Young and Profiting with Hala Taha - LinkedIn Masterclass: The LinkedIn Secrets That Scaled My Business from 0 to $5M+

Episode Date: November 4, 2022

Social media is here to stay. The power given to those with a strong personal brand is unlike any marketing tool we’ve had before. Unfortunately, too many people are stuck using social media strategies that don't deliver the results they're looking for. In this special episode of YAP, Hala breaks down EXACTLY how she built her massive following on LinkedIn. She shares the unusual journey that her to build her personal brand on LinkedIn and how this single decision turned into job security for life, a #1 podcast, and a $5M+ business. JOIN THE LINKEDIN SECRETS MASTERCLASS WAITLIST FOR AN INSANE DISCOUNT! Follow this link to join the waitlist: yapmedia.io/course More About Young and Profiting Download Transcripts - youngandprofiting.com   Get Sponsorship Deals - youngandprofiting.com/sponsorships Leave a Review -  ratethispodcast.com/yap Watch Videos - youtube.com/c/YoungandProfiting Follow Hala Taha LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/htaha/ Instagram - instagram.com/yapwithhala/ TikTok - tiktok.com/@yapwithhala Twitter - twitter.com/yapwithhala Learn more about YAP Media Agency Services - yapmedia.io/ Join Hala's LinkedIn Masterclass - yapmedia.io/course Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's up, young and profitors. I'm super excited for today's episode is a special one. I'm just going to be speaking off the cuff. I have no script. I have no notes. I'm just going to be, notes, I'm just going to be, she's going to be me, my Mike and I, and telling you about my LinkedIn journey and the impact that a personal brand can have on your life. And I'm doing this episode in honor of the launch of my LinkedIn course. It's called LinkedIn Secrets Workshop. It launches on November 15th and 16th. It's a two-day workshop and I've been working super hard on it. It's going to be amazing.

It's the same stuff that I teach my team, the award-winning social media agency, Yap Media, where the number one LinkedIn marketing agency. I'm running most of the LinkedIn influencer accounts out there right now. We go viral every day. Our clients are getting 100K like 8 million view posts. We're crushing it. And so I had the bright idea that why not teach this to other people? Why not systematize this? And teach other people how to do it. It's not rocket science. They just need to understand the algorithm.

Need to learn how to write captivating copy that is optimized for mobile. They need to learn what kind of assets work. They need to learn the principles of going viral on social media and I can teach that. So why not put that out to the world? And so I'm launching this LinkedIn course. It's on November 15th and 16th. You guys want more information? Go to yappmedia.io slash course.

You guys can sign up for the wait list and get a limited time discount, a very steep discount if you sign up for the wait list and get a limited time discount a very steep discount if you sign up for the wait list and Without further ado, I'm gonna go into my story about how I became an influencer on LinkedIn and all the good that came with it So let's start the story April of 2018 that's when I launched my podcast young Profiting, which is now a number one business and entrepreneurship podcast in both the US and Canada. And at that time, I was a nobody. I was working corporate marketing at Hewlett Packard.

I was sort of a late bloomer in the corporate world. So I was only in year four of my corporate experience. The first two years I was actually an MBA intern. And so I really only had two years of corporate experience at the time when I started this podcast and then two years as an intern working in corporate marketing. And I previously worked in radio. I think a lot of you guys know my story. I replay episodes on this podcast of me getting interviewed and I often tell my story,

but some of you may not know. And I started my career in radio working at hot 97, which is the number one hip hop and R&B radio station. And so before I went into corporate marketing, I thought I was going to be a famous on-air personality. And then I had a blog site called The Sorority of Hip Hop and that blew up. And I thought I was going to be this famous blogger and use my voice to impact the world in a positive way and impact my generation in a positive way. That was always my goal to be a positive voice for my generation.

So I tried to do it as a blogger when I didn't get a job at Hot Nights 7, the radio station after I interned there for free for three years. And so I got rejected from radio and I started this blog and we actually got scouted by MTV twice to have our own reality TV show. They filmed us all summer one summer and I was supposed to get this new show. It was right after the Jersey Shore ended. It was literally about to be the next snooki. I thought I was going to be super famous. And two weeks before the show was supposed to air, they pulled the plug. And so now it was rejected by TV. So I went into corporate. I got my MBA. I thought this entertainment stuff is not for me. I'm never going to make it. Nobody's opening the doors for me. There's all these gatekeepers in my way. I felt like a powerless, you know,

and I felt like the only way I could make my family proud was if I got a regular job went to corporate. So I did that. And I did what everybody like society tells you to do. So I got my MBA, got a 4.0, then enabled me to go get a job at Hulitt Packard. My resume looked crazy, by the way. I mean, imagine I was interned for free to radio station for three years. Then I had a blog site called strawberryblunt.com, the sorority of hip hop. It was a hip hop website and I had online radio shows. And I was smart. I was digitally savvy. I learned SEO and had to do these websites. I got sponsored by Reebok and learned how to get sponsorships. And I had a lot of skills. I mean, I hacked Twitter and that's why we got scabbed by MTV.

And so I had a lot of skills, but on paper, I looked crazy. Nonetheless, he will at Packard took a chance on me. And so I took the job really seriously when I got it. I was an MBA intern. I got promoted left and right. It became, I started this thing called the Young Employee Network, I was still an entrepreneur in the organization, I was like an entrepreneur just using every opportunity that I got, and I built my personal brand within the organization. And I was president of this thing called the Young Employee Network and I was supposed

to get an opportunity, I was supposed to be the president of the Global Young Employee Network, and I was supposed to get an opportunity. I was supposed to be the president of the Global Young Employee Network, because essentially for three years I worked in this employee resource group called Young Employee Network. You can see where I got the inspiration for the name Young Employee. So I was president of this thing at my office called the Young Employee Network that I started and founded the chapter in my office. I had a petition that I got signed and I got 100 signatures to start this organization. And I was president.

And then I became the face of the Young Employees at the office and at Hewlett Packard as a whole because then I was on the recruitment chair on the global board. And I started something called HPE Spirit Week. And basically what that was, it was a week-long event around all 500 offices around the world. Hewlett Packard at the time was basically a mini-country. There was 300,000 people that worked at the company. And I was representing essentially all the young employees. I was on the global board,

and I created this whole flagship event, and the president at the time in that organization, like he was a bozo, I was doing everything, and I was the one that created this event that made a whole big splash, the biggest event of the year, and basically all around the world, 500 offices, theme daily events. I was emailing the whole company as if I was a CEO. And I really

became the face of the young employees. At the same time at my office, I had launched their first ever company picnic in the summer. I did their first holiday party. I did all these charity events until this day. Everything that I did, both holiday party, I did all these charity events until this day. Everything that I did both at my office and for the Global Young Employee Network Board is still in play, like even the posters I designed in Photoshop, they're still using, right? So I created all this culture

and I like brought so much culture and I became the face of the Young Employees. I even was like interviewing the CEOs and the CMOs and then I went to get another opportunity and I wanted to be the president of the Global Young Employee Network and I literally got like 50 people to send in video recommendations for me

to be the president of the Global Young Employee Network. Like I wanted it so bad, I was campaigning so hard. And then the HR director, she wasn't the like CHRO. She was like the VP of HR or something. She picked somebody else who had zero experience. And even though for three years, I worked my butt off in this organization, and essentially worked for free. On top of crushing my day job, I did this like at night, I did this like, you know, in between. On top of crushing my day job, I ran this cultural

organization. They didn't even let me stay on the board. So I was pissed. I wasn't young or profiting. I was young and pissed. And so I decided screw this. I'm tired of gatekeepers. I'm tired of not having something of my own. I want to build something of my own that I own that nobody could tell me now. That nobody could tell me that, like, I don't deserve this.

I don't get this opportunity, or like, that some random person can choose the trajectory of my life or how successful I'm gonna be, F, that. And I said, okay, I wanna get back to my dreams. I wanna start young and profiting podcasts and I don't need to just lead 7,000 people. I could lead 7 million people instead.

7 million young people. That was my original goal. I wanna lead 7 million people instead. 7 million young people. That was my original goal. I want to lead 7 million young people, not just 7000 at Hula Packard. I remember it was December of 2017. It was Christmas time. And we were sitting around the conference room table me and my marketing team.

And I remember that we were going around and giving our New year's resolutions. My turn came up and I said, this holiday break, I'm gonna launch a podcast. And I was so adamant, everybody laughed. They were like, ah, Hala, you always have these crazy ideas. Everybody laughed it off, they didn't take me seriously. So I launched this podcast, and at the same time,

I decided I was going to launch my personal brand on LinkedIn. It was a very strategic move. And the reason why was because when I posted on Instagram, people would care about my outfits or like selfies. And nobody really cared about like educational motivational stuff on Instagram, especially at this time. Right? This was four and a half years ago. And so I thought LinkedIn could be a cool place for me to stand out. I don't think anyone's really talking about podcasting yet. I feel like it's my target audience. I want to reach young professionals. You know, this isn't going to be a music show where I want to interview hip-hop artists like I used to when I was younger. This is going to be a business

show. I'm going to leverage the fact that, you know, now I've made it in corporate, so to speak. I'm a corporate executive. I have something to say in terms of business. I also wasn't entrepreneur in the past, so I have that aspect. And it was the best decision I ever made in my life. Because how did it not been for LinkedIn? I would have never become a top podcast or LinkedIn. and growing my personal brand on LinkedIn is what gave me the leverage to become a top podcaster. So when I started posting on LinkedIn,

at the time, Hewlett Packard was really trying to get their sales team to learn LinkedIn. And so they supported me because I wasn't like huge where I was threatening. I was just like learning how to use the platform. I was talking about educational stuff. It was nothing that was like controversial. And so he would packer definitely supported me to post on social media so much so that it actually

gave me notoriety because I was asked to teach LinkedIn best practices very quickly after I started posting two sales team, two executives. And so it led me to more opportunities at work. I became known as the social media WizKid. It helped me stand out. I was on the marketing team. So being really good at social media and starting to get some traction on LinkedIn really helped me stand out. I even got noticed by the C-suite at Hulett Packard and when I'd go to conferences, I would take pictures with this yellow and put it on my feed and it would get a lot of traction both for the company outside of the company and within the company as well. And so it actually helped increase my job security at Hewlett Packard when I started posting

on LinkedIn. So that was the first benefit that I saw when I started posting on LinkedIn. I was getting a little bit of fans, right? I was doing really manual stuff. I was one on one DMing every single person who was in my follower list, letting them know about the podcast. I was posting silly cartoons and things to try to stand out in the feed. And I was starting to really understand the LinkedIn algorithm. One of the key things

that I knew I had to do was stand out. And I stood out with my topics. And I also stood out with a type of assets that I had. And so I was doing it right. It was giving me some job security. So once I didn't get the young employee network job that I wanted, right? I wanted to be the president of the young employee network. It was such a big goal and my heart was crushed. I felt away and I kind of like was over Heelit Packard. I felt like I wanted a new opportunity.

And I didn't look for a job because I was still like, liked my team and everything. Like, it's a really good culture at Ulyr Packard. I have to say that one lady was like a jerk who was a HR VP, but in general, this really good people at Ulyr Packard. And so I liked my job. So I wasn't like actively looking for a job, but because I was buzzing on LinkedIn, I was actually eventually scouted by Disney streaming services. They were able to find me on LinkedIn because I was visible and they recruited me and it increased my salary by 40% I got a major career bump moving to like one of the hottest

companies at the time. It was brand new super hot to be a Disney streaming services and I was able to leave Hewlett Packard and increase my salary by a lot. My personal brand on LinkedIn made me more visible and more competitive and it enabled me to level up in my career. So that was the second benefit I got from LinkedIn and being on LinkedIn. Okay. So now I got internally promoted at He on LinkedIn. Okay. So now I got internally promoted at Hewlett Packard and became like the C-Sweeped and the social whiz kid.

Then, Disney Shaving Services recruits me to go to their team, pays me more, jump in my career. Right? So I stayed consistent. I stood out in the feeds, tried to stop the scroll. I learned everything I could about the LinkedIn algorithm. I told stories. I knew that I had to be inspirational, motivational, educational, interactive. I was like really active in the community. I knew that that was also super important. And so my LinkedIn blew up. Let's say this is like a year into my journey. I'm at like 60,000 followers, right? My podcast is already becoming a number one how to podcast on Apple, right?

I'm climbing the charts. I'm interviewing bigger guests because I have this LinkedIn profile. At the time, guys, my podcast was still baby tiny. I was getting like a thousand downloads a month, right? 200 downloads an episode, I'm just gonna be real. Like, it was small still. Even though I was climbing up the charts, there nobody was getting downloads on their podcast. That's why I was climbing up the charts. Everybody's podcasts didn't have a lot of listeners, right?

And so I was getting really good guess because I was blowing up on LinkedIn. I would reach out to these guests from LinkedIn, right? I would DM them, I'd send them an invite and I'd be like, hey, Steven Collar, what's going on? My name's Hala, you know, I'm, you know, an influencer on LinkedIn, I'm one of the biggest podcasters on LinkedIn.

And, you know, I'd love to, you know, have you in my podcast and I'll share, I'll share it on my LinkedIn feed. So again, my podcast was still small, but my LinkedIn was big. And so all these big people said yes because I had social proof and I had a community on LinkedIn. Okay, so the first thing that I was able to leverage

from LinkedIn is to get guests, both reaching out on the platform and showing my social proof. And just like these people saying yes, and being able to like leverage the fact that one person said yes, and use that so the next person says yes, that makes sense, right? So also, and I found myself literally being

the most popular podcaster on LinkedIn. More engagement than Jay Shetty, more engagement than Lewis Hous, and that gave me even more leverage. Because now I could literally say, I'm the most popular podcaster on one of the biggest social platforms in the world, right? Had I started on Instagram, I would have never been able to say that because it would have been impossible without a lot of money and a really good team to beat somebody like Jay Shetty or Lewis

House or Tim Ferriss or something on Instagram. But I chose LinkedIn because of organic growth and I thought that I really had a chance to stand out because nobody else was really focused there and targeting that audience, even though people were posting and starting to use LinkedIn as a, you know, a platform where they engaged with the community wasn't just only to get a job anymore, but people were missing the boat and people still are missing the boat. Okay. And so I became a thought leader within my niche. And my show still was small at this point. It was bigger, but still was really small because

the key to podcasting is you need to be visible in the podcasting apps and When I realized that that's when I really was able to take things to the next level so I Realized that in order to grow my podcast I had to be visible in the podcast apps I had to be visible where podcast listeners are going and looking. So what did I do? I decided to leverage my social proof again,

my personal brand again that I grew on LinkedIn. And I reached out to every single podcast app out there. So I reached out to apps like Castbox and Podcast Republic and Player FM and Good Pods and Sounder and you name it like every single app, every single software that I use, Descript Riverside.fm. I can even remember like literally 50 different apps and I said, Hey, what's up? I'm Hala. I'm the biggest podcaster on LinkedIn. I have, you know, maybe I had 80,000 followers, I've 80,000 followers.

I would love to promote your app in exchange for you featuring me on your app. I'd love to do a post on LinkedIn in exchange for you featuring me on your homepage, featuring me as a banner in your app, featuring me in your email newsletter blast. And everybody said yes. And then all of a sudden, I find myself climbing the charts because when you're a podcaster

and you're visible in the podcast apps, it's really easy for people to listen and subscribe. And people saw me everywhere. So much so that I got interviewed by podcast magazine and I landed an interview and podcast magazine and at the time I thought they were just interviewing me. I did not think I was gonna be on the cover and I think my story just blew them away. I told them about how I started in radio.

I told them about my website. I told them about corporate how I started this all. As a side hustle, they couldn't believe that I was doing everything that I was doing and still working at Disney streaming services and then all the sudden I got on the cover of podcast magazine. Sheesh, that was a really really big milestone for me and that magazine got got mailed to every major podcast host, every podcast executive, and I just became the podcast princess. On that cover, it said, podcasting's Palestinian princess shares her truth, and then all the said, and everybody was calling me the podcast princess. All because of LinkedIn,

guys, for growing my personal brand on LinkedIn. It literally helped me achieve my dreams. My dream wasn't to become a LinkedIn influencer. My dream was to become the biggest podcaster in the world, and then my LinkedIn is what helped me leverage it. My personal brand that I own, the transferable asset that I can take with me, no matter what I want to do, no matter if I want to sort of podcaster and business,

change careers, I always have that community. I always have my personal brand. It's a transferable asset, no matter what job. And by the way, it's ultimate job security. Do you guys think I will ever have trouble getting a job being this popular on LinkedIn? No way. I'm thought of as one of the biggest marketing

and podcast experts out there, any podcasting or marketing job that I want is mine now because I have 180,000 followers on LinkedIn and one of the most engaged communities out there right now. I'll never go back to corporate. It's not the point. But what I'm trying to say is that it gave me job insurance, right? It gave me everything insurance. It gave me entrepreneurship insurance. And the me entrepreneurship insurance. And the other thing I'll say is that LinkedIn helped me really grow a strong community and network.

So a network that supports me and everything that I do. I remember when my father died kind of jumping around the story here, but I feel like talking about it. So I'm going to talk about it when my father died. I was really lonely. It was COVID. And I wasn't with my boyfriend because I had went to my parents house to take care of my parents while they were sick with COVID.

And everybody was scared of me. My friends didn't want to hang out with me for months because everybody was scared of me. My boyfriend was scared of me. And so for three months, I remember being pretty lonely inside. I mean, my father, who was my hero, had just passed away. And I remember it was my committee on LinkedIn that helped me get through it. I remember, oh my god, I'm going to cry.

I remember people were reaching out to me and checking up on me complete strangers. I'm sorry for crying but like complete strangers would reach out to me and check up on me and would tell me that my father's proud of me. And like that was just so touching like I had built such a real community that like people that I never met would check up on me all the time and just make sure that I was okay. And really that community really helped me at that time. And I even started my business because of LinkedIn. Yeah, Media, which is now worth over $5 million. Because I remember I had Heather Monahan on the show before the pandemic started like February of 2020.

And I would post these really cool videos that stood out in the feed. And I remember Heather Monahan came on my show and she kept commenting on my videos on LinkedIn and she was like, hey, Hala, can we have a call? Hey, Hala, can you do these videos for me? And finally, I said, my dad's sick in the hospital, like I don't have any time, I'm still working at Disney streaming services, I just have a volunteer team, but she's like, let me be your first client. Come on, like, you got to do this. You don't belong in corporate. You're too good for this. You know, they don't appreciate you at Disney.

You told me that they don't. It's a boys club, like, like let me be your first client, Hala. And she was right at Disney streaming service at the time. I was respected and nobody could touch me because I was such a big influencer on LinkedIn. I was literally more popular than the CEO was at Disney Streaming Services.

But at the same time, I wasn't happy. They weren't gonna promote me. It was gonna take 20 years to become CMO. And even so, it was such a boys club. They weren't gonna promote me. I was stuck in the same place. Heal of Packet, I was getting promoted every year. Just kept going up, up, up, up.

At Disney Streaming, I was like, stayed in the same place for two years. And so Heather was like, Hala, come on, like Disney's not gonna do anything for you. You gotta trust me, I wanna be your first client. So LinkedIn literally gave me my first side hustle gig, which led me to eventually really creating Yap Media and Yap Media Network and all this stuff that I have 60 employees around the world right now.

So I met Heather Monahan from LinkedIn and she's the one that insisted on becoming my first client, guys, and listen to that. She insisted on becoming my first client. My social proof was so strong, and my brand was so strong, that somebody that didn't even know me that well, that had two calls with me, was begging me to give me their money so that I could create the same for them

and leverage my experience and thought leadership. When that happened with Heather, there was like an aha moment. I started thinking about all my podcast conversations that I've had in the past and I started to realize that so many of my guests at the end of the show would literally tell me, Hala, how did you grow on LinkedIn? Can you do that for me? Do you have a team? Is there any way that I could leverage your team? And I'd always be like, no, I'm sorry, I have a volunteer team.

I can't help you, you know, nothing to see here. I don't have a company. Finally, I was open to all the demand around me, and I realized that I could be an entrepreneur, and all because I started my personal brand on LinkedIn. Epic lesson right there. I started my personal brand. I had so much influence and social proof that the demand came to me. The opportunities came to me.

I didn't need to put out a salesy post. I didn't need to put out a paid advertisement to get my clients. My clients came to me and I started the app media and within three months, we were making over $100,000 a month. My second client was a $30,000 retainer. And you know what else? Because I had all this social proof and because everybody wanted me and only me because they were bought into my brand, I could charge top of market.

I got to charge the highest ticket price. Guys, I was so busy at one point that I would take weeks to send out proposal. I had so much business, I couldn't handle it. I couldn't hire fast enough. I would dread taking discovery calls because I had no room. And it was growing so fast and that's because I

started my personal brand on LinkedIn and I ended up quitting my job six months in and I became an entrepreneur and I never ever looked back. Now I have not only started yet media, I also launched yet media network, which is a podcast network of business shows and we make lots of money growing and monetizing shows. And we've made over $5 million in revenue in just two years. So that's the story of how LinkedIn helped me grow my business, gain job security, gain entrepreneurship security, gain clients, gain podcasting fame, gained all my wildest

dreams was because I started a personal brand on LinkedIn and I'm forever thankful for that decision. And I am now launching a course that is launching on November 15th and 16th. And this course is the LinkedIn Secrets Masterclass. It's a two-day workshop. And in this course, I'm going to go over everything that you need to know to grow your personal brand the way that I did. We charge a minimum of $10,000 a month to run LinkedIn profiles for our clients. You are going to get all of the

secrets that I teach my team. I'm literally using the training materials that I teach my team. In this course, we go over how to establish your voice identity, your visual identity, how to come up with a content marketing plan, understand what your key priorities are. We talk about copyrighting hacks, what goes viral in terms of copyrighting, what goes viral in terms of assets, how to grow a community, how to engage a community, how to convert your community into paying leads and so much more. Yeah, fam.

I have been pouring my heart and soul into this course for the past month. It's probably why I'm so emotional and crying in this podcast. I'm freaking stressed out. I've been putting everything into this course because I want to make it as impactful as possible. I wanna make sure that everybody feels like they're getting 10 times the value of what they pay for. And we're gonna be giving a special discount

to anybody who joins the wait list. If you log onto yapmedia.io slash course, that's yapmedia.io slash course. And so this LinkedIn course is something that's really meaningful to me. I feel like it aligns perfectly with my dreams. My dreams are to impact my generation positively with my voice. And so that means that the avenue always changes. Sometimes it's a podcast. Sometimes it's a live speaking event. Now it's going to be in a two day workshop, where I'm going to literally teach you the same secrets

that enabled me to quit my job becoming entrepreneur and own my life, have agency over my life, and no longer have gatekeepers preventing me from achieving my goals. Now, the only thing that prevents me from achieving my goals is me, because I have all the leverage that I need.

And so if you guys want more information, go to yappmedia.io slash course for our LinkedIn course. LinkedIn Secrets Masterclass. I'm super excited. Again, it's November 15th and 16th. It's a two day workshop. You guys can reach out to me on Instagram at yappwithhalla or LinkedIn. It's htaha.

LinkedIn.com slash htaha. LinkedIn.com slash htaha. If you guys want to find out more information, but again, you can go to Yappmedia.io slash course and join the wait list to get a really steep discount limited time only for wait list people. And like I said, this is the same tactics that I used to grow all of my influencer clients. I'm running most of the LinkedIn influencers on LinkedIn right now. And the same tactics that I use to grow their audience, I teach in this course. I'm going to really unravel every single algorithm hack, every single secret. I'm even going to set you guys up for success with some stuff I can't announce on the podcast.

But they're, you know, we have ongoing support to make sure that you guys actually hit your performance goals. So if you're looking to grow your personal brand, if you're looking to target the type of person that's on the LinkedIn, if you're a coach, if you have your own course, if you have a book, if you, you know, just want to become an influencer, honestly, I didn't sell anything for the first two years. So even if you have nothing to sell, do it now. So then in two years, when you wanna be an entrepreneur or wanna start a side hustle,

you have somebody ready to buy for me like I did, right? So I'm really excited about this course. I'll drop more information in the show notes. I love you guys. I hope you enjoyed this episode and this is your host, Khaled Taha, signing off.