Ep. 64: How Podcasting Can Grow Your Business and Increase Revenue – with Hala Taha

00:00:01

Hala Taha: So I come at it with a very podcast centric approach, audience focused approach, and I monetize all the different channels. And so basically it's the same thing. I figured it out for myself and then started to offer it to other people and that's how the YAP Media Podcast Network was born just two years ago and we're already the number one business and self-improvement podcast network.

00:00:25

Andrea Marquez: I'm your host, Andrea Marquez, and this is Small Business, a podcast brought to you by Amazon. A lot of you have been asking if podcasting can help you grow your business, whether that's through creating your own podcast or by advertising on other shows and if you can earn a little extra revenue on the side by starting a podcast.  

The short answer is yes, and I'll be talking to you about what you should do to get started. And if you're not sure if you need to incorporate podcasting into your business, maybe you'll change your mind by the end of this episode.  

Today, I have a very special guest who is no stranger to the world of podcasting and entrepreneurship, Hala Taha, the host of the Young and Profiting Podcast, and the founder and CEO of YAP Media Podcast Network and YAP Media, an award-winning podcast production and social media agency.

00:01:16

Hala Taha: Anything I figured out for myself, I figured out how can I just turn this into something and do it for other people? And I think that's why they call me the podcast princess, because I feel like I figured out every nook and cranny of the industry where other podcasters only focus on creating content.

00:01:32

Andrea Marquez: Hala will be sharing all her secrets on how she managed to start a successful podcast, how to advertise on other podcasts, and how to monetize a podcast beyond just getting sponsorships. Before Hala was dubbed the podcast princess, she was working in marketing at Hewlett Packard. She always had big dreams about working on radio or TV.

00:01:54

Hala Taha: When I first was in college, I interned at a radio station for several years, and then I had a blog site for several years and I almost got a show on MTV and I almost became a host on SiriusXM, but none of those opportunities panned out and I felt like a failure that I didn't make it in radio. I didn't make it in satellite radio or TV, and I thought, okay, I just got to go back, be a normal person, forget my dreams of being an on air personality and let go of my dreams. And I went into corporate.

00:02:25

Andrea Marquez: And she was doing very well.

00:02:26

Hala Taha: I got promoted four times in four years. I was the face of the young employees at Hewlett Packard, but something was missing. I was missing my true calling, which is using my voice for good.

00:02:37

Andrea Marquez: At the time, Hala was volunteering for the Young Employee Network at Hewlett Packard. She started the chapter at her local site in New Jersey and was the president for two years. Then she was on the global board and decided to apply to be present there, but she didn't get the opportunity.

00:02:53

Hala Taha: And then I found myself thinking, am I going to just keep working for free in this volunteer organization in my corporate job, or is this an opportunity for me to do something on my own, to go back to what I love doing? So Hala decided to start her podcast, Young and Profiting, and I actually did it as a side hustle, and I literally thought that it was just going to be a hobby for the rest of my life, a way to release this passion that I had while still sustaining myself because I thought that there was no way I would make money on my podcast.

00:03:26

Andrea Marquez: Fast forward to now, and Hala is making five figures a month. We'll get to the monetization in a bit, but before you even think about making money off your podcast, you first need to cultivate an audience and to do that, Hala did something a little out of the ordinary. She turned to LinkedIn.

00:03:44

Hala Taha: I remember when I first posted on LinkedIn, people were like, why are you posting your podcast on LinkedIn? Nobody does that. You can't post your podcast on LinkedIn. And then it leveraged that to become one of the top podcasters because I didn't listen to everybody what they thought was appropriate for LinkedIn, and I was doing really creative things to stand out and stop the scroll. I was using really bright colors, neon pink, neon green, neon yellow. Nobody was doing that. It wasn't my favorite colors. I wanted to stand out. I was making comic book audiograms. Video podcasting wasn't a thing yet in 2018, and I was doing that to stand out.

00:04:19

Andrea Marquez: Hala also had another hack that she used to bring in people to her account. She'd look for profiles that were similar to her and she DMed their audience.

00:04:27

Hala Taha: And at the time, I didn't know this, but DMing is the highest viral action on LinkedIn, and so people are 85% more likely to see your content in their feed if they DM you back. And so all these people were DMing me back suddenly. They were seeing all my content all the time, and I just became a huge influencer on LinkedIn, and suddenly I was getting more opportunities in corporate.  

When my coworkers, when I first started posting on LinkedIn, were like, what are you doing? Why are you doing that? What are you trying to do? Don't you think people are going to think that's weird? And it turned out to be to my benefit. So I always tell people, don't worry about what other people are going to think about you because first they're going to ask you why you're doing it, and then they're going to ask you how you did it.

00:05:07

Andrea Marquez: Things were going great for Hala. Her podcast continued to grow, but a year and a half later, things started to get stagnant.

00:05:15

Hala Taha: I was stuck at a certain amount of downloads and I was like, I don't know how to break through this. The other thing that was happening is that I felt like I wasn't a big enough podcaster on Apple and I was so focused on Apple Podcasts, but what I didn't realize is that everybody who was so big on Apple Podcasts started 4, 5, 6 years before I did, and they basically capitalized on starting early and now were the top podcasters and getting featured in ranking and the discoverability features by being the top podcasters. There was almost no way for me to sort of break into that.

00:05:51

Andrea Marquez: But then Hala realized that Apple Podcasts wasn't the only strategy she could leverage.

00:05:56

Hala Taha: And so I decided to reach out to every single podcast player, every single podcast company, and I traded my audience where I said, “Hey, I'll post you on LinkedIn in exchange for you featuring me on your website, in exchange for you writing an email blast about my podcast. I'll write a post about you on LinkedIn every month in exchange for you giving me a banner.” And I didn't spend any money. I was just being scrappy.

The same way that I figured out how to reach out to guests and book guests, I would figure out contact information for all these sites and podcasts related things and try to trade my audience. So that's what helped me break out and actually become a top podcaster. That's when I decided to quit my full-time job when I realized that my podcast is really taking off.  

At that time, I started my social agency, essentially the guests that would come on my show at the end of my show, they'd always ask me, how did you grow your LinkedIn? How did you grow your podcast? I started to take on social clients and take the same things that I did from my podcast and started doing it for other people. That grew superfast. And my podcast first started monetizing by being a lead generation tool where the guests that would come on my podcast ended up becoming my social and production clients.

00:07:13

Andrea Marquez: If you don't know what a lead generation tool is, it's a strategy or form of content that you could use to get clients or customers.

00:07:21

Hala Taha: So there's top funnel lead gens and there's mid-funnel lead gens. So top funnel lead gens are typically like free downloads, so like an e-book or a white paper, a quiz, something that people download and they put their name in their email, and now you have a way to reach out to them via email. Mid-funnel lead gen activities include things that have two-way communication, so maybe a live stream where you can answer questions or a webinar where you can have two-way communications or a discovery call where you are just like having a one-on-one call with someone. And basically it just helps you get more clients, close deals, get them warmer and more comfortable with your services.

00:08:02

Andrea Marquez: That was the first way Hala was able to monetize her podcast. She also figured out how to get sponsorships for her podcast and decided to help other podcasters do the same.

00:08:12

Hala Taha: So then I created a podcast network, and now I get sponsorships for podcasters like Jenna Kutcher of Gold Digger, Amy Porterfield, Online Marketing Made Easy, John Lee Dumas of Entrepreneurs on Fire. They're all in my network and I am responsible to get them sponsorships and I get 30% of all their sponsorships in my podcast network.

00:08:31

Andrea Marquez: Hala found creative solutions that helped her grow and then used all her knowledge to help other people do the same. I'll be giving you actionable takes on how you can replicate Hala's success, whether you're looking to start your own podcast or just want to advertise on a few shows. But before we get into that, let's dig into why podcasting is such a powerful tool that you need to incorporate into your business.

00:08:54

Hala Taha: The average listener is 18 to 54 years old. They're in their prime earning years where if you compare that to radio and TV, these people are 55 plus and podcast listeners are basically getting younger while radio and TV viewers are getting older. So now Gen Z is soaring in popularity with podcasts, so your target audience is most likely listening to podcasts. The other thing is that people really trust their hosts, right? So they get a really great connection because the host is basically in their ear. They feel like they know their voice, they know who they are. There's so much credibility, there's so much engagement. Podcasts drive a lot of purchase action, higher purchase action than radio and TV, for example.

00:09:37

Andrea Marquez: And creating your own podcast can be a great networking tool.

00:09:41

Hala Taha: So if you design a podcast where your target leads are actually the guests that you interview, what you're doing is you're able to talk to somebody who you'd otherwise not have an opportunity to speak with usually. You build trust, you build credibility, you're able to sort of soft sell. And for me, what happens is I don't even talk about my network or my social agency. What happens is that maybe a month later they email me, “Hey Hala, remember I came on your show? Can we talk about LinkedIn services?” So I'm able to get leads just by meeting people.

00:10:12

Andrea Marquez: And if you're interviewing people who are more experienced than you, you're also learning along the way. So we've talked about the power of podcasting to grow your business. Here's what you should know to make sure you get the most of it. One, make sure you're searchable.

00:10:27

Hala Taha: So the main way that people are finding podcasts in the audio apps at least, is that they're typing in stuff in search. They're typing in what they want to learn about. If they want to learn about podcast monetization, they're typing that in, and then whatever pops up, pops up. A lot of times people are just so worried about being catchy and it's not about being catchy. Be searchable. So make sure you're infusing your title, your description, your episode titles, all with keywords.

00:10:56

Andrea Marquez: Two, make sure you have a good podcast cover.

00:10:59

Hala Taha: Your podcast cover matters. So putting your face on your podcast cover, making it super clear, professional looking matters a lot.

00:11:07

Andrea Marquez: Three, leverage other platforms.

00:11:10

Hala Taha: The fastest growing podcasters right now are coming from TikTok or YouTube. These are video platforms that have an endless amount of content being fed to users. So much discoverability happening on those platforms and influx of new people all the time.

00:11:26

Andrea Marquez: But if starting a podcast is a little too much right now, you can utilize the power of podcasting by advertising on them.

00:11:33

Hala Taha: And they're not that expensive. And so that's why you see a lot of brands who really just focus on podcasting because it's just really high conversions, especially when you find a host who has the audience that you exactly need and want. You can also guest on those podcasts. You can advertise on those podcasts and say like, “Hey, I'll buy a quarter of ads and as value add, I want to be a guest on your show for free or pay to go on the show.”

00:11:58

Andrea Marquez: But keep in mind that podcasting is hard, and just like building a business, it'll take time before you see results.

00:12:05

Hala Taha: I made content and didn't sell anything for two years, and all I did is just be of service and try to put out great content and make sure I was a great interviewer and a great researcher and really prepared and tried hard for my podcast even when I wasn't making a dollar on it.  

It's going to take a couple of years before you're big enough to monetize and get sponsors if you want the sponsorship route. So you have to be passionate about what you're talking about, want to learn, want to meet other people and network with them or have some other way of generating income from those relationships with the people that come on your podcast.

00:12:41

Andrea Marquez: If you've decided to embark on the podcasting journey, welcome. We're happy to have you here. Here are some final words of advice from Hala.

00:12:49

Hala Taha: If you feel passionate about starting a podcast, do it. Be consistent. Do it. Do it because you love it. You'll be magnetic because people will feel that enthusiasm, and if you have the passion for it, you're going to figure out how to grow it, how to monetize it. It's not too saturated, it's not too late, and you should definitely do it.

00:13:07

Andrea Marquez: That was Hala Taha, the host of the Young and Profiting podcast, and the founder and CEO of YAP Media Podcast Network and YAP Media. We covered a lot in this episode. If you missed anything, don't worry. We've taken notes for you. You can find them at www. smallbusiness. amazon. com/ podcast. Don't forget to subscribe and tell your friends about us by sending them a link to this episode, and I'd love to know what you think. So send us an email at thisissmallbusiness. amazon. com or leave us a review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts with your thoughts.

Maybe you'll get to hear your review on the show. Here's one that caught my eye recently from Dave DeRave. “I only learned from hearing people's real stories and struggles with running a small business. So this podcast was a great find. Lots of different backgrounds and product lines. It's interesting to hear how everyone's Amazon journey varies and how some problems seem universal. Great for us aspiring entrepreneurs to business owners and everyone in between.”

Thanks a lot, Dave DeRave, and I'm the same way. I think it's so important to go beyond the textbook and learn from people who've been through it. Plus it helps knowing you're not alone. That's it for this episode of This Is Small Business, brought to you by Amazon.  

Until next time, I'm your host, Andrea Marquez. Hasta Luego, and thanks for listening. This Is Small Business is brought to you by Amazon with technical and story production by JAR Audio.