Dr. Bernie Mullin is a groundbreaking sport and entertainment industry executive who has turned around franchises, set all time revenue and attendance records, and generated $1.5 billion in revenues for brands from the NFL to the U.S. Open Tennis with agency Aspire Marketing Group.
Bernie has definitely moved from Success to Significance with involvement in the United Way, YMCA, Make a Wish Foundation and The Aspire Difference Foundation supporting single parents with pre-school children.
On this podcast learn about the empowerment of today's youth through education. You will also hear about America's top 10 key soclal problems.
Hear Bernie's proposal to have a summer camp for all incoming high school freshmen, giving them orientation as American citizens and how to be an adult.
Visit www.berniejmullin.com to support this visionary.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/legends-extraordinary-lives--5351541/support.
Bernie has definitely moved from Success to Significance with involvement in the United Way, YMCA, Make a Wish Foundation and The Aspire Difference Foundation supporting single parents with pre-school children.
On this podcast learn about the empowerment of today's youth through education. You will also hear about America's top 10 key soclal problems.
Hear Bernie's proposal to have a summer camp for all incoming high school freshmen, giving them orientation as American citizens and how to be an adult.
Visit www.berniejmullin.com to support this visionary.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/legends-extraordinary-lives--5351541/support.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:09):
And welcome back to success made thelast author's corner. I'm Rick to'keenney.
This show is presented by the RightOne and by Heather Barnes Media, Austin,
Texas. Our special guest today isdoctor Bernie Mullen, who has written
a book called Reimagining America's Dream Makingit Attainable for all. Bernie, welcome
(00:33):
to our show. Oh, thankyou so much for having me on.
Rick, Hey, nice to haveyou on. To tell us about your
background and include where you're from originally. Yeah, well, I'm an immigrant.
So I'm originally from Liverpool in Englandand came over to age twenty one
(00:54):
to be a summer camp counselor.Was very blessed to have a great relationship
with the owner camp. He broughtme back as head soccer counselor and then
as the head counselor of the youngestkids group and gave me a scholarship to
go to grad school. And Iapplied a whole bunch of places, and
the first place that accepted me wasthe University of Kansas, So I became
(01:18):
a Jayhawk and four years at KUduring master's degrees and a PhD, and
went onto my career from there.Fifty years later. Now I've never left,
and you've stayed in the state ofKansas. Oh no, no,
no, I've moved all over theplace. So when I graduated, the
(01:42):
first job I had for ten yearswas a professor of business and the job
was to build a sport management programat the University of Massachusetts at Amaston.
So I spent ten years in Massachusetts, wrote a book on sport marketing that
was great, placed a lot ofstudents in top decision making positions in sports
(02:04):
and entertainment industry. I've got aCalifornia Supreme Court judge, You've got four
or five former CEOs of Major leagueteams, and three or four CEOs of
big venues all over the country andover the world. From that, and
(02:25):
then in nineteen eighty six, Idecided, Hey, let's see if this
stuff really works, and so Iwent to become SENIVP of business for the
Pirates right as we turned them around. So they were drawing seven thousand fans
a game. Seven players in thefederal grand jury drug trials, a player
that went public, Dave Parker puttingone thousand dollars of cocaine up his nose,
(02:49):
every day. Then we turned himaround to draw over two million fans
a year when the Nationally East threeyears in a row up my ring.
Unfortunately, we lost to the CincinnatiReds and the Braves twice. And then
I went on and did the samething senior VP of business started the Colorado
(03:09):
Rockies, built all the front officestaff. We broke Major League Baseball and
all time World sports season attendance recordsof four point four million built. Corse
Field left there. Knew I formy career. If I wanted to be
a GM of a major league team, I needed the sports side. So
(03:30):
I went down to the International HockeyLeague. We put a team together there,
won the championship, then got kickedout of Denver by the Colorado Avalanche.
So I moved the team to SaltLake for the owner, and I
became the vice chancellor of athletics atthe University of Denver and took them to
(03:51):
Division IE athletics. We've won thirteenNCAA Division One championships since then, built
half a billion dollars worth of facilitiesthere. That was a great experience.
And then in two thousand I gothired by some guy called David Stern the
commission of the NBA to be SeniorVP of Marketing and Team Business create an
(04:14):
in house consulting group. It wastwo years after Michael Jordan had hired and
attendance was declining, revenues were declining, and David Departmas promised the players Union
that they would always have the highestaverage salary of any athlete in the world
and their pay would go up everyyear. So we built the consulting group,
(04:36):
put it together, and raised therevenue by quarter billion a year through
those practices, then proving that Ihave no problem getting great jobs, just
keeping them. I then moved tobecome CEO of the Atlanta Hawk's NBA team,
Atlanta Thrash as anytled team as theywere in those days and Phillips Arena
(05:00):
as it was now State Farm Arena. Did that for four years with nine
owners who fought each other in courtand weekly boarder manager calls where they were
fighting each other, and one ofthe guys lawyers would send me a note
every Wednesday night, Hey, youreferenced all this stuff. You know,
(05:24):
I want the minutes of the meetings, and I'm like, now, I
was a thirty second conversation at thewater cooler for God's sake, you know.
So finally had enough after four yearsand created my own company, the
Aspire Sport Marketing Group. We didrevenue enhancement. In sixteen years, we
brought in one point seventy five billionin incremental revenue for top sports properties around
(05:49):
the world, mainly colleges in theUSA. So we had the University of
Texas in Austin for a long periodof time, Halton State. People like
that in the state of Texas,you know, Rutgers do, Kansas,
lots of big schools, the NFL, Major League Baseball teams around the world.
(06:12):
And I sold it last year anddecided to semi retire and write this
book. What a great journey you'vebeen on, frivolous you have always been.
I think your journey is marked bybeing a futurist, a visionary.
(06:32):
I'd also say you've been an architectand a builder. I was in Denver
when you did the whole Colorado Rockiesand built out Cursefield. And you probably
know my friend leo' coonley, whowas I should do president of I used
to work for him at Free DooLa. He wasn't my direct boss,
(06:54):
but he's a good man. Andyou know, the people that you've met
along your way, they must haveinspired you. And I'd love for you
to just kind of take the podiumand think, you know two or three
of the people that shaped your careeras as you escalated up the ranks.
Absolutely, Rick, you know,it starts mom and dad, like everybody
(07:18):
would. You know, my dadtaught me two things that were absolutely vital.
Hard work. Elbow grease was hisfavorite phrase. Eight years old,
I washed my dad's car. Youknow when I finished, I said,
sir. It was sergeant major inthe army and a boxing instructor. You
can imagine five foot six, Butyou know, sir, I finished your
(07:42):
car. Are you sure? Yes, sir, you know, And you
go and inspect the car and underthe bumper, I hadn't washed them to
the bumper, and I get mynose rubbed in the dirts under the bumper.
And today they would call that childabuse. In those days, it
was tough love. And you know, I never failed to wash under the
bumper ever again in my life,and it really served me well for another
(08:07):
you know, Wooden Column Sergeant MajorEconoma, five star General David Stern I'll
talk about him in a minute,but Mardy Goldman, the owner of the
summer camp, gave me the scholarshipto go to grad school. I'll be
forever grateful. And when you gointo Camp Techa in Naples Main, you
drive in through an arch that hasall kinds of values and they lived them.
And that's the most important thing.It's not one thing to espouse,
(08:30):
it's something else to actually execute andlive around those And I learned that from
him. I worked for an incredibleman in Dan Richie, who was the
chancellor at the University of Denver.They were going bankrupt. He took it
over as chancellor. He got paida dollar and now the entire university,
(08:56):
every building has been redone or brandnew, not a single dollar of debt.
And it is, in my opinion, the finest academic institution in the
Rocky Mountains. And you know,visionary people like that, and then of
course DJs. You you know whata force of nature David Stern was as
(09:16):
commissioner of the NBA. When youthink about when he took over the league
and the finals were tape delayed atone in the morning. A famous sports
reporter is still active in Boston oncetold him, you can't market an all
black league, and he said,watch me, mh. You know,
(09:37):
so in all cases, you know. And I had an incredible president,
Mac Prian, Malcolm Prian at thepirates who you know? I said,
Mac, what do I do?You know? How do I make decisions?
And he said, at every nexus, of every conflict, of every
decision, always do what is inthe best long term interest of the pittsb
(10:00):
Pirates. And so it made iteasy on me to make those decisions.
And unfortunately he got in a fightwith the general manager, said Thrift,
and they favored said Thrift for abouteight months, and then they realized what
we'd gotten said and they moved himout and we replaced the president. And
(10:20):
the next president I could never Inever knew what decision to make because he
was he ran a local law firm, and we had fourteen owners and the
owners ship groups, you know,most of them were his clients. And
I didn't know who was most infavor, or who had the biggest influence,
who was righting the law firm thebiggest check. And therefore it wasn't
(10:43):
an easy decision. Every time itwas check with the person who was the
president, the new president, andsee which way he wanted you to make
a decision. And that's no wayto as you know, our senior VP
didn't matter if I was CEO.There's no way to run a business.
(11:03):
You've got to have that clarity.And so that's why the last sixteen years
I ran my own business, wasmy own boss, and we built a
multi billion dollar organization that generated wellover one hundred and twenty five million of
new revenue for our client partners everyyear and serve three hundred of the top
sports organizations in the world and evensports sponsors like Coca Cola and getting them
(11:28):
involved with the Vatican I'm a PopeFrancis Initiative and Allian's Insurance and Wealth Management
from Munich in Germany and handling theirsports sponsorship businesses for a period of time.
Exciting. I've been so blessed,really, yes, or you've been
extraordinarily blessed, Bernie. One ofthe reasons why we wanted to have you
(11:52):
on today, other than to talkabout reimagining America's Dream, is that the
way you get on our show isthat you've moved from success to significance.
And I want to know at whatpoint of your career you decided that giving
back was one of the most importantaspects and elements of your life. No,
(12:16):
it's a great question, Rick,and the book is in two parts.
The first part is me, youknow, and as I move around
the country the question you just asked, Kansas, Massachusetts, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
Denver, Colorado, New York City, Atlanta, Georgia. And then
a consulting period with the Aspire Groupfor eighteen months with the LA Dodgers.
(12:37):
So I have worked in all fourtime zones, lived in three time zones.
I've been blessed to work in alldifferent parts of the United States.
So my story is, you know, coming to America, you know,
spoof on the Eddie Murphy movie name, and then different kind of cute titles
(12:58):
of you know, Southern hospitality andmoving to the Big Apple and you know,
Dorothy, we are in Kansas,stuff like that. So the first
part of it is is there's twolayers to it. There's me, my
career, me as a dad,MEAs building a family, me as becoming
(13:18):
an American and living the American dream. And my career to be so blessed
as the first immigrant ever to beCEO of a major League team and two
major League teams at the same time. So there's that level to it of
what I'm learning, who I'm workingwith, and then there's the level of
(13:41):
me being on boards. You know. Matt Prine Malcolm Prian in Pittsburgh was
a polio victim and he got ascholarship as a young man to go to
the YMCA and swim and was ableto obviously be fully ambulanced and fully functional.
Later went on to be a MACMid America Conference referee, was president
(14:05):
of Envy Ryan Holmes and the DAfor Columbus Ohio. Amazing guy, and
so he says to me, Iwant you to serve and I'd love you
to serve on the YMCA. Soeverywhere ever lived, I've served on the
YMCA board and given back. Soat that level, I was doing all
of those things, seeing the poverty, you know, the scholarships and the
(14:28):
programs that the wide head that wason Make a Wish Foundation with poor kids
that were inflicted, many with terminaldisease at a very young age, and
served on United Way and saw thereand the Visitor and Convention Bureau board,
particularly sports councils so I had thatlevel going. But as the book chronicles
(14:48):
in my journey across the America,finally I started to realize that, you
know, hey, the American dreamwas incredibly aspirational for me. It started
with an uncle of my mom who, as a young boy left Liverpool and
went to Canada, worked in acork factory, worked his way up.
(15:09):
Eventually, the mother of the husbandand wife who owned the company had no
kids. They left the company tohim, and it was the cork factory
for segum seven seven whiskey, andso Uncle Pat used to come with his
family every summer and I talked tohim. I learned about the milk and
honey and seven year eight nine yearsold, I was too young to know
(15:31):
the difference between Canada and America.But then aged ten, eleven and twelve,
we had Uncle Percy, my dad'scousin from New York, VP of
pharmaceuticals for Vis who came to builda factory in England, and he talked
about the Bronx and New York Yankees, and all of a sudden they got
the American dream. So I wassmitt at a young age twenty one,
(15:52):
coming to be a counselor that tiedthose two together, and it all bloomed
and as the book of all myawareness of we are the richest country on
the world, in the world inAmerica based on GDP, you know,
we're still damn near double the Chinese. And people don't get that. You
(16:12):
know, they're big and they're gettingbigger. Well, they were getting bigger.
They've stabilized, but we are enormousand we have the highest level of
poverty in the most evanced country onthe earth. We've got thirty seven million
people living below the poverty line.It's wrong. It's just flat out wrong.
And so as I evolved in thebook and wrote the book and did
(16:37):
the research and had a ghost writerwork with me to help me do a
lot of the research, I realizedthat we got our priorities wrong. And
then coupled with that, Rick,I think is what's been going on in
this country with a nasty toxicity inpolitics. And I know the show's a
political and I'm a political. I'man independent. I sit in the middle.
(17:03):
I believe I have a warm heart. I believe I've got a big
social conscience, and I think thataccording to Pew research, the sixty plus
percent of Americans who sit in themiddle as independent centrists somewhat neutral. The
people that are going to decide thepresidential election this fall are the ones to
be influenced by the two candidates,and you know, two main candidates.
(17:30):
Clearly we have a responsibility. Ithink we've been sitting on our hands,
and I don't think we're shouting outenough. And the book is three things.
Number One, it's my thank youto America for adopting me in all
the Americans, particularly the heartland,the Kansas and the people that really welcomed
(17:51):
me there for the first four years. That made me fall in love and
my ex wife was English fall inlove with American with our shout at out.
And then number two, it wasincredibly aspirational for me, and I
believe it's aspirational for a lot ofpeople. And I also have stated in
the book believe that this common visionand aspiration unites us, and particularly the
(18:15):
thirty odd percent that are in bluecollar working class wanting to have their own
home, who it's not been availablefor particularly Sadly, it invariably ends up
being minorities, you know, withthe with the lower income and the lower
education because of our school systems inso many of the poor districts not delivering,
(18:37):
in not disciplining, and the familyand single parent families. You know,
particularly in black and Latino culture inAmerica, it is very high prevalence
to not have both sexes as rolemodels. And you know, it's fine
if you've got two partners of thesame sex. I'm not suggesting that's not
okay, you know, but that'sthat's lacking. So the aspirational elements is
(19:00):
the second piece. And finally,it's making it attainable for all. So
that's why I wrote the book.Thank you, America, God bless you.
I have lived an incredible life forme, my kids, my grandkids,
and I want everybody to have that. Yeah, and thank you.
Your book is in fact a gift, and it's a I think it's a
(19:22):
compilation of all the wisdom that you'veacquired over the course of time on the
topic of significance. Though, Iwant to make sure that you get in
your lecks on the following questions.Let's start with, how do you think
that we should empower today's youth towardor through education? And if so,
(19:45):
is this through a national investment thatprovides some sort of head start for all.
Yes, without a shed of adoubt. The book, first of
all, very quickly, it startswith, so the top ten social issues
that we make recommendations on follow thepure research of Votera Poland as to what
(20:07):
are the biggest issues in America.Number one is income without a shadow of
it out, So it recommends anational minimum wage that gives you dignity that
with one job you can live andraise a family. Obviously, the number
of kids it would be a functionthere, but at least one kid,
so that single parent, teenage,pregnant parent does not have to work two
(20:30):
jobs, can get the ged andcan can raise a child and feed them,
you know, with really good foodfrom a regular grocery store, not
a food desert out of a canor McDonald's or Domino's. Nothing there's anything
wrong with that, but not aset he dies. So national minimum wage
number one. Number two, theeducational program is designed to deal with generational
(20:53):
wealth. And in the book it'svery clear creating generational wealth is the big
way to change America and to givepeople the opportunity to have the American drink.
How do we recommend we do it? Exactly what you said, through
an investment in youth education nation andfederal money in this particular case. But
(21:15):
I will point out that the entireprogram has been costed. So I've run
this book like it's a business.How do you break even? As close
to break even as you can andwe can't. There will be at least
one hundred billion dollar investment until thereduction in teenage pregnancies, the reduction in
(21:38):
crime, the reduction in food steps, the reduction in support starts to kick
in. Then you start to haveit be balanced, and then you've got
a way more productive America. Sowhat does it start? Free preschool for
every kid, quality preschool. AndI've the proceeds from this book and all
my consulting go to the Aspire DifferenceFoundation. We are focused on single parents
(22:03):
with preschool kids, and it's againrun like a business. The goal is
you get into kindergarten able to read, write, and do basic math,
and be socialized, to listen toa teacher, and to be able to
work well with your peers. Thoseare our goals, measurable goals that we
you know, look to do.And so during that time, what have
(22:26):
we got to do? We've gotto provide mental health, which has been
underlooked for most of my time inAmerica. But COVID, I think has
really raised the consciousness of it.And I'll give you a good example when
we always and I always taught worklife balance. Now that's life work balance.
(22:51):
Life is first for people after COVIDtheir lives, you know, and
them not coming back to the workplaceall the other things is an example.
Well, mental health the caregiver isnumber one, and that's been underfunded and
undersupported, and we have to changethat. Number two, stable household and
not in the hood. Not well, when you walk out the door,
you've got the gangs, you know. And I've got a senior VP who's
(23:15):
our DEI officer of my former company, the Aspire Group, you know,
who will tell you his mother andhis aunts and his grandmother who raised him,
are like you don't go down tothe end of the street, to
the right where the gangs are,where the hood is, where the drugs
are. You don't go there.You know, even though he was a
last key kid, you and yourbrothers and sisters will stay at home and
(23:36):
do your homework, and you know, with that discipline and direction, it
happened. So that's number one.That is massive. That's ten thousand dollars
a year for decent really fifteen thousanddollars a year that the government will support
four million kids every year, twentymillion kids between being born and through to
(23:57):
where they enter kindergarten. Then latchkeykid problem is a huge problem. Free
babysitting in school by teachers during gradeand middle school. So those kids don't
go home to an empty house.Instead, they stay in school, get
some milk and cookies, and theyget mentored to do their homework. Massive
(24:21):
difference. So these kids are inschool, real students. My son in
law just taught middle school at oneof the poorer schools in Denver, Colorado,
and the kids don't give a youknow what about studying and work.
Their future is being in the gangsand probably dying. You know, it's
(24:41):
not my resume and my career.My middle daughter is a prosecutor. She's
the deputy a district attorney for DenverDistrict and County, and she's just been
running the UNTI Human Trafficking division andshe'll tell you that a poor minority kid
shows up invariably to be indicted ontheir own no support, you know,
(25:04):
a code appointed attorney who could beanything from you know, completely beginning and
inexperience to who knows what. Andall they care about is don't put me
in jail, or if you're goingto put me in jail, put me
in for the shortest time. Idon't care about a felony on my record
versus you know, somebody from themiddle or upper class generally speaking, is
(25:26):
like, oh, it's about mycareer. I can't have a felony,
and they'll show up with family anda better quality lawyer, you know.
So the book talks about these injusticesin the system, but in the second
piece, it's no latch key kids. So you reduce the gang problem,
you reduce the probability they'll get intodrugs, you reduce the probability of teenage
(25:48):
pregnancies, then the prescription and it'sa long ends. So I reckon,
I apologize for that. But priorto entering high school, I recommend an
eight week sleep away food camp forevery kid. And the concept of the
camp is how to become an adultAmerican? How to become an adult and
(26:11):
how to become an American. It'sJohn F. Kennedy's ask not what your
country can do for you, butwhat you can do for it. And
you know, they they're in acamp with a thousand of the kids,
so rich, poor, whatever,black, brown, yellow, white,
doesn't matter. They learn that theyare an American and that there is all
(26:32):
these other groups and needs and interests. And they have a common experience that
my generation had through conscription in themilitary. You know. It's that same
common experience that brings them together.So that and they get paid and then
before they sophomore, junior, andsenior years, they have internship experiences,
(26:52):
again paid at least the minimum wage, so that a young man or woman
would have within just about twenty fivethousand dollars cash in their hands at age
eighteen. And we would get thebanks, and I've done sponsorships with banks
for years, get the banks tocompete, give them seven and a half
percent interest if they leave one hundredpercent of the money in the bank,
(27:15):
you know. And so at eighteenyears old, these kids can go out
and start their own entrepreneurial business.They can buy an apartment or condo.
They that generation, all of asudden has generational wealth. And I'm not
naive to know that some of thesefamilies, the parent them, you know,
certing single parent families, the mom'sgoing to go, hey, I
need that money. I understand,but we would build that program. Okay,
(27:38):
So what happens finally, if you'vedone those four years in high school
and you've built the wealth, andyou've built your resume, and you've built
your experience, and you've seen whereto go in your career. So because
one of the internships would be ina private business, one in public sector,
and one probably charity volunteer groups,you've got a full array of experiences.
(28:02):
You then get fifteen thousand dollars ayear voucher for four years to go
to school, so that your educationunless you're going to an Ivy League school,
you know half of it is covered, forty percent of it is covered.
Or you use it for professional certification. You become a beautician, asthetician,
plumber, carpenter, all of thetrades that we need people in that
(28:26):
we have to encourage young people.You don't necessarily have to go and I
was a professor for ten years,but you don't necessarily have to go to
university. You get that and sothat's the investment in youth. It's a
massive investment, but the change insocial issue behavior we believe will be phenomenal.
(28:49):
Yeah, Bernie, this notion ofa eight week boot camp, I
think is the most clever and practicalidea that you've talked about. And it's
not that the other items are aren'tas important, but there is a regardless
(29:15):
of whether you've got a mom anda dad, and I know that there's
a high percentage of American families thatare split up. This idea of an
orientation to adulthood and to becoming anAmerican it reminds me of Boy State that
(29:36):
I attended back in nineteen seventy three, and it gave me an orientation to
how government works and how the importanceof voting and so many other practical things.
And it's like, oh my gosh, that was a seminal moment in
my life. Absolutely it's and it'sset and it set me forward to be
(30:03):
what I think is a responsible Americanand wanting to have a voice that makes
a difference and all the other things. So I what, what are some
of the ways that we can movethat individual initiative forward to have an eight
week boot camp. Well, we'vegot to get the politicians on board,
(30:26):
and I think the moderates are there. I think, you know, without
getting too much into politics, Ithink that clearly our two leading candidates for
the presidency have both been dragged youknow, by the more vociferous, more
active members of their parties more youknow, more to the extreme maga right
or more to the extreme woke left. And I think that's done this country
(30:48):
of disservice. So we need themoderate politicians in the middle to get behind
it and push this agenda. Iknow that I can get all kinds of
large core operations to do grants forthis program. I'm not saying we can
make it free, because it'll costone thousand dollars a kid, you know,
for the eight week camp. Theway I've schemed it out, I'd
(31:11):
run enough camps, uh, summercamps, albeit obviously extremely wealthy Jewish kids
up in the up in in Maine. But you know, and God bless
them, they won't. There won'tbe the locks and bagels, uh,
you know, for breakfast on Parents'Day, the But you know, I
know the economics of camping, Iknow the logistics of camping, and with
(31:36):
about a thousand kids each camp.Putting this together is not difficult because of
the mothball military camps and other facilitiesthat we've got in many states, not
all states. So we can wecan. We can do the pilot programs
and get them up and running prettyquickly while making the investment for for bigger
(31:56):
programs. But I think it's reallygetting from your listeners or anybody in America.
It's the wealthy people that are willingto donate behind this kind of program.
You're going after someone like Melinda Gates, you know, with her new
foundation and people like that who arevery visionary, and the politicians, and
I've started that obviously at the levelhere in Denver, Colorado, and also
(32:21):
the connections I have. We're inGeorgia, the state of Georgia with Governor
on down here and in Colorado andGeorgia. To stop that kind of dialogue.
Yeah, it's very good. Iwant to make one passing comment and
I want you to comment on it. And in our lifetime, Bernie,
(32:44):
we've never had anything like COVID nineteen, nor have we ever seen the outpouring
of money going to cure our culture, our society, and the outpouring money
to small businesses and it's like,holy cow, where where have been our
(33:07):
priorities? What about what you're talkingabout. Why can't we crank up one
hundred billion dollar investment to focus ongenerational wealth? And is it going to
take another catastrophe like COVID or whycan't we even see our culture today as
(33:30):
a catastrophe and go, oh,that's another COVID, let's put some money
behind it. Well, yeah,I am with you, Rick, I
am a very optimistic, very verypositive person. I am concerned about what
could happen this year. We're goingto see, you know, the George
Floyd style protests around the country.But you know, and so often that
(33:55):
revolves minorities, and so often involvesin a city, and so often involves
destruction of property. You know,when I was in Atlanta at the time
when all that happened, had friends, minority friends who owned businesses whose businesses
were destroyed. Despite the fact thatthey covered all the windows with hardwood and
had on their black owned business,you know, they got destroyed. And
(34:20):
so you realize, you know,I hinted this in the book, Rick,
without I mean, I'm not youknow, one of these idiots that
has all of these conspiracy theories.I don't subscribe to any of that stuff.
I do know you know that inthe research fact, foreign governments are
(34:44):
interfering in this country to try andbring us down, particularly the Communist Alliance
that don't want us to be successful. And they've found it through social media
and they've found it through the voices. I mean, the whole Gaza Palestinian
protest has brought this to light.So I'm with you. Let's we have
(35:06):
to you know, cure is onething, preventative is something else. How
do we get And that's why Isuggest that age thirteen or fourteen, these
young minds, particularly people who areon the margins, who have nothing,
who are probably the least committed tothe American dream and least committed to the
(35:27):
future of America, get them influence. And of course the politics are going
to be, well, you're goingto program these kids and turn them on
into maga. Well no we're not. Or you're going to program these kids
and turn them into woke. Noyou're not. And you know, there's
nothing new about university professors being leftwing. I mean fifty years ago,
(35:49):
forty five years ago, I wasa professor, you know, for ten
years, and the faculty were leftas hell, you know, and they
didn't they didn't get it. Theyjust didn't get And I was a professor
teaching in the school management and teachingin the sport business program, and so
what I was teaching was, youknow, there is an opportunity, there
(36:12):
is a future, and it's inyour hands, you know. And and
I quoted the old Guru, whichwas, you know, the girl had
millions of thousands of students and theyalways wanted to learn everything they could from
him, except for one. Onewanted to catch the guru out. So
one day he came to class andhe had a dove in the back of
(36:35):
his hands, behind his back,and he said to the professor the guru,
he said, Guru, I've gota dove in my hands. Is
it alive or is it dead?And the girl thought and said, well,
if I say alive, he'll breakits neck and bring it out dead.
If I say dad, he'll bringit out and show it's alive.
So the girl says, my son, that dove's life is in your hands.
M You know what we have todo is we have to put everybody's
(37:01):
lives in their own hands. Thisis not a book about handouts. You
know, it is a hand upbook. If someone's hungry, feed them,
then teach them how to feed forthemselves. You know the old give
someone the fish, eat for aday, teach them how to fish need
for a lifetime. There's nothing reallysuper new in a lot of the philosophies
(37:23):
other than we have to have discipline, we have to have accountability. We
have to teach our kids your lifeis in your hands. You may be
down because you're black, or yourLatino, or you're poor or your single
parent house. But the only wayto ensure you're going to get up is
get off your ass and get going. And I know that sounds trite,
(37:47):
and it is because you know,some of my black friends and you know
and colleagues have said to me,Bernie, how do you pull yourself up
with the bootstraps when you don't haveany boots? H I mean, how
profound is that? And that andthat's what that's what we forget. And
having worked in the NBA and meanwith some kids who've come from terrible backgrounds
(38:14):
and have thrived because of their abilityas a basketball player, you know,
you start to realize and you startto get sensitive to their culture. Uh,
and the differences in the culture.And and that's that you know,
with the with the experiences and buildingtrust and rapport with the athletes and are
thrilled. You know. Now,my wife and I were to see Al
(38:35):
Horford win the NBA Championship with theCeltics the other night. You know,
people like Al whose dad Tito,played in the league, who really solid,
really grounded, you know. Butthen the less fortunate members of our
team to understand that there are differences. You know, they don't have a
watch, how do they get anywhereon time, They don't have a car,
(38:58):
they rely on public transport, Theyhave no money in their pocket.
It's like the silliness that we dowhen we release people from jail. We
give them a bus ticket and fortybucks then and we expect it to be
noticedivism, you know, I mean, it's we're too smart for this.
(39:19):
We're way too smart for this.And you know, I'm not necessarily advocating
a third party system, but thebook Reimagining America's Dream rad rad the OUR
stands for Republicans, the D standsfor the Democrats, and the A stands
for the Americans in the middle standup take a stance, pok to your
politicians, and let's do something differentthat gives everybody a chance at the American
(39:45):
dream because right now, unlike me, too many of them did not have
that opportunity. You got it,Doctor Bernie Mullin, thank you for being
on our program. His book isReimagine in America's Dream. I'm going to
reiterate a couple of things as weclose the show. And Bernie, every
(40:07):
time we end the show, wetalk about wishing everyone's success on their way
to significance. Today, I'm goingto wish that everybody washes underneath their bumper.
Well that was that was dad,That was Dad's elbow grease. And
(40:28):
you know, obviously the book isavailable on Amazon and Bones and Noble,
but really, and the proceeds goto a foundation supporting single parents to really
help them make a difference in theirkids' lives. If they have preschool kids,
that they can go into school andread and write, and education has
always been the key to success.And I just wish that for everybody.
(40:52):
Love, love the concept behind yourprogram, and really appreciate you giving me
the airtime. Yes, I'm soglad we connected once again, Doctor Bernie
Mullen. His book is reimagining America'sdream, making it attainable for all.
I'm Rick Tolkeini. Thanks for joiningus, and, as we always say,
wishing you success, but on yourway.
And welcome back to success made thelast author's corner. I'm Rick to'keenney.
This show is presented by the RightOne and by Heather Barnes Media, Austin,
Texas. Our special guest today isdoctor Bernie Mullen, who has written
a book called Reimagining America's Dream Makingit Attainable for all. Bernie, welcome
(00:33):
to our show. Oh, thankyou so much for having me on.
Rick, Hey, nice to haveyou on. To tell us about your
background and include where you're from originally. Yeah, well, I'm an immigrant.
So I'm originally from Liverpool in Englandand came over to age twenty one
(00:54):
to be a summer camp counselor.Was very blessed to have a great relationship
with the owner camp. He broughtme back as head soccer counselor and then
as the head counselor of the youngestkids group and gave me a scholarship to
go to grad school. And Iapplied a whole bunch of places, and
the first place that accepted me wasthe University of Kansas, So I became
(01:18):
a Jayhawk and four years at KUduring master's degrees and a PhD, and
went onto my career from there.Fifty years later. Now I've never left,
and you've stayed in the state ofKansas. Oh no, no,
no, I've moved all over theplace. So when I graduated, the
(01:42):
first job I had for ten yearswas a professor of business and the job
was to build a sport management programat the University of Massachusetts at Amaston.
So I spent ten years in Massachusetts, wrote a book on sport marketing that
was great, placed a lot ofstudents in top decision making positions in sports
(02:04):
and entertainment industry. I've got aCalifornia Supreme Court judge, You've got four
or five former CEOs of Major leagueteams, and three or four CEOs of
big venues all over the country andover the world. From that, and
(02:25):
then in nineteen eighty six, Idecided, Hey, let's see if this
stuff really works, and so Iwent to become SENIVP of business for the
Pirates right as we turned them around. So they were drawing seven thousand fans
a game. Seven players in thefederal grand jury drug trials, a player
that went public, Dave Parker puttingone thousand dollars of cocaine up his nose,
(02:49):
every day. Then we turned himaround to draw over two million fans
a year when the Nationally East threeyears in a row up my ring.
Unfortunately, we lost to the CincinnatiReds and the Braves twice. And then
I went on and did the samething senior VP of business started the Colorado
(03:09):
Rockies, built all the front officestaff. We broke Major League Baseball and
all time World sports season attendance recordsof four point four million built. Corse
Field left there. Knew I formy career. If I wanted to be
a GM of a major league team, I needed the sports side. So
(03:30):
I went down to the International HockeyLeague. We put a team together there,
won the championship, then got kickedout of Denver by the Colorado Avalanche.
So I moved the team to SaltLake for the owner, and I
became the vice chancellor of athletics atthe University of Denver and took them to
(03:51):
Division IE athletics. We've won thirteenNCAA Division One championships since then, built
half a billion dollars worth of facilitiesthere. That was a great experience.
And then in two thousand I gothired by some guy called David Stern the
commission of the NBA to be SeniorVP of Marketing and Team Business create an
(04:14):
in house consulting group. It wastwo years after Michael Jordan had hired and
attendance was declining, revenues were declining, and David Departmas promised the players Union
that they would always have the highestaverage salary of any athlete in the world
and their pay would go up everyyear. So we built the consulting group,
(04:36):
put it together, and raised therevenue by quarter billion a year through
those practices, then proving that Ihave no problem getting great jobs, just
keeping them. I then moved tobecome CEO of the Atlanta Hawk's NBA team,
Atlanta Thrash as anytled team as theywere in those days and Phillips Arena
(05:00):
as it was now State Farm Arena. Did that for four years with nine
owners who fought each other in courtand weekly boarder manager calls where they were
fighting each other, and one ofthe guys lawyers would send me a note
every Wednesday night, Hey, youreferenced all this stuff. You know,
(05:24):
I want the minutes of the meetings, and I'm like, now, I
was a thirty second conversation at thewater cooler for God's sake, you know.
So finally had enough after four yearsand created my own company, the
Aspire Sport Marketing Group. We didrevenue enhancement. In sixteen years, we
brought in one point seventy five billionin incremental revenue for top sports properties around
(05:49):
the world, mainly colleges in theUSA. So we had the University of
Texas in Austin for a long periodof time, Halton State. People like
that in the state of Texas,you know, Rutgers do, Kansas,
lots of big schools, the NFL, Major League Baseball teams around the world.
(06:12):
And I sold it last year anddecided to semi retire and write this
book. What a great journey you'vebeen on, frivolous you have always been.
I think your journey is marked bybeing a futurist, a visionary.
(06:32):
I'd also say you've been an architectand a builder. I was in Denver
when you did the whole Colorado Rockiesand built out Cursefield. And you probably
know my friend leo' coonley, whowas I should do president of I used
to work for him at Free DooLa. He wasn't my direct boss,
(06:54):
but he's a good man. Andyou know, the people that you've met
along your way, they must haveinspired you. And I'd love for you
to just kind of take the podiumand think, you know two or three
of the people that shaped your careeras as you escalated up the ranks.
Absolutely, Rick, you know,it starts mom and dad, like everybody
(07:18):
would. You know, my dadtaught me two things that were absolutely vital.
Hard work. Elbow grease was hisfavorite phrase. Eight years old,
I washed my dad's car. Youknow when I finished, I said,
sir. It was sergeant major inthe army and a boxing instructor. You
can imagine five foot six, Butyou know, sir, I finished your
(07:42):
car. Are you sure? Yes, sir, you know, And you
go and inspect the car and underthe bumper, I hadn't washed them to
the bumper, and I get mynose rubbed in the dirts under the bumper.
And today they would call that childabuse. In those days, it
was tough love. And you know, I never failed to wash under the
bumper ever again in my life,and it really served me well for another
(08:07):
you know, Wooden Column Sergeant MajorEconoma, five star General David Stern I'll
talk about him in a minute,but Mardy Goldman, the owner of the
summer camp, gave me the scholarshipto go to grad school. I'll be
forever grateful. And when you gointo Camp Techa in Naples Main, you
drive in through an arch that hasall kinds of values and they lived them.
And that's the most important thing.It's not one thing to espouse,
(08:30):
it's something else to actually execute andlive around those And I learned that from
him. I worked for an incredibleman in Dan Richie, who was the
chancellor at the University of Denver.They were going bankrupt. He took it
over as chancellor. He got paida dollar and now the entire university,
(08:56):
every building has been redone or brandnew, not a single dollar of debt.
And it is, in my opinion, the finest academic institution in the
Rocky Mountains. And you know,visionary people like that, and then of
course DJs. You you know whata force of nature David Stern was as
(09:16):
commissioner of the NBA. When youthink about when he took over the league
and the finals were tape delayed atone in the morning. A famous sports
reporter is still active in Boston oncetold him, you can't market an all
black league, and he said,watch me, mh. You know,
(09:37):
so in all cases, you know. And I had an incredible president,
Mac Prian, Malcolm Prian at thepirates who you know? I said,
Mac, what do I do?You know? How do I make decisions?
And he said, at every nexus, of every conflict, of every
decision, always do what is inthe best long term interest of the pittsb
(10:00):
Pirates. And so it made iteasy on me to make those decisions.
And unfortunately he got in a fightwith the general manager, said Thrift,
and they favored said Thrift for abouteight months, and then they realized what
we'd gotten said and they moved himout and we replaced the president. And
(10:20):
the next president I could never Inever knew what decision to make because he
was he ran a local law firm, and we had fourteen owners and the
owners ship groups, you know,most of them were his clients. And
I didn't know who was most infavor, or who had the biggest influence,
who was righting the law firm thebiggest check. And therefore it wasn't
(10:43):
an easy decision. Every time itwas check with the person who was the
president, the new president, andsee which way he wanted you to make
a decision. And that's no wayto as you know, our senior VP
didn't matter if I was CEO.There's no way to run a business.
(11:03):
You've got to have that clarity.And so that's why the last sixteen years
I ran my own business, wasmy own boss, and we built a
multi billion dollar organization that generated wellover one hundred and twenty five million of
new revenue for our client partners everyyear and serve three hundred of the top
sports organizations in the world and evensports sponsors like Coca Cola and getting them
(11:28):
involved with the Vatican I'm a PopeFrancis Initiative and Allian's Insurance and Wealth Management
from Munich in Germany and handling theirsports sponsorship businesses for a period of time.
Exciting. I've been so blessed,really, yes, or you've been
extraordinarily blessed, Bernie. One ofthe reasons why we wanted to have you
(11:52):
on today, other than to talkabout reimagining America's Dream, is that the
way you get on our show isthat you've moved from success to significance.
And I want to know at whatpoint of your career you decided that giving
back was one of the most importantaspects and elements of your life. No,
(12:16):
it's a great question, Rick,and the book is in two parts.
The first part is me, youknow, and as I move around
the country the question you just asked, Kansas, Massachusetts, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
Denver, Colorado, New York City, Atlanta, Georgia. And then
a consulting period with the Aspire Groupfor eighteen months with the LA Dodgers.
(12:37):
So I have worked in all fourtime zones, lived in three time zones.
I've been blessed to work in alldifferent parts of the United States.
So my story is, you know, coming to America, you know,
spoof on the Eddie Murphy movie name, and then different kind of cute titles
(12:58):
of you know, Southern hospitality andmoving to the Big Apple and you know,
Dorothy, we are in Kansas,stuff like that. So the first
part of it is is there's twolayers to it. There's me, my
career, me as a dad,MEAs building a family, me as becoming
(13:18):
an American and living the American dream. And my career to be so blessed
as the first immigrant ever to beCEO of a major League team and two
major League teams at the same time. So there's that level to it of
what I'm learning, who I'm workingwith, and then there's the level of
(13:41):
me being on boards. You know. Matt Prine Malcolm Prian in Pittsburgh was
a polio victim and he got ascholarship as a young man to go to
the YMCA and swim and was ableto obviously be fully ambulanced and fully functional.
Later went on to be a MACMid America Conference referee, was president
(14:05):
of Envy Ryan Holmes and the DAfor Columbus Ohio. Amazing guy, and
so he says to me, Iwant you to serve and I'd love you
to serve on the YMCA. Soeverywhere ever lived, I've served on the
YMCA board and given back. Soat that level, I was doing all
of those things, seeing the poverty, you know, the scholarships and the
(14:28):
programs that the wide head that wason Make a Wish Foundation with poor kids
that were inflicted, many with terminaldisease at a very young age, and
served on United Way and saw thereand the Visitor and Convention Bureau board,
particularly sports councils so I had thatlevel going. But as the book chronicles
(14:48):
in my journey across the America,finally I started to realize that, you
know, hey, the American dreamwas incredibly aspirational for me. It started
with an uncle of my mom who, as a young boy left Liverpool and
went to Canada, worked in acork factory, worked his way up.
(15:09):
Eventually, the mother of the husbandand wife who owned the company had no
kids. They left the company tohim, and it was the cork factory
for segum seven seven whiskey, andso Uncle Pat used to come with his
family every summer and I talked tohim. I learned about the milk and
honey and seven year eight nine yearsold, I was too young to know
(15:31):
the difference between Canada and America.But then aged ten, eleven and twelve,
we had Uncle Percy, my dad'scousin from New York, VP of
pharmaceuticals for Vis who came to builda factory in England, and he talked
about the Bronx and New York Yankees, and all of a sudden they got
the American dream. So I wassmitt at a young age twenty one,
(15:52):
coming to be a counselor that tiedthose two together, and it all bloomed
and as the book of all myawareness of we are the richest country on
the world, in the world inAmerica based on GDP, you know,
we're still damn near double the Chinese. And people don't get that. You
(16:12):
know, they're big and they're gettingbigger. Well, they were getting bigger.
They've stabilized, but we are enormousand we have the highest level of
poverty in the most evanced country onthe earth. We've got thirty seven million
people living below the poverty line.It's wrong. It's just flat out wrong.
And so as I evolved in thebook and wrote the book and did
(16:37):
the research and had a ghost writerwork with me to help me do a
lot of the research, I realizedthat we got our priorities wrong. And
then coupled with that, Rick,I think is what's been going on in
this country with a nasty toxicity inpolitics. And I know the show's a
political and I'm a political. I'man independent. I sit in the middle.
(17:03):
I believe I have a warm heart. I believe I've got a big
social conscience, and I think thataccording to Pew research, the sixty plus
percent of Americans who sit in themiddle as independent centrists somewhat neutral. The
people that are going to decide thepresidential election this fall are the ones to
be influenced by the two candidates,and you know, two main candidates.
(17:30):
Clearly we have a responsibility. Ithink we've been sitting on our hands,
and I don't think we're shouting outenough. And the book is three things.
Number One, it's my thank youto America for adopting me in all
the Americans, particularly the heartland,the Kansas and the people that really welcomed
(17:51):
me there for the first four years. That made me fall in love and
my ex wife was English fall inlove with American with our shout at out.
And then number two, it wasincredibly aspirational for me, and I
believe it's aspirational for a lot ofpeople. And I also have stated in
the book believe that this common visionand aspiration unites us, and particularly the
(18:15):
thirty odd percent that are in bluecollar working class wanting to have their own
home, who it's not been availablefor particularly Sadly, it invariably ends up
being minorities, you know, withthe with the lower income and the lower
education because of our school systems inso many of the poor districts not delivering,
(18:37):
in not disciplining, and the familyand single parent families. You know,
particularly in black and Latino culture inAmerica, it is very high prevalence
to not have both sexes as rolemodels. And you know, it's fine
if you've got two partners of thesame sex. I'm not suggesting that's not
okay, you know, but that'sthat's lacking. So the aspirational elements is
(19:00):
the second piece. And finally,it's making it attainable for all. So
that's why I wrote the book.Thank you, America, God bless you.
I have lived an incredible life forme, my kids, my grandkids,
and I want everybody to have that. Yeah, and thank you.
Your book is in fact a gift, and it's a I think it's a
(19:22):
compilation of all the wisdom that you'veacquired over the course of time on the
topic of significance. Though, Iwant to make sure that you get in
your lecks on the following questions.Let's start with, how do you think
that we should empower today's youth towardor through education? And if so,
(19:45):
is this through a national investment thatprovides some sort of head start for all.
Yes, without a shed of adoubt. The book, first of
all, very quickly, it startswith, so the top ten social issues
that we make recommendations on follow thepure research of Votera Poland as to what
(20:07):
are the biggest issues in America.Number one is income without a shadow of
it out, So it recommends anational minimum wage that gives you dignity that
with one job you can live andraise a family. Obviously, the number
of kids it would be a functionthere, but at least one kid,
so that single parent, teenage,pregnant parent does not have to work two
(20:30):
jobs, can get the ged andcan can raise a child and feed them,
you know, with really good foodfrom a regular grocery store, not
a food desert out of a canor McDonald's or Domino's. Nothing there's anything
wrong with that, but not aset he dies. So national minimum wage
number one. Number two, theeducational program is designed to deal with generational
(20:53):
wealth. And in the book it'svery clear creating generational wealth is the big
way to change America and to givepeople the opportunity to have the American drink.
How do we recommend we do it? Exactly what you said, through
an investment in youth education nation andfederal money in this particular case. But
(21:15):
I will point out that the entireprogram has been costed. So I've run
this book like it's a business.How do you break even? As close
to break even as you can andwe can't. There will be at least
one hundred billion dollar investment until thereduction in teenage pregnancies, the reduction in
(21:38):
crime, the reduction in food steps, the reduction in support starts to kick
in. Then you start to haveit be balanced, and then you've got
a way more productive America. Sowhat does it start? Free preschool for
every kid, quality preschool. AndI've the proceeds from this book and all
my consulting go to the Aspire DifferenceFoundation. We are focused on single parents
(22:03):
with preschool kids, and it's againrun like a business. The goal is
you get into kindergarten able to read, write, and do basic math,
and be socialized, to listen toa teacher, and to be able to
work well with your peers. Thoseare our goals, measurable goals that we
you know, look to do.And so during that time, what have
(22:26):
we got to do? We've gotto provide mental health, which has been
underlooked for most of my time inAmerica. But COVID, I think has
really raised the consciousness of it.And I'll give you a good example when
we always and I always taught worklife balance. Now that's life work balance.
(22:51):
Life is first for people after COVIDtheir lives, you know, and
them not coming back to the workplaceall the other things is an example.
Well, mental health the caregiver isnumber one, and that's been underfunded and
undersupported, and we have to changethat. Number two, stable household and
not in the hood. Not well, when you walk out the door,
you've got the gangs, you know. And I've got a senior VP who's
(23:15):
our DEI officer of my former company, the Aspire Group, you know,
who will tell you his mother andhis aunts and his grandmother who raised him,
are like you don't go down tothe end of the street, to
the right where the gangs are,where the hood is, where the drugs
are. You don't go there.You know, even though he was a
last key kid, you and yourbrothers and sisters will stay at home and
(23:36):
do your homework, and you know, with that discipline and direction, it
happened. So that's number one.That is massive. That's ten thousand dollars
a year for decent really fifteen thousanddollars a year that the government will support
four million kids every year, twentymillion kids between being born and through to
(23:57):
where they enter kindergarten. Then latchkeykid problem is a huge problem. Free
babysitting in school by teachers during gradeand middle school. So those kids don't
go home to an empty house.Instead, they stay in school, get
some milk and cookies, and theyget mentored to do their homework. Massive
(24:21):
difference. So these kids are inschool, real students. My son in
law just taught middle school at oneof the poorer schools in Denver, Colorado,
and the kids don't give a youknow what about studying and work.
Their future is being in the gangsand probably dying. You know, it's
(24:41):
not my resume and my career.My middle daughter is a prosecutor. She's
the deputy a district attorney for DenverDistrict and County, and she's just been
running the UNTI Human Trafficking division andshe'll tell you that a poor minority kid
shows up invariably to be indicted ontheir own no support, you know,
(25:04):
a code appointed attorney who could beanything from you know, completely beginning and
inexperience to who knows what. Andall they care about is don't put me
in jail, or if you're goingto put me in jail, put me
in for the shortest time. Idon't care about a felony on my record
versus you know, somebody from themiddle or upper class generally speaking, is
(25:26):
like, oh, it's about mycareer. I can't have a felony,
and they'll show up with family anda better quality lawyer, you know.
So the book talks about these injusticesin the system, but in the second
piece, it's no latch key kids. So you reduce the gang problem,
you reduce the probability they'll get intodrugs, you reduce the probability of teenage
(25:48):
pregnancies, then the prescription and it'sa long ends. So I reckon,
I apologize for that. But priorto entering high school, I recommend an
eight week sleep away food camp forevery kid. And the concept of the
camp is how to become an adultAmerican? How to become an adult and
(26:11):
how to become an American. It'sJohn F. Kennedy's ask not what your
country can do for you, butwhat you can do for it. And
you know, they they're in acamp with a thousand of the kids,
so rich, poor, whatever,black, brown, yellow, white,
doesn't matter. They learn that theyare an American and that there is all
(26:32):
these other groups and needs and interests. And they have a common experience that
my generation had through conscription in themilitary. You know. It's that same
common experience that brings them together.So that and they get paid and then
before they sophomore, junior, andsenior years, they have internship experiences,
(26:52):
again paid at least the minimum wage, so that a young man or woman
would have within just about twenty fivethousand dollars cash in their hands at age
eighteen. And we would get thebanks, and I've done sponsorships with banks
for years, get the banks tocompete, give them seven and a half
percent interest if they leave one hundredpercent of the money in the bank,
(27:15):
you know. And so at eighteenyears old, these kids can go out
and start their own entrepreneurial business.They can buy an apartment or condo.
They that generation, all of asudden has generational wealth. And I'm not
naive to know that some of thesefamilies, the parent them, you know,
certing single parent families, the mom'sgoing to go, hey, I
need that money. I understand,but we would build that program. Okay,
(27:38):
So what happens finally, if you'vedone those four years in high school
and you've built the wealth, andyou've built your resume, and you've built
your experience, and you've seen whereto go in your career. So because
one of the internships would be ina private business, one in public sector,
and one probably charity volunteer groups,you've got a full array of experiences.
(28:02):
You then get fifteen thousand dollars ayear voucher for four years to go
to school, so that your educationunless you're going to an Ivy League school,
you know half of it is covered, forty percent of it is covered.
Or you use it for professional certification. You become a beautician, asthetician,
plumber, carpenter, all of thetrades that we need people in that
(28:26):
we have to encourage young people.You don't necessarily have to go and I
was a professor for ten years,but you don't necessarily have to go to
university. You get that and sothat's the investment in youth. It's a
massive investment, but the change insocial issue behavior we believe will be phenomenal.
(28:49):
Yeah, Bernie, this notion ofa eight week boot camp, I
think is the most clever and practicalidea that you've talked about. And it's
not that the other items are aren'tas important, but there is a regardless
(29:15):
of whether you've got a mom anda dad, and I know that there's
a high percentage of American families thatare split up. This idea of an
orientation to adulthood and to becoming anAmerican it reminds me of Boy State that
(29:36):
I attended back in nineteen seventy three, and it gave me an orientation to
how government works and how the importanceof voting and so many other practical things.
And it's like, oh my gosh, that was a seminal moment in
my life. Absolutely it's and it'sset and it set me forward to be
(30:03):
what I think is a responsible Americanand wanting to have a voice that makes
a difference and all the other things. So I what, what are some
of the ways that we can movethat individual initiative forward to have an eight
week boot camp. Well, we'vegot to get the politicians on board,
(30:26):
and I think the moderates are there. I think, you know, without
getting too much into politics, Ithink that clearly our two leading candidates for
the presidency have both been dragged youknow, by the more vociferous, more
active members of their parties more youknow, more to the extreme maga right
or more to the extreme woke left. And I think that's done this country
(30:48):
of disservice. So we need themoderate politicians in the middle to get behind
it and push this agenda. Iknow that I can get all kinds of
large core operations to do grants forthis program. I'm not saying we can
make it free, because it'll costone thousand dollars a kid, you know,
for the eight week camp. Theway I've schemed it out, I'd
(31:11):
run enough camps, uh, summercamps, albeit obviously extremely wealthy Jewish kids
up in the up in in Maine. But you know, and God bless
them, they won't. There won'tbe the locks and bagels, uh,
you know, for breakfast on Parents'Day, the But you know, I
know the economics of camping, Iknow the logistics of camping, and with
(31:36):
about a thousand kids each camp.Putting this together is not difficult because of
the mothball military camps and other facilitiesthat we've got in many states, not
all states. So we can wecan. We can do the pilot programs
and get them up and running prettyquickly while making the investment for for bigger
(31:56):
programs. But I think it's reallygetting from your listeners or anybody in America.
It's the wealthy people that are willingto donate behind this kind of program.
You're going after someone like Melinda Gates, you know, with her new
foundation and people like that who arevery visionary, and the politicians, and
I've started that obviously at the levelhere in Denver, Colorado, and also
(32:21):
the connections I have. We're inGeorgia, the state of Georgia with Governor
on down here and in Colorado andGeorgia. To stop that kind of dialogue.
Yeah, it's very good. Iwant to make one passing comment and
I want you to comment on it. And in our lifetime, Bernie,
(32:44):
we've never had anything like COVID nineteen, nor have we ever seen the outpouring
of money going to cure our culture, our society, and the outpouring money
to small businesses and it's like,holy cow, where where have been our
(33:07):
priorities? What about what you're talkingabout. Why can't we crank up one
hundred billion dollar investment to focus ongenerational wealth? And is it going to
take another catastrophe like COVID or whycan't we even see our culture today as
(33:30):
a catastrophe and go, oh,that's another COVID, let's put some money
behind it. Well, yeah,I am with you, Rick, I
am a very optimistic, very verypositive person. I am concerned about what
could happen this year. We're goingto see, you know, the George
Floyd style protests around the country.But you know, and so often that
(33:55):
revolves minorities, and so often involvesin a city, and so often involves
destruction of property. You know,when I was in Atlanta at the time
when all that happened, had friends, minority friends who owned businesses whose businesses
were destroyed. Despite the fact thatthey covered all the windows with hardwood and
had on their black owned business,you know, they got destroyed. And
(34:20):
so you realize, you know,I hinted this in the book, Rick,
without I mean, I'm not youknow, one of these idiots that
has all of these conspiracy theories.I don't subscribe to any of that stuff.
I do know you know that inthe research fact, foreign governments are
(34:44):
interfering in this country to try andbring us down, particularly the Communist Alliance
that don't want us to be successful. And they've found it through social media
and they've found it through the voices. I mean, the whole Gaza Palestinian
protest has brought this to light.So I'm with you. Let's we have
(35:06):
to you know, cure is onething, preventative is something else. How
do we get And that's why Isuggest that age thirteen or fourteen, these
young minds, particularly people who areon the margins, who have nothing,
who are probably the least committed tothe American dream and least committed to the
(35:27):
future of America, get them influence. And of course the politics are going
to be, well, you're goingto program these kids and turn them on
into maga. Well no we're not. Or you're going to program these kids
and turn them into woke. Noyou're not. And you know, there's
nothing new about university professors being leftwing. I mean fifty years ago,
(35:49):
forty five years ago, I wasa professor, you know, for ten
years, and the faculty were leftas hell, you know, and they
didn't they didn't get it. Theyjust didn't get And I was a professor
teaching in the school management and teachingin the sport business program, and so
what I was teaching was, youknow, there is an opportunity, there
(36:12):
is a future, and it's inyour hands, you know. And and
I quoted the old Guru, whichwas, you know, the girl had
millions of thousands of students and theyalways wanted to learn everything they could from
him, except for one. Onewanted to catch the guru out. So
one day he came to class andhe had a dove in the back of
(36:35):
his hands, behind his back,and he said to the professor the guru,
he said, Guru, I've gota dove in my hands. Is
it alive or is it dead?And the girl thought and said, well,
if I say alive, he'll breakits neck and bring it out dead.
If I say dad, he'll bringit out and show it's alive.
So the girl says, my son, that dove's life is in your hands.
M You know what we have todo is we have to put everybody's
(37:01):
lives in their own hands. Thisis not a book about handouts. You
know, it is a hand upbook. If someone's hungry, feed them,
then teach them how to feed forthemselves. You know the old give
someone the fish, eat for aday, teach them how to fish need
for a lifetime. There's nothing reallysuper new in a lot of the philosophies
(37:23):
other than we have to have discipline, we have to have accountability. We
have to teach our kids your lifeis in your hands. You may be
down because you're black, or yourLatino, or you're poor or your single
parent house. But the only wayto ensure you're going to get up is
get off your ass and get going. And I know that sounds trite,
(37:47):
and it is because you know,some of my black friends and you know
and colleagues have said to me,Bernie, how do you pull yourself up
with the bootstraps when you don't haveany boots? H I mean, how
profound is that? And that andthat's what that's what we forget. And
having worked in the NBA and meanwith some kids who've come from terrible backgrounds
(38:14):
and have thrived because of their abilityas a basketball player, you know,
you start to realize and you startto get sensitive to their culture. Uh,
and the differences in the culture.And and that's that you know,
with the with the experiences and buildingtrust and rapport with the athletes and are
thrilled. You know. Now,my wife and I were to see Al
(38:35):
Horford win the NBA Championship with theCeltics the other night. You know,
people like Al whose dad Tito,played in the league, who really solid,
really grounded, you know. Butthen the less fortunate members of our
team to understand that there are differences. You know, they don't have a
watch, how do they get anywhereon time, They don't have a car,
(38:58):
they rely on public transport, Theyhave no money in their pocket.
It's like the silliness that we dowhen we release people from jail. We
give them a bus ticket and fortybucks then and we expect it to be
noticedivism, you know, I mean, it's we're too smart for this.
(39:19):
We're way too smart for this.And you know, I'm not necessarily advocating
a third party system, but thebook Reimagining America's Dream rad rad the OUR
stands for Republicans, the D standsfor the Democrats, and the A stands
for the Americans in the middle standup take a stance, pok to your
politicians, and let's do something differentthat gives everybody a chance at the American
(39:45):
dream because right now, unlike me, too many of them did not have
that opportunity. You got it,Doctor Bernie Mullin, thank you for being
on our program. His book isReimagine in America's Dream. I'm going to
reiterate a couple of things as weclose the show. And Bernie, every
(40:07):
time we end the show, wetalk about wishing everyone's success on their way
to significance. Today, I'm goingto wish that everybody washes underneath their bumper.
Well that was that was dad,That was Dad's elbow grease. And
(40:28):
you know, obviously the book isavailable on Amazon and Bones and Noble,
but really, and the proceeds goto a foundation supporting single parents to really
help them make a difference in theirkids' lives. If they have preschool kids,
that they can go into school andread and write, and education has
always been the key to success.And I just wish that for everybody.
(40:52):
Love, love the concept behind yourprogram, and really appreciate you giving me
the airtime. Yes, I'm soglad we connected once again, Doctor Bernie
Mullen. His book is reimagining America'sdream, making it attainable for all.
I'm Rick Tolkeini. Thanks for joiningus, and, as we always say,
wishing you success, but on yourway.
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