Hala Taha: How to Crush Rejections and Scale a Multi-Million-Dollar Business | Entrepreneurship | YAPLive

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So I decided to start this thing called the sorority of hip-hop.

And two weeks later I recruited 14 girls.

MTV reached out to us for a reality TV show.

They filmed us all summer.

They got us a studio on Broadway.

It was like real world.

And then two weeks before they were supposed to air the show, my producer calls me up.

She's like, Hala, I'm so sorry.

We're moving in another direction.

I always got rejected and the podcast was the first time that I decided, you know what?

Instead of me wanting to get chosen, I'm going to choose myself and I'm going to be an entrepreneur and create my own lane.

Everything I've mastered on my own is what I then turned into services.

I really believed that like I could do anything.

And then you hit a roadblock at one point though, that caused you to question that belief.

I was like so upset, but

I think it boils down to skills, obsession, and studying and learning and reps and doing the grunt work.

There's nobody who knows more than me about podcast growth and monetization.

So like I did earn my spot.

But

hello, young and profiters.

Welcome to another Yap Live episode.

And today, you'll hear me as a guest on Hal Elrod's podcast, Achieve Your Goals.

Hal is somebody that I deeply admire.

I got a chance to interview him in episode 354 of this podcast.

If you guys want to check it out, he's got an incredible comeback story.

I think you're going to love it.

But this time around, the tables turned, and I got to be a guest on Achieve Your Goals, which is his podcast.

And in the chat, I really got to open up.

We got a chance to sit down in person.

It was real, it was raw.

And I think you guys are going to be really inspired from this conversation.

You'll hear how I built Yap Media, how my father inspired me, and all the setbacks I had in between.

So without further delay, here's my awesome conversation with Hal Elrod.

Holla, it is so good to be with you.

Hal, so happy to be here.

And not just here, but you're here now in Austin, Texas, so we can see each other out more often.

I know.

I'm really excited.

I just moved out here from New York, and it has been awesome.

It's been like four months, and I love it out here.

Four months in Austin.

I already got my cowboy boots.

I love it.

You're acclimating quickly.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Very cool.

What brought you out here?

Well, to save on taxes, I'm an entrepreneur and I got killed on taxes last year.

So I wanted to not have to pay state tax.

So it was really between Miami and Texas.

And we're building a creator house.

We actually just put out an offer and it got accepted yesterday.

So building a creator house for Yap Media.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

That is very exciting.

So you're an inspiration.

Like I have followed your story and

our friend Darius describes you as the most tenacious person that he has ever met.

And, you know, words like hard work, tenacity, you know, work ethic, all of those things come up, but also like kindness, love, you exude positive energy.

I'd love to start.

I want to.

hear your thoughts on how your dad influenced you.

If we could start with your dad, I've heard

his story.

Yeah.

The way you've shared it.

And he was a big part of your life.

And I'd love to.

Yeah.

My dad was just the coolest, most generous guy in the world.

And he inspired me.

Like, I always give credit.

Like, literally, when anything good happens in my life, I'm like, thanks to dad.

You know, and that's because I saw his adversity growing up.

And so basically, he grew up in Palestine.

So he grew up in the West Bank during war.

He had a family of seven kids.

Like, there were seven kids in the family uh two of his siblings died when he was younger they had no running water they had no electricity they lived on a farm my dad always told me he grew up on figs and dates that's all he ate wow

and my dad knew that the only way that he could get out of poverty is if like education

he was the first person in his town to read Really?

He was the first person in his town to know how to read.

And it's not that they were dumb people or anything.

It was just a different time and people were farmers and like, that's the life that they lived.

And so my dad would walk every day to school.

He would read his books on the walk to school because that's the only sunlight that he had.

He would just study, study.

He was known as like the smartest kid in town.

Very, very smart guy.

And he ended up getting a scholarship to medical school in Egypt.

Then he came to America and he did his residency at a time when America was trying to recruit doctors.

So he basically got like sponsored to come to America and do his residency in Harlem.

And then he became a surgeon, became chief of surgery at two major hospitals in New Jersey, opened up a medical center.

And like, the best part about my dad is that he was so generous.

And he spent the rest of his adult life, like once he made it, literally just raising money for other kids in Palestine to get scholarships because he knew that's how he got out of it.

And so he probably put like 10,000 people through school, through all of his fundraising, fundraising and then also paid for all of his nieces and nephews for college and MBA.

And so my dad was really, really successful, but I wasn't spoiled growing up because he was giving his money to all his nieces and nephews and putting everybody through college.

And so like in my family, my dad is the one that like pulled everybody up.

And now my family is doing awesome.

It's like all my cousins are doctors.

All my even cousins in Palestine, like they're really successful.

And like they went to college in London and this and that.

And like my dad helped them.

And it just really, he's just like an amazing man.

And he actually died from COVID in 2020.

And that was really tough for me.

But

that moment when he, he was in the hospital for two months.

And I remember I was working in corporate.

And I had an amazing job at Disney.

I had a cushy job.

I had the podcast.

I had already started a Young and Profiting podcast.

And I remember seeing him in the hospital.

And I would like sing to him every day because I have a great singing voice.

And he used to love to hear me sing and he was like out of it.

So I just thought maybe that would calm him down.

And

I remember in that those moments when he was in the hospital, I was like, I need to just think bigger.

Like my dad did so much and here I am just like, yeah, I've got a great corporate job and I've got this podcast, but like.

Is that really like the most that I can do?

Everybody's asking me like to start a company.

You know, I have guests that come on my show and at the end of the show, they're like, can you do my LinkedIn?

Can you do my podcast?

And I'd always just be like, No, you know, and then I was like, You know what?

I'm just going to start doing this.

And so, he actually inspired me to start my company.

And unfortunately, he never saw me starting a company.

He passed away before that could happen, but I always know like it's because of him.

Yeah.

Wow.

Such an inspiration.

And

what

following up on that, your dad giving so much to others, what, what values do you embody from your dad?

I mean, my dad was the type of person.

So, like after he passed away, my brother is a doctor and he said that he had a patient who was from Nigeria that came because now my brother works at my dad's old office and he came to the office.

He's like, I have to tell you something.

And he's like, I don't think your dad ever told you.

He's like, when my mom was sick, your dad paid for a flight ticket to go for me to go see my dying mom in Nigeria.

He was like, I was just his patient.

Wow.

And I had friends telling me that I grew up with that like didn't have a lot of money.

My dad would give them a hundred bucks before we went to the mall.

And I had no idea.

I, he gave me money and he would secretly give them money.

And like, they'd be like, your dad used to give me money before we went to the mall, like, so that I wouldn't feel left out, you know?

So those kinds of things,

I'm just so generous.

Like even with my company, it started, we can talk about it if you want, but it started with volunteers.

Like I give equity openly.

I'm like giving people raises like before they ask for it, especially if they don't ask it and they deserve it.

Yeah.

Um, and I feel like because I have such like an abundant mindset towards money, the other thing that my dad did is that he made me feel like money was not a problem, you know?

So he, even though he was so generous and he, he wouldn't like go be flashy or whatever.

Um, if I wanted something, he'd be like, Yeah, like he would always tell me things are free.

Like if something was a hundred bucks, he'd be like, Sure, it's free, you know, and like, so like a lot of people like parents will instill like stinginess in their kids.

Yeah, but my dad always made it seem like money was abundant, money was no problem.

And I think it's because he grew up with no money, so he never wanted me to feel that way.

But what happened is that when I grew up, I had no resistance to money and like this idea of I could make a lot of money, I had no resistance to it.

And here I am making a lot more money than most women, you know, do ever.

So, uh, yeah, so he, he, he taught me a lot about generosity, And I feel like I try to carry that generosity through.

And I've, you know, I raise a lot of money for Palestine as well and things like that.

I just learned a lesson from your dad about parenting.

You know, as you're saying that I'm examining, like, how do I talk about money with my kids?

And because sometimes I feel like I, you know, I.

If it's like, hey, we can afford whatever we want, right?

Like, I try to find this balance between.

He might have overdid it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

He might have overdid it.

That's fair.

That's fair.

So find a balance.

Yeah, find a balance, I think.

Yeah, okay.

So I want to back up.

You and I have so much in common.

We both at 19 years old started in radio.

You started on Hot 97.

I started on Q97,

which is so wild.

And then we both dropped out of college after that year.

So a lot in common.

But I know at 19, I believe that was the age, you learned about the law of attraction and became obsessed with it.

Yeah.

And through that, developed the belief that life is limitless.

Talk about that.

So before I was 19 years old, similar to you, I was like

pretty mediocre.

Like, I had some talents.

I was a really good singer.

So, like, that's what I, that was like my one talent is that I was such a good singer.

I'd always get solos, but I wasn't like extremely good at sports.

I was, you know, a B student in college.

I was like a C D student because I just didn't go to class, you know, and I was fairly mediocre and

not extremely confident, especially because I grew up during 9-11.

And when I was like in my formative years, like 14, 15, 16, 17, there was a lot of racism going on towards me being Arabic, Muslim.

And before that time period, the way that my family was treated, we went to a very white, we were in a very white town.

I was treated like I was Italian.

Like that was like all the, like very, like, it was just, we were just an ethnic.

household, but like there was no animosity and like we were really accepted and I was getting a lot of opportunities.

But in high school, I was treated a lot differently after, and like 9-11 happened right in the beginning of my freshman year in high school.

And suddenly, like everything I tried out for, I never got.

Even though I had the best voice in school, I was never the lead in the plays anymore.

I, my chorus teacher was the only one that like, like, I still was getting solos and stuff, but that was the only thing.

And I just felt like I was just not getting any opportunities.

So, in college,

I had like lower self-esteem than I think I would have because I was just never given any opportunities.

And I think a lot of that honestly stemmed from racism.

Okay.

Okay.

But in college, I went to a very, I went to Newark, NJIT.

It was a super diverse school, and suddenly it was like an even playing field.

And it's discovered the law of attraction.

My brother introduced me to Abraham and Esther Hicks.

And they wrote a lot of different books.

And I started like becoming obsessed with these books.

And I would start to write affirmations, and they were woo-woo affirmations: like, I'm the most beautiful girl in the world.

I'm, you know,

so confident.

I'm so popular.

I'm so this.

I'm so that.

And I would say these affirmations and I would record them and I would listen to them all day while I was driving, while I was doing chores.

And suddenly

the whole world started to open up.

And like, I feel like I changed as a person.

Wow.

And I did incredible things like from like 19 to 21.

Like I lived a life that like most people would be like, you did what?

Like I worked at this radio station.

It was the number one radio station in the world i became angie martinez's assistant who was the voice of new york i was dating chris brown when i was 20 years old i was like you know going out with all these celebrities and just like living this life yeah and any 19 20 year old's dream life yeah yeah i was living this crazy dream life and you know i started this blog i almost got a show on mtv like i just had all these amazing things happen to me because i really believed that like i could do anything yeah and i had programmed my mind to really believe that part of it was like a little bit naive, but I was naive enough to believe it.

And so I just approached everything well, like, I could do that.

I could be whatever I want.

And I just saw myself really like change in terms of like who I was.

Well, you're a living embodiment.

You know, you mentioned that you started reciting these affirmations over and over and over.

And I always say that what you affirm repeatedly becomes your inner reality, right?

So you literally believed I am the most amazing, beautiful, capable person, and I can do all these things.

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And then you hit a roadblock at one point, though, that that

caused you to question that belief.

Yeah.

Um,

so I worked a lot for free in this industry.

As you know, there's not much money in radio.

And radio is all about like paying your dues.

Yeah.

So when I worked at Hotten 87, I got an internship, like a formal internship from college.

And then one day, Angie was like, hey, I want you to work for me, like, but you need to come every day.

And I was like, well, I'm in school.

Well, I guess I'm going to drop out because I'm not going to say no to this opportunity.

And so I started basically, I was crashed at my brother's.

My brother lived in Brooklyn.

So I was like living on his couch and working at Hot 97.

And I would make money at night hosting showcases, selling like these like underground rap battle tickets and going out with the DJs and helping them and just doing whatever I could to make money because I wasn't actually getting paid during the day at the station.

And so.

Three years into basically two whole years of me dropping out of college, all of my siblings are in med school.

Everybody followed into my dad's footsteps.

So here I was working for free at a radio station, college dropout, while everybody's in residency and rotations.

And like, I'm like the black sheep, failure of my family.

The only person who believed in me was literally my dad, who was like, follow your dreams.

Everybody else was like, you're a failure, you know, like ignoring me at Thanksgiving, that kind of stuff.

Wow.

And I remember like it just got to me at one point.

And I emailed the heads up, the heads of Hot 97.

And I kind of complained, like, hey, I've been working here for three years and I haven't gotten paid.

Like, there's an assistant producer role opening up, and I want that job.

And then come to find out that they gave it to somebody else who was in another department and they wanted me to train him.

Okay.

So they wanted me to train him with this job.

The job that you were already doing.

Yeah.

They wanted, so like an assistant producer or the producer role opened up on Angie's show and I was already doing it.

And they wanted me to train him how to do that job.

So I basically texted my, he was my friend and I was like, hey, if you want to learn how to do this job, learn how to do it on your own.

Like, I don't feel like going to work today.

And then they fired me instantly.

Wow.

And they not only fired me.

And I look back on this and like, I have no resentment in my heart, but Angie was like my age when she fired me.

And I think about how I treat my employees and my interns.

And I'm like, I would never do that.

Like I did everything for her.

Like I sacrificed like

yeah, like I dropped out of college for her and she literally never gave me $20, you know?

So she told everybody they can't even talk to me anymore.

So all the DJs literally called me up and I was like their little sister basically.

Sorry, we can't talk to you anymore.

Just lay low, you know?

So at that time,

that was your identity, right?

Your social media was hot.

Ha ha 97, everything.

I had like let go of all my college friends and everybody knew I was this girl that worked at the radio station.

It was totally my identity.

So I felt like somebody died.

I felt like I was like so upset.

But similar to you, I have dealt with a lot of adversity and I knew that the way to get out of it was to focus on something new and to pour my passion and pain into something that was going to help other people.

And so I decided to start this thing called the sorority of hip-hop.

Yeah.

And I was going to, I decided I was going to recruit girls who worked in the industry, who weren't getting opportunities.

And I went on Craigslist and Twitter and I was like, hey, if you guys want to learn how to blog, submit your resume.

I'll teach you how to do it.

I was blogging on the side for DJ Nuff and Funk Master Flex.

So like I knew how to blog.

And I got fired on a Thursday by Sunday.

I figured out how to create a WordPress website and built a website.

And in two weeks later, I recruited 14 girls.

I went back to college.

And within three months, we were one of the most popular hip-hop and entertainment sites in the world.

I basically hacked Twitter.

kept going viral on Twitter, got all these like musicians to basically retweet our posts and almost got a show on MTV.

So like it just was like a a whirlwind of me kind of just like taking the control back yeah and the same djs who didn't hire me started to hire me for their parties and i would get shouted out on hot 97 and was more in like you know with everybody as a peer than i was when i actually worked at the radio station even angie made up with me and tried to get me a job at on serious and tried to get me on love and hip hop and all this stuff so Long story short, this is a very long-winded story, but he asked me like, what was Rock Bottom, right?

Rock Bottom was three years into sorority of hip-hop, MTV reached out to us for a reality TV show.

Now, when I first started the blog, they reached out and they did like a very short pilot.

Like they just filmed us for a couple of days.

Nothing happened, but I was like, who cares?

Like, we just started and we're getting a reality TV show pilot.

But this time they're like, we're serious.

They like basically like we had to do all this paperwork.

They filmed us all summer.

They got us a studio on Broadway.

It was like real world.

Wow, yeah.

And they filmed us everywhere.

And I was so excited.

And I was like, finally, I made it.

Like, I'm going to be making all this money.

Once this show comes out, you get paid per episode.

And I was like, I made it.

You know, like, I worked for free basically for six years doing all these odd jobs, whatever I could to survive.

Now my family's going to be proud of me.

Everything's going to work out.

And then two weeks before they were supposed to air the show, my producer calls me up.

She's like, Holla, I'm so sorry.

We're moving in another direction.

Wow.

And that was for me, like the last straw.

And that's when

I really lost my connection to manifestation law of attraction.

I was like, I need to just grow up.

You know, like I was like, everybody's like a doctor in my family and I'm just like a loser.

I'm going to, I moved to my, to my parents' house.

And I, uh, my dad was nice enough to pay for my MBA.

So again, saved me again.

So you decided to go get your MBA at that time?

I decided I was, oh, I shut down my blog.

Sorry.

And so this is like a, like a total reinvention.

You're like, I'm going into corporate.

Yeah, it was so shocking to everybody who was, because my blog was big.

Yeah, we were like pretty famous in the tri-state area, and literally, I just shut it down.

Why did you shut it down?

Because I was like, I can't do this anymore.

And if I, if I can't take care of myself, how am I going to take care of?

There were 50 girls in the organization, 50 to 150 girls at any given time.

And I was just like, I just keep doing everything for everybody else.

And it's like, if I can't be successful myself, how am I going to help everybody else?

I've got to like figure it out on my own.

And I was like, you know what?

I, I, I, this is not good enough for me.

Like, this isn't working.

Like,

and sometimes the best thing you could do is actually quit, you know, and I just knew like this is, I don't want to be in this industry anymore.

I don't feel appreciated in this industry.

I don't feel like I, I feel like I learned a lot.

And now I'm making so much money on all the skills that I learned in that time in my life.

But I was like, I don't want to be a part of this industry anymore.

And I want more control, you know, over my life.

And so I decided I was going to go get my MBA.

I basically had to beg to get into school and I had to basically promise that I would get a 4.0 because I had a 2.3 GPA in college.

Wow.

Okay.

But I did.

I got a 4.0.

I graduated number one in my class.

I got an internship at Hewlett Packard.

That turned into a job.

And then my last year at Hewlett Packard, I basically started my podcast.

So I'll pause there.

Yeah.

The Young and Profitable Podcast.

Young and Profiting.

Yeah.

Profiting.

And that was last year at Hewlett Packard.

Yeah.

So it was four years into my corporate career.

So four years at Hewlett Packard.

And then I know after that you shifted into another corporate role at Disney Streaming?

Yeah.

Right.

Let's talk about that.

Yeah.

So basically,

Hewlett Packard was awesome.

I was an entrepreneur at the company.

And basically I approached everything so differently.

And I thought that I was going to enter corporate and I was going to be like this big failure because all my friends had already been in corporate for many years.

I was, I think I was 28 years old in my first corporate job.

Okay.

So when you started at Hewlett Packard?

Yeah.

And my resume looked crazy.

It was like intern at Hot 97,

blogger at the sorority of hip-hop.

You know, they took a chance on me.

And then, like, I crushed it.

I was so much more tech savvy than everybody else.

I could graphic design.

I could video edit.

I was a good salesperson.

Like, I just had all these skills.

And I ended up skills you had developed by doing your own entrepreneurial stuff where you had to do everything on your own.

Yeah.

And by the end of it, or throughout it, I would say I became like the chief of staff for the C-suite.

Like I had a really big position at Hewlett-Packard and was like super respected and was like leading people who were like double my age, you know.

And so it was really cool.

And I loved working at Hewlett-Packard.

I had such a great experience.

And I was actually the face of the young employees.

I was president of the Young Employee Network.

And I was like, you know, running all the different local chapters for New York, New Jersey.

And then I was on the global board.

And then I was supposed to be, in my opinion, the global young employee president.

And I didn't get that.

And that's actually,

you know, it was something where the HR director put somebody in the role who had no, who had never done anything with the organization.

And here I was like essentially working a part-time job for free within Hewlett Packard to help the company culture.

That's exactly what that was.

And then they literally gave it to a man who wasn't even involved.

And it was like that same feeling at Hot 97 when that guy got the job that didn't deserve it.

And I was like, why does this keep happening?

I was like, I can't keep having people control my destiny.

And that was when I was like, okay, I'm going to start Young and Profiting Podcast.

Instead of leading, you know, 7,000 young employees at Hewlett Packard.

Maybe I'll lead 7 million online.

And that's when I started my LinkedIn journey and started the podcast.

And at the same time, I was ready to make a move because I felt like Hewlett Packard had kind of disrespected me, like for basically working a free part-time job and then not giving me the role that I did deserve.

And so I moved to Disney Streaming Services, but I did not love that job.

How long were you there?

I was was there for two years.

It was fine.

It was just like a boys' club.

So Hewlett Packard, looking back, had like a really great company culture and like really respected women.

And

when I went to Disney, I was treated like I was an intern again.

And so it was just,

I was paid better, but that wasn't enough for me.

Like I wanted the respect and I felt like I didn't have the respect.

And that's why I kind of decided I was going to start my side hustle.

And so was that 2018 that you started the Young and Profiting podcast?

Okay.

And what was the, talk about that podcast.

So why did you you start a podcast, by the way, of all the things you could have done?

That was seven years ago.

So podcasts were, you know.

Well, it's because I had so much radio background.

So all throughout

Hot 97 and the sorority of hip-hop, I always had online radio shows.

So while I was working at Hot 97, I had online radio shows with the up-and-coming DJs.

While I had the sorority of hip-hop, I, but it was just a different type of show.

I would interview musicians and things like this.

And online radio was basically the precursor of podcasts.

You'd be like, go to alistradio.net, listen at three o'clock, like DTF radio, listen at whatever time.

And

so I knew how to do everything.

And when I saw podcasts actually becoming popular, because when I had been doing these online radio shows, podcasts existed, but they were really hard to do.

It was like, really, it was like too technical for me.

Like I didn't know how to do it.

And then I saw like, oh, like there's these platforms like Podbean now where you just like

plug and play.

Yeah, you just like start a podcast.

I was like, I could do this.

And so one day I remember it was like a new year's resolution um end of 2017 or like beginning of 2018 and i was like i'm going to start a podcast i told my team at hewlett packard and because i told everybody in real life i was like okay i guess i got to figure this out and by april i launched one wow yeah wow okay fast forward to 2020 Yeah, um, you said that was a pivotal year in your life.

And I've heard you say it was both like the first half was the hardest year of your life, second half was the best year of your life.

So it was like a real dichotomy.

Um, talk about 2020 for you.

So 2020 was probably a tough year for a lot of people.

I remember I was with my ex-boyfriend living in Brooklyn and it was March, right at the beginning of COVID.

I was working at Disney Streaming Services.

People were just starting to like wear masks.

And I think we, that was like the first week that I was actually working from home.

And I remember my sister calling me up and she's like, holla, she's like, mom, dad.

your aunt and uncle down the street and your brother have COVID.

And this was like mortifying because at the time, like COVID was was

dying from it.

Yeah,

a lot of people were dying from it, right?

It was really like a bad strain.

She's like, mom, dad, your aunt uncle down the street, your brother, they all have COVID.

I'm going home.

And I didn't have a car at the time.

She's like,

can you be ready in 30 minutes?

Like, did you want to come?

And I was like, I guess I'm coming.

So she comes.

We have full hazmat suits on because she's a doctor.

So we were so scared.

Like, we're mortified.

So we put on full hazmat suits.

Everybody is so sick like i've like we walk in the house and like you can like smell the sickness like it was crazy so me and my sister uh basically went into the basement and we like camped out in the basement and we would go up in our hazmat suits and like try to help everybody and cook and i was like cooking like everybody's soup and my sister and i was she was like the doctor so she was responsible for the doctor stuff yeah and then we were scared to send anybody to the hospital because it was so packed at that time the hospital and basically everybody was saying if you send it to the hospital it's like a death wish, right?

So even my brother, who is so fit, he's like, like the ideal man, you know, he was super sick.

My dad has diabetes.

So he was like, we were most worried about him.

Eventually, though, me and my sister were like, this, like, my dad was getting so sick.

We were like, okay, forget these hazard methods, forget everything.

Like, let's just try to save dad.

And so we were just like doing everything, like foon speeding him, like doing whatever we could.

There's things I don't even want to talk about, like what we had to do.

And,

you know,

my dad ended up going to the hospital.

And I remember when he said, like, oh, if I go to the hospital, you guys aren't going to see me again.

And he was right.

Like, and I remember him being wheeled out and we had to call the ambulance.

And like, uh, he ended up going to the hospital and he ended up staying in the hospital for basically two months.

Okay.

Um,

and

because I got COVID, of course, I got COVID, right?

I didn't get very sick at all.

I got COVID.

And then suddenly I had like the cooties to everyone, right?

So my boyfriend that I was with for like seven years didn't see him for three months.

None of my friends didn't see my friends.

Even my dad's funeral, like barely anyone came to the funeral because they were, everyone was just so scared of getting COVID and like our family got the cooties, you know?

Yeah, yeah.

So I was in

isolation essentially for three months.

And when I started my podcast, something we didn't talk about is that I had a volunteer team.

So I had 20 people who worked for free for me for two years while I was working full-time.

So I was a scarred entrepreneur.

I had failed as an entrepreneur.

And so I was like really set on working a corporate job.

Like I thought I was just going to be the CMO of Hewlett Packard, the CMO of Disney.

That was what I thought I was going to be.

And I thought my podcast was just a hobby.

Okay.

So I had all these volunteers helping me with my mission of this hobby podcast.

And I had trained them all.

I would teach somebody how to do audio editing, somebody how to do video editing, somebody to run my socials, to run my website.

And I basically trained everybody and essentially I had a company.

So I interviewed Heather Monaghan

about like right before COVID happened.

I interviewed her in February.

And who's Heather Monahan?

Heather Monaghan is like a big podcaster.

She's an author.

She's a huge LinkedIn influencer.

And I had become a LinkedIn influencer.

So I, when I started my podcast, I started posting on LinkedIn and I actually became a big LinkedIn influencer before my podcast got big.

Okay.

Okay.

So Heather came on my show.

I interviewed her.

I remember in a phone booth at Hugh at Disney.

And she, at the end of the show, she was like, Holly, your videos are so good on LinkedIn.

Can you, can you do this for me?

Like, can you, can you help me do my videos?

And I was like, I wanted her to be my mentor because she was like exactly who I wanted to be when I grew up.

She's like 10 years older than me.

And I was like, I'll teach you how to do it, but like, I can't do it for you.

But like, and I started taking like these Saturday calls with her and we became really close.

And she was really, really helpful for me when my dad was sick.

And she was like, became like my, my mentor, my therapist.

And I would teach her how to make videos and try to teach her.

And you were right around 30 at this time or a little?

I was 30.

Yeah.

Okay.

I was 30.

Okay.

So I would teach her how to make these videos.

And then I remember I showed her like my slack.

We had a Slack channel.

That's now like basically my company.

I would show her all my folders, all our processes.

She's like, Holla, I just had a call with Vayner Media.

She's like, I could give them my money.

I could give you my money.

She's like, I want to be your first client.

She's like, you hate your job, but doesn't, because I would tell her everything.

She's like, you, you're not appreciated at Disney.

You've got nothing to lose.

You have 20 people who work for you already.

Like, come on, I'll be your first client.

Wow.

And so I was like, okay, fine.

And I didn't quit my job.

I did it as like a side hustle.

So.

My second client was a billionaire and he actually invited me on his podcast.

His name was Jason Waller.

And he had this true underdog podcast.

And And at the end of the show, he was like, hey, like, how'd you, like, could you do your LinkedIn?

Could you do podcasts for me?

And I was like, yeah, I can, you know, and so I pitched him and he was a $30,000 a month client.

Wow.

So Heather paid me like a thousand bucks a month.

And my second client was $30,000 a month.

It's a nice increase.

So then everything changed.

Then I started hiring people in the Philippines and putting people on payroll.

And, you know, I was still scared of quitting my job.

So it took me six months to quit my job.

I got two other huge clients.

The CEO of 1-800 got junk.

Brian Scudamore, you probably know him.

Kara Golden of Hint Water became my client.

I started running all her stuff, all Hint Water stuff.

And we were making like well over six figures a month as an agency.

Wow.

I actually got a couple U.S.

hires, and then I quit my full-time job.

Disney job.

Yeah.

So it just kind of like skyrocketed.

And thanks.

And that was the second half of 2020 when that all started to happen.

Yeah.

And then because I started making real money, I figured out how to grow my podcast.

So because I started making real money and I started just kind of thinking about like, what are the, like, what is success to me?

Success doesn't mean that I have to be the biggest podcaster on Apple.

For a long time, I was like, in order to be successful, I need to be as big as Tim Ferriss on Apple, as big as Jenna Kutcher on Apple.

And I was just, you know, treading water, treading water, trying to compete with people that I, I could not compete with.

And I decided to start thinking outside of the box.

So I was like, what other apps are out there?

There's Castbox, there's Player FM, there's Podbean.

I have this LinkedIn profile that, and I'm one of the biggest podcasters on LinkedIn now.

How can I trade my audience with these other platforms?

So I started an initiative that summer where I reached out to every single platform, every single player.

There's like 70.

of them that in the world, right?

70 different players outside of Apple.

And I was like, hey, like, I've got LinkedIn, this LinkedIn profile.

I'll post about you if you put me on your blog, if you blast me out in your email blast, if you feature me in your apps and so castbox for example uh sponsored me and now my partnership with castbox is so huge i have like six million subscribers just on castbox wow and i'm like one of their biggest podcasters i get like 50 of my downloads this day are from castbox i haven't heard of that yeah so it's the biggest like android app right

and so like i've got a ton of subscribers on uh player fm and podbean and all these different apps yeah and i just grew as a successful podcaster way differently than everybody else.

And then I realized that you could pay for these types of media buys.

So I started making money.

And instead of just doing these trades, I was like, hey, gas box, let me get a 10K media buy.

Let me get this.

And I started investing in myself.

And then my podcast.

grew.

And now I'm bigger on Apple, but it took a long time.

Like I did, I succeeded in another way first.

So in 2021, January of 2021, I got on the cover of Podcast Magazine.

And that's when I was decided to quit my job.

I was like, okay, like I'm on the cover of podcast magazine, I'm making over six figures in my agency.

It's time to quit my job.

Yeah, yeah.

So that's when you quit Disney.

Yeah.

And so to your point, worst year of my life, father dying.

But by the end of the year, it was the best thing because it's like I basically created my own freedom.

And now I've got it was like, you know, the precursor to the empire that Yap Media is today.

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You said that your dad was the only one that believed in you and didn't say, follow your dreams, right?

It's like you, you manifested or you, you know, you made happen what he would have wanted for you, I can imagine.

Definitely.

And on it, like I said, like the turning point was when he was in the hospital and I was like, all right, I'm just going to go all in.

Like I've been kind of like dabbling here and there, but it's time to just go all in and see if I can make something really happen and

be a role model to other ethnic women and people out there, you know?

So anyone listening to this, right, is, you know, they're, if they're thinking in their head, probably like, wow, Holla is like incredible, again, tenacious, you know, hardworking, all of these words that come up.

How, if you were observing yourself, if you're analyzing yourself, what are the qualities that have enabled you to persevere through failure and setback and doubt and just keep going?

I mean, creativity comes to mind.

Like

you're constantly trying to think of how do I take advantage of this opportunity or create an opportunity so how would you uh how would you evaluate your own superpowers and abilities i would say like a lot of it was just like obsession so like there's so many podcasters in the world but nobody knows podcasting more than me like nobody knows how to grow podcasts more than me nobody knows how to monetize podcasts more than me so it's like i

wanted to be a podcaster and instead of just focusing on like the content, I focused on the marketing, the growth, the tactics, the like, how can I maximize all these things?

That's why they call me the podcast princess now, right?

So it was like an obsession of just knowing every nook and cranny that I needed to know and experimentation and realizing that like, there's no straight path to being a successful podcaster.

I took a zigzag path and like a

very untraditional path to becoming a top podcaster.

So I feel like that's number one.

Number two is whenever somebody tells me no, I try to create my own lane, right?

So if a gatekeeper tells me no, which I had so much of in my life,

you know, from

Hot NE7 to I almost got a, I almost was Swayne in the Mornings co-host on Sirius XM, which is like a huge show.

And I didn't get that.

I didn't get the MTV show.

I didn't, you know, get promoted at Disney.

I didn't get the, I always got rejected.

Yeah.

I was always like not.

I never got on the team.

I never like I was always getting rejected.

And the podcast was the first time that I decided, you know what?

Instead of me just like wanting to get chosen, I'm going to choose myself.

And I'm going to be an entrepreneur and create my own lane and just do it myself.

Because I feel like when you're the owner, nobody can take it away from you.

And especially like before, before I didn't really understand what I was building.

I was building a personal brand.

And your personal brand is a transferable asset that you take no matter how your career evolves.

And I decided to invest in my own personal brand.

brand.

And like, that was just so powerful.

So it was like investing in myself, taking control over things, not waiting for somebody to give me permission or to pick me and just choosing myself.

Incredible.

You, so since you were 19, you believed in manifestation, the law of attraction, utilized affirmations.

How do you apply that now?

Having, you know, back then you were using it to create something out of nothing.

Now you've created so much.

How do those tools still serve you?

I still manifest all the time.

We've got this meeting that we do every single Monday with my team and it's called G90.

Actually, Darius, our mutual friend, is the one that kind of instilled this with us.

He's got a lot of different processes for companies.

And one of the things that I added to it was weekly wishes.

I love that.

So in the beginning of our session, we're saying affirmations like, I want Hal Elrod to close this week so that he can join us at Yap Media and we can monetize his show.

You know, I want this deal to close.

I want to make this new hire and want to find the perfect candidate.

And we actually make affirmations and all three of my business partners and I have three wishes every week that we try to manifest because I find that when I'm in a positive mindset, everything goes well for my business.

Everything is effortless.

People can feel that energy, even if it's just made up, like even if it's not true, it's my energy that changes.

So it's my energy on the calls because I made these affirmations

and so I use it in that way

to manifest the things that we want in our business I also use it to prepare myself for really big

experiences whether I'm guesting on a big show or having a big sales call speaking on a big stage speaking on a big stage yeah I tell my like literally like I'll tell myself I earned this spot I'm talking to this person because I've been working so hard for 20 years.

And I like, you know, just trying to get that imposter syndrome out of my head.

And I'll tell myself, like, I'm the best salesperson.

Nobody else knows more than podcasting than me.

And I try to just like build myself up.

And again, it's more about the energy shift and the confidence that it brings me and getting myself confident than me actually believing those things.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's not magic, right?

It's not the manifestation.

It's your optimizing your mental and emotional state so that you can show up at your best, which then increases the likelihood that you get the outcome that you're after.

Yeah.

And I know that you're all, you're, you're, you always talk about like having your affirmations based in reality, based on truth.

That's literally what I'm doing.

I'm saying like, Holla, you worked for 20 years.

Like, that's why you're here.

Like you've, you know, sold millions of dollars or whatever.

So I, I try to tell myself, like, remind myself of like, this is why you're here.

Yeah.

So you seem to have,

and seem is the wrong word, because you have, seemingly have an unstoppable mindset, an unstoppable mindset.

And you just mentioned imposter syndrome a minute ago.

Do you face imposter syndrome still?

Have you overcome it?

The only time I face imposter syndrome are like the really, really huge moments.

Like I was telling you, I think in the last podcast that we did, that I spoke at Funnel Hacking Live.

Yeah.

And it was in front of 6,000 people.

And Russell Brunson, who's my client, put me on that stage.

And I have a lot of speaker friends who really deserve to be on that stage.

Like I have this friend Phil who actually helped me with my presentation and he speaks all over and it's like his dream to be on that stage.

Phil Stringer.

I don't know Phil enough.

Yeah, he speaks about AI and sales.

And I remember I told him, he was like, what?

And I was like, yeah, I know I don't really deserve it.

You know, and like, so it's like, that's kind of like what I felt is like, I don't deserve to be on the stage.

Like people have been working a lot harder than me to be a speaker, but he chose me to speak about podcasting.

And that you're very qualified.

And, you know, and like that's, he needed a speaker on podcasting and he decided I was the most qualified.

And I was like, you know what?

It's true.

There's nobody who knows more than me about podcast growth and monetization.

So like, I do earn, I did earn my spot.

Yeah.

But I just got to make sure that I do a great job and I don't let anybody down and that I can show that I deserved this spot, you know?

So.

Yeah.

And I think that what came up for me as you said that is the imposter syndrome that we deal with is it's, it's when we're seeing ourselves as who we used to be, right?

Often that's like childhood.

Like I was, you know, if we were bullied as a kid or we weren't accepted or we weren't good at things or whatever, the imposter syndrome comes from us identifying as the child in us, right?

Whereas what you're doing is reminding myself, well, no, no, no.

What's happened since then in the last 20 years is I've actually earned the right to be on this stage, but I've earned the right to succeed at this level, right?

I'm not that kid anymore.

Yep.

I'm who I am now.

I think that's the, that's the separation.

The only other example that I can think of where I felt like an imposter was actually interviewing interviewing Tom Billiou.

And I talked about this on my podcast.

I love Tom.

So I love Tom.

When we had this interview, I like just looked up to him so much.

And he's such an accomplished podcaster.

So I kept thinking like.

Man, he's probably thinking about like he would ask this question better.

Like he doesn't like a lot of the times when I interview people, like I could tell they're really enjoying the conversation.

And like, I didn't really feel that from him.

And I was like, oh, I feel like I'm bombing this.

So I got in my head, but I remember mid-interview, the affirmation, like, I've just been around this rodeo too much.

So in my head, it was like, Holla, you've interviewed Gary Vee, you've interviewed Matthew McConaughey.

Like, he's not bigger than your other guests.

Like, he might just be having a bad day.

Like, snap out of it.

You're the podcast princess.

So it's like the affirmations came back to give me the confidence to do a good job at least second half.

Yeah, I love it.

And again, what you refer repeatedly becomes your reality.

So when you're telling yourself, I am capable.

I am the podcast princess.

I, right?

Like, I got this.

That beat, you, you create your inner state.

You create your reality.

Yeah.

What do do you most want to teach people about building the life and the career of their dreams or the business their dreams like you have done it right you went from asking people for permission right like angie what's her name angie what angie martinez angie martinez give me a chance and i want to be the next angie martinez right you're mtv give me a reality show right you used to ask for permission for what you wanted and now you're like nope I'm done with asking.

I'm going to create what I want in my life.

And you've Yap Media, you you have a marketing agency, which people might not even know about, right?

Your Yap Podcasting Network.

You have multiple businesses.

You have a team that you employ.

So, all of that to say,

what do you want to teach people about building the life and business or career on their terms?

I think it boils down to skills.

Skills.

Skills.

When I talk to entrepreneurs, and everybody that I know that's really successful is obsessed with being the smartest, most competent expert in their field.

Okay.

Like

obsession and studying and learning and reps and doing the grunt work and building things up from scratch.

And everybody's going to have a different like experience.

But for me, everything I mastered on my own is what I then turned into services.

Okay.

I figured out LinkedIn.

We're the number one LinkedIn marketing agency.

We figured out podcast production.

I have an amazing podcast.

We started offering it to other people.

I figured out how to grow podcasts.

Then we started growing people's podcasts.

I figured out how to monetize my podcast.

Then I started a network where I've got 35 other shows like Russell Brunson and Jenna Kutcher and Amy Porterfield and Trent Shelton, where I grow and I'm the sole person responsible to monetize all their shows, right?

And it's all because I did it for myself first.

And until I know that I can do it for myself exceptionally and I know everything I need to know about that thing, I'm not going to sell it.

Yeah.

Because my reputation is on the line.

And the way that I get customers is through referrals and by doing an excellent job, you know?

And I just feel like people just don't have that sense of like excellence anymore.

And a lot of people just like want the quick and easy way to do it.

But I feel like to have a great foundation as an entrepreneur, like nowadays.

Sometimes I wake up and I was like, I'm like, I don't have anything to do.

Like, I've got a team of 60 people.

They got it all.

Everybody knows what to do.

It's like a well-oiled machine.

And my life is changing now as an entrepreneur.

It's not the same.

But when I was first starting, it's like I was really, really involved, you know?

And now I'm only involved on the new things that I'm innovating, right?

I'm really involved on the network side, on the sales side.

And I really just have like a smaller focus, but I'm still obsessed with it, you know?

Yeah.

So I think long story short, like obsession, gaining skills, putting in the rep, doing the hard things that scare you.

And then stacking those skills.

I heard you talk about, yeah, talk about that.

You talked about, it's a concept you learned from somebody else.

Scott Adams, he talks about skill stacking.

Yeah.

And basically, he's this very, very world famous cartoonist.

And

he has got a cartoon about corporate life.

And so he was in corporate.

He wasn't like the most successful corporate person.

He's pretty funny.

He's a decent drawer.

He put all those things together and he became one of the most famous, like super, super accomplished cartoonists in the world.

Yeah.

Same thing with me being a podcaster.

I don't think I'm the best host in the world, but I'm extremely good at marketing.

I'm extremely creative.

I'm a great writer.

I knew how to audio edit.

I knew how to delegate.

I put all these things together and I have a top 100 podcast, right?

But I'm not the, I'm not Tom Billy you.

Yeah.

You know what I'm saying?

Nobody's Tom Billy.

Yeah.

So I just feel like all these experiences that you get in your life

really add up later.

Like even me working at the mall when I was like throughout high school and college, those types of skills, just selling people in real life, have helped me now sell millions of dollars in sponsorships for my podcasters.

Right.

So I just feel like every skill matters and working hard is super important, especially in your 20s, in your, in your teens, 20s, 30s, so that when you're 30, 40 years old, you can try to think of, okay, what can I put together to create an exceptional offer for people based on all the things that I've learned and put my hard work towards over the years.

But so many people just like stay doing the same thing and not learning anything new and not feeling passionate about their career.

And if there's no passion, you're not going to learn everything you need to learn.

So if you're not passionate, that's probably why you can't become a successful entrepreneur, in my opinion.

Yeah.

Well, yeah.

And you.

you know, you're one thing you did, I think courage just came up for me as another word to describe you, right?

Courageously leaving one thing, trying something new, starting a new thing.

And

you diversified your skill sets, right?

Like you said, this key is if it's building skills, you're building a wide variety of skills that you can stack.

And I relate to that.

Like I look at why I had my cutco sales experience.

Okay, great.

Got that under my belt.

Yeah.

Started speaking at cutco conferences.

Okay, now I can speak.

Wrote my first book, right?

And then it's like, yeah, just keep stacking this up.

And, you know, and I love that you went from being radio to podcast because it's like podcasting into new radio.

Exactly.

Exactly.

So, um, and it's also just understanding the opportunities at hand.

When somebody asked me when I first started my podcast, they were like, why are you starting this podcast?

You've got a great job.

Like, what is the vision?

Where do you see yourself in five years?

And I'd always say, I'm going to have the number one self-improvement podcast network.

I never said I'm going to have a social agency and a podcast agency, but that opportunity was so obvious.

And I was open.

And I started realizing everybody's asking me the same thing.

Everybody wants this from me.

Same thing with my LinkedIn masterclass.

I've made half a million dollars on that pure profit.

And that was people asking me for a course.

So I also am like open to what people want from me.

And being open has then allowed me to make money to actually create my dream because I used all that money to bootstrap what eventually became Yap Media Network, you know?

So it's also just understanding your opportunities and taking them.

What would you tell someone who is stuck between playing it safe?

Right.

Keeping the status quo going out of fear of the unknown and then going after what they really want in their lives.

You don't have to do it all at once.

You just don't have to do it all at once.

If you feel really passionate about starting something on the side, start it on the side, right?

We waste so much time.

I, like, for example, I don't watch any TV.

Wow.

And I, and that habit started when I started my podcast because I remember having to evaluate, well, I have a full-time job and I'm also in a very serious relationship and I got to cook dinner every night and I got to work out and I got to see my friends and my family and my mom.

And

where am I going to get this time?

And I was like, well, I don't need to watch an hour of TV every day or two hours of TV every day.

That's a waste of time.

So I stopped watching TV.

And instead, I use that time to build my company on the side and to build my podcast on the side initially.

So think about where are you actually wasting your time?

And like, and can your time be used somewhere else?

And you have to be really intentional and be willing to sacrifice that.

You know, I have to be the one when everyone's talking about all these TV shows.

I'm like, yeah, I don't know what you're talking about.

I don't watch TV.

Only as like a date with my partner, I'll watch a movie or something like that, but I will not, I don't even know how to turn on the TV in my house, you know?

So it's just a matter of prioritizing your time and things will open up.

So that story, I add intentional to the list of adjectives to describe holla.

Yeah.

Yeah, just being intentional and going, okay, wait, this watching television does not move me closer to my goals and dreams.

So I'm going to cut it out.

Yeah, I'm similar.

I do watch, I only watch, I watch YouTube while I eat my lunch.

It's like my decompression in the middle of the day.

But

I'm eating the lunch anyway, right?

But in the evening, no TV.

And it's all about balance, right?

So it's like, instead, maybe like the way that I do that is like online shopping.

I'm like very fashionable, right?

So it's like, I don't watch TV, but I online shop, but I don't do both.

We all have our vices.

Yeah, right.

You pick whatever.

Yeah.

Don't indulge.

What's the big vision for Yap Media in the next one, two, three, four, five years?

Like I said, like you mentioned, I have two companies.

So I have my social media and podcast agency.

And then now I have the Yap Media Podcast Network, which is really my main focus.

We've got 35 shows and my job now is just to recruit as many awesome podcasters like yourself as possible and just do a great job selling and growing their show.

So that's my main focus.

I hope we get 100 podcasters in the network.

We're already competing with all the major networks.

We're like number 17 in the U.S.

Nice.

So we're just going to keep on going.

We just

relocated to Austin, as you know.

I'm excited.

And we're building a creator house.

So we're going to have a creator house with studios and it's just going to be awesome.

Amazing.

With you at the helm, Holla, I have no doubt.

I have no doubt.

Thank you.

That's the beauty of it is you meet the person and you're like, oh, this is a person.

I see how you've gotten to where you are.

And I can't imagine anyone listening or including me to go, well,

there's a ceiling for her.

Like, what's the ceiling?

I can't imagine what it would be.

Than you.

All right, let's wrap up with this question.

If you get a billboard, it's got one message that you want to leave with people, what would it say?

The first thing that came up is how you do anything is how you do everything.

I love that.

Yeah.

So just excellence, back to excellence, right?

Like, I don't put anything out in the world that I don't think is excellent.

Yeah.

You know, and like, I feel like that's how my whole team operates.

That's how me and my business partners think about everything that we do.

It's never about a quick buck.

It's always about like integrity.

Is this the best for everybody involved, including our team?

and

just putting our 100% effort?

Awesome.

Well, you are doing exactly that.

Thank you.

Appreciate you.

What's the best way for people to get in touch with you?

The podcast, Young and Profiting, is awesome.

We've got, you know, nearly a million subscribers now across all the different apps.

So go check out Young and Profiting podcasts.

I interview so many people that you always talk about.

So many of the brightest minds in the world.

You can go to yapmedia.com if you want to learn about the agency, if you want to learn about the network.

Amazing.

Holla, it is such a pleasure.

I'm so grateful you're in Austin, and I am so excited to just keep getting to know you even better.

Thanks, Hal.

All right.

Take care.

What an amazing experience it was to be on Hal Elrod's podcast.

I hope my story motivated you to bet on yourself and create a life that you've always dreamed of.

If there's one lesson I hope you take away from today, it's this.

Setbacks are not stop signs.

Every rejection, every no, every door that's closed on me became fueled to create my own legacy.

Being fired at Hot 97 to losing the MTV show to being overlooked in corporate America, I learned that the real power comes when you stop waiting for permission and start choosing yourself.

And if you're on the fence about going after your dreams, remember, you don't have to do it all at once.

Start small, stack your skills, use your evenings, your weekends, and even the time you'd spend watching TV to invest in yourself.

Over time, those skills compound into opportunities, and opportunities turn into success.

And the key to sustaining that success is excellence because the way that you do anything sets the standard for how you do everything.

That's a core value for me and my company, and it's a principle that guides every single action that I take.

And at the heart of it all is mindset, because your mindset is one of the most powerful assets.

If you can change the way that you think, you can change your entire life.

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Young and Profiting.

If you listened, learned, and profited from this conversation, please share it with a friend who needs to hear this message.

Your support helps me continue to bring these conversations to the world.

And if you got value today, I'd love if you left me a five-star review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast player.

To watch this episode, head over to YouTube.

You'll find all of our episodes on there.

You can also connect with me on Instagram at YapWithHala or LinkedIn.

Just search for my name, it's Halataha.

I want to give a big thank you to Hal for having me on his show.

It was an honor.

This is Halataha, the podcast princess, signing off.