- 1 day ago
Bonnie Bernstein joined The Fan After Dark and discussed her new ABC series The Champion’s Edge, the connection between women’s sports and career success, and the value of professional networking. She also talked about her viral 2003 interview with Roy Williams, and more.
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00:00Without further ado, let's jump out to the D&M Leasing Hotline and welcome to the program.
00:05Veteran, legendary broadcast reporter, journalist, and one of the best in the game to do it.
00:11The one, the only, Miss Bonnie Bernstein.
00:14And Miss Bonnie, number one, appreciate you coming by today.
00:17You got a brand new show coming out.
00:18We got a lot to get to.
00:19And you, tell you what, actually, you were part of one of the more painful conversations in my sports fandom,
00:28which we'll get to here in just a second.
00:29That's not a way we want to start an interview.
00:31Well, look, it'll get better.
00:32I promise you on that.
00:33I promise you on that.
00:33I'm a Jayhawk, so you can go ahead and put that in your hip pocket for now.
00:36Oh, I know where you're going with this.
00:37You already know where I'm going with this.
00:39So before we get to that, let's talk about this show first.
00:41I got a lot I want to talk to you about because it is an interesting time right now for
00:47female reporters.
00:48And so nobody better to talk about it than you.
00:49But let's talk about this show first because I want to talk about it because has there ever been,
00:54in light of everything that's going on right now, could your show, and let's talk about it real quick,
00:59it is the Champion's Edge with Bonnie Bernstein.
01:03It debuts this Saturday morning on ABC.
01:07And you're going to be talking to accomplished women from all over the professional world, sports, business, academia, medicine.
01:16I mean, you name it, Bonnie Bernstein's talking to them.
01:18How important is the timing of the show right now?
01:21It, the timing, honestly, could not be better.
01:24And first and foremost, thank you for having me on.
01:27And hello, everybody in Dallas who's listening this evening.
01:30So the Champion's Edge is shining a light on extraordinary women from all different industries, as you mentioned.
01:37And their common link is that they played sports growing up.
01:40There is some really fascinating research.
01:42And I love that the show is actually based on research.
01:44So there's all sorts of data that makes this really strong connection between sports participation and career success.
01:51For athletes across the board, but particularly with women, 94% of female C-suite executives,
01:57so your CEOs, your CFOs, your COOs,
02:01they played sports with more than half of that group of women playing at the college level.
02:05And so why is that?
02:07It's because these women who are reaching the highest of heights in their industry are leveraging the teamwork,
02:13the leadership, the resilience, the confidence you build through sports,
02:16the discipline you need through sports, the time management you need to compete in sports to achieve career success.
02:23So there's this really strong connection.
02:25And then what I realized, guys, is that while the data is there, the stories are not.
02:30You know, we'll hear about athletes who they play sports, they stay in sports, the coaches, the GMs.
02:36You might go work in athletics at, you know, the University of Texas or TCU or SMU or whatever.
02:42But what we don't hear are the stories about the women who are doctors and lawyers and women working in
02:48finance and in tech and in politics and government.
02:51These are the stories that we want to tell because for all of the folks who play sports,
02:57most of them don't wind up in sports.
02:59And we really kind of want to be the ultimate.
03:00If you see it, you can be a database for any athlete who wants to do anything.
03:05They can find somebody in our stories who looks like, you know, who they aspire to look like when they
03:10grow up.
03:11So how did this show come about?
03:13I just one of the things that we talk about in business, there are two keys to success in business.
03:19Number one, identifying a white space in the marketplace.
03:22And number two, solving for a problem.
03:24So when I saw the data and I didn't find any platform showcasing the stories, I realized that there was
03:30a white space in storytelling.
03:32And so we want to fill it.
03:33And number two, you know, we started out this conversation talking about like women's sports is just exploding right now.
03:41Now, participation levels are higher than they've ever been.
03:44But here's the little dirty secret we don't talk about.
03:46And moms and dads who are listening, you probably see this in your own houses.
03:50Girls are dropping out of sports at twice the rate of boys by their early teens.
03:54Now, realistically, sports has become really expensive.
03:58And sometimes cost can be an issue.
04:01There are lots of different things.
04:02However, there are lots of girls who are dropping out.
04:05They love sports, but it takes a lot of time.
04:08And they come to the realization, well, I'm not going to get a full ride.
04:12I'm not going to play in the W.
04:13I'm not going to play in the NWSL.
04:15So I'm going to do something else with my time.
04:17And by sharing these stories, what we're hoping to do is connect the dots, A, for athletes to let them
04:22know, hey, if you still love playing, consider thinking about the long game.
04:27And the longer you play, the better you're positioning yourself for success.
04:30Number two, one of the big reasons why girls drop out is lack of parental involvement.
04:36So Jenny might want to go play soccer, but you know what?
04:38If mom or dad aren't taking her, she's not going to play.
04:41And so we really want to put these stories in front of parents to maybe shift their thinking, maybe encourage
04:47their daughters to play or encourage them to stay if they're thinking about quitting.
04:52And so the why really comes down to the two keys to a successful business, identifying a white space and
04:59solving for a problem.
05:01We've got award-winning journalist Bonnie Bernstein joining us, talking about her new show that's coming out this Saturday, The
05:06Champion's Edge with Bonnie Bernstein.
05:09All right.
05:09So you did mention that these stories are being told.
05:11Unfortunately, a story that is being told right now is probably very near and dear to your heart as somebody
05:16who trailblazed, has been in this business now for 30 plus years.
05:20A, just your thoughts on the characterization of female sports reporters in light of what's going on right now with
05:26this Dinah Russini story.
05:27And how do you feel the story has been characterized?
05:31If I'm being completely honest, I have had my head completely buried in getting the show launched.
05:36And while I've seen the headlines, I haven't read enough to be able to really share an educated opinion on
05:42that.
05:43Fair enough. Fair enough.
05:45So let me ask you this then.
05:47So let me ask you this then, right?
05:49Because there's this being this, and Elle Duncan talked about this because she was asked that same question.
05:54And she said, look, if you're going to suggest that, you know, whatever Dinah Russini did in her spare time,
05:59which obviously hasn't looked great,
06:00is going to characterize or put a pall over the entire female sports journalism business, and that's shame on you.
06:08You know, what would you say to young female reporters out there right now that are battling, trying to fight
06:13this stigma that people are throwing around right now on social media?
06:17I would say don't worry about what anybody else thinks.
06:20Do your job.
06:21Work as hard as you can.
06:23Be as educated as you can.
06:25Be as ambitious as you can.
06:27Be as great of a teammate as you can.
06:29Be as good of a person and as grateful as you can.
06:32Don't worry about anything else.
06:33Because no matter what you do, people are going to think what they want to think.
06:36And a lot of times what they think has nothing to do with your ability, your integrity, your credibility, or
06:41anything.
06:41Worry about you.
06:43Period.
06:43Full stop.
06:45Bonnie, can you talk about kind of your upbringing?
06:47You were a decorated high school athlete with track and gym, and then getting to the spot where you're covering
06:54the Super Bowl.
06:55You were doing different MJs in the finals.
06:59Like, what were some setbacks and some opportunities that maybe you wish you could have done things differently or just
07:04kind of just your advice and kind of how you got to the point you were.
07:07I'm sure you had some roadblocks on the way.
07:10Well, it was so interesting because when I decided I want to get in, and this was, I mean, I
07:14had this, I know it sounds kind of strange, but I kind of had this epiphany when I was 12,
07:1913 years old that I realized at a very early age, I loved sports.
07:23At that point, I was already participating in multiple sports.
07:27And I just fell in love with writing.
07:29And I'm like, well, why don't I be a sports writer?
07:31And it just, in my head, because I think as a kid, sometimes you live in a bubble.
07:36And so I never really thought about, wow, there aren't a lot of women out there.
07:43I just sort of decided that this is what I wanted to do.
07:45And it kind of comes back to the same advice that I was giving when it comes to how you
07:49go and live your life and show up in our industry.
07:54So I think that I just knew what I wanted to do.
07:58I wrote for my high school paper.
08:00I was very intentional about looking for a journalism program, a place where I could go to college where it
08:06was that great balance of reputable journalism program and highly ranked gymnastics program.
08:11And I found that in the University of Maryland.
08:13And if I'm being candid, I've heard lots of nightmare stories.
08:19I've been very fortunate to have not been a part of a lot of them.
08:24And maybe it's because I was so singularly focused on building my credibility.
08:29I've had people say, nobody would ever want to mess with you because you just don't give that vibe.
08:36And I'm kind and I'm friendly.
08:38But when I'm there to work, I'm there to work.
08:40And, you know, that's kind of it.
08:43So were there obstacles?
08:44Were there jobs that I was up for that I didn't get?
08:46Yeah, but I think one of the most important things that sports teaches us, and it has been extraordinarily important
08:52for me and I think would be the case for anybody in our industry, man or woman, is how we
08:59learn how to process failure as athletes.
09:02Because if you lose, if you don't score the amount of goals you want, if you don't get as much
09:08playing time as you want and you process that as failure, well, you might as well get out.
09:13What we learn in sports is that failure is a critical part of achieving success.
09:19And sometimes we can control whether we win or lose, and a lot of times we can't.
09:23But here's what we can control.
09:24How do you download that?
09:26How do you take that teaching moment and grow and be smarter and be better and maybe pivot if you
09:32need to, but process failure in a way that it is not an indictment on you personally or your ability?
09:40And so kind of coming full circle to the champion's edge, we really want to instill in girls that what
09:48we're learning through sports is applicable throughout our entire lives.
09:52Because if I didn't have the sports experience I did, you know, the wins and the losses and blowing out
09:58my knee and being told that my career was over and just defiantly saying to the doctor, you don't determine
10:03that I do.
10:04And working my tail off after then taking off part of my hamstring to reconstruct my knee and being in
10:09a straight place for two months.
10:11Like, that was nasty.
10:13And on the most challenging days in my career, guys, I constantly find myself thinking, if I can make it
10:20through my ACL rehab, there's nothing that I can't make it through in my career.
10:24I got one final one for me, Bonnie.
10:27What is one piece of advice that someone has shared with you or a quote that kind of sticks with
10:31you to get you going to that next day to be the best, Bonnie?
10:34I can't emphasize more how important it is to build your network.
10:43And this is where athletes have a real opportunity at the college level.
10:46Like, I can't tell you how many people I've been around.
10:49And, you know, like, you guys have some big time donors in the Dallas area.
10:55People love being around athletes.
10:57They admire athletes.
10:59Companies want to hire athletes.
11:01So ask yourself, while you're still playing, what are you doing to cultivate your network?
11:06If you are playing college sports or moms and dads out there listening tonight, if you've got your kids playing
11:11college sports, have really explicit conversations with them about how they are harnessing the alumni network to start building, cultivating
11:21relationships.
11:21So when it's time to start floating the resumes around, you already have a whole list of champions who want
11:26to support you.
11:27Why?
11:27Because you all went to the same university.
11:29And I'll say this.
11:31We have some wonderful guests on the Champion's Edge who have very close regional ties.
11:38We've got Vanessa Wallace, who played basketball at the University of Texas.
11:43She ran Jordan Brand.
11:45She was CMO of Rihanna's Clothing Brand.
11:47And now she's CMO of a jewelry and a lifestyle brand.
11:50We have Donna Lamar, who ran track at Texas Tech, who was the head of global entertainment at Spotify.
11:57We have Nyjah Kennedy, arguably the most recognizable face in softball.
12:03We brought her work to shadow Jessica Mendoza at ESPN one day.
12:07And what I've learned, and we've gotten so much extraordinary support from Texas Tech, Cody and Tara Campbell, and Tracy
12:16and John Sellers, and the entire Texas Tech community when we were down there have just completely welcomed us with
12:23open arms, that people want to support athletes as much as they can.
12:27So grab that and run with it.
12:29Okay, I lied.
12:30I got one more.
12:31We just had a Tolo text in a question.
12:34You got the text lines blowing up, Bonnie.
12:36You got them blowing up.
12:36They say, is it a person's mentality that leads them to a specific sport or sports in general, or is
12:43it the sport making the person?
12:45Oh, my gosh.
12:46Who brought that up?
12:47Do you have a...
12:48940.
12:49That was a texter.
12:50It was a texter.
12:50They can send their name in, but it was just one of our texters.
12:52Okay, well, thank you for texting.
12:54So it's so interesting.
12:54Going back to the research that we were talking about.
12:57So I'm piggybacking off the research that tells us there's this really strong connection between sports participation and career success.
13:04I think about if we're fortunate enough to build this platform and get a couple seasons out of it, how
13:11can we do research that continues to matriculate the ball down the field, as we say in football?
13:17And one of the things that I've really thought about is, are there particular sports that seem to churn out
13:25athletes in a particular industry?
13:28And one of the reasons why I think about that is there are an inordinate number of lacrosse players who
13:34wind up on Wall Street.
13:36And so I really, I would love to do some research about that connection.
13:41Okay, where do basketball players tend to wind up?
13:43Where do runners tend to wind up?
13:47Because I do think there's probably some more digging that we can do that would reveal some fascinating results.
13:52All right, Bonnie, this is where it's going to get a little tough for me.
13:55So I'm a Jayhawk, and I remember it like it was yesterday.
14:00And you know where I'm going with this.
14:02And you know what?
14:03Let me tell you something.
14:05Shout out to you because, look, everybody knew Roy was leaving.
14:10Okay?
14:11Like, it was, and look, you knew, you know as well as I do.
14:13We didn't have, I mean, yeah, the internet was there, but, you know, we didn't have social media yet.
14:17We didn't, I mean, all we had was.
14:17Oh my gosh, I'm so glad we did not have social media.
14:19You know what I'm saying?
14:20It was a wild time back in those days.
14:23But, you know, you asked the question, and look, kudos to you for asking it in the heat of battle.
14:28I mean, we just lost the national championship.
14:31I mean, hell, have we.
14:32I love how you refer to the team, but you're part of the we.
14:34I just, I love that.
14:36I mean, you're American.
14:38Hey, what happens when your Terps go down?
14:40You know?
14:40I mean, fear the turtle, right?
14:42Well, when they go down, I definitely don't say we.
14:44Well, that was, well, you know, the funny thing was I had just enrolled at KU, too.
14:48I just got done spending four years in the Navy, and then, boom, I go to KU, and we lose
14:53to Syracuse in the national championship.
14:54And if we just hit some free throws, it would have been a different story.
14:56But anyway, so the world knew that, you know, that Roy was leaving.
15:01It was the worst-kept secret around.
15:03And you, with the stones that you've got, say to him, are you leaving for North Carolina?
15:08And, of course, he has that memorable line, I don't give a bleep about North Carolina right now.
15:12Just kind of what on, you know what I'm saying?
15:14Like, what made you ask that question, and kind of what was that interaction in person?
15:19Like, we all saw it on TV, but what was that like in the moment?
15:23Well, the very simple answer to your first question, why did I ask it, is because as a reporter, as
15:29somebody holding the microphone,
15:31as somebody who has access to somebody that most people would love to ask the question, my job is to
15:36be the voice of the fan.
15:37Fair enough.
15:38So to your point, we all kind of knew what was going on, but I have so much respect for
15:42the tournament.
15:43And I was so fortunate to be able to cover it for as many years as I did.
15:47Anytime I'm interacting with coaches during that time, it is all about the kids.
15:52It is all about the game.
15:53It is all about March Madness.
15:55And quite frankly, I have such a good relationship with Coach Williams and just respect for the game that there
16:05was never a right time to ask the question.
16:07It really wasn't.
16:08The season was over.
16:10And I would have like in good conscience, it just because then if you ask that question while they're still
16:15playing, then we're losing focus.
16:17Right.
16:18Yeah.
16:18And so I didn't even think he was going to come out of the locker room because I heard there
16:22were understandably a lot of sad kids in the locker room.
16:25And then I get word that he's coming out and we're in commercial and I'm just like standing out there
16:30because, you know, one of the wonderful responsibilities we had sideline reporters have is like we get to go get
16:35the losing coach.
16:37You never know what you're going to get.
16:38But I did let him know beforehand, like, hey, coach, I need to ask you about this.
16:44And he's like, I don't want to talk about it.
16:45I said, I understand.
16:46And so pardon me, guys, he kind of knew what was coming.
16:51Yeah.
16:51So I was a little caught off guard.
16:53And I tried to be as respectful as I could in terms of how I asked it, because I think
17:00the way I positioned it was after I asked a question about the game, I just said, what's your thought
17:05on the opening at Carolina or something?
17:09Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
17:10No, you did a great job.
17:11So, I mean, and there was no bad blood.
17:15While I was a little taken aback, I was just like, OK, he walked into the press conference literally two
17:20minutes later and got bombarded with the same questions.
17:23And ultimately, he took the job.
17:24And then when we saw each other the final year, it was just we got a good laugh out of
17:28it.
17:28But it's just one of those things where I think it's it's probably hard for somebody sitting at home to
17:34be able to empathize with the challenging position we're in.
17:37And because on one hand, I love basketball as much as anybody else.
17:40And do I want to ask that question?
17:43Not really.
17:44But as a fan, you had to do it.
17:46You had to do it.
17:47You know why?
17:48There was not one KU fan that was mad at you for asking that question.
17:51OK, we all wanted to know.
17:53Fans were mad at me for asking that question and telling me that I had that I don't want to
17:57ask that question for years.
17:59No, seriously, let me tell you something.
18:01When when Tim Collins, our assistant program director, said, hey, do you guys want to have Bonnie Bernstein on and
18:06talk about her show?
18:07I said, absolutely, I do, because we're going to talk about her show.
18:10And then I am going to ask her.
18:11I'm going to ask her about that.
18:13Absolutely.
18:14I mean, I remember where I was at when I when I saw it.
18:17So, you know, like I said, I went to KU journalism school.
18:20So my hat's off to you because I've and we've talked about on this show.
18:23Look, I'm old school in the sense I was a print newspaper reporter for a while as well.
18:27So there's something to be said for just asking good questions.
18:30And, you know, it's a dying art these days.
18:32So my hat's off to you, Miss Bernstein, for doing the damn thing.
18:35The Champion's Edge with Bernie with Bonnie Bernstein every Saturday.
18:39Correct.
18:39And now is it going to be kind of depending upon what do you have a particular time slot?
18:43I know it's going to be in the morning, but it's going to vary from region to region.
18:46It does.
18:47We always say check your local listings, but it'll be on YouTube the following week.
18:51And we say DVR it.
18:53Hopefully you've got if you're around the house or you got you're running your kids around DVR it.
18:58And what we're also doing, we're fortunate enough to be able to sit down with each of
19:02our guests for probably about an hour, but it's a half hour show and we know how that
19:06works.
19:06You get like 10 minutes on the air.
19:07So we're actually repurposing all of the full interviews on our companion podcast called
19:15The Athlete Effect.
19:16And we are wherever you can get your podcast.
19:19And we are part of the Odyssey Creator Lab.
19:22So anybody who's got the Odyssey app will be able to catch us every week on Tuesdays.
19:27And what's it called?
19:28What's the podcast on Odyssey called?
19:30The name of the podcast is called The Athlete Effect.
19:32And not only will we have the interviews from each of our TV guests, we're also going to
19:37have standalone podcast guests.
19:39So we have who we have.
19:40We have WNBA Commissioner Kathy Engelbert.
19:42We have the CMOs of State Farm and Home Depot and the Kansas City Chiefs.
19:47We have this amazing woman.
19:49Her name's V Fly Girl Armor.
19:51That's her call name.
19:52She was the first black female combat pilot in the history of the U.S. military.
19:57We have Dominique Dawes, the former Olympic gymnast, who's built a bunch of gyms and packaged
20:02them and sold them to private equity.
20:03So we hear about a completely different side of her than most people have never heard of.
20:08So it's a really cool, eclectic list of guests, some of whom you will know, lots whom you won't.
20:14But hopefully by the time you hear their stories, you're going to be like, oh, wow, that chick
20:18seems really cool.
20:19Bonnie, you're the best.
20:20I'm so glad we did this.
20:22Like I said, you're a legend.
20:23You're an OG in the space.
20:24And this was certainly cool for me.
20:27And I hope everybody that listened is a little bit smarter after hearing you today.
20:31Great stuff from you, Miss Bonnie Bernstein.
20:32Thank you so much for your time today.
20:34Thank you, gentlemen.
20:35Have a great evening.
20:35Same to you.
20:36The one, the only Miss Bonnie Bernstein.
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