To Be Young, Profitable, and Bookish
Feature Interview With Hala Taha, CEO of Yap Media
Meet Hala Taha, host of the highly popular Young and Profiting podcast, which is consistently ranked the #1 education podcast across all apps. She is also the CEO and founder of YAP Media, an award-winning social media and podcast marketing agency, which was recognized as both the Fastest Growing Podcast Company and the Best Podcast Agency by the 2022 Quill Podcast Awards.
We reached out to Hala on LinkedIn and she was kind enough to share a bit about the impact that books have had on her life. Asked about what led her to launch her podcast in 2018, she had this to say:
“I started YAP Media as a way to take control of my financial future. I wanted to utilize all of the skills I’d stacked working in radio, owning a blog site, working in corporate marketing, and being a leader across various activities to launch something on my own.”
Hala adds that prior to launching the Young and Profiting (YAP) podcast, she used to listen to one self-improvement book a week on Audible. Nowadays, she mostly reads to prepare for her interviews since a lot of her guests on YAP are authors.
“Books have had a major influence on me - teaching me skills on how to negotiate, gain influence, have a positive mindset, and improve my entrepreneurial thinking. One of my previous YAP guests, Steven Kotler, taught me that books are the best ROI on your time. In a similar way, podcasts are a great ROI on your time which is why I thought it would be of great service to the world to start YAP.”
In continuing our conversation, Hala had this to offer:
“I’ve been lucky enough to interview some of the brightest minds and best-selling authors for the past four years. Some of the most impactful books for me have been Laws of Nature by Robert Greene and Profit First by Mike Michalowicz.”
When asked whether there were any women authors that have been particularly impactful in her thinking and journey, she notes:
“Laura Vanderkam’s 168 Hours made me realize that everyone has the same 168 hours in a week and taught me how I could more effectively manage my time.”
Hala says that she started her podcast in 2018 while working in the corporate world.
“Two years in, I started YAP Media, a full-service social media and podcast marketing agency, as a side hustle. Within 6 months, we grew to a multi-six figure business and over 30 employees - all while I was still working a full-time corporate job. Laura’s book was able to help me effectively manage my time, and my business, while maintaining incredible growth.”
In terms of her own daily book reading routine?
“I have more of a weekly routine than a daily one. When it comes to studying for guests on my podcast, I always listen to their books or read them digitally before our interview. As a routine, I like to also read their book’s good and bad reviews. This helps me get a quick glimpse into the book, see what others were interested in, and think of interesting questions for the interview while I’m personally reading it.”
She admitted to only having time these days to read books by her upcoming guests:
“My production team and I are strategic with the guests I interview so that I am able to interview guests with topics in which I’m really interested. We look at the most popular publishers and the upcoming books they are releasing to pick our guests. An indirect benefit of this is that I get to read the books I want to read! Since I read books digitally or listen to them, I’ve found that my favorite online book community is Goodreads.”
Concluding, we couldn’t help but ask Hala what’s next up on her reading list. She concludes with this:
“Next up for me, I have Arthur Brooks’ From Strength To Strength, Jim Kwik’s Limitless, and my friend Jason Feifer’s Build For Tomorrow. There’s always a new book every week that’s on my list to conquer! If anyone has any book recommendations, come follow me on LinkedIn and send me a DM with your recommendation!”