Young and Profiting with Hala Taha - Hala Taha: The Mindset That Turned Rejection into a Multi-Million Dollar Business | Human Behavior | YAPClassic

Episode Date: February 25, 2026

Hala Taha's mindset was pushed to its breaking point by relentless rejection, discrimination, and loss. After three years of unpaid sacrifice at Hot 97, being fired and blackballed, repeatedly passed over for promotion, and ultimately losing her father to COVID, she had every reason to quit. But instead of waiting for permission, she rebuilt her psychology from the ground up, stacked her unique strengths, and carved out her own path. In this MIT keynote speech, Hala shares her raw, unfiltered come-up story and the exact mindset shifts that fueled her self-improvement and helped her build a profitable life and business against all odds. In this episode, Hala will discuss: (00:00) Introduction (05:18) Her Father’s Grit and Palestinian Roots (08:41) Growing Up Between Two Worlds (15:51) Hot 97: Working for Free and Getting Blackballed (21:16) The Sorority of Hip Hop and MTV Rejection (28:35) Losing Her Father to COVID-19 in 2020 (37:54) Her Secrets to Profiting in Life (43:47) Audience Q&A 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 production agency, as well as the YAP Media Network, where she helps renowned podcasters like Russell Brunson, Jenna Kutcher, and Neil Patel grow and monetize their shows. Through her work, Hala has become one of the most influential creator-entrepreneurs in podcasting. Sponsored By: Indeed - Get a $75 sponsored job credit to boost your job's visibility at Indeed.com/profiting Shopify - Start your $1/month trial at Shopify.com/profiting. Spectrum Business - Keep your business connected seamlessly with fast, reliable Internet, Phone, TV, and Mobile services. Visit https://spectrum.com/Business to learn more. Northwest Registered Agent - Build your brand and get your complete business identity in just 10 clicks and 10 minutes at northwestregisteredagent.com/paidyap Framer - Publish beautiful and production-ready websites. Go to Framer.com/profiting and get 30% off their Framer Pro annual plan. Quo - Run your business communications the smart way. Try Quo for free, plus get 20% off your first 6 months when you go to quo.com/profiting Working Genius - Take the Working Genius assessment and discover your natural gifts and thrive at work. Go to workinggenius.com and get 20% off with code PROFITING Experian - Manage and cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reduce your bills. Get started now with the Experian App and let your Big Financial Friend do the work for you. See experian.com for details. Huel -  Get all the daily nutrients you need with Huel. Grab Huel today and get 15% OFF with my code PROFITING at huel.com/PROFITING.  Resources Mentioned: Hala’s Podcast, Young and Profiting: bit.ly/_YAP-apple  Hala’s Agency, YAP Media: yapmedia.com    Active Deals - youngandprofiting.com/deals  Key YAP Links Reviews - ratethispodcast.com/yap YouTube - youtube.com/c/YoungandProfiting Newsletter - youngandprofiting.co/newsletter  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, Habits, Positivity, Human Nature, Human Psychology, Critical Thinking, Robert Greene, Chris Voss, Robert Cialdini 

Hey guys, welcome back to Young and Profiting Podcast. Today's episode is really special for me. I'm sharing a recording of a keynote I gave at MIT's 2022 Gathering of the Titans, and it's this incredible annual conference where some of the most successful CEOs in the world come together to exchange big ideas and real stories. Now, honestly, this was one of the most vulnerable things I've ever done. It was the first time I shared my story this openly and publicly, the full journey, all the lows, the highs, the rejection, the losses, and the lessons that really shaped who I am today.

Now, this is a couple years old now. However, I feel like the story is still really resonant, and it's super inspiring, and I got a lot of positive feedback from this keynote. It went viral on YouTube, so I think you guys are going to really enjoy it without further delay. Here's my keynote speech at MIT. Halataa is our speaker and presenter this afternoon, and I, and I, and I, asked her a few weeks ago if she was interested in doing this. And I started thinking about, like, what was it that drove me to want to ask her to do it? And there's three words. The words are this, hustle, smart, and tenacious. And I'm a person that loves tenacious people. And she is

probably one of the most tenacious people I've ever met in my life. For those of you guys that notice Brian Scudamore or my LinkedIn profiles are on like ultra surround sound, it's because of the work she does. She's the queen of LinkedIn, amongst other royal titles. She has a podcast called The Young and Profiting Podcast. It has millions of millions downloads, hundreds of thousands of subscribers. Her accolades in the podcast world have dubbed her the name of podcast Princess. She was on the cover of Podcast Magazine. And that's like kind of like her night job. Her day job is running an incredible, incredible marketing agency called Yat Media. And I know this because I'm actually a client of hers, as is Brian.

When I think of her, I'm like, this is an entrepreneur that we all need to know. And I felt like one of the best gifts I could give to the group was to bring her here for y'all to meet her and learn her story. So without further ado, Halitaha. Thank you so much. Thanks to Darius for inviting me today. The past couple of days have been so wonderful. And when Darius first asked me to come speak to you all, I thought he wanted me to give a LinkedIn training.

And I was like, sure, yeah, I could do a LinkedIn training. I could teach everybody how to podcast. And then he was like, no, Hala, I want you to share your story. And I have to say some of these things that I'm about to say in this speech, I've never said on any other podcast. I've never said in any other room. So I'm just telling my authentic story so that you guys can understand my experience. And I hope that you leave this conversation, having a new perspective, learning something. something new and finding some value in this conversation.

So I think my story best starts off with my dad. So my dad is Palestinian and he was born in 1943. That was five years before the NEPCA. The NEPCA is the Arabic word for catastrophe. And the Palestinian catastrophe was in 1943. And that's when 600 villages were burned. 750,000 Palestinians were made of refugees, and 15,000 Palestinians died. And I guess you could say my dad was one of the lucky ones,

because he wasn't pushed behind the wall. He wasn't sent to Gaza to become a refugee, and in the open-air prison, so to speak. He was in the West Bank. And so my dad grew up as a poor farmer's son, and he only lived on figs and peterbread, he would tell me. Two of his youngest siblings died when he was younger. They were a family of eight that lived in one room, and he lived in extreme poverty.

And my dad knew that there was only one way out at the time, and that was to be very educated and to get a scholarship. And so he decided he'd be the first person in his whole village to go to college. And from when he was a little boy, he decided he'd be the smartest kid in school, and that he'd get perfect marks so that he could achieve that dream and elevate his whole family out of poverty. And he did. My dad had extreme grit. And so he had no light. He had no running electricity. Sorry, no running water. And the only light he had was on his walks to school. And so he would read his books on his long walk to school. And that's how he was able to study and become the smartest kid in his glass, get perfect marks, and eventually get a scholarship to medical school in Cairo. So my dad went off to Cairo. And he got a scholarship there. he ended up going to America and becoming a doctor, finishing his residence here, becoming a surgeon,

becoming chief of surgery in multiple hospitals in New Jersey, and ended up owning a medical center. And he literally brought his whole family out of poverty. My dad was so generous. He was so humble. And his favorite store to shop out was Sears. And he would give all his money away. He put all his kids through college. He put all his nieces and nephew in Palestine through college and through grad school, and essentially lifted my whole family out of poverty and made sure everybody would be okay. So in terms of my experience, the first time that I realized I was different was my summer's going to Palestine. We had a house in Palestine. And actually, my whole family lived on one street. A bunch of people had moved to America. And so it was this town. They called

it the American Village in Palestine because it was a street. Half the people were actually Americans and had summer homes there and were not there most of the year. And so I remember when I finally realized what was going on, that was the first time I realized I was different. Because when I was in America, we were kind of treated like an American family. Sorry, an Italian family. Everybody knew we were ethnic, knew we would go back home over the summer. But we were just treated like a normal family, maybe like an Italian family, in my white, affluent town that I grew up in and watching New Jersey. But when I went to Palestine, at a certain age, I realized how different I was.

I remember my dad being this amazing, respected doctor in America. We'd go to the Israeli airport and he'd get interrogated for hours. And we'd be sitting on the airport floor, like waiting for dad to get done with his interrogation every time we went. I remember having to drive on separate roads, even though I was a U.S. citizen, not allowed to drive on the same roads in Palestine. I remember having to take super quick showers because we weren't rationed water like everybody else because we were a Palestinian family. I remember almost dying at a checkpoint one day when we landed and we had all our luggage in a van and these checkpoints are super crowded and it's super chaotic and everybody was saying, go, go, go, like all the soldiers and there was nowhere to go.

We almost fell off a cliff and we almost died because our van almost fell off a cliff. And it was my sister saying, push the luggage to one side. And we did, everybody pushed the luggage to one side on the van and we ended up making it and we didn't fall off the cliff. and I literally almost died when I was like 12 years old at a checkpoint. And that was Palestine because in America, I was totally normal. And we were a respected family. And in terms of my experience growing up in America, I always wanted to be a star.

All my siblings wanted to be doctors. And so I have three siblings. They all ended up being doctors. I have three cousins who lived down the street. They all ended up being doctors. And so there were seven kids in the family. and I was the only one who never wanted to be a doctor, not one day in my life. I always wanted to be a star.

I love to sing. Actually, it's a big joke in my family that I sang before I spoke. And my first words were singing a song back to my mom. And I was always super outgoing. I was a kid that was dancing and singing at all the family parties and always like the star of the show. And I had a great childhood. You know, I lived a decently privileged life in terms of like we always had money.

I had a good family. And I did great in school. I was popular. I used to be the lead in all, the talent shows. I'd get on every sports team. And everything was great. And that was until 9-11 hit. So 9-11, I was a freshman in high school.

And I remember at that time, there was some build-up happening in terms of Arab hate, and I was starting to get a taste of the oppression that I was feeling in Palestine suddenly was happening at home. and I remember learning about the planes hitting and feeling this pain in my stomach like, oh my God, everyone's going to hate us and this is going to be so bad. And I remember being so devastated when I found out because my family was so proud to be American. And my dad loved America.

And I was like, this sucks because everyone's going to hate us. And we actually love being American. And so I remember actually crying on the floor, hysterically crying, and calling up Z-100, it was a very popular radio station at the time, trying to get through because they were having this whole thing where people were calling in, telling their experiences, everybody was sharing their thoughts. And am I so desperately trying to get through to let everybody know

that we didn't feel this way, that none of the Arabic people knew about it, and that we're just as shocked and as sad as everybody? But at that point, my life was changed, and for the first time ever I learned that gatekeepers don't only exist at checkpoints. So my life was turned upside down. I was just starting my high school career. And from then on, I went from the American girl next door to never getting any opportunities. I tried out for the plays. I never got a part. I tried out for the cheerleading team. I didn't make it. I tried out for the volleyball team. I didn't make it. They didn't even let me in the talent show every year when I

hands down had the best voice in school. And so that ended up really impacting me because I didn't get into a great college. I had great grades, but I got into a meter school because it looked like I had no ambition, but I had lots of ambition. I wasn't given any opportunities. And so I went to New Jersey Institute of Technology. It was in New York, New Jersey, a super diverse school. And from the moment I stepped foot on that campus, my life changed. First of all, it was four years after 9-11. And so four years after 9-11, things kind of cooled down. You know, people were starting to be more accepting. And the other thing is that it was a super diverse school. Previously, I went to a very white Christian Jewish school, and I was like the only brown kid in school. And so I started

getting opportunity left and right. And I had so little fear of rejection because I had been rejected so much. I just thought it was a part of life that I tried out for everything and I'd make it. I tried out for the play. I was the lead. I tried out for shooting. I was the captain. I was in my sorority. And I was obsessed with all these extracurricular activities. because I got no opportunities in high school that I was doing very poorly in school. I didn't care about class because I was like, oh, I'm finally able to do the things I was never able to do, and I was just really embracing that experience. At the same time, I found out about something called the Law of Attraction.

So the Law of Attraction almost became my religion. I was never religious. My family wasn't very religious. I grew up Muslim. I never related to that. I feel it's kind of a sexist religion, and I never ever related to that. and nobody ever forced me to relate to that. So I found the law of attraction, and it literally was like my new religion.

I almost got into like a cult. I was obsessed with Abraham and Esther Hicks, and they were these big law of attraction people. I'd listen to their CDs all day. I'd read all of their books. It was like a new religion for me, and I got super into it, and I did affirmations every day and visualizations every day, and I literally believed that life was limitless. I thought I could create my own dream life. and I was so naive, I really believe this, and honestly, my life just skyrocketed from there.

So I was 19 years old, I found the law of attraction. I really was super confident at this point. I was crushing it in college other than school, but the extracurricular part, I was crushing it. And so I ended up, at the time, I always knew that I wanted to use my voice to impact the world and make a positive difference. That's my purpose in life, to impact the world with my voice. And, you know, you often don't know exactly how that's going to be. And at the time, I thought I was supposed to be a famous singer because that was always my natural talent since I was a kid. And so I set out to songwrite and I worked with all these different producers and I started writing music. And I had this bright idea.

I was in the radio club. I did like every activity in college. And I was like, well, I'm in the radio club. I could probably get an internship at a radio station and push my music to the DJs and break that way. And so I did. I applied to all these radio stations. and I ended up getting a job at Hot 97. Hot 97 is the world's number one hip-hop and R&B station.

This was about 10 years ago. It was a huge deal to work at that station. All the people, all the DJs were like celebrities in the local region. And I ended up getting this internship. I did a great job. They ended up promoting me to be like the sacred intern in the studio area. And I was Andy Martinez's assistant. She's the voice of New York, one of the most famous personalities in the world.

And I was essentially the assistant producer on the answer. Angie Martinez show, the biggest show in America. So this was supposed to be a normal college internship, but then they started to say, halla, like, can you come every day? You know, can you start working on the weekend? Can you come at night? And you're doing such a great job, and they wanted me to be there more often. So I ended up dropping out of school. And I thought I had this great opportunity. I was failing out of school anyway. And, you know, I was just so enamored by this life because I met every celebrity you can think of, J-Lo, Kim Kardashian, Chris Brown, Kanye. I was hanging out with these celebrities that night. I was 19 years old. And so it was just a

big opportunity for me. So I did it. I quit my job and I started this apprenticeship at Hot 97 and I worked for free there for three years. And I got never paid a dollar. I would make my money at night hosting parties and selling showcase tickets with the DJs. And I did everything for that station. I was the showrunner. I would answer the phones. I would run the commercials. I would run the commercials. I would go in at 2 a.m. in the morning and run the delet boards when I had to and make sure that music went on for the world all night. That was really scary if I had to go to the bathroom or something that there'd be like dead air. But I love that job. It became my identity. So all my friends knew me as Hala from Hot 97. Everybody would be like, oh my gosh, how'd you get

that job? Like, you've the coolest job in the world. And I was being primed to be the next Angie Martinez. The way that it works in radio is that you work for free for many years. And then finally you end up getting a show, and that's how it works. You've got to work for all the DJs for free from many years. Yeah, fam, you just realized your business needs to hire somebody yesterday. How do you find great candidates fast? Easy. Use indeed. When it comes to hiring, Indeed is all you need. Stop struggling to get your job posts seen on other job sites. Indeed, sponsor jobs help you stand out and hire fast. With sponsored jobs, your post jumps to the top of the page for relevant candidates so you reach the people you actually want.

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I'm upgrading and updating my website. My website has not been top of mind for years, and it drastically needs an upgrade. And when I was talking to my team about what we're going to do, they strongly recommended that we switch our platform to Framer, which they said is a modern way to build websites in 2026. That's why so many companies from leading startups like mine to Fortune 500 brands are turning to Framer. Framer is a powerful website builder and design tool that helps businesses create better websites faster. With Frammer, you can design and publish beautiful high-performing websites without

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That's framer.com slash profiting for 30% off. Framer.com slash profiting. Rules and restrictions apply. Young and profiters this year I'm all about not missing opportunities. And for me, that starts with not missing any calls. because a missed call is money walking out the door. Quo, spelled QUO, is a business phone system that helps you and your team handle calls and text from one shared number.

Think of it as an email inbox, but for your phone. Everything stays in one place so no conversation gets lost and no customer gets ignored. I've seen how much calmer things feel when everybody in your company can see the full thread. All the calls, texts, voicemails, all together in one place, replies are faster, customers feel heard and taken care of, and the team stays aligned. Quo even uses AI to log calls, summarize conversations, and flag next steps, which takes a lot off your team's mental load. It works right from your phone or computer, lets you keep your existing numbers and grows with your

business. That kind of setup makes a real difference. Make this a year where no opportunity and no customer slips away. Try Quo for free, plus get 20% off your first six months when you go to quo.com slash profiting. That's QUO.com slash profiting. Quo. No missed calls. No missed customers. So at the same time, I was feeling a lot of pressure because all of my siblings and cousins were on the medical track. And to all the outside world, even though I was learning so many new skills, and even though I was doing so many cool things, I was like a party girl to everybody else. And they thought I was throwing my life away, you know, dropped out of college. And I'd go to think, Thanksgiving and I was like the black sheep, the embarrassment of the family. My dad always believed

in me, but everybody else really looked down on me at this point in my life. And I was starting to feel a lot of pressure because I was like, man, like I've been working here for three years. They haven't given me a job yet. Like, am I ever going to even get paid minimum wage? Like, I feel like an embarrassment. And so finally, a position opened up at Hot 97. The associate, sorry, the producer of the show, and I was doing his job for about a year. And they ended up firing him because he was like a deadbeat. And I was already doing his job for over a year. And so I was like, okay, finally, I'm going to get the producer role and everything's going to be okay. And then I come to find out that they gave the job to somebody who worked in the video

department who never spent a day on the show. And the worst part about it is that they expected me to train him. And so, yeah, I was not young and profiting at this point. I was young and pissed. So on the first day of his work, his name was Druski. And we were actually really good friends. While I was working at Hot 97, I also had online radio shows on the side with all the up-and-coming DJs. Many of these DJs are, like, super famous on the radio now. And I used to host little radio shows with them, pretending to be Angie Martinez.

And so we were actually good friends. And I was young, stupid, whatever you want to say, upset. And I texted him, and I said, I don't feel good today. If you want to learn how to be producer, learn it on your own. and he showed that text to Angie because he had to explain why he wasn't getting training today. And she fired me on the spot. And she cut my key cards. And not only that, she didn't let me say goodbye to anybody, all my friends and mentors for three years.

I dropped out of college for this lady. She didn't let me pack up my stuff. And worst of all, she told everyone, you'll be fired if you talk to Holla. And she blackballed me from the industry. And she thought that I would shrivel and die, probably. So, yeah, oops. And so at the time, I felt like I had died. My identity was taken away from me.

Everybody knew me as Hala from Hot 97. It was extremely embarrassing. Like all my social media saying Hala, Hot 97, everything was Hot 97. My whole life was wrapped in this brand. And so I was so embarrassed and I literally felt like somebody died. It was one of the worst moments in my life. but I was so used to rejection, right? And so it's kind of funny.

I was fired on a Thursday. By Sunday, I had a new idea. And I decided I was going to create something called the sorority of hip-hop, and I was going to recruit all the girls in the hip-hop entertainment industry who worked for IHurt Radio, VH1, you name it. And we'd all band together, and I'd create a blog site. Blogs were super hot at the time. And we would band together and become more powerful and have a platform.

And so I started working on this idea. I was fired on Thursday. I started working on my website and learning how to code websites on Sunday. By the end of two weeks, I recruited 14 girls off of Twitter and Craigslist, and we formed the sorority of hip-hop, and I was the president, and we started a blog site. I went back to school to finish my undergrad and make my parents proud. And at the same time, I was building this website. Within three months, we were one of the most popular hip-hop and R&B stations blog sites in the world.

I also had about 50 girls at that time. I had 150 girls outside of the organization over about three years. So we got all this notoriety because I figured out how to hack Twitter. I got all these celebrities to retweet us, and we blew up that way. So three months into it, MTV scouts us. We did a little pilot. Nothing really came out of it, but we didn't care. We were like, this is three months in.

What's going to happen six months from now? Who cares, right? So we keep building and building. We have online radio shows interviewing celebrities. We're hosting concerts and events. We have this blog site that's going viral all the time. Everything's good. We're not really monetizing that much because I didn't really figure out the business aspect of it.

But we were making a little bit of money. And finally, MTV reaches back out. And at the time, I was getting scouted for multiple reality TV shows. Love and Hip Hop wanted me to be on their show. Oxygen wanted me to have a show. And MTV was like, listen, Holla, we just had Jersey Shore. We're going to make you a star. Choose us.

And so I did. I chose them. And I was going to be the lead. I was getting paid three times as much as everybody else. And so they filmed us all summer. We were broke girls, catty girls. It was fun time, and they got us a studio on Broadway. And it had neon signs.

It was hooked up with all this furniture. We got our hair and makeup done every day. We were miced up and filmed on the street. They filmed us in restaurants at my parents' house. They filmed us all summer. We had a concert. It was absolutely amazing. Unfortunately, when it was about to air two weeks before,

my producer gives me a call, and she's like, Ha'la, I'm sorry, but we decided to move in another direction. And again, it was one of those moments where I was like, oh my God, like, again? I did all the work. I did everything right. I made the right choices. I worked my butt off.

How is this happening again? And they didn't give me a reason why they didn't choose the show, but they decided not to air it. And that was a moment in my life where I feel like my thought that life was limitless really fizzled out. And I thought, you know what, Hala? you're really unrealistic. And life is not this easy. Your parents are right. Your family is right.

You should just be normal and get a real job. And it's time to just be normal. So I thought I'd never get back on a mic. I shut down the group. I had 50 girls that were extremely mad at me. But I shut down the group. I shut down the blog. And I decided that I was going to go get my MBA

and that I was going to be a normal person and get a normal job in corporate. And that was that. It's time to be a normal person. So I ended up wanting to get my MBA. Unfortunately, I had a 2.3 undergrad GPA. So it was really difficult to get into school. So I decided that I was going to use my networking skills.

It's one of my strongest skills. And I decided I was going to target my alma matter, the director of alumni associations at NJIT, and I would beg her to get into the MBA program. And so I emailed her every other day for like a month, and I just wouldn't leave her alone. And I was like, can I get you a coffee? Can I buy you lunch?

Can I come there? And finally she agreed to take a meeting with me. And I explained to her my whole story, how I had the sorority of hip hop, how I worked at Hot 97, and how, even though on paper, I looked like a schlub, I really was a hard worker. And she believed in me, and I told her, if you let me in this program,

I promise I'll get a 4.0 and I'll get straight A's. And she said, Holly, if you keep that promise, I'll let you in the program. And she let me in the program. I ended up getting a 4.0 graduating with straight A's number one in my class, and it really set off my corporate career. At the same time, I got my MBA. I leveraged that to get an internship at Hewlett-Packard, and I was making $70,000 a year. And to me, that was like a lot of money, and I was like finally making it.

And I did that. And at the same time at HP, I started something called the Young Employee Network. So the Young Employee Network is an employee resource group at Hewlett Packett. Hewlett Packard actually has like an amazing company culture. And so in my office, though, there was no culture. Nobody talked to each other outside of departments. Like it was super boring and bland. And I being like the little entrepreneur inside the organization was like, oh no, like we've got to change this.

So I got everybody to sign a petition and we started a young employee network at the office. and I ended up launching their first holiday party, their first company picnic, all of their charity events, and I infused the whole office with culture. And so at the same time, I was doing amazing in my career. I thought I was going to be so behind everybody else because I started my corporate career so late, but that wasn't true at all. I had learned outside of an organization, and so I was so tech savvy. And I was like the digital whiz kid. I got promoted from role to roll. I had every single job on the marketing team. And I was like the C-suite peck. especially because I was doing all this cultural stuff,

and I was interviewing the CEOs, the CEO, and the CMO all the time. And I was really the face of the young employees at Hewlett-Packard. So I did this presidency of the Young Employee Network for two years at Hewlett-Packard. And then I finally thought, you know what, let me step my sights even higher. I want to be the president of the global Young Employee Network. And so I was on the recruitment chair of that organization, and I paid my dues. I created something called HPE Spirit Week. At the time, there was 300,000 employees across the organization,

and I launched a week-long event with daily themes around the world where I was emailing the entire organization every day as if I was the CEO, and they still do this event to this day, and I created it. It was like a week-long event called HPE Spirit Week. So I thought I for sure was a shoe-in to be the president of the Global Young Employee Network. But of course, I was wrong.

The HR director for some reason didn't like me. She didn't give me the position. She gave it to a guy who never was even involved in the organization. And they didn't even keep me on the board. They kicked me out. And I was, again, like, what did I do? I just worked for free. I basically had a side hustle inside of this organization, and they just stopped me out.

And by the way, that HR director left one month later. I left too. I went to Disney Streaming Services. And at the same time, I started Young and Profiting Podcast, and I decided that if I couldn't lead the 7,000 young employees all over the world at Hewlett-Packard, that I would lead 7 million young professionals across the world instead, and I'd start my own thing, young and profiting. So I started Young and Profiting podcast in April of 2018. I'm going to fast forward to 2020 now. 2020 was both the best year

and the worst year of my life. 2020 was the year that my life changed forever, and I feel like that's the most pivotal year in my whole life. So I'll start off with January. So at the time, I was with my ex-boyfriend. We were living in Brooklyn, and he was super paranoid about COVID. We had some friends overseas who were telling us it was pretty bad. And in America and New York, nobody cared, right? It was just business as usual. But it was his birthday. And that morning, we decided we were going to go to the pharmacy and we were going to try to get some masks and alcohol and gloves and just play it safe. And so we go to one pharmacy. We go to the aisle. Nothing's there. Okay, this is weird. We go to the next one, nothing's there. We go to 10. different pharmacies, we cannot find any alcohol, any masks, any gloves. At this time, nobody knew about COVID. And we're like, everybody, like, a lot of people know something that we don't know, and things are about to get real. I remember wearing a mask on the train, and I was the only one on the train wearing a mask. Everybody looking at me like I was crazy. But I was trying to be ultra protective of my father, because at the time, my father had diabetes, and he had to get his toe amputated.

And in January and February, he was in and out of the hospital. And so I remember working at Disney streaming services. At the time I had my podcast, and so my days were like this. I'd wake up at 6 a.m. work on my podcast. On the train, I'd do my LinkedIn post. I was growing my LinkedIn following. I'd go to work during lunchtime. I'd be interviewing people like Brian Scudamore in the phone booth. And then I'd finish work, go home. My boyfriend at the time was a music producer. He worked nights. And so I was able to work on my podcast at night. And I do my engagement on social media. And I literally just worked all day, all night. And all weekend, too. And I did that for many years. Around February, March, lockdown happens.

So this is actually in March. Lockdown happens. Disney tells everybody to start working from home. We're in lockdown. First, nobody knows anything about COVID. I don't know anybody who had COVID. All we hear about is just the crazy stories. I'm deathly afraid of getting COVID.

I am the most protective person, and I was for months, about not getting COVID. I remember being on LinkedIn and telling everybody how to wash their hands properly and how to go grocery shopping in the right way and trying to be like a role model about how to get COVID. And so March hits a week into lockdown. My sister gives me a call. A little bit of a backstory here. My dad was getting hyperbaric oxygen treatments for his toe because he got his toe amputated. And me and my sister and my brothers were begging them like mom and dad stopped going and getting the treatments. But it was the only way that my dad was going to get better and they really wanted the treatments. I actually spent $20,000 to buy my dad hyperbaric.

oxygen machine at home, but it was too late. And so my sister gives me a call, and she says, Hala, mom and dad have COVID. Your brother's home. He has COVID. And your aunt and uncle down the street have COVID too. I didn't have a car at the time. I was living in the city. I'm going to pick you up and like if you want to come. I'm going to pick you up in like an hour. You have an hour to decide if you want to come home. Being the like, considering my parents gave me everything in life, I was like, of course I have to go home. If I'm going to get COVID, I'm going to get COVID. but of course I have to go home. So my sister picks me up and we go home and she's a doctor.

So we have like full hazmat suits on. We have an N95 masks. We have sunglasses, gloves. And, you know, I remember walking to the house. And my house usually smells lovely of food or, you know, flowers. It smelled so bad of sickness. And I was like, oh boy, like, this is crazy. and me and my sister were so paranoid.

We thought we were going to die. Because at the time, it was so scary, we didn't know anybody who had COVID. We were the first family impacted out of everybody. And so we were like, are we going to die? Is everybody going to, like, is everybody going to die? Like, what is happening? And my sister played the role of doctor.

And I went from, like, top podcaster and, you know, business executive at Disney to janitor. That was my job. And so I was just focusing on cleaning the house, cooking, making sure everybody was okay. And for two weeks, we would be in full gear. And the only time we would eat would be at like 10 or 11 p.m. once we were done taking care of everybody. All we had was like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. We were living on the couch.

We had like old blankets from when we were kids because we didn't know anything about the disease. So we assumed everything upstairs was just like contaminated and had COVID all over it. So everybody started to get better except for my dad. My dad started to deteriorate even worse. And so at a certain point, me and my sister were like, you know what, F it. We're going to get COVID. It's obvious. Like, who are we kidding?

And I stopped wearing even a mask, and I just concentrated on being with my dad. And so we were feeding him. He was, like, coughing in our faces. We didn't care. And so we just were, like, trying to take care of our dad. And then a point came where we felt like we had to send him to the hospital. And we didn't want to send him to the hospital. Because at that time, the hospitals were totally packed.

and we knew that he had really bad eyesight and that it would be really difficult for him to be alone in that hospital setting and we knew we wouldn't be allowed to visit him. But it came to a point where we had to make that difficult decision and I remember when we had to take him that was the last time I spoke to my dad when he was alert and he said, if you guys somebody at the hospital,

you're never going to see me again. But we had to make that decision because we were trying to save his life and he was right. That was the last time I ever saw him alert. And so I remember that time being so difficult. I was working from home. I remember working at HP. I'd be working at HP and have my dad on Zoom next to me with a, he was trached. He had tubes in his nose. He always looked super uncomfortable. Like he didn't look peaceful. He looked very suffering, you know? And so that was super hard and I still had to go to work and figure that all out. And the thing, the biggest regret is that we weren't able to actually visit. him in the hospital. We weren't allowed to go visit him. And actually, I didn't see him until he died. And so that was super difficult, but they allowed me to be on Zoom. And my dad couldn't see well,

but I thought that he could hear my voice. And so I spent most of my time during the month that he was in that hospital. I didn't do anything really other than work and then sing to my father on Zoom and try to make it as peaceful as possible for him. And so he passed away, Mawks, 15th, that's actually the same day as the NEPCA day that is commemorated. And he passed away on May 15th, and he had like the shittiest funeral ever. They buried him with his shoes, with his cell phone. Only six people were allowed at the funeral. And it was really hard for me. And you would think that that would break anyone. You would think that that would just, I would just sign off for the year and that, okay, this year is over, worst year of my life.

But it wasn't. It was actually the best year of my life because that was the first half of 2020. And the second half of 2020 ended up being the best year of my life. So at the time when my dad was in the hospital, I met this lady named Heather Monaghan. Heather Monaghan is a huge influencer on LinkedIn. And I interviewed her from my show, and she kind of wouldn't leave me alone after. I had a team of volunteers since I started Young and Profiting Podcast. By episode two, I had my first volunteer. He's now my business partner. By episode eight, I had 10 volunteers in a Slack channel helping me work on my show. And so I knew everything about podcasting.

So I teach one guy in Estonia how to build websites and run that for me. I teach one guy in Atlanta how to do my videos. I taught one person how to do my social. And I would just teach all these interns and volunteers how to work on my show. And we created a Slack channel. And that was basically like our office. And Heather was like, your videos are so good in different Hala. Like, can you do this for me on LinkedIn. And I was like, nope. I'm really busy. Like, my dad's in the hospital. Like, it's not the right time. I just have a volunteer group. Like, I can't do this for you. We can only do it for me. And she wouldn't let up. And then, and I was interested in her being my mentor. So she asked me for a call so that I could teach her how to make those videos. And I was like,

sure, I'll teach you how to make these videos. So I take a call with Heather and I show her in my Slack channel. I'm showing her all our processes and our templates. And she's like, Kala, I just had a call with VaynerMedia. Your stuff is better than theirs. I have to be your first client. You have to start a business. Just trust me. And I was like, all right, I'll do your videos. And so she paid us like 600 bucks a month to do her video. I was like, it was nothing. But then it ended up being, I took over her whole LinkedIn, then I took over her whole podcast. Our second client was like a $30,000 retainer, and it was a very powerful billionaire client that we got. And then everything changed. I was able to hire all my volunteer team. I was able to

expand my team and continue to grow this side hustle. Yap, gang, I have become obsessed with the working genius assessment. It was created by Patrick Lensioni. He came on my podcast about two years ago and taught me about working genius. I took the assessment then, and it was a game changer for me individually. But this year, I'm taking it to the next level, and I've basically implemented a working genius across my entire company. This is not a personality test.

It's an actual test that helps you understand the way that you work best. There are six types of working geniuses. Everybody has two geniuses. It's a type of work that gives them energy. Two competencies. It's a type of work that you may be good at, but over time it actually drains you. And then you have two working frustrations. It's the work you don't like to do, and it drains your energy.

I uncovered that my two geniuses are invention and galvanizing. My two competencies are discernment and tenacity. And then my working frustrations are enablement. wonder. So once I found this out, everything just like clicked for me. Number one, I realized why I was budding heads with my executive team, because wonder is the frustration for me, whereas my business partner has wonder as a strength. I wanted to get things done, rally the group, keep things moving. He wanted to think about the big picture and if this was the right direction at all. And so once we figured out these are our geniuses, we realize we can't build this company without each other and our strengths,

and it helped us work better together. And it also helped me uncover gaps within my organization. Turns out that I'm the only person who has galvanizing as a core strength. So I'm always rallying the team and sometimes that can come off as pushy or aggressive. But now that my team knows that this is a gap, we need to hire people who have more of this galvanizing strength. So it really helped us align on gaps. It'll totally change the way that you do your work. It will totally level up your team's happiness and product.

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required. Seeexperian.com for details. What's up, Yafgang? When you start a business, nobody really tells you how many hats you're about to wear. One minute is a creator, the next year the marketer, then you're the finance team and customer support. Before you know it, it can feel like way too much on your shoulders. But that's why I love Shopify and what it does for entrepreneurs. Shopify is an all-in-one commerce platform that helps you sell online. It's been a real business partner for me as I've grown Yap Media and launched products like my LinkedIn Secrets Masterclass and my LinkedIn Mastermind. Shopify powers millions of businesses worldwide and 10% of all e-commerce in the U.S. Whether you're a household name or just getting started, Shopify has got you covered.

What I appreciate most is how everything lives in one place on Shopify. You can design your store, market your products and track performance without juggling a dozen tools. And you definitely do not need to be tech savvy. Shopify is so easy to use. And if you ever do hit a wall, Shopify's award-winning 24-7 support is there to help you think things through. You don't have to do this alone. You can do it with Shopify.

Start your business today with the industry's best business partner Shopify and start hearing. Sign up for your $1 per month trial today at Shopify.com slash Hala. that's H-A-L-A, go to Shopify.com slash Hala, all lowercase. Again, that's Shopify.com slash halla. So one thing leads to another, and I end up where I am today. I'm a full-time entrepreneur. I quit my job at Disney.

I ended up being able to reinvest in my podcast and grow it very large to be the number one education show across all podcasts. I got the cover of podcast magazine January of 2021. I learned that I was going to be interviewing Matthew McConnor at the end of 2020. And so my whole year turned around. And in my podcast, I always ask one question at the end of the show. And Brian and Darius both know this. I always say, what is your secret to profiting in life? And so I always interview all these people who are mega successful. And I never, ever thought that I had value to actually contribute to that question. What is your secret to

profiting in life? And then after 2020 was the first time that I actually felt like, I was a I could help answer that question with my secrets to profiting in life. And so I'd love to go over that with you guys next. And I hope you're enjoying this conversation. Okay, so secret number one, create your own lane. When a gatekeeper is telling you no, instead of going and trying to beg that gatekeeper, instead of looking for other similar gatekeepers,

create your own path. because I found that creating my own path was always a fast-tracked success. When I was fired from Hot 97, I started Strawberrybunt.com and the sorority of hip-hop, and it was one of the best experiences of my life. It didn't end the way I quite imagined, but I learned a lot of skills, and it was still one of the best experiences of my life. When I didn't get MTV, I ended up owning my own life going back to school. When I didn't get the Young Employee Network, I started Young and Profiting Podcasts.

And thank God for those nose, because if it wasn't for those nose, I wouldn't be where I am today. And then in terms of creating your own path, there's some ways to turbocharge that, having a team, which I always had, and having a team believe in you. And then also having somebody other than yourself believe in you. So I felt like my father also turbocharged my destiny because he always believed in me whether anybody else did or not. And then the second secret to profiting in life is finding your talent stack. So I actually learned this from Scott Adams. He's the creator of Dilbert. So that's a very famous cartoon. It's syndicated in all the newspapers, and it's basically like a funny cartoon about this guy who's in business. And so Scott Adams really

taught me about this idea of talent stacking. So for him, he was a decent writer. He was a decent drawer, and he was funny, and he knew a bit about business and computer and the IT world. So he put that all together, and he created Dilbert, and it was a massive success. Now, he wasn't the best in all of these things. He wasn't the best drawer, the funniest guy in the world. He was just decently good at all of it. He put it all together and he had a unique offering that he could share to the world. I

think that my story is very similar. I was a great podcaster and my show took off right away because I had the experiences to build my talent stack to make me the best podcaster and eventually the best CEO of YAP Media. I had radio experience. I had blogging

experience. I had ran multiple social media channels for Fortune 500 companies, and I put all these things together and knew how to build teams and recruit teams. I put all those skills together and created the podcast and then eventually, yeah, media. So find your talent stack. And the next one is that life is limitless. When my father was dying, I never felt so much fire in my belly. I wanted to take over the world.

Heather Monaghan gave me a kick in the butt, and after that, I was ready to take over the world because I realized that life was limpless. Like, my father loved to live. He still was writing a book. He wasn't finished with life. And I felt like, man, like, life can just end at any moment. You never know. And not only that, I felt like I was playing small.

To the outside world, it probably seemed like I had made it. I had a great executive career at Disney. I was running all their email and mobile marketing. I had a top podcast. You would think, like, oh, this girl's got it all. But to me, I was actually playing small. Like, my whole life, I wanted to be a star. I wanted to be famous and to make a huge impact on the world.

And so I realized I was playing too, too small. And so I finally got back to that 19-year-old Hala, who is obsessed with the law of attraction and who really believed that you could create your dream life. And I got that fire back in my belly. And Robert Green, who I also interviewed on my show, he's the author of the Laws of Human Nature and the 50th Laws of Power, huge author.

And he taught me about the law of destiny. So in the law of death denial, it says that most people are actually scared to confront the idea of death. They don't even think about it. They avoid the thought of death. Now, Roberts suggests that instead of doing that, you should embrace the idea of death. Think about your death so that it actually motivates you to a life of purpose and fulfillment. And so my ask to everybody here today is not to wait until you're on your deathbed, not to wait until somebody you love is on their deathbed to feel that fire in your belly

and realize that life is limitless. Thank you. Guys, we have time for questions. I did want to give you your present. Thank you. Oh, thank you. You were amazing. Thank you. That was really good. Yeah, we have some time for questions. So I have a mic, so let's go to Bright. Yeah, thanks, Hala. Good to get to know your personal story rather than just, you know, you and I have interacted on Zoom and a few side conversations. but it's great to hear the personal side. So thanks for sharing. Are you on a quest or a path?

A quest or a path? You know, right now I feel like I don't know what my ultimate vision is, but I know that I'm focused on making a huge positive impact with the world. And one of the things that I recently did was launch my podcast network, which I'm super excited about. But I feel like there's another else. element to my life's purpose that I haven't discovered yet. And I think it probably has to do with Palestine. But I feel like, to be honest, I'm not ready yet to do that. So, because I know you'd

always think big and execute big, if you could think five years into the future, what would you manifest? You want me to answer that question? Well, I think, yeah, media is going to be a thousand-person company, 100%. I think I'm going to have the biggest podcast network in the world and we're probably going to be bought by Spotify or something like that. And I think that at that point, I'll be so secure in my career that I can start really giving back and help educating people about some of the oppression and occupation and issues that are going on in Palestine that in this very juncture today, I can't do yet because I'm not successful enough to do that. From your perspective is the youngest person in the room. What is the future of marketing?

The future of marketing. So I don't think obviously social media is going away. I do think that platforms like Instagram and Twitter are definitely going to fizzle out. They're already losing their organic growth. I believe that social audio still hasn't found its footing. And I believe that social audio will find its footing. And that's going to be huge. In terms of podcasting, I think it's going to turn into like VR and more of like a VR experience. And that's definitely the future of podcasting. And in general, I just think, like, the Metaverse is going to be the future of marketing and social media, making sure that you're relevant in the metaphors. And companies will have real estate in the real world and the Metaverse. Social audio? They probably know what that is. Oh, so social audio, it's, so there's these apps like Clubhouse and Green Room. And basically, it's a type of technology or social app where it's just audio only, but it's very engaging. And so there's usually like a stage where there's a panelist and then you can kind of bring up audience members.

And it's basically like an interactive podcast. It's that you can think of it. The foundation that your dad was and what he did for everyone, how's the family now? And how's your mom? How's everybody doing? How's everybody come together right now that your dad's passed? Our family is doing amazing because I feel like my dad left with such a strong foundation. So my mom's doing great.

My brothers and sisters are all doctors super successful. We're super blessed. So everybody's doing great. Thanks for asking. I'm a little nervous to ask this question, so let me see if I can get it out. Okay. Your 12-year-old little girl was being attacked by a country for being who you were. And there are children in states right now that are trans children that are being attacked for being who they are.

what do you wish rooms like this would have done for you when you were a little girl, when you were under attack for being who you were? Wow, that's a good question. So, like, let's just face it. I'm just going to call it how it is. Most of the people in this room are white, right? White men. So I remember being a little Palestinian girl thinking I was just a regular American girl,

and I remember having parents' friends. they'd ask me, what's your heritage, Hala? Where are you guys from? And I'd say, I'm from Palestine. And literally, multiple times I've had parents say, Palestine doesn't exist. Imagine being a little girl and being told that your whole life is a lie and you don't even exist, right? So one of the things that I would say is educate yourself. Have some compassion. You know, educate yourself about what's really going on. And the other thing that I would say is, for me, I'm in a really tricky place because I've seen things with my own eyes. I feel a very certain way about it. But I've been canceled. I didn't tell you guys every story of my life. You know, I've been canceled multiple times for talking about Palestine. And so I'm like, you could ask Darius. I wasn't even going to mention it today. And he was like, he was like, you better mention it. I took it out of my speech because I was like, I don't want to get canceled. Like my career is taken off. I don't want anybody to hate me. Like, I love people. Like, and I try to stay out of it because, I understand that I'm not powerful enough to talk about it yet, but maybe some of you guys in this

room are. And so I want to wait until I've got so much foundation that nobody can tear me down because I've been torn down before. I've been shadow banned on Instagram. One of the reasons why I blew up on LinkedIn is because Instagram shadow banned me for so many years and nobody saw my stuff. And so I know what it's like to be canceled. And so what I'd ask is that open your mind. Don't just look at the media. Don't listen to the same stories that everybody told you. Like, there's stuff going on in the world that you need to learn about and do research about and listen to the people who are going through it and then be an advocate and stand up for them if you have the power and if you have the foundation where no one's going to tear you down.

But there are people like me and people who are transgender or Palestinian or, you know, whatever it is, whatever the minority group is. who don't have the power to stand up for themselves and who will be canceled and their life will be way more impacted than if you stood up for them. And I know it's a hard thing to ask because people are scared to speak out

because everybody's trying to protect their livelihood. But at some point, people need to stand up for what's right and equal human rights across the board for everyone. So I have a question. Thank you for your presentation and as one of the non-white male guys here. wearing my fucking NFT shirt, okay?

Actually, a serious question. Have you ever thought of, like, you know, having your voice on the blockchain where it is actually censorless? Like, you can't be canceled so you can actually have your voice both there? Yeah, I mean, I've started to dabble in NFTs and getting involved, but I haven't figured out my master plan there yet. But I think that's a great opportunity for me to kind of speak out and not have as many as the risks as I would if I do. get it on like Instagram or LinkedIn. So yeah, that sounds like a great idea. I just had something to say, happy birthday. Thank you. It was yesterday, yeah.

We can do a belated happy birthday. Good morning. It was Justin. Yeah, we got to sing it, though. We're going to sing it, though. We're going to sing you a belated happy birthday. Come on, everybody. Get up. Aw. On three. One, two, three. Happy birthday. birthday to you.

Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, dear Hala. Happy birthday to you. Thank you. All right. Is there any other questions for Hala? Oh, let's go for you. You know, being counsels and all,

all over and over again, you were quit. People quit on you and fired you. what was that thing that kept you going and believing in yourself? Honestly, it was my dad. It was knowing that my dad got out of poverty when all the odds were stacked against him. Like, he was literally the, like, his dad didn't even have a first grade education, and he went off to become, like, chief of surgery of multiple hospitals. And so for me, I always felt like I had zero excuse to not be even 10 times more successful

than he was. And so really it was always my dad thinking about, like, everything that he sacrificed, because all he did was study his whole life, and all he did was give back his whole life. His whole life was, like, for his family and dedicated for his family. So for me, that was always a driving factor to make sure that nothing he did was in vain, and that I would help build my family's generational wealth and 10-exit, hopefully. Any other questions? I just sent me a LinkedIn message about 15 minutes.

I have a good team. She geoffenced the whole room And you all have invents too That's so funny Thank you guys All right, thank you Thank you