Halah Taha (0s:)And for two years I literally worked two jobs. I would work my nine to five in corporate, but every other time was maximized. I watched no tv. My commute to work was all about social media. My commute back was all about social media, building my following. And in the morning I'd work on all my podcast stuff. I'd tell everybody what they need to do. These were volunteers. So everybody only worked like one hour a day. Sure. Yeah. But like, I would like do this, you do this, you do this. And I delegate. Everything everybody had to do. And then at night I'd stay up till 12 1:00 AM Yeah. I got no sleep. I really worked two jobs for many years. I was like side hustling for real.
Travis Chappell (35s:)Welcome. back to the show. I'm Travis Chappell. And I believe that if you can connect with the best, you can become the best So. after creating 800 podcast episodes about building your network, I've come to realize that networking is really just making friends if you are doing it the right way. Anyway, join me as I. make friends with world class athletes like Shaquille, Neal, entertainers like Rob, Dyrdeck, authors like Dr, Nicole, lapper, former presidents like Vicente Fox, or even the occasional FBI hostage negotiator, billionaire, real estate mogul or polarizing political figures. So. if you want to make more friends that help you become a better version of yourself, then subscribe to the show and keep on listening 'cause this is Travis Makes Friends. What's going on everybody? Welcome back to another episode of the show. Today I am making friends with Hala Taha
Travis Chappell (1m 17s:) Hala, What's up?
Halah Taha (1m 19s:)Hi Travis. So happy to be here.
Travis Chappell (1m 20s:)Thanks for having me. In your home. Hometown city. Yeah. Right. New York. Yep. Okay. And then I really wanna jump into how you even got to doing what you're doing now, because I know that you kind of took more of a traditional path and ended up in kind of the corporate world and then you were just kind of like, nah, screw this. And then somehow we're sitting here today in a random podcast studio in downtown New York City. So let's go back in time. Talk to me, let's say nine year old Hala Taha. Where are you? What are you doing? Set the scene for us. Sure. Family life, all that stuff.
Halah Taha (1m 55s:)Okay, cool. So I grew up in a family of doctors. Okay. So my dad was a surgeon. My uncles were doctors. Everybody in my family was doctors. All my siblings are older than me. All became doctors. How
Travis Chappell (2m 8s:)Many?
Halah Taha (2m 8s:)Three. Okay. And all my cousins down the street, another three of them all became doctors. So only no shit. Yeah. I'm the only one in my immediate family that is not a doctor.
Travis Chappell (2m 18s:)So you're a disappointment basically.
Halah Taha (2m 19s:)I was. I was the black sheep. But I was very different from everybody else from the start. I was very outgoing. Okay. I love to sing. Always like the star of every play. Okay. Solo and every concert very popular. Just a really shining like child. Right. Okay.
Travis Chappell (2m 34s:)Not one to shy away from the spotlight.
Halah Taha (2m 36s:)Not one to sh I was always really outgoing. Scene seeking out sports scene, seeking the spotlight sports scene. Yeah. I love the spotlight.
Travis Chappell (2m 41s:)What kind of sports?
Halah Taha (2m 42s:)Soccer. Okay. Did a lot of soccer primarily. Okay. Sweet. And then nine 11 happened.
Travis Chappell (2m 48s:)How old were you at the time?
Halah Taha (2m 49s:)I was just about to go into high school. Okay. And when nine 11 happened, it really changed everything. So my family, I'm Palestinian a hundred percent. Okay. And before that, because my dad was really successful, like we were just treated like an Italian family in town, like really accepted. My mom was part of the P T A, all that kind of stuff. Once nine 11 happened, my family was treated totally differently. And I was treated totally differently. I wasn't allowed to participate in the talent show when previously I was a lead in all the plays. And I had the best voice in school. Wow. They wouldn't even let me in the talent show. I was very athletic, tried out for the cheerleading team, didn't make it. Fast forward to college, tried out for the cheerleading team and was co-captain.
Halah Taha (3m 31s:)So obviously wasn't that I sucked. You know what I mean? Yeah. Even without any years of practice gets
Travis Chappell (3m 36s:)More competitive in college. Yeah. Less
Halah Taha (3m 37s:)Competitive without any, without any years of like all that practice. I still was co-captain in college. Right. So I just got zero opportunities in high school. And, I, remember my friend group changed. I was just friends with all like the, like the a Russian girl and a Portuguese girl. Like just like the only people that accepted me. Just everything changed. So in hindsight, it was really good for me because I was really used to rejection. Hmm. And this, this mentality that I could do anything didn't go away because my dad grew up extremely poor in Palestine. Okay. Eight people in one house, no electricity, no light. And he ended up becoming a doctor, go getting a scholarship to becoming a doctor, coming to America, becoming a surgeon, then becoming chief of surgery, then opening up his own medical center.
Halah Taha (4m 22s:)So I literally saw this man Yeah. Who grew up super poor and became very successful. Took my whole family outta poverty. I had zero excuse. So even though I was rejected in all this stuff, I still believed that anything was possible. Right. Yeah. So I came into college like guns blazing. Right. Where'd you go to school? N G I T wasn't a grade school because I had no extracurricular activities in high school. I was, I got good grades, but there was nothing special about me because I literally did not get any opportunities in high school after nine 11. So by the time I went to college, the whole nine 11 thing cooled down. I went to a really diverse school, which was lucky. I didn't even mean it. But I, all of a sudden was just treated normally. And then I was leading every play, you know, top of my Sorority on the board, you know, Koch captain of the cheer team and really became the most popular girl in school, quite frankly.
Halah Taha (5m 11s:)I was like very, very popular and loved it. Right. And I tried out for all. I just tried out for opportunities and was actually getting them. Then in my junior year of college, I was writing music. I was really good singer. I was songwriting. I want, my dream was actually to be a songwriter and a singer. Hmm. I always knew that I was gonna use my voice somehow in my career. And so my, I had this bright idea. I was in the, I was in every single extracurricular activity you could imagine because I was so, I was missing that from high school that I did not go to class. I did not care about school. All I did was just like extracurricular things. I was part of just try things. Every club, like everything. Because I just was getting opportunities now.
Halah Taha (5m 53s:)So I was in the radio club, And I had this idea like, Hey, let me just apply to radio station internships and push my music. That was the goal. Got it. So I applied, I got a job at Hot 97. And I ended up working for Ebro, if you know him. Hot 97 was like the number one Hip, Hop and r b station in the world. Okay. Ebro was the program director at the time. Now he's one of the personalities on the morning show. And so I was E Rose's intern. I did a really good job. Then they promoted me to be Angie Martinez's intern in the studio area where only like 15 people were allowed. That's where all the celebrities would be every single day. And I was basically like the queen of all interns. Nice. Right.
Halah Taha (6m 33s:)And. I ended up dropping out of school because they just wanted me to work there basically full-time. But for free. That's how you paid your dues in radio. Yeah. So I ended up working for free at Hot 97 for three years as Angie Martinez's assistant. So I would do, I would read commercials on air. That's when I first got like my chops. We, in terms of being a personality,
Travis Chappell (6m 51s:)So, so sorry to cut you off. Yeah. So three years you started, you were intern there for three years. At what point did you drop out of school to where you were just like, you were doing that?
Halah Taha (6m 59s:)It was my junior of college. Okay. I was working at hundred seven for about six months. And I. Remember Angie came up to me, just call, can you come in every day? Hmm. And I was already failing out of school.
Travis Chappell (7m 9s:)I was gonna say, did she realize what she was asking of you? Yeah. She was just basically, Hey, do this instead. Or
Halah Taha (7m 15s:)Pretty much, yeah. And the way that it works at Hot 87 is you work for free for three to five years and then they give you a show. Mm. That's how you pay your dues in radio. Yeah. Yeah. And so I wanted to be the next engine Martinez and they were basically priming me to be that. Yeah. And I knew that. And so I was like, screw it, I'm just gonna drop outta school. I was lucky 'cause my father was really successful. So it's And I was making money at night at Hot 97 throwing underground Hip Hop showcases. Oh, nice. And selling tickets and hosting concerts. Always
Travis Chappell (7m 44s:)Hustling something.
Halah Taha (7m 44s:)Yeah. Going to the clubs with the DJs and getting paid for that. And so I was just like hustling at night, working during the daytime. But back to like my family being very like regular immigrant family in terms of education is so important. Everybody was like really worried about me, not happy. I was living with my brother. Did you hide it? No, I, no. You told 'em like knew it, but they were very upset. I was living on my brother's couch, basically working at Hot 97. My brother lived in Brooklyn.
Travis Chappell (8m 12s:)Your brother, who's also a doctor,
Halah Taha (8m 13s:)Who's who was in residency or whatever. Okay. So it's like, I was just like totally loser to everyone. But I was learning a lot. And. I was doing all of Angie's research. And then on the side, I always took like my opportunity set bss. Right. So like Jason Pfeiffer, you probably know him. He taught me about this concept opportunity set a's opportunity set B. And something about me is that I always took, so opportunity set A is what you get paid for what you're hired for. So at hundred seven, that was like running the ette boards, audio editing research, doing the commercials, answering the phones, running the contests. I would do that. That was my day job. Right. But on the side, I was blogging for DJ enough, learning how to do WordPress. I was doing social media for Angie Martinez.
Halah Taha (8m 54s:)I was hosting online radio shows on the side with all the up and coming DJs, which was basically the precursor of Podcasts. Gotcha. You would go into an actual physical studio, you'd be like, Hey guys, we're live from two to three at DTF radio net or a-list radio.net. Interesting. And I literally had four or five shows with the up and coming DJs at the time. So I was really getting a lot of experience. Yeah. So three years into it, I dropped outta school. All these things. I really think I'm gonna be the next Angie Martinez. I'm still not getting paid. I'm only making money at night and I'm getting a lot of pressure from my family. And I paid job opened up, they fired Angie. Martinez producer, And I wanted to get that role.
Halah Taha (9m 34s:)So I rose my hand. I emailed Ebro, I emailed Angie. I was like, listen, like I've been working here for free for three years. Would really just love to get like a minimum wage job. Can you hook it up?
Travis Chappell (9m 43s:)I'm not asking for much here. Yeah.
Halah Taha (9m 44s:)Like, I didn't want like a hundred K salary. I was like, I can I just be on the books? I'm like, I don't even know how I have a key card. I don't even have a W two here. This is crazy. And they saw it as like a red flag because they're not allowed to have interns like that. And because I, I basically just got fired.
Travis Chappell (9m 60s:)That's
Halah Taha (10m 0s:)Wild. For, for asking for a job.
Travis Chappell (10m 2s:)Oh my gosh. After working there for three years for free outta
Halah Taha (10m 5s:)School, everything.
Travis Chappell (10m 6s:)Oh my God.
Halah Taha (10m 7s:)And so Angie cut my key card. She, what really happened is that they gave the job to one of my close friends, DJ Juki, who's now on the radio. And I was just a young girl. And I texted him. They wanted me to train him how to do the job.
Travis Chappell (10m 23s:)Oh my gosh.
Halah Taha (10m 24s:)And so I texted him the
Travis Chappell (10m 26s:)Job that you weren't qualified for And. I
Halah Taha (10m 28s:)Couldn't. And I was already doing whatever. Doing. Yeah. Yeah. They wanted me to train him how to do it. And so I texted him And I was like, Hey, for free. So I texted him. They just wanted me to keep working for free, maybe for another two years. I don't know what the goal was. And maybe they knew that I wasn't a producer. I was a personality. So that was also another factor. But I was too young to think that all through. So I texted him And I was like, if you wanna learn how to be the producer, learn it on your own. I don't feel good. I'm not going into work today. Yeah. And like you never call out a workout Hunt 97. 'cause who knows, Jay-Z might be showing up that day. Beyonce might be showing up that day. And I just f flaked on everyone. And Angie depends on me to do all her stuff. She just shows up to record And I usually give her her whole thing. Yeah. Yeah. She didn't have to do any work.
Halah Taha (11m 8s:)I was doing all her work. So she saw that text. Drusky showed it to her like, Hey, I'm sorry, like I'm not prepared. I don't know what to do. Holly's not coming. And she fired me. She cut my key card. This is the lady, I babysat her kids. I went shopping for her. I did everything for her. Jeez. Cut my key cards. All my mentors, everybody, all the DJs were like my mentors, my friends, they, you all called me like HALA. I'm so sorry. We're not allowed to talk to you anymore.
Travis Chappell (11m 34s:)Yeah, yeah. Exactly.
Halah Taha (11m 35s:)Like you're blackballed.
Travis Chappell (11m 36s:)Yeah. Fuck that corporate.
Halah Taha (11m 37s:)Yeah. They blackballed me from the industry. So I was like so devastated. I felt like somebody died Hot 97 was my identity. I was big on Twitter. My screen name was Holla Hot 97. Everybody at college was like, oh, holla Iss The girl that like went to Hot 97. I was like, had the, the coolest job. Yeah. I was dating Chris Brown at one point. Like I was like hanging out with all these celebrities. Like I,
Travis Chappell (11m 59s:)How was that not the first thing that you brought up?
Halah Taha (12m 3s:)You know what I'm saying? I was just like this little star at like 20 years old. You know what I mean? And then it all came crashing down. And I basically had to think of a new way to build it up. And I did. Well,
Travis Chappell (12m 14s:)Paula, how dare you ask for money for work? You know what I mean? How, how dare you So Audacious I know. So what did, what did family say at this point?
Halah Taha (12m 25s:)So at this point, I still wanted to follow my dreams. I really believed that I was gonna be like a personality and in entertainment. And my dad was really the only one in my corner. If it wasn't for my dad, Hmm. None of this would've happened. Thanks dad. So he was just like, just keep doing what you wanna do for keep following your dreams. And And I was just working side jobs. I would work for like a festival company and do their social. And so I was making little money here and there, but I kept following my dreams.
Travis Chappell (12m 51s:)So you're how old at this point?
Halah Taha (12m 52s:)22. Okay. And
Travis Chappell (12m 54s:)23. Okay. And this was, were like at what stage were Podcasts at this time?
Halah Taha (13m 0s:)Podcast existed, but very hard to get into. Okay. I actually technically was on a podcast that was like an online radio show and they also put it on Apple. So I was technically on a podcast already. Got it. But it was like, nobody really knew how to subscribe. Nobody really knew. It was This is
Travis Chappell (13m 16s:)2010.
Halah Taha (13m 17s:)20. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Exactly. This was like 2010. Then I decided, I had this idea. I got fired on a Thursday. By Sunday I had this new idea. I was gonna start something called Strawberry Blunt. I was into smoking weeded at the time.
Travis Chappell (13m 31s:)Just at the time.
Halah Taha (13m 33s:)I smoke. I smoke once in a while. Now I'm more of a like squeaky clean reputation. So that's whatever. It's okay. Weed's legal in most places now, but at the time it wasn't And I called it Fair Point. Yeah. It wasn't Point. So it was like really cool to be called, called Strawberry Blunt, you know. And so then we were The Sorority of Hip Hop. And I decided I was gonna recruit girls from all these different companies like Def Jam and iHeart and VH One girls who weren't getting opportunities. Young girls, pretty girls. And we were gonna band up. And you had a blog already. Because I had ran DJ Enough's blog. I had worked on Funk Master Flex's blog, taught myself how to build WordPress websites. And in two weeks I recruited 14 girls.
Halah Taha (14m 14s:)I found 'em on Twitter and Craigslist. And I was like, submit your pictures, submit your bio. I'll teach you how to write. I'll teach you how to blog And. I just wanted like pretty girls in the industry
Travis Chappell (14m 22s:)Back when people on Craigslist were actually kind of trustworthy. Exactly.
Halah Taha (14m 26s:)But it's so funny that so many of these girls I met on Craigslist, like so random. Yeah. And so I built this Sorority, I went back to school. Okay. And. I. Remember my first board meeting was at my college. Then I rented out a room, And I had 14 girls. And I was the president of The Sorority of Hip. Hop. And I went back to school. And at this point I was so much smarter than I was. Hot 97 taught me discipline. Oh sure. So, so then I started getting like straight A's. I was like, you know, academically, like rocking it and started this blog. Three months later I basically figured out how to hack Twitter. I was the first blog that would at mention people in the titles and like automate, you know when you send out a blog on Twitter and it'll be like, if they're like mentioning a celebrity or a politician, they'll at mention it, the blog title and then the URL to the blog.
Halah Taha (15m 15s:)I was like the first one to figure that out. And I had, you know, in and out of this organization, I had 50 girls at a time. 150 girls in and out over three years blogging for free for me. So 50 Pretty girls tweeting Drake with a U R L of our blog. Drake's gonna retweet one of us. Yeah. Yeah. So that's what happened. We were getting retweets by all these celebrities. Three months in, we were one of the most popular Hip, Hop and r b sites. And all of a sudden I got really popular. Then all the DJs, because they knew who I was, they were like asking me to host all their parties. So I would host all of DJJ Camilla's parties and funk master flex parties. And then this blog became sort of an event company. And I'd host concerts and parties and we started getting paid that way.
Halah Taha (15m 57s:)M T V noticed us. They shot a small pilot, didn't go anywhere, but this was literally three months. And I was like, who Caress? Yeah. What's gonna happen next? Two years later, M T V approaches me right after Jersey Shore ended and they were like, Holly, we wanna give you your own show. We signed all this paperwork. We went to the office and they like touted us around. They filled us all summer. And basically we shot a show and they got us a studio on Broadway. They must have invested like $200,000 at least on this pilot. We had had a concert, we did a dance, they film me at my parents' house with my boyfriend and restaurants, all this kind of stuff. So, and they did my hair, makeup, And I finally felt like I made it. Right. Yeah. I was getting paid per episode. I was the lead of the show. It was literally at the height of M T V after Jersey Shore.
Halah Taha (16m 39s:)And. I was like, I'm literally gonna be so famous. And I was so excited. My family was totally against it, really? But I just, yeah, they really weren't happy about the reality show. Interesting. How come? They just were worried that, that they were gonna position me like Snooky or something. Like I was a wild girl. Just not wild. I was really smart and like blogging and stuff, but I was a partier and all this stuff. So they were just worried that they were gonna position me as like Snooky. And they were trying to make us like we were a Sorority, you know? So they were trying to make us fight. And like we had like bathroom fights and all this stuff. Sure. I think
2 (17m 6s:)It still has to be interesting. The television.
Halah Taha (17m 7s:)Yeah, exactly. So it's like, we had like bathroom fights and all this stuff. But two weeks before it was supposed to air, my producer calls me from M T V, Tiffany Williams, I'll never forget her name. And she's, I'm so sorry, Halla. But we're not gonna air the show and we're going in a different direction. Oh. And apparently they always shoot two shows and then they pick one. Hmm. So they didn't pick us. And I was like crushed. And at this point I was like six years into like working odd jobs, trying to make this all work. You know what I'm saying? Everybody in my family is like already doctors and like, I'm just really behind everyone.
Halah Taha (17m 46s:)And I was like, okay, I guess this is it. I guess this is over for me. I'm going to be normal. Let me go get my MBA. Honestly, everybody wanted me to be like, they thought all I could be was like a speech language pathologist or nothing wrong with that. But all my siblings were like, be a physical therapist, be an occupational therapist or a speech pathologist. I applied to 14 speech pathology schools rejected from all 14. And thank God, Because if that would've been my job, I would've been. So that is so not me. Somebody
Travis Chappell (18m 16s:)Tells me you wouldn't have stuck with it. Yeah.
Halah Taha (18m 18s:)Me, And I, they, they were like, what does this girl wants to be speech. She is like gonna get bored or something. I got rejected from every school.
Travis Chappell (18m 24s:)Wait, did you finish school then the second time you went back? I did.
Halah Taha (18m 27s:)Okay. I finished my undergrad. And I did like really good my senior year, but my G P A overall was really bad. Okay. It was like a 2.3. Yeah. Yeah. I just, my first three years phone it in for the first few years. Yeah. It was just terrible. And so it was really hard for me to getting to grad school. And I. Ended up reaching back out to my director of alumni studies at N G I T and basically like emailing her nonstop. Finally, she took a cup of coffee with me. I told her my whole story and she said, I'll let you into the MBA program if you promise that you get a 4.0. And I'm kicking you out if you don't,
Travis Chappell (19m 1s:)You know what's wild to me is that it was so difficult for you to get into another program like that when you were likely of all of the people applying the only person that actually had experience building a business or like selling shit to people or marketing or any of the actual skills that you needed I know to build a business. Like you were the only one, but, but you got somewhat bad grades at this thing. So we can't let you study here. But that's the thing. There's so many issues that I have with the corporate world and the education world that just like they, they put up these random barriers to entry that make no sense, I know at all. And then they, they enforce them as if it's, you know, the law.
Travis Chappell (19m 43s:)You know what I mean? I know. It's just I know. It's, it's, it's so weird to me.
Halah Taha (19m 46s:)And, I'm really lucky because I really did not deserve to get into that program. But they let me in And, I crushed it. I graduated number one through a relationship. I got 4.0 through a, a relationship that I basically begged. And they were like, all right, we'll give you a shot. They saw that my last year I did well and then I just got straight A's. I was like a star in the program.
Travis Chappell (20m 6s:)This is for your
Halah Taha (20m 7s:)MBA? My MBA. Okay. So my MBA gave me the opportunity to transition into corporate because at this point I thought I'd never get back on a mic again. This, I already had four or five shows. Like I really wanted to be an honor personality, but I was just like, forget it. I just need to be normal. Get a job, make my parents happy.
Travis Chappell (20m 23s:)So this is your kind of like, I'm selling out moment a a little bit. Yeah. Where you're just like, I'm, I'm giving up on this silly thing and I'm doing this thing because
Halah Taha (20m 33s:)It's, oh, and by the way, I shut down the website. There was a hundred girls that hated my guts. Mm. All my best friends hated my guts now because
Travis Chappell (20m 41s:)You shut down, shut down. Nothing that, that was their livelihood, kind of
Halah Taha (20m 45s:)Their identity. And we weren't making that much. It was like so much fun. It was their identity. It was like our community. Yeah. But I was like, I can't do this anymore. I need to work on myself. You
Travis Chappell (20m 54s:)Gotta be an adult.
Halah Taha (20m 55s:)Exactly. So I got my MBA your
Travis Chappell (20m 59s:)Mid twenties now.
Halah Taha (21m 0s:)Like late twenties, like 27, 28. So I got my MBA. That was my door into corporate because without that, my resume looked crazy. Free intern at Hockey seven had Sorority all over the place. Pop strawberry Blunt, like they, so
Travis Chappell (21m 15s:)An almost M t V show. Oh
Halah Taha (21m 16s:)Yeah. So everyone's, what is wrong with this girl? So I applied for corporate And I, got a job at Hewlett Packard as an MBA intern. And the only reason why I got it is because I was getting my MBA. And so it was like a full-time job. I, I was making 70 K a year for as an intern and for me at the time. I was like, this is fucking
Travis Chappell (21m 34s:)Amazing. That's 70 k more than your last intern.
Halah Taha (21m 37s:)So I was like, oh my God, I'm fucking loaded. So I loved that job. And I was going to school at the same time. And it was, it was basically 30 hours a week. It was basically full-time. And. I was crushing in school, crushing at, I became the, the face of the young employees at Hewlett Packard. Hmm. I was an intrapreneur within the organization. And I was so tech savvy. I thought at 27 I was gonna be so behind because all my other friends started their corporate jobs at 22. Sure. I was actually like jumping over people in corporate because I knew how to graph and design video edit. Yeah. I knew how to build websites. You had real skills. Knew. S e O I, I was like just the most digitally savvy on the team. And so I got promoted like four times in five years.
Halah Taha (22m 18s:)Like, I stayed at the company for five years and just, I was like president of the Young Employee Network. Then I was in the Global Young Employee Network, which is like an employee organization within them. And I was doing the same kind of stuff. Instead of interviewing like people on a radio show, I was interviewing the c e O at the town hall. And I was in the conferences doing like the tours and on the mic. So I was doing the same. I was still HALA Sure. But in the corporate world. Right. And four years into it, about six months before I stayed there for four and a half years, let's say, I realized that I had to get back into podcast. I wanted to just get, get back into it.
Halah Taha (22m 59s:)And I had this idea of starting a podcast. I was gonna call it Young and Profiting. I was part of the Young Employee network. So I think that's where I got like the name from. And my goal was to, I was leading like 7,000 young people at HP. And. I was like, why don't I lead 7 million people? And it doesn't have to be HP. Right. And so I decided that I was gonna start my personal brand on LinkedIn because I felt like a lot of the people that would wanna listen to my show would be on LinkedIn. Okay. And I decided to start this podcast. And now I had a lot of experience with this kind of stuff. Sure. So my podcast was like really good from the start. Yeah. And I spent a lot of time on my first, like three episodes, five months on them.
Halah Taha (23m 39s:)So like, I, I kind of came out with a bang. Yeah. I became an influencer on LinkedIn quite fast. Disney Streaming Services recruited me at the same time. So I moved to New York, started working at Disney. And
Travis Chappell (23m 50s:)You moved to New York? From
Halah Taha (23m 52s:)Jersey. From Jersey,
Travis Chappell (23m 53s:)Okay.
Halah Taha (23m 54s:)And by the time I got a job at Disney, I was like a top 10 howto podcast on Apple. My podcast was
Travis Chappell (23m 59s:)Like, yeah. What year was this that you started the show and started doing LinkedIn stuff? 2018
Halah Taha (24m 3s:)Was when I started Young and Profiting Podcast. Okay. Got it. Okay. So I started Young and Profiting Podcast in 2018. By episode two, I had my first volunteer, who's now my business partner, Timothy Tan. Okay. And I had all these fans on LinkedIn because I was the number one podcaster on LinkedIn. All these fans on LinkedIn would reach out to me and they'd be like, holla, I wanna help your show. I'm so in your show. Changed my life. How can I help? How can I help And? I would get all these people asking, how can I help? So I opened up a Slack channel, And I started training all these people how to help me on my show. So I had one guy from Atlanta who'd helped me with videos. I had one guy in Estonia helping me build my website. Hmm. I had a guy from California helping me with guest outreach.
Halah Taha (24m 43s:)And a lot of these people are still on my team. By episode eight, I had 10 people on a Slack channel. In two years I had about 20 people all around the world that were helping me with my podcast for free. Wow. So that I could do my job full time. I was scared of being an entrepreneur. Sure. Yeah. And I had now I was like an executive at Disney, like crushing it. Yeah. I didn't really wanna leave the corporate world. I didn't even think I thought that podcasting was just a hobby. Right. Sure. So I had a volunteer team of about 20 people working for free flight.
Travis Chappell (25m 14s:)That's fantastic. I'm eating it up. 'cause I, I like the storyline. Yeah. So you have 20 people working for free for you, but you are still at the point where you are, you are buying into the idea that the corporate world is the better path forward. Even though you have a ton of social proof that would suggest that if you took the leap, you would probably do pretty well. Yeah. So what tipped the scales eventually?
Halah Taha (25m 39s:)So it was the way that I first monetized everything. Okay. So two years into it, my podcast is pretty notable. I've had big guests from the start. It was really quality show. Just
Travis Chappell (25m 48s:)To pause real quick. Two years into it, two
Halah Taha (25m 51s:)Years into
Travis Chappell (25m 51s:)It, two years. People, I, I have this conversation with so many people. Yeah. Because exactly what you're s like, obviously we both kind of have helped a fair amount of people start Podcasts. And the question is always, well, how do you get your show to be successful? And more and more lately I've done a lot more thinking around what's like the base level of work that you have to do in order to get to a point where you feel like you actually kind of know what you're doing. You already started like a year, two years, maybe even three years, four years of experience beyond what most podcasters start at with your previous experience, hosting, being in radio, doing parties and events and MCing and all the other things that you did.
Travis Chappell (26m 36s:)Yeah. And then you started a podcast and had 20 people on your team and did it for two years. And then that's when you mon like Exactly. I just wanna paint that picture for people because I, I think that's something that most people would've just glazed over. But that's a very important detail of this entire thing. Is everything you built today stems from the fact that you're always willing to put in the work, grab the experience and the skills that are necessary for that thing. And then take massive action and stay disciplined and consistent until you see the result. That's what it takes. Sorry, go ahead.
Halah Taha (27m 7s:)No, it's, it's such a great point. And for two years I literally worked two jobs. I would work my nine to five in corporate, but every other time was maximized. I watched no tv. My commute to work was all about social media. My commute back was all about social media, building my following. And at night and in the morning I'd work on all my podcast stuff. I'd tell everybody what they need to do. These were volunteers. So everybody only worked like one hour a day. Sure. Yeah. But like, I would like do this, you do this, you do this, you do this. And I had delegate everything everybody had to do. And then at night, I'd, my boyfriend at the time was a music producer who worked nights. We'd eat dinner and then he'd go to work and I'd stay up till 12 1:00 AM Yeah. I got no sleep. Right. Yeah. But I, I really worked two jobs in for, for many years.
Halah Taha (27m 50s:)But definitely for, for the two years that I was like side hustling for real. Then Covid hit and me and my boyfriend moved to Montauk, which is upstate New York. Also, my dad ended up passing away from Covid. Oh no. And for three months I, in March it happened right away. My, one of my family was one of the first to be impacted. I moved home to take care of my parents who had Covid. I ended up getting Covid. And so at that point, COVID was so scary that like I didn't see my boyfriend for two months. I didn't see my friends for months. I was really bored. And I was already working from home from Disney, And, I.
Halah Taha (28m 30s:)Remember I had Heather Monaghan on my show. Do you know her? Yeah.
Travis Chappell (28m 33s:)Yes.
Halah Taha (28m 33s:)So she's like a LinkedIn influencer, a big podcaster. And she was obsessed with my marketing on LinkedIn. Okay. And she was obsessed with my videos. So she kept commenting on myself, Paula, can you do this for me? I really want you to do my social media. And I told her like, Hey Heather, I have a volunteer team. I have a great career at Disney. I can't help you, but I'll show you how to do it. So I would try to train her on the weekends. 'cause I wanted her as my mentor. So I was just trying to be nice. Yeah. Of course. And she literally, I showed her my Slack channel. I showed her my drive, my templates. I tried to teach her how to do everything. And she's call it, I have a budget that I was gonna give to VaynerMedia. I see your stuff. Your stuff is better. You literally have a marketing agency and you don't know it. I will be your first client.
Halah Taha (29m 14s:)Trust me, let's do this. And I'm, at this time, I'm stuck at my parents' house. My dad is dying. I'm like, I remember Hip. You know, I'm like thinking, how can I take things to the next level? Life is so short. Then I'm also have no commute. So I've got like all this time unlocked because it used to take me a couple hours every day to go back and forth to Disney in New York. Yeah. And I was just like, all right, lemme do this. I've got this volunteer team. So Heather started paying us, started paying, paying some of my employees, hiring more people from my creative team in the Philippines and stuff like this. And then my second client, Jason Waller, at the time, he was the c e o of a billion dollar company, power Home Solar.
Halah Taha (29m 54s:)It was the fastest growing public company in the world. He had a lot of money. He invited me on his podcast and at the end of his show he looked me straight in the eye and he was like, HALA, can you do my social and podcast production? And now I had my first client, And I was like, yes I can. Right? And so I had no website. I had nothing to my name. Nothing. but
Travis Chappell (30m 15s:)You didn't have business cards?
Halah Taha (30m 16s:)No. Business cards. Cards. But how could you sell something Logo? No website. I didn't even have a company name. I just said Yes I can. Yeah. And then I remember me and my business partner, Timothy Tan, who started with me episode two. I knew how to graphic design. So I created a really cool PowerPoint presentation. Yeah. And I listed. He wanted LinkedIn, Instagram, and podcast services. And I listed at three K. Three K, three K. And then Tim was like, he's a billionaire hall. Why don't we just do 10 K each service?
Travis Chappell (30m 43s:)That's a fair question.
Halah Taha (30m 44s:)And I was like, okay, let's try it. I was like, worst he can do is negotiate us down. So we Hop on a call, I do a great presentation and then I, at the end, I'm like, here's the price. It's 30 K a month. And he's, let's do it. And I was like, alright. Yeah.
Travis Chappell (30m 58s:)And here's a big lesson here, people, big lesson. There's something I've been thinking about again a lot lately. And it was Alex Ram Moey who said it recently. He's just really good at simplifying, you know, complex things. But He said, solve rich people problems, they pay better. And it was one of those, it was one of those things where you e exactly what you're talking about. Like, you look at the services that you offered. The services could be delivered from $2 VAs in the Philippines and could be sold to somebody who is maybe has a podcast on the side and they make $40,000 a year and they would pay $900 a month for that service.
Travis Chappell (31m 39s:)Or you go to somebody who makes a billion dollars a year in revenue at their business, who needs that thing to solve a much greater problem, which is status, influence, attracting great employees and better people in the organization. And like those types of problems to them are worth sometimes millions or tens of millions of dollars. So it's like you, you first hear it, it kind of sounds, oh well, you know, you just said that there was gonna be that versus that. Well what, what makes it worth that? The only thing that makes it worth that is the value that that person is receiving from the agreement. Yeah. Right. Because this $40,000, not to talk shit on anybody making 40,000 a year. I'm just saying, if you solve a $40,000 a year person's problem, then you get paid the 500 bucks that it is.
Travis Chappell (32m 24s:)Because the value to them is basically, Hey, I don't have to take my time to edit my podcast anymore. That to me is worth $500 a month. Yeah. But this guy's like, oh, you can help me increase my influence. You can help me get a better social following. You can help me grow my audience. You can help. Like, these things will be worth millions of dollars to me. Therefore I'm okay with letting go of a couple six figures every year.
Halah Taha (32m 45s:)Yeah. And the other thing is that I had the social proof. I had already blown myself up on LinkedIn. I had already blown up my podcast. I was getting the guests and now for nothing. I had originally, my original price was definitely under priced, given all the expertise I could bring. I agree. And Jason was like my only first client. So I literally took him from a nobody to him blowing up on Instagram, blowing up on LinkedIn. He became like a top podcast. Yep. I made him all that money back because I got him all these sponsorships and think, so I crushed it for him. Yep. So it's like he believes like money well spent. Yeah.
Travis Chappell (33m 17s:)No, that's what I'm saying. That's I'm saying exactly. Is like, it's just an appropriation of the value received Exactly. From the other party. Yeah. It's like, what do they view this work as being worth to them?
Halah Taha (33m 27s:)And since he paid me so much money, I was really able to get the resources that I needed and everything totally like that to really get it under control. But I do view Jason as like he was my seed investor. Yeah. 'cause without that first influx of money, I, I then had, had my first US hire, I was able to actually pay my team's, my volunteers.
Travis Chappell (33m 46s:)So what's awesome about those types of like seed investments is that it's a customer. Exactly. You know, that's the one thing about raising capital, especially for a service-based business like that. It's just, if you're going to do it, the best way to get somebody to vote is with their wallet. Yeah. Because almost nobody in your life is gonna be like, HALA, that's a shitty business idea. You know what I mean? If you explain to them, I, I, here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna do production, I'm gonna do LinkedIn, I'm gonna do all these other things. And so none. None. Nobody in your life is gonna be like, that's a bad idea. You shouldn't do that. Yeah. Everybody's gonna be like, oh, that sounds cool. And then you're gonna get all this kind of this confidence and this hope that like I'm gonna go do it. And then you go talk to the people that told you it was a good idea. And they're like, oh, not right now. Not right now. You know what I mean? Yeah. But if you go get somebody who has money and they actually sign and they actually pay you money to do the thing that is a big vote that you're doing something that people probably need.
Travis Chappell (34m 32s:)Yeah. You're solving a problem for somebody
Halah Taha (34m 34s:)And you don't, you don't need to take investments from anyone. Right. You can just bootstrap your company if you just can from customers, get clients and make sales from the start. Too many Entrepreneurs, I think don't know how to sell or get clients. That's something that I was good at from the start. Like I was getting big clients from the start. So then I got Jason Waller, then I got Care Golden, the c e O of Hintwater. Oh yeah. Yeah. Okay. And I did all her social media. Then I got Hints, marketing, And I, did all hint marketing. Great. Then I got the c e O of one 800. Got junk And I took over his, his profile and 100 got junk. So I was crushing it. Six months in, I was making nearly $200,000 a month in my business. Still working at Disney from home. Yeah. Still doing it as a side hustle.
Halah Taha (35m 15s:)I had
Travis Chappell (35m 15s:)Still in the middle of Covid, still in the
Halah Taha (35m 16s:)Covid as well. In middle of this 2020 middle now I was in, yeah. My dad had passed away. I was living in Montauk, And, I. Would you know, my, a lot of my team was overseas in the Philippines. And. I didn't have a creative director or anything at the time. So I would go to work then at 9:00 PM I'd start my, my job with my team in the Philippines telling them all the social stuff I needed to do. And that's what I did for six months. Six months into it, I'm working at Disney. I'm dying to become an entrepreneur. I'm ready to take the leap. I feel like this is not a fluke. I have so many clients. I'm doing so well. My boyfriend at the time was super against it. He thought I was making the worst. We ended up breaking up. And. I moved out. I was
Travis Chappell (35m 52s:)Gonna say, I noticed you said at the time,
Halah Taha (35m 54s:)So we were 12, 10, let's say 11 years into our relationship. Oh wow. We were together for a long time.
Travis Chappell (36m 0s:)Wow. That's a real boyfriend then.
Halah Taha (36m 2s:)He was like basically my husband. And he was so against, he was so mean to me about starting this company. Hated that I was an entrepreneur and he's an entrepreneur. So I thought that was really messed up. Wait,
Travis Chappell (36m 14s:)Why?
Halah Taha (36m 15s:)He just hated the attention like that. I was so busy. He hated, he thought that I was like that. It was a fluke. He was so proud of my Disney job because it was a great job. So he was really proud of me working at Disney. Such
Travis Chappell (36m 29s:)A weird thing though, right? Yeah. I mean like, because the business was making,
Halah Taha (36m 34s:)Doing so well. Yeah. And he was, he was saying, really, and we're friends again now. But he was really hurtful to me. He would tell me my, my business is fake. My employees are fake. 'cause they, a lot of them were in the Philippines. You've got a fake business, fake employees. And he was really, really ing belittling. And so I had to get out. So I left the house, moved out, packed up all my stuff, went to my mom's house and ended up relaunching my podcast in her basement. It's because I was broke. I was doing really well, but I just needed like somebody who loved me, right? And so I moved back to my mom's house, And. I. Quit my job at Disney because I found out I was gonna get on the cover of Podcast magazine. And I found out that Matthew McConaughey was coming on my show.
Halah Taha (37m 16s:)And I was like, already had a hundred, maybe 60,000 followers on LinkedIn. I was already like a LinkedIn influencer. And I was making money where I could invest back in my podcast. So my podcast blew up. 'cause I figured out media buying And I was like, okay, I'm gonna quit. So six months into it, 30 paid employees around the world cover a podcast magazine about to interview Matt McConaughey. And this was 2021. January, 2021. February, 2021 ish. Okay. Quit my job. Became a full-time entrepreneur. And now the rest is history. You know? Yeah. Everything has just totally blown up. The new thing that I started a year and a half ago is my podcast network. So I really figured out how to monetize my show. The show like Jason Waller show that I blew up. I figured out how to get him sponsorships.
Halah Taha (37m 57s:)And then I started a podcast network, and now I'm running about 25 top business shows where I'm growing and monetizing them. Trying to recruit you to come to my podcast network. And yeah. And then I still have, I have the number one LinkedIn marketing agency. So that's the other thing we're known for.
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Halah Taha (41m 2s:)So many awesome things here.
Travis Chappell (41m 3s:)HALA. I, I want to, I don't wanna bring the mood down so you tell me if you want to go here or not. Okay. We can. But I, I wanna talk a little bit about your dad. Yeah. Because it sounds like he was a tremendous influence Yeah. On you and someone who I, I feel like, especially as Entrepreneurs, when we're just kind of like crazy people who just come up with random ideas and do them, even though it's totally against the common like knowledge, like collective knowledge, especially when you come from a family like that. So I feel like a lot of times we just, we just want somebody to believe. Yes. You know? And, and it sounds like your dad was that person inside of your family. Would that be correct to characterize it that way?
Halah Taha (41m 42s:)Oh, 100%. Okay. Like, my dad would always tell me, I would always get really insecure and be like, but everyone's a doctor, but I he's, you're gonna be the boss of all of 'em, don't worry. You know what I mean? Like, you're gonna be a star. So he would always put it in my ear. Yeah, just keep going, keep trying. And what makes me feel so sad is that all my success really happened right after he died. Yeah. Literally it was 2020 was literally the worst year of my life. And then became the best year. Yeah. It's like my podcast blew up as soon as he died. It's just, even my business started while he was in the hospital. So he didn't, he didn't even know I had a business. Nothing. He knew that my podcast was, he was proud of my podcast, but at that time I was just like corporate with a small podcast.
Halah Taha (42m 23s:)Sure. Nothing serious. But it's crazy to think that he doesn't even, he may know, but you know.
Travis Chappell (42m 28s:)Yeah. Was the experience for you just kind of like a out of body, because there's so many weird factors to consider at that time. Like not going into an office, like being in a cramped house with only your boyfriend and then Covid and all the weirdness that came along with that. And then your dad passing during that time. Starting, there's six or seven, I mean, really life changing things that are happening at one time, even if they happened individually, they would've been like life altering. You know what I mean? But this is all kind of converging at this one moment in time. Yeah. Do you like have memories of that time? Or was it just like a, I don't,
Halah Taha (43m 8s:)It's just like such a blur, blur. I know how made, there was so many life changing things on top of all that. For some reason, as soon as I started my business, I had three childhood best friends that grew up with me. They just turned their backs on me. So I broke up with basically my husband, my three best friends basically were like, f you holla, you wanna choose this life, do it on your own. Hmm. So I lost my best friends, I lost my husband. I basically, I changed my job. I became an entrepreneur. My dad died. It was just like the worst six months. But then at the same time, my career was like this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know? Did,
Travis Chappell (43m 44s:)Did you always have a strong sense of confidence?
Halah Taha (43m 47s:)Very.
Travis Chappell (43m 48s:)Okay. Do you think that that came from like an innate belief in yourself or did that come from like parents instilling that, a dad believing in you? Where did that
Halah Taha (43m 57s:)Come from? I think it be, I think it really, I would say that I was confident nine 11 killed that confidence a little bit. When I was 19 years old, I became obsessed with the law of attraction. Hmm.
Travis Chappell (44m 9s:)Okay. The secret, all that stuff felt
Halah Taha (44m 12s:)So deep into it. I was obsessed with these. Have you ever heard of Abraham and Esther Hicks?
Travis Chappell (44m 17s:)Yes. I've heard of Esther Hicks. I don't know what
Halah Taha (44m 18s:)Abraham, yeah. So that's her husband. Okay. And so I would read all their books. And I was like obsessed with all of their like CDs. I would listen to it on repeat. And I brainwashed myself at 19 years old, right before 97. And I would like say affirmations every morning. You're the most beautiful girl in the world. You're so smart. You're gonna be famous. You're gonna And, I would like just brainwash myself. So 19 years old, I was like untouchable, crushing it at Hot 97, crushing it at my blog. Yeah. Like running all the events, hosting all the hottest parties, hanging out with celebrities. Like literally like almost got signed to Young Money, almost got a show on love and Hip Hop almost got a show on Sirius xm. Like the, the amount of opportunities that I was like, even if I didn't get all of them.
Halah Taha (45m 1s:)Yeah. I was getting opportunity after opportunity after opportunity. Really when I, I lost that. When M T V like pulled the plug on the show, that was sort of like the last straw mentally that I was like, oh, this whole like manifestation thing is not real. I need to just be like, be serious now. Right. Then, you know, I started my podcast, thank God. I think it was just boredom, honestly. 'cause I just needed that outlet. That's who I am inside. Sure. You know, and it just happened.
Travis Chappell (45m 31s:)Can't
Halah Taha (45m 32s:)Deny it. Yeah. I couldn't deny it, you know, it just happened again and four years later. Right. So I was building that and it was really cool. But it was Covid and my dad dying. That really instilled me. Like, life is limitless. Look at what my dad did. He came from war in like the worst part of the world and pulled himself out of nothing. What's my excuse? Let me just give it a shot. What's the worst that can happen? Right. It's like I can't, what's the worst that can happen? Can't go. It's not like I could not, like if it fails, I'll just go back to corporate. Like Yeah, right. What's the big deal? You know? And so I just took it hard to have such clear sight for myself and belief in myself and still everyone around. 'cause my dad was gone now. My mom didn't want me to quit my job.
Halah Taha (46m 13s:)My boyfriend didn't want me to quit my job. Everyone was against it. And so here I was again, black sheep, but so successful. And I was like, you know what? Screw everyone. I wanna show them. You know? Yeah. Right. And I did.
Travis Chappell (46m 25s:)What do you view now about the law of attraction and manifestation and all that stuff? How do you view that now?
Halah Taha (46m 30s:)I definitely believe that you have to believe that that things are possible. Yeah. You have to have a positive outlook on things. And you have to believe that you are what you want to be. Right. That you already are. But the other thing that I think a lot of people miss is you have to be willing to put in the daily action.
Travis Chappell (46m 50s:)Action.
Halah Taha (46m 51s:)I put in so much action. Yeah. Right. So it didn't happen by accident. And it's also like the skills, the reason why I was successful at podcasting pretty quickly, you know, I've only been doing it for five and a half years. I'm number one on the entrepreneurship top charts today. You know what I mean? I'm competing with people who did it 10 years before me and I'm at their level, you know, even though it's been five years, I grew fast, you know? But it's because I started with such a strong foundation of skills. I had audio editing skills, marketing skills, video design, like graph design. I don't do those jobs anymore. Yeah. But I was able to delegate and teach and build and learn how to motivate teams and all that kind of stuff and make I figured out how to make money.
Halah Taha (47m 36s:)Yeah. To then invest in my show, invest in my brand, invest in my future. So it was a lot of hard work and sacrifice. I sacrificed relationships. I sacrificed time. Yeah. I worked through every weekend for four or five years. Like I busted my ass. But I also believed in myself. If I busted my ass and didn't believe it was possible, I wouldn't have amounted anywhere. Well you wouldn't have
Travis Chappell (47m 59s:)Busted your ass. Exactly. Yeah. Right. Yeah. You have to believe it's possible, but you also have to do it. Do the hard work. I was talking to, oh, I think you had her on your show, maybe, maybe not yet. Jen Gottlieb. Oh
Halah Taha (48m 8s:)Yeah, she's coming. Yeah, yeah,
Travis Chappell (48m 9s:)Yeah. But I just had her on to talk about her new book And. I liked when she said I, I asked her a similar question 'cause she honestly a lot of similarities. Like she really, yeah. She was like singing and was trying to be on Broadway and all this other stuff. But anyway, I asked her about the law of attraction and she said, I only believe in the law of attraction when it's followed by the law of action. Hmm. And I was like, yes, thank you for saying that. Because yeah, there's so much manifestation bullshit that's out there that keeps people in this constant state of believing they're awesome without any proof to back it up.
Halah Taha (48m 41s:)Exactly. You need this the experience, the proof, the hard work, the failures. Yeah. Yeah. Right. The mistakes that then add up to give you some sort of foundation. Yep. To actually be what you wanna be. Right? Yes. So it's like you gotta do the thing. And the other thing is that you're not always gonna get every opportunity. Yeah.
Travis Chappell (48m 59s:)Right.
Halah Taha (48m 60s:)But it's all about the at back. Yes. It's all about getting the opportunities, but you're not gonna get them all. That's the other thing that people don't understand is I got rejected over and over and over again. Part of it, but then one thing hit and now I'm like the podcast princess. You know what I mean? Yeah, exactly. It took so many rejections to get here. Yeah.
Travis Chappell (49m 18s:)You also will not be able to capitalize on every opportunity. Yeah. Because taking the opportunity is just a rep of like how to execute on opportunities. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Like you got a bunch of opportunities when you were younger, but like, they didn't pan out because maybe you weren't ready for them to capitalize you. Exactly. It's just, there's so many people that stop doing that. If you stop getting up to the plate, you're not gonna hit a home run. And the odds of you hitting a home run on the first at bat are so, so, so, so, so low. Because you never swung a bat before. You know what I mean? You've gotta get up to the plate again. Swing the bat again. You strike out, you go sit down, you come back, you stand back up there, you get in the box and you take a few more swings. You know what I mean? Like the, it's the thing about luck that the, the conversation about luck that I have with people. 'cause they're like, oh, do you believe luck exists? Look, luck for sure plays a role in success, especially outsized success.
Travis Chappell (50m 1s:)I believe that luck is, is a part of all of that. But the luckiest people are the ones that have the most at bats. Yeah. Because eventually, like sooner or later you're gonna, you might, maybe you hit a single the first time, you know what I mean? Maybe your second hit, it's a double. You know what I mean? But like on your 845th time up to bat, you're gonna smack a home run. You know, because you just, you kept getting up. You kept getting up and you kept taking swings at the freaking ball. But so many people just, they get up, they take their three swings, they strike out And, they go sit on the bench and they never get up again. Because that was painful. You know, that sucked to strike out. Everybody saw me, all my friends and family, they, they wa it was embarrassing to strike out in front of everybody. Yeah. I said, well so what, what's your, what's your option then?
Travis Chappell (50m 42s:)Whatcha you gonna do? Just quit everything forever because it sucks to not be good at and a hundred years from now, nobody's gonna remember that we're having this conversation. Nobody's gonna remember the things that like 200 years from now we're gonna be irrelevant. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like why are you so focused on what all these people care like are thinking about you when 90% of them don't actually care about you as a human being. Yeah. Like maybe 95% of them don't care about you as a human being. Like they're only caring about what you do because they're trying to measure up what they do against what you do. So they hope you don't do well because that would make them feel be like worse about themselves. Yeah. 'cause they're not taking the action that they know they need to take. Exactly. And you're gonna let their opinion define whether or not you go do the thing that you wanna do with your life.
Halah Taha (51m 23s:)Totally. I remember my friends who are like, we're not friends anymore. When I started my podcast, they were like, you're too old to start a podcast. What? They were like, why are you doing this? You're only doing this 'cause you're not married. Or they're like, my gosh put me down so bad. And then I feel like they were so embarrassed of them being wrong. Yes. One of the reasons why they stopped being friends with me is 'cause I started blowing up Of course and then they were like, oh my God. Like it's a
Travis Chappell (51m 50s:)Mirror. Yeah. It's a mirror that reflects to them the version of themselves that they actually are. And that sucks. So all they're gonna do is try to tear you down as much as they possibly can because it makes them feel better about their lack of action toward their dreams because they know that they settled, they sold out for something. Yeah. You know what I mean? When they see like physical evidence and representation of what could have been possible for them. Especially different for people you grew up with. Yeah. Because you come from such a similar place. Exactly. You know, it's easy to look at a Matthew McConaughey or whoever and be like, oh, good for them. But they didn't, you know, I, I grew up different than they did. Yeah. Like they, they had it better than I did. Like it's so much, it's so much easier to characterize those people as being other or better than.
Travis Chappell (52m 33s:)But when you like see somebody that came from a very similar situation that grew up in a very similar household that had very similar values and then they do something that's extraordinary or something that you wanted to do, then it's like a you heard the ego. Yeah. Oof. I guess I could have done something Yeah. If I actually really wanted to do it. You know what I mean? So Yeah. I mean you along the way it's just like you're going to lose some of those, some of those things, some of those people. but you also I assume have made a bunch of new relationships. Exactly. And new friendships. Exactly. With people who think similarly to you who also probably had friends that left them because of the decisions that they made, you know, and who
Halah Taha (53m 7s:)Are supportive and don't try to make me feel small or whatever to make them feel better. Right. So it's so funny how the closest people, sometimes people who love you give you the worst advice Yep. And can be the least supportive. Yep. Because they are projecting how they feel about themselves onto you. Yeah. Or how how far they think they can go onto you. Right. The other thing I wanna say is that sometimes missing these balls are such a blessing. Hmm. If I had gotten that job at Hot 97, you wanna know how much money these radio personalities make. Yeah.
Travis Chappell (53m 38s:)Like 80 K or something. Not
Halah Taha (53m 40s:)Even some of these person. These are making like 30 K a year. 40 K a year. What? I make so much more money than that now. You know what I mean?
Travis Chappell (53m 47s:)These are the kind of things that that make it sovi. We did a video, no it was a couple years ago or something. It was Howard Stern talking about podcasting and like how terrible of a medium it is and how horrible and blah blah blah. And like understanding more about how the radio world works. It's Oh, I totally get why somebody like that would shit on Podcasts. Because if you had to do five years of an unpaid internship to then get this shitty show that nobody listened to on a regional local radio thing. Exactly. And then do that at making $27,000 a year for seven years and then you get a promotion of 35 and then you're, then you're finally like Howard Stern's obviously the most exaggerated example of this. Yeah. but you take an average person who's been doing it and they've been in the industry for 30 years's,
Halah Taha (54m 30s:)Like yeah. They might make three, 300 K a year if they're really, really good.
Travis Chappell (54m 34s:)If they're really
Halah Taha (54m 34s:)Good they're famous in
Travis Chappell (54m 35s:)In, in a really large market. Yeah. You know what I mean? So like when you take somebody like that who they had to sacrifice and work and do all this other
Halah Taha (54m 43s:)20 years,
Travis Chappell (54m 44s:)Literally decades. And then they look at like somebody who started three
Halah Taha (54m 48s:)Years later making 60 K a month on my podcast, you know, gets more
Travis Chappell (54m 51s:)Distribution, better listenership like businesses, all these other opportunities come from it. That would be pretty frustrating. You know what I mean? Yeah.
Halah Taha (54m 58s:)And so like I feel so lucky. I feel so lucky I didn't get the M T V show. Yes. I feel so lucky I didn't get hot in 87. I feel so lucky I got rejected from SiriusXM because now I own my brand. Yeah. And I had businesses and like I didn't have my reputation tarnished. If I had gotten filmed on M T V when I was 25 years old, like I would definitely have tarnished everything, you know? So thank God those things didn't happen because I do really believe that everything happens for a reason. And I got skills along the way that didn't go away. You get these skills. Yes. And then you transfer them in different areas. And without corporate, without my MBA, without the blog, without the radio station, I would not be HALA TAHA.
Halah Taha (55m 41s:)Yeah. I would not have gone so far so quick. So I don't regret any of it. You
Travis Chappell (55m 47s:)Can only join the dots looking back. Yeah. Right. Yeah. You can't ever piece it together. Looking into the future. So speaking of looking into the future, what, what do you got that's like exciting for you next?
Halah Taha (55m 58s:)Well, my podcast network is really blowing up. We've secured over $3 million in sponsorships in a year and a half. Like we are fantastic crushing. I'm sponsoring podcast movement for the first time. Nice.
Travis Chappell (56m 13s:)I'll, I'll see you there then.
Halah Taha (56m 14s:)Yeah. Like as big as like the iHeart area. Like there you go. Like really crushing it in that regard. Speaking everywhere. Writing a book. Oh cool. So I started the process of getting an agent and all these kinds of things. Are
Travis Chappell (56m 27s:)You allowed to tell me what it's about?
Halah Taha (56m 29s:)Yes. Okay. It's, and I'm happy to come on and talk about it again. It's gonna be about human behavior and social media. So platforms are always changing. Algorithms are always changing. Human but human are, behavior doesn't ever change. There you go. So if you understand human behavior, you'll always be like 80% of the way there and then you've gotta just figure out the algorithm. So that's really what it's gonna be about. I've interviewed like every major human behavior expert in the world. Robert Cialdini is like one of my mentors. He wrote Influence The Goat. He's gonna write forward and everything like this. Fingers crossed. But yeah, I'm, I'm really excited.
Travis Chappell (57m 3s:)Good. Well we'll definitely have you back on when that day comes. And then last question for you, holla. How important have, you've already mentioned it like three times mentors and different people you talked to. How important have the relationships in your life been in getting you to the point where you are now?
Halah Taha (57m 21s:)So important. Because sometimes you can't even see, like when I was in a dark place in terms of like my dad was dying. I literally had 20 people working for free from me that all I had to do was just turn it on and turn it into an agency. I had built all the processes. I couldn't even see it. I was blind to my own opportunities and somebody who was a stranger. Again, back to the point that sometimes the closest people to us don't even have the best interests for us or our future. They can't even see us for who we are. They see us for who we were. Right. My friends couldn't see me past high school Hollow that got no opportunities.
Halah Taha (58m 0s:)Right. My ex-boyfriend couldn't see me past intern at Haunted 87 'cause he was with me for so long. Right. Heather saw me as who I was and who I became because she met me later on in life and she was so impressed with what I was doing. And she was the one that told me to start a business. She funded me as my first client. She's the one that was like screaming at me to quit. Disney, she's, you're nuts. I remember she was in the grocery store and she's quit job. And. I mean because I just like, I'm scared and she's, you're retarded. Come on. Just do it. You know what I mean? So it's, she pushed me several times.
Halah Taha (58m 42s:)So it's like Heather has been a great mentor. Jordan Harbinger, he's a huge podcaster. He's a man.
Travis Chappell (58m 48s:)He
Halah Taha (58m 48s:)Also was like Heather, where like I really was chasing him. Heather was like my business mentor, but she didn't know a lot about podcasting. Yeah. And I was like, I wanna know everything about this one thing. You gotta be really obsessed with what you do. Yeah. And so I'm the type of person that like literally ask me anything about podcasting. I know the answer. Yeah. And I know the answer better than everybody else. Yeah. And I hundred percent confident about this. Jordan Harbinger to me was the smartest. There's only one other person I feel like knows more than me and it's Jordan Harbinger. Yeah. Maybe now. Now I feel like I probably know folks. So at, this was like three years ago, I remember he came on my podcast, And I started, yeah.
Halah Taha (59m 30s:)Reaching out to him, I was like, Hey, do you need any help with anything? He's really big into growing his show. And I was like, do you know about all these media buying opportunities? Have you heard of Castbox? Have you like And I? I put him onto castbox Media buying and he was like, wow. Like you're really smart. And I was like, this subscriber acquisition costs this, this. I would just send him random information. Yeah. Yeah. Then I got on the cover of Podcast magazine. And I would put him as my favorite podcast. And I'm like, Hey Jordan, I put you in Podcast Magazine or Yeah, I got this blog feature. I put you in it. And so I kept putting it in his ear, And I told him what I do and all this stuff. And then one day he was like, how are my producers sick? Can you write a commercial for me? Like I need to write new chalk points. My producer's sick. Like really need help. I think you're really good at this stuff. Could you do it for me? And I wasn't like, oh, it's gonna cost $300.
Halah Taha (1h 0m 13s:)Sure. Right. I was just like, sure. And like I did it right away. I crushed it. And he's, this is amazing. Then like he just started giving me advice. Yeah. He started telling me all the game. He told me all the tricks. He really taught me a lot about podcasting. So he was like my podcast mentor. He's the reason why I was able to grow my show really big. And like even to this day if I'm like, hey, like I'm just like confused about this and he'll tell me exactly what it is. Yeah. 'cause he's got 10 more years of experience in this game than me. And so I see him as like the old school knowledge. Like I'm bringing him the new school knowledge. So it's this really this mentor mentee relationship. So he's my podcast mentor and then I'm lucky because all my clients, I'm like in this white glove agency where I only do like big c e o, big authors, celebrities, people
Travis Chappell (1h 0m 57s:)That can afford to pay you.
Halah Taha (1h 0m 59s:)And those clients always become my mentors. Yeah. And my biggest advocates. 'cause I really work hard for them. Yeah. They get to know me, they really like me. And then they refer their friends and they always, they're like sort of not necessarily teaching me things, but they're the type of mentor that says my, my name in a room. Yeah. When I'm not there. The the
Travis Chappell (1h 1m 18s:)The indirect mentors for
Halah Taha (1h 1m 19s:)Opportunities, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Travis Chappell (1h 1m 20s:)Yeah, yeah. Tell people you should have like official, like direct mentors, but also unofficial, indirect mentors. Yeah. And that totally, totally resonate with that for sure. Yeah. Because you get in the right rooms with the right people and you just show up and do a good job. Successful people are always wanting to help people be successful. Like truly, truly successful people with an abundance mindset. Like they want to help people. Yeah. But they're not going to do it for people who are not going to take the help and put in the work. Right. You know what I'm saying? Exactly. Like they don't like wasting their time
Halah Taha (1h 1m 51s:)And they're not gonna put your name in the hat if they know you're gonna embarrass. Screw
Travis Chappell (1h 1m 55s:)It up. Right.
Halah Taha (1h 1m 56s:)Right. So it's like my name gets dropped in hats because I crushed it for them on social media, so they know I'm gonna crush it for their friend. Right, right, right. So you've gotta show the results too. Absolutely.
Travis Chappell (1h 2m 6s:)This has been a lot of fun. We're definitely gonna have a part two when you write your book when it comes out. Yeah. So we'll save some of the questions that I had for that occasion. But before we take off here, why don't you tell everybody where to go find a little bit more about what you're working on.
Halah Taha (1h 2m 18s:)Sure. So I would love it if you guys subscribe to Young and Profiting Podcast. So it's a top entrepreneurship podcast. Top business podcast. I've interviewed so many great people. Alex Ramzi, grant Cardone, Damon John, Robert Chelini, Chris Voss, lots of human behavior, lots of sales, marketing, negotiation, entrepreneurship. That's what my podcast is about. Again, it's called Young and Profiting. You can find it on all apps. If you're a big podcaster, you've got over a hundred thousand downloads, you want help with monetizing your show, you can go to YAP media.io and submit to join our network. And if you are a celebrity author influencer, you've got a big budget and you want to become a LinkedIn influencer or an IG influencer, you can also reach out to me at YAP media io
Travis Chappell (1h 3m 2s:)Perfect. YAP media.io and at HALA TAHA, right on Instagram
Halah Taha (1h 3m 8s:)At YAP. Good. Good point. At YAP with HALA on Instagram. At
Travis Chappell (1h 3m 13s:)YAP with HALA.
Halah Taha (1h 3m 13s:)Yeah. And then if you wanna find me on LinkedIn, it's HALA TAHA, but if you wanna reach out to me, it's definitely Instagram. My LinkedIn is nuts. Okay. I'm one of the biggest influencers on that
Travis Chappell (1h 3m 21s:)Podcast. So YAP with HALA
Halah Taha (1h 3m 23s:)On IG
Travis Chappell (1h 3m 23s:)At YAP with HALA on IG. Yeah. Reach out. Tell her. Yeah. Tell me how you love her stuff. Yeah. Tell her how you're going to read her book when it comes out. Buy her books, subscribe to her stuff. HALA spent a lot of fun. Thanks so much for coming on the show. Thanks,
Halah Taha (1h 3m 35s:)Travis. You did a great job. Thanks.
Travis Chappell (1h 3m 37s:)That's it for today's episode. Thanks for spending some time with me and my friends. If you want to be better friends with me, then head over to Travis Chappell dot com slash team to subscribe to my free newsletter, your friend Travis, where I share what's on my mind about life, building a business, raising kids, being married, and anything else I would normally share with my close circle of friends. That's Travis Chappell dot com slash team. And my biggest ask of you, since I'm sharing my friends with you, is to share this episode with a friend of yours that hasn't listened to the show yet. And leave us a quick five star rating in Apple Podcasts and in Spotify. It would mean the world to us as it helps us make sure that this show continues to be more valuable to you. Thanks in advance and I'll catch you on the next episode.
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