Young and Profiting with Hala Taha - Hala Taha: Never Give Up On Your Dreams (Follow Your Dream Podcast)

Starting point is 00:00:00 This episode of YAP is sponsored in part by Shopify. Shopify simplifies selling online and in-person so you can focus on successfully growing your business. Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at Shopify.com-profiting. Today on YAP, we're featuring my appearance on the Follow Your Dream podcast hosted by Robert Miller. Robert is a member of Project Grand Slam, a rock and jazz band with 11 release albums and millions of streams. His podcast Follow Your Dream was inspired by Robert's passion for music that he reignited

Starting point is 00:00:42 at 60 years young. During the interview, I reveal all the times I've been rejected in my career and how those failures were actually opportunities that led me to where I am today. We discussed how I originally left the entertainment industry and how my social media and podcast agency Yat Media started so organically that it was basically an accident.

Starting point is 00:01:03 If you need a burst of inspiration to follow your dreams, stay tuned in. And if you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe to the Follow Your Dream podcast. So Halataha, welcome to the Follow Your Dream podcast. Hi, what an introduction. I'm super excited for this show. It sounds like it's gonna be a great time. Well, you know, you're the podcast princess, so you know how to do this better than anybody.

Starting point is 00:01:28 Tell me, what is it like for you to be kind of at the top of the ladder? And then we're going to go back and look at your journey there. Oh, what a great way to start. You know, sometimes I have to pinch myself because I feel like I'm literally, you know, living my dream career. It's incredible that I can make a living off reading, you know, one minute commercials. And I'll, you know, spend an hour recording and be like, wow, I just made, you know, X amount of money. I remember when I first started, I wasn't making any money for the first couple of years. And it's just incredible to have all these listeners, to have all this influence, to be able to monetize my show that way I have.

Starting point is 00:02:08 And I'm just really proud of myself for leveraging what I built on social and my podcasts to then turn it into an agency and a podcast network and help other people grow and monetize their personal brands and podcasts. Everybody, do you see why I wanted to have this lady on the show because she's one of the few podcasts is actually making money doing this. And she's very, very successful. I'm going to learn a lot from her. I promise. Okay. So let's start back because you started out kind of at the bottom of the ladder. I, you know, I took a look at your background. You were a radio production assistant, right? Yes. So start with that and let's kind of build up and see how it all came about.

Starting point is 00:02:49 Yes. So when I was 19 years old, I got an internship at Haunt 97, which at the time was the world's number one hip-hop and army station it still is. And I basically had this college internship. I was a junior in college. Then they promoted me to be Angie Martinez's intern who was the voice of New York on the top show in America, period.

Starting point is 00:03:12 It was the top morning show, top show in America period. And I essentially became her assistant and associate producer. I was 19 years old. I ended up dropping out of college because they wanted me to work there every day. And every day, if you go to the college, can you stay? How can you come tomorrow? And I there every day. And every day, the college, can you stay?

Starting point is 00:03:25 How can you come tomorrow? And I would skip class. And then eventually, I was like, okay, I need to just drop out of school because this is becoming my job. But all the while, I was actually an unpaid intern because in radio, you have to pay your dues. And often the on air personalities that you hear, they may have worked for free at the station for five to seven years and then got their first gig as like an overnight

Starting point is 00:03:47 Online personality DJ at the radio station. So you kind of have to do that You're gonna do that in a lot of places. I have to say you know that the free intern thing is everywhere It is the in radio was that your goal at that moment? Or you just fell into that job? Well, I always wanted to be a singer I always knew that I was going to use my voice to impact the world. So I actually applied to being an internet hot 97 to push the music I was writing and singing.

Starting point is 00:04:12 But when I got to hot 97, I fell in love with radio and I was really good at it. I was really good at research. From the start, they had me reading commercials on air. I was always brought on to speak on air. I started my own online radio shows on the side, which is the precursor of podcasts. So ever since I was 19 years old, I was basically doing podcasts, but that version of podcasts at the time was online radio

Starting point is 00:04:37 shows. And so I fell in love with it and then quickly realized that I had much, a much more likelihood of being successful in radio and broadcasting than I did, you know, competing with Beyonce or something. So I went that route. Did you get any of your songs on the, on the show? No, none of my songs ever got played on the radio because I quickly switched gears. It was like within four months, I was like, you know, forget being a singer. I just want to go all in on radio. Yeah. All right. You went from being a singer to being a radio person.

Starting point is 00:05:06 Okay, I got it. So keep going here. Okay, so then I ended up leaving hot 97 because all of my siblings were in med school and my parents are very traditional immigrants. And so I was getting so much pressure because I dropped out of school A and B because I was intranning for free.

Starting point is 00:05:25 And so they were kind of just like, Holly, get your life together. What are you doing? Like you should be studying. You should go back to school. And so I was getting a ton of pressure. So I asked hot 97 to pay me and I sort of made a stink about it. And I think they got scared.

Starting point is 00:05:38 They ended up firing me. I don't know if you can fire someone that you're not paying, but they ended up cutting my key cards and saying, Holly, don't come back. And I ended up getting fired. So I was devastated. Wait a minute. At that point, you go back to your parents. You tell them not only am I the failure in the family, because I'm not getting paid, but now I got fired on top of it all, huh? Yes, but they were happy. Yeah, I mean, they were happy. They're like, great. Now you can go

Starting point is 00:06:03 back to school, which is exactly what I did. So they're like, great. Now you can go back to school and start being a stop being a party girl. So I ended up going back to school. At the same time, though, I got fired on a Thursday. By Sunday, I had a new idea and I decided I was going to launch something called the sorority of hip hop strawberry blunt.com. I was going to recruit other girls in the entertainment industry from places like VH1, Def Jam, I Heart, and team up together and start a blog. I had learned how to blog at hot and 87. I used to blog for the other DJs, right? So I decided I was going to start this website and I started building this website on a Sunday. Two weeks later, I had recruited 14 girls of Craigslist and Twitter to join me to be a part of the sorority of hip-hop. I was the president, and we

Starting point is 00:06:51 had our first meeting at my college campus in a big boardroom, and I launched this block. By three months, we were one of the most popular hip-hop and entertainment websites in the world. MTV was scouting us. I was going viral on Twitter because I figured out how to hack Twitter essentially. I was the first blog to add mentioned celebrities in our blog posts automatically. So I had all these girls hook up to this platform that basically every time we put out a blog post,

Starting point is 00:07:19 it would tweet something out on Twitter. And I had, at the height of it, I had a hundred girls in this organization. Everyone was synced up to this platform. And whenever we put out a blog and be like, a hundred pretty girls tweeting out Drake or, you know, Ditty or whatever it was, and they would retweet us. And so we kept going viral. And so people wanted to us to have TV shows. We started hosting the hottest parties in New York. The same DJs that I was getting coffee for and feeding the meter for started paying me to host all the parties with them because I had a big traction on Twitter and basically

Starting point is 00:07:52 had like a promotion machine. And so I started this blog events company and it got really big. And so I did that for three years. Let's hold that thought and take a quick break with our sponsors. Young and Profiters, do you have a brilliant business idea but you don't know how to move forward with it? Going into debt for a four-year degree isn't the only path to success. Instead, learn everything you need to know about running a business for free by listening to the Millionaire University Podcast.

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Starting point is 00:11:03 two week trial at trinom.com. Sasha that's trinom and O M dot com Sasha for 50% off trinom.com slash yeah. All right, hold on. I'm trying to figure out why did you ever give this up because it sounds like, you know, you went to the top of the pyramid with this thing. Okay, you got all these women with you and you're you've hit the top with the this what was it called the sorority again?

Starting point is 00:11:31 The sorority of hip hop. I love the name. Okay, I can't you know you're you're you're moving like at a thousand miles an hour here and I'm trying to like hold the the reins back on the horse. Okay, but does anybody ever tell you that that you got to slow down a little bit? I'm so used to telling my story yet and I can tell that you want to ask me a million questions. So feel free to pause me at any time, but... Sure, I keep going. I like this. You're, I mean, you're going fast. I like this. Yeah, so really to answer your question as why didn't I keep doing this, it's because I didn't figure out how to monetize the blog effectively, right?

Starting point is 00:12:06 I was a young girl. We were basically famous in New York and New Jersey, and we would make money hosting parties But there were so many mouths to feed plus the cost of running a very popular website is expensive I had to have multiple servers and like all this stuff and I was just figuring this out I was 20 like four years old, you know? I was just a baby. And so I was just trying to figure it out. And we weren't making enough money for everybody to live off of it, you know? And so MTV scouted us.

Starting point is 00:12:35 And finally I thought, all right, I worked at free at Hot 97 for three years. I've done this entertainment news site now. It's been two years. MTV wants to have me and be the star of a show. This was right after Jersey Shore had ended. I was literally gonna be like the next snooki.

Starting point is 00:12:52 And MTV filmed us all summer. They got us to studio on Broadway. And they filmed us like in restaurants walking on the street at my parents house. And it was like a reality TV show that everybody was really a bullish on and they invested a ton of money into us and I got my hair and makeup done every day and I thought I was going to be famous and I finally thought okay we made it because me and like six

Starting point is 00:13:15 other top girls were going to get a consistent paycheck doing the show and we had signed all these contracts and I thought I was going to be rich and famous. And I had finally made it. And two weeks before the show was supposed to air, I get a call from the production director, Tiffany Williams. And she basically said, sorry, Hala, we're moving in another direction. We're not airing the show. I'm really sorry this happened. There's nothing you like we can do. What does it mean that they're moving in another direction? I have no, they chose the they maybe they never told you. They never told me why I never got to see the footage. It was just, that's it.

Starting point is 00:13:52 They just, that's our, you're moving in another direction. And I, again, it was another one of those like slap in the face moments. And I was, this time I was like devastated. All right. What did you say to your parents then? I was hysterical. I just remember being hysterical, but the answer to them was always, all right, go back to school. Right.

Starting point is 00:14:11 So I did. I went and got my MBA. I shut everything. Hold on, hold on. Stop, stop, stop. You went from all of this stuff, the influences stuff, the sorority stuff, the radio stuff, and all of a sudden you decided to get an MBA. Is that what happened?

Starting point is 00:14:25 Okay. Did that make your parents happy? It did, because I got a 4.0 and I actually did really good in school this time. Last, the first time around, I think I graduated with a 2.3 GPA, so they were way happier this time around. And so I essentially gave up. I said, forget entertainment. I'm never going to make it. I got, I entertainment, I'm never going to make it.

Starting point is 00:14:45 I got, I got, I should have listened to my parents. Like, yeah, it was fun. I'm getting old and I can't be the, you know, president of the story of hip-hop, you know, in my 30s, I better quit while I'm ahead and just decided I was just going to shut it down. And I had all these girls, some of these girls are still mad at me for shutting it down, you know, and still contact me. me like how could you have done this? Like, you know, you ruined our sorority and all this stuff. But I'm like, I can't, it wasn't paying the bills.

Starting point is 00:15:11 And by the way, it was a lot of pressure for me for everybody's. It was all the way down my shoulders. You know, I was the mastermind behind everything. And it just was too much pressure. And I just thought, you know, if I can't be successful myself, how am I going to make 50 other girls successful, right? And so I just decided to cut my losses and start off fresh and go into corporate.

Starting point is 00:15:33 And so I got my MBA, I got a 4.0, I graduated number one in class. And the reason why I did that is because I knew I wasn't going to get a job unless I like could show like, hey, like I just was not taking undergrad seriously and I am smart. And here's me proving that I am because my resume looked crazy at the time. I mean, I was an intern at Hot N-E7 and the president of the sorority of hip-hop. That's an unusual resume.

Starting point is 00:16:00 I will give you that. It is. Did you do the NBA thing full time? Or were you doing it at night and doing something else? Great question. It was actually an executive NBA that I did on the weekend. And at the same time, I got an internship at Hewlett Packard. So I actually got my highest paying job

Starting point is 00:16:17 as an intern at Hewlett Packard. At the time, I was making 70K a year, which to me, back then, was like, wow, like, you know, Corpets not so like, you know, corporate's not so bad, you know, and so I loved that study paycheck. And I really embraced the opportunity. So I got my MBA and at the same time I was working at Hewlett Packard, you know, 30 hours a week.

Starting point is 00:16:36 What were you doing for them? I was basically doing social media for them at first. And then I ended up getting promoted and I worked there for four years and I got promoted. I had every single job you can think of in the marketing department. By the end of it, I was running a team of like 30 people and I was essentially the face of the young employees at Hualite Packard. So I thought I was going to get there, you know, being 27 years old or whatever I was, so late to the game. This is my first corporate job, 27 years old. Most people get their first corporate job when they're 22, right?

Starting point is 00:17:07 And so I was like, oh man, this is gonna be so hard. And I was different, I dressed different, I talk different, right? But I was so much more tech savvy than everyone else. And that made me accelerate my career so quickly and I found myself jumping over people my age at HP because I was so outgoing, I was like an entrepreneur within the organization, I was taking what's called opportunity set B within my job.

Starting point is 00:17:33 So there's opportunity set A, which is everything you're supposed to do and there's opportunity set B, which is the things that you want to do to increase your skills and kind of get ahead. And so I was president of the Young Employee Network and running all their company picnics and interviewing the CEO and just kind of being a little entrepreneur like I was saying within the organization. Do you ever have any downtime lately? No, I mean, seriously, you're running at a thousand miles an hour with all these things.

Starting point is 00:18:01 And I know you're accelerating the discussion because we're talking about it here. But I mean, you are some go getter. And I'm just what do you have hobbies? Do you have things that are not part of the big picture for you? I do have hobbies. I mean, I'm really career focused. I would say for the past five years, especially, I was just nose down building this career. I mean, you don't become the podcast princess and essentially start to dominate in industry by, you know, not working extremely hard and being very focused. And so I was very focused the last four or five years.

Starting point is 00:18:35 But lately, I've been trying to, you know, look at other parts of life that are priorities, like relationships and, you know, having fun and traveling and all those kinds of things. But I did feel like I needed to sacrifice temporarily and I don't regret it. Okay. Okay.

Starting point is 00:18:53 Alright, so keep going, we're still climbing the ladder here. Okay, so we're at Hewlett Packard. So like I eluded to, I crushed it at Hewlett Packard. I just got promoted, left and right. I was the face of the young employee. You're going to rename the company Hewlett Packard Taha. Well, I literally thought I for a period of time, I was like, I'll just stay here until I become the CMO. You know, I literally thought that. And I remember I was, so I was president of this thing called the Young Employee Network. And then I became the recruitment chair on the Global Young Employee Network.

Starting point is 00:19:28 So for those who don't know, especially this was, let's say, six years ago or something like that. Six years ago, Hewlett Packard was 300,000 people. It was a huge company. It's since then divided into two different companies. But when I worked there, 300,000 people and the young employees were all around the world and there was like 10,000 of them.

Starting point is 00:19:49 So it was like a big deal to be like the spokesperson of everybody, all the young employees that you like Packard, and sometimes I would find myself emailing the whole company like I was the CEO like all the time as like the president of this young employee network. So anyway, I ended up applying to be the president of the global young employee network. It was like the last rung on the ladder of this like organization that I was a part of

Starting point is 00:20:14 internally at the company, right? All right. Don't tell me they fired you too. Yes. So, so after being the president for two years at my office and literally starting their company picnic, starting their holiday party, like literally starting it from nothing in New York. And then starting something called HPE Spirit Week

Starting point is 00:20:35 all around the world, which is essentially a week-long event that they still do to this day where like 500 offices around the world participate in the same event all week long. And I created it and it was like a big success After doing all that I had earned by every like every person was like vouching for me everybody on the board I had earned that spot the HR director gave it to somebody who literally had no experience within the organization

Starting point is 00:20:59 Who was like a local at their at their site? Welcome to corporate America. Yeah, and that person quit a month later, and you know what, so did I. So at that same time, I was like, checked out, I was like, wow, like I literally did this as a side hustle and they slapped me in the face. It even put me on the board. So I was pissed.

Starting point is 00:21:21 I wasn't young in profiting. I was young in pissed at the time. And I decided, hey, forget it, I'm just going to start my own thing. I've worked corporate for years. I want to go back to broadcasting. I feel like I have done all that I can at HP and in terms of like my ability to rise up the ranks and they just slapped me in the face after I worked for free for them essentially. For three years doing this whole internal culture building that I was doing. And I'm just going to start my own podcast. Why should I invest in them? I want to invest in myself.

Starting point is 00:21:52 All right. But at that time, podcasts were, you know, they were established, but it wasn't what it is now. No. And probably, you know, there were a lot of people that weren't making any money doing podcasting. So you took a leap with this, didn't you? I did. I didn't do it for money. I never, I actually didn't think it was possible to make money with podcasts because I had been in the radio world for many years before that and made no money. So I was like, oh, this is going to be a hobby and outlet because I'm in the corporate world. I went to Disney. So at the same time, I got a job at Disney streaming services and moved there. And I built this podcast. So you built the podcast while you were at Disney? Is that what you're saying?

Starting point is 00:22:34 I started at a Hula Packard for like six months and then I moved to Disney. Okay. But in the meantime, you were doing the podcast creation, if you will, on the side. Exactly. And by the time I landed a job at Disney,, if you will, on the side. Exactly. And by the time I landed a job at Disney, I already had a number one how-to podcast. So the podcast actually recruited me because of the podcast, because it was streaming services,

Starting point is 00:22:55 and nobody had TV streaming experience because it was a new thing. So podcast was a relevant, transferable kind of skill. And so that's why Disney streaming recruited me is because I had a podcast. So I ended up going to Disney streaming, built this podcast on the side. My podcast just slowly just kept blowing up and blowing up. Disney was very supportive from the start because they knew about it from the start.

Starting point is 00:23:20 And they would allow me to interview celebrities during my lunch hour. And I was just, have this executive corporate job, and at the same time, had a podcast. We'll be right back after a quick break from our sponsors. Hear that sound, young and profitors? You should know that sound by now, but in case you don't, that's the sound of another sale on Shopify. Shopify is a commerce platform that's revolutionizing millions of

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Starting point is 00:25:37 slash profiting. Again, go to Shopify.com slash profiting all lowercase to take your business to the next level today. Again, that Shopify.com slash profiting. Shopify.com slash profiting all lower case to take your business to the next level today. Again, that shopify dot com slash profiting shop fly dot com slash profiting all lower case. This is possibility powered by shopify. Yeah, if you're ready to take your business to new heights, break through to the six or seven figure mark or learn from the world's most successful people, look no further because the Kelly Roach show has got you covered. Kelly Roach is a bestling author,, a top-ranked podcast host, and an extremely talented marketer.

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Starting point is 00:29:47 That way I can multitask while I learn. Get unlimited access to every class and right now as the app listener, you can get 15% off when you go to masterclass.com-profiting. That's masterclass.com-profiting for 15% off an annual membership. Masterclass.com slash profiting. Okay, and for them, they just, they didn't even care about it. I guess on this, that you were doing this on the side because they didn't think this was going to amount to anything probably. Yeah, so it's a funny story because I started my LinkedIn journey at the same time as my podcast. So now I'm one of the biggest influencers on LinkedIn, right?

Starting point is 00:30:26 And so, Disney didn't care about my podcast until I became more popular than their CEO was on LinkedIn. So then they started, they came around and they wanted to own my podcast. And I was like, you don't own my podcast. I reported this when I first got this job and then they backed off. But like, there was a one point in time where Disney tried to say they owned my podcast and obviously they were. So you were more popular than Bob Igerz.

Starting point is 00:30:52 That what you say? It was the other president of Disney streaming services. But yeah, even Bob Iger, I feel like I'm more popular than him. Probably are. He's not there any longer. All right. You know, I feel like I have to like exhale here because he is. It's like there any longer. All right. I feel like I have to exhale here because he's sorry, he's unbelievable.

Starting point is 00:31:08 OK. So you started the podcast. You made the podcast a success, but that wasn't enough for you. You had to go into this, the app media thing. So tell us about that. Yeah. So I had this big podcast while I was working at Disney. But still, I wasn't really monetizing.

Starting point is 00:31:25 That all happened at once, right? So COVID hit. And that was a crazy time for me, because my family was one of the first families impacted by COVID. And so it was March of 2020, and I get a phone call from my sister, and she's like, a mom, dad, and your brother, your aunt and your uncle all have COVID.

Starting point is 00:31:47 This is right when everything first happened. And she's like, are you gonna come home with me and help or not? You have 20 minutes, let me know. And I'm like, okay. And so I literally packed my bag in 20 minutes and my sister picked me up and we went and took care of my parents who had COVID.

Starting point is 00:32:00 And my father ended up going to the hospital and sadly ended up passing away. But what happened? From COVID, you mean? From COVID, yeah. Me. I know. So I was home and previously I was living with my boyfriend.

Starting point is 00:32:16 I ended up being home for three months because of this, because it's like I got COVID. At the time, people were really scared of people who got COVID. So it wasn't, it wasn't like this like now where like you get COVID and as soon as you're negative, you're like, out and about. Back then, it was like, no, you know what I mean? We were like dangerous to everyone, right? And so I literally was isolated for three months at home. Didn't see my boyfriend. All I

Starting point is 00:32:40 had was like, my dad was in the hospital. I was working from home at Disney. Everybody was working from home. And I basically had all this new time. I had no social life. I had no commute. And at the same time, there was this lady, Heather Monahan. And she's a huge influencer on LinkedIn. She's one of my mentors now, my first client. And she basically was hounding me because she came on my podcast. And as a lot of

Starting point is 00:33:06 guests did at the end of the show, they'd say to me, how, how'd you do this? How'd you grow your LinkedIn so big? How do you have such a big podcast? And you're working a corporate job? Like, could you do this for me? And I'd always be like, no, I can't do it for you. I had a volunteer team. So this is something we didn't talk about back up a little bit because I didn't do it for you. I had a volunteer team. So this is something we didn't talk about. I'll back up a little bit because I didn't mention it. So I've had a volunteer team helping me with young and profiting since the beginning. So by episode two, I had my first intern slash volunteer who's now my business partner.

Starting point is 00:33:37 By episode eight, I had 10 interns or volunteers in a Slack channel helping me. And I, because I just knew so much. And so these super fans would reach out to me on LinkedIn and be like, I'm obsessed with your show. I want to help get the message out there. Can I help you? I'll build your website or I want to help you do videos.

Starting point is 00:33:55 Can I help you with videos? And so I had like one guy from Estonia building my website. I had a guy from Atlanta helping me from doing videos. I had somebody in California helping me with guest outreach. And so I started building this little company without realizing it was a company, right? And so Heather Monahan was like, hounding me. And she was like, Hala, I want you to do my videos. Like your videos are crazy and credible.

Starting point is 00:34:19 Can you do my videos for me? And I was like, I can't do them for you because I have a job. I just have a small volunteer team. And, you know, I'll help you on the weekends. And so I would schedule calls with her over on the weekends and try to teach her how to make videos. Until one day she was like, holla, I can't do this by myself. You have to do this for me. I'm going to be your first client. You can't say no. She's like, I just had a call with Gary V and VaynerMedia and your stuff is better than them. Like, I want to be your first client.

Starting point is 00:34:51 Like, you can do this. And so Heather became my first client for very cheap. I think she paid me $500 a month and we started doing her videos. Then we started taking over everything for her. My second client was a billionaire who paid us $30,000 a month and everything changed. Then I started paying everyone. Then I started recruiting more people. I built out a team in the

Starting point is 00:35:10 Philippines and in India. Now I have 20 employees in the U.S. and that just was basically my seed investor was my second client. Then I just got Cara Gold in the CEO of Hintwater, another big retainer. I got Brittmore in a Brit and Co. and 1- and 1,800 got junk CEO and just went after the another. And then I found myself six months into starting this business still at Disney with 30 employees and making way more money than I was at my corporate job. And then I ended up quitting and becoming a full-time entrepreneur. All right. I only have one question. Why are you running for president, huh? I mean, that's about the only thing you haven't done.

Starting point is 00:35:47 So I'm waiting for you to tell me. I do want to get into politics one day, but I don't think president. I think I screwed that up already. I don't know about that. You've got one heck of a resume. I mean, you've zig-zagged all over the place, but each time you've zigged or zigged, you've gone up. Okay. And now you've really

Starting point is 00:36:05 hit the top and you're still young. And that's an amazing story. Thank you. I don't know how you do it. You ever sleep? I didn't for a while. I used to, I was saying like for four years, I feel like I ran on four or five hours of sleep, especially honestly, the hardest time I worked was running my podcast, my company, and working Disney. I freaking was an animal at that time. Once I quit my corporate job, it got a little bit more focused, but it was just accelerating like crazy. I got on the cover of podcast magazine and just sort of monetizing my podcast and getting

Starting point is 00:36:37 sponsors. And I had no time either as my first, basically, year of entrepreneurship. But now it's kind of settling down and I feel like I have a life again. All right, good for you. So where's it gonna go in the future? What are you thinking of next? So I started a podcast network.

Starting point is 00:36:54 So I figured out how to monetize my show and grow it. I'm one of the foremost experts in terms of media buying and podcasts and monetizing podcasts. And so I started a podcast network. I have about 20 shows most experts in terms of media buying and podcasts and monetizing podcasts. And so I started a podcast network. I have about 20 shows and we just got signed to cumulus podcast network, which is owned by Westwood one. It's a huge, it's like Ben Shapiro's network.

Starting point is 00:37:14 And so I'm really focused on growing my podcast network and my agency. This has been some experience to hear all of this. I want to congratulate you for all this success. I mean, it's been quite remarkable, but like I said a moment ago, you kept failing upwards, okay, which is really something that's very hard to do. And you've got a great podcast,

Starting point is 00:37:38 you've got a great agency, you're moving, you keep smiling. I wish everybody could see your face because she smiles during the entire discussion, which I like when people do that. So it's been a fantastic experience to interview you. We've been talking with Hala Taha, who is the top of the game in podcasting with Young and Profiting, and then she's got Yap Media. She's going to run for president one day. You heard it here first. I want to thank you so much for being on the podcast.

Starting point is 00:38:05 Really been fun. Thank you so much, Robert. I have to say, you're really fun host and my energy just matched yours. So thank you so much. Are you looking for ways to be happier, healthier, more productive, and more creative? I'm Gretchen Ruben, the number one best-selling author of the Happiness Project. And every week, we share ideas and practical solutions on the Happier with Gretchen Ruben Podcast.

Starting point is 00:38:40 My co-host and Happiness Guinea Pig is my sister Elizabeth Kraft. That's me, Elizabeth Kraft, TV writer and producer in Hollywood. Join us as we explore fresh insights from cutting-edge science, ancient wisdom, pop culture, and our own experiences about cultivating happiness and good habits. Every week we offer a try this at home tip you can use to boost your happiness without spending a lot of time energy or money. Suggestions such as, follow the one-minute rule. Choose a one-word theme for the year or design your summer. We also feature segments like know yourself better where we discuss questions like, are you an over buyer or an under buyer? Morning person or night person, abundance lever or simplicity lever. And every episode includes a happiness hack, a quick easy shortcut to more

Starting point is 00:39:25 happy. Listen and follow the podcast happier with Gretchen Rubin. Whether you're doing it to your favorite artist in the office parking lot, or being guided into Warrior I in the break room before your shift, whether you're running on your Peloton tread at your mom's house while she watches the baby, or counting your breaths on the subway. We're inhaling and long exhale. Peloton is for all of us. Wherever we are, whenever we need it,

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Young and Profiting with Hala Taha - Hala Taha: Never Give Up On Your Dreams (Follow Your Dream Podcast)

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