Transcript of Hala Taha: Turn LinkedIn Engagement Into Paying Clients | Marketing New

Today's episode is sponsored in part by Northwest Registered Agent, Whatnot, Mod, and AG1. Northwest Registered Agent gives you the tools and guidance to build a complete business identity. Start using free resources at northwestregisteredagent.com/yapfree. Whatnot helps sellers grow through live shopping, community, and real-time connections with buyers. Search Whatnot, W-H-A-T-N-O-T, in the App Store, download, and you can start selling right away. MOD connects qualifying patients with licensed medical providers for modafinil to support sustained energy, focus, and alertness throughout the day. Visit mod.com for a free consultation and get 10% off your first order plus free shipping with promo code PROFITING. See their website for important safety information. AG1 Next Gen supports your nutritional foundation with vitamins, minerals, pre- and probiotics, and superfoods. Go to drinkag1.com/profiting and get a free immune support bundle with your first subscription order. As always, you can find all of our incredible deals in the show notes or at youngandprofiting.com/deals. Hey, young and profiteers. Most entrepreneurs are sleeping on one of the best platforms to grow their business. And no, I'm not talking about Instagram and I'm not talking about TikTok. I'm talking LinkedIn. I've spent years growing my brand on LinkedIn and it's become such a big part of my business that now I teach all these strategies inside my LinkedIn Creator Club on Skool.

You can check it out at yapmedia.com/skool. That's S-K-O-O-L. And you can also find that link in our show notes. Now, this conversation I had with my friend Jenna Kutcher on her Goal Digger podcast is where I break down how I actually make LinkedIn work for your business. We're talking about creating content that gets noticed, building genuine connections, And turning your audience into business opportunities without ever sounding salesy. Now, there are some super actionable tips in this one, so grab your notebook and enjoy. And if you wanna learn more about the LinkedIn Creator Club on Skool, go to yapmedia.com/skool.

Well, this feels like an absolute delight. I am so excited to finally connect with you. One thing that I love is when I see other women at the top of the charts. I have been cheering you on. And so welcome to the show, Hala.

Oh, thank you so much, Jenna. I'm so excited for this conversation.

So I know a little bit about your story, but for those who might not know, can you tell me a little bit about your career journey that's led you to where you are today and where you are today? Because all of this is so fascinating.

Sure. So I'll start with, uh, where I am today and then maybe I'll, I'll work backwards and you can feel free to pause and interject. Whenever you'd like. Uh, so they call me the Podcast Princess. I'm the CEO and founder of YAP Media. It's an award-winning social media agency, and I'm also running the number one business and self-improvement podcast network where I grow and monetize shows. And I'm the host of Young and Profiting, which is a top 10 business podcast, top 5 entrepreneurship podcast on Apple and across all the different apps. So I love my job. I basically created my dream job and it wasn't an overnight success. I started my career in radio, uh, about 10 years ago. And when I was a junior in college, I interned for the Angie Martinez Show on Hot 97, which was the number one hip-hop and R&B station. And I basically interned for 3 years at the radio station to understand how, uh, production works, radio works. At the same time, I had online radio shows, uh, which was the precursor of podcasts. Podcasts were technically available, but they were really complicated and a lot of people were doing online radio shows.

So I'd host like music-based entertainment shows with the up-and-coming DJs at Hot 97 on the side. And I used to make my money selling like hip-hop showcases and hosting like parties that night with all the DJs. And so I did that for 3 years, actually ended up dropping out of school because, you know, they wanted me to keep working more and more at the station. And I started doing commercials at the station and working on the weekends for them and learning the Dilette boards and running the whole music program and everything like that. And so I eventually wanted to get paid. I come from a family of doctors, you know, I'm Arabic American and, you know, education is a big deal. So I was the black sheep of my family at this point. So they basically pushed me to ask to get paid at least since I dropped out of school. And, you know, that rubbed Hot 97 a bit the wrong way. Long story short, I got fired. Um, and I felt like my whole identity was taken away from me. I felt like, you know, I was hanging out with celebrities. I was dating Chris Brown at one point.

Like I was, you know, it was like my whole identity was crushed and everybody basically blackballed me from Hot 97 because once you're sort of out, you're out. And some people were like, lay low, maybe Angie will forgive you. Uh, but I didn't. I thought of a new idea and I, I was like sort of wanting to get revenge. So I got fired on a Thursday and by Sunday I had a new idea and I was gonna start this thing called the Sorority of Hip Hop. And it was gonna be a blog. Uh, blogs were super hot at the time. Mm-hmm. And so I went on Twitter. I had a big following on Twitter at the time. Uh, I went on Craigslist and I started recruiting girls and I was like, if you are in the entertainment industry, if you've been burned, if you know how, if you wanna learn how to blog, if you're pretty, if you're smart, send in your pictures, send in your resume, and I wanna recruit you for the Sorority of Hip Hop. And so I started this group. 2 weeks later, I had 14 girls. I went back to school to finish my senior year in college.

And I remember I had my first board meeting in my college. I like rented out a room and there was like 14 girls. I was the president of this new thing called the Sorority of Hip Hop. And I started learning how to build websites. And 3 months later, we were one of the most popular entertainment and hip hop, uh, sites in the world. I basically figured out how to hack Twitter. And I, I had, you know, we kept recruiting more and more girls. So in and out over 3 years, I had like 150 girls, but usually there'd be like 50 girls at a time who were under me learning how to blog. And I basically would connect everybody's handles to Twitter. So when we'd put out a blog post and it was a music-based, like makeup, hip-hop fashion website, we would like tweet out like Wiz Khalifa and his new song, and there'd be like 50 pretty girls tweeting him and they'd retweet it. And I was the first one that figured that out. Now everybody does that, right? But I was the first blog to do that. And so we got popular really fast.

And so MTV reached out to us and they wanted to shoot a reality pilot. This was just 3 months into it. It was small.

Yeah.

Yeah, it was small. Uh, we didn't get the show, but I, I figured what else could happen, right? Who cares? And then all of a sudden, because I was making so much noise, everybody from Hot 97 started reaching back out to me. And then I just started hosting all the coolest parties in the city. And instead of being all these in— like somebody's intern, I basically was peers with DJ Camilo and Funkmaster Flex. And even Angie was trying to get me on Love& Hip Hop and helping me out. And, uh, everybody had more respect for me because I built something on my own and they realized I wasn't just gonna go away. So I started hosting all these parties. My business turned into a blog slash like event company. I would host concerts. Uh, throw concerts. Then MTV came back to us, uh, 2 years later or so. We had like built it up, uh, pretty popular in the tri-state area, would get shouted out on the radio like every day for all the parties we'd be hosting. And, uh, they were like, this is it. Uh, it was right after Jersey Shore had ended.

They're like, you're gonna get your own show, you're gonna be the star. They picked like 5 out of 50 girls to be in the cast with me. They got us a studio on Broadway. Wow. Uh, they filmed us the entire summer. We threw a concert, like we did all these cool things and I thought I was gonna be famous. So at this point it was like 6 years of basically working for free. Uh, I was scrounging money here and there, but I was like, kept working like marketing jobs and doing like social media for festival companies and we were making money, but there were so many mouths to feed and it was expensive to run a blog site with all the servers and how popular our site was. And I hadn't figured out advertising, like, you know, I was like just bootstrapping and like didn't even know what I was doing. I was so young. And just having a lot of fun too, right? So, uh, anyway, we shot this whole pilot and 2 weeks before it's supposed to air, it's not just a pilot, we shot like a whole series over the summer. 2 weeks before it's airing, uh, the producer from MTV calls me up and she's like, Hala, I'm so sorry.

Uh, we went into another direction and we're not gonna air the show. And I, I started bawling and I was like, no way. Like, what do you mean? This is the second time you guys did this to me. We signed all the papers. Like, what do you mean it's not gonna air? And she's like, I'm sorry, they were going in another direction. And sometimes they actually shoot 2 shows and then decide which one they're gonna go with. They went with another show. MTV since haven't, hasn't really had a big show, right? Like since the Jersey Shore. So I think we would've crushed it. But anyway, they didn't, they didn't give it to us. And at this point I was really beaten down and I felt like I can't make it, it like, and try to bring up 50 girls with me at the same time if I'm not even successful myself. I felt really like ashamed with my parents because all my siblings were like in med school and residency, all these things. And I was like still trying to make it and like even just make like $30,000 a year or whatever. Like, you know what I mean?

Mm-hmm. I just wasn't making any money even though I was like almost famous in the tri-state area. I wasn't really making any money. So then I just shut everything down. I told the girls, I actually pretended that it was a fake shutdown. I said I needed a break. I was like, let's pretend we're shutting down and just get a lot of attention. Mm-hmm. I just need a break. And then like 3, our break was supposed to be like 2 weeks. And then I was like, guys, I don't wanna do this anymore. And all the girls were really upset with me to this day. Some of the girls like really hate me for doing that. And, but I had to do it. And so I went, I, um, had a terrible undergraduate GPA because all I was doing was working at Hot 97 in my undergrad. So I wanted to get, um, my MBA and I couldn't get into any schools. And then I ended up begging my director of my alma mater of the alumni program, and she let me in. I told her my story and she was like, okay, like, you know, if you get a 4.0, I'll keep you in the program.

And I was like, okay, I'm gonna do it. And so I got my MBA, I got a 4.0, I graduated number 1 in my class, and I started my corporate track. And I just literally thought I'd never get back on a mic. I thought it was done. And then I started my corporate track. I worked at HP, then, you know, worked there for 4 years. I became the face of the young employees there. So I essentially was an intrapreneur at the company and really stood out. Mm-hmm. And I was way more tech savvy than everybody else. And so in the marketing department, I just kept rising up in the ranks and I was sort of like the C-suite's pet. And I would go to all the conferences and interview the CEO and the CMO, and I was like that type of character at the company. Um, and then 4 years into it, I got the itch and I saw podcasting was really out there. I saw that there was apps like Podbean and things that seemed accessible that I could figure out. And so I just decided one day, I remember it was New Year's, uh, 2017, like 2018, right?

Uh, before the new year. And I was just like, all right, I'm gonna start this podcast. Uh, and instead of being like an influencer within this corporate company, I wanna take what I've learned, uh, over the years and interview smart people and be of service. And I started this podcast, Young and Profiting. So I'll pause there. I knew that was a long story.

There's so much more. There's Stitch Fix, there's Disney. You have been all over the place.

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What was it about podcasting that drew you in? Was it that radio background? I mean, cuz if you think about radio and blogging, podcasting is kind of this interesting combination of both of those skill sets.

Yeah, I felt like I knew how to do everything, right? So I had like hacked Twitter. There's a social media element for sure with podcasting. Yeah. I knew how to do audio editing. I knew how to do video editing. I knew how to do graphic design. I knew how to host. I also knew that I had a story and that I could probably get some really big guests just from my story.

Yeah.

And so I just, you know, figured I had all the skills and I had the time. You know, I was doing really well in my job and I felt like I had all this kind of free time. I, I would volunteer internally within HP and I decided to stop doing that. And then all of a sudden, I felt like I had like 4 hours a day to figure some stuff out.

Yeah.

And, uh, the cool thing about Young and Profiting is that I had a team of volunteers that actually helped me for 2 years. I had 20 people for 2 years that helped me. And it's because I had so many skills that like there'd be one guy from Atlanta and I teach him how to do videos. One guy from Estonia, I taught him how to do my website. Uh, you know, interns from my past college, I would teach how to do production, uh, research for me. And so I just like had this like army of interns that would help me so that I could have a day job, and then I just kept growing the podcast that way.

So I know that you made the leap into full-time entrepreneurship in 2020, which was a crazy year for everyone, but especially for you. What finally gave you the confidence to go all in? What did that look like?

Yeah, it was actually, you know, when I started the podcast, I I never thought that I was gonna make any money. I was just being of service, uh, growing my— I, I became a really big influencer on LinkedIn, growing my like personal brand. And I literally didn't even think it was possible to make money off a podcast. And I remember like being in Clubhouse, like before I really blew up. Yeah. Being like, guys, there's no way you're gonna make money from podcasting. It's about networking. And then like, little did I know there's so much money in podcasting if you know what you're doing, right? And so the first way that I started monetizing my show is that these guests would come on. And I, from the start, I had really big guests 'cause like I said, I, I was punching above my weight. I understood how to get big guests from the start and I never sort of, um, settled for anyone. I always shot up and it was like a volume game. I just knew the more I sent out, somebody would eventually say yes. And then once the person says yes, it was easier to get more people to say yes.

Right? So, uh, basically these big guests that were very successful already would come on my show. They'd be authors, speakers, celebrities. And at, after the end of the show, they would literally like clockwork be like, Hala, how did you grow your LinkedIn? Can you do it for me? Hala, how'd you grow this podcast? Can you do this for me?

Mm-hmm.

And I used to always be like, I'm sorry, I have a really great corporate career. At the time I was working at Disney. Uh, you know, I've got a volunteer team, but they're really busy with my stuff. Like, we don't have the bandwidth to help you. I'm sorry. And I would just always say that. And then one day I met this lady, Heather Monahan. Are you familiar with her?

Yes. Yes. And I know this part of your story. I love it.

So she came on my show and I gave her the whole spiel. She was like, Hala, I need you to do my LinkedIn. And I was like, I'm sorry, I can't. And then she just wouldn't leave me alone. She, she was, uh, on every single one of my videos on LinkedIn. She's like, Hala, you have to do this. So she kept commenting, you have to do this for me.

Yeah.

So then I, I was, you know, she was somebody who I looked up to. And so I was like, you know what? I would love Heather to be my mentor. So I was like, listen, I can't do it for you, but I can teach you how.

Yeah.

And so I started setting up these meetings with her on Saturdays and she, she thought it was so cute that I would like send a calendar invite for Saturday. And like, I was like trying to teach her how to use like Headliner and Canva and Premiere Pro. And I was showing her like our Slack and our Drive and our templates.

Yeah.

And she just like was like, Hala, I literally am talking to VaynerMedia for them to do my social media. Your stuff is more impressive. She's like, you have a company. Do you understand you have a company? I wanna be your first client. And I was just like, it was COVID, uh, at the time. My, my dad was in the hospital and I was working from home. And really, I, I was in a space where like I wanted a distraction. You know, quite frankly, because I had a lot more free time. I was sort of coasting in my job. Uh, it wasn't, it was a hard job, but I felt like I, I had time and again, no commute. So it was like, I used to commute from Brooklyn to the city. It was an hour each way. So basically 2 extra hours a day, which for me is a lot of time, right? Yeah. And so I just figured like, all right, uh, we'll do it. And I was like, okay, I'll start with your link, like your videos. And then we did a great job and we started taking over all her channels and then eventually her podcast.

And then my second client, uh, was, so Heather was paying me like nothing, like $700 a month. Like it was really nothing in the beginning, right? And so then my second client, I went on, uh, this guy's podcast, uh, Jason Waller. He was the CEO of like one of the fastest growing— Oh, yes. Oh, you know him. He was the CEO of one of the solar panel companies and it's like the fastest growing private company in the US. And he invited me on a show and afterwards he was like, Hala, can you do social media and production for me? And now I had like a business kind of, and I was like, yeah, definitely I could do it. Sure, I'll send you a proposal. And I remember meeting with my business partner, uh, Tim, who has been with me since episode 2. And I was, we put together this proposal and it was like $3,000 for each service. It was 3 services. And then he's like, why don't we just make it $10,000 a service and let's just shoot for $30K. And I was like, okay. And it was a $30K monthly retainer. I was like, let's do it.

And so I hop on a call with Jason and I give this pitch and my fir— second deal was $30,000 a month. And then it was just like, boom. Then I got like Kara Gold, of Hint Water for another huge contact contract. Then we took over Hint Water's, uh, marketing. Then I got the CEO of 1-800-GOT-JUNK, his personal brand and his company. Then it just like skyrocketed and I just kept getting client after client. So then 6 months after I started the side hustle, um, I had 30 employee paid employees. I started paying everybody, right? As soon as we started making money across the world, I had like, uh, you know, already full-time US employees. I was still working at Disney. Uh, then I got on the COVID of Podcast Magazine and interviewed Matthew McConaughey. And then I was like, all right, I, I gotta just take the leap. It's like, I'm like, I should have done this 3 months ago. And I quit my job and, uh, the rest is history.

That's so insane. I love your story and there's so many parts you didn't even include, which is why everyone needs to go listen to your show so they can hear the full story. So one of the things that you hinted at is LinkedIn.

Yeah.

Now we have had hundreds of episodes on this podcast and we've only talked about LinkedIn a handful of times. Why do you love LinkedIn? Sell it to me for anyone who is like, wait, people still use that?

Yeah. So LinkedIn is a really popular platform. There's 135 million active daily users on LinkedIn. And my favorite part about LinkedIn is that people are primed for sales conversations. So people are doing research in their buying journey on LinkedIn. People are used to being approached in the DMs. People want to be approached for relevant things related to their career and their job. They want to be helped and they want people to help them solve their problems. And so they're receptive to basically selling in the DMs, which is where a lot of the selling happens on LinkedIn. Whereas on Instagram, when you try to do the same thing, people get turned off because they're there for entertainment. They're there to check up on their family. Uh, and not there for sales and business. So that's one reason. The other reason is because that algorithm is completely hackable still,

right?

Mm-hmm. It is completely possible to grow without the use of boosting and, uh, you know, automation or bots or whatever. And Instagram is really, really hard to grow right now. There's a couple ways that you can still grow on Instagram, but LinkedIn, it's like once you understand the tactics, once you understand what works, what doesn't, and you understand the algorithm, No matter what your topic is, no matter how well you write or whatever, you can figure out how to grow a following on that platform. So, uh, happy to dig into any of that.

Okay, so let's talk about first the following. So does your following matter? We know we've seen like popularity and people are so fixated on growing that number or under their name on all the platforms. Walk me through why you wanna grow your audience on LinkedIn.

What's up, YAP fam? If you're building a personal brand, you already know how hard it is to stay consistent with content when you're also trying to actually run your business. I love creating content, but realistically, I'm not trying to sit in front of the camera every single day. I need time to work on my business. But the problem is consistency matters. The more people see your face and hear your voice, the more familiar you become. That's why HeyGen has been such a great tool for me. You can record just 15 seconds of footage, create an AI avatar of yourself, and use it to make videos on demand. So instead of constantly filming from scratch, you can create more content, stay visible, and keep showing up without making your entire life be about generating content. And you guys know I'm always looking for tools that give entrepreneurs more leverage. HeyGen is definitely one of those tools. 30 million people already use it from solo founders, To 85% of the Fortune 100. Your first 3 videos are free at heygen.com/profiting. That's H-E-Y-G-E-N.com/profiting. heygen.com/profiting. Hello, young and profiteers. If you're running a business, getting website traffic is only half the battle.

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One of my favorite concepts is what he calls the abyss. Those moments when you feel stuck or unsure of what's next. Instead of fearing uncertainty, he shows you how to use it as a tool for discovery. Right now, Mark is doing a buy one, get one offer for YAP listeners. Go to getmarksbook.com/yap, buy one copy for $32, and get a second copy free. So you can keep one for yourself and give the second to a friend, future co-founder, or someone who needs a little push. Yeah, so I think that getting a following is really important, but really it's engagement that matters. It's the amount of views that you get on your content and how much people engage, like, comment, share. Uh, that's what really matters because I've got a lot of clients that have come to me in the past. They might have a million followers, maybe they had like a big press push or they were LinkedIn's top voice, or they started on LinkedIn 10 years ago when it was no matter what you did, you went viral. And they have little engagement and they get no sales. They get no business from LinkedIn because nobody's actually seeing their stuff anymore.

Yeah. So it's really important to focus on engagement and understanding how to go viral on the feed rather than just getting connections, right? Yeah. So in terms of why it's important to have a following, uh, especially first connections on LinkedIn, because those are the only people that you can DM. And on LinkedIn there's first connections and there's second and third connections. And second and third connections can see your feed content if people share your stuff or engage on your stuff. But you actually want to be able to DM people so that you can generate sales because all the action and, and, um, connection and people actually clicking on links really happens in the DMs.

So what would you say would be the first step if somebody is listening to this and they're like, I have a very old profile on LinkedIn, it probably hasn't been updated. I'm an entrepreneur now. I haven't thought that I needed this. What would be the first step of getting reacclimated on LinkedIn?

Okay, so I think first of all, uh, one of the things that I ask people to do is look up their lookalike profiles. So when I say lookalike profiles, what I really mean is people who have a following that you want. It's not necessarily your competitors, it's not necessarily anybody who's actually in your niche, it's people who have a following that you think would resonate with your product or offering. Okay, because those are the people that you want to study and emulate and figure out how you're going to differentiate between their profiles, take what's working for them, and then improve on what you think could be better. The other thing that you can do with those lookalike profiles is you can see who recently liked and commented on their stuff. And this is really important because people go on LinkedIn, they go look for a job, uh, they get a job, and then a lot of them never log back on. And the last thing that you want is dead profiles. So a lot of people make the mistake of just like typing in titles or doing searches on LinkedIn and then finding people that they think would be their target audience and inviting them But those people never accept their connection requests because they don't log onto LinkedIn.

So you want people who log onto LinkedIn and take viral action on posts, which means you wanna find people who have a big engagement, engaged following, not just a big following. Again, people who get, you know, 200 likes, 300 likes plus on their posts and are getting engagement. And then you wanna see who liked and commented on those posts and who shared those posts, which you can actually see. And you're gonna wanna invite those people into your network. And so I did this when I first started with Gary Vee. I thought everybody was calling me the young Gary Vee. Um, I, you know, knew he had a podcast, knew he talked marketing, knew he was motivational. And I was like, okay, anybody who's gonna like his stuff is gonna like mine too. And I'd say like, hey, what's up? I noticed you engage with Gary Vee. If you like his content and podcast, you're gonna like mine too. I'd love to provide value on your feed. Let's connect. 9 outta 10 people would accept. Then I all of a sudden had like 10,000 of Gary Vee's fans. And little did I know that I was also triggering the algorithm.

Mm-hmm. Because when you recently connect with someone, they see your content at the top of their feed for 2 weeks. If you DM with someone and they respond back, they see your content at the top of their feed for 2 weeks. Then if they like or comment or share, if they share it, they're like 85% more likely to see your content. And if they comment, they're 70% more likely to see your content. And so you just start this flywheel effect of bringing people in, DMing them, then they see your stuff, then you go viral on the feed. Then, uh, you know, people are connected with people who are similar to them. So if you are targeting someone, let's say who's in real estate, chances are they've got a lot of people in real estate who's in their following themselves. And when they engage on your content, those people see that engagement in their feed. And so then you get like a referral to all their following. And so that's really how you crush it on LinkedIn. You have to be strategic and invite people who take viral action and start this flywheel effect. And it's both content on the feed and this DM strategy.

And so you can do this in a million ways. Um, another great way to sort of target active people on LinkedIn is that there's thousands of events that are going on every day and people are registering for these events. So if you, like, for example, let's say you have social media services. So if you look up social media events on LinkedIn, You can see all the events that are coming up, everybody who registered, who basically are raising their hand. I'm interested in this topic. You can register for that event and then DM every— then you get access to message everybody who's in that event and they're active, they're interested in, in what you want and it's relevant and people will have that conversation with you because you're bringing up something relevant to them.

Wow. Okay, so I'm obsessed with this. I love hacking the system, which you have absolutely done. So you brought up content in the feed. So a lot of people just visualize like the old school Facebook, right? When you could only see your own profile. And when we all freaked out that the newsfeed happened, the similar rollout happened with LinkedIn, where now you are supposed to be sharing content and value. Walk me through different types of posts that you publish that can show up in the feed so that people can start imagining what type of value can I add on that platform? And what does it look like compared to other platforms that I might already be on?

Yeah, this is a really great question. So whenever we're talking about feed content on LinkedIn, we wanna promote shareability. And there's 2 main types of posts that are shareable. There's motivational and inspirational, and then there's educational. And both of them work really well on LinkedIn. In fact, LinkedIn is now prioritizing educational content. So one of the things that you wanna think about when you're, when you're thinking about motivational content is telling stories. So things that work well is like transformational stories. I was, Poor, now I'm rich. I was fat, now I'm skinny, right? Showing that like transformation and what your learnings are and giving a, a story. And it's really important on LinkedIn to remember what features work the best on that platform. So while Instagram is really video heavy, they wanna compete with TikTok. Uh, LinkedIn is not the same actually. Like vertical style videos that work really well on Instagram do very poorly on LinkedIn. And actually you wanna stick with a 4 by 5 size graphic. So a very large, I call it poster size at YAP Media graphic on LinkedIn. If you guys are curious what that looks like, you can go to my profile on LinkedIn and you'll see that almost every single post is like a 4 by 5 photograph on LinkedIn.

And so typically these motivational posts is either a story or a quote or a lesson that you're giving that is gonna be relevant to everyone. And the reason why it's shareable is that everybody wants positivity. Everybody can relate to it. It's relevant to everyone. Mm-hmm. So if you're looking for a broad audience and you might have a lower ticket offer that doesn't need to have a very specific audience, you probably wanna lean into motivational content that's gonna go massively viral. That's the most viral type of content. Um, and again, a, a photo works really well and it doesn't matter if it's a long caption, a short caption, but when you're thinking about, uh, social media on any platform, prioritize being skimmable. Okay? So on LinkedIn specifically, they'll actually deprioritize you if you use chunky paragraphs. Because LinkedIn knows that people are skimming through about 9 posts. Uh, they're only gonna stop and read if it's easy. It should be fun. You don't wanna make people work, right? So you wanna make it as easy as possible. So even if you're telling a story, it's line by line and you're opening it up with a hook to get people hooked in to actually spend time on your post, increase dwell time, click the learn more button or keep reading button and keep spending time on your post.

That's really important. And then eventually, hopefully engage. So again, line-by-line style copy, that's, uh, they call it broetry on LinkedIn. Uh, and that's, that's actually the algorithm is prioritizing that kind of content. That's why you see all the influencers do that. So that's motivational. Yeah, go ahead.

Oh, sorry. No, no, no, go ahead. I was just gonna say, what about sharing your other content? So that's motivational content, which I love. What about your other kind of things that you're doing inside of your business or your work?

Yes. So this is really important, especially for an entrepreneur. It's educational content, right? And so when you're thinking about educational content on LinkedIn, really what you wanna make sure is that you're not lecturing. So this is the biggest mistake that I see entrepreneurs do. They wanna give everything away, the kitchen sink away. They wanna give like a blog post on their LinkedIn, but you have to realize that this is a, a digestible platform and you can break apart, like let's say a blog post. over 5 days instead. And when you're posting, you wanna give one lesson and you wanna give room for people to add their opinion. So if somebody's saying like, I'm gonna give you the top 5 ways that you can crush your LinkedIn, and they list every top 5 way, then people are gonna be like, all right, Hala's got it figured out. Like, what's there for me to add? Or, okay, I'm just gonna keep moving. Like, she's a know-it-all. You wanna give one, one kind of meaningful nugget that is actually gonna help people whose problem that you solve, but then allow them to participate by not giving away the whole kitchen sink.

Then people can be like, yeah, that point is okay, but what about XYZ? Right? And so you don't wanna give too much away in your posts. I think that is a big problem that people have. So once you come out with content and you're continually educating people, people are gonna start engaging on your content, and then you've gotta close the loop. You've got to retarget those people in the DMs. So you put out educational content, uh, about your offer and you don't wanna be salesy on LinkedIn. You actually get deprioritized if you're salesy. So you can't like link out to your website in the caption. LinkedIn's goal is to keep users active and engaged on their site for as long as possible. So that means you can't link out to another site. You can put a link in the comments, uh, but even if you use salesy language, LinkedIn is basically gonna deprioritize your post because they have their own editorial agenda and it's not to make you sales. So you have to be completely of service and you wanna use keywords. This is also another point. You wanna use keywords that are found in your target, um, uh, clients' profiles.

Yeah.

In your posts. So let's say again, let's use a real estate example. If you are in real estate, you wanna use real estate keywords in your posts, the same keywords that would be found in your target clients' profiles, because LinkedIn will start to match profiles and start to feed content to people who they think would be interested in your content based on their keywords. So it's important to infuse your posts with keywords so that it gets fed to the right people. Okay? Now hopefully people are engaging on your content, and once they do that, you can then DM them. So you can say, hey, I noticed that you recently liked my post about real estate. I would love to give you, uh, another tool. I've got this, you know, mortgage calculator. I'd love for you to check it out. And so then you can give them some sort of free resource once they respond back. Oh, thank you so much. This was awesome. Oh yeah, let me know if you have any questions. And you just want to, the goal is to just keep the conversation going until you've built up enough social currency with the person that you can make an ask.

Let's hop on a call. Uh, here's a form if you wanna learn more information and book a call, right? So then you wanna bring them off platform and close them. So really that's the goal. It's getting them from the feed. Starting a conversation in the DMs and then bringing them off platform so that you can close the deal.

So I love this. I think that most people are terrified to try to sell to people via DMs, probably because we've all experienced like that one girl from high school who started a skincare business and is now reaching out. Do you have any tips of gaining comfortability in terms of like reaching out and having that type of language around?

Of course.

How we can close a deal?

Yeah. So I think first things first, when you're reaching out to somebody, you always wanna think of the law of likability and you wanna think of common ground. So let's talk about the law of likability. People like people who are like them, and that means that you need to find your similarities. Mm-hmm. So what is it about you that's similar? So are you both powerful women? Did you both go to the same school? Are you both from the same city? Do you both like the same influencers? Are you both, you know, MBA grads? What is it that you have in common? And you wanna give people a compliment. People like people who compliment them, right? People also like people who ask them for advice, who ask them questions. And so you wanna think about all the ways that you can become more likable. And so one of the ways that you can use the law of likability is, let's say you are, you're an executive coach for females, for female executives. So you would go on somebody's profile. Let's say you're targeting anybody who's in chief. Uh, because you know all those people are qualified and you can go to them and say, hey, uh, so nice to meet you.

I saw your profile and you look like somebody who's a, a blazing, powerful female in the space. I'd love to connect with you. And so you're giving them a compliment. Uh, you can also say something like, it looks like we both have a lot in common. We're both really crushing it in the female entrepreneurship space. I'd love to connect with you, right? So you're giving them a compliment, you're showing that, hey, I'm like you too, let's connect. That person is likely gonna accept because you've given them a compliment. You've shown that you have some sort of common ground. And again, you can use like any sort of attribute that they have in their profile to set that common ground. And LinkedIn's really unique from other platforms because there are all these different search filters where you can basically look, say like, okay, I want all the titles of VP. in California, and you can find everybody with that criteria and then come up with some language that is relevant for all those people that you can just sort of customize as you go along and invite those people to your network. So that's one way.

And then let's say if like you don't have a lot of accolades and you're just coming up, instead you can ask people for advice. Hey, you look like a really strong, powerful female. I'd love to connect with you and, you know, get your feedback. Uh, and get your advice on XYZ, or I'd love your thoughts around XYZ. Now, if the person's really famous, this is not going to work because they're getting bombarded with messages like this. But if it's just somebody who's like in corporate, uh, they're going to be happy to have a conversation with you because probably not many people are reaching out asking for advice. And people love giving their advice and showcasing their value and expertise.

I love this. I am smiling so big. I was recently on a girls trip and one of my friends has this beautiful British accent. And she looks to this guy, and we needed an extra golf cart for something. And she was like, you look like a man who could get things done. And like, the guy like gets like all excited. And he's like, I can, yes, I can. And I was like, I need to take that line with me everywhere. Because all of a sudden, he was like proud to help us after 2 people had already told us no, it was just so funny. So I love this because I totally agree with it.

The other thing that— and you just alluded to it. The other thing that you want to make sure so that you don't turn people off in the DMs, I'm sending thousands of DMs a day and yeah, 99% of people say thank you and are appreciative. That is not normal. And it's because I'm doing little things to make sure that it doesn't come off across spammy or insulting. So your friend said you look like someone. Yeah. She didn't say you are, right?

Yes. Yeah.

So if I, if, if you are too direct.

Yeah.

For example, somebody, let's say, um, somebody engages on my post about my LinkedIn masterclass. We might approach them, you look like somebody who may be interested in our LinkedIn masterclass. Then they'll be like, yeah, you know, I'm kind of am interested, blah, blah, blah. If I said, hey, you are interested in my LinkedIn masterclass, I'd love to XYZ, they'd be like, yeah, I'm not interested in your class. Who are you to tell me? Who are you to tell me what I like, what I don't like? Get outta here. You know? Yeah. So you seem like, you may be like, you could, you, you, you seem like the type of person who would XYZ, right? So, You just want to make sure that you soften it a little bit so that it's not so direct, because people like to prove you wrong, right? So you want to make sure there's no way that they can prove you wrong.

Yes, I love this. One of your gifts, one of your like secret sauce things that you are so good at is branding. Talk to me about how branding plays well with LinkedIn. What does that look like and how do they kind of coexist and complement each other?

Yeah, so when you're thinking about building a personal brand, you want to be so consistent that people think of you like an old friend. This is what I always say. Like, you want people to think of you like they know you without that you even knowing them. So for me on LinkedIn, I've done a good job of this to the point where if somebody trolls me, I'll have like all my fans being like, you don't know Hala, don't tell her this, blah, blah, blah. But they've never even met me before, you know? Nope. And they have no idea like if I'm a good person, a bad person, but it's just cuz I've been consistent in all my actions. And so essentially branding is consistency. And if you are consistent in every single action that you take on LinkedIn, that means your profile, your bio, every single caption, every single comment, every single video content, every single DM, they all have to be consistent. And that means you need to step back and understand what you want to be perceived of. What do you wanna represent as yourself? So one of the exercises that we do in our LinkedIn Masterclass is we come up with voice guidelines.

And essentially it's like a breakdown of your personality. So first of all, what are your values? Your values are your decision-making compass, right? So when things go bad, how do you know what you stand for? Because that's when you can't think logical, and that's why it's important to understand what your values are as a person. And so you come up with your values. The next thing is personality. So your personality actually reflects your audience, not yourself. You want your audience to feel magnetic towards you and people like people who are like them. So you need to reflect them, not yourself necessarily. Maybe there's one element that showcases your personal personality, but really you wanna mirror the way that your audience acts. And so you wanna think about your audience demographics. What's their age? What's their gender? What's their interests? What do they sound like? What it, you know, what other influencers are resonating with them? What do they sound like? Mm-hmm. And you kind of wanna mirror that when you're thinking about your personality and your tone. And the way that you come across. Uh, the other thing that you wanna think about is your transformation, the impact that you wanna make with your audience.

This is extremely important. So essentially it's like your 4 or 5 key messages that you're gonna tell over and over and over again in 100 different ways. So for me, you're never too old to, to learn something new. Uh, you know, sky's the limit. There's— life is limitless. You can do anything. Uh, you're always able to grow and learn. Continuous learning is extremely important. So there's— a few messages that I just say over and over and over again in a million different ways. And this is what I stand for now. Mm-hmm. This is why when I share a picture of myself on LinkedIn, I don't represent Halataha anymore. And I'm extremely shareable. People share my picture automatically because I represent hope for them. I represent learning for them. I represent motivation for them. And so they're happy to share my face, which takes time. Once you're consistent and you feel like an old friend, And you represent more than just your face. You're now your brand, right? And so you've gotta be consistent in those messages. And then the last part is your delivery method. How are you gonna make that impact? What are you gonna do?

For me, I've got a podcast. I'm gonna share micro content. I'm gonna share motivational posts, educational posts, and so on. And so you've gotta think about what is your delivery method to make good on that impact. So that's sort of what I take people through my masterclass, and then you're really set up for success. If you pair that messaging and branding with viral strategies and engagement strategies, there's all these different hacks on LinkedIn. There's no way that you're not gonna be successful.

Okay, so Hala, tell me about this masterclass that you have, because as I'm listening to this, one, I need to sign up personally and have my entire team sign up. But 2, my audience needs this information. Like you have said so many words where I am like, I need more. So talk to me about your masterclass that you have all about LinkedIn.

Uh, yes. So I have a LinkedIn masterclass. It's a 2-day workshop, and essentially I take you through everything that you need to know about the LinkedIn program. So we start with your personal brand, walking through what I just told you. You're gonna have your voice guidelines, you're gonna figure out your values, your personality, your impact, your brand persona, the relationship that you have with your audience. Then I go over the psychology of design. So I was started as a graphic designer. I think I told you guys in the beginning of the story about how I used to train everybody how to graphic design, video edit. So I go over the 20% that you need to know to absolutely crush on LinkedIn without hiring a graphic designer, just using Canva, understanding, you know, what kind of resonates with people, what sizes you need to use, what features are appropriate for LinkedIn. And I go over the psychology of design. Then I go over copywriting. Copywriting is the hardest thing to teach other people. I give you my best in terms of what tips to use for copywriting. I give you viral copywriting templates that we use at YAP Media.

I'm running dozens of influencers behind the scenes on LinkedIn. Essentially most of the influencer accounts on LinkedIn are run by YAP Media. So I'm giving you the same viral templates that we use for them in the class. Um, then on day 2, it's all about the algorithm. So we're going through the algorithm in detail. There's a 4-step algorithm. I'm teaching you everything that you need to know about how to hack the algorithm. We're going to talk about the golden hour and a half, what to do in your first 90 minutes after posting to make sure that your post does well. I give you all the different engagement hacks, uh, then we go over storytelling, um, creating your content calendar and getting really tactical. And then lastly, sales. So I go over DM strategies, invite strategies, uh, how to create different sales templates, how to find your target audience, all the different hacks that you can use, uh, with search, with events, with groups, and so on. And I basically teach you how to then convert your following into leads and eventually Sales. So it's an end-to-end program, 2-day workshop live with me. I like to do it live because I feel like it's important to give the people an opportunity to ask questions.

And then when you're done, you can join my monthly mastermind where basically everybody is supporting each other's content. I'm constantly giving you guys feedback, and a lot of the guests that come on my podcast do free training. So it's like we have like Jason Fladline doing a webinar training. We had Ken Ozawski doing a video marketing training and so on. And so it's like I keep leveling you guys up and, uh, so that you guys can continue to improve. Um, because the sales piece is something that we need to keep on working so that we can really just keep growing. So the next class is September 6th and 7th. Uh, Jenna, uh, has her own code that you guys can use for 20% off. And I'd love to see you guys there. I'd love to teach you guys how to crush it on LinkedIn.

So where can everybody find out more? This is incredible. And I am so excited to be a student of yours because I am like obsessing over— people need to understand that when you can get these templates and strategies, you can skyrocket your success in a massive way and in a short amount of time instead of trying to figure it out on your own or feeling like you're wasting your precious time. Um, where can we learn this?

Yes, you can go to yapmedia.io/course and you can use code Jenna for 20% off.

Amazing. I am so impressed with you. I am obsessed with your story. I love seeing you on the charts. Where can everybody find out more about you, connect with you, listen to your podcast, find out about your network? Give me all the places.

Well, first of all, Jenna, you did such a good job with this conversation. I've always admired you as another female podcaster, so congratulations on all your success. Uh, longtime fan of your podcast. If you guys are interested in learning from me on my podcast, it's called Young and Profiting. Uh, like I mentioned earlier, it's a top 10 business podcast, top 5 entrepreneurship podcast. I interview brilliant people. Jenna's about to come on, really excited about that interview. I've interviewed people like Alex Hormozi and Grant Cardone and Daymond John, and, uh, I just love to talk everything human behavior, marketing, entrepreneurship. And so if you're a small business owner, a new entrepreneur, a side hustler, you're gonna love my show. So I'd love for you to check out Young and Profiting Podcast. And if you guys are interested in my LinkedIn masterclass, that's the other way that I can help you really level up on LinkedIn. I've transformed hundreds of people's profiles on LinkedIn, and I really started this because I have this great agency, but it's really white glove, high ticket services, and I wanted to be able to help more people. So that's why I started this masterclass.

It's the same training that I give my team. to help all of our clients. So if you want that same access, you can join the LinkedIn Masterclass. Again, it's yapmedia.io/course, and I've got a special code for all of Jenna's listeners. You can use code Jenna for 20% off. And if you guys wanna find me on social media, you can find me on LinkedIn by searching my name. It's Hala Taha, and I'm also on Instagram and Threads at Yap with Hala.

Thank you so much for coming on the Goal Digger Podcast. This was an absolute dream.

Thank you so much.