Jessica Berman serves as the Commissioner for the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) at the moment. Berman was recently interviewed by The Cut, where she talked about her morning routine, wearing many hats, not setting boundaries, parenting like a CEO, asking for help, learning from mistakes, self-care, and the future of the NWSL. While the former deputy NHL general counsel for 13 long years, Jessica Berman, spoke about parenting like a CEO and asking for help, she mentioned her days in the National Hockey League.


In the interview with The Cut, Jessica Berman shared that she treated her kids like they were her employees when they were little. Berman shared, “You would never ask someone who works for you to do something without explaining why. You would give them context and say, ‘Here’s what I need from you, and here’s why it matters.’” and that’s what she did with her kids.
When Jessica Berman was at the NHL in 2012, she was negotiating the collective bargaining agreement during the work stoppage. Jessica Berman’s kids were 5 and 2 at the time when she told them that she was writing a book and it was really important because it had all the rules, and without the rules, they could not play. Every day, her kids would ask her, “How’s the book coming? What page are you on?” and Berman would tell them, “I’m on page 100 of 250,” just to give them something to comprehend. Her kids were highly interested in getting her book done.



In a recent interview with The Cut, Jessica Berman spoke about asking for help. Berman said she has a family who pitched in, and she also had a babysitter support when her kids were young. But Berman did have her share of challenges at the time.
Just when the NHL’s work stoppage was over, Jessica Berman’s former husband had a stroke. “Figuring out how to recalibrate was a true test of resilience,” said Jessica Berman. She was also a single parent at the time.
When Berman worked in sports, she was really good at asking for help because she thought, “If you are doing work that has an impact on society, like working in sports does, people want to be part of that,”
A lot of support came for Jessica Berman through her friends. Berman would call up her friends, saying, “Hey, I need your help today. Could you drop off dinner for the kids?” or, her friends would say, “I’m taking my kids out for dinner. Shall I grab yours?” Jessica Berman said, “If you give people a chance to show up for you, they usually will.”
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