14 Lessons from My Doggy Dinner With Martha Stewart

Presented by

Whaddup, Young Startup Wolves.

I’m pretty pumped about this Wolfcast

In this Wolfcast, you will learn:

• 14 Lessons from Martha Stewart on Startups

• If she still cries a little about her DOJ conflict

• 3 Things Snoop Dogg Has Taught Martha

• Why you should invite Martha to Dinner

• Bonus: Her advice to Petfluencer Noodles The Pooch

I hung out with my baby Wolf, a.k.a. Akira the Husky, last week at Best Pet Workplaces in New York, along with Startup OG Martha Stewart.

FYI, Martha Stewart has MANY Pets. 

But also MANY successful businesses

Martha was interviewed by a nice dude from Bloomberg [whose name I forget but he looks like Gideon from Mr. Robot, right?]

After a brief introductory Choir Surprise singing Tina Turner’s “Simply The Best”, Martha shared a story about singer Tina Turner and how she got into bed with a very tired Tina and coaxed her out of said bed at her house to perform for guests.

Martha was asked: 

“How do you Build a Business Empire.”

Martha is a business GangStar

She is well known to hang with other business Gs like Snoop Dogg - who she actually credits in this interview with being her greatest collaborator and even teaching her not just about negotiations but how to dress.

Here are the top 14 things we learned from Martha at this event. [you can also watch the video above that I recorded from my Samsung Galaxy. Magical.]

1. Believe in Your Passion. The implication here is that you should be passionate about the thing you are working on and sharing with the world.

2. Follow That Line Towards Success. Don’t waver from this vision and your passion. Don’t do what you think “the market wants.”

   Martha advises to follow your passion and believe in that at all costs.

   It strikes me every time I’ve met Martha that this is what makes her authentically Martha. Unapologetic for what she wants but its not seemingly about ego, it’s about the mission. 

3. Business Building Is Hard.

Accept that and deal with it.

Martha lets that fact roll off her back. She scoffs at Wantrepreneurs and people who want the glory without the blood, so to speak.

4. You Have To Love To Work.

   But my work life balance… wha wha wha

   Someone once said, you won’t work a day in your life… if you are doing something you love. From Martha:

   “I think one of the leading characteristics of a good entrepreneur is they LOVE to work.”

5. Write a Good Book. I didn’t expect this advice. When asked what her first big win was, Martha’s answer surprised me a bit. 

I wrote a couple, including Automate & Grow and — the inspiration for Founders Pack: Form Your Own Pack. Grab a copy and let me know so far I have thirty two 5 star reviews on Amazon and would love to hear from you too. (Thanks for being in my Pack commmunity btw)

“[My first big win] was writing a good book. Finding out that I could actually write a good book. It took me to a great many places. It taught me so, much”.

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6. Stress Yourself a Little Bit. 

When did Martha realize she was building something special?

“On the way up Kilimanjaro”

I had met someone that I thought “I could work with this woman. McKinsey Graduate, Harvard Business School Person and totally nuts like I was. We decided to climb up Kilimanjaro with three other friends, including Sandy Pittman, if you know who that is… I almost went to Everest with her, glad I didn’t” 

_{Reference  Sandra Hill (born April 12, 1955,[1] formerly Sandra Hill Pittman) is a socialite, mountaineer, author, and former fashion editor. She survived the 1996 Mount Everest disaster shortly after becoming the 34th woman to reach the Mount Everest summit and the second American woman to climb the Seven Summits.}

“We were doing our IPO, and I couldn’t go up Everest. The Bankers said are you crazy?”

“They told me going up Kilimanjaro was going to be an extended hike up a high altitude. Its much harder than that.”

“For fiver whole days, we talked, and we talked and we talked, you don’t want to sleep for 5 days because the air is so thin.”

“[During those 5 days] I realized I was on to something, that the subject of living could actually be a business.”

7. You Can’t build an Empire By Yourself. 

Bloomberg Guy: “You can’t build an empire by yourself” 

Martha: “Well, Elon Musk would say you could.”

Martha seems to be all about the team. The Pack. 

“A lot of people helped me and I was able to scout talent. Many in this room have gone on to build great businesses of their own.”

She later shared again the advice: “Don’t try to do it all by yourself. If you choose to work with other people, check em out. Make sure they are the right kind of people to work on your project.”

8. Scout Talent by Trying to Find Like-Minded People. 

“There are people in this room who helped me tremendously.” She shares though that a key to her success if finding people who have ambition and understand hard work and think like you the mission-driven founder. The “Nuts” as Martha said, an entrepreneurial person with a crazy vision.

9. Mentor Others. “The best thing is being able to say after that successful people worked for me at one time. I go to a TV Show and its populated with people who once worked on my TV Show.” “You can look and say well ‘I’m successful’, because they're still successful, they’re still productive and I think I helped train a lot of people that way.”

10. Choose Great Collaborators. Martha, who’s been a favorite collaborator? “Snoop Dogg”. 6:00 mins

“He's funny, he's honest, not so hard working - not every day. He works hard, but not like I work hard. I’m going to California on Friday to do a commercial with him, and I can’t wait to see him.”

What 3 Lessons Did Snoop Teach Martha?

I think this needs to be its own article but she shared that there are three things Snoop Dogg taught Martha:

• How to Rap

• How to Dress

• How to Negotiate

“He’s really fun to collaborate with. I learned how to rap, I learned how to dress. He taught me how to dress. He taught me a lot about dressing. He sends me these clothes I can’t wear anywhere. He taught me how to bargain. It’s good to have someone who is a really good negotiator. 

He just says “Nope”. They’re offering you a dollar. Nope. Offer you $2, NOPE. Offer you $2.50? NOPE. He just sits there and doesn’t say anything but NOPE. My side just starts to salivate at some of the numbers, and he’s NOPE, can’t do it”.

He’s taught me a lot, I’ve learned how to say “NOPE”.

11. Don’t Get Into Trouble With The Man.

Bloomberg Gideon: “What was one mistake that made your business stronger?”

“Stronger? Or weaker? My business was really, really, really strong, and then I fell into a little hole with the Justice Department.”

“It hurt me, much more than it hurt the business. Choose the right Lawyers by the Way.”

“I can laugh about it now. It still makes me cry. I shed a tear here and there”

12. Brains are Good “My first team were the A Plus Team of All Teams. They’ve all gone other places, but I’m very proud that we built an A plus team from day one.”

13. Always have another Frontier to Conquer. “What's left for you to conquer? Lots! Everest for one thing. The Moon! I’ve been offered to go to the moon, but I’m not taking that first launch. I’m not going to go until those Entrepreneurs take their first rocket to the moon. Despite her Empire and success, “There is still lots and lots to do” according to Martha.

14. Be very curious, every day. “I try to satiate my curiosity every day, I try to learn something every day and I try to teach something new every day.”

    

Just for context, Martha and I are involved with Best Pet Workplaces and WUF World. Martha as an advisor and me: as the CTO. 

Best Pet Workplaces started the year with a bang including Taylor Hill (model, IG, Tate & Taylor founder) and actress Bernadette Peters. 

Wuf’s BPW is a series of four events this year in New York, Los Angeles, Nashville, and Seattle. WUF stands for “With You Forever.” 

Watch for our new Pop-Up Doggy Play Day App: “Saturday Dog Club”.

***

Martha’s list of pets

“My first cat with Chimmy Choto, (sp?)

He was taught how to answer the telephone. One day the police came to the door because the cat had answered the phone and was meowing into the phone. They thought something had happened to me. We had to put the phones where he couldn’t reach them after that.”

“I love my cats very, very much. At one time, I had nine cats in the house. I also had Chincillas in the house at the same time.

The Chinchillas got out of their cage, a sunny day and all of the cats were in the circle around the Chinchilla. They didnt dare kill it.”

Martha goes on to detail her extensive pet collection on her farm:

🐶 5 dogs

🐴 5 horses

🫏 5 donkeys

🦚 7 peacocks

🪿 17 Geese from all different countries.

🐔 200 Chickens, and I know them all. I do know them all.

🦃 Turkeys, Guinea Fowl, it goes on and on.

Why you should invite Martha to Dinner.

“I’ve had 3500 people work for me and only 12 invited me to dinner. You’ve never invited me to your house [Clinton].

Clinton from WUF World: “I invited you to my house.”

Martha: “That was your house? Oh that’s right, you lived in your office.”

That’s hard work Martha.

How many people have started their own companies that worked for you?

Consider yourself Invited Martha. Texas BBQ perhaps on the Traeger?

*** 

Wolfcast Bonus: Answering A Lifestyle Question from Petfluencer Noodles the Poodle.

Lessons from Martha to Petfluencer and Workplace Expert Noodles the Pooch on earning your Lifestyle.

Noodles asked;

“How do you live a lavish lifestyle, caviar, hanging with Snoop Dogg, flying on private jets? What advice would you give to someone who has zero interest in working hard, can’t find a sugar daddy, but still wants that life?

Asking for a friend.”

Martha replied, staring into Noodle’s eyes.

“You’re the most (beautiful), cutest little dog, has a little necklace on.

Aww Noodles, such a beautiful little thing. Noodles is a smart little dog.

She wants to be rich? Too bad. She has to work.”

Too bad! Lazy. She can come live at the farm, and we’ll see how long she would last.”