Hala Taha is the host of Young and Profiting Podcast, frequently ranked as the #1 Education podcast across all apps. Hala is also the CEO of YAP Media, a full-service social media and podcast marketing agency for top podcasters, celebrities, and CEOs. She is well-known for her engaged following and influence on Linkedin, and she landed the January 2021 cover of Podcast Magazine. Hala is an expert on networking, personal branding, Linkedin marketing, side hustles, entrepreneurship, and podcasting.
Who is Hala Taha? What is your back story?
So they call me the podcast princess. In terms of my background story, I started my career in radio. I used to work at the radio station Hot 97. I started my journey in broadcasting 10 years ago working as an intern at the radio station. I worked there for free for three years as Angie Martinez’s assistant on the number one show in America called the Angie Martinez Show. I was therefore the assistant producer of that show. While I was working at Hot 97, I also had online radio shows. I used to host Hip Hop radio shows and music radio shows, and at the time, it was the precursor to podcasting. They were called online radio shows that go to a studio and we’d live stream them, and then the videos would be on YouTube for people to watch and that’s what we called them back in the day: Online radio shows.
I didn’t get the job at Hot 97 that I was working so hard for: I got rejected. Then I almost had a job on Sirius Radio; worked on a show, and left shortly after. I thought I was never going to make it. I decided to get into the corporate world. After I got my MBA, I thought I was just going to be normal. I was never going to be on a mic again. Fast forward four or five years into corporate, and I got the itch again. I decided to start this podcast Young and Profiting; that’s about five years ago today. Within two years, the podcast blowing up! I became a top podcaster and then I started my company and my podcast and social media agencies. It was a long time coming up. It was about 12 years of trying to make it and I finally made it!
What was your childhood dream career? Are you doing that today?
When I was younger, I wanted to be a singer. I always thought I was going to use my voice to impact the world. One of the best lessons I ever had was understanding that you have a purpose that’s beyond what your dream is: your specific dream or goal. When I got a little older, I wanted to be on the radio. I thought the only way that I was going to make it was if I was going to be an on-air personality like on Hot 97. Then I didn’t get that, and I realised I could be a podcaster; use my voice to make the world a better place. I don’t have to be a singer; I don’t have to be a radio personality; I can take agency over my own life and be a podcaster instead. So yes, this is related to what I wanted to do in my childhood, being on stage and having a lead role. All these things are my main character’s energy, I always wanted it. I channelled it in a different way.
And now as striving women, we always want to start off by asking what your ideal stellar woman attributes are.
First one is confidence. I think if you have confidence, no matter what your skill level is, no matter where you are in life, you’re always going to do better than somebody who’s not confident. At the very least, you’ve got to walk into a room with confidence. Confidence comes from knowledge, expertise, repetition, and consistency. It’s all these things. Confidence is important to succeed online as well. I would say confidence is definitely number one attribute.
Second one which is related to confidence is skills. Get the experience and get the skills and be somebody who people think of as an expert, and that means going deep into specific topics. So, get lots of different skills and figure out what you’re good at. Then go deep and be the core expert on that one thing. I think that is really the future; people who have expert knowledge on certain topics. Those I would say are my two top suggestions in terms of the stellar woman attributes.
YAP Media Network is an award-winning podcast and social media agency voted best podcast agency 2022, Congratulations! Please share with us what the network does and how you got to perform at this level to inspire other women.
Sure. I have a social media agency and with it we do offer white glove services incorporating: LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube and podcast services. We typically cater for CEOs, celebrities, influencers, top podcasters; it’s a boutique agency. Then I have my YAP Media Podcast Network – this is where I grow and monetise shows. It is a podcast network, where we basically have about 20 different self-improvement and business shows. We grow them and we monetize them with sponsorships. And then I have my YAP Academy, which is the newest part of my business, which offers courses. We have the LinkedIn Masterclass as our first course under the YAP Academy. Those are like three little umbrellas. The basis behind my business is always whatever I can do for myself, I produce, make better and then offer it to other people. The business started by having guests come on Young and Profiting podcast and asking how they could grow their podcast or LinkedIn following and whether I could do it for them. For a long time, for about two – three years my podcast was just a side hustle as I was working at HP then after at Disney. I was happy with my job and I only thought of podcasting as a hobby. People would come for help but I couldn’t really help them. I however had volunteers that helped me with my podcast. It was until when the pandemic started and I didn’t have to commute that I thought “I’m going to start this company that everybody keeps asking me about.” Within six months we were making hundreds of thousand dollars a month. I had 60 employees on the books and we just blew up right away because it was built up from people’s demand. The other thing that’s interesting with my story is that we started as a volunteer team. I had 20 people who were fans of the podcast who worked for free for me for two years. I would just teach them, how to do video edit, how to do graphic design, copyrights, audio edit, and do all the pieces of the puzzle required. The volunteers were working about two hours a day. I then converted them into employees and started my company: this agency. A number of volunteers are now leaders at my company.
Tell us about the most memorable interview on your podcast and why you regard it so. Do you have one?
I’ll answer this in two parts: my most memorable and everybody else’s most memorable. So, everybody seems to think I made it when I interviewed Matthew McConaughey. This was three years ago. I interviewed him and I was on the cover of Podcasts magazine for it in January of 2021. And at that point, and still to this day, people reach out to me and say, “I remember when you interviewed Matthew McConaughey and you blew up”. Everybody sees that as the time when I ‘blew up’. And it’s so funny to think about that, because I didn’t see that as the point when I blew up, but everybody else always refers to it as this big turning point in my career. I would say that’s everybody else’s most memorable moment of me. However Daymond John was a really, really the big one for me. He is a shark on the TV show Shark Tank. My dad (who passed away) and I used to watch Shark Tank together and I knew that he would have been really excited about Daymond John, So Daymond John is definitely my most memorable one.
So what lessons could you share with us as a top podcaster in social media influencing that could benefit entrepreneurs and professionals to succeed and grow?
First, don’t let the gatekeepers stop you from achieving your dreams. For example, I worked at Hot 97 as mentioned above for free for three years but they didn’t give me a job: I was rejected. I however didn’t just hang up a white flag and say, okay, “I suck” or “ forget it ” or “I’m not going to follow my dreams.” I went and I started a blog and that blog became popular and I pivoted it into something new. Just like what I mentioned with singing, I took what I wanted and I tried a different path. So if somebody tells you, no, you can’t get this job, don’t forget about what your purpose is, go after your purpose in a different way. You may need to take agency and start your own thing and become an entrepreneur or have a side hustle. Work your way towards starting whatever you want and continue with your passion. Don’t just stop trying because somebody told you no. People will say no at every point in your career, even when you deserve it; even when you’re the best choice. They might have had a bad day or they don’t just like you for whatever reason; just don’t take it personal. Keep pushing through. So don’t allow gatekeepers to stop you from dreams. You’ve got to take agency and control over your own life. If you’re just waiting for a handout, then you don’t deserve it anyway. You’re going to have to take action to get what you want.
Secondly, believe that life is limitless. If you believe that nothing ever goes your way, that you can’t accomplish certain things, that the world is unfair, you’ve got to let go of those limiting beliefs. Life is limitless. We all have unlimited potential. This might mean that you do the internal work and realise that it is your beliefs that are holding you back and preventing you from taking action and growing. You’ve got to try to figure out how to dismantle those beliefs because they’re holding you back. You’ve got to believe that life is limitless and that you are limitless, your capabilities, your skills and how far you can go is limitless.
Lastly, your skills. I mentioned this before, but I really believe in skill stacking. For example, I don’t think I’m the best podcaster in the world. I’m however good. I’ve done it a lot of times and improved. However, what makes me a good podcaster is that I’m good at marketing, writing and graphic design, research and all these other things that I’ve stacked up skill-wise over the years. I have worked in marketing and social media jobs, I have also worked at a radio station and I was a graphic designer for sometime so when I put all these altogether, then became a top podcaster. It’s having all these different skills and packaging them up together; which is skill stacking. Having these skills and experiences and packaging them up in a way that’s unique to you, and then figuring out how you offer them to the world that creates influence. Personally, I offer these skills with my podcast, my agency and with my network. So, think about your skill stack and how to offer it to the world.
As the CEO of YAP Media and YAP Academy, we know that our issues as women is decision-making. So please share with us lessons you’ve learned in decision-making.
I think one of the best skills that you could develop is learning how to make fast decisions. This means really letting go of the emotion attached to the decision. Sometimes as leaders, you must make decisions that don’t feel good, they’re tough, they make other people feel bad for example when you must let somebody go. You just need to realize that the quicker you rip off the band aid, the better. The more you let a decision linger and linger, the more you must untangle and the worst it is going to be in the end. For example there might be an underperforming employee and it might take us four months to fire them because we just feel bad. So, we move them here and there and try everything and, in the end, we find that we would have wasted four months of salary on our end as a business yet we would have just let them go when we first realised the issue. So, coming to these decisions faster and removing the emotion out of it and realising that most often both parties are better off with the decision being out there in the open right away, rather than lingering on is the top lesson that I’ve learned as an entrepreneur.
Usually If you can’t decide, you already know what the decision is: if you know what that decision is, move forward quickly and don’t delay.
We want to learn from you, what does striving for excellence mean to you? And is it something that you strive for both professionally and personally?
I strive professionally and personally to be excellent. For me being excellent is giving 110%. As I always say, how you do anything is how you do everything; if I could get that tattooed on myself I would. That’s because I really do believe in giving your all. I feel like when you give your all to people, even if it’s not the best in the world, they can feel that and that you feel passionate about it. So, the way your work is presented to the world is taken differently because you have given it your all. I really am the type of person that puts everything into anything that I do, and if I commit to something, I’d really try to do a good job. I try to make sure that no matter how I’m feeling, no matter what external circumstances I’m faced with, I still give it my all. That’s how I strive for excellence; just being detail oriented, being consistent, and putting in the work. No shortcuts, right? No shortcuts and giving 110%.
How do you ensure that you align your team to this notion and you stay consistent as a team?
We have core values at YAP media and they include:
First is scrappy hustlers. We’re all scrappy hustlers at heart. It means that we’re resourceful. We get the work done with whatever we have. My whole career was built on being a scrappy hustler. Top to down: I’m a scrappy Hustler and every one of my team of 60 people is a scrappy hustler. We all get the job done; with whatever resource we have.
The next one is stepping on the gas which means that we are always driving; go-go-go, we don’t stop. We create friction for the greater good. We keep it moving. We’re fast-moving, fast-paced. It is step on the gas, and drive.
The third one is just whales, which means prioritizing saying “no” so that we can say “yes.” We only look at big opportunities and focus on big opportunities. That’s just whales.
Then we have a ‘we win together’ mentality, teamwork makes the dream work. We only move further if we give each other feedback and continually improve ourselves and help each other win.
We also have obsession for excellence. It means making sure everybody knows what ‘good’ looks like, and that they have good role models; that the leadership is also aligned with these types of values; and that we all have the right skills and knowledge and we’re in the right roles. That is what matters when it comes to excellence.
Those are our core values at YAP Media. With the core values, each person is aligned to deliver and strive for excellence.
What are the obstacles that you could face in achieving excellence at YAP Media?
An obstacle would be when everyone is misaligned to the value and goal of excellence. It’s all about making sure that we have a standard of what ‘good’ looks like and that there are good role models in the company so that people can strive towards excellence, because if you don’t have that benchmark there you won’t know what excellence even is.
“The power of cross channel podcast campaigns. And this was just recently when you gave a talk to IAB Podcasts Upfront.” In a few words, can you tell our subscribers or listeners what this actually means and why it is important?
Yeah, 100%. This is something that I’m really excited about. So, like you said, at the IAB Podcast Upfront, I presented about the power of cross channel campaigns. Basically, what this means is that podcasts are no longer just audio only. So, podcasts now are distributed on video, YouTube, social media, live streams, even paid live events. Podcasts now essentially just mean an on-demand show. It’s no longer audio only, but a lot of advertisers are still treating it audio only. So, I’m one of the only podcast networks that has a social media arm and a podcast agency. I’m all about getting sponsorships with branded, co-created content that gets distributed across audio podcasts, YouTube, social media, live stream and paid events. Our sponsorships are cross channel. So, a brand can basically promote on a podcaster’s channels and their fans are not only listening to them on the audio apps, they’re watching them on social media and YouTube and also going to their paid live events. So, you have branded co-created content on the audio apps that’s engaging and entertaining. People are really engaged and retain information on podcasts. They’re in the mode to buy when they’re on social media and on YouTube and live streams clicking around and engaging and scrolling on the internet. That’s when you advertise to them. So that’s really the premise of everything. It’s like a branded co-created content in the audio apps and then you distribute it on the different platforms and different ways that people want to consume it and get advertised to.
In your own experience of leading, and in life, what in your opinion could be hindering women from achieving their dreams?
I think that several women are told what they should be doing in society and a number of them follow a path that they think they should take rather than the path that they actually want to take personally. For example, several women have children when they’re really young, and I think that prevents them from going after their careers. I do not have a baby. I have this podcast. My podcast has been my baby when all my friends are having babies. I don’t think if I had kids, I would have been able to create what I created at my age. The fact that bearing children and taking care of them tends to be really the woman’s responsibility in the relationship, even when it’s a healthy relationship. It really does tend to be mostly the burden of the woman, and I think that’s difficult. We’re however seeing more and more women becoming breadwinners and dads being stay-at-home dads. I think the script is starting to flip a little bit, but we’re still not there yet. It’s usually still the traditional roles in homes and I think that’s the number one hindrance. We need to figure out a childcare system if we really want to see women thrive; because that’s what holds most women back. Today a woman has to decide if they want a family or if you want to become an entrepreneur. There are some women that are doing well as entrepreneurs and have kids as well. However, it seems like you’ve got to make it first and have a lot of money before you can have kids and balance it both ways. Otherwise, it is a challenge to make it from nothing and have kids and a family, while you’re trying to make it. So, to me, that’s the number one roadblock. If we can figure that out, we’ll be in a good shape.
If you were to go back in time, what lessons would you share with your 15-year-old self?
I would tell her to stay confident, stay consistent, keep getting the experience, go for your goals and don’t let any rejection hold you back. Just keep going and always give it another shot. You can have 1000 misses and all you need is one home run. So just keep trying and one day you’re going to make it.
Leave us one challenge for Stellar Women to help them to learn how to strive for excellence.
Sure, every single night, you will need to write down three goals that you’re going to accomplish every single day. Every single morning you will go and read those three goals out loud, and you will commit to accomplishing those three things and nothing else. If you get other things done great! But you’re going to agree to accomplish those three things. Then before you go to sleep, you will have to review your day and ask yourself, “did I accomplish the three things?” You will have to think about why you did or didn’t. You will have to make yourself accountable to accomplish your next three things the next day, and you do that every single day. If you do that, you will make so much progress.
Watch the full interview below to learn more about: YAP Academy and its mission, what Hala thinks about success and failures, the challenges she has faced, her next level, how she creates a work-life balance, her life mantra and more.