We Are Power Podcast
The We Are Power podcast is the podcast for your career and your life. A weekly podcast with listeners in over 60 countries worldwide where you'll hear personal life stories, top-notch industry advice, and key leadership insight from amazing role models. The podcast not only aids your personal and professional development but also delves deep into conversations around Gender Equality and Social Mobility. Each week the We Are Power Podcast will bring you a new interview from a leader within the 100,000-strong We Are Power community, hosted by Simone Roche MBE.
We Are Power Podcast
Resilience and Representation in Women's Sports with Jamie Mittelman
What drives an Olympic Story Teller to become an advocate for gender equality in sports?
Meet Jamie Mittelman, the driving force behind Flamebearers, who’s on a mission to spotlight Olympians and Paralympians from all corners of the world.
But that’s not all—Jamie also tells us about the progress and setbacks in the push for equal media coverage, pay, and recognition for women and para-athletes.
Listen to learn:
- How media can be used as a tool for empowerment and education
- Stories of trailblazing female athletes
- The ongoing battle for equality in sports
- Why diverse role models are key to inspiring the next generation of athletes!
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Hello, hello and welcome to the we Are Power podcast. This is the podcast that we put out every single week and I have the gift to be able to speak to some of the most phenomenal role models from all sectors, all walks of life, all with that interesting path, interesting adventure that they've taken. Nobody ever follows one straight path and this week I am so very excited because I literally feel like I've met my match in collecting role models, met my match in being totally motivated by storytelling and the wonder that is gender equality and everything that goes in its form. So I am delighted to welcome from Boston, jamie Mittelman. Now Jamie began managing a $30 million shall I say, sorry wrong ever be written down which led her to create the Flamebearers, which I'm really excited we're going to talk about, and the first storytelling platform which is dedicated to the celebrating of stories of women, olympians and Paralympians. I cannot wait for this conversation, jamie, welcome, welcome. So much to the pod.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for having me. I am so excited to be here.
Speaker 1:Oh, and how did it start? Because one of the articles I heard from you is you wanted to play soccer, or, as we would say over here, football. Right, we wanted to play soccer for the USA, but how did you go from that to managing this $30 million portfolio? Tell me that one.
Speaker 2:So when I was a little girl, I grew up idolizing the US Women's National Soccer Team, which had a phenomenal track record. They were the role models who I aspired to be. When I went off to college, I quickly learned that I was not going to be that person. I was not skilled enough in soccer, but I decided that I wanted to dedicate my career to working with women and girls. About the first decade of my career was trying to figure out how I wanted to work with women and girls. I first thought I was going to be a teacher. I quickly realized that that was not for me, though I loved working with students. I wanted to reach more than the 15 students in my classroom, and that's where I fell into the role of marketing and communication and, specifically, the power of media to impact people and shape lives.
Speaker 2:So often in the world today we hear about media being used for ill will, people using media to work people's perception. But I really got into it because I think it can be an incredible educational resource and a tool to really empower people and to open people's minds. So that's why I got into media and communications, and then I was receiving a master's degree at the time, had kind of hilariously stumbled upon this. This was supposed to be my internship.
Speaker 2:I was getting a master's in policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, had been pitching a role to the International Olympic Committee around their gender equity work, and then COVID happened and no one knew what was up or down. The games were postponed for a year and I said, well, I'm not just going to sit here twiddling my thumb not knowing what's going to happen. I'm going to do this on my own. And this was four years ago. We are now in I think it's 50 countries. We've worked with over 130 Olympians and Paralympians from around the world, and we tell stories via podcast video and live events. So the rest is history. It's kind of crazy.
Speaker 1:But I read or I watched something you talked about, which was this was the savior of your pandemic a lockdown, because you, like me, have this addiction to phenomenal role models, right.
Speaker 2:A hundred percent. So I'll give you the professional story and then I'll also give you the personal, real, what actually happened. Professionally, absolutely they are what got me up in the morning. They were kind of my why.
Speaker 2:I think in certain ways this work and I didn't realize it at the time kind of became my own personal rescue mission. I had just lost my dad to brain cancer and I almost lost my mom in the same year and I think I was really looking for role models who I could look up to. I was looking for role models of resilience and grit, women who had been through really hard stuff and picked themselves back up again because my light was starting to be extinguished. And I think, personally being able to work with and illuminate these women who were fighting day in and day out for a dream at that point that they didn't even know if it was going to happen Flashback to the pandemic we didn't even know if the Olympics and the Paralympics were going to happen in those early days but they were putting in the work consistently and I think that's really kind of what got me up every day, wow.
Speaker 1:And I think that you turn, that you talk about this, the story that happened about your dad and and your mom losing that, but that motivated you to create this new narrative and this new inspiration for you and these new multiple role models. Right, um, do you have a favorite number of stories out there? Because it'd be impossible to ask you one? Right that?
Speaker 2:That is so hard. I feel like whenever I get that question I'm being asked to choose amongst my unborn children. I will toss out two different stories. The first is of Kastor Semenya. So I had the opportunity to work with Kastor twice now. Kastor is a two-time Olympic gold medalist, three-time world champion in the 800 meters. She's from South Africa, born a woman, identifies as a woman, has no part in the conversation around trans athletes, but she was barred from competing because of her naturally high testosterone levels and essentially had lost a decade of her life because she has quote unquote higher than average testosterone. Again, this is how she was born. She never questioned anything about herself until people started saying, hey, why are you so good? And she's like I don't know. This is how I was born. So giving voice to Castor during, I think, this period where she felt like the world turned on her was incredibly meaningful for me.
Speaker 2:The second athlete who I always like to give credit to is Masama Al-Izada. Masama is from Afghanistan. She is the head of the refugee Olympic team, so number one. A lot of people don't know that there is a refugee Olympic team. Some of these athletes actually all of these athletes have some of the most incredible stories you will ever hear. They're all from war-torn countries.
Speaker 2:Masama grew up cycling in Kabul and she had to dress up as a man in order to get on her bike, and that was because women could not bike ride. And when she went out as a man, she would have a man ride in front of her and a man ride behind her, just in case anyone found out. And then, when cars would pass her, if anyone looked over and noticed that while she's dressed like a man, it's actually a woman, they would throw stuff at her, they would insult her. And she did this day in and day out, because she had a dream of going to the Olympics and competing in the Tour de France. Flash forward to today, mazama is going into her second Olympics, she has competed in the female Tour de France and she is using her platform to elevate the condition of women in Afghanistan, under Taliban rule. So I think that she is an incredible shining light and a beacon of hope for everyone, but in particular, she's trying to leverage that for women in her country.
Speaker 1:And it never ceases to amaze me that individuals who suffer the most or don't have the same advantage as others will be the ones doing more, really, like you say, using that power for good.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, absolutely. It was on a personal note. It was an incredible reminder of the privilege that I have to be able to hop on a bicycle and walk outside my door and feel completely fine. But incredible how she's leveraging her notoriety, her position of power, really to spread awareness for the situation of women in her home country.
Speaker 1:And I know you talk about the fact that you had the opportunity and the gift to talk to these individuals, but actually it takes a village. It takes to create an Olympian and a Paralympian.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and that's one of the things that people don't see and we try to shed light on is that there's really a village behind every single athlete on the podium, every single athlete who even gets to compete. Katerina Roxson, of Canada she is a para swimmer. She told me when she was on the podium receiving her medal she was really picturing her family, her friends, her coaches around her on that podium and, of course, on television we don't see that, but that is often what the athletes are thinking about is all the individuals who invested in them, who said yes to driving them to practice when they were little, who lifted them up when they had a bad day, because, you know, it's not all sunshine and rainbows to get to the top of the world. There's a lot of downs along the way too.
Speaker 1:Is there a word that you would describe? Is there a common word or theme that you would give to these amazing athletes that you interview?
Speaker 2:So the word and the theme through all the interviews we do is resilient. It's the notion that they are all incredibly resilient individuals and that can take form in many different ways. It can be recovering from injury. It could be like Mathema, being resilient in the face of pressures from her society and continuing to push forward towards her dream. It could be like Castor and being resilient and using her platform to right a wrong that she feels has been an injustice. And we see resilience in all of these women. It just manifests in different ways.
Speaker 1:And that's amazing because this is where your marketing and comms superpower comes in, because you can see that threat and everyone can do something right, irrespective of what part they play in this sector industry.
Speaker 2:Exactly, and that's really one of our underlying goals is that you don't even have to be a fan of sports to like our work. We're really trying to show that anyone can find their inner Olympian or their inner Paralympian, because the traits that these women have are traits that transcend sports 100%, and I think we're.
Speaker 1:do you feel like we're at a turning point?
Speaker 2:I really hope so. I am all my fingers and all my toes are crossed. We are seeing right now a time when women's sports are having a moment, and we're trying to make that moment happen every single day. We just have to keep the momentum going.
Speaker 1:But I hope so, because there's still that disparity, isn't it, between the representation in the media for sport through male sports versus women's sports. It's getting better. Is it progress, not perfection?
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, and thank you for calling that out. So Paris is actually the first Olympics where there's gender equity, so we're actually seeing equal number of male and women athletes competing At the same time. There's still a lot of work that has to be done. So if you look at the sports media landscape as a whole, we're going to take a step back. 85% of sports media coverage goes to men, so that means that 15% of sports media coverage is all that goes to women, and that's an all-time high. The number historically was between 3% and 5% until a new study came out this past year by Wasserman. So yes, we are making progress and we can hold that win on one hand. At the same time, I think it's important to have the nuance and the ability to take a step back and say 15%. We can do a lot better than that.
Speaker 1:Hell yeah, and it's also the equity between the Olympics and the Paralympics. I worked at London 2012. So I was working for the London Olympic Organizing Committee and I remember that was the first year that there was that parity if you like, the same destination and it was definitely very, very, very like a privilege to be at. It was not like an afterthought or a second class show. It was absolutely amazing. But there's still more to be done. I know you have the same belief as me, as it should be done at the same time, right.
Speaker 2:You have the same belief as me, as it should be done at the same time, right, that is my personal belief. So of that 15% of coverage going to women, it pretty much all goes to able-bodied individuals. Tokyo, the past Paralympics, was actually the first Paralympics in history that was shown on primetime television. Beyond the actual quantity, there's also a massive quality issue in terms of how these athletes are being covered. So, specifically when it comes to para-athletes, there's tropes that journalists and media fall into, frequently portraying para-athletes with what I call the pity brush being sources of inspiration, whether or not that narrative resonates with the athlete. Some athletes just want to be talked about for being the best boccia player in the world and they don't want to be taught. They don't want the narrative to really focus on. Oh, what was me? I was born with A, b and C condition, if that's not really how they feel. So we got a long way to go in terms of quantity, but then also quality.
Speaker 1:Now let me turn the focus on you, because you spend all the time interviewing amazing humans with amazing stories. But you've recently received some accolades, haven't you? For Flamebearers, it's four Signal Awards, and equally, you've also received massive recognition at Harvard as well. So like two not too small things there, right, well, thank you.
Speaker 2:I appreciate that. I like to say that the athletes we work with are doing the hard work and I'm trying to give them the credit that I think they deserve. We have been very fortunate. We are now up to 18 total awards in video work, podcasting and social media. We just recently won a number of awards for our work with the US Women's National Soccer Team from 1985. So shout out to my amazing co-host, michelle Akers, from that series.
Speaker 1:It's amazing and it's amazing. I think people don't always understand the power that, that amplification, the power of that storytelling. It's not just a podcast or a video or an insight report. It's way more than that. It's more, you know, it's massive.
Speaker 2:Exactly. Well, you know the way we started is. You asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up and I said I wanted to be on the US Women's National Soccer Team. That's because I had role models. That's because I grew up with a picture and a poster of Mia Hamm on my door that said if you don't, if you can't see it, if you can't hear it, it's hard to be it. So we're trying to provide and illuminate the stories of tons of different role models around the world. So little girls and boys have athletes at the highest echelon of sports who they can aspire to become 100% and the Lionesses, our football soccer team over here, we hold way up there.
Speaker 1:When they won the Euros a couple of years ago, one of the first things that they did was to use that power to go and lobby government to say we need more sport at grassroots level, and I know the US team did a massive role about getting that gender pay parity as well. So that's the important piece, because it's not there. Is it? The pay parity is not there and the equity is not there. The US soccer team, I think in the first instance, were in hand-me-down clothes, I think.
Speaker 2:Yes, I had the opportunity to work with Becky Sauerbrunn, who was one of the captains of the US Women's National Team. She also was leading the charge on that pay equity lawsuit. We were successful in it. So that is incredible. But if we were to flash back to the first US Women's National Soccer Team 1985, who I had the opportunity to work with, they were wearing hand-me-down men's jerseys that were five times too large and they were given $10 a day. Compare that to what the men's players were given and it's laughable. But yes, we are making progress 100%.
Speaker 1:And what is next for you?
Speaker 2:So we have a lot of exciting things.
Speaker 2:Obviously, the Olympics and the Paralympics just wrapped up.
Speaker 2:I believe we have a number of exciting podcast seasons that we have coming up that I can't quite announce yet, as well as some video documentary work all around the goal of centering the stories of diverse women in sports, as well as a number of really exciting events, sharing those voices with young girls and boys directly. One thing that I do like to really name is that we don't do sports reporting, so a lot of times people are like oh, this is really cool, how are you different from an ESPN or name any other media outlet? What I like to say to that is we really focus on the person, not the sport, so we produce human interest stories that anyone can relate to. We're not talking about who beat who, what the score of a current match is. We're really talking about the beating heart under the jersey, the woman with the brain attached to her body that is scoring those goals, shooting those baskets and interestingly, you've talked about the amplification of this not just to young girls and women, but also to boys.
Speaker 1:That, to me, has always been the critical thing.
Speaker 2:A hundred percent, and that's actually something that I can mention. We're in the process of building out a male athlete allyship program. I think, when it comes to equity and gender equity, we can't do it alone. I am a big believer that we need men to be a crucial part of this work and, specifically, I think men in sport have an incredible audience and visibility and have a lot of sway culturally. So stay tuned for our work engaging men, because I think that they are half of the solution 100%.
Speaker 1:it's not a women's problem to fix, and that's one of the things we've always been adamant and passionate about Collect the good guys. Collect the good guys, the guys that will advocate for women, for girls, for women's sport, whatever sector it is. When the women aren't in the room, that's the big opportunity to shift right, Completely aligned. We'll do that on the next podcast, when we do our follow-up, I reckon.
Speaker 1:Now, what would be those final words, kind of inspiration and advice for young women out there who really want to make an impact, whether it be in the world of media, sport or the associated communities that wrap around this wonderful world of athleticism and everything else that sits with?
Speaker 2:it. What I would say is definitely to have an abundance mindset, not a scarcity mindset. I think where many of us my former self included in this get it wrong is we think that we're competing with each other. We think that there's only so much room at the top of the pyramid, and I think that's wrong. I have found that when we support each other, when we lift each other up, it comes back to you tenfold. So what I would say is, if you're looking to get into this space, surround yourself with women who are already doing the incredible work and become their cheerleaders, become their number one fan, because I think that there's enough for everyone to go around.
Speaker 1:I couldn't agree more. I think it's that we kind of live in a whole ecosystem here, which is all right, passing it forward. We've all got something that we can give and gain. This is not cutting up the pie and people get less. This is about sharing this. So that's what it's all about for us. That's what sits in our heart and DNA, and that's why I'm absolutely convinced that we are separated somewhere down the line.
Speaker 2:I totally agree, and I remember when I was younger thinking oh, what do I have to offer? You know, I don't have a lot of resources or I don't have A, b or C, and I think where I was getting it wrong is there's so much that you can offer that isn't monetary, it's guilt-based, it could be time-based. Look at what you're good at and think how you can use that to support the people around you.
Speaker 1:What is your superpower?
Speaker 2:I make people feel seen and celebrated. I meet people where they're at, and it doesn't matter who you are, where you're from, what your background is. If people know you or if you're a Joe Schmo on the street, I stop, I make them feel seen, seen and celebrated.
Speaker 1:I love it. And finally, somewhere down the line, I read that you have three times applied to be on Survivor.
Speaker 2:Is that true? That is true, I'm still waiting on my callback.
Speaker 1:Hey, if not now, when right?
Speaker 2:Exactly, this was one of those things that, after losing my dad, I was like. You know. We got one shot at this thing called life. What am I waiting for?
Speaker 1:one shot at this thing called life. What am I waiting for? I love that we always talk on this podcast about those tote bag moments. What are those that you know be seen and celebrated? That, I believe, is your, jamie Milton. That's your tote bag moment, amongst many others. I think there's a whole backside to it as well, but thank you so, so much for joining me. Literally, we need a box set of this, I feel.
Speaker 2:I would love that. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1:Oh, thank you, Thank you so much. I always love every week, these top tips, this insight, the passion, the energy, the energy that's just sort of come across, come across the ocean. It's addictive, it's enthusiastic and it's so brilliant. So, thank you so much for giving us the time today, jamie, thank you for having me and I love what you're doing.
Speaker 1:Oh, and thank all of you for listening. Please do give us your comments. We know you love some of the comments that we get. Please share it, please pass it on, be seen and be celebrated. It's so massively important and, equally, it's free right. You know we could all do something to celebrate someone else. So thank you all so much for joining me on this week's podcast. My name is Simone. This is the we Are Power podcast, and you can stay connected on all of our socials Twitter, instagram, tiktok, wearepower underscore net, facebook and LinkedIn wearepower. Thank you so much and I will see you next week.
