The First Influencer?

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👋 To everyone who's hit rock bottom: Martha Stewart wrote recipes in prison, then used her "edge" to build back her empire. Twenty years later, she's teaching Snoop Dogg how to make pot brownies (legally). Sometimes the plot twist is the best part. Here's what we learned...

Read time: 4 minutes | 1,101 words

STORY 

[Part 1] The O.G. Influencer

It's 1982, and Martha Stewart is about to revolutionize homemaking into a billion-dollar empire. But there's a few problems standing in her way:

• She's a woman in a male-dominated business world

• The "domestic arts" are seen as frivolous and unprofitable

• Wall Street thinks betting everything on one person is stupid

Does she dilute her personal brand? Does she step back from being the face of everything? Does she listen to the suits who say no one should build a billion-dollar company around a single personality?

Hell no! Martha doubles down on being Martha. She recognizes something that Wall Street doesn't: in a world of corporate blandness, authenticity and personality are worth their weight in gold-plated serving platters.

Instead of hiding herself, she goes all in. She launches Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, betting that her name, face, and impossibly high standards would be worth more than any faceless corporation could ever be.

The investors thought making everything "Martha" was risky – turns out it was revolutionary. While they worried about "key person risk," she was busy creating the template that every influencer and entrepreneur would follow decades later: the personal brand as business model.

Then came the Martha Stewart Living magazine, TV shows, and product lines – all with her face, her vision, and her stamp of approval. She wasn't just selling products; she was selling Martha™, and America couldn't get enough.

The joke was on Wall Street when her IPO turned her into the first self-made female billionaire. The same "Martha dependency" that made investors nervous had made her more money than all those skeptical bankers combined.

But Martha "I Told You So" Stewart didn't stop there. She expanded her empire to include:

• Books (over 90 published, all with her name front and center)

• Television shows (starring guess who?)

• Home products (with her face on every package)

• Magazines (Martha Stewart Living – because subtlety is for suckers)

• Digital content (all Martha, all the time)

By ignoring every piece of "conventional" business wisdom and betting entirely on herself, she didn't just build a company – she created the future. Before Kim K, before Kylie, before every influencer selling their personality, there was Martha, proving that being yourself could be worth billions.

Moreover, she showed that authenticity at scale wasn't just possible – it was profitable. Every perfectly-styled photo, every meticulous recipe, every exacting standard wasn't just Martha being Martha – it was Martha building an empire.

Martha (net worth at peak: $1 billion) created the blueprint that every modern influencer follows: ignore the doubters, double down on your personal brand, and make "being yourself" your biggest asset. Now, the same model that investors hated has created more billionaires than Harvard Business School.

Key takeaway: The next time someone tells you not to put all your eggs in one basket, remember Martha. She put all her eggs in her own basket – then gilded it, photographed it for her magazine, and sold it at Macy's.

Go Deeper: Watch the 2-hour Netflix documentary to uncover the full story.

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INSIGHT

[Part 2] Rebuilding an Empire: Martha 2.0

A lot of people are hypothetically asked “how would you build it back up from scratch?” Well, after prison, Martha actually f**king did it. Here’s how:

🚨🚔 Wait, what happened?: In 2004, Martha served five months in prison — not for insider trading ImClone stock, but for lying about it to investigators (yeah, we’re still scratching our heads, too). The cover-up over a $45,673 trade cost her a billion-dollar empire. Regardless, she rebuilt it all back, from the ground up.

—

Step 1: Lean Into the Plot Twist. Instead of hiding from her new "edge," Martha weaponized it at the 2015 Comedy Central Roast of Justin Bieber, delivering deadpan lines like "I've been in prison and you wouldn't last a week, Bieber."

Suddenly, Martha wasn't just relevant – she was cool. The woman who once taught America how to fold fitted sheets was now dropping roast bombs on Gen Z's biggest star.

Step 2: Find Your Unexpected Ally. Enter Snoop Dogg. Their chemistry was so electric that their unlikely friendship spawned:

• "Martha & Snoop's Potluck Dinner Party"

• Super Bowl commercials

• Viral moments galore

• An entirely new audience who discovered Martha wasn't just their mom's idol

Step 3: Double Down (Again). When everyone expected Martha to play it safe, she did what she did in the '80s: bet on herself. She:

• Launched new product lines

• Dove into CBD products (with Snoop's blessing)

• Embraced social media (including thirst trap pool selfies)

• Started doing collabs with younger brands

The Real Genius? She Never Changed the Core Recipe. While adapting her image, Martha kept what made her Martha:

• Still obsessed with perfection

• Still teaching and sharing expertise

• Still building multiple revenue streams

• Still controlling her narrative

Result? The Comeback Queen. By 2023, Martha had:

• Regained her billionaire status

• Found a whole new generation of fans

• Proved personal brands can survive anything

• Showed that reinvention doesn't mean abandonment of core values

Key Takeaway: When everyone else is theorizing about comebacks, Martha's out there doing it – proving that the best way to rebuild an empire is to keep your foundation while renovating the penthouse.

ACTION

🎬 The "Main Character" Method

The reality: When Martha launched, 97% of business advisors said building an empire around one person was "too risky." Now it's the default playbook for every creator economy unicorn.

Context: Russell Brunson (founder of ClickFunnels, worth $250M) built his entire marketing philosophy around the "attractive character" – arguing that successful businesses aren't built on products, but on the founder's personal story and traits (this is also how Jordan built his business and why you need to present yourself as “sharp as a tack.”)

The Power Move: Lead With Character Over Company

• Turn your quirks into brand features

• Build your origin story into your business model

• Never break character, even in crisis

• Make your standards your moat

• Weaponize your personality

The Martha x Russell Proof (read more on RB right here):

• Martha's perfectionism = premium pricing power

• Her "impossible standards" = brand differentiation

• Prison time became edge (didn't hide, owned it)

• Every "flaw" became a feature

Why it works: People buy into people, not companies. This is how Martha Stewart and Jordan Belfort were able to comeback from rock bottom.

Start tomorrow: Document your "impossible standards." They're not flaws – they're your future moat.

MEMES