That time Jackie Bamberger played herself
and the bad thing that ended up being a good thing
When I launched this newsletter a couple weeks ago, I knew that I would essentially be putting myself on blast, every week, until I ran out of embarrassing stories (hahahahahaha like that would ever happen).
In the most ideal world, I hoped that my excessive vulnerability would encourage others to be willing to come forward and share their stories of stupidity as well. But knowing my odd inability to feel shame isn’t common, I wasn’t yet actively crowdsourcing or even asking others to share.
And then, after sharing the launch of my newsletter and that god-awful cat food story (and yes, I promise I will eventually stop referencing it in every post that goes out) on Twitter, something magical happened.
This tweet.
My first nomination!!
And thus, the incredible interview below came to life. Jackie Bamberger has an Air Bud header photo on her Twitter profile and makes punny Shaq jokes (ex: see below), so before the interview even started, I knew it was about to be unforgettable.
As a fellow sister-in-social-media-and-sports, our kinship was built-in. But after sharing a similarly graphic pet story and a social media mishap, pretty sure we’re related by blood now. We chatted about burn out, how to recognize when to take a step back, and the bad thing that ended up being a good thing.
Jackie, thank you for sharing. Without further adieu, enjoy!
Juju: Thanks so much for being willing to chat a little bit with me!
Jackie: Yeah, of course. Varoon kinda put me on blast but I'm happy to talk about it.
That was kind of fantastic. I love that he leveled you up for this.
I have literally so many stories. My whole life is just… it's kind of ridiculous.
Dude, don’t we all. I especially appreciate you being willing to share a little bit because I know what it’s like working in social. Messing up is so easy to do so kudos to you for being willing to chat about it.
I think enough time has passed where I can just laugh about it.
Tell me a little bit about like yourself and just how you got to where you are now. Give us the mini timeline.
Synopsis. I'm from LA, grew up there. Grew up always around sports. From a young age, I really wanted to be a sports journalist or reporter. So I went to Boston University, and I was kind on that path and had some pretty cool internships, one of which was at Yahoo Sports, where I got to do a lot of different things. In addition to pitching and writing different articles, it was 2016 so I was also a part of the Rio Olympics coverage, which was really cool and got to help with the social department. And I just kind of fell in love with social and the creativity. You have this ability to connect with people.
So I had one more semester of school, finished that up and came back to Yahoo to join the social team, and worked there for like a year and a half. Then, for reasons that will become evident later in the story, it was just time for me to take a break because social shit is really exhausting. I was doing a lot on my own and I just needed to take a step back and take care of myself mentally. Then, I went to Atlanta to join the Turner Sports social team, which was a really fun experience with Inside the NBA, NBA TV. And then that led me to my current job at Bleacher Report, which is based in San Francisco. It’s a really cool and unique job that I basically just get to create super dope social content for like the biggest moments in sports and we have the budget to hire some really cool artists. Our internal team is super talented, so it's just constantly creating, constantly innovating.
That's dope. So you've been in social since graduation, about four years?
Yeah.
You mentioned your friend / coworker Varoon basically nominating you for this newsletter. What came to mind at first when you saw you were tagged in that tweet?
Varoon is my manager here at BR. And there’s a story that came to mind that he wanted me to share. I've been going back and forth between SF and my parents house in LA. My parents they have two dogs, whom I love, and one of them is a puppy. She's very cute. I love her so much. Her name is Kiki. A few weeks ago, I was working in the kitchen. At the end of the day, I was like, all right, you know what, I'm just gonna go upstairs to my room and Kiki followed me. She was just sitting, chilling on my bed while I was on a Slack call with one of my other coworkers, talking about a project when all of a sudden, out of nowhere, with no warning, Kiki just starts literally projectile vomiting all over my computer, all over all of my sheets, all over my entire bed, while I'm on this Slack call with video on. I'm just like — fuck! It smells so bad, just terrible.
Luckily, I had a case on my computer, because about a month before that, I was trying to clean my keyboard with this spray that’s supposed to be high powered air but it essentially was water, so I sprayed water all over my keyboard. Then this happened literally three weeks into my new work computer. So yeah, that's what he had in mind. But I thought the Yahoo story is definitely the all-timer.
Okay, first of all: is Kiki okay?
Yeah, she was totally fine. My mom came home shortly after and she saw me outside with the hose on my sheet. Kiki literally went downstairs and acted like nothing happened. She’s a Pointer, and they’re very active, so we usually take them on a walk every day. I brought the leash out to gauge her temperature and she started jumping around.
She puked and rallied.
Yeah. True trooper.
So tell me about the Yahoo incident.
So, I started on the Yahoo social team in January of 2017. And at first, I started as a general social editor, our social strategy was not that robust at the time so mainly, like, posting articles. I taught myself how to use all the Adobe products, like Photoshop, to create our own original social content. They had this new NBA vertical and a few months into my tenure at Yahoo, I was approached and asked if I would want to take it over as we rebranded to Yahoo Sports NBA. It was a lot. As a 22, 23-year-old, with no experience, this account had like 300,000 followers and I had just totally taken over and needed to come up with a strategy and posting cadence, types of original content, everything.
It was a really fun experience. But I made the mistake of getting burnt out way too quickly. Trying to be everything instead of taking a step back and asking for help. So it was the spring of 2018 right when the playoffs started that I decided it would be the best decision for me to take a step back. I was living at home, so I didn’t have to worry about rent and could just focus on my mental health and making sure that this was truly the path that I wanted to go on. I put in my two weeks.
One week into my two weeks notice, I was in the office, and I think it was Cavs vs Pacers. The game has ended, the Pacers won, and that was one of those games where LeBron got them all custom Tom Ford suits. So we’re like, Okay, what can we do with that that's just hilarious? The first thing that came to my mind was doing a Google search, and at the time, I was 23, I have never interacted with Yahoo search engine. Still to this day. Literally, when I was working at Yahoo we used Gmail. We used Google Chrome. We used Google Search. I had never, in all my years of learning, interacted with it and it wasn't even in my mind that Google was a competitor to Yahoo.
That's incredible.
So I posted it and it was pretty funny. Great engagement. Then, WorldWide Wob quote-tweeted it. And I was like, Oh, shit. And it was one of those situations where there's absolutely nothing I could do. I couldn't take it down, it would just make it worse. I just had to eat the L. My boss at the time, he called me and he was just laughing. I remember watching the numbers go up like, Why the fuck did 60,000 people care so bad? Now I look back and it was kind of a good thing. It was another reminder for me and probably a good signifier that I did need to take a break and stop burning myself out. It ended up being a good thing.
One of the worst parts about working in social is that all your mistakes are public for everyone to see. You mentioned having to take a step back and realizing that you were you were burnt out, that you needed to take more time for yourself. How did you recognize that?
I was working in LA and that's where the All Star Game was that year. I just remember, that particular weekend, I was running myself into the absolute ground, live tweeting events as I was at them, going to different shoots we had, going to different events, just absolutely killing myself. That was the signifier for me, like, Okay, what am I doing? Is this worth it? I had you know some conversations with my parents, other people close to me like some of my bosses at Yahoo and we all agreed that it would be a good time for me to reevaluate my priorities and make sure that I wasn't heading down the wrong path.
Because, to be honest with you, I didn't really like the person that I was, so to speak. Just constantly, constantly on edge, all the time, glued to my phone, so freaked out about the slightest comment. I was constantly refreshing our mentions. I really just needed a break, and to reevaluate my priorities to make sure that I was good.
Yeah, absolutely. I feel like burning out is such a millennial condition. We are taught that working hard will get us to wherever we want to go, and then we literally work so hard that we collapse in exhaustion or we don't even notice tweets that we're sending out. What were some of the first things you did once you quit?
The first thing I did was I took a vacation just for a weekend, just for myself. I went down to Laguna Beach, and got a hotel on the beach for two nights. Just about an hour away, turned my phone off and just chilled. Then, when I came back, the biggest thing was trying to stay away from my phone at all costs, and taking a break from social. I got back into therapy and trying to address some of these issues that I was dealing with, and really trying to take a deeper look at myself. Like, Do I still want to be in social? Do I still want to be in sports? What's important for me going forward? What are my priorities? It was a lot of self-introspection. I was living at home with my parents, so also a lot of family time, and taking a step back and focusing on myself and what was important to me.
Absolutely. What do you feel now when you think about that time and what happened?
I just look back and laugh. You look back on different moments in your life and it feels like the end of the world. Different things that may have happened, in high school or in college or whatever, and at that time it truly feels like, Oh my god, this is the worst thing ever, I'm never gonna make it out of this, I'm never gonna get a job. But now it's just something to laugh about, and I think it was helpful in its own way because it served as another reminder that I needed to take a step back for my own personal growth. That led me to BR, just the absolute, most perfect role for me. I'm in so much of a better place, it's just unreal.
So honestly, I just have to be grateful for everything that led me to where I am. It's important, especially in fields like social, where your mistakes are broadcast in front of the world, to realize that it's okay.
It happens to everybody. You just gotta laugh and use it to get better.
Well, and you got roasted by Wob, who's a legendary Twitter NBA guy. I feel like I would put that on my LinkedIn / resume. Tell me you have that tweet printed off and framed somewhere in your room.
Oh, I wish. Maybe. I am moving into a new apartment next week so maybe I'll do that for my desk.
The Puke & Rally Queen herself, Kiki.