Molly Bloom is an inspirational keynote speaker, entrepreneur, and bestselling author of Molly’s Game. She is best known for her memoir, Molly’s Game, which was adapted into an award-winning film of the same name by Aaron Sorkin. Bloom’s memoir chronicles her journey from college student to LA waitress to building and operating the largest and most notorious private poker game in the world. Her games featured hundreds of millions of dollars and players like Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, A-Rod, and Ben Affleck.
Bloom began her career as a world-class skier. While training as a pre-teen she was diagnosed with severe scoliosis and had to undergo surgery that the doctors said would end her athletic career. A year later, fully recovered, she was back on the slopes. She later joined the U.S. Ski Team and at 21 years old was ranked No. 3 in North America in moguls, but her Olympic dreams would go unrealized as she left the team to pursue other projects. This led her to what she thought would be a year sabbatical in LA.
Bloom was finishing her degree in Political Science from the University of Colorado – Boulder, and was in the process of applying to top tier Law Schools, when her assistant job turned her into an accidental entrepreneur, running one of the most exclusive, high-stakes underground poker games in the world, pulling in as much as $4 million per year. What happened next is where her story truly begins.
The film Molly’s Game, written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, stars Jessica Chastain (as Molly), Idris Elba, Kevin Costner, Michael Cera, Brian d’Arcy James, and Chris O’Dowd. Featured on Daily Hive and the New York Times as a ‘must watch’ movie, Molly’s Game is now available to stream on YouTube TV.
Bloom has appeared on numerous shows and in media outlets such as Ellen, Vice, The Los Angeles Times, NPR, Vulture, and has been asked to speak at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women, for companies like Blackrock Financial, SiriusXM Radio, and delivered the 2018 commencement speech at Colorado State University.
Today, Molly Bloom is a top-booked speaker, podcast host, mother, mentor to other women, and advocate. She has appeared on Ellen, Vice, NPR, Vulture and in The Los Angeles Times and Forbes. In 2020, at the height of the COVID pandemic, she founded the One World Group with her husband, neuroscientist Devin Effinger. The online group seeks to connect people around the world, especially women facing challenges. In 2022, Bloom launched, “Torched,” a podcast exploring Olympic controversies and the heat of competition. As host, she shares stories about the cost of greatness, both on and off the Olympic stage—from the Tour de France to Title IX to the World Cup.
Keynote Programs:
Molly's Game: The True Story Of The Woman Behind The Most Exclusive, High-Stakes Underground Power Game In The World
What’s it like to run an exclusive poker game for the rich and famous? Molly Bloom went from Olympic-level skier who didn’t know a thing about poker or Hollywood to building and operating the largest and most notorious private poker game in the world. In this motivational talk, Bloom will show the sales and marketing skills she used to attract hundreds of millions of dollars to the game and spark the interest of players like Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, A-Rod, and Ben Affleck. Audiences will get the inside story not shown in the film as Bloom shares true-life tales of her experience.
Engage, Connect, And Level Up With Affective Presence:
In today’s world of media overload and disconnection, it’s increasingly important to connect and engage effectively with people for work, family, and everyday life. Affective Presence is the exciting and previously unexplored science of how you connect and engage with people, make them feel, and create an impact. It is a buildable skill that has the potential to transform the lives of those who employ it and make the world a better place. From running the largest poker games in the world, populated by some of the richest and most powerful, to convincing Aaron Sorkin, the highest-paid screenwriter in Hollywood to adapt her book, to becoming one of the most booked speakers in the industry, Molly Bloom has identified the through line responsible for her success, Affective Presence. In this interactive session, you will learn the top methods for building an affective presence, develop practical takeaways, and practice how to engage and connect with people in all aspects of work and life.
Bet On Yourself And You'll Always Win: Overcoming Setbacks:
How do you come back from a failure? After the FBI arrested Molly Bloom and confiscated all her earnings from her poker business, she could have given up. Instead, she used the same lessons she learned from her father that led her to come back from back surgery to be ranked No. 3 in North America in moguls, to overcome this setback. She wrote the bestselling memoir, Molly’s Game, convinced Aaron Sorkin to write the screenplay, and the film earned an Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay. In this inspiring talk, Bloom will share true stories and life lessons showing that when you bet on yourself in business, you can always win.
Understanding Risk And Beating The Odds
In this engaging session, learn from the champion athlete, top-booked keynote speaker, best-selling author, and scrappy entrepreneur Molly Bloom on lessons from her athletic background and hosting thousands of hours of high-stakes poker, business, and hustle with the world’s most prolific people in business, entertainment, and politics. Participants learn Molly’s framework for managing risk, building courage, designing strategy, and the perseverance to stick with it. This is a great presentation for sales, marketing, leadership, and general audiences who want to learn a new framework and be entertained in the process – with Hollywood stories, intrigue, and some inside scoop on how the world really operates.
Molly's Playbook For Success: Champion Mindset
Molly Bloom shares her playbook for winning, derived from her experiences skiing for the US Ski Team, running the largest poker games in the world, writing a best-selling memoir, and making an Oscar-nominated movie. She breaks her philosophy for growth and success down into 7 major points over the course of her presentation, which audiences will leave invigorated, informed, and primed for their own success.
Molly will cover:
- The importance of unequivocally believing in yourself, backed by Carol Dweck’s research into growth mindset and its influence on children in underperforming school districts.
- The science of overcoming fear through a combination of taking calculated risks, breathwork and meditation.
- Cultivating power via a process of self-accountability and reflection.
- Making use of mindfulness to cultivate resilience, which pays off more in the long run than connections and talent.
- Finding allies and becoming an ally for others.
- The art of pivoting when it comes time to move on to the next venture, and making a clean break with the past.
- How to cultivate relationships with absolutely anyone through the use of human psychology and your own authentic self.
