What Molly’s Game tells us about Authenticity
Simon Sinek re-released an interview he did with Molly Bloom on his podcast this week. Relistening to it – I was struck by how clearly Molly’s story about how she successfully ran high-stakes poker games for the rich and famous illustrates the power of authenticity in business.
Have you seen the movie or read the book ‘Molly’s Game’? It’s a true story of how Molly Bloom became connected with, and ultimately ran, high-stakes poker games in L.A. and New York making millions in the process. The story of how she recruited high-value players and kept them is compelling at every level. After re-listening to Simon Sinek’s podcast this weekend, I went back down the rabbit hole of the story and borrowed and read the book.
I should add at this point, that Molly ultimately lost her money (it’s a long but amazing story – you should check it out). As often happens when people start playing in that world, in Molly’s own words, she ultimately lost her way and was no longer true to her own values which led to things falling apart.
However, when things were going well – they were going really well. How Molly describes recruiting and keeping players, which was core to building her business, is a great lesson in how to sell.
Solve Problems for People
Those of you who follow my content know that I talk a lot about how selling is about solving problems and listening – not talking.
This from Molly during the podcast jumped out at me:
“When I first went to those games, I found myself walking in and being like, trying to prove myself, I'm smart, I'm athletic, I was never going to be the smartest or most talented person in that room. Then I was clear on a shift of like, you shouldn't go in there and try to sell yourself, you should go in there and try to make people feel seen, heard or remembered, solve problems for people that you weren't asked to solve, invest in their experience both financially and emotionally, do a lot of active listening, authentically look for the unique parts of people and learn how to have dialogue around that.”
It's all there:
It’s about them, not you: ‘try and make people feel seen, heard or remembered’
Solve problems: ‘solve problems for people that you weren’t asked to solve’
Provide value: ‘invest in their experience both financially and emotionally’
Listen: ‘do a lot of active listening’
Genuine Interest: ‘authentically look for the unique parts of people’
Do the Work
One of the things that really resonated about Molly’s story, is that she worked really hard at these things. She didn’t just walk into the room and do her best. She listened carefully and took lots of notes. She did research on people before she met them and ahead of the games.
In Molly’s words:
“I used to have pre-game quizzes with the people that worked the games with me, and we would cover people's names, the names of their kids, the things they care about, the initiatives they're working on, some follow-up from conversations from the last week, their favourite drink order, their favourite food order. A little goes a long way.”
This is important to remember. If we want to do well at anything – we have to do the work.
Integrity
Integrity, that is being someone that keeps to their word and is able to be relied on, is a very important part of being authentic.
Molly’s version of this is:
“You're going to have their back even when they're not in front of you.”
Often when we are working on big projects, we need to rely on people and they need to rely on us.
Keep it Human
The key message that I heard over and over again when reading Molly’s book was ‘they’re just people’.
Sometimes when we find ourselves in a meeting with a very senior decision maker, we can feel a bit star-struck or overwhelmed. It is important to remember that we are all just people at the end of the day, and every person has their own challenges and stresses.
Remembering that humanity is important.
Building Genuine Connection
Ultimately, selling is about people and building connections. If we focus our energy on solving problems for our customers, being genuinely interested, and providing value – we will build a great business.
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