Dr. Shadé Zahrai

I had no idea what I was doing.

I didn't know what it meant to be a coach.

I had no credentials, nothing, but I loved to help them.

So I started helping as much as I could.

And what I discovered is that the women who would reach out to me would do so because they had self-doubt.

They were holding themselves back.

They wanted to ask for a raise and they didn't have the courage to do so.

The men who reached out to me for coaching wanted to excel.

They wanted to perform better.

They wanted to be more productive.

They wanted to start a side business.

And it was really, really clear that what they were seeking help for was very, very different.

It's not that these men didn't have self-doubt, but in that environment, it was a small sample and anecdotal entirely, but it seemed like they just wanted to get ahead and know how they could move faster, whereas these women felt like they were stuck and they needed to get unstuck.

So I found that really fascinating.

I think part of it is that men typically don't like to share the doubt that they're experiencing.

They see it as a weakness.

Whereas women, we are just much more in tune with that.

We acknowledge it.

We share it.

We're communicative.