Martha Stewart Shares Why It Would Be ‘So Much Easier’ to Launch Her Iconic Brand Today (Exclusive)

Luke ChinmanTue, October 13, 2026 at 1:22 PM UTC

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Martha StewartCredit: Sean Zanni/Patrick McMullan via GettyThe media mogul chats with PEOPLE about running a brand in 2026 -

Martha Stewart started her personal brand in 1982 with the launch of her first cookbook, Entertaining

She has since expanded her business empire into Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, a multi-pronged enterprise that includes dozens of media and merchandising brands

Stewart chats with PEOPLE about running a brand in 2026 and how it differs from when she started

Martha Stewart is one of the most successful brand owners — and she thinks it would have been even easier to launch today.

The legendary businesswoman, 85, presides over Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, a multi-pronged enterprise that includes dozens of media and merchandising brands and brings in hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue.

But before her umbrella company, Stewart was running a catering business from the basement of her home in Westport, Conn. She connected with Alan Mirken, the head of a publishing company, who helped her publish her first cookbook, Entertaining, in 1982, which launched her wildly popular cookbook line.

In an interview with PEOPLE at the inaugural SoFi’s Smart Money Social Club, Stewart recalls that she wrote her first book on a typewriter with carbon paper. “We didn’t have Instagram, we didn’t have social media, we didn’t have computers,” she says. “It was very different.”

Martha StewartCredit: Kenzi Hajar/BFA.com

Today, Stewart continues, it’s “so much easier” to launch a personal brand like her own — partially because it’s much more common.

“When I started, brand building was rare,” says the media mogul, naming Estée Lauder, Calvin Klein, Donna Karan and Michael Kors as the few examples.

But now, “we’re all living brands,” continues Stewart. “And the public is a lot more accepting of the social aspects of brand building.”

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Stewart’s own brand has also transformed a great deal since her first cookbook over four decades ago. For one, she has a personal Instagram account where she lets her followers see a much more unfiltered side of her personality — even posting the occasional sultry “thirst trap.”

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She acknowledges that her laid-back personality on Instagram differs from the “very studied” tone that many modern-day influencers have adopted, even as she is widely considered to be one of the forefathers of influencers as we know them today. And she adds that she still thinks she’s “influencing” on her account, too.

“I teach a lot about gardening design, I teach a lot about cooking, I teach a lot about homekeeping, homemaking — all the stuff I do is all within the subject of ‘living,’ ” she tells PEOPLE.

But why the nonchalant demeanor?

Says Stewart, with a smile: “Because it’s fun — and that’s how I really am.”

on People

Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Entertainment”