Before Martha Stewart's Cooking Dazzled The World, She Trailblazed A Different Industry

One thing to know about Martha Stewart is that if she's going to do something, she'll do it well. She is the original lifestyle influencer and built an empire by bringing her home and garden expertise to the mainstream. But before Stewart was known as a lifestyle icon and queen of the kitchen (just take a look at her best cooking tips for home chefs), she had a successful career in finance. After marrying Andrew Stewart in 1961, she worked as an institutional broker on Wall Street, where she was the only woman at her firm.

Stewart's first (and possibly only) boss, Andy Monness, who ran the brokerage Pearlberg, Monness, which is now known as Monness Crespi Hardt,was introduced to her through a friend who thought she would be good at selling stocks. In an interview with The Guardian, he explained that he hired Stewart as the only woman on a team of 25-30 stockbrokers.

She commuted to Wall Street from Connecticut for seven years and earned the firm a lot of money. But when the market took a turn and Monness's firm became known for losing money rather than making it, Stewart decided it was time to reinvent herself. Yet she would later find one of her career's biggest controversies to be centered around insider trading. 

After leaving her job as a stockbroker, Martha Stewart embraced her true calling and started a catering company from her retro '70s kitchen. Ever the perfectionist, she told her former boss that in her new business endeavor, she'd be in control. From there, Stewart published her first cookbook, "Entertaining" in 1982. It was a how-to guide on how to host any size party. She became K-Mart's "lifestyle consultant" in 1987, and the retailer began selling bed and bath items branded with her name and likeness.

Stewart continued growing her lifestyle empire, adding her magazine, Martha Stewart Living, in 1990. By 1994, a television show with the same name began to air. She started a syndicated newspaper column, Martha by Mail, in 1995, and in 1997, K-Mart began selling Martha Stewart Everyday, a wide-range brand of home goods. By this time, she was a household name with six published cookbooks. Now she has 100 cookbooks, with the most recent published in November 2024.

In 1997, Stewart also bought out Time Inc.'s share of Martha Stewart Enterprises, renaming the company Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. Two years later, the company went public, raising $130 million on the first day of initial public trading (IPO). This move made Stewart America's first self-made female billionaire.