Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: I grew up around all athletes around my house all
Speaker 2: the time, just giants, and I mean they would be
Speaker 2: around the house or come see my dad, or comfort
Speaker 2: thanksgiving her, you know, whatever it was. But I grew
Speaker 2: up on the business side, so I always understood how
Speaker 2: devastating losing can be on that level. I guess in
Speaker 2: a way it's given me a really global perspective on sports,
Speaker 2: which honestly, the average probably commentator doesn't really have.
Speaker 1: All Right, Alex, this episode of the deal a little
Speaker 1: bit different because we got out of the studio and
Speaker 1: into a live audience. So Hannah Storm, she's a thirty
Speaker 1: year sports media veteran. She has a singular perspective on sports,
Speaker 1: business and culture. I had watched her on TV forever,
Speaker 1: I had met her once, you know her a little bit.
Speaker 1: What did you think?
Speaker 3: First of all, I was a huge fan, like you.
Speaker 3: I remember even graduating from high school and watching her
Speaker 3: on TV. I just thought that she was a superstar
Speaker 3: because back in those days, Sports Center was everything.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, it's also fascinating because you really can
Speaker 1: track the explosion of sports as just a key part
Speaker 1: of the culture. Through her career. And this is one
Speaker 1: of the things I found so interesting, especially given your
Speaker 1: relatively new role as an owner of a basketball team,
Speaker 1: that she was at the white hot center of the
Speaker 1: NBA's nineteen nineties explosion into the zeitgeist. She was NBA
Speaker 1: on NBC when those were the games that people were
Speaker 1: really discovering at this critical moment for the league where
Speaker 1: Jordan gives way to Kobe and Shaq and Ron and
Speaker 1: she has sort of ridden that all the way through.
Speaker 1: But she also had this really interesting moment where she
Speaker 1: left sports all together. She goes to morning television and
Speaker 1: now she's back in our lives in sports. And the
Speaker 1: other thing that I will say, she's hilarious. I mean,
Speaker 1: she is so funny.
Speaker 3: Yes, she is funny. And I loved the live audience
Speaker 3: and they were great. Yeah, they enjoyed it. She talked
Speaker 3: about the good, the bad, and the ugly in her
Speaker 3: career that's been over three decades. And some of the highs,
Speaker 3: of course, was Michael Jordan and some of the great
Speaker 3: stories and how much she admired Michael. You hear some
Speaker 3: great stories there that I've never heard before. And then
Speaker 3: some low moments in baseball in the dugout with Albert Bell,
Speaker 3: which I thought was also very interesting and I learned
Speaker 3: a lot from there as well.
Speaker 1: And also, you know, as you mentioned, a pioneer in
Speaker 1: media and someone who you know, had the wherewithal as
Speaker 1: she went on with her career to sort of take
Speaker 1: control of that. You know, she's been at the core
Speaker 1: of something that obviously is very interesting to both of
Speaker 1: us and me. Talk about where your world and mind
Speaker 1: collide in terms of athletes, you know, telling their own story,
Speaker 1: worries and how do you do that successfully, and her
Speaker 1: ability to navigate those waters and navigate a media world
Speaker 1: that is changing so dramatically practically on a daily basis.
Speaker 1: I just I really really loved it.
Speaker 3: On this episode of The Deal, Hannah Storm.
Speaker 1: Without further ado, Hannah, come on out, Hannah Storm us
Speaker 1: you die. Yay, Oh my gosh, thank you for doing this.
Speaker 2: I can't believe that Alex is interviewing me.
Speaker 1: So great. So we have so much to talk to
Speaker 1: you about, but let's talk about the current if we can.
Speaker 1: We all care a lot about basketball. Yes, we're gonna
Speaker 1: talk about how you grew up with it, but can
Speaker 1: we take a moment to talk about basketball?
Speaker 2: Okay, can we talk about your team, the Minnesota Timberwolves,
Speaker 2: Like that's super exciting. I think it's great for the
Speaker 2: game too, right because we tend to focus on sort
Speaker 2: of the the glamour teams. But you know, Minnesota's always
Speaker 2: been in it right there. But I'm super excited for
Speaker 2: you that they're.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Hannah, any new level you remember the early
Speaker 3: days with the Mariners.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 3: I always find it great when a city or a
Speaker 3: team hasn't had a lot of wins in their past
Speaker 3: and the fan base is just starving for a winner.
Speaker 3: And I'm going to tell you Minnesota, is that only
Speaker 3: a basketball town?
Speaker 4: They're giddy. It's an exciting time. So thank you.
Speaker 2: See, as an owner, you like those sellouts. It's like, yeah,
Speaker 2: now when it comes to writing checks for players, we'll
Speaker 2: talk yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it's a different conversation. But what is it
Speaker 1: that you feel like, I mean, you study this game,
Speaker 1: you talk to everybody in it, You've seen the whole evolution.
Speaker 1: Does it feel like something special is happening right now
Speaker 1: or has been? I don't know what I mean. I
Speaker 1: love parity.
Speaker 2: So to our point, talking about the Wolves are talking
Speaker 2: about teams who haven't been in it in the past.
Speaker 2: I think it's great to have the Celtics, great to
Speaker 2: have the Warriors, and they, you know, maybe on the
Speaker 2: downslide now, like we don't know what's going to happen
Speaker 2: with them at this point. We always have the Lakers, right.
Speaker 2: The New York teams have struggled for relevance, which has
Speaker 2: been disappointing. I mean at times like the Knicks have
Speaker 2: shown sparks lately. But I think basketball is great when
Speaker 2: the big markets are doing well. But I think what's
Speaker 2: really exciting for me was seeing Denver win the title
Speaker 2: last year. On Denver was an old ABA team. They're
Speaker 2: one of the four teams that came over in the merger.
Speaker 2: That is a great basketball town. To your point, there
Speaker 2: are fan bases that are absolutely rabid hoops fan bases.
Speaker 2: Those fans have always been there, So yes, I do
Speaker 2: think I love the parody that we're seeing. Even though
Speaker 2: I would say the teams on both coasts, you know,
Speaker 2: I'll throw Philly in there, they get a lot of
Speaker 2: the attention, a lot of the media attention, and we
Speaker 2: didn't really pay attention to Denver on a national level
Speaker 2: until like into the playoffs, right, and they end up
Speaker 2: winning the titles. So I think it was a good
Speaker 2: lesson for everybody, like, you know, let's talk about these
Speaker 2: other teams, let's develop these stars. Unfortunately, we just kind
Speaker 2: of sometimes fall into the same old patterns with the
Speaker 2: same people.
Speaker 3: Staying along the same lines of the NBA and parody.
Speaker 3: Over the last two three decades, you've seen a lot
Speaker 3: of front offices, teams culture. Obviously, we talk a lot
Speaker 3: about the Miami Heat, maybe mentioned two or three. They
Speaker 3: do a really good job with their continuity, their leadership,
Speaker 3: their messaging.
Speaker 2: Oh, pat Riley unbelievable championship coach has kept that Miami
Speaker 2: team relevant for so long. You know, you're right there.
Speaker 2: I mean it's unbelievable, not just bringing the Big three in,
Speaker 2: but what Miami has been in recent days and impressive
Speaker 2: leaders like getting Jimmy Butler there was like a game changer, right,
Speaker 2: he could have stayed in Philly. But I think that
Speaker 2: pat Riley has been able to sustain and build a
Speaker 2: champion in a market where there's a lot of other
Speaker 2: stuff to do, you know, so he comes to mind.
Speaker 2: I do think the Warriors have been a very well
Speaker 2: run franchise through the years. You know, they've sustained what
Speaker 2: we could consider a modern day dynasty.
Speaker 4: In a smaller Marcus san Antonio obviously.
Speaker 2: Oh well, Greg Popovich, yeah, thank you, thank you. I
Speaker 2: mean I covered san Antonio back. I mean I was
Speaker 2: there in like the Dennis Rodman days of san Antonio
Speaker 2: sustained excellence. That's a great example.
Speaker 1: All right, let's go all the way back. I mean,
Speaker 1: this is and we're going to talk about a new
Speaker 1: podcast you have later on. But your DNA is nba
Speaker 1: aba they even so like all the way back, yeah,
Speaker 1: all the way back. I mean you you were effectively
Speaker 1: born into this game. Tell us about it.
Speaker 2: No, my dad was a sports executive. He was in
Speaker 2: the Marine Corps, but he always loved sports. He played
Speaker 2: football in the Marine Corps, and he played football at
Speaker 2: Notre Dame for a brief time one year. But so
Speaker 2: he was in the Marine Corps. He had helped to
Speaker 2: start a toys for Tots. I'm sure you guys have
Speaker 2: heard of that. We were in Chicago. He really wanted
Speaker 2: to get into sports and the local team at the time,
Speaker 2: the Chicago Zephyrs. They he was reading in the paper
Speaker 2: that they couldn't sell tickets. They just couldn't sell tickets
Speaker 2: to get people in the stand. So he literally went
Speaker 2: in to the office and said, if I can sell
Speaker 2: X number of tickets, and he was like six hundred
Speaker 2: or something like that. He was like, well, y'all hire me,
Speaker 2: you know, you like, put me on staff. And they
Speaker 2: were like, sure, what do we have to And so
Speaker 2: that's how he got his start in basketball. And then
Speaker 2: we were in Baltimore, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Louisville, Memphis, Atlanta, Houston,
Speaker 2: all different basketball teams. He was in baseball with the Astros.
Speaker 2: I mean, he did all sorts of crazy stuff, but
Speaker 2: mostly basketball. And he ended up being commissioner of the
Speaker 2: old ABA and setting the ABA and the NBA up
Speaker 2: for merger in the mid seventies. So as long as
Speaker 2: I can remember, when it was in a school night,
Speaker 2: we were at games. Yeah, And what I really remembers
Speaker 2: the referees names because my mom had played basketball and
Speaker 2: she used to yell at the referees all the time, like, yell,
Speaker 2: we were in the front road. She is yelling, he
Speaker 2: want to get you, you know, She's like yelling at
Speaker 2: the ress. So I remember the rest all their names distinctly.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So tell us about that, I mean, what was it?
Speaker 1: What was it like? Because we have this picture, I mean,
Speaker 1: you certainly have a very modern and intimate picture of
Speaker 1: the of the NBA. Like, what was it like?
Speaker 2: I mean picture the NBA slam dunks came from the ABA.
Speaker 2: So slam dunks were not allowed in the NCAA or
Speaker 2: the NBA, not even in a warm up line. So
Speaker 2: you're thinking about players who came out of like Doctor
Speaker 2: j like out of Rutger Park, right and out of
Speaker 2: places where they had these great showy moves which they
Speaker 2: were not allowed to do anywhere other than the ABA.
Speaker 2: Three pointers those came from the ABA. Now a lot
Speaker 2: of old ABA guys are really upset right now the
Speaker 2: way that three pointers are used. A lot of people
Speaker 2: in the game are kind of upset that the three
Speaker 2: pointer is a de facto shot, right, it's not like
Speaker 2: a secondary option teams that sort of run down the
Speaker 2: court and just launch three pointers. I know there's a
Speaker 2: lot of basketball peers that don't like that. But the
Speaker 2: three pointer came from their cheerleaders, crazy halftimes, fun halftimes.
Speaker 2: They didn't have a TV contract, so they had to
Speaker 2: make it super entertaining, right, So think about all those
Speaker 2: elements that the players were allowed to come out of
Speaker 2: high school or college. That was not an option in
Speaker 2: the NBA. So when you think about like personal empowerment,
Speaker 2: like player empowerment, like those things. For the first time
Speaker 2: players had salary leverage. So they were like, well, I
Speaker 2: have a choice. Now I can go to the ABA
Speaker 2: or the NBA. So hey, I can negotiate a little, right.
Speaker 3: I do have to say one little story back when
Speaker 3: I was with the Mariners. I played with the Mariners
Speaker 3: from ninety four. I was up and down to two thousand,
Speaker 3: was my last year there. So I remember back in
Speaker 3: those days, Hannah showed up to one of the stadiums
Speaker 3: and we're stretching as a team, and you know, when
Speaker 3: you're a smaller market team, you never have the big
Speaker 3: national media. And Hannah showed up early one day and
Speaker 3: we were all Strett's storm in Griffy Saying and Edgar
Speaker 3: Martinez and she was a star amongst players.
Speaker 4: I mean that.
Speaker 3: And by the way, back in those days, when we
Speaker 3: came up, it's not like now where we have Hulu
Speaker 3: and Disney Plus. Yes, it was just one channel. I
Speaker 3: could just imagine the numbers. You guys got back.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Massive.
Speaker 3: So every night at eleven thirty or what or in
Speaker 3: the money, what do you call it?
Speaker 4: The morning?
Speaker 2: Yeah, the rotation either it was like CNN every nine
Speaker 2: and eleven thirty CNN Sports and I did the Baseball
Speaker 2: Show on CNN NBC. I mean, you watched that CBA,
Speaker 2: you watched one gang. Now you're going to watch a
Speaker 2: triple header one network. Yeah, so you think about it.
Speaker 2: The numbers were insane.
Speaker 3: So when she showed up as a player, you knew
Speaker 3: it was a big deal. When Bob Costas was up, yeah,
Speaker 3: you knew it was a big deal. When I hear
Speaker 3: Tim McCarver and Joe Buck, you knew it was playoffs,
Speaker 3: All Star or World Series.
Speaker 2: That's right.
Speaker 3: And I always got excited when the big shots came
Speaker 3: because that was your time to shine. And that's what
Speaker 3: hand I'm into us. Even back then in the nineties
Speaker 3: and two thousands.
Speaker 2: By the way, Seattle had the Sonics back yeah day too,
Speaker 2: so they hadn't. We spent a lot of time there
Speaker 2: with that team, which was incredible to glove Gary Payton
Speaker 2: and that's a really special place. Really. I'm glad you
Speaker 2: had the opportunity to play there.
Speaker 4: Too. It was awesome, you know, great fan base soon.
Speaker 2: Yeah, great fan base and great and you had some
Speaker 2: really cool teammates too there as well.
Speaker 1: As you're experiencing these different cities as a professional now,
Speaker 1: it feels like it's just an extension of how you
Speaker 1: grew it. You end up at Notre Dame. There are
Speaker 1: a couple of domers in the audience. I know, good
Speaker 1: shout out Irish. But is sports always in your mind?
Speaker 2: Well, I think that when you grow up and you
Speaker 2: move around a lot, and I do think that it
Speaker 2: forces you to very quickly meet pepeople and it forces
Speaker 2: you to quickly find common ground. Yeah, so I am
Speaker 2: able to pretty much meet anybody and just strike up
Speaker 2: a conversation, which I think is a blessing. It also
Speaker 2: forces you to really assess your surroundings and be interested
Speaker 2: in other people, and I think that's one of your
Speaker 2: great qualities. Sometimes athletes can be like really myopic and
Speaker 2: care about themselves, and I think one of the cool
Speaker 2: things about Alex is he's always been like curious about
Speaker 2: other people and probably why you're in business, and probably
Speaker 2: why you're doing this in retrospect, everything that happens in
Speaker 2: your life that is like a huge challenge. I do
Speaker 2: think those things all turn out for good. Maybe not
Speaker 2: all the time, but I think they can turn out
Speaker 2: to be a blessing in some strange way later that
Speaker 2: you might not even realize.
Speaker 3: Over the last thirty years, you have this male dominated industry.
Speaker 3: How and what can you share with all of us
Speaker 3: that allows you to keep that integrity because it's so
Speaker 3: easy to take the easy chief or you know, go
Speaker 3: for a headline, but it seemed like you always stayed
Speaker 3: above it all and again maintain that reverence and respect
Speaker 3: from everyone.
Speaker 2: It's really interesting your observation because I do think in
Speaker 2: the era of social media and now it's all about
Speaker 2: hot takes and look at me and how many followers
Speaker 2: do I have? What kind of arguments can I get
Speaker 2: into on X? I do think there's a lot of
Speaker 2: self promotion. It's not bad, like do whatever you want,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean. But back I guess in
Speaker 2: the day that didn't exist. But also being the only
Speaker 2: woman usually always or one of the only women, I mean,
Speaker 2: you just had to have like a really tough skin
Speaker 2: and you had to like really really just put your
Speaker 2: head down and work and let that speak for itself.
Speaker 2: Because I would not only have issues like I had
Speaker 2: with Albert Bell, you know, pretty well publicized I had.
Speaker 2: You know, baseball was at times, certain teams were very,
Speaker 2: very difficult to cover back in the day because either
Speaker 2: the athlete was a very traditional or a lot of
Speaker 2: times it was the manager wasn't necessarily the athletes, it
Speaker 2: was like some of the older people in the sport.
Speaker 2: Same thing. It was the first ever NFL sideline reporter
Speaker 2: for a year. It was horrible, you know, because of
Speaker 2: just you know, nobody wanted you there much less wanted
Speaker 2: a woman there. So I had a lot of really
Speaker 2: tough things. But I guess in some ways like that
Speaker 2: that really did make me more determined because I was like, oh, okay,
Speaker 2: well you know what I'm gonna it's good time, I mean, yeah,
Speaker 2: And it made me understand that my only recourse was
Speaker 2: not to make it about me, but to always take
Speaker 2: the higher road and just do my job. Because if
Speaker 2: I just did my job, that's really just the last word,
Speaker 2: you know. And also that's what it's getting paid to do.
Speaker 2: You're not getting paid to make yourself the story right
Speaker 2: and to get into fights with people or to even
Speaker 2: promote yourself like and I guess I'm old fashioned in
Speaker 2: that way, but at the end of the day, someone
Speaker 2: is me to do a job, and it is incumbent
Speaker 2: upon me to do it to the best of my ability.
Speaker 2: And that's why when I had the issue in the
Speaker 2: dugout with Albert Bell, I had a live shot for CNN.
Speaker 2: They were going to come to me, and he was,
Speaker 2: you know, ran through the dugout wielding a bat, and
Speaker 2: everybody fled the dugout except for me because I had
Speaker 2: a live shot and my camera was set up and
Speaker 2: a little bat boy who was terrified and he was,
Speaker 2: you know, wheeling his bat and screaming at us, and
Speaker 2: literally the entire baseball media was out there just watching
Speaker 2: to see what would happen, and I'm like, I'm not
Speaker 2: leaving this dugout. It became a huge deal, and because
Speaker 2: it was a World Series stage and all the media
Speaker 2: and everybody was like wanted to interview me and blah
Speaker 2: blah blah blah blah, and I was like, absolutely not, like
Speaker 2: I'm just here to report on what is happening on
Speaker 2: the field. It took a long long time, and later
Speaker 2: he was fined the largest fine in baseball history, but
Speaker 2: it took a really long time for that to happen.
Speaker 2: But I guess that's just an example back in the
Speaker 2: day of just you know, being a little stubborn and
Speaker 2: figuring out how to do my job. I mean, there
Speaker 2: were players. I remember Bob Knepper is an old picture
Speaker 2: for the Astros. If I was in the Astros locker room,
Speaker 2: he said, I will not talk to any of the
Speaker 2: media because you don't belong in here. And I was like, listen,
Speaker 2: I really don't like it in here either, Like it's sweaty, gross,
Speaker 2: I mean, big misconception, like no one wants to go
Speaker 2: in a locker room. They're disgusting. So I was like, awesome,
Speaker 2: do you mind coming out in the hallway. Absolutely the
Speaker 2: same thing with Warren Moon. I didn't want to go
Speaker 2: in the football locker room, and he was like, you
Speaker 2: know what, I'll come outside and do the interview. So
Speaker 2: I would just wait, you know what I mean, just
Speaker 2: out of respect to my colleagues and everybody. You know,
Speaker 2: I just tried to find a solution. You know, that's crazy.
Speaker 2: There's so many stories but.
Speaker 1: You're alluding to, I mean, so many interesting sort of
Speaker 1: threads and themes that I know that we want to
Speaker 1: talk about, and one of them that I know we
Speaker 1: want to discuss is sort of that period in the
Speaker 1: nineties especially, I mean, you're living it in baseball. Basketball
Speaker 1: really comes to the four in the culture. What was
Speaker 1: it that happened and what did it feel like? As
Speaker 1: Jordan comes into it and then the NBA is just
Speaker 1: established as this like cultural nexus.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I mean what happened was Michael Jordan? Yeah,
Speaker 2: it was really interesting because obviously Burd and Magic came
Speaker 2: out of college, that natural collegiate rivalry kind of carried over,
Speaker 2: but it was really Michael and the fact that what
Speaker 2: was so interesting is people forget all the struggles he
Speaker 2: had early, right, and how they couldn't get by the
Speaker 2: Detroit Pistons. Right, So we're talking about Isaiah and Dumars
Speaker 2: and all of that in this team that was like
Speaker 2: struggling to get by them, and then Michael just everything
Speaker 2: that he did. You guys have all watched the Last Dance,
Speaker 2: but it was just magnetism and the things that he did.
Speaker 2: And it was in the era and you guys are
Speaker 2: talking cultural Do you guys remember must See TV?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Do you remember that phrase? So that was like friends
Speaker 2: Seinfeld and er I want to say, Okay, so must SYTV.
Speaker 2: The NBA kind of became part of Muscy TV on NBC,
Speaker 2: so it became Musty TV. And what we would do
Speaker 2: is so again, you're not it's not Turner, there's not local, right,
Speaker 2: it's not like ESPN, like it's literally NBC. You want
Speaker 2: to see a game, We're going to give you three games.
Speaker 2: The basketball was so good because you're talking Barkley, you're
Speaker 2: talking the Mailman, Carmelo, you're talking I mean stars, but
Speaker 2: you're talking three games in a row. There were five
Speaker 2: games on a weekend. So think about that. You get
Speaker 2: a triple header on Saturday, a double header on Sunday,
Speaker 2: and then it's followed by Jurassic Park. Maybe, so I'm
Speaker 2: saying they would invest in these. In fact, Bob Costas
Speaker 2: had a really good line one halftime. He was like,
Speaker 2: do we have a special movie coming up for you? You
Speaker 2: bet Jurassic Yeah. Everybody's oh my god. But like that
Speaker 2: kind of epitomized that era of NBC and football had
Speaker 2: always been sort of a broadcasting tent pole, understanding how
Speaker 2: basketball could do the same. And by the way, with baseball,
Speaker 2: we had I don't know if you remember the short
Speaker 2: lived Baseball Network. Everybody kind of came together to do
Speaker 2: like the Baseball Network, right, But then you know we
Speaker 2: had and I broadcast a ton of World Series like
Speaker 2: on network television, one network, like really really strong. And
Speaker 2: I still think the World Series has that. It really does,
Speaker 2: and probably because alex is, you know, part of broadcasting.
Speaker 2: But I mean, you know it had that cachet and
Speaker 2: basketball had to get to that level. It really did.
Speaker 2: It wasn't at the level of baseball. It wasn't America's game.
Speaker 2: You know, you used to be able to watch like
Speaker 2: America's game every week. Everybody watched baseball. The stars were established.
Speaker 2: That's what happened in the nineties. Is that basketball because
Speaker 2: of I think Jordan, but also these other stores who
Speaker 2: were like foils, you know, and then he left the
Speaker 2: game for two years and boom InCom like the Rockets
Speaker 2: InCom like Elajahwan and drex Learn and two questions.
Speaker 3: Maybe let the audience know here what that felt like
Speaker 3: on game day, right, because yeah, I flew three thousand
Speaker 3: miles to go see him, did you. I was thrilled,
Speaker 3: absolutely right, because you only have maybe a handful of opportunities.
Speaker 3: My question to you is, how was that like game day?
Speaker 3: And maybe a story or two of your exchange with Michael,
Speaker 3: maybe an interview.
Speaker 4: How was he?
Speaker 2: Yeah, well Michael, he was amazing. He's really funny, is
Speaker 2: really down to earth. Now, Ahmad did all the International
Speaker 2: Michael a mon shot exclusive. I mean they were best friends.
Speaker 2: So I did the Western Coberts, Ahmad did the Eastern Coberts,
Speaker 2: and he did every single interview with Michael. But of
Speaker 2: course we all you know, we knew Michael or whatever.
Speaker 2: So I first met him when I was in Charlotte.
Speaker 2: So Charlotte got a basketball team. I was the only
Speaker 2: woman in the market. That was a really hard market
Speaker 2: for me, always getting male about the way, you know,
Speaker 2: like hate mail at the station, the way I dressed
Speaker 2: and stuff like that. People didn't they just didn't, you know, whatever,
Speaker 2: And nobody was used to having a woman around. But
Speaker 2: so Michael and everybody in the NBA kind of followed him,
Speaker 2: which was kind of cool. Well his behavior. Oh yes,
Speaker 2: And so we have the Charlotte Hornets. A big thing
Speaker 2: is Michael being from North Carolina. So they come in
Speaker 2: to play. It's like this huge deal. Blah blah, blah
Speaker 2: blah blah. And there I am, you know, in the
Speaker 2: locker room at again and I you know, asked Michael
Speaker 2: like for an interview and he calls me, ma'am. I'm
Speaker 2: literally like twenty three. But it was like that southern
Speaker 2: you know, like like like he was like so polite,
Speaker 2: and he was like so incredible to me. He was
Speaker 2: so gentlemanly, and everybody else just was like whoa like
Speaker 2: followed in line. And that was even though a Mod
Speaker 2: was his bestie and he did his one on ones
Speaker 2: with a Mod. He was just exceedingly like that way
Speaker 2: in general. And NBA locker rooms were by far the best,
Speaker 2: by far the best to cover. I mean for me
Speaker 2: as a woman, and a lot of the guys had
Speaker 2: the opportunity to maybe go to college at least back then,
Speaker 2: they went to college for a lot longer, so they
Speaker 2: had been a lot more used to media, big media
Speaker 2: being around and that really helped too. Yeah, that really
Speaker 2: helped in the NBA. But he was great.
Speaker 1: But he does, you know, to Alex's point and to
Speaker 1: your point, like he does set this new standard and
Speaker 1: you know, it does usher in this different way that
Speaker 1: we view not just basketball players, but athletes in general,
Speaker 1: athletes as business people.
Speaker 2: Well, Nike, Yeah, obviously the shoe deal, which is just
Speaker 2: the greatest story of all time. Yeah, it was the
Speaker 2: shoe deal. It was the shoes, it was the marketing,
Speaker 2: it was I mean that that started it all.
Speaker 3: It's crazy to think if you say Michael Jordan to
Speaker 3: my daughters for you, yeah, we're both teenagers. He's more
Speaker 3: synonymous with sneakers than basketball.
Speaker 2: It is, well, people call him Jordan's right, they don't know.
Speaker 2: And it's funny. I did a whole sneaker series for
Speaker 2: Hulu called Grails that's really really fun. So Josh Luber,
Speaker 2: who you guys know who he is, So he said
Speaker 2: that he had a pair of Jordan's on and he
Speaker 2: had like they had like a twenty three on the
Speaker 2: back right, and he said, like some kid was like,
Speaker 2: what what's that? Like why is that number on the
Speaker 2: background there? To your point, like you have to go
Speaker 2: to YouTube now, right, even if you're like, who's Michael Jordan? Right,
Speaker 2: and the last dance still a lot, but I mean,
Speaker 2: is it's really the Jordan brand?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Right, is almost and has is very separate from Michael
Speaker 2: Jordan the athlete. Yeah, yeah, it was really a golfer now,
Speaker 2: I mean he's like the golf. He has his you know,
Speaker 2: he has grove, you know, his own golf course. I mean,
Speaker 2: he's really into that. I usually see him at the
Speaker 2: Ryder Cup. That's where we run into each other.
Speaker 1: He just made a lot of money selling his basketball team. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a good investment.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it made a lot of money in the basketball too.
Speaker 2: Apparently Alex is like, yeah, Mark, Mark Cuban so too.
Speaker 2: I'm really interested to see what Mark does next because
Speaker 2: I think that you know, he obviously he's obligated to
Speaker 2: do Shark Tank for a while longer, but he's going
Speaker 2: to step back from that. So I'm really fascinated to
Speaker 2: see what like a real talk about a real trendsetter. Yeah,
Speaker 2: another guy who's who we could have named earlier with
Speaker 2: the Mavericks are always like right there in contention, and
Speaker 2: he's always trying to keep them current and in contention.
Speaker 2: But I'm fascinated to see what someone of that caliber. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and a guy is always kind of forward thinking. I'm
Speaker 2: really interested to see what he does next.
Speaker 1: But to that point, I mean, and we're sitting here
Speaker 1: with an NBA on our I mean that's the other
Speaker 1: part of the business that has changed so dramatically to
Speaker 1: the point where we have someone like this guy coming
Speaker 1: in and being like, this is a good investment and
Speaker 1: you know something that I can get behind. What do
Speaker 1: you make of that? I mean as a business person,
Speaker 1: you know, you've started businesses, you've seen this. What do
Speaker 1: you make of it?
Speaker 2: Well, it's really interesting, I mean to me. So, I
Speaker 2: grew up not with an athlete. I grew up around
Speaker 2: all athletes around my house all the time, just giants,
Speaker 2: and I mean they would be around the house. I
Speaker 2: would come see my dad or comfort Thanksgiving or you
Speaker 2: know whatever it was Christmas party. So I was always
Speaker 2: very comfortable around athletes. But I grew up on the
Speaker 2: business side, right, So I've always understood how devastating losing
Speaker 2: can be on that level, how the criticism that you
Speaker 2: take on that level. And I guess in a way
Speaker 2: it's given me a really global perspective on sports, which honestly,
Speaker 2: the average probably commentator doesn't really have. And you know,
Speaker 2: there's a lot of criticism, a lot of yelling, a
Speaker 2: lot of I think a lot of people who don't
Speaker 2: see at times the three six picture of what it takes, right.
Speaker 2: It's not always as easy as oh, go out and
Speaker 2: get this player. You need to do that, or you
Speaker 2: need to do that or all the you know, I'm
Speaker 2: speaking from a media standpoint of how we talk about owners, right,
Speaker 2: and how we talk about general managers, and something that's
Speaker 2: a really pet peeve of mine too is how we
Speaker 2: like fire people, how we say they should be fired. Like,
Speaker 2: that's just not okay, because you are talking about someone's livelihood, right,
Speaker 2: and you can't throw coaches and coordinators and gms around
Speaker 2: and owners around like punchlines.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: I understand that there are times when owners deserve a
Speaker 2: lot of criticisms something horrible like happen with the Clippers. Okay,
Speaker 2: that's not what we're talking about here, but in general,
Speaker 2: because your team isn't performing. I mean, there's a lot
Speaker 2: of factors that go into that, including, by the way,
Speaker 2: the athlete's you know, responsibility as well. You're dealing with
Speaker 2: people's livelihoods. And what I understand being the other side
Speaker 2: is a family. I've had for sale signs put in
Speaker 2: our front yard by fans. Okay, so I understand that, right.
Speaker 2: I've had my dad fired. I remember going to Atlanta,
Speaker 2: being in high school, going to a new high school,
Speaker 2: and to Turner firing my dad gm of the Hawks
Speaker 2: like months later, by the way, for making a deal
Speaker 2: that Ted didn't like, but that turned out to be
Speaker 2: amazing for the Hawks. And I understand those things happen,
Speaker 2: and I don't hold animosity, but I know what it's
Speaker 2: like to be on the other side, So I guess
Speaker 2: for me, I always try to be fair. And again,
Speaker 2: you know, like call somebody, you know, call people a
Speaker 2: bum or call them names or whatever, like that's just
Speaker 2: not okay. It's just not like if they're not doing
Speaker 2: a good job, they might lose their job eventually. It's
Speaker 2: not to you to fire the guy. He doesn't take
Speaker 2: a genius to see if a team isn't performing.
Speaker 1: Coming up, we discussed Hannah's career shift, as well as
Speaker 1: making the leap towards business ventures of her own. All right,
Speaker 1: let's have a conversation about you some big transitions that
Speaker 1: you make in the course of your career. One of
Speaker 1: the biggest ones is being like, I'm going to go
Speaker 1: try something that's not sports. Yeah, tell us about that,
Speaker 1: that experience and that decision.
Speaker 2: I don't know, I mean listen. I have been doing
Speaker 2: this forty years in the business overall, and I just
Speaker 2: don't think you can survive that long without being flexible
Speaker 2: and open minded. So the NBN NBC ended and we
Speaker 2: also lost the NFL, by the way, kind of all
Speaker 2: in the same year. And I had always wanted to
Speaker 2: do morning television. And the reason that I did is
Speaker 2: because there were no women on television doing sports when
Speaker 2: I was growing up. So literally the only women that
Speaker 2: I had ever seen cover sports were morning television news hosts.
Speaker 2: I didn't immediately go into sports because I also couldn't
Speaker 2: get a job being a woman in sports. So my
Speaker 2: first job was as a heavy metal DJ.
Speaker 1: That's where Hannah Storm Cat, That's where my name.
Speaker 2: Storm comes from. Yeah, and that was Corpus. Yeah. See
Speaker 2: what I won by the sea, there's the storm coming
Speaker 2: in late night? Still got it quiet, Ryan def Leppard
Speaker 2: and Sammy Hagar like back to back to back. Anyway
Speaker 2: I was. It was really relaxing, but yeah, and then
Speaker 2: I went to Houston and did a radio and I
Speaker 2: would spin records on the weekends and then did I
Speaker 2: did morning and afternoon drive sports, and then I started
Speaker 2: working for the astros for their station and the rocket stations.
Speaker 2: That's kind of how I got started.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 2: I majored in international studies at Notre Dame. So like,
Speaker 2: I really liked the news. I just thought I wanted
Speaker 2: to go into sports because sports is fun, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean. But when that ended, I was like,
Speaker 2: I had little kids, and I was like, I need
Speaker 2: a job. I need a morning job. I need some job.
Speaker 2: I just told my agent, I'm not going to be
Speaker 2: gone in the afternoons. I don't want to be gone
Speaker 2: all weekend they're in school. I want to be gone
Speaker 2: the when they're gone, you know what I mean. If
Speaker 2: they're going to get up and go to school, that's
Speaker 2: when I want to be gone. And I want to work.
Speaker 2: So we looked at morning only morning jobs, and CBS
Speaker 2: was starting a new morning show, one of their many
Speaker 2: iterations morning show. God. Gail King is obviously killing it.
Speaker 4: And how was that different for you?
Speaker 2: It's so different. It's pretty hardcore, but you know what
Speaker 2: it was really good about it is doing sports. You
Speaker 2: can add lib right, like you know, when we go
Speaker 2: up there and talk, we don't have I mean, some
Speaker 2: stuff is scripted. If you're leading to like a piece
Speaker 2: and a director needs a world cue or something like that.
Speaker 2: But for the most part, you're thinking on your feet, right,
Speaker 2: you're reacting. I found that was like critical as a newsperson,
Speaker 2: so I didn't come up like just reading the news,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean. Then it's really hard to react.
Speaker 2: So I found that I was like a really good interviewer.
Speaker 2: I also was really used to not tipping my hand
Speaker 2: about what I thought. I was used to complete and
Speaker 2: total objectivity. I had also hosted notre Name Football and
Speaker 2: I said, my boss was like, if I see one
Speaker 2: glimmer in your eye little irish like happiness or whatever, you're.
Speaker 1: Done, Like all right, good.
Speaker 2: So I was like trained. So the good thing about
Speaker 2: going into news is my personal views. And this is
Speaker 2: back in the day when we didn't have like polarizing
Speaker 2: news channels, definitely, and I was at the network and
Speaker 2: they would always give me like all the good political
Speaker 2: interviews because you could not tell if I was like
Speaker 2: on one side or the other. You know, everyone would
Speaker 2: get mad at you, of course, but it was really cool.
Speaker 2: And then also like I got to do a ton
Speaker 2: of cooking, so it became a really good cook which
Speaker 2: is my other passion. And then we did a ton
Speaker 2: of music, which I already knew. It was kind of
Speaker 2: like my wheelhouse and I love that. Super fun and
Speaker 2: then movie stars, and I mean it was a really
Speaker 2: really cool job. I loved it.
Speaker 3: Was there like one or two interviews that you were
Speaker 3: you can think that you were really nervous, either before
Speaker 3: or during.
Speaker 2: I would say interviewing like President Bush. I would say
Speaker 2: forty three. Yeah, just like going to the White House,
Speaker 2: and I was like, pretty nervous.
Speaker 4: What did you wear?
Speaker 2: But that's a great question.
Speaker 4: Thank you.
Speaker 2: I can't believe you were. Because so they have a
Speaker 2: little softball game on the lawn and I was calling
Speaker 2: their softball game later that day, so it's had to
Speaker 2: be sporty. So I wore like really crisp white slacks
Speaker 2: and just a white a white sweater.
Speaker 4: What kind of shoes?
Speaker 2: All white flats flats? Yeah, you brewe.
Speaker 4: I love it ya.
Speaker 2: And you know, he's so funny. He would always build
Speaker 2: time into his day, so he ran a little early
Speaker 2: or or right on time because he's kind of a
Speaker 2: social guy, do you know how of course he did
Speaker 2: with Rangers and all that. Right, So I have my
Speaker 2: kids with me, and so you do all the you know,
Speaker 2: you go in the line and you shake hands and
Speaker 2: blah blah blah, and he's like, hey, y'all want to
Speaker 2: like see the rose Garden And I was like, oh, okay,
Speaker 2: so just like me, him and my three kids, like
Speaker 2: we go and he's like showing them the rose Guard
Speaker 2: and then he's like takes us in the oval office
Speaker 2: and we're hanging out, like he's like showing them pictures
Speaker 2: of his family, and I'm thinking, don't you have anything
Speaker 2: to do? Like like what like what is happening here?
Speaker 2: And he was like this so nice, like talking to
Speaker 2: them out of nowhere, like magically, He's like, oh I
Speaker 2: got a you know, I got a meeting or whatever.
Speaker 2: And I was like, well, like thank you so much.
Speaker 2: This is great. And then like out of the blue
Speaker 2: photographer appears, snapsnap, snap, and then like two days later
Speaker 2: to your house. How do they find you? I don't know,
Speaker 2: but is like autographed like pictures like for each kid.
Speaker 2: I mean, it was like the coolest. It was one
Speaker 2: of those like weird surreal experiences. But I got to say,
Speaker 2: like before and I shouldn't have been because he's so
Speaker 2: down to earth and genuine, but you know, I was
Speaker 2: a little intimidating going to the White House right for
Speaker 2: an interview, but it was fine, It was totally it was.
Speaker 1: Great, and you got a tour of the Rose Guard.
Speaker 1: So then you find your way back to sports.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I got fired.
Speaker 1: That's what I mean by find your way back. You
Speaker 1: got like, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2: But I think that you know a lot of times
Speaker 2: when people are making personnel changes, and they went they
Speaker 2: made a three sixty, We're taken out everybody. So I
Speaker 2: got fired. So that's okay because all my colleagues did.
Speaker 2: We all left together, you know, one by one. And
Speaker 2: at the time, ESPN was starting a daytime sports center.
Speaker 2: They had never had sports center during the day. It
Speaker 2: was all reruns from the night before, and they were
Speaker 2: going to start a nine to noon sports center. They're
Speaker 2: going to launch it. And I had the combination of
Speaker 2: the sports and daytime television experience. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And so when you get into that, you get
Speaker 1: that job. The sports world has, you know, kept going,
Speaker 1: and obviously you've you've kept an eye on what did
Speaker 1: you notice that was either different about sports or maybe
Speaker 1: more pointedly about sports and media.
Speaker 2: That you could kind of talk a little bit more about.
Speaker 2: You know, sort of who you liked or teams. It
Speaker 2: was more personalized. What I noticed a lot about sports
Speaker 2: media was that people were personalities and that they became
Speaker 2: studio personalities. So I had always been you know, I'd
Speaker 2: always like toe the line. The event is the thing, right,
Speaker 2: the person you're interviewing is the thing. In news, it's
Speaker 2: the story is the thing. It's always the story, the
Speaker 2: story of the story.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 2: I came to ESPN in particular people were developing themselves
Speaker 2: as legitimate stars and just the way they delivered the
Speaker 2: sports okay, which was really interesting.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: So we had always had that on play by play.
Speaker 2: I mean you mentioned Buck and Tim McCarver, Right, we'd
Speaker 2: always had that kind of in the play by playworld.
Speaker 2: We had these big stars, but it was the studio genre,
Speaker 2: and so it was more like kind of what we
Speaker 2: started at back when I was at CNN, Like that
Speaker 2: had kind of exploded, right, And because ESPN was such
Speaker 2: a national brand. I always call it like America's wallpaper,
Speaker 2: Like you walk in, it's there, like it's on every TV,
Speaker 2: it's on every bar, it's and then you know, like
Speaker 2: in the airport. So these these personalities had been able
Speaker 2: to like infuse a lot of humor and a lot
Speaker 2: of just sort of their twist on things. And I
Speaker 2: thought that was a really cool development in sports, and
Speaker 2: obviously that's huge now.
Speaker 1: Sure, right, yeah, sure. I also want to make sure
Speaker 1: that we spend to be talking about your production company
Speaker 1: because I know this is the world you've been playing in. Yeah, obviously,
Speaker 1: you know we're all in this business to some extent.
Speaker 1: How do you make the decision to do that and
Speaker 1: how do you sort of create something that's that is
Speaker 1: uniquely you?
Speaker 2: Right? Well, when I left CBS, so as a news anchor,
Speaker 2: there are certain things you can't do. I always felt
Speaker 2: like I wanted a lot of control, you know, over
Speaker 2: something in my life because that always worked for big,
Speaker 2: big companies. So I'm like, okay, I have a control
Speaker 2: in my house and bubba uah sometimes and I'd written
Speaker 2: a couple of books because I knew like I could
Speaker 2: do that that was like a creative outlet. But I
Speaker 2: wanted something that I could control is not a good word.
Speaker 2: I want something I could create on my own, like
Speaker 2: kind of how I wanted to do it, right, So
Speaker 2: I started two things. I started my foundation and I
Speaker 2: started my production company. I kicked one of my daughters
Speaker 2: out of her bedroom at the time and she went
Speaker 2: into the other bedroom with her sister. So in this
Speaker 2: little tiny bedroom, I took who I'd been working with
Speaker 2: at CBS, Carmen Belmont, who's here, and we started the
Speaker 2: two of us, which were still the two of us.
Speaker 2: We started a production company and a foundation simultaneously before
Speaker 2: I went to ESPN, so that I could grandfather it
Speaker 2: into wherever I want. So there's this thing called Upfronts,
Speaker 2: where which you guys know, but just for you guys.
Speaker 2: It's like where all the advertisers come in and all
Speaker 2: the TV stations and everybody introduces what they're doing to
Speaker 2: all the advertisers. So they were introducing me at the upfronts,
Speaker 2: and they were also introducing a film series called thirty
Speaker 2: for thirty and I was like, ooh, that sounds interesting.
Speaker 2: So I went up. A couple of weeks later at work,
Speaker 2: I introduced myself to the gentleman who was running thirty
Speaker 2: for thirty and I said, is there anything you don't
Speaker 2: have or you just can't get? Is there anything you're like,
Speaker 2: I know you have like two slots left, like anything
Speaker 2: you can't get? Because I was thinking, Ooh, what do
Speaker 2: they need? Maybe I can and they're like, well, we
Speaker 2: don't have a women's film and we don't have a
Speaker 2: tennis film. So I was like, oh, maybe I'll call
Speaker 2: my friend Chrissy Evert and so I did one of
Speaker 2: the original thirty for thirties, which was Chrissy and Martina. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and then from there and that was a really cool,
Speaker 2: great learning experience. Did I did branded content? I did
Speaker 2: you know some nine for nine, I did you know
Speaker 2: Shaq and Dale. I did Danica for EPX, and last
Speaker 2: year did my first ever series on a couple of
Speaker 2: young black entrepreneurs Eastside Golf and who got the first
Speaker 2: ever Jordan contract ever for golf. So it's been really
Speaker 2: really good, but it's a very hard business. The margins
Speaker 2: are really small, and so what I did is I
Speaker 2: just took a part of my paycheck and I just
Speaker 2: put it into my company. I just self invested. So
Speaker 2: because I'm I'm like an on air person, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean, I wasn't like a TV producer at
Speaker 2: the time. So I was like, I'm just going to
Speaker 2: take a part of what I'm earning on TV and
Speaker 2: I'm going to reinvest it. Into myself, my company, and
Speaker 2: my foundation. And that's what I did. And we're still
Speaker 2: you know, we're really small, but we you know, do
Speaker 2: some cool stuff.
Speaker 1: I want to build on what you're saying, because part
Speaker 1: of this is about an entirely new media landscape. I
Speaker 1: mean you're sort of producing and selling into it. You
Speaker 1: are experiencing it via Amazon, you know, which obviously you
Speaker 1: did some work with give us a sense of where
Speaker 1: sports media fits in this like wild West disrupted upside down.
Speaker 2: It's fascinating. I mean what many people have accomplished with
Speaker 2: YouTube I think is really great because you can monetize
Speaker 2: your content there, I think is super smart. There are
Speaker 2: other people who are pouring a lot of content into
Speaker 2: other areas of social media that they don't own, but
Speaker 2: that they feel like they're going to make it up
Speaker 2: in terms of being an influencer, which is also fascinating
Speaker 2: to me. There are kind of my new thing is Okay,
Speaker 2: I may not be able to go out and get
Speaker 2: somebody to spend a half a million or a million
Speaker 2: dollars on a story that I want to do, but
Speaker 2: you know what I want to do. I want to
Speaker 2: own my IP. So how am I going to do
Speaker 2: that all right, Maybe you're going to do that. Maybe
Speaker 2: you're going to do that in a podcast, right, you can,
Speaker 2: because you're going to own You're going to own your
Speaker 2: intellectual property. I'm also writing like a graphic novel. Okay wow.
Speaker 2: So and I have a twelve part podcast with in Conjunction.
Speaker 2: My partners are the NBA and iHeart and it's called
Speaker 2: NBA DNA with handle Storm. I do think it's important
Speaker 2: to kind of establish your intellectual property, and I think
Speaker 2: that there's so many tiered ways of doing that. So
Speaker 2: a lot of podcasts might become a documentary, it might
Speaker 2: become in your case, you know, a special something like that.
Speaker 2: There's layers and tears to everything you can do, and
Speaker 2: I think that's really cool. It's cool to think outside
Speaker 2: of the box. And not everything is going to be
Speaker 2: like a huge money maker, but maybe it's good in
Speaker 2: another way. I always figure like broadcasting, like you're hanging
Speaker 2: your hat there, right, and then like other things that
Speaker 2: you're passionate about really because it's kind of what it's about, right,
Speaker 2: Like you're passionate about it. You want to do this,
Speaker 2: you want to sit down and interview people like this
Speaker 2: is the vehicle that that you came together to do.
Speaker 2: Like it's fun, right, yeah, right, and maybe somebody helps.
Speaker 2: Maybe somebody's not going to sit there and go, Hi,
Speaker 2: I need an interview or I'm think I'm gonna call
Speaker 2: up Alex Rodri you know. But you're making it happen, right,
Speaker 2: and so I think that's like super cool. I guess
Speaker 2: like I always think like super optimistically, you know. And
Speaker 2: there's there's tons of projects that I have never made
Speaker 2: it to the finish line, right, but you gotta try
Speaker 2: or just find a different way, yeah, like find a
Speaker 2: different avenue.
Speaker 3: In What advice take my nineteen year old who's a
Speaker 3: freshman at Michigan and she's studying musical theater?
Speaker 2: Oh cool?
Speaker 3: What advice would you give Natasha and millions of young
Speaker 3: people out there, and not just young women, but young
Speaker 3: people that want to be the next Hannah? Maybe one
Speaker 3: or two three things that you can say that can
Speaker 3: be helpful for them.
Speaker 2: I did a lot of musical theater, okay, yeah, including
Speaker 2: a Notre Dame, which is really cool because then you're
Speaker 2: kind of a ham, right, you're like a performer. I mean,
Speaker 2: I'm sure I wasn't as talented as a Natasha, So
Speaker 2: I was like, all going to TV. I'm like an
Speaker 2: okay singer, not a great dancer. But I think, you know,
Speaker 2: this is so cliche, but it's I always telp people
Speaker 2: to work really hard, and that's I know that like
Speaker 2: goes without saying, but it doesn't really. I think you
Speaker 2: have to just Ryan Man, You've got to work so hard,
Speaker 2: you know, do not get discouraged when people say no,
Speaker 2: because I do think a lot of younger people, because
Speaker 2: of social media, they put themselves out there. They get
Speaker 2: negative comments and this and that. They're always like so
Speaker 2: worried about what other people think. They're afraid of rejection
Speaker 2: and they're afraid to put themselves out there. And I
Speaker 2: think you have to. You have to put yourself out there,
Speaker 2: and you have to understand that if you know, people
Speaker 2: don't want to hire you or blah blah blah, they're
Speaker 2: you know, the big thing now is like, oh, the
Speaker 2: company ghosted me. They never got back to me, you know,
Speaker 2: for a job like that can be really hurtful. But
Speaker 2: I think separating, not taking things personally and really understanding
Speaker 2: like a global view of the marketplace, Understanding like what
Speaker 2: you're dealing with, like from big picture that it's not
Speaker 2: it's not always about you, right, So you know, working
Speaker 2: on dealing with failure, working on dealing with rejection and
Speaker 2: staying positive and really really sticking to you know, what
Speaker 2: you want. But just there is zero substitute for working hard.
Speaker 2: And I think I just learned that being a woman
Speaker 2: in a man's industry, I had to almost work harder
Speaker 2: than anyone else. And obviously my husband is a sportscaster
Speaker 2: and he works extremely hard. And I'm not saying I
Speaker 2: work harder than him, but I'm saying that for me,
Speaker 2: that work ethic, I'm like, that will always separate me.
Speaker 2: You know, there's there's and you know I'm playing baseball,
Speaker 2: and you also know getting up and not being what
Speaker 2: percentage of of times does the ball actually meet the
Speaker 2: bat for a hit? It's it's like it's like a
Speaker 2: quarter of the times.
Speaker 4: If you're seventy.
Speaker 2: You're failing seventy percent, and you're a freaking Hall of
Speaker 2: famer except me, right exactly right, I like that. See
Speaker 2: I like that. I don't know I have a piece,
Speaker 2: but I do think that, you know, think about that, right,
Speaker 2: think about and I always think about the baseball analogy
Speaker 2: like and that's okay, you know what I mean, because
Speaker 2: you're going to fail like you're whole life, and that's okay.
Speaker 3: It's like good and it's funny you say that because
Speaker 3: I tell my children this all the time. Is that
Speaker 3: the fact that I came from a sport that you
Speaker 3: fail seventy percent of the time and you're really really good.
Speaker 3: I always say, like I have a PhD In failing.
Speaker 3: But like I eat No's for breakfast, right, Like it
Speaker 3: doesn't mean anything to me. I just keep It's almost
Speaker 3: like a blind spot.
Speaker 4: I just keep going right.
Speaker 3: And I have friends that one person says no to
Speaker 3: them and they're for three months.
Speaker 4: They're like depressuralized, you know.
Speaker 2: That's what I'm saying. And I do think that is
Speaker 2: is unfortunate, and I do think some of that is
Speaker 2: a result of of just social media in the way
Speaker 2: that we're ingrained, you know, into like everything from your
Speaker 2: physical appearance to this to that. And I do think
Speaker 2: that that's something that we, you know, I think collectively
Speaker 2: have to really work work against. And like Billy Geen
Speaker 2: always says, like if you're under pressure, like that's a privilege.
Speaker 2: You have to really really kind of think of it
Speaker 2: that way and also be open minded. You know, what
Speaker 2: you're thinking of is the perfect job and the perfect life.
Speaker 2: You know, other opportunities are going to come along that
Speaker 2: you never thought of, and when they do, just like
Speaker 2: for me, it's always been like, just have an open mind,
Speaker 2: have an open mind, and try things you're afraid of.
Speaker 2: That's really really important.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. This is really fun. Thank you,
Speaker 1: Thank you every much.
Speaker 5: The Deals of production from Bloomberg Podcasts and Bloomberg Originals.
Speaker 2: The Deal is.
Speaker 5: Hosted by Alex Rodriguez and Jason Kelly. Our producers are
Speaker 5: Victor Eveyes and Lizzie Phillip. Our story editor is Sir
Speaker 5: Dartha Mahonta. Our assystant producer is Stacey Wong. Blake Maples
Speaker 5: is our sound engineer. Rubob Shakir is our creative director.
Speaker 5: Our direction is from Jacqueline Kessler. Original music by Blake Maples,
Speaker 5: casting by Dave Warren. Our managing editor is David Ravella.
Speaker 5: Our executive producers are Sage Bauman, Jason Kelly, Adam Kamiski,
Speaker 5: Kelly Laferrier, Ashley Hoenig, Tray Shallohorn, Kyle Kramer, and Andrew Barden.
Speaker 5: Additional support from Rachel Scarmazino, Elena Los Angeles, Vanessa Perdomo,
Speaker 5: and Anna Maserakis. David Dominguez is our director of photography.
Speaker 5: Jesse Riddner and Josh Devo are camera operators. Alex Diacanis
Speaker 5: is our video editor. Our goffer is Rob Silcox, and
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Speaker 5: is Hero Roma, and a special thanks to the Wheelhouse
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Speaker 2: Thanks for listening.