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.

No matter your age, profession, or industry, there's no fluff on this podcast and that's on purpose. I'm here to uncover value from my guests by doing the proper research and asking the right questions. If you're new to the show, we've chatted with the likes of X FBI agents. Real estate Mogul's self-made billionaires CEOs and bestselling authors.

Our subject matter ranges from enhancing productivity, how to gain, influence the art of entrepreneurship and more, if you're smart and like to continually improve yourself, hit the subscribe button because you'll love it here at young and podcast. Hey, young Anders, this is Hala Taha. And today I have a very special guest appearance replay for you in July.

I. Actually had a rule that I would go on anybody's podcast who asked me the podcast industry kind of slows down in July and August. And so I had a lot less work. There was a lot less sales calls, a lot less things I had to do. And I thought I would give back. I actually learned this from John Lee Domi, J L D.

He's got this really popular podcast called entrepreneurs on fire. And he gives back to up and coming podcasters and goes. Every single podcast that asks him and he does this just like, you know, once a year or something, he blocks out 20 minute blocks. He does like 10 in a day. And I took heat from him and started doing the same.

Also, it's a great way to promote your podcast. If you're a podcaster out there, the number one way for people to find your podcast is by being on. Other podcasts. And so I had this interview with a guy named Ryan Cass. He hosts when today, and we had this incredible conversation and he's an up and coming podcaster.

And I just remember being really impressed so much so that after the conversation, I was like, you know what, Ryan, I'm gonna replay this on. Yeah. First of all, it's gonna help you get more exposure. Everybody who does an incredible job. I, I love to replay them on app because it gives them a leg up. I.

300,000 plus subscribers across all apps. And so it gives them an opportunity to get visibility for their show as well. And then also my listeners love to hear my story because usually I'm on the other side of the mic and I'm not the one getting questions asked. And a lot of my listeners. Wanna hear about my life too.

So it's a win-win and funny enough, this podcast is called win today and I was featured on it. And so if you're interested in skill stacking and building a career that combines all your talents, stay tuned. In this episode, I give actionable advice on how to expand your skill set and actually reach your goals instead of just daydreaming about them.

We talk about why I left the entertainment industry and what prompted me to eventually reenter it with yap. This podcast. We also discussed the law of attraction, my secrets to profiting life and what I want my legacy to be. This was a really fun interview. Ryan is an excellent podcast host. He asked me some really intriguing questions.

He did his research. And so I can't wait for you guys to listen to this episode. And again, this is the win today podcast with Ryan Cass. I was a guest on the show and we're gonna replay it right now. And I would definitely advise that you go check out, win today with Ryan cast. He's a great podcaster.

Seriously. One of my favorite guest appearances of the year, we're gonna link his channel in the show notes and without further ado, enjoy my conversation with Ryan KA. Welcome to the win today podcast. Thank you so much for having me, Ryan. I have a new favorite question that I love to ask people. So you've had the opportunity to have your podcast listened to by millions of people all over the world.

You were most recently on the cover of podcast magazine in 2021. Congratulations, by the way. You've interviewed some of the most well renowned thought leaders in the world to include ed Mylet Matthew McConaughy, Seth goin. I can go on and on Gretchen Ruben, Heather Monahan, you've got an amazing rap sheet, but what is something that is not on your resume or, or not on your bio that makes you really proud and why, you know, it's not known that, you know, This is gonna, this is so random, but it's like, I'm a fun person, right?

Like if you, if you didn't know me, you might think that I was really serious, that I never joked that I was really mature, but I actually like love being silly and goofy and making my team laugh and just like making people in my. Just have a little bit more fun and feel more lighthearted. And that's not something that you would read on my resume.

You might think that I'm, I am a workaholic. Right. But I still have like a lot of fun and I'm silly and goofy and I'm like a little immature. So I'm proud of myself for that for keeping, for keeping it like fun. I love that. Cause I love to ask that question to really dig down right off the bat and just.

Who someone is at really just as a human, right. Because we both have the opportunity to interview some of the so many amazing people and yeah, you look at their rap sheet and even people tell me like, Ryan you're, you mean, you joke around. I'm like, yeah. I'm like we're humans. And I think it's important to understand that component behind about somebody.

And it's not just all, it's not just all business. So curious, because this, I was asked to do this on a podcast because. When I'm asked, like, Hey, what's something that people don't know about. You I'm actually like class clown, but looking behind me, you know, you see a bookshelf, you see my goals board, nothing indicates that.

Yeah. So I went on a podcast and actually like, I can do Grinch impersonations really well. And I love doing movie impersonations. Like. Do you have any, like when you say you're a jokester, you know, how is that? Like, do you have any one liners you can drop for us or do you do voice impersonations? Like, what's your thing.

no, no voice impersonations. It's just that, like, I know how to crack jokes. I know how to make fun of myself. I often will like. Kind of act like ditzy, just to be funny, like, you know what I mean? Like, that's my thing, like I'll just say silly stuff and like that I know is wrong just to like, make everyone laugh, you know?

Yeah, yeah. No, I love that. So everyone listening ho is actually a human . You have an interesting, you come from a family of doctors. My research serves me well and very good. You chose a different.  and I wanna understand, you know, walk us through your pathway, how you went down that different path from the rest of your family, kind of what inspired that and, and really what you do now.

Yeah. So from I, from when I was little, I, nobody ever like pressured to me to be a doctor because I was so different from everyone else from the start. In fact, I sang, before I spoke, I thought I was gonna be a famous singer when I was younger. I would always be like performing for everyone. I was also like really adamant about working and gotten to sales really early.

So when I was four years old, I started selling pictures at Sunday school, like, and would force my cousins to like make pictures so I could sell them. And I was always like this little ring leader. Coming up with businesses. If somebody had a lemonade stand, I'd one up them with like a slushie stand I would sell and make bracelets.

When I was younger, then finally, when I was 13, I was able to get a job. And my parents were like these immigrant parents, my dad was a doctor and they were really against me working. All they cared about was we had to get A's in school and I would fight them to drive me to work. And since I was 13, I had a.

At like a gift shop. And then at retail stores, I worked at every store in the mall that you can think of and looking back at it now, I, I haven't done sales like a sales job in 10 years or more, but I do sales every day now and I crush and I know it's because I used to work at the mall when I was younger.

Right. Mm-hmm . And so, like, I just love the fact that I was such a hustler. Like I really was always such a hustler and always wanted to make money and make a lot of money. But in terms of. When I knew that I was different from my siblings, I just never had the same interests. I, I was never an a plus student.

Like only when I got my MBA and I was much older. I got a 4.0 and everything. But before then I was, I was like an average student in college. I could barely graduate. Like I had a terrible, terrible GPA. I think I graduated with like a 2.3 GPA. Like it was so bad and. Stupid. I just loved everything else. I loved being a part of the sorority.

I loved being in plays. I loved being a cheerleader and I just was so involved in like experiences and not so much academics. And so, um, I, I, would've never gotten into me school, medical school, first of all.  and second of all, I just wasn't my personality. Like I just, I'm not into blood. I. It just, wasn't my thing.

I was just always such like a very outgoing person and like, you know, my dad, my siblings, they used to always be like, oh, like you're gonna be a newscaster. That's what everybody used to think I would be. Or, or, you know, something along those lines. Mm-hmm, , it's interesting how our youth experiences or our youth side hustles actually benefit us or can benefit us now in our adult lives.

So you saying that you had your hustles and working at the mall? I remember my first job, my first official job. I worked at a theme park. Uh, Carolyns just outside of Charlotte, North Carolina, and, you know, in a theme park, how you've got those obnoxious people that you walk by a game and they say, Hey, come on down, play the frog Bo $5, you know, mm-hmm  and you've got those massive Teddy bears.

That, that was me. Oh, you know, you're the Teddy bear guy.  I was the Teddy bear guy, you know, and, and at 15 years old and we're in the stupid referee costume, but looking at it now, I'll get up and perform. In front of anyone. Yeah. And, and it made me not afraid. And then also we lived near a golf course, and I remember I would collect all the golf balls that people would hit near our backyard, clean them, all, put 'em in egg cartons.

And then I would go up to the driving range and, and sell the egg cartons. Yeah. Until they kicked me off and told me to go home, you know? And, and I thought even having. $50 at 13 years old, I was like, man, I'm rich. Like I just wanted to buy chocolate milk and then save a little bit of money.  I love that egg carton story.

Yeah. It's, it's really cool to think about it. I always tell people, you know, the number one thing that you can do when you're young is just work and get experience. Even if you're getting minimum wage, even if you're working for. Free. I've worked for free so many times in my life, and I don't regret it ever because it's just these skills that you don't realize that you compound, and then you can use them later on in different circumstances, in different industries.

And you're at such an advantage. Um, and I, and I feel that way with my siblings. Like, you know, when all you're doing is studying and then you go to med school, a lot of my cousins who did the same thing, siblings. They end up having a really hard time once they're actually working, cuz like they've never worked before mm-hmm  and so it's like, so everything is so dramatic.

They're they're so tired they're they feel so overworked and it's just because they're not used to working. Whereas for me, I was like totally cool. Working 18 hours a day when I was, you know, working three jobs, trying to get yap off the ground. Yeah. Yeah. You have worked for free a lot. My goodness. Like hot 97.

And then in addition to that, when you were at HP, you were starting the, was it young employee network, right? Yeah. Oh, I love that. You do so much your research. I, I spend time. No, I'm like, Hey, if I'm bringing people like you on board or anyone, like I'm going, I think the conversation so much more fun. Like I'm gonna, yeah.

I'm gonna learn everything I possibly can about, about that person. You know, like I, I call it. It's like acceptable stalking, I guess. Right. I don't even know what you call it, but , but, but you've worked for free a lot. Yeah. And, and I want to get into, into that path, you know, to where you are now. So you've got your, um, gap media, but talk about how, uh, that started and, and that pathway.

So this is after. Graduating from what N J it New Jersey Institute. Yep. Yep. So get into, get into that in your, your professional pathway, because this is really where I wanna hit on. There's some fun moments in, in your path here. Yeah. So. When I was in college, I interned I'll start at college. Okay. College, I interned to Honda 97.

I worked there for three years for free. Totally not a dollar. And I'm talking about, I quit school, dropped outta school. I was doing bad anyway, and I worked there all day. And then I worked at night for the DJs and I never got paid $1. I lived with my brother in his apartment and I just hustled at the radio station.

And so I did that for free for three years when I asked for a paying job, because I was getting a lot of pressure from my family. I started to feel like a failure and I just wanted to get paid minimum wage and have a normal job. Um, they fired. Angie Martinez cut my key card. She told me not to come back into work and they fired me and I was totally devastated.

I went back to school and, you know, actually within the next four days, I had my next big bright idea. And that was to start strawberry blunt.com. The sorority of hip hop. I learned how to blog at hot 87. I used to work for DJ enough who had a blog that's enough.com and I was running it for him. So I knew how to launch and run websites and blog sites.

So. Figured out how to, you know, create a WordPress website, code it, customize. It started to recruit girls, girls on Twitter and Craigslist got 14 girls within two weeks launched the sorority of hip hop. We blew up within the first three months. We were one of the most popular hip hop and entertainment sites in the world.

And that's because I figured out how to hack Twitter. I set up our blog articles so that every time we blogged, I would at like Wiz Khalifa or whatever. You know, all the girls who blog for me at one point it was 50 girls. They would tweet out to w Khalifa at one time when the blog article came out automatically and then people would retweet that.

And we were the first blog that did that. Now all the blogs do that. We were the first blog that figured that out. And so we got viral really quick. MTV scouted us. Twice. They wanted us to shoot a pilot. The first pilot was really small. Nothing came out of it. It was like three months into it. The second pilot was at the end of strawberry blunt and it, I was doing strawberry blunt for three years.

We were hosting parties, concerts. We had online radio shows. I had 50 girls. Uh, we were pretty big in the tri-state area. And MTV wanted to shoot us. They told me, Hey, ho, this is real. You're gonna be the star. They signed five other girls. We signed paperwork. Like they marched us into the MTV offices. And I felt like the coolest girl in the world.

they got us a studio on Broadway. They filmed us all summer. And then they pulled the plug two weeks before it was supposed to air. And I was like, So devastated. This was the second like pun punch in the gut when hot 97 fired me. I thought my life was over. Like literally everybody knew me as HOA from hot 97.

All my college friends were like, oh, ho is the girl that works at hot 97. You know, I was dating Chris brown. Like I, it was just like, my whole life was like, you know, like, Done. I thought I was done right then I like reinvented myself with strawberry blunt. The, the DJs who wouldn't pay me minimum wage were now hiring me to host their parties.

I got back in with everyone because I basically did it on my own and everyone was really impressed. And I ended up getting all my connections back and started winning again. Then MTV drops me and honestly I should have kept going, you know, that like meme where like the guys, like, like pick in and acts and like going through dirt and.

Two inches away from gold and then he stops, you know what I mean? Yeah. That's how, like that was me and I stopped. When I had strawberry blunt, right? Like we were huge. And I was like, I told the girls, I was so devastated that we didn't get MTV. We could have gotten oxygen or VH one or some other show, but I was like, no, if it's MTV, I don't want anything.

And cuz this was right after Jersey shore MTV was like the huge network and I just shut everything down. I just closed down everything and it was like, forget it. I'm done with entertainment. I'm not gonna be famous. This obviously wasn't meant for me. I'm just gonna go get my MBA. Call it a day and, you know, go into corporate.

Um, actually before I went and got my MBA, I tried to, I thought that I was gonna be a speech language pathologist, actually, all my, all my doctor family was basically like, you should just be a speech language pathologist. It's like three years, you'll make 80 grand. Like, you'll be that. Basically, this is all you're ever gonna amount to, or maybe become a physical therapist.

Or they were like all just like become like a non doctor. That's like gonna be a couple years or whatever, and just do that. So I applied to 14 speech language pathology schools, and I got rejected from every single one.  thank God. Thank freaking God. Yeah. Rejected from every single one. Then I was like, okay, I'm gonna try to get my MBA.

And I had a terrible undergrad GPA. I had a 2.3. I was so bad, but I had so many cool experiences. And so I remember I stalked my director of alumni at N G I T. She was the ex director of the alumni. Sorry, director of graduate studies and I stalked her. You know how you said acceptable stalking. I reached out to her on LinkedIn.

I reached out to her on email. I invited her for a cup of coffee. Eventually she took a meeting with me and I told her my story and she was very impressed with me. And she's like, Kala, I'll let you in. This MBA program, if you get a 4.0, like you have to get a 4.0 and that's like my one condition. And I was like, sure.

And I did it. I got a 4.0, I graduated number one in my class. I took it super serious. Everybody hated me in my MBA because I was like that one annoying girl that like ruined everything because I always got, you know, a hundred percent on everything.  and so, um, I got my MBA. At the same time, I got an internship at Hewlett Packard, an MBA internship, which set off my corporate career.

They hired me. I got promoted several times. And like you said, uh, I took on this kind of side project within the company. Hewlett Packard at the time was a 300,000 person company. It was like a country basically is like so huge. And they had this thing called employee resource. And it allowed me to be a leader within the company.

And they had something called the young employee network. Um, they had chapters all around the world. I was in an office in New Jersey that had no chapter. So I launched it became the president, worked for free. As the president for two years, uh, created all the events for the office. They never had a summer picnic company, holiday party.

Fundraisers. I basically launched all of that for them to this day. They're still doing those things that I set the groundwork for. And I ended up being on the global young employee network board. And then. I was set to be the president of the global young employee network. And the HR director did not like me.

She hated me for some reason. She, and she gave it to somebody who had zero experience. So here I was three years of free work. Again. Mm-hmm . For my company, HP, and then they didn't even keep me on the board. They kicked me out of the young employee network, essentially. But the best part about that is that again, I redirected my energy into something new, into something positive, and I decided, Hey, if I can't be the voice of the 7,000 young employees at Hewlett Packard, why don't I do it for the rest of the world and start young and profiting podcast.

And that was how I started young and profiting podcast. And now a quick break from our sponsors.

What a fun journey. You know, I was, when I was doing my prep, just thinking about, I wrote down three words that I think describe your journey. And I see resilience of course, confidence because every time you've been knocked down, you've come back and believed in yourself and then intentionality, just being very intentional.

Your path and taking those steps, you know, even going back to school and getting the 4.0 and showing that you can do it. Um, you had to be very intentional every day, too, in order to accomplish that. So that's what I see kind of your journey summed up into three words. Now I want to hit on those rejections a little bit more.

And you said something really awesome in another podcast, I. That rejection is just redirection. And I love that because I believe that with anything that happens to us, we have, we have two choices. You either let it shape you or break you, choose, choose option number one. And any of these, these moments, you know, I don't even call them failures.

I just really call them learning blocks. And just that simple reframe when something negative comes up or when something doesn't go my way, I'm like, you know, There's something that I'm going to learn from on the other side. So I embrace it even though at the time, you know, it, it sucks. I know that something good's gonna come from it.

So with these learning blocks that you've had, how have you allowed them to shape you? Whether it's from the hot 97 or the HP? Like what changed you after that happened? Whether you adopted a certain rule.  or you put your guard up for certain types of people. Like what? Talk about that. Yeah. It's, it's such a great question and I really appreciate like the thoughtfulness that you have and your questions and your progression of this interview.

So. You know, with hot 97, I was immature. And the biggest lesson that I learned from that rejection is actually that you should never write anything when you're mad. And this sounds like really, really small advice, but it's actually huge advice that you can take with you for the rest of your life. And you don't need to make such a major mistake.

You know, I'm happy that everything happened the way that it turned out. Now I'm with the podcast princess who knows if I stayed at hot 97, what would've happened to me or, you know, I'm really happy the way my journey turned out. But, you know, at the time I was devastated to lose my job and I had worked so hard up until that point to just get, let go, you know, right away.

And it was because I got emotional and I wrote stuff when I was mad and I didn't sleep on it. I didn't think about it. First of all, if you have something to communicate to a higher up or another employee sat in person. Just say it face to face. Cuz people can read your emotions. If you're upset, they'll see that you're upset.

They won't take everything so seriously. Cuz you look upset, but when you write something down, people can send it like, like I had sent a text to DJ Juki who's on the radio today. Who was my coworker who got the job that I wanted and they wanted me to train him for that job. So that's why I was pissed because I wasn't getting paid.

They wanted me to train Drews ski, how to do the producer job that I was already doing for six months. And so I texted him, Hey, drew. I'm not feeling good today. If you wanna learn how to be the producer, learn it on your own. And he sent, he showed that to Angie Martinez and I got fired. So if I had just, you know, took a breather, if I had just, you know, said it in person gave him a call.

I don't know if all of this would've happened. So that's the big lesson I learned with hot 97. And then the other thing, like in hindsight, it's like every failure was really just an opportunity. To get, you know, to be like the coveted intern at hot 97 in the studio, Angie Martinez assistant at 19, that, and, and doing, you know, whether I got it in the, the job or not in the end, like that was the success.

It's not normal for a 19 year old to, to become the assistant of, you know, the biggest radio personality in the world. That was an opportunity that I was given because I was talented and it just happened to be that the end result wasn't exactly what I wanted, but that was still a. Right. And I learned so many skills that was when I first learned, like, learned how to produce radio shows.

I learned how to do research. I learned how to audio edit. I learned how to blog. I learned how to start doing social media. I learned how to like interact with people in a corporate environment, how to be on time, like how to hustle so many different things.  right. Just from that one experience. That was a failure.

Now I use those skills every day still. Right? Mm-hmm  when I was in the sorority of hip hop, I learned how to blog. I wrote a thousand blog, you know, seven years later. I I'm the biggest influencer on LinkedIn. Why? Because I know how to write.  I learned how to write. I, I learned how to write concise copy and that's such an undervalued skill, right?

And so even though MTV didn't pan out, even though I don't have the blog site anymore, I learned how to lead. I led 50 female bloggers who worked for free for me, fast forward, five, seven years later, I started a younger profiting podcast. And what happened again? I had a team of volunteers again, and I knew exactly how to treat.

Because I had done it already. Right? Right. Same thing with, uh, the, the, uh, young employee network, you know, I was running a team of volunteers. I learned how to be a leader. I learned how to run events, all that stuff I'm still doing today. It's just different industries, slightly different, you know, people that I'm working with.

Uh, Um, and you can take these skills and they're transferable basically is what I'm trying to say. All your experiences, you get skills and they're transferable to the next opportunity. And whether you win or lose, it doesn't matter because it's the experience that matters in your journey. And eventually, you know, in my case, I started something on my own, right.

And the other lesson that I learned in all of this is. The biggest failures in my life were always somebody else not giving me an opportunity. It was some brand that I wanted to be a part of and it wasn't until I decided to start my own brand that I had full control and everything really flourished.

Right. So it's like, Hot 97 rejected me. It was, you know, it was up to corporate to give me a job, not even Angie Martinez. They cut me loose because I was, you know, a threat cuz I was a, it's illegal to have somebody work for free for that long. So it's like, they were like, let's just cut our losses now on this girl.

And so like, you know, and, and it was a gatekeeper, same thing with the young employee network. It was a gatekeeper. When you have the skills you can launch your own. So I stacked my skills and then I launched young profiting then yeah. Media and we're crushing out the gate and it's just because it's been a long time coming.

I didn't start learning as. You know, started these things. I already had the skills and just kept building onto them. Yeah. I love that. And the, the first lesson that you learned, you know, not writing things when you're, when you're angry, it just made me think of there's this book Lincoln on leadership, and it talks about, you know, Abraham Lincoln's leadership style.

I love studying leaders and he used to write letters when he was angry, but then he would throw 'em away and it would make him feel.  and for me, you know, even I'm like, there's no way this works, but then sometimes yeah. When I'm in the office, you know, when I'm in, in my corporate nine to five, uh there's times where these I'll send an email and I'm like, and then backspace, I'm like, this feels good.

I do that all the time. I do it all the time. So like, let's say I'm having an issue with a. They're really pissing me off. I'll write exactly what I wanna say and I'll send it to my business partner and I'm like just getting my fumes out, you know,  and then the next day I'll write the real email or if I'm reviewing.

Brand guidelines from my team or something. They're creating brand guidelines for a client. Sometimes I can give really rough feedback and it, especially when it's the first time you're giving feedback. And if you don't like something, you can come off nasty, you know, and I hate, I hate coming off nasty to people, so I'll record feedback and then I'll be like, okay, let me do it again and do it nicer.

You know what I mean? Like, it's just, if you just keep that mindset. Trying to just come across, you know, in a, in the most genuine, like giving your criticism, if you have to give it, but in the best possible way, that's not gonna rub people the wrong way you're gonna get really far. Cuz the worst thing that you can do is like burn your bridges and, and you know, ruin your relationship.

So be careful with your emotions, long story short. Yes, make sure nobody's on the two line or the CC line. I always I'm so paranoid about that, but , it still feels good. So even with text messages, sometimes I'll do that. Um, you mentioned something really great and I was gonna get to this later, but it fits in.

Now, you, you said that, you know, you started learning how to make websites and this was all while and, and all these other little things that you were you're building up, how to lead people. And while you're doing that, and you're building the confidence that, Hey, I can build a website. Okay. Hey, I can run a media company.

I can lead people. You were doing this all while or HP and then Disney, and then it was Disney to Disney to, yeah. Yeah. So with that, what I want you to talk about is kind of the process. Building these skills little by little, because there's know a lot of folks are listening and even myself included, you know, I'm still working full time at Boeing while building this podcast.

And while building two additional companies on the side, and I didn't know how to do a, a podcast on day one, but little by little. And my first podcast fricking sucked. I mean, it. But little by little, you know, learned how to edit, studied other podcasts, talked to other leaders and then started feeling more and more confident.

So talk through that skill building process, or I think as you call it, uh, talent stacking process and how people can, uh, really hone in on that. Even if they're in corporate looking to get out and do their, their own. Yeah. The, the thing with skill stacking is that it's personal, right? It's it's your skills.

So I think everybody has a set of skills that, that they have, and not, not everybody is a marketer, for example. So you may not have video editing skills or graphic design skills like I had, but the first thing to do is just get experience. So hopefully you. Some experiences in your life and you can start to take an inventory of your skills.

So maybe you worked in retail, so you've got some sales experience, maybe, you know, now you work in HR. So you've got that experience. Maybe, you know, you're really good at writing because you have a personal blog or you've written on social media or something like that. So take inventory of your skills, whether you're paid for them or not is what I'm getting at.

Right. That's really important. And then start working on things that interest you like, what lights you. What doesn't feel like work. What makes you happy? What do you have fun doing and lean into that and start working on it as a hobby, a passion project. I feel like that's a great way to, to level up your skills.

The other thing that you can do, if you wanna learn something new is start interning for free, no matter what age you're at, you know, reach out to one of the people that you look up to and see if there's any way that you can help them or start to learn from them for free by interning for them. Uh, I think that's also a great way to acquire skills.

Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up because I feel like a lot of folks that let's just, since we're on a podcast right now that may wanna start a podcast, they may look at young and profiting. That's extremely well renowned. And top of the apple charts people, man, it's gonna, I'm never gonna be at young, young and profiting level or, you know, young and profiting has millions of downloads per month.

Um, I don't, I don't know how to get to that level. That didn't happen for you on day one, you were just little by little making deposits in the bank. And yeah, another thing I was reading this book recently actually flying back from New York city this past past weekend, it's called the 12 week year. And it talks about approaching your goals in really by quarters.

So in 12 weeks, instead of 12 months, you can really, um, spark even more progress throughout the. And it talks about greatness in there. And there's this really awesome thing that, that just stuck with me, that greatness like young and profiting great podcast. And it's great top of the charts, but young and profiting didn't become great after that interview with.

Ed Mylet or young and profiting didn't become great. After that interview with Jeff Spencer, that just came out, it became great over the course of making those deposits and then stacking those wins. And that's what I want people to understand, which you did a great job covering. It's just little by little you'll get there.

Jeff Spencer, your most recent podcast in, or one of your most recent episodes, didn't become great when he won the Olympic gold. He became great by waking up every day and making those deposits in the bank, hitting those tough workouts, all those little things. So people, it's just a matter of building, building, building learn little by little fail.

Rejection is redirection, and you really can do anything in this life. I think you summarized it so beautifully. And I did wanna like touch on what you said because it's so true. And, and I think your journey. Can accelerate. If you made a lot of deposits before you started, like your next big thing. So for example, I started young and profiting podcast four years ago, and now I'm as big as podcasters who started 12 years ago and bigger than people who started.

Even when podcasting first came out, like I've, I've leaped over people. But why? Because when I started younger profiting podcast, it was actually my fifth show. I had, you know, four or five other shows before that. So it wasn't my first rodeo. Right. I already had, you know, experience with social media. I knew how to market the show, not just produce it.

Right. I knew how to do the research and had all the experience there. And so you can actually pile up your talents and then figure out. What is your unique service or value that you can offer to the world? And when you do launch something, because you do have so many like well rounded skills that all work well together, you can accelerate much faster than somebody who's starting, everything from scratch.

Right? You were just saying you started podcasting with a very low foundation of skills, right? So that might mean that you might. Like, you're gonna be very successful. Obviously you're doing an amazing job, but I'm trying to illustrate that. Like maybe you're not gonna be as big as yap within four years, but you have to remember that.

I had a, a very strong podcasting foundation when I started, so I didn't have to learn the audio editing stuff. I didn't have to learn the research part. I got to focus on the growth.  right. And so I just think that's such a special thing that people don't realize. They don't realize like how much their skills can pay off later on when they do wanna launch something on their own.

And those skills are very beneficial to that project. Absolutely dropping a awesome line there for, I like to clip up a few 32nd pieces just to show like, Hey, you really want to tune into this episode, but if you only watch this 30 seconds, right. You're gonna gain a lot. So there's one right there.

They've dropped a few, but wanna break down success and I'm cur I'm so curious from your view, you know, you've had the opportunity to, as I mentioned before, interview some of the brightest minds in the world, the, the ed Mylet the Gretchen Rubins the Seth Godins Matthew McConaughy. And. One thing that, again, I'm fascinated with what makes people successful.

And I always think it really boils down to a few key traits, like, you know, right, right behind me. You see, I've got my goal board. That's something. I started writing down my goals 11 years ago. So my, my freshman year of college, I went to a, a military college here in Charleston, the Citadel, uh, reason being, um, opposite to you.

My high school GPA fricking sucked. So that's why I went to a military college to get , to get my act together. And, and that changed my life. But I started researching, you know, why is Tony Robbins, Tony Robbins. Why is Warren buffet? Warren buffet, Michael Jordan, Michael Jordan can go on and on Richard Branson.

And one thing I found that they all have a one common attribute is that they all write their goals down. It's like, Hmm. If that works for them, you know, anyone can do that, right? Not everybody can go play for the bulls, like Michael Jordan, right? Maybe not everyone has that skill, but everyone can write down their goals and be intentional.

So for you interviewing some of the brightest minds in the world and people that everyone knows about you. What do you think are the key traits in some of the most successful people in the world? Um, having spoken with many of them. So they know how to manage their emotions. Like we were just talking about a lot of people, especially like in the last year, since COVID a lot of people have been talking about managing the highs and the lows.

So not getting too cocky when you're winning and like, feeling like, like arrogant.  and also not beating yourself up when things get low, especially in this game of entrepreneurship, cuz there is highs and lows. So understanding how to be like an even keeled leader. I feel like that's like a key theme that keeps coming up over and over again.

Also making sure that whatever your life's project is, is aligned to some sort of greater good, this idea of conscious business, like more and more. Money doesn't matter after a certain point, right? As like, once you make six figures, you know, millions of dollars. There's almost so much you can buy and then like you just want impact, right?

Mm-hmm . And so I feel like aligning what you do and what you love and what your career is and how you make money with something that does good for the world is gonna help you so much. Because once you do hit some of these monetary milestones, you'll still have the drive to keep going and making it impact because it's bigger than just, you know, financial gain.

So I think aligning what you do to a bigger cause.  also, I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but believing that life is limitless. Right. So I think that's, that's really key. Like really thinking that anything is possible. If you're the one who's limiting yourself, you're just putting so many ceilings on yourself.

Mm-hmm  and so part of, you know, being confident, winning is. Doing the internal work that you need to do to let go of negative self talk, to have positive beliefs in yourself, to be able to vision and truly believe that you can actually do extraordinary things. Right. Um, too many people just. You know, put the cap on themselves for no reason.

Um, and they don't take the action required to show themselves that they can actually achieve anything they wanna achieve. They don't keep the promises to themselves. Ed, my light came on my show and I asked him what his definition of self confidence was. And he said self-confidence is keeping the promises.

That you make with yourself. Mm-hmm  and that's so true. If you keep the promises that you make to yourself, if you say you're gonna do something and you go do those things, you build confidence and then you just keep going and going and going. Right. And I just think a lot of people lack self confidence.

They, they, they, they aren't accountable to themselves. And I, I think the successful people that I interview are very, very accountable to themselves. Hold tight, everyone. Let's take a quick break and hear from our sponsors.

One thing that really stuck out was impact. I'm a firm believer or at least what I, what I tell people is that the, what I focus on is, is creating the best accomplishment in my book is creating an impact in someone else's life. So going back to the first question I asked you, like, Hey, what's, what's something that's not in your bio.

That you're really proud of. And, and I think about, you know, flipping that to, to me, it's like, Hey, you're never gonna see my greatest accomplishment because it's my greatest accomplishment is getting that phone call from somebody saying, Hey, I just made a goals board after our conversation and it's changed my life or it's revamped my marriage or whatever the case may be.

I ran. Marathon for the first time or went on, went on a run for the first time. How about that? You know, I love running, but the impact that, that we create in others' lives because you never know what the effect of that is going to be. You know, I, I do believe that you really can, you wanna change the world, help one person, because you never know what that other person's gonna do.

Yeah. We don't know how many people are going to take a different action as a result of this podcast. And once it gets publish.  right. And that's something that just juices me up. So going on the vision piece and, and self-confidence, yeah, I love that too. That self confidence comes as a result of really keeping your commitments.

You know, don't talk about it, be about it, but that visionary piece, you know, what does that, what does that look like for you and your, your future? Like, if we're looking ahead five years from now, What are you seeing and what makes you believe that that's gonna happen? So five years from now, I anticipate to be the biggest female podcaster in the world, probably sooner than that.

Honestly, I think in the next two, three years, I'll be the biggest female podcaster in the world. I'm glad that you asked me five years from now because when people ask me, like, what's the end goal? I'm like, I don't know, like I'm concentrated on now. Like I'm a very much so like present time person and yeah, of course I've got a plan.

Kind of in the future have a general idea, but I don't like to set things in stone. I like to go with the flow. And so for me, I wanna be the biggest female podcaster. I wanna launch a book, I'm gonna do more speaking engagements. I anticipate myself, you know, flying around the world. I think I'm gonna get into politics.

I'm Palestinian American, and I'm, I'm a minority woman. I anticipate that my company's gonna keep growing. I'm about to sign a really big deal for my podcast network, which I can't discuss the details yet, but I'm so excited. And so it's like, I know. Financially, I'm gonna be in a really good spot next year, the year after that.

And then who knows, I might wanna just give back and, and, you know, support human rights and things like that. And, and I'm always gonna be a podcaster, but in terms of like being a business woman, I might switch around and, and be more into politics and things like that later on. So you wanna be the biggest podcaster.

You're gonna be the biggest podcast. I'm going to be the biggest female email podcaster and the, on the podcast princess too. So eventually I'm gonna have to graduate to the podcast queen. And I can imagine a lot of headlines saying the podcast queen and her media empire  blah, blah, blah. With all of that, you know, you, you attribute of listened to some of your, again, good bit of your interviews, uh, with other, with other folks and then on your podcast as.

and you make a fair amount of reference to the law of attraction. Mm. And, and manifesting. So talk about cuz that's what I'm hearing come out, as you're saying these things. Yeah. And so, so talk about that and how that plays a role in your life and why that could be important for someone else to incorporate into their life as well.

Cause I haven't really talked about law of attraction much on, on the podcast, but I'm a big believer in it. Would love to hear from a champion of it. Yeah, 100%. And there's actually science that backs this up. So I had John Asaf on the show and ed millet, both talked about this thing called the particular activating system or the RA system.

This is a part of your brain. And basically when you do things like affirmations and you repeat things over and over and over again, you're basically training your subconscious mind to start looking for things that it used to not be able to see. So for example, if you are in the market to buy a red car, when you're on the highway, You're gonna start seeing red cars all the time, because your brain is being trained to look for red cars.

So if I'm thinking I'm gonna be the biggest female podcaster in the world, my brain is gonna look for opportunities to help me achieve that goal, even without me subconsciously thinking about it. So law of attraction to me is. I feel like one of the reasons why I'm successful today is because when I was 19, I found the law of attraction and I am born Muslim.

And I actually was never connected to my religion. I was never religious. My family never forced me into it. I never aligned to it. And when I, and I was, when I was 19, I was like looking for religion basically. And I, I landed on law of attraction and I got like obsessed. Right. I used to read these books by Abraham and Esther Hicks.

They had these CDs on tape. I would listen to them over and over again. And I basically like brainwashed myself to truly believe this. That's when I got the internship at ha 97, I was like dating celebrities and I launched strawberry blonde. I got a freaking show on MTV, 24 years old, like crush, crush, crush, crush, crush.

You know what I mean? And then I had so many rejections. I was like, didn't believe in it for a period of time. The four years that I worked at Hewlett Packard, I swear to God, I didn't believe in the law of attraction in my life was stagnant.  I got promoted, but it was like wasn't it was like an ordinary life.

You know what I mean? Yeah. Like I went from being like this extraordinary girl. That was doing extraordinary things to like living an ordinary life because I started putting limits on myself. I started mm-hmm,  not believing that it, I literally told myself this is not possible. I was living a fantasy. I need to go back to being normal.

Right. And thank God something snapped into me and it was a slow process to get back into it. But when I launched young and profiting, I started to interview people and. I got back to my roots of the law of attraction, cuz I started to interview people like John Asaf and realized that all these other people believe that life is limitless and they're so much more successful than me.

I better get back onto that positive mindset. Yeah. You know what I mean? And so, anyway, the way that you do it is like, you just believe in, in what you want. You repeat it over and over again, you say it with enthusiasm. I have an awesome episode with me. Peer. You say it with emotion, enthusiasm. You give it color.

You give it a, like you give it light. You know what I mean? Mm-hmm  and. You just have a clear goal in mind and you just think about it and say it over and over again. And then, like I said, you start to see opportunities that will come about. So for me, I always say, literally, I'm gonna be the number one female podcaster.

And I say that over and over again. Right. When I, when I had young and profiting podcasts, at one point, it's like, I wanna be the number one education podcast. I got that goal already. You know what I mean? Mm-hmm  I wanna be the top LinkedIn influencer. I got that goal. So right now my goal is I wanna be the number one, female podcaster in the world, hands down, period.

Can't wait to see it. I love it.  absolutely love it. And, and I love that, you know, there's so much in, this is science, but then there's so much to that to say about. The conversations that we have with ourselves. And, you know, when I tell people even like, I'm a big runner, I love running. I love, I qualified for the Boston marathon this year.

And it was a five year journey. But when I tell people, you know, yeah. And I had to, I had to run a sub three hour marathon and someone says, oh man, I could never do that. Or, you know, Hey, you have. A million pod, a million plus podcast downloads. Like if I said, oh man, ho I could never do that. I hope your response would be well.

Yeah, you can't, you know why? Because you said you can't, it's not that I can't, it's just, I tell people like, yeah, you know what? You probably can't run us up three hour marathon talking like that. You know, you gotta have positive talk with yourself. And, and it's, and it's simple, you know, and I want more people to understand that.

So I love that you broke it down and, and I wanna just add something there because it's not enough to just think and hope and wish and dream. Right. Mm-hmm , there's something called the love Goya. Get off your ass. David, Mel David Meltzer, David Meltzer. And you, you gotta just go after it and do the work and take those little actions.

And by the way, you need to be curious and learn and stack those skills. Like we've been talking about all those things are gonna get you other go to your goal. It's not gonna just happen by trying to manifest it. Mm-hmm  you actually need to go. And act on the opportunities that your brain is pinging you because you've put this desire out in the world, right?

The universe will bring it to you, but it's up to you to like catch it and take that opportunity and take the action needed and put in the hard, hard, hard work. Anybody that I know that like got something very simple. I have pictures in my circle, right. That two years ago they were as big as. Now they don't even podcast anymore.

And it's because they got there so quickly, they didn't earn it. I had like 10 years of like foundation under me. They got lucky and they did not last, you know what I mean? They crumbled under any sort of pressure and they fizzled out. Right. So it's like, you need that foundation too. And it's like, and if you do get lucky, you get lucky.

But remember it's like hard work is what's gonna sustain you. Absolutely. And I like to tell people, you know, if you want something, go and get it. And what that means is go take the action. Believe you can do it. But at the end of the day, go, you know, wake up early, go study, go do all these things, but you got to do the work.

There's no way around that. You know, you can't wish your way into being. The biggest female podcaster in the world.  you gotta keep putting in the work, sorry, but you can't wish your way into it. You know, that it's 100%  so one thing I love to, to end with Hala, I love having fun. I call it my, my rapid fire session and the way I do it is pretend that we're.

Going up an elevator and a building in New York city. Well buildings in New York. I mean, you could be on an elevator for a pretty long time. So we'll go here in Charleston, South Carolina, since there are no building, buildings are actually not allowed to be taller than the church steeps. So our elevator rides are a little short.

So someone comes into an elevator and they recognize you because they listen to young and profiting like, oh my God, how? Like what's one. Book that I should read to really amplify my personal development journey. And you only have one floor to answer this. I would say the like switch by Dr. Jack Schaffer.

That is one of my favorite books. He was actually my first guest on young UN profiting podcast. He's been on like three or four times since he is a former FBI agent and human behavior expert. And he teaches you in that book, how to land your, you know, best first impressions. How to get people to like you, how to make new friends, how to turn your enemies into your friends.

And it's just this like kind of newer version of how to win, uh, what is that book? How to win people, how to win an influence. Oh, win friends and influence people to Carnegie. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So it's sort of like a newer version of that and it's called the like switch. I'm obsessed with this book. I've listened to it on audible maybe 20 times.

I haven't heard that one. So I'll link that in the show notes. That's. Now you like to ask this as your closing question. So I'm not gonna ask it as my closing, but it is a fun question. And I've never asked anyone this what's the secret to profiting in life. The secret to profiting in life is to believe that life is limitless.

And to whenever somebody says no to you. And you're getting rejected to realize that there's probably a gatekeeper in your way, and to figure out how to do that thing on your own and create your own path and create your own lane. Mm-hmm . So instead of knocking on a million doors, Instead of waiting for somebody to say yes, instead of blaming other people for your problems and for why you're not getting what you want.

It's 20, 22 chances are, you could probably do it on your own. It might take a little bit more work. It might take a little bit more time. It might require you to stop watching TV, to start a side hustle, to, you know, delay gratification for a little bit, but chances are whatever you want. You can start it on your own and it might not be the exact outcome that you wanted, but it's the impact that you wanted on the world.

And so I would say that that would be my top secret when I love that in life. So young and profiting, as it continues, its journey who is one dream podcast guest that you have not had on yet, but would love to have on tomorrow or that we will see on in the. Gary Vanerchuck man. He's been on so many podcasts, smaller than mine, but the man always tells me no.

And I'm such a huge Gary V fan. I don't know if he thinks yep. Media's a competitor or whatever it is, but he never says yes to me and damn, I want Gary V on the show. I want Damon John on the show. I want mark Cuban on this show. I there's so many people. CEOs. I want all the sharks. Really? You need Heather to get Gary on there for you.

Isn't Heather, one of your mentors. I, I, yeah, I've had maybe five people introduce us and he just always rejects it. I don't know why  keep going. We'll see. It it'll happen one day. And last one, this was something that you asked Jeff Spencer, and I love that interview. You asked him about legacy.  and what do you want your legacy to be with everything you do between just actually take away young and profiting?

Just what do you want Ho's legacy to be in this world? Yeah. I hope that I inspire other people to go after their dreams. No matter what age they are. And I hope I inspire, especially young females, young minority females, that they can be a boss. They can be a leader, they can have a team, they can make huge impact.

Um, even just the way that I look, you know, I meet new people. I'm a very petite, girly girl. And most people think like, I probably have some normal job. Like if they don't know anything about me and then I start talking about like, oh, I have a podcast. I have a, you know, an agency with 60 people that work for me.

I've got a podcast network. I'm making millions of dollars a year. People can't believe it. They're like, you really like, you know, like if they don't know anything about me and I'm like, yeah, just Google me. You know? Like, I dunno what to tell, but like flex. Yeah.  and I just, I feel like I wanna inspire other people to know that they can do the same.

You do not. Most CEOs and powerful people, they all look the same. They're white men. And in fact, a lot of them are the people that I interview on my podcast, because those are the people that make it mm-hmm , you know, but I wanna change that. And I hope that I, I, I hope that I help to change that. Well, you've inspired me and I know that you're gonna inspire people that are listening.

How do people keep up with your journey? And is there anything that you have coming up that you really want people to know about? The number one way, if you wanna, you know, keep learning from me is to check out the podcast, young and profiting. You guys can find out on every major podcast player. I interview the brightest minds in the world.

Like you said, Matthew McConaughy Seth goin, Chris Voss, Dave Vare. Ed, Mylet you name it? I feel like everybody comes on my show. We have a great time. I do lots of great research. Just like Ryan, Ryan. I did wanna. Just congratulate you, you were one of the best interviews I've had all year, and I'm gonna replay this on my podcast.

So I'll reach out to you about that. You did it a fantastic job, and I hope that that helps you out. And I could tell you're gonna be very successful. So you should be super proud of yourself. Like, honestly, I wanna give you a hug cuz I know, I know it's not easy. And I get interviewed all the time and like you knew things that most people don't and I wanna reward you.

Uh, so yeah, you guys can find me on young and profiting podcast and I hope you guys check that. Oh, man. Thank you so much. Wow. You just,  got my heart bounding right now. Thank you, Holly. I appreciate it. And you just wanna make sure I'm doing my due diligence and, and really just paying the, paying the respect to, to even having you on here.

So thank you so much. And folks keep up with Holly on her journey to becoming the number one female podcaster in the world and win. Today. Thanks so much for tuning in.