The World is Your Oyster with Tony Jamous

0:01Light that spark fire nation JLD here and welcome to entrepreneurs on fire brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals with great shows like Talking Too Loud. Today, we'll be breaking down how the world is your oyster. To draw these value bombs, I have brought Tony Jamus and the EO Fire Studios. Tony is CEO and co-founder of Oyster, a global employment platform that removes barriers to remote work and distributed hiring. He is passionate about empowering individuals from emerging economies through access to global career opportunities. And today, Fire Nation will talk about the global hiring, creating a competitive advantage, creating an employee-centric workplace and values and culture for your team, and so much more.

0:45And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Tony and our sponsors. Marketing Made Simple, hosted by my friend, Dr. JJ Peterson, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Marketing Made Simple brings you practical tips to make your marketing easy, and more importantly, make it work. A recent episode all about how Liquid IV is using marketing to shake up the beverage world, dives deep into the strategies that have propelled Liquid IV to remarkable success, a must listen. Listen to Marketing Makes Simple wherever you get your podcasts.

1:15Want to meet me, JLD, in person? Attend Clay Clark's two-day interactive business workshop and meet me, Tim Tebow, and Clay Clark this June. Experience the highest rated business workshop in America and hang out with me in person at thrivetimeshow.com slash EOfire. Again, that's thrivetimeshow.com slash EOfire. Learn more and request your tickets at thrivetimeshow.com slash EO Fire. Tony, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. Hello, everybody. And I want to tell you that the most successful companies of tomorrow will be globally distributed and will be mission driven.

1:57Fire Nation, both is the case. And we'll be talking about how you can achieve this in this interview today, because the world Fire Nation is your oyster. And Tony, we have a lot to talk about. So don't go rambling on for 10 minutes. In two minutes, give us your origin story. I was born in Lebanon, moved to France when I was a teenager, became an entrepreneur, launching my first technology company that was acquired for$6.5 billion by Ericsson a few years ago. And then I decided I want to launch a mission-driven company because I believe that if you put the mission at the heart of everything you can do, you can be more successful and deliver more return for investors.

2:38And that company is called Oyster. Oyster is on a mission to make the world more equal and free by democratizing access to global job opportunities. Fire Nation, this is why we brought Tony on the mic because he is going to talk about the mission of Oyster, global hiring, creating an employee-centric workplace, the importance of companies' values and cultures. So make sure that you stick around. And I want to start with the mission of Oyster and the impact that your company is going to make in this world. So let me give you some piece of data first. There are 100 million jobs going unfulfilled in the West.

3:18And according to BCG, that's$8.5 trillion of economical loss, around 10 % of world economy. While at the same time, in emerging economies, you have 1 billion knowledge worker coming into the world for the next 10 years. All they need is a laptop and an internet connection to be productive. That's why Oyster exists, is to bridge that gap and make any company in the world being able to employ anyone anywhere without the need of setting up entities, hiring lawyers, accountant, payroll provider. They can do this online with few clicks. And by dropping that barriers to global employment, we make the world as the oyster for companies around the world.

4:03And we make the world as our oyster for great talent around the world because they can find jobs anywhere. And we launched this company in January 2020.

4:15the fast move to remote work that happened post-pandemic was a launchpad for this business. I mean, today I believe in business karma. The world needed this. And that pushed the company to grow from zero to a billion dollar of market cap in two and a half years. Now, who would you say your perfect customer is? I know you probably have a lot of different quote-unquote avatars, but give us an example of a perfect client, a perfect customer of Oyster. Today, any company that is facing talent shortage for knowledge workers, think about software developers, salespeople, accountants, marketing people, customer service people.

5:00These are high in demand jobs that are in massive shortage in the West. These companies, with few clicks, They can employ somebody on the other side of the world, pay them a fair salary, pay them actually much more what they can earn locally, transform their lives and get great talent that is highly engaged and highly retained. So the companies that we target are any company that needs knowledge worker, which is going to be any company of tomorrow because we are moving into a world where digital knowledge work is becoming the work in 10 years from now. right? So that's why we are very excited for the impact.

5:53You make that oyster. Last year, we sent$70 million of foreign direct investment in the form of salaries and taxes into emerging economies. And we're just getting started. We are a three years old company. I do expect that to be $70 billion in two years. Literally just getting started. And Fire Nation, One thing I want to talk about today is global hiring because, Tony, you believe that global hiring is actually a competitive advantage. So share why global hiring is a competitive advantage and specifically how it impacts both the expansion and retention strategies that our company should have.

6:33Think of it. If you're just hiring in 20 mile radius from your office in San Francisco or in New York or in London, you have access to a very small fraction of the global talent in the world. Are you sure you're getting the best talent? So first and foremost, you open up a global talent pool. Secondly, you turbocharge your diversity. Again, finding diverse talent within 20 mile radius from your office is nearly impossible. At Oyster, we are 500 people distributed in 70 countries with diversity level that are unheard of, including gender equal across the board. And we know what diversity means for business.

7:21It means better performance, better profitability, better decision making. It also makes you a talent magnet. When Airbnb announced that they are moving to remote work and they are hiring people remotely, their career website traffic grew 10x. at Oyster we receive 13 ,000 job applications per month for a company that is barely three years old so you become a talent magnet so I can continue but essentially by having a great diverse culture by becoming an attractive employer for people around the world by taking care of people around the world by giving them great benefits, better pay especially in emerging economies, imagine a software developer in South Africa, their local salary is$20 ,000.

8:17If that person gets hired by a software company in London, they're going to get paid 3x more. These people, they're going to be retained and engaged for a very long time. Fire Nation, this is why global hiring is a competitive advantage. This is how it's going to help you with expansion. This is how it's going to help you with retention strategies. Again, Oyster's three years old and look at what they've accomplished. Look at what they've created. And we're going to be talking a lot more about this when we get back from thinking our sponsors. There are plenty of things to worry about when trying to grow your business.

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10:36Find out how much your home could be worth at airbnb.com slash host. Want to meet me, JLD, in person and grow your businesses here? This is your chance to meet Tim Tebow, myself and Clay Clark while learning the proven success systems that have been used to create thousands of millionaire success stories. Go to thrivetimeshow.com slash EOfire to see thousands of Clay Clark's real clients who he has really helped to grow their real businesses. Clay's proven business coaching program is month-to-month and less money than hiring a minimum wage employee. Visit thrivetimeshow.com slash EOFire to request your tickets to attend the highest rated business growth conference on earth because Clay only takes on 160 clients and allows only 300 attendees to each business conference.

11:21You will interact directly with Clay Clark to implement a proven plan, see thousands of real success stories, and get your tickets to meet me, JLD, Tim Tebow and Clay Clark at the June Business Growth Conference today at Thrivetimeshow.com slash EOFire. Remember, knowledge will only attract money when it is organized and directed through implementing practical plans of action. Become the next success story and request tickets to join Tim Tebow, myself, and Clay Clark at the June Business Conference today at Thrivetimeshow.com slash EOFire. Now, Tony, we're back and it's really hard to create an employee-centric workplace.

11:57You've managed to do this. How have you done it? Look, it starts with caring about how people feel working with you. So you want people to feel heard and seen. You want to create massive amount of psychological safety at work. And I can tell you how I created that. You want people to feel that they have a growth opportunities. You want to invest in their growth and development. You want to give people meaning and purpose. Oyster is a mission-driven company. We are a B Corp, a benefit corporation, putting the mission into everything we do. And when people come work for us, they feel they have purpose, they have fulfillment in their work.

12:44And you want to create a culture that is built on trust. and specifically as you work remotely, you have to have a culture built on trust. Otherwise, it won't work. You cannot trust people working in another country without seeing them in the office. You want to really default to building trust. And by combining all these ingredients of creating emotional safety, building trust, creating a massive level of diversity, and making people feel that they can grow here, give them a purpose and a fulfillment, we can go a long way to create an employee-centric or a human-centric culture that really addresses these basic human needs, right?

13:32That are beyond just a paycheck. And with that, you gain a culture that becomes a competitive advantage. I'm sure you've heard, John, the saying that culture eats strategy for breakfast. Oh, yeah. At Oyster, we got devoted last year by Glassdoor and Battery Venture as one of the top 25 companies to work for in the world. We have engagement leveled at off chart, and these devils continue to go up. Now, one thing that you believe strongly in, Tony, is the importance of a company's values as well as their culture. So let's talk about how a founder can maintain both when they're dealing with different regions, this global workforce, and of course, the diverse talent within.

14:20Yeah. So what is culture, right? Culture have shifted, right? What culture used to be your offices, your ping pong table, your water cooler conversations, and so on and so forth. Culture has become how do you work together, the set of tools and the rules. And when you're working remotely across borders, you have to be very intentional about designing tools and rules that make people successful no matter what they are. Your culture becomes as well, how do you measure success? How do you give people opportunity and clarity about what success looks like? At Oyster, we use a method called OKRs, objective key result, that connect individual success criteria with team and company success criteria.

15:04And so people, when they wake up in the morning in Thailand to know how they want to work with us, they know exactly what is expected from them. And culture also is defined by the values. And you want to design a set of values that are going to make you successful. So, for instance, at Oyster, building trust is one of our three values. Because as we said earlier, we want to create an environment where people feel safe, where people are trusted to do their best work, no matter how many hours they put in, because we default to flexible and remote work. And I have to say, finally, the culture is a reflection of the founder values as well, right?

15:48So it's very influenced by the founder and the founding team. And for me, when I started this company, I was pretty selfish. I really wanted to work flexibly and remotely. I moved to the island of Cyprus. I live in the Mediterranean, a beautiful island. After living 40 years in London, San Francisco and Paris. And before that, I was born in Lebanon. So essentially, I wanted to live where I wanted to live. I wanted to live near the sea, in my home region. and I also wanted to be surrounded by people from all over the world. I was at business school in 2009 and we were 90 people from 80 countries and that experience touched me at a deeper level.

16:35I felt that experience was very enriching for me, having people from all over the world with different perspectives. So I wanted to recreate that environment. And I also wanted to be flexible, to be there for my loved ones, to be there for myself. Next week, I'm going to ski in the morning and work in the afternoon and evening because my working hours have shifted because I work mostly with my team in the US and Europe and I'm more in GMT plus two time zone. So I have my morning free so I can go ski in the morning and still do my work as a CEO of a unicorn. So I want work to work for me and not the other way around.

17:16I want work to support my life. And when I brought this culture to my company, it became a gift for everybody. Everybody in my company is benefiting from this. And that also drives engagement and drives retention. Now, for those listening who are looking to effectively manage their remote workforce, what are some additional tips and strategies that you can share with us today? Really, the key tip here is to be intentional of building a culture based on trust. As we said earlier, when we moved from the office to working remotely, and we were used to seeing people in seat, and we used to confuse their presence with their productivity.

17:59And when we moved to remote work, we stopped seeing people in seat. So we started creating doubt whether they were productive, and they felt that. and their productivity went down. It became a vicious cycle. So you want to intentionally reverse that by building trust intentionally. And how I build trust personally in my team, I thrive to create emotional safety by being non-reactive to bad news, for instance, by assuming best intent, and by also showing that also I can be vulnerable sometimes. So that's number one. is really you want to be intentional in building trust. Secondly, you want to be intentional in designing operating model.

18:44How do you work here? The tools and the rules, we call them. And you have to be clear about that. You have to train people on that tools and the rules so there's no question about how to be productive no matter where you are. So for instance, we invest a lot in our internal documentation. So when you wake up in the morning in San Francisco and you want to collaborate with another colleague in Australia while you have all the data that you need and the knowledge to be productive. And thirdly, it's about making clear what success looks like in an intentional way. So as we said earlier, we use the OKR method that connects individual success criteria with team and company.

19:27And if we take a step back, these three things are building trust, having a clear operating model, and being clear about what success criteria are, are the foundation of what make any company successful. And that's why the best companies of tomorrow are going to be globally distributed company that build remote workforces. And actually, the best talent in the world, they know now that they have an additional degree of freedom and flexibility with remote work and they're gravitating towards companies that make them successful. these globally distributed remote companies that are creating great cultures and great retention.

20:07So that's why I believe the best companies of tomorrow, our company is going to be distributed and it's going to be mission-driven and gives purpose to people. Fire Nation, a lot to take notes on, a lot to learn from somebody who is living this every single day. Now, Tony, if Fire Nation wants to learn more about Oyster, wants to connect with you, What is your call to action for our listeners today? So you can follow me on LinkedIn, on Tony Jamous, J-A-M-O-U-S. I communicate quite a bit on this topic, on how you can be a thriving remote worker, how can you build a thriving remote work culture.

20:52But also you can access our website, OysterHR.com. Fire Nation, you're the average. of the five people you spend the most time with. You've been hanging out with TJ and JLD today, so keep up that heat. For links to everything that we talked about, visit eofire.com. Just type Tony in the search bar. The show notes page will pop right up. And Tony, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation. For that, we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side. Thank you, John. Hey, Fire Nation, a huge thank you to our sponsors and Tony for sponsoring today's episode. and Fire Nation, what can 4 ,000 of the world's most successful entrepreneurs teach you?

21:33How about how to achieve financial freedom and fulfillment? My first traditionally published book, The Common Path to Uncommon Success, is a revolutionary 17-step roadmap that will lead you to the lifestyle you've been dreaming about. This book took me 10 years of accumulating the genius of the world's top entrepreneurs, and you can get it all in one place when you visit UncommonSuccessBook.com. I'll catch you there or I'll catch you on the flip side. Marketing Made Simple, hosted by my friend, Dr. JJ Peterson, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals.

22:10Marketing Made Simple brings you practical tips to make your marketing easy and more importantly, make it work. A recent episode all about how Liquid IV is using marketing to shake up the beverage world, dives deep into the strategies that have propelled Liquid IV to remarkable success, a must listen. Listen to Marketing Makes Simple wherever you get your podcasts. Want to meet me, JLD, in person? Attend Clay Clark's two-day interactive business workshop and meet me, Tim Tebow, and Clay Clark this June. Experience the highest rated business workshop in America and hang out with me in person at thrivetimeshow.com slash EOfire.

22:42Again, that's thrivetimeshow.com slash EOfire. Learn more and request your tickets at thrivetimeshow.com slash EOfire.

22:54Thank you.