The Foureva Podcast
Welcome to The Foureva Podcast, where we break barriers and redefine success!
Join host Jamar Jones, a dynamic entrepreneur, national speaker, and author of "Change Your Circle, Change Your Life," as he takes you on an extraordinary journey of inspiration and motivation.
In each episode, we bring you an impressive lineup of star-studded guests, each with a unique voice and a wealth of insights to share. From industry leaders to renowned experts, we uncover their secrets to success in personal, business, and marketing domains. Prepare to be captivated by their stories, strategies, and experiences that will empower you to reach new heights.
Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur, a marketing professional, or simply seeking fresh perspectives on life and business, The Foureva Podcast is your ultimate destination. Discover the transformative power of changing your circle and unlocking your full potential. With each episode, we delve into the minds of the most influential voices in the industry, providing you with the tools and inspiration you need to overcome obstacles and achieve greatness.
Don't miss out on this dynamic podcast that will fuel your ambition, challenge your limits, and propel you toward success. Tune in to The Foureva Podcast and join a community of driven individuals who are ready to make an impact. Get ready to be inspired, motivated, and 'foureva' transformed!
The Foureva Podcast
How Hala Taha Turned a Side Hustle Into a 7-Figure Media Empire
Want to scale your personal brand, land high-value clients, and build a powerhouse business from the ground up? In this episode, Jamar Jones sits down with Hala Taha—founder of YAP Media, top-rated podcaster, and LinkedIn influencer—to uncover the mindset and strategy behind her multi-million dollar empire.
Hala shares how she went from interning at Hot 97 and building a blog in the hip-hop world to running a media company with over 60 employees, managing a top podcast network, and signing billionaire clients. Her journey is packed with real talk, strategy, and lessons on leadership, sales, and positioning that every entrepreneur, podcaster, and digital creator needs to hear.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
✅ How to land A-list podcast guests (even if you’re just starting out)
✅ The sales psychology and pitch strategy Hala uses to close 5- and 6-figure deals
✅ Why you should build systems early—and how she scaled with international talent
✅ How to build a content machine that makes your brand magnetic
✅ The real reason her first agency client paid her $30K/month with no website
✅ Why positioning, confidence, and clarity matter more than fancy branding
Hala also reveals her go-to closing lines, how she gets ghosted clients to respond, and her secret to dominating LinkedIn’s algorithm with zero paid ads.
🚀 If you’re serious about building a profitable brand, growing your platform, and closing with confidence, this episode is a masterclass.
🔔 Don’t forget to LIKE, SUBSCRIBE, and turn on notifications for more expert insights on sales, content, brand building, and business growth!
Everybody used to always ask me you know, how did you grow your podcast, how did you grow this LinkedIn channel? And it would be the guests that would come on my show and all the guests like I told you guys already, they were all successful, really popular authors, entrepreneurs. I never had like crappy guests, right. So the guests came on and they all had a lot of money and they would always ask me at the end of my show how did you do this? How did you grow your LinkedIn? Ask me at the end of my show how did you do this? How did you grow your LinkedIn? How did you?
Speaker 2:do your podcast. Can you do this for me, man? This episode is going to be one for the history books. We have a lot to cover, a lot to cover in this episode. Welcome to another episode of the Forever Podcast.
Speaker 2:It's Jamar Jones, your host, national keynote speaker, founder of Forever Media and the author of the book Change your Circle, change your Life, of Forever Media, and the author of the book Change your Circle, change your Life. And, man, it took 10 months to get this interview. I just want everybody to know and actually Hala will talk more about this but it is totally just a numbers game, this, but it is totally just a numbers game. Getting interviews, it's relationships and a numbers game. So you got to just shoot your shot and then the timing has got to be right and the more relationships you build and the social proof and the way you can position yourself, which Hala talks about in depth in this episode the more you can position yourself and then take advantage of these opportunities. This is how this stuff happens. Took me 10 months to get this interview. So it's a lot of grit, it's a lot of persistence and just staying top of mind and also on top of it. So there was a moment there, at one point, where we were going to do something. The timing wasn't right. You got to continually follow up. You got to continually let people know that you're around, that you exist, and that's how this really came to be. So we have an incredible guest, incredible guest. Please get your notepads, your pencils, your laptop, whatever you need, because this episode is special. So we got Hala Taha.
Speaker 2:She is the host of Young and Profiting Podcasts, a podcast with over 5 million downloads. She's also the founder and CEO of Yap Media, a full-service podcast production and marketing agency for top podcasters, celebrities and CEOs. The Yap Media Network is an exclusive network of self-improvement and business podcasts which she's hyper-focused on right now and she's looking to continually build that and she's even got a creator house podcast place that she is building right now. So who is Hala? So she's the founder and CEO of Young and Profiting podcast Yap Media, which is now 40 plus I think I heard her say 60 plus employees with several notable clients. Her podcast is frequently ranked as top 10 in the business and education categories. Yap has 300 K subscribers on CastBox alone. She is the founder, like I said, and CEO of Yap Media Network, where really that network is really focused on the growth and monetization of businesses and self-development podcasts. She's one of the biggest influencers on LinkedIn with over 230K followers I think it's more now and 5 million post views per month. She's been featured in all over the place magazines, press, all over the place.
Speaker 2:Let me just tell you a little bit about the people that she's actually interviewed on her podcast. Right, and she helps others do this as well. But the cool thing is that her podcast is which I didn't realize, but like it makes sense. But she purposely and she'll go into depth about this, but she purposely is really picky about who she has on the podcast. Um, and that gets gets us thinking like, as entrepreneurs, we gotta be picky about who we work with, who we're involving our with and who we position our brand with. As you listen to this podcast, you're going to hear her really talk about positioning. I think she's like the queen of positioning. She's really really good at positioning herself and her business for opportunities. She's interviewed Alex Ramosi, cody Sanchez, damon John, gary Vaynerchuk, mel Robbins, grant Cardone, matthew McConaughey and many others.
Speaker 2:Like that's just a, that's a fraction of Fushi's interview, and so lock in, lock in on this episode because this is going to be a really special one. And it's also going to be special because every entrepreneur can take something from this. Especially if you have a service-based business, this is something that you can take and say, hey, what pieces of this am I doing right now and what things am I not doing and how can I position myself for success? So guys really enjoy this episode. Hala was a absolutely incredible guest Tons of insight, tons of knowledge. She really knows what she's doing. Lock in, lock in and enjoy this episode. And we got Hala in the building. What is going on? How are you doing?
Speaker 1:I'm doing great. I'm so excited for our conversation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is going to be great. I've been trying to get connected with you for I think it's 10 months, wow, just I mean and it's funny, though, because a lot of my guests that I'm kind of like seeking to have on the podcast just takes a little bit of time, and then usually it's like growing the relationship and just making sure like it's legit, and I know that. So I'm super excited to like have this conversation with you. I got. The first question I got is so do you like hip hop? Yeah, I love it. Yeah, so you had your. You had a blog site, the sorority of hip hop. Why hip hop? Yeah, I love it. Yeah, so you had a blog site Sorority of Hip Hop. Why hip hop Like? Why is hip hop so important to you?
Speaker 1:Well, I started my career interning at Hot 97 in New York, which is the number one hip hop and R&B station. That's where Funkmaster Flex is. That's where Angie Martinez started out of and that's really how I started my career. At 18, 19 years old, I was Angie Martinez's assistant and I feel like I grew up at the station and so I would basically help her run her show as essentially her associate producer, and I would host parties at night, host rap showcases, and make my money selling like rap showcase tickets and hosting those events. And then I started this blog and so my world was hip hop from like 19 to 27.
Speaker 1:My first serious boyfriend, who was almost basically my husband I was with him for 11 years was Harry fraud, who's like a huge hip hop producer, and basically my husband. My and you know I avoided my first divorce. We never got married, but we were inseparable for 11 years. So my world was hip hop. I was a singer. I used to sing songs. I wouldn't say it was hip hop, but I had elements of hip hop in it, more pop. But yeah, music has been a huge part of my life and I love hip hop till this day. You know, I just celebrated my success and bought myself a hot pink Porsche. And what am I bumping in my Porsche is hip hop music.
Speaker 2:Nice. Who's who's your goat, Like who's the goat in hip hop for you.
Speaker 1:I mean, I, I like to stay up with like what's hot now, you know, I tend to just like, like the best kind of dancey hip hop music. So right now I really like Kendrick Lamar, I really like SZA, I really like, you know, cardi B is pretty cool, but like, maybe not so much anymore, but like I still like her.
Speaker 2:She's a vibe.
Speaker 1:She's a vibe. Yeah, she hasn't really come out with anything great that's been new lately, but I would say like Kendrick Lamar and Cesar are my two top two right now.
Speaker 2:Nice, yeah. That Super Bowl performance by him was absolutely like incredible. A lot of deep meetings in there, that's dope, yeah. So I was a former hip hop artist for 11 years of my life. That's why I found that really interesting. Opened up for a lot of major acts Doing like 100 shows a year at one point so I tore my vocal cords, oh wow. But so like when anybody that's in, like you know radio hip hop, I'm like I got this affinity to it.
Speaker 2:So, that's why I definitely want to ask about that. So that's cool. And do you mold any of that past, like music background, into what you're doing today?
Speaker 1:like music background into what you're doing today. I would say a lot of the skills that I learned are, you know, transferable. So I always talk about this concept of skill stacking and, for example, when I was at Hot 97, I learned everything about audio production. Right, I was running the dilett boards, I was editing things live. I had to learn how to audio edit really quickly. I had to learn how to do research and write questions even though I wasn't the one answering the questions. I was even reading commercials on air. Now, a huge part of the way that I make money with sponsorships is I read commercials. I've been reading commercials since I was 18 years old at Hot 97. They had me reading commercials 18, 19 years old. Yeah, so a lot of those skills are transferable to what I do now.
Speaker 1:Uh, fast forward to the blog era. I was running this blog for two, three years. It was a blog business. It was an event business. I also had radio shows on the side. Young and profiting is actually my fifth show.
Speaker 1:I had many different music related online radio shows before I even started this podcast, and so I learned more about, you know. You know, promoting a show. I learned about SEO. I learned about graphic design because I had to build this website by myself. I didn't have money to hire it Right. I learned about recruiting teams and motivating teams. I recruited over 50 girls to blog for me for free during this time period.
Speaker 1:I have Twitter, so I learned about social media. This was like 2012-ish Social media was just starting. So it's like I had a lot of fundamental principles of how to hack a social media platform. Even before the term influencer was created. There was no such thing as influencers, and so I created our influence by having 50 girls 100 girls at a time tweeting the same thing, because nobody had reach Like. If you had 5000 followers, you had a big following back then. So I used our combined reach to become influencers, you know. So a lot of things were like transferable in terms of the experiences that I had. So a lot of things were like transferable in terms of the experiences that I had, and so I don't really like. I feel like I've totally transformed my brand. Right now, I'm really known for like entrepreneurship and creator entrepreneurship and being popular on LinkedIn and business, and I've sort of totally did a 360 in terms of my brand. Before I was more of like music events and now I'm more business, but the skills underpinning everything are the same.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it's amazing. I mean I feel like people that are in the entertainment space and then they get into business have a competitive advantage, because the entertainment business is like it's brutal, it's just brutal. It's just brutal I want to talk about. So you've been able to, through your podcast, been able to grow that thing like crazy, interview amazing guests on there. So I wrote a book called Change your Circle, change your Life, and so I feel like you have this beautiful ability to be able to change your circle and meet these influential people, to be on your podcast and continually grow your personal brand. If you had, like whoever's next on your hit list of who to have a conversation with and to get into their circle, what are the steps that you take to get introductions to these influential people and how do you change your circle?
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, our strategy for guest outreach has always been the same it's a volume game and we just don't lower our standards. Um, and so, essentially, when I first started this podcast, I always had big guests on the show because I said I didn't want anybody who wasn't an expert. I didn't want anybody who have never like written a book, for example. They don't have to be a huge celebrity, but I want them to be a well known person in their field, a thought leader. And so, from the start, I made a list of 100 people that I wanted, and we reached out to all of 100. And at first, two people said yes, and then those two people I'm trying to remember. Dory Clark was somebody that I wanted.
Speaker 1:And then the author of the like switch, dr Jack Schaefer. Those were my two first guests on the podcast. Leveraging them, I got like Chris Voss, I got Steven Kotler, I got you know, all these other people that I interviewed right away when I first started my podcast were really reputable people and it's because I leveraged the names that I got to get the names that I wanted and it was just a volume game right Then we just kept get going out the list and there's some people like Gary Vee took me five years to get on the podcast. It's easier as you have a bigger influence. You have more social proof, we have more reviews. You have more credibility. It gets easier and easier to get the people that you want on the show.
Speaker 1:Nowadays, most of the time I could just be like, oh, I saw this, like let's get him on the show, and then three weeks later he's on the show. Now it's more of that. But you know there's bigger targets, like if I wanted Elon Musk on the show, that's going to take a lot of effort. We're going to have to email his team, you know, 20 times, 30 times, and it's not really me meeting people in person. It's really just about my social proof and growing my presence and credibility as a podcaster and becoming known as a podcaster.
Speaker 2:That they need to have in their rotation. Yeah, no, that's good. So brand positioning is what I got from that, just how you position your brand, making sure the social proof is there. So once you do get the opportunities because you're sending off so many emails once you do get those opportunities, they take a look into you, who you are, your brand and people that you've been associated with and they're like oh yeah, like it's already proven, we got to do something.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and the email. I'm taking screenshots showing them. I'll tell you how I got matthew mcconaughey yeah so this was even four years ago now, like.
Speaker 1:So I wasn't even as big as I am now, but I was ranking on the charts already. I was ranking in the education category and I saw that he went on some girl show that I know for a fact because I know everything about podcasts that she has no audience, okay, and she's like a linkedin influencer, but her podcast has like is like not popular. So then I showed him like she's like a LinkedIn influencer, but her podcast is like not popular. So then I showed him like she's ranking here and I'm ranking, like you know, 30 above her or even like 100 above her, I don't remember what it was. And I showed her like where she was and where I was on the charts and I was like I saw you went on this girl's show. You should come on my show. I have like 20 times more followers than her subscribers. And then he came on my show. You know it's like also being scrappy and being proactive, like if somebody has a book coming out they're more likely to be going on podcasts.
Speaker 2:Sure yeah, pr tour.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you want to also be strategic timing wise.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. That's awesome and I know that you really Like you're amazing at being the brand voice of your company, growing your podcast, but you really love sales. What made you love sales so much Like? Is it your upbringing, like the way you were raised? Did you just have this affinity to it where you just wanted to pick it apart and learn everything about it? Why is sales such a love for you?
Speaker 1:I think I've been doing sales for a long time. I think I'm naturally an entrepreneur. I've been an entrepreneur since I was a little girl. I was always the one who would be selling bracelets or selling artwork, putting my cousins to work to make stuff that I could sell, like recruiting people at school to not just create like a lemonade stand, but like a slushy stand all summer. Like you know, I was always the one coming up with schemes to make up money and it was just really exciting to me.
Speaker 1:So not only just selling, but like making offers and just being an entrepreneur in general is something that is really natural for me, and so I feel like I really liked that. And and you know what sales to me is human behavior, and human behavior is just so interesting to me, like, how do you influence people to make decisions? What gets people to buy? Um, and ultimately helping people, because I only sell what I think will really help somebody, and so I can help someone, uh, make more money, for example, or build their personal brand. That feels really good as well. So I just love sales. I feel like it's one of the most interesting kind of professions that you can have, or skills that you can have in terms of, especially for entrepreneurs, it's one of the most valuable skills that you can have.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, 100%. I mean it's the thing that's going to help you grow and scale your business. And then there comes down to the team aspect. So you have 40 employees, I have one point I had 15. So I already kind of slightly understand that growth and that scalability. How important is it as far as for the scalability and to build the right culture within your team to get to where you're going? Because even for this podcast, just in transparency for everybody listening and watching her team is awesome, responsive, everything is outlined. I can tell there's a system, right, there's a real system behind this and it's not ad hoc and like, yeah, let's just get her on blah, blah, blah, there's a true system. So how important is it building that culture that you've built in your company and also how you built the systems to make it sustainable?
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, our company is multifaceted now, right, so I kind of think of my business as three businesses. I have my social media and podcast agency, which is the first company that I started. I have my social media and podcast agency, which is the first company that I started. I have my podcast network, where I grow and monetize 35 other shows, people like Jenna Kutcher and Russell Brunson and Amy Porterfield and Lori Harder. I'm responsible to get them all their sponsorships. That's my main focus. And then I have my brand. So I have my personal brand, my podcast, my social channels, my courses, my mastermind, my events, my speaking right. So then I have like my brand, maybe eventually a book, whatever it is. So I really have like three businesses and I have 60 people that work across all of these businesses and I have a charity project which we don't even need to get into that project, which we don't even need to get into that.
Speaker 1:But I've got these three businesses and they all have different processes and I think the main thing is that I don't try to do it alone, and I've never tried to do it alone. I always have a team and I'm not the type of person that is scared of asking for help and even getting people on board who are not, like, extremely senior, you know, and I'm willing to kind of take help, no matter, no matter what. So like, for example, with this podcast. By episode two, I had 10 people volunteers they were fans that that you know found me on linkedin who worked for me. I had 10 people by episode two who worked for me on the podcast and they worked for free and they were just folks that were fans that I was like okay, I'll teach you how to video edit, I'll teach you how to build my website, I'll teach you how to manage my LinkedIn.
Speaker 1:I put them all in Slack. I would meet with them weekly and I basically would train them and what they got out of it is that I would teach them skills. We were motivated behind a mission At this point, nobody was getting paid, so I was working the hardest, so they were just motivated by how hard I was working and they just wanted to learn from me and be a part of the team. Right now, fast forward, five, six years later these people are managers. These people have equity. These people are.
Speaker 2:They're still with you.
Speaker 1:A lot of them. Yeah, oh, wow, and they've got. Kate is my VP of social and one of my business partners. She's got, she's gonna have, 5% of the business you know she runs my whole social agency, so a lot of the. From the start I always had people around me that were shadowing me, so now I've been able to put people in place to run like, like, so one whole part of my business. Kate runs the whole thing.
Speaker 1:She's got 40 people under her and I interface with her not the 40 people anymore, Right? So she was with me from the ground up. I created all the systems for the social media podcast agency. How did that? How does the onboarding work? What is that process how? How does the posting work in the review process for all the posting work? How does it work in terms of team meetings and how often do we meet with our team? And how do we have KPIs and how do we innovate and all these systems I've put in place. Now she's running it.
Speaker 1:She's a really great manager. I wouldn't say I'm anymore. I'm not a great manager because I don't have enough time to be a great manager. I only have enough time to be a great manager to the managers on my team, not everybody, Right? Yeah, so so she's one example. Then Jason, who is my other business partner, who runs my production side of the house and helps me with the network. He's a different type of support that I received. That is not somebody who who was like an intern under me and kind of like shadowed me until they became my right hand. He had his own company, he was an acquisition hire, so he had his own production agency. Here. He heard me on a podcast and he was like hey, holla, what you're doing with Yap Media. This was maybe like three, four years ago. What you're doing with Yap Media is awesome. I really think I can help you level up your production. I have my own production team, so I brought him on as my executive producer. He let go of some clients and then eventually he did such a great job that I was like just like my company's doing way better than yours, shut down your company and just come run my production team now
Speaker 1:he's helped me build my network. He's my ceo, he's my cfo. He's probably going going to be the CEO one day, because if I really want to take things to the next level, I can't be CEO forever. I'm more of the visionary, the CMO, the face, sort of like Gary Vee of his company. I can't think that I can do everything. It's not possible. So I put him in that position and he's able to kind of run with it and he's doing an excellent job, and so it's about knowing the things that you lack. Like I'm not great at finances, I'm amazing at sales and offers. Let me focus on the sales and the offers. Let me focus on the sales, marketing and the offers, and let me just get the best possible help for everything else.
Speaker 1:The last thing I'll say is that we're not afraid of international talent. I've got about. Only probably I had more US, but we keep getting less and less US hires. We probably only have 11 US hires, including our like two business, our three business partners like me and Kate and Jason, who are the business partners of Yap Media and maybe you know, just like a handful of other US folks, and we're heavily invested in arbitraging talent overseas and we find that they're better talent. So we maybe have 10 employees in Nigeria, which is like a huge focus of ours is getting Nigerian talent, because they're so smart, they're so loyal, they can work US hours and we've seen incredible success with them. India, philippines, we even got Algeria and things like that. So we are really focused on international talent and that is helping us because we're more profitable than a lot of the other networks and social agencies, because we're also focused on US talent and our team is happier.
Speaker 1:They're hungrier, they're more resourceful and we just have like a better culture because people are more thankful for their job at our, at our company, so much that I could talk to you about culture. We've got an awesome culture at Yap Media. I don't know if you want me to go deeper on certain things.
Speaker 2:No, I mean honestly, you answered that perfectly. I do want to highlight one thing, though you had you had mentioned that you're maybe not the best manager, but your way on how you lead. So, even having volunteers you know 10 volunteers in the beginning but to give them the vision of where this is going to go, like they believed in you, and the vision enough to volunteer and to say hey, we're, and to still be there, is crazy. Like that threw me, that threw me. For a little I'm like they're still there.
Speaker 1:Not everyone, but there was about 20 people for two years who work for free for me and I would say about like eight of them are still with us and it was the most engaged ones are still there. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Wow. So you really know how to cast a vision for people to really see where this thing is going to go, and also what we wanted to do when I first started it they were like what do you imagine?
Speaker 1:We're going to be the number one podcast network. I didn't say self-improvement, I didn't think that clearly, but I was like we're going to be the biggest podcast network.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that's crazy, that is crazy. Network yeah, so that's crazy, that is crazy. And and this is good too for everybody listening uh, is it's okay to? Also, you don't have to always hire where you're at, you know, you can look for talent. Um, even at forever media, we have talent all over the place too. Um, and there was a time when I had 15 people that everybody was like in-house, same place, you know, and I kind of quickly learned that like, hey, there's other ways to hire. You don't necessarily need to have people right there in the big fancy office and all that stuff. You can have great talent from all over the place. So that's definitely some golden nuggets for people. And as you're growing and scaling, um, so who was your first actual hire then? So you had, you had, uh, 10 volunteers. Who was the first person you hired?
Speaker 1:Uh, her name was Kennedy. She doesn't work at the company more. Actually, a funny story is that I had my first full-time hire before I quit my full-time job. Yeah, wow. I started this company as a side hustle yet media, and so I started the podcast. Two years Then I started my social media agency and that took off right away. Our second client was a billionaire who paid us $30,000 a month. Then we got luck Was that?
Speaker 2:that was that a little bit of hustle and like in grit I mean because I mean it was a little bit of luck, but again, and again and again.
Speaker 1:Where?
Speaker 1:I got like a few of hint water, then paid me 27k a month and then the ceo of 1-800 got junk, similar like big size deal, right. So I got like three big ones in a row and then suddenly I was like, damn, I'm making like a hundred grand a month and I'm still working at Disney and I'm running this off paid volunteers and like people from the Philippines. And sorry, I'm running this on interns and people from the Philippines. Then I was like, okay, like we're making money. You know, I quickly, as soon as I got the first one, I hired Kennedy as like a social media manager. Kate was still working at her full-time job. Who's one of my business partners.
Speaker 2:Then I hired her next.
Speaker 1:I don't even know when I officially became like an employee I don't remember the timeline of that, but yeah, out of state of course.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, it's fascinating. So your first actual hire was social media. Because you were doing social media, so you had to. You know, do the have somebody do the fulfillment while you're going to continue, yeah.
Speaker 1:I guess technically, my first hires were video editors and graphic designers and an audio editor for my pocket. So my first first hire was my audio engineer. I never audio produced my podcast. I did like the first episode and it took me like so long and I had to research that right away. So that was my first investment my audio engineer. My second investment was graphic and video design. That I felt like was something we needed so consistently I needed to pay for somebody for that. So that was first to the Philippinesines, and then my first like us hire wasa social media manager.
Speaker 2:yeah, okay, okay, that's, that's crazy. Um, and you said 2020 is when it, like it, really boomed and like it grew for you, for your, for your company. What was it? Because of the shutdown, of why people like what do you feel? Like was like that turning point of people reaching out?
Speaker 1:I think it was more that I so everybody was asking me at the end of my show. For years I had a really so I had grown LinkedIn first, so I was a LinkedIn influencer from start. Like within six months of starting my podcast, I was one of the top LinkedIn influencers.
Speaker 2:Okay, we'll get into that in a second.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I would say about a year and a half later, two years into podcasting, I got on the cover. I became a bigger podcaster. I got popular on cast box. I became known as like one of the top podcasters on LinkedIn. I would always post my content on LinkedIn. I still wasn't that big on Instagram or YouTube or any other channels is really just linked a biggest podcaster on LinkedIn and I had some apps that I was popular on and I became popular on podcasts. What was your question again? Sorry, I forgot.
Speaker 2:No, I'm just curious on, like what was the turning point on oh, got it, got it, got it, got it, got it yeah.
Speaker 1:Everybody used to always ask me how did you grow your podcast, how did you grow this LinkedIn channel? And it would be the guests that would come on my show. And all the guests like I told you guys already, they were all successful, really popular authors, entrepreneurs. I never had like crappy guests, right. So the guests came on and they all had a lot of money and they would always ask me at the end of my show how did you do this, how did you grow your LinkedIn? How'd you do your podcast? Can you do this for me?
Speaker 1:And podcasting and stuff was still like pretty new. There was a podcast agencies, there was definitely social media agencies, but maybe not so many LinkedIn ones. And I was doing such a great job and part of it was because I had this machine. I had 20 people working for me, so we had the best videos, we had the best content, we were so professional. The team that you liaisoned with for guest outreach same team that was running me back then right, so that's why they're so polished, they're so awesome, and so they just had such a great experience.
Speaker 1:And I would always say, oh sorry, this is just a hobby. I have a full-time job at Disney. I get paid a lot. This is just for fun, this is just a hobby. Because, even though I said I wanted to be a podcast network in, like I truly didn't believe it. Like in my heart I was, like this is just a hobby, this is for me, like to get my passion out, like, and I I wasn't ready really to do anything else with it and I just thought I was going to be in corporate forever. I was already sort of a failed entrepreneur with the blog and I had a lot of like holding on to like that failure, like I don't know if I can really become an entrepreneur again.
Speaker 1:I didn't know what the path was. Yet I didn't really see the path clearly. So then, when COVID hit, I ended up having a lot of time right. We started working from home and I you know these guests would continue to ask me for these services until one time this have you ever heard of Heather Monagaghan?
Speaker 2:uh, yeah, name sounds familiar, yeah he's like a huge linkedin influencer.
Speaker 1:She already had like maybe a hundred thousand followers. Uh, she would not leave me alone. She was like every video, holla, you need to teach me how to do these videos. Holla, we need to talk. Like she came on my show and she would ask and I told her no, I can't help you. And then I wanted her to be my mentor and I was like, okay, she's somebody who I want to be in 10 years. She's like a speaker. She's this huge influencer. Everybody knows her. And so I was like, hey, I'll teach you how to do these videos on Saturdays. And so I set up all this time on her calendar every Saturday for me to like train her.
Speaker 1:The first Saturday that we met, I like took her through okay, this is our slack channel, these are our templates. This is how you do. This is, yeah, software. I took her through all these processes and she's a call. I just had a call with Gary V's team. Pay Gary V's team, or I could pay you. I want to work with you. I want to be your first client. You hate your job at Disney because I've been. I was like talking to her on the phone and stuff, so she knew that I didn't like my job. She's like you need to just take the leap. I want to be your first client. What do you say? I was like, okay, cool, she didn't pay me a lot. She paid me like a thousand dollars a month so I couldn't quit my job or something like. But I started making her videos. So good. Then my next. So I got on.
Speaker 1:Uh, this guy, jason waller he was the ceo of the fastest growing private solar company invites me on his podcast. So I would get invited on podcasts. At the end of his show this is once heather was my client. At the end of the show he was like hey, I see you do linkedin podcast like, can you do this for me? This guy's a billionaire for the first time ever. I was like, yes, I can. I was like I have an agency, I can do this for you. So this guy's a billionaire For the first time ever. I was like, yes, I can. I was like I have an agency, I can do this for you. So I had no logo. I had no website. I had no like name of my company.
Speaker 1:I was really good at making PowerPoints. I was really good at graphic design. I was really good at presenting. So I created a PowerPoint and I remember talking with my uh, one of my interns at the time who was like my first, uh, like he was my first business partner, tim, and I was like, okay, let's do LinkedIn 3k, instagram 3k, podcast 3k. And he's like he's a billionaire, let's just say 10 K each service, okay, okay. So I put together this presentation and I just go in with confidence and Tim, on the call, with Jason, go through the deck again no website, no logo, no, nothing, just the social proof of what I've built myself. And I go through it and I'm like, all right, it's 30k a month. And he's like, let's do it.
Speaker 2:And I'm like wow, what were you thinking after that?
Speaker 1:just like we were like we, we got to find a contract, you got to find this, so we went online.
Speaker 2:We found a business bank account, yeah.
Speaker 1:Suddenly I had to form a company. So we did it and he was our first client. And then again I told you, we got like client after client after client and everything just scaled so so quickly because I had all this like built up demand from just building my brand for so long and never selling to anyone. So suddenly everybody was like oh man, I want to sign up with Holla and COVID hit anybody who had money knew that they had to be online. So if they weren't online they were looking for the right person. And I was kind of seeing, I guess maybe as this like golden child that like knew like how to blow up LinkedIn and podcasts. And so I got all the clients and I did a really, really great job for them too. Like I really crushed it for all of my clients.
Speaker 2:Oh my God, there's so much to unpack there, Um and and when you were first working with the influencer that you wanted to have be a mentor, you did that for free, right those Saturdays.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, I just totally did that for that, for free. Um, that's how I got all my mentors is like doing free work for people that's how I got Jordan Harbinger to be my mentor. Yeah, that's that's amazing.
Speaker 2:That's amazing. There's just so much to unpack, because and I would say, everybody, please rewind that uh of that story that she just told because first you gotta, you gotta present value to people, and people oftentimes cause I, I have this knack of of being able to change my circle again and again, um, and to meet influential people and to be connected, and then they're like dude Jamar, how are you doing all this stuff? First is about providing value upfront, and it's not always money all the time. Sometime it is like you might have something that can be beneficial to somebody else and that was in the case of for you. But also, at the same time, you are building your brand on LinkedIn and growing that and treating yourself as you were a client.
Speaker 2:And I think every business, especially small businesses, need to hear that, because there's a lot of social media agencies out there and I'm sure you you know where I'm going with this that their socials suck, they're not good, but they think they. You know they're like, oh, but I can do it for you, but why are you not doing it for yourself? Yeah, you should definitely be your first client and then the people that you want to get in front of definitely, you know, offer your time and resources to that person and then to also have confidence enough to just charge what you felt that was a good price like here's the thing like I was low balling but I had every right to charge that high because I did have the systems.
Speaker 1:Remember I had 20 volunteers I had. So heather's whole argument was you have a company right she's like shaking me.
Speaker 1:Like you have a company, like dumb ass, you know, like, so like I had a great foundation and, to your point, we only did stuff that we already knew worked for me. So we figured out LinkedIn we started doing it as a service. We figured out podcasts we started doing it as a service. We figured out sponsorships. We started a network, right. So it's like we only did the stuff that we knew already worked for me. And the other thing to know is that when you build a brand right, so I had built an awesome brand and that's what enabled me to charge higher. And then the last thing I'll say is that you, it is your choice, who you sell to. Is that you, it is your choice, who you sell to.
Speaker 1:I chose to sell to these people that were wealthy and who had their own companies and who could afford my services, and I chose a route that is more like white glove, catered towards somebody who doesn't have a lot of time, all done for you, no stone unturned, like you can call me on speed dial type of a relationship. And I chose my target client and I stuck with that Right. Sometimes people start companies and they're targeting people who have no money and then they have to start really low and it's just like a race to the bottom, right. So I purposely tried to pick like a really high level client with a high level service and went about it that way.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's amazing. So can I ask just about LinkedIn? Cause you were able to build that um and continually build that. What is there a certain like secret sauce to LinkedIn in your? In your opinion, is it just consistency and making sure that your brand is high quality? What is it to you that for the reason why you were able to grow on LinkedIn so fast?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head where consistency plays a lot to it, because you got to put your reps in. You got to figure out what's working, what's not working. The reason why I was able to kind of hack the LinkedIn algorithm is because I was posting every day and I did it myself at first. Right, you can hire a team like mine where you know that they know what they're doing. Right, but most people don't have that opportunity. When you're just starting out, you've got to post yourself.
Speaker 1:So hand post, understand, like, what the patterns are in terms of how you're posting. And on LinkedIn specifically, it's not really what you're posting Now keywords are more and more important and things like that but it's not really what you're posting Now. Keywords are more and more important and things like that, but it's more about how you're posting. Right, what are the ways that you're publishing? What are you doing in the first 90 minutes that you're publishing? How are you getting engagement on your posts? How are you DMing people so that you can kind of trigger the algorithm so they see your content, right?
Speaker 1:So there's so many different, like rules on LinkedIn in terms of how you publish and engage, that you need to be aware of. So the features you know, using videos versus graphics versus polls it matters, but really not so much.
Speaker 1:I'll try to break it down as simply as I can Number one you've got to train the algorithm on what you're an expert on, and that goes with all social media platforms. We live in a world where it went from like friend graph algorithms to now it's went to interest graph algorithms. So the friend graph graph algorithm was all about having as many followers as possible. People just see the most recent content or the most engaging content, the most viral content. Fast forward to today, the TikTokification of social media. As Gary Vee says, right Now, it's all about getting you exactly what you want when you're on having the most relevant topics. It's not about having a million followers. You could have zero followers and go viral. It's not even about having the most viral content. It's about the most engaged content in your niche that gets sent to the user who's most interested in that content.
Speaker 1:And this happens in real time. You know you, you guys know when you're scrolling on reels. If you like, look at a dance video for too long. Suddenly your next three videos are dance videos, right? So this is all happening instantly and it's enabling people who don't even have a lot of followers to crush it on social media. So all social media platforms are kind of moving towards that direction. So, on LinkedIn, what that means is you need to train the algorithm on what you're an expert on. So that means having keywords in your profile that match the keywords in your post. So if I talk about podcasts and I want to teach people about podcasts, I better have podcasts in my title, in my bio, in my job descriptions, keywords related to podcasting or social media or whatever, like the keyword cloud, I want to be recognized for as an expert on on LinkedIn and then I want to have posts that also talk about that content.
Speaker 1:And then I want to have really meaningful content that gets engagement, that gets a high viral action so long comments or shares so that the algorithm knows that I get engagement on this content and they send it to more users who want to see content like that. Right, there's, like, certain things that you need to understand in terms of like, what to post. Like I mentioned being an expert and then having keywords in your posts that line up to your expertise. That's number one. And then number two is the publishing and engagement strategies. So, in the first 90 minutes on LinkedIn, it's really important to have a velocity of engagement. So that means you need to be an active member of the community. You need to be DMing your first connections. When people, when you DM somebody and they DM you back, they're 85% more likely to see your content the next time they log on. You need to like, reinvigorate your first connections all the time so they see your stuff, so that when you post things up, they reciprocate, they comment, they like, they actually see your content.
Speaker 1:You need to make sure that people who follow you actually want the content that you have, or else, when you know that first 90 minutes is up and people see your content and they don't engage, you're going to get panelized. For that you need a velocity of engagement. When you first post, you can even join engagement pods, which are not against terms of service, to try to get likes and comments from your first connections as soon as you post. You need to be a good member of the community and post on other people's stuff so that you're just like part of this world where you guys are feeding each other right. So it's really important to know how to publish and you can kind of artificially do that through engagement pods not automation. I'm not talking about bots, I'm talking about real people. But you can kind of set yourself up for success strategically. Being in an engagement pod and also just being a good member of the community is gonna help you get more traction.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. That's awesome. So many, so many like tactful, like actionable steps that you just gave to grow on LinkedIn and most of the times it's just people just being consistent. First, I always tell people, like just start, Just get on a good cadence and then you can start to kind of be a scientist about it and and go down there. But yes, to to do all those things like that's how you're going to grow fast and grow quickly and get into the algorithm and who, who told you that content was important? Like why? Why was that such a priority for you when you started to like hone that in, even even for yourself when you started to hone that in?
Speaker 1:even for yourself. You mean, like, how did I first feel like I needed to post on social media?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, you had 10 people helping you grow your podcast, helping you grow your social. Why did you feel like, oh, I'm doubling down on this?
Speaker 1:To be honest, my main goal was always just to help people. I didn't even have a monetary goal, which is why, when people asked me for me to be their agency, I said no all the time. That's all I wanted to do. I was happy.
Speaker 1:I don't want your money. I was just happy like just like growing this movement and like having this podcast and interviewing awesome people and kind of sharing the information and just being positive and helping other people. Like that's what really motivated me. What motivates me is like building a team and helping my team and then helping other people online, and so for me, it was all about just like having positivity. Just like having positivity, I mean, like maybe, like deep down inside, I wanted to like have a brand and like be like.
Speaker 1:I've always been very like um, you know, outspoken and like like to be like the lead in the play and stuff like that. So I always like to be like center stage. That's like who I am, naturally. But it wasn't. That's not what I was thinking about. I was thinking about helping people and like kind of uh, there was like a big void in helping young people in business at the time. Like it was really innovative for me to come out with a business podcast as, like a young lady in 2018, it's like now everybody has a podcast, but when I did it, it was really new. Like people were like what are you doing? Like what is this, you know? And it just that in itself of just helping people and kind of coming out with this new concept of podcasts was really cool and just motivated me itself.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. That's awesome, just truly wanting to help people and you're like hey, content, this might be an avenue for me to do. That is absolutely incredible. Avenue for me to do. That is absolutely incredible. So, on the sales side of your business, what's one killer closing line that you can share with us when you close these big sponsorships or brand deals, maybe big agency accounts? What's one line that really or maybe it could be a couple of lines, but something that's like going to really close somebody to move forward for business.
Speaker 1:I'll just give you my approach of like how I close awesome deals right, perfect, it's being the best and the most knowledgeable about what I'm talking about. So it really is me Like. Let's say I'll go over like a few different examples. So let's say it's me trying to close an agency lead and they want to do LinkedIn and podcasts. I'm going to go over our services. But throughout the whole conversation, I'm going to be dropping gem after gem after gem of like this is the why we are our strategy. This is why it works. Here's the data behind it.
Speaker 1:Here's a case study of how we like you know three X somebody is, you know impressions on social media and I'm just like where they leave it being like there's no way that I could replicate what this girl has built. I want to work with her. So, like most of my sales success is just off the strength of me being so much more knowledgeable and like just knocking the socks off people in terms of like they're being impressed with, like my knowledge Right, and I feel like that is my core strategy. The other strategy that I have is just like making sure that in the beginning of the conversation. So I always have like really nice sales decks, sure that in the beginning of the conversation. So I always have like really nice sales decks and in the beginning of the conversation, before I even put up a presentation. I'm always trying to understand like their core core problem.
Speaker 1:Hey, I want to. I'm trying to filter out like are they even a good fit for me? And I'm not afraid to actually say like you're not a good fit for us, but I know so and so who is? Because I always want my reputation to be like killer and I want to always do the best job.
Speaker 1:So I don't want to actually have somebody who can't afford my services or who doesn't have an offer yet for my social agency and so on. So I'm like, okay, like you know what is a problem, what? What wasn't working before? Okay, um, you know what are you hoping to achieve now. What are your goals? How do you make money? Where's? Where are you driving ROI? And this is so important to do on a sales call before you jump into your solution, because if you don't make it about them from the beginning, the whole time, they're gonna be like why does this person think they can help me? They didn't even ask me about my business. People want to talk about themselves, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I want to make sure that you understand their problem and you know exactly how to solve it. So once I know, like, okay, these are all their problems, this is what didn't work before, this is how they make money. Now I can use all of that information and customize the way that I go over this presentation in a way that addresses every single concern that they had organically throughout this presentation, as if this is what I was going to say the whole time anyway. I'm organically throughout this presentation as if this is what I was going to say the whole time anyway. But I kind of like tailor the things that I kind of hone in on based on the problems that they had or the things that they want to solve.
Speaker 2:So good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that's really important. Another thing is that we tend to scare them on the price a little bit. So I tell them up front on my discovery call conversations. We don't tell them the price on the call. I'll just you know. If I feel like I know them and they've got money and it's not a big deal, I'll be like, yeah, 10k a month for LinkedIn.
Speaker 1:If you want a bundle, we have to like sit and price it. But most of the time we're like I just want to warn you, like we're really expensive. We, they're the best. I stand up a dedicated team. You're gonna have five people. That's your extended marketing team. Like we're not cheap, I'm just warning you. But anyway, we're gonna go and like try to give you the best pricing you wanted all these different things. There's some cost savings involved from bundling these services. We'll get back to you on the price, blah, blah, blah. Then I email them the price and I basically scare them so that they're they're thinking it's worse than it's even going to be, and then you know they're like kind of level set once they actually get the price.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:So that's something that we do, is that we always kind of make sure that they they know that we're expensive before we give them the price. Um, that way they're not like shocked and, if anything, they're less shocked. Yeah, worse. So that's one one thing. And then the other thing is um, sometimes you have these calls that go amazing, and people are like, yep, ready to sign, even after the price, ready to sign, ready to go, blah, blah, and then they ghost you. Yeah, it's happened to everybody.
Speaker 1:Now my favorite thing to do is to just uh and chris voss taught me this is to just approach them with like a no oriented question. So I'll be so. I never feel needy, I never sound needy. There's a couple things I want to talk to you guys about closing. So you, you never want to sound needy. So something that I do is we got I. We always have one spot left. You know, we always have a waitlist. Even if we don't, we always have a waitlist. We always have one spot left. We have availability starting in two weeks. I never want anybody to feel like I'm desperate because I'm not. I'm not desperate for any sort of client, right. So never, ever want to sound desperate Like you've got so many spots, you want to sign right now. Everything can be like yeah, whatever, take your time. You know, with any sort of contract that gets sent out.
Speaker 1:You want to call it an agreement. So you don't want anybody to get scared of the word contract. You want to call it an agreement. Let's say you send your agreement and you give it an expiration date. Hey, like we've got a lot of clients. Just FYI, if you don't sign by this date, it expires. Every agreement needs to have an expiration date. A lot of people don't do that, right? So you want to have an expiration date. So they feel like there's some sort of timeline. But let's say they ghost you in the process. It's two days before it's expiring. You want to just reach out with a no-oriented question like hey, are you no longer? Hey, what's up, hope you're well. Are you no longer interested in LinkedIn services?
Speaker 2:Just flat out ask them.
Speaker 1:And not like I just want to say this and this is why we're so good and this is why no. Hey, I just want to ask are you no longer interested in linking services I need to know to figure out how to proceed with other people on queue or just, are you no longer interested? What's going to happen is they're going to email you immediately and be like oh no, I'm so sorry, I just got blocked up with blah, blah, blah. I'll get back to you here. There's just like they're gonna tell you what's blocking them and nobody wants to ever like. It costs them off guard because instead of saying yes, they're saying oh no. Right.
Speaker 1:I'm not. And another thing is like is you know, is LinkedIn no longer part of your strategy, or are you no longer looking to grow XYZ's personal brand? And they're going to be like no, of course, we want to grow his personal brand, and then this is why we're delayed. So it kind of just kickstarts the conversation again. So that's a really great way to kind of get the conversation going. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're kind of pulling it away from him, almost like if you're a kid. You kind of take the toy away and you're like, do you want to play with this or not? Yeah, well, then you got to do this first and then, all right, here you go. It's so good. It's like you're the queen of positioning. Like everything that you're talking about is how you're positioning and you just have this innate confidence within you that I think a lot of people struggle with. A lot of people struggle with being confident in their own actions.
Speaker 2:You started at the beginning of this podcast with saying, like, if you believe in your services, that you really actually can help people, well then selling is easy because you know that you could help somebody. If you're still trying to figure it out, then it's going to be really hard for you to sell people and it's going to be hard to be confident. In that I mean the position that you had, from the type of people on your podcast to how you're selling, to how you position your agency, to how you position your brand. Everything is how you're selling, to how you position your agency, to how you position your brand. Like everything is is how you position yourself. Um, I think that's such a really good takeaway um for for people, cause they don't. People are just kind of like doing stuff, you know, and they don't think about like well, what's my line in line in the sand? Like what's Think about? Like, well, what's my line in the sand, like what's what am I not okay with? You know, who do I not want to work with? They need to ask these questions and I think this is a great reminder. And just I just want to say this really quick for all the audience Like Hala has tons of like webinars and stuff for free, like on her YouTube page, like tons, so you guys can go binge watch, binge watch, like she goes really deep into this stuff.
Speaker 2:But this is so good, it's a, it's a really good reminder what's what's your next? So, talking about positioning what's next for you I know the podcast network is is a really big focus what's your next? Like big position play. Like what are you? What are you doing next?
Speaker 1:yeah, well, I'm really focused on growing my network. So I have the yap media podcast network. We're the number one business and self-improvement podcast network. I have about 35 shows and my main thing is like recruiting as big uh podcasters as I can. I just moved out to Austin, so I'm officially in Austin. Oh, you're in New York. Yeah, I moved to Austin, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:So where are you based? I'm in Richmond. I was in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Speaker 3:Immerse yourself in a place where bold ideas are sought after, where all are encouraged to bring their personal flourish. Here, innovation is a way of life In this city. The beat flows Together. We're dancing to the rhythm forward. Now it's your turn to grab hold of that energy. What you'll remember not just the meals, the celebrations or the uncommon coasts. What you'll remember is how we made you feel. Come experience Milwaukee, where fresh meets fearless every day.
Speaker 2:I'm in Richmond, but I have now met in the past three days like five to six different people from Austin. Now I live in Austin. I'm like I gotta go to Austin, I gotta go.
Speaker 1:I love Austin so I just moved out here in like February. We're building like a creator compound, so essentially a creator house and studios. I'm in like a temporary studio right now, so we're building like studios and like a headquarters. Basically, I'll live on one side. The other side would be like a creator house and studio, so very excited about that and it will help us recruit podcasters and things like that. So, yeah, that's my main focus. I got to focus. That's the name of the game. I can't spread myself thin. I already have a lot going on. There even might be an avenue where I shut down parts of my business so that I can laser focus on everything I need to do with my podcast and my network. Or, as I was saying before, maybe I step down as CEO so that I can focus on what I need to focus on. Perhaps a book in the future. Everybody keeps asking me to write a book but, again, no time yet to do that. I feel like it's not on the roadmap quite yet, given yeah, and how often are you speaking?
Speaker 2:Are you doing a lot of speaking as well?
Speaker 1:I'm speaking pretty often. The last one that I did was I spoke at Funnel Hacking Live, which was awesome. So, tony Robbins, that's Russell Brunson's event. It was like 6,000, 7,000 people, so that was incredible. I did it all about podcast monetization.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's awesome. That's awesome. So I always close out the podcast with asking this just a fun question what's your top five favorite movies of all time? Oh god, I'm the worst at this really I have this question are you not really an avid like movie watcher, like?
Speaker 1:that.
Speaker 1:So I love movies, but I am not good at remembering names for the life of me, so I asked the one question, the like I'm so bad at this kind of stuff, like I'm really bad at this stuff, I'll try to do it like wedding singer, 10 things. All of them are gonna be old, because I only remember old movie names about you. Okay, the dollhouse. Uh, these are all like old movies from when I was like 13. Fear, right, I only remember the old movies I'm trying to remember like I can't remember. I'm terrible.
Speaker 2:It's so funny I asked the one question that you're like I don't remember movies.
Speaker 1:I watch movies as like dates but like, like, ask me anything about pot, like here, this is one lesson that I want to teach your listeners, cause you were saying positioning all. I just talked to Cal Newport, who's like this big productivity guru that I was why I was late to your interview actually is because I was talking to Cal Newport and his main thing and I totally aligned to it is that, like, you need to understand that, like to gain expertise and like success, like it's slow. Okay, I've been in this world now for like 15 plus years doing the same thing social media broadcasting, social media broadcasting and different. It's evolved, right, it was radio, then online radio, then it was blog, then it was the podcast and it was linkedin, but it's all the same shit. Right, I was doing the same thing every day, obsessed with it every day putting in work, focus, putting in work, focus, putting in work focus, training other people. So I learned it even better because I'm training other people and just getting the reps, getting the reps, and I focused on this skill that now I have, and it was because I said no to other things like watching a million movies or watching every TV show.
Speaker 1:Like, I watch movies as a date and I don't do it by myself. I have been in Austin for five months. I don't even know how to turn the TV on in our Airbnb. I never turned it on.
Speaker 2:Wow. Just locked in be.
Speaker 1:I never turned down, wow, just locked in Because it's like I have relationships I love to work out and I have a company and I have a podcast. I don't have time to like. You've got to say no to something if you want to be the best in the world at something, and I consider myself to be the best in the world at knowing how to grow and monetize podcasts and LinkedIn as well, knowing how to rock LinkedIn. Those are the two things that I'm the best in the world, that I feel like are top 10 in the world, right? If you want to be in the best in the world, you've got to say no to a lot of things. And so, for me, my brain. I don't want to learn. I don't want to memorize actors and actresses. I'm going to shit about that. That's not going to make me money. That that's not going to make me money. That's not going to grow my team. That's not going to get me to a hundred million dollars in revenue, right.
Speaker 1:So I'm sorry, I don't have an answer to your question. 13 year old holla.
Speaker 2:No, it's, it's fantastic. I mean I uh I kind of had the same thing Cause, like you know, with movies I do remember the name, but I I don't know a lot of actors. So, like when people start, if I'm in social circles and they start talking about movies and actors, there's only so far, I can only go so far in the conversation.
Speaker 1:If you're a movie producer, director or actor, sure know everything about that. But if you're not what are you wasting your time for Learning about people who don't give a shit about you?
Speaker 2:Right, you know, facts, facts, oh, I love that. Where, where can people get connected to?
Speaker 1:you? How can they? How can they reach out? Uh, yeah, so if you want to listen to the podcast, I highly recommend it. I love my podcast so much. It's my baby, so young and profiting on YouTube, uh, Apple, Spotify. Wherever you listen to the show or wherever you listen to your podcast, you can find us. If you want to find out about LinkedIn, I have a masterclass that we're doing. I only do it one time a year now, a live one. If you want to sign up for that, you can go to yapmediacom slash course. I'm also releasing a new podcast course that I've never. I've never done that before. I'm releasing a growth and monetization course, hopefully in like August or September. So working on that now, so excited about that. Uh, yet mediacom for all the agency stuff. And yeah, you can find me pretty easily, I think.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's sweet. Thank you so much for your time. Uh, everybody listening watching. Please like, comment, subscribe to the podcast. Uh, I could have asked a thousand more questions, but I know how is is is super busy. I want to be respectful.
Speaker 2:Over time, um, this podcast has been fantastic. I think you've you've helped a lot of people. People need to replay this over and over and then they need to hop to your YouTube and they need to go binge watch. Um, you are very articulate about how you do things, um, and I think I hope that this podcast helps people like appreciate that a little bit more about how you're positioning and how you're doing everything. There's a science to it and I can already see it Like. This is. This is awesome and everybody, don't forget, if you can change your circle, you can change your life, and until the next episode, we're out Peace. Don't forget to like, comment and subscribe, and don't forget to hit that notification bell for more amazing content that we're going to be putting out. And don't forget you can change your circle to change your life. Thank you.
