What's Next! with Tiffani Bova

Welcome to the What's Next! Podcast with Tiffani Bova. 
  
This week I'm reflecting on a conversation I had with Molly Bloom. Molly is an inspirational keynote speaker, entrepreneur, and the bestselling author of Molly's Game, a memoir which was adapted into an award-winning film of the same name by Aaron Sorkin. Molly 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 doctors said would end her athletic career. A year later, fully recovered, she was back on the slopes and went on to join the U.S. Ski Team. But, her Olympic dreams would go unrealized and this would lead her to what she thought would be a year sabbatical in LA. She was finishing her degree in Political Science at 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! 
  
THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR…everyone! Everybody and anybody will find Molly's story fascinating and intriguing.
 
TODAY'S MAIN MESSAGE…Molly shares her story of inspiration, intrigue, and events straight out of a Hollywood movie! She recounts her journey from Olympic-hopeful and college student, to LA waitress, to building and operating the largest and most notorious private poker game in the world. Molly's story is one of innovation, inspiration, ambition, redemption, and entrepreneurship.
 
WHAT I LOVE MOST…I love what Molly has to say about owning your name, and really being seen and heard. I also love how clear she is on finding what you stand for, and getting clear on what you are and are not willing to do.
 
Running time: 33:10
  
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Welcome to the What's Next! Podcast with Tiffani Bova. 
 
I'm excited to welcome Scott M. Curran to the show this week. Scott is a social impact lawyer, advisor, educator, founder and CEO of Beyond Advisors and former general counsel of the Clinton Foundation, where he advised a global nonprofit operating in more than 40 countries. His new book, Better Good, asks a deceptively simple question: instead of always trying to do more good, how can we get better at the good we're already doing? 
 
THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR…entrepreneurs, business leaders, and anyone looking to create meaningful impact without feeling like they have to do more, give more, or solve everything.
TODAY'S MAIN MESSAGE…doing good isn't about doing more, it's about doing better. Scott shares how small, intentional actions can create meaningful impact, why businesses benefit from aligning with their values, and how each of us can focus our time and energy where we can make the biggest difference.
 
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
Small actions can create meaningful collective impact.

Doing good can be good for business, too.

Your "not-to-do" list matters as much as your to-do list.

Focus your time on what aligns with your strengths and values.

Momentum grows when people take action together.

 
WHAT I LOVE MOST…Scott's reminder that we don't need more money, time, or influence to make a difference. Sometimes, doing better simply starts with being more intentional about how we use what we already have
 
Running Time: 25:51
 
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Scott's Book: 
Better Good: A Simple System for Creating Lasting Impact

Welcome to the What's Next! Podcast with Tiffani Bova. 
 
This week I'm joined by Karina Mangu-Ward, organizational design expert and author of Teams That Meet The Moment. Karina has worked with organizations ranging from PepsiCo and Chanel to Planned Parenthood and the Sundance Institute. Her work challenges a fundamental assumption about performance: that the individual is the unit we should be trying to optimize. I'm excited to share this conversation with her.
 
THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR…entrepreneurs, founders, and business leaders looking to build stronger and more effective teams.
 
TODAY'S MAIN MESSAGE…organizations often try to solve performance problems by focusing on individuals: hiring a superstar, coaching an underperformer, or replacing someone on the team. But Karina argues that the real issue is often the system surrounding those individuals. She explains why teams, rather than individuals, are the true unit of value creation and how shared language, clear decision rights, and better teaming practices can help organizations move faster and learn more effectively. In this conversation, we also explore what happens when AI agents become part of the team and why automating a broken process can simply make the problem bigger.
 
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
Teams, not individuals, are the true unit of performance.

Consensus isn't always the goal; decisions need clarity and momentum.

Clear decision rights can make teams faster and more effective.

AI amplifies the need for strong processes, roles, and collaboration.

 
WHAT I LOVE MOST…this conversation challenges the instinct to always look at the individual when something isn't working. Sometimes the most important thing to fix isn't the person, it's the way the team is designed to work together. And as AI changes how work gets done, that lesson is only becoming more important.
 
Running Time: 26:55
 
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Karina's Book: 
Teams That Meet the Moment: 9 Practices for Unlocking Performance and Growth in Uncertain Times

Welcome to the What's Next! Podcast with Tiffani Bova. 
 
I'm excited to welcome Bruce Cleveland to the show. He's a venture investor, former senior executive at Oracle. Siebel, Apple, and C3 AI, founder of Traction Gap Partners and author of the book, Market Engineering. Over the course of his career, he's helped build and invest in companies that have grown into billion dollar businesses. And his latest work argues that markets don't simply emerge, they are intentionally built. 
 
THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR…founders, CEOs, marketers, product leaders, and entrepreneurs who want to understand how to intentionally create demand, shape markets, and become a category leader.
 
TODAY'S MAIN MESSAGE…building a great product is no longer enough to guarantee success. The companies that become market leaders today don't simply engineer products, they engineer markets by intentionally shaping how customers think about a problem and its solution. Bruce explains that through category design, positioning, messaging, storytelling, and thought leadership, organizations can create demand before they ever scale demand generation.
 
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
Great product engineering is table stakes. Lasting market leadership comes from intentionally engineering demand.

Creating or redefining a category helps companies compete on their own terms instead of someone else's.

CEOs, not marketers, must own market engineering because they control the resources needed to build awareness and shape perception.

As AI makes product development faster and more accessible, differentiation will increasingly come from positioning, storytelling, and creating a market customers recognize and value.

 
WHAT I LOVE MOST…Bruce challenges one of the most common assumptions in business: that the best product wins. He makes a compelling case that the real winners are the companies that teach the market how to think before anyone else does.
 
Running Time: 29:29
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Bruce's Book: 
Market Engineering: Because Markets Don't Build Themselves

Welcome to the What's Next! Podcast with Tiffani Bova. I'm thrilled to welcome you back to a series I did with my dear friend, Roger Martin. He's the author of the amazing book, Playing to Win. In this episode, Roger and I dive into Beyond Network Economics. 
 
THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR…business leaders, marketers, founders, and anyone looking to build deeper customer loyalty by creating experiences people want to be part of.
 
TODAY'S MAIN MESSAGE…for years, businesses have focused on network effects: adding more customers to create more value. Roger argues that's no longer enough. Instead, the companies pulling ahead are creating "worlds" that customers genuinely want to belong to, where the relationships between customers become just as valuable as the product itself. Through examples like TikTok, Hermès, Nike, Starbucks, and Ford, Roger explains why building community may be the next evolution of strategy.
 
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
Network effects helped build today's biggest technology companies but they aren't an unbeatable competitive advantage.

The strongest brands create communities where customers want to interact with one another.

Companies that disrupt or ignore their customer communities risk damaging long-term loyalty.

Strategy should focus on creating experiences and relationships, not simply acquiring more users.

Brands that successfully shape a world around their customers create advantages that competitors struggle to replicate.

 
WHAT I LOVE MOST…Roger challenges the idea that customers are simply individuals to acquire. Instead, he reminds us that the strongest businesses create communities people genuinely want to belong to. That's a much more durable competitive advantage.
 
Running Time: 29:10
 
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