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
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