Mellody Hobson
speaker
238 appearances
2 recordings
2 series
first heard Jan 2025
last heard May 2025
Mellody Hobson’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
I do.
Even if you're doing like an internal memo. Oh, there is nothing worse than sending an email to like 50 people in the office and having 30 people email back, you have a typo in it. And I'll say, I'm writing a loan. There's no one here to prove this. I'll put it as a PS. That is very interesting. Just so they know, like, I can't see the mistake if it's there.
Right. Do you see what I mean? It all, it all comes together. They must be good investors. Oh, they show up. They look a certain way. They present themselves a certain way. I correct people's grammar in our firm. I do in there. Oh, all the time. All the time. Yeah. All the time. I'm like, guys, we can't do this with a client. You know, this, this grammar is off.
And because I'm thinking, I want them to know how disciplined and how much attention We pay the detail because we are asking them for their money. It could be their pension money. It could be their kids' college education. This really matters to them. And so therefore, they need to know that we are precise, especially because we invest. We're in a world where there's a lot we can't control.
I can't control tariffs. I can't control the stock market. I can't control what might happen tomorrow.
Correct.
And so we're working through it, working through it, working through it. At one point, it got very intense. We're on a tight deadline and the whole thing's getting very, very complicated and we're all losing it. And so I demanded that everyone go to bed for three hours. I said, everyone pencils down. We are so tired where everyone's talking and speaking in tongues. Go to bed.
We're all going to go to sleep. The principal on the other side calls the next morning, 6 a.m. And he's like, you know what? I said to my wife, this woman, she's like fighting so hard for this. She's, I need a person like this. So I go into my husband and, you know, I was like, oh, you know, he's like, I need a Melody. And he was like, he's trying to hire you. I was like, no.
He's like, yes, he is. And I thought that was so interesting. And I was like, I had been underestimated this whole time. And then I could see him turn into, he's like, she's fighting so hard. He got it. And it was one of those things where I knew at that moment, I was like, he totally gets it. He totally gets it.
And he was like, you are formidable. But it didn't start off that way. I think he thought like, this is just going to be a piece of cake. Yeah, I bet you thought it was going to be a piece of cake. A piece of cake. And I remember saying to him, I said, you know, I won't ever ask you for anything that I actually don't need. Could you try to do the same? Oh, wow.
That's a powerful negotiation tactic. And I said, and then if you do that, I will believe you.
That's really smart. I said, we don't have any time. So if you call me and say you need it, I believe you. Yeah. But I need you to believe me too.
Well, I want to make sure you understand, I always had go-tos to give me a lot of great advice. There were forks in the road along the way. And I went to really smart people. I am never too proud to ask for help. As I say, just like the song, I'm not too proud to beg. I'm not. You still do that now at this point in your career? Oh, constant. Me too. I have lifelines everywhere.
And there were some forks in the road that were around self-advocacy that were very, very monumental. And one was when I was about 40 years old and a friend called me and he said, you know, Melody, you're 40. Are you staying at Ariel or are you going to do something else? I said, well, why are you asking that? And he's like, you can't switch when you're 50.
So he's like, so if you're going to stay there, then this has to really be meaningful. You have to know what this is, what you're going to own, you know, et cetera, et cetera. What a great friend. And so he was like, you really should have the talk with John Rogers about that. Not in a threatening way, but just sort of say, I need to know. If you're going to stay... get this all sorted out.
most women are real team players. We're loyal and we're team players and we expect good things to happen to us. And we don't necessarily understand. I think I've been naive at times, so I'm not saying this in any condescending way. You just think it's going to work out. And sometimes you have to ask and put people on the spot.
I think that if I were giving advice about how to advocate, because I've had people come to me and I've had them do it the right way and do it the wrong way. So I can tell you the wrong way is when you really don't know what you're talking about and you have overstated your significance or your value. That's the biggest thing. That is a killer. The person never looks at you the same way. Never.
Yes. And so then you think, well, how valuable could you be? You like go into a whole spin in your head, right?
Got it. What the, you know, because there's nothing worse than the person who's asking for something that like literally doesn't exist. Totally.
They're like, you know, I want to be your chief of staff and I want to make $500,000. You're like, Not going to happen. Nowhere. Yes. You know what I mean? So it's like, if you can get that job, go get it. I wish you well. Yeah. You know, it's like that kind of thing. But it is also the thing where you say, know what the real value is of the job and then know what you contributed.
Showing 81–100 of 238 · page 5 of 12
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