Stephanie McMahon: How WWE Became A Global Brand #TheOnePercent

My dad told me, he said, you know what, Steph? Not everybody's gonna like you. But as long as you can look yourself in the eyes, in the mirror and know that you're a good person, that's all that matters. And I try to live by that. And when you talk about what fulfills you, what fulfills me about my organization, about wwe, is our mission is to put smiles on people's faces. That's it. Whether we do it through our content or we do it by giving back to the community.

It takes one free person to create change. This is the show for them. We are the creators of the free world. This is capitalism.com and we are the 1%.

Hey, podcast, funny story. At the last Capitalism conference in January, I gave a keynote and I left it all on the court. We've shared that episode. It's called Freedom is the Doing. If you want to hear that keynote that I gave. And as soon as I got off stage, I was flying high. You know, talking on stage is my favorite thing to do. And the first person that I see walking off stage is Stephanie McMahon. And she just says, great job. And we had never met before in person anyway. We had talked on the phone a couple of times, but I was so jarred and surprised to see her there. I was thrown by Stephanie's presence the entire event, and I never really caught back up to it. So this is the keynote that we did together, the Q and A where I interview Stephanie about the growth of the WWE since she joined as the Chief Branding Officer. So her job at wwe, besides sometimes being a character, is to grow the global brand and its awareness and representing how the WWE is going to be seen in the world. And it's really interesting to hear her take on how she does that. And what's really interesting is the big change that the WWE made a few years ago when she took over to reposition how women were represented in the company and what that did for overall revenues and profits. The company is now a $6 billion market cap and is obviously a global brand. So it's actually a really fascinating business case study, besides just being really, really entertaining to talk about the wwe. So I hope you enjoy this fireside chat with Stephanie McMahon.

Hey, real quick. I'm doing a test in my business right now that I think you'll be interested in. We have a training called Million Dollar Brands, and it helps business owners and entrepreneurs get clear on those first three to five products that they're going to build that will get to 25 sales a day. At $25 to $30 and thus be a million dollar business. And we sell that for $297. And I recently had the idea of what if at the end of that training when somebody completed it and they filled out a form saying they know what their three products are going to be, they know how they're going to launch the products, let's refund them the cost of the training. Let's incentivize the action of actually making some decisions in your business and getting clear on your business. And I did this because someone challenged me with the thought of what would I change in my business if I only cared about my customers results and I didn't care about profitability. And I immediately said let's incentivize action. And then I said, well, would I really spend however many thousands of dollars a month I spend on Facebook ads or would I take some of that money and put it into a scholarship fund and then fund some of the cool ideas that came from my training? And it was like this whole world of creativity opened up for me. So this is a test right now that we're running. If you are starting a new business or you are still under that million dollar threshold or even that 25 sales a day threshold, then we have this training called Million dollar brands. That's $297 and it's refunded to you when you complete the training. And I figure if you walk out of that training, you're going to leave with such a clear business plan that you're going to want to work with us ongoing. So you can find this@capitalism.com brands and depending on when you sign up, we're also opening up strategic windows where you can qualify for a scholarship and have your business funded. So this is all an experiment. If I lose my rear end on it, we'll probably shut it down. But for now you can find it at capitalism.com brands.

Please be ridiculously loud as we welcome to the stage Stephanie McMahon and Ryan Moran.

Thank. Thank you for being here.

Absolutely. I didn't realize that JP was going to say your name first is a little awkward, but.

I'm so. I've so been looking forward to chatting with you for so many reasons. And one of them is if I can just kind of point out the obvious when I watch that reel. And you see the WWE being positioned as a community, as something that is bringing something to the world. This wasn't necessarily the WWE that I grew up with or at least the way that it was positioned or perceived in the media. And you joined. How long have you been CBO of the.

The role? This is actually. I'm the first chief brand officer for wwe, and it's about four or five years old now.

Well, in that time, it seems to me that the perception of the brand has. Has changed to be more of what we just saw. And I was just hoping that you could walk us through that.

Highlighting that story behind the company that we didn't see, at least in my childhood.

Absolutely. So first, I just want to ask how many of you are actually aware of wwe? Yes. Love that. Okay, so I actually did this. I'm dating myself. I'm sure that's not cool at all anymore if it ever was. But I am fourth generation in this business. And, you know, to walk back the story, really. My father, Vince McMahon, who's the chairman and CEO, he took what was a regional business, Professional wrestling was broken up into fiefdoms, if you will, all over the United States and all over the world. And my dad had the vision to create one global brand. So he wanted to capitalize, you know, on the audiences. He wanted to have one recognizable brand, one clear champion. He wanted advertising, he wanted syntactics. And that's exactly what he did. And you consider the fact that WrestleMania, for example, in 1985, there was no such thing as social media. So my dad was trying to come up with a way, how can we put WWE on the map? What's our Oscars? What's our Grammys? He always wanted to create this incredible brand that was more akin to Disney than it was the perception of professional wrestling of its day. And he came up with this idea to combine the best of pop culture with sports entertainment. So you had Liberace and the Rockettes open the show. You had Muhammad Ali as the special guest. Referee Cyndi Lauper accompanied Wendy Richter to the ring for the women's championship match. Billy Martin was the guest timekeeper. I mean, it was really a who's who across all different water coolers to get people talking. And it worked. Hulk Hogan for the first time was on the COVID of Sports Illustrated. He was a guest on the Tonight show with Johnny Carson. And WrestleMania 1 was a huge success, thank God, because my parents mortgaged everything that they owned to make it happen. And it took place in front of a capacity crowd at Madison Square garden of nearly 20,000 people.

Everything to make.

To make WrestleMania.

Oh, I thought you meant to get the business off.

No, no, no. To make WrestleMania one event. The one event.

How long had the company existed up until that point.

Well, in various forms or fashions, you know, for decades. But really, you know, WWE was only a few years old at that time.

So they go all in on the one promotion. Yep.

Calculated risk.

I interrupted you. Forgive me.

No, no, no, that's fine.

Tell me about that great lesson.

You got to take calculated risks and deliver for your audience. So the other thing he really wanted to do was to reach our audience everywhere. And WrestleMania was available on closed circuit television, which is where people, you know, used to pay a lot of money to go watch, basically a giant screen in an arena. And it was the advent of pay per view. And my father has been accredited with pioneering the pay per view industry. And then there is a lesson in all of this. And you fast forward to this past year's WrestleMania, which took place in front of a capacity crowd of nearly 80,000 people at the Mercedes Benz Superdome. Cities bid on WrestleMania the same way that they do for the super bowl, because we provide anywhere from 150 to 180 million dollars of economic impact to the local community. But we were also available on our own network. We were the third to launch the first live streaming service, to launch the WWE Network Direct to consumer. And again, that was a huge calculated risk, all with the same goal of super serving your audience. Right. That's something that you talked about earlier. It's super serving your customers, your consumers, your audience, giving them what they want, if you're listening to them. And we created this network because they demanded that we create this network. They asked for it, and we were pretty far down the pike with a linear deal. But the problem was they wanted to lock up our rights for over 10 years. And we took a step back and we said, hang on a second. And we did some deeper research, and we found that our fans were five times more likely to consume online video than the American norm. And we realized we had an opportunity, and in eight months, we launched the WWE Network in time for WrestleMania.

Wow. I actually have a thousand questions about the WWE Network.

Go for it.

But before. Before we get there.

I was asked earlier today what prompted me to reach out and ask you to be here. And it's because I'm fascinated by.

Generations of greatness, like families that have cultivated a culture of no limits. And your family has built a company with a $5 billion market cap.

6 as of today.

Oh, congratulations. Just an extra billion today, everybody.

And your mom heads the sba. I mean, you have. You. Your. Your husband now has kind of a following of his own. Right? You're The CBO you've turned over. I mean, I believe the company has grown 400% since you've been CBO. If my.

It's. It's ironic timing, but, yeah, okay, sure.

Well. But I mean, you also oversaw the repositioning of how the female Superstars were perceived, which I think probably had something to do with the audience responsiveness. And we can comment on that, but I'm just fascinated by the idea of a family or a generation with no limits. And I'm just curious if you could comment on how that was instilled in you.

Well, I think actually those words were always instilled in me. There's no ceiling. Right. Whenever I heard my dad or my mom. My mom was the CEO of wwe. And that's an important part, too, because I always assumed women could be the CEO. It was never a thought, a second thought to me that women couldn't do anything they wanted to do because I saw my mom do it. And I think that that's incredibly important. You have to. You know, you have to be in that role and be visible because there are generations of girls that need to see it. And that's another point. But also, my parents built this company with passion. A lot of your formula that you had up there before. Right. The passion is the biggest one. You have to believe in what you're doing. I've heard a statement that there's very few original ideas anymore, but if you're the most passionate person, you're the one who can make it happen. And I do. I believe in that. You have to believe in yourself and believe in your idea more than anything else, more than anybody else, because you're going to be the one to drive it through. And I saw that, and I lived it, and I saw it succeed and I saw it fail, and I saw my parents pick themselves back up every single time and own the mistake, learn from it, apply what they learned, and then go succeed again. And I think that it's really important not to put limitations on yourself. Why would you ever do that in any capacity? Live as bold and as big as you possibly can?

I'm so curious by this idea of.

You watching them put it on the line like that. And what's fascinating to me right now is as a kid, I watched the character that was the McMahon family.

And what I'm hearing you describe is the people the family of. The McMahon family.

Yes.

And so I'm having this visual in my mind of.

I'm afraid right now.

Well, of Vince McMahon worried about making payroll because he put it all on the line. And all we see is Vince McMahon, right?

Yep, yep.

Yeah. The guy I hope I look like when I'm his age. That's what I see. So did you see any of that?

Oh, yeah, absolutely. I mean, not that I remember this, but my mom was eight months pregnant with me, and she was supposed to meet my dad at the courthouse to declare bankruptcy, and her car had a boot on it, and she couldn't get down to the courthouse, so she begged the tow truck driver to give her a ride. And here she comes. My dad is actually on time, which never happens, and he's pacing outside of the courthouse and up pulls this giant tow truck. And then waddling out is my very pregnant mom. Here we are, honey. Going to declare bankruptcy. And they did. But that's, you know, that's been a part of their journey. My dad believes in the American dream more than anything. He grew up in an 8 foot wide trailer in Havelock, North Carolina, and they had no indoor plumbing. And he said, this might be inappropriate. He said, you know, I don't know if it was worse in the summer or the winter. I'll let you draw your own conclusions. But going uptown was when they finally then had indoor plumbing in a slightly bigger trailer. So my dad truly persevered and lived the American dream through taking those risks, through believing in himself, through never giving up, through picking himself up from the mistakes that you, of course, are gonna make when you're trying to build a business or when you're doing something that you absolutely believe in more than anything else in the world. So that's. That's been my example. And quite frankly, you talk about a legacy of greatness. I don't measure up to that. And that's okay. But I'm so proud to tell his story because he'd never tell it because he's still living it. He's gonna be. He's 73 years old, and what did he decide to do? Launch a new football league?

Like, that's, you know, that's who he is. And I'm very proud. I'm very proud of him and my mom.

I'd be curious. Gosh, I have a thousand questions.

But you, you mentioned you referenced the xfl and there was a lot that went into that back in its initial launch in 2000.

Yep.

And that didn't end how everybody wanted it to end. And it was probably a very resource intensive part of the empire. So how did you see, how did the family and how did everyone respond to what some would perceive as failure. Did you perceive it as failure? And how did you respond to that situation?

You know, it's funny, I think that, you know, obviously it didn't get picked back up.

But. So, yes, it was a failure in and of that. But there was a lot of learning, you know, and there's this great XFL3430 on ESPN that Charlie Ebersol produced, ironically, who's now also competing against my dad with his own football league. You know, you can't write this stuff, but he produced this incredible documentary and that's where his dad, Dick Ebersol, and my father really talk about the learnings, how they were wrong to go head to head with the NFL, you know, that they should have embraced the NFL and worked in, you know, with the NFL.

Instead of trying to position themselves against it. Yeah, key, key learning, you know, a lot of the other things that they tried from a marketing standpoint, they actually had fantastic marketing, but they didn't have enough time for the teams to really gel and practice. You know, for great football, you need to have great football. And they had a lot of people tuning in and a lot of people watching. And unfortunately, the first game just wasn't that good. You know, it was the first time these guys had really played together and, you know, the football got a lot better really fast. But by that point in time, we had already started to lose viewers and the press had started to turn on us. So it. I say us just because it's, you know, my family, but yeah, so it didn't work the first time, but now here we go again.

You made mention briefly, you said, I don't measure up to that, referencing your.

Father or my mother. But that's okay. I'm my own person.

Well, so explain to me what you mean when you say that.

Well, I just mean I haven't had nearly the accomplishments that they have in their life. I mean, I. I haven't.

Do you make meaning out of that?

I do.

I don't judge myself on that. And that's a little bit of what I mean. No one's ever going to fill my father's shoes or my mother's shoes. And I would never want to try. I would never want to try. Are you kidding? Never.

But I'm doing my own thing and I'm proud of who I am. And even if I don't measure up to this, to where I hold them, you know, of course I hold my parents way up high.

And, you know, I set very high standards for myself. But. But I Would never try to compare to them.

Would. Did you ever. Were you always that self aware?

I've always been very self aware, Very self aware.

Because there's, I think, a temptation in most, especially people who are doing anything great in the world. This need to compare or this internal desire of like, how do I measure up? And I could imagine being a part of an organization and a family that has done so much, not just in the wwe, but doing other businesses and taking over departments of government, that there would be, at least at some point, some sort of internal struggle of is what I've done, Does it stack up? Does it measure up? And so from the outside, it's easy to say, look what they're, look what they're doing and compare myself to that. But I'm just curious of inside if there's ever internal struggle.

Oh, I'm one of the most insecure people you'll ever meet.

Really?

Oh, yeah. I put on a good show. But, you know, I sure, I struggle with self confidence all the time and am I doing everything that I can do? You know, it's funny because I've never liked judgment, right? And everything is all about judging and labeling and everything else. And even when I was a little kid growing up, I was judged because I was Vince McMahon's daughter. And either very positively, people either loved me because I was his daughter, or they really didn't like me because I was his daughter. And it used to really bother me. And my dad told me, he said, you know what, Stephen, not everybody's gonna like you. But as long as you can look yourself in the eyes, in the mirror and know that you're a good person, that's all that matters. And I try to live by that. And when you talk about what fulfills you, what fulfills me about my organization, about wwe, is our mission is to put smiles on people's faces. That's it. Whether we do it through our content or we do it by giving back to the community. And I have actually felt the hugs of kids who are a part of first lunch programs who really don't have anything in their lives. And we bring our stars to these schools, whether it's for a reading program or an anti bullying rally. And you have the chance to interact and feel these kids and give them hopefully some semblance of hope in their lives. And you get to do that on a regular basis, make somebody smile who's having a bad day. You get to bring joy to someone's life. I can't think of a greater job than that, you know, that's what fulfills me. And when I was growing up, people used to come up to my dad all the time and ask for autographs, but they would always say thank you. And it's something that stood out to me since I was a kid. Thank you for all of the years of entertainment for my family. And what's crazy is they've started saying it to me and I get goosebumps even just thinking about it because.

It means so much to me. You know, the fact that you can have some kind of positive impact on generations of people's lives through this incredible organization that is the. The wwe, you know, it's a privilege.

Obviously, not all days are as good as those days. Every business has challenges, and you made mention of people treating you a certain way because of who your family was. And with social media now, there's plenty of opportunities to make your opinion heard. Hell, I get it. I can't imagine what y' all get. So I was.

Especially because I play a villain on the show.

And what I was gonna ask is, I mean, you're. As long as I can remember, the McMahon family.

Yeah, I'm always the hated one. They always liked my brother. They never liked me. I don't know what it is.

Okay, so tell me about that. When you are playing a character very publicly, I can imagine that the feedback, it's not always positive.

Certainly not. Yes. I'm actually trying to get them to boo me though.

So that's.

That's a difference.

What was your father always trying to get them to boo him too?

Probably.

Was there strategy in that? Does he like it?

Well, because, you know, think about every great story. There's a protagonist and an antagonist with conflict resolution. Our conflicts are just settled inside a 20 by 20 foot ring with some of the greatest live action you can see in sports or entertainment. But if the antagonist doesn't mean anything, if the antagonist isn't big and scary, then why are you invested in the story? The Batman is no good without the Joker. Right. You have to have a strong villain. The villain actually makes the story. So I think it's way more fun to play the bad guy.

That's really interesting.

I've heard you mention publicly before that you craft out that story arc up to a year in advance, up to WrestleMania, which is kind of like your Super Bowl.

Correct.

And I was wondering if you could. If you could share a little bit about how. What the thought process is in going into that.

Sure. Well, it's, you know, an attraction driven business. And so we create the longest story arc that we have is WrestleMania. To WrestleMania. And then you plan backwards, we have 12, roughly 12. It vacillates a little bit. Monthly events that used to be pay per views that we still call pay per view. We haven't quite figured out the nomenclature behind the live streaming opportunity because it does also live stream on the WWE network. So there's 12 of these bigger specials with the main roster. And then of course, you have the television programming, which are the smaller arcs that are trying to drive you to the pay per view and ultimately to have you invest in WrestleMania that we've been building all year.

Yeah. So let's, let's talk about the WWE Network because that was definitely a strategic risk.

Oh, yes.

And I think I heard you say that there was like a 10 year deal on the table.

Yeah, there was. And we had been working for at least two years on that 10 year deal.

And you decide to punt that in favor of what is essentially a new business, or at least a new arm of the business that hasn't really been pioneered before. It was timed really, really well when smart TVs now have apps on and you can make purchases right from your. From any device. But that was a strategic, like, I mean, that was a risk.

Yes, it was, it was a calculated risk. And same as mortgaging everything you own.

Right.

So I'm aggressive mania.

I'm waiting to hear like when does, when does, when do you put it all online? And it doesn't go that way, like go the way that it was supposed to. And it was, it could have gone that way with the network, but instead stock price went up, profits went up, and the company has done really well.

So ultimately though, we took a big dip in the beginning.

Oh yeah, you did.

Yes, because we were cannibalizing our pay per view business, which we knew. And yeah, so all of. There was a lot of really positive feedback. Oh my gosh. They did it. WWE is a first mover. All right, we're gonna, we're gonna study this, learn what to do, what not to do, and then. Oh, wait a minute, no, now they're tanking, which we knew. And everything was in line with what we thought was going to happen. But sometimes you have to take that hit, which is not an easy thing to do. And now the network is our second most profitable and fastest growing business. But it doesn't just happen overnight.

Yeah. So I'm curious what the strategy was to try to get the adoption of that. I mean, you bring a new product to market you're used to paying for it here, right? You got to come over here.

Yeah. And we're still trying to figure it out. Quite frankly. It's not an easy thing to do to change viewer consumption when it has been for so many years, but you just have to keep at it in as many different ways as you possibly can. Social media has been very strong for us. YouTube in particular has been very strong for us. Well, that's where you're watching content, you know, online, so to speak. And I caught my 7 year old.

Watching the top 10 chokeslams of all time on.

I love that personally. As long as you're okay with it.

But yes, so it's, you know, trying to reach the audience. And so what we did is we developed this marketing. We were trying to, you know, relay the message. Look, it's a value because it's $9.99 a month. So you're used to paying 59 on pay per view. This is a tremendous value. Not only is it all these incredible live action specials, including Wrestlemania, it's all this library historical content. It's original programming. It's this incredible value. So we were really great at marketing 999.99. Our fans were chanting it. They had signs 9.9999. They didn't know what it was, but they were chanting 999.

And it's interesting, they really didn't. They heard WWE Network and they thought perhaps it was a cable channel. They didn't understand necessarily that it was this live streaming service and that it worked much the same way Netflix does. So we had a lot of figuring out to do. We also made a huge mistake when we first rolled out. We, we tried to have everyone sign up for six months. You were locked in for six months when you signed up. And we thought that that strategically was a good idea and we tried it and it was not. And we survey these fans. I mean, what's great is all of the data and analytics that we now have as a part of the WW network, as a part of all of these different tools that are out there. We now have 60 data scientists actually at WWE mining all of this data to try to provide our consumers, you know, again, always trying to provide our consumers an experience that's worthy of their passion, always in every way.

So how can you customize marketing messages to them, you know, et cetera. But in this feedback when we were surveying them, it came out very, very clearly. We do not want to be locked into a six month subscription, even if we're inclined to pay pay for it. We don't want to be locked in. We want to have the opportunity to check out every month. So we've made that change.

Yeah. So you said you're still trying to figure out the best way to get consumers to adopt.

Yep.

What's that process like, I mean, on the overall psyche of the company?

Well, it's obviously one of our most important initiatives. Right. Because the network is game changing to our business, as are our core television rights, et cetera. It's really a very content heavy business. And of course that's global because we're in 180 countries in 25 different languages and multiple platforms. And we have a whole ecosystem which includes linear pay tv, our AVOD strategy, which is. Is all digital and social. And then of course, the WWE Network, which was created to super serve our most ardent fans. And all of those systems work together. But it is, of course a huge initiative for us to market the WWE Network and have more people sign up. And there's huge opportunity there in terms of casual and lapsed fans. And it's a sizable audience working on it.

I even see it more, more often. I see the brand represented more just because you're kind of a first mover in that world. I just see the network available in more places, which is really interesting. I'm curious. I have a daughter now which has given me.

And how old is she?

She's three and a half. You'll see.

What's her name?

Esther.

Esther.

And she.

You got me thinking about my daughter now. It has made me more sensitive to things that I was blind to as a single bachelor. And one of your key initiatives when you, when you became cbo was changing the way that women were represented in the company. And I was wondering if you could share a little bit about that transition.

Sure.

So part of what happened. And it's not just me, right. There's a number of different executives and all different people trying to affect this change in terms of how our women were presented in the show. And it wasn't until our fans actually started a hashtag called Give Divas a Channel Chance. At the time, our women's division was branded the Divas division, which was not a negative term when we came up with it. It was like the Divas of Soul, Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston. But it was time to change. And there was a tag match which lasted all of 30 seconds. And unfortunately that was the norm. And our fans started this hashtag that trended worldwide for three days, specifically calling for Better character development, better storylines, more athleticism in their matches, and their voices were so loud and strong that our chairman and CEO responded. We hear you. Keep watching. Givedivas a chance again. If you listen to them, they will tell you what they want. And strategically, at WrestleMania, which you said is akin to our super bowl, it was actually in Dallas at AT&T Stuff Stadium, over 101,000 people. We had one of our female hall of Famers, Lita, go out and introduce the rebranding of the divas division to the women's division. She unveiled a new championship belt that was more akin to the men's, but still very feminine, and announced that our women would be called superstars, same as the men. Since that time, our women have been more regularly headlining and main eventing our television, our pay per view slash live streaming events. We signed Rowdy Ronda Rousey, who's arguably one of the world's greatest athletes, male or female. We had our first ever all women's pay per view event called Evolution. And what's really incredible about this, so it's streaming live on WWE Network to, you know, anywhere between 1.6 to 1.8 million subscribers. It's up against NFL Sunday Night Football and the last game of the World Series. And it trended number one worldwide for over two hours because it was that good. And people were talking all over the world about our women and what they could do.

You mentioned bringing on Ronda Rousey.

Yes.

Which in our world, we call that influencer marketing.

Sure. She's a huge star.

Yeah. So that was. That was a. Like a. It's a big PR move and kind of a surprise for casual fans, like, of either UFC or wwe. That. That was in the olden days. That would be when Diesel becomes Kevin Nash and changes affiliations. Right. So I'm curious what. Who approached who and.

What the play was there. Changing sports, really?

Sure, sure. Well, Rhonda had always been a fan since she was a little girl. And, you know, she actually tells this story about her dad buying her this Hulk Hogan wrestling buddy and how she. She actually had a speech impediment when she was growing up, and she. She was saying, ballgren, Ballgren. And no one could figure out what she was talking about. And they were in the store and she kept saying it over and over and over for like 45 minutes. And finally her dad figured it out, and it was Hulk Hogan. And even her character, Rowdy Rhonda is based on Rowdy Rowdy Piper. So Ronda's always been a big Fan. But it takes a special kind of person to be able to make it in wwe. You're not just a great athlete. Great athletes, it's only one part of it. You have to have incredible charisma more than anything else. You have to be able to connect. You have to be able to connect with the audience. And that's a rare thing that you actually can't teach. And Rhonda has it in spades. But we had our eye on her for a very long time. I think she was always a fan. And then at WrestleMania 31 at Levi's Stadium, the Rock, who you all are familiar with the Rock, Dwayne Johnson. Yes. So he started with WWE and he came out at WrestleMania. It was actually in this cool moment for me personally. So it was me and my husband, and we're out in the ring and I'm taking credit again. I'm the villain, right? So I'm taking credit for all of WrestleMania's success. And, you know, this all happened because of me and all this stuff. And then, oh, my God, surprise. The Rock's music hits, and he hadn't been seen in a few years. So it was a big moment. Rock comes out, he and my husband get into it, and then I decide I'm going to lay this smackdown on Rock. And I slap him clear across the face. And I say, what are you going to do, Rock? You going to hit a woman? I don't think so. Get to step in, Dwayne. Go ahead. I mean, oh, they were hating me. It was so good. And then he said, well, you know, I'm never going to hit a woman, but I know somebody who might. And the crowd started coming because they had seen Rhonda in the front row all night long. And here comes Rock, and he makes a huge production out of it and brings Rhonda into the ring. She winds up hip tossing. My husband grabs me, almost puts me in an arm bar, and I kind of scoot and get away. And they have the moment and have the day, and it was awesome. And I think Rhonda got bit by the WWE bug in that moment. And I think she proved to all of us what she was capable of, which we knew already.

Yeah, that's. That's really. It's a kind of a unique moment to, from the outside, almost recruit some. Someone from a different sport, essentially.

Well, and our whole recruiting strategy has changed anyway, because a whole part of the women's evolution was actually starting to recruit female athletes the same as the men. The most elite athletes from all over the world. So we recruit from all different sports. UFC being one of them, mma, you know, the Olympics, you know, you name it. And all over the world there are so many different sports. Sports, Kushti, capoeira, you know, et cetera, rugby. So we're really recruiting the best athletes that we possibly can. We have a whole performance center that we have been told is on par, if not better than some of the NFL training facilities where we not only train for in ring, but we're also doing, you know, life skills seminars. We offer advanced skills in language development in any academic, academic courses, you know, et cetera. Because we're looking to create the best possible professional, not just the best possible entertainer. We want you to be the best person you can be because you'll be that much of a stronger talent.

For us, that's a great segue because what different than how Ronda already had a following and was already kind of established When I was watching, it was always kind of a grassroots uprising of who would become stars. And. And now today, I can imagine there must be some. There's probably more intent or more of a strategy of how you craft stories around people to give them a platform. And you mentioned the Rock is now one of the biggest celebrities in the world. Says he wants to run for president. Yep. So. So it wouldn't be the. The first president that's been on WWE before.

But you said you weren't going to go there. Oh, he couldn't help himself. I couldn't.

But the idea being that you have a platform that now launches careers.

Sure. John Cena as well.

Absolutely. So I'm curious, there must be some sort of a very intentional strategy behind.

There is, absolutely. And we have what is akin to our farm league and it's called nxt. And that's where our talent are really trying out their characters, where they're getting their reps in. And again, just going back to the women's evolution for a second, we started training the women the same as the men, giving them the same opportunities, the same amount of match time, and they just started to steal the show, which is really what happened. And at nxt, because another part of WWE is the, the connectivity that we have with our audience. Without our fans, we don't have a show. I mean, imagine AT&T Stadium filled to the rafters with over 101,000 people and then imagine it empty.

It's not a show without our fans. They tell us what they love and what they hate and worse, what they don't care about. And you have to be listening to that, too. What's not working, what's what don't they care about? And at nxt, they know they're a huge part of deciding what talent are going to make it to the main rosters of Raw and smackdown. So they're very forgiving and they'll allow you to try different characters if necessary. If something's not working, you can come in and there it's acceptable, there it's okay. Because we all know what's happening and we actually just, I think it was last week, week launched NXT uk. So we have our performance center now that we're replicating. In the uk we have a whole NXT UK brand, a whole NXT performance center in the uk and we're going to be doing this all over the world and we call it global localization.

What's amazing about that is there's such a long game in play there of crafting a story and you're factoring in people's lives of cultivating this talent. Just like you'd cultivate a team member or an employee, right? Yeah. With the idea of there being a very long game, knowing that they are now being graced on the platform and they might get their own career from there.

Absolutely. As part of that, part of what we're doing in the US at the performance center, we launched a content innovation lab where we're actually training our talent to be their own producers and editors, which are called predators, and forgive me, for those of you who know that term, it's still kind of a strange term to me, but. So they become their own content creators. In essence, when you look at the success of Xavier woods, who's one of our talent, now has a gaming channel called Up Up Down down, over 1.8 million subscribers, has opened a whole new line of business for us in the gaming industry. You look at the Bella twins who are a part of Total Bellas and Total Divas. They launched their own YouTube vertical and lifestyle vertical, and it also has over 1.8 million subscribers. We're reaching women in a completely unique and different way. So there's opportunities there. Every talent is its own brand. So how can we capitalize on that? How can we help bring their passions to bear and really, again, super serve and connect with different audiences all over the world?

I want to ask about you personally because you're the cbo of a $6 billion market cap company. You have three daughters.

Three daughters, 12, 10 and 8. Aurora, Murphy and Vaughn.

You're part of.

A family that I Called, when we talked on the phone. A family of greatness. And you laughed.

Your mom heads up the sba. I'm curious how you manage it all.

So my mom taught me a long time ago that there's no such thing as 50. 50. It's never going to be an even balance. It's always going to move. You know, that pendulum is always swinging. You just have to prioritize. And for me, my family comes first, no matter what. They're my priority. If my kids really need me, I am there for my kids. My husband really needs me, I am there for him. And yes, there are times when I've got to be away at a conference or I'm going to an event or whatever it is, but you have to keep your priorities in order. When I'm at home with my kids, and I'm not saying I'm perfect, this is just what I do, right? And I'm trying to set the best possible example I can because I want my kids to know that they can achieve whatever they want in life as long as they have that passion, but also as long as they work incredibly hard for it. Work ethic is so important, and I think it's important for them to see the example.

And it makes the time that we have to together. It makes us all appreciate that time so much more. When I asked our kids after Christmas break, you know, what was your favorite part of break? And they said being together, it was like it was the greatest, greatest thing they could have said, you know, and it's true. And I so value that time with my children. And my oldest daughter is 12 now, and she's going to be 13 in July. She's in seventh grade, and she's really, really grown up, and she's almost eye level with me. And I had a moment. I still tuck my kids in every night when I'm home every night. And I cuddle them to sleep. Both my husband and I do when we can. And she still wanted to cuddle. And I was just standing in her room looking at her in her bed, and it really kind of hit me, that whole it all goes really fast thing. It's true. And I'm so proud of her and I'm so proud of who she is, and I'm just trying to do the best job I possibly can and love her as hard as I possibly can and be there for her. So that's way more of an emotional answer maybe than you bargained for. I didn't intend that to happen, but clap that up.

That's amazing.

I'm curious. Are there.

Being. Having the precedent set of. No. See ceiling. No limits. Anything is possible. What lessons will you try to instill in your daughters that you learned from your parents?

Well, I think work ethic is incredibly important. I think believing in yourself and having that confidence is incredibly important. And to be kind. I think being kind is really important.

To have respect not only for others, but for yourself.

And, you know, to be the best person that you can possibly be. And to learn and grow every day. Grow every single day. You'll never know everything you know. Always learn, always grow. That's another lesson my dad's always taught me, and he tries to learn from everyone, no matter who it is. And you also have to show that respect for everyone, no matter who they are, because nobody's better than anybody else.

Will you teach them proper pedigree form?

They already know it. That's a finishing maneuver he's referencing.

The most commonly asked question was if you were gonna pedigree me on stage.

Yeah, I'm not. I'm wearing a dress. I can't. Sorry.

Can I. Can I tell one other thing, though? That's really important, and it's. It's a piece of the women's evolution, but it's about the power of platforms, and it's about the power of using your voice, because I think this is the perfect audience for that.

For the first time ever, just over a year ago, our women were allowed to perform in Abu Dhabi. And they had to change their gear. Only their heads and their hands could be exposed. But during the match in the arena, a chant broke out of both men and women chanting, this is hope.

This is hope. And there were tears in the eyes of little girls in the front row, because that's what it's about. It's about making a difference. It's about being the change you want to see in the world. It's about standing up and using your voice and doing what you believe in.

And what prompted that was just that.

The very fact that these women were allowed to perform.

Can you. For those who aren't familiar, would you explain why that is such a big deal in that.

In that region? Well, I don't. I don't know that I need to explain that one. But, you know, our women had. In terms of our business, our women had not ever been allowed to perform before. We actually have to edit them out of our programming a lot of times. So for them to actually be a part of the show, to perform in front of men and women in that show and for that chant to break out. This is hope, meaning there's hope for women. You know, what does that hope mean? It means something different to everyone. What does that hope mean to those little girls with the tears in their eyes? What does it mean? It means they can be what they want to be. Hopeful. Hopefully. Hopefully that's what that hope is.

And where I'm going with that is what that represents is there was such demand for.

That to not necessarily be normalized, but for that opportunity to be created. And what you're pointing to is that the audience over there was so hungry for that. And what the business was able to do is basically give an outlet for. For that opportunity.

Be the voice right?

From the. On the business side, I'm curious.

One of the things that the WWE has done has. I think they've always been ahead of the business growth in terms of trying new things that were not necessarily.

Normal in the industry. I mean, what you just talked about is not normal at all for businesses to try to pioneer. But there's also things like when I was a kid, there were a lot of acquisitions that were kind of famous when WWE bought wcw, being willing to punt pay per view in exchange for WWE Network. So would you explain to me the thought process about just being willing to. To go all in and try new things that aren't yet popular in that industry?

So we spoke a lot about passion. One thing we didn't speak about was guts, right? You have to trust your guts. And that's not a formula you're going to find anywhere. It's something that you feel. It's something that you. That you, again, you have to believe in. Now. You also have to do the research, right? You have, you have to have some kind of foundation for knowing that this is going to work or for believing in it, that it's going to work. Do the homework. And that's the difference, I think, between just taking a blind risk and taking a calculated risk. That's what I mean when I say calculated risk. Because there's precedence for it. You're able to prove enough of it out and then your gut tells you it's right. And then you have the passion and the heart and the drive and the willingness to risk it all. You know, I think that that's part of what is unusual today, but not necessarily for entrepreneurs who experience it more often. You know, my father is the ultimate entrepreneur. He still. WWE still feels like an entrepreneurial company when you're there. No one day is the same. I mean, yeah, we're going to. Oh, we're going to redo the xfl. We're going to launch the XFL again. That was an interesting day. What. When did you start thinking about this? You know, like, that's. That's how it is. And I think, you know, that's really what it is. It's passion, it's gut. It's enough research to know that it could work, and then it's driving it forward no matter what.

Yeah. I mean, that's what entrepreneurship is, right? Yeah. And I know your mom heads the SBA and has kind of spent the last two years working with a lot of much smaller entrepreneurs than people are running publicly traded companies. So I'm curious if you've seen any insights there of entrepreneurs who are starting out or just scaling up?

So she doesn't share with me a whole ton of specific stories. She'll tell me about certain businesses and people that she runs into and how there are more women than ever starting their own businesses and how exciting that is. She made it a goal to visit every single office in the States in her first two years, and she did. And she is really proud of having the opportunity to help, because that's what WWE was, was. Was a small business. You know, my mom at one point in time had to make the decision of whether or not she spent, you know, whatever it was, the $12 to buy a typewriter or if she continued to rent it for a dollar every month. You know, I mean, those were the kind of decisions that my parents had to make. They had to make payroll. They had to grow this company. The first ever employee was a man by the name of Howard Finkel, who was our ring announcer, and he is still, by the way, an employee of wwe.

But they know what it's all about. And those are the principles that my mom tries to apply, you know, to help these businesses and to help these business owners grow. There's a lot more that they do, though, as well, in terms of disaster relief and different types of loans. I mean, I've gotten a pretty amazing education on the sba, and I only know basically the surface.

Is anyone in the McMahon family afraid of failure?

So it's funny that you use the word fear, because recently I've been thinking about that word, and I've been thinking about, what if you flip fear and you look at every time you have that nervousy fear feeling? What if you look at that as opportunity? How does that change your mindset? How does that change how you look at things? What's in front of you. Because there's a great quote and I don't know who said it, but that everything you want is on the other side of fear. So go for it. I mean why be afraid? It's a ride, right? Isn't it? Life, isn't that what it's all about? Go after it, do it, try it.

It's really easy to judge from the outside and be like, well of course, course, of course. You can risk one revenue model for another revenue model or buying out your biggest competitor or changing the branding. And I think sometimes we miss that. The, like it's a legitimate risk. Yeah, like you're legitimately laying it all on the line again in order to make that happen. And I'm, I'm just curious it again, the XFL is the one, one example that I can think of that might not have gone the way that everybody had hoped in a perfect world.

The WBF as well. We had the World Bodybuilding Federation that tanked.

Tell us more about these. I don't, I don't know that one.

Well, because you wouldn't. Because it didn't really do very well. You know, one of my father's passions is bodybuilding, always has been. He still trains every night like well into to the midnight hours and you know, he just, that's who he is. So he thought, of course, live event production. God, I've been to a million of these bodybuilding shows, they're not that great. I can create characters, I can apply all of the principles that apply to our business that can apply here to bodybuilding. But there were some, some significant reasons why that didn't necessarily work.

So I'm hearing consistent theme that a lot of these ideas are just because someone in the company is really excited about them and that.

Well, not just, just someone, the leader of the company.

Sure, yeah, sure. I'm sure there's other people that have to sign off on a lot of that's true.

But he is the. You know, you talked about vision, vivid vision before that struck me, me because I think that very clear vision is so important. You have to know what you're going after. You have to see its success through in your mind. You have to be long term oriented, not short term oriented.

And how do these, I'm afraid to call them passion projects. But how do these other projects factor into that again?

Well, those are really the two biggest ones, right. The WBF and the xfl. And they made sense at the time. And you know, we set aside some capital, we went after it, it was all well planned Again, thought for sure it was going to work, and it didn't. And you learn and you grow because that's what you do in life. Because you're going to make mistakes, you're going to have failures, and that's okay. That's how you learn. Just don't make the same mistakes twice. You know, it's funny, my dad has an expression. He says that mistakes are tolerated up to a point, but excuses never will be.

You use the phrase strategic risk several times.

Calculated. Yeah.

Calculated risk, Yep. Okay, so would you help us understand how risk gets calculated in the.

I think it depends. Right. But when you look specifically at the case of the WWE Network and you look at the deal that was on the table. So we really had a significant deal on the table. Easy to look through, understand, highlights what we liked, what we didn't like, what we were willing to sacrifice. And I think that that's part of what you have to break down is what are you willing to sacrifice? What's the upside? What's the downside? What risk are you willing to take? Because you have to understand how far far you could fall because you might need to pick yourself back up, and you've got to be able to do that. So when you take a calculated risk, it's built on very clear metrics. That's what I mean.

The company seems to continually reinvent itself, and as a result, it continues to grow. And sometimes from the outside, I think there can't be anything more that could be done or it could be. Can't be scaled anymore. And I'm curious how that innovation is cultivated in the organization.

Well, again, I think it's a mindset driven by the top. Right. To always be entrepreneurial, to always be thinking. You know, it's strange in our business, if you really have an idea that you believe in and that you can prove with a good business model, a good business plan, that it would get turned down. You know, there's. There's opportunity to thrive because that's encouraged from the top, from the top down.

So I think that that's an important part of leadership in any company.

If that's what you want your company to be. Is that entrepreneurial thinking, encouraging innovation at every step, Treat each day like it's your first day on the job is one of our core company values. Challenge the status quo. A lot of times people. People get accustomed to doing things just the way they've always been done because, well, that's how we do them. That's how it's always worked well first day on the job. What if you did it this way? Would it work better? Oh, wow. You know what? That actually does work better. I don't know why nobody else thought of that. Right. It's because you can get so stuck in the rhythm of just doing the same thing over and over again. So that's, again, that's a core value of our company, is to challenge that status quo and to think differently.

Yeah. Would you talk a little bit about taking care of the team members and also of the athletes themselves? Because I can. Obviously it's physically demanding, but I can imagine being such a story based company has got to be very emotionally demanding on both the, the athletes and people who work in the organization. So how, how do you take care of the members of the team?

So very different ways. You know, employees are our employees and our talent are independent contractors. So they're treated, you know, a little differently.

That's interesting. I didn't know that.

Yep, they're independent contractors.

Is there a reason for that?

Yeah, I mean, that's just what makes, you know, the most sense for our business model. They participate in, in every line of revenue. The only exception being our core television rights and network subscriptions. But other than that, they participate in everything that they help build. So any digital social presence, consumer products, you know, because all of our lines of business, we are more akin to a Disney than just a straight media company. Also our live events companies, you know, over 570, 60 live events every year and our talent participate in all of those streams of revenue.

Oh, that. That's really interesting. I didn't.

It's interesting model also because you get, you know, you have your minimum guarantee, but then you earn everything else on top of that. So there is no ceiling on what you could earn. There's no limit.

Yeah. And what that does is it allows them to continue to build their platform and operate independently. That.

That's interesting.

I didn't know that. So I was wondering if you could share if there's any backstage drama that.

You would not including my family that.

Actually it's my dad, me, my husband, my brother. It's like, you know, actually, let's go.

There for a second. When you fight in the ring, how does that affect what happens at the dinner table?

Honestly, some of our best bonding times are in the ring really, because we have a lot of fun together.

You know, and at the dinner table, you know, it's mostly about the kids.

That's great. So is it. Do you feel like you can leave work at work?

No. Certainly Not.

All right, so. Well, those are two different modes when you're battling.

You just said the dinner table. Let's see.

Yeah.

I mean, come on.

I've, you know, I've grown up in this business. So ever since I was a little kid modeling for the magazine because we couldn't afford to pay for, you know, models.

You know, I always wanted to be a part of my family's business. That's why I got into it. I've always loved the product. I've always watched. At the time, my dad was a commentator. He wasn't an on air character. And so that's how I got hooked into the business. Business. And here, my parents. Yeah, well, no, wait. Jesse Ventura, who became the governor.

Wait, where they were a duo. Weren't, Wasn't.

Oh, yeah, my dad and Jesse the.

Body and Jim Ross.

Jim Ross was late. Well, Jim Ross was wcw. He didn't join WWE until later, like, inside Pool.

But I always, you know, and listening to my parents talk business. Plus I didn't have a nanny, so I was traveling all the time, you know, with my parents and listening to all their conversations. Dinners, like all the business dinners I had to sit at all through all the business dinners, and I'd, you know, just sort of color what have you. But I was picking up on all of the things that they were talking about and that they were saying. And, you know, my parents sacrificed a lot for our family. And my dad was on the road so much when my brother was growing up that. That my brother once asked, and this is not a great thing, it's just a true story. My brother once asked my mom if he could play with my dad. And it broke my dad's heart and he realized he was away too much. And I wanted to somehow give back to my parents. And that's how I became to be a part of the company.

Hey, Events team, would you please do me a favor and kick out the first four or six people that I can hear talking in the hallway in the back? It's highly distracting, and I can imagine even more distracting for the people.

I actually have some WWE Superstars that.

Could.

If you want to run to a mic or grab a mic, I actually can't see if they're set up because the lights are blinding. We will take some Q and A from the audience in the meantime. Stephanie, I'm curious from a brand perspective how at this point, when you have reframed the brand and now are bringing what I would say, a lot more heart and soul to the business. I'M curious how you take that over the next few years.

It's an interestingly timed question because there's a lot of conversations going on right now about our content and, you know, needing to be more competitive and what direction does it go in. And there's some conflicting opinions right now. So we're actually in the midst of those very heated conversations.

Are you at liberty to share?

I am not.

Okay, well, then let me ask you this. How does. How does social media and Internet platforms factor into those decisions? Because that puts you out, out of control of a lot of content, but it's also a very unique opportunity. So how. How does all that play into how you make your decisions?

So I think social media is incredibly important. And you know, Vince, he is Vince in business. He's dead at home. It's weird at first, but I got used to it and it actually helps a lot because there's Vince the boss and there's my dad. But he really had the foresight to see social media as the ultimate grassroots marketing. When my dad first wanted to be a part of, actually, it was called wwwf, the Worldwide Wrestling Federation or Capitol Wrestling. When my grandfather was running the northeast territory. My grandfather didn't want my dad to be a part of the business. He had to earn his way in. And there was a promoter in Bangor, Maine, who was stealing too much, which my dad loves that expression, stealing too much. It was okay to steal a little bit, but he was stealing too much, you know, long time ago. And my grandfather said, I'll tell you what, Vinnie, if you can make Bangor, Maine a success, then I'll let you in the door. And my dad made Bangor, Maine a huge success. But that's grassroots marketing at its core, at its best, at its foundation. That's what he does. And he signs social media as that ultimate opportunity, that one to one, you know, the ability to connect directly with your audience and to listen to them. I mean, that's. It's a huge opportunity. You know, it's funny, I had been at the time, I was running digital for wwe and I'd been to a conference and I'd said, oh, you know, it was really great. I heard this guy speak and he said that social Media is not 100% of one person's channel job. It's 1% of 100% of everybody's job. And I thought that that was really smart. And Vince said, no, it's 100% of 100%. And then he started having all of the different business heads report weekly on what they were doing on social media for their business and it took a long time. People didn't get it, you know, God, why I'm in concern consumer products. What am I doing on social media? And he drove it through by repetition every single week. And now here we are with, you know, nearly a billion social media followers. We're the second biggest YouTube channel in the world behind T series, which is a Bollywood channel, which actually I just saw Spotify did a deal with in India, but second most viewed YouTube channel in the world. We have top the five out of the top 10 most followed female athletes in the world on Instagram are WWE Superstars, Rhonda beats Serena Williams.

Very cool. Yeah, you mentioned in that statement.

I don't remember the phrase you used, but you were referencing the heads of different revenue streams.

Yep.

Would you just from a, I'm curious, from a business perspective, would you walk us through what the different departments and revenue streams and.

Sure. I mean we have, you know, two, we have two co presidents, Michelle Wilson and George Barrios. George was our chief finance officer and chief strategy officer and finance and data and those departments still report into him. And Michelle was our chief marketing and chief revenue officer and all of those lines of business still report into her. But when you think about it, we have, you know, consumer products. We're over a billion dollar brand at retail around the world. The live event division that I mentioned before, we have our studios division, which is out in la, which we actually are about to release in partnership with MGM in seven Bucks, which is Rock's company, a movie called Fighting with My Family. And it's about one of our female superstars, Paige, and her life growing up in a wrestling family in the uk. And it's a great story and it's ultimately her story of perseverance. It's incredible. And she's played by Florence Pugh, who's so talented, actually I got lost thinking she actually was Paige for a little while. But I digress. So we have studios, we have our advanced media group, which is a huge content division, basically everything minus our television, which is the linear stream. We have, you know, the data scientists that I talked about, our technology play. We have our music division, we have basically of course, all of our talent, talent relations, talent development all around the world and of course television production as well. So it's. We're the world's largest traveling show. Did you know we were this. We were number two. The circus was number one. We were number two. Now we're number one. I think we have like 22 trucks that travel pretty much every day of the year. You know, because we're live every week. You know, we have no off season and no reruns. So every Monday night we are live for three hours on USA Network with a property called Monday Night Raw from 8 to 11. Then Tuesday nights, we're live from 8 to 10 on USA Network with Smackdown Live. Smackdown starting October 4th is going to Fox broadcast. So that was a huge change as well. We are now getting, because of our new deals with both USA for Raw and smackdown, over three and a half times what our rights were in the past.

That makes sense. It's a big change.

Yep. Because we deliver. Like sport. Those live grp, they're incredibly important in that community that you started this conversation with, because community is really important around any business, around any brand. And when it's what keeps people coming back.

And when you have the second biggest YouTube following in the world and you've built this platform through a grassroots community movement that is very popular to old established businesses now because their model is starting to die off. What I find really interesting is there's a consistent theme of seeing the organization is constantly willing to just reinvent.

Yeah, absolutely. We actually have a whole process going on right now called reimagining wwe. But it's not that this is new to us. It's something we do all the time. We're trying to codify it. How do you put process and discipline and rigor around reinventing yourself to ensure that you continue to do that?

Would you please speak to the entrepreneurs in the room who are terrified that their primary revenue stream is going to go away, and so they're trying to defend it rather than trying to reimagine or reinvent it.

Oh, gosh, that's such a hard thing, right? Well, I'm not telling you not to do something or I'm not telling you to do something except try to look at it differently. You know, put on a different hat, look at it from a different perspective, ask the upside down question and think about how you can.

Not necessarily change, though. I know that that's the whole point of this conference is the change. Create the change. How can you shift your perspective? How can you shift your model? How can you reinvent, prevent your brand or your company to over deliver on your vision?

And. And to that point, when.

I'm hearing you talk about is like the product and the audience were always the focus. How about bringing that out was always on the table of how you change that, how you engage the audience and how you bring a quality product to that audience is what you're married to.

Yep.

But the way in which. Which you do that, you were always willing to risk to make it better to bring that product to that audience.

Calculated risk. Right. But you know what I actually had, we're doing a big research project right now in wwe, and one of the points that the researchers brought to the company, which I just share because I think it's. And I'm going to butcher it, but at its core, what is your engine? What is that one fundamental that you never want to change? And he gave an analogy of a car company that they had worked with and this car company, at first, the leadership didn't want to make any changes. And the car company started to fade off. They realized they needed to be competitive in the marketplace, develop other lines of cars, SUVs, etcetera, not just sports cars. And the one thing that they did not change was the engine. The engine had the same functionality in every single car, was made exactly the same way in every single car. And that company is a huge success today. So what is your engine? What is that one thing that you can't change that is the core of what you do? And then think about all of the different ways that you can evolve your business.

That's beautiful. And this connects with me because I know I've gone through periods in my career as an entrepreneur where you get married to the platform, you get married to the distribution channel, rather than the product and the audience. And.

When you do that, you end up losing your uniqueness, losing the value that you bring, and you ultimately are less successful. All right.

Are the mics up assessed? People say anything can we grab here in the audience?

Hello. Hi, Stephanie. I am a lifelong WWE fan, so.

Thank you very much to have you here.

I'd like to officially enter the Royal Rumble this Sunday live on the WWE Network for only nine.

Nine. You know it.

Yep. But I had a question for you about working with your fans, family, and how you've been able to be so successful at that. I, at one point worked in a family company. Didn't go so well. Left, started my own company. But with you, and especially a personality, if Vince McMahon is anything at all, like he is on TV wondering, like, what you've learned from him and where you guys may differ and how that business relationship worked out.

Well, it's a work in progress, I will say. It's not like we have it figured out. And I think, you know, it's funny because being a mom now, I can appreciate his perspective a little bit differently and how hard that must be, having your kids in the business and wanting them to be successful, but yet, you know, not wanting. Wanting them to earn everything that they have to. You know, I don't want to put words in his mouth of how he looks at it, but we have to work that much harder. You know, if anything, being Vince McMahon's daughter or son, it's a tougher position. You have more opportunity, you know, than other people might have, but you have to work really, really hard and earn it every day, as you should, anyway, quite frankly.

So, for me, I think one of the hardest things things is, was learning, because, again, Vince McMahon is a different boss than other bosses. He's a different person. He. Competitive doesn't quite describe it. And you won't win. I don't care what it is, you won't win. And I had to learn that lesson the hard way, and I almost had to get fired to learn it. But at the end of the day, I respect the fact that he's the boss. He'll listen to me the same way he'll listen to everybody else. But at the end of the day, it's his decision and it's his company. And as long as I keep that perspective in mind and the fact that it's an absolute privilege for me to be at the company, it's not a birthright. Then as long as I have that perspective in mind that it helps.

Wow. Cool. Thank you.

Hi, Stephanie. How are you doing?

Good, how are you?

Excellent. My name is Isaac. I'm from Vancouver, bc. Two of my buddies, the Singh brothers, I don't know if you're.

I know them. Yes. Yeah, they.

They're athletes for the wwe. They want to say thank you for bringing them on. They really love what they do. So my question is, how are you.

Bringing other cultures and other countries to.

Know about, like, the WWE and how to be athletes in the future?

So a lot of that gets done through digital and social media. Actually, India is our number one market for social media in terms of viewership, etc. Yeah, it's. I mean, it makes a lot of sense.

There's a few people there.

But what we're doing is we've always embraced. Actually 40% of our roster right now is international. So embracing other cultures is really important. And I think in terms of awareness, you know, it's continuing all of the things that we've been doing, successfully launching the UK Performance center and the UK NXT brand, replicating that now, hopefully in India and in Other markets to come will also help provide that opportunity. We also do tryouts with globally. So we just completed a tryout in the Middle east that was a huge success for us. We did a tryout in India as well. Went to a Kushti camp, which was. I saw some footage. Very incredible. We, you know, hired our first ever female Indian wrestler, Kavita Devi. We also have our first ever female wrestler from. From the Middle east, from Jordan. Her name is Shadia Basaso. And, you know, we're just, we're recruiting and bringing in as many different stars as we possibly can because it's not about necessarily representing the region, it's about finding the best possible stars in the region. Thank you very much.

Hi, Stephanie.

I'm also a lifelong fan and I'm very proud to say that I had Triple H's pictures all over my junior high school. So for those of you who don't know, Triple H is my husband. Life imitated art. We were married and divorced in storyline before we actually started dating. And it was forbidden love. Yeah. I was not allowed to date the wrestlers and I'm the boss's daughter. It was. Yeah, he risked everything. It was a great story.

Well, we're going to go there next. Okay. I was very invested in that storyline, so I'm glad it happened that way.

My question for you is in terms.

Of brand positioning and brand repositioning, so.

You made this shift into going into.

Sort of this female arena.

So I guess my question is, what.

Sort of metrics and research did you.

Do beforehand before launching into that niche and sector?

And what gave you the confidence to.

Kind of say, this is going to be sort of a long term play? So we were one of the first really in the field to start.

Putting our women in the main event. Right. But there was a cry for it across the world. Right. When you look at Rhonda, when you look at Serena, there are these female athletes that people want to see that they want to watch. You know, women are rising in companies all across the landscape, whether that's media, whether that's entertainment, whether that's sports. And really it was our fans who had the strongest voice because again, there was a lot of us. And at the time, we didn't necessarily have all the metrics that we have today, but we were saying we believe in this. Our women deserve to be more than, you know, the managers on the show. They deserve to be more than secondary or tertiary type characters. They deserve to be equal. They deserve to be able to be in the main event. But that wasn't enough. And I think the ultimate metric is our fans and that three day global worldwide trend. Give divas a chance. And then since that time, again, the evolution pay per view. Our women's merchandise sales are up 40% ratings wise. When our women are competing in the ring at some of our highest rated segments, some of our highest rated social segments, most talked about segments. So those are, those are the metrics that we measure.

Thank you. So you started to tell a story about a story. I didn't realize that the on air marriage and divorce was before you start dating.

Yeah, there's a lot of flirting during that period of time.

Oh, my.

Where I'm wondering, like, is he really flirting with me or is this a storyline? Because it feels like he's really flirting with me. And he says that I flirted with him. I'm sure I did.

Well, I, I wanted to bring this home by asking you about the storylines that happen behind the scenes because there's, there's a. I think it's so often we forget the people element of this. These are real human beings who have their own lives, their own stories going on. So this is a really interesting example of there being a front storyline and there's also a real storyline.

Well, and so my dad, you know, I think I'm going to where you want me to go. So he, he had given his blessing and then he took it away.

So what happened was he said, yes, we could date, but he didn't ask my mom, he didn't talk to anybody else. He didn't surface this idea. And again, Triple H was one of our biggest stars. It was a huge risk. What if things didn't work out? Why would we. I guess it was a calculated risk, but maybe not so calculated. So he gave his blessing and then took it away. And, you know, over time, I guess the expression is true. If you really love something and you set it free and it comes back to you, then it was meant to be. And I'm very romantic, so I know I get gross and yucky, but I believe in it. And now we have these three amazing girls and we've been married 15 years. And I'm more in love with him now than I ever was.

That's great.

He's also dead sexy and it helps. And he's really smart. He's so smart. I mean, it's funny because people think I actually married a trophy husband. It couldn't be further from the case. He is one of the smartest people that I know.

If I were to Admit to having man crushes. I would admit having a man.

You had the triple H pictures.

Stephanie. I was hoping you could just speak to the entrepreneurs in the room who have that grand vision. And like I spoke about so often, we, we get stuck at points and we feel like there's greatness inside of us. And sometimes that journey can be a very lonely journey, a very hard journey and a very long one. And your family has gone through ups and downs and lefts and rights and has succeeded and the company is more successful, has a bigger impact, is more profitable than it's ever been. And being through all of those peaks and valleys, I was just hoping you could make a comment to the entrepreneur who has a vision and is still going through those peaks and valleys.

I would say you're always going to go through those peaks and valleys. You know, even when you're on top. One of the toughest things to do is to actually stay there. And it's. This may be a good analogy, and it might not be a good analogy, but I think it was President Bush's letter to President Obama when he basically said, you know, this is of kind to be the hardest thing and people all around you are not going to be what you expect. Just stay true to your family and stay true to what you believe in and those people you can truly trust. Totally paraphrasing there, not really giving the heart of that letter, but I think that in essence that's true. You have to. Don't give up, don't ever give up your hope and what you believe in. Never let failure take away your dreams. You're gonna fail. Be okay with failing. You have to become okay with that again. Don't keep making the same mistakes. It's, you know, one version of the definition of insanity. But learn from your mistakes, apply that learning and hang in there. Believe in yourself, believe in what you're doing and don't give up. And surround yourself with the people who can help you get there, that who is really important.

Stephanie, I can't think of a better way to end day one of the Capitalism conference. Stephanie, I so admire what your whole family, but specifically what you've done in the organization to create and implement a different vision that is having a way bigger impact than even the company that I grew up admiring as a kid. So thank you for all you're doing and thank you for being here. Give it up for 78. Man.

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