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Rounding the Bases with Joel Goldberg Podcast was created to share the stories of men and women in business and entrepreneurship that are both well knowing and or hidden gems. Joel believes that everyone has a story and their story matters which is why Joel is eager to connect with individuals that are bringing value to their community through innovation, leadership, entrepreneurial journeys, and developing company culture. If you would like to be a guest on Joel's podcast please email us at joel@joelgoldbergmedia.com.

TRANSCRIPT:

TIFFANI BOVA TRANSCRIPT

Joel Goldberg: Welcome into rounding the bases, the podcast about culture and leadership with a baseball twist. My name is Joel Goldberg. Thank you so much for tuning in. And I've got a

Joel Goldberg: Phenomenal guest today. And I just want to get right to the conversation. Of course I would love it if you would share this

Joel Goldberg: Give me that five star rating, all that type of stuff that I say I'm not going to beg about every single week. And then I do. Bottom line, subscribe if you don't mind, and continue to share these conversations

Joel Goldberg: One that I'm going to have today with my guest Tiffany Bova who is the global growth evangelist. I love those fancy titles, because

Joel Goldberg: You know it's we've evolved to those I'm terrible. I forget titles all the time but global growth evangelist sounds really good, and everybody knows

Joel Goldberg: About the amazing company sales force that's what Tiffany has been up to. Most recently, among many, many, many other things. And she's an author and she's a podcast host and

Joel Goldberg: Never podcast, what's next, what's next podcast has had some amazing guests. So let's get right to this conversation right now. Tiffany I believe out. I'm guessing in California right

Tiffani Bova: I am Joel I'm in Los Angeles, California today.

Joel Goldberg: Excellent. Howard Hawaii girl in in in California. These days, it all sounds pretty good to me. How are you

Tiffani Bova: Good, good. You know, I wish I was in Hawaii. I just can't seem to get home at the moment because of the quarantine restrictions, but I'm, I'm hoping to get there in the next couple of weeks.

Joel Goldberg: There is that, and so I hope you get a chance to do that too. There's so much I want to talk to you about because in your role, you obviously

Joel Goldberg: See so many interesting people are involved in so many interesting people. You speak all over the place and like like me and so many others. Your world has changed the people that you deal with their world all of our worlds have changed. So how have these recent times been for you.

Tiffani Bova: It was definitely an adjustment. You know, I was in Sydney, Australia. The first week of March, and I snuck right back into the US sort of

Tiffani Bova: Right before it was going to get more challenging to get back into the US and you know I had a full year packed all the way to the end of the year, almost, you know, 80 trips

Tiffani Bova: Somewhere around the globe to give chemo keynotes and meet with customers and all that came to a screeching halt. So this is the first time in almost 20 years I've physically been on the ground for

Tiffani Bova: This long, without doubt, last year I flew 370 5000 Miles six continents and 100 keynotes. So, you know, my body is sort of going what is going on.

Joel Goldberg: That's so interesting because I can relate to that, in the sense that

Joel Goldberg: I've always traveled for baseball or, at least, you know, for the last 12 years being a part of the Kansas City Royals I was traveling in my previous jobs.

Joel Goldberg: And so my body, my mind it's all used to for me intense traveling for six months a year.

Joel Goldberg: And for my family to, you know, we're definitely going through that when he leaving again because you've been here for a really long time and it's not set in a mean way for the most part.

Joel Goldberg: But it's set in a way that we just get so used to our environments and what what our normal is right or your normal is is traveling all over the world.

 

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Joel Goldberg: So how has that been and I think everybody can relate, even if they don't travel

Joel Goldberg: Because maybe they were in the office every day. And now they're not going into the office and what I'm hearing from so many executives is I. People are getting antsy they're getting antsy at home. So how is that for you.

Tiffani Bova: So, you know, yes. I mean, just from a pure, you know, physical energy standpoint, I'm getting antsy. I mean, there's only so much that we can do.

Tiffani Bova: At home in Los Angeles. We've been sort of locked down and open back up and locked back down again and

Tiffani Bova: You know, now we're dealing with all kinds of other things like fires.

Tiffani Bova: But you know, I can say this, that it it really is about the interactions in and that I have with people while I'm on the road. Just those casual conversations you have at events when you're speaking

Tiffani Bova: With really interesting people and you're always learning and

Tiffani Bova: Sort of stretching yourself to be a little uncomfortable and doing things you're, you know, maybe not. You haven't done in the past. So it's kind of those strange or conversations I really miss in that dialogue and the face to face.

Tiffani Bova: That's what has me really missing sort of travel is those human interactions. And while zoom calls are fantastic. And it's keeping me connected. I'm doing more

Tiffani Bova: Probably more events than I would do if I were physically on a plane. It's just not the same. And so I'm antsy for sort of that human interaction.

Tiffani Bova: Which is why I don't like the term social distancing I like physical distancing as a term because social distancing means we're not being social and you and I, Joel. Right now we're

Tiffani Bova: On video even though everyone's only seeing voice socially I'm seeing you and we're interacting, but physically, we're not able to see. So I like physical distancing but it's the social interaction, actually, that I miss

Joel Goldberg: Well, and it's interesting because before we did the podcast. You know, you said, Hey, are we video or audio, which is a very normal question for any of us that host or regularly guests on podcasts.

Joel Goldberg: But to me, this video element is important for everything you're saying, I could see the look on your face. I could see your body language and I've said this so often.

Joel Goldberg: That, to me, the biggest challenge is, I'm a guy that walks into the locker room and I read the room.

Joel Goldberg: Do I really need to talk to this person today or no. Because if it's an absolute yes that I'm going for it, but

Joel Goldberg: If I see that body language that they're busy or they have something going on or something's troubling them.

Joel Goldberg: Then, do I really need it, or can I put it off for another day. And that sales is being able to read people and we're having to do it now at a different level or without everything that's in our toolbox, at least in my opinion.

Tiffani Bova: Yeah. And I, and I think, you know, ultimately, this is really forcing people from a pure communication, whether you work from home and you don't travel like like we do.

Tiffani Bova: You know, is how do you stay engaged. How do you stay engaging. How do you stay interested and interesting when you're in a medium that you're not used to

Tiffani Bova: In some cases, now people have gone from being face to face to adjust being voice, not everybody is you know pivoted to video some of that could also be because they don't have high speed internet access in their homes.

Tiffani Bova: Or they don't have a setup at home that allows them to do that. And even if they do have high speed and they're educating their kids at home.

Tiffani Bova: High speed is not, you know, your friend when you've got four or five people all streaming at the same time. So, you know, I think that it's an adjustment for everyone.

Tiffani Bova: You know that it's only voice calls are now it's only email or it's video. And so, you know, I think that the just human element of mental health and mental well being.

Tiffani Bova: Is really required, you know, the first thing you said to me, when we got on prior to the podcast was, How are you doing, it's sort of like

 

Tiffani Bova: We're spending a little bit more time on the. How are you, you know, how are you feeling what's going on. Is there anything I can do to support you know what you may need. And so I feel like the empathy quotient has really been raised.

Tiffani Bova: In conversations. And I, and I hope that that continues, when we start to get back to the office, you know, in the future.

Joel Goldberg: I think we will. I just don't know exactly what it's going to look like. And I think there'll be elements of this that we're doing right now that will replace you know other other elements and then hopefully we'll get i i don't know if we can

Joel Goldberg: I don't know if we'll get back to the old normal I think we'll get back to the elements of the old norm, but I think there'll be a new norm or next dorm. And this is just the way it's going to be. We need this.

Joel Goldberg: We need the interaction. There's no question about it. But, and I, I wonder what your thought is on this. I mean, personally.

Joel Goldberg: I will they if everybody's healthy, will they traveled me for baseball. Are they going to say that I could just do everything.

Joel Goldberg: Without traveling for you. You need to be in front of people. You need to be on that stage, you need to be. But you've also learned, perhaps, in part, out of survival, how to do this, virtually too. So what's the happy medium, if there is such a thing, when all this mess is over.

Tiffani Bova: Yeah, and I don't use new normal. I use the next future for that very reason, I think there's a lot of things in our previous normal that needed to change and improve you know obviously both

Tiffani Bova: from an education standpoint, you know, allowing kids to have some flex in education of being able to do it remotely and in person. I think helps kids who

Tiffani Bova: Are not you know don't live close or don't have the opportunity to go to other schools can maybe do it now remotely and getting a better education.

Tiffani Bova: I think the quality on having access to bandwidth

Tiffani Bova: I know that sounds really crazy in the United States of America. But, you know, if you pick on Detroit as an example at something like 30% of the population there.

Tiffani Bova: Don't have access to high speed internet. But yet, we're saying you need to educate from home, you need to work from home, you need to do all this from home.

Tiffani Bova: You know, but you don't have the ability to have high speed and when this first happened you know I was driving through a parking lot.

Tiffani Bova: By my house to go to the CDs and there was a Starbucks and the Starbucks area was totally packed and I was very confused. So I drove through. Sure enough,

Tiffani Bova: People were sitting in their car sniffing the high speed Wi Fi from Starbucks and there's three or four kids in the car and they're all like, you know, and parents are on the phone. And so, you know, getting access

Tiffani Bova: To Wi Fi right now. And so for me it's like, what can we learn through this and how do we actually improve the way we can use technology to serve communities, both from a healthcare perspective or even a sports perspective right it's

Tiffani Bova: Like I can't go to games in person. Maybe I can't afford it. But now I can watch it via online from a streaming perspective. And now, maybe it captures of wider audience.

Tiffani Bova: You know, and even some of the things that you've seen now with major league baseball and soccer and etc where you have the cutouts of people

Tiffani Bova: going and trying to do something that allows them to feel like they're still at the game.

Tiffani Bova: There was soccer in Poland, where they actually put construction cranes, where people had individual construction cranes, so they could look over and watch the game, but they were socially.

Tiffani Bova: Distance or physically distance in these cranes and so

Tiffani Bova: You know, sports will just take on an entirely different feel at least in the short term, but I feel like sports is something that brings people together. And so, you know, it's part of the camaraderie of going and seeing games.

Tiffani Bova: And, you know, meeting people in the line when you're getting a hot dog or a beer or whatever it might be.

Tiffani Bova: And, you know, cheering for the team and talking smack and all the things that go on at sporting events.

Tiffani Bova: You know, how do you recreate that in a virtual world world. I don't think we're there yet. And I don't think it's a replacement for. But if you think of it as an expansion of I think there's plenty of opportunity.

Joel Goldberg: Well, there's opportunity and all of this isn't there.

Tiffani Bova: Absolutely, absolutely. I mean, you know, if you think of Apollo 13. This is the worst day

Tiffani Bova: Or the best day right and it could have been the worst day from a NASA perspective of, you know, losing that crew and that spacecraft

Tiffani Bova: Had they not made it their best day and figured out how everybody was going to work together and collaborate and get those astronauts home. And so you know it's it's how do we

Tiffani Bova: Take a pause and learn through this and make it better. And I think that's really the the biggest opportunity. So for leaders and entrepreneurs or

Tiffani Bova: You know, people who are listening to this podcast and have an opportunity to maybe make an impact in some way of of learning from this opera, you know, from this challenge that we have and then making it something that we come out better on the other side. I think it's I think it's fantastic.

Joel Goldberg: Tiffany, you've won a million awards and mentions and honors and that that's all

Joel Goldberg: I love all that we know what it is and what it's not, but it's it's great to get that recognition. And so, you know, some of the awards thinkers

Joel Goldberg: Global ranking of management thinkers, one of the most powerful and influential women in California from the national diversity Council top 50 sales and marketing influencers by

Joel Goldberg: Top sales World magazine ink magazine and LinkedIn. I could go on and on and on. There are a lot of them, but I bring that up because I'm just curious, as you know, as a girl growing up in Hawaii. What were the aspirations back then and then we'll get to where you are now.

Tiffani Bova: Yeah, so, you know, not just because I'm on this podcast but I think two things. One, everything I learned about business. I learned at the carnival. And that's a whole nother story.

Tiffani Bova: But everything I learned about business. I also learned in sports. I played sports from a really young age, I started to play competitive tennis at nine years old.

Tiffani Bova: So 910 1112 I was number one in the State of Hawaii for doubles tennis and I was in the top sort of five and in singles tennis.

Tiffani Bova: And then I sort of went on to play three or four sports through high school and and play sports.

Tiffani Bova: A sport in college and what it, what it taught me was it taught me about dedication. It taught me about practice it taught me about winning with humility and losing with my head held high. It's taught me how to be coached

Tiffani Bova: It taught me. You know how to work in teams because I learned very early that I didn't like individual sports. I actually like team sports better

Tiffani Bova: Than individual sports because I like the collaboration.

Tiffani Bova: And and just the whole feeling of winning together. And that was a natural segue for me to get into selling

Tiffani Bova: You know, sales is very, very competitive and it was a way for me to stay competitive in my professional life, when I really enjoyed competition as a kid.

Tiffani Bova: And when I stopped selling, if you will, and carrying a quota and getting more into the advisory role and I didn't realize how much I missed competition.

Tiffani Bova: Like I missed the fight of going and, you know, trying to win and and then, you know, if you don't win because in selling you don't always win.

Tiffani Bova: And so you know it's it's been a fantastic journey. But I think that for me, it was absolutely all about sports and that came from a very, very young age.

Joel Goldberg: The practice element is so important. And that's one that resonates with every athlete, for sure. And to me, practice is in part about routine.

Joel Goldberg: Some of the best athletes that I watch on an everyday basis have these disciplined routines and they're all get a summer.

Joel Goldberg: By the minute, some are a little bit more loose. It could be based on personality, but how important in your world is routine repetition having that game plan but you so often see in sports.

Tiffani Bova: So I'm just going to pick on kind of being a keynote, that, you know, originally when I started speaking on stage, if you will. I you know I actually have a video of one of the first ones I did in a fairly good sized audience.

Tiffani Bova: And it was really bad. I think I was probably harder on myself.

Tiffani Bova: Than anybody in the audience might have noticed, but I made a commitment to myself that I was going to be better, which then, men. I had to practice, but I also needed to like learn how to do it and I'm a, I'm a visual listen learner.

Tiffani Bova: I'm not a read learner. And so what to do. I watched people who I enjoyed speak and I did two things I would listen to them and not watch them.

Tiffani Bova: And I would watch them and not listen. And so I would watch body language like, were they very fussy with their jacket or their hair or their microphone or whatever. So I'm watching Do They pace and then I would listen

Tiffani Bova: What's the cadence in their voice Do when do they make the inflection.

Tiffani Bova: Do they use a hand gesture when they're saying certain things like how you're going to tell a story in a very flat medium like a podcast. How do you get people excited, like, you know,

Tiffani Bova: So I, I did those two things, and I would watch people like someone like a Barack Obama or Martin Luther King or I would watch somebody like at Arianna Huffington or a Dan Pink or a Seth Godin like I would watch people

Tiffani Bova: And, you know, even now from a sports perspective I picked up golf to stay competitive, even though I'm not playing you know any other sports at the moment and I watch

Tiffani Bova: Them play golf, you know, players play golf, like Phil Mickelson short game. How does he hold his feet, his hands and what like that's the way I learned. And so I just practice, practice, practice.

Tiffani Bova: And over time, I got better. Now the repetition is giving two or three keynotes and consistently giving it. People will say, Wow, you're so confident on stage, you never say um

Tiffani Bova: You don't lose your place in what you're trying to say, are you reading a script. No.

Tiffani Bova: And I don't say I'm because I am very comfortable and confident in the content on delivering which only comes from practice right

Tiffani Bova: And so I sometimes will say things and people will be like, it's incredible that you're not reading a script, because you are nail the same points all the time. And that just comes from practice.

Tiffani Bova: Even something going back to baseball. Right. Are you going to, you know, swing the bat two or three times, pick your foot up three times, touch your nose adjust your shirt and then get behind the plate.

Tiffani Bova: Like that routine. And so when I'm behind stage I have sort of get my get ready routine and that helps me get my mindset in place. And so I think no matter what it is that those things are really important to success. People who are successful at whatever they do.

Joel Goldberg: And repetition is huge. I so often get asked, do you get nervous when you get on camera, and my responses. Do you get nervous when you go into work.

Joel Goldberg: Maybe every now and then. For some, you know, massive, massive meeting with everything on the line, but

Joel Goldberg: This is what I do every day. And I've done it every day for 25 years so I better not be nervous at this point.

Joel Goldberg: Occasionally, you know, all hell breaks loose or something's going on. And there's last minute something, but at the same time, because of the practice of having done that, and been in any type of situation. I just sort of rely on those instincts.

Joel Goldberg: And I find that the more items there are, and I'm guilty of that, the less comfortable. I am the less preparation. There's been so I totally get what you're saying and just observing right and adding all that to your toolbox of and finding out what what works for you.

Tiffani Bova: Yeah, I'd say that I am I am comfortable and confident in my capability, but I still do get nervous before I get on stage, even though I've given five or 600 candidates. At this point, you know, in front of hundreds of thousands of people

Tiffani Bova: But let me tell you, when I get nervous about I get nervous about this that we can make more money, but we can never make more time.

Tiffani Bova: And so my my nerves come from the will someone get up from spending 20 3045 minutes or an hour with me or even listen to a podcast like this and feel like that was a waste of my time.

Tiffani Bova: Or I got no value or it was really boring.

Tiffani Bova: So my nerves come from. I have an expectation that I'm not going to make everybody happy, you know, in that audience that they're going to feel like that was amazing.

Tiffani Bova: But if I can get the majority to feel that way, then I've done my job. So I'm always nervous about will I meet the expectations of the people in the audience.

Tiffani Bova: And, you know, will they feel like it was not a waste of their time. And so for me, that's what that's that keeps me on my toes.

Tiffani Bova: And that keeps me always in that performance mentality, because it's like, look, if I go up there and I'm flat and it feels routine and I'm not very excited or passionate about it.

Tiffani Bova: They will know it in a heartbeat, then they don't have a good experience then they leave and go oh yeah

Tiffani Bova: I, I heard that woman Tiffany Bova speech. She's not very good. Like why would I listen to a podcast or

Tiffani Bova: I heard her speak a year ago. She's at another event. I'm not going to attend her event. I'm going to go, you know, have coffee with a friend. During that time, because she wasn't very good. And so you never know.

Tiffani Bova: You know what's going to happen it small audience of 10 people

Tiffani Bova: You know, I've given a presentation in front of 10 people my largest audience was 16,000 live in the round at the Verizon Center in Washington, DC.

Tiffani Bova: And I'm equally nervous right because 16,000 thankfully I could not see them because the lights are so bright.

Tiffani Bova: And in the round. I'm walking around, I can't see them anyway. They are far enough away from me.

Tiffani Bova: But if I'm not nervous with the 10 people. You never know who's in the audience with the 10 they may be going. We have another event for you. And we want you in front of

Tiffani Bova: Another 10,000 people. Right. And so that's what makes me nervous is more of that. I don't want people to feel that it was a waste of their time.

Joel Goldberg: I totally get that. And I was actually thinking, you know, as you're talking about it that part of my lack of nerves. Yes, it's repetition. I mean, there's no OH MY GOSH I'M ON TV.

Joel Goldberg: Been there, done that. There was a time

Joel Goldberg: But I also can't see my audience. And so there's just a comfort level of knowing. I just have to do what I have to do. And I can't see those reactions. I can't see that person getting up

Joel Goldberg: And leaving or switching the channel but you do get that more intimate that more intimate audience 10 2050

Joel Goldberg: And that person gets up in your mind starts saying, wait a minute, was a me. What did I do you know what could I have done differently. So I, I totally get that. So when you

Joel Goldberg: When you go around. This is what I want to talk about the present right now when you go around the world. When you were going around the world, or when you're speaking virtually

Joel Goldberg: What, what are your main topics and just talk a little bit more about that role with Salesforce global growth evangelist.

Tiffani Bova: So, you know, I'm blessed. I'm very, very lucky. I love my job. It's definitely a dream job they created the role for me to be able to advise and help our clients.

Tiffani Bova: overcome the challenges and making big digital transformations. So whether it's a small business, medium, or a global 50 or global one company, you know, talking about

Tiffani Bova: How can they leverage technology and new ways to really not only empower their people, but engage with customers and really pivot into growth.

Tiffani Bova: And I wrote a book called growth IQ two years ago to really help businesses, think about growth and new in different ways and and this current situation that we're in.

Tiffani Bova: Has almost the entire globe and what I call a growth stall. And so how do we recover from a business perspective.

Tiffani Bova: And so, you know, whether you're a small business, whether you're professional team general manager, whatever you may be

Tiffani Bova: You know, at the end of the day, this is about delivering these compelling experiences from a product or service perspective.

Tiffani Bova: To get people to come back and buy more or come back and see you again. Or, you know, refer you to their friends or whatever the case might be. And so, you know, right now.

Tiffani Bova: The topics of conversation is really about how do I keep my doors open and conducting commerce and growing, you know, from a revenue standpoint.

Tiffani Bova: You know, while potentially my doors aren't open or my people are all working from home or I've had to let go of half my staff.

Tiffani Bova: I may never open back up my retail establishment, I may just stay in an e commerce world habits are changing. There's so many things from a business perspective, people are struggling with that. There's no shortage of conversation.

Tiffani Bova: On on on everyone really looking for advice on ways to be successful.

Tiffani Bova: And you know, I just say that there is no one answer there is no one way. The thing about growth is there is no one way that depending on what you're selling

Tiffani Bova: What your products and services are who your customers are the answer to that question will be very different, but

Tiffani Bova: I think more than anything. This is a time where business owners can reflect on what was working. Historically, and maybe what they never took the

Tiffani Bova: Time to change. And what can they change now to prepare themselves for 2021 22 and 23. This is not about preparing yourself for 2020

Tiffani Bova: That preparation should have happened three or four years ago.

Tiffani Bova: Unfortunately, but now it's like, how are you going to prepare yourself Joel to sort of what you were saying, we may never go back to the way that it was, it's going to be a hybrid between the way we are now.

Tiffani Bova: And the way that it was and and that will take advantage of all these new things, we're now learning

Tiffani Bova: And so if you're not making those investments and hard decisions. And if you're not feeling uncomfortable about the decisions you're making right now. You're not sort of thinking big enough because you should feel really uncomfortable.

Joel Goldberg: So it's it's planning for as you talked about the next future what you're doing today may very well impact the next future

Tiffani Bova: Absolutely. And, and, you know, listen, you know, I use restaurants often so for for restaurants. If you didn't have your menu up on the

Tiffani Bova: Online. If you didn't already have grub hub and Uber eats setup to deliver if you didn't know who your customers were so you could send them an email and let them know you're open for delivery and curbside pickup. What do you do

Tiffani Bova: As a restaurant owner as a small business owner, if you didn't have e commerce. If you didn't have a way to communicate with your customers.

Tiffani Bova: Lots of things as I just said had to have been in place before this happened, but now it's this acceleration of transformation. Now that many businesses are face to do

Tiffani Bova: Which is get myself online get myself engaged on e commerce, you know, join communities, whether it's selling on Amazon, or, you know, Uber eats or grub hub.

Tiffani Bova: Whatever it might be, depending on what industry you're in, it's how do you stay connected to your customers because you want to keep serving them you want them to keep buying

Tiffani Bova: But the and the other end of the spectrum businesses do two things that make stuff they sell stuff.

Tiffani Bova: You know in your world. It's they make a sporting event they sell the seats.

Tiffani Bova: Right. And so that's what they do. And so the goal is sell the seats sell memorabilia sell t shirts sell hats, like, you know, it's all on the swag. It's much more profitable.

Tiffani Bova: All of that stuff. It's how do you keep doing it, if no one's going to games like it's, it's, what do you, what are you doing, and I remember when

Tiffani Bova: You know, many, many, many big media companies where we will never put our properties, you know, Warner Brothers Disney etc will never put that online. Our catalogs online will never stream sports on a cell phone will never do that. You know I pitched an idea in

Tiffani Bova: Literally

Tiffani Bova: To accompany to catalog. The all the super bowl games and like the best sporting events.

Tiffani Bova: So that you know people like in my generation, I'm 54 could sit with their kids or their grandkids and say you have to watch this game.

Tiffani Bova: But there was no way to watch the game and in 2001 everyone looked at me like, What are you talking about, like, you want to create this catalogue of games.

Tiffani Bova: Be too complicated to go get the licensing from everybody. But my thought was that if you want to sit down and tell somebody like oh this World Series like this home run like this seventh game.

Tiffani Bova: Bottom of the ninth like this strikeout was it and then you want to go see it.

Tiffani Bova: There was no way to do it. And so it was a matter of thinking differently. And it's been 20 years that we've now come to this place where you pretty much can go see those

Tiffani Bova: For all for all intents purposes, most of them anyway. Right. You can go see those games if if it's out there. And so that's really about

Tiffani Bova: Intellectual property and licensing coming with new thinking and saying, but it's about getting it out to more people. We have can't be as closed off as we used to be.

Joel Goldberg: There's something to be said about being nimble and the pivot which which is more so true now than ever. During this pandemic, but

Joel Goldberg: We've got to be and not everything needs to be a baseball term, by the way, but I tend to go back there, a lot. You've got to be able to hit the curveball, and nothing ever goes nothing but the things you know this being onstage. Two things usually don't go exactly as planned.

Tiffani Bova: No, and I would say this, that

Tiffani Bova: Listen to in the US during the Great Recession that we had about a decade ago or so and 10 companies came out of that recession from a necessity.

Tiffani Bova: And now, most of those companies that came out of that last recession are keeping us afloat. At this point, you know, it might be the

Tiffani Bova: Video conferencing tools you're using could be the collaboration tools you're using could be Dropbox or box could be Instagram and Facebook like a lot of things.

Tiffani Bova: Popped up during the last session and so

Tiffani Bova: The thinking now is if you're listening to this and you're in an industry and you're struggling. What is missing from your industry today that's been highlighted something like the supply chain or something like getting, you know, food.

Tiffani Bova: instead of throwing away millions of pounds of potatoes, which actually has happened.

Tiffani Bova: How do I get those potatoes to the hungry. Like, how do we create that kind of platform to do that during times when a supply chain is impacted. It's a great business idea and so

Tiffani Bova: Taking this time now to think about what could I slightly pivot and change in my existing business. And the way I'm doing it.

Tiffani Bova: To fill the need that's now been identified, because to our conversation as far. We don't think it's going to go back to the way that it was completely and so

Tiffani Bova: You know, at the sort of inventions that necessity at this time. And so what can be invented today to help us prepare for something that might happen the next curveball, that shows up, you'll be more prepared. Now, you know, then, then we are now.

Joel Goldberg: Yeah, and I think the message is that men, if we think or hope.

Joel Goldberg: That this is a once in a generation or once in a lifetime pandemic. That doesn't mean there won't be something else. You talked about the recession, maybe that wasn't

Joel Goldberg: A crisis of health, but it was a crisis. So there will be more and you've got to be able to make that pivot. One more question before I get to my baseball themed questions and

Joel Goldberg: You see the so much to being on stage and you know a lot of speakers that are likely this that audiences sometimes wonder are they real

Joel Goldberg: Are they not especially in a crowd of 10,000 15,000 I get that all the time on TV. And I just want to tell people

Joel Goldberg: You know, I, I'm just the guy that has kids who think their dad is

Joel Goldberg: Weird in a dork. And I'm somebody neighbor and I like to hang out. I'm just a normal guy. Now you know as well as I do that not everybody onstage. Not everybody on TV, Israel, but

Joel Goldberg: I'm constantly reminded that being authentic and being yourself that is pandemic proof that is something that will always stand the test of time. So I'm just curious your take on on authenticity and being yourself.

Tiffani Bova: Oh, I'm a, I'm a firm believer in it. Right. I mean, I think that people can sense out when you're not being authentic or you're trying to put an arrow about you, right, and

Tiffani Bova: I think this point in time, the empathy meter is at an all time high, like I said, a little bit ago about asking how you are but you know even paying attention and reaching out to people.

Tiffani Bova: And just sort of thanking people for spending time. And hey, you know, you could be doing a lot of other things right now with everything going on, appreciate you spending time with

Tiffani Bova: With me, and with us and listening to this podcast and you know maybe going and listening to my podcast or getting my book. And if you say those things.

Tiffani Bova: in an authentic way. I think it really resonates with people I think trust and transparency is really key. I think trust is the is the backbone of

Tiffani Bova: The currency of business today, more so than ever because of all the things we're dealing with on a social issue standpoint.

Tiffani Bova: And, you know, going back to what you just said the pandemic once in 100 years

Tiffani Bova: Our recession was very kind of US centric and it was very focused on the housing and mortgage market.

Tiffani Bova: And so, you know, there will always be these curveballs that may happen if you're doing business in another country or in a particular industry or because of a natural disaster, whatever it might be. And so

Tiffani Bova: I think that you have to show up and talk about what's your brand's values. During this time, and you have to walk the walk.

Tiffani Bova: And I think if people don't believe you. In that communication. They just turn to now to whatever it is that you have to say they don't feel like they connect with you on any level and it's not going to be something that they will

Tiffani Bova: Want to go back and listen to, again, or even listen to you in another environment.

Joel Goldberg: couldn't agree with you more. Okay, let's get to the baseball theme.

Joel Goldberg: Trash Jin's you're an athlete, but you don't have to be, but I like to add that one in. Because clearly, you've got some skills and have since you're a kid, but Professionally speaking. What's the biggest home run the fit.

Tiffani Bova: So I created a bucket list for myself and a vision board about. Okay, so now it's been

Tiffani Bova: Maybe seven years ago. So I put on the vision board publish a book. So I did that. Right. Hopefully, it gets to Wall Street Journal bestseller that happened.

Tiffani Bova: I made it to the Thinker's 50 list that happened and I also pick like who I wanted my agent to be my publisher and my publicist that happened.

Tiffani Bova: And landed this job at Salesforce. So I almost say that vision board was in in collection. My biggest home run right because I really

Tiffani Bova: focused in on what I wanted to achieve. It was very much a goal of mine, and then it was just work the process work the process repetition. Keep going. Keep trying. Fail learn stand up dust yourself off and keep going. So I'd say the book.

Tiffani Bova: And the Thinker's 50 were probably the two biggest for me from a career standpoint.

Joel Goldberg: And again, the book is growth IQ. It was named a Wall Street Journal bestseller, one of the top five leadership and strategy books in 2018 third most sold in 2019 by 800 CEO.

Joel Goldberg: Read so you accomplish that. How about a swing and a miss. Here's the thing, when you when you have to when you get knocked down and you dust yourself off.

Joel Goldberg: There are a lot of swings and misses anybody that says they don't have a swing and miss is crazy. So to me it's what's the swing and miss but also equally important, what did you learn from it.

Tiffani Bova: Yeah, it's so being in sales for 15 years literally carrying a bag and carrying a quota. There was a lot of Mrs.

Tiffani Bova: Right. Because I mean, right. It's like you swing 10 times if you hit two, don't you know you get to bait that's

Tiffani Bova: You know very much the baseball analogy. Right. It's about the base hits all the time because the home runs. Don't come as often.

Tiffani Bova: And the base, sort of, you know, getting debases is is how you kind of pay the bills the home runs are the sort of icing on the cake.

Tiffani Bova: But you got to swing a lot of times to get those home runs. And so from a selling perspective, it's all the deals that I lost and which are probably thousands

Tiffani Bova: And and then the deals that I won, but when I lost it was I would do a look back, I would get the team together and go, Why do you especially on the big deals. Why do you think we lost

Tiffani Bova: Where did we get beat and sometimes I'd go back to the customer and go, Look, I'm not trying to win the business away from your decision. I want to understand why we didn't win.

Tiffani Bova: And you have to be willing to ask those questions and then listen to the answers. And then you have to be willing to adjust. Going back to what we're talking about, about practicing. It's like watching yourself on film.

Tiffani Bova: Watching yourself, take a swing watching yourself on curveballs like you can't just say I'm not good at it, because then the picture is always going to throw the curveball, when you get up to the plate and they're going to know it.

Tiffani Bova: And so, you know, you gotta say I have to overcome that it may not be my favorite pitch, but I can't just always strike out in the curveball otherwise I've totally given my tell so you know it. I think that ultimately with every miss

Tiffani Bova: If you're willing to ask the hard questions and be introspective, but more importantly it's more about what other people can tell you about your Miss than what you can tell yourself about your Miss because

Tiffani Bova: You have a very different view of what actually happened. And so that's where coaches are really important. And if you're in business and you're not playing sports.

Tiffani Bova: And you don't have a business coach or you don't have a personal coach. Those are really good to help shine the light on the areas you need to work on.

Joel Goldberg: And I've come to learn that recently myself, but it was funny right as I was getting close to hiring. My first business coach. I was interviewing a major CEO, and I asked him that

Joel Goldberg: The question about biggest home run. And he said, his biggest home one of his career was when he hooked up with his business coach and took that jumping

Joel Goldberg: And I thought, Boy, this must be assigned because I'm like on the fence. Any day now ready to pull the trigger and as soon as I heard that I did it. And it was such a good

Joel Goldberg: Good decision. It's so it's so hard to to look in the mirror. It's so much easier to look at someone else and then so

Joel Goldberg: What you're saying really resonates with me last baseball team question small ball. What are the little things you touched on them throughout this this episode. What are the singles in the bunch. The small ball aspects that lead to the big things the home runs.

Tiffani Bova: Yeah why I like God is because I think you know I use this term often sort of swinging for the fences, like if you're always swinging for the home run like it's exhausting.

Tiffani Bova: Right, and it's it's a lot of highs and a lot of lows versus saying, hold on. How do I get smarter very Moneyball right like how do I get smarter about winning

Tiffani Bova: And building a team around me that highlights the strengths that they have fills in the gaps that I don't have. And that's how you create a winning team.

Tiffani Bova: It's like you don't want all high performing sellers on one team because that doesn't put the right sort of culture together. And so, you know, you have workhorses or the base hitters right and then you have your home run hitters. And so, you know, I would say that

Tiffani Bova: It's choosing small little things along the way that you need to work on versus trying to work on hitting a home run all the time.

Tiffani Bova: And so I'm going to go back to what we've been talking about, right, if I were to say, I need to get better at creating content. How I speak onstage how I engage the audience how I like all at one time. It's overwhelming.

Tiffani Bova: Where if I just started one at a time where I said, Okay, I'm going to nail the content, then I need to learn the content. And then once I learned the content. Now I need to find the stories to fill in the content. And so these one little pivots at a time.

Tiffani Bova: And it's a combination of a lot of things. It's never just one thing. It's the combination of a lot of things. It's preparation. It's practice its content.

Tiffani Bova: It's in your own personality. It's in your willingness to, you know, ask for assistance and help. And so my my one thing would be on those

Tiffani Bova: On those base hits, or those small balls is making sure that you are paying attention to the little things. Because if you're only paying attention to the big things, then it's the little things that will catch you. So

Tiffani Bova: That's why asking people for feedback is a great way to pay attention to the little things, you're not aware of.

Tiffani Bova: And then you have to be willing to action on it.

Joel Goldberg: You gotta be willing to listen. Not take it personally. And, and, as you said,

Joel Goldberg: Act on it okay for final questions as we run the bases. These are quick, you don't know them. I didn't know them until we started

Joel Goldberg: But the pictures become more clear to me know I had one that we discussed in advance that I'll go to in a minute. But you mentioned you mentioned the carnival. So tell me about the significance of the Carnival.

Tiffani Bova: So my, my best friends, family owned indoor arcades and actually a carnival in Hawaii. And so at a very young age, sort of 15 through like 22 or 23 I worked. I was a carny and I ran the game so like the darts to hit the balloons, the blackout velvet posters and

Tiffani Bova: You know the coke rings and all that, but what it taught me at a very young age was everything I needed to know about business right promotions, getting people to come play the game.

Tiffani Bova: Hiring. It was a new staff every weekend you know every two and a half days you were breaking down and setting up Being in Hawaii, the supply chain was you were boating teddy bears in if something happened to the container a teddy bears, you're going to have a lot of upset eight 910 year olds. Right.

Tiffani Bova: And so how do you do what plus. Do you use on the teddy bear. What's the cost for goods, how much is each game. What's the, I mean, all that stuff and so

Tiffani Bova: Her mom really was. She was a one of the first female presidents of why PO young presidents organization.

Tiffani Bova: So my like my role model in business was someone who was knocking it out of the park. And I was like, when I grew up. I want to be just like her. And so I often joke that when I take business classes in college, which I didn't do very well in

Tiffani Bova: It a lot of it had to do with the fact that I felt like I had these hands on lessons and there's nothing like actually doing to learn

Tiffani Bova: Versus reading to learn. Like I would rather have a surgeon operating on me that has actually done it before. Then just read it in a book. So you know that's that's kind of how I felt.

Joel Goldberg: I think that's very fair and I would agree. I think most people would agree with that. In terms of the surgeon. Okay, second question, I don't get to ask this to a lot of my guests as we round the basis, there is a babe ruth connection to your family. Tell me about that.

Tiffani Bova: Oh, yeah. So my grandfather, who was just the apple of my eye my entire childhood until he passed when I was right before

Tiffani Bova: He lived in Boston. He went to Holy Cross college and one of his classmates was Babe Ruth.

Tiffani Bova: And so he played ball with them and watch them go to and he ended up playing in the minors and Babe Ruth obviously went on. And so when my grandfather passed. Well, when I was a little kid. He said, You have to play T ball.

Tiffani Bova: I was like, six and seven. And of course, back then, girls didn't have T ball teams so I played on the boys T ball team. But, you know, after about the first season. All the boys wanted me on their team because I actually could play a little baseball

Tiffani Bova: And I think that that was because he started playing with me at such a young age. Right. And so then I played softball in high school and you know that all that but

Tiffani Bova: When he when he passed away. We were cleaning out of stuff. And there was a signed baseball of Babe Ruth and unfortunately it was not preserved in such a

Tiffani Bova: Fashion that I could now, you know, keep it and do anything with it, even just display it because it had been eaten by bugs certain the first layer of the baseball. So there's just the tail end of his autograph unfortunately that's that's the, that's the story.

Joel Goldberg: I'd make the story better and talk about a killer dog and The Sandlot

Joel Goldberg: And something

Tiffani Bova: Movies You know, he just didn't he just didn't think anything of it. Right. And if you

Tiffani Bova: think anything of it. And then by the time I was old enough to understand the value of it. You know, it was long. It was long destroyed by that point.

Joel Goldberg: Third question, as we round the basis you did reference your, your podcast. What's next ranked one of the top 50 business marketing and management podcasts on iTunes.

Joel Goldberg: I know when we talked a while back, you were you're talking about your love of

Joel Goldberg: Seth Godin among many others. And I think that you had Seth on that podcast, among many other amazing names if you had a favorite guests. I hate that question because people ask you to me. And it's like, Oh, do I have to pick one. But I'm going to ask it anyway.

Tiffani Bova: Oh, that that's a, that's a tough one because that's a tough one because, uh, you know, each guest brought me something really unique. The reason I started the podcast was because I was having these amazing conversations

Tiffani Bova: With these super fascinating and interesting people. When I was on the road. And I felt very selfish about the conversations that I wanted to share them.

Tiffani Bova: And so anybody from a Arianna Huffington to a Dan paint with Tom Peters who my very first business book I ever read. Read was in search of excellence.

Tiffani Bova: Written by co authored by Tom Peters. Fast forward literally like 35 years. Sure enough he gave me a

Tiffani Bova: endorsement for my book I've had him on my podcast, like it's a full circle moment right. That's one of those like what are those things. You remember right at the end of the day and and so

Tiffani Bova: Recently I had two guests on that really moved me. You know, I think we're in this interesting time in in in the world where we're talking about social justice.

Tiffani Bova: And I realized I hadn't had many African Americans or, you know, any people of color on my podcast total Miss on my part.

Tiffani Bova: Probably. I don't know. You know, I don't think it was a conscious decision really by any stretch

Tiffani Bova: And so I really wanted to find who could I have on and I read this amazing article about these hidden figures in black management thinking from the early 1900s and who was really

Tiffani Bova: Amazing entrepreneurs and you know like the story of

Tiffani Bova: Avon, or you know where they come and knock on doors and as multi level marketing and that that came from two black women in the early 1930s.

Tiffani Bova: And I knew none of this sort of history. So I had them on recently and it was one of those conversations that was long overdue for me and I was so inspired I turn them on to the Thinker's 50 list. We're doing a Hall of Fame post, you know,

Tiffani Bova: To somebody who was back in the 30s, who was really the kind of grandfather, if you will, of black management thinking that had been overlooked in business management books and colleges and schools around the world. And so they're really working hard to change that. And so

Tiffani Bova: I use the platform as a way to continue that conversation. So I feel like that's really special to me from a timing perspective and long overdue to to do something like that. I mean, I'd say right now that that really was one that sticks out in my mind.

Joel Goldberg: The late owner of the Kansas City Royals David glass, who passed in January. He had sold the team last fall and we didn't expect that we would lose him, former CEO of Walmart.

Joel Goldberg: When he found out that I was going into the speaking business and all that he pulled me aside and

Joel Goldberg: Said, I want to help you. I want to talk to you about different things. I remember the last day of the season. A couple years ago he pulled me into the coaches LOCKER ROOM. I'M NOT SUPPOSED TO BE THE COACHES locker room before a game.

Joel Goldberg: None of the coaches question that because the owner of the baseball team was sitting there having a chat with me and he he handed me one of his copies of in search of excellence.

Joel Goldberg: And said, You know, I used to have Tom Peters come out all the time and speak at Walmart speak to our people, you need to read this book so

Joel Goldberg: You just just hearing you say that brought back, you know, warm feeling of a man that I was so fond of during, during all my time around him in Kansas City. So I just want to throw that in there. Final question as we round the bases. You've spoken all over the world.

Joel Goldberg: Massive audiences favorite location that you you've spoken up

Tiffani Bova: So Iceland was really fun.

Tiffani Bova: Like that, that rounded out my six continents, kind of a thing. Right. So Iceland was like, you know, you sort of go, who Iceland. Okay. And so, when will I ever be back. So I spent three days, you know, sort of sightseeing through Iceland and then got

Tiffani Bova: To speak at an event and the President of Iceland introduced me which that was kind of cool. And so I'd say Iceland was the most unique and then South Africa and the complete other side

Tiffani Bova: And that I went on my first Safari. So, you know, I've always said, if I if I'm in some place in the world. I've never been. I'd like to try to book end a day or two to see the country or see something I had not seen before.

Tiffani Bova: That gets a little hard, because otherwise I'd never be home, but now I'm getting into, you know, going back multiple times to similar places, but those two we're

Tiffani Bova: We're, we're def, you know, they were the South Africa was a very long flight. You know, it was all the way to London from Los Angeles and then it was in London for a couple of hours and then another 12 hours to South Africa. But fantastic and so those would be the two that I've really enjoyed

 

Joel Goldberg: Such amazing experiences from South Africa to Iceland to a ball with the tail end of a babe ruth signature on it.

Joel Goldberg: To working as a corny as a child and much, much more. Tiffany Bova is the global growth evangelist for Salesforce.

Joel Goldberg: Author of growth IQ get smarter about the choices that will make or break your business highly encourage everybody

Joel Goldberg: To purchase that and to check out the podcast, what's next, what's next podcast.

Joel Goldberg: which you can find on iTunes and everywhere else that people I don't need to explain for people to people how to find those podcasts. I think we all know how to do that these days, Tiffany. Thanks so much for spending the time this was awesome.

Tiffani Bova: Thanks, Joe. Thanks for having me.

Joel Goldberg: Tonight, that has been Tiffani Bova. My name is Joel Goldberg. You can reach me at Joel Goldberg media.com and hope to catch you next time on rounding the bases

Rounding the Bases with Joel Goldberg Podcast was created to share the stories of men and women in business and entrepreneurship that are both well knowing and or hidden gems. Joel believes that everyone has a story and their story matters which is why Joel is eager to connect with individuals that are bringing value to their community through innovation, leadership, entrepreneurial journeys, and developing company culture. If you would like to be a guest on Joel's podcast please email us at joel@joelgoldbergmedia.com.