Martha would not only rebound and rebuild, she would completely redefine herself, with a little help from some friends. I had to sit next to snoop. I was so high. Say again . I was so high. Harvey Martha Stewart, good in the kitchen, kickass in the board room. Martha stewart. How do you do . Whats crack alackin . laughs everything. laughs thank you so much for doing this. I am fascinated by your journey. How you got to where you are today. Great. And thats what were gonna do today. Great. Well, its the american dream. It is the american dream. And nightmare. both chuckle i get it. Lets start. Okay. Okay. Tell me what this is. Well, this is one of my precious bowls. But its a special bowl because it was given to me by my nextdoor neighbors in nutley, new jersey, mr. And mrs. Mouse. They were german immigrants who were fantastic bakers. And when they retired from their bakery, they started a bakery in their basement. And this is one of the bread bowls. And they gave me this. Your dad, um. Had a big impact on you. Tell me a little bit about it. He did. My father was a very handsome man, very tall, actually, he could be called beautiful i think. Blond hair, blueeyed, looked more nordic than polish, but he was 100 polish. My mother was also polish, 100 . Born in buffalo, new york. Ive read he was a perfectionist. Very much so. And i got my sense of perfection and wanting to do things in the best possible way with the best possible result from him. That stuck . Yeah, so it stuck. And it still sticks. The perfect, perfect cafe latte. The perfect ganache. How to make the perfect bed. That is a very nice egg. Perfect. He was also big into gardening. Dad was a wonderful gardener. He grew the best tomatoes on the street. Some of his tomatoes, those jersey tomatoes, were four pounds each. Four pounds . Four pounds. Those were big, big they were called big boys, actually. Um, and then he also grew beautiful flowers and he instilled in me a love of gardening. I am a real gardener. And i think thats from dad. You are your fathers daughter. I am. And i think i i hate to say it, but i think i was his favorite daughter. You grew up in a time when women became housewives. Yes. It seems that you didnt accept that at a very early age. Was it because of your dad . Uh, no, i dont think it was my dad. I think my mother could be considered a feminist, an early feminist, because she was trained as a teacher. The day my youngest sister, laura, got into kindergarten, mom started teaching again. So she went right back to work with six kids at home to feed at night. She would then go and teach a class of 32 students at the Lincoln School in nutley, new jersey. One of my favorite things that ive read about you is what you wrote in your high school yearbook. And it so resonates. I want to talk about it. You wrote, i do as i please and i do it with ease. chuckles a little bit snotty, i would say in retrospect. I would, too. But its interesting you wrote that as a kid, as a 16yearold. Right. Well, i felt that way. Dad had instilled that into me. His best piece of advice he ever gave me was, if you work hard enough, you could pretty much do anything, martha thats what he said to me. So he understood that i had a brain, he understood that i was smart enough. I wanted to be a housewife, too. I did not ever look down on the on housekeeping, or house work. I never looked down on it. I was brought up doing house work. Did you ever have a rebellious period growing up . I wish i could say i did. I was just Goodie Twoshoes all the way. Really . Until i met my. My boyfriend, my first boyfriend. Who turned out to be my fiance, and then my husband. I was a very good girl. And that was your rebellious period . Yes. both laugh well, because, i mean, i went out of our religion, i married i fell in love with a jewish boy, and i brought him home. And my father was. Well, i didnt bring him home first, i went home and told my parents that i was 18 years old i said, i have fallen in love and im going to get married, and i didnt ask if i could get married i just said i am going to get married. And my father actually slapped me. Because he was jewish. Then when they met him oh, my gosh, then they fell in love with him. They loved him, and. Can i go back to slapping . chuckles he slapped me. In my happiest moment, telling my parents i was going to get married, he said im too young, youre wasting your life, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, you know, that kind of thing. Wow. Yeah. Had he ever done that before . Slapped me . Yes. Oh, yes. But not, like, across my face, i usually got spanked. Wow. It was the day of spanking. Um. chuckles okay, so. Not bad, i mean, when i say spanking, you know, it was discipline. Parents actually disciplined their kids. Nowadays, youre not allowed to do this, and youre not allowed to do that, and most parents, youre not allowed touch and. But in those days, actually, discipline. Didnt your parents ever spank you . Daily. Yes. Okay. Harvey was this an easy childhood . Martha i would say it was a very easy childhood. Harvey had a good one . Martha it was very good. I enjoyed everything i did. I was happy. music playing so tell me about these. Well, these are this is mrs. Beaton. Mrs. Beaton started writing in the early 1800s. And this is called household management. Its everything you have to know about keeping a home. So many Different Things in here recipes for wild duck, and sole, look at these beautiful sole, and how to cook, catch and clean eel. Whatever you want to know, its here. This is all about being a housewife. Yes. This is all about being a. How to run a home. So. You want to sit down on a stool . Okay, id love that. As we talk in my kitchen . This is my kitchen by the way. I im a perceptive guy. laughs i noticed. You. Went into modeling early. And, im wondering, was it because people said to you, martha, you should be a model, or did you just look in the mirror and say, yeah, i can do that . Martha i never considered myself a great beauty or even beautiful, but i had a neighbor friend who was modeling in new york city. And she said, you know, i model and i make money on the side. You should try it. Youre attractive. You can probably get an agent. So she took me to her agent in new york. And, yes, they signed me right away. And i started to earn, i think i remember earning 15 an hour to start, that was live modeling at Bonwit Teller on saturdays. Modeling whatever they put on me and i would walk around the store. And then, i got another agent. And they said, oh, you can do commercials. Announcer busy, active people, stop. Now you can odorproof your body. Helps blemishproof your skin, too. Get the active soap for active people. Did you ever think, maybe ill put college in the backburner and make modeling my career . Oh, never. It didnt occur to me at all. I was using modeling as a means to an end. Because i was told by my parents they did not have enough money to pay any tuition. Harvey you met your husband, andy, i believe, when you were at barnard, he was at yale. Martha yes, he was at yale law school. And i fell madly in love immediately. Harvey what attracted you . Martha well, he was very smart, and he was nicelooking, and he was welleducated, and he talked a lot, and he was fun. I mean, all the good things. How quickly did you marry him . Oh, within a year. So you were 19 when you got married. I was. That surprises me that you would get married that early when youre so focused and determined to go out on your own and. Make a name for yourself. Well, i had lots of interests, and marriage just was it just came along and i thought, god, you know, this is great. I really love this man. And i didnt call him a man, this boy. And why not get married . I can do everything anyway. Which i did. Harvey and it never occurred to you that, when you get married, then you suddenly assume a fairly traditional role again that might hamper your ability to go out . Well, he wasnt that kind of guy. He was not going to put me in the kitchen and make me cook dinner every single night. I wanted to cook dinner. I cooked dinner anyway. So why not do that and study . And i did not give up my studies, i continued to go to school. Got my degree. I toyed with the idea of becoming an architect. And instead of becoming an architect, i went to wall street. Andys father had been a stockbroker. He had a seat on the new york stock exchange. And i thought, oh, this looks exciting, investing, learning about companies. It was very exciting and interesting. You go to wall street, which was maledominated at the time. Very much so. Was that daunting . Uh, no. Again, i dont easily i dont get daunted too easily by things or by people. How were the male colleagues receiving you . Oh, they loved me, oh, no, they loved me. And the senior partner, of course, monez, he fell madly in love with me. And, um but i was a married woman and i sort of stuck to my guns. I was always a married woman. And i flirted, but that was it. And so you were never discriminated against . No. Really . No. They used me. I mean, they used me as a sort of allure for clients, in the nicest possible way. Youre a successful stockbroker, youre young, you know, its exciting, youre having a great time. You quit. chuckles and you move to the country. Im thinking, is she just waving the white flag and shes just gonna become a housekeeper . Martha thats when i started developing my idea that change is good. Learn as much as you can, move on. But what were you moving on to . Well, i was moving on to something new. What was that new thing, moving to the country . We bought a house. Right. And i was commuting from an old, rickety house, turkey hill road, 1805 farm house, and i wanted to see what i could do with it. With no particular designs on starting a business . No, not necessarily, no. But i liked to cook, and then thinking, you know, i want to start a business. Im gonna start cooking. And i had a friend who wanted to cook. So we started a catering business. music playing in one day, you become a billionaire. Yes. I was driving up madison avenue, and thinking, gosh, i can buy anything. Did you . No, i was so stupid. laughs did you . No, i was so stupid. You dont use this old tno g, do you . Or how bout this dinosaur right here . Nope then why are you still using a laser printer . Its got expensive toner cartridges. But this. Is the Epson Ecotank color printer. No more expensive cartridges big ink tanks. Lots of ink. If you dont think this printers right for you, just pick up your phone. chuckling . And give me a call. The Epson Ecotank. Just fill and chill. 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That was a good day. I bet. laughs tell me about that day. Well, it was a very exciting day. I had worked hard to build a company that was Martha Stewart living on the media. And a lot of people poopooed the idea of on the media, but, to me, it really made sense. So it was a media company, which encompassed a magazine and a world of books, um, and television. Harvey television. Martha it became a merchandising company. We sold products. At that time, we were selling a lot of product at kmart. Im Martha Stewart. And im kmarts new consultant for entertaining and lifestyle. Ill be helping millions of kmart customers with tips on just about everything for the home and entertaining. So come to kmart. So you have this amazing company. Yes. And, in one day, you become a billionaire. Yes. And i was driving up madison avenue and thinking, gosh, i could buy anything. Did you . No, i was so stupid. laughs i mean, i, you know, i like things, i like art, i love but i like a lot of things. You were the First American woman who became a selfmade billionaire. Thats what. Thats what they say. Harvey that mustve felt great. Martha it was excellent. But i dont take that kind of stuff and take it as seriously as other people take it. Its a big deal. It is a big deal. But i had a lot to do and it was ive been very busy ever since. Im taking you back now to turkey hill. So youre painting the house, working on roofs, uh, and then you decide, im gonna start a catering business. Yeah. Why . Well, i like to cook, and i noticed that there was a void in the market for a good catering service. Harvey what was the hole in the market . Martha the whole was everywhere for good, wholesome food for parties. Harvey when you started out, did it feel to you like this was gonna become a business youre gonna develop or was it more of a hobby . Oh, no, it was a business. I was booking up to a Million Dollars in revenue for my catering business, and thats a lot of money. Locally . Yes. A Million Dollars . Yes. chuckles but that was hard work. And what really happened was the experience that i got doing this catering led to me deciding that, if i didnt write something about this work i was doing, if i ever grandchildren, they wouldnt know what grandma had done. So i decided to write a book. And thats really what the value of all that catering, and all that learning, and all that Recipe Development led to the creation of my number one cookbook. Harvey that was book was everything, wasnt it . Martha it was the first time that people understood, that i understood that i was every woman who really needed advice and guidance in entertaining friends and family. Holidays became more important after this book. People really paid more attention to what were they gonna serve on Christmas Eve or christmas day, and birthdays and feasts of different ethnicities. All of this is in this book. Its a simple, beautiful book and i think everybody should read it. Steven spielberg talked about you creating housekeeping as an art form. Martha right, and that was so flattering, by the way. And he told me that walking down the street on lily pond lane in east hampton. But its true. Yeah. But, at the same time, its unattainable to most people. They cant do that. But it isnt anymore. I really think that women everywhere, and guys who are running their own homes now theres a lot of single men or married men who are running their households i think they all know pretty much now how to throw a good party. Did you have a master plan or was this just kind of happening as it went along . I wish i could say it was all mapped out. laughs of course it wasnt mapped out. But i knew what i liked to do. I really, id found my voice with this book. So i started to write a book a year. And every single year, i created a really, really good book. And i wanted to do television, i wanted to do everything. I thought the only other format that would pay off is a magazine. So thats where this comes in. This is number one issue of Martha Stewart living. This was an immediate success as a magazine. It was the first fullfledged lifestyle magazine with a person attached. Were you competing with oprah . I was a little earlier than oprah. It was martha, then it was oprah, then it was rosie. We were all like ten years apart. Oprah is by far the wealthiest and most powerful, but i consider myself a successful creator of an industry. I have seen a lot of successful people try their hand at television and they fail miserably. You had never done television before. Its pretty audacious to say, now im gonna venture into this area without any experience. And you were successful at it. Martha well, i was good in front of the camera. I learned that modeling. I think that modeling was really the best teacher for me because there you are, standing with 25 people over there telling you what to do and you have to look nice, and act relaxed and pretty in the pictures. So i learned how to behave in front of the camera. Right. But then, i was also a good teacher and i could easily talk well and do. Its hard to. Its hard to cut meat and. And talk, yeah. Smile at the camera, and do the whole thing and not burn yourself and cut yourself. Ive only cut myself once on camera. And do all of that stuff, its not an easy thing. And still look good and act well and be pleasant in front of the camera. Youre a competitive person. Um, im competitive. But not, not. I mean, i wouldnt be good on a tennis court competing with anybody. Im not like that. What about in business . Um. Im not cutthroat in business. Im not. Why do you think some people say you are . Because im successful. laughs i think thats really the reason. music playing for five months, i spent an uneasy time in alderson federal prison. James comey was the prosecutor. Yeah, dear james. Do you think that hes sexist . brakes screeching okay. So, today youre going to leave your phone with a guy named flip. ding but its more than your phone, its your business, your customer data, your sales figures. And who can forget, those happy hour selfies . Not flip. honking, gasping this isnt working. Introducing samsung Business Security solutions, with knox software. With the galaxy note10, you can remotely wipe data or lock phones, so your business is secure even when your phone isnt. Samsung business solutions. Male anchor . An update on the cat who captured our hearts.