Hala Taha: Grow Your Podcast with Engaging Ads, AI Innovation, and Social Media Mastery | Big Questions

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0:01:22 Hello, my young and profiting family.
0:01:23 Welcome back to the show.
0:01:28 On Monday, we played part one of my interview with Cal Fussman, and we’re going to be playing
0:01:30 part two next Monday.
0:01:36 In part one, we really focused on Cal’s story, and in part two, we’re going to be focusing
0:01:41 on AI, and we’re going to get more practical and tactical.
0:01:47 I went on Cal’s podcast, The Big Questions podcast, back in May, and I thought this interview
0:01:51 would be the perfect bridge between his two-part episode.
0:01:52 That’s why we’re replaying it today.
0:01:58 Cal is a writer, journalist, speaker, and an expert interviewer, and I’m so impressed
0:01:59 with his interviewing skills.
0:02:04 He’s interviewed some of the most powerful people in the world from Muhammad Ali to
0:02:05 Jeff Bezos.
0:02:10 You could imagine I was super excited to get on his podcast because of the legends that
0:02:13 preceded me, and I was not disappointed.
0:02:19 Cal is such a good interviewer, and he asked me a question that I’ve never been asked
0:02:20 before.
0:02:25 He asked me about my ad reads and how I make them so engaging, and it’s so interesting
0:02:30 that Cal picked up on this because it’s something that I’m really well known for in my podcast
0:02:34 industry, but it’s just not something the average person would know about me because
0:02:35 it’s not something I share.
0:02:39 He said when I do my commercials, it actually sounds like I’m so in love with my products
0:02:43 that it feels like I’m doing the commercials for free.
0:02:48 I felt really happy that he said that because I own a podcast network, and so I’m often
0:02:53 asked to talk to brands about how podcasters can improve their reads and stuff like that,
0:02:57 and it’s something I’m really passionate about, and it’s sort of like a hidden talent.
0:03:00 It was just really fun to talk about it.
0:03:05 I also loved how Cal was so genuinely curious about the stuff that he wanted to learn.
0:03:09 He’s trying to get better on social media, so we talked a lot about that.
0:03:14 I explained the interest graph, which I had recently learned from Gary Vee, which is
0:03:20 basically this new algorithm that all the social media platforms are using where basically
0:03:25 they’re feeding you content that you’re interested in, not necessarily the most viral content
0:03:26 out there.
0:03:29 It’s based on your interests, not what is popular.
0:03:33 We also talked about why you have to stick to the same topics if you want to build a
0:03:36 magnetic brand and a strong online presence.
0:03:42 We went through all of my best practice branding tips, and then we spoke about AI, something
0:03:47 that Cal is passionate about, and what we’re actually talking to Cal about next week.
0:03:52 He is an AI expert, and he’s totally absorbed himself in the AI world.
0:03:57 We talked about how we use AI at media, what I feel the future of AI might look like for
0:04:02 podcasters, but believe me, this episode is not just for podcasters.
0:04:06 There’s so much to learn if you’re growing your business or trying to build your personal
0:04:07 brand.
0:04:11 I think you guys are going to love it, so let’s get into my episode on the Big Questions
0:04:16 podcast, hosted by Cal Fussman.
0:04:25 I automatically have a feeling of trust for you, because we both trust and have been trusted
0:04:28 by somebody we both know.
0:04:30 Then we were starting to talk.
0:04:37 I told you how I met Heather Monahan, and you said, “Oh, she was my first client.
0:04:41 How did that come about?”
0:04:42 I love this.
0:04:46 When I first started my podcast, this was six years ago.
0:04:51 Heather came on for episode 50, so I was probably doing it for a little bit over a year.
0:04:54 My podcast was growing really big.
0:04:59 At the time, I had grown my LinkedIn following, and I was very innovative.
0:05:04 I had a team of 20 volunteers helping me with my podcast so that I could work a full-time
0:05:11 job. I was this marketing guru who knew how to audio edit, video edit, social media graphic
0:05:15 design, and I would teach all these interns to do it for me.
0:05:20 We had really cool videos before having cool videos for a podcast was a thing, and Heather
0:05:21 had a podcast.
0:05:25 She, after the interview, was like, “Hey, Hala, I see the amazing videos that you’re
0:05:29 doing on LinkedIn, and your team is doing such a great job.
0:05:30 Can you do this for me?”
0:05:33 I was like, “No, I’m so sorry.
0:05:34 I have a team of volunteers.
0:05:37 I was working at Disney at the time, and I was like, “I just have a team of volunteers.
0:05:38 This is just a hobby.
0:05:43 They help me so that I can just keep my corporate job, and this is just a hobby.
0:05:44 We can’t help you.
0:05:45 They’re busy with my show.”
0:05:50 Heather didn’t leave me alone about it, and she kept commenting me on LinkedIn like, “Hala,
0:05:54 you got to tell me at least how you do these videos.”
0:06:00 I looked up as Heather’s probably 10, 12 years older than me, 15 years older than me,
0:06:05 and I looked up to her as somebody who I’d want to be like when I’m older.
0:06:10 I decided, “Okay, let’s have a mentor-mentee relationship, and how about on Saturdays,
0:06:13 I’ll teach you how to make these videos.”
0:06:20 I started coordinating these calls on Saturdays with her, and then she got our first call,
0:06:25 and I showed her my drive, how I do everything, our templates, our Slack channel.
0:06:28 She goes, “Hala, I just had a call with VaynerMedia.
0:06:30 Her stuff is 10 times better than them.
0:06:31 You have a company.
0:06:32 You have an agency.
0:06:33 You have a team.
0:06:35 I want to be your first client.
0:06:36 You can’t tell me no.
0:06:38 I’m not doing these videos on my own.
0:06:39 I want you to do them for me.”
0:06:40 I said, “All right.
0:06:41 I’ll give it a shot.”
0:06:42 It was COVID.
0:06:43 I had a little bit more time, and I was like, “Okay.
0:06:44 I’ll give it a shot.”
0:06:49 She ended up paying us a small amount to do her videos, and it turned it to us taking
0:06:57 over her LinkedIn profile, her whole podcast, and then my second client ever was a billionaire.
0:07:02 Once I had started it off with Heather and created all these processes, then I pitched
0:07:07 this billionaire a $30K retainer to do his LinkedIn, Instagram, and podcast, and he said,
0:07:10 “Yes,” and my second client was $30,000 a month.
0:07:12 Thanks to Heather Monaghan.
0:07:13 Amazing.
0:07:14 Amazing.
0:07:15 Yes.
0:07:16 She helped kick off my whole company.
0:07:19 She also was the one that helped me quit my job because it took me six months to quit
0:07:22 Disney, and I was already making over $100,000 a month.
0:07:25 I had 30 employees around the world, and I remember her.
0:07:31 She was in the grocery store yelling at me to quit my job.
0:07:34 She was like, “You got to make the leap.
0:07:38 You’ve got something huge,” and because of her, I quit my job, and then my company really
0:07:39 took off after I quit my job.
0:07:40 I love Heather.
0:07:42 She’s one of my closest friends.
0:07:45 She stole my mentor, and she’s the best.
0:07:47 So you mentored your mentor.
0:07:48 Yeah.
0:07:54 I know what that’s like because Heather screamed at me, too.
0:07:56 She screams with the best of intentions.
0:08:03 It truly outrageous her when she sees somebody with potential not getting the most out of
0:08:04 it.
0:08:07 Yeah, and she gave me the confidence to do it.
0:08:08 Okay.
0:08:11 So we’re going to take a little time out here and backtrack.
0:08:12 Sure.
0:08:13 You got a great name.
0:08:15 Where did you get your name?
0:08:20 Like, are you named after somebody, like an exotic bird?
0:08:21 Where does it come from?
0:08:22 Yeah.
0:08:28 So I’m actually 100% Palestinian, and my name in Arabic is pronounced “hella,” but
0:08:29 in English, everybody calls me “halla.”
0:08:32 It’s “halla taha.”
0:08:34 And so it actually means “welcome” in Arabic.
0:08:39 It’s a pretty popular — there’s actually 100 people named “halla taha” in the world.
0:08:40 It’s pretty funny for a while.
0:08:44 It was hard to rank on search because there were so many “halla taha’s,” but now I’ve
0:08:48 outranked everybody, but yeah, it means “welcome” in Arabic.
0:08:49 All right.
0:08:53 Lauren with the name “welcome,” and where’d you grow up?
0:08:58 I grew up in New Jersey and Central Jersey, a town called Wachung.
0:09:03 I have driven through New Jersey many times, but I’ve never heard of this town.
0:09:05 What’s it look like?
0:09:10 So it is — it’s a really nice town, and I would say it’s an upper-middle class town.
0:09:14 You know, when I was growing up, I was one of the only brown kids in school, so that
0:09:17 was pretty challenging growing up.
0:09:24 But yeah, it’s mostly this, like, upper-class town, big houses, big yards, and great school
0:09:25 system.
0:09:26 Okay.
0:09:32 So even in a place that was kind of upper-class or upper-middle-class, it was a little difficult
0:09:39 to have different colored skin, and this is late — this is ’90s or so?
0:09:40 You growing up?
0:09:41 Yeah, exactly.
0:09:43 It was difficult.
0:09:46 9/11 happened when I was in high school.
0:09:49 Wow, what did that do?
0:09:53 That was the big turning point, because before then, I feel like we were treated just sort
0:09:55 of — we were really accepted in the community.
0:09:58 My dad’s a doctor, and we were, like, well-off, and my mom used to always help out with the
0:10:02 PTA and whatever, and I had three older siblings.
0:10:08 And so we were pretty accepted in the community, but after 9/11, things drastically shifted.
0:10:12 So before that, I was, you know, getting the lead in all the school plays.
0:10:17 I was on the soccer team, and just a normal kid that was getting opportunities.
0:10:20 After 9/11, it was way different.
0:10:22 They wouldn’t even let me in the talent show.
0:10:26 I had the best voice in school, and they wouldn’t even let me perform in the talent show.
0:10:27 Yeah.
0:10:34 Yeah, I got — so it happened to be that in high school, I didn’t get any opportunities.
0:10:36 And I ended up, like, my friend group changed.
0:10:40 I was just really only friends with, like, all the immigrant kids, kind of.
0:10:46 And that actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because I got used to rejection
0:10:47 early on.
0:10:51 And then by the time I got to college, I went to a very diverse school in Newark, New
0:10:56 Jersey, because I couldn’t get anywhere else, because I had no extracurricular activities,
0:11:01 not because I wanted to, but because I was never really accepted into any of the programs
0:11:02 that I tried to do in high school.
0:11:08 I ended up doing really well in college, because suddenly, I was just treated fairly,
0:11:13 and I had the confidence and no fear of rejection, because I just was rejected for, like, three
0:11:15 years in a row before that.
0:11:19 So I always — I look at everything as, like, silver lining, you know?
0:11:23 I’m just thinking you’d go out for the soccer team, and they would just say, “No, you don’t
0:11:24 make it.
0:11:27 You show up to audition for the play.
0:11:28 Nope.
0:11:29 Sorry.
0:11:30 Somebody else got the part.”
0:11:31 Over and over again?
0:11:32 Over and over again.
0:11:38 And it’s when you look at — singing is the thing where I know for a fact that I was
0:11:43 discriminated against, because previous to that, I was literally, like, always the lead
0:11:44 of the school plays.
0:11:48 My chorus teacher, thank God, was always still nice to me, and so I always had a solo in
0:11:53 the chorus concert throughout those years anyway, because I literally had the best voice
0:11:54 in school.
0:11:55 It was an obvious thing.
0:11:59 So for a fact, I knew that, like, the teachers that were running the plays and the talent
0:12:02 shows, they were definitely discriminating against me.
0:12:06 But who cares about them?
0:12:13 I wonder if they are, like, listening to your podcast now and thinking, “Oh, man, we got
0:12:14 her wrong.”
0:12:16 Oh, for sure.
0:12:17 For sure.
0:12:18 Okay.
0:12:19 So you go to college.
0:12:21 What’s the name of the school?
0:12:24 New Jersey Institute of Technology.
0:12:27 And were you a good math student?
0:12:28 No.
0:12:29 No.
0:12:33 And that’s why I’m talking about technology.
0:12:34 I know.
0:12:39 So, well, I was originally going there to do chemistry because I wanted to make makeup.
0:12:45 And then I ended up really focusing to my point of me struggling in high school to do
0:12:48 fun extracurricular activities.
0:12:52 Because once I got to college, I was captain of the cheerleading team.
0:12:54 I was leading all the plays.
0:12:55 I was getting all these opportunities.
0:13:02 I was president of the radio club, and I did all these different things on my sorority.
0:13:04 And I just stopped going to class.
0:13:06 I didn’t care about school.
0:13:11 And I was focused on everything else but school because I didn’t get these opportunities
0:13:12 in high school.
0:13:16 And I’m the type of person who loves real-world experience.
0:13:20 So what happened was, is that I got an internship at Hot 97 when I was 19.
0:13:24 It was the number one hip-hop and radio station.
0:13:29 And I ended up dropping out of school so that I could do this radio internship basically
0:13:34 full-time and be Angie Martinez’s assistant, and that’s what I did for three years, basically.
0:13:37 And so I ended up dropping out of school and going back.
0:13:41 But because I wasn’t really doing good in school to begin with, my GPA was really terrible
0:13:45 and I was basically failing out of all my classes because all I cared about were these
0:13:48 other things because I didn’t get to do that in high school.
0:13:51 In hindsight, I’ve realized that.
0:13:56 I’m loving this because when I was in college, it was pretty much the same thing.
0:13:58 I never went to class.
0:14:07 I wanted to be like a newspaper columnist and so I just was devoted to writing for newspapers.
0:14:16 And it actually focuses you in a way that most people don’t get.
0:14:25 And yet at the same time, I discovered that when I look back now, I had wished I had spent
0:14:29 time in college maybe learning four or five languages.
0:14:39 I had a choice between writing about sports, which I loved, or computers were coming of
0:14:40 age.
0:14:41 My dad worked for IBM.
0:14:43 I could have gone in that direction.
0:14:45 I could have watched Star Trek.
0:14:49 I could have been enamored with that whole science fiction world.
0:14:51 And I pushed it aside.
0:15:01 And only now, decades later, am I realizing, oh man, in this age of AI, it would be really
0:15:08 helpful if I knew what was going on in Star Trek back in the ’60s because it seems like
0:15:15 everything that was on people’s minds or the creator’s minds is now coming to fruition.
0:15:19 And I heard this on your last podcast with Stephen Wolfram.
0:15:21 It was clear.
0:15:23 People were thinking of these things.
0:15:26 They just couldn’t figure out how to do it.
0:15:27 Yeah.
0:15:29 Basically, that’s how everything is.
0:15:34 Basically, movies predict the future, essentially, and we’re manifesting our future.
0:15:36 We kind of envision what it could be like.
0:15:41 And then, slowly, we’re putting the puzzles together, the puzzle pieces together to figure
0:15:44 out how to actually execute that vision.
0:15:46 So you’re in college.
0:15:49 You leave, take this internship.
0:15:53 And it sounds like you’re taking on all these tools.
0:15:56 You’re able to speak because of the radio.
0:16:02 You also have some video tools that you can use.
0:16:10 Is this also at the very start of social media so that you were in on it right when it was
0:16:11 in front of everybody?
0:16:12 Exactly.
0:16:19 So this was probably around 2009 when I first got the internship at Hot 97.
0:16:23 So blogs were super hot, Twitter was super hot.
0:16:29 And so I really learned how to do those two things really well because at the radio station,
0:16:30 I essentially was a full-time employee.
0:16:35 I wasn’t getting paid, but I had to go there every day from 9 to 5, and I was not getting
0:16:36 a dollar.
0:16:41 And I did that for two and a half, three years where I worked for free at the station.
0:16:47 And I would make my money selling hip-hop showcase tickets at night and hosting parties
0:16:50 with the DJs and hosting events with the DJs.
0:16:55 And on the side of everything, there was an opportunity set A and an opportunity set B.
0:17:01 So opportunity set A is basically my day job, where I would run the de-let boards.
0:17:05 I’d answer phones, the commercials, do the research for Angie Martinez.
0:17:07 I would meet all these celebrities.
0:17:11 And really, there was only like 10 people allowed in the studio area.
0:17:15 And I was like the queen intern basically teaching all the other interns.
0:17:19 And I was basically being primed to be the next Angie Martinez, which is, she’s the voice
0:17:20 of New York.
0:17:22 She’s a huge on-air personality.
0:17:26 And in radio, you basically have to pay your dues, and many of the online personalities
0:17:31 work for free for five to seven years before they actually get airtime.
0:17:34 They had me doing commercials for the air and so on.
0:17:38 And then on the side, I was doing opportunity set B stuff.
0:17:42 So that was running hip-hop showcases, hosting showcases.
0:17:47 I had online radio shows with the upcoming DJs on the side, where I’d like interview
0:17:53 up-and-coming artists or even really famous artists, and it was the precursor to podcasts.
0:17:57 And even some of these shows were on podcasts, like on Apple technically, but nobody was
0:17:59 listening to podcasts at the time.
0:18:04 And online studios basically were, it would be like, go to alistradio.net.
0:18:08 I’m going to be live Wednesdays from two to three, check us out.
0:18:11 And then there’d be like a recording, and it was like sort of on demand, but it was
0:18:15 just like a video recording that you could go to on a website.
0:18:20 So it was the precursor to podcasts, and I had four or five shows like that before I
0:18:23 actually started my podcast, young and profiting.
0:18:27 So I was really doing podcast stuff before podcasting was really a thing.
0:18:33 And I was also blogging for Funkmaster Flex and DJ Enough, and so I learned how to blog.
0:18:39 And then eventually it came to a head where, you know, all my siblings were in med school
0:18:46 and I was this black sheep interning for free college dropout at a radio station.
0:18:51 And I started talking to Angie and Ebro and trying to ask for a job.
0:18:54 And just saying like, hey, I need to at least get paid minimum wage.
0:18:55 Like I’m doing a great job.
0:18:57 I’m here every day.
0:19:02 And it was totally illegal that I was working for free and they knew that.
0:19:07 And so things got a little bit sticky and somebody got, there was an open role for a
0:19:08 producer.
0:19:11 And so my friend, who I used to do online radio shows with, and he worked in the video
0:19:15 department and they ended up giving it to him and they wanted me to come in and train
0:19:16 him.
0:19:17 Oh, man.
0:19:21 And he was my, yeah, and he was my, and he was one of my close friends.
0:19:23 And so I was really upset.
0:19:27 And I remember texting him in the morning and I was like crying and I was like, Hey, I don’t
0:19:28 feel like coming into work today.
0:19:29 I’m not feeling good.
0:19:34 If you want to learn how to be the producer, learn how to do it on your own.
0:19:36 And then he showed that text to Angie.
0:19:41 Angie got really mad at me cause I think like Jay-Z was coming in that day and I like,
0:19:42 she needed me, you know?
0:19:45 And so she was just like, she fired me.
0:19:49 She cut my key card.
0:19:51 She told me never come back.
0:19:52 This is a lady I dropped out of school for.
0:19:54 I used to babysit her kids.
0:19:55 She never even gave me $20.
0:19:59 And I used to like do everything for her.
0:20:01 She never gave me a dollar.
0:20:06 And she fired me and she told me, and not only that, she told everybody, if you talk
0:20:10 to Hala, you’re going to be fired because I used to work with everybody.
0:20:12 I used to do shows with everybody.
0:20:18 I would host like showcases with them and she fired me and blackballed me.
0:20:20 And so I was like devastated at the time.
0:20:23 I was like growing my Twitter following.
0:20:26 My whole identity was tied to hot 97.
0:20:29 All my friends from college knew that I was like Hala from hot 97.
0:20:32 My identity was literally hot 97s Hala.
0:20:33 Like that was my identity.
0:20:38 So I felt like somebody died and I was devastated.
0:20:40 And you know, then I just had a new idea.
0:20:42 I got fired on a Thursday by Sunday.
0:20:45 I was like, all right, I’m going to start this thing called the sorority of hip hop.
0:20:50 I’m going to recruit all these other girls that are in the hip hop industry that aren’t
0:20:52 getting any opportunities.
0:20:56 And I went on Twitter and Craigslist and I put out solicits like, hey, if you want
0:21:00 to learn how to blog, if you’re a pretty girl in the hip hop industry, come work for
0:21:01 me.
0:21:04 I’ll teach you how to do everything and let’s start this new movement.
0:21:05 And we did.
0:21:07 I recruited 14 girls in two weeks.
0:21:11 We started something called the sorority of hip hop, strawberry blunt.com.
0:21:14 We were bad girls back then.
0:21:16 And it blew up.
0:21:19 I went back to school within three months.
0:21:22 We were one of the most popular hip hop and R&B sites in the world.
0:21:26 The same DJs like Angie Martinez called me up and apologized.
0:21:28 She tried to get me on love and hip hop.
0:21:32 She got me an opportunity on serious exam after that and she made up with me.
0:21:38 All the DJs that wouldn’t pay me minimum wage basically started inviting me and my girls
0:21:43 because I had 50 bloggers at any given time when I had sorority of hip hop to start hosting
0:21:44 their parties.
0:21:46 And then suddenly I was everybody’s peer.
0:21:48 I wasn’t anybody’s intern anymore.
0:21:52 And I’d be on the flyers with all the DJs hosting all these parties.
0:21:57 And MTV actually reached out to us three months into it to shoot a reality show.
0:21:58 It didn’t pan out.
0:22:01 And then a couple years later, they reached back out.
0:22:07 And for a whole summer, MTV was basically filming us going to events, hosting concerts.
0:22:11 We had our own radio show, the strawberry blunt girls.
0:22:15 And two weeks before that was supposed to air, they pulled the plug.
0:22:19 So that was like my second like big devastation.
0:22:24 And then at that point, I was basically working for free for six years.
0:22:27 I had gained so much skills because I figured out we could talk about it if you want.
0:22:28 I figured out how to hack Twitter.
0:22:34 I figured out how to hack blogs like I had learned so much.
0:22:40 But then I felt like, man, I’m, you know, 27 years old at the time.
0:22:42 I’ve never had a real job.
0:22:47 Technically, I’m like leading this group of 50 girls and like we can barely make ends
0:22:48 meet.
0:22:52 And I decided to just shut everything down and I was like, I’m just going to go get
0:22:53 my MBA.
0:22:54 I’m going to be normal.
0:22:55 I’m going to go into corporate.
0:22:58 And I am not cut out to be a star.
0:23:04 Obviously I failed and I basically just gave up about being a personality and I went to
0:23:05 corporate.
0:23:10 And at that point, I got my MBA and I went to work in corporate at Hewlett Packard.
0:23:14 And I’ll just pause there because I know I just went over a lot.
0:23:17 Let’s hold that thought and take a quick break with our sponsors.
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0:28:29 I just want to backtrack a little, because one of the things I love about your podcast
0:28:32 is the commercials.
0:28:42 The way you do the commercials, it’s like you are in love with your … It’s almost
0:28:50 as if you would do it for free, which I guarantee you, you’re not, but it feels like you’re
0:28:53 doing it for free.
0:28:59 I’m wondering, when you went into that radio station for the first time, and you mentioned
0:29:07 commercials, did you feel when you expressed the words came out of your mouth talking about
0:29:16 these products that, “Oh, this is my calling,” or was it just like many of the other things
0:29:23 that you were assembling as tools to put in your backpack and take with you on your journey?
0:29:26 This is so interesting, and nobody has ever asked me this question.
0:29:31 Now that I think about it, I’ve been reading commercials for literally 20 years now.
0:29:38 It’s so interesting to think about how much experience I actually have reading commercials.
0:29:39 It’s so cool that you mentioned that.
0:29:44 When I first started my internship at Hot 97, I told you I was a singer.
0:29:49 I was making music and writing music, and my reason for being at the station and even
0:29:54 applying to radio stations was because I was pushing my music to the DJs.
0:29:58 My original goal was to be a famous singer.
0:29:59 I was writing music.
0:30:00 I was recording music.
0:30:03 I was working with all these famous music producers.
0:30:08 Then as I saw what Angie was doing, and I was really good at doing research and really
0:30:13 good at doing these questions, as I started hosting my own shows, I realized that I was
0:30:16 really good at being an on-air personality.
0:30:18 I fell in love with that.
0:30:21 I also fell in love with the fact that it felt safer.
0:30:24 I was getting myself in a lot of trouble trying to be an artist.
0:30:29 There was a lot of guys that were trying to … I was a young, really young girl, 19 years
0:30:36 old in the midst of literally the pinnacle of the hip-hop industry.
0:30:38 I was really cute and whatever.
0:30:41 I was getting myself in trouble trying to be a singer, to be honest.
0:30:44 We don’t have to go into the details, but I felt like I was getting in a lot of trouble
0:30:45 or not.
0:30:46 It was just unsafe.
0:30:48 It felt unsafe.
0:30:53 The on-air personality felt like a safe way to use my voice in my career, and I went
0:30:56 that route.
0:30:57 Okay.
0:31:02 When you talk about Indeed.com, I get it.
0:31:05 You’re hiring people and they’re helping you.
0:31:09 How good is Indeed.com?
0:31:14 This podcast is about trust.
0:31:16 What makes them so good?
0:31:17 Yeah.
0:31:22 I use Indeed for my own hiring, and I make sure that whatever I rep is actually a tool
0:31:23 that I use.
0:31:29 I’ve been personally using Indeed to get jobs, for example, since I was in college.
0:31:33 I’ve been using Indeed from the other side as an employee trying to get a job.
0:31:38 I first used Indeed that way, and then now as an employer, we use it to get candidates
0:31:41 for our company.
0:31:48 Indeed, in my opinion, is really great, but I think it’s more of me understanding how
0:31:55 to communicate the benefits of a tool and also making sure that my integrity is in line
0:31:57 with what I’m selling.
0:32:01 I’m not going to go tell … For example, I really don’t like to talk about vitamins
0:32:07 or supplements and things like that, because if I don’t use it and I can’t use every supplement
0:32:13 in the world, that’s inauthentic, then I’m not going to talk about it on my podcast.
0:32:17 I do love to talk about the different business softwares that we actually use, and it gives
0:32:24 me a great way to give my personal experience with that tool and my ad read.
0:32:32 When you’re doing your advertisements, is it different than just speaking or interviewing
0:32:36 somebody or speaking about a topic?
0:32:42 Is there some magical place that you go into, or is it all the same to you?
0:32:43 It’s definitely different.
0:32:49 I definitely feel like my commercials, because I’m always interviewing other people, I actually
0:32:53 use my commercial time as a way for my listeners to get to know me.
0:32:58 I love to talk about my personal stories, I love to be funny, I love to make it interesting,
0:33:02 and to be honest, it’s so funny that you’re bringing this up.
0:33:07 Today, I literally wrote my Slack channel, Yahoo Finance, I did a read for Yahoo Finance,
0:33:11 and I’m always getting featured as like eight plus ad reads, like Oxford Road, which is
0:33:16 an agency is always putting me in their newsletter as like ad read of the week or whatever, because
0:33:21 I do a really good job with ad reads, and a lot of people know me for that.
0:33:24 Some sponsors keep me on, not necessarily because I convert, but because I’ve got the
0:33:27 best ad reads, right?
0:33:31 I get a lot of renewals because I have such good ad reads, and I remember in my Slack
0:33:35 channel today, I actually told my team members because they said Yahoo Finance gave really
0:33:39 good feedback and said they’re going to start using your ad as an example for other people
0:33:43 because you did such a great job, you didn’t follow the script, you gave your own personal
0:33:49 experience, and I said, “I might be a better ad reader than I am a podcaster,” and everybody
0:33:51 started laughing.
0:34:00 You know what, and this is no commentator, your podcast is wonderful, but there is something
0:34:11 about the way you read your ads that is magical, and I’m getting it because what you’re telling
0:34:16 me is this is your way of showing your audience who you are.
0:34:20 Yeah, and you know what, I own a podcast network.
0:34:21 I don’t know if you know that.
0:34:25 I have the number one business and self-improvement podcast network, so Jenna Kutcher is on my
0:34:30 network, Amy Porterfield, Trent Shelton, John Lee Dumas, and Heather is on my network,
0:34:35 so I get people’s sponsorships, that’s my thing, and I’m always sold out because I
0:34:39 own a network, and that means that I have five or six commercials on every show, and
0:34:40 you want to know what?
0:34:45 I’ve probably only gotten three complaints in the last six years about how many ads
0:34:46 I have on my show.
0:34:51 It’s amazing because the show is packed with advertisements, and-
0:34:55 Yeah, nobody complains because I think it’s entertaining, right?
0:35:01 Yeah, it really hit me because my mindset is completely the opposite.
0:35:10 For years, I would have no sponsors just to keep it to the…
0:35:15 We’re having a conversation here, you get the conversation.
0:35:21 Talking to your podcast, it really said you got to think differently, Cal, and I didn’t
0:35:29 know what it was until you just told me, but I never thought of getting people to see who
0:35:33 I really am through commercials.
0:35:37 I tell stories about my boyfriend, I’ll tell stories about my family, I’ll tell stories
0:35:43 about my employees, and it’s just a way for them to get to know me better and feel connected,
0:35:47 and it’s also really good for the brand because podcasts, because you’re listening to the
0:35:52 host all the time, the listeners feel like you’re an old friend, they feel like they
0:35:56 can trust you, they know your voice, they know your stories, and I feel like I really
0:36:02 do a good job of bridging that gap, both giving the actual benefits of the tools.
0:36:06 I’m a marketer at heart, so anybody giving me talk, I’m a really good marketer, so anybody
0:36:09 giving me talk points, I don’t even look at that.
0:36:14 I go on their website, I go and look at what I want to talk about, and I say whatever the
0:36:20 mandatory call to action is, and the brand’s always like that more because I actually go
0:36:24 in, make sure I know what to do, make sure I want to talk about the things that I think
0:36:28 is relevant for my listeners, I don’t even look at the talk points that they give me.
0:36:33 I make my own ad read and I just read the call to action almost every time, so they really
0:36:36 like it, and I think it’s as obvious to my listeners that I’m not just reading a script
0:36:38 and I’m telling them a story.
0:36:43 All right, now I’m starting to really put the pieces together here.
0:36:52 Okay, so you’re developing all of these different social media skills, and you got your own
0:37:02 network, does artificial intelligence give you pause?
0:37:09 Is it cautionary for you, because like your age, you came of age right when social media
0:37:15 was blossoming, now something else is coming, and it’s coming fast.
0:37:22 Is that concerning to you that, whoa, I may be just overwhelmed by a tidal wave, or do
0:37:27 you feel like you’re surfing that wave as we speak?
0:37:29 I feel like we’re surfing that wave.
0:37:36 So for example, I already have an AI version of my voice that is ready to go, and we’re
0:37:40 actually already using it on social media, so I have an AI voice that my team writes
0:37:47 a script and has a voice model, and for my reels, it’s not actually me talking, it’s
0:37:49 the AI voice.
0:37:55 And that means that if I get sick, if I have a cold or whatever, my team or me, I can write
0:38:01 a commercial and my AI voice model can do it, or if I can’t make an intro, because I
0:38:04 do my intros post recording, I can have an AI do it.
0:38:09 We’re also using that potentially, we’re not, we don’t want, here’s the thing, host reads
0:38:13 have to be authentic, and it has to be the real person, but it’s good, because as you
0:38:18 know, when you’re sick, you still got to record your commercials, right, so it’s a good thing
0:38:26 as like a fail safe, and then also for other podcasters to use as examples.
0:38:29 So for example, when we’re booking deals with these advertisers, some of them really want
0:38:33 to do back and forth, back and forth, where you send them a read, and then they want,
0:38:37 they want to revise it, then you send them another read, and they want to revise it.
0:38:38 This way, I can say.
0:38:43 Oh man, you don’t have to do anything, you just add the AI to the wearing.
0:38:44 Yeah, just write it.
0:38:45 Yeah, write it.
0:38:46 And AI will do it.
0:38:50 There will be some programmatic ads changing in the future, where instead of pre-recorded
0:38:55 ads that like let’s say Ford records a pre-recorded ad, and then it gets flighted automatically
0:38:56 in your podcast.
0:38:58 That’s what a programmatic ad is, right?
0:39:03 Instead of a host reading the ad, it’s just some recording of a commercial that inserts
0:39:05 into the podcast.
0:39:11 Now there could be a hybrid version where it’s all automated, but you use the AI voice-generated
0:39:17 model of the host’s voice, and then the advertiser just writes it, and the host doesn’t actually
0:39:18 have to be involved.
0:39:21 But it reads as if it’s going to hear, like the listener is going to hear it as if it’s
0:39:22 the host.
0:39:25 So I can see that happening in the future.
0:39:27 But anyway, I think AI is awesome for podcasts.
0:39:31 It helps with transcripts, it helps with editing, it helps with creating the video clips.
0:39:37 It just helps enhance everything, and I do think in the future we might have competition
0:39:43 with AI hosts and things like that, but I think we’re way far away from that.
0:39:52 And I actually think that podcasts are going to become more AR/VR-centric and kind of evolve
0:39:53 as well.
0:39:54 AR/VR?
0:39:56 What’s AR/VR?
0:40:01 So basically, I think that podcasts are going to become more of a virtual reality thing,
0:40:07 where listeners might be able to join a host and the guest in a room.
0:40:12 And it will be more of like an immersive experience.
0:40:18 You know, here’s the thing, and your last guest that I referenced, Steven Wolfram, who
0:40:24 basically came from the day where they first started to think about artificial intelligence.
0:40:32 And I noticed in the conversation, there were so many times where he was saying something
0:40:37 good that was about to happen, or that might happen, and then he would say something in
0:40:43 order of, “The problem is,” and there was always a problem.
0:40:51 I saw on the internet an influencer, and I think she had like 10,000 followers, it wasn’t
0:41:00 that much, but somebody in China basically using AI hijacked her voice, hijacked her
0:41:09 face, and was putting out content in China and getting people to respond to her as if
0:41:12 she was the influencer.
0:41:20 Does this bring butterflies to your stomach, or do you think we’re going to be able to
0:41:23 sidestep these problems?
0:41:26 It’s scary, because that could really happen, right?
0:41:28 Somebody can take over your identity.
0:41:33 It was happening before AI, though, all these fake, for example, like before I was verified
0:41:38 on Instagram, and it took me forever to get verified, that’s a whole other story, it’s
0:41:39 because I’m Palestinian, right?
0:41:41 They wouldn’t verify me.
0:41:47 And I had so many fake profiles for years, they would always be popping up because people
0:41:52 knew I wasn’t verified, and they would try to scam people off my name.
0:41:58 And so this is happening before AI, people trying to pretend to be somebody else on social
0:41:59 media.
0:42:03 So I feel like we’re going to need to figure out ways to verify whether it’s a human or
0:42:05 AI in the same way that they did it in the past, too.
0:42:10 So I feel like these are problems that feel like they’re solvable, because they were already
0:42:12 happening in the past.
0:42:20 I always felt like a big mistake was made at the beginning of the creation of the internet,
0:42:27 that everybody who wanted to go on the internet should have been issued a license, like a
0:42:29 driver’s license.
0:42:37 And you don’t get to buy, you don’t get to threaten somebody and hide.
0:42:42 If you’re going to threaten somebody, everybody’s going to know who you are.
0:42:52 And in some, I don’t know what the reasons were, they just allow this anonymity to prevail,
0:43:01 and now we can be in a place where we just don’t know where an attack is coming from.
0:43:06 You know, a lot of people, I say younger, because I’m a little older, they just seem
0:43:11 to accept, well, this is the price of the internet.
0:43:13 There is no privacy.
0:43:17 You want the good things, then take the bad.
0:43:20 Is that pretty much your way of thinking?
0:43:24 Yeah, I feel like I hope that we can find ways to navigate this.
0:43:25 You know, it’s scary.
0:43:26 Nobody wants to be scammed.
0:43:29 I’ve been scammed before, right?
0:43:33 There’s a lot of sketchy things happening on the internet, but at the same time, there’s
0:43:37 so many great things happening on the internet, and there’s so much access to information and
0:43:40 access to tools, and it’s easier than ever to become an entrepreneur.
0:43:46 And you have all these resources at your fingertips that I feel like the benefits definitely outweigh
0:43:47 the negatives.
0:43:51 To your point with AI, it’s going to get even worse, especially with somebody like me.
0:43:57 There’s so much voice content of mine that when AI started to come out, I created a secret
0:44:01 code word with my family, and I was like, hey, guys, if anybody ever — because there
0:44:07 were some scams happening with podcasters, especially, where people were calling up family
0:44:12 members and would be able to use my voice and act as if I was in trouble and I needed
0:44:14 money or something like this.
0:44:17 And so now we have a code word if that ever happens.
0:44:21 So I feel like people just need to wise up and understand that this is coming.
0:44:22 There’s nothing we can do to prevent it.
0:44:26 And if you’ve got a lot of content out there, you need to think about ways that you can
0:44:31 mitigate bad things from happening or people stealing your identity.
0:44:32 So me and you are in trouble.
0:44:36 We’ve got too much content out there.
0:44:39 We’ll be right back after a quick break from our sponsors.
0:44:44 Yeah, Pam, if you’re anything like me, you didn’t start your business to spend all your
0:44:48 time managing finances — budgeting, invoicing, and tax prep?
0:44:52 Not exactly the fun part of entrepreneurship.
0:44:56 My CEO, Jason, on the other hand, is great at finances, but even he doesn’t want to
0:45:02 switch between five different apps for banking, expense tracking, and contractor payments.
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0:47:15 Young Game Profiters, when I started my podcast, I had a volunteer team.
0:47:20 I was able to just go on social media, put up a post, recruit some interns, and it was
0:47:21 no big deal.
0:47:24 But as we scaled as a company, I need real A players.
0:47:29 I need people with experience, but we’re a small company, and so I don’t have an HR
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0:47:37 I found the secret sauce to hiring effectively with no HR team, and the secret is indeed.
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0:48:45 Do you trust the future?
0:48:46 Yeah.
0:48:47 I’m excited for the future.
0:48:48 You know what?
0:48:53 I’m not sure if Stephen was the one that told me this, I think he was.
0:48:59 He made the analogy that let’s say AI becomes Apex intelligence, smartest thing in the world.
0:49:02 It’s already smarter than most humans, right?
0:49:07 At one point, AI might be operating on its own.
0:49:12 There might not be anything telling AI what to do, and AI might be making decisions on
0:49:18 its own, operating on its own, and he made the analogy that that’s just like nature.
0:49:21 I was like, aren’t you worried that this is going to just take over the world and control
0:49:22 us?
0:49:25 He’s like, well, we already live in a world that we don’t control.
0:49:31 We already live in nature, and we can predict it, and we can analyze it, but at the end
0:49:37 of the day, we have no idea what it’s really going to do, and we can’t control it.
0:49:43 One day, that might be what AI is like, just some other phenomenon that we created that
0:49:50 operates on its own, and we live in the same world, and we’re going to have to figure out
0:49:51 how to navigate it.
0:49:56 So that’s a little bit scary, but it’s a little bit more comforting than to think that AI is
0:50:03 going to come kill us all and not be able to live with us.
0:50:09 Maybe it might be something that is good for humanity, where maybe they’ll stop wars and
0:50:17 get involved, or maybe AI will end up being good, or neutral at least, and just operate
0:50:20 in its own thing, just like nature does.
0:50:25 So that eased my mind a little bit when I thought about it that way, to be honest.
0:50:29 And I’ve been thinking about that, what he told me a lot in regards to the nature piece.
0:50:32 Yeah, it was actually a great description of it.
0:50:41 And the way he explained it, and the way I’ve heard it from a lot of people, it’s really
0:50:48 not like a brain– look, it’s taught itself how to do this, but really, it’s had a lot
0:50:54 of information dumped inside a whole fertilizer.
0:51:02 And it is just figuring out on chat GPT, OK, as your guest said.
0:51:09 Every time you see a sentence that goes like the cat was sitting on the– it just can quickly
0:51:18 access how many times that sentence has ever been done before, and know what the probability
0:51:22 of the best word that’s going to come after it.
0:51:32 My thoughts are that this actually– it’s basically telling us what we did in our past.
0:51:40 And I don’t know how good that is, especially in art form for the future, because you’re
0:51:44 just going back and saying, look, this is how Rocky I was done.
0:51:45 This is how Rocky II was done.
0:51:47 This is how Rocky III was done.
0:51:53 We’re on Rocky 38 now, so create your characters and do it this way.
0:51:57 And I just wonder about a loss of creativity in this time.
0:51:58 Do you see that?
0:52:00 I totally agree.
0:52:02 I think that’s where humans are going to shine.
0:52:04 I think humans are going to shine with being creative.
0:52:10 I feel like we’re going to be able to– I feel like AI doesn’t have nuance, right?
0:52:16 And I think Stephen was talking about how humans think quickly.
0:52:21 And they almost don’t know how our brain exactly works.
0:52:26 There’s chemical reactions going on and things like that, where AI doesn’t have that.
0:52:31 We’ve got millions of years of evolution of chemical reactions going on in our brains
0:52:37 to help us decide things or think about things differently, whereas the AI is going to be
0:52:39 more structured because it’s engineered.
0:52:42 It’s not biological.
0:52:44 It’s something that we’re engineering.
0:52:49 So I feel like, to your point, I think humans are going to maintain with the creativity
0:52:56 and maybe be able to innovate and leverage AI to help us with all the stuff that we don’t
0:53:00 necessarily want to do anymore or want to compute ourselves anymore.
0:53:06 Well, it takes me to one last area that I’m very curious about.
0:53:15 And that is social media, which you jumped on as soon as it came out, and it hit you
0:53:17 at the right time.
0:53:26 I came from two generations back, and it was very– I made it foreign.
0:53:29 And it was a foolish thing to do.
0:53:36 But my mind stayed back in the old days of print journalism.
0:53:40 And I was able to get away with it because I did it really well, and there was a market
0:53:41 for it.
0:53:45 But it was kind of like being on a bridge that was burning in a movie, and I think you’ve
0:53:51 got to get to the other side or else you’re going down.
0:54:01 And I’m realizing, OK, especially with what’s coming, if you’re not completely understanding
0:54:07 the way the internet works and social media works and the way AI is going to work, you’re
0:54:09 really going to be left behind.
0:54:16 So what do you recommend for somebody like me– and we’re in a Heather Monaghan moment
0:54:17 here.
0:54:21 Same way Heather was telling me, you’re going to go into that hotel, and you’re going to
0:54:25 ask for an upgrade, and you’re going to get an upgrade, Cal.
0:54:27 You understand me?
0:54:28 And you can yell at me if you want.
0:54:30 You can be like Heather.
0:54:42 What would you tell me to do in order to zoom ahead on the things that I should have known
0:54:44 years ago?
0:54:46 How would I go about it?
0:54:47 How would I educate myself?
0:54:54 I’m going to go back and watch all the old episodes of Star Trek to understand what people
0:55:01 were thinking in the ’60s, to understand what kind of fuel the whole AI, because it was these
0:55:07 ideas that were then– they were executed, they were– like nature, they were turned
0:55:09 into fruition.
0:55:11 How do I got to think?
0:55:16 Where do I start, like LinkedIn, Instagram?
0:55:17 Let me know.
0:55:18 Let me ask you something.
0:55:22 Are you on any social media channels strongly right now?
0:55:24 What is your strongest channels right now?
0:55:31 I think I just started on LinkedIn, and it actually surprised me because I am writing
0:55:34 in an older school way.
0:55:40 I’m not putting out list goals, and people respond to it, like, wow, great story, like
0:55:42 thanks for that.
0:55:48 But I’m not doing the things that either a young person or somebody who grew up with
0:55:50 this in their DNA is doing.
0:55:52 So are you on Instagram?
0:55:54 I’m there.
0:55:57 I have to jump back on it, and I had an idea.
0:55:59 Let me know what you think of this.
0:56:06 What I wanted to do is– and I said, I’m going to do this for myself.
0:56:15 I’m going to every day, just in one minute, describe what’s going on with artificial intelligence.
0:56:20 Something new that came up today, and I’m just going to post it.
0:56:22 And there’s no poll to action there.
0:56:28 They’re not selling anything, which you’ll probably say, hey, throw a commercial in there.
0:56:36 But what I would be able to do 25 years from now, if I kept that up every day, is look
0:56:42 back, and I’d be able to see a whole staircase, which I’ve never really done with anything
0:56:43 before.
0:56:44 What do you think of that?
0:56:50 How would you translate it into something you would do?
0:56:51 Yeah.
0:56:55 So I think focusing on one topic is great, because the new trend with all these social
0:57:00 media algorithms is having interest relevancy.
0:57:07 So in the past, social media used to be about engagement and popularity and virality.
0:57:12 And essentially, you had followers, and your followers would see your content.
0:57:17 It was basically like having an email list, and maybe 20% or 30% of your following would
0:57:21 see your content based on when they were logging on and when you posted.
0:57:26 And they would basically match sending users’ content based on the engagement probability
0:57:29 of them interacting with that content.
0:57:35 And they really focused on just virality, which means that in the past, inspirational,
0:57:38 motivational content used to always go viral.
0:57:43 Now all these algorithms with TikTok especially started it.
0:57:50 They try to feed you things that you’re interested in instead of most viral things or the most
0:57:51 recent things.
0:57:54 They try to feed you things that you’re interested in.
0:57:59 So as you’re approaching all these social media sites, you want to think about the different
0:58:04 topics you’re going to continuously talk about so that you can be an expert in these topics
0:58:08 and these social media sites can identify you as an expert.
0:58:13 You’ve got to have keywords of these topics and hashtags depending on the platform, on
0:58:14 your posts.
0:58:19 And you need to start establishing yourself as an expert on these topics so that the
0:58:25 social media sites can start serving the people who are searching for those topics and engaged
0:58:29 with other profiles that talk about those topics, they’ll start serving that content
0:58:30 to them.
0:58:35 So really, you should be thinking about your social media more as what topics am I going
0:58:36 to own?
0:58:39 And not just one topic because things are different now.
0:58:43 You can own three topics, four topics.
0:58:47 So what are the topics that I’m going to always talk about and brand myself about and consistently
0:58:53 post about so that these algorithms know how to match me to other users that want that
0:58:54 content?
0:58:57 The other thing is that you’ve got to think about is every social post now operates as
0:58:58 its own thing.
0:58:59 Right?
0:59:05 So it’s like more and more now, everything is more like YouTube where like one video
0:59:07 can pop off and get millions of views.
0:59:08 Right?
0:59:11 So like, for example, I had a reel the other day that got like 2 million views.
0:59:14 Most of my reels got like 70,000, 50,000, right?
0:59:17 This one got 2 million because everything’s just operating on its own.
0:59:21 Is that one struck a chord, you know, and went viral.
0:59:26 So you got to think about how every single like post kind of can just operate on its
0:59:27 own.
0:59:28 Okay.
0:59:29 If that makes sense.
0:59:30 Yeah.
0:59:31 I think I’m getting it.
0:59:32 But let me focus this.
0:59:35 This is great advice and very appreciative.
0:59:44 So like the things I want to focus on are authentic human connection in the age of AI.
0:59:52 Because my feeling is with the more and more AI just keeps developing, the more important
1:00:01 the connections, authentic connections are going to be because you trust your authentic
1:00:07 connections and it would be great to think that AI is going to always be good.
1:00:14 But as your last guest said many times, the problem is, and it was created by humans and
1:00:17 humans aren’t good all the time.
1:00:25 So I think basically the way to maintain trust is just to be connected to as many people
1:00:31 that you can trust and you’re putting yourself in the healthiest situation.
1:00:38 So those two, along with my ability to tell a story, those are the three things that I
1:00:39 would focus on.
1:00:40 And here’s the thing.
1:00:46 What I want you to realize is that when you’re being more topical focused, you are going to
1:00:48 be repetitive.
1:00:53 So if you go look at people’s Instagrams who are doing really, really well right now and
1:00:58 you go look at their reels, they’re often posting very similar reels that almost say
1:01:04 the same thing because they know that these reels are operating on their own.
1:01:09 Different people are going to see the different reels and if one reel went viral, you want
1:01:16 to just replicate that almost very similarly to just try to go viral again.
1:01:21 And so that’s why you see on these pages, these people posting very similar content
1:01:24 and almost repeating themselves, once something goes viral, they’re going to want to do it
1:01:28 again and again and again in a million different ways.
1:01:34 So that’s one thing, but aside from the content, so having good content and good focus and
1:01:38 being repetitive when something goes well is really, really smart and really important
1:01:44 to win in the interest graph algorithms, that’s what they call it, in this age of interest
1:01:46 graph algorithms.
1:01:50 The other thing that you need to think about is every platform is different.
1:01:55 So every platform has features, they’re prioritizing, every platform has different publishing and
1:01:58 engagement strategies that you need to think about.
1:02:00 Every platform has different organic reach.
1:02:04 So for example, LinkedIn is still completely hackable.
1:02:06 I have the number one LinkedIn marketing agency.
1:02:08 I run Heather’s account.
1:02:09 I’m a huge LinkedIn influencer.
1:02:16 I run a lot of influencer accounts, and it’s completely hackable still because they haven’t
1:02:21 fully transitioned to this interest relevancy model, first of all, and second of all, because
1:02:28 there’s so many different publishing strategies that you can do to manipulate the algorithm.
1:02:30 And every social media site is the same.
1:02:34 I figured out LinkedIn, so I know that it’s hackable, right?
1:02:40 If you understand how to publish things in a certain way, you will get 10x further than
1:02:44 if you publish things in the wrong way.
1:02:51 So for example, when you publish something up on LinkedIn, and let’s say you put a link
1:02:54 in the caption, all right?
1:02:57 LinkedIn wants to keep people on LinkedIn for as long as possible.
1:03:01 You put a link in the caption, you’re taking users off-platform, LinkedIn’s gonna de-prioritize
1:03:02 your posts.
1:03:04 That’s one example.
1:03:08 Another example is like LinkedIn has spam filters, so if you have typos, if you have
1:03:13 big chunky paragraphs, if you are tagging more than five people, if you’re using more
1:03:18 than five hashtags, LinkedIn is gonna put you in the spam filter and de-prioritize your
1:03:20 post.
1:03:26 Another example is, you know, after you post something up, LinkedIn is judging how fast
1:03:29 people are engaging on your content, right?
1:03:31 They’re trying to see like, “Is this boring?
1:03:32 Is this not boring?”
1:03:36 So if you, and they’re serving to a subset of your first connections.
1:03:42 So if your first connections are dead, they hopped on LinkedIn, they got a job, they never
1:03:44 came back.
1:03:47 If your first connections have not engaged in your stuff in a while, right?
1:03:50 So it’s sort of like the rich get richer.
1:03:56 If somebody engages on your stuff, if they like, comment, share, DM, on a sliding scale, it
1:04:00 actually impacts how often they’re gonna see your post.
1:04:02 So DMs are the highest viral action.
1:04:07 If somebody DMs you back, they’re 85% more likely to see your content in their feed.
1:04:09 If somebody shares it, they’re like 70% more likely.
1:04:14 If somebody comments, they’re 50% more likely, somebody likes it, they’re 30% more likely.
1:04:17 So it’s like on a sliding scale, there’s different weights to viral actions.
1:04:22 So let’s say you’ve got a first connection that hasn’t liked your stuff in a long time.
1:04:27 They’re not gonna see your post in that small window of time where LinkedIn is judging whether
1:04:30 or not your first connections are engaging, right?
1:04:33 Then your post is not gonna do well, right?
1:04:35 So there’s like lots of, there’s so many different hacks.
1:04:40 So for example, let’s say you’ve got stagnant first connections, what do you do?
1:04:46 You want to go back and DM them and get them to DM you back and you reinvigorate your first
1:04:49 connections that way, then those people start to see your content again, right?
1:04:56 So you really got to understand and my advice to people is if you aren’t big on one platform
1:05:02 yet, figure out one platform at a time, then branch out.
1:05:07 So figure out one platform, work with some, take a masterclass from somebody who’s doing
1:05:13 it well, understand how to leverage all the features, lean into new features, understand
1:05:17 what messages, again, you’re gonna consistently repeat over and over again.
1:05:21 Like what are your key topics and how are you gonna make sure your profile and your posts
1:05:26 have the same topics and that the platform can identify you as an expert to serve your
1:05:29 content to other users, right?
1:05:34 So those are like the basics and I would focus on one platform and then once you get that
1:05:38 right, move on to the next platform and you’re gonna take the same material and concepts
1:05:42 and topics, but you’re gonna lean into that platform’s algorithm and features and how
1:05:47 you need to publish on that platform and what features you need to use on that platform.
1:05:49 So that’s kind of how I’d go about it.
1:05:52 I am so clueless.
1:05:58 Oh man, okay.
1:06:04 I’m gonna play that back about 10 times and see if I can put it to good use.
1:06:06 I’m so grateful for that.
1:06:16 It really, this was an inspired by Heather Monahan conversation and very, very grateful
1:06:20 for all that you passed on.
1:06:24 And I hope that would somehow keep conversation going.
1:06:28 Yeah, I’d love to help you get abs on your show if you’re interested and we can talk
1:06:29 about that.
1:06:30 All right.
1:06:31 Thanks.
1:06:31 Bye.
1:06:33 Bye.
1:06:34 Bye.
1:06:34 Bye.
1:06:35 Bye.
1:06:36 Bye.
1:06:37 Bye.
1:06:38 Bye.
1:06:39 Bye.
1:06:41 Bye.
1:06:43 Bye.
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