Why I've Always Hired More Women

Why women? Why do they consistently show up, deliver results, and elevate the teams they’re part of? After more than two decades of building businesses, Omar has seen a clear pattern - and it’s one he’s never talked about openly until now. In this episode, Omar reflects on why he’s always hired more women for his teams. Drawing from his own journey and real data, he shares how women consistently hit their targets, strengthen collaboration, and shape company culture in ways that drive lasting results. From his very first partnership with Nicole, his co‑founder and wife, to the teams he’s built across multiple ventures, Omar reveals how hiring women has transformed performance, retention, and leadership. These aren’t quotas or policies, they’re lessons learned from experience, and insights that could reshape how you think about building your own team. Hit play at the top of the page and discover why Omar’s choice to hire more women has been one of the most impactful decisions in his business journey. MBA2766 Why I've Always Hired More Women Recommended episode to explore:20 Not So Obvious Truths I Wish I Knew In My 20s Watch the episodes on YouTube: https://lm.fm/GgRPPHiSUBSCRIBEYouTube | Apple Podcast | Spotify | Podcast Feed Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Small business owners, listen up. You started your business, but you can't do it alone. And that means you have to hire people to help. That's where Justworks comes in. Justworks is the payroll, benefits, and global hiring platform to unburden your brain from all the complicated small business stuff. They handle the things you can't afford to get wrong, so you don't have to worry. So you can focus on the parts of running a business that you enjoy, knowing everything else is running smoothly. You don't have to worry when it just works. Ever invest in something that seemed incredible at first, but didn't live up to the hype? For example, I really wanted to love the show Mad Men. I really tried to watch it and love it, but it just didn't do anything for me. As a marketer and business person, the show was a little bit of a disappointment.

• 0:45Speaker 00

  Marketers know that feeling. They optimize for the numbers that look great, like impressions. But then we don't see revenue. LinkedIn has a word for that: bullspend. Instead, you can get the highest ROAS of major ad networks with LinkedIn ads. Cut the bullspend, advertise on LinkedIn. Spend $250 and get a $250 credit. Go to LinkedIn.com/MBAShow. 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.

• 1:28Speaker 00

  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.

• 2:18Speaker 00

  Welcome back to the $100 MBA Show. I'm your host, Omar Zenhome, where I deliver practical business lessons three times a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, to help you start, grow, and scale your business.

• 2:32Speaker 00

  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.

• 2:56Speaker 00

  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 gotta make this happen because my wife's involved.

• 3:41Speaker 00

  I gotta 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 gotta 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.

• 4:26Speaker 00

  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,

• 5:11Speaker 00

  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,

• 5:55Speaker 00

  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, 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,

• 6:40Speaker 00

  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.

• 7:25Speaker 00

  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 three, 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.

• 8:09Speaker 00

  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. It's not like, "Yes, but we need to talk about my compensation." 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 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.

• 8:53Speaker 00

  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. These days, you can get an answer from the internet, an influencer, or AI in seconds. But when it comes to legal matters for your business or your family, a quick answer is not the same as the right answer.

• 9:37Speaker 00

  With 25 years of experience, LegalZoom knows how to start you off right. When you need a legal hand, visit LegalZoom. Go to LegalZoom.com to get started. LegalZoom provides access to independent attorneys and its law firm, LZ Legal Services. LegalZoom is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice. Today's episode is sponsored by Upwork. I don't need a script to tell you how much Upwork has helped my business. I've been using Upwork for over a decade, and it's the easiest way to find top talent to grow your business. From software development to AI implementation to marketing, design, and business operations, you can browse profiles, review past work, and get help scoping the role so you can hire with confidence and get started quickly.

• 10:19Speaker 00

  With Business Plus, you can access the top 1% of talent on Upwork. With over 170,000 freelancers holding five-star ratings, you can hire with the confidence that comes from hiring someone with a verified track record. I've hired engineers, customer service agents, marketers, copywriters, all on Upwork that helped grow my business from the moment they got hired. The best thing is, it's free to sign up, and posting a job is easy. Visit Upwork.com right now and post your job for free. That is Upwork.com to connect with top talent ready to help your business grow. That's U-P-W-R-K.com, Upwork.com.

• 11:02Speaker 00

  Fifth, they create more of an inclusive environment. Inclusion is not just a values conversation, right? 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 gonna talk about this in a bit,

• 11:44Speaker 00

  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,

• 12:28Speaker 00

  with the financial expert, Ramit Sethi. He is a two-time New York Times bestseller. Actually, he's three-time 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 an 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.

• 13:12Speaker 00

  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.

• 13:54Speaker 00

  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 pairmen 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%

• 14:37Speaker 00

  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 three 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

• 15:20Speaker 00

  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. You know, when I go to these poker tournaments, the majority of the participants are men. I would say probably 90% are men.

• 16:03Speaker 00

  But when it comes to the final table or the last three or four people that are standing after 250 people are in this tournament, 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

• 16:47Speaker 00

  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. 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

• 17:28Speaker 00

  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 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

• 18:10Speaker 00

  intelligence and the ability to read situations accurately. They 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 gonna 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,

• 18:51Speaker 00

  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.

• 19:37Speaker 00

  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.

• 20:20Speaker 00

  If this episode's got you thinking, 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 Twenties. These are pieces of advice I would give my younger self. Even if you're not in your twenties, or thirties, or forties, 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 enjoyed 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.

• 21:02Speaker 00

  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.

• 21:22Speaker 01

  Mazda has been named Consumer Reports' safest new car brand. It starts with our approach. Every Mazda comes standard with proactive safety features, so you're more aware of what's around you, more focused on the road ahead, and ready before problems ever start.

• 21:40Speaker 01

  Mazda, more of what matters most to you. Go to MazdaUSA.com to learn more. Consumer Reports does not endorse or promote any product.