Why I've Always Hired More Women

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When your internet drops, you drop it and then switch Verizon LTE Business Internet. It has coverage your team and customers can rely on, and it's easy to manage with plans to scale to you starting at $39 a month. Make the switch to reliable business internet. Starting price for LTE Business Internet 25 megabits per second unlimited data plan with select Verizon Business smartphone plan savings. Terms apply. I've never talked about this openly, but looking back at every business I built, every team that I've put together, there's a pattern. The majority of the people that I've hired have been women. Women hit their targets roughly 95% of the time, while men hit them 65% of the time. Men, myself included, tend to set ambitious goals that feel great on a whiteboard, then fall short in execution. I've hired more women not by mistake, not because some corporate policy or some sort of diversity quota that we put together. No, because of what I've observed with my own eyes over more than two decades of building businesses. And the single biggest proof to prove this point is that the first collaboration, the first person I worked with was my co-founder, and my co-founder is my wife, Nicole. In this episode, I'm going to share with you what I've learned and what the data actually says about building teams with more women in them and how it made my business better in ways I'm still discovering. Welcome back to the $100 MBA Show. I'm your host, Omar Zenhom. Where I deliver practical business lessons 3 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. Most people know Nicole as my wife and co-founder of The $100 MBA. What most people don't know is that I knew Nicole as a professional long before she was my business partner. We worked together back when we were educators. I was the head of the department of the university. She was one of the teachers in my department. And I remember from the first moment I worked with her that she was exceptional. I saw her as someone who can get things done properly, consistently, without any drama. She was someone I trusted professionally way before I trusted her with anything else personally. And that matters because when we built our businesses together, it wasn't built on romance. It wasn't built like, oh, I got to make this happen because my wife's involved. I got to work with my wife. I married my co-founder, not the other way around. We built a foundation. This is really an important point because we built a foundation of professional respect that came first. And I got to say that having her as my co-founder has been without question one of the best decisions I've made, not because she's my wife and we get to share so much together, but because she is everything I am not professionally. And too many people hire people that are like them. You don't need other people that are like you. Okay. You need people that will complement your skills, people that are actually everything you are not. Nicole and I are very different people at work. We do different things. Our strengths are completely different. I'm a big picture person. I like to move fast. I like to execute. I get excited. Nicole, on the other hand, is the person who asks the questions I didn't think about. She sees the things that I miss. She says, wait, let's just make sure before we take that first step. Her intuition is sharper than mine. Her emotional intelligence is more calibrated than mine has ever been. She's very good at reading people. She's very good at reading rooms, reading situations. And I've learned to just trust her intuition, even though I just don't see what she's seeing. And because of that, the decisions that we make together are better than the decisions either of us can make alone. And that's not a coincidence. And by the way, I want to say something. Yes, it takes longer to make decisions when you're making it together with somebody, whether that's your co-founder or a colleague or whatever it might be, but you're going to get a high-quality decision. And as your business starts to grow and as you get higher and higher, not only in the growth of the business or the revenue of the business, but also the stakes get higher, right? So the decisions you make matter more. They're going to make more damage if it's the wrong decision, right? So you really want to have as high quality decisions as possible. I also believe it's one of the reasons why our podcast skews to more female listeners than any other business podcast in the top charts. We know this for a fact because we get this data from our agency, SiriusXM. We're part of that network, and the research shows that our podcast has a larger than average female population or female viewership or listenership than any other business podcast. And this is because of Nicole's influence on the show, but also on my perspective that she's influenced through just working with her. Now, let me be clear about something before I go any further or give you any more details or data about working with women and hiring women in your teams. I'm not saying women are universally superior to men. I have incredible men on my team who have worked with me for years, and they're exceptional. What I am sharing is a pattern I've observed through lived experience. This is not just fiction here. This is based on 20 years of experience. And when I look back honestly at who has shown up, who's performed, who's been loyal, who's made my business better, women have led the way. That's just the facts. And here's why I think that is. First, and this might surprise you, I connect with the underdog mentality. I am someone who's always had to work harder to prove myself. As somebody who grew up in an immigrant family, I'm a minority, I connect deeply with people who know what that feels like and have to earn respect that others just get automatically. And women still operate in a world where they have to prove themselves in ways that men don't have to. That experience, that attitude builds a kind of hunger, a kind of resilience, a work ethic that I recognize immediately when I see it. And I simply just want that energy on my team. Second, they tend to be better collaborators. In my experience, women are more naturally wired for collaboration. Generally, I just feel like there's less ego in the room. There's more willingness to say, I don't know, when they don't know something. They're interested in making the whole team succeed and not just their own department or themselves. Number 3, and this is huge, they take ownership. The women I've hired have consistently been willing to take responsibility. They don't look for someone else to blame when things go wrong. They show up and they're ready to prove themselves in their role. And in a small business, there is no room to hide. There's no room to just kind of coast. That ownership mentality is huge and is so important when you're trying to grow your business. Every time I had a discussion with a woman in my team that I'm trying to give them more responsibility, they always say yes. They always say, yes, I will do it. I'll take it on. I'll learn. I will adapt. And it's yes without a but. You know, it's not like, yes, but we need to talk about my compensation. Right? Well, we haven't seen you do it yet. We haven't seen you're able to actually take on this responsibility, but you get the point. The point here is, is that ownership is so important when you're trying to delegate and make sure people are doing their job on their own. Fourth, and this is very simple, they complement my skills. And just time out for a second. I'm a better person because of the women around me, by the way. You know, I grew up with two older sisters. My mom is a career woman, working woman. My dad worked very long hours, so I was around women all the time. I was outnumbered. Pretty much most of the people I looked up to were women. My grandmother raised me when my mom was at work, and I'm so grateful for that because I got to see a different way to be a leader. Whether it was my grandmother, whether it's my mom, my sisters, or whether it's the women I work with in my business, they slow me down when I need to slow down. They remind me to ask the right questions. 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It's not about like, do we all share the same values. It is a business performance conversation. I find that when team members feel seen, they feel heard and are valued, they generally perform better because they want to perform better. Full stop. Period. Full stop. And in my experience, women tend to be more attuned to whether people around them are okay. Like they can sense the vibe a lot better. And that creates a culture where people want to stay in your business and give it their all. Listen, we're going to talk about this in a bit, but turnover in your business is one of the most costly expenses, meaning losing employees, having to replace an employee, a team member is so expensive. I'm not talking only about money. I'm talking about time and effort and training and just re-getting them into the culture and all that kind of stuff. It's so much work. It just gives me a headache thinking about it. And when you can have people on your team that can prevent that from happening because people are happy at your team, they feel respected, they feel heard, they feel like they're being encouraged, then that is a win for you. That's a great investment. By the way, if you're enjoying this episode, make sure you hit subscribe because I'm working on an episode, just doing the final touches on this episode actually, with the financial expert Ramit Sethi. He is a 2x New York Times bestseller. Actually, he's 3 times New York Times bestseller. He has a hit show on Netflix called How to Get Rich. He's got a masterclass. He's just the guy when it comes to money. And I sit down with him and we have this very interesting conversation about is starting a business really the best way to get rich? He shares his own story about building his own business and how he built his wealth. But is that the right move for everybody? Hit subscribe so you don't miss that episode when it comes out. All right, let's get into the nitty-gritty. Let's look at the numbers. Let me get specific about some of the patterns I've seen over the years. I've gathered all this information for you so that you could see it in black and white. You could see the truth, because this isn't just a feeling. These are the things I've really seen play out consistently across the teams that I've run over the years. Time management. Women on my teams have consistently been better at maximizing their time. More focus on what actually moves the needle. They have a good sense of what is signal versus noise. I do think that part of this comes from a lifetime of having to do more with less, navigating professional demands with personal responsibilities. Right. Many of the times these responsibilities are disproportionately carried by women. Let me give you an example. Nicole yesterday was knee deep in a big task and she had to get it done by the end of the day. And it deals with recruitment. We're hiring people. She's setting up interviews. She needed to make sure that all of that is done. At the same time, she also made sure that a lot of the household needs were done. We had to order some food. She had to coordinate with some of the repairmen that were coming in and out of the house. It was a lot of work. She also had to take her mom to the doctor. Her mom is 83 years old. She has to go and make sure that she's taken care of. She's also mindful enough to make sure that we have a social life, and she was organizing dinners for the weekend. With friends. She's able to get everything done and done at a high quality because of this skill. Let's talk about goal setting. I talked about this at the top of the episode, that women hit their targets roughly 95% of the time while men hit their targets 65% of the time. And a lot of that has to do with the fact that men just love to have ambitious goals. And don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with being ambitious, but there's a power in momentum. Let's say, for example, you have a goal for each month and you hit your goal every single month. It gives you confidence, it gives you momentum, it gives you a sense of continuity that you're building upon a lot of wins. It's a huge, huge force. But let's say, for example, you hit your goals maybe 3 times in 12 months. It's going to be sporadic. You're not really going to feel that momentum. You're going to feel like you're losing more than you're winning because you actually are losing because you have set up yourself to lose more than you're winning. So just keep that in mind. Risk management— women tend to take fewer unnecessary risks. It might sound like a limitation, but in my experience it's not, because in business, most of the catastrophic failures I've witnessed in my own companies and others come from someone swinging too big without thinking through the downside, without thinking, what is the cost of this going wrong? By the way, if you have been a follower of the show, if you've been following me for a while, you know that I love to play poker. It's one of my favorite hobbies. I kind of play semi-professionally. And you know, when I go to these poker tournaments, the majority of the participants are men. I would say probably 90% are men. But when it comes to the final table or the last 3 or 4 people that are standing after, you know, 250 people are in this tournament, you know, there's always going to be a woman there. I just find that women are disciplined. They are thoughtful when it comes to risk. I talked about employee retention. Retention is huge in your business. You want to keep it as high as possible because losing your team members is super costly. And in my experience, women are more likely to invest in a company, to feel genuinely loyal to a team they're a part of. And they do tend to not feel like the grass is always greener on the other side. They're not always shopping around. They respect being a part of something and building something with other people. Here's another one that absolutely was a gift that I got throughout the years, and that is women are better listeners. I just got to be honest about this one. I used to be a horrible listener, and I'm still working on it. I was always ready with my next thought before the other person even finished their sentence. The women I worked with over the years have modeled something really different. They listen to understand and not to respond. Now listen, yes, many women, they do speak and they do like to talk through their thoughts, but they do it so that they can make sure they understand you. Women like to sit with a problem before jumping to a solution. They like to talk it out even sometimes. They'll ask questions instead of just giving an instant answer. And watching this in action taught me more about the skill of listening than any other book or podcast I've listened to. And I gotta be to be really honest here, genuinely, I believe I'm a better leader today because of what I've absorbed from the women around me. So what does this mean for you as a business owner? Well, one thing's for sure, I'm not telling you to hire based on gender, right? I'm telling you to hire based on the qualities that actually build a great business. And I'm asking you to pay attention, to really pay attention, to look for people who know how to collaborate with others, People who set goals they can actually hit and not just goals to impress everybody in a meeting, right? People who bring strong emotional intelligence and the ability to read situations accurately, have a bit of intuition, that trust their gut. People who are wired to take ownership and really stay the course and be committed. People who make the culture better in your company just by being in the room. So if you're currently building a team, you're going to find that a lot of times those characteristics come from women. I'm not saying men can't have these characteristics, but I'm a numbers guy, and the majority of women tend to have these characteristics more than men. And I want to be careful here because I know what I'm saying could be oversimplified. I know that not every woman embodies these qualities. I know that not every man lacks them. I've worked with men with extraordinary emotional intelligence, with great collaboration skills, that are steady under pressure, and they can rival anyone that I know. And I've worked with women who were difficult, who were competitive in an unproductive way, who are poor communicators. People are people, but patterns, they're real. And if you run a business and you're honest with yourself about what you actually see in your business, not what you're supposed to say, but what you actually see, I think a lot of you will recognize what I'm describing. This isn't a political statement. It's a business observation. Listen, I want to win as an entrepreneur, and I like to collaborate with people and work with people and hire people that increase the likelihood of me winning. So everything I'm sharing with you today is just based on that. Before I go, I want to leave you with this. I've been lucky. I've been lucky to have Nicole, not just as my wife, but as my business partner. I've been lucky to have built teams full of talented, driven, loyal women. Who've made every business I've made better. And to be 100% honest, much of what I know about leadership, I learned by watching them. If you're building a team right now, think about the qualities you actually need, not the ones that look good on paper, the ones that actually produce results that get you the outcomes you're looking for. Then be open-minded and be honest about where most likely you can find these qualities. That's all I'm saying. If this episode got you thinking, if you've gotten value out of it, I want to recommend another episode you should check out. Recently I published an episode called 20 Not-So-Obvious Truths I Wish I Knew in My 20s. These are pieces of advice I would give my younger self. Even if you're not in your 20s or 30s or 40s or whatever it might be, you might find it useful. I share a lot of the things that I had to learn the hard way. I hope you enjoy that episode. 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. 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. Hey Fidelity, can I get a second opinion on stocks in the Fidelity app?

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