Young and Profiting with Hala Taha - Hala Taha: How Top Entrepreneurs Use Podcasts to Scale Their Business | Entrepreneurship | YAP Live

Episode Date: July 16, 2025

Now on Spotify Video! Podcasting isn’t just content anymore; it’s a tool to scale your business. After being rejected from radio, TV, and even her dream corporate job, Hala Taha launched the Young and Profiting podcast as a side hustle with no team and no solid plan. Today, she hosts a top-ranked business and entrepreneurship show and leads an award-winning social media and podcast agency on track to hit eight figures. In this episode, Hala shares how entrepreneurs and brands can leverage podcasting for business growth and reveals her blueprint for building a podcast empire from scratch. In this episode, Hala will discuss: (00:00) Introduction (03:24) Why Top Entrepreneurs Prioritize Podcasts (05:10) Leveraging Your Audience for Business Growth (12:25) Three Steps to Starting a Successful Podcast  (14:40) Monetizing Podcasts Without a Huge Following (18:09) Guest Networking: The $6 Million Business Strategy (22:49) The Four Key Principles for Podcast Growth (26:58) How Rejection Led Her to Become a Founder Hala Taha is the host of Young and Profiting, a top 10 business and entrepreneurship podcast on Apple and Spotify. She’s the founder and CEO of YAP Media, an award-winning social media and podcast agency, as well as the YAP Media Network, where she helps renowned podcasters like Jenna Kutcher, Neil Patel, and Russell Brunson grow and monetize their shows. With her business on track to hit eight figures in 2025, Hala stands out as a leading creator-entrepreneur. Sponsored By: Shopify - Start your $1/month trial at Shopify.com/profiting. Indeed - Get a $75 sponsored job credit to boost your job's visibility at Indeed.com/PROFITING OpenPhone - Get 20% off your first 6 months at OpenPhone.com/profiting. Airbnb - Find a co-host at airbnb.com/host Boulevard - Get 10% off your first year at joinblvd.com/profiting when you book a demo Resources Mentioned: Hala’s Podcast, Young and Profiting: bit.ly/_YAP-apple  Goal Digger Podcast by Jenna Kutcher: bit.ly/TGDP-apple  The Russell Brunson Show by Russell Brunson: bit.ly/TRBS-apple  Financial Feminist by Tori Dunlap: bit.ly/FF-apple  Earn Your Happy by Lori Harder: bit.ly/EYH-apple  Active Deals - youngandprofiting.com/deals  Key YAP Links Reviews - ratethispodcast.com/yap YouTube - youtube.com/c/YoungandProfiting LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/htaha/ Instagram - instagram.com/yapwithhala/ Social + Podcast Services: yapmedia.com Transcripts - youngandprofiting.com/episodes-new  Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurship Podcast, Business, Business Podcast, Self Improvement, Self-Improvement, Personal Development, Starting a Business, Strategy, Investing, Sales, Selling, Psychology, Productivity, Entrepreneurs, AI, Artificial Intelligence, Technology, Marketing, Negotiation, Money, Finance, Side Hustle, Startup, Mental Health, Career, Leadership, Mindset, Health, Growth Mindset, Business podcast, Startup, Starting a Business, Passive income, Online Business, Solopreneur

Today's episode is sponsored in part by Indeed, Shopify, Mercury, OpenPhone, Airbnb, and Boulevard. As always, you can find all of our incredible deals linked in the show notes or at youngimprofiting.com slash deals. You guys want to know how I made $6 million off my podcast last year? So there are three steps to starting a successful podcast. Your guests can become your clients, they can come your investors. They can become your mentors. People can copy your products, but they can't copy you. What platforms to use, what tech to use.

You don't know how to grow or monetize your audience. Well, in the next 25 minutes, I'm going to help you with all of that. Are you guys ready to learn everything you need to know about growing your podcast? Yeah, fam back in February on Valentine's Day, Russell Brunson asked me to present at Funnel Hacking Live. Now, this is a legendary event. This was the last Funnel Hacking Live ever.

And for people in my industry, this is like a dream come true. I wanted to pinch myself. When Russell asked me to present at this event, it was in front of 7,000 entrepreneurs, and Russell wanted me to break down all things podcast monetization. Now my podcast itself brings in over a million dollars a year right now.

And my network where I grow and monetize other shows as well as my social and podcast agency brings in over $6 million a year. So he wanted me to break down how I was able to create this multi seven figure business all stemming from my little podcast that I started seven years ago. And in this keynote, I'm gonna take you behind the curtain of my wild journey from getting rejected in radio and TV

to turning Young and Profiting into a top ranked entrepreneurship podcast and building a thriving podcast network. If you guys wanna learn how to buy or own your podcast exposure, whether you wanna start a podcast or you just want to leverage podcasts for your personal brand,

this is gonna teach you so much. I'm gonna teach you how to monetize your podcast before you have the downloads, before you're famous, master podcast search optimization, booster discoverability on video platforms, and how you can turn your podcast guests into paying clients, strategic partners, or even investors. Guys, I break it all down. Russell gave me 30 minutes to do this and I made sure that I did not leave any stone unturned. So turn up the volume, grab that notebook and soak up every second of this full Funnel Hacking Live keynote. Imagine starting a podcast in your car because you didn't have a quiet place to record.

You had no equipment. You had no equipment, you had no mic, you had no idea what you were doing. But all you knew was to just start. And with that decision of starting, it led you to 100 million downloads and you became one of the most famous podcasters in the world. Sounds too good to be true? Well, it's not because that's what happened to my client.

She was burnt out in corporate. She had no freedom but she did have a skill, and that was photography. So with no formal training, she quits her job, and she starts a photography wedding business. Financially, she was better than ever, but she felt lonely on her entrepreneurship journey, and she dreamed of starting a podcast where she could share what she was learning with other entrepreneurs. But some doubts crept in.

What if nobody listens? What if I'm no good? Um, I don't even have a place to record without hearing the dogs barking, but she knew she had to start. So she made herself a promise, podcasts for 90 days without overthinking. So she found the only quiet place she had to record her car in the garage using just her Apple headphones. And those 90 days turned into nine years, a hundred million downloads and and a multi-million dollar empire.

Her name is Jenna Kutcher. And it all started with a podcast. Now, let me hear from you guys. Who can relate to Jenna? You don't have a clear plan to podcasting. You don't know what platforms to use, what tech to use. You don't know how to grow or monetize your audience. You feel like an imposter. Who here can relate to what Jenna was feeling?

Well, in the next 25 minutes, I'm gonna help you with all of that. I'm Hala Taha, they call me the podcast princess. I'm the CEO and founder of Yap Media, a top business podcast network with an award-winning social media and podcast agency. And I used to be like you out there, dreaming of building a personal brand, leveraging podcasts,

knowing that it's a magnet for clients and growth and opportunities. And so six years ago, I launched the Young and Profiting podcast. And today I'm a top 10 business podcast on Apple. Legendary podcasters like Jenna Kutcher, Russell Brunson, Trent Shelton, John Lee Dumas, Tory Dunlap are in my podcast network. And I'm responsible for all their ad sales and growth. I've helped hundreds of entrepreneurs

and brands grow their business using podcasts and now I'm gonna teach you guys how to do the same today. All right, are you guys ready to learn everything you need to know about growing your podcast, growing your business with podcasts? Let me know, let me hear it loud, yes. Okay, I'm so excited. Growing your business with podcasts. Let me know. Let me hear it loud. Yes Okay, I'm so excited you guys are gonna learn so much so first let's get on the same page in terms of definitions

Podcasts no longer mean audio only Podcasts is a show across audio video YouTube social media live stream No matter the platform podcast is now just a show and advertisers see it that way too. Now podcasts are mainstream now and you guys might be thinking, podcasts are so over saturated. You might think that everybody has a podcast, but I want you to think,

why do you feel that already successful entrepreneurs like Gary Vee, Alex Ramosi, Russell Brunson, Cody Sanchez, why do you guys feel that these eight figure and nine figure entrepreneurs spend their time leveraging and prioritizing podcasts? It's personal brand. They understand the value of personal brand. They understand the value of personal brand.

They understand this is the most valuable asset that you can have moving into the future. Personal brand creates a moat around your business. People can copy your products, but they can't copy you. And long-form content builds credibility, and people buy from who they trust. When you become a podcaster, you enter the creator economy, which is set to double in the next two years. You become a creator entrepreneur, and your business becomes audience driven,

which unlocks unlimited ways to monetize. But before you jump into podcasting, I want you guys to ask yourself, and be honest, how much time do you really have to commit to podcasting? Because podcasting is a long game, but you actually don't need to start a podcast to leverage one for your business. And that brings me to the two main ways to leverage your podcast for business growth. Own or buy. Let's start off with the buy path. So buy. If you're a fit for the buy path,

you fit into the following scenarios. You have money to invest. You want more customers than lead gen. You don't have the desire to invest time in creating content. You may not want to share your face. Raise your hand if you feel like you're a fit for the bypass. Okay, I see lots of hands out there. You guys are gonna want to take notes because we are going to get

technical. So there are two ways to buy commercials which can be programmatic or host-read or branded content which is basically anything outside of commercials that can be sponsored on your podcast. Starting with programmatic ad commercials. Programmatic ads scale across multiple podcasts. They're pre-recorded ads. You leverage an ad network like AdsWiz or Span and you have a pre-recorded ad that scales across multiple podcasts. They're great for reaching audience at scale, controlling messaging, and targeting specific cities and demos.

Some of the downsides is that it has lower engagement compared to host-read ads, because there's no personal endorsement from the host. Moving on to host-read ads. So host-read ads target a specific audience. It targets a specific show's audience, and they're read by the host. You work with an agency, a podcast agency,

or a network like, yeah, media networks in order to get these host-read ads, and they're known for higher engagement, higher trust, which leads to higher conversion, and they tend to have a better listener experience because they lower ad fatigue. Good hosts know that ads are an opportunity to tell stories, and people love to listen to stories,

so it doesn't really feel like an ad. The downsides is typically higher cost. It's a higher CPM to get host read ads, and they have limited scale because they're tied to a specific show. Now, in terms of pricing, commercials are based on CPM pricing. CPM is the cost per 1,000 impressions.

Now, for programmatic ads, they range anywhere from $5 to $18 CPMs. For host-read, it's anywhere from $20 to $35 CPMs. And now, this is really standard across the industry. It rarely goes outside of these CPMs. So let's go through a pricing example. really standard across the industry. It rarely goes outside of these CPMs. So let's go through a pricing example. Let's take my podcast for a monthly host-read DAI flight. So my podcast, across 30 days, gets 450,000 impressions. My CPM is $28,

and the total cost for a 30-day flight across my podcast is $12,600. So when you do the math, that's 450,000 divided by a thousand is 450 times a $28 CPM. That's 12,600 to buy an ad across 30 days on my old and new episodes of young and profiting podcasts, my entire catalog. Okay. So this is how you price ads. Is that all clear? Okay, cool. Let's move on to branded content. Young and Profiters, when I was building my business, I learned something the hard way. Every missed call is literally money walking out the door. Think about it. When you need a service urgently and the first person doesn't answer, do you wait around? Of course not! You call the next person on your list. And that's exactly what

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no extra charge. OpenPhone. No missed calls. No missed customers. YAP Fam As the CEO of a growing media company like YAP, I've had to hire dozens and dozens of people over the years. And trust me, when you're scaling fast, hiring the right people quickly is absolutely crucial. You're handling a million things wearing so many hats and the last thing you want to do is waste your time going through the wrong candidates. That process is so lengthy. And that's why, when it comes to hiring, Indeed is all you need. Indeed saves me so much time because I'm no longer struggling to get my job post seen

on other job sites because Indeed Sponsored Jobs helps me stand out and hire fast. With Sponsored Jobs, your post jumps to the top of the page for your relevant candidates so you can reach the people that you want faster. And the numbers totally back it up. According to Indeed data, sponsored jobs get 45% more applications than non-sponsored jobs. That's 45% less time that you need to worry about finding the right candidates. And one of the things that I love about Indeed is that it makes hiring so fast because your job post get seen

by the right people right away. When I've hired in the past, the process just dragged on and on. And honestly, I wish I had used Indeed to save time and stress and to find the best candidates fast. Plus with Indeed sponsored jobs, there's no monthly subscriptions, no long-term contracts, and you only pay for results.

How fast is Indeed? In the minute that we've been talking, 23 hires were made on Indeed according to Indeed data worldwide. There's no need to wait any longer. Speed up your hiring right now with Indeed and listeners of the show get a $75 sponsor job credit to get your job's more visibility at indeed.com slash profiting.

Just go to indeed.com slash profiting right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com slash Profiting. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring Indeed is all you need. Hello, my beautiful young and profitors. If you're in the self-care business and offer high-end personal experiences, you and your clients deserve a modern, easy-to-use client experience platform that works just as efficiently as you do.

That's exactly why I'm excited to tell you about Boulevard. Boulevard is the number one client experience platform built specifically for appointment-based self-care businesses. What makes Boulevard different is that it understands that salons, spas, barbershops, med spas, and other self-care businesses are so personal, so the platform powering your business should feel the same. We're talking seamless online bookings, automated payment processing, smart appointment reminders, detailed client profiles, all managed from one intuitive dashboard.

No more no-shows, scheduling headaches, or chaos behind the counter. Just smoother operations and happier clients. Plus, Boulevard helps you elevate your marketing. You can generate customer reports, manage memberships, and take your business as far as you want it to go. See why top beauty and wellness brands choose Boulevard to empower their team and grow their business. Right now, Boulevard is offering new customers 10% off your first-year subscription when you go to joinblvd.com slash profiting and book a demo. That's J-O-I-N-B-L-V-D.com slash profiting.

Book a demo and get 10% off your first year subscription. Joinblvd.com slash profiting. When I first started Young and Profiting podcast back in 2018, it was just a hobby. And for two good years, I poured more time and money than I got back. At times I kept asking myself, is this worth it? What if it never works? What if I don't have the tools, the time or the team?

But I just pushed through and I was consistent and now it's one of the top entrepreneurship podcasts in the world. I almost let those what ifs stop me from building something incredible. If you're sitting on a business idea, it's time to stop overthinking and start doing with Shopify. Shopify powers millions of businesses worldwide and 10% of all US ecommerce, from giants like Gymshark and Mattel to startups just getting started. No team, no problem. Shopify handles everything from web design to inventory to customer service and shipping all in one place. If you're on a tight budget, their built-in marketing and email tools help

you find and keep customers. Selling in person is also seamless with Shopify's award-winning point of sale, which connects your online and offline sales. Want to go global? Shopify supports sales in over 150 countries with tools for translation, international shipping, and local currencies. And with 99.99% uptime and the best converting checkout on the planet, you'll never miss a sale. Turn those what-ifs into… and keep giving those big dreams the best shot with Shopify. Sign up for your $1 per month trial and start selling today at Shopify.com slash profiting. That's all lowercase.

Go to Shopify.com slash profiting again. It's Shopify.com slash profiting. So again, branded content is anything outside of your podcast commercials. So that can be custom episodes, branded content is anything outside of your podcast commercials. So that can be custom episodes, branded content, paid interviews. It's anything that you can get paid for on your podcast outside of commercials. And usually it includes 360 promotions. So YouTube, social, email. And CPM pricing, like I mentioned, for programmatic and host-red is very standard.

But for branded content, it's not standard. It can range anywhere from $30 to $250 eCPMs or more. Now eCPM is a new term in the podcast industry that basically helps you understand the cost per 1,000 impressions across all different platforms, whether that's podcasts, email, social, it's a way to cost out the campaign. So, eCPM is based on five key factors. The channel selected for the campaign, so for example, LinkedIn costs more than Instagram impressions.

The level of effort and customization required for the campaign, so a 60 second commercial is a lot easier than creating a six-part series. How niche or desirable the audience is. The track record of performance of the show. And then the value of personal endorsement from the podcaster. So if you're a celebrity, it costs more than if you're not a celebrity. Okay, so let's take an example of a branded content campaign.

Opus Clip is an AI editing video software and they wanted to raise brand awareness amongst young creators and opportunities. So we gave them our YAP Media catalog, they analyzed all our different network shows, they looked at our audience demographics like age, income, gender, and they landed on Young and Profiting podcasts for a six-part mini series with 100% share of

voice, which means they were the only sponsor on the episode. So let's go through how we price the campaign like this. So here's a screenshot of the insertion order. As you can see, you can see all the deliverables. We have LinkedIn, mineral ads, Instagram posts. You can see the impressions per deliverable. You can see the total impressions and the total impressions were 1.7 million impressions.

The CPM was $45 and the total campaign was $78,000 for this branded series. So this is a really great example of a faceless campaign. I, as the podcastercaster was the brand ambassador for Opus Clip during this series. I represented Opus Clip. But as we know, podcasts are a great opportunity to leverage your personal brand. So let's go through a face-forward example. Just Thrive's founder is Stephanie Anderson. She's the CEO and founder of Just Thrive. She's got a probiotics company and she has a passion

for teaching the importance of healthy gut. Her number one marketing strategy to sell products and grow her personal brand is getting guesting on podcasts and she pays to go on these interviews. So she booked a CEO interview tour with the YAP Media Network. She went on six interviews and they were followed by mid-roll commercials.

The results were incredible. Just Thrive saw over a 300 percent ROAS increase with this strategy, and it led to organic traction. The publicity of going on our network led to her getting invited to other podcasts without having to pay. So to recap, you can buy your audience via commercials or branded content. Okay, so before we move on, do we see how buying on podcasts can be beneficial and do

you guys understand how to buy on podcasts? Let me hear a yes. Are you guys learning? Are you having fun? Okay. All right. Own vs. buy. You can own your podcast. You can start your own podcast.

And this is for all you dreamers and doers out there. So you're a fit for the own path. If you're willing to invest time in creating content, you want to build a new audience based business. You're comfortable with putting your face out there, you have value to share. Does this sound like anybody in the audience? Raise your hand. Okay, I see a lot of you guys want to start your podcast, so I'm happy that I'm able to share this. So there are three steps to starting a successful podcast.

One, you start it, two, you monetize it, three, you grow it. So when it comes to starting it, I want you guys to not overthink it. Pick a target audience and go for it. Remember Jenna Kutcher? She started in her car for 90 days with no mic. Now she's one of the most popular podcasters in the world.

It's the consistency that's gonna build your competency. So make sure that you get your reps in. And remember, it's a long game. It could take two years or more before you could see any ROI. Okay? The other thing I want you guys to realize is that your podcast can evolve from the way that you title it to the way that you, your format. I changed my podcast cover last week. I've probably changed my podcast cover 10 times. So, evolution is just part of your success when it comes to podcasting.

In terms of tech, I'm gonna keep it very simple and just give you the recommendations. Hosting provider when you're just getting started, simplecast. Recording platform, you wanna be optimized for video and audio, go with Riverside, okay? And in terms of setting up your tech, my team has made it super simple for you.

My production team has put together two guides, an equipment setup guide for Mac and PC. It has all the equipment you should get, your boom arm, your mic, your video camera, different pricing options, and then a Riverside recording checklist. So all the tech is set up. Now you guys can get started.

You can find it in your FHL membership site, My Freebies, okay? All right. So now you know how to start it. Let's move on to monetizing it. So there are three ways to monetize your podcast. You sell your own products and services, sponsorships and affiliate partnerships, and guest networking.

So let's go over how Russell Brunson, our favorite Russell Brunson, how he monetizes his podcast. And as you guys may know, Russell Brunson is in my network. And for years, he monetized his podcast as a top of funnel strategy to get more customers for his events and his products. He records commercials,

and then he directly solicits his offers on his podcast. But over time, he grew his show, and then he was eligible for sponsorships. So at YAP Media Now, we help him get ads with brands that don't compete with ClickFunnels. And Russell is also a really great example of how your podcast can evolve. His show was called The Marketing Secret Show,

and now it's called The Russell Brunson Show. So he's a great example of how your podcast can evolve from the way that you title it to the way that you monetize it. So I'm sure you guys are wondering, how much money can I really make on sponsorships? Maybe you guys are here, you're not a celebrity, you don't have a huge following, but I want to make it extremely clear to you guys that there are other levers

to make money off podcasts outside of how big your following is. Okay? So the three variables to maximize monetization of your podcasts are number of impressions, number of ad slots, and your CPM. So in terms of the way you package up your ads and the length of your campaign, that's up to you and your network. It could be per episode, it could be weekly,

it could be monthly. At Yacht Media, we do 30-day monthly dynamic flights. In terms of ads, there is a rule of thumb of 10 to 15 minutes of content per ad on your audio show, and on YouTube it's about 20 minutes of content per ad so that people don't complain about too much ads. And typically, once you're ready for sponsorships, you're gonna work with a network

who's gonna run all your sales and ad ops, and they're gonna take 30% is the industry standard. So 30% of your revenue is gonna go to a network. So let's take my podcast as an example. I get 450,000 impressions per month in 2025. My number of ad slots is six mid rolls, and my CPM is $28. Okay?

Now I have six mid roll slots because my show is an hour long. I can put one ad per 10 minutes. So let's go back to the example that I gave of how much it costs to run one monthly flight on Young and Profiting. $12,600. Because I have six ad slots, the max gross revenue per month I can make is $75,000. And the payout that I make giving 30% to my network is $52,000 per month. And I make $635,000 off my commercial sponsorships per year. But I want you guys to understand a key thing.

If my show was 10 minutes long, I could only put one ad on my podcast. I'd only make $12,000 a month on my podcast and $150,000 or $60,000 a year. So I'm 6Xing my revenue just by having a longer show. So do you guys understand how there's other levers outside of just your following to make money on podcasts? Cool. Not many people know that.

YAP gang, when I first started Young and Profiting podcast back in 2018, it was just a hobby. And for two good years, I poured more time and money than I got back. At times, I kept asking myself, is this worth it? What if it never works? What if I don't have the tools, the time or the team? But I just pushed through and I was consistent and now it's one of the top entrepreneurship podcasts in the world. I almost let those what-ifs stop me from building something incredible. If you're sitting on a business idea, it's time to stop overthinking and start doing with Shopify. Shopify powers millions of businesses worldwide and 10% of all US ecommerce, from giants like

Gymshark and Mattel to startups just getting started. No team, no problem. Shopify handles everything from web design to inventory to customer service and shipping all in one place. If you're on a tight budget, their built-in marketing and email tools help you find and keep customers. Selling in person is also seamless

with Shopify's award-winning point of sale, which connects your online and offline sales. Wanna go global? Shopify supports sales in over 150 countries with tools for translation. of sale, which connects your online and offline sales. Wanna go global? Shopify supports sales in over 150 countries with tools for translation, international shipping, and local currencies. And with 99.99% uptime and the best converting checkout on the planet, you'll never miss a sale.

Turn those what-ifs into… And keep giving those big dreams the best shot with Shopify. Sign up for your $1 per month trial and start selling today at Shopify.com slash profiting. That's all lowercase. Go to Shopify.com slash profiting. Again it's Shopify.com slash profiting. Yeah fam, in the world of entrepreneurship, timing is everything. Especially when it comes to hiring.

One bad hire can set you back weeks, while the right one can take your business to the next level. That's why finding people quickly starts with Indeed. When it comes to hiring, Indeed is all you need. Stop struggling to get your job post seen on other job sites. Indeed Sponsored Jobs helps you stand out and hire fast. With Sponsored Jobs, your post jumps to the top of the page for your relevant candidates so you can reach the people you want faster.

And it makes a huge difference. According to Indeed data, sponsored jobs posted directly on Indeed have 45% more applications than non-sponsored jobs. One of the things that I love about Indeed is that it makes hiring so fast because I get quality matches instead of wasting time through unqualified resumes or scheduling interviews with people who just aren't a right fit. I really wish I had used Indeed earlier. It would have saved me so much time and so much stress. Plus with Indeed sponsored jobs, there's no monthly subscriptions,

no long-term contracts, and you only pay for results. How fast is Indeed? In the minute I've been talking to you, 23 hires were made on Indeed according to Indeed data worldwide. There's no need to wait any longer. Speed up your hiring right now with Indeed. And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to get your jobs more efficient. And if you're interested in getting your job more efficient, according to Indeed data worldwide. There's no need to wait any longer. Speed up your hiring right now with Indeed.

And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility at indeed.com slash profiting. Just go to indeed.com slash profiting right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. That's indeed.com slash profiting. Terms and conditions apply.

Hiring Indeed is all you need. So let's go through young and profiting sponsorship actual. So how much money did I actually make in 2024 off my podcast? So last year, there was an iOS update that impacted a lot of podcasters, including me, and my monthly downloads were 250,000. I had six mid-rolls for sale, I had a 92% fill rate, and my average CPM was $28.

Now, my payout was $52,000 a month, and for the year, I made over $600,000. So you might be thinking, well, how did you make the same amount of money if your number of downloads was way smaller last year? Well, the reason is branded content. 74 percent of my commercial revenue came from commercials, and 26% came from things like series, paid interviews, and so on.

And that's closer to 40% when I bake in mid-rolls into the branded content. So I broke that out. It's actually closer to 40% if you include the mid-rolls in the campaigns. So my total revenue was $622,000. Now that's pretty good, right? It's pretty good to make $600,000 on my podcast, but what if I told you I made ten times more $6 million using another tactic on my podcast? Do you guys want to know how I made $6 million off my podcast last year? Do you want to know how I made six million dollars off my podcast last year? Do you want to know? Okay. Guest networking. So guest networking was something that was sitting under my nose for years. When I first started podcasting, after I'd end a podcast interview,

my guests would always say, Hala, who helped you with your LinkedIn? How did you grow this podcast? And at the time, I had a volunteer team. They were helping me run my show while I worked full-time, and the podcast was just a hobby. And I'd always say, sorry, I can't help you. But COVID hit, I had more time, and I just started to chase the demand, and my agency took off right away. And so now I'm obviously more strategic about things.

And I reserve podcast slots for guests who not only will provide value for my audience, but who also seem like they might need LinkedIn and podcast help, they might need my agency services. And then I subtly introduce my services, and this is called stealth marketing. This happens well before the interview even starts. So for example, my team's email signature during the bookings process includes information

about our company. I send my guests a box with a branded box with a gift. And I also during the pre-show, I mentioned a bit about my company. And during the actual conversation, I mentioned a bit about my company. And what happens is that my guests end up pitching me after the interview. I don't even pitch them. They asked me for a call when I'm done with the interview and if they don't I say hey how's your social going? How's your podcast going? And then it leads to a call and in fact funny enough most of the people that I don't

have strategic intent with the people who I think I have no chance with end up becoming my clients. So this is a really powerful strategy. And I'm not alone. Lori Harder, who's the host of Earn Your Happy in my podcast network, she's the CEO and founder of Glossy, it's a skincare that you can drink, she raised her first two million dollars

through her podcast relationships, and her podcast guests became her investors. And so she told me a story about how she stumbled into it. One time after an interview, she was just starting to raise money, and she was interviewing this really experienced woman, and she said, hey, do you mind critiquing my pitch deck

and letting me know what you think and if you know of any investors? The next day, the lady invested in her company, forwarded it to 15 of her friends and it led to a celebrity investing in Lori's company. From then on, she realized the power of guest network and raised the rest of her round. So your guests can become your clients. They can come your investors. They can become your mentors and it's a really powerful strategy.

So I don't want you guys to stumble into monetizing your podcasts this way. You can design a podcast that's going to fuel your business goals. You can design a podcast that targets your perfect client. And if you're able to create the podcast in a way where the content is interesting and attract an audience, you can then get sponsors and sell your own products. And so for example, I monetize my podcast in all three ways. My guests become my clients,

I get sponsorships and brand deals, and I sell my own products and courses. Okay, now you know how to start your podcast, how to monetize it. So far, have you guys learned a lot? Okay, so let's talk about how to grow it. There are four key principles you need to grow your podcast and Tori Dunlap in my YAP Media Podcast Network is an amazing example of a podcast that

uses all these key principles. She's the fastest growing podcaster in my network. She's currently the largest in terms of downloads. And the four key principles are, firstly, 50% promotion, 50% production. If you build a podcast, they will not come. You need to be spending just as much time promoting your podcast as you are producing it. And Tori's a great example. She is promoting her podcast every day on all the different channels

driving back to her podcast. Number two, good content leads to word of mouth. and she's going to be doing her podcast every day on all the different channels driving back to her podcast. Number two, good content leads to word of mouth. Your content needs to be worthy of sharing. And when it comes to growing your podcast, retention is everything in the podcast world. Podcasts are a leaky bucket. You need to retain your audience if you want to grow it.

In Tori's case, she's a financial expert, she's credible, she's entertaining, which keeps people coming back for more. Three, be visible where podcast listeners are. You want to be visible in the podcast apps. Half the people in America don't even listen to podcasts. You want to reach out to podcast fans that have seven to nine podcasts in their rotation.

You want to be a part of their rotation, which means you've got to advertise in the player apps, you've got to buy commercials that promote your podcasts on other podcasts, and in Tori's case, she actually guests on her competitor podcast. She'll go on direct competitors like Her Money and Smart Money to reach their target audience, and collaboration in this way is very common in the podcast world.

Next is diversifying your funnels, and there's five funnels exactly. So there's the PSO funnel. Now PSO is podcast search optimization. This is basically in Spotify and Apple when you search a title, when you search a keyword, you want your episode to pop up. That's what PSO is in the app. And basically the secret of this is you need to have the same keywords over and over again in your metadata,

in your title, in your show notes. The same exact keywords. It's based on the volume of keywords, your popularity and the relevancy. So Tori is an amazing example of this. Her show is the Financial Feminist Podcast. She's got keywords like finance and investing that she repeats over and over again

in her metadata and ensures that she always ranks high on search. Video funnels. You need a visual element to promote your podcasts on social media. IG, TikTok, YouTube is super important. 31% of new podcast listeners discover podcasts on YouTube. And Tori, for example, has a huge following on Instagram, on TikTok, and that's why she's the fastest-growing podcaster in my network, because when her posts go viral, her podcast goes viral, too. DM funnels do not underestimate one-on-one combat in the DMs. You need to spoon-feed your link to engaged followers.

Email funnels, you want to grow your list. You can use quizzes, lead magnets, and then you want to email them for every new episode. And lastly, Apple and Spotify charts. If you want to be at the top of the charts, the key is daily new subscribers. It has nothing to do with the size of your show. You could be a small show and top the charts.

It's based on how many new subscribers you bring in a day. So somebody like me and Tori, who's promoting on social media every day, who's always putting out email blasts, always doing DM funnels, we're gonna sit high on the charts, okay? All right, so the four key principles of growth. Promotion and production, 50-50.

Good content, be visible where podcast listeners are, diversify your podcast funnels. Do you guys feel like you know how to grow your show now? Great. So to recap, let's do a recap of the whole session. Why do you decide if you want to own or buy your audience? Two, if you want to buy, you choose between commercials and branded content. Three, if you want to buy, you choose between commercials and branded content.

Three, if you want to grow, you start, you monetize, and you grow using the four principles. Now, I'm going to close by sharing something personal and hopefully inspirational. Before Young and Profiting, I was young and dreaming. I wanted to be a radio personality. I got an internship at Hot 97. It was a very popular hip-hop and radio station in New York.

And I ended up dropping out of school to work at the station for three years on the Angie Martinez show, and I didn't get paid a dollar for three years. When a paid position opened up, I for sure was going to get the job. But they actually gave it to somebody who had never even worked on the show. And then they asked me to train him. So, long story short, I didn't feel like going to work the next day, and I got fired.

I got blackballed from the industry, and the same DJs that used to be family told me they couldn't talk to me anymore. Now I was crushed because I was Hala from Hot 97. My identity was tied to Hot 97. I felt like somebody had died. But I'm not one to stay down, so I kept on dreaming. And I decided to start a blog.

So I started something called the Sorority of Hiphop. I wanted to empower other women in the entertainment industry who weren't getting opportunities. I had been blogging on the side and so I decided to recruit 50 girls, teach them how to blog and within three months we were one of the most popular entertainment sites in the world and the DJs who wouldn't pay me minimum wage were now asking me to host all their parties. Now MTV, MTV reached out and they wanted us to have a reality TV show.

And they thought we were gonna be the next Jersey Shore. And they invested heavily in us. They got us a studio on Broadway. And I was the lead. So I thought, oh my God, I made it. Six years, not getting paid a dollar, busting my butt. I finally made it in the entertainment industry. I'm going to be famous, I'm going to be the lead on an MTV show.

This is the height of MTV after Jersey Shore. But two weeks before launching the TV series, my producer calls me and says, Hala, I'm really sorry. We're moving in another direction. So I was rejected from TV, I was rejected from radio, and at this point I thought, I've got to just throw in the towel.

I'm never going to make it, I've got to make my family proud. I was the black sheep. I better just get young and real. So I got my MBA, I went into corporate, and I thought I'd never get back on a mic. I thought that was it, game over. But it turns out I ended up doing amazing in corporate. I loved it.

I got promoted four times in four years, and I was the same Hala. I was interviewing the C-suite at the town halls. I was president of the Young Employee Network in my region. But then an opportunity came and I was next in line to be the global young employee president at Hewlett Packard. I was going to lead 7,000 young professionals. I really wanted it. But then they gave it to somebody else who had no experience in the organization. And all the rejections that I had from the past came bubbling up. And I told myself, this is the last time that somebody's gonna control my future. This is the last time that a gatekeeper is gonna tell me no I

Need to control my life. I need to build my own asset And so I decided that instead of leading seven thousand young professionals I would lead millions online with Young and Profiting podcasts. (*Applause*) It was 2018, and I saw podcasters like Jenna Kutcher at the top of the charts, and I thought, with my radio and marketing experience, I could do this too,

and Young and Profiting podcasts was born. Now, everybody told me I was crazy. They told me, podcasting is too saturating. You're too late. But I didn't listen. I had no plan. I had no team. And I just started 50 percent promotion, 50 percent production.

My main focus for promotion was LinkedIn. I quickly became one of the top influencers and podcasters on LinkedIn and my passion was magnetic. Fans would reach out to me telling me I changed their life and they wanted to know how they could help me. So by episode eight, I had 20 volunteers in a Slack channel who worked for free for me for two years to help grow my brand. And within two years with the help of my amazing team, we became a number one podcast in education on Apple.

And these days, I'm topping the business charts. My guests turned into my clients. I transitioned my volunteer team into the company that we know today, Yacht Media, it's still the same Slack channel, and we are now an award-winning social media and podcast agency. Then I mastered how to do sponsorships, and four years into podcasting,

I launched the YAP Media Podcast Network, and now I secure ad sales for all the podcasters I used to look up to, like Jenna Kutcher, Russell Brunson, John Lee Dumas, Laurie Harder and so many more. And today many of the volunteers who used to work for free for me now are managers and business partners at my company, and this year, we're on track to hit eight figures. So I don't say this to brag. I say this because I want to inspire you guys. Podcasts gave me my dream career, my dream company and my dream team.

Everything I owe, all my success, I owe it to starting a podcast. And I'm sharing this with you because if you want to start a podcast, I want you to know that I believe in you. If you're willing to invest the time and be consistent, I believe that you can do this. The creator economy is just beginning. It's not too late.

You don't need a plan. You don't need permission. You just need to start. I'm Hala Taha. Thank you so much. And there you have it, young and profitors. If you're still with me, it means you're serious about building something real.

You just absorbed a masterclass on how podcasting can transform your brand, your business, and your life. And if hearing my story from being rejected and underestimated to building an almost eight-figure company sparked even a flicker of belief in what's possible for you, then this episode did its job. Here's the truth. You don't need permission. You don't need a massive audience or a perfect plan. When I started Young and Profiting, I didn't have industry connections or fancy equipment, but I did have clarity of purpose, grit and 20 incredible volunteers who believed in the mission. I showed up consistently obsessed over the craft and kept building

one episode at a time. Podcasting gave me more than a platform. It gave me a voice. It gave me access to rooms I once could only dream of and the leverage to build a brand and business and a network that's changing lives, including my own. And podcasting can do the same for you. So if you're feeling the pull to start your own show, pitch that dream guess, book that first brand deal or finally monetize your content, don't wait.

You don't need to have it all figured out. Just take that next bold step. Use what you learned today and that momentum will follow. Yeah fam, if this message resonated with you, go watch the full Funnel Hacking Live keynote and all of our Yap Live sessions on Spotify video to get the full effect. I highly encourage you to re-watch this so you can retain and learn even more. We're bringing the stage to your screen so you can learn and grow with us in real time. Also guys, if you enjoyed this, if you learned something new, if you think I made you even an extra dollar in the next year from all this content, return the

favor, drop me a review. I don't ask for anything from you guys, we don't have you guys pay for anything, we give out lots of free educational content, and our ask is for you to write us a review. Drop us a comment, a review on Apple Podcasts, a comment on YouTube, a review on Spotify, wherever you listen to the show, Castbox, we'd really, really appreciate it. All right, until next time, keep listening, learning, and profiting. This is your host, Hala Taha, aka The Podcast Princess, signing off.