Young and Profiting with Hala Taha - Hala Taha: Unbeatable Marketing Strategies for Scaling a Multi-Million-Dollar Podcast | YAPLive

Starting point is 00:00:00 When I started my podcast, I didn't think you could even monetize a podcast. I had no website. I had no logo, nothing. My first client was $700 a month, and then everything sort of shut off for me. And I was like, okay, I just got to be a normal girl. Let me go into corporate. Four years into my corporate career, I started Young and Profiting Podcast. I really figured out how to monetize podcasts, the business behind it.

Starting point is 00:00:28 people are highly engaged when they listen to podcasts people are multitasking they're driving they're working out they're doing dishes they're doing something on autopilot with their body and their mind is completely focused on you you literally are in the top of the charts your podcast is number 65 out of all podcasts in the u.s which is crazy and you're number three in both business and entrepreneurship today so what's the secret behind ranking high on apple podcast okay Well, first of all, Yeah, fam, would you believe me if I told you that six years ago when I boldly declared that I'd build the biggest self-improvement podcast network in the world

Starting point is 00:01:05 that I actually had no idea how podcast networks even worked? That audacious dream became a reality. And in this episode, I'm sharing exactly how I made it happen. I was honored to speak at Lori Harder's Girlfriends and Business Event, where I broke down how to dominate the podcasting game. Now, all the podcasters I used to look up to like Jenna Coucher, John Lee Duman, and Lori Harder herself are in my podcast network. You'll learn how I transformed Young and Profiting

Starting point is 00:01:29 into a media empire, plus the exact strategies I use to grow, rank, and generate serious revenue. We'll also dive into why video is the future of podcasting and how I leverage LinkedIn to stay at the top of the charts. But before we start, if you haven't followed Young & Profiting yet, now is the perfect time. Make sure you subscribe to the show.

Starting point is 00:01:47 You can also watch the full episode on Spotify video and YouTube. Without further delay, here's my conversation with the incredible, Lori Harder. I just feel so honored to have you up here. So for some people who aren't aware of just your background story and how you've got to do what you're doing now, your origin story, because Yap Media is the number one self-improvement and business podcast network. Let's talk about it. Let's talk about the origin story. Sure. So nice to meet you guys. I got the nickname the podcast princess because I really know the ins and outs of podcasting from the hosting side. But really,

Starting point is 00:02:24 from the business side, and I think that's what makes me really unique. I really figured out how to monetize podcast, the business behind it, and I'm one of the only podcast hosts that actually own a podcast network. So now I have the Yap Media Podcast Network. I represent really big podcasters like Lori Harder, Jenna Coucher, Amy Porterfield, John Lee Dumas, Russell Brunson, Trent Shelton, and we just keep growing and growing. And it's really funny because Kristen was just on talking about manifestation, and when I started my podcast six years ago, people would always say, like, what do you want this to do? Like, why are you doing this? And I used to just smile and say, I'm going to have the biggest self-improvement podcast network in the world. And I had no idea

Starting point is 00:03:08 what that even meant. I had no idea how a podcast network worked. I didn't know what you were supposed to do in a podcast network. I didn't know about growing, monetizing. And then five years later, I literally had the number one business and podcast network. In terms of my origin story, I started my career in radio. I used to work at Hot 97. I was Angie, yeah, I was Angie Martinez's assistant for three years. So really grew up at the radio station. When I was 19 years old, I had a really cool job.

Starting point is 00:03:38 Then I started a blog called The Sorority of Hip Hop. I was president of this organization with 150 bloggers. We almost had a show on MTV. They filmed us all summer. going really fast with my story but basically MTV canceled the show and I was like oh my gosh I'm a failure

Starting point is 00:03:57 I used to really believe in manifestation and the law of affirmation and that's how I kind of did so much at a young age and then everything sort of shut off for me and I was like okay I just got to be a normal girl let me go into corporate I worked at HP and

Starting point is 00:04:13 I was still like Hala the entrepreneur at Hewlett Packard starting organizations, interviewing the CEO at the town hall. I was still doing the same stuff, but just in an organization. And then four years into my corporate career, I started Young and Profiting Podcast. And now it's a Top 100 podcast. I really focused on LinkedIn, and I became one of the top podcasters on that platform. I really lasered in on that platform and really ignored everything else. I didn't really get on Instagram seriously until, like, a couple years ago. And I just focused on figuring out LinkedIn, dominating that platform. And the other

Starting point is 00:04:49 thing that I did really differently is that I didn't take no for an answer. Like, my goal was to be a top podcaster. And when I started podcasting, like Jenna Coucher was dominating Apple. And so was John Lee Dumas. And all these people that are now in my network were already dominating Apple. And so I thought outside the box and I was like, well, how can I be a top podcaster without necessarily being on Apple. And so I researched and started to become a nerd about podcasting. And I was like, there's 70 other apps out there. There's not just the Apple podcast app. There's all these other apps. So I reached out to CastBox and Player FM and Podbean. And I said, hey, I'll feature you on my LinkedIn. I've got this big following on the number one podcaster on LinkedIn in exchange for you

Starting point is 00:05:35 featuring me on Cassbox, in exchange for you putting me on your email newsletter, putting me on your website. And then all these apps started to promote me. Fast forward to today, I have 400,000 subscribers just on CastBox, which is like the number one Android app. And then suddenly I got on the cover of podcast magazine. Everybody was calling me the podcast princess. And here we are today. I started my social agency four years ago. And I'm just going to, I'm just going to say a little bit because I think there's a lot of learning lessons in my story. So when I started my podcast, I didn't think you could even monetize a podcast. It's funny now, like my whole life is monetizing podcasts. I used to tell people, you can't monetize a podcast. And the first way that

Starting point is 00:06:18 I made money off my podcast was actually the guests that would come on my show. At the end of my conversation, I had these high-level CEOs, entrepreneurs, and they'd be like, Hala, how'd you grow your LinkedIn? How'd you grow your podcast? Can you do this for me? And I had a volunteer team of interns, basically, while I worked corporate and did my podcast as a side hustle. And I'd always say, I've got this great job at Disney and HP, depending on where I was working, and I would just like deny them. And then COVID happened, and I found myself with no commute, all this free time, and then people started asking me that question again, like, hey, can you do this for me? And I started to say yes. And so I converted my volunteer team into a company, and my company, like, took off

Starting point is 00:06:57 right away. My first client was $700 a month. Her name was Heather Monaghan. My second client, I had no website. I had no logo. Nothing was a billionaire, and he paid me $30,000 a month to do his LinkedIn podcast and whatever. Then I got the CEO of Hintwater, the CEO of 1-800 got junk, and all these people that came on my podcast just became my clients. And before I knew it, my company was making six figures a month. I had 30 employees around the world, quit my job, and YAP Media was born. Two years ago, I started the network because I basically grew other shows to my size, started selling out my show with sponsorships, and then I started recruiting other podcasters and getting them sponsorships. So something that, yes, clap for that,

Starting point is 00:07:41 please. Yes. She is such a hard worker, you guys, and something that I really admire about you and something in just the like three short months that we've been working together. And I just realized I found out about you first through Heather. Her and I, like, a while back, she had mentioned you. She's like, oh, I love her. She's just a hustler. And then you came onto my radar a little later. I was like, oh, I already heard such great things about you. But the thing that I really love about her is how much she thinks outside of the box. Like, we'll be texting each other and it will literally, she'll be like, okay, let me think of that. Okay, what do you have coming up?

Starting point is 00:08:14 Okay, what events? How could we bundle this? How could this be a benefit for them and a benefit for you? Like, she's always thinking of, how is this of a benefit for them? Like, it's never, I feel like, yes, of course, we're excited. Like, ooh, what could we do? But always, always like, okay, how can we really benefit? them more and like add value what do they want what are they looking at and that is why that is

Starting point is 00:08:38 why you're so successful and you always will be is because that is where her brain goes all the time how can we help okay how could we benefit them um okay so let's talk about this so podcast first started taking off about a decade ago um but at first it was a very niche platform but we can safely say podcasts are here to stay right we can safely say that like so many i mean i can't even believe with the younger generation now, like what, that they are listening to podcasts. It's insane. Can you talk to us about podcast listeners, who they are now and how they've changed? Yeah. So, like Lori said, podcasting is mainstream. 20 years ago when podcasting first came out, is really like only tech nerds knew what it meant. Nobody even knew what the word podcasting

Starting point is 00:09:20 met. But now everybody has listened to a podcast before. Everybody knows what the word is. It is no longer just for, like, white tech males. Some really interesting. fact about podcasting is that most podcasters are new listeners. 51% of podcast listeners only started listening within the last two years. The other interesting thing is that these podcast listeners are skewing way younger. So the people who most listen to podcasts are ages 18 to 34. Something else that's really interesting and the reason why podcast advertising is doing so well is because radio and TV is no longer really reaching 18 to 34 year olds. Radio and TV is really really targeting 50-year-old plus, right? So all the advertising dollars are going to podcasting

Starting point is 00:10:05 because podcast listeners are skewing younger, which is pretty interesting. So how are they consuming podcasts? Tell me about that part. So the way that podcasts are consumed is totally changed. When I first started a podcast, like podcast was audio only. When you saw a podcast and meant audio apps. Now it just means a show on any platform. I pulled my audience. And 33% of them said that they listen to a podcast on social media. So what does that mean? It means that when people are watching little reels of your podcasts, they literally think and consider it to be where they consume their podcasts.

Starting point is 00:10:43 And advertisers also think of podcasts this way. Now selling podcasts as simulcast is default. So across podcasts, YouTube, social media, your email list, whatever your community is, brands want to sponsor you. So podcasts are no longer audio only, and that's the major difference. So is there, this isn't on here, but is there a place for longer form like reels for podcasting? Yeah, I would say YouTube, right? So like 10 minute videos do really well on YouTube. And so you can basically chop up your podcast content, put it on YouTube, and you can have like a little bit of a longer form content and still monetize it. You can pop a commercial, a video commercial, on any

Starting point is 00:11:26 lengths of content and get paid for it. So, we know podcasts can have a discoverability problem. So tell me about, you know, a lot of people you saw in here either want to do a podcast or want to grow their podcast or want to be on podcasts. But tell me about how we can have some strategies to grow and attract new people. Yeah. So audio discoverability is crap, right? So like audio apps can't compete with YouTube. So on YouTube, you can go viral, right? YouTube has this amazing. search engine, has endless content, it will feed you content based on your interests, and you can have videos on YouTube that go viral. It's not really like that on the audio apps. Downloads are like super consistent. It's all about bringing in subscribers, and then you get these consistent

Starting point is 00:12:10 downloads. So there's a big problem with audio discoverability, but it doesn't matter now because podcasts are not audio only, right? So you need to have a video portion of your podcast. The other thing is that when it comes to marketing, you need a visual element, right? So audio only doesn't have a visual element. Audograms do terrible on social media. They're very unengaging. So you need video content to promote your stuff on Instagram, to promote your stuff on TikTok. And the biggest podcast for my network, her name is Tori Dunlap. Okay, she's the host of financial feminist. She has two million followers on TikTok, two million followers on Instagram. She is the only podcaster in my network that has viral episodes because it's her TikTok that is making her

Starting point is 00:12:52 episodes go viral. It's not the audio apps, right? And so, So when I look at the charts, you know, I'm on the charts all the time, and I see the other up-and-coming podcasters. They're always TikTok people, right, because they're bringing people from TikTok to their podcast. So having a video element is more important than ever. If you think about all the new shows that are popping up, Diary of a CEO, and so on, they're big on YouTube.

Starting point is 00:13:14 So I'm so bullish on YouTube. It's going to be a major focus for me. And I think for any podcaster, you really got to get your video game up. Do we have to have a full video crew, or can this also be on? Zoom or Riverside. You guys are going to like my answer, but I think video is boring, right? It's sensory adaptation. Everybody's on Zoom.

Starting point is 00:13:36 It's like this like, it all looks the same. People will just glaze over that type of content. It is not engaging anymore. So if you really want to stand out, I would highly recommend investing in-person video. Start with virtual, you know, get your reps in, and then I would highly recommend that you advance to in-person video.

Starting point is 00:13:55 I started totally. virtual for a very long time. And now I do like 50% in person, 50% virtual, hopefully to switch back over to all, mostly all in person. It's tough because it's hard to book everyone. But I think like, you know, I think what you can do a really good job of is having the video, but continuing to like recycle those videos. So you do one interview, but you don't just post one video from it. We're working on posting like three to five videos to even more than that throughout the year. So it looks like you're constantly in person. It's way more engaging. But you don't have to be in person for everything in the beginning.

Starting point is 00:14:28 That can be really overwhelming in the beginning. Like just get your cadence, get rolling, make yourself, like, realize that you can do this and be really consistent. And then later on, you can start looking at that. So let's talk about SEO in terms of podcast discovery. Yeah, fam, let's get a little serious here. We live in a time where our personal data is treated like a commodity. Data brokers are collecting and selling information like your phone number, home address, and even details about your relatives.

Starting point is 00:14:56 And then they're auctioning it off to the highest bidder. Now, when young and profiting started to take off, I was really worried about my personal information being out there. And as a creator-entrepreneur, and I know there's so many of you tuning in, it frustrates me that my data continues to show up on broker websites without my consent. Chances are your personal information

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Starting point is 00:17:25 And so right now I'm specifically talking about podcast SEO in the audio apps, right? So Spotify, Apple, they have a search bar. And your goal is to get ranked in the search. And this is something that a lot of podcasters don't pay attention to, but it's something that if you really want the apps to work for you, you've got to pay attention to. And so you get ranked based on your metadata, meaning your keywords. So keywords in your show name, keywords in your show title, and your show description, your episode descriptions.

Starting point is 00:17:56 You also get ranked based on your popularity. So if you have a lot of subscribers and downloads, you get ranked higher. And then your engagement. So if it's super relevant and people actually click on it when they search, like they search entrepreneur, your stuff comes up, they click on it, you get ranked higher. So you actually want to monitor how you rank for certain keywords. And you can just go on Apple, go on Spotify. and check how you rank for certain keywords.

Starting point is 00:18:19 They have a new tool from Asha, A-U-S-H-A. I'm rolling it out to network stand. And basically, you can search different keywords and see how you rank and kind of play with the keywords. And this is so important because it is so hard to get discovered in the audio apps. You really only have search. And on Apple, like, you can't advertise on Apple.

Starting point is 00:18:40 So really all you have is the search bar. One of my biggest mistakes was calling my podcast Young and Profiting. I am a really good marketer, so like I became popular, but if I had called it young entrepreneur, I would have had to do way less work because nobody's searching for young or profiting. I had to train people. So you don't want to have to train people. You don't want to put your name in your podcast title.

Starting point is 00:19:03 If you're not super famous as famous as like Oprah or Tim Ferriss, right, you don't want to put your name in your podcast title and you want to think about keywords. Everyone's like, oh, shit. I'm literally up here. Like when we were talking about this, I'm like, could I change it to like earn your business? Or like, what do I do? Okay. So speaking of ranking, you know, I never used to look at my rankings.

Starting point is 00:19:26 And now I'm like, hey, we want to look at that because if you want to grow, you kind of have to know where you're at. So talking about ranking, you literally are in the top of the charts. Your podcast is number 65 out of all podcasts in the U.S., which is crazy. and you're number three in both business and entrepreneurship today. So what's the secret behind ranking high on Apple Podcasts? Tell me. Okay, well, first of all, it's a trending chart. All right.

Starting point is 00:19:52 So you could be number one on the charts and be a brand new podcast with not a ton of followers, not a ton of downloads. It's all about the new listeners that you bring in daily, the new downloads that you have daily. Okay. So, in order for me to stay at the top of the charts, I have my team on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a platform that I spent a lot of time on, literally sending DMs 24-7, very, very personalized DMs.

Starting point is 00:20:19 On LinkedIn, you can send unlimited DMs. So the way that I drive new subscribers, and this could look different for everybody depending on where you have your following, is that we just DM every day. So if we'll look up titles, you're a social media manager, hey, what's up? I've got this new episode with Jasmine Starr on how to go viral on Instagram. I'd love for you to check out the episode. They respond back, oh, my God, I learned so much. Great.

Starting point is 00:20:41 Can you copy and paste this as an Apple podcast review, right? And so we do that drip campaign literally 24-7, 24 hours a day, and bring new subs in, and it keeps me at the top of the charts. So some of you are like, oh, my God, that's a lot. And also, there is, like, this is a business, you guys. Like, podcasting can be a serious business. That's why I wanted her to chat all about this is because a lot of you don't realize that it's not that crazy. Okay, if you've been around for a while and you're really working on your numbers to make a quarter of a million dollars to well over a million dollars.

Starting point is 00:21:16 Like, would you not love that to learn how to hire VAs and some team to be able to slowly work on that in the background? Like it's been really, really eye-opening, working with her to actually see what works. And to, I'm watching the deals come in and it's very exciting. it's been a really beautiful ride of, you know what, I'm already doing this. Why don't I just really understand it and put my energy here? Because if I'm already doing it, I really, this is my, I'm eight years in. It's time for a moment to get really paid. Like, do you know what I'm saying? And so that's why this is really important to me. And I also want you to see what's possible of like I said, this is, this is like a long term or very like you can, you know,

Starting point is 00:21:55 you're doing a lot of work, but it's paying off. For sure. Yes. Okay. So let's switch gears to monetization. What are the best ways to monetize a show? Okay. So I'll start off from low downloads to high downloads. One of the best ways to monetize your show is to actually interview your target clients. I ended up doing this by accident. My social agency happened by accident. It was just because I was getting that demand. I was getting all the requests to start a social and podcast production agency. But if you can interview your target clients, what happens is that you're selling without actually selling. You're building trust. You're building credibility. I never even pitch neither my social agency or my network. Did I pitch you? No, Lori reached out to me afterwards. Like, hey, I want to

Starting point is 00:22:44 learn more about your network, right? So I never advertise my social agency. I never advertise my network. What happens is that people come to me from my podcast, and that's my main lead generation source. So interview your target clients. You don't even need a single download for this. to work. Okay? Once you have like a medium-sized audience, you might try affiliates. You can sign up to like all these different affiliate programs. I'm not going to lie to you guys. You're not going to make a ton of money on affiliates, right? It's, it might do pretty well. You could have your own products and services, do like Kristen does, sell your own courses. And that, you just need like a medium-sized amount of downloads. And then sponsorships. This is where like the big bucks

Starting point is 00:23:24 really come in. Really, you want to think about having at least 20,000 downloads a week to be eligible for being in a podcast network. So about 80,000 downloads a month or 100,000 downloads a month, that will put you in a decent spot. And the thing that you need to think about with sponsorships and commercials is the bigger the show, the more money you make. Everything's very standard when it comes to commercials. So it's CPM-based. You get paid a certain amount of money per 1,000 downloads. So usually it's like $25 to $35 per 1,000 downloads that you get paid for. So the bigger your podcast is, the more money you'll make. Something else that people don't really think about is also the longer your podcast is, the more money you'll make. So it's all about stacking commercials

Starting point is 00:24:10 on your podcast. So typically you can put one commercial per 10 to 15 minutes on your podcast comfortably. So if you have an hour-long show, you can put six ads, five to six ads per show. The longer the show, the more money you make. This is why Joe Rogan has a two-hour-long show, he can pop 12 commercials on a show and you make that much more money. So when you're thinking about the monetizable downloads in your podcast, if you have an hour long show and you get 100,000 downloads a month, it's really like you're getting 600,000 downloads because one listener listens to six commercials. And that's how you really compound and make money in your podcast. You've got to think about the length and how many downloads you get. Okay, I love that. I also want to bring in for this

Starting point is 00:24:51 room, you know, in the beginning for me, while I was getting like those numbers up and for a really long time, I just monetized through my personal brand, which is what Catherine does as well. So that's a really beautiful option, especially in the beginning, just to sell your own stuff. Like, that's why having a course or a $22 thing or a $44 thing or launches are really huge for when you have a podcast, because what Catherine had said too is like she's always sending them somewhere, right, which means she's always sending them to something that she has. She's sending them to an option. So that's the same exact thing as sending them to an ad with a call to action on the ad.

Starting point is 00:25:27 All you're doing is working in your stuff and sending them somewhere so that you can capture that email. So in the beginning, it doesn't matter if you have, you know, 20 listeners. If it's very niche, it doesn't matter if you have 100. Like, there are some people in here, my Jackie Koch back there who has an HR podcast, you guys. Like, that is so niche. But it's helped their business so much because you find a lot of great leads through that podcast. So it's growing, but it's growing, you know, it started small because it's such a niche thing, but it can make such a big impact because it's attracting those very, very niche people.

Starting point is 00:26:03 Okay, so I want to transition back to talking about how to leverage podcast without actually hosting one. So at YAP Media, you're sold out. Tell me what that means, first of all, sold out until the end of the year. And why are brands so attracted to podcast or doing this? Yeah, so it's pretty unique. I have a podcast network with 30 shows, and every single show, including Lories, has no more ad space till the end of the year, which is really unheard of, right? And the reason why is because there's not that many big podcasts out there that are available for sponsorships. And if you know how to

Starting point is 00:26:39 create a sponsorship model that actually converts for brands, you'll get renewed and get more sponsors. So something to note with podcasts is that they're really top level awareness. When you are saying a commercial on your podcast, you need to repeat it a lot so people actually convert. And people are highly engaged when they listen to podcasts. People are multitasking. They're driving. They're working out. They're doing dishes. They're doing something on autopilot with their body. And their mind is completely focused on you. So they're super engaged. They're absorbing everything that you're saying. They're remembering everything that you're saying. And after they hear it a bunch, they'll remember it so well that they might go online and search for it later,

Starting point is 00:27:21 click and buy. However, they're not clicking and buying right there and then on the podcast. Again, they're doing dishes. They're working out. They're not scrolling, clicking and buying. They're not on a computer or a device to do that. They're just listening. So if you pair your commercials with an email blast, with ensuring the link is on your YouTube, with a social post, and so on. If you retarget your re-target your reels and DM them with your CTA link, you'll get direct conversions plus the long-tailed conversions of your sponsors or your own products and services, right? So really the key is to have a 360 approach. Again, people are not only listening on audio. Most people are also following you on social media. So you're going to want to ensure a 360 approach

Starting point is 00:28:05 so that you can actually get the conversions. And that's the long answer of why we're still media. I make that mandatory. For every monthly flight of commercials, you've got to either do like an email blast or a social post, and that keeps the sponsors really happy. Okay, so I know that you do, we talked about this, but a lot of value add-ons. And I want to talk about that in a second, but I want everyone listening to think of it from a lens of even if you don't have a podcast. When I ask this question about adding extra value, because that's what she's all about, I want you to think of this in terms of someone that you want to work with in the future,

Starting point is 00:28:40 like adding that value or a partner or a mentor that you want to get on their radar. So, Hala, you are always like, okay, what's, you know, how can we add extra value to this? So tell me a little bit about what you do, what works, and what's the thought process behind that. Yeah. So basically, value add just means free promotion, right? So it's layering something on top of your podcast commercial. For us, we do email blast. We do social posts. We'll do retargeting of the DMs with the CTA. Really, it's just up to you in terms of where your audience is and what do you think is going to be the most impactful so that you can increase the actual conversions that happen right away because like I mentioned, podcasting is long tail. You need to repeat the commercial

Starting point is 00:29:22 over and over and over again before people take action. But that's not to say that podcasts don't work. It just, you need more repetition and people are really going to remember your brand. It's going to really increase your brand awareness, but you need more repetition for people to actually take that purchase action. Something else that we didn't mention before with your question about like why podcasts, why are they doing? So, well, podcast hosts are so trusted, right? I read a stat that people trust podcast hosts 23 times more than social media influencers. So who's starting to podcast? Everybody next time is like, they come with headphones and a mic, like into the room. Okay. All right, last topic before we go to Q&A, because I'm going to give you guys an opportunity.

Starting point is 00:30:06 Do you guys want an opportunity to ask some questions? Okay, amazing. How about guesting on shows? How should we go about doing that? Okay. So I feel like there's two main avenues that you have when guesting on shows. Number one is like being highly relevant. Okay. You've got something to share with the world. You know you're an expert. Let's say you're an expert on sales. Okay. What I want you guys to do is go on the chartable.com or the Apple charts. You can just Google it, Apple charts. And they have categories and subcategories. And you can literally go to business marketing, and then go look at every top 250 sales podcast, right? You can then go see who hosted, either DM them on Instagram or get, you know, an extension and grab their email

Starting point is 00:30:52 off LinkedIn. And you can reach out to these people and you want to tell them, hey, I look through your feed. You don't have an episode about X. I can speak directly to this. And you want to give them a new angle of what you can speak to related to your expertise. And you want to be highly relevant, highly personalized, and that's how you're going to approach it if you don't have a large following. The other thing that I'd say is, like, be realistic, right? I would say you want to punch above your weight, maybe like four or five times of, like your number of followers. And right now, unfortunately, the only platform people still care about is Instagram. Everyone is going on your Instagram and seeing what is your social proof. Even if you have a big

Starting point is 00:31:32 email list, even if you have a YouTube channel, really everyone's going to your Instagram. you, of course, want to mention any other platforms that you have, but your social proof is Instagram. And so you need to be realistic. If you have 20,000 followers, yes, go reach out to the host with 100,000 followers. But if you have 20,000 followers, the 2 million follower host is not going to have you on their show, right? So punch above your weight, but be realistic.

Starting point is 00:31:54 I love that. And one of the things that, you know, I look at when I'm looking at for people on my show is also, what are they saying when they're asking me to come on? If it's like, hey, I can come on and talk to your audience about empowering women. I always try to make you guys remember. Like, nobody wakes up in the morning and says, I want to be an empowered woman. It's like, they're like, I have anxiety. This to do this is overwhelming me.

Starting point is 00:32:18 I don't know my next steps. Like, I love when people come to me with, hey, this is like the title that we would have this. Here's the three things I would talk on. And it's very pointed. And it feels kind of fresh or it feels like a new perspective. And it's a benefit that the listener is going to get from it. It's like, I'm going to give your listener three tips on how to deal with all of their anxiety before 11 a.m. Like, oh, do tell, because I'm the listener.

Starting point is 00:32:44 So I also want to know that. So feeling like really, really pointed and clear on that is always huge for me. But the long, oh, my God, the long pages of telling me everything that you have done and do, like you don't actually have time for it, so we delete them all. So it's like very quick, very concise. Yes. Okay. Let's do some Q&A because this girl's got some knowledge that we absolutely want to extract here. Okay, so who's up? Who's got the first question for me? Okay, I'm doing the front and then we're working our way back. Hi, Hala. I am curious about how you review your podcast data analytics to then make adjustments to podcasting. I have a podcast that I host on SoundCloud and Anchor slash Spotify and then on Apple.

Starting point is 00:33:30 and I don't really understand how to look at those, the analytics to then go, okay, how should I tweak the way that I upload or post in order to help these podcasts grow? Yeah, it's a really good question. First of all, I'd say you definitely want to forget about SoundCloud, off the bat, because you can't monetize it. It's not connected to your RSS feed. It's something separate, okay? So you're growing your SoundCloud.

Starting point is 00:33:56 You're never going to really be able to monetize it super effectively with sponsors because they can't track it with pixel tracking. Okay? So SoundCloud is separate. It's not really like a place for you to focus. And then eventually you want to graduate off of anchor because there's a whole lot of, like in terms of growth, right? But in terms of analyzing your podcast numbers,

Starting point is 00:34:15 what you want to do is actually look at your user agents. So where are all the downloads coming from? Are they coming from Apple? Are they coming from Spotify? Are they coming from podcast addict, wherever it's coming from? And see if there is any sort of traction, you may want to advertise with some. of those podcast platforms and try to see, like, is there any opportunity for you to kind of

Starting point is 00:34:35 milk any sort of traction that you're already having on these platforms? The other thing that you might want to consider is that there's some new platforms like co-host that let you see into your listener data, like, pretty cheaply, like, it's $50 a month, and you can see, like, what their age is, what their income is, what are they searching on social media, what are their behaviors? Do they have pets? Do they have kids? And you can get some insight on your audience. You can also use chartable to get some insight on your audience. And then you'll actually know, like, who am I talking to? If I want to attract younger people, what do I need to talk about? If I want to attract older people, or if this is, I just want to keep attracting

Starting point is 00:35:12 the people who are interested in this content, then you can do that. But aside from that, like, there's not much, like I said, it's not like things go viral on your podcast. It's really all about bringing in a consistent flow of subscribers. And then your downloads are always consistent for the most part. They're not really going to spike based on your topic. It's all about like what subscribers you're bringing in unless you're going super viral on YouTube or social media. Okay. You're welcome. Awesome. Who's next back here? Okay. We're switching to in-person podcast recordings. So are you seeing host pay for the guests like travel and lodging? Or is it more of a you're on the show and then they learn about you and learn about what you sell

Starting point is 00:35:58 and so it's more of a trade-off. Yeah, it just depends on how big you are, right? And I would say, I would try to avoid, you know, it's going to get really expensive, really fast, to pay for people to fly out, lodging. I'm in the process of transitioning to in-person video, and what I found is that it's much easier to actually travel to other people.

Starting point is 00:36:19 So what I'm going to be doing is like flying to L.A., doing 10 interviews, getting an Airbnb, making it look nice, doing the interviews, and flying to the next city and coordinating it that way. I also know a lot of friends who, like, have a studio in Miami or New York, and they just are constantly in advance, and it kind of takes a while to get there. But, like, just like, hey, when are you coming to Miami?

Starting point is 00:36:41 Let me put you down. When are you coming to Vegas? Let me put you down. And you can kind of also have, like, an in-city studio where you're constantly telling people like, hey, I'm here. If you're going to be in the city, let's coordinate a time. I will say that it's one of the most difficult things,

Starting point is 00:36:56 even with me having a big show, is actually getting people in person, and it's way easier to go to them. This podcast is brought to you by Mercury, the banking product businesses like mine, used to simplify their finances in one place. Yeah, bam, you guys know me. I'm all about working smarter and not harder, and that's including my business finances. That's why I love to bank with Mercury. I switched to Mercury about a year ago, and I haven't looked back because running a business

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Starting point is 00:39:06 Being a guest on a lot of podcasts, what have you seen as the most effective giveaway to really encourage people to reach out to you afterwards? So I have heard people doing things like a free call. right like if anybody who wants you know to to learn more get a free like consultation you can just call me and they just like link people to a website where they can book a call so like that works well for me when I guess on other podcasts and let's say I have like a LinkedIn course a LinkedIn masterclass I'll work with the host beforehand and be like hey like let's do a 30% discount for your followers and then on it I'd be like okay everybody go to yapmedia.com slash course use code lorry

Starting point is 00:39:48 for 30% off. Hey, we can do that right now. Right. So basically you could just like on the fly coordinate with the host and say like, I'll have you as part of my affiliate. You'll get paid out X. And sometimes I have the conversation before the podcast and sometimes I just do it live and then afterwards I'm like, hey, if you want to get an affiliate like fee for for anybody who does it, this is what you do. So yeah. Great question. Okay. You're going to help me pass the mic here. Hi. Hi. You're on camera also. Cool. I am not a podcaster, but I am a video creator. So I love to capture podcasters. And I've noticed that a lot of them find it pretty pricey to invest in video for every podcast episode. So what would

Starting point is 00:40:31 you say to podcasters who are afraid to make that investment and don't quite see the ROI on getting video for every podcast episode? I think getting video for every podcast episode is absolutely essential. Audio has a discoverability problem. The way that you're going to get new fans, new subscribers, new listeners is by pulling them from social media to your audio app. It is one of the only ways to promote and market your podcast on social media. You need a visual element. So video is so key. Video is shareable. Video is engaging and super important to grow your show. So good. Who's next? I was just on Joe Ducey's podcast, ABC 15 News, and he's now at the BBB.B.B.B. and he said it's the most popular episode they've had

Starting point is 00:41:15 but I haven't even put it out when I re-transmit that episode how do I do it on all the platforms in the best way and to get the most people to love the BBB and Joe Deucey and me and what do I give them from me what do I do to do better on all the platforms and market better?

Starting point is 00:41:32 So is your question, you went on this podcast, you're getting the content, you want to figure out how you're going to disperse it to your followers? Yeah, everywhere. And I can even like ask all my friends and the DMs, hey, go like this and share this and, you know, whatever you want to do. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:41:47 So I would chop it up into Instagram Reels and leverage the collab feature. So collab with the BBC so you can get double the exposure potentially. So that could be, so the collab feature, I'm sure a lot of you guys know about it. But if you don't know about it, basically you can invite people to be a collaborator and that Instagram Reel will show up on their page and your page. So we, for example, we do that with all of our episodes so that our get, are also promoting it on their platforms as well. And we actually ask them in advance and you'll want to ask,

Starting point is 00:42:19 you'll want to tell them in advance, hey, heads up. We're going to ask you for a collab on these days. Please make sure you accept. And then we d-in them like, hey, can you please accept this collab? And we, like, annoy them until they do it so that we can get that double promotion. So I would recommend that. If you have an email list, you know, create an email blast specifically about this. And here's another hack that we didn't talk about.

Starting point is 00:42:41 Is anybody here active on LinkedIn? Okay. So one of my, the best ways for me to grow my show and get subscribers is to actually play my fully recorded episodes on LinkedIn live. So you just download Restream, Stream Yard. I put my fully episode pre, like, it's not live. They're just my YouTube episodes and I play them on LinkedIn. And then anybody who likes and comments on it, I retarget in the DMs, hey, thank you

Starting point is 00:43:07 for watching my live stream. If you want more content like this, go subscribe to my podcast. right and I monetize those episodes as simulcasts too so like brands will pay for commercials on your live stream okay thank you this has been so helpful what would you say to someone who has been on a lot of podcasts wants to start her own but is afraid the niche is too saturated everybody told me that like when I started a podcast people told me what are you doing it's this was six years ago people told me it was saturated now I'm a top 100 podcaster it is never too late to start. You don't want to listen to other people. Are you creative? Are you a good

Starting point is 00:43:45 marketer? Are you going to try hard? Are you going to be consistent? Are you going to think outside the box? If so, you're like way ahead of everybody else who's starting, right? So as long as you're willing to really learn and put in the work, it's not going to happen overnight. But if you get creative, if you listen to people like me who have done it before and you don't just cross your fingers and hope for the best and you actually proactively are pulling listeners in and trying really hard, you're going to be successful. Thank you. You're going to start one.

Starting point is 00:44:14 Awesome. I love that. And that's so true. Do you know the stats by chance on people who quit podcasts? Yeah. I believe that 50% of podcester's pod fade within the first year. And so a lot of people will quit. I believe that it's like more than 50% of people don't even get to their 10th episode.

Starting point is 00:44:36 There's so many podcasts out there that are no longer. There's only like 500,000 active podcasts, and I believe there's like six million published podcasts, but only 500,000 are about active. Yeah, I love that. So you guys really think of that because if you are someone who is consistent, this is like a really good thing for you to be in. Okay. What would you recommend as far as a cadence, like a weekly, daily, monthly?

Starting point is 00:45:01 Like, what do you see for the best? If you want to compete with other podcasters, you've got to post at least twice a week. all right so once a week doesn't cut it for advertisers the closer you get to a daily show the less desirable you are so you actually don't want to go over three episodes a week and you want to do about two so like two is a sweet spot and one of the reasons is also because again that the podcast charts are trending right so if you're getting a lot of downloads twice a week you're going to rank higher than everybody who's posting once a week or once a month even if they have a bigger show than you So it's important for ranking, and it's important in general just to compete.

Starting point is 00:45:38 Also, when you layer in a second episode per month, you'll get about 30,000 more downloads overall for the month. It's not going to double your downloads, but it immediately gives you a jump. So if you're doing four a month and you add a second episode, you'll immediately, for the most part, from what I've seen, you get about 30% more downloads. Okay, so you were talking about the categories of podcasts where it's like not as many downloads yet. So I would be in that category of my podcast, but I am consistent and I'm regular with it. And I actually have a brand that's interested in being a sponsor and they're very aligned with my audience and my message. How do I go about doing my very first sponsorship with somebody? Well, first of all, congratulations.

Starting point is 00:46:21 The best way to do it is to get out of, especially when you're small. So I used to get sponsorships even before I had like a huge show. And I would bundle things outside of my podcast and get really creative so that I wouldn't have to play this CPM game. Because if you don't have a lot of downloads, charging $30 per 1,000 downloads, you might only make $200 for your commercial and that sucks, right? So why not think of a branded series that you could do for them? Now suddenly you can charge what you want. It's not a commercial. You're going to do a 10-minute series within your podcast feed, maybe every other week.

Starting point is 00:46:57 and now you can charge $2,000 an episode and sell them six episodes, right? Or you can, you know, bundle in social media, bundle in an email blast. What I would do is I would make it a 360 campaign that includes branded content, which means like original content that you record, that may include commercials, and then you can charge what you want for it. I took your LinkedIn class. And so I just want to tell everyone to take it. It was so helpful, especially if you're building a business.

Starting point is 00:47:27 on LinkedIn. And I have two questions. One, I think I know the answer too, but I just need you to break my heart. There's no like many chat feature for LinkedIn, right? Well, are you going to stay for life? Okay, so LinkedIn is very strict. So it is against terms of service to use automation. And if you use automation, you're at risk for getting your account deactivated and all list up. So PSA, right? However, there are lots of automation tools, like Linked Helper is one, and a lot of people use that. There's like Octopus, which a lot of people use, and there's automation tools that you can use to grow your platform. So when I first started, I was using automation tools. And like Linked Helper, for example, will let you scrape everybody who likes

Starting point is 00:48:16 and comments your posts or even look-a-like profile posts. So I used to scrape Gary V's post, all his likes and comments. And then I'd send automatic DMs 24-7, 24 hours a day. Hey, I noticed you follow Gary V. If you like his podcast and content, you're going to like mine too. And I had that automated before I had a team. Now, I know better that you can get your account restricted and I've got too much money invested in LinkedIn

Starting point is 00:48:43 that I use virtual assistance because you won't get in trouble the same way that you would with automation. You get more of like a slap on your wrist. You're not going to get your account deactivated. So I would highly recommend virtual assistance. If it wasn't for VAs, I would not be as successful as I am today. Now I have 60 people all over the world that work for free, sorry, not for free. 60 people, not for free, trust me.

Starting point is 00:49:06 That was before. But I have 60 employees, some are U.S. employees, some are in the Philippines, India, whatever it is. But when I first started, I would just pay people like $500 a month in the Philippines to work eight hours a day for me. And that's how I really scaled before I had a long. lot of money. And so VAs to me are so powerful. I feel like they're so underutilized. People international are, they work so hard. They're so appreciative. And so I would recommend getting a VA to help you with your DMs. Okay. Awesome. I do, I have a recruiting firm, so I can't lose

Starting point is 00:49:38 LinkedIn. So I'll have to do that. Yeah. So then my second question is, I'm the one with the HR podcast. And all of my episodes are very focused either on hiring, like being a good people manager or like compliance and systems. Is there any benefit to like rotating topics throughout the week or like doing eight in a row of hiring like eight in a row of benefits or you know something like that? Do you think there's a benefits on like grouping topics? I don't think so. I don't think there's any benefit. I think generally if you're sticking within the topics of your podcast, HR, I think it's actually more entertaining for your listeners. So again, like podcasting, you don't go viral. You've got the same listeners listening this week, next week, so on, and then new people kind of enter the flow.

Starting point is 00:50:24 So if you're talking about the same thing, that actually might get boring. It might be better to, like, rotate the topics a bit so that it feels fresh. And the other thing you should realize is that people listen to about 10 to 15 episode, and then they drop off. So you might want to resurrect some of your old content because it's probably new listeners anyway. Hello. So I have a podcast where I do walk and talks in different cities and travel to their location and highlight their cities and all that. So it's a lot to, you know, on the know of in person, it's a lot to go to their cities, like set up everything. I was doing a walk and talk like publishing one every single week. I backed down to one a month and then do three solo episodes. Is there a specific balance between doing solo episodes and guest interviews? Have you looked at your downloads to see what does better? Probably the same, right? Well, so far the guest episodes have

Starting point is 00:51:18 because I just started like a month ago with the solos. Yeah, I mean, I would lean into the things that are getting you the best results. But what I've seen is that typically the downloads don't change that much depending on the format. And a lot of the times, if you train people and if you are speaking valuable things, your listeners will want to hear you more than anybody else. And so your solo episodes probably what I'll guess is will end up doing better and better. So, for example, when I play, sometimes I'll play me guesting on another podcast. And those will be my best performing episodes because my listeners are just like,

Starting point is 00:51:56 you're always interviewing people we want to hear from you, you know? And so I think your solo episodes will end up doing better overall. But in general, it doesn't really like, you're not going to see some like, drastic increase. It would be like a slight increase for you to judge what's doing better. Okay. Awesome. And then going off the VA, now I have to ask you, where do you find your VA's? I'm like super scrappy and I'll just go on LinkedIn. And so on LinkedIn, you can search for virtual assistant. You can search Philippines. You can search India. I can look at their profile. I can see the posts that they write. And honestly, guys, some of my best employees that I've had for

Starting point is 00:52:33 like five years now are people that I just found on LinkedIn and shot them a DM had a brief interview and was like, okay, I have to train you anyway. You seem like you've got the right personality and work ethic. And then, you know, we go from there. So just poach them off LinkedIn. LinkedIn, everybody. Thank you so much. So you guys go follow her because truly that's what happens for me. Like when I started working with her and Brian and Danny, like I got very re-inspired working with people. And my biggest takeaway today was just like the underutilization of VAs. Like people can, you know, maybe when they get that first advertiser. They can just take that money and put it back into VAs to grow it and

Starting point is 00:53:13 continue to do that. And it's crazy how quickly I'm sure that that could grow. So you guys, everybody on your feet, you know what's coming. You know that we give the best standing ovations of a lifetime. So let her know with your energy and you're clapping and you're screaming how great she was. Now, this was such an incredible experience to be on stage in front of hundreds of women with Lori Harder, somebody who I idolized as a podcaster, she's totally crushed this world. And it was just so great to share my journey. If there's one thing that I hope that you took away from this conversation, it's that success in podcasting, just like any business, comes down to thinking strategically and refusing to

Starting point is 00:53:53 accept any limitations. There's no glass ceilings in this world. And when I launched Young and Profiting, people told me I was crazy. They told me it was saturated. I'd never make it. But I didn't let that stop me. I learned that there was room at the top for creators who think differently and who take action. And even though I started my podcast now over seven years ago, I still believe that's true today.

Starting point is 00:54:15 And here are some of my key strategies that turned my show into a multi-million dollar media empire. First, you got to treat your podcast like a 360 marketing engine. Podcasts mean anything this day. People watch your podcast on social media. People watch your podcast on YouTube on audio. It doesn't mean audio anymore. So make sure that you're multi-channel and that once you're big enough to get sponsorships, that you sell that multi-channel as well.

Starting point is 00:54:40 And also, it gives your audience multiple ways to engage with your show. Second, you can interview your target clients. Your podcast can become a lead engine tool. I wasn't selling. I was building trust and demonstrating value, and my guests became my clients. I also like to give the example that Lori had. Her guests became her investors and her brand. So there's multiple ways that you can leverage your guests aside from just creating content

Starting point is 00:55:02 for your podcast. And third, invest in your team, interns, and virtual assistance early. My team, for example, sends out personalized LinkedIn DMs 24-7 that target job titles with relevant episodes. This consistent outreach keeps us at the top of the charts and growing every day. So, yeah, fam, if you're dreaming about starting a podcast or scaling the one that you've got, stop thinking small. Dream big and boldly and back your ambition with consistent creative action. And don't you forget, the game will change for you the moment that you decide to play it differently.

Starting point is 00:55:33 Thanks for listening to this episode of Young and Profiting Podcast. If you're ready to help somebody turn their podcast dreams into a reality, share this episode with somebody who needs to hear it. And if you learn something valuable, we'd always love a five-star review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to the show. Guys, I'm addicted to checking out the reviews. I check every single day. I love getting new written reviews, especially on Apple. So if you love this show, do me a favor, drop us a five-star review. And if you like to watch your podcast instead, we're on YouTube or on Spotify Vee.

Starting point is 00:56:03 video. I love seeing your comments on YouTube, so drop as a comment. Tell us what you think about the show, what resonated most with you today. You guys can also connect with me on Instagram at Yap with Hala or LinkedIn. It's Hala Taha. You can't really miss me on that platform. And big thanks to my incredible YAP production team. You guys make all the magic happen. This is your host, Hala Taha, aka the podcast Princess, signing off.

Young and Profiting with Hala Taha - Hala Taha: Unbeatable Marketing Strategies for Scaling a Multi-Million-Dollar Podcast | YAPLive

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