Hala Taha: LinkedIn Marketing Strategies for Explosive Business Growth | Marketing | YAPLive

Now on Spotify Video! After facing early career setbacks and limited growth opportunities in corporate, Hala Taha turned to LinkedIn and podcasting to build her personal brand. By mastering content marketing and audience engagement, she rose to become a top LinkedIn influencer and podcast host, transforming her side hustle into a thriving media empire. In this episode, Hala joins Jeremy Miner on the Next Level Podcast to share how to leverage podcasting and LinkedIn for brand building, lead generation, and business growth. In this episode, Jeremy and Hala will discuss: (00:00) Introduction (01:59) Storytelling Tips to Engage Your Audience (04:21) Building a Podcast Business from Scratch (09:32) Winning Marketing Tips for Podcast Growth (16:29) How to Scale a Media Business (19:35) LinkedIn Content Strategies for Lead Generation (32:05) Advanced LinkedIn Monetization Strategies Hala Taha is the host of Young and Profiting, a top 10 business and entrepreneurship podcast on Apple and Spotify. She’s the founder and CEO of YAP Media, an award-winning social media and podcast agency, as well as the YAP Media Network, where she helps renowned podcasters like Jenna Kutcher, Neil Patel, and Russell Brunson grow and monetize their shows. With her business on track to hit eight figures in 2025, Hala stands out as a leading creator-entrepreneur. Sponsored By: Shopify - Start your $1/month trial at Shopify.com/profitingIndeed - Get a $75 sponsored job credit to boost your job's visibility at Indeed.com/PROFITINGOpenPhone - Get 20% off your first 6 months at OpenPhone.com/profitingAirbnb - Find a co-host at airbnb.com/hostMercury - Streamline your banking and finances in one place. Learn more at ⁠⁠mercury.com/profiting⁠⁠Policy Genius - Secure your family’s future with Policygenius. Head to policygenius.com/profitingFramer - Launch your site for free at Framer.com, and use code PROFITING Resources Mentioned: Hala’s Podcast, Young and Profiting: bit.ly/_YAP-apple Hala’s LinkedIn Masterclass: yapmedia.io/course Next Level Podcast by Jeremy Miner: bit.ly/NLP-apple Active Deals - youngandprofiting.com/deals Key YAP Links Reviews - ratethispodcast.com/yap YouTube - youtube.com/c/YoungandProfiting LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/htaha/ Instagram - instagram.com/yapwithhala/ Social + Podcast Services: yapmedia.com Transcripts - youngandprofiting.com/episodes-new Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurship Podcast, Business, Business Podcast, Self Improvement, Self-Improvement, Personal Development, Starting a Business, Strategy, Investing, Sales, Selling, Psychology, Productivity, Entrepreneurs, AI, Artificial Intelligence, Technology, Marketing, Negotiation, Money, Finance, Side Hustle, Startup, Mental Health, Career, Leadership, Mindset, Health, Growth Mindset, SEO, E-commerce, Instagram, Social Media, Digital Marketing, Content Creator, Advertising, Social Media Marketing, Communication, Video Marketing, Social Proof, Marketing Trends, Influencer Marketing, Digital Trends, Online Marketing, Marketing Podcast

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  A lot of people like put up content, they cross their fingers and they're like, "Okay, people are gonna find my podcast." And it's like, no, no one's gonna find your podcast.

• 0:07Speaker 01

  Hala Taha is the CEO of Yap Media, a podcast network and social media agency. She's host of young and profiting podcasts. She's turned her side hustle podcast to a media empire.

• 0:19Speaker 00

  When I first started, I didn't focus on Instagram. TikTok wasn't even existing yet. I focused on LinkedIn and I built my leverage on LinkedIn and I became one of the biggest influencers on that platform. When I first started my podcast, I had a rule for myself. I'm gonna post on LinkedIn every single day.

• 0:37Speaker 00

  If you understand the publishing and engagement strategies,

• 0:41Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 0:41Speaker 00

  you will go much more buzzed. It is still an organic platform where you can kind of just like hack the algorithm.

• 0:49Speaker 01

  How can a salesperson watching this right now start a podcast that helps them generate leads for what they sell?

• 0:56Speaker 00

  When you're thinking about monetizing a podcast and getting leads from a podcast, there's really three ways, right? You can...

• 1:03Hala Taha?

  Yap fam, did you know you have the power to build something extraordinary from nothing? That's exactly why I was invited to sit down with Jeremy Miner, and this is an episode you don't want to miss. You've seen me take Yap Media from an intern volunteer squad into one of the most fastest growing podcasts and social media agencies in the world. In this conversation, I'm sharing the exact strategies I used to build a multimillion dollar media empire, and we get into how I hacked LinkedIn, the psychology behind viral content, and how I turned my podcast guests into high-paying clients. If you're ready to master influence and scale your business, make sure you follow this podcast if you're new to the show. You can also watch this episode now on Spotify Video and on YouTube.

• 1:47Hala Taha?

  All right, guys, let's get right into my awesome conversation with Jeremy Miner.

• 1:53Speaker 01

  All right, Jeremy Miner, welcome to another episode. Now today, look, you're a salesperson, you're an entrepreneur, maybe you're CEO of a company, or VP of Sales, Sales Manager, and you want to get higher-quality leads to buy your product, your service, your thing. You're gonna want to pay attention to this next guest. This guest, the famous Podcast Princess, as she is known, Hala Taha, very unique name, is the CEO of Yap Media. Now, that is a podcast network and social media agency. She is one of the top 100 global hosts of young and profiting podcasts, and she's been featured on the cover of Podcast Magazine in 40 Under 40. She's turned her side hustle, Podcast Young and Profiting, into a media empire,

• 2:36Speaker 01

  Yap Media, which was voted Best Podcast Agency and fastest-growing podcast company of 2022. Anything in 2023, 2024?

• 2:46Speaker 00

  We're on track to hit 10 figures, I mean, 8 figures, not 10 figures, 8 figures.

• 2:51Speaker 01

  And she's been recognized in New York Times, founder of Radio Inc. She's, like I said, known as the Podcast Princess. How are you?

• 2:57Speaker 00

  I'm doing great.

• 2:58Speaker 01

  Fresh off the stage?

• 3:00Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 3:01Speaker 01

  How was that?

• 3:02Speaker 00

  It was so much fun. Funnel Hacking Live, it's Russell Brunson's event. It was like 6,000 people, huge stage, so it was so much fun.

• 3:10Speaker 01

  So, when you're speaking on stage, this is just kind of off the subject, but pay attention to this, because we're gonna talk about pattern interrupts, and that's gonna help you sell. When you're up on stage, how do you, because I think they can apply this if they sell one-to-one or one-to-many, how do you keep an audience engaged? What are some, maybe a few things you do to like really keep them engaged where they just don't like fall asleep?

• 3:32Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 3:32Speaker 01

  A lot of speakers.

• 3:33Speaker 00

  I love that. Well, first of all, you gotta open up with a story. You have to make it shocking. So, I opened up the stage today, I said, you know, imagine you started a podcast in your car. You had no place to record, you had no mic, you had no equipment. So, it shocks them, like, what do you mean? And you became a very famous podcaster. So, opening up with a hook, a story. Another thing is just getting them to say yes and agree right away.

• 4:01Speaker 01

  Why is that story so important to start your, let's say, your training or whatever you're doing upfront, like onstage? Why, what does that story do to their mind? It takes them somewhere.

• 4:13Speaker 00

  It makes them feel like it's all relatable.

• 4:15Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 4:16Speaker 00

  So it makes them feel part of the story. So I actually say like, imagine you're starting a podcast in your car. You have no idea.

• 4:24Speaker 01

  So you're talking about your story, but you're actually speaking to them.

• 4:27Speaker 00

  Yeah, so they can feel like they're in the story and relate to it.

• 4:30Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 4:31Speaker 00

  And then you actually turn it back to them and say, can you guys relate to how Jenna, this was about Jenna Kutcher, how Jenna was feeling in the moment when she first started her podcast. You didn't have any equipment. You have no podcast plan.

• 4:42Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 4:43Speaker 00

  But now you could do this. So addressing their pain points.

• 4:46Speaker 01

  The great thing about what you did with that story is not only did you take them back where they think about it, but they visualize the story. Because when you start that story, you're forcing their brain to visualize what you're talking about and they become interwoven in it. So it forces them engagement, rather than them looking at the phone or getting up and go to the bathroom like a lot of, hey, how's it going? How's the weather? I need a rah rah rah, like most speakers. And it's fine. Now you've triggered curiosity.

• 5:11Speaker 00

  Yep.

• 5:12Speaker 01

  And they're like, whoa, this person's important. I need to listen to what she says. Well done. Most speakers don't know how to do that. Okay, so I've got some questions for you. So podcast agents, how did you, like, did you, you know, were you born like just with these podcast skills or like what, how did you get into podcasting?

• 5:28Speaker 00

  So I actually started my career in radio. When I was 19 years old in college, I started at Hot 97. It's one of the most popular.

• 5:36Speaker 01

  Hot 97, okay.

• 5:37Speaker 00

  I was Angie Martinez's assistant for three years. I was basically an unpaid associate producer. So I dropped out of college to be her apprentice.

• 5:47Speaker 01

  What caused you to do that? That's, that's a big gamble. Like,

• 5:50Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 5:50Speaker 01

  You know, we're all taught you gotta go to school. And, and I believe in, in college for certain professions, you know, if you're gonna be a doctor, you probably have to go to school. Or an attorney, there's professions you do. But what caused you to be like, hey, I, I don't wanna go to school. I wanna go this other route. Because most people wouldn't think that way.

• 6:05Speaker 00

  Well, really, I wanted to be a singer. I was writing music. I was singing and songwriting. And I thought, oh, I could get an internship at the radio station and push my music to DJs. But then I realized that I was a really great on-air personality. And they were basically priming me to be the next Angie Martinez. And so I was, you know, just paying my dues because that's what they do in radio until you get an on-air spot.

• 6:29Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 6:30Speaker 00

  But when a paid position opened up, they ended up giving it to somebody else who didn't work on the show.

• 6:36Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 6:36Speaker 00

  And I said I didn't want to show up to work and they ended up firing me.

• 6:41Speaker 01

  Oh my gosh.

• 6:41Speaker 00

  So firing me from an unpaid job.

• 6:43Speaker 01

  You're fired.

• 6:44Speaker 00

  But it wasn't like a real fire. They were like, just lay low. Angie's really mad at you, you know? And I was like, you know what?

• 6:50Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 6:50Speaker 00

  No, I'm not going back to the station. I worked for free for three years.

• 6:53Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 6:54Speaker 00

  And I started a blog called The Sorority of Hip Hop and it got really popular.

• 6:59Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 7:00Speaker 00

  I ended up hosting all the parties with the DJs that I used to work with at Hot 97. And we were like pretty famous in the tri-state area.

• 7:07Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 7:08Speaker 00

  We had online radio shows.

• 7:09Speaker 01

  This is in New York City you're talking about?

• 7:10Speaker 00

  This is in New York City, yeah.

• 7:13Speaker 00

  And then MTV reached out to us to be on a reality TV show. So this was like right when Jersey Shore just ended.

• 7:20Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 7:21Speaker 00

  And they filmed this all summer.

• 7:22Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 7:23Speaker 00

  And I was about to be a lead on a reality TV show.

• 7:26Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 7:27Speaker 00

  MTV. So it was like my big break.

• 7:29Speaker 01

  Your big break?

• 7:31Speaker 00

  They pulled the plug two weeks before the show was gonna air.

• 7:33Speaker 01

  What happened? Why did they pull the show?

• 7:35Speaker 00

  They just said they're moving in another direction. I'm Palestinian. I don't think they were ready for like a Palestinian-American lead on MTV.

• 7:41Speaker 01

  Really? Okay.

• 7:42Speaker 00

  Yeah, so.

• 7:42Speaker 01

  Wow. What year was this?

• 7:45Speaker 00

  Twenty twelve?

• 7:48Speaker 01

  Twenty twelve, okay.

• 7:49Speaker 00

  Twenty twelve. So a long time ago.

• 7:51Speaker 01

  Wow, that is twelve years ago.

• 7:52Speaker 00

  Yeah, so.

• 7:52Speaker 01

  The world has changed seven times since twenty twelve.

• 7:55Speaker 00

  I know, I know. I was really young, you know, I was really still like, so I was really young and yeah, I didn't get this show on MTV, so I was crushed and I thought I'd never get back on a mic.

• 8:08Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 8:08Speaker 00

  Went into corporate and started my podcast four years into corporate and

• 8:12Speaker 01

  What did you do in corporate?

• 8:13Speaker 00

  I worked at Hewlett Packard in marketing and then I worked at Disney Streaming Services and I ran their email and their mobile teams.

• 8:18Speaker 01

  So you got some really good corporate experience, which

• 8:21Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 8:21Speaker 01

  You know, I say experience in corporate America is one of the best things an entrepreneur can get.

• 8:25Speaker 00

  Oh, one hundred percent. Cause I was a failed entrepreneur basically with this blog. It was like successful, but a lot of like, you know, just more of like partying and like

• 8:32Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 8:33Speaker 00

  smoking mirrors.

• 8:34Speaker 01

  Right.

• 8:34Speaker 00

  But in corporate, I got really successful. I was like working for the C-suite by the end of it and basically like the chief of staff.

• 8:41Speaker 01

  And I think it's really important because I think a lot of people that start their own business. So whether you maybe you're a salesperson and you look at it, maybe starting your own thing one day. It's one thing that you cannot buy. You can buy somebody's like content or their training and try to mimic it. You know, if you're in that space or whatever, but one thing you never you never can buy is their wisdom.

• 9:03Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 9:03Speaker 01

  You can never buy their experience because they're the ones that lived it.

• 9:06Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 9:06Speaker 01

  And that's the most important thing. So how did how did corporate America kind of like help you like have that foundation of like this huge podcast?

• 9:14Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 9:14Speaker 01

  You have now.

• 9:15Speaker 00

  It's such a great question. I make a joke that before I was the podcast princess, I was the PowerPoint princess.

• 9:22Speaker 00

  And so I used to make all these amazing PowerPoints. And actually, when I first launched my company, I had a team of volunteers.

• 9:30Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 9:30Speaker 00

  With my podcast. So I had fans that would reach out to me on LinkedIn. I was big on LinkedIn right away.

• 9:37Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 9:37Speaker 00

  And they asked me how they could help me with the show. I changed their life. And so I started recruiting all these volunteers into a Slack channel and it became my team.

• 9:44Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 9:45Speaker 00

  And two years into it, my podcast blew up. I became a top podcaster. And the guests that would come on my show, they'd always ask me like, who does your LinkedIn? Who does your podcast? How can you help me? And I was working at Disney, had a great job. And I was like, I'm sorry, this is just a hobby. I can't help you.

• 10:01Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 10:01Speaker 00

  Until COVID hit and I found myself with all this free time. So I converted my volunteers into an agency and I started Yatt Media.

• 10:10Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 10:10Speaker 00

  I knew my stuff. I was an expert. I could present really well, energetic, enthusiastic. And he was like, well, I want to work with this girl.

• 10:17Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 10:17Speaker 00

  You know?

• 10:18Speaker 01

  Besides the the winning presentations, what do you feel like is one, you know, one other strategy that really took your podcast from like where everybody's is?

• 10:26Speaker 00

  Yep.

• 10:26Speaker 01

  You know, everybody has a podcast to like one of the top, you're going top five now or something?

• 10:30Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 10:31Speaker 01

  In the world, yeah.

• 10:31Speaker 00

  Um, so basically there's a bunch of principles for growth. But from the start, I was always 50% production, 50% promotion. So a lot of people like put up content, they cross their fingers and they're like, okay, people are going to find my podcast. And it's like, no, no one's going to find your podcast. You've got to spend your time promoting it. A lot of things that I do is DMs, so DM funnels, direct messages.

• 10:54Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 10:54Speaker 00

  So basically, for example, on LinkedIn, we'll put up a LinkedIn Live video or any post on Instagram about my podcast. Anybody who likes or comments on that post, we then retarget in the DMs and we give them a direct link to the episode.

• 11:11Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 11:11Speaker 00

  That brings in new subscribers daily. That keeps me ranking at the top of the charts because the charts are based on new daily subscribers. It's not based on how big your show is. It's about how many new subscribers you bring in per day. So I'm getting featured in Apple and Spotify every day on the charts because I'm bringing in new subscribers from the DMs.

• 11:28Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 11:28Speaker 00

  And I'm getting people to subscribe and I'm getting new subscribers every day from social media doing it that way. So promoting is really great, of course. The other thing is just leverage. When I first started, I didn't focus on Instagram or like, you know, TikTok wasn't even existing yet. But I focused on LinkedIn and I built my leverage on LinkedIn and I became one of the biggest influencers on that platform.

• 11:52Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 11:52Speaker 00

  And then with that audience, I had leverage. I could then trade that audience.

• 11:56Speaker 01

  So you focused on one platform, you're all in, horse blinders, I'm going to master this platform.

• 12:00Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 12:01Speaker 01

  Why do you feel like that's important rather than just trying to do everything, all the other platforms and just kind of hope and pray it works out?

• 12:08Speaker 00

  Well, first of all, like LinkedIn had my target audience. I was reaching young professionals. Second of all, I felt like it was less competition. Felt like Instagram was pretty saturated, less competition. Figured out like the algorithm, like totally hacked the algorithm. Got really popular on that platform. I actually became a LinkedIn influencer before my podcast blew up and then I traded my audience.

• 12:29Speaker 01

  I didn't even know there was such thing as a LinkedIn influencer.

• 12:31Speaker 00

  There is.

• 12:32Speaker 01

  You brought that up, I'm like, I didn't even know that, that's amazing.

• 12:34Speaker 00

  A lot of some people say that, but yeah. It is, it's a social platform, just like any other social platform. There's 135 million daily active users on LinkedIn.

• 12:43Speaker 01

  Interesting. You know, I think we only, that's our smallest channel. I think we have like 50 or 60,000 people following on LinkedIn. We get millions on others, but we'll talk, we need to grow LinkedIn.

• 12:52Speaker 00

  Yeah, I mean, I'm the LinkedIn queen and the podcast princess.

• 12:55Speaker 01

  Josiah, content director. Okay, so let's talk about this powerhouse that you, but actually, I'm going to go back. In your mind, how can a salesperson watching this right now maybe start a podcast that helps them generate leads for what they sell? Because I don't think most salespeople realize that that's a channel that they can do that in.

• 13:15Speaker 00

  Yeah, I think when you're thinking about monetizing a podcast and getting leads from a podcast, there's really three ways, right? You can grow an audience, sell your own products and services. You can get sponsorships and brand deals. And then your guests can become your clients. So like me, for example, like I made $600,000 on sponsorships this year from ads, but I made $6 million from the guests that came on my show.

• 13:40Speaker 01

  I see.

• 13:41Speaker 00

  So it's a way bigger opportunity.

• 13:43Speaker 01

  When you say you made $6 million from the guests that came on the show, was that them paying you to be on the show?

• 13:47Speaker 00

  That's them becoming my clients. And I do their social and their podcasts and I get them ads.

• 13:53Speaker 01

  So you bring them on the show.

• 13:55Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 13:55Speaker 01

  They get impressed and hey, like what do you do? And the conversation.

• 13:59Speaker 00

  And so you can be strategic. You can actually design a podcast where you interview your target client. And then if you can also then create content that attracts an audience, then you can sell to them. It can be a totally different product. So I have my high-ticket agency services. We're a white gloves agency for my guests. Or they can join my podcast network, whichever one they fit into. And then for my audience, it's my courses, it's things like that. And my brand sponsorships.

• 14:27Speaker 01

  That makes sense. That's really good. Okay, so let's talk about this media powerhouse, scaling, all that stuff. And then we're going to get into LinkedIn because I know that they're going to want to like, how do I get leads on LinkedIn? I need more leads on LinkedIn. These are really good leads. Doesn't matter if you sell business to consumer, business to business, it's all the same. So your company has been recognized, as we know, as one of the fastest growing podcast networks. It might even be one of the biggest there is.

• 14:51Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 14:52Speaker 01

  I think it is. What were the biggest challenges that you faced in building that to get to that level? To really scale?

• 15:01Speaker 00

  What were some of the biggest challenges? So everything has happened so organically, honestly. But I think the biggest challenge for me, which is probably pretty unique, is that I had a volunteer team and I had to convert them to employees.

• 15:13Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 15:14Speaker 00

  And when people are working for you for free, it's just everyone's so happy. Everyone's, I'm not getting paid, you're not getting paid. We're all motivated, this is a movement.

• 15:21Speaker 01

  They're just bought into the vision.

• 15:22Speaker 00

  Right? It's just a movement, it's a vision. But then once, you know, there's clients involved and like it's got to get serious. So there were some people that I had to like fire that I'm like, you guys are still acting like volunteers and this is a company now, you know? So it's kind of like growing pains of like moving away from being like a movement to like a real company.

• 15:40Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 15:41Speaker 00

  And then just also the fact that I'm not just a CEO and founder, I'm like a media personality. So not every CEO has to have interviews twice a week, two full days. And so it was really important for me to get business partners. And so I met my COO and one of my business partners, Jason, and now he's helped me so much. So just finding the right people that have the right mentality that I could trust to give equity. So that they could help me grow my business while I could also be the face of the company. Cause it's kind of like two different roles and I see it even more evolving more.

• 16:13Speaker 01

  You have to bring in somebody to run the business if you're like the face of the business.

• 16:17Speaker 00

  Exactly.

• 16:17Speaker 01

  It's hard to really do both. You have to do both here in the very beginning. The biggest thing that that will determine your success as a business is bringing in the right people to run the business.

• 16:27Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 16:27Speaker 01

  Uh, that can make or break your company. So, and I've seen that both ways, even in my own business. So we've had setbacks with maybe the wrong management team. They did well in certain areas, but other areas not so well. And a lot of times you might bring in a management team that gets you, that has a skill level to get you to a certain level. But once they get you to that level, if they don't learn and grow and know what to do above that level, you're going to stay capped. So you have to bring in sometimes even better people that have already done the thing that you're wanting to do. So whatever you're at now, let's say if you're like, I want to grow this, you know, media thing to 250 million a year.

• 16:59Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 17:00Speaker 01

  Well, maybe the people that got you to where you're at, they might not, not all of them, because some will grow with the business. They'll learn. Others won't necessarily do that and they won't have the skill level to get you there. So when you brought in that COO, like what changed for you?

• 17:13Speaker 00

  Well, the thing is, is that he was actually working with me first.

• 17:17Speaker 01

  Okay. Yeah.

• 17:18Speaker 00

  So it's not somebody that I just like found. I put out like a post, I want a COO. It was somebody who was my production director. He had his own company. He ended up shutting down his company to run my production team because we were doing really well. And then he just started taking on finance, taking on ops. And we became really good friends and then I trusted him. And so it was like, it was an aqua hire.

• 17:41Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 17:42Speaker 00

  So it wasn't just like me finding somebody else.

• 17:44Speaker 01

  They knew the business. They were intimately involved in the business.

• 17:46Speaker 00

  Yeah. And I had the proof that I knew he was going to do well, you know?

• 17:49Speaker 01

  That makes sense. Alright, so I want to pivot because I know everybody's going to be like, how do I get leads on LinkedIn? So if you're a salesperson, business owner, you know, sales manager, whoever you are. Tell us, you, you said you became a LinkedIn influencer.

• 18:02Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 18:02Speaker 01

  I didn't know that term was before you even got into podcasting. So how did, how did that happen?

• 18:08Speaker 00

  Well, basically, when I first started my podcast, I had a rule for myself. I'm going to post on LinkedIn every single day.

• 18:15Speaker 01

  Okay, and what would you post?

• 18:16Speaker 00

  Um, well, it would just be whatever I decided to post that day. I was very motivational and inspirational in the beginning. I was working in corporate at the time and I wanted to push my podcast. And so I made a rule that I was gonna post every day. But the key is, is that I figured out all the engagement hacks.

• 18:34Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 18:34Speaker 00

  So, for example, on LinkedIn, a DM is the highest viral action that you can take.

• 18:41Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 18:41Speaker 00

  So if you DM somebody and they respond back, they're eighty-five percent more likely to see your post on their feed the next time that they log on.

• 18:48Speaker 01

  I did not know that.

• 18:50Speaker 00

  So, I had this strategy. I didn't know what I was doing at the time. It was just, I just figured it out. I figured it out.

• 18:55Speaker 01

  You're walking down the street one day and somebody starts like, "Hey, if you're on LinkedIn..."

• 18:58Speaker 00

  Well, I know the LinkedIn algorithm like the back of my head. So, when I first started, Gary Vee was somebody who I thought was very similar to me. He had a podcast. Um, he was in marketing, he had an agency, he was motivational. So, I decided I was gonna target his fans.

• 19:15Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 19:15Speaker 00

  So I'd go on his recent posts, I'd see anybody who liked and commented. This showed me that these people took viral action, they were active on LinkedIn, they enjoyed similar content. So, I would invite them to connect. "Hey, I see that you like Gary Vee's posts. I love him too. If you like his stuff, you're gonna like mine. I've got a podcast. I love to talk about motivation. Let's connect."

• 19:37Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 19:37Speaker 00

  They'd be like, "Oh my gosh, sure."

• 19:38Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 19:39Speaker 00

  Before I knew it, I had like ten thousand of Gary Vee's fans.

• 19:41Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 19:42Speaker 00

  I would always be like the top comment on his post and then so other people would be like, "Who's this girl with a hundred comments, a hundred likes on her post?" And then it would just be an effect and then...

• 19:51Speaker 01

  Makes sense.

• 19:51Speaker 00

  Because I was very engaging and actually had conversations in the DMs, I got super fans that were like really invested in my success. Oh, Holla talks to me. Holla knows me. And so, it wasn't just about posting every day. I used to have a forty-five minute commute to Disney.

• 20:07Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 20:07Speaker 00

  I'd post in the morning. But then I had a rule on the way back, I'd have to send all my DMs.

• 20:12Speaker 01

  Now, were your posts intentional posts, or were you like posting about your cats, or like, what were you posting? So I want to make sure that everybody knows, like, it's not just, just post to post, there's probably a reason why you're posting.

• 20:25Speaker 00

  Well, back then, I was posting motivational posts because it reached the broadest audience and they were most likely shared. And the second most viral action on LinkedIn is shares. So if you want to go viral, you need shares. So I used to post motivational, positive content so that it would go viral. But LinkedIn has changed over the past six, like, you know, I became an influencer on LinkedIn six years ago, right? So now, if you want to do well on LinkedIn, you've got to think of a couple of things. Number one, it's got to enter-

• 20:50Speaker 01

  Say that if they're selling, uh, well, Ferraris, like, or like, you know, let's say Range Rovers or something that's a hundred and fifty thousand or plus, they're probably going to want to be looking up like high-level executives, business owners, right?

• 21:03Speaker 00

  Exactly. So you can type in business owner, and let's say it's San Francisco.

• 21:07Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 21:08Speaker 00

  And then you would proactively try to connect with those people. You might engage on their posts, bring them into your world. And then, when they engage on your stuff, LinkedIn will send a notification to all of their first connections, who are likely in the same region.

• 21:23Speaker 01

  That makes sense.

• 21:24Speaker 00

  And then your stuff will get shared to even more people in that region. So you've got to be strategic to invite the people who are your target audience, even as, and if you're a local business, it's really important to focus on that.

• 21:32Speaker 01

  Or let's say if you sold life insurance over the phone or something, you could target, what, like, families between the ages of this and this that make this type of income? Does it allow you to, like, target that?

• 21:42Speaker 00

  You can't target that. Titles, um, location, industry, company, company size.

• 21:50Speaker 01

  Okay. That's good.

• 21:52Speaker 00

  Schools, colleges.

• 21:53Speaker 01

  That makes sense. That makes sense. Okay. So, uh, what, what are some other things that they might need to know? Let's put yourself in their shoes.

• 22:00Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 22:00Speaker 01

  Say that you're, you go back before you do all this stuff.

• 22:03Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 22:03Speaker 01

  And you're in corporate America and you get a sales job.

• 22:06Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 22:06Speaker 01

  What would you do on LinkedIn to bring in more, uh, leads and appointments if you were in their shoes?

• 22:13Speaker 00

  Yeah. So first of all, you gotta optimize your profile. So like I said, keywords. How do you, like LinkedIn is just like a search platform at this point. Even it ranks super high on Google search.

• 22:23Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 22:23Speaker 00

  If you've ever Googled your name, it's probably LinkedIn comes up first, right? So you wanna make sure that all the keywords that you think people need to use to find you are in your profile, in your posts, you're using, you're strategic. You actually think about the keywords that you're gonna put in your profile.

• 22:37Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 22:38Speaker 00

  Okay?

• 22:38Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 22:38Speaker 00

  Number two is you wanna post, right? People wanna see active profiles. Uh, but it's not just enough to like post and ghost. You need to have some strategy about it. So that means engaging with other people on the platform, potentially.

• 22:51Speaker 01

  I'm gonna ask you this question.

• 22:52Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 22:52Speaker 01

  This'll be good.

• 22:53Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 22:53Speaker 01

  Let's, let's say you go back to your job, you work for Disney.

• 22:56Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 22:56Speaker 01

  Right? And let's say you were in sales for Disney, like corporate sales, right? What, what would be, what would be like a post you might've, you might've done to like start that engagement? What's the type of strategy you would've done there?

• 23:07Speaker 00

  Um, so I would've probably went with an educational angle.

• 23:13Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 23:13Speaker 00

  And I'd be like, here's the top three ways to close your next deal. You know? Um, the features matter on LinkedIn. This is something that we didn't talk about yet. So like video actually doesn't do that well on LinkedIn. It's just starting to pick up. But it's mostly like photographs, graphic posts.

• 23:32Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 23:32Speaker 00

  Uh, captions with keywords. That's what does well. So I would do something that has a keyword heavy caption.

• 23:39Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 23:39Speaker 00

  With like all the, and it gives meaningful content for people who want content from experts. I would make sure, um, that I have content in my profile that shows LinkedIn that I'm an expert. This is the other thing. LinkedIn, if I all of a sudden start talking about finance and I never talked about finance before, LinkedIn's not gonna show my stuff to anybody.

• 23:59Speaker 01

  Right.

• 24:00Speaker 00

  Because I'm like, you're not an expert, we're not gonna feed the content. So they're actually looking at your track record of performance, your last two weeks of engagement.

• 24:07Speaker 01

  It'd be like me as a sales trainer.

• 24:09Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 24:09Speaker 01

  Like talking about like, you know, uh, the end of the world, like, uh, food storage.

• 24:14Speaker 00

  Yeah, so you've gotta, you've gotta kinda like pick what you're gonna talk about it and make sure it's on your profile and make sure it's on your post. Um, the other thing I would do is like lean into your own personal story.

• 24:24Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 24:24Speaker 00

  So photographs of yourself, action shots, you at a meeting, you making a deal, you on the phone, you on the computer. Show people, like people love photographs.

• 24:34Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 24:35Speaker 00

  And on LinkedIn, you actually get like points, basically for dwell time. And people actually stare at your photographs and it increases.

• 24:41Speaker 01

  So maybe if you're a salesperson and you're in a boardroom meeting with, you know, some executives, maybe you take a picture there and you're like talking or something, shows that maybe you're an expert in something.

• 24:50Speaker 00

  Yeah, so you wanna use, you could use like a photograph and then pair it with something that is educational.

• 24:55Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 24:56Speaker 00

  Right? Or motivational.

• 24:57Speaker 01

  Okay. So let's say if I sold, I don't know, let's say if I sold, you know, commercial insurance, you know? Maybe you post something about like the top three things to look for when renewing your insurance for next year or something like that.

• 25:11Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 25:11Speaker 01

  So it has to be around, you wanna focus on something that's going to trigger like, oh wow, that's really valuable.

• 25:16Speaker 00

  Yeah, and then the key is, the people who like and comment on your stuff, they're raising their hand, they're saying, I'm interested in what you have to say. Then you retarget them in the DMs. And you give them something for free.

• 25:29Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 25:29Speaker 00

  You give them some place to learn more.

• 25:31Speaker 01

  Then DM them and like, hey, saw that you commented on that. Uh, if it helps, we have a free guide that shows you how to X, Y, Z.

• 25:38Speaker 00

  Totally.

• 25:39Speaker 01

  Would you like me to send that over or something?

• 25:40Speaker 00

  Exactly. So you build up your social currency and then you can lead them off LinkedIn eventually to a lead form, to a call, whatever it is.

• 25:47Speaker 01

  That's better than just like cold messaging them and they have no idea who you are, they've never really seen you or anything.

• 25:52Speaker 00

  Yeah, and you wanna think about like, every post has a purpose, right? So some posts are meant to go viral. Maybe that's your more motivational, inspirational photograph with an inspirational story. Or um, like a career related post, like I was telling you. And then some are sales. You wanna just sell to your first connections. Anybody who likes and comments, you retarget them in the DMs.

• 26:11Speaker 01

  It is true what you're saying. Like even on my IG, I have a little bit under like nine hundred thousand followers. But it's very niche specific to salespeople. If I started doing mainly like motivational stuff, I could probably get, you know, I probably have double the followers now.

• 26:25Speaker 00

  Yeah, you get a broader audience.

• 26:26Speaker 01

  Wouldn't have the same type of business, right? Because now when we're focused on sales, they're like, hey, I want the sales training. If I'm just another person posting motivational stuff, not really separating apart. So you, you gotta, you gotta do kind of a happy balance, I think, where it's like, you know, you're, you're posting stuff for business as well, that's your target audience, not just for more views. Cause sometimes views don't just necessarily like.

• 26:49Speaker 00

  Totally.

• 26:50Speaker 01

  Income, right? You know, uh, are. Guy on our team was at one of Alex Hormozi's events that are day and talking about social media. And he even said the same thing. He's like, I got the most, you know, views and followers from this one reel I did on my favorite burrito recipe. But then we went back and look at the analytics. Nobody bought any of his courses. So he's like, why was he even doing that? He's like, I got a lot of followers, but none of them from that.

• 27:15Speaker 00

  Totally.

• 27:16Speaker 01

  At the end, I did anything.

• 27:18Speaker 00

  That reminds me of like, there's like some like meme type pages on LinkedIn where they post like cat videos. It's like, nobody's buying from these people. They're just getting followers, but they don't have a brand. They don't have anything. Yeah.

• 27:29Speaker 01

  Okay. So what would be a few other things that they could do to really like monetize LinkedIn from like a salesperson's perspective? Besides the DM strategy, besides the posts, like what are, what are a few other like nuanced stuff that most people just would not know that I know you know?

• 27:46Speaker 00

  I know, I know. I would be targeting events.

• 27:50Speaker 01

  Really? Okay.

• 27:51Speaker 00

  So LinkedIn has these events that people sign up to and it tells you exactly what they want to learn about, exactly what problems they have, exactly what they're interested in.

• 28:00Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 28:01Speaker 00

  And so it could be like, for example, I sell a social media course. You could sell like a sales course. Or we could think of any example, but let's say if it's like some sort of, you know, solution that you have and there's an event about solving that problem.

• 28:16Speaker 01

  So you're a financial advisor and you, there's events, you know, they come and be.

• 28:20Speaker 00

  Yeah. Build your, build your wealth or whatever. You can actually see who registers for those events on LinkedIn and that tells you that's my target audience. I'm just going to invite all those people. The other thing is once you grow a following, you can use polls, right? So I do something where I'm, when I have like a LinkedIn course, I'll be like, who here wants to level up their LinkedIn? Yes? No?

• 28:41Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 28:42Speaker 00

  They say yes, retarget them. Hey, I've got this webinar coming up. I'd love to invite you, blah, blah, blah. So you can actually just like kind of pull your audience, see what they're interested in, retarget them. Yeah.

• 28:52Speaker 01

  Interesting. Okay. Give us one more. I know you got a, I know you got like a hundred more holding out on us. Give us one more thing, like a nuance that most people just would not know that kind of separates you from anybody.

• 29:03Speaker 00

  Okay. So one thing to note on LinkedIn, it is still an organic platform where you can kind of just like hack the algorithm. Okay? And the first ninety minutes is very important.

• 29:14Speaker 01

  You know, when you guys say hacked, I picture like some kid like in, you know, like in the basement in like Russia and he's got like a hoodie over him, he's like hacking. What does that mean? How do you hack it?

• 29:25Speaker 00

  So basically, it's like if you understand the publishing and engagement strategies, you will go much more viral.

• 29:33Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 29:33Speaker 00

  And it's just like a recipe.

• 29:34Speaker 01

  How do you learn that? Where do they go?

• 29:36Speaker 00

  Well, there's.

• 29:37Speaker 01

  You have a course?

• 29:38Speaker 00

  I have a course.

• 29:38Speaker 01

  Okay, that's a good idea.

• 29:39Speaker 00

  I have a course. So there's like a lot.

• 29:43Speaker 00

  So first of all, you want to avoid spam filters.

• 29:45Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 29:45Speaker 00

  So the first part of the LinkedIn algorithm, when you put up a post, it scans you for spam. So it's looking for things like chunky paragraphs, which is counter, like not intuitive. That's why you see all the influencers doing line by line style on LinkedIn, okay?

• 30:00Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 30:01Speaker 00

  So they want people to skim, they want it to be readable. They're looking for grammar errors, they're looking for anything nudity, profanity, like the regular phone numbers.

• 30:09Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 30:10Speaker 00

  Follow for follow, anything that looks sketch.

• 30:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 30:13Speaker 00

  They won't show your stuff to anybody. So you need to know what the spam filters are. Also, over tagging, over hashtagging.

• 30:20Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 30:20Speaker 00

  Even tagging anybody who's not going to.

• 30:22Speaker 01

  How many tags is an over tagging?

• 30:24Speaker 00

  None.

• 30:25Speaker 01

  Just don't, don't do.

• 30:26Speaker 00

  None. Well, I would say three max, but in general, I think hashtagging will hurt you. It's just keywords now. Like hashtags don't really work. Also, you can't tag people who won't engage on your post within the first thirty minutes. So basically, all these things that people abused are now spam filters. So people used to like tag fifty people.

• 30:45Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 30:45Speaker 00

  They abused it. So now if you tag anyone, if they don't like or comment in the first thirty minutes, you're deprioritized. It looks like you're spamming something. So you don't tag anyone. So there's spam filters that you've got to get through.

• 30:55Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 30:56Speaker 00

  Then like the second stage of the algorithm is really all about viral action and viral actions are all weighted differently.

• 31:04Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 31:04Speaker 00

  So you want to. Shares, sorry, my brain's fried from speaking today.

• 31:11Speaker 01

  I can't believe you did a podcast. I went on Dan Fleischman's, do you know Dan Fleischman?

• 31:15Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah.

• 31:16Speaker 01

  I went on his podcast right after a seven hour workshop

• 31:19Speaker 00

  Oh god.

• 31:19Speaker 01

  last week in Beverly Hills. And he asked me a couple of questions. My brain was so fried, I'm like, "Oh my gosh, I feel like I'm 97 years old right now."

• 31:27Speaker 00

  Yeah, so sorry about that. But shares are the most viral action. And every viral action on LinkedIn is weighted. Okay, so shares are four points. Comments are two and a half points, a like is one point. So you could actually, if you optimize for likes, you're never gonna go viral. You need to optimize for shares.

• 31:44Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 31:44Speaker 00

  Okay? And so, basically, you wanna make sure that if you're writing a post, like, if I say, "Hey guys, comment below and share your story." That's me trying to engage my first connections, because I know I'm not gonna go viral if I tell everybody to comment.

• 32:00Speaker 01

  Or maybe your CTA is like, "Hey, you know, share this with somebody you feel like this will help." Or something like this. That's almost your CTA, just get them to share.

• 32:07Speaker 00

  Or if you say nothing. So like, a viral tactic that we did once, is that I would find like, really motivational quotes that went viral on Instagram, that I already know go viral.

• 32:17Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 32:18Speaker 00

  I would put it up on LinkedIn with no caption. That would trigger people to wanna share it with their own thoughts, because I didn't tell them what to think. So that would lead to like, all these shares and us going viral. So it's like, you need to think about like, okay, what am I really optimizing for? Every post has a purpose, like I was telling you.

• 32:34Speaker 01

  Okay, you gotta kinda change it up a little bit. You gotta interrupt the pattern. Because if you're, if you're writing the same type of stuff in almost every post, if you're writing the same pattern, the brain recognizes

• 32:46Speaker 00

  Totally.

• 32:46Speaker 01

  and they're not gonna share it as much. So when you, what you did is when you, let's say you wrote all that stuff, and share if you agree or whatever, and then the next one's just the thing with nothing on it.

• 32:54Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 32:55Speaker 01

  What you did is just interrupted their pattern, so they're like freaking out, and they're gonna share it.

• 32:58Speaker 00

  And that's the other, a lot of it's like psychology.

• 33:01Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 33:01Speaker 00

  On social media, if you give everybody the kitchen sink and you say, "I've got the five ways that you need to do X, Y, Z." People are like, "Okay, Holla knows it all, like, I have nothing to share, she already gave the five ways." So like, I'll purposely leave something out that's very obvious, so people are like, "Oh, you forgot this." Right? And then they wanna contribute and they have their own ideas.

• 33:20Speaker 01

  That makes more sense.

• 33:21Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 33:21Speaker 01

  Okay, this has been a very interesting conversation because we always talk about sales persuasion and influence, but really what you're doing is sales persuasion and influence as well in the form of LinkedIn and podcasting to get your message out there. I always can say, you know, I always say you can have the best product, the best service, the best thing in the world, but if nobody knows about it, you're not going to go anywhere.

• 33:43Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 33:43Speaker 01

  So where can they find out more details about maybe how they can look at maybe starting their own podcast, or maybe if they want to learn how to generate like high quality leads in LinkedIn so they can sell more, where could they go to learn about that with you?

• 33:54Speaker 00

  I have a course on LinkedIn, it's a masterclass. You can go to yapmedia.com/course.

• 34:00Speaker 01

  Brilliant, okay.

• 34:02Speaker 00

  Go there if you want the two day workshop.

• 34:04Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 34:04Speaker 00

  Um, in terms of podcasting, I've got a podcast, Young and Profiting. I talk all the time about growing podcasts because that's what I'm known for.

• 34:11Speaker 01

  Okay, go, where would they go to get that podcast? Like iTunes, Spotify, just anywhere?

• 34:14Speaker 00

  Spotify, Apple, YouTube, we're everywhere. So Young and Profiting.

• 34:18Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 34:18Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 34:19Speaker 01

  Yes, and I've actually been on your show. I remember doing an interview. I think we did a virtual.

• 34:23Speaker 00

  Yeah, we did a virtual.

• 34:23Speaker 01

  Wow, when was that? I've been on so many podcasts.

• 34:25Speaker 00

  Probably a year ago or so.

• 34:26Speaker 01

  A couple of years ago, like, Dave, you know I did.

• 34:28Speaker 00

  It was great. We did a great sales episode.

• 34:29Speaker 01

  You're on a bunch of podcasts and you're just like, can't remember anything. Well, it's been a pleasure to have you on.

• 34:33Speaker 00

  Yeah, thank you so much.

• 34:34Speaker 01

  Congratulations, I'm crushing it. I heard a lot of people come out there saying that you're really, really good.

• 34:38Speaker 00

  Thank you.

• 34:38Speaker 01

  So, good job. And we will see you on the next show. Go to her site. Look, if you want to be the best at what you do, you gotta do what? You gotta commit to mastery, right? You don't want to be a dabbler, you don't want to be a winger who wings everything. You don't want to be a know-it-all-er. You want to commit to mastery if you want to be in the top 1%. To be in the top 1%, you gotta learn skills that she's talking about and other skills we talk about on the show to get to the highest level. So make sure you go to the website, check out her course, uh, learn LinkedIn, get a podcast, and uh, make selling even easier for you.

• 35:12Speaker 00

  Thank you.

• 35:15Hala Taha?

  Yeah fam, it was so much fun to speak with Jeremy Miner in person for his podcast. I loved being there in person. I love doing more in-person content and it really just reinforced something that I've believed for years. Whether you're closing deals in sales or building an audience on social media, it really all comes down to human psychology and creating those genuine connections. Now, in my conversation with Jeremy, there was some takeaways that I want to just highlight. First, that's mastering the art of storytelling. Whether you're opening a sales conversation or starting a LinkedIn post, beginning with a story that people can visualize and become emotionally invested in is super important. Remember back to how I opened my funnel hacking live presentation with Jenna Kutcher's car story. That wasn't accidental.

• 35:59Hala Taha?

  It made 6,000 people lean in because they could see themselves in that moment. Next, you've got to leverage a DM strategy and this works for any platform, but especially LinkedIn. When somebody is engaging with your content, when they're liking, when they're commenting, they're raising their hand and they're saying, "Hey, I'm interested in this. Pick me." Don't let that opportunity slip and re-target them in the DMs. That means reach out to them in the DMs. They took the first action and so you want to respond with something valuable and not salesy. Be of service and just keep building up that social capital. And here's something Jeremy and I both believe. You've got to commit to mastery. You can't just dabble. Pick one platform

• 36:39Hala Taha?

  and then go all in. Truly understand the algorithm, study the features and get your reps in. I became the LinkedIn queen before I conquered other platforms because I focused on that one platform. I actually stopped posting on Instagram and other platforms. I only posted on my LinkedIn and podcast for two years and then I dominated both those channels. Finally, remember that your personal story is your unfair advantage. Corporate America taught me presentation skills that I still use today to land high-ticket clients. I got my first 30K a month retainer client, my second client ever, because I had good PowerPoint skills. So your background, whatever it is, has given you unique skills that others don't have. Make sure you get those skills and then use them. Yeah fam, if you found

• 37:24Hala Taha?

  You in this conversation and you feel like you're now ready to level up your influence game, make sure you pay it forward by sharing this episode with somebody who needs to hear it. Maybe they're struggling to generate quality leads or trying to build their personal brand. This episode could be exactly what they need to hear. And by the way, you don't just need to hear Young and Profiting podcasts, you can watch all our podcasts on YouTube. And now with our Yap Live series, we're also on Spotify Video. You guys can follow me on Instagram at YapWithHala or LinkedIn, just search my name, it's Hala Taha. And again, I want to say thanks to Jeremy for having me on his show. It was such a fun conversation. I hope you guys are enjoying this Yap Live series, enjoying hearing me on other podcasts

• 38:04Hala Taha?

  from time to time and learning from me directly. This is Hala Taha, AKA The Podcast Princess, signing off.