Michael Rubin
Appearances
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
And you see it, like, you know, look at, I mean, we're moving people through the store as quick as we can. And we've already done more, the store's done more volume to where we are now than the entire last year's WrestleMania because of how incredible these fans are. People are just waiting because they want this belt. They want Travis Scott, Cactus Jack. They want all the new things.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
Well, and when it's cool... Yeah, it's cool. It's so cool. So it's so fun to see. To me, and I just love spreading the word, the amount of people that came with me tonight who can't wait to watch WrestleMania and can't wait to see what happens. It's just so passionate. It's pretty incredible.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
Thank you to you and your family for everything you guys have done. Thank me, but thank you. I won't be here without you.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
Well, I'll tell you, as I said, I think, you know, Fanatics has gotten to be, you know, we're a decent-sized company now with 22,000 people. We own a lot of brands that people would know here. We own Lids. We own Fanatics. We own Mitchell Ness. We own Tops. Great activation here, bringing everything together.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
But if there's one thing that I'll tell you is when someone at Fanatics who's in a different business moves to the WWE brand... They're like, you see them like six months later, like these are, it's crazy. Like these fans are incredible. Like I've never seen anything like it before. And, you know, it goes back to the thing you said, you've got to listen to your customer and everything you do.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
So, you know, I got here a couple hours ago. I'm walking around to her next with the con afterward. And so what are we going to do? Just ask questions to people. What do you want more of? What do you like? What do you not like? What did we get wrong? What did we get right? How do we do this better?
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
And, and, you know, and you guys, one of the great things about WWE is you guys move so quick as well. Like, you know, look, we have, you know, we deal with every, you know, and fanatics. We saw every sports property in the world, whether it's the NFL or the NBA, which congratulations.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
Thank you. I feel like here's the best thing about what I'm doing. I feel like we're just getting started. I feel like we're a baby startup today. This year, we'll be over $9 billion in revenue. Next year, I think we'll probably be over $11 billion in revenue. We feel like we're a baby startup. And the cool thing about that is you just realize what a big opportunity we have to keep.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
enhancing the fan experience everything we do and we need to get better like we're not good enough at anything that we do whether it's like last year I showed up and we weren't even doing the trading cards yet in WWE and then we launched tops with WWE this January 1st and chrome sold out I think in five minutes it was one of the fastest releases we ever had because we had such an incredible product and then I just walked into our booth over here and it looked incredible
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
But, of course, we're never satisfied. We're like, okay, what else can we do? How do we do this better? You know, same thing with the merch. Same thing with anything we do. If we ever stop doing that, we'll be irrelevant.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
Yeah, I think the second in business, I think the second you get comfortable, the second you get arrogant, right, The second you're obnoxious, I think, honestly, you're dead. Like, bolt in the back of the head. Because, by the way, there's people trying to kill us right now in every business we're in. I mean, we're in the sports betting business with Fanatic Sports Club. We have Fanatics Live.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
We have Fanatics Collect. We have Topps. We have Mitchell Ness. We have, you know, Lids. I mean. There's people coming for us in everything we do. We have to be on our A game all the time. And then, by the way, when we get something wrong, make sure we're super intense about fixing it. So you've got to be a great listener in business or you become irrelevant.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
I think it's one of the things WWE does so well. You're always listening to your fan base and using it to deliver an experience.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
You guys are not shy, by the way. But I love that. Yeah. And, you know, last year, for anyone who's from the New York area, we launched our first Fanatics Fest last year. And we had, you know, we had every sport in the world there, the NFL, the NBA, hockey, baseball. This year we have Premier League coming, FIFA, F1. I got to tell you something. WWE-owned Fanatics Fest.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
You were probably a third of the fans. It was crazy. I had the commissioners of the biggest sports come up to me like, yo, this is crazy. These WWE fans, it's insane.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
I say all the time to everyone around me, we always have to stay humble. If we don't stay humble, bad things will happen. And, you know, look at, you know, example, you know, I'm looking right now at all the tops trading cards as I look over that I look left. I think about we're honored. We just relaunched this January 1st, but we took over, you know, we own tops.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
We took over NFL cards that we're launching next year and NBA cards and Premier League cards and and WWE cards, UFC cards. And the reason I say this is because. Competitors got complacent. They got lazy. They weren't innovating the product think about we just announced that we're gonna have the debut patch and All everyone in WrestleMania who wrestles we're taking a patch.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
Yeah that in a one-on-one card that lets people like these incredible fans Get click. Could you imagine? Yeah, and so taking things and letting fans connect is to, you know, the most important athletes is like something, it's just one of many things that we thought about because we're hungry and humble. The second you get confident, you become irrelevant.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
And, you know, I think we came into a lazy business. Like the... Trading card business was complacent was lazy that created opportunity for us when people hear a thing about what they can do in business You want to be an entrepreneur just go look around like things change all the time. There's opportunities all the time We're in the best country in the world.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
There is like I'm telling you new people are disrupting Existing people every day of the week.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
Almost five, almost three, and a 19-year-old. My 19-year-old best relationship in the world, we've been fighting a little bit the last day or so.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
Yeah. I told you she was getting a little lazy and a little complacent. So I was about to throw water in her face yesterday morning.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
Look, I think you have to lead by example. And I think there are like, I don't try to act like I'm the perfect parent because I'm not. Like people ask me about work-life balance. I'm not an expert on work-life balance. Like I work 17 hours a day, just probably 350 days a year. And I love it. I'm honored to do it. It's like, it's so fun for me. I think I have the greatest job in the world.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
So what I try to teach to my three daughters is like, They see me pushing unrelentlessly every day. And I think that's something that it's contagious. Like I do that for everybody around me. You know, I mess with people like some of my most important people. I'll FaceTime them at 5 a.m. I'll FaceTime them at 12 o'clock. I'll get someone to go wake her up. Like, you know, like that's my mentality.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
You know, sometimes I'm doing it to be funny. Sometimes I'm doing it for like, you know, purpose. But I think it's, you know, I really want them to learn work ethic. I want them to learn about relationships. Relationships are everything. Like. If you think about how I built my business, in good times, you don't need relationships. In bad times, relationships are the most important things you have.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
So we've built so many authentic relationships that I think have helped us. It's why people are behind us building Fanatics. I look at the opportunity to connect with all of you here live and say, I want to have a relationship with you guys because you're going to help me build my business.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
And so that mentality, I think if my kids learn, we'll let them not be a cocky, arrogant, little rich kid, but let them be a humble and appreciative kid. So look, it is like, you know, they grow up, they see a lot of things, they grow up around like, you know. I do this little party. People probably heard I'm called the white party. Okay. My daughter, you know, my daughter's always wanted to go.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
My daughter's 19. We got, you know, she started coming when she was 15. I said to her and she's like, look, it's a, it's a, it's a 13 hour party. And she sees, you know, 350 people having the time of their lives. And the next morning I go, I went to bed at five. And like 7 o'clock in my room, okay, let's get up. Let's go work. She's like, Dad, are you fucking serious?
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
But like work hard, play hard. Like I always want to push that on her.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
And by the way, Camille, who I have two daughters with, my 3- and 5-year-old, she's like the sweetest mom in the world. So it's going to be balanced. She's like the nice, super supportive. I'm just like push, push, push.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
And she's definitely the sweet one, and I'm definitely the one that's always pushing, so it's a good combination.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
Yeah, I could give you a couple great examples. So probably the scariest moment in my modern life was the financial crisis of 2008, 2009. And... My company, a year earlier, was worth about $2, $2.5 billion. When the stock market crashed, even though our business was doing pretty well, our stock went down by 90%. So I had about a 10% stake in the company.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
And my stake went from being worth about $250 million to being worth about $25 million. Well, the problem was I owed a bank $50 million. Okay? So if you only have $25 million, you owe a bank $50 million, you're pretty fucked. Okay? And... The, you know, I was using that money to kind of, you know, borrow against and invest in other things.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
That was kind of how I was living, you know, because I didn't want to pay myself anything for my company. I worked for virtually nothing. Anyway, stock kept going down. I kept getting something called a margin call. So the bank says either you pay me back or we're going to sell your assets. And so I got it down to $3 million. And I could not get another penny.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
The bank said, we're going to sell all of your stock. Well, there was a guy who had lent me... Sorry, there was a guy who I had invested $3 million in his fund like five years earlier. And I called the guy 50 times for the money back. Like every day, like, man, I need this money.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
Like, I'm going to lose my company if not... He's like, if I give you your money back, I'm going to have to give everyone their money back. Well... Literally, he kept saying, no, no, no. It was probably like around the 51st time. I don't know exactly, but like I called it a lot on the 51st time. Like, man, I need that money. I'm going to like I'm going to lose my company. Like, I need that money.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
He's like, I hate you, but I love you. He gave me three million bucks back that day. Wow. I sold my company a year and a half later for two point four billion dollars. OK, so talk about relationships. Yeah, I was like I saw death in his eyes. In spring 2009, spring 2011, EVA buys GSI Commerce for $2.4 billion. So without that relationship, without that work ethic, I wouldn't be sitting here today.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
And never giving up. I would have been that guy you heard about that lost this company. By the way, people like negative stories more than positive stories. But I like talking about positive stories because you know what? There's too much bullshit negativity in this world. We've got to all push each other up. That's right. I'm a huge believer in that.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
By the way, I'll tell you guys a great story about WWE and Topps. So I'm walking in the Grove. I live part-time in Los Angeles. And I'm walking in the Grove maybe a year ago, and this guy runs up to me. He's like, hey, I was giving my daughter a piggyback.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
He's like, hey, I hate to bother you with your kids, but I've got this company that makes incredible exhibits, and I would just die to get a meeting with your guys. Um, anyway, I get that like every day of my life. So I just, I said, email me. I forwarded guy hits me two months ago. He says, Hey, I met you at the Grove. Um, we built the most incredible exhibit for you.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
I can't wait till you see it. It's that booth right there. This guy who just found me at the Grove one year ago. And you know what? That's great. It didn't bother me. I love the guy. I want to pitch me on what he was doing. And here he is. I got to tell you something. Our experience. for WWE trading cards this year, you guys got to all go through it. It's incredible.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
And that's just like, this guy was already like, I did it the other night.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
He loved it. And some guy who just hit me up in the grove, and here he is helping us to build a better business, and that's just being unrelenting and work ethic.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
Yeah, by the way, I'll tell you another thing I believe. Others may not agree with this. To be successful in business, you need... If you don't think you need luck and timing, you are so wrong. Luck and timing is part of life. Yeah. Okay? And I've had... I've had a lot of good luck. I've had some bad luck. But you know what?
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
You've got to make some of your luck, but you need good luck and good energy. When you do good things in this world, you also get good karma.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
You know, by the way, you asked about relationships. Like, I'll talk about, like, the relationship between WWE and Fanatics. Like, we went from not being in business together three years ago to now we do all the event retail, all the merchandise, all of the e-commerce. We do all of the trading cards. We're doing all the podcasts together now.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
We have several other new things that we're not going to announce on stage today. But my point is, like, we built this great partnership, and now we're helping each other build our businesses. So, like, relationships are absolutely everything in business.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
It really is. I'm also not scared. Like, I'll tell you another thing. This will sound crazy. Not only am I not afraid to fail. I kind of like it a little bit. Yeah. Because in each failure, you get great lessons. You learn from it and then you just use it to do the next thing better and better. Like we have we have like in my career, every year we have epic failures. I mean, epic failures.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
But like we say, OK, well, what do we learn from? How do we fail fast? How do we use it to be a better company? If we ain't failing, we ain't trying hard enough. And so I'm a huge believer in failure is a key part of life. I say it to my friends. to my older daughter all the time. Like you got to fail. Like you got to take shots. Like she's got this idea for this new business.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
She pitched me two months ago. I'm like, okay, when are you launching it? What like learn from it? Like, I don't care whether it works or not. I care about you doing it and going through that experience.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
Yeah. Well, it was even worse than that. So I was 16 years old. I had, um, One ski shop is about a half a million dollars in revenue. And if you're in the ski business and it doesn't snow, that's not very good. It's like you need snow if you're selling skis. So I was also a cocky little 16-year-old. So I went out when I was 15.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
I bought a Porsche with a friend of mine before I was legal to drive that car. So the ski season ends at 16. I have half a Porsche that I own. I have $80,000 of inventory. I have $200,000 of bills. It was so bad. I'm not exaggerating this. In the spring... In the spring of that ski season, I probably got sued 100 times.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
The sheriff would show up at my mom and dad's house every day before I go to school. It was this nice woman. She'd ring the doorbell at like 7.30. Hey, Michael, here are today's lawsuits. I'd give her a hug. I would take the lawsuits. Thank you. And it went on for like 60 days. Like I said, I probably got sued 100 times. Now I'm like, I'm done.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
Well, I wasn't getting out. I thought I was done. And so I hired a bankruptcy lawyer. At 16. Yeah. I'm going bankrupt. It's over. I got $200,000 in bills, $80,000 in inventory, half a push. I hired a bankruptcy lawyer. And in our second meeting, he says to me, Michael, how old are you, by the way? Are you like 21, 23? I'm like, no, I'm 16. He's like, what? What? I'm like, I'm 16.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
He's like, well, I got good news for you. You're not old enough to be able to legally incur a debt. So this would be a lot easier than you thought.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
Thank you to the amazing fans. You guys are the best fans in the world.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
It doesn't defer to your parents. So they actually got all the creditors together. And, um, it was the first time I actually, so I was able to settle my debts for $38,000, but I didn't have the money. Right. And so, and my parents never gave me a penny. I grew up in like a very middle class family. Like The house we grew up in cost $42,000. Today it'd be like a half a million dollar house.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
So, I mean, they were both doctors, but we were, I mean, we were middle, we were, you know, not the way, you know, my kids grow up. They were middle class. So I went to my dad, I said, dad, look, I need to borrow $38,000. He's like, that's your entire college money to go to college. I'll give it to you if you agree to go to college and pay for it. So of course I made the deal.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
But then something, I had a big twist in life about two weeks later. There was another ski shop that went out of business and they had a similar amount of inventory About $200,000 in inventory, rather. And it got auctioned off by the government. And I bought it for $13,000. So I went back to my dad. I said, hey, dad, I got great news. Like, not good news. I have great news.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
I'm going to be able to pay you back much more quickly. I just need another $13,000. My dad looks at me. He's like... He was literally like, are you fucking kidding me? Get out of here. No. Cause did he loan you the 38 grand? He lent me the 38,000.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
Yeah. And that was like a ton of money to my family. Right. It was my college money. A lot of money. Right. So, I mean, that was the money put aside for me to go to college. I agreed, I'll pay to go to college. He lends me the money. Now I buy this new $13,000 inventory. Now he won't give me the money. And I realized I bought it from the government.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
Like, they're going to come arrest me if I can't pay for it. So I start going knocking door to door, saying, hey, I got this great opportunity. I just bought this inventory. It's $200,000. I bought it for $13,000. And the third guy says, I'll lend you the money, but you're going to make a lot of money. I want $1,000 a week interest.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
I actually thought $13,000, $1,000 a week interest, that ain't so bad. And I made the deal and I started going through the yellow pages. This is when we had yellow pages. I sold, I got the $16,000 back within three weeks to pay him back and had like 80% of the inventory left. Long story short, that near failure, by the time I was 21, this is unfortunately 31 years ago.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
We were doing $100 million buying and selling closeouts by the time I was 21. So almost going out of business at 16 and seeing death in his eyes led me to build the biggest buyer and seller of closeouts in the world of athletic footwear at age 21. So like, again, value's great. Like, here I was, I thought I was a disaster. I can't make it in business. You know, I suck.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
I can't have it, right? You can't have it. If anyone gets it, I'm getting it. He's got one already. You guys can share.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
I'm going to just be a normal kid. And five years later, I'm doing $100 million a year, making $10 million a year, buying and selling athletic shoes 31 years ago. So every failure, if you embrace it, leads to your next success in my mind.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
Yeah, I never, ever thought. Like, I always had the confidence, like, I got it. I can do this. It never crossed my mind for even one minute. I'm just like... Like, even in 2009, this was only 15 years ago, when I think I'm losing my entire company. I enjoyed the process. I enjoyed the experience. I enjoyed the learnings. It's like, sometimes it's good to have the goosebumps and be scared.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
You know, like, what's going to happen? I don't know. I don't know how the play is going to come out. So, no, I'm just like... Run it back. Who cares? Like when we did this last year, our first WWE world, I didn't know what to expect. Was it going to work or was it going to be a failure? When we did Fanatics Fest for the first time, was it going to work or was it going to be a failure?
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
Like I told people two weeks before Fanatics Fest last year where 70,000 sports fans showed up. I have no idea whether it's going to work or not. You know what? Fuck it. Let's see. It was great. Now we're going to double the amount of people coming this year.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
I'm sure they're going to tell us, you know, I love that episode. You know, that one with Michael Rubin, it sucked. I don't like that one. Okay. You know, they're going to tell us what they like and what they don't like. And we're going to use that to be better because that's what we do.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
I mean, this is a incredible Cactus Jack collab with Travis Scott. He makes some of the, you know, coolest merch in the world. And, you know, he's such a big WWE fan. And, you know, WrestleMania coming. He's like, I'm going to drop the coolest, you know, coolest merch in the world. And. People have been staying in line for a long time to get this stuff. I love it.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
pretty great at giving money away to people that I cared about who asked me, but I never cared to spend the time to do the work. So I was really like, you were important to me, you had a cause that was important to you, I will support you. I had a life-changing moment in 2017, and I think You know, a lot of the world knows the story, but a friend of mine went to prison for not committing a crime.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
He popped a wheelie on a motorcycle and broke up a fight in the airport and got a traffic ticket for one and no ticket in the other. And a judge sent him to jail for two to four years. And Meekville, it's a pretty famous story. And I sat in court watching this judge sentence him to two to four years. That moment not only changed his life, it changed my life because...
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
I, like, I felt it was the most powerless I ever felt. Like, you know, I owned, I was, you know, a significant owner of the Philadelphia Sixers. You know, I owned Fanatics. I was a pillar in, you know, Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, I'm watching this judge sentence my friend of two to four years for popping a wheel on a motorcycle. And... we spent the next, he got sentenced to two to four years.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
We spent the next, we took us about five, five and a half months to get him out of prison. By the way, getting someone out of prison, getting a black man out of prison, that is not easy. No matter, they could have done nothing. That ain't easy. Okay. So we got, we, we got him out of prison five and a half months later, myself, um, rock nation and Jay-Z, we worked together to do it.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
And we said right afterward, we have to do something about this. Like this can't be about Meek Mill, the famous rapper. How do you take care of the everyday person? At that point, 5 million plus people that were on probation and parole. How do we fix the underlying problem? And we created the Reform Alliance. By the way, I'm talking about just making something up and going for it.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
We started the Reform Alliance in 2019. We made a goal. We said, look, there's at this point about 5 million people on probation and parole. We think there should be a minimum of a million less people that we should be able to get out by changing the laws. That made no sense. We've got 850,000 people out of the system so far.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
And by mostly been funded by the people we put together. It's like we made a difference there. Make a wish. Yeah. Thank you. Make a wish. Like, I got, I never really understood make a wish, if I'm being honest. And then we had a make a wish kid who wanted to go to the Sixers game with me. And it's actually a crazy story.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
This kid, who was 18 years old, we were playing, the Sixers were a really good basketball team when this kid came. We were playing a shitty team. And I said, we're going to win this game for you, then we're going to bring you in the locker room. Of course, we went off to lose to the worst team in the NBA that night. I went back in the locker room.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
I said to Joel Embiid and James Harden, I'm bringing this kid back. And they're like, don't bring anyone in the locker room. They were so embarrassed and mad. Of course, I went, got the kid, brought him in the locker room. And Joel and James Harden and... A bunch of the rest of the team, they spent like 45 minutes with this kid. And they were all texting me afterward.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
They were like, man, that was so inspirational. This was incredible. Anyway, fast forward now. We do every sports Make-A-Wish together. Every WWE Make-A-Wish. I saw all these Make-A-Wish kids coming out of the, you know, doing the walkout for WWE. And these giant smiles on their face. So, like, giving back is the greatest thing you can do. And I'm going to tell you something.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
Don't ever worry about trying to say, will this be good for me? Because you do the right thing, things come around. And we don't, you know, for now, I mean, we probably spent our charity giveaway 10 or 11 million bucks last year. Every year we give away more money. We try to make a difference in every way we can. And we love it. Our employees feel better about the company.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
We love making a difference. And we never try to say, like, what's the payback on it? We just know you get the payback. And it's a great honor to be able to make a difference.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
I think we were just talking past each other, but I knew there were two Cactus Jacks. I knew we had the Trav Cactus Jack, and we have the Cactus Jack that we all know here.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
Well, listen, from my perspective, thank you to everything you guys have done. Thank you to everything you've done for WWE over such a long period of time and the huge impact you've had. And most importantly, thank you to all of you guys, the fans. We would all be nowhere without all of you guys. So thank you to you guys. I appreciate you guys.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
It does. You know, for me, you know, I think a lot of people know my story. I barely made it out of high school, legitimately.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
Yeah, well, if anyone thinks they were a bad student, I was worse. I legitimately got a 780 on my SATs combined.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
So for me... You know, I always think you kind of gravitate to what you're good at. And I was a terrible student in high school. I was actually a pretty shitty athlete too. But so the way I learn, it's just great people around me. So Trav's like a brother to me. And how did you guys meet? Actually, James Harden, who used to play for the Sixers, but has been a long-time good friend of mine.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
I met Trav through James years ago. And one day, Trav actually said to me, Hey, when you're in L.A., come through my crib. I want to show you what I'm up to. And it was like a real... Game changing moment for me because I always thought about Travis Scott, the artist. I didn't really think about him as the real product visionary. And I went to his house.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
It's like, hey, let me show this collab I'm doing with McDonald's. Let me show what I'm doing with Nike. Let me show you what I'm doing with, you know, video games. Let me show you what I want to do in art. Let me show you what I'm doing. with all these different brands. It was kind of amazing to me. I realized just how much he really drives culture.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
I'd say today there's probably not a person in the entire world that drives culture more than Travis Scott. So it's been a great partnership, a great friendship. By the way, he's headlining Coachella last weekend. Tonight, I watched the performance online. It was so spectacular. So it's fun to learn from each other, and I think that's what we all should do.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
Eight years old. I was eight. I tell you, somebody just asked me this yesterday. I'm like, look. You know, I grew up with like every learning disability in the planet. Like I could barely speak, I couldn't read, I dyslexic. I was like everything that could go wrong could go wrong. I was always told like, you suck at all these things. And like, I always did poorly in school.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
I was always never a good athlete, but I loved to work as a kid. So eight years old, I'm selling, you know, trading cards, not to my friends, but to my friends' parents. I was selling like vegetable seeds door to door. When it would snow in Philadelphia,
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
I would like hire five kids to work for me and I would just sell the snow shoveling for like 20 bucks a driveway, you know, 35 years ago or 40 years ago. And, you know, I'd be paying him like, you know, a buck a driveway. So I just always had those entrepreneurial skills. And, you know. And what do you think inspired that? I think sometimes you're just born with it, you know.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
My parents, my mom was a psychiatrist. My father was a veterinarian. My mom always tried to, like, make me a normal kid because she thought that's what would be best for me. He wasn't a normal kid. Yeah, I was not a normal kid. But I really just loved business from the time I was a little kid. It's funny because today it's normal to be a young entrepreneur.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
There's so many people that are entrepreneurs in their teens or 20s or 30s now. When I started in business, it was like people looked at me like so weird because people didn't start businesses when they were eight years old. I started a ski tuning shop in my parents' basement when I was 12. I actually owned a ski shop in a retail shopping center at 14.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
No, I owned a ski shop in a shopping center. A ski shop in the shopping center. Okay. This is 1986. And what do your parents say? They thought I was crazy.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
Well, they did. And it's actually a great story of how I got into business because I first started in my parents' basement with like a little ski tuning shop. It was great. I did $25,000 at age 12 in business. Insane. Well, two years later, I went to my mom. I said, hey, mom, like, you know, I really want to open a ski shop. You know, I found this location. It's $850 a month.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
You know, and she's like, like, Michael, you need to be a normal kid. Like, this isn't in your best interest. Like, I can't support this. Like, you know, I don't like I don't want you to do it. So instead of being depressed, like most kids would be, I did what any smart kid would do. I waited until my mom went to work.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
Like, I want to start a ski shop. You know, it's in Conchahock and at Ridge and Butler Pikes. He's like, well, why are you asking me? I'm like, well, it was the first time I ever needed anything from him. I'm like, I need you to co-sign the lease. As you know, I'm 14. You have to be 18. It was $844 a month. And he said, look, I'll make you a deal. Well, he actually said, did you talk to your mom?
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
I'm like, no, no. I did talk to my mom about this. And he couldn't tell you were lying? He said to me, I'll sign the lease so long as you get good grades in school. Okay. So the good thing was we had a co-op program in our high school where – starting in 12th grade, you could get out of half of your schoolwork to do your co-op program, and that was half your GPA.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
Somehow I got them to let me do that in 10th grade. So half of my grades started, half of my entire grades were from, like, if I paid my rent on time, the landlord gave me a good, he gave me an A, so I started with a 2.0. By the way, my finishing grades were also about a 2.0. I got a lot of Fs outside of the, got a lot of Fs outside of the paid my rent on time.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
Sounds like you were focused on other things. Yeah, I was focused on building Mike's Ski Shop.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
I was not a good student. That was not my strength. And you know what? I think that's okay. Like, look, you know, I think college is for a lot of people, but it's not for everybody. And it wasn't for me. I went for six weeks. I flunked out. I actually posted my report card about 10 years ago at a 1.87 for the short period of time I was there. 1.87 and...
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
Like, look, to me, what I really believe is you can do anything you set your mind to. And, like, what's always made me, you know, any success I've had has been because I've outworked, I've out-hustled anyone around me. And I believe, like, you know, if you just, you know, if you can will something to happen, okay? And, you know, like, think about WWE World.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
I mean, this was a conversation that, you know, we had, Nick Khan had. You know, probably a year and a half ago. And then we launched our first WWE world last year. I think 60 or 70,000 people showed up. And, you know, you'd see how, like, awesome this is. It's just about, like, having ideas, going after it, having no fear of failing. And that's what I've done my entire life.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
Thanks, guys. I think it's completely real. I can tell you. That a lot of people think I try to just be self-deprecating to, like, give a good message. I'm not. Like, I haven't read a book since ninth grade. Like, I don't read emails that are more than a paragraph or two.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
Like, my brain wouldn't allow me. I would, like, read each line and then, like, have to reread the line.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
walking around here i'm learning like what do wwe fans want well the best way to figure that out is just walk around talk to people ask questions there's no dumb questions so like i learned from you guys like i learned from everyone around me like that's my personality so like work like work ethic matters a lot i can tell you there's been so many things that i've fucked up in my life and um you know i've just figured out a way to like someone said oh this is impossible you can't do it i just like
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
I figured out how to, like, I have a will where I will not quit, period, end of story. And I think that is probably the number one reason, whatever success I've had, that I've had.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
Yeah, I think you have to listen to your customer and everything that you do. And if I'm completely blunt, we haven't always been as good at that as we are today. Gross. Yeah, no, look, I started, I really like, I've been building, I sold my first real company, eBay bought it in 2011 for $2.4 billion. And they had this little business called Fanatics that they didn't want.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
So they said to me, hey, Michael, you know, we don't want to own inventory. It's not what eBay does. Would you like this? And, you know, we bought it back then. It was a pretty small business. And my biggest fear at that point was going out of business from the sort of Amazon.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
Because Amazon's this incredible company, and I'd watch them put so many of the big customers of my old company out of business. Toys R Us. was my biggest customer. They're gone. Sports authority, gone. GNC through bankruptcy. Arabistel through bankruptcy. So like, the first thing I wanted to do was completely differentiate myself so that we wouldn't die.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
I think what happened is we got bigger, um, You know, I think I really learned, like, you have to both build your business model and listen to your customer at the same time. And I'd say I've really become obsessed in the last five years of just, like, just being, like, manic at looking at everything a customer wants and says.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
You know, we screw things up every day, and it's not like you're going to make mistakes. WWE screws things up every day. But it's like, how do you learn from it? How do you grow from it? How do you get better? And, you know, I think myself, we have 22,000 people today at Fanatics.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
And those 22,000 people, they're focused on one thing, which is how do we relentlessly enhance the experience for our fans? We have 115 million fans, okay? And by the way, I will say something. I really mean this. I used to say that even though I'm from Philadelphia, and by the way, Philly's got great fans.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
Yeah, I was one of the owners of the Philadelphia Sixers. I used to always say, actually, the best sports market in the world was actually Chicago. They just have such rabid fans.
What's Your Story? with Steph McMahon
Michael Rubin
So I'm going to say something right now. More than any city in the world, I didn't understand. Of course, as a kid, I was a WWE fan. But I grew up and I was working 18 hours a day in my business. Like every other kid. Right. I got back into WWE in such a big way. And I will say. You guys are the best fucking fans in the world without any question. Better than anything are WWE fans.