Stephanie McMahon was this week’s guest on the ‘Three And A Half Degrees‘ podcast with David Fischer, and talked about the business side of WWE with him and fellow guest Gary Vaynerchuk.
Stephanie talked about her first experiences with WWE after graduating college, saying how being treated as a normal employee instead of ‘Vince’s daughter’ made her a better employee and earned people’s respect:
“When I first graduated college my roles were in our sales office. Again, learning from the ground up, going on sales calls, what it took to really build our business. I’ve pretty much interned in our digital media space, almost everywhere really, and then ultimately came to be a part of our creative writing team which is where I really found my niche at that time and simultaneously also became a character on our television show.
And then within two weeks the head writer quit and I was told, “Congratulations, trial by fire. Here in WWE, it’s sink or swim. You are now running the creative writing team.”
“I was in charge of our creative writing and live event booking and marketing and talent relations departments at that time. I guess I really wasn’t doing a very good job because my boss, who’s also my father, called me into his office and told me that I wasn’t meeting expectations and that something needed to change. And I think that it’s one thing when your boss sits you down and tells you that you’re not meeting expectations and that you are performing subpar in some capacity, it’s another thing when that boss is your father and you have disappointed him. I questioned my value, I really did, and I questioned my value to our company, you know, where would I fit in? How did I fit in? And was I going to be able to overcome this massive setback to me personally and professionally? And was I ever going to be able to earn not only my colleagues’ respect but was I ever going to be able to earn or regain my dad’s respect? I beat myself up for a really long time and the main thing that I was doing wrong is that I was micromanaging. But then there was this huge self-doubt and insecurity that I was left with because, again, I took it so hard.”
Stephanie talked about learning from her mistakes:
“I’ve always been a strong performer and it just rattled my cage so much. And I started working with a coach. She taught me to focus on my strengths, and it’s one of the most valuable lessons that I’ve learned along the way. We all have weaknesses, every single one of us, but if you spend the majority of your time trying to hone your weaknesses you’re never really gonna get to that next level. But if you focus on your strengths, if you focus on what you do better than anybody else, it creates a greater value for your business, it creates a better value for your personally because then you start delivering. Then you start bringing things to the table that people may not have even thought were possible.
I think it’s okay to make mistakes, as my dad likes to say, but you just don’t make the same mistakes. So, it’s important whenever you’ve had the opportunity to learn ’cause that’s how you learn, that’s how you grow.”
You can listen to the full podcast below:
