The “Cheat Code” To Business (The Secret To Selling To Anyone From Years Of Teaching)
23 Feb 2026 · 8 min
In this episode of the Hundred Dollar MBA Show, host Omar Zenhom argues that teaching is the foundational skill that unlocks success in business, sales, leadership, and influence. Drawing on a decade of classroom experience, he presents a concise five‑step framework for teaching, communicating, and selling: (1) tell the audience what’s in it for them, (2) explain why you’re the right teacher, (3) keep the lesson simple (five steps or fewer), (4) connect each step to the ultimate goal, and (5) use an input‑output loop to verify understanding before moving on. He adds a bonus tip about showing genuine care to build trust, citing his father’s car‑sales success as an example. Throughout the episode, Omar intersperses sponsor messages for Verizon Business, Dell Tech Day, Rosetta Stone, and Odoo, and repeatedly urges listeners to subscribe, leave reviews, and check out related episodes on rapid‑growth business tactics. The episode blends instructional content with promotional reads, delivering a practical, enthusiastic guide for entrepreneurs who want to leverage teaching techniques to improve their sales and communication.
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Most business owners fail for one simple reason. They can't explain what they do. They have a killer product, but they lose the customer in the first 30 seconds. I spent 10 years as a school teacher before I realized that teaching is actually the ultimate cheat code to business. It's the mother of all skills. If you can teach, you can sell anything. You can lead anyone. You can grow a massive following. Today I'm going to give you my exact five step framework that turned my teaching skills into multiple multimillion dollar companies. And step five is the real unlock that most people get wrong. If you miss that, the first four steps won't matter. And because I like to walk the talk throughout this episode, I'll use today's episode topic as an example to explain each step. Foreign. Welcome back to the Hundred Dollar MBA Show. I'm your host Omar Zenholm where I deliver practical business lessons three times a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday to help you start, grow and scale your business. I got a quick favor to ask if this show has helped you in any way. Leave me a quick review you could do so wherever you listen to podcasts, this helps me and my team reach even more people who need the same no fluff practical business advice that you're getting from the show. It only takes a few seconds but it makes a huge difference. Thanks for being a part of our journey to help others on their journey. Step one Tell them what's in it for them? People need to know why. You need to learn what you're trying to teach them. Okay, this is exactly what I did at the start of the episode actually I shared that teaching is the mother of all skills and that we with it, you can lead a big team, you can sell anything, you can grow a massive following. So take a moment and ask yourself seriously, take this moment right now and ask yourself, if you had the ability to explain anything to anyone easily and clearly, how would it help your business? Step two. Why you. You need to share why you're the best person to learn this from so that they're committed to the process. I did this as well. At the start of this episode, I shared my education and my experience and that I actually taught five days a week, classes a day, every single day, for a decade. Why are you equipped to talk about what you talk about? What's your unique angle? What's your unique experience that no one else can share? Make a note of that in your mind. It could just be as simple as the fact that you have a couple of skills combined that make you unique. For example, I have the skill of teaching from my days of teaching, but also have the skill of knowing how to build and grow businesses. So these two skills make this show unique. Step three. For the love of God, please keep it simple. Only teach something that can be accomplished in five steps or less. Why is this important in order to learn something? This is something I learned in my days of teaching. In order for somebody to learn something, you need to be able to get them to do two things. Two things have to happen. What are those two things? One, they need to comprehend it. They need to understand what you're teaching. And number two, they need to remember it so they can repeat it for themselves. For example, when you were in a grade school, remember when you were learning long division, you first were taught what division is all about, and then the teacher would go through the steps of dividing, you know, in an equation, and then you would go home and do some homework. If you didn't remember the steps of how to do long division, then you would not be able to do the homework and therefore you don't have the skill to do long division. Now, why do I say five steps or less? Because more than five is just too much. Again, the meta lesson in this lesson, the lesson within the lesson, right? Today's lesson is five steps. Not seven, not 10, not 21. Why? Because I want to make sure that you can remember every step. And when it comes to steps, you can also remember the order. So anything more than five is just too much. That means your topic is too broad and you need to simplify a little bit more. If the person you're coaching or teaching or selling to can do those two things, comprehend and remember. Then they will win and you will win in the process. Now I want you to ask yourself this question. What is something that you can teach in a few steps or less to your followers? Okay, no more than five steps. So you could teach this on social media, to your team, on a stage, at a conference. What is that thing that you can break down in five steps or less? Now keep your answer in your head because you'll need it for step four. If this episode's resonating with you and you're loving what you're hearing, then you're going to want to subscribe. Because I have an upcoming episode that I'm working on that's all about answering the question can you actually build a software business in just seven days using AI? It's something that I've been wondering for a very long time. I actually lock myself in a hotel room to find out and see if this AI stuff is all hype or if it's real. And I really show you step by step. Is it actually possible to build something valuable that you can sell in just 7 days using AI? So hit subscribe so you don't miss it. Learning a new language is one of those skills that truly stays with you. It's incredibly rewarding once you start hearing yourself understand and speak it naturally. I've been learning Italian. My wife Nicole's background is Italian. We go to Italy a lot and I wanted to impress her by ordering meals in Italian in Italy. Luckily before the trip I had Rosetta Stone on my side. I use Rosetta Stone because it's the trusted leader in language learning for over 30 years. Their immersive, intuitive method helps you truly pick up your new language naturally. No memorizing random vocabulary lists. No feeling lost. Rosetta Zone fits right into your lifestyle with flexible on the go learning. I like to use their mobile app, but you can also access lessons from your desktop. Whether you're waiting for your ride to arrive and you only have five minutes or you have an hour, Rosetta Zone is there for you. With millions of users and 25 languages to choose from, including Spanish, French, German, Japanese and more, Rosetta Stone is the go to tool for real language growth. Don't wait. Unlock your language learning potential. Now the hundred dollar MBA show listeners can grab Rosetta Stone's lifetime membership for 50% off. That's unlimited access to 25 language courses for life. Visit Rosetta Stone.com MBA to get started and claim your 50% off today. 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show them how each step relates to the goal. For example, if I want to show somebody how to swish every shot you take in basketball, step one is to line up your feet facing the basket. Why? Because when your feet are lined up to the basket, your hips are lined up and and you have a better chance of shooting your shot straight. This increases your chances of making the shot and then swishing it. Of course, people need to know why they need to do each step to commit to it and get the result. I just explained to you why your feet needs to be lined up to the hoop. Because it's going to line up everything for you and make the shot likely to actually go into the hoop. In this episode, along the way, I made sure you knew why each step relates to the goal of being a great teacher and communicator and salesperson. Now, I want you to think of that concept or idea you thought about teaching in step three. What's that first step of that concept? Why is that first step important to achieving the outcome? Step five Input output. This one's a game changer. This is really what helped me not only as a teacher in the classroom, but as a business person, as a trainer of my team members, as a salesperson. You never want to move on to the next step of anything. You're explaining without getting the person across from you or the people that are across from you to output what they just learned. So the pattern is you give input and they give you output before you move on to the next step. So if I'm teaching step one, I got to make sure that I'm teaching it. That's the input. But then I need them to show me that they get step one before I move on to step two. If you have been paying attention in this episode, you will notice that I did this throughout today's episode. For each step, I asked you to give me an output before we moved on. Don't believe me? Let's go back in time and take a look. By asking the person that you're helping to output, you ensure they are on track and that they'll remember each step. Input. Output is a game changer and it will change the way you interact with other people. Those are the five steps, but I want to give you a bonus tip. Care. There's an old saying in teaching that says students don't care about how much you know until they know how much you care. Show them that you actually care and want to see them win. I learned this actually from my dad watching him sell cars at the car dealership when I was 13 years old. People bought from him year after year and he was the number one salesperson for 10 years straight because people felt like he had their best interest in mind. He wasn't pushing the sale, he wasn't pushing his customers to make a decision. He actually was more of a consultant and a friend. What I shared with you today might feel like a bit of magic, but if you follow all five steps, you're good as gold. Step one, tell them what's in it for them. Step two, why you. Step three, keep it simple. Step four, show them how each step relates to the ultimate goal. And step five, Input, output, and finally, Care. Before I go, I want to leave you with this. Being able to teach well has served me and made me millions over the years, and it's basically the cheat code to my life and business. Use these steps wisely, use them as outlined, and you'll immediately stand out and perform better than 99% of people out there because most people are horrible at communication. If this episode connected with you, I highly recommend you check out a previous episode that we published called how to make your first million dollars in one year without getting lucky. No matter what your circumstances are, this is a no fluff action plan to maximize your chances of having a million dollars in your bank account within one year. If you found today's episode helpful and you want more practical business lessons to help you start, grow and scale your business, the best thing you could do is subscribe to this podcast and hit subscribe or follow on your favorite podcast app, the one that you're using right now, whether it's Apple or Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. By hitting subscribe you get our next episode automatically and it's the best way to support the show. It's absolutely free and it's a way for you to commit to growing your business. And now that you've subscribed, I'll check you in the next episode.
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