WWE's Charlotte Flair on Investing in Self-Care is For Everyone

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1:32Ashley Fliehr:Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts, radio, news.

1:37Charlotte Flair:You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Tim Stenevek on Bloomberg Radio. In the meantime, we want to talk about the global wellness economy, which is something that is no longer a niche market. You know that it's something we like to talk about a lot here at Bloomberg, especially from our pursuits team. It is a$6.8 trillion powerhouse projected to hit nearly$10 trillion by the end of this decade. That's according to the latest note from the Global Wellness Institute. At the intersection of all that's happening when it comes to the wellness market, Surge and women's sports is our next guest.

2:13Charlotte Flair:For over a decade, Ashley Flair, known to the global audience as Charlotte Flair, has been a top-tier superstar for WWE, winning numerous championships, including the WWE Women's Championship, a record 14 times. Unbelievable. Today, she is leveraging her brand equity as an angel investor, specifically in the mental health and apparel space with the brand of Self Care Is For Everyone. And we're delighted to have Ashley Flair with us. She joins us from Orlando, Florida. Ashley, great to have you here with us. First of all, congratulations on all your accomplishments. That's really, really cool. Thank you.

2:46Ashley Fliehr:I feel like this might be my biggest one yet. It goes the way I hope.

2:50Charlotte Flair:Well, tell us about, well, let's go there because you've accomplished so much at the WWE. Tell us about, you know, your hopes, your dreams, your expectations and where you are in that process.

3:02Ashley Fliehr:You know, I still have hopes and dreams within the WWE and Charlotte Flair and my passion for wrestling means the world to me. And I still, you know, have many years left on my career. But when I was injured last year, you know, there is a shelf life for women in sports. And I really didn't know or what I or what do I want to do next? And I have really gravitated towards the self-care mental health space. And that's really helped me, I feel, get through the last couple of years in my career and feeling like I couldn't talk about anxiety and the pressure of being perfect on screen because the character that I play, Charlotte Flair, is so perfect.

3:47Ashley Fliehr:and this past year I feel as I since I've gravitated towards the mental health care and talking about it it's helped grow my brand I've been able to connect with fans and realizing it's okay not to be okay so when this opportunity from self-care the two um the two owners AJ and Sasha came with me with this opportunity and asked me to be an angel investor I was like wow i you know i feel like this is a perfect fit and where to put my my money or my investment in my time into them to help make this a safe space for athletes for public figures for parents for anyone because it has been taboo for so long and whether it be the affirming apparel or the easily accessible mental health tools that self-care is for everyone that we're trying to grow in 2026 I'm just honored to be a part of it.

4:46Ashley Fliehr:Well, I really admire the way. Sorry, that was long winded. No, that was only adding color for us. Okay. So how many of your physical injuries were a mental health journey? And did it at all change your perspective on what strength really is? I definitely think when I hurt my knee, that's I tore my ACL. I don't think I was in the right. I was in the right state of mind, meaning whether it was. imposter syndrome, that dialogue, that how we talk to ourselves, that inner self-talk. I feel like it was in a very negative space and not opening up about it and the anxiety of, you know, being a woman that's approaching 40, what that looks like, the demands.

5:31Ashley Fliehr:And it's, you know, I want to be able to say I'm a woman and what I want more of is time and all that pressure adding up. I feel like the reason I hurt my knee is because I wasn't all there performing. And for someone who has, I always looked at myself as the iron woman. And when my knee took me out, I was like, all I know, all I, all I viewed myself was as a professional wrestler. Like that's all I am. And that's not all I am. And I do have a voice. And maybe this is the start of something bigger for me. Like I love being Charlotte, but taking Charlotte to the next level and making these conversations more accessible or not taboo for people in any kind of industry.

6:11Ashley Fliehr:I think is so important.

6:13Charlotte Flair:Yeah. I think there's something too in the timing, Ashley, like I feel like increasingly athletes are coming out, men and women, um, and just talking about, you know, the stresses, the difficulties, you know, um, being, you know, at a high point and then having an injury and then it's just so tough to come back. We see it over and over, but I think the mental wellness component, the stress on athletes of all kinds to perform increasingly, it's really tough.

6:40Ashley Fliehr:Whether it be athletes, whether it be a stay, you know, a single mom work. I mean, there's it crosses over to everyone. And with the apparel that we've created, walking down the street and you see a sweatshirt that says you are enough. It's that simple. And it opens a dialogue. And I hope investing in self-care is for everyone with with that mission to just make those topics easy every day.

7:06Charlotte Flair:We I want to ask you, too, though, we love talking about the wellness market and all its different shapes and sizes, if you will. The wellness market nearing a$7 trillion valuation. Talk to us about the due diligence that you guys did that led to the creation of Self Care Is For Everyone, you know, and tell us about how you were thinking about it. It's a competitive space.

7:26Ashley Fliehr:It's definitely competitive. But so for me, Self Care Is For Everyone was founded in 2018. I had already been following this site before I even know who the owners were. It was just like little messaging, you know, you are enough. Uh, you have a voice, um, my own messaging that I put on my social media, whether it be Twitter, Instagram, or Tik TOK, I always say, PS, I hope you feel beautiful today. Cause like, you know, on those days as women, when you don't feel so beautiful, but you have to show up, you have to put on that smiling face. And for me being on TV, it's like, PS, I hope you feel beautiful today as a 39 year old woman competing in an industry where like, Like they do age, you know, like that's just television is hard for women.

8:13Ashley Fliehr:So this company was founded in 2019 when AJ and Sasha came to me this year. My financial person did their due diligence seeing, you know, what, how they have grown, what this space looks like, you know, will, what the investment into them looks like. And for me, wanting to have a diversified portfolio, where is the best place to put my money to help them grow? And that's how much I believe in what they've already done and what they brought to me. Plus, they have a six-month campaign with Target already with Kleenex, which is an everyday product, which you see our messaging on. So from a business standpoint, I am just the investor.

9:00Ashley Fliehr:exactly what they have raised. I could not tell you the numbers, but I do know for suicide prevention and apparel, it was, to me, I was blown away what they've just been able to do with just the online presence with the two of them with no other big names attached. I mean, personalities via social promoting them. So that's where I come in, bringing my audience, my investment. So Ashley, your branding goes on different products, right? Is that how it works or no i'm sorry so for this company for self-care is everyone they've already started to put their messaging on on everyday products such as kleenex we just did a they did a six-month deal in target got it so then bringing what they've already been able to do with the help of my branding and push and being their first angel investor got it um hoping to grow there thank Thank you for that.

10:01Ashley Fliehr:So I believe in what they've already done and they believe in me and what I have aligned with my branding. That's why they brought me on board. But I've been able to see their numbers and what they're capable of from a business standpoint. But for me, I believe this was the right investment due to wanting just to help. So like, how can you go wrong? Yeah. So that to me was like, whether I, you know, I mean, the ultimate goal is to make money and it is a business. But like, to me, when you don't know what to do with not like I don't know what my next step is after WWE. But what I do know is I want to help people.

10:42That's why I invested in them, because I know you can't go wrong and helping create a safe space for people.

10:49Ashley Fliehr:I want to become the person that I needed growing up. And I felt like investing in self-care for everyone was like the perfect step in that and being their angel investor. Well, I want to go back to that. If you could go back to Ashley at the beginning of your career before the global fame, what is one self-care mantra that you would whisper to her?

11:14Ashley Fliehr:Just believe in yourself, be your own hero. well like wrestling wasn't always it was never in my you know to-do list or dreams or you know i played volleyball in college and i graduated i was lost i became a personal trainer i always was drawn to public relations i did like pr um but then my little brother um who had a really bad drug addiction, always wanted to follow in my father's footsteps. So I thought, you know, maybe if I tried wrestling, because I was given the opportunity by Triple H, our head of creative now in 2012, that I could get him on the right path. So when I started, I really didn't know what I was getting into because I, you know, I liked wrestling, but back then, you know, women were secondary storylines.

12:05Ashley Fliehr:They were eye candy. I never viewed myself as a professional wrestler supermodel anything like that um so when i started it was just more me needing to save myself from a prior situation so it's funny i spent my whole life trying to save my little brother who ended up dying a couple months after i started when ultimately he saved me and gave me this dream and i feel i have helped change the landscape for women in a male-dominated industry in wrestling so if i can take something from nothing and turn what i did the character charlotte into today is the most decorated woman of all time what can i do in the mental health the mental health space with the work ethic and the passion that i had for wrestling and bring that same passion to helping people um you know yeah create that space with the determination i had in wrestling yeah and I wish like for my brother who passed away yes he he had a drug addiction but I really feel in 2000 like from you know the early 2000s to 2012 I don't think I think it was taboo for men to say they had anxiety or what they were dealing with or pressures and not saying my brother would have been you know still with us but at least like it's okay for men to be like hey, I'm burnt out.

13:28Charlotte Flair:Yeah, I feel like, you know, it's, and first of all, and most, mostly, Ashley, so sorry for your loss. And, and, and, you know, things that life throws at us and how we figure out a way forward. And then, you know, it's really heartening to hear you talk about, you know, wanting to help others. And I get it. I think COVID, though, was something that opened up where everybody was feeling stressed, right? It was something that everybody was talking about mental health and mental wellness. And it was just a really, really big change in terms of the conversation more broadly. So I can totally get why you're also drawn to it.

14:07Charlotte Flair:I'm also, you said about men versus women, what was the most difficult aspect of that difference for you in WWE or did you not feel it?

14:22Ashley Fliehr:It's not that you it's I have so I I felt I feel the women who came before me that helped change the landscape that have been grinding for the you know 20 30 years before me, they probably felt it more. But when I started and the group of women that I came in with who I champion every day, we're not all as close as success and competitiveness and competition takeover and always wanting to be at the top of your business. But we were part of this change. And when Stephanie McMahon debuted us, and then there was one other girl who debuted a year later, the four horsewomen that's what we were coined as in 2015 when give divas a chance trended for three days we were part of that rise where we were given the same amount of opportunities and time and segments as the men and then ultimately myself uh becky lynch ronda rousey ended up main eventing wrestlemania 35 and met life and if you had asked someone even maybe a year prior to that with the women ever main event a show, they would have like laughed.

15:35Ashley Fliehr:But what we were able to create is that women are capable of selling merchandise, putting people in seats, being top of the card, getting equal opportunities in the ring. So I just, from the day I started, I had one goal to where I am now. So do I feel things go like this? A hundred percent. But do I think I'm as big a stars in email. Absolutely. I almost cussed, but I didn't.

16:06Charlotte Flair:We're glad you didn't, but it's a great way to end. And you're absolutely right. Cause we're seeing this massive surge in valuations for women's sports, whether it's WNBA, uh, NWSL. I mean, there's just so much. And women's wrestling.

16:17Ashley Fliehr:You have to give them the opportunity and the backing and the advertising. Yeah. That's it. Right. Perception is reality. And if you do that, then the audience follows.

16:27Charlotte Flair:Well, listen, this was a joy spending some time with you. And good luck and stay in touch and let us know how things are going. Thank you. You, you bet. Thank you. Ashley Flair, of course, also known as Charlotte Flair, WWE superstar, joining us on this Monday. And, of course, talking about her brand, Self-Care is for Everyone. So great stuff there. We buy insurance for peace of mind, but every year millions of claims are denied. Not because people did anything wrong, but because their policies quietly excluded what happened. Insurers know every detail. Policyholders rarely do. That's why My Policy Advocate exists.

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