WEBVTT - Young and Profiting w/ Hala Taha #800 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:02.840 Welcome to how to Money. I'm Joel and I am 0:00:02.920 --> 0:00:19.800 Matt and today we're talking Young and Profiting with Halla Taha. 0:00:25.680 --> 0:00:29.200 That's right. We're joined today by Halla Taha and our 0:00:29.240 --> 0:00:31.840 conversation is going to be all about making money and 0:00:31.880 --> 0:00:35.760 getting paid. Hala is the host of the Young and 0:00:35.840 --> 0:00:39.840 Profiting also known as yapp podcast, which is a top 0:00:39.880 --> 0:00:43.520 business and entrepreneurship podcast across all the different apps, and 0:00:43.560 --> 0:00:46.720 she is also the founder and CEO of YAP Media. 0:00:47.040 --> 0:00:51.760 It's a podcast network. They've got a full service social 0:00:51.800 --> 0:00:55.440 media podcast marketing agency for all the top podcasters out there, 0:00:55.840 --> 0:00:59.600 including celebrities and CEOs, and that might be a part 0:00:59.600 --> 0:01:02.880 of the reason why she's landed guests like Matthew McConaughey, 0:01:03.040 --> 0:01:06.360 Damon John, Seth Godin, just to name a few. But 0:01:06.480 --> 0:01:10.560 Halla is an expert on networking, marketing, side hustles and 0:01:10.760 --> 0:01:13.959 personal branding as well. She's a LinkedIn pro and so 0:01:14.160 --> 0:01:17.520 we've got a bunch of questions in that arena as well. Halla, 0:01:17.600 --> 0:01:19.679 thank you so much for talking with us today. 0:01:20.080 --> 0:01:22.720 I am so pumped for this conversation. You guys are 0:01:22.760 --> 0:01:24.640 so fun and I can't wait. 0:01:25.319 --> 0:01:26.840 We're pumped to a lot to get to a lot 0:01:26.880 --> 0:01:28.480 of ground to cover. But the first question we got 0:01:28.480 --> 0:01:30.640 to ask everybody who comes on the podcast is what 0:01:30.640 --> 0:01:32.399 do they like to splurge on? Because Matt and I 0:01:32.480 --> 0:01:34.400 we splorge on craft beer. We're drinking a good one 0:01:34.480 --> 0:01:37.560 right now, and and sometimes craft beer costs, you know, 0:01:37.720 --> 0:01:40.440 a pretty penny. What's the thing that you spend more 0:01:40.440 --> 0:01:42.760 money than some people think of saying on while you're 0:01:42.760 --> 0:01:44.959 doing the right thing and you're saving and investing for 0:01:45.000 --> 0:01:45.480 your future. 0:01:46.400 --> 0:01:51.200 It's definitely splurging on beauty expenses. I am dropping a 0:01:51.200 --> 0:01:54.360 lot of cash at Sephora every single month. I am 0:01:54.400 --> 0:01:58.160 getting facials, I'm getting my alashes done every week, my 0:01:58.320 --> 0:02:02.080 nails done, And honestly, part of my brand is to 0:02:02.120 --> 0:02:06.520 look young. And I feel my most confident when I 0:02:06.520 --> 0:02:08.880 feel my most beautiful, and I feel like it just 0:02:09.000 --> 0:02:13.520 helps me be a better, more productive person when I 0:02:13.600 --> 0:02:16.119 take care of myself. So that also includes a gym 0:02:16.160 --> 0:02:19.000 membership I pay for and oh yeah, yeah, just taking 0:02:19.000 --> 0:02:19.880 care of myself. 0:02:20.000 --> 0:02:20.560 I love it. 0:02:20.600 --> 0:02:23.520 Okay, So does that that technically means that these are 0:02:23.560 --> 0:02:24.320 business expenses? 0:02:24.520 --> 0:02:24.680 Right? 0:02:25.240 --> 0:02:27.320 I do get to expense some of it's going on 0:02:27.360 --> 0:02:28.600 my business card for sure. 0:02:31.080 --> 0:02:31.240 Yeah. 0:02:31.240 --> 0:02:33.200 It doesn't mean it's free, right, but it is at 0:02:33.280 --> 0:02:35.080 least helpful so that you're not like, yeah, yeah, you 0:02:35.120 --> 0:02:36.440 say some taxation on that stuff. 0:02:36.560 --> 0:02:40.720 I love it, okay haala. So you said that you've 0:02:40.760 --> 0:02:43.240 had an entrepreneurial spirit ever since you were a little kid. 0:02:43.240 --> 0:02:45.280 I think since you were four years old. Where did 0:02:45.280 --> 0:02:47.840 that come from? And I mean, I guess specifically, I 0:02:47.880 --> 0:02:50.760 want to know if it was nurture, if it was 0:02:50.840 --> 0:02:52.600 a part of your family culture, or if it was 0:02:52.639 --> 0:02:55.400 more just sort of nature, if it's just who you are. 0:02:55.880 --> 0:02:58.440 I think it was certainly nature. I mean I came 0:02:58.440 --> 0:03:03.560 from a family of doctor primarily and a family of 0:03:03.600 --> 0:03:06.800 immigrants where they really thought that the only path to 0:03:06.880 --> 0:03:09.800 success was to be a doctor, lawyer, engineer, go to 0:03:09.880 --> 0:03:13.840 college and get a degree, take a test, and then 0:03:13.880 --> 0:03:17.200 like go on this like set track. And in fact, 0:03:17.639 --> 0:03:20.040 I was like the black sheep of my family because 0:03:20.080 --> 0:03:23.480 I was not going on that track. And I'm literally 0:03:23.520 --> 0:03:27.200 the only one out of my four siblings who did 0:03:27.200 --> 0:03:29.600 not become a doctor. And I had cousins who lived 0:03:29.639 --> 0:03:31.160 on the street, three of them who were basically like 0:03:31.200 --> 0:03:34.440 my siblings, they all became doctors. So literally the only 0:03:34.480 --> 0:03:37.560 one in my immediate family out of the quote unquote 0:03:37.640 --> 0:03:39.320 kids that didn't become a doctor. 0:03:39.720 --> 0:03:41.280 You're not alone in that, right. There's a lot of 0:03:41.480 --> 0:03:44.800 immigrants who have a similar sort of story. We brought 0:03:44.960 --> 0:03:46.920 just sing on the podcast. A long time ago I 0:03:46.960 --> 0:03:49.000 met from minority mindset. He said the same thing, like, 0:03:49.480 --> 0:03:52.720 he's been an incredible success and yet you know, his 0:03:52.760 --> 0:03:54.480 parents were like, you're not a doctor or lawyer, so 0:03:54.600 --> 0:03:57.360 it doesn't matter. So how's your family responded hat to you? 0:03:57.720 --> 0:04:00.600 He said, do the black sheep. But seeing all the 0:04:00.640 --> 0:04:03.080 success you've had and the ways you've been able to 0:04:03.160 --> 0:04:05.040 kind of, like I don't know, create a pretty like 0:04:05.080 --> 0:04:07.520 almost like an a media empire. How how does your 0:04:07.520 --> 0:04:09.400 family think about you now that you're not a doctor 0:04:09.440 --> 0:04:10.720 or lawyer but you're still successful. 0:04:10.840 --> 0:04:13.640 Now they're asking me, can we sleep on your couch? 0:04:13.840 --> 0:04:14.080 You know? 0:04:15.240 --> 0:04:17.840 So no, I'm like, by far the most successful one 0:04:17.839 --> 0:04:21.440 in my family now. So it all worked out, but 0:04:21.520 --> 0:04:23.760 it did take. It was really hard in those years 0:04:23.839 --> 0:04:26.760 when nobody believed in me. You know, there was probably 0:04:26.880 --> 0:04:30.240 like five six years where everybody, even though I was 0:04:30.279 --> 0:04:33.360 doing such cool things on the internet, nobody understood it, 0:04:34.000 --> 0:04:36.160 and I was really looked down and like I would 0:04:36.160 --> 0:04:39.080 go to the Thanksgiving and I feel like people were 0:04:39.120 --> 0:04:41.760 really condescending to me and didn't understand what I did. 0:04:42.120 --> 0:04:45.520 And it was really only until like I really just 0:04:45.600 --> 0:04:49.200 had something to show for myself, that they started being 0:04:49.279 --> 0:04:51.440 proud of me and like accepting what I was doing. 0:04:51.720 --> 0:04:52.599 Why did you keep doing it? 0:04:52.640 --> 0:04:54.880 And was there any point you wanted to quit when 0:04:55.320 --> 0:04:57.960 you were kind of confronted with other people's disbelief along 0:04:57.960 --> 0:04:58.560 the way, I. 0:04:58.640 --> 0:05:00.760 Especially your family, I did quit. 0:05:01.040 --> 0:05:04.840 I actually started my career on this journey in broadcasting 0:05:04.880 --> 0:05:09.080 when I was nineteen years old. I quit college to 0:05:09.160 --> 0:05:11.600 take an internship at Hot ninety seven and become Angie 0:05:11.640 --> 0:05:14.240 Martinez's assistant for three years, and I didn't get paid 0:05:14.279 --> 0:05:18.600 as cent. I made money like hosting hip hop showcases 0:05:18.600 --> 0:05:21.679 at night, and I'd have all these like outside online 0:05:21.720 --> 0:05:25.279 radio shows on the side to like hone my broadcasting chops, 0:05:25.920 --> 0:05:28.640 And then I started a blog for three years that 0:05:28.800 --> 0:05:31.680 became super popular, and I almost got to show on 0:05:31.760 --> 0:05:33.560 MTV and that didn't work out, and so I had 0:05:33.560 --> 0:05:36.040 a bunch of failures in a row, not getting a 0:05:36.120 --> 0:05:38.400 job at radio that I worked really hard for and 0:05:38.480 --> 0:05:40.200 worked for free for three years and then ended up 0:05:40.200 --> 0:05:44.160 getting fired from my internship. Then I almost got to 0:05:44.160 --> 0:05:46.880 show on MTV with this blog that I basically again 0:05:47.080 --> 0:05:50.120 worked for free for three years just building this brand, 0:05:50.200 --> 0:05:52.800 hosting parties and doing all these like odd jobs to 0:05:53.080 --> 0:05:56.320 make it work. And then MTV dropped me and then 0:05:56.360 --> 0:05:58.560 I did quit. I literally was like, okay, I got 0:05:58.560 --> 0:06:00.760 to be a normal person. I gotta go, so maybe 0:06:00.760 --> 0:06:03.320 get my MBA, do something different and just get a 0:06:03.360 --> 0:06:06.120 regular job. And for four years before I started young 0:06:06.120 --> 0:06:08.560 in profiting podcasts, I literally just had a normal corporate 0:06:08.640 --> 0:06:10.880 job and I thought I'd never get back on the mic. 0:06:11.520 --> 0:06:15.440 You seem to have like a drive, like you're tenacious, 0:06:15.600 --> 0:06:19.000 and like, honestly, I'm curious to hear your take specifically 0:06:19.080 --> 0:06:23.039 on immigrants and specifically I guess second generation immigrants in 0:06:23.080 --> 0:06:26.280 Americas it seems like that they embrace and live out 0:06:26.320 --> 0:06:28.960 the American dream. I think more than almost any other 0:06:28.960 --> 0:06:31.239 segment in society. Do you think that's the case. 0:06:31.360 --> 0:06:33.920 And yeah, Like I find purpose in work, and I 0:06:33.960 --> 0:06:36.680 do find a lot of people who are like American American, 0:06:37.520 --> 0:06:40.200 they don't they have more of a sense of entitlement 0:06:40.520 --> 0:06:44.960 about their work. And for me, you know, I'm Palestinian American, 0:06:45.080 --> 0:06:47.960 so really crazy time to be one hundred percent Palestinian. 0:06:48.520 --> 0:06:52.359 So it's been a crazy time. But my dad basically 0:06:52.480 --> 0:06:55.880 grew up in poverty, grew up in a war, ended 0:06:55.920 --> 0:06:58.840 up becoming a doctor, ended up becoming a surgeon in America, 0:06:59.120 --> 0:07:02.400 opened up a medical set, and he had like enormous 0:07:02.480 --> 0:07:06.360 drive and literally came from nothing, had no electricity, had 0:07:06.400 --> 0:07:09.400 like no running water, like literally came from nothing. So 0:07:09.560 --> 0:07:12.240 for me, it's just like, you know, I wasn't really 0:07:12.280 --> 0:07:15.280 spoiled growing up because my parents came from nothing, so 0:07:15.320 --> 0:07:17.840 they didn't understand like luxury and like that they and 0:07:17.880 --> 0:07:19.680 they donated a lot of their money, so like I 0:07:19.720 --> 0:07:21.680 wasn't spoiled at all, even though we did really my 0:07:21.680 --> 0:07:25.120 family did really well. But I saw like that anything 0:07:25.200 --> 0:07:28.760 was possible, that you could literally create a lot from nothing. 0:07:29.240 --> 0:07:31.800 And for me, it's just like, well, I basically had 0:07:31.840 --> 0:07:35.280 a silver spoon in my mouth, and what's my excuse? 0:07:35.360 --> 0:07:37.840 So how am I going to make a big impact? 0:07:38.000 --> 0:07:40.280 And really what drives me is that there's really not 0:07:40.680 --> 0:07:42.440 a lot of other girls that look like me that 0:07:42.440 --> 0:07:44.880 are in my position. So now what drives me now 0:07:45.000 --> 0:07:48.160 is the fact that all these brown girls keep messaging 0:07:48.160 --> 0:07:49.800 me like, oh, like because of you, I feel like 0:07:49.800 --> 0:07:52.000 I can be an entrepreneur because if you eve inspired 0:07:52.040 --> 0:07:54.840 me and I need to fill that gap because there's 0:07:55.240 --> 0:07:57.480 maybe there's like five other women that I can think 0:07:57.480 --> 0:07:59.040 of that are in my position right now as a 0:07:59.040 --> 0:08:01.160 brown person woman in America. 0:08:01.720 --> 0:08:02.520 You mentioned your dad. 0:08:02.640 --> 0:08:04.760 It certainly sounds like he's had an impact on you too, 0:08:04.960 --> 0:08:08.320 And is that maybe where you think your work ethic 0:08:08.400 --> 0:08:12.560 came from and your dedication is seeing him come from nothing. 0:08:12.600 --> 0:08:14.800 We talk about like self made in America, Like there's 0:08:14.840 --> 0:08:17.480 the myth of the self made man or something like that, 0:08:17.560 --> 0:08:21.320 and it's a lot easier to become quote unquote self 0:08:21.360 --> 0:08:24.680 made starting out on kind of the third base of 0:08:24.760 --> 0:08:27.960 being in a really rich culture like we live in 0:08:28.080 --> 0:08:31.640 versus actually kind of self made man. Like it says 0:08:31.680 --> 0:08:34.400 like your dad was coming rising out of nothing. Yeah, 0:08:34.640 --> 0:08:36.040 what sort of influence did he have on you? 0:08:36.400 --> 0:08:36.600 Oh? 0:08:36.679 --> 0:08:38.959 He was the best. So my dad actually passed away 0:08:39.200 --> 0:08:42.160 during COVID and that was so tough on me because 0:08:42.200 --> 0:08:44.280 he was just like the best human in the world. 0:08:44.400 --> 0:08:47.960 And I think what my dad taught me was generosity 0:08:48.200 --> 0:08:52.520 because he got so successful and he never stopped chopping 0:08:52.559 --> 0:08:55.800 at sears. He like was just really humble and he 0:08:56.440 --> 0:09:00.400 really made it his life's purpose to help everybody around him, 0:09:00.400 --> 0:09:03.040 so he cared more about like his employees getting paid. 0:09:03.520 --> 0:09:05.679 I remember, like if I had like a friend that 0:09:05.920 --> 0:09:08.120 wasn't doing well, he used to give my friends money 0:09:08.200 --> 0:09:10.160 when we'd go to the mall and not even tell me. 0:09:10.720 --> 0:09:12.520 And they told me years later, like, hey, your dad 0:09:12.600 --> 0:09:15.000 used to give me money to the mall, like you know, 0:09:15.640 --> 0:09:17.640 and like he was just like so such a nice 0:09:17.679 --> 0:09:20.320 generous guy. He put all my nieces and nephews through 0:09:20.320 --> 0:09:23.120 college and Palestine and like pulled my whole family out 0:09:23.160 --> 0:09:26.120 of poverty. So he taught me generosity and even now, 0:09:26.320 --> 0:09:29.000 like I'm just like such a generous person, like anybody 0:09:29.040 --> 0:09:31.160 who knows me personally, Like I'm always trying to help 0:09:31.200 --> 0:09:34.640 my employee. Is like my goal of building my company 0:09:34.640 --> 0:09:36.640 as big as possible is actually not I don't really 0:09:36.640 --> 0:09:39.240 care about money, Like in fact, I invest almost everything 0:09:39.280 --> 0:09:41.720 I make back into my company because I just want 0:09:41.760 --> 0:09:44.360 to make an impact. I just want to help people. 0:09:44.360 --> 0:09:47.280 I want to inspire people to live their most fulfilled, 0:09:47.720 --> 0:09:52.800 purposeful lives. And we need powerful people who have money 0:09:53.000 --> 0:09:56.360 to help improve our world. And like that that's my 0:09:56.480 --> 0:09:57.840 drive is like I just want to make the world 0:09:57.840 --> 0:09:58.439 a better place. 0:09:58.720 --> 0:10:02.800 Okay, so you quickly ran through your early career and 0:10:02.840 --> 0:10:05.520 you kind of went through like the blog and then 0:10:05.800 --> 0:10:09.120 possibly the reality show taking off, But your podcast, it 0:10:09.120 --> 0:10:11.200 seemed like that basically started out as a side hustle. 0:10:11.200 --> 0:10:13.160 I think at the time you were working in marketing 0:10:13.280 --> 0:10:15.320 at Disney. Yeah, I guess what was the spark that 0:10:15.400 --> 0:10:17.720 made you want to actually start your own thing. Was 0:10:17.720 --> 0:10:19.760 it that desire to have an impact on the world 0:10:19.840 --> 0:10:22.560 or were you fed up with more the corporate nine 0:10:22.640 --> 0:10:23.600 to five type of raw. 0:10:23.800 --> 0:10:26.400 Honestly, like everything that I've ever done that amounted to 0:10:26.400 --> 0:10:30.640 anything was always like like revenge, you know. So it's 0:10:30.679 --> 0:10:33.520 like I didn't I was like working at Hewlett Packard 0:10:33.520 --> 0:10:36.240 and I was doing great, and I actually thought that 0:10:36.280 --> 0:10:38.600 I was going to be so far behind in corporate 0:10:38.640 --> 0:10:41.840 because when I started my corporate career, I was already 0:10:41.880 --> 0:10:45.360 like twenty eight years old and I literally had never 0:10:45.440 --> 0:10:47.920 had a real job. My resume looked crazy like I 0:10:48.000 --> 0:10:50.480 was interning at a radio station and I was blogging 0:10:50.559 --> 0:10:53.120 for a hip hop website called The Sorority of hip Hop. 0:10:53.160 --> 0:10:56.320 Like I had the craziest resume. But I was actually 0:10:56.400 --> 0:10:59.160 so talented. I was so tech savvy. I could hack 0:10:59.200 --> 0:11:01.679 any social platform, I could video edit. I had all 0:11:01.720 --> 0:11:02.839 these skills that I. 0:11:02.800 --> 0:11:05.000 Had a jack of all trades to really like you know, 0:11:05.040 --> 0:11:06.720 get all those things off the ground exactly. 0:11:06.760 --> 0:11:08.640 So it's like I knew how to do so many things. 0:11:08.720 --> 0:11:11.160 So actually when I got into corporate, I was like 0:11:11.360 --> 0:11:14.560 skipping over people twice my age. And I had my 0:11:14.640 --> 0:11:17.240 last job at Hewlett Packard, which was my first job. 0:11:17.600 --> 0:11:20.040 I was like the C suites pet like doing all 0:11:20.040 --> 0:11:23.280 the qbrs and like really rose up the ranks. And 0:11:23.920 --> 0:11:26.440 at the same time, I was the same person. I 0:11:26.480 --> 0:11:29.680 was the same haula interviewing the CEO and CMO at 0:11:29.720 --> 0:11:32.199 the town hall and going getting flown to all the 0:11:32.240 --> 0:11:34.640 events and on the mic. I was still like on 0:11:34.679 --> 0:11:36.640 the mic all the time, but just in my marketing 0:11:36.720 --> 0:11:39.880 corporate role. And I actually became like the face of 0:11:39.920 --> 0:11:44.040 the young employees at Hewlett Packard, and I was president 0:11:44.120 --> 0:11:46.640 of this thing called the Young Employee Network and I 0:11:46.679 --> 0:11:48.320 did that for two years and it was basically like 0:11:48.360 --> 0:11:51.280 a side hustle within my main job that I worked 0:11:51.320 --> 0:11:53.600 super hard on. And then I wanted to be the 0:11:53.640 --> 0:11:56.840 global young employee president and I was on the global 0:11:56.840 --> 0:11:59.719 board and I had all the credentials, and then they 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:02.760 this lady who didn't like me, gave it to somebody 0:12:02.760 --> 0:12:04.920 who literally had never been a part of the organization, 0:12:05.160 --> 0:12:07.520 and they didn't even keep me on the board. And 0:12:07.559 --> 0:12:09.760 I was just like mortified because I was like, I 0:12:09.800 --> 0:12:13.600 just literally spent three years volunteering to become the president, 0:12:13.800 --> 0:12:15.840 and everybody thought I was going to be the president. 0:12:16.440 --> 0:12:18.400 And then I realized. I was like, man, I did 0:12:18.440 --> 0:12:20.760 it again, Like I did it a hotday seven, work 0:12:20.800 --> 0:12:23.280 for free, not my own brand. I did it a 0:12:24.040 --> 0:12:27.240 you know, Strawberry want it was mine, but like whatever, 0:12:27.320 --> 0:12:30.320 And then this thing I was working for free and 0:12:30.400 --> 0:12:33.200 it didn't work out, and it was a gatekeeper that 0:12:33.320 --> 0:12:35.160 told me no. And I was like, I'm not doing 0:12:35.160 --> 0:12:37.959 this anymore. If I'm going to build something from now on, 0:12:38.080 --> 0:12:40.640 it's going to be for myself. And so I decided 0:12:40.679 --> 0:12:42.520 I was going to start this podcast. If I couldn't 0:12:42.559 --> 0:12:46.440 lead the you know, seven thousand young employees at Hewlett Packard, 0:12:46.440 --> 0:12:49.280 then I'd go lead all the professionals young professionals on LinkedIn. 0:12:49.400 --> 0:12:50.680 Hey there's millions there, you know. 0:12:51.000 --> 0:12:51.240 Yeah. 0:12:51.559 --> 0:12:53.199 So I was like all right, I'll just do the 0:12:53.240 --> 0:12:55.800 same thing I'm doing here helping all these young people. Now, 0:12:55.880 --> 0:12:58.320 I'll just do it for the public and make my 0:12:58.360 --> 0:13:01.559 own things. So young and profiting was probably inspired by 0:13:01.559 --> 0:13:05.679 the Young Employee Network looking back, and I started this podcast, 0:13:05.720 --> 0:13:07.840 and I started posting on LinkedIn, and then I became 0:13:08.080 --> 0:13:11.199 really quickly an influencer on LinkedIn, and then shortly after 0:13:11.280 --> 0:13:13.199 my podcast started getting some traction. 0:13:13.400 --> 0:13:14.839 We have a lot of questions about LinkedIn that we're 0:13:14.840 --> 0:13:16.520 going to get to in a little bit. But how 0:13:16.559 --> 0:13:19.600 long before you ended up making money? And it's like 0:13:19.640 --> 0:13:22.120 talking hearing your story. A lot of years you're working 0:13:22.120 --> 0:13:24.720 your butt off, you're not really making much if anything. 0:13:25.080 --> 0:13:26.840 How long would you tell someone to keep at it 0:13:26.840 --> 0:13:29.040 before they decide to throw in the towel. When do 0:13:29.080 --> 0:13:31.840 you know that your idea is a failure or how 0:13:31.880 --> 0:13:33.480 do you know if it just needs more time. 0:13:34.000 --> 0:13:36.560 It's so this is such a great question because I 0:13:36.600 --> 0:13:40.200 feel like I'm so happy. I quit so many things 0:13:40.240 --> 0:13:42.000 when I decided to quit, Like I had to quit 0:13:42.040 --> 0:13:44.240 my job at one point to take my podcast to 0:13:44.280 --> 0:13:46.360 the next level. I had to actually shut down my 0:13:46.440 --> 0:13:49.520 blog in order to take on my corporate career. So 0:13:49.679 --> 0:13:51.520 I've had lots of points in my life where I 0:13:51.559 --> 0:13:53.959 had to quit and it made a lot of people upset. 0:13:54.720 --> 0:13:58.240 But you've got to look at yourself right and what's 0:13:58.280 --> 0:14:01.760 the best thing for yourself and future. So, for example, 0:14:01.760 --> 0:14:04.160 with this blog, we were doing it for three years. 0:14:04.720 --> 0:14:06.960 We hadn't really figured out how to monetize the blog 0:14:07.000 --> 0:14:09.240 that well. We were hosting parties, but it was like 0:14:09.360 --> 0:14:11.880 three years of like scraping by, and I was like, 0:14:11.960 --> 0:14:14.320 I just can't see us getting out of this. Like 0:14:14.320 --> 0:14:16.400 the only thing we had was this TV show that 0:14:16.440 --> 0:14:18.760 could have given us some notoriety. Then we didn't get that, 0:14:18.800 --> 0:14:20.160 and I was like, you know what, screw it. I 0:14:20.160 --> 0:14:23.960 could keep at this for another three years or I can. 0:14:25.200 --> 0:14:28.080 You know, for me, I had to find a way 0:14:28.160 --> 0:14:32.120 to sustain myself, and that was corporate. That was an 0:14:32.160 --> 0:14:34.360 easy like, Okay, I'm going to get a nine to 0:14:34.400 --> 0:14:36.880 five job. It's not exactly what I want, but this 0:14:37.000 --> 0:14:38.880 is what I need. I need to be able to 0:14:39.280 --> 0:14:43.200 afford my rent Ford, my car, and build some wealth. 0:14:43.360 --> 0:14:45.600 Because I did experiment for a while and it was 0:14:45.680 --> 0:14:50.120 great and fun, but it wasn't sustainable, and so I 0:14:50.160 --> 0:14:52.400 actually had to do something I did not want to 0:14:52.400 --> 0:14:56.200 do in order to build a foundation. And then when 0:14:56.200 --> 0:14:58.680 I worked into corporate, I quickly got to six figures, 0:14:58.680 --> 0:15:02.080 like so quickly, and then I had a foundation finally, 0:15:02.240 --> 0:15:05.080 and that's when I started my side hustle. And actually 0:15:06.000 --> 0:15:09.840 I was very scarred for having a failed entrepreneurship experience 0:15:09.960 --> 0:15:12.400 early on that it took me a really long time 0:15:12.440 --> 0:15:14.520 to actually quit my job and become an entrepreneur. Even 0:15:14.520 --> 0:15:16.560 though I was making like so much money and having 0:15:16.600 --> 0:15:19.080 so much success, I was scared to quit my job. 0:15:19.600 --> 0:15:22.120 And those were overlapping for a decent trunk. 0:15:21.880 --> 0:15:24.240 Of time, right, it was yeah, okay, So what was 0:15:24.240 --> 0:15:25.960 it then that allowed you to quit? Like was it 0:15:26.000 --> 0:15:28.600 a certain dollar amount? Was it a psychological state that 0:15:28.680 --> 0:15:31.480 you arrived in, Like when did you decide to take 0:15:31.480 --> 0:15:34.360 the leap and transition to YAP full time? Because it 0:15:34.680 --> 0:15:36.840 like it even sounds like you had like a massive 0:15:36.880 --> 0:15:38.600 business with like I think I read it right, you 0:15:38.640 --> 0:15:40.160 had over thirty employees by the time. 0:15:40.200 --> 0:15:42.960 Yeah really quit, Oh my gosh, I really waited a 0:15:43.000 --> 0:15:46.160 long time. My second client was paying US thirty thousand 0:15:46.200 --> 0:15:49.320 dollars a month. That was my second client, and then 0:15:49.360 --> 0:15:52.080 I and then I got like two other clients that size. 0:15:52.160 --> 0:15:55.840 So by the time I quit Disney, I had thirty 0:15:55.880 --> 0:15:58.240 employees around the world and we were making well over 0:15:58.280 --> 0:16:01.000 one hundred thousand dollars a month. In the side hustle, 0:16:02.120 --> 0:16:04.600 I was qotcizing my podcast did I was just all 0:16:04.600 --> 0:16:07.160 the podcast guests that would come on my show. They 0:16:07.240 --> 0:16:10.960 kept asking me for services, and then I just I 0:16:10.960 --> 0:16:13.880 had a volunteer team, so I offered them. I turned 0:16:13.920 --> 0:16:16.960 my volunteer team. This is actually pretty interesting, So I'll 0:16:17.000 --> 0:16:21.360 step back. When I started my podcast six years ago. 0:16:21.440 --> 0:16:24.080 I started on LinkedIn, and I used to have super 0:16:24.120 --> 0:16:26.000 fans that would reach out to me and they'd be like, 0:16:26.000 --> 0:16:28.360 holl I changed my life, Like I've never heard like 0:16:28.400 --> 0:16:31.200 I never like even listen to podcasts before, and now 0:16:31.480 --> 0:16:32.920 I've done X, Y and Z, Like, how can I 0:16:32.960 --> 0:16:35.440 help you? How can I make this bigger? I want 0:16:35.440 --> 0:16:39.000 to learn from you. And again, I was this jack 0:16:39.040 --> 0:16:41.600 of all trades. I could write, I could hack social media, 0:16:41.640 --> 0:16:44.320 I could create websites, graphic design, video editing. I knew 0:16:44.360 --> 0:16:46.440 how to do all the steps and so I would 0:16:46.520 --> 0:16:49.640 just like start teaching people how to. I just started 0:16:49.640 --> 0:16:52.280 recruiting these volunteers and interns, actually fans who would reach 0:16:52.280 --> 0:16:53.560 out to me and I put them in a Slack 0:16:53.680 --> 0:16:56.760 channel and for two years. This is how I was 0:16:56.800 --> 0:16:59.640 able to have a really big podcast for two years 0:16:59.680 --> 0:17:03.200 while working a very serious corporate job, is because I 0:17:03.200 --> 0:17:06.080 had twenty volunteers who worked for free for me for 0:17:06.119 --> 0:17:10.119 two years and super fans and they just wanted to 0:17:10.200 --> 0:17:13.639 learn from me. And then once COVID hit and I 0:17:13.680 --> 0:17:16.359 found myself with a little bit more time, I started 0:17:16.359 --> 0:17:18.480 to just pay attention to what everybody was asking me 0:17:18.520 --> 0:17:20.600 because I started to not feel happy at Disney. I 0:17:20.640 --> 0:17:24.000 felt like HP saw me growing up and like I 0:17:24.080 --> 0:17:26.760 was like a rock start HP and really respected. When 0:17:26.760 --> 0:17:29.119 I went to Disney, I look about ten years younger 0:17:29.160 --> 0:17:32.399 than I really am, and I was treated like an 0:17:32.440 --> 0:17:34.639 intern and I just felt like I didn't have any respect. 0:17:34.680 --> 0:17:36.760 I felt like I was starting from scratch again, and 0:17:36.800 --> 0:17:37.960 I was like, you know what, I need to just 0:17:38.000 --> 0:17:39.960 go out on my own because I know my own 0:17:40.000 --> 0:17:44.119 worth and Disney does not value me. And so I 0:17:44.160 --> 0:17:46.840 started paying attention to what my audience was asking me. 0:17:46.840 --> 0:17:48.600 And it was the guests who came on my show 0:17:48.680 --> 0:17:50.880 at the end of the every almost every time they'd 0:17:50.880 --> 0:17:52.159 be like, how did you go your LinkedIn, how did 0:17:52.160 --> 0:17:53.960 you go your podcast? Can you do this for me? 0:17:54.480 --> 0:17:58.240 And then finally one day Heather Monaghan, who was my 0:17:58.280 --> 0:18:01.400 first client and still my client. She's a huge LinkedIn influencer. 0:18:01.640 --> 0:18:04.840 She wouldn't leave me alone. She was like, uh, your 0:18:04.880 --> 0:18:07.720 videos are so awesome, Like you have to do my videos. 0:18:07.840 --> 0:18:10.560 And then I told her like, hey, like I don't 0:18:10.560 --> 0:18:14.560 have time. You know, I've got this like really stressful job, 0:18:14.600 --> 0:18:16.120 but I can train you on the week I told 0:18:16.119 --> 0:18:18.679 her I'll train her on the weekends. And so we 0:18:18.720 --> 0:18:21.120 started having these like Saturday sessions where I was trying 0:18:21.119 --> 0:18:22.400 to teach her how to video at it and she's 0:18:22.440 --> 0:18:24.199 like holla, like I'm not going to learn how to 0:18:24.240 --> 0:18:26.040 do this. She's like I just had a call with 0:18:26.160 --> 0:18:29.639 Gary Vee's team Vaynermedia. I can pay them more. I 0:18:29.640 --> 0:18:32.560 can pay you like you've got a company. You just 0:18:32.600 --> 0:18:34.440 showed me your slack, you have the team, Like I 0:18:34.440 --> 0:18:37.200 don't understand, Like I'll be your first client. You don't 0:18:37.200 --> 0:18:39.080 even like your job at Disney. She was like starting 0:18:39.119 --> 0:18:41.000 to become my mentor. She was like just do it 0:18:41.040 --> 0:18:42.720