Personal Branding MBA: Martha University
I started as a marketing coordinator at the one-year-old magazine Martha Stewart Living. I left my job at Time Inc. Corporate Marketing for my dream job at a dream brand. The Martha Stewart Living brand stood for a discerning life that made my heart beat faster and allowed me to dream it for myself.
The sales and marketing department consisted of just a handful of people who sat in three offices and four cubicles just off the reception area.
It was my third day, and I was busy working on what we called the ‘comp list’ of advertisers who would receive the magazine for free. I was doing my thing when I heard:
Who did this?
This is awful.
This isn’t my brand.
This is cheap.
Who's responsible?
I’m not sure of the exact words, but I can still hear today that deep and louder-than-normal voice from someone who was clearly unhappy, frustrated, and wildly disappointed and wanted to let someone know about it.
Martha.
I’d only seen her picture in the magazine.
The way she was speaking, I thought she must be talking to someone, but then I remembered everyone I worked with was out to lunch.
I peeked my head out of the office I was sitting in (I didn't have my own desk for many months).
Did you do this?
Martha questioned me or, more like, growled.
I sheepishly shared that it was my first week, and I didn’t know who was responsible.
That didn’t go over well.
Martha was holding advertiser premiums that had been sitting on one of the cubicle desks. Premiums were gifts that we gave to advertisers that represented the brand.
Martha explained what was wrong in clear and specific terms. She did this for each premium.
She then explained that if I were going to work for her, I would need to learn what her brand stood for and represented, as well as how to create and share it going forward.
Yes, of course!
She turned and stormed off.
I shared the experience with my boss. Those premiums never saw the light of day again.
About a week later, Martha’s assistant called to tell me to meet one of the assistant editors at the farmer’s market the next day to buy pears for an upcoming cover photo shoot.
I wasn’t sure what it all meant, but my boss told me to go.
I met Lisa at the Farmer’s Market, and for more than two hours, we examined pears. Lisa shared that we were buying not just any pears. They had to be multicolored—green, yes, but with red mixed with brown. They had to be shiny with a long stem, preferably with a leaf attached.
Hours of pear searching through dirty crates. It was messy, but we foraged and found a few good ones. We bought about two dozen before we made our way back to the office.
The phone calls from Martha’s assistant continued in the months ahead. I went shopping for felt to make felt Christmas stockings (one of my favorite covers). I spent half a day with the same editor, selecting paper stock for the first Martha Stewart Weddings media kit. When I was asked to go to the prop room, I learned how to tie the proper bow.
These experiences took me away from my real job, so there were plenty of late nights when I had to finish the work of my day job. I’m sure the time away annoyed my boss.
I was enrolled in Martha University.
I remember she told me to ‘learn something new every day and teach it to someone else.’
This is what Martha University was all about.
It was an education on how things were done at Martha Stewart Living, and Martha wanted all of us to learn and share it.
Average was not acceptable. Exceptional was expected.
Be it a pear, stocking, bow, or an advertiser premium. A simple Google search for December covers is a case study in brand excellence. The resale market for the print issues is testimony to the brand's continued brilliance.
December, 1996
Martha wanted the people who worked for her outside of editorial to be as committed to understanding the brand so that they could share it with the buyers. To understand how to position and sell the brand not simply from the images in the magazine but with hands-on knowledge, know-how, and delivery.
We all took this seriously—we would bake cookies from the magazine and give them out as advertiser premiums. Instead of taking clients to lunch, we hosted Martha cookie-decorating classes, pumpkin-carving events, and egg-dying days. I loved bringing the pages of the magazine to life.
I recently surveyed the readers of Sunday Sunshine, and I learned that you want more personal branding content.
Your personal brand is how you show up, behave, and make people feel, what people expect from you, your habits, and what you are known for.
Martha was very clear about her brand, what it represented, and how it was communicated.
How do people talk about you when you leave the room? How would they describe working with you? How would they say you make them feel? Answers to these questions reflect your personal brand and, like most things, can be reinforced, changed, or upgraded.
I am who I am today because of Martha University. I was schooled in brand excellence, and I strive towards it every day. I look at my personal brand through the lens of what and where needs polishing or improvement and whether I am over-delivering.
I'm grateful. I was in the right place at the right time.
Here are six personal branding lessons Martha taught me:
Learn something new every day and teach it to someone else.
Become a person of influence.
Know your personal brand. ‘The Martha Stewart Way.’
Surround yourself with people better than you.
Be more committed to your future.
Always overdeliver value.
Don’t leave your personal brand to chance.
Be intentional.
Be deliberate about it.
Be consistent.
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