Inspirational Women In Hollywood: How Gionna Daddio, WWE’s Liv Morgan, Is Helping To Shake Up The Entertainment Industry

An Interview With Elana Cohen

I would say is to have one person you can vent to and be vulnerable with that will help build you up. As much as I write down or talk positively towards myself, sometimes I just need someone that is a safe space. Someone that will just hear my thoughts, fears, and concerns but still give me that extra pep in my step that I might need.

As a part of our series about Inspirational Women In Hollywood, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Gionna Daddio.

Professional wrestler and up-and-coming actress, Gionna Daddio, who goes by the ring name Liv Morgan, is one of WWE’s top female stars. She performs under the Smackdown brand and recently moved to Raw in May 2023. She is a former Smackdown Women’s Champion and current WWE Women’s Tag Team Champion with Raquel Rodriguez in their first reign as a team. In addition to WWE, Morgan is also an actress and an entrepreneur with her own self-care product line.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to learn more about your personal background. Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?

Thank you for having me! I’m excited to share a little more of my story in a different light. Well, I grew up with a single mother in a household of seven in New Jersey. Yes, hahahah, I have six brothers and sisters — 4 boys and 2 girls. My father passed away when my mother was six months pregnant with me. We weren’t privileged by any means, life would get extremely chaotic and difficult, but my mom always worked extremely hard to provide for us and those memories I have of her being such a hustler and provider outweighs anything else I remember.

Can you share with us the most interesting story from your career? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘takeaways’ you learned from that?

I know this doesn’t count as a story, but it’s definitely a bunch of little lessons I’ve learned a lot from throughout my career. WWE is a highly competitive industry, and success often comes with facing setbacks and obstacles. I’ve learned the importance of persistence and resilience, and not giving up in the face of challenges or setbacks. I’ve learned that every moment on stage is an opportunity, even if you don’t believe the opportunity is for you. Most importantly, I’ve really learned how to roll with the punches whether that be doing something I don’t necessarily see the vision of right away or literally messing up on live TV and having to adjust on the fly. WWE has prepped me to be ready for any situation that could arise and to do it with finesse and grace.

Can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey?

I think just adjusting to the lifestyle of a WWE superstar and all of the responsibility that it demanded was hardest for me. I started in WWE when I was 20 years old as a lifelong super fan. Before that, I never had any real structure or discipline in my life, so going from sleeping in as late as I wanted and having no one to answer to, to then working for a billion dollar corporation where I was expected to be timely (on time is late), present myself as a professional, train and eat like an athlete, and all of a sudden becoming a public figure was a huge, huge rude awakening for me. I know all of that sounds like the bare minimum of what would be expected from a now professional athlete, but prior to signing, I was just a high school drop out Hooters girl that had no actual idea of what finally living my life long dream actually entailed.

None of us can achieve success without some help along the way. Was there a particular person who you feel gave you the most help or encouragement to be who you are today? Can you share a story about that?

There have been countless people that have helped me and been so gracious to me along my journey. I have so many people that I wouldn’t be able to thank enough and I am lucky for that. It’s a blessing to have so many people that cared enough to help and guide me… BUT, I don’t think I would have been signed to the WWE in 2014 if it weren’t for Joe Defranco. Joe Defranco is a world renowned strength and conditioning coach. He trains high level and professional athletes and he just so happened to be a personal trainer of Paul Levesque (WWE’s HHH). I arrived to Joe’s gym a clueless but determined 19 year old girl who didn’t even know how to work out. He heard my story and believed in me. He trained me five days a week in his gym for six months and turned me into an athlete ready for a WWE tryout. That tryout of course was given to me per Joe’s recommendation to the company. It was the first time in my life that anyone ever took a chance on me and I will always be forever grateful to him for that.

What advice would you give to a young person who aspires to follow in your footsteps and emulate your career?

Some advice I’d give to any young person who aspires to follow in my footsteps and emulate my career would be to just work hard and stay positive. I know that sounds cliché, but that’s all I’ve done my whole entire life. Even when I had no reason to think positively or believe in myself, I still did.

What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?

I have a small online business that I run called ShopLiveMore. I took two things that I love; all natural and magic, and created a little business out of it. ShopLiveMore is an organic, mystical, and cruelty free bath and wellness shop that sells hand made soap bars, whipped soap, candles, sage sticks, lotions, sprays, oils, and spells jars. Every product is hand made and hand packed with love and your best intentions in mind, I promise. We are in the process of curating our new collection that will be available on shoplivemore.shop very soon.

Do you think your experience as a professional athlete gave you skills that make you a better entrepreneur? Can you give a story or example about what you mean?

Yes, I 100 percent believe in that. Being a professional athlete has taught me drive, dedication, passion, work ethic, confidence, patience, it has shown be how to effectively work and communicate with others. Being a professional athlete has taught me how to work on and execute a plan. But more importantly, it has taught me how to adjust and maneuver when the plan doesn’t go my way. I essentially started ShopLiveMore with no real knowledge of business or how to start one. I of course did my due diligence and researched hahah, but my foundation as a professional athlete gave me a lot of the tools and guts to start. I created a regimented game plan as I do when I train. I dissected my business plan for any faults, I made sure to always have a backup plan in case something didn’t go the way I expected, I surrounded myself with a team of people that cared about and loved the idea of the business, and I had the courage to see my vision through and execute because training for my sport never let me forget what I was capable of when I put in the work.

You are by all accounts a very successful person. How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

Thank you for saying that. One of my favorite parts about working for WWE is all the community and charity work we get to do. We are partners with Boys and Girls Club, Make a Wish Foundation, and Connors Cure just to name a few, and as good as winning a championship title feels, nothing feels better then knowing you’re putting smiles on faces and trying to make even a small difference. I believe kindness spreads kindness, whether that is donating time, money, resources, or simply holding a door open for someone…. Kindness is contagious and even the smallest act can completely change someone’s life and influence that person to maybe do the same for someone else.

OK, thank you for all of that. Let’s now shift to the core focus of our interview. As you know, athletes often face high stakes situations that involve a lot of pressure. Most of us tend to wither in the face of such pressure and stress. Can you share with our readers 3 or 4 strategies that you teach to optimize your mind for peak performance before high pressure, high stress situations?

One thing that I always do that helps me keep my mind right in high pressure situations where I absolutely need to deliver is write. I always keep a journal and when I am feeling on edge or frantic, I write out and organize all my thoughts, fears, goals, and manifestations for the situation all in my notebook and then I read it back to myself. It helps me relax my mind and not feel so overwhelmed. It also helps me kind of re-align with situation.

Another thing that I do that I find extremely beneficial is practicing positive self talk. The narrative you create about yourself in your head and how you talk to and about yourself is so powerful. That doesn’t mean I don’t feel doubtful or let negative thoughts slip in sometimes, but I just don’t feed into those thoughts and I choose to be kind to myself instead.

One final thing I would say is to have one person you can vent to and be vulnerable with that will help build you up. As much as I write down or talk positively towards myself, sometimes I just need someone that is a safe space. Someone that will just hear my thoughts, fears, and concerns but still give me that extra pep in my step that I might need.

You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

If I knew I’d tell you! I’ve actually been sitting on this thought for quite some time now. I feel very passionately about so many causes and issues that I genuinely don’t know where to start or how to begin to formulate what I’d like to do. In the meantime, I’m just continuing to spread kindness and love and hoping that guides me to my answer.

Can you share your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Why does that resonate with you so much?

My absolute favorite “Life Lesson Quote” that resonates most with me is gonna have to be “Everything happens for a reason” It’s a quote that I’ve found to be so true in my life. I know, so generic, but there was a chain of events in my life that undoubtedly led to my start at WWE. This chain of events had sadness, Grief, redemption, triumph, and a decision that I thought ruined my life, but it single handedly brought me right to the WWE. Even though I didn’t necessarily know it at the time, when I was able to look back and reflect, I realized this chain of events, even though like I said was devastating at times, needed to happen for my greater good and it’s something that I believe in more than anything.

We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why?

I think I’d love to have a lunch with Serena Williams. Serena is one of the greatest tennis players of all time and an advocate for equality and empowerment. I could imagine lunch with Serena would involve conversations about resilience, breaking barriers, and pursuing excellence. I’d love to pick her brain on what drives her as a female athlete, especially in what was once considered a male-dominated sport before her time.

This was very meaningful, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!

Thank you so much! Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak and I hope y’all have the best day!