they're gonna be focused on the sales and I'll be
Hala:focused on the content, the growth, the social, which is our sweet spot.
Hala:So I'm just part of the partnership that I'm excited about is
Hala:really the ability to focus.
Hala:On what we're really good at.
Hala:And the best thing to have in a partner is somebody who can kind
Hala:of deliver on your weaknesses.
Hala:And so you can focus on your strength.
Hala:So very excited about it.
Hala:Yeah, absolutely.
Hala:It's nice to have that complimentary, you know, person who's gonna come in and they
Hala:can do things that maybe you don't like doing or their talents or a little bit and
Hala:skills, a little bit different than yours.
Hala:So I love that.
Hala:And then in terms.
Hala:the podcast is, is like huge.
Hala:it's something I really wanna dive into a little bit deeper.
Hala:And when it comes to sponsorships, I think a lot of people always think, you
Hala:know, oh, I'm gonna launch a show and automatically in a month or two, like
Hala:sponsors are gonna be coming to me.
Hala:And I think that's not realistic.
Hala:That's not really how it happens.
Hala:And I feel like even what you're sharing, it seems like you have
Hala:actually gone after sponsors yourself.
Hala:You know, instead of waiting for them to come to you.
Hala:And so I wanna talk about if someone's launching a show, what are some
Hala:realistic goals and expectations to have?
Hala:Because I always say to them, you wanna launch a podcast, do it, to
Hala:build your brand and do it as an avenue to share your expertise and
Hala:your skills with the world, right?
Hala:Because it's a voice and it's like your brand and your brand, you
Hala:should always be building your brand.
Hala:Right.
Hala:But don't do it where you're gonna.
Hala:oh, month one.
Hala:I'm gonna be able to monetize it month one.
Hala:I'm gonna get a ton of clients because I mean, it could happen, but I personally,
Hala:I don't think that's realistic, you know?
Hala:So what are your thoughts on all that?
Hala:Oh yeah, it's definitely not realistic.
Hala:I mean, podcasting.
Hala:A lot of people say is a long game.
Hala:It requires consistency.
Hala:And honestly it requires strategy.
Hala:I feel like most podcasters are really only worried about their content
Hala:and they're not worried about the promotion and they're not learning
Hala:about the different promotional tactics.
Hala:I mean, I would say.
Hala:Most of my free time.
Hala:And I'm just being honest.
Hala:I'm a podcast nerd.
Hala:Most of my free time is just researching how I can grow my podcast, not the
Hala:content, not the guests, not like all that kind of that stuff is easy.
Hala:In my opinion, I feel like that's like a really controllable thing.
Hala:The growth of your podcast is like being strategic, creative, experimenting,
Hala:like really learning things that people aren't given away for free.
Hala:And.
Hala:And reinvesting, right?
Hala:So it's, it's a whole business model and you're not actually gonna make
Hala:money off sponsorships unless you're actually invested in the growth
Hala:of your podcast and monetarily and with your time and all of that.
Hala:And also like the other thing is you can hire an expert.
Hala:There's not many of them in the podcast space, but I do podcast.
Hala:Media buying Jordan harbinger is one of my partners in this
Hala:space for that kind of a thing.
Hala:And there are podcasters that do it for themselves and will do it for other
Hala:people, you know, but it does take investment and time and you can do it on
Hala:your own, but it takes experimentation.
Hala:So for example, like now I'm all about like, Experimenting with
Hala:paid ads and how to grow my podcast following with social paid ads.
Hala:Right.
Hala:And really figuring that out or how to, you know, drive people from
Hala:LinkedIn to my podcast and getting more innovative with that since my following
Hala:is getting bigger, my reach is getting bigger, figuring out how to translate.
Hala:Those social following into subscribers.
Hala:And just to reiterate, you know, promotion matters and, and being
Hala:strategic with your marketing matters, and you should spend a lot of time on it.
Hala:If you're serious about being a podcaster, otherwise you're doing
Hala:all this work upon deaf ears.
Hala:And I feel like that's just a waste of time if you're not willing to actually
Hala:put it out there and like one by one, even get listeners in any means that you can,
Hala:you know, even in the DMS and reaching out personally, Once you have 200 people
Hala:who listen to an episode like that's cool.
Hala:You know what I mean?
Hala:You have 200 people who are listening to what you have to say, and
Hala:you can keep building onto that.
Hala:Right?
Hala:So it's not that you have to have this massive podcast, but I feel
Hala:like people just don't do the work required even just to get a small
Hala:following so that it's worthwhile.
Hala:Yeah, absolutely.
Hala:No, I always say like, yeah, you use it to build your brand, but you have to promote
Hala:it and you have to have a marketing strategy to market and promote your
Hala:episodes because I always like say it.
Hala:Okay, well you have your show, but then what are you gonna,
Hala:where are you gonna play?
Hala:But, but here's the thing it's taking it to that next step.
Hala:So it's like people, they do the bare minimum.
Hala:They're like, I'm gonna put up a video on Instagram story on
Hala:Instagram, a post on Instagram, and then everyone's gonna find my show.
Hala:You know what I mean?
Hala:And it's like, no, like there's so much more to it.
Hala:Yeah.
Hala:It's very hard to pull people from social to your podcast.
Hala:There's so many other tactics that you could be taking there's ways to track
Hala:it and iterate and get better and, and lower the cost of your subscriber.
Hala:Like that's the kind of stuff you need to be really into.
Hala:If you wanna actually take podcasting seriously.
Hala:You know, and if you're not doing that kind of thing, you're just like
Hala:a new, like, you know what I mean?
Hala:Like you're not a real podcaster.
Hala:Like it, like, you need to like really know your stuff.
Dimple:Yeah.
Dimple:You're saying there's like a whole even science behind it.
Dimple:And it's like studying, you know, trends studying what's working,
Dimple:what's not working and finding new.
Dimple:And innovative ways to like really promote your show and take it to the
Dimple:next level and be creative where it's like, not just, okay, everyone can put
Dimple:it on Instagram or make a reel out of it, things like that, but it's really
Dimple:taking it on a whole other level.
Dimple:So based on 100%.
Dimple:Yeah.
Dimple:So based on that, I love it.
Dimple:If you could share like maybe just one little tip on how you would do that
Dimple:or how you would tell someone to do.
Dimple:Yeah, 100%.
Dimple:I'm happy to do that.
Dimple:The real key is that you wanna be where the podcast listeners are.
Dimple:And so if you always keep that mentality, right.
Dimple:I like that's priority.
Dimple:Number one, be where the podcaster is.
Dimple:And that means on the different apps, there's like 70 apps
Dimple:that make up the market.
Dimple:Right.
Dimple:So what does that mean interviewing on other podcast?
Dimple:So what I'm doing right now, I'm interviewing on your podcast.
Dimple:If you guys like what I'm saying, you can subscribe to young and profiting podcast.
Dimple:Right?
Dimple:If I was a real animal and like ruthless, I'd be like,
Dimple:Hey, can we pixel this episode?
Dimple:So I can see how many people converted to my podcast from yours.
Dimple:And you can actually track that in apps like chartable and in a similar
Dimple:manner, I could say, Hey dimple, could you read a commercial for.
Dimple:About young and profiting podcasts.
Dimple:And can we pixel track that?
Dimple:And I would be able to see how many people listened, estimated how many
Dimple:people downloaded the episode to their phone and how many people actually
Dimple:went and downloaded my episode from listening to you, who in the
Dimple:household, did anybody in the household download that episode from you?
Dimple:I can track that in chartable.
Dimple:And then theoretically, if it works well, I could get a
Dimple:commercial on dimples podcast every week or every single episode.
Dimple:And if it didn't work well, I could be like, well, let me go test another show.
Dimple:So that's a lot of podcasters are doing coast red ads on other podcasts in a
Dimple:similar manner you can do in feed drops.
Dimple:So that means I'd be like dimple, you know, for a thousand dollars.
Dimple:Would you, would you just read a five minute or you.
Dimple:One to three minute commercial and drop it as like an episode.
Dimple:And it would be like, you know, Haas and profiting podcast review or
Dimple:whatever the heck I'd say a lot of those infe drops are for new podcasts.
Dimple:And so it'll be like new podcast announcing and then all of your
Dimple:users would get a push notification.
Dimple:That's why that's so powerful on all the different apps that they use.
Dimple:So that's one way, the other way to be visible in the apps
Dimple:is to do an app media buying.
Dimple:So a.
Dimple:Players, they offer banner ADSS, featured podcasts areas.
Dimple:And so if you go on any podcast app and you see featured podcast app
Dimple:section, that should trigger you, oh, this is a paid ad opportunity.
Dimple:Let me try to find somebody who works there and, and see how much this costs and
Dimple:see what the potential results could be.
Dimple:And let me do a test.
Dimple:So like I'm constantly being like what new apps are available?
Dimple:Do they have active users?
Dimple:Is there a spot for me to advertise?
Dimple:and then, I do that for my clients.
Dimple:I'll make relationships and then find out what's available.
Dimple:And then, every quarter they send me spots and I get them resold, so I'll do
Dimple:that all the time because I've built the relationships, but anyone can do this.
Hala:You could just, be investigative and find the right people and
Hala:figure out how it's done and you obviously need to be able to invest.
Hala:So there's free, there's paid ways to grow.
Hala:And then there's all social, you know, social is a great way.
Hala:Definitely second priority because half of the people who are on social don't even
Hala:listen a podcast, but it's still a great way to convert real active listeners.
Hala:And by the way, also to get reviews and things like that,
Hala:which is like social proof.
Hala:And so I'm constantly in the DMS.
Hala:One of the tactics that we do is I'll put up a video, any sort
Hala:of asset that we put on social.
Hala:Whoever engages with that asset, if it's related to an episode is gonna get a DM
Hala:about that episode with a direct link.
Hala:Right.
Hala:And if they come back and say they enjoyed the episode, they're
Hala:gonna be asked to write a review.
Hala:Right.
Hala:It's just coming up with these loops and conversations that you have with people to
Hala:continually drive them to your priority.
Hala:Yeah.
Hala:I absolutely love that.
Hala:And it it's a very.
Hala:Thought out strategy, and that's a thing, a lot of people, they start
Hala:a business, but they don't even take the time to write a business plan or
Hala:put together a marketing strategy.
Hala:And then they wonder why they fail.
Hala:Right.
Hala:Because, you know, you can't just say, oh, I'm gonna spend this much
Hala:money on this and this and this.
Hala:That's not a marketing strategy.
Hala:Anyone can spend money if they have money, but it's more so really doing
Hala:your research and determining what is the goal for your business or for your.
Hala:Where do you wanna be?
Hala:Where do you wanna take it?
Hala:What do you wanna rank for, in terms of even SEO?
Hala:Like when I talk about podcasting, I always talk about, you know, one
Hala:of the things about podcast is, they rank high organically, but you
Hala:have to know how to take advantage of search engine optimization.
Hala:Right.
Hala:And a lot of people, I see their shows and I'm like, why did they title it this way?
Hala:You know, I'm just like, oh, because if they titled it differently,
Hala:They could be getting hundreds of views and they don't do that.
Hala:Right.
Hala:My first year launching podcast was yeah, like a year ago, like last year and I
Hala:launched like four shows cuz I was, I had wanted to have a podcast for so many years
Hala:and then I just, things would get in the way and everything would get in the way.
Hala:And finally I launched my first show.
Hala:Then I launched some like fun shows too, like Emily in Paris
Hala:where we, talk about the show and stuff, but it was all a strategy.
Hala:Okay.
Hala:I know I can get this to rank and just getting free traffic, but I
Hala:think people need to really sit down and write down a real plan.
Hala:For even like their podcast, they need to be strategic about the name that
Hala:they pick, like everything, from yeah.
Hala:A to Z.
Hala:And you've done a really great job of building up organically
Hala:and, you know, the caliber of guests that you have on your show.
Hala:I mean, they are like the crem D and crem, right.
Hala:You've got celebrities, you know, you've got Seth Godin,
Hala:you've got all these people.
Hala:So I wanna talk about that a little bit, because that is just exciting.
Hala:Remarkable.
Hala:First of all, It seems like you already had experience in this even before you
Hala:had a podcast from what we talked about before, but do you remember, like in your
Hala:mind, cuz you have plenty of celebrities on there, but in your mind, who was your
Hala:first celebrity that you got on your show?
Hala:How did it happen and how did it make you feel?
Hala:Well, I would say that from the start I had big guests on my show.
Hala:So my first ever guest was Dr.
Hala:Jack Schaeffer and he was the author of the like switch and Dory Clark.
Hala:So like off the bat, I had like huge authors on my show and most
Hala:of my guests are authors or CEOs.
Hala:Some of them were celebrities.
Hala:But like there's celebrities, quote unquote, or like people know
Hala:their name a lot, and they have lots of fans and things like that.
Hala:But you know, I'm not interviewing, JLo and Chris brown and all the, Kim
Hala:Kardashian, you might . I might, I had Matthew McConaughey on the show.
Hala:I had big guests, Dave Asprey, ed Mylet.
Hala:I've had big guests in my space.
Hala:So anybody who's in a self improvement space.
Hala:And if they're a big name, they're on my show, whim H.
Hala:You name it.
Hala:So I've had, I'm not trying to downplay my guests.
Hala:Like I've had incredible, incredible guests, but from the
Hala:start, it's all been the same.
Hala:And I always was really, really careful with who I invited on my show, because
Hala:I knew that the names that I got were leverage and every time I got one person,
Hala:it led me to somebody who was even bigger.
Hala:And I knew that if I like.
Hala:Didn't have the right caliber guests.
Hala:It could actually ruin the credibility of my podcast and when people are coming
Hala:on and making the decision to come on my show and evaluating my show, they're
Hala:looking at who else went on my show and that's either gonna excite them or
Hala:make them not excited about the show.
Hala:And so I knew that from the very start and I was very, very careful
Hala:and basically the way that I did it before I had any listeners is.
Hala:Gave my backstory to all of these guests.
Hala:And so I remember I landed David Allen, episode number five.
Hala:Okay.
Hala:He wrote getting shit done.
Hala:He's one of the biggest authors in the world.
Hala:That was one of my biggest first interviews that like, I felt like, wow,
Hala:like David Allen, you know, he thought it was huge that we got David Allen.
Hala:And I just remember messaging him and first of all, I was doing
Hala:something a little bit different.
Hala:It was.
Hala:Relatively new.
Hala:Now, everyone has a podcast when I was doing it four and a half
Hala:years ago, it was still like, wow, this young girl has a podcast.
Hala:Like good for her.
Hala:Like I wanna support her.
Hala:And by the way, like, especially a girl, like I just feel like I just
Hala:stood out and I had a very innovative way of reaching out to people.
Hala:I'd reach out and LinkedIn connect.
Hala:Messages.
Hala:And I would invite them to connect and be like, Hey, what's up?
Hala:My name is ha I have a podcast.
Hala:It's a top 10 hot two podcast.
Hala:And, or top 100 or whatever ranking I was at the time.
Hala:And I'd love to connect.
Hala:They saw that I was like active on LinkedIn.
Hala:I didn't have a huge following, but I was like trying to get active.
Hala:This was all in the very beginning.
Hala:I probably had 5,000 followers still, but all these people still said yes
Hala:to me, cuz I was just like energetic and, and showed potential and just
Hala:like was doing something new and had great looking graphics and assets.
Hala:And so they probably were like, If I wanna give a shot on somebody up
Hala:and coming, like, she looks like I should give her a shot, you know?
Hala:And so I feel like people just took a chance on me because I had
Hala:all the right things, even though I didn't have the downloads.
Hala:And so, yeah, I had David Allen, episode five, I had Chris Voss episode number 23.
Hala:Right.
Hala:I was landing people like Neal and Dan pink, like episode 30, Steven Cotler
Hala:was like episodes 30 David Meltzer was.
Hala:Episode, like in the twenties and thirties.
Hala:So I was by like my 20 30th episode, I was getting like big guests and then
Hala:it just kind of snowballed from there.
Hala:Like I had Matthew McConaughey.
Hala:That's probably still my biggest guest.
Hala:That was a year ago.
Hala:I've had great guests since then and better interviews since then.
Hala:And to me, it's not just about like how big the guest is, but of
Hala:course I want a number one expert.
Hala:I want people that respect that somebody that has a name, but they
Hala:don't necessarily have to be like the biggest celebrity in the world.
Hala:It just has to be really valuable content for my listen.
Hala:Well, I listened to, your podcast all the time and the content is absolutely
Hala:amazing because the thought leaders and the guests that you bring on, they
Hala:are of extreme high caliber, and they all have very interesting insights
Hala:on life and mindset and business and business hacks and marketing.
Hala:And everything.
Hala:And even like, you know, Chris VO, I, I know him.
Hala:I used to be on this breakfast club committee at this private club in LA
Hala:and he was one of the guest speakers.
Hala:And this was when he came in and he was talking about hostage negotiation and
Hala:he was talking about writing the book.
Hala:So it's so cool now, like to see like, wow, this book is out there
Hala:and he's, you know, oh, wow.
Hala:Made it a mega success.
Hala:Cuz I knew him when he was like talking about doing it.
Hala:So it's like so cool to see that.
Hala:I love that.
Hala:So I know we're about to wrap up, but I wanted to know if there's a
Hala:favorite motto or saying or slogan that you love to live your life by.
Hala:Oh, I love this.
Hala:I love the slogan.
Hala:How you do anything is how you do everything.
Hala:I feel like I always love to give my hundred and 20%.
Hala:I had ed my lead on the show and he's this big podcaster motivational speaker.
Hala:Your listeners probably know who he is.
Hala:And he always talks about this concept of one more.
Hala:He just put out a book called one more.
Hala:And I always like to take that mentality.
Hala:If I'm working out, I'll do one more set.
Hala:You know what I mean?
Hala:Even if I feel so tired, if I'm doing work, I'll do you know, 10 more email?
Hala:And I always just try to like push myself a little bit further.
Hala:And I do that with everything that I do.
Hala:Like if I have a presentation, it looks beautiful and I rock it.
Hala:I prepare if I have an interview I study and I'm never just going in blind.
Hala:And I really feel like how you do anything is how you do everything.
Hala:And so, no matter what it is, it's doing my hair.
Hala:If it's doing my makeup, I wanna learn how to do it.
Hala:Amazing and, and do my best.
Hala:And so I just always try to do my best.
Hala:And I feel like when you try to do everything your best and live that
Hala:way, you know, good things will come.
Hala:Yeah, that is a great philosophy to have.
Hala:I love that.
Hala:Thank you so much.
Hala:And is there anything you wanted to share before we wrap up?
Hala:Is there anything exciting you wanted to announce?
Hala:I mean, I'll obviously put all your information in the show notes and,
Hala:you know, connect your podcast and all that, but is there anything
Hala:exciting that you're working on, you know, besides the network that you
Hala:wanted to share with the audience?
Hala:Nothing really, to share other than the fact that I have some
Hala:amazing interviews coming out.
Hala:So I'm interviewing guy Kawasaki tomorrow, which is really fun.
Hala:I recently had whim H on the show, like I said, I had ed Mylet on the show.
Hala:I had Deepak Chopra on the show, so many great recent episodes.
Hala:Oh yeah.
Hala:We didn't mention celebrity Deepak show for like Jesus Christ.
Hala:That was the pinch me moment, but I've had some awesome.
Hala:Awesome guests.
Hala:So you guys can check that out young and profiting it's on all
Hala:the major apps and I'd love for you guys to listen to the show.
Hala:Absolutely.
Hala:They have to like download all the episodes and binge on them because
Hala:I mean, they are full of value.
Hala:So thank you so much for being on mesmerizing marketing and
Hala:we will see you next time.
Hala:Thanks dimple.
Hala:And if you've been thinking of launching your own podcast, make sure you check
Hala:the show notes for my next launch, your podcast masterclass, so that
Hala:you can also have a show like we do.
Hala:Thank you for listening to the mesmerizing marketing podcast.
Hala:If you found this episode valuable, please subscribe to the show.
Hala:So you don't ever miss an episode and also share it with your friends.
Hala:Dimple would be so grateful.
Hala:If you could take a minute to leave a review and visit the podcast website,
Hala:to check out all the latest episodes.
Hala:At www.mesmerizingmarketingpodcast.com that's www.mesmerizingmarketingpodcast.com
Hala:and follow PLE on clubhouse.
Hala:Her handle is marketing expert and also join her mesmerizing marketing
Hala:club also on clubhouse for live rooms on top marketing strategies for
Hala:entrepreneurs and business owners who want to mesmerize their marketing.
