Longtime journalist and former Terps gymnast Bonnie Bernstein joins Nestor to discuss the inspiration behind hew new sports leadership podcast and the powerful women who have used their sports experiences to build teams of influence in the business world after their playing days.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
maryland, play, sports, athletes, scholarship, game, people, girls, women, bernstein, talk, gymnast, gymnastics, learned, lamar, jersey, life, espn, single, wrestling
SPEAKERS
Bonnie Bernstein, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome back W and S T tasks Baltimore and Baltimore positive still broadcasting High Definition am radio am 1570 Everybody checking us out we’re gonna be doing the Maryland crab cake tour beginning next week and a lot of things going on with opening day. Maryland lottery has me giving away the old school 50th anniversary it’s a scratch off just like the 70s all over again. I hope oral baseballs like the 70s It’ll be good again. And winter nation our friends at 866 90 nation gonna be joining us first off we’re gonna be at the Hollywood casino at the Barstool Sports book for the Orioles opener on Thursday in the next week. The crab cake tours rock and we’re going to be cost this which is why I’m wearing the cost of shirt 50th anniversary. That’s on Wednesday to kick off opening day and then big dudes around here the boss in town on Friday, opening the new CFG Bank Arena. And then the eagles on Saturday we’re gonna be out of fade Lee’s eaten some legit crabcakes downtown might be our last time at the old Lexington market. So it’s going to be good doings around here. This guest is one of my favorite humans and she knows that old schooler she uttered amongst other things she used to be like I’d say she’s jersey, after what Springsteen and the Smithereens and Bon Jovi have done since we were teenagers, Barney Bernstein, jerseys, all right, with the Maryland people, we’re all in it together. How are you doing? It’s so good to see you.
Bonnie Bernstein 01:21
I’m doing great NAS it’s great to see you as well. And congratulations on the blooming of the podcast and all the things you are doing as a full fledged entrepreneur by friend.
Nestor Aparicio 01:33
Well, this is where you come in, I remember was velvet velvet hammer, right? You were mentoring young people. All I did here is hire young people you could put on my competitor, the fan. I hired them all. So like, like literally giving people a start and opening something new. And everybody remembers you. I have pictures for you and me at the 9095 World Series in the snow. Jacobs field. You know what I mean? So like, and then, but that’s not forever. And it was fun. I had a flip phone and you got a gig and your hair was done. And you’re an ESP like, but you think at that point, maybe I’ll be doing this 30 years later. But then things come and go and opportunities. You’re doing something now that I know is like a real passion project and a place in your life where I think you really have something to say about the space.
Bonnie Bernstein 02:20
Yeah, well, thank you NASA. It’s interesting, because there still people who I get hit on Twitter. Oh, when are we going to see you on CBS or ESPN? Again, I think once you’ve been on a platform, people think you’re there forever. And I loved every single second of that. But even when I was broadcasting at the highest level, I think I realized that I had an entrepreneurial itch that I needed to scratch. And it really played so much into my ability to bring all of the creative ideas that I wanted to bring to life actually bring them to life, which the reality is when you’re in the thick of that big corporate ecosystem as talent, I’ll use an air quotes. It’s hard to get a lot of those creative ideas across the table. And so you mentioned velvet hammer media, that was my first company that’s more on the consulting side, the mentoring side working with brands and helping them build their storytelling. But walk swiftly Productions is actually the production company that helped bring the podcast that you’ve been kind enough to love you come on here and talk about to life. And that’s called she got game inspiring women inspired by sports. And it’s really, I would say a unique celebration of the 50th anniversary of Title Nine, and that we showcase 10 Women who are celebrities and industry leaders and world class athletes and what they all have in common. Their common bond is that they played sports growing up and they talk about how all of the life skills they learned as athletes has helped how they parlayed that into professional success. And that’s the really cool through line for the podcast.
Nestor Aparicio 04:01
Well, you know, I guess 50 years ago when you know, we’re just Andrea Kirby was on the air here in Baltimore. When I think of journalists having a platform other than I guess, gymnasts, the Nadia Coleman each and, and women’s tennis players, we just don’t count repins foundation on her Billie Jean King here the other day. I mean, literally 48 hours ago she’s so these legendary people, but they were you know, for if you’re a young lady who may want to be in a gymnast and New Jersey to maybe get a scholarship or, you know, wherever that was for you on your trail to look and say who are the people that are leaders but then what happens? When their ESPN, CBS moments over when they’re not an athlete anymore, what they wind up doing with their lives and the wisdom that’s brought along the way you know, in every way as being a journalist where we had inside, we can ask questions with people and learn things to be able to distill that knowledge and that wisdom down for people and to say it in a in a cogent way. It’s just something I’m very drawn to that I like learn.
Bonnie Bernstein 05:07
Thank you. It’s, it’s a really cool type of conversation. And what I love about she got game is that it’s actually research based. So several years ago Ernst and Young and ESPN W did a study. And one of the most fascinating findings that came out of that study was that 94% of women in this country who were in the C suite, so your CEOs, your CFOs, your CEOs, the highest of the high when it comes to senior leadership, they were all athletes growing up, and they draw these the distinction about what they learned, the leadership, the teamwork, the resilience, the accountability, the time management, everything we learned as athletes that we never talked about when we’re athletes, right, like, talk to a young girl and ask her why she’s playing sports. It’s not like, oh, I want to learn how to be a great leader and be accountable. So I can use those life skills to be successful in sports. We’re not having those conversations, but they’re really important conversations to have. And here’s why. We’ve talked ad nauseam. And for all of the great reasons about how Title Nine has opened up myriad doors for girls and women in sports. What we don’t talk about enough is that despite the incredible congra the the incredible progress that we’ve made, girls was still leaving sports at a higher frequency and an earlier age than boys know, why isn’t there are lots of reasons maybe it’s they’re not able to get a scholarship, they’re not able to play professionally. Maybe they’re going through puberty and their bodies change and playing sports doesn’t feel the same. Maybe they’re being bullied. There’s also still Nestor the fact that there’s a stigma. And we don’t realize this so much on the coast. But in many areas of America, there’s a stigma against girls playing sports, you’re going to look to masculine boys weren’t like you and so these
Nestor Aparicio 07:00
are shoulder piece, by the way on the girls wrestling in Michigan, I believe it was. And you know that wrestling for females and I wrestled when I was in high school, it like just never happened. You know, and I recently saw someone I think we both have a fondness for Suzy Kolber these videos on earth of her playing football as a young girl. And, you know, and how outrageous it was that you know, she would play football. And I don’t think, look, I’m gonna, you know, I’m in a big city, right? You’re, it’s like you said, it’s come here, it came here a generation ago or like that, to some degree, maybe somewhere over the hill. They don’t accept that. But I would still say there were places where these breakthrough threat things are very, very, not just controversial, but just, there’s such a fight against allowing you to do what you want to
Bonnie Bernstein 07:48
do. It is so true. And I come from a state of New Jersey where wrestling is king. And now it’s becoming queen, and more and more girls are wrestling in the state of New Jersey and it’s really cool to see.
Nestor Aparicio 07:59
But is that costing the gymnastics program?
Bonnie Bernstein 08:03
Not gymnastics program is
Nestor Aparicio 08:05
that lacrosse baseball problem here. You know, you can’t play it. Right? Yes,
Bonnie Bernstein 08:09
yeah. Well, the funny thing is lacrosse and field hockey are so popular in New Jersey. But when I was getting recruited in Maryland, and I went down and I saw these dudes running around with long sticks with little nets on the top, I had no idea what that was. But you know, getting back to the conversation. What she got game empowers girl, dads everywhere and girl moms everywhere to do is construct a different type of conversation with their daughters about the power of sports like yes, we all play because we want to win. And the championship is the goal or the gold medal is a goal or whatever it is. But playing sports is about so much more than what you’re actually doing and achieving on the field. And so we have guests like Chelsea Clinton and actresses Aisha Tyler and Philip K. Oh, boy, yay goo. We know them for what they’re doing in Hollywood. And we didn’t realize they played sports. But sports has been a really powerful part of their journey. We interview women like Laila Ali, one of the all time greatest female boxers and Shaun Johnson, the Olympic gymnast, who everybody knows his athletes, but lots of people don’t know that they’ve leveraged what they’ve learned as athletes to become extraordinarily successful business women. And then we have the industry leaders like, you know, lots of folks in the Baltimore Washington area know who Sheila Johnson is. She’s the only woman to have ownership stakes and three pro sports teams in the wizards camps and mystics. Well, she played tennis growing up, and she broke the color barrier at the University of Illinois as the university’s first female black cheerleader. And she just talks about the intestinal fortitude and the spirit of competition that she learned is an athlete that she has been able to leverage to break barriers in sports in ownership that no woman has ever done. And so have, you know, I think this through line is every single one of them and me, we’ve all been through it. There have been times when we have felt like we are paddling upstream by ourselves and we are being told you’re not good enough. You shouldn’t you can’t You’re rocking the boat stay in your lane. Every single one of these women has been through that and they share those stories and how they’ve leveraged what they’ve learned as athletes to help them break barriers. And that’s why I just I think Ness it’s a different type of podcast than then we’re used to. Bonnie Bernstein
Nestor Aparicio 10:39
is the show’s creator and executive producer. This is what happens when I read from from the scripture of she got game, so yeah, let’s play a little game here. We’ll do on my first episode of He Got Game, body Bernstein is my guest. How did you get into that? I mean, I’ve known you a long time. And and I have a fun story about Super Bowl 35 not fun for you because you grew up giants and I was ravens but they funnel tape story. But listen, all the years I’ve known you and we’ve had fun and chatting in this and socially, I don’t really know like how you wound up in Maryland. I know you went to Maryland. I know you were gymnasts there I didn’t know you then I only knew you maybe 95. But give me the process of did you play soccer? Did you play softball Did you Did were you a ballet girl? What? What? What? What was a five year old Barney Bernstein that led you to where you were?
Bonnie Bernstein 11:30
Oh my gosh. So the five year old was was pretty much and everything first and foremost. I think my mom just needed to put me into something. Like, give me a place to expend my energy because I have a lot of energy as a kid and that was just like always bouncing off the walls. So I started doing acrobatics. When I was four I started playing soccer when I was five
Nestor Aparicio 11:50
like a cartwheel girl. The little
Bonnie Bernstein 11:54
somersaults all the things. Then I started doing gymnastics when I was seven Nadia Coleman each in the 76 Olympics was my inspiration.
12:03
So right off ball. Yeah, they made a soap opera after it. But yeah, there you go.
Bonnie Bernstein 12:09
And then in high school, I did track and field. So I ran 110 and 400 hurdles, I threw javelin, I threw shot but but gymnastics was the sport that I wound up pursuing in college. And interestingly enough, and as I was gonna go to George Washington, and it looked like I had a scholarship available, but then that fell through Maryland was the first recruit trip I went on, I love the coach and love the campus. By the time I went back to my coach, Bob Nelligan, he had already committed all of the scholarships. So he said, you know, walk on if you can find a way to make it work, and we’ll give you a scholarship the rest of the way. For those of our listeners and viewers who are diehard Maryland fans, you may remember 8889 is the year Bob Wade, our lovely basketball coach got nailed for all the NCAA recruiting violations, no
Nestor Aparicio 12:59
lights, no cameras, plenty of action. I remember the marketing campaign, Barney.
Bonnie Bernstein 13:04
Yeah, it was and but but part of the byproduct of that, in addition to having to give a chunk of change back to the NCAA, and the postseason ban, and all that sort of stuff, was that there was a scholarship freeze. And so I had blown out my new freshman year, there was a scholarship freeze. And so it was just, it was a bit of craziness. But ultimately, I wound up getting my scholarship my senior year. And the experience in Maryland, both as a gymnast and a student and everything that I learned in the journalism school that prepared me for life and network television. I wouldn’t have changed the journey for the world. It was just it was amazing in every single way.
Nestor Aparicio 13:43
But gymnastics so it wasn’t watching Yankees games, or I don’t even know what your passion was as a kid and
Bonnie Bernstein 13:48
was as a kid. Yeah. So as those were the sports I played as an athlete, as a fan. My parents were born and raised in Brooklyn. They were Dodgers fans when the Dodgers moved out west in the 50s. And the Mets came along they they adopted the Mets as their team. And so I was a diehard Mets fan, and a Giants fan. A sort of peripheral Knicks fan, honestly, like I really really didn’t get into basketball until I had the opportunity to start covering Michael Jordan and the bulls back during their second three period. I mean, I knew the game but wasn’t nearly as passionate about like lots of my friends who were diehard Knicks fan so it was predominantly baseball in football been I remember when the Mets won the World Series in 86 I had to watch nearly every single game I knew those guys inside and out you could pull the names off the back of their jerseys and I would have known by this Darryl Strawberry sweet swing or dot good was pitch on on pitches on the hit like I would have known every single one of them and that was pretty amazing season for the Mets
Nestor Aparicio 14:53
Why would do a whole hour he got game with you. That was just a little taste of you know, getting to know Barney Bernstein you know, I want to ask you because like, I always thought you were the greatest sports radio host. And you were always the when we did stuff together Mickey Mantle’s at different places when I was at I loved having you on and being a part of what I did and thought you were such a natural at talking to people and getting things out of them. And I don’t know the sideline reporter gig and I can cartoon it make it the coach, how did it make you feel? How did it feel to hit the winning shot, you know, like, whatever that is, I know you went to a different level and how you went about that work a long time ago. I think it’s been reined back in you know, hence my exit amongst others of asking difficult questions and having coaches burn up in real time on on people like you down in the field in the line of fire. But you know, I just think about all these years later talking to people in long form, this is like, this is where you’re supposed to be you know, and and I think learning more about these get Amy Trask is another person on your hit list here who I just I love having her on. And the more I have her on, the more I’m like, Man, the next time I have her on, I’m going to ask her about that. Are you still engaged to the level of like following the Lamar Athan, for instance,
Bonnie Bernstein 16:10
probably not as close as Raven fans are, but obviously I see what’s going on with Lamar. And I’ve always found it interesting that he decided not to have an agent and, and I see both sides of the coin, because I’ve gone through phases where I haven’t had an agent. And I think lumbars thing to a certain extent is there’s there’s no substitute for the personal relationships, whether it’s with Bushati or Harbaugh or whomever it is, I mean, Lamar has been fully invested in this team. But on the flip side, when you’re negotiating, negotiating, always gets hard. It always gets hard. And the benefit of having an agent is you have that middleman who can play the bad guy. So when an if and I know that Lamar is asked for a trade, but in the event, they’re able to figure it out, and he stays, you sign that contract to get on the field, no hard feelings. It wasn’t personal, it’s just business, but the person who is handling the business part, the really tough part with somebody other than you. So, you know, for Ravens fans, I really hope things get worked out. He is a gym. I’ve followed him since he was playing Louisville, and he’s a really special player and a special human. And yeah, I I just hope it all gets worked out.
Nestor Aparicio 17:28
So this inspiration and the entrepreneur side of this in the podcast side of this, what’s the next step? And in all of this, because you said a lot of production going into this second seasons, you know, for you in in focusing on this, what’s the next thing you’re doing? Because I don’t see you on ESPN. But I do see you tweeting about the Terps and Lady terms. You had a rough go a little earlier in the week. But I think that to some degree I see your chirped on that. Yeah, that’s never left you.
Bonnie Bernstein 17:55
Well, I Okay, for we just need to talk for a second about what a phenomenal job Brenda freezed it with the team this year because they lost, I think five of their top six scorers. There was an exodus of players. There was dissension among the ranks. We didn’t know if diamond Miller who’s like my Somerset jersey, homie. Gotta gotta shout out to my jersey girls. We weren’t sure I’ve done and Miller was going to stay or not. And so from there being zero expectations and all sorts of question marks to getting the Elite Eight. I mean, I shoot South Carolina’s 142 straight games 36 This season and they just you’re dealing with just massive women down on the low block and the fact that Maryland hung in there got to the Elite Eight and gave South Carolina and South Carolina a good run was just like a feat and of itself. But I would say arguably, this is Brenda’s most amazing coaching feat of all of the great things that she’s done at Maryland. So there’s
Nestor Aparicio 18:57
that there’s interest in the future then Hmm, oh, yeah.
Bonnie Bernstein 19:02
But you know, like in terms of the entrepreneurship pneus like I and you know, this too, you’ve already you’ve always got irons in the fire. You’re always pitching concepts you’re always putting together budgets, you’re you’re always talking to distribution platforms, potential sponsors. How are you going to bankroll these projects so there’s there are a lot of irons in the fire. I hope there will be a season two of Sheba game inspiring women inspired by sports audible seems to be thrilled with it. And for any of your listeners and viewers who are interested in checking it out, you can go to audible if you’re a subscriber and just search for she got gained if you are not a subscriber, you can still listen to all of the episodes for free get a 30 day free trial and the awesome thing is that all of our episodes are 20 to 30 minutes so they are as we call it in content land snackable but it’s it’s really inspiring stuff unless you said this right off the top. This is such a passion project for me because it’s personal, I would not have been able to achieve the success I have in the business at ESPN at CBS without the intestinal fortitude that I developed as a college athlete and just being able to embrace the teamwork that’s so critical to being able to make it in this industry.
Nestor Aparicio 20:20
Yeah, I love how you just like roll through. Like, if I were like having a meal with you, when we didn’t have to do this in 24 minutes, I would have to stop you when you said, I hurt myself. And then I can’t Yeah, and then senior year and I’m like, Hold on hurt yourself as a big deal as a guy has now been hurt with a bad back two years ago, at a knee thing back in oh six, I think of those experiences as being the worst times in my life. And it didn’t affect like my voice and what I did for a living, or my scholarship or my place in the world and my job like it does with every athlete I’ve ever seen who’s gotten injured or dinged as they would say, you know, you mentioned girls, young women quitting sports leaving. I have a cousin who was much like you played sort of a non revenue sport on the West Coast. She was a tennis player, Pac 10, played at Arizona, she was a stud she played with Dr. J’s daughter in San Diego, and all she did was hit balls, hit balls and balls. So with college, I don’t just pick a racket. I’m 20 years she threw her hip out hip surgery, you know, like all of those things that happen to football players that we see old injuries, I would think are some old gymnastics injuries for some old body burns knees and a million other people like you that quit. When you get hurt and say, Hold on here, you know, I’m not going to the Olympics. I’m not Nadia Coleman, I need to focus on my career, which you did a pretty good job of either way.
Bonnie Bernstein 21:39
Well, here’s what I’ll say. Every single woman that I interviewed for she got game, shared stories about falling down and getting back up. And it’s a really, it’s an important part of the messaging, I think, for she got game because I think societally, we’re conditioned to look at failure or injury as something that is bad or negative or destructive, or a personal indictment on us. And every single one of the women and she got gain experience failure. And rather than looking at failure as the end game, they view it as a critical step towards success. And it’s so important because if you can shift your mindset to embrace failure, appreciate failure, look at failure as just a critical step up the mountain that will enable you to get to the top of the mountain and when you get to the top of the mountain, have such a greater appreciation for what you’ve been able to accomplish because you fell down and you got back up or you hit a wall but you found a different way. And that is what you that is at the very heart of what you learn through sports because very rare is the athlete who knows nothing other than success. They have experienced hardship, failure, injury being told they can’t being told they’re not good enough. And when you take that path and you stay on the journey, it just it has such greater impact on your life than you can ever possibly realize when you’re in the moment and at the heart of she got game. That’s what this series is all about inspiring women to let them know what the possible looks like if they stay the path.
Nestor Aparicio 23:29
Did you see the kid from Iowa get pinned who’s never lost two weeks ago when his mother No, Google that one. It’s like the kid who’s never lost and they had a video on his mother. It was unbelievable, you know, but he was a senior fourth year and never lost was going for the golden sort of Crown whatever they call it in wrestling, but nonetheless, Bonnie Bernstein she’s winner with gymnastics and having fun and doing this new podcast that we’re gonna go check out. It’s called she got game she’s shows creative, an executive producer and entrepreneur and always doing good stuff and we’ll talk some turtles somewhere. Dan, let’s
24:05
come down here. Get
Nestor Aparicio 24:06
off proper crabcake with me somewhere alone.
Bonnie Bernstein 24:09
Talks about crab cakes right at the top of the segment. I was like, oh, that sounds good.
Nestor Aparicio 24:13
That’s what I it’s my enticement. You can smell it from from here. Bonnie bergstein Go, go follow rattled social media and all the good places that she is. And if you love the term, she’ll love Bonnie on Twitter cuz she loves the Terps too. She always Terp. I am Esther, we’re getting the really crappy court back out on the road on the fifth. We’re gonna be a Costas which is why I’m wearing the shirt over my homeland at Dundalk on the seventh fails. And we’re taking it to Captain Larry’s downtown and Federal Hill on the 27th of April as well. All of that brought to you by the Maryland lottery conjunction with our friends at window nation. I am Nestor we are wn st am 1570, Towson Baltimore and we never stop talking Baltimore positive
