World's original influencer Martha Stewart to reflect on career at Vivid

Australia Broadcast Center

28-04-2025

At 83, Martha Stewart looks as glamorous and put together as you'd expect from someone known as the world's original influencer, fulfilling the role long before the term existed.
America's first self-made female billionaire has a commanding presence.
She isn't just an entrepreneur, bestselling author of 101 books and an Emmy-award-winning television host, she's a brand, that according to the brand management research company Sequential Brands Group has 96 per cent brand awareness among women in the United States.
Through her magazines, TV shows, books and retail lines, Stewart's lessons as a homemaker reach more than 100 million people a month.
But it hasn't always been an easy run.
Speaking from the US ahead of her appearance at Vivid Sydney next month, Stewart had some advice for people navigating career ups and downs.
"Try to get a stable position in your work if you can," Stewart said.
"I mean, I had the best [situation] and then I fell into a chasm with a little lawsuit that was brought against me, which was hideous, hideously unfair, time-consuming and extremely expensive in terms of not only money but in terms of my own work.
"So you just have to be very strong-minded.
"You have to be ready to accept the bad with the good and somehow get out of it and never lose faith in yourself. If … you are a good person, if you have good ideas, never lose faith in yourself."
It was a candid response during a tightly managed interview where questions were vetted and pre-approved.
Anything related to her legal, prison or financial past and political views were strictly off-limits — a tough ask when you're talking to Martha Stewart.
Prison failed to keep Stewart confined
In 2004, Stewart was
Stewart had sold her stake in the biopharmaceutical company ImClone Systems in December 2001 and maintained she had no insider information that prompted the sale when questioned by investigators in 2002.
She maintains her innocence.
According to her magazine Martha Stewart Living, while locked up, Stewart foraged for dandelion greens to improve the prison fare, whipped up impromptu microwave recipes, read Bob Dylan's autobiography, and taught yoga,
Stewart remains relevant
After leaving prison, the much-loved pop culture icon co-hosted Martha & Snoop's Potluck Dinner Party, which premiered in 2016, with another cultural icon Snoop Dogg.
Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart at the MTV Movie and TV Awards in 2017.
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REUTERS/Danny Moloshok
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While Stewart's obstacles did not disappear once she became a success, she pushed through many roadblocks on her way up the corporate ladder.
"One famous story is I went into a big boardroom to try out for a commercial," Stewart said.
"And they said to bring your bathing suits, bring your bikini.
"And then after I was interviewed by a roundtable full of men, they said, 'Well, now you can put your bikini on.'
"And I said, 'Well, are we going to be wearing a bikini in the commercial?' And they said, 'No, but we might as well look at you.'
"And I just said, 'Well, thank you, gentlemen.'
"And I just walked out of the room.
"I was brought up like that. I was brought up to stand up for myself and not give in to stupidity …
"
Breaking glass ceilings in America for me wasn't very hard because I really believed in what I was doing.
"
Born that way
Stewart, who was raised in Nutley, New Jersey, developed her passion for cooking, gardening, and the home from an early age.
The Netflix documentary Martha chronicled Stewart's rise, fall and successful comeback.
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Supplied: Courtesy of Netflix
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She said her childhood helped develop resilience.
"Being the second oldest of six kids in a household that required all of us to do chores and hard work and help out the parents, I've just been always a strong person and been encouraged to work hard and succeed as a result," Stewart said.
"We don't give up in our family."
When asked about the Netflix documentary Martha, which charts her unstoppable rise, sudden fall, and successful comeback, Stewart was at pains to point out what was left out; the many people whose careers she nurtured.
"The Netflix documentary really did cover a lot of the things that I did as a woman in the business world," Stewart said.
"It did not cover the great affiliations that I've made with so many talented other people, and that's maybe another documentary.
"Because I started so many careers, not my careers, but other people's careers, and encouraged them.
"I think I've been really good at finding like-minded people to come and work with me on various projects that have really turned out to be very successful."
will be held at Vivid Sydney on Wednesday, May 28.