#136: Spin It: Get Out of a Crisis With Stephynie Malik
[00:00:00] Hala Taha: You're listening to YAP Young And Profiting Podcast, a place where you can listen, learn, and profit. Welcome to the show. I'm your host Hala Taha. And on Young And Profiting Podcast, we investigate a new topic each week and interview some of the brightest minds in the world. My goal is to turn their wisdom into actionable advice that you can use in your everyday life.

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[00:00:58] AtYoung [00:01:00] And Profiting Podcast. This week on YAP. We're chatting with Stephynie Malik and award-winning crisis management expert and business strategist. Stephynie is also the CEO and founder of MalikCo and SMALIK Enterprises and the host of the ‎SPIN IT Podcast. Stephynie has been in the entrepreneurial game for over twenty-five years and has consulted for brands like Nike, United Airlines and American express.

[00:01:23] After spending years as a serial entrepreneur and business consultant, Stephynie pivoted, and to founding her own Crisis Management company. And today's episode, we talk about Stephynie's journey with her father's death and her emancipation from her mother at age 15 and how all of that adversity only made her stronger and her purpose more clear.

[00:01:42] We'll also get a deep dive into Stephynie's worldof Crisis management, what it means to help others in tricky situations and how discovering your skillsets being an active listener and having confidence are some of the most important assets you can have in business. I had so much fun talking with Stephanie today, and I think you're going to love it too.

[00:02:00] Hi, Stephanie, welcome to Young And Profiting Podcast.

[00:02:04] Stephynie Malik: Thank you, Hala. Thanks for having me.

[00:02:06] Hala Taha: These are my favorite types of interviews. I love interviewing people that I know very well because it makes for a really fun interview. I feel like I didn't have to study because I know so much about your life already.

[00:02:17] And I feel like it's going to be such a great conversation. So Stephynie, you are an award-winning business consultant. You are a crisis management expert. You've been behind the scenes on so many different headlines that people have heard about. They just didn't know that it was you behind the scenes, helping those people get out of those crisis.

[00:02:36] It's super exciting what you do and really innovative in terms of what you've built. So I can't wait to get into all of that, but we always like to start off with childhood. We like to talk about people's journeys and I know you had a really crazy come up story. So talk to us about a turning point in your life.

[00:02:55] And I think that's when your dad died.
[00:02:57] Talk to us about that moment and what [00:03:00] happened after.

[00:03:01] Stephynie Malik: Sure. So it's a little bit more complicated than that. So let me just take a little bit of a step back. So my mom was married to who I thought was my father and they got a divorce when I was very young. They got a divorce when I was, under two and I had my father had been married several times before.

[00:03:18] And so I had siblings, I had half siblings. And what happened was. He didn't really see me after the divorce at all. And so I, it was really hard keeping up with my siblings because I was so young and they would try and call, but then you don't really know what's going on when you're a kid. So fast forward Hala.

[00:03:37] And I was in middle school at my mom, showed up at middle school and said, Hey, you actually have to do a blood test because your father got diagnosed with cancer and imagine middle school. I'm like, absolutely not. I'm not I'm I don't even know him. I'm not doing this no way, no shot, long story short. I ended up getting in the car and that was it.

[00:03:56] I got in the car and went and did the blood test. And that was all about [00:04:00] eight months later, I was walking to my mother's office and I stopped by the lab on the way up to go get my mom's lab slips because my mom was a hospital administrator. And on the top of the stack of the envelopes said my name.

[00:04:14] And I was like, that's super weird nod, but whatever. And I opened it up Hala and it said paternity denied and. I was like, what does that even mean? So I jumped back in the elevator. I went all the way back downstairs. I called on a payphone cause obviously there was no cell phones. And I called one of my dear friends.

[00:04:35] Her dad was a pathologist and I said, Hey, I'm actually doing a report for school. Could you help me with something? And he said, sure. And I read them the report. He goes, oh honey, no problem at all. What that means is the two people that gave blood are not biologically related. And my heart sunk shattered.

[00:04:53] I was 15 years old, my siblings or my siblings, my nationality wasn't my nationality. My [00:05:00] entire life was one big, giant, horrible lie. And I just unraveled. I remember I called a couple, probably at the time non savory friends and I basically was hysterical. And I just said, this is what's going on. The worst part about everything.

[00:05:19] Is, in a middle Eastern family, this everybody's related and everybody knows like everything about they knew. And I didn't know. And when I saw their faces, they were like, oh, like they didn't even know what to do. And I flipped out, I was rageful. I was angry. I was screaming. I was yelling, I was crying.

[00:05:43] And I said, take me to him right now. And then they further sunk. And I said, what? And they said, he's not here or stuff. And it didn't calculate to me. I was like, what do you mean he's not here? What does that mean? Just take, just tell me where he is. And they were like, [00:06:00] He's gone. He drowned when you were a tiny baby.

[00:06:03] And I was just so incredibly sick about it. Now, as you well know, much later on, I found out that my mom had a complete nervous breakdown when he had passed away, he drowned in a lake, it took him an insurmountable time to find him. It wasn't a straight forward thing and she never recovered. So yeah, it was not a fun, it was not a fun experience.

[00:06:24] Hala Taha: Wow. That's crazy that's what you found out at 15. How has your relationship with your mother and what did your mother do for work?

[00:06:32] Stephynie Malik: So my mom was a hospital administrator. She worked for a, an office building and basically she did reconciling of accounts. So whatever lab accounts were or medical accounts where she was an administrator she reconciled all the insurances, the private pays, et cetera, et cetera.

[00:06:48] Wasn't college educated again, as we, my mom's first year, I'm first generation here from my mother's side, they're from Portugal. And so my mom was. My mom barely finished high school and she was not college [00:07:00] educated. And she got a really good job. It was a single mom from a very young age.

[00:07:04] And my mom, after this happened, mental wellness and mental health is such a priority now. But back then, it wasn't a priority. People would go they're a little off or, oh, they get angry a lot. There wasn't really a ton of labeling. And so I don't think people understood child abuse. I don't think people understood emotional neglect.

[00:07:27] Nobody really understood that. And then how could she not like the love of her life just drowns. And then she has to quickly pivot to figure out a father or a father figure for a child. There's a lot on her. We had no relationship. And the relationship that we did was highly hurtful and tumultuous and sadly.

[00:07:48] It really never got any better. There were times where there was a glimpse of, Hey, maybe it could get better, but people with mental illness that don't seek help on their own with their own therapies and their own [00:08:00] resources, it's their choice. And they choose not to get better. And she passed away about four years ago.

[00:08:04] Hala Taha: Okay. I'm sad to hear that you guys never like, mended your relationship. We can talk about that later and see what you've been doing to mentally get over that. But let's talk about what happened at 15 years old, because from my understanding at 15 you're on your own, you were paying your own bills.

[00:08:21] You basically separated yourself. I think it's called emancipation. Correct. So talk to us about what, what happened? What happened next?

[00:08:29] Stephynie Malik: Yes. Okay. So basically I was like, Hala I wasn't great in school. Like I was, I just didn't really care. What was I going to finish school for? Nobody in my family finished school, my friends were all.

[00:08:41] My friends were, looking back, my friends were amazing, the way that they loved me and the way that they protected me and the way that they looked out for me. But they weren't like, Hey Steph, you shouldn't do that. You need to do this over here. It was birds of a feather, guilty by association, whatever cliche you want to say.

[00:08:58] So they weren't bad people, [00:09:00] but they were really comfortable in staying where they were going to stay. And I wanted out of that small town, I wanted nothing to do with it. I wanted to be completely rid of everything from there. And so I guess school was the answer, but I didn't really have anybody checking my homework or going, Hey, did you do that?

[00:09:18] Or there was really no one. And so at 15, I went to go quit school. And my, it was, I was very dumb. You should've seen me with my hand on my hip. I was going in there and I was going to give him out. And I remember his name is Chuck Vidal. Okay. And he was the principal of the school who later moved on to be the superintendent of all the schools.

[00:09:42] Okay. He was like, yeah, we're not sorry. Yeah, no. And I was like, you can't tell me what to do. And like I was, and he was like, ah, okay. So here's what we're going to do. And he didn't let me quit. He put me on something a lot more manageable for me. I finally fessed up and I told him the entire [00:10:00] story.

[00:10:00] And he said, do you have anybody that you can call. And I called my oldest aunt. My mom is one of seven there's 20 years difference because my mom was the youngest and my aunt was the oldest and I called her and I said, I don't want anything. I don't want any money. I just need you to go be what they call a character witness.

[00:10:18] And she was like, what are you up to now, Stephynie? What are you doing? And I'm like, I don't really know, but just be there at three o'clock. And so I went in Hala and went into the court and I walked over to the lady and I didn't know any of the words. And I said, how do I get away from my parents?

[00:10:34] And blah, blah, blah. And she was like, I'm surprised she didn't throw a net on me, but she gave me the paperwork and I tried my best to fill it out. And there was this awesome man next to me who turned out to be an attorney. I told him the story. He said, come back here tomorrow morning at nine.

[00:10:49] And I said, okay. And he filled out the paperwork for me. And he walked in and let the judge hear the case. And my aunt was there and said, everything that she's saying is completely true. [00:11:00] And the judge said to me, in all of the cases I have ever heard, I have never, ever granted immediate manifestation, never.

[00:11:09] He's I've always taken under submission. I've always looked at other resources to be able to give this child. And he's I'm granting you full emancipation. And he goes, I need you to know something. You are an adult from the second. You walk out this door. He said, you will be tried as an adult.

[00:11:27] You will be privileged as an adult. You'll be anything you can imagine. We'll be adult from here on out. And I was like, okay, great. It didn't even hit me the repercussions. And that's what it was filling out. Imagine in your head, imagine filling out a lease for an apartment. I didn't know. It first, last and deposit was, I didn't know, people were looking at me like I had lost it and I was like, no, I can do this.

[00:11:55] So I took three buses to three different jobs. I worked at Contempo [00:12:00] Casuals. I worked at foster farms, chicken, not by the way, not hot when the super smoking hot guy walks in the door that you like, and you're ducking behind the counter and everybody's calling you up. And I finished school in independent study and I worked really hard.

[00:12:15] And I just, there wasn't an option to fail Hala. There was no option to fail. This is what I had to do.

[00:12:22] Hala Taha: That is crazy. Do you ever look back and feel like, do you feel like you made the right decision at 15 years old? Do you wish that people treated you more like a child and told you like, no, you, you can't do this.

[00:12:34] You don't know what you're doing.

[00:12:36] Stephynie Malik: I think about that as each one of my kids have gotten to that age and I've assessed their maturity level or I've assessed where they are emotionally, or I have assessed those types of things in my head, in my heart. I'm like I had no business. Being on my own at all, but there wasn't another option.

[00:12:57] There was no one in this [00:13:00] circle that could have really lent a hand theirs. You can impeach on another family. You can't burden another family. You can't go to another family and expect that you're going to be taken care of. I had a grandmother, she was amazing and she was awesome, but I lied to her the entire time.

[00:13:17] I never wanted to burden her. I never wanted her to feel sad. He never wanted her to feel disappointment in my mother. That was her youngest child at the end of the day. So am I sad now? Like when I look back on getting married and I look back on all the fun girl things, and you want your mom there, you the love of your life, or, heartbreak or not getting into the school of your dreams.

[00:13:37] Yeah. I said one time to my therapist. A long time ago. It must've been, literally 20 years ago and I said, I just miss my mom. And the therapist said, honey, I don't think you miss your mom. I think you miss the idea of what a mother would be to you. And that made so much sense because I was [00:14:00] so close with all my girlfriends moms, and I saw how they interacted.

[00:14:02] And I, I really understood that. It wasn't I didn't miss her. She wasn't nurturing. She wasn't loving, she wasn't kind, she didn't want me. And, I understand that. So I don't know that there would have been a different option for me to be able to say, I wish I was able to do plan B.

[00:14:18] Hala Taha: Yeah. I totally feel that.

[00:14:20] And wow, like you overcame so much, so you basically grew up in Silicon Valley, you had all these odd jobs. At what point did you get your first real job.

[00:14:30] Stephynie Malik: So my first real job was when I was 16 and a half, I took, I had $122 in my, whatever. It was my little savings account. And I took a Greyhound bus to long beach, and I got a penny saver, a magazine, and I looked for a place, a room to rent, and I wrote a bad check that I didn't have the money to cover.

[00:14:54] And I got a hostess and waitress job where I would get tips. And at the [00:15:00] time your bank would deposit the check three times before you got before it actually bounced. And so I knew I had a week to make up $300. And so I went and I rented a room from a woman who had nine, nine bloodhounds living in her house.

[00:15:19] Nine hair everywhere. It was literally disgusting. And I worked my butt off and the check cleared. And then I enrolled in junior college and I went through college like that. In that time I had two or three different waitressing jobs that turned in to be like bookkeeping jobs that like Bobby McGee's like serious jobs where I was working 20 or 30 hours a week from there.

[00:15:45] I met gentlemen, who I started selling large accounts for cell phones. So like when Pepsi or Alamo Rental car would have new salespeople, they would give them a company car that had a cell phone in it. And so I worked myself up to named accounts at a [00:16:00] very way, too young. I was under 20, I was making $50,000 a year.

[00:16:04] And so those were my first few real jobs where I actually, you know, W2 like the whole nine yards. You really pay taxes, all that good. So that's how I did it.

[00:16:13] Hala Taha: That's amazing. Under 20 making 50 grand a year, so you ended up getting really successful really early. And I can imagine working so young and not just part time here and there, money to buy clothes.

[00:16:27] Like you had to pay rent, you had to buy your own food. You had to put yourself through college, you had real responsibility. What did that teach you? All those jobs? What do you think your you take from it now?

[00:16:39] Stephynie Malik: I think I'm extraordinarily hard on my kids. Like all of them. I think I'm super, like you probably should have them on your podcast.

[00:16:46] But I think that, I remember. So I remember the biggest mistake that I made financially. Okay. I left with a girlfriend of mine. I got really excited. One of my really good friends, parents were doctors and they invited me to Malibu to come stay at their house for the weekend. And [00:17:00] I didn't have any of the right clothes.

[00:17:01] I didn't have any the right makeup. I didn't even know, like I cut my own hair. Like I was really not the, that friend. I was the friend that you brought home that you're like, where'd you get her from? That was me. I knew how to speak to people. I was really kind to people. I was always very kind and I was very resourceful, but I just didn't really fit in because I didn't know how important clothes and makeup and all that was.

[00:17:22] I was so excited to go Hala. I forgot to turn my air conditioning off at home. And when I got the bill, the following month, it was $824. And I didn't know what a payment plan was. I didn't know. I didn't know any of the things. And I got my air conditioning turned off for two and a half months.

[00:17:42] Not only was it turned off, it was turned off. Got it turned back on. I had to pay a huge deposit to get it turned back on. So like those type of things, I didn't know. And so those are the things that I've instilled in my children at a super young age, a [00:18:00] savings account, a donation account. If they get $20, what are you saving?

[00:18:04] What are you donating? Whose life are you making better with it? What does it look like? Also too? My kids have graduated. So three of them have graduated high school. Two of them have graduated college. We have a rule in our house and the rule is you take the student loans, you take the student loans and if you do well, and you're a great person and you work really hard and you get a good GPA and you have great recommendations, we'll pay off your student loans.

[00:18:27] I need to have realization of what the real world looks like. They all graduated from high school. All of them graduated from high school with a seven 50 FICO score. What 18 year old knows that a FICO score is. So I was pounding it into their head at a young age, what, being a great member of society and giving back and contributing, even if it's just your time or your smile or your, what you've learned with someone else.

[00:18:52] Hala Taha: I love that. Okay. So let's talk about what you do now. Let's define what crisis management is.

[00:18:58] What is crisis [00:19:00] management?

[00:19:01] Stephynie Malik: So the type of crisis management that I do is I help people that have made significant errors in judgment. Generally speaking, it's around finances. Divorce or visibility, generally speaking, there's always the outlier.

[00:19:25] Okay. But as a whole, it's usually kickbacks, Ponzi schemes, money laundering, bribery, infidelity, bid rigging, skimming money off the top of your company. Creating shell accounts. We work with these types of individuals because those type of individuals usually go out and hire a white collar crime attorney.

[00:19:47] They don't have any idea. There's different ways to move about the journey. In a less public forum, if you will.

[00:19:54] Hala Taha: Got it.

[00:19:55] So walk us through what would happen? Somebody calls you up. They say, [00:20:00] Stephynie, you're my girl. I'm in a crisis. What now, walk me through your process in terms of all the different types of people, you might have to talk to you.

[00:20:10] I know you deal with the FBI and the CIA and like all the, walk us through just an example of what you would do with a client.

[00:20:18] Stephynie Malik: You're like, walk me through normal crisis. If any of them were just normal. Okay. Let's talk about let's just talk about a typical.

[00:20:26] Let's just talk about a white collar crime, like a financial crime. So let's just say like a kickback or let's just say like a skimming type crisis.

[00:20:34] Hala Taha: And what's a kickback.

[00:20:35] Stephynie Malik: So a kickback is so professional. Most professional services are not allowed to receive any monetary gain from a referral.

[00:20:42] So for example, an attorney could say, oh God, my really great friend, Matt sells Lamborghinis. And then he gets a monetary. Basically he gets money for referring. You're not allowed to do that. If the if for any point in time, this can come [00:21:00] back to you as preferential treatment. Like you can't do it at all.

[00:21:04] It's very specific for doctors. It's very specific for attorneys. It's very specific for therapists. They take a code of ethics and they know they are not allowed to receive any sort, like an attorney can only refer another attorney, but they can't be compensated.

[00:21:20] Hala Taha: I was going to be surprised because I'm like, oh my gosh, in my field, that's all we do is refer.

[00:21:27] Stephynie Malik: It's actually really funny. Hala, it's actually super funny. I'm going to tell you this really quick. So when I first started doing this, cause I ran a consulting firm, a global consulting firm for 16 years. So when I very first started doing this, my very first client sent me like a several million dollar client.

[00:21:41] Okay. And this guy is like my father. Okay. And he sent me this client and this client was a dream. He never lied to me. He told me everything that I needed to know. He put me in touch with everybody. He's you know what, step that's a great question. I don't know. Let me put you everything just was so smooth.

[00:21:59] So he was [00:22:00] getting, he was like, Several years in prison, we were able to get him an unbelievably positive experience. Okay. Like a really positive. He still had a consequence, but he, it wasn't a public consequence. It was actually a really good consequence for he and his family that he was able to live with and continue after he was finished with his consequence lead leading his life.

[00:22:19] Okay. So after this whole thing was over and done with, I sent him a wa the guy who referred me, I sent him a watch, and the case was over and I just go, God, thank you so much for thinking about me. So fast forward, two years later, we're doing this big, huge investigation and the attorney walks in and it's a kickback case and we're in this giant boardroom in New York city, like on the 50th floor.

[00:22:41] And they start talking about the attorney, sending gifts to, these different people. And I'm literally sitting in my seat and I'm shrinking and shrinking. I'm getting further and further down. Cause I'm like, oh my God. So after everything was having a heart attack, literally after everything was said and done, I grabbed one of the attorneys.

[00:22:59] I'm like, I have to [00:23:00] tell you something. And he was like, okay. And I told him, and he was like, no, completely different. He's like your professional services. Absolutely. And he's but this was a case where this person who referred you had nothing to do with the case or your future services. So I was like, oh God.

[00:23:15] Okay. Thank God. So it was crazy though. Cause I was really nervous about it.

[00:23:19] Hala Taha: Yeah, that is a really funny story. And so everybody's clear, it's like it's certain professions that have to be careful about that. And in certain circumstances.

[00:23:29] Stephynie Malik: It's really truly what it comes down to truly is the three that I've seen is it's therapists.

[00:23:34] So psychologists, psychiatrists that you see for any therapeutic, means attorneys and doctors. Those are the ones that are really just like the ethics board is just on top of you all at all times, there could be more, but those are the ones that I come across. Okay. So what is entailed? So I'm your girl, you call me up and you're like, I accidentally stole a hundred million dollars from my company.

[00:23:55] I'm so sorry. I have no idea what to do. So the first thing I do is I [00:24:00] assess if I believe you. I assess whether like how deep was this crisis? Did you have your sister involved? Did you create a shell company? Did you use your company credit card to buy misappropriated jet hours? Like what exactly is the crime and how are you looking at me?

[00:24:17] Hala, are you like, oh my God, I blew this. Are you like, what is going on for you? That initial meeting is how I assess. If I'll even take you as a client.

[00:24:28] Hala Taha: By the way, she only does this in person. I was talking to her offline and she will only do this in person.

[00:24:35] Stephynie Malik: Only under no circumstance. Will I do it on zoom or video because body language and how somebody looks at you and how they communicate with you and how they think or ponder a question is so important to see, because ultimately Hala, I think about this, ultimately, I'm getting them to their best measure of success.

[00:24:55] Remember, but ultimately they may be in front of jury. So I need to look [00:25:00] and see. Are you going to be detested the second that you sit on the seat?

[00:25:03] Hala Taha: Yeah. How do you tell somebody who's lying and does it matter if they're, are you looking if they're a good liar, are you checking if they're lying?

[00:25:11] Stephynie Malik: Amazing question.

[00:25:13] Both. Okay. So first of all, I hate when people lie to me and then they get really upset about their bill. Okay. So they lie to me and go, I have no other interest in any other companies. And I was like, really no other companies, no advisory, no warrants. You aren't on any boards. You are, all of your holdings are in the US.

[00:25:32] Your sure you don't consult for anybody else. You don't have any other, like any other holdings, like even if you're holding in a daycare, just tell me about it. So I know.

[00:25:41] Hala Taha: I'm sorry. What is holding mean? Just because I know that if I'm confused, definitely some listeners what's holding.

[00:25:47] Stephynie Malik: Yeah no. Thank you for backing me up.

[00:25:49] Totally. So it's where any of your time that you could possibly be compensated for? So anything that you can do you consult, are you on an advisory [00:26:00] board? Are you just a donating your time on? We had a whole bunch of private equity guys that got on clubhouse at the very beginning that were essentially going in and saying all of their expertise for a percentage of the company will zero plus zero is zero.

[00:26:14] So if the percentage of the company is zero, they still have given their time. If that company gets bought, they're going to be compensated. Okay. So I say any other holdings, any other time where you're spending your time, other than this company right now, that's investigating you. Okay. Is there anybody?

[00:26:29] Nope. Nobody else. Have you advised on your wife's company, have you advised on your children's company, have you advised that your son's school, have you any other place where they could say this person benefited from this person's expertise? No, absolutely not. Your a thousand percent. Yes. I'm a thousand percent sure.

[00:26:47] In 48 hours, I'll get a list of, he advised here, he was warranted here. He was compensated here. He was at, and I'm like, dude, I don't, yeah. It's more than dude. But I'm like and it's hysterical the way that [00:27:00] I do it, like my entire team laughs now, because I literally sit with them in a boardroom and I just pushed the table.

[00:27:04] It pushed the envelope across from them and I'm like, Hey, is that your signature? Because if not, we need to get our fraud team in here. Like immediately. Like your name is on seven companies in four countries, three continents, this is crazy. And they're like,

[00:27:21] 70% of the time all cut it right there. Unlike I'm really sorry. Hopefully things work out for you. Here's all your paperwork. Thank you very much for coming in. I really appreciate it. 70% of the time I'm done 30% of the time. I will say, are we good like it? Or do we have, we're going to have to do this a couple more times or are we good?

[00:27:42] Do you understand that you're supposed to trust me so I can get you the absolute best team from there. I talk about the second part of your question was are they a good liar? Okay. Are you a good liar? And how would that be beneficial? Okay. If you [00:28:00] are a bad liar, People are going to have a lot more empathy for you when you're on the stand.

[00:28:06] If you're a good liar, as from the episode with Mark Bowden, okay. There's things that happen within your body. There's the way that you move. There's the way that you sit back. There's the way you play with your hair. There's a way you look up or look down to communicate. If you do this loses connection with the people that are either going to get you off or convict you.

[00:28:27] So you have to see how this person comes across. Do they have empathy? Do they have connection? Are they able to speak? We had this one client and he was the greatest guy ever. But when he spoke, he sounded like the biggest punk in the entire world. You know what we did, we took him to a therapist.

[00:28:47] I had a really great friend. Who's a psychiatrist. And I said, I think something's cognitively off. He got diagnosed with asperger. So that would be great information to be able to know. So you don't look off pudding, so you don't look like a jerk, so you don't look like [00:29:00] he was insanely brilliant and so smart.

[00:29:02] His IQ is through the roof, but his EQ was nothing. It was horrible. So it really depends. The lying aspect is number one first and foremost thing ever.

[00:29:13] Hala Taha: So I guess I'm a little unclear. So you want them to be a good liar in a sense. You don't want them to be good. You want them to seem like. You feel like when you're a good liar.

[00:29:25] You seem arrogant or something along those lines.

[00:29:28] Stephynie Malik: I never want somebody to be a good liar. If you're a good liar means you're a proven liar. It means you're a practice liar. I want you to be a terrible liar because if you're a terrible liar, you have empathy and connection. If you don't and you're a great liar, you're a sociopath generally.

[00:29:42] Hala Taha: Got it.

[00:29:43] Stephynie Malik: So let me be more clear for you.

[00:29:46] Yeah so if you're a bad liar, you have holes because the reason why you holes in your lying scheme is because there's parts of you that feel badly about lying. If you just get up and you're able to just rattle one off and you're looking at somebody and you're completely connected, there's [00:30:00] something else, very wrong with you.

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[00:31:33] This episode of YAP is brought to you by Gusto. If you're a small business owner, this is for you running a business is just playing hard, endless to do lists employees to take care of and your ever present bottom line. So first of all, kudos to you for staying on top of it all.

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[00:33:13] Okay. So walk me else. What happened? What else happens in the process? Who, what are the people that you end up talking to you? PR, CIA, FBI what are all the different, like groups of people? That's the thing I'm so interested about, because this is not something that is cookie cutter.

[00:33:27] This is something custom that you've figured out and it's mind blowing.

[00:33:32] Stephynie Malik: Yeah. Okay. So no PR so 38 clients, 38 clients and only one is ever gotten to media. You would know 20 of the names like that. Okay. We do have a communication arm, but we are not a crisis communication firm. We are a crisis expertise management firm.

[00:33:54] So we have all of your resources. So whatever you need, okay. You could need [00:34:00] psychiatry. You could need psychology like therapy around psychologist or psychiatry. You could need medication because of anxiety or depression or ADHD, or every other element that you could possibly have cognitively. Okay. Most we work with 65 global attorneys.

[00:34:17] These attorneys, I hand select for you. I meet with you. I meet with your family. I meet with your adult children. I meet with your board. I meet with your executive team. I meet with every single person, whether they know, or they don't know of what has happened. And I'm just a business consultant. I come in and I talked to them about their business and I understand their family dynamics.

[00:34:43] I see how their children or their wives or their husbands interact with them because people automatically think that all of our clients are men and that's not the case. We've had several women clients. So I go through and figure everything else out. I understand what they're asking for.

[00:34:58] So this is the second part, Hala. [00:35:00] What is your very best outcome? What is your measurement of success? So if I have you on 300 recordings, accepting kickbacks and accepting cash, and you're like, oh, I was just really hoping not to do any time. I'm not puff the magic dragon or Houdini. Okay.

[00:35:16] You've done it. It's recorded. I have to at least go, look at the FBI and the CIA with counsel and. And be included, be clear hearted and have a clear conscience about going to try and make this deal with them. So you're going to have a consequence, so I'm never going to just blow smoke and be like, oh yeah, absolutely completely.

[00:35:35] So the next thing I do is, I basically go through what is your measurement of success? And then I give you some different options. Cause most of the time they don't know. They're like, okay, give me some options on what could happen. So we do that. Once we figure out the measurement of success and what will be a successful outcome, they leave, I sit back with my team and I do initial assessment.

[00:35:56] So I look and see who's available. I look and see who [00:36:00] has won the most cases I look and see, who has the best relationships in this area, who has the best relationships with a judge who has a real best relationships with the person investigating, how opposing counsel is received. It's a giant, huge ecosystem of relationships and care and concern, and who has done the best work together.

[00:36:21] Once I've done that, I give them suggestions for their team. Generally, their team looks like this. Professional services. So that's usually one or two white collar crime attorneys. It's generally an asset manager around, are we going to have to liquidate assets to pay back restitution? Or are we going to have to liquidate homes, et cetera?

[00:36:43] Like just whatever needs to be liquidated. It's generally a tax person, because if for some reason we get you a lesser consequence, the next thing we'll mostly we'll take over is another agency wanting to come after you. So I don't want to close one problem and then have, the IRS [00:37:00] come after you for tax fraud.

[00:37:01] So we get a bunch of different documents and a lot of different statements that we get a lot of people involved. Then we come and present you what we think was going to happen. So there, there are PR people, there are social people. We do social campaigns, we do reputation campaigns. But keep in mind as a whole that's 5% of our businesses because our clients don't ever get known.

[00:37:22] So it's white collar it's asset, it's some sort of therapy for the family, it could be drug related. It could be, psychological safety relation. It could be whatever it happens to be. We have all of those resources, metadata getting your phone scraped, making sure that the opposing side gets the right and proper data in an immediate fashion.

[00:37:42] It's setting up servers. So your content or your images are safe on a server and not in the cloud. It is a bunch of different cyber security issues. It's a bunch of different personal relationship issues. And then it's a bunch of different professional services relationships.

[00:37:58] Hala Taha: It's such an [00:38:00] interesting field.

[00:38:00] I find it super fascinating. So how do you get people prepared for these court hearings? What are the types of things that you do?

[00:38:08] Stephynie Malik: So knock on wood. Only two of our clients have ever gone before live court.

[00:38:17] Hala Taha: Wow. So you tend to settle things outside of court.

[00:38:21] Stephynie Malik: Yes. And that is 1000% because I have the absolute best team ever.

[00:38:30] So I, I have people that have deep relationships with agencies that you go have a cup of coffee and go, Hey, here's the facts. What are you thinking? We've walked clients in. So we've walked clans into confess, or we walked clients in to say, Hey, this is what, this is how the scheme worked.

[00:38:48] Or this is, I know you're looking for these pieces in the investigation. I have those pieces. Our job is not to make the agency's job harder. Our job is to get this done, handled and settled with the least amount [00:39:00] of time and resources. So everybody can go about their life. That's our biggest. Win-win.

[00:39:05] Hala Taha: Got it. So interesting. So your job is to keep people out of court, keep people out of the news. And keep it high shush. And that's why they hire you and give you the big bucks. How much does it typically cost to navigate a crisis?
[00:39:18] Stephynie Malik: Oh gosh. So that's so hard. Hala, because there's so many different, there's so many different crisises.

[00:39:25] It really all, let me say, let me answer it like this, how honest are you willing to be? How much information are you willing to give me immediately? Okay. And if that is the case, that generally is the three month bump that's usually, oh, I didn't really know you needed that. Or I wasn't really certain that was impair important or imperative.

[00:39:45] Those are the things that slow down a case. Those are the things that create bumps and trust. Those are the things that kind of inflate the bill. If you will, we have settled for we've settled millions and millions of [00:40:00] dollars for a million dollars. We have settled over a hundred million.

[00:40:06] Four five to $7 million. We have we've done where there's an assessment where we've charged a half, a million dollars for the assessment. We have found the loophole and they've our client has kept the money and we've asked them to accept the money back and close out the investigation. We've had things like happened like that.

[00:40:27] We've also had in the middle of fricking COVID cases that haven't settled for two years because federal court or state court keeps opening and closing and opening and closing and opening and closing. So there's not really a number, what I will say for metrics purposes, what we get told. Is based on our negotiation.

[00:40:48] Cause remember we negotiate the entire thing. We negotiate the attorney's rates. We negotiate the assets rates. So like I'm going to sell this jet or this yacht for 7%, we'll say, no, thank you. [00:41:00] Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. We only usually charge one to 3%. They're like, okay, step we'll do it for that.

[00:41:04] So we negotiate everything. So the attorneys that are two to $3,000 an hour, because we settle out so quickly and because they really love how fast I can get them. The information. Sometimes you get the strongest attorneys, all the name brand attorneys for seven 50 to $1,500 an hour, which is half of what you would normally be spending.

[00:41:25] I review all the invoices. I look through all the invoices. We work with the absolute best state-of-the-art attorneys and they want to do a good job. They just don't really want all of the emotion that's in the case. And that's something that our team really takes off there hands.

[00:41:38] Hala Taha: Super interesting. So let's talk about how you figured this all out.

[00:41:41] There's so much to navigate. It's not something you just go to school for and it's you've built this whole ecosystem. So walk us through how you figured all of this out.

[00:41:52] Stephynie Malik: So it really is just people it's really understanding people. [00:42:00] So the reason why businesses don't do this Hala is because they don't really know what the other person wants.

[00:42:07] So it's like me, if I brought you something that was a product and I go, oh my God, Hala, this guy is the best guy in the entire world. And he has this amazing product. And it's so good. I know you're a good friend of mine. Will you do this for me? Products that are not what you do. You don't do that.

[00:42:23] That's not who you are. Would you do it for me? Probably. But does it highly align with you? No, but if I brought you a celebrity, a star and I go Hala, redo everything cause he's a disaster. And here's your budget that would probably align with you. I give cases to attorneys that love what they do. So I'm not gonna give.

[00:42:47] I say this flip, but I'm not going to give like a DIY attorney, a $60 million Ponzi scheme. He doesn't like doing that. He likes the quick ones going in a meeting with the, with those types of judges. I really find out what people love to work with. I find out [00:43:00] how they're building their business, how they're building their portfolio, and I want to infuse it with good.

[00:43:06] And so after doing this or meeting with the psychologist, I was meeting with a psychologist who was actually doing an interview with me and she had such incredible business acumen. It turns out she went to Harvard business school and just hated everything to do with business and really loved helping people.

[00:43:22] So I thought, oh my God, she'd be so perfect for my clients who hate to go talk to a therapist because all the therapist says, how do you feel? How does that work for you? How do you feel? It's not real true business acumen. So I was like, Hey, would you consider doing. With two or three of my clients a month.

[00:43:38] And she was like, oh my God, I would love that. So I like to light up both sides, getting the client the absolute best result, but also to infusing these amazing relationships that I've built over 20 years.

[00:43:51] Hala Taha: Yeah. That's amazing. I guess what I'm trying to figure out is did you learn this from someone like how to navigate?

[00:43:56] Did you work for a crisis firm before this? Or how did you come up [00:44:00] with the idea of I want to navigate crisis disease? Like, how did your first case come up?

[00:44:04] Stephynie Malik: Hey, here's my first case. I got a phone call at 11:20 at night and it was from a previous VC that I had done a lot of work with and he said, and I had often, I need to be really careful with this.

[00:44:16] I had known him many years. And he was instrumental in bringing so many clients to our consulting firm. And every time I tried to pay him back, Hala a nice dinner with he and his wife, a really great bottle of wine. He would say, Steph, listen, you act like I'm doing you a favor. I'm giving them to you because you're the best firm.

[00:44:39] Okay. You don't need to pay me back. It's payment enough. How you take care of them. So this went on for years and years. And then I get this phone call at 11:20 at night saying, you want to know how you can help me. Let me tell you, you can help me. And I was like what is he talking about?

[00:44:51] What is going on? And so basically he asked me if I would consider looking at a very significant problem that they

[00:45:00] had, that they needed help with. I'm a business consultant. That's what I do. So I said, great. Tell me about the problem. And he said, no. And I said, what do you mean? No. And he's no, he's I need you to fly there and I need for you to just meet with them and tell me what you think.

[00:45:15] And I'm like, I, you know me I'm a preparer. Like I want to, I, what no, what? And he's I really need you to do this. So I was like, okay. So I go fly there. Zero information, zero. I show up and I get handed a Manila envelope. The Manila envelope probably has, I don't know, maybe 20 or 30 pages. It was literally out of a book.

[00:45:40] It was literally out of a book. It has 20 or 30 pages in it. And what is in there is several receipts from a credit card company, about eight pictures, eight still black and white pictures of a person with other people. Other [00:46:00] things that weren't supposed to necessarily be in the picture. And I'm like, okay, this is great.

[00:46:06] What do you want me to do? He said, fix it. I said, what does that even mean? Fix it. I don't even know what that means. And he goes, there's no one. I know that is more connected in more continents with more business relationships that handles things calmly quietly and is unflappable. Then you fix it, click.

[00:46:27] I was like, what the hell does even fix it? What does this mean? And I opened the last page of this Manila envelope. I flipped to the last page and it was somebody who I had known for a very long time. And it was somebody who was a part of a very large company. And, I knew that if this were to [00:47:00] be public information, it would be horrifying for his wife and his five children.

[00:47:06] And so I quickly needed to understand the problem. It went from $3 million to $30 million super, super fast. The problem is there's a lot of things within this Hala that for example, he lived in two different countries. He had holdings in three different countries. So like it's not as easy as walking in with a white collar crime attorney and going, Hey, let's, you need to pay all this money back.

[00:47:30] You need to go here and you need to go there's Interline country, massive financial issues that are going on. So it just so happened that I knew three different attorneys that I loved and adored. And I called and I said, Hey, not spend 22,000 years, but I was just wondering if we could just sit down and have a conversation.

[00:47:50] All of them said yes. And he said, what would you do with something like this? And what would you do with something like this? And what would you do with something like this? And they all gave me great answers and great ideas. [00:48:00] So I came back and I was like, I think I need a legal team to put this stuff together.

[00:48:04] And so that's what I did. I called them up and I said, here's the deal. I need these things. He said, great, here you go. It's done. So I created contracts. I created routine or agreements and I created six attorneys that were willing to document helping me through this crisis after that. It turned out so unbelievably.

[00:48:27] The attorneys had a blast. We helped somebody who we thought had done a really horrible crime that did it, not a great crime. It was bad. It was horrible what they did, but the reasons why they did it were a little bit more explainable. We got them all the help that they needed.

[00:48:44] We got all the money plus 13 and a half percent interest paid back in restitution. We got every single person paid for their profession, double what they would have made and everything was completely handled within 92 days.

[00:48:59] Hala Taha: That's amazing. [00:49:00] So basically you had a break where somebody puts you in the fire, you did a well, and then you're like, man, I guess I can create a business out of this.

[00:49:09] And you probably felt like this is the perfect job for me. All my experiences prepared me for this.

[00:49:14] Stephynie Malik: Yeah. I didn't feel like any of that. I literally was like, I didn't feel like bad at all. I actually was like, oh my God. Okay. So I got done and I was like, okay. Yeah, done. Okay. And then he called me and he was like, so how'd that feel?

[00:49:25] And I was like, how did, what field that I walked into, like baptism by fire. And I had no idea what the hell I was doing. How did that feel? And he's not the point, Stephynie he's you did it. You, didn't your heart rate. Didn't raise everybody loved working with you and you got the best result. And I said, great.

[00:49:44] But I believe in addressing the gap and like really how big is the need for that? And he goes, oh let me tell you. And so we sat down and he ran through. Just what he had known in the last six months. And not only that [00:50:00] Hala that, but how many people had been taken advantage of how many people had paid a white collar crime attorney, maybe a million dollars and still going to prison for, 10 years or somebody who had maybe rolled on somebody else.

[00:50:11] Like people don't understand how to move through the journey in a thoughtful process. We're not getting criminals off. We're not doing that. We're just giving them a different way to preserve their families and give back the money or whatever it is they took from the other company.

[00:50:26] Hala Taha: Got it. Super, super interesting career.

[00:50:28] Now we are about to wrap up the interview. We're going to do a quickfire segment because I want to talk about your courses. I want to talk about your podcast very quickly. If somebody wanted to get into this space, what would you recommend them to do?

[00:50:42] Stephynie Malik: If they wanted to do. If they wanted this to be their job?

[00:50:45] Hala Taha: If they want it to be you, if they want it to be a crisis management expert, what would you recommend interning for a company like yours?

[00:50:52] Is that like really the way to learn the ropes?

[00:50:55] Stephynie Malik: So I would say no, because I would say most, I don't let anybody intern for me because the information is too [00:51:00] sensitive and you have to, at the end of the day, you have to be so discerning with who you bring into that fold. I would say the best. If somebody wanted to do this, first of all, they have to be able to do it for the right reasons, Hala.

[00:51:12] The first thing is I don't, we don't do any marketing your clients. Don't go, oh my God, call Stephynie because she just caught me out of this crazy a hundred million dollar scheme. It's really you right off into the sense that very quietly and very discerning. We don't do public statements.

[00:51:27] We don't do all of these things. The biggest thing that you have to do, if you want to be in this business is you have to thoughtfully build your network and your relationships to be a trusted leader. You have to hone in on your negotiation skills. And at the end of the day, you have to offer being so still.

[00:51:48] And so unflappable to be able to really be in rooms where everybody is just losing their crap. So those three skills, if you can do that, call me.[00:52:00]

[00:52:00] Hala Taha: Amazing. Okay. So let's get into this fire section of the podcast. So you have two courses, executive presence, and scale up. So let's first talk about executive presence.

[00:52:12] What are your top three tips to have great executive your presence?

[00:52:17] Stephynie Malik: Great question. So I would say. Effective listening skills, listening to understand, not just for a pause or not hearing. So people say, Hey, did you hear me? That's not the point. Did you listen to understand and ask clarifying questions?

[00:52:34] That's number one, number two. How do you show up for meetings? Are you early? Are you late? What do you offer? Are you prepared and how do you know you're prepared? How are you receiving feedback? Are you asking your direct managers or executives or other leaders how you can show. In your best self to be able to really hone in on those skills for what you want, not what they want you to do.[00:53:00]

[00:53:00] Do you want to move up the ladder? Do you want to promotion? Do you want to move to another type of career showing up for you above everyone else and just being really solid in who you are and what your message is

[00:53:11] Hala Taha: Love that. Okay. So let's talk about scale up. What are the best ways to scale your business?

[00:53:19] Stephynie Malik: First foremost, everything is making sure that your product or your service addresses a certain market, and that's where everything kind of starts and stops. Is there even demand for this? How do you know who have you polled, who have you spoken to Hala as you well know? We've all created things and then it, the market is not really there for it anymore.

[00:53:41] The pivot really didn't happen. And so understanding your product or your service understanding. Gap it addresses and the niching it down for there. If you serve everyone, you serve no one. And this addresses that.

[00:53:56] Hala Taha: Love that. And where can people find your course?

[00:53:59] Stephynie Malik: So [00:54:00] for elevate it'sstephyniemalik.com/elevated.

[00:54:06] And for scale, it is stephyniemalik.com/scaleos .

[00:54:12] Hala Taha: Awesome.

[00:54:12] So we're going to stick that in the show notes, and we're going to have a special offer for all of our listeners tuning in we're going to offer 10% off. I actually helped run Stephynie's podcast and her social media, and we feel like all of our listeners at Young And Profiting are going to really enjoy.

[00:54:28] These courses are really made for young professionals who are looking to level up. And Stephynie is a master business consultant. She's started 11 different companies. She is a mastermind.

[00:54:41] Stephynie Malik: Thank you Hala. I really appreciate it.

[00:54:43] Hala Taha: You are brilliant. Okay. So let's talk about the Spin It podcast. You have a brand new podcast in it.

[00:54:48] You help us understand how to turn obstacles into opportunities. I know that when we first, I had to convince you to start a podcast. When we first got on a call, I was like, Stephynie you need a [00:55:00] podcast. You are a rockstar. I don't know anybody else who could talk about. Anything more than you can in terms of the business world.

[00:55:08] I feel like you've just got so many different experiences and I knew that you'd be great at podcasting and you are a natural, I was just on your show. It was one of the best interviews that I've ever had. We're going to replay it on the podcast. So talk to us about what it was like, learning something new.

[00:55:22] Like I know you, weren't comfortable with the idea of having a podcast. So how did you

[00:55:25] overcome that?

[00:55:26] Stephynie Malik: So I feel like I want to have an entire show on this and just how amazing you were at so gently pushing this. Holly, I have to tell you, I really pissed so many people off because so many people had begged me to do this four or five, six years ago.

[00:55:46] And I was like, no, I don't want to be part of the noise. I do. Everybody has a podcast. I don't have any desire. I don't want to do it. And I can't tell you how many people did it. How many people came to me and told me to do this. [00:56:00] The way you articulate what is important to your clients, the way you mirror things back to that client is 1000%.

[00:56:15] Like I didn't fight you. You said, this is what I want you to do. And I said, okay. And you were like, wait, what? I didn't love it. I still, it's still taking a lot of getting used to, because I want to show up and be so present. And I want to show up and be an add so much value. It's still not just oh, walk in the park.

[00:56:32] Like you, I am getting really amazing feedback. I'm getting like some of the best people that you've introduced me to sending me an email and going, oh my God, that was literally one of the best interviews. And I'm like, shut up, Hala puts you up to, and they're like, I haven't talked to Hala in three months.

[00:56:48] So it was a lot not knowing, being completely vulnerable with you. Businesses, my forte. That's what I do. I take companies and I pivot them. I grow them. [00:57:00] I make them global brands. That's what I do. I didn't know what I didn't know. And finding someone like you, who is just, it's funny, the girls, my team said, it's literally funny because they you hire her for the same reason your clients hire you.

[00:57:21] I have called you with the biggest flip outs. And you're like, okay, here's what we're going to do. There's not even a pause. There's just okay, this is what we're going to do. And by the way, if this doesn't work, this is what we're going to do next. It's just, it's such a safe place for me to just be able to call you and freak out that I didn't know the right questions to ask.

[00:57:41] I feel like a little girl walking around in my mommy shoes. And have you just go, Steph, I got that. And this is what happened, and this is what we're going to do. And this is how it won't happen again. Or this is how we're going to make it bigger. And you've just been instrumental. Every aspect of this podcast and I can't.

[00:57:56] Thank you enough.

[00:57:57] Hala Taha: Oh, thank you so much, Stephynie I'm so proud of you guys. [00:58:00] It is an amazing show. I'm not just saying that. I literally, I don't, you guys, I've had 200 episodes. I've never brought a client on and been like, you have to listen to her podcast, but you have to listen to her podcast. You will learn so much because she's just has so much experiences.

[00:58:14] She's been working in this world since she was 15 years old. Like she knows her stuff and some incredible conversations are on that podcast. So go check out, Spin It, go check out her course. If you guys really want to level up your business skills, your executive presence, if you have a business and you want to figure out how to scale it, make sure you check that out.

[00:58:34] Stephynie what is your secret to profiting in life?

[00:58:38] Stephynie Malik: My secret to profiting in life is understanding what other people are needing and seeing if I have the skills or the superpower to help them believe in themselves. I love it.

[00:58:52] Hala Taha: And where can our listeners go to learn more about you and everything that you do?

[00:58:56] Stephynie Malik: stephyniemalik.com and it's with a Y. So I'll [00:59:00] spell it. It's S T E P H Y N I E. Malik, M as in Mary, a L I k.com.

[00:59:11] Hala Taha: All right, I'll stick that in the show notes. You can find her on Instagram. You can find her on LinkedIn. We'll have all of her links in the show notes. Thank you so much, Stephynie this was an awesome conversation.

[00:59:20] Stephynie Malik: Thank you so much for having me.

[00:59:23] Hala Taha: Thanks for listening to Young And Profiting Podcast.. What an amazing ride that conversation was. Stephynie overcame so much emotional trauma at such a young age with her father's death. Then her getting emancipated from her mother at 15, she was thrusted into adulthood very early on, and she realized she had to put herself first and she had to step up to survive.

[00:59:44] She worked three jobs during college. She put herself through school and by the age of 20, she was making $50,000 a year in her first real business-related job. She didn't let anything stop her and her setback turned to be a great opportunity. In the end, she turned an [01:00:00] obstacle into an opportunity, which is everything that Stephynie is about.

[01:00:04] That's why she's so great at crisis management. She's so great at pivoting Stephynie soar to the top and became a consultant for top tier businesses and companies. And she did it her way by using empathy and always being an active listener to her clients. And these skills eventually led her to the unique career path of crisis management, which I found super fascinating because it's a really uncommon career path.

[01:00:26] And she basically made up her dream. From scratch. He took all the skills that she was good at. She took all of her experiences. She gave it a shot. Somebody gave her an assignment to do crisis management. She knocked it out of the park and then she started doing it for other people, started to find out patterns started to understand the lay of the land.

[01:00:44] And now she owns a huge crisis management firm. And this really reminds me of, YAP, I did the same thing. I was really good at podcasting. I was really good at social media and you had to do YouTube. I knew how to do media buying from podcasts. I knew how to [01:01:00] do graphic design and copywriting. And I said, okay, why don't I start a marketing agency?

[01:01:04] I know how to do everything related to this space. And I can also do a podcast production arm. And I did it and it turned out to be a success because I literally knew how to do everything. And I had leadership experiences from the past and I put all these experiences together to become a great CEO of a marketing and podcast agency.

[01:01:23] And I think that's why it's so important to get a lot of experience. When you get a lot of experience, you get a lot of skills and then you can stock those skills together and design your dream job. And for me, that is the biggest takeaway from this episode is that you can design your own dream career and your career path can be something that you didn't even imagine 10 years from now, 20 years from now. After you get your experiences and you really find out what you're good at, you can design a job that is perfect for you.

[01:01:58] And I love how Stephynie [01:02:00] never gave up. Even at age 15, she had no clue what she was going to do. She was pretty much homeless and she just worked on her strengths. She had great work ethic. She up-leveled her skills. And she instills those principles in her own children today. And not just her children, but everybody in the world she's got courses.

[01:02:18] She does coaching and mentoring. She is such an inspiration and a guiding example of keeping your head up and staying strong. If you want to learn more about harnessing your strengths and gaining confidence, go check out episode number 104, Harness Your Strengths with Marcus Buckingham. Here's a clip from that episode.

[01:02:37] Marcus Buckingham: That is a beautiful starting point to begin to identify for yourself where you get strength from life and because strength and appetite and practice and performance and practice. So this beautiful ongoing loop, the more detailed you can be about which particular activities draw you back.

[01:02:55] Those are your stress. You may not be good at them yet. You may [01:03:00] not be, you may just be drawn to them repeatedly, but the beautiful thing is you use your life, not someone's theoretical models, but your life. To help, what are the particular aspects, activities, and situations, contexts, moments that strengthen you.

[01:03:14] Hala Taha: Again, if you want to learn more about Harness Your Strengths, go check out episode number 104 with Marcus Buckingham. Now, as always, I want to give a shout out to one of our latest Apple Podcasts reviewers. And for those of you who don't know, Apple Podcasts reviews are the number one way to thank us here at young and Young And Profiting.

[01:03:34] And it's my favorite thing to do. I love to read your reviews. It makes my day every time. So if you enjoy the podcast, if you find value in the podcast, if you listen every week, every month, whatever it is. Take the time to write us an Apple Podcasts review. We never asked for donations. We never asked for money from our audience.

[01:03:53] We only asked for Apple Podcasts reviews. If you can borrow your friend's phone, if you can borrow your mom's phone, your [01:04:00] sister's phone, your husband's phone, whatever it is. If you don't have access to apple, get access, write us a review and we will thank you for it. So this week, shout out, goes to E S N Y J E P.

[01:04:12] I'm not sure how to pronounce that as SNI jep, these iTunes names are really funny, but nonetheless, the review goes. Favorite podcast as a mid 20 year old, this podcast is always one of my favorites to listen to such great takeaways and lessons from each and every episode. Thank you so much for your amazing review.

[01:04:29] And I think it's funny that at Younger Profiting, we have listeners of all ages. I have people who are 18 years old who loved the podcast. And I have people who are 65, who loved the podcast. Listen each and every week. We are really a podcast for all ages. We are young at heart, not necessarily our age.

[01:04:46] And I love to hear who's tuning in. It really helps me understand who my audience is. So if you're out there listening, and again, if you find value in the show, take time. An Apple Podcast review. That's the best way to thank us here at the

[01:05:00] podcast. And the other thing that I love to see you guys do, and I've see you doing it a lot more often, which is great is when you guys take a screenshot of your app, listening to the end of this episode, and then you take that picture, you upload it to your Instagram story and then tag me at YAP with @yapwithhala.

[01:05:17] And then I see it. I'll reshare it. And then we can talk in the DMS. You can tell me what you like about the show. You could tell me your favorite episode. You can ask me a question. I love to connect with my listeners. So please don't be shy. Take a screenshot of this app right now, upload it to your Instagram story.

[01:05:33] Tag me @yapwithhala, and then let's chop it up in the DM's. And I'm so grateful for all our listeners. Thank you guys so much for all your support. I am so blessed to be hosting this podcast. You guys can also find me on LinkedIn at Hala Taha, and I do want to thank the YAP team. We have an amazing team right now.

[01:05:54] 68 employees, strong running Young And Profiting Podcast. And YAP at [01:06:00] media, I feel so thankful for everyone and just really want to thank everybody for all their help and building this dream that we call a Young And Profiting. This is Hala signing off.