together , we put them on one floor , tore down the walls , opened up the whole floor so that everybody could have this free-form way of working . Actually it was such a great model and it was also pretty cost-effective so we wound up doing that throughout our office buildings . Then I transitioned from that role into my role now as chief brand officer . It ' s important to note , although I ' ve never even thought about it until someone pointed it out the other day , that I was the first woman ever in charge of all of those departments . And I ' m the first chief brand officer for our company .
O ' Reilly : How has that been ? When you imagine WWE you imagine lots of big , beefy , testosterone-filled males , lots of masculinity ... how does that work and and how do you assert yourself ?
McMahon : I think anybody has , regardless of your gender , we all have equal value if you have value to bring and value to provide , you just have to be willing to use your voice .
I ' ve never felt my gender was an obstacle . There have of course been moments in my career when it has slapped me in the face but the reason I felt it slapped me in the face was because it wasn ' t something that I had contemplated before .
When you consider that my mother was the CEO of our company , helped my father grow our business from a north-east regional wrestling promotion into a global brand . And now my mom designs to resign so she runs for US senate , and now at 67 my mom just launched a new company called Women ' s Leadership Live , she is the cofounder and CEO , and it ' s all about empowering women to be successful in business however they define success .
When you have a role model like that you really don ' t ever look at gender as an issue and it ' s about owning your place and taking charge of your role , regardless of what you look like .
O ' Reilly : How much do you listen to what fans say on social media and how much does that influence what you do as a company , but also storylines ?
McMahon : I think it ' s one of the secret sauces to our success if you will is that our fans are a part of our show . They engage , they chant , they cheer , they boo . There ' s a problem when they don ' t react . So , in essence , every live event is like a focus group . So we are getting that realtime feedback from them , in the arena .
Another reason why I think social media was so successful for WWE is because of that fan engagement , because they are a part of what we do , therefore , even when they are not live in the arena , they have influence through social media . I think that it ' s so important . A lot of brands just push messages out on social media , but that ' s not what social is about . Social is about engaging , it ' s about a conversation , it ' s about listening and then responding , it ' s an ongoing conversation with our fan base . So when you consider the fact that our fans influence what happens in a match — a lot of it is improv , so they can dictate the flow if something ' s not working , you can make an adjustment on the fly . They dictate what ' s being said . They can often chant or you can get a feeling they are not engaged with the content , so you have to find a way to transition around that .
O ' Reilly : So even live you take signals from social media and say : " Actually we should take this in this direction ?"
McMahon : Absolutely , so live , real-time is social but if you don ' t have a device in your hand and you ' re in the ring , then you ' re interacting with the audience . The live audience is digital and social , but even sales . All of that data and information creates more feedback that you can take in and apply . You notice themes throughout .
O ' Reilly : Brock Lesnar [ an NCAA wrestler , turned- WWE star , who is now rising to UFC fame ] is a really interesting story right now . You ' ve not necessarily ever done cross-brand promotions with the UFC before . Are you realizing there is a place for both UFC and WWE ? Do they compete in any way ? And also the fact that he ' s flipped from one to the other and then back again .
McMahon : Brock is a unique proposition , but just to get to the broader question : UFC is not a competitor to the WWE because we are entertainment and UFC is competitive sport . It ' s very different . WWE is all about protagonists and antagonists where ultimately our conflicts are settled in the ring with action that is akin to Hollywood . It ' s incredible stunt-like action and the match itself tells a story , but our audience is engaged in the characters and their storyline . It has to be relatable to them so that they care to see the tragedy or triumph and we ' re at an advantage because we can script it .
UFC , they can make a big star but the second that person loses , they lose credibility , and how do you continue to make that star rise ? So I think we have the best of both worlds and
Page | 4
Lawless Entertainment Magazine – www . llemag . com