Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: In the meantime, we want to talk about the global
Speaker 2: wellness economy, which is something that is no longer a
Speaker 2: niche market. You know that. It's something we like to
Speaker 2: talk about a lot here at Bloomberg in our especially
Speaker 2: from our Pursuits team.
Speaker 3: It is a six.
Speaker 2: Point eight trillion dollar powerhouse projected to hit nearly ten
Speaker 2: trillion dollars by the end of this decade. That's according
Speaker 2: to the latest note from the Global Wellness Institute. At
Speaker 2: the intersection of all that's happening when it comes to
Speaker 2: the wellness market surge and women's sports is our next guest.
Speaker 2: For over a decade, Ashley Flair, known to the global
Speaker 2: audience as Charlotte Flair, has been a top tier superstar
Speaker 2: for WWE, winning numerous championships, including the WWE Women's Championship
Speaker 2: a record fourteen times, unbelievable. Today, she is leveraging her
Speaker 2: brand equity as an angel investor, specifically in the mental
Speaker 2: health and a parel space with the brand of self
Speaker 2: care is for Everyone, and we are delighted to have
Speaker 2: Ashley Flair. I thought. She joins us from Orlando, Florida, Ashley.
Speaker 2: Great to have you here with us. First of all,
Speaker 2: congratulations and all your accomplishments. That's really really cool.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 1: I feel like this might be my biggest one yet.
Speaker 1: Well tell it goes the way I hope we'll.
Speaker 2: Tell us about. Well, let's go there, because you've accomplished
Speaker 2: so much at the WWE, tell us about you know,
Speaker 2: your hopes, your dreams, your expectations, and where you are
Speaker 2: in that process.
Speaker 1: You know, I still have hopes and dreams within the
Speaker 1: WWE and Charlotte Flair and my passion for wrestling means
Speaker 1: the world to me. And I still, you know, have
Speaker 1: many years left on my career. But when I was
Speaker 1: injured last year, you know, there is a shelf life
Speaker 1: for women in sports, and I really didn't know or
Speaker 1: I or what do I want to do next? And
Speaker 1: I have really gravitated towards the self care mental health
Speaker 1: space and that's really helped me. I feel get through
Speaker 1: the last couple of years in my career and feeling
Speaker 1: like I couldn't talk about anxiety and the pressure of
Speaker 1: being perfect on screen because the character that I play,
Speaker 1: Charlotte Flair.
Speaker 3: Is so perfect.
Speaker 1: And this past year, I feel as since I've gravitated
Speaker 1: towards the mental health care and talking about it. It's
Speaker 1: helped grow my brand. I've been able to connect with
Speaker 1: fans and realizing it's okay not to be okay. So
Speaker 1: when this opportunity from self Care, the two owners, Aj
Speaker 1: and Sasha came to me with this opportunity and asked
Speaker 1: me to be an angel investor, I was like, Wow,
Speaker 1: I feel like this is a perfect fit and where
Speaker 1: to put my money or my investment in my time
Speaker 1: into them to help make this a safe space for athletes,
Speaker 1: for public figures, for parents, for anyone, because it has
Speaker 1: been taboo for so long, and whether it be the
Speaker 1: affirming apparel or the easily accessible mental health tools that
Speaker 1: self cares for everyone that we're trying to grow in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty six, I'm just honored to be a part
Speaker 1: of it.
Speaker 3: Well, I really admire the week was long winded.
Speaker 4: No, no, only adding color important for us. Okay, So,
Speaker 4: how many of your physical injuries were a mental health
Speaker 4: journey and did it at all change your perspective on
Speaker 4: what strength really is.
Speaker 1: I definitely think when I hurt my knee, that's I
Speaker 1: tore my ACL I don't think I was in the
Speaker 1: right I was in the right state of mind, meaning
Speaker 1: whether it was imposter syndrome, that dialogue, that how we
Speaker 1: talk to ourselves, that in our self talk. I feel
Speaker 1: like I was in a very negative space and not
Speaker 1: opening up about it and the anxiety of you know,
Speaker 1: being a woman that's approaching forty what that looks like,
Speaker 1: the demands and it's you know, I want to be
Speaker 1: able to say I'm a woman, and what I want
Speaker 1: more of is time and all that pressure adding up.
Speaker 1: I feel like the reason I hurt my knee is
Speaker 1: because I wasn't all there performing and for someone who
Speaker 1: has I always looked at myself as the Iron Woman,
Speaker 1: and when my knee took me out, I was like,
Speaker 1: all I know, all I all I viewed myself was
Speaker 1: as a professional wrestler, Like that's all I am, and
Speaker 1: that's not all I am. And I do have a voice,
Speaker 1: and maybe this is the start of something bigger for me,
Speaker 1: Like I love being Charlotte, but taking Charlotte to the
Speaker 1: next level and making these conversations more accessible or not
Speaker 1: taboo for people in any kind of industry I think
Speaker 1: is so important.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think there's something too in the timing actlet like,
Speaker 2: I feel like increasingly athletes are coming out, men and
Speaker 2: women and just talking about, you know, the stresses, the difficulties,
Speaker 2: you know, being you know, at a high point and
Speaker 2: then having an injury and then it's just so tough
Speaker 2: to come back. We see it over and over. But
Speaker 2: I think the mental wellness component the stress on athletes
Speaker 2: of all kinds to perform increasingly, it's really.
Speaker 1: Tough, whether it be athletes, whether it be a stay up,
Speaker 1: you know, a single mom work. I mean, there's it
Speaker 1: crosses over to everyone. And with the apparel that we've created,
Speaker 1: walking down the street and you see a sweatshirt that
Speaker 1: says you are enough, it's that simple and it opens
Speaker 1: a dialogue. And I hope investing in self care is
Speaker 1: for everyone with that mission to just make those topics
Speaker 1: easy every day.
Speaker 2: I want to ask you too, though we love talking
Speaker 2: about the wellness market and all its different shapes and sizes,
Speaker 2: if you will the wellness market, nearing a seven trillion
Speaker 2: dollar valuation, talked to us about the due diligence that
Speaker 2: you guys did that led to the creation of self
Speaker 2: care is for everyone, you know, and tell us about
Speaker 2: how you were thinking about it. It's a competitive space.
Speaker 1: It's definitely competitive, but so for me, self care is
Speaker 1: for everyone.
Speaker 3: Was founded in twenty eighteen.
Speaker 1: I had already been following this site before I even
Speaker 1: know who the owners were.
Speaker 3: It was just like little messaging.
Speaker 1: You know, you are enough, you have a voice, my
Speaker 1: own messaging that I put on my social media, whether
Speaker 1: it be Twitter, Instagram or TikTok.
Speaker 3: I always say, ps I hope you feel beautiful.
Speaker 1: Today, because, like you know, on those days as women
Speaker 1: when you don't feel so beautiful, but you have to
Speaker 1: show up, you have to put on that smiling face.
Speaker 1: And for me being on TV, it's like, ps I
Speaker 1: hope you feel beautiful today as a thirty nine year
Speaker 1: old woman competing in an industry where like they do ads,
Speaker 1: you know, like that's just television is hard for women.
Speaker 3: So this company was founded in twenty nineteen.
Speaker 1: When Aj and Sasha came to me this year, my
Speaker 1: financial person did their due diligence seeing you know, how
Speaker 1: they have grown, what this space looks like, you know,
Speaker 1: will what the investment into them looks like. And for
Speaker 1: me wanting to have a diversified portfolio, what it where
Speaker 1: is the best place to put my money to help
Speaker 1: them grow. And that's how I that's how much I
Speaker 1: believe in what they've already, what they've already done, and
Speaker 1: what they brought to me. Plus they have a six
Speaker 1: month campaign with Target already with Kleenex, which is an
Speaker 1: everyday product which you see are messaging on. So from
Speaker 1: a business standpoint, I am just the investor. Exactly what
Speaker 1: they have raised, I could not tell you the numbers,
Speaker 1: but I do know for suicide prevention and a peril
Speaker 1: it was to me, I was blown away what they've
Speaker 1: just been able to do with just the online presence,
Speaker 1: with the two of them, with no other big names attached,
Speaker 1: I mean personalities via social promoting them. So that's where
Speaker 1: I come in, bringing my audience. So you're my investment.
Speaker 2: So ashlely, your branding goes on different products, right, is
Speaker 2: that how it works?
Speaker 3: Or no?
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, So for this company for self care is everyone.
Speaker 1: They already started to put their messaging on on everyday
Speaker 1: products such as Kleenex. We just did a they did
Speaker 1: a six month deal in Target.
Speaker 4: Got it.
Speaker 1: So them bringing what they've already been able to do
Speaker 1: with the help of my branding and push and being
Speaker 1: their first angel investor got it hoping to grow there.
Speaker 3: Thank you for that.
Speaker 1: So I believe in what they've already done, and they
Speaker 1: believe in me and what I have aligned with my
Speaker 1: with my branding.
Speaker 3: That's why they brought me on board.
Speaker 1: But I've been able to see their numbers and what
Speaker 1: they're capable of from a business standpoint. But for me,
Speaker 1: I believe this was the right investment due to wanting
Speaker 1: just to help something like how can you go wrong? Yeah,
Speaker 1: So that to me was like whether I you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, the ultimate goal is to make money and
Speaker 1: it is a business, but like to me, when you
Speaker 1: don't know what to do with not like I don't
Speaker 1: know what my next step is after WWE. But what
Speaker 1: I do know is I want to help people. That's
Speaker 1: why I invested in them, because I know you can't
Speaker 1: go wrong and helping create a safe space for people.
Speaker 1: I want to become the person that I needed growing up,
Speaker 1: and I felt like investing in self care for everyone
Speaker 1: was like the perfect step in that and being their
Speaker 1: angel investor.
Speaker 3: Well, I want to go back to that.
Speaker 4: If you could go back to Ashley at the beginning
Speaker 4: of your career, before the global fame, what's one self
Speaker 4: care mantra that you would whisper to her.
Speaker 1: Just believe in yourself, be your own hero. Well like
Speaker 1: wrestling wasn't always It was never in my you know,
Speaker 1: to do list or dreams.
Speaker 3: Or you know.
Speaker 1: I played volleyball in college and I graduated, I was lost.
Speaker 1: I became a personal trainer. I always was drawn to
Speaker 1: public relations. I did like PR. But then my little brother,
Speaker 1: who had a really bad drug addiction, always wanted to
Speaker 1: follow in my father's footsteps. So I thought, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe if I tried wrestling, because I was given the
Speaker 1: opportunity by Triple H or head of Creative Now in
Speaker 1: twenty twelve, that I could get him on the right path.
Speaker 3: So when I started, I really didn't.
Speaker 1: Know what I was getting into because I you know,
Speaker 1: I liked wrestling, but back then, you know, women were
Speaker 1: secondary storylines.
Speaker 3: They were eye candy.
Speaker 1: I never viewed myself as a professional wrestler, supermodel, anything
Speaker 1: like that, so when I started, it was just more
Speaker 1: me needing to save myself from a prior situation. So
Speaker 1: it's funny I spent my whole life trying to save
Speaker 1: my little brother, who ended up dying a couple months
Speaker 1: after I started when ultimately he saved me and gave
Speaker 1: me this dream. And I feel I have helped change
Speaker 1: the landscape for women in a male dominated industry and wrestling.
Speaker 1: So if I can take something from nothing and turn
Speaker 1: what I did, the character Charlotte into today is the
Speaker 1: most decorated woman of all time. What can I do
Speaker 1: in the mental health the mental health space with the
Speaker 1: work ethic and the passion that I had for wrestling
Speaker 1: and bring that same passion to helping people, you know,
Speaker 1: create that space with the determination I had in wrestling.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I wish like for my brother who passed away.
Speaker 1: Yes he had a drug addiction, but I really feel
Speaker 1: in two thousand, like from you know, the early two
Speaker 1: thousands to twenty twelve, I don't think I think it was.
Speaker 3: Taboo for men to say they had anxiety.
Speaker 1: Or what they were dealing with their pressures and not
Speaker 1: saying my brother would have been, you know, still with us,
Speaker 1: but at least like it's okay for men to be like, hey,
Speaker 1: I'm burnt out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I feel like, you know, it's and first of
Speaker 2: all and most mostly actually so sorry for your loss
Speaker 2: and and you know, things that life throws at us
Speaker 2: and how we figure out a way forward, and then
Speaker 2: you know, it's really heartening to hear you talk about,
Speaker 2: you know, wanting to help others, and I get it.
Speaker 2: I think COVID though, was something that opened up where
Speaker 2: everybody was feeling stressed, right, It was something that everybody
Speaker 2: was talking about mental health and mental wellness, and it
Speaker 2: was just a really really big change in terms of
Speaker 2: the conversation more broadly. So I can totally get why
Speaker 2: you're also drawn to it. I'm also you know you
Speaker 2: said about men versus women. What was the most difficult
Speaker 2: aspect of that difference for you in WWE or did
Speaker 2: you not feel it?
Speaker 3: Uh, it's not that you, it's I have so I felt.
Speaker 1: I feel the women who came before me that helped
Speaker 1: change the landscape that have been grinding for the you know,
Speaker 1: twenty thirty years before me, they probably felt it more.
Speaker 1: But when I started in the group of women that
Speaker 1: I came in with who I champion every day, you know,
Speaker 1: we're not all as close as you know, success and
Speaker 1: competitiveness and competition takeover and always wanting to be at
Speaker 1: the top of your business.
Speaker 3: But we were part of this change.
Speaker 1: And when Stephanie McMahon debuted us and then there was
Speaker 1: one other girl who debuted a year.
Speaker 3: Later, the four Horse Women. That's what we were coined.
Speaker 1: As in twenty fifteen when Give Divas a Chance trended
Speaker 1: for three days. We were part of that rise where
Speaker 1: we were given the same amount of opportunities and time
Speaker 1: and segments as the men, and then ultimately myself, Becky
Speaker 1: Lynch Ronda Rowsey ended up main eventing WrestleMania thirty five
Speaker 1: and Met Life. And if you had asked someone even
Speaker 1: maybe a year prior to that with the women ever
Speaker 1: made event a show, they would have like laughed. But
Speaker 1: what we were able to create is that women are
Speaker 1: capable of selling merchandise, putting people in seats, being top
Speaker 1: of a card, getting equal opportunities in the ring. So
Speaker 1: I just from the day I started, I had one
Speaker 1: goal to where I am now. So do I feel
Speaker 1: things go like this? One hundred percent? Do I think
Speaker 1: I'm as big a star as an email? Absolutely?
Speaker 3: I almost cussed, but I did it.
Speaker 2: We're glad you didn't, but it's a great way to
Speaker 2: end and you're absolutely right because we're seeing this massive
Speaker 2: surge and valuations for women's sports, whether it's WNBA and WSL.
Speaker 2: I mean, there's just so much and women's have.
Speaker 3: To give them the opportunity in the backing and the advertising. Yeah,
Speaker 3: that's it.
Speaker 1: Perception is reality and if you do that then the
Speaker 1: audience follows.
Speaker 2: Well, listen, this was a joy. I'm spending some time
Speaker 2: with you, and good luck and stay in touch and
Speaker 2: let us know how things are going. Ashley, you you bet,
Speaker 2: Thank you. Ashley Flair, of course, also known as Charlotte Flair,
Speaker 2: the WWE superstar, joining us on this Monday and of
Speaker 2: course talking about her brand self care is for everyone