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you put a gun in my mouth beat the hell out of me and maybe he said if you tell anyone about this I know where your
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family lives for the first time in my life I knew finally it was game over I'm Molly Bloom dub the poker princess the
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former waitress who took a small poker game run out of a dingy nightclub so the biggest underground poker game in the
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world for Hollywood celebrities to millionaires they literally made a Hollywood movie about it the gang turned
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from legal to Illegal I had become the biggest game runner in New York City either DiCaprio Ben Affleck and Toby
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McGuire politicians she was making four to six million dollars a year it was unbelievable 250 000 buy-in so I
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couldn't sit down unless I brought 250 000 that's right and you saw someone lose a hundred million dollars in a
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night yes this is where the science of how you make people feel became a really
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big tool and I would memorize people's lives the names of their kids what they cared about favorite food ordered drink
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order these things can absolutely be used for good but I just became obsessed what had been about trying to be an
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entrepreneur and be gutsy started to be exclusively about the money and the power but I paid a huge price for it I
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started to partner with people that were not the right people to partner with in the middle of the night I get arrested by 17 FBI agents machine guns they put
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me in handcuffs and they put this piece of paper in front of me that says the United States of America versus Molly Bloom the FBI gives you an ultimatum
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they were going to give you Millions if you snitched on the players in the game I had 48 Hours what happens then
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before this episode starts I have a small favor to ask from you two months ago 74 of people that watch this channel
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didn't subscribe we're now down to 69 my goal is 50 so if you've ever liked any
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of the videos we've posted if you like this channel can you do me a quick favor and hit the Subscribe button it helps this channel more than you know and the
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bigger the channel gets as you've seen the bigger the guests get thank you and enjoy this episode [Music]
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what do I need to understand about your earliest context to understand you going right in
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um I think it almost always starts with the family
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and childhood and I am from a family of you know my two
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little brothers are incredible humans but like the craziest overachievers you
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could ever imagine and then I have these two incredible
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parents who were very powerful influences in our lives my dad stood on
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this platform of you cultivate discipline and if you have a fear you
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walk through it and you learn how to suffer constructively for your dreams
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for your goals and then my mom you know she was this she insisted on kindness and integrity
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so there's this whole ecosystem of extraordinary and I didn't know how I
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fit into that at all and I desperately wanted a seat at that table
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and probably during the times that we were raised there are these ideas of
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what success looked like and how you get there and it was genius and talent and specific skill set
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you know but I knew that I had to be successful or and this is not hyperbolic I literally did not
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want to live I mean I remember when I was applying to law school I said to my dad if I don't get into an Ivy League law
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school I don't know like how I don't want to live you know and do you
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mean that it's hard to know what you mean at 18 years old but
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in my mind you need Clear Proof and evidence that
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you are extraordinary by these a compliment accomplishments and my brothers had already started to make that happen
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and yeah because one day at the dinner table
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my dad said to me do you like to argue and read a lot maybe you should go to law school and
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then I and then I started to kind of read books about the law and fiction a
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lot I mean I was I loved stories um and and then started to think about
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getting paid to argue for a living and all the glory that could come from that if you're fighting for justice or you're
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you know fighting to save somebody who's innocent you know the the sort of high points
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the aspirational points of what it would be like to be
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a lawyer in a movie or a book you're thinking about the glory yeah yeah
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for sure why do you think you cared so much about Glory I don't think I cultivated much
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self-esteem I don't think I knew who I was and I don't think that I believed I
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was inherently worthy I believed that I had to achieve something big huge extraordinary
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worldly in order to to then feel
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relief from that existential ache of that I that that followed me around my
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whole life you know so you you go off and try and pursue a career
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in law at least that's what you think you're going to do yeah you're gonna go to Harvard right well I wanted to go to Harvard I didn't even
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end up going at all or even finishing my last semester and a half at school
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because I just couldn't I couldn't muster the the energy and
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ambition it took to go do all these things I I just had I'd hit
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a wall and I think I was really questioning the conventionality of it all so I ended
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up like not applying to law schools and just saying I just need a year and
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the closest place that was warm on the ocean from Colorado in a straight line
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was California when you moved here um your father again bringing him back
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into the picture he's a very ambitious person how did he receive this news that you were not coming to LA
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not happy about it not going to financially support it really disappointed so you get here and
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he's he's no longer supporting you financially at all so what'd you do to make money I mean I got a job I had to
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get a job the day I got here and I went to this
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restaurant in Beverly Hills going to uh you know got a job for a
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couple days it was terrible and then I went to this other rest um I went to this other restaurant and kind
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of lied and said because no one else was hiring in this Beverly Hills area and it
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was a fine dining establishment and I lied and said that I had fine dining experience I got fired
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couple weeks later my boss said you're the worst waitress we've ever seen and you've ruined like thousands of dollars bottles of wine
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trying to open them he said but
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you know people seem to to take to you and you're a hard worker so why don't
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you come work for our real estate development company as my executive assistant oh so it was
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the boss of the restaurant that yes offered you the job as the exec yes they they had a bunch of Holdings they had
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some real estate they had some restaurants they had a fund so you became his EA his PA yeah and this led you to Poker
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yes he came in the office one day and he said and they're always zany things to
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it sort of like thrown at me and he said um I need you to serve drinks at my poker
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game tomorrow night and I you know I tell this story because it's just
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so indicative of of the naivete and where I was I I remember
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Googling what kind of music do poker players like to listen to and what do they eat and then I proceeded to make
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this incredibly embarrassing playlist with songs like The Gambler on it you know and uh got this cheese plate and
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showed up for this very fancy uh poker game in in Hollywood with
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A-list celebrities and you know there's some names that of people that have already
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talked about being in the games and those are the names that I don't mind
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naming just to give context it was Ben Affleck and Toby Maguire and Leo DiCaprio
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and then you know but apart from the actors it was also the head of some of
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the biggest investment banks in the world and the head of some of the biggest movie studios and politicians
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who were household names and people in the tech world that were about to take their companies public I mean it was
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it was unbelievable quite a few people have come out as you say and said that they were they played in those games
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yeah I was watching a video earlier like even Dan Bilzerian I think says yes Dan played he played in those games
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were those games legal or illegal because legal to play in legal to play
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in for sure legal I when I started running the games
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I hired uh defense attorneys and had them analyze the federal statutes and to
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help me figure out a way to do it legally because in the early days
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I wouldn't have done it illegally that was an evolution
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so you still as a basically an assistant to the games that your boss is running these are secret games right right very
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secretive very and take me on the Journey of what happens next okay so that first game
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you know I'm just shell-shocked essentially and also really mortified about the
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playlist and the cheese plate from Gelson's you know
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um but but man am I intrigued you know getting to be a FL at 23 years old getting to be
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a fly on the wall in this room where the these conversations are open
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and candid and you are I'm like you I've always been fascinated
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in Psychology I've always been an information data junkie I love to learn
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I love to observe and so this was as compelling as it could be
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and then I remember at the end of the night because people were tipping with chips it wasn't Straight Cash I remember
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making three thousand dollars for refilling some drinks and so two things
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became really apparent to me one this was incredible access to a network of people that I don't know if I would have
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ever had access to and to learn from people at this age of
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23 when I didn't know who I was or who I wanted to be and number two that there
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was something that happened when there was a token or a chip was that was the
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economic system that made people very liberal because I'd worked as a wait you know I
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was I was a waitressing everywhere I would hustle my butt off for a couple hundred dollars a night you know all of
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a sudden the chip is involved and it's not real money so
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I just became obsessed and so I learned about poker
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I wanted to learn the rules of the game the vernacular I didn't want to seem
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like a novice um and then I started to try to figure
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out how do I stay in this room and
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this is where one of the places where effective presence became a really big tool what's
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effective effective presence is the science of how you make people feel everybody has their
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own emotional footprint that they leave on the world and there are really marked things you
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can do to have either positive or negative effective presence or neutral which is also not great
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um so I remember talking to my mom and I remember saying
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you don't even understand how compelling this is and
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I don't I want to stay in this room more than anything but I don't know how I could ever confer value in this room did
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you feel like you're going to be kicked out of the room I just felt like maybe I was disposable like maybe they would just bring in another
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woman at some point to serve drinks or you know I just I didn't
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I just didn't want to be disposable I wanted to find some reason
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to be to be valuable in that room to you know
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and and to be able to come back and I start I was talking to my mom so
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much about everything that I hope to gain and and where my mind was going with this opportunity
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and you know that I said to her but Mom I have no idea how to bring value to this room these people have everything
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and she said something that was really profound to me she said um
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you know maybe instead of thinking about all the things you want to get you could think about what you could give
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and then she reminded me of that quote by Maya Angelou that everyone loves and loves to quote which is people are going to forget what you said and what you did
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but they're never going to forget the way you made them feel and I thought about that it's so true
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and I guess I had this suspicion that these people with their power and their success
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and their access were different from the rest of us that they believed that they are worthy you
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know that they didn't have Harbor that secret fear that they weren't good enough and what I found
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unequivocably is that that wasn't true and that many times someone at that
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level is even more convinced or needs even more
00:14:32
validation and so I started to try to understand how to make people feel important seen
00:14:40
heard remembered how to establish trust how to establish authentic connection
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because something that I realized by observing these games is that
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everybody wanted something from these people that was the nature of the relationship
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and so if I could figure out how to establish a real connection you know
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there's there's emotional intelligence right which usually has a focus on the outcome How to Win Friends and Influence
00:15:09
People effective presence is more about being in the present with someone focused on the connection not the
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outcome and this is truly what I focused on for the
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first six to seven months is just creating a real connection with people
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observing them and you know trying to train my mind to focus on what's unique
00:15:37
about this person what's truly unique about this person and then getting to a point where You're vulnerable enough to
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say God I'm really fascinated by this thing that you do you know whether it's at the poker table or in business or
00:15:50
just in life and and focusing in on the details and and really
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getting outside of yourself and becoming curious and becoming a great listener which by the way you are an insanely
00:16:03
great listener and I just have found probably like you
00:16:09
have that there is such incredible value in that and that no matter how much
00:16:15
somebody is celebrated or um you know has
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has a public following or whatever it's so seldom that someone just sits down
00:16:26
with them and listens just gets in it with them Tiffany as you were saying that I was just thinking about how much
00:16:32
of a competitive Advantage listening is we think that the competitive advantages had in speaking but I've if I've learned
00:16:39
anything from doing this podcast it's that to truly understand someone and then be able to in this context ask them
00:16:44
a question but in the world of business to deliver them a solution to their problem which is getting a sale to
00:16:50
create the upper hand you simply have to listen yes and you have to listen for as long as you possibly can yes and this is
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what the great thing what I've learned from doing this podcast but even from this conversation is I'm I'm my next
00:17:03
question is going to be so much better for the fact that I listen to you right and actively listen actively listening
00:17:09
listened I think we walk around armored with our egos and I think that
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true connection happens when somebody when you're able to disarm somebody and
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they're able to disarm you and the egos slip away and it's just two people so when you go in and you start listing
00:17:30
off your accomplishments and painting yourself as this per you know all of a sudden it's like competition up he goes
00:17:37
up and and then there's not true connection can't penetrate no that kind of wall can
00:17:44
you no you both built two walls between yourselves because you're shooting off right you need the walls to come down right form the connection yeah
00:17:51
when people hear that they go you know this this idea of effective presence and understanding how to be kind of a
00:17:57
different jigsaw shaped piece to each individual to get the best out of them or what you want from them people will
00:18:02
say oh manipulation which you know the the fine line between sales and persuasion and negotiation and
00:18:09
manipulation it's all there you know is this positive manipulation
00:18:15
so effective presence EQ active listening all of these things
00:18:23
that you learn can absolutely be used for good or they can be used for bad
00:18:28
but I think something that is different about at least the brand of effective
00:18:33
presence that I value is it's about your experience connecting
00:18:38
with a human being it's not about for me because I used to do that right I used if
00:18:45
the way I used to do things is I would do all my research on you and I'd come in here with a with a few talking points
00:18:50
so that I could instantly connect on something with you and show you that you and I are are the same
00:18:56
and I I don't really do that anymore although I don't hate that strategy
00:19:02
um but I think it just depends on how you use it I think when you use it in a
00:19:09
manipulative way I think it's easier
00:19:14
to see versus if you kind of take a few breaths before you go into a room and you say
00:19:22
this my what I want to do here is to connect with someone
00:19:28
do you have that human to human feeling and you know to
00:19:34
to be of service in some way to a in a greater way to humanity and by the
00:19:41
way that can also include yourself you know but I think it's about
00:19:47
disconnecting from the outcome disconnecting from the transaction and
00:19:52
connecting as a human being so how did you get from being the waitress in these rooms serving drinks
00:19:59
to running your own poker nights this is a funny story
00:20:05
Okay so couple months go by right and I'm like
00:20:12
I don't want to serve drinks in these rooms I wanna I wanna start my own games I want to own these rooms
00:20:18
you know this was someone who felt powerless in the world
00:20:25
troll these nine seats you know this thing that has so much control over these people that are so
00:20:31
powerful that was compelling the money was compelling
00:20:37
I had this whole idea of how I would design the experience that was compelling
00:20:43
and also you know I'd sort of learned in those six to eight months that that I was an
00:20:49
entrepreneur I was a problem solver I could I could think on my feet I had metacognition I could feel a certain way inside
00:20:56
terrified nervous scared and still act with composure these things that
00:21:03
wouldn't quite present at a dinner table growing up with Jordan and Jeremy Bloom to culminate into an idea or you know
00:21:11
sort of like that seat all of a sudden I just started to feel in my flow you know
00:21:16
and so but I was very loyal to my boss
00:21:22
and he is an interesting character he was
00:21:28
slightly psychopathic uh so I you know I just bided my time and I
00:21:34
tried to figure out how I was going to do this and and then he made it quite simple for me because he called me and he said you're focused too much on the
00:21:41
game I need you back in the office I'm giving the game to someone else her name is she's going to be calling you
00:21:48
and by this point I had really kind of gotten into like I had started to think
00:21:53
about how I was going to build this game I had I was keeping um the books on everyone I was
00:21:59
uh recruiting players uh you know I I really had I was doing much more than
00:22:05
just waitressing and I thought about it and I was like I
00:22:10
gotta take my shot I can't just go I can't just let him take this like this
00:22:16
is this opportunity is too important for me so I had developed friendships and
00:22:23
alliances and so I plan a game I moved it to a really luxurious
00:22:29
location and I hired a full staff of people and had them memorize everyone's favorite food order drink order
00:22:36
uh the names of their kids what they cared about in life upgraded my playlist
00:22:42
a little Frank Sinatra maybe I don't remember what it was but it was better moved out of this Dungey basement had it
00:22:48
catered by you know the the best restaurants in town up you know like
00:22:55
the best Liquors Cuban cigars I mean I wanted people to walk into this room
00:23:01
and feel like they were in Monaco or feel like they were James Bond for the night and I I really as the games were
00:23:09
on I really like got into the science of scent science and temperature and humidity and
00:23:17
um food and all these things that elicit the feel-good chemicals
00:23:23
and so and then I invited everyone except for my boss
00:23:31
and at the end of the night the game went really late and then at five in the morning I got this text
00:23:36
message from my boss and he said get over here to this day I don't know why I went I
00:23:42
just went and he made me go wait in this like bedroom and he made me wait for a long time and
00:23:49
I I said to myself he's gonna kill me I mean I don't even know what's gonna happen right now because he was a was a
00:23:58
terrifying individual and very powerful and just to give you some context when I
00:24:05
started working for him I used to always say to him I'm really worried about your soul
00:24:11
like you're not a nice person you know and and I saw him in a business context
00:24:17
and then later when I got to know him better I saw him with his family and he was very kind but he used to say to me
00:24:22
all the time you you're gonna you're gonna get trampled over like you need to toughen up
00:24:29
and so anyway so he walks into the room and he has this terrifying look on his face and he looks at me and he goes I'm
00:24:34
proud of you it was like graduation day For Better or Worse you know
00:24:42
it's hard to know how to feel about that moment now sitting here decades later
00:24:47
so from that moment when you host that first game you upgrade everything you upgrade the experience for your customers
00:24:53
um eventually you set your site to New York but for a variety of different reasons and you
00:24:59
move the games from being based in California and LA to being based in New York City I lost the LA game you lost it
00:25:05
someone just took it from you yes Karma yeah totally
00:25:13
not gonna argue with that who took it from you uh one of the most famous movie stars
00:25:19
in the game Leonardo DiCaprio
00:25:24
someone took the games from you a movie star said I'm gonna go do it at my house
00:25:30
gave me an option first um you can either start making less money
00:25:38
so this is very interesting there's this player in the game you can't name I I won't name
00:25:46
but they're big male movie star making so much money okay how much money are we talking like hundreds of millions yeah
00:25:52
okay but became I would say pathologically obsessed with this game and structuring the game so
00:25:59
that he could win all the time so make sure that he was the best player in the game and that there were no other
00:26:05
uh there was no one better than he was Dan Bilzerian said that he was kicked out of the game because he was really
00:26:10
good Dan showed up playing this kind of
00:26:17
ruse that he was just this Clueless trust fund kid okay
00:26:23
and people bought it and I said I sat there watching him and I'm like this
00:26:28
dude knows what he's doing you know and I and I said respect right like you're
00:26:34
hustling I'm hustling but you can't play in this game you're gonna take everyone's money you're bad for business I wish you the
00:26:41
best so you kicked Dan Bilzerian out of the game I had to
00:26:48
he was too good yeah okay so he wasn't he's telling the truth yeah and yeah for sure
00:26:55
so this this Hollywood star that took you that stole your game from you so he was really obsessed with the game and he
00:27:01
was obsessed with the money that he was making and being the biggest winner and the truth is at the end of the year
00:27:08
the money that I was making by that point was Millions and he believed that was money that
00:27:14
should be going into his pocket even though by this point I was traveling the world recruiting players I had a staff
00:27:19
of 20 people I handled all the logistics I handled EXT credit extension
00:27:24
collections I was on the hook if someone didn't pay I had a full business I was paying my taxes you know um there was so
00:27:32
much work and Sweat Equity and I had branded the game in this incredible way and I uh I you know I took notes every
00:27:40
single game here are the areas that works here doesn't let me do some deeper research
00:27:45
um and you know just really think turning down cash and cars and free rolls from the
00:27:52
pros uh to get a seat to protect the Integrity of the game and
00:27:59
you know like taking paying the debts from my own bank account so that to make sure people got paid faster I mean there
00:28:05
was it wasn't I wasn't serving drinks anymore and so when he said to me you're making too much money
00:28:11
you have the option of making less and I'll let you keep the game
00:28:17
look by this time I I had become a strategic thinker I had really been able
00:28:23
to get out of emotional decision making but I do believe that there's a time and a
00:28:30
place for emotional decision making and and so I knew that turning down that offer there was a large the odds where I
00:28:38
was going to lose the game but I knew that accepting that offer meant no autonomy for me no freedom and no
00:28:44
dignity and you know what's the offer sorry I had to would have to cap my
00:28:49
salary and make it and and have him approve how much I'm making
00:28:55
what was he bringing to the table where you can just kick him out was he bringing a lot of celebrity power yeah
00:29:00
and celebrity power yeah this in this town so he he was he basically said to you listen you're making a lot of money I'm
00:29:06
I'm bringing a lot to the table because I'm bringing celebrities and contacts and legitimacy to this so
00:29:12
I'll put a cap on your earnings and I get the rest of what you're making but I'll continue to do my part yes so he
00:29:18
kind of wanted to make you his employee right how did you feel about that I never want to be anyone's employee ever
00:29:23
again but how do you feel about him because when you said it you looked a bit pissed off
00:29:28
to be honest uh did I a little bit you looked a bit like there was still a little bit of maybe resentment to that
00:29:34
moment you know I think that there's just conviction to that moment right of because I think we live uh in a day and
00:29:41
age where a lot of people try to um not in a day and age it's it's reality that a lot of people
00:29:49
um try to misuse power and I think it's really important to
00:29:56
talk about you know sort of dignity in the face of that and and
00:30:02
turning the offers down so you said no what happens then called me about a week later and with
00:30:08
this almost jubilant laugh and tone was like don't you're
00:30:14
done how could he ensure that you were done he had colluded with the biggest
00:30:23
whale in the game a whale and a gambling context someone with a lot of money who's not very good he's willing to lose
00:30:28
a lot of money and this person had endless funds and he had colluded
00:30:34
with him to have the game at his house and that
00:30:39
was where the money was for everyone and you asked me a question how do I feel about this person
00:30:45
um here's my answer this was a really long time ago
00:30:51
um and I've totally forgiven him
00:30:58
so you lose the game I lose the game I was devastated
00:31:05
what's going through your mind at that moment I'm done I'm never going to be able to make this much money again I'm never going to be
00:31:11
I'm gonna have to go join some you know I'm gonna have to go work
00:31:16
for someone else I'm not gonna be able to be my own boss I'm not going to live in this fascinating adventurous underworld where
00:31:23
I get to you know pull the strings and move the chess pieces and and and I have
00:31:30
to go join the real world where I'm not extraordinary you know I'm just
00:31:37
telling what's going through my mind now when I say these things it's like it is what it is but
00:31:43
so you eventually moved to New York yes um 30 years old at this point I'm 31 at
00:31:51
that point okay yeah um so you know I I bet my parents said
00:31:57
this is a great time for you to go back to school you've saved all this money you've learned all this you know you've
00:32:03
gained all this information you have this incredible Network and I said to them you're absolutely right but I have
00:32:09
something that I need to prove to myself at least because the plan was never to run poker rooms for the rest of my life
00:32:15
I don't think that's something that's sustainable the lifestyle was not conducive for raising a family
00:32:20
um late nights you know crazy adrenaline it was not something that I could imagine
00:32:27
myself doing for the rest of my life I knew I needed to walk away at some point I knew I needed to Parlay it into
00:32:33
something that was less underground less Gray but
00:32:39
you know I have to tell you there was something very thrilling about it
00:32:45
um but then I got angry and I had something to prove and there
00:32:50
was just nothing that was going to stop me what made you angry feeling like I had been disposed of so
00:32:56
effortlessly something that I you know something stolen for me that I had
00:33:04
curated and built and you know said karma before and and there is
00:33:10
some truth to that but I did everything
00:33:15
justly you know I left money on the my own money on the
00:33:21
table to curate this incredible experience um I I ran the games with ultimate
00:33:26
integrity you know I I wasn't unkind to anybody
00:33:32
I just felt it was really unfair and so also
00:33:39
I was embarrassed you know so I decided I was going to build the
00:33:46
biggest poker game in the world like five times ten times bigger than the game in LA
00:33:52
and then I would go away I decided after doing some research that
00:33:59
I would do it in New York City because it seemed like there are a lot of gamblers on Wall Street
00:34:05
there were many problems with my plan first of all I didn't really know anyone in New York City it's that sort of like
00:34:12
billionaire Wall Street world is not so easy to penetrate
00:34:18
secondly it was 2008. so the economy and Wall Street had just
00:34:25
been brought to its knees in the most profound way since probably the depression
00:34:31
and thirdly there were some pretty scary characters running
00:34:37
games in in New York who'd been doing it for 20 years
00:34:42
but you know it's it's Testament to when
00:34:49
when you're obsessed with something when when the end like you'll do anything
00:34:55
unfettered ambition you'll do anything to get there things are possible for better or worse
00:35:03
so you know I made Moves and I did research and I interviewed
00:35:08
poker players and I found out who the right people were to talk to and I found
00:35:13
out what was wrong with the current system what was wrong with the current games
00:35:19
and and where I could improve on that I already knew I already knew I could bring the branding and the experience which was meaningful it truly was
00:35:26
meaningful but what I found is in these big games in these New York games a lot of the
00:35:31
game Runners were kind of running a Ponzi scheme if they didn't get paid they wouldn't pay out they're playing in
00:35:37
their own games whether they were winning or losing would dictate The Rake of that night and the rake is the illegal tax that most of the game
00:35:44
Runners were taking and so it was a matter of treating people fairly it was a matter of being
00:35:50
trustworthy and consistent and having integrity and and then I and
00:35:57
you know the biggest thing I could do to instill that trust and to have integrity and to eradicate the fear was
00:36:05
to become the bank I would now MDB Inc would now become the bank
00:36:11
guarantee the games pay if there is
00:36:16
um if somebody stiffed I would pay what does this stiff mean meaning they'd lost money in the game and then didn't pay
00:36:22
the debt okay I don't understand that surely to get the chips they have to pay for them up
00:36:28
front no when you run a weekly game ultimately you establish a credit relationship with someone okay right
00:36:35
um because otherwise like these people would have to bring five million dollars in cash to every week it's just not
00:36:40
reasonable it's not feasible so tell me about the peak of your New York games then so yeah when you're at the peak
00:36:46
what does that look like so I started this big game they're all just called Molly's game
00:36:52
okay yeah um so it was a 250 000 buy and then this
00:36:59
was the game that someone would ultimately end up losing 100 million dollars in one night in say that again
00:37:06
explain explain all this to me like I'm a chimpanzee from that documentary YouTube recording
00:37:11
so when you sit down to play at a poker game there are a couple numbers that matter what's the buy-in my
00:37:19
LA game the bind to sit down and get chips and get a chair was fifty thousand dollars it started out as ten I raised
00:37:26
it to 50. the New York game was two hundred and fifty thousand dollars so I couldn't sit down unless I brought 250
00:37:33
000 to lose that's right then the other
00:37:38
relevant numbers are what are the blinds meaning what do you have to bet
00:37:45
um each round to to to play the game just at the start of
00:37:52
the round yeah and there's a small blind and a big blind and just goes around the table and and so these games played so
00:37:58
big there's so much action the blinds were so high that you know that initial buy-in would be gone with some people in
00:38:04
the first 20 minutes so then they'd have to come to me and say I need another 250 and I would have to decide in that moment
00:38:11
can they pay this are they good for the money um and so I would have to start to
00:38:16
establish this relationship this financial relationship with people based on trust a lot of times but there
00:38:23
are a couple things that that kept me safe number one to stiff this game was social
00:38:29
reputational suicide people would start to say oh
00:38:34
they don't have money anymore number two there wasn't a game like it where you could play with some of your biggest
00:38:40
Heroes I mean there's so much business that got done at these games the things that I saw created you know it was
00:38:46
mind-blowing but also you can just go to the police if they stiffed you right no there's there's no recourse unless
00:38:52
you're willing to go to um muscle Mafia
00:38:58
organized crime why couldn't you go to the police because it's not
00:39:06
illegal to stiff me or or a game it's
00:39:12
illegal to stiff you need a Gambling License in order to have those types of privileges
00:39:18
so you can go to jail in Vegas for stiffing your gambling debt but you can't go to
00:39:23
jail for stiffing me I gave you the money it's a loan
00:39:31
so you're saying you saw someone lose a hundred million dollars in a night yes how did that happen
00:39:38
foreign the game was playing huge they were also playing backgammon they are also betting
00:39:44
Sports obviously I didn't I can't guarantee 100 million dollars
00:39:50
so I'm out after a certain point but and that was shortly
00:39:56
before I got in trouble but that game that I established the the combination of the the big game in LA and the big
00:40:03
game in New York sort of joined together and became a billionaires game and people over a year's time would lose a
00:40:09
billion dollars people were I mean there's rumors that a
00:40:15
couple billionaires went broke playing in that game fully broke and this
00:40:20
here comes to a part of this story that
00:40:26
is I think really important I started to see something I could not unsee anymore
00:40:32
which was in the beginning I just believed rich people could never lose
00:40:38
their money knew what they were doing and that this was just their form of
00:40:43
entertainment and what I started to see is that uh a vast majority of the players in these
00:40:50
games particularly the big games were gambling addicts totally owned by the addiction of
00:40:57
gambling and I at some point
00:41:02
had to decide whether I was okay with playing my part in that
00:41:10
and my answer by my actions was clearly yes but I paid a huge price for it inside
00:41:18
and i s that sort of started to enable me to make
00:41:24
other decisions that were not in line with my integrity and that had a directly inverse proportional effect on
00:41:30
how much I liked myself how much I my self-esteem how much I believed in
00:41:36
myself the kind of person I started to be and
00:41:41
um what had been up until this point
00:41:48
about trying to be an entrepreneur and be gutsy and make money and and you know sort of like Source power and but do it
00:41:55
in a way where I'm retaining who I am and integrity started to be exclusively about the
00:42:02
money and the power and the status and I started other games in the city and I
00:42:10
didn't care if somebody could afford it or not
00:42:16
and I was drinking a lot and I was taking a lot of um
00:42:21
pharmaceutical pills like Adderall to stay up and Xanax to come down and
00:42:29
um you know just started to live this life of of very little
00:42:34
self-analysis you compromised your integrity I did big time
00:42:41
how I'm not I don't have judgments
00:42:48
whether or not like you know the sports betting just became
00:42:53
legal sports betting so many people in my indictment got indicted for sports betting now it's legal now if you live
00:43:00
in New York New Jersey you can download an app connected to your bank account watch tennis game pretty much everything
00:43:06
that happens in that game is a bettable moment you can also do that with a Charles Schwab account
00:43:12
I Harbor no judgment for draftking whoever the companies are the
00:43:19
CEOs are it matters who you are right for me
00:43:25
once I realized that what I was doing was using all my resources all my skills
00:43:33
all my intelligence to do to to push an activity
00:43:39
that was ruining a lot of people's lives that was a insult to my Integrity that
00:43:47
that was getting out of alignment with who I am and what I care about in the world
00:43:52
what were you good at so at that Peak moment when you do a skills order of why
00:43:57
you were successful what appears on that skills order very good at strategy
00:44:03
seeing a problem coming up with a solution setting a goal
00:44:08
that has you know most the time pretty slight odds figuring out how to
00:44:14
get there so I'd become very good at strategy I'd become um really good with people
00:44:22
I became so good at it that I became manipulative and I was using those skills to
00:44:28
manipulate people for my personal gain period not a win-win
00:44:37
and all of these things the the lifestyle that you've chosen to live in the way you chosen to live it you speak of the internal conflict this creates
00:44:45
yeah right um were you depressed at that point in your life how was if I was a flyer on the wall
00:44:51
when you were going home what would I have seen what would I you know if I was a fly on the wall that
00:44:56
could feel what you're feeling what would I have felt and what would I have seen
00:45:02
I was very depressed very disappointed with myself
00:45:09
um and completely powerless over these forces
00:45:15
money at the by this point drugs
00:45:21
and when I say drugs like I wasn't I didn't like the inconsistency and the unreliability of street drugs I liked
00:45:28
the consistency and formulation of of um Pharmaceuticals they allowed me to be
00:45:35
productive and not feel myself not feel the world I was drinking a lot why didn't you want
00:45:41
to fill the world what were you escaping from myself what I was doing
00:45:47
the the way that I was living what was it you were so ashamed of about the way
00:45:52
that you were living outside of the games I had stopped really communicating showing up for my family
00:46:00
at times didn't treat people that worked for me as well as I'd like to
00:46:06
I started to have you know New York was a was a trip I had
00:46:12
all these beautiful interesting compelling women that worked for me and although I always wanted them I
00:46:19
always wanted to Mentor them and provide them with opportunity the truth is is that I made sure they made enough
00:46:26
money so they stayed in that Darkness with me and I didn't
00:46:32
hold myself to the same accountability that I would hold myself now to in a friendship
00:46:39
I pay them so much money I don't have to show up for their birthday right
00:46:44
it was a it I had even if I didn't act like it in my mind there was a hierarchy
00:46:50
so I had no authentic relationships or very few um
00:46:56
those were the reasons were you in a relationship at this point so I was in a relationship from most of
00:47:02
the LA game and that ended right around the same time that my game ended
00:47:08
and then I went to New York and had sort of a secret
00:47:14
relationship one of the big players little brother
00:47:20
who kind of did my role in the beginning of handing out trips and everything
00:47:26
I found to be this deeply fascinating brilliant heart-centered person and so we were in
00:47:32
the secret relationship but I didn't want anyone to know because he was he didn't measure up to the the Persona
00:47:40
that I was trying to sell which was very hurtful to him how did he know
00:47:46
I told him we can't tell anyone did you tell him why you can't tell anybody I said it's bad for business
00:47:52
is that what hurt him you're just saying it was bad for business because if you said that to me and we were in a relationship I'd think okay you okay you
00:47:59
don't want to come complicate the Dynamics you don't want some people to know that someone you're you're involved
00:48:04
with romantically is also kind of attached to the game so yeah I mean I think in the beginning it made sense right but down the road I
00:48:11
think it became very clear and we had conversations about it
00:48:18
some point the the Mafia show up yeah so here's the kind of uh
00:48:25
levels and stages of the the train wreck so the first thing that
00:48:30
happened was I had just recruited these guys they were Russian American businessmen
00:48:36
they had the air of being ivy league seemed so legitimate I had people vetted within an inch of
00:48:43
their life I used to hire the same people the vet politicians for instance to vet people I had Bank employees on my
00:48:50
payroll to find out people's liquidity I mean it was a whole process you know it's a lot of money and big risk to bring some a stranger
00:48:57
into a room with important people and their stories checked out but there was something in my gut that told me it
00:49:04
was off and it turns out that they're running the biggest insurance fraud scheme in New York City history
00:49:10
and they had alleged ties to the Russian mob so then the FED starts to pay attention
00:49:16
to this 100 million dollar poker game where people can show up with millions of dollars in cash and get a
00:49:23
check right pretty ripe for uh corruption
00:49:30
um and interesting for them the next thing that happened was I had a
00:49:35
yeah I had to run in with Italian organized crime and I I guess naively I thought that I
00:49:41
knew that gambling was always one of the ways that organized crime earns
00:49:48
but you know I was having the games at the Plaza hotel with billionaires and
00:49:53
players for the New York Yankees and I I just believed that there was enough separation but by this time I had become
00:49:59
the biggest game runner in New York City and they didn't care they didn't care who my clients were and they were really clear with me uh
00:50:07
you know if you want to continue to run these games you're going to have to give us a piece
00:50:13
and we all know we've all seen that movie right and I tried to pull I politely declined
00:50:20
their offer and tried to explain to them in business terms why that wouldn't work for me and
00:50:26
just went on my Merry way and started to avoid their calls
00:50:31
and they didn't just go away and they sent this terrifying guy to my
00:50:37
apartment and he put a gun in my mouth which is something that you just never forget
00:50:46
and he beat that hell out of me and um took everything that was in my
00:50:52
safe including photographs the you know a couple things I had from my grandmother
00:51:00
and you know he said I think your answer will be different
00:51:05
next time and if you tell anyone about this I know where your family lives in in
00:51:11
Colorado and so a couple things here
00:51:16
first of all if somebody comes into your apartment in the you know in the real world in real life
00:51:22
and puts a gun in your mouth and steals things from you and beats you up cracks your ribs
00:51:29
you have somewhere to go you call the police you call your family you call your friends
00:51:35
it was undeniable now that what I was doing was so deeply dangerous and
00:51:40
Underground and I was completely alone and I I was too afraid to tell anyone
00:51:46
and so I'm trying to like and also now I'm not just putting my own life in
00:51:51
danger right like I'm in way over my head and my family's a danger in danger now
00:52:01
and I'm just I mean it is so heavy and so much and for the first time in my
00:52:07
life I don't have any strategy I don't
00:52:13
I have no idea what I'm gonna do and then I got so lucky
00:52:19
uh you know my only contact with outside world was food delivery
00:52:24
um and and then and the New York Times and a couple days later I got the New York
00:52:29
Times and it said 125 arrested and the biggest mob related takedown in New York
00:52:34
City history and I never heard from them again but you know
00:52:41
disaster is a coming it's just and the last thing that happened before
00:52:47
the whole thing blows up was um you know for most of my poker running career I was I was running these games
00:52:53
legally according to this Playbook that had been written for me by by my attorneys
00:53:00
and one of the biggest ones that differentiated me from a lot of the games in the city and La was that I
00:53:07
didn't take a break I didn't take a percentage of each pot at the end of the game
00:53:12
you winners tip you know I'm extending people millions of dollars
00:53:18
I'm in charge of the nine seats that people are a lot of them are pathologically
00:53:25
addicted to at the end of the night I got paid a lot of money I was making four to six million dollars a year
00:53:31
and um just from tips yeah so what where did that
00:53:37
four to six million a year come from from the winners so the winners would play in the game and if they won
00:53:45
you know they would tip a percentage one to five percent of their wins
00:53:50
games were huge and I was running multiple games around the city
00:53:58
paying my taxes I have an event planning company but you know
00:54:05
I was a mess and I started to get Reckless about who
00:54:10
I was letting in the games and and who I was letting play and my debt sheet started to get bigger and I
00:54:16
started to take a break I started to partner with some people that you know were not necessarily
00:54:26
the right people to partner with and um and the the feds had thrown a
00:54:32
confidential informant in the games by that point and he tracked that and so around the
00:54:38
end of that year I got a text message from one of my employees at one of my games and they said the fbis here
00:54:43
looking for you don't come here and so um you know I
00:54:50
I knew finally it was game over it was game over
00:54:57
and you realize that when you got that call saying the FBI are here looking for you yeah
00:55:02
how do you feel at that moment when you hear someone calls me and says the FBI looking for me terrified
00:55:09
I want my mom and I want my dad and I want to go back in time I'm not going to do any of this
00:55:17
don't even know how to process this and then a couple hours later it got
00:55:22
even worse I got um you know I went back to my apartment and
00:55:27
the whole time I mean it's like you're in a movie or looking around every corner are they
00:55:33
going to be there to apprehend me and um I packed a bag and grabbed my dog and
00:55:40
you know tried to book a plane ticket to Denver from JFK and
00:55:46
my credit card got declined which was strange and then my debit card got declined which was really strange
00:55:52
and I logged into my accounts and the account balance read negative 9 million
00:55:57
999.99 in all of my accounts
00:56:03
because the feds had seized every single penny and then some
00:56:14
so what happens then did you manage to get out of New York I did I managed to get out of New York I got home to Colorado
00:56:20
I'm at my mom's house my attorneys are talking to the feds and they said basically in in
00:56:28
this country you as a person have the presumption of innocence
00:56:34
but your property does not so someone can't just come get you
00:56:39
unless it was under some of those like after 9 11 or whatever but you know
00:56:44
let's just keep it simple someone can't can't just get you throw you into jail say that you're guilty
00:56:49
you have the right to a trial with your money with your property it's different
00:56:56
there's a division of the government called asset forfeiture that can just take it and then you have to go into
00:57:02
legal proceedings to try to get it back and so basically what that would involve is me going on record
00:57:08
talking about this game and telling how I made this money which for the most part I'd made it legally
00:57:14
but you know the past several months I hadn't and it would be an admission on
00:57:20
record of a crime so I couldn't I couldn't do that and at this point they said she we're
00:57:27
not interested in her as you know we're not pursuing anything criminally against her and if we are
00:57:33
we'll let her know so I just went just went home what do your parents
00:57:40
think of you when you come home at this point I don't even know what they think of me I think they're extremely worried
00:57:46
I think that my dad had been writing me handwritten letters every year telling me that what
00:57:54
I was doing was going to end badly pleading with me to do something different
00:57:59
um so I think my dad was angry my mom's just scared and I think they're
00:58:06
also relieved right like they were you know
00:58:13
they knew that what I was doing was dangerous they knew it was I was up late at night running around
00:58:19
with large sums of cash I mean they had many sleepless nights
00:58:25
at some point the FBI gives you an ultimatum regarding
00:58:30
becoming a snitch oh okay so it took two years for those two years I moved in with my
00:58:37
mom I got sober I at 35 years old no I'm not 35 yet I'm
00:58:43
33 33. um got sober
00:58:50
Trek to Machu Picchu did some salt deep soul searching um finally got a job moved back to Los
00:58:57
Angeles seven days later this is two years later okay I don't think anything's coming I
00:59:04
have rehabilitated myself you know and I've been living with my mom and my grandma
00:59:09
in the mountains of Colorado so I moved back to LA seven days later
00:59:15
in the middle of the night I get arrested by 17 FBI agents machine guns high beam flashlights they put me in
00:59:21
handcuffs and they put this piece of paper in front of me that says the United States of America versus Molly bloom I'm thrown into this wild
00:59:28
indictment I'm looking at real time in prison how much the press release said 90 years I
00:59:35
think realistically it was more like 10. but
00:59:40
um you know I have a day and a half to get to New York City to find an attorney that's going to represent me in the
00:59:47
fight of my life and I don't have a dollar my dad and I aren't speaking
00:59:52
why because he got mad at me and I got mad at him
00:59:59
because the the age old
01:00:04
unexplored resentments and Rife you know came to your head
01:00:14
this is my biggest fear right failing the spectacularly in front of
01:00:21
the world the tabloids are covering it so I had a day and a half to get to New
01:00:27
York City to find an attorney and you know I don't have a dollar my mom just put her house up to bail me out
01:00:32
of jail my dad's and I aren't speaking so my best friend
01:00:39
you know loan me a little money but I'm sitting down with people who are quoting three to six million dollars
01:00:46
and 250 to even look at it and so I have like eight meetings that
01:00:53
day before the indictment or before the arraignment and seven out of the eight all said you know Maya I really wish you
01:01:00
the best but without a retainer I can't represent you and then I met Jim Walden who
01:01:06
uh was at a very prestigious Law Firm and kind of like listen to my story
01:01:13
looked at my mom and said I'm gonna help you
01:01:20
and Jim and I started working together and I'll never forget something he said
01:01:25
to me you know I went in and I said look I don't have the money to fight this so but
01:01:31
I can't do 10 years you know and I I have to have a life after this so what is our strategy and
01:01:38
what is our angle and he said you know what Integrity is going to be our strategy and our angle
01:01:43
I'm just sitting across from Jim Walden who is nothing but Integrity who is this attorney who has spent his life fighting
01:01:50
the good fight who continues to fight the good fight who spent the first part of his career in the eastern district of
01:01:56
New York fearlessly going after the five crime families who's looking at my indictment and saying this is [ __ ]
01:02:02
right and um and taking on this case and fighting for me because no one else would
01:02:08
and he's talking about integrity and I just had this moment of like
01:02:16
it all hit me you know who I wanted to be how far I had come from that and for
01:02:23
what and uh I made a decision in that room that day that I
01:02:30
could never ever abandon myself again in that way I could never abandon the
01:02:36
things that I knew to be true to my to who I am and and one of those is is integrity and doing what I believe to be
01:02:43
the right thing and you know a couple weeks later the prosecutors wanted a meeting and
01:02:51
they really wanted me to be a confidential informant a snitch yeah and you know Jim believes this is the
01:02:57
whole reason that they brought the indictment so that you would snitch on the players
01:03:02
in the game and yeah and they didn't care about the mobsters or the people running the insurance fraud scheme I think they already had
01:03:09
what they needed on those they cared about inside information that I could potentially provide them with on the
01:03:16
billionaires the bankers the celebrities the politicians and I you know you spend
01:03:22
enough time with people you do get that inside information now I want to be really clear about something
01:03:28
if there was someone in my game that was doing really bad like if Epstein was in
01:03:33
my game and I knew that he was trafficking children or whatever like I would have given that information freely
01:03:39
and before this but what I knew was it in your games no because I
01:03:45
thought you were saying no no no I'm saying if there was a character like him right I would have
01:03:51
never protected someone like him but the things that they were interested in to me
01:03:58
who's booking Sports it's about to become legal in two years in New York and New Jersey you're going to drag
01:04:03
somebody's family through the mud and I'm going to be you know your your your accomplice with that
01:04:12
do they offer to restore your bank accounts if you they offered to give me all my money back which was how much money Millions
01:04:19
so they were going to give you Millions if you snitched yeah and also they were going to give me a deferred
01:04:24
prosecution which would have kept you know sort of giving me a guarantee that I would stay out of jail
01:04:30
and I went home and I you know I had a very short amount of time to to make this Choice something like 48 hours
01:04:37
and here's where I got to with it this place that I was in was 100 my
01:04:43
fault I did all of this I had near perfect information about the law I had great
01:04:49
parents I had college education almost completed I had all the opportunities in
01:04:55
the world and I had chosen this and I had chosen this path and
01:05:01
I had to own that you know and turning around and ruining the lives of people who had
01:05:09
played in my game who'd made me very wealthy many of them I saw their kids grow up to get out of the trouble of my
01:05:15
own choices did not feel in alignment with my true self
01:05:24
so you ultimately get sentenced I get sentenced I get a judge that's very disappointed
01:05:30
with me and um but ultimately a pretty reasonable guy who said listen you're
01:05:37
running poker games and it seems like you've done a lot to change your life I'm not I'm not going to send into you
01:05:42
to prison which it's hard to adequately express to you
01:05:48
how big that moment is because you can do all you know I used to say to Jim all the time whatever I'll go to federal
01:05:54
prison I'll learn a new language I'll Mentor some women and he's like that's not what it's like
01:06:00
in the prison system you know people are dangerous and a lot of the
01:06:06
guards are dangerous and women get raped it's not it's not a country club and in my mind I was just like I can
01:06:13
handle it I can handle I can handle it but in that moment when you get sentenced to not go to prison and you know you're not going to lose your
01:06:20
freedom um you don't realize
01:06:25
how big it is until that happens you know and probably would have been even
01:06:30
bigger from it the other way but I mean I felt like I I mean I lost my feet you know
01:06:37
and oh man you know here here we are going to dinner
01:06:44
after the sentencing and there's my best friend Ally Who stuck with me through everything and my family and
01:06:51
even my old boss came and I'm looking around the table and everyone's living their lives having
01:06:57
kids my brother's a heart surge he's in residency he just graduated Harvard my other
01:07:03
brother just got inducted into the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame and I'm just sitting there and I'm like
01:07:09
Here I Am the family felon you know I'm 30 now I'm 35 years old millions of
01:07:14
dollars in debt a convicted felon a social Pariah to some degree
01:07:21
like I'm all in for for a comeback but how
01:07:27
does that even happen where do you go from here so I just remember going back and walk
01:07:34
in the mountains you know going back moving in with my mom walking the mountains walking
01:07:40
meditating trying to figure out what is the way out here you know one of the things I always
01:07:46
always talk to my friends about is as you become more and more successful you get to see behind other curtains I call
01:07:52
it you know it's like a daughter like yeah like it's a cat you didn't even know was there and you meet this other group of people and you find out that
01:07:57
they're making money in this other yeah set of ways and you go what the [ __ ] like you guys have been back here doing this stuff all the time so I I can so
01:08:04
that's so resonates yeah playing with these money games that I don't even know existed like you do this and you trade this and you do this and you flip this
01:08:10
and and you go what the [ __ ] I was like I was earning like minimum wage over here right are you billionaires around
01:08:16
here just like doing billion dollar things with these little games that I didn't even know existed
01:08:21
um and that's what I've come to learn in my life is like yeah I got to see behind a lot of curtains and I was like oh [ __ ] I can do I can earn this much money
01:08:27
without doing any work or you can do it like this and what are those things that you came to learn about when you got to
01:08:32
see behind the curtain a couple things first of all I thought
01:08:38
behind that curtain I was gonna find the most contented generous
01:08:43
non-petty like extraordinary people and that's not
01:08:48
what I saw for the most part there are exceptions um
01:08:54
I just saw people who were kind of like unwilling to fail
01:09:00
because I don't know because they're obsessed with money uh I mean you know it was
01:09:06
just drive a lot of a lot of times oh being dragged or being dragged right
01:09:13
was it Moon being dragged and drive or was it more Drive than dragged I.E could they could they stop if they
01:09:19
wanted you know could they were they in control of their obsessions dragged
01:09:25
in that in those settings hmm it's what I've tend to tend to find yeah I met a
01:09:31
lot of billionaires and I with the odd exception I'm like damn unhappy yeah but it can't stop yeah have you ever read
01:09:38
that book the psychology of money yeah yeah don't you love that story in there I love it um I don't know what story in
01:09:43
particular you're talking about I don't remember when uh Joseph Heller is at the house of the
01:09:49
of the uh billionaire and someone walks up and says Heller like this guy just made in one day what your
01:09:57
gross sales were for Catch 22 or whatever and Heller just goes yeah but I have something he'll never have
01:10:03
he goes why could that possibly be enough boom
01:10:10
that's peace most of these people that I knew do not have peace and peace should not be
01:10:15
underrated peace contentment the ability to find joy in small moments
01:10:22
and then have the big moments I am all for adrenaline I still Chase it
01:10:30
I have to chase it last not that I'm a mom but I taste it in healthier ways you
01:10:35
know healthy skiing whatever it is climbing mountains um
01:10:40
but to sit lay your head down at the end of the day and be able to say I know who
01:10:47
I am and there may be times where I
01:10:53
lose sight of that but I have a process for that
01:10:58
and you know I've made these living amends to these people I love so much
01:11:05
what else did you see behind that cotton so you saw a lot of dissatisfaction with love yeah
01:11:10
um I saw a much bigger world than I knew existed and a much more malleable world
01:11:17
that's super key that's yeah yeah I thought like the walls were a lot more solid in life
01:11:25
generally yeah but you realize success is something that we can all Bend control
01:11:32
manipulate I think all is a pretty powerful word I
01:11:37
think if we are willing to do the work that it entails
01:11:42
um on ourselves uh yes I think success money abundance is is is
01:11:50
much more available than than I originally thought is that
01:11:56
because you see very Ordinary People achieving very extraordinary results and
01:12:03
you and then once you see how they're doing it you go ah okay yes precisely
01:12:09
hmm that's also what I feel yeah that's cool I've I haven't
01:12:15
thought about that and that's really cool I like that and this next the way that my story ends
01:12:22
really kind of speaks to that
01:12:28
um or not ends but you know begins again yeah
01:12:33
um so I'm walking around the mountains I'm thinking to myself like what's the way out and I just realized
01:12:39
there's a unique story here we've seen this version of a story it just usually has a male
01:12:45
Star right right right right and um so I'm like I'll write this book and
01:12:51
it'll sell so well and my life will change you know I went to New York publishing and there's a lot of
01:12:57
Publishers that wanted to give me a lot of money for a celebrity takedown book and I wasn't willing to do that so I got
01:13:04
rejected a lot but I just kept you know I was just persistent and I got this book deal I I got my own press and
01:13:10
everything and I waited to for this you know I released the book and I I waited
01:13:16
for my life to change and I think like 100 people read the book or something really maybe maybe a little more than 100 but
01:13:23
not enough to even earn back my Advance which wasn't that big and then I said to myself
01:13:29
I still believe in the story I still believe that the story is the way out I just believe it I can see it
01:13:34
I'm gonna have to bring in the big guns and I said to myself I need to
01:13:39
get I need to go speak to one of the most powerful
01:13:46
filmmakers in Hollywood I had a bunch of meetings and I was like it can't be something small it has to be
01:13:53
something big and so I made this short list of people who really come who
01:13:58
really are successful who who are the A-list here you know and it was like Shonda Rhimes Steven Spielberg
01:14:05
um you know Aaron Sorkin and there was another component that this person had to have
01:14:12
another feature to their personality they had to be Fearless because there were so many people as you can imagine
01:14:18
in the political world in Hollywood in um
01:14:24
you know the billionaires making calls saying like don't make this Molly blue movie
01:14:29
because they don't want to take the risk at all even though I'm you know I went to bat for them they
01:14:34
don't want to take the risk at all that they could be portrayed in this movie anyway so I you know I loved the west wing and
01:14:41
I loved social network and I loved the characters that and and the sort of like message and Humanity that comes out from
01:14:47
his writing so I was like I need a meeting with him Aaron's working
01:14:53
and he happens to also be the highest paid screenwriter in Hollywood so he's a good bet right that number
01:15:01
doesn't come from thin air so most people laughed me out of their office they're like your book sold 10
01:15:09
copies you know like this it was in the press a couple years ago
01:15:15
Aaron sorkin's never going to look at this and um I just kept with it I was just
01:15:21
persistent because I had seen you know as you'd seen I'd seen
01:15:28
how people get successful which was Persistence of course you have to have a good product of course you had to have a
01:15:34
good story I believed in the story but I got rejected so many times you know
01:15:40
so finally I get this meeting with Aaron and I remember trying to mentally prepare for it
01:15:48
I'm living with my mom you know I'm by all societal measures the classic loser like I'm like living
01:15:57
in my mom's basement I have no money I don't have all any of the trappings of
01:16:03
of the world and the success world you know but I said to myself
01:16:09
you walk in there with humility of Lessons Learned but you walk in there like you are worth like you're worthwhile you
01:16:17
know isn't there some famous quote that he said about how you were the most confident Down and Out person oh yeah so
01:16:24
when I was like when when I was done telling him my story he said um well I'll tell you one thing I've never
01:16:30
met someone so down on their luck and so full of themselves so down on their luck and so full of themselves
01:16:35
certainly was not full of myself but that's what you were giving Thanksgiving
01:16:43
and yeah I mean the tldr of that is he he takes it on
01:16:48
he drops what he's doing he takes it on he decides to make it his directorial debut as well as writing it
01:16:56
the movie comes out it's nominated for every award Baptist Oscars Colton Globes
01:17:03
um also I had done a lot of really good negotiating on
01:17:09
my part on the money part they wanted to give me nothing up front and promise me back end and I'd done enough research to
01:17:14
know that that wasn't ever going to happen the back end in Hollywood is notoriously you say you did
01:17:20
well what'd you mean give me something because how can I gauge that so I can just tell you that I got
01:17:31
15 times what someone normal normally would have gotten in my position
01:17:37
and your position was a book didn't really sell you're the owner of the IP I guess yeah life rights a life rights
01:17:43
deal like if that book had become a bestseller and it already had a built-in audience and I had
01:17:50
a million followers on Instagram and you know there was this compelling package sure
01:17:55
so how well did that movie do it did extremely well I mean 50 million people saw it do you have an idea of numbers of
01:18:01
like value do they do they give you a a value because I know they sell opening box office was X like lifetime value
01:18:08
yeah um they don't because you have a back end they they give you a sort of
01:18:14
convoluted back-end number but every everyone made money on the movie and it got nominated for awards and
01:18:22
um you know I'll never forget getting the the bank wire again and it
01:18:28
takes a really long time you know you don't just get paid up front you get like 50 Grand and then you get the rest
01:18:34
of it three years later four years later whenever the movie gets made and it was a rocky road to make the movie because
01:18:40
it was all set up at Sony everything was going smoothly it had this big budget like big movie studio
01:18:46
budget and then Kim Jong-un got pissed about the interview remember
01:18:53
the Seth Rogen movie oh yeah and he hacked Sony Studios and the chairwoman
01:18:58
was Amy Pascal and she was the one that really believed in the movie and she had to step down and then the new chair
01:19:04
person wasn't that passionate and so then we had to set it up kind of like at festivals so you know
01:19:12
nothing's ever a smooth ride so you get a big check from this movie I
01:19:18
do um but I'm still I still owe Millions not not today
01:19:23
sitting here but at that point so I had to figure out like what is
01:19:30
what's the next move and um
01:19:36
I remember the first time I didn't even think about speaking you know like a speaking career or anything
01:19:42
um I just remember the first time I got hired to speak it was in front of thousands of people for Google
01:19:48
and I had never spoken publicly and I think I just got on that stage and just
01:19:53
blacked out like it was so awful and I was so bad at it but the money was compelling
01:20:01
the adventure was compelling and so you know it allows me now to make
01:20:07
a really great income and then also work on the other things I'm working on which is
01:20:13
um a podcast in a community called the SMART Girls Guide to Everything it's basically using the strategy the access
01:20:20
the network the resources that I've been able to accumulate in my life and applying it to real life
01:20:26
and then I'm writing that a book on effective presence and I have a one and a half year old at
01:20:34
home which wasn't a straight ride right no you I read that you had IVF nine times
01:20:40
nine times people don't understand the pain of having IVF even once and then it not
01:20:45
going to plan yeah to have it nine times yeah it's it's the it's the mental anguish you know it was interesting for
01:20:52
me because and I think this is important to talk about and I'm glad you brought this up so I froze my eggs at 36.
01:20:59
um and I was told you're going to be good you have a lot of eggs you're young you know whatever
01:21:05
and I because and my point is here is I I think it's a big money-making industry and I think they oversell the technology
01:21:12
and it's not to say don't do it but to do your own research
01:21:17
in my case what I realized is doing three rounds of an egg freezing
01:21:22
procedure would have probably given me a much better shot the technology is getting better but eggs are 80 water so
01:21:29
freezing a thawing is is kind of tricky anyway so I thought I had purchased this
01:21:34
insurance policy on my fertility and then when I met Fiona's dad
01:21:41
I was 41 and I said okay great let's thaw out these magical eggs and none of them worked
01:21:47
and I was 41 and my fertility metrics basically the doctor said I'll give you
01:21:52
a four percent chance of making this happen and nine rounds later
01:21:59
um it worked
01:22:04
and I'm so happy I didn't miss it but that was a special moment oh
01:22:13
also terrifying terrifying moment the most vulnerable you'll ever be in
01:22:18
your entire life up until the point that Fiona was born I thought to myself I believed I went
01:22:24
through life believing particularly after everything that I had just been through there's nothing I can't handle
01:22:30
and then you have a baby and you realize losing this this little life is
01:22:36
something that I don't think I can handle and of course there are people that do and they do it
01:22:42
with Grace but you just know in that moment that there is something that would that
01:22:48
has changed in you that will never be the same terrifying ladies and gentlemen I'm interrupting
01:22:54
this broadcast with a very special announcement two years ago I started writing a book based on everything I've learned from doing this podcast and
01:23:00
meeting all of the incredible people that have had the privilege of meeting but also from my career in business from running my marketing businesses my
01:23:07
software business my investment fund and everything else that I've been doing in business and life and from this I've created a brand new book called The
01:23:14
Diary of a CEO the 33 laws for business and life if you want to build something great all become great yourself like the
01:23:22
guests that I've sat here and interviewed I ask you please please please read these 33 laws the book I
01:23:30
always should have written if you like this podcast this book is for you and it is available now in the description of
01:23:38
this podcast below and every single day until it's out later this month one person that pre-orders it that takes a
01:23:43
picture of their pre-order uploads it to their story on Instagram or social media and tags me will win a Gold version of
01:23:51
this book signed by me and there's only 33 copies of those available
01:23:56
so pre-order it now tag me on social media when you do and 33 of you are going to win a very
01:24:03
very special book Fiona comes to you when she's 18 years old she says mum
01:24:08
I would like to be a success what advice have you got for me mum
01:24:15
what'd you say to Fiona well we're going to be having this conversation well before she's 18.
01:24:23
I wanna I want to help her cultivate
01:24:28
her passions her talents I want to teach her about her mind
01:24:35
the ways that I've had to learn how to manage that mind how to manage fear how to manage
01:24:43
the internal critic I want to teach her to sit with hard
01:24:49
emotions not to run run from them to figure out what they can teach us I want
01:24:54
to teach her to go into the Shadows the parts of ourselves that we don't want to look at and look at it don't wait until
01:25:00
you get beat up by the mob federally indicted you know like addicted to drugs now called to finally
01:25:07
go into those Shadows to look at the demons that you haven't dealt with
01:25:12
um all these things that I learned through the trials and tribulations of my life I
01:25:18
want to teach her at a young age I want to teach her that her worth is not dictated by the things that she produced
01:25:24
but she is inherently worthy at the same time it is
01:25:30
she will not be happy unless she has purpose in life I believe that to be true I I don't know
01:25:36
who said it but it was very succinctly said to love and to work you know
01:25:42
I believe that people need a reason to get up in the morning to go into the world
01:25:49
and feel purpose I don't care if that purpose is stay-at-home mom or president of the
01:25:54
United States will you teach for anything that you learn specifically from being in those
01:26:00
rooms with the billionaires athletes politicians Absolutely I'll teach her about risk
01:26:05
what will you teach her about risk you know I've seen thousands of hands of winning and losing poker and I've kept
01:26:11
spreadsheets Excel spreadsheets on people for years and I've then watched
01:26:17
the choices they make and how they get to the numbers that I look at the end of the year and it's in their business choices or
01:26:24
the choices they're making in the game and then in their Greater Life a lot of times when people lose
01:26:31
they become um
01:26:37
unwilling to take another big risk and if you aren't willing to take risks in
01:26:42
life over time you will lose the game the people that took calculated risks
01:26:51
over time one people that took impulsive risks
01:26:57
didn't but people that took calculated risks over time and didn't let a past failure
01:27:03
or an external condition stand in that way won the game
01:27:08
I think a healthy relationship with risk is super important I think
01:27:14
um being able to stay composed when there's chaos inside chaos outside
01:27:22
is incredibly important in those rooms I think being able to know when to use your emotional mind to
01:27:30
make choices and know when to use your in your rational mind and being able to toggle between the two in an intentional
01:27:37
and and uh smart way is super important
01:27:43
and I think ego and greed is the reason that I've seen so many lives Come Undone
01:27:49
including my own
01:27:55
the person that sits before me today you know been on a journey to say the
01:28:00
least lived many many lives in many different chapters um
01:28:06
what are you most proud of about yourself now when you reflect on the person you are versus the person you
01:28:11
were what what are some of the things you're most proud of about yourself
01:28:17
I'm I'm proud that when I that that I Stay self-aware and when I
01:28:24
believe that I'm wrong or believe that I'm behaving in a way that is
01:28:30
is not aligned with who and what I want to be in the world that I'm willing to either say sorry or do that work really
01:28:38
deeply relentlessly do that work to change I'm willing that I mean I'm proud that I
01:28:44
just continued to I'm proud that I stayed open
01:28:49
is there anything you're not proud of from my past or in the present the present
01:28:56
yeah I mean there are little things that I'm working on but I wouldn't say that I'm not proud of of them because I think
01:29:04
having Grace for yourself and learning how to forgive yourself and and treat yourself with compassion
01:29:10
is a huge is something that I had to learn as a survival skill
01:29:16
back in those dark days um but something that I continue to practice the only times that I'm not proud of
01:29:23
myself are if I'm staring straight into something that I know that I'm
01:29:31
totally ignoring that's causing harm in the world to myself to other people
01:29:37
only we have a closing tradition on this podcast where the less last guest leaves a question for the next guest not knowing who they're going to leave the
01:29:43
question for and the question left for you is
01:29:49
what is the message you needed to hear when you were younger
01:29:54
that you didn't hear and who was the best person to
01:30:01
say it that didn't say it
01:30:07
um okay that's a great question and a hard question and I think I think
01:30:13
the answer is stop searching for the evidence that you were worthwhile that you're good enough
01:30:19
and just start to believe it and I think the person to say it to me is me
01:30:25
I think I was my own worst critic um you know we all have certain challenges in our
01:30:32
life but I think at some point taking responsibility for your own [ __ ] is the most important
01:30:41
thing a human being can do
01:30:46
are you there now like are you at the point now where you know your self-worth is isn't going to come
01:30:52
from Glory not a hundred percent but I'm like
01:30:58
90. do you think do you think we ever overcome these desires to to seek you know these
01:31:05
things because they feel to be so hard-wired and especially if they come at a formative age from people that are important to us like our parents or the
01:31:11
context we're raised in it's almost like a an oven it's like if you think about anything that you bake yeah you can't unbake the thing like you can't you
01:31:19
can't unbake a cake you know there's lots of things you can like you know separate using fairies yeah
01:31:26
um I think maybe if you're willing to go live a monastic life and just meditate
01:31:31
all day and like not live in the real world even then I I know that for me
01:31:37
anytime I think I have something completely figured out something fixed something else will happen in life and
01:31:42
it'll crop up so that's why I think it's so important to have a process for how you deal with these things and I think anybody that says I did this work on
01:31:48
myself and now I'm fine isn't being fully truthful I agree
01:31:54
I completely agree and I think that's the the most honest answer to give and I also think it's the true answer it's the answer that all the psychologists and
01:32:01
psychologists and psychiatrists that I sit here with tell me as well it's the answer I've seen in my life that it's
01:32:06
more about management than it is about taking our traumas or our hard wiring to zero which and I think that's important
01:32:13
to say because people that are struggling with the same recurring patterns in their life hear that and go thank God it's not just me yeah you know
01:32:19
because they'll beat themselves up when the therapy doesn't work or the podcast they listen to don't change them right or like staring at the sun and sitting
01:32:26
in an ice cube bath doesn't fix their like they're still toxic after the right spot
01:32:31
and that makes like they want to refund Molly thank you so much thank you for your wisdom your honesty
01:32:37
um you don't have to be so honest and in particular the amount of life lessons you've been able to draw from this
01:32:43
experience I think is of tremendous value so it's no surprise you're a speaker I've I'd bet extensively on your
01:32:48
podcast being a huge success as well and I'm really excited about this book because I really do think that effective presence is clearly one of your absolute
01:32:55
you know dominant skills um just from meeting you today as well like when the minute you said that explain it smells like oh yeah
01:33:02
I get it so and that's an unbelievably powerful skill because all we face in this world is other people yeah and so
01:33:07
knowing how to get the best from those people and whatever context that might be is ultimately the superpower that
01:33:12
anyone could possess it's funny every year around this time of year for whatever reason I go on a
01:33:19
little bit of a psychological shift and that psychological shift I think is somewhat inspired by summer but it's also inspired by the fact that I want to
01:33:28
feel strong in this season of life and as I age strength training is my number one form of training and the question
01:33:33
becomes how do you build muscle and how do you become strong in terms of supplementation and this is where heels
01:33:39
nutritionally complete protein product is my best friend for a couple of reasons one it tastes better than any
01:33:46
protein product I've ever tried two in terms of the nutritionally complete aspect it has the vitamin and minerals
01:33:52
you need it's about 100 calories so it's incredibly light but it also packs over 20 grams of protein into every serving
01:33:59
try The Salted Caramel flavor it is the bomb and let me know how you get on [Music]
01:34:08
oh [Music]
01:34:19
foreign
01:34:24
[Music]
