MARTHA STEWART
episode 32
The Moonshots Podcast wraps up our latest brand innovator series with the Queen of media - Martha Stewart.
Discover how she creates new products by being her own customer. And not surprisingly, understand how she prototypes and learns every day.
SHOW INTRO
Usual Intro
Tee up Martha Stewart Living - OmniMedia
A-BLOCK
Martha Intro
Martha Rules - I am my Customer
Building Trust With Customers
B-BLOCK
First Keywords were: Inspire & Inform
Prototyping w/ Kmart
68 and Still Rocking
C-BLOCK - PHILOSOPHY
Martha Doesn’t Cry in Business
Martha Does Things She Loves
Martha Lives the Life She Teaches
Martha is Daily Learner
TRANSCRIPT
Welcome to the moonshots podcast. It's a fabulous episode. 32. I'm your, co-host Mike Parsons. And as always, I'm joined by the man himself, Mr. Chad Owen in Brooklyn, New York. Good morning, Mike we've uh, we've got a bit of a, kind of a time travel show here too funny. Isn't it? This one has been on the drawing board for probably six months and for some reason it never quite made it to the list, but then we got very excited and we seized the day.
What's this special episode that we've come to Chad. Yeah. So very early on, we identified Martha Stewart in her company, Martha Stewart, living as a company and innovator that we wanted to profile, but couldn't quite figure out where to fit her in. And I think amidst all of these giant brands that we've been discussing in the past few episodes, I think it's a perfect fit to bring her in and talk about here, here on the show.
Totally. I mean, the, the thing that's remarkable is every time you and I. Research and prepare an entrepreneur and we dig into their lives and their accomplishments and how they do it. Every time I find myself, Chad, when we start the show going, Oh my gosh, this person, I have so much to learn from them.
They do so many amazing things that I can learn from. Did you have a little bit that same journey with, with Martha unit, you obviously know about it, but then once you dig into her, there's so much good stuff. Yeah. I had no idea that she was a stockbroker for seven years and then a model before she launched her first cookbook and launched the company that we know today.
I know it's kind of her third career. I, I honestly think she is one of the most high-potential smart people that we've covered in the history of the show. I mean, you have to remember that she went from zero to hero. She created. Martha Stewart living Omni media and at its peak, it realized a valuation of over a billion dollars.
She is a, she has built this media, empire and television and radio and books and, you know, In just preparing for this show. I was looking at even still today, her Martha Stewart, YouTube channel is buzzing with, uh, all sorts of tips and helpful things to help people create better homes, better lives, make better food.
And I think when you look at the breadth of what she's done, if you look at the ups and the downs, she's one of the most remarkable people that we've ever covered. Yeah. And certainly a person to learn from when it comes to grit and resiliency and you know, sticktuitiveness, um, not many people go to prison and then come back even more invigorated and some could argue even more successful.
Yeah. I, I have to really give it to her too. Yeah. She didn't try and hide the fact that she got caught on insider trading. She was very open about it and she learned from her mistakes and she got on with it and got back to business. And, um, you're right about the relentless thing. I mean, imagine her and lady Gaga in the same room, that's like too much energy, man.
That's like locals, there's some seismic shift in tectonic plates. I mean, this, this woman is, is truly outstanding, but I do want to. Uh, Ashley, she is quite different to Oprah who you would compare her to a lot. She's quite a different approach. Great success in, in, in for both ladies, but, but very different approach.
Wouldn't you say? Yeah, so interesting. And that they've both created media empires. Right. And don't figure, forget Chad, like personal brand is at the heart. Like they are the brand. So that's a, that's an of course. Yeah. But you know, Oprah came up in TV kind of as, as a, as of, you know, on-camera reporter journalist and.
Martha had this whole career as a, as a stockbroker, you know, before becoming a model and writing her first book. And I think those two, you know, Genesis stories was just enough difference for them to both create multi-billion dollar companies and stand on their own and not really. You know, I wouldn't say that they're competitive just in the fact that they're competing for kind of the most recognizable on successful, uh, you know, female entrepreneurs of the last hundred years.
Yeah. I, what, what I would offer you those, I would say that where they're different is I think Oprah is very much driven by her heart. And I would say that Martha is driven by her mind. And I think this is why this episode's going to be just so interesting. She's very cerebral, immensely, intelligent, and sharp and driven.
Whereas, you know, Oprah is more everything's from the heart intuition. Self-awareness I just, I can't wait to get into this. So how should we kick it all off? Yeah. So, yeah, we've got lots of great clips on customers, on learning on so many different things, but we've got this great, just intro, clip, uh, kind of giving you the listener who may not be familiar with her and her empire.
A little bit more information on the world of Martha Stewart. Martha Helen was born August 3rd, 1941 in New Jersey. Her Polish American upbringing was filled with cooking, sewing, gardening, and other traditional pursuits. She started a moderately successful modeling career at age 13 and ultimately won a partial scholarship to attend Barnard college in New York due to your good grades.
Stuart eventually earned a double degree in history and architectural history. Eventually she cultivated a talent in business and worked as a stockbroker between 1967 and 72. Soon after she and her family moved to an old farmhouse in Connecticut, she undertook the restoration of that house. And during that time she discovered her pension for decorating.
By the late 1970s, she started a thriving catering service. This led to a chance encounter with a book publisher who was impressed with her skills and offered her a book deal. In 1982, Martha Stewart entertaining was released and launched this domestic goddesses. Remember, however you choose to decorate your Thanksgiving table.
Special touches are always going to be appreciated by your family and your friends. In fact, that book became the best-selling cookbook. Since Julia child's mastering the art of French cooking Stewart became famous for her labor-intensive recipes and craft projects. Throughout the remainder of the eighties.
She released other popular books, including Martha Stewart's, hors d'oeuvres weddings and Martha Stewart's Christmas in 1990. The first edition of Martha Stewart living magazine was released with Stewart acting as the magazine's editor in chief and lifestyle guru. Three years later, Stuart launched a weekly television series that brought him magazine to life.
And that was quickly expanded to a daily program accompanied by various network holiday specials. Martha stewards lifestyle empire was growing rapidly. And in 1997, she created Martha Stewart living Omnia media by consolidating her various creative media ventures. She became chairwoman president and CEO, and this moves solidified the Martha Stewart brand even further.
Stuart was briefly made a billionaire when Martha Stewart living on the media, went public on the New York stock exchange in 1999. Wow. I mean, there it is that in two minutes, that is legacy right there. The fact that she just was so tenacious and built this billion dollar empire, I think it's a breathtaking look at entrepreneurship in action.
When you say Chad. Yeah. And the thing that stands out, just hearing all of the, this series and sequence of events here is that she started with the book. And that book would then become part of this company that was valued at over a billion dollars. But it started with the book and she went from a book to a magazine and a book to more books and then a book to a magazine and magazine to a TV show to a daily TV show.
And I think that shows kind of her true entrepreneurial. Skill in that she didn't try to launch this giant Omni media company from the outset. She just, you know, launched a book. It went, it was really successful and she just kind of doubled down on that. Yep. By stepping, I think it was so exciting, um, is there's a lot of techniques and practices that she uses that are very transferable that we can all use.
So I think we're going to uncover a number of those. I think particularly she has some really interesting mental models. Puts herself in the position to succeed. And she has some very powerful mantras behavioral traits that I think we could all concur with are really going to help us create really outstanding businesses.
Just as a, as a quick side note for all the listeners, remember that you can go to moonshots.io. If you want to get any of the show notes or you want to get any links to other things related. Not only to this show, but to all the shows and content that we produce, but what I'm really excited to play right now, Chad is probably one of the most powerful things that we can learn from her.
So for all the listeners, I think get ready because I think this next clip really outlines Martha's recipe. If you wanted to do something after listening to our show, if you wanted to like, okay, what's the first thing I need to do. I think it starts with this with Martha Stewart. The way she creates such great content, magazines, newspapers, calendars, TV shows, Raiders, you name it she's produced.
It is, it starts with this idea of her understanding what customers want and the way in which she does that is actually by being the customer herself. And this is very brands and ask, you know, he's looking around finding friction, finding problems, and Martha is exactly the same. So let's now have a listen.
Let's really get ready to, to kind of note to self here. This is, uh, from the thinking from her book, Martha rules, which is all about entrepreneurship by the way. And it's the central idea. Let's have a listen to it. I am my customer. When I wrote my book, the Martha rules, I made a list of what I think are those golden rules for a good business.
Uh, just like I have golden rules for how to make a pie and golden rules for cake making. I have golden rules for business. Uh, and if you stick by these golden rules, you'll probably do. Okay.
Always said ever since I started working that. I am my customer. I want to appeal to me. What's missing in my life. What void can I fill? That will fill the voids for everybody. That's like me and my mother would always say, nobody's like you Martha, forget it. And I always said, mother, I am like everybody else.
And you know, I have chickens, I have a garden. I scrubbed the floors. I vacuum my house. I'm just like everybody else. And so she finally got to understand what I was talking about, because I always want to please me with what we do. Do I want to buy it? Do I need it? So it's the need and the want. The knee, I think, right, sure.
Different from brands. And I think is Brandon's I think more externally focused and kind of seizing opportunities that he sees and Martha really internalizes it and kind of starts within herself of these are things that I do every day, or these are my passions. And then what can I learn from myself to then try something out?
And do it. And another interesting thing that's just kind of clicking for me is I'm sure she wasn't thinking of it in this way, but she didn't start with products and making products she started with, well, what. Why don't I just bring a camera into my kitchen and cook something for someone and see if someone enjoys watching it.
Um, and that is kind of for, you know, for lack of a better word, like her test kitchen for ideas is like literally in her kitchen. Yes. And so, so the, the, the, the, the way to frame this is like, if you're going to create a food company, Would you want to pay for an eat that food. If you want to create a fashion label, would you actually pay for and wear those clothes?
I mean, this is sounds almost denial and so simple, but the truth be told is there are so many products and services out there that people just don't want. And there's the famous thing, you know, startups, you know, Hold their hands in the air and go, nobody wants our thing, but the truth be told that they never went and found out what their customers really wanted.
And she's asking herself a very simple question. Would I want this? And if I would want this, Hmm. Maybe there's a need in the marketplace. That's not being met. And I think that's such a great practice to start with, what am I missing? What are the biggest frictions in my life? These are all questions we can ask.
If you want to start a company, you want to go out and build something. Start with a problem and ask yourself, what are the biggest frictions in my, in the way I work, the way I communicate, um, the way I travel you name it, just apply this thinking. And I think you'll uncover a world of opportunity for anyone with an entrepreneurial mind.
Yes. So many of us are focused on the Holy grail of, of product market fit. And I love how Martha kind of rewinds it too. Problem market fit, you know, find the problem that your market or a large enough market has that you feel like you can solve and then go about solving. Yeah. Yeah. And she builds a beautiful sort of path out from this because the next thing is, once you actually have found a problem and you start providing a product or a service that.
That meets that is then you have the world of the customer. And she's got a lot of clear powerful thinking for all of us, which will act as very powerful reminders and frameworks for which we can, uh, think about and approach our customers. So let's have a listen to her now, talking about building trust with customers.
Once you develop a large customer base and we reach about a hundred million people every month with all our various businesses or books or magazines, television. Uh, and once you develop that kind of close rapport, they have already a feeling that I'm providing them with things that you didn't want. So it's very important.
To engender trust with your customer, disappoint them. I mean, if you make something that falls apart, forget it. You don't get that. And we're back again. And all I want to do is grow my customer base. I want to be where that customer needs and wants me with good stuff. Yeah, a hundred million customers every month.
That's, uh, that's quite the monthly recurring user for her, but does it, doesn't it also make you kind of just from America, imagine the pressure. Right. And we're going to talk about later in the show, you know, uh, been convicted of insider training and going to jail, we will get to that. But before, even that, can you just think about the pressure of, you know, engaging over a hundred million customers?
A month and it's all done through your name. I wonder if, like, how do you actually chill out? Like how do you actually take a break when there's a content mega verse spinning around in all sorts of different omni-channels and it's all with your name on it? I mean, that must be an immense pressure. I mean, it's but she does because she's just being herself.
Like she was saying in the last clip, you know, she's, she's taking the problems and passions that she has herself and then just. At this point, I'm sure she's comfortable having a camera on her pretty much, most of the time. Um, and you know, she's, she knows that she kind of is a stand in or a representative or an analog for, you know, a hundred million people out there in the world.
So all she really has to do is get out there and be herself in a way. And I think okra is very much like that too. You know, neither of them feel like they have a persona or a front. Or a mask that they're wearing, they're very much true to themselves and authentic. Well, isn't that a huge learning though?
Uh, apart put aside the fact that you can build a billion dollar empire, you don't need high tech. You don't need algorithms, machine learning, IOT devices. You can be yourself. You can just go out and solve a problem. I think that's a really refreshing reminder that it doesn't have to be the latest and greatest startup technology, but also I think what we're seeing here.
Is another reminder. And, and this has been a big part of my journey and my career is getting to a place where you can just be yourself and you don't have to be anybody else. Now, you know, Oprah will be nodding. Wildly in agreement with us here. But I think what we're seeing is that Martha, and particularly when you look at all the videos of her, when she takes her in her home and she talks about how she works and operates, you're absolutely right, Chad, there's no kind of, maybe she's more attentive and more available when the camera's on.
But her essence really is she is just being herself and she was able to build a billion dollar empire. Around being herself. And I think that's a really powerful idea. No matter whether you're at the front of the company or the back of the company, just be yourself, pursue the things that you love. And I can't my personal experiences, I believe when I'm just being myself, doing things though.
I think I'm doing my best work. I mean, how do you take that on board, Chad, when you think about just being yourself and doing what you love. Well, that's, that's where the trust comes from that she's talking about. I think she knows that if she tried to promote products that she didn't fully believe in, or if she ventured off into some weird, crazy, um, you know, new.
Persona or, or, or, or venture that she would lose that trust because they would know that it isn't her. And so I think just her comfort in being her, her authentic self is, is how she builds and maintains that trust. And I think if anything, she's probably more hyper-aware of that. You know, not like how do I get in front of the cameras and run this media empire.
It's like, am I being true to myself and being true to the customer base that. I've built up over the past 30, 35 years. Yeah. And, and I, and I think that when you're dealing with such a large customer and large audience, you know, a hundred million people every month is enormous. I think the only safe approach is just to be yourself because it's too much effort trying to do anything any other way, but what's really powerful as we kind of.
Reflect on these a little bit. Her success started with just being her customer solving problems that she had herself and, uh, always remaining true to who she wanted to be and who she is, and never getting too off track. And when she. Has got off track in her career. She's been very forthright about it and she's got straight back on the horse and kept going.
I think there's a lot to learn there. If you, if you look at all the challenges that, you know, the Uber's and the Facebooks have had of recent times, even I would say Tesla, uh, they could look to Martha and just, and, and Fred Smith as well, which is like, okay, learn from your mistakes and get on with it.
You know, don't dwell on, uh, And a well of self-pity don't try and hide it. Just admit it, face it, learn from it and move on. But I think there's a lot more, there's a lot more Chad, we can learn from this Martha Stewart. Yeah. We've had so many more eclipse to get to, so we'll go back to kind of the beginning of Martha Stewart living and, um, She's going to share with us kind of the, the key words that were driving her and her mission as she saw it as she was building Martha Stewart, living.
When I started the business, the Martha Stewart living up in the media are two words were inspire and inform. So you create the beautiful picture. You create the lifestyle that you think everybody would aspire to. And then you have to tell them that again. So that's the teaching part. To me that inspire that inspiration.
You have to know a lot, you can't fake it. So I learn every single day. One of my mottos is learn something new every day and I do so it's, it's all about informing yourself so that you can be a good teacher. Hmm, inspiration and forming paper. I think it's, again, it's, it's almost folksy in its simplicity, but I think you, and I would know, after almost a year of doing this show, it's hard work to, to actually go in and to inspire people and to inform them and.
You know, you really just need to know your stuff if you want to do that. So I think for anyone listening to this, this is like a timely reminder that, you know, you need to start with, uh, not only learning to get this done, but you need to be really clear on this mission. I mean, I can tell you, Chad, I was looking at Martha's YouTube channel today and there are still millions of people.
Clicking and viewing and getting recipes and crafting tips. So she's like 30 years down the track, 40 years down the track, she's still inspiring and informing today. Yeah. And I think the order in which she does it is very, very important that she realized pretty early on that she couldn't be inspiring if she weren't truly informed.
And so this is kind of the first of, I think, four clips that touch on. What I think is probably Martha's, you know, Lodestar the, the, the cornerstone of, of her success. And that is her pursuit of learning that then just goes into and affects everything else that, that she's doing mean. I can't think of anyone in the areas in which she is an expert.
I can't think of anyone else that is so broadly. An expert at so many things, when it comes to design and homemaking and cooking, decorating, cooking, crafting all of those things, like she herself with her own two hands and her creative mind can do all of those things. Herself. Yeah. And I think that we, at this point, I just want to touch on the fact that if you look at the history of our show together, this learning idea, the practice to always be learning new things.
I mean, this seems to be something that. All of the great entrepreneurs and innovators. It seems to everybody, one of them too, to the name, each of them, all 31 that we've, that we've profiled. Totally. I mean, bill Belicheck spent a year. Just a year watching football footage for like 18 hours a day. So he had seen, and in his mind imagined every single play that could ever have been played.
Uh, if you look at how hard lady Gaga works on tour, if you, if you just start to zoom out and look at bill Gates, how dedicated. He was in those early years of Microsoft. If you think about, um, some of the stories we've heard from Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz, the work and the effort and the toil that they put into getting the job done, even when we were in bookarest, many of the entrepreneurs talked about resilience and learning from mistakes and growing and building.
And, uh, from one of our recent shows, Melanie Perkins, the founder of Canva, she. Just kept for over 10 years doing her startup, which was in her mom's living room, building a company. And it started very small, but it finally did Le Le lead its way to also another billion dollar company. And it, and this learning along the way, this curiosity and this.
I'm quenching a thirst for just filling your mind with insight and knowledge and wisdom seems to be one of the core practices of Martha Stewart and every single entrepreneur that we focus on. It is truly, for me, it is just reaffirming that you hear it all the time. This is such a powerful way to innovate.
Yeah. So Mike, I'm going to. Throw a question to wait. So for me, I think the thing that I am putting all of my eggs into and this purse in this learning pursuit is the craft of story. I think that's probably not any surprise to you. And I think I might know what your answer or one of your answers might be, but I'm, I'm curious, you know, as you and I work to incorporate this idea of lifelong learning into what we're doing, what would you say your learning pursuit is?
Um, well, I would say that it all starts with my curiosity on understanding how things work. So when I think about learning, I don't only want to learn what happened, but I want to know how did it happen and why did it happen? And I think that. In terms of the pursuit itself is I want to learn so I can apply it myself and help others apply it.
So what I do together with you here on the show is exactly what I do at work. And it's what I do when I'm coaching and rugby. I'm, I'm looking at the world's best teams I study and analyze them. I look at the skills and the tactics that they use. And then I apply it to the people that I coach. And it's exactly the same with work.
I'm looking at the Martha stewards, the Melanie Perkins, the Amazons and the Teslas, and I'm helping large companies all around the world do the same thing. I think the joy is in the solving of the puzzle. Um, that would definitely be, uh, where it, where it is very special for me. And, and for you, it's the, the story.
And do you mean that in terms of. The journey, uh, the, the, the, the, the classic hero's journey of it. Yeah. Yeah. I think understanding both kind of the, the structure and the meaning within story, but also kind of its impact and the power that it has to inspire customers to motivate companies to, to do all, you know, all of the things that.
Makes, you know, the, the impact of story. So, so great. You know, ever since the cave painting days. Right, right. Totally. I'm totally with you there. Well, the coolest thing about Martha is that obviously she is like one of the biggest champions of learning, but we've got lots of other insights to share with, uh, with the listeners.
And what I love about this next clip is you, you get a sense of how. Fast, she works. And one of the key practices, and this is different to the learning practice. Although very related is that she loves to test and to prototype and to experiment. And this is another big theme of innovation. So let's have a listen now to Martha Stewart, talking about prototyping with one of her biggest clients, Kmart.
Came came to me in the 1980s of asking if I would come and design lifestyle merchandise for them. Um, so we started designing and within three years, our business was over a billion dollars in sales at Kmart. And we did a lot of experimenting with them and they were at the time, the largest retailer in America, and they started to lose ground, um, at the time.
And they did, um, they did go bankrupt. Yeah, and, uh, filed for bankruptcy. And I thought, gosh, this would be an interesting company because there was so much opportunity to make more product like we were making. It was not, it was not a, an, it was not just a dream. It would have been a good business decision, uh, to buy something like Kmart, um, and, uh, and make that into, uh, a, another powerhouse retailer, uh, with merchandise that we all loved.
And such an interesting kind of alternate history, potential timeline. If, if Martha had bought Kmart back in the eighties and then launched her retail business through the reach of Kmart, which I'm sure had probably several thousand stores across the country, if they were the top retailer. Right. But, but isn't it interesting how she experimented and prototyped and built.
Built in three years, a billion dollar business with Kmart selling Martha Stewart products. But then what was also very interesting as you say, actually really discover her mental model here, how she thinks and sees the world. She's like, well, obviously I should think about acquiring Kmart because there's such a big opportunity here.
I love doing this kind of stuff, because there's a huge market for this. So she's not just like a media guru, but you can see what a business woman she truly is because she's instantly thinking about, well, there's a huge opportunity here. And I think that's very interesting. She can't help, but see opportunity.
And I think that's, what's really powerful other than the prototyping idea, which I think you and I will. Promote to our tell our dang dyes. We know how good that is for innovation, but also that she's looking at things through such a clinical eye. You can almost hear the stockbroker in her current. You like that would be a good opportunity.
Yeah. I think an interesting lesson here too, is the lesson of what I call the gorilla client. So she was able to. Test and, and manufacture a billion dollars worth of merchandise for Kmart in under three years. But she was kind of tying herself and the success of her, her product, business to Kmart and which ended up going bankrupt.
And I think it, um, I can't imagine what she learned from that, but I know that because of her resilient, Personality, you know, she and the company were able to come through that just fine. I'm sure it was a big hit on balance sheet, but I'm, I'm sure that, you know, they went to the Walmarts and the targets and the other big retailers across the country to get their products in there.
Yeah. And, um, you know, the funny, the funny thing is, as we talk about her, the picture that comes to me is that, you know, every time you make a move like this and things get bigger, the stakes get, get really big. And you can only imagine with all of this success. Omni, you know, Martha Stewart Omni media goes lists on the stock market.
It bears her name. It puts her personal wealth at over a billion dollars. And then she gets dinged for this small time inside a trading deal just for a day. The cute lists in the scheme of things and forces her into this huge reset. And for many people we've seen that getting back on the horse is, is really hard.
But I think what we can see in this next clip is that Martha Stewart is a powerhouse. She is full of energy and drive. And as Gaga said, she is both res relentless and courageous. So. This is a really interesting clip coming up because it's talking about her going through, uh, after all the success and then this big Valley of darkness.
This is the comeback. This is Martha Stewart and how she rocks. And we're going to hear her kind of framing her approach to the world. And we're going to get a sense of her energy. She's 68 years young and still rocking. Let's have a listen to Martha Stewart. The true original, a woman who has built a brand and a company from scratch that company, Martha Stewart, living Omni media reflects her very high.
Some might say impossibly high standards. And while it launched with a flourish, the company stumbled badly in the wake of her high profile legal problems. A few years ago, some people might've crumbled, but not Stewart. Who's determined that the company bearing her name. Will triumph. She is passionate, optimistic and outspoken about even the most personal of topic is a little after eight in the morning at Martha Stewart's farm in Bedford, New York.
And while it may look to you as if she's relaxing 30, she's actually getting in fighting form. So what happens if you're sick, then you stay in never sick. You're never sick. I try never to be sick. Why get sick? It's a waste of time at 68 years old, she seems to have only one speed basketball word and sleeps only three or four hours a night.
She rises before her roosters Stuart has given us unprecedented access to her daily life and her business empire, Martha Stewart, living Omnia media, even the trip to the office is used for work all the while balancing and China teacup. Good balance is certainly important these days. This is my very favorite.
Her company is poised at a critical moment. Business analysts say the next eight months are crucial to the company's longterm success. So fair to say, this is a pivotal moment, uh, fair to say that this is our growth period. That's, what's fair to say we are growing. We are, uh, I think, um, going to, um, do very, very well.
Yeah. And then in fact they have, I think, uh, the growth trajectory of the company's only accelerated since this was, this clip was a few years old. If I'm not mistaken. Right, Mike? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. But can you not just hear the drive? She's like, Getting sick. What are you talking about? I didn't have time to get sick right there to me.
I there's a love this because that's the spirit that wins. This is getting on the front foot. I love it. She's up at the crack of Dawn and she's drinking a cappuccino in the car on the way to work while she's working. I mean, seriously like Chad, this is before the roosters even. Right. Like, come on. This is what winning looks like.
Let's not sugar. It here is hard work, but I love the drive there. And you could hear the, uh, the reporter like, well, you know, this is a bit of a tricky time, right? And she's like, tricky. This is a growth year. Like her mindset. She has like this growth. Mindset. I find that super inspiring. Didn't you, when you, when you hear the 68 year old entrepreneur and she's like as fresh as a bell and ready to go, don't you find that inspiring?
Yeah. It's a, those days when I want to sleep in and maybe work from home or something. I hear this clip get a kick in the seat of the pants, for sure. I think, yeah, I think too. It's um, I don't know how else to say it, but she has had one of the greatest comeback stories in business. I feel like I remember when she was going through the legal battles around the insider trading, and I just remember thinking, like, there's no way that she's going to be able to recover.
Recover from this, like she's gone, she's out of the limelight and she'll never be coming back, but am, if I'm not mistaken, she's written like seven books since then, or, you know, co-published seven books since then. And you know, like, uh, Martha Stewart living has only grown even more. She did a TV show with Snoop dog.
I mean, come on. If that's not a comeback signing off on the comeback, I mean, this one is ridiculous. Like what can she not do? I think it's more the question, right? Yeah. And it, it reminds me of, uh, what Atlanta Christo you from Bucharest was saying just like, never give up, just keep going. You know, stick with it and you will come out the other side.
Yeah. And, and that w that came back very strongly in the Melanie Perkins episode. So the founder of Canva, you know, it looks like Canva kind of the little bit came out of nowhere. It was built here in Australia. It's kind of just popped. It was a 10 year overnight success story. You go. And, and the same here, like.
There's this huge misnomer that, that startups and yeah, sure. There was one or two, maybe WhatsApp and Instagram really did sort of achieve incredible scale and value in, in a, in just a few years. But the truth be told, whether you're talking to small business owners or big business builders, these are decade long lifelong endeavors, and you will often hear a lot of backstory of them thinking about the idea for years and years before they even started to attack it.
They first tried to solve the problem. Then the business came later. So this is a great Testament to the hard work it takes to build a business. I mean, keeping up with Martha is, is hard work. Isn't it, Chad, but we still have so much more. I mean, I I'm, I'm pretty pumped for the next set of clips. We're going to move a little bit more though, uh, into some of her attitudes and behaviors about how to be successful.
And I think that, uh, if you, if you're sitting there for a moment thinking, well, You know, if I want to know more about Martha, I would definitely encourage folks to go out and read her book, Martha rules. So just put it on Amazon and you'll, you'll find it there. Um, because she can not only write, write the rules for cooking, cooking, uh, a casserole, a baking, a pie.
She can also write the rules of business. And that's what that book did. It's called Martha. Rules and just check it out. I think that that's going to have a lot of helpful tips and tricks. And of course, Chad, if. They the listeners want to hear some more goodies, get some more information. Where can they go to find out everything about the show?
Oh, you can always head to moonshots.io where all of our past episodes show notes, links, videos, books, uh, you will find all of that@moonshots.io, where you can also contact us with feedback. Show suggestions. And, uh, you know, just let us know that you're listening and that you enjoy the show. Yeah. We, we, we love that.
And, uh, uh, I have to say it's really interesting when you look through the archives, the, uh, the first episode on Elon Musk, this thing just. Keeps on kicking. Like we've got, um, thousands of people have listened to that show. It's quite crazy. It's crazy. Isn't it? And I thought what was interesting is how, how popular people like Jack ma and lady Gaga were.
I mean, these guys, I mean, Gaga is almost going to catch up to Ilan at this rate. I think she might surpass surpass him. I mean, granted Elan was our first episode. We were kind of working out all the kinks, I think, uh, by the time we got to lady Gaga and had, you know, an excellent guest on, uh, like Lauren, that, that definitely helps too.
Yeah, it certainly does. So make sure you go and check out all of those shows. I have to say there's every single show has some unique characteristics. Uh there's I mean, I've I've tried to get them together. If you actually, this is an interesting thing, Chad, if you go to our blog, uh, I put together a post with all of the, uh, the mantras from, um, from different entrepreneurs, sort of like the best mantra from each.
And this, I just was checking the Google analytics for the first time in ages. And this thing is off the charts, uh, popular, I think it's, uh, on our blogs. So go to moonshots.io and check out all those successful mantras from innovators. This one, this one was very popular, indeed. So it's, it's so great to.
To decode the ideas and share them with everyone, but we should get back to Martha because she's still got more to give us, Chad, where do we start? Yeah. So this, this next clip candidate asks her. I don't know, maybe a little, um, uh, I don't know if patronizing is the right word, uh, question, but, uh, I think it, it just reinforces, Martha's kind of gritty attitude, you know, when she says, you know, there's no crying in business.
Have you ever cried in business ever your entire career? No, I refuse. How do you, well, I think it's interesting, but I don't cry in this crime business. No, I don't think businesses worth crying over. I think you have to, again, concentrate on business. You can build your business, you can help others build businesses and it's business.
It's not about emotion. It's about really going for it. You can be passionate. That's the only emotion I allow in my business. I love this because she's very different here. You really see the stark difference between her and, and, uh, Oprah. Who's all emotion and love and feeling and intuition, but what's really powerful here.
What we can learn from Martha. She's like, come on guys, get over it. Like, don't lose yourself in all of this fire and brimstone and emotion. She's like, Be smart work hard. You can be passionate about what you're doing, but it really is. It's like keep on the game. Be sharp. That's the feeling I get from, from listening to her, talking about that.
So there's no time to cry. There's no time to be sick. Let's just get on with it. Yeah. Or no time to feel sorry for yourself. I, I do like that. She says business isn't worth crying over. And I think that says a lot about how she feels kind of when it comes to work life balance, which again is possibly a paradox.
But I think it's easy. It's easy to hear from her. Like, look, it doesn't matter that much, you know, enough for her to cry over. And so I think. What I am taking away from that clip is especially someone like myself that, you know, works for myself. I can get inside my own head and take things a little too seriously sometimes.
And so while I can also say that I've never cried over business, I've certainly gotten very wrapped up in it and maybe see things in fatalistic or pessimistic ways. And so, you know, this is again inspiring to me and, you know, looking to her to kind of build up my, my. My gritty and resilient, uh, ness. Yeah.
I grit and resilience is a great word. And the funny thing is, is, is how she can just have this grit smart, focused approach, uh, not too self-indulgent, but she still does things that she loves. And I think this is the other thing, you know, it's so easy for her to be her own customer because she just loves doing this stuff.
And I think when she got spotted, For her talents. It was literally this book publisher. So what she had done, uh, when they moved to Connecticut and was like, I'm going to offer you a book. You're, you're, you're amazingly talented. And I think this is the big thing. She, of course she can do well in something because she truly loves it.
So let's have a listen now to Martha Stewart talking about things that she loves to do. About choices of what you will do and what you won't do that allows that growth without letting your brand get diluted or overextended. Well, um, well we just, we just do things we love basically. And, um, and all the things that we love, um, we have, I think the best craft tools anywhere, um, and they are they're beautiful, beautiful tools.
So it just starts with love. Doesn't it? And just, you just gotta want to do it, right? Yeah. So I, I feel like this idea of doing things you love is another thing that we've heard from quite a few other people that we've profiled here on the show and it goes back. To Martha's earlier clip about, you know, saying that she starts with herself as the customer.
And so you can tell that she's in love with her craft tools, the way that she's speaking about them here and how however she is of them. I mean, she is, she is in the moment because she loves it. And what a great source of abundant energy to like keep fighting. Like you start to hear these clips and you can see why.
After her setback with, uh, insider trading and going to jail. I mean, this glamorous lady, who'd built a billion dollar media empire being a model, being a stopper broker ends up in jail for like six months and still comes back and she can do this because the source of her energies, she's doing things.
She loves she's her own customer. She loves helping her. Customers. I mean, this is where it all emanates around. I think this is the big powerful force that moves her. And, um, when I, when I reflect on, on, uh, her and this idea of learning there's, I mean, this very powerful relationship between. Uh, learning, teaching and how they interrelate to each other.
And if you look at what she does, her practice is she stands in front of a camera and teaches people how to cook, how to craft, how to make a, uh, a wonderful home. What's so interesting is she does the same thing for herself. She is learning and teaching herself, and this is the source of her expertise.
This is the source of her energy. So let's. Have a listen now to Martha talking about living a life of learning and teaching. Well, I, I actually feel most comfortable doing the thing first and then figuring out how to teach it. Uh, I I've was the daughter of two teachers. Um, both, both parents taught school originally in their careers.
Uh, and they taught their six kids, lots and lots of things at home. Um, and I really think that it's terribly important to, um, learn every single day so that you can teach every single day. This is, uh, this is going to be elaborated on in this next clip. But I think for me, this is kind of the core reason why she has been so successful because she has this simple model of, well, if I want to inspire people, I'm just going to learn how to do that thing that I want to do.
And then I'm just going to share it with people. And if I learn it well enough and I can do it well enough, then, you know, I can build a billion dollar company. Mm it's it's it's um, For me, the, the, the thing I love about this is it's like, if you learn one thing every day, the cumulative compounding that this gives you over time.
So what I love about doing the show, what I love about listening to podcasts, what I love about writing is that these are mechanics. If you say I'm going to write once a day, I'm going to listen to a podcast once a day. Those two practices are things you can do right now. To help you learn every day. And, and what I think we've made the case for is that if you learn every day, you can be someone like Martha who made a billion dollar media empire by just being herself.
But at the heart of it was this great attention to learning. So I'm just going to go ahead and play this next clip. Cause I think. It's it's a great book. And I think we, we led with a really great clip about talking how, you know, she is her own customer. And then I think she takes that inward reflection and kind of focuses that on the things that she's learning.
Um, so here's Martha talking about learning something new every day. I'm a daily learner. Might one of my mottos is learned something new every day. It's very, very important. If I'm going to a destination, I try not to go down the same street every single day to go to that. Don't do that in and you'll get lost.
No, no, you don't get lost. Guess what you do. You learn to see something new. He say, Oh my gosh, I had no idea that store was there or that that museum was there or that little place was there. I learned something every single day. Full day that I then can explore Monday morning, I spent a beautiful morning going to a garden.
I didn't even know existed in Yonkers, right on the Hudson river, 150 acre garden, which was one of the greatest gardens in America. When it was built in 1925, the Untermeyer garden. I learned all about Samuel Untermeyer. I learned all about a whole new thing. So we have not only a fabulous location for weddings.
We also have fabulous location for a photo shoot for our magazine. I have a great blog and, uh, and who knows what else will come out of it? Do you not just love the fact like can, like her authenticity is right there in that clip. She's like, I ran into this garden and it's fantastic. And I learned about the guy who made it and then realize it was one of the most important con gardens in the world.
It's just in the back of Yonkers. Oh. And by the way, we've now got a place where we can do photo shoots, weddings I've even got a great, yeah. And I'm going to share all of my a hundred million people like. To me that is curiosity and delight and just such proof that she's out there with this curious open mind and she's ready to learn.
I th I thought that was, uh, you, you picked a great clip to end the show on there. That was just for me. That's her in a nutshell. Yeah. I love it too, because I think it sums up why you and I, and get into the chair every week, too. Listen, two hours of interviews, pull the best clips and then sit down and re and record the show.
I it's it's, you know, I think it's the same kind of motivation and drive. Yes, we're doing it, you know, to share with, through the audience members. But I think first we're doing it because we ourselves want to learn, uh, the wisdom of, of all these innovators and entrepreneurs for sure. And, and I think. The the, at the heart of this, is that anyone listening to the show should walk away thinking to themselves?
How can I learn once a day? I think if you can do that, I think your, I think you're on the way. Don't you. Yeah. Yeah. Audio books and podcasts are kind of my hack to get that really easily. You know, you're walking the dog or you're in the bathroom shaving or, uh, you know, every little moment, you know, is, is an opportunity for you to crack out the Kindle or a book or pop in your headphones and listen to something now.
Yeah, absolutely. I, you know, I would say that if you find reading whole books, Pretty time consuming. Definitely get one of those audio book, summary services, Blinkist, and Insta read, being the ones to look at there. I also, I just, I cannot tell you how many times, if I just type how to.dot, dot into YouTube, and somebody has already thought about this question and it's.
Our real delight and, and I just think, um, never stop learning. It is such an essential thing. The more you learn, the more you can understand what's happening around you. And if you start to take us a little bit of an entrepreneurial mindset, you might start to think of, well, these things aren't working, but maybe I could solve them using this approach or that approach.
And that to me becomes, I think that's the start of the innovation and entrepreneurship process. Don't you? Yeah. And going back to what you were saying is, is driving you, you know, figuring out how things work. I think the only way that you can do that is to gather enough input and insights to then begin to kind of create your own understanding and perspective.
On on what's what's really going on and how things work. Yeah, totally, totally agree. So what changes for you, Chad you've you've had, you've had the delight of learning everything about Martha. What changes tomorrow when you wake up, what do you think you're taking with you from, from Martha Stewart? Hmm, I think, um, so I don't think there's any better way to motivate yourself than to state your goals publicly.
So here it goes, I'm announcing it here on the, on the, on the podcast. And before you, um, I've been really inspired by how Martha shows up or she showed up every single day and you know, I've been telling myself, Oh, I should write, I should. Blog I should get on social media or I should create yet another podcast.
But, um, I think what I'm going to do is, uh, is do a video series and where I talk about, you know, what I have learned, uh, about story and the power of story and how to leverage story as a brand, as a, as a business owner, as a freelancer. Um, so yeah, I guess you could say, you know, the beginnings of my own little media empire here.
Um, but I think what if it is media publicly listed on the nose deck? Yeah, so, uh, Martha definitely proved, uh, proved to be a great source of inspiration for me to kind of finally get my act together and get that project started. Yeah, good on you. Well, I think, I think with her and Oprah, this there's two different approaches with both spectacular outcomes and I just really enjoyed this reminder of learning and the role that it has to play in my gosh.
She's a tenacious one. She's just so glamorous and smart. And then. Under under that, there is this absolute tiger of, of energy and tenacity and just, it's fantastic. I, I really love the strength that she brings and I think we can all go and practice learning, knowing that there's, it's a successful formula.
So what a show, man? And, uh, Oh, I'm still have some energy. So I feel like we should talk about our upcoming episodes. I mean, we've traversed the world of brand quite a lot. Haven't we? I mean, we're, um, We've done. So I thought was really fascinating. Uh, obviously Phil Knight. So we've, we've covered some real ground with them, with Martha, which kind of ties in, uh, the media side of things.
But, um, we're about to go for a triple header, Chad. I mean, I am so excited because it's going to be one of the world's biggest ever brands. One of the world's most innovative companies and we're going to do three execs from the one company in three separate shows. We're going to Cupertino. I think of tiny little company called the apples based there.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. What are you most looking forward to about the Apple series coming up? Uh, probably, well, yeah, I'm finally going to pick up the Walter Isaacson, Steve jobs, bio, and, uh, Good. I need to get started on that now, because if we're recording Steve and just two or three weeks, I've got quite a few pages.
Oh yeah. Oh yeah. What a fascinating, uh, company to look forward to getting into owning. Biggest market capitalization in the universe because brand in the universe, most certainly the one brand that I interact with. Oh my gosh. Look at anyone else trying to sell a phone and they'll be making a quarter of the profits if that, um, it's outstanding.
I think one of the questions I have in my mind though, is I still feel a little bit that. We have not seen anything iPad, iPhone iPad, like since Steve left and I'm still waiting for something different. And I, and I kind of help out a little bit have this feeling that the execs there are still riding the Steve jobs wave.
To a degree it's a well-run company, no doubt. Or the iPhone wave at least. Yeah. Yeah. I mean here pulley has that changed their business, but what do you, what, what are the questions in your mind that you'd like to, to address as we dig into Angela Aarons, Steve Wazniak and of course the man himself, Steve jobs, I'm kind of interested in going a little further back into the history of the company.
You know, it, wasn't always a rosy picture. Over at Apple. And I think, I think a lot of our listeners, myself included who would be able to learn about how Apple kind of overcame some of those challenges to then set themselves up for success, you know, to knock it out of the park with the, with the iPhone and iPad, et cetera.
Yeah. Yeah. Right, right now I'm with you. I'm with you. Yeah. There's just so much and three very different people. The two Steve's and Angela, all great stories. I mean, the world is Chad. The world is full of amazing people and amazing entrepreneurs, uh, trying to do their own moonshots. It's pretty damn exciting.
It's like, An unrelenting stream of people for us to learn from isn't it? Yeah, I'm sure if we, uh, spent 10 minutes here, we could probably fill out the first a hundred episodes. You know, things we haven't even discussed. Right. We we've still got the future episodes, uh, page that's on moonshots.io. So if you're ever interested in to learn what we're thinking about doing next, there is a.
Uh, future shows link on from the home page. Obviously we've got the Apple series coming up. We have some special episodes that we haven't haven't pulled the trigger on, but we've got greatest innovation fails, the greatest ever moonshots in history, innovation tools, best innovation books, and yeah. Going back and, and, and reinvestigating some, some people in the VC community, some authors, and then, you know, some other SAS products.
Yeah. Yes, best investors in history. I buffet we haven't touched buffet yet. Great. As innovation authors, Eric Reese, Simon Sinek. Oh my gosh. Oh, what about the film director? So David Attenborough, uh, Ridley Scott. Oh my gosh. No. Yeah. In architects we've fought, thought about doing architects. Yeah. So, so many potential shows.
I'm like, yeah, I've got to get some architects on the waist, like Norman and foster and Getty and all those guys. So that would be very cool. All right, mate. Well, it looks like we've come to the end of another show. Um, I assume that the evenings are getting a little warmer there in Brooklyn these nights.
Oh yeah. Summer has finally arrived. I am definitely enjoying it. Okay. Well, I can tell you that that winter has arrived in Sydney. I, uh, I almost considered wearing a hoodie when I went out and worked out this morning and to seven 30, but, uh, I'm enjoying the change in the seasons. I hope you're enjoying.
The warm New York evening air. And I just want to thank you, Chad. Another fascinating journey together into the world of Martha Stewart. Thank you for that was awesome. Wasn't it? Yeah. I really, really enjoyed it. And as always, can't wait for the next one. I know this next series is going to be huge. Thank you ever so much, Chad, thank you to our listeners.
It's been awesome having you. Please go to moonshots.io. If you'd like to know anything more about, uh, the innovation and entrepreneur experts that we cover, or you want to get some show notes, check it all out there. And thanks again, have a great day. And that's a wrap.