Martha Stewart @Google
November 4, 2011
>>Marissa Mayer: Good morning.
Today, we have with us Martha Stewart.
[ Cheers and applause ]
>>Marissa Mayer: And Martha's stats are really
impressive.
We think a lot about stats and data here at
Google.
But these are pretty amazing.
37 million readers, users, viewers, and listeners
each month.
She inspires them to celebrate art in their
everyday living through cooking, gardening,
entertaining, organizing their holidays, pets,
their entire lifestyle.
Today we're here to look at her most personal
book yet.
She literally invites readers into her home
for a year's worth of celebrations across
all times of day and all seasons.
This book is a return to her first book, "Entertaining,"
which actually established Martha as a household
name more than 30 years ago.
And this is her 75th book.
I heard that on Jay Leno, and I thought it
was a joke, but it is actually her 75th book.
1800 recipes each year in her magazines, properties,
and Martha Stewart Show.
And she's also won 18 Emmys.
And proximate to our industry, she's also
won the Webby for the best lifestyle Web site.
Please welcome Martha Stewart.
[ Cheers and applause ]
>>Martha Stewart: Hello.
Hi, everybody.
Thank you, Marissa.
>>Marissa Mayer: We are so delighted to have
you here.
>>Martha Stewart: I just tweeted.
[ Laughter ]
>>Marissa Mayer: That's great.
We're so excited here -- to have you here
today.
You can see the Googlers are all so excited
that you have made the trip to come and see
us here in Mountain View.
And I'm going to ask you a few questions,
we have a lot of questions from the audience
later, we've also been collecting questions
ahead of time, and actually, the first one
was a bit of a joke from Ted Prodromou.
He asked, do you have any suggestions for
decorating Charlie's Cafe, which is the room
that we're in.
>>Martha Stewart: The flowers are very fancy
for Charlie's Cafe.
[ Laughter ]
>>Marissa Mayer: Thank you.
>>Martha Stewart: They are beautiful.
Succulents and ORCHIDS and roses.
Very beautiful.
No, you can't decorate a place like this.
[ Laughter ]
>>Martha Stewart: It's already the place.
And it's so exciting to be here.
I'm really happy.
Thank you.
>>Marissa Mayer: It's a very functional space,
if not a very decorated space.
But I what I wanted to go ahead and start
off with is where you started.
Because I think what a lot of people don't
know and I was surprised, I got to visit your
office and your studio last year, is that
you actually started off as a model.
>>Martha Stewart: I did.
>>Marissa Mayer: A world-renowned model.
We actually have this beautiful photo of Martha
when she was a model.
(Whistles).
>>Marissa Mayer: And, of course, we also have
the Google Image search.
If you type in "Martha Stewart model," you
can see all of her model shots.
>>Martha Stewart: Oh, look.
Where that did that waist go?
>>Marissa Mayer: Just stunningly beautiful.
I guess I would love to hear the story of
how you went from a model to becoming a do-it-yourself
icon and how you --
>>Martha Stewart: Well, before I was a model,
I was actually a student.
>>Marissa Mayer: Okay.
>>Martha Stewart: And during high school,
in order -- one of six kids, my father was
a pharmaceutical salesman, and my mother was
a teacher, sixth-grade teacher.
And there was no extra money to go to college.
There was no extra money to buy beautiful
clothes.
And I loved beautiful clothes.
My mother was quite well dressed, but she
made everything.
So we learned how to sew, we learned how to
do all those homely things at home.
So I started modeling when I was 13 to pay
for extras, like college.
And it was very successful, because in those
days, college was only $3500 a year, including
room and board.
And that's very cheap compared to what it
is now, $55,000, 75,000, whatever.
So I did commercials, television commercials,
and I did print ads and print editorial.
And it was a lot of fun, and it paid $50 an
hour at that time, which was a lot of money.
And my commercials appeared on things like
"Gunsmoke" and "Wyatt Earp" and different
-- So it was a very, very good way to earn
money.
So it wasn't really -- and all during college,
too, I went to Barnard college at Columbia
University, and at that time, too, I was modeling.
>>Marissa Mayer: How did you make the transition
from model to, you know --
>>Martha Stewart: To whatever?
>>Marissa Mayer: I mean, your own show and
to being really a do-it-yourself icon.
>>Martha Stewart: After college and during
college, I was -- my father-in-law happened
to be a stockbroker.
He owned a seat on the New York Stock Exchange.
And I got interested in investing.
It was as interesting then, really, as it
is now, although the money wasn't as great.
But you could, if you invested in McDonald's,
for example, in the early days, it was -- that
was one of the most successful investments.
Or in a thing like -- it was called Leasco
Data Processing, a very good investment if
you bought warrants, on warrants, and you
invested kind of crazily like my little firm
that I belonged to.
I became a stockbroker right after college
because I thought that would be an interesting
way to learn about business.
And it was, because I learned about how a
good company or even a bad company functioned.
But this was before big-time technology.
And I gave up the stock market after about
an eight-year career, which was -- which I
loved very much.
And I started a catering business.
The catering is what led me into the lifestyle
business.
And the writing of my first book in 1982.
>>Marissa Mayer: How did Martha Stewart Living
Omnimedia get started.
>>Martha Stewart: Well, I wanted to -- I had
so many ideas for lifestyle, and I realized
that there were voids in the media world.
There was no one book, for example, like "Entertaining"
that would teach you really the basic tenets
of good home entertaining.
There was no great garden book.
And these are illustrated books.
I loved photography.
I loved colored photography especially.
And so I went to my publisher and I said,
"I'd like to do a whole series of beautiful
how-to books so people could really learn
how to do everything."
And they said, "Eh, it's all right, but, you
know, you just keep writing your book a year."
And I was writing a book a year.
So then I went to Sy Newhouse, who is the
head of Conde Nast Publishing, and he said,
"Well, that sounds like a magazine."
And so I gave him a proposal for a magazine,
and then it went on from there.
So I started Martha Stewart Living, the magazine,
not with Conde Nast, but with Time Warner,
in 1990.
And from there, everything else has grown,
especially the idea of synergy between media,
television, bringing all the -- all kinds
of media together.
And then, of course, Internet, and then merchandising.
>>Marissa Mayer: You can see the whole array
of different magazines.
That probably isn't even all of them.
>>Martha Stewart: Yeah, you're missing Everyday
Food magazine, our smaller magazine there.
[ Laughter ]
>>Marissa Mayer: So what were the early days
at Martha Stewart Living like?
>>Martha Stewart: Well, it was so much fun.
We were -- we consider ourselves a microcosm
of a big media company, Time Warner.
And we were very proud of being that microcosm.
We were put on the most unfriendly floor in
the time -- in the Time Warner Tower on Sixth
Avenue.
Below us was all the mechanics of the building.
So my feet were warm because it was a hot
floor, and probably an unhealthy floor.
I hated it.
The windows didn't open.
We were on the, like, fifty something floor
and you wouldn't want your windows to open
up there.
It was unhealthy in that respect.
No fresh air.
Hermetically sealed.
And ever since that little time, I stayed
in that office for about a year and a half,
and I begged to move.
And we found a space that, -- with windows
that opened, with fresh air, with natural
gas for the stoves for our kitchens.
All of that meant a lot for me, sunlight,
daylight.
It was very important.
And ever since then, we've -- and you've been
to our office.
And you know that we have sunlight and daylight,
much like you have out here, all much smaller.
>>Marissa Mayer: Well, you're here in Silicon
Valley.
And it's the heart of innovation.
And you're one of the few people in the world
who has actually defined an industry.
So what words of advice do you have for young
entrepreneurs as to how they might try and
do the same?
We have a lot of people here who are entrepreneurs
within Google and trying to build new businesses.
>>Martha Stewart: Again, it's finding a void,
I think, in your area of interest and expertise,
finding that void that other people really
also consider a void, and building in that
void something that is so original and so
enticing and so desirable that many other
people will have to come there.
I mean, -- well, that's what Google is.
Had you to come to Google.
There was no choice.
There was no other way.
There were other companies, but it was by
far the most interesting place to go.
I was an early adapter or adopter of technology,
and I bought my first computer -- it doesn't
sound like very long ago -- but 1982, I bought
my first IBM computer, a PC.
I still have it.
[ Laughter ]
>>Martha Stewart: I haven't plugged it in.
I don't even -- I haven't even tried.
But I still have it, that silly-looking little
thing.
But it was so interesting what was going on.
And I've tried to keep up.
I know there's lots I don't know.
But as much as I can, I keep up with the newest.
And I watch with interest the new IPOs that
are happening, like the Groupon this morning.
And testing the waters for what else we are
going to be distracted with in our quest for
our own particular interests; right?
There's a lot of distracting stuff out there,
Marissa, really.
>>Marissa Mayer: It's interesting, we're about
a half a mile down the road from the Computer
History Museum, which always to me seems like
a oxymoron, because it's such a short history.
It's really amazing to see --
>>Martha Stewart: Oh, it is.
It's like a fragment of time.
>>Marissa Mayer: So what are the three -- if
you had to name three really important lessons
that you've learned throughout evolving your
business, you've been so successful, what
are three of the most important lessons?
>>Martha Stewart: Well, finding that niche
that interests you and will interest others,
that's one very, very -- and a niche -- a
niche can be as big as the Grand Canyon, you
know?
It doesn't have to be a tiny little space.
It can be a giant space.
And then creating content or something to
fill that cavern or canyon with something
really valuable and well-made.
And it can be pretty, too, like your beautiful
Google Maps.
Like your -- and like so many things that
you find on the Internet that are appealing
to the eye but are understandable at the same
time.
And then, third, just continue with it.
And don't forget to look elsewhere.
Don't forget to look at what's coming up behind
you, what's coming in front of you.
Always keeping as current as possible.
Okay.
And you have so much variety in your business.
You know, there's cooking, there's crafting,
there's organizing, there's weddings, blogging,
there's tweeting, there's the TV show, there's
the radio show.
How do you decide to go into a new area?
How do you decide to explore a new venture?
>>Martha Stewart: Well, we were very Avid
explorers in all kinds of media from the first
place.
We were also very Avid in exploring retail
business -- merchandising businesses.
And we continue to be so, although we now
know that you cannot, even as a corporation,
do every single thing that you want to do.
And you must concentrate on those areas that
are really the most profitable, the most interesting,
the most -- have the most future, have the
most growth potential.
So that's what we're doing now, is figuring
out, with our company, our small company,
what really we should be focusing on.
>>Marissa Mayer: Okay.
Well, we have a little video I'd like to show.
Because one of the things we've seen is that
users are constantly Googling you.
They're constantly Googling you, your recipes,
the crafts, your products.
You can see there's so much inspiration.
And you've gone to great lengths to make all
of your content really accessible online.
>>Martha Stewart: Yes, we have.
>>Marissa Mayer: And I guess I'd like to --
>>Martha Stewart: Have you made a croquembouche?
>>Marissa Mayer: Unfortunately, I can't really
cook, but my husband is a fabulous cook.
So, --
>>Martha Stewart: Do you embroider?
>>Marissa Mayer: I do embroider.
I do.
I do, especially cross stitch.
I do like to sew, and I like to do crafts
with LEDs.
But -- so I like to do, like, light displays
and things.
But people have, obviously, been so inspired
by what you have done.
Part of it is that you have made so much of
what you do really accessible to them through
the Internet.
So I thought I -- I'd like you to talk a little
bit about how the Internet has changed your
business, how it's made you more accessible
to users?
>>Martha Stewart: Well, it's changed it tremendously.
And we want to be where our customers need
and want us.
And more and more of our customers really
do want us on the Internet.
As the population of tablet owners grows,
we were very aware of that, and we wanted
to be there with the best apps possible.
I wish we had a picture of the app, the Martha
Stewart Living app.
That we should have put up.
[ Laughter ]
>>Marissa Mayer: Sorry.
>>Martha Stewart: Yes.
But if you have a chance to look at it, I
suggest you look at it.
The first issue of Martha Stewart Living that
went up was a specially prepared issue for
the iPad.
But it is so amazing how you can transform
a print magazine into something alive and
vibrant, more vibrant than the real printed
magazine.
And now every month, we prepare -- we prepare
tablet versions of our magazines, two of them,
Everyday Food, and Martha Stewart Living.
And the people who work, the editors who work
on these apps, are very happy working on them.
They love creating the imagery, which is a
little different from print photographs.
But the photographers love it, the editors
love it, the writers love it, and the users
love it.
They love looking at it.
So we're doing that.
We have a couple of fantastic apps, the cookie
app, cupcake app, which -- a drinks app.
That's a really good one, if you're -- when
you get home from work on a Friday night,
that's a good one to go to for some inspiration.
[ Laughter ]
>>Martha Stewart: And so we're doing that.
We're working very hard to get across -- I
do a daily blog which reaches, oh, on average,
maybe 5- or 600,000 page views a day, which,
for a blog, and one of 12 blogs in our company,
is pretty good.
But people get to know you.
They get to understand the value of what you're
trying to set forth.
And I like that.
It's a personal -- My blog is a pretty personal
blog.
Lots of views of snowstorms and tragedies,
and the tragedies, the broken trees, those
get the most page views, the death of a dog.
Oh, my gosh.
You know, it's sad, but that's what happens,
people like that.
They want to commiserate.
But that's -- So and we are really using as
much -- even this little device, the Nook,
where you just send a PDF of a magazine to
the Nook, the economics are very favorable,
and I wondered, you know, how would it do?
Well, actually, the Nooks are selling well,
and the subscriptions via the Nook's selling
well.
So we have to figure it out.
Advertisers haven't figured it out yet.
Publishers haven't figured it out yet.
Maybe Google has answers for me today about
what's going to happen here.
But it is -- we're in a very important stage
of transition right now with media especially.
Where are you going to access your information
regularly?
Is it going to be in that beautiful magazine
that you can open and page through?
Or is it going to be on your tablet?
We don't know for sure yet.
But I can see sort of where it's going.
>>Marissa Mayer: We have some exciting demos
to show you later today.
But, yes, I think we're all very excited about
tablets, particularly Android tablets.
>>Martha Stewart: Yes, and I said -- I don't
have one yet.
>>Marissa Mayer: Well, we'll make sure we
change that today.
[ Laughter ]
>>Marissa Mayer: We can hook you up with Android
tablet.
We have a few of those around.
>>Martha Stewart: I had one in Italian.
That didn't do so well.
No, but yesterday, I was talking to one of
my publishers, who's traveling with me on
this book tour, and I was saying, you know,
I have all my books in one place now.
I don't have to have a suitcase just to carry
the books that I'm reading.
And I used to read one book from cover to
cover, and I wouldn't pick up another book,
Marissa, until I finished that book.
And I knew I was finished with it.
But now, with the tablet, you can just -- you
can put in any number, hundreds and hundreds
of books, and just pick up where you left
off on any number of books, and it's a very
-- it's confusing.
[ Laughter ]
>>Marissa Mayer: It's confusing and convenient.
But I'm the same way.
>>Martha Stewart: It's very convenient.
But it is confusing.
>>Marissa Mayer: But it is nice to be actually
able to jump around between the books.
On the topic of the blog, one of the interesting
things you have done is created Martha's Circle,
which is actually a community of bloggers
that interact with you.
>>Martha Stewart: Yes.
>>Marissa Mayer: Can you tell us a little
bit more about that, what inspired you, what
are some of the interesting things that have
happened in Martha's Circle?
>>Martha Stewart: We like other bloggers.
We've done programs on our television show
of just an audience full of bloggers, and
we let them blog all during the show.
And it's a lot of fun.
But blogging is kind of a wonderful way to
communicate with a vast audience and to get
a vast number of opinions about something.
And it's so much fun to see who's doing really
well in the blogosphere, who isn't.
We try to put in our circle bloggers who are
actually sort of in tune with what we're doing,
maybe even more avant-garde or less -- you
know, just to bring a community together,
a bigger community.
>>Marissa Mayer: That's great.
Let's talk a little bit about the television
show.
Over the years, I think you've had everybody.
You get these amazing celebrities, and you
get them all to do crafts and teach them cooking
and everything else.
Who have been the most entertaining?
Do you have some favorite guests.
>>Martha Stewart: Last week, I had Hugh Jackman
on.
And I had just seen his you in movie, Real
Steel, which, well, it depends if you like
robots or not.
If you like robots, go see it, because it's
quite extraordinary, these boxing robots who
smash each other to death.
But luckily, I had seen it, and he is charming,
absolutely charming, and he is self-effacing
and a very talented man.
He happens to live across the street, and
his windows are in direct view of my daughter's
apartment, so we can sort of watch him and
say we wave to each other when he's in there.
So I knew everything he was doing in his apartment,
and he knows everything that my daughter's
doing in her apartment.
That was fun.
But he's a great guy.
And guests like that who are very sort of
proactive and get into the -- get into the
segment that we're trying to do.
Some actors really are actors, and they don't
-- unless they have a script and a director,
they really can't do anything.
I mean --
>>Marissa Mayer: Wow.
>>Martha Stewart: They even admit, one actor
said to me, I said, "Gosh, that scene in the
'Cherry Orchard,'" a Chekhov play, I said,
"Gosh, you talk about cherry trees so knowledgably."
He said, "I don't know a fuck about cherry
trees.
Chekov wrote the words.
I just act them."
And it's fun.
[ Laughter ]
>>Marissa Mayer: Is there a biggest or funniest
mishap that's happened on the TV show?
>>Martha Stewart: Oh, mishaps happen all the
time.
And the more -- and with comedians especially,
because they make mishaps happen.
And we had one guy, oh, we had one -- we have
-- now I'm going to forget all my comedians'
names, the ones I love the mote, but Seth
Meyers, for example.
Seth always makes something bad happen, and
Conan is very funny.
And Jimmy Fallon.
Jimmy Fallon, I made him -- on a Halloween
special, I made him put his hand in, you know,
a secret box, you have to stick your hands
through a membrane.
And I said, "What do you feel?"
And he says, "Oh, it feels awful."
And then I uncovered it, and it was full of
live mealy worms, live mealy worms.
And he has never forgiven me.
He's trying to get back at me, but....
>>Marissa Mayer: Well, speaking of mishaps,
we actually have -- you have a YouTube blooper
reel which is pretty fun that you'll see some
of the people you mentioned.
Let's go ahead and roll it.
I think -- I watched it last night.
It's pretty funny.
Let's go ahead and see that.
[ Video.
]
>>> Uh-oh, here, let me help you.
Let me help you.
(Screaming).
It won't break.
It will not break.
Careful.
(Screaming).
>>> Some molds you can actually get to work
more than once.
That's not a nice thing.
[ Laughter ]
>>> 30 minutes at room temperature.
>>> At room temperature.
Keep rubbing the meat for 30 minutes.
At that point, if nothing happens --
[ Laughter ]
>>> Oh --
>>> Don't hit me.
>>> That is impolite.
>>> I wasn't doing anything.
>>> Seymour.
>>> Don't feel sorry.
We love animals.
We love even vociferous animals.
Well, thank you.
[ Laughter ]
>>> Sure.
>>> All right.
Take your shirt off.
No, don't take your shirt off.
Take your jacket off!
[ Laughter.
]
>>> What character is that?
>>> It's called Marty.
>>> Oh.
[ Applause ]
>>> Here, can I help you?
>>> There's really a Marty?
A real Marty?
[ Music ]
>>> You can see from that very beautiful table,
the festive Papel Picado garland behind me,
and this delicious margarita in my hand -- What
margarita is in my hand?
[ Laughter.
]
>>> My nose is dripping.
>>> Are you allergic to me?
>>> I must be.
>>> I just am going to call this a little
deer that was eating my clematis last night,
but --
[ Laughter.
]
>>> He or she got hers or his.
>>> I'm the one who chose the dish, too, and
I shouldn't have.
Now I'm thinking about that beautiful buck
with five points.
[ Laughter.
]
>>> Ready, set, go.
[ Music ]
(Screaming).
[ Laughter ]
>>> I'm using the beech leaf.
>>> A beech, which is one of your favorite
trees.
>>> Because that's my tree.
>>> That's your tree.
>>> I am the beech of our company.
[ Laughter ]
>>> So I'm just going to tell people that
you're just a beech.
>>> I am just a beech.
>>> Yes, she is just a beech.
[ Laughter.
]
>>> That one is the same size as that one.
>>> No, that's definitely bigger.
>>> Is bigger?
>>> Trust me, that's much bigger.
[ Laughter ]
>>> That's scary big.
[ Laughter ]
>>> I am afraid to go near that.
[ Video concludes.
]
[ Applause ]
>>Martha Stewart: Bloopers happen, luckily,
I tape shows a lot.
But they do sometimes happen in live shows.
>>Marissa Mayer: That was incredibly entertaining.
Let's talk a little bit about the book.
The first book I have here.
So this was "entertaining," what is your first
book.
>>Martha Stewart: Very first.
>>Marissa Mayer: Huge best seller, inspired,
I guess, all the books that came after it.
And now your new book is a revisiting of it.
>>Martha Stewart: This one weighs a lot more,
this is, like, six and a half pounds.
Yeah, it's not a sequel, because it's quite
different.
The first one was actually a textbook on how
to entertain, a picture book with beautiful
visuals, and a recipe book.
And this book is really, I think, more cohesive.
And the first book had a lot of parties that
I was catering at the time.
And this one is really all personal parties.
And I also had Betsy Hawes, Elizabeth Hawes,
help me write that first book.
I didn't know how to write a book.
I had never written a book when I wrote that
in 1982.
And she was such a good teacher.
That's another thing that anybody contemplating
writing or creating something like that, if
you don't know how to do it, find somebody
who does know how to do it and can kind of
teach you the method.
That's why we go to school.
I mean -- but I had taken a writing course.
So I found my voice doing that book.
And I was so happy that I did.
And this one, I wrote every single word.
And I write final text, if I can.
I think about it a lot.
And we took the pictures for four years.
So during that time, I sort of knew what I
was going to say.
And then I sat down last Christmas and took
until I finished on my third-floor craft room,
and wrote away.
So there it is.
>>Marissa Mayer: And how do you decide what
to include in the book?
>>Martha Stewart: Well, we took pictures -- well,
we created a whole bunch of fabulous parties,
invited real people, friends and family and
guests and colleagues, and photographed them,
and then designed the book.
And then wrote the recipes and then wrote
the book.
>>Marissa Mayer: Wow.
>>Martha Stewart: So it was -- there was a
lot of left on the kitchen floor.
Those are -- those stories, I hope, will maybe
make the next book.
>>Marissa Mayer: Is there one celebration
in there that just stands out in your mind
as your absolute favorite?
>>Martha Stewart: Well, I like Easter a lot
with Easter bunnies.
There's a great picture of my veterinarians'
daughters who came for Easter.
Did you see the one with the little girl looking
at the giant chocolate rabbit.
>>Marissa Mayer: Wow, that is a really big
rabbit.
>>Martha Stewart: That is a great picture.
She's smaller than the chocolate rabbit.
But those are fun and memorable events.
>>Marissa Mayer: Well, one of the things is,
you know, you do a lot with the holidays.
How do you make the holidays fresh year after
year?
How do you reinvent them and make -- keep
them exciting?
>>Martha Stewart: When I was doing my proposal
for the magazine with Time Warner, I remember
meeting with, you know, the big honchos and
I showed them a prototype for a July issue,
which includes July 4th.
They said, this is all great, but what the
heck are you going to do next year?
Because they thought I was finished.
I said, I think we can probably not repeat
ourselves for 20 or 30 years with all the
ideas.
It's about having creative teams, about making
new -- making up new ideas, making up new
ways to celebrate traditional things.
And that's what we do all the time.
>>Marissa Mayer: That's cool.
So Thanksgiving's right around the corner.
What are your plans in year?
>>Martha Stewart: Family Thanksgiving.
I think we are going to have it in New York
City with some friends.
And there's a new grandchild, Jude, and we're
going to have her sitting at the table, hopefully,
maybe eating her first piece of turkey, if
her vegan mother allows it.
[ Laughter ]
>>Marissa Mayer: I want to ask you what your
funniest Thanksgiving experience might be,
but that might be it.
>>Martha Stewart: No.
The worst one was the first I ever had.
And I was 19 years old, right after I got
married.
No, I must have been 20, because I got married
when I was 19, my first Thanksgiving, I was
20.
I thought large even then.
And I was living in new haven.
My husband was at Yale Law School.
And I was commuting backwards to New York
to go to college.
And I invited his whole family and my whole
family up to our little cottage in the woods
in Guilford, Connecticut, where we lived,
on the other side of new haven.
Stupid, stupid, stupid life.
And I -- down at the end of the road is a
turkey farm, Godsey's Turkey Farm.
And I went there on Wednesday to buy my turkey.
They were all packing up and they said, let's
say lucky you came in today because we're
taking off for Florida tomorrow, the farmers.
I bought a, like, 35-pound turkey and made
the stuffing, got it all ready the night before,
set the alarm for 3:00 a.m. so that the turkey
-- it was 35 pounds, you know, 20 minutes
a pound, it takes a long time -- would be
ready when the guests got there, which was
about two and a half hours from New York.
And I fell back to sleep in a dead sleep,
I was exhausted, and I had asked my husband
to preheat the oven to 300 degrees.
He had just put it on broil.
So we woke up to a house full of black smoke.
The turkey was totally charred on the outside.
And this was at 7:00 a.m.
And I started to cry.
And I got in the car, jumped in the car.
My husband thought I was leaving him.
[ Laughter ]
>>Martha Stewart: I should have then.
It would have been better.
[ Laughter ]
>>Martha Stewart: Better.
No, I'm just kidding.
But I drove down to the turkey farm at the
end -- it was really, virtually at the end
of the road.
And they had one turkey, semi-frozen, still
there that they hadn't sold.
I grabbed it, took it back home, took the
stuffing out of the other turkey, but it in.
Put it back in the oven.
Thanksgiving dinner was about five hours late.
But the relatives, they went along with it.
And that blackened turkey -- now there are
recipes for blackened turkey for God's sake.
[ Laughter ]
>>Martha Stewart: Sorry, sorry.
>>Marissa Mayer: Well, we've been collecting
questions from Googlers.
And Bob Fowler, one of our Googlers, wants
to ask, when entertaining, what is more important,
food or presentation?
>>Martha Stewart: Food.
>>Marissa Mayer: And what is your favorite
holiday food?
>>Martha Stewart: My favorite holiday food.
For Christmas, eggnog.
>>Marissa Mayer: Okay.
And do you have a least-favorite dish to cook?
Is there something that you really don't like
to cook?
>>Martha Stewart: Well, if I don't like to
cook it, I don't cook it.
You have your choice.
There's nobody who's forcing you in your own
kitchen to cook something.
>>Marissa Mayer: We recently acquired Zagat.
And Zagat is all about restaurants.
Do you have favorite restaurants?
>>Martha Stewart: Everywhere.
>>Marissa Mayer: A favorite restaurant in
New York, anywhere in the world, in San Francisco?
>>Martha Stewart: In New York, one of my favorite
restaurants, just because the ambience is
wonderful, the look of the restaurant is so
exquisite, and the food is really, really
good, it's a Japanese restaurant called En,
E-n, Brasserie.
The young couple who owns it, she's from Tokyo.
It's superb food.
I go there a lot.
It's congenial and very, very nice.
And it stays open late.
And I like that one a lot.
But then I like all the great chefs, too.
>>Marissa Mayer: Sure.
Let's change gears to technology.
When did you realize the Web was going to
be this incredible catalyst for your media
empire?
>>Martha Stewart: Well.
>>Marissa Mayer: Was there a moment you can
pinpoint, where you were, like, "Wow, this
Web thing is really going to be happen"?
>>Martha Stewart: Well, pretty -- Let me see.
When we started with our business on the Internet,
it was immediately very attractive, very enticing,
and very important.
So I would say maybe ten years ago.
>>Marissa Mayer: Okay.
Another question from a Googler, Eugenia Bazigos
asks, you're quite active on Twitter.
You tweeted on your way out here.
I just started to follow your boards on Pinterest,
which is a new startup I would say that is
getting a lot of buzz right now.
I'm very impressed that you're actually already
on Pinterest.
It's just getting started.
>>Martha Stewart: From almost day one.
I find it repetitive.
>>Marissa Mayer: Really?
>>Martha Stewart: I don't know why, but I
do.
>>Marissa Mayer: Okay.
So how -- we'll try and make it less repetitive.
>>Martha Stewart: I love --
>>Marissa Mayer: How best do you -- Is there
a particular way that you really like to engage
with your fans online?
Is it the Pinterest boards?
Twitter?
>>Martha Stewart: Well, Pinterest is very
visual.
On Twitter, I do both twit pics as well as
tweets.
And that works very well.
I have almost two and a half million followers
who are pretty active.
I love to do instant surveys.
So if I'm meeting with a new potential business
partner, and we did this not long ago with
a retailer that I wanted to carry our cleaning
products, I said -- I just tweeted while I
was sitting with the CEO, I tweeted, "Would
you buy my cleaning products at such and such
a retail outlet?"
I got back, oh, several hundred tweets within
three minutes saying exactly, well, there's
-- that store doesn't -- isn't near me, I
can't buy it there because I -- it's too far
away from my home or -- but instantaneous
results.
I love it for that.
And I also love it for instant news, because
it really does keep you informed.
Facebook is a fantastic way for us to communicate.
And I just can't wait to really get into our
Google+.
>>Marissa Mayer: So Martha's on Google+.
[ Applause ]
>>Marissa Mayer: Martha's on Google+.
>>Martha Stewart: We are.
>>Marissa Mayer: And in fact Eugenia, in fact,
had a question, she said we would really love
to see you do a Google+ Hangout.
You can do a Hangout where you broadcast with
all of your fans we'd love to see you do some
crafts and cooking.
>>Martha Stewart: We will do that, absolutely.
>>Marissa Mayer: Judy Chang asks, you publish
your calendar online.
It's full of activities, from your book tour
to TV appearances, mulching your garden, polishing
your silverware.
How many people work on your household staff?
And how much do you sleep each night?
>>Martha Stewart: Oh, the sleeping's sort
of like crazy.
And it depends what I'm thinking about and
doing.
But in terms of household staff, I have three
houses, and they're all open all the time.
So I want to be able to -- they're used as
laboratories.
So I want to be able to go there, and they're
clean and dust-free and ready for pictures.
So anywhere from two in a house to more, depending
on what we really need to do.
It's -- staffing is always a challenge.
And keeping good staff -- One of my housekeepers
has been with me for 30 years.
One has been with me for 27 years.
They're -- and they really know where everything
is.
And I have a lot of stuff.
[ Laughter ]
>>Marissa Mayer: How much of a role does search
play in your day-to-day?
What do you search for?
>>Martha Stewart: Oh, it's a very important
part of my day, because I do a lot of writing,
and I oftentimes have to find out something
about something.
So I will use it for my research.
It's much, much quicker than going to the
local library or to -- down the road from
my house.
I can't do that.
And so it's a tremendously wonderful timesaver.
But that said, I use it for lots of other
things, too.
Shopping, of course.
Comparison shopping, of course.
For the research.
For information, like maps, very important
to me to know where I'm going and how I'm
getting there.
So I use it for a lot of things.
>>Marissa Mayer: And we're working on more.
I know that, actually, when I met you in your
studio, there was in amazing ceramic bowl
that was just very organic.
>>Martha Stewart: The German bowl.
>>Marissa Mayer: And Martha said, okay, when
are you going to have a search technology
that's going to help me figure out where this
bowl came from and where I can get more of
it?
We're working on it.
We don't have Visual Search quite that good,
but we're working.
>>Martha Stewart: If it doesn't have a bar
code or it's not a well-known object, to be
able to photograph it and find it in a -- in
somebody's catalogue, that is happening.
I know it's happening more and more every
single day.
>>Marissa Mayer: Today, we have Google Goggles
which can recognize landmarks and can recognize
products.
But we are working on that visual recognition.
I'll ask Martha one more question and then
we'll open up to audience questions.
So if you want to move to microphones if you
have a question, we'll open it up in a just
a second.
But my next question is about YouTube.
So we talked a little bit about search.
You're really active on YouTube, lots of amazing
clips that can teach people how to do crafts
and cooking.
How do you decide what goes on YouTube?
How do you know what your users really want
to see?
>>Martha Stewart: Well, we're all experimenting.
And during holiday times, they want to know
how to do turkey 101.
They want to know how to make a croquembouche.
They want to know how to fold a fitted sheet.
They want to know how to fold a tee shirt.
I mean, it's amazing how many different things
people really need and want.
And we try to keep up with that.
>>Marissa Mayer: That's cool.
Okay.
Let's go ahead and go to the audience here.
>>Martha Stewart: Hi.
>>> Hi.
Thanks for being here, Martha.
It's great to hear from you.
You've grown your business into a complete
lifestyle empire.
But how do you keep challenging yourself?
What would you like to accomplish the next
five to ten years?
>>Martha Stewart: Well, in the next five to
ten years, I would like to work with some
of the more -- more impressively progressive
people that I have met.
I would like to develop new ways of thinking
about things.
I would like to build my store, which I haven't
built yet.
And so there's a lot of things to do.
>>> Great.
Thank you.
>>Marissa Mayer: Yes, go ahead.
>>> This is definitely not as serious of a
question.
It's sort of silly.
But how do you fold a fitted sheet?
>>Martha Stewart: Corner by corner by corner.
Your hands -- and there's a certain way which
corner to take, one, two, three, four, and
it does fold quite nicely.
Not perfectly, but very nicely.
And it will fit in your linen closet.
But my suggestion to all busy people, do your
laundry, dry the sheet, put it back on the
bed.
[ Laughter ]
[ Applause ]
>>Marissa Mayer: Practical advice.
>>Martha Stewart: And not every three weeks,
by the way.
[ Laughter ]
>>Martha Stewart: I took a survey on Twitter
and asked them how often they change their
beds.
I was horrified.
[ Laughter ]
>>Martha Stewart: Horrified.
I mean, really, the average was two weeks.
That's really bad.
[ Laughter ]
>>Marissa Mayer: Well, you have to worry about
these people who are online all the time taking
all the surveys, I guess.
>>> So you have created so many recipes, maybe
thousands.
How did you manage to stay fit at the same
time?
>>Martha Stewart: Stay what?
>>> Fit.
>>Marissa Mayer: Physically fit.
>>Martha Stewart: Oh, fit.
Oh, my God.
Well, it's hard, because I eat a lot.
I have to taste a lot.
I'll get off a show, and then -- and my test
kitchen at TV, they'll have 44 different croissants
for me to taste to choose the best croissant.
It's really hard.
But -- and it's interesting.
But it's also difficult.
And I exercise a lot.
I'm not a maniac, but I exercise a lot.
I eat really well.
I eat from my own organic garden.
I'm going to see your garden here.
>>Marissa Mayer: Yes.
>>Martha Stewart: I want to see it.
I grow pretty much all my food on my own farm.
>>> Is there any natural limitations of number
of recipes in the world?
>>Martha Stewart: I don't think so.
I think -- I think recipes are -- can be altered
by a teaspoon of this or a tablespoon of that.
And I think we have created original recipes
in our company, oh, many, many thousands of
recipes, and they're in many of the 75 books
that we've created and all those magazines.
And we're -- we have a good Recipe Search
on our site.
>>> Okay.
Thank you.
>>Marissa Mayer: Let's go here.
>>> Thanks again for coming, Martha.
This is awesome.
I'm curious, you're surrounded by gourmet
organic food, and for everyone to sort of
look to you as an example in all of this.
Are there times when you just want to close
the door and splurge and eat, like, a TV dinner?
[ Laughter ]
>>Martha Stewart: I haven't found a TV dinner
that is that enticing yet.
And I have tasted a lot, just to see what's
really out there and what people are putting
in their children's stomachs.
And it's pretty depressing.
We're working on food now.
And it's very interesting to see who is doing
good prepared foods for the marketplace, good
ingredients for the marketplace.
I am a very, very staunch supporter of nonfactory
farming.
I hate what's going on in the factory farms
in America.
And I cannot -- I cannot abide the cruelty
to the animals that were being fed -- the
way grains are being grown, that you will
gluten-intolerance that's going on, it's a
very serious problem, and why, why, when I
was growing up, nobody was allergic to wheat.
I didn't know one person, I didn't know one
person with a peanut allergy.
I didn't -- and I don't think it's the peanuts.
And I don't think it's the wheat.
I really think it's what's -- the processing;
I think it's the way it's being grown; I think
it's the way it's being sprayed, fertilized,
all of that.
And we have to really, really, as a country,
pay attention to that.
[ Applause ]
>>> Thanks.
>>Martha Stewart: Okay?
>>Marissa Mayer: It is true.
My two closest friends have a gluten allergy.
>>Martha Stewart: It's crazy.
>>Marissa Mayer: So of the three of us, two
of them have gluten allergies.
>>> Hello, Martha.
Thank you for being here.
I have, actually, a business-related question.
As a leader of an organization, how do you
continue to have all of your staff meet the
same level of excellence and continue to innovate
year over year in the areas of creative design,
et cetera?
>>Martha Stewart: Well, you try to hire in
the first place people who have the same DNAs
you have.
You want them to be interested in the core
content areas of your particular kind of organization.
And we were very, very, very good at that.
As an organization grows, that can get away
from you, and you can be less choosey or less
fussy or maybe there's not as many talented
people in those specific areas as there used
to be, because there's more competition.
It's an ongoing, challenging problem for any
company.
And you just have to have a very good HR department
and one who is looking, and a good search
department, human resources, to find the right
people for your particular company.
You know, sometimes I'll see people, and I
think, "God, what are they doing here?"
Not physically.
I don't mean physically.
But when I see what they create.
What the heck are they doing in this environment?
They just don't have it.
And you have to really be very, very careful
about that.
>>> Thank you.
>>Marissa Mayer: Hiring is something here
at Google that we take really seriously, too.
>>Martha Stewart: I know.
I know.
>>Marissa Mayer: Yes.
>>> Hi, you've inspired me so much to create
in my own home.
Before I discovered you, I couldn't bake a
potato.
And now I'm bringing pies to all the holiday
events.
>>Martha Stewart: Oh, good.
>>> It's awesome.
I know you have a small corner on your Web
site and your magazine dedicated to kids.
I was wonder if you were thinking about expanding
that to get our kids to create more.
>>Martha Stewart: We had a wonderful baby
magazine and a wonderful kids' magazine about
eight or nine years ago.
It was a fantastic publication.
I want to bring that back.
And the reason that we stopped publishing
it was lack of advertising.
There's not very many magazines devoted to
the raising of children, to the teaching of
kids.
And I think the Internet is a more appropriate
place, actually, for that information.
And we are working on plans to re-enliven
or enliven that area.
>>> Great.
>>Martha Stewart: So watch for it.
>>> I will.
>>> Hi.
Obviously, you've had a very successful business
career to date.
In looking back over everything related to
your company, what is the one decision that
-- in retrospect, you wouldn't have made,
knowing what you know now?
>>Martha Stewart: Well, I had one horrible
stumbling, which was a stock sale unrelated
to the company, unrelated to anything.
I was on a -- I mean, I can go through the
whole litany of the disaster.
I would avoid disasters -- legal problems
like that forever.
Because -- yeah, because that sets you back
terribly.
And it could have destroyed my company.
But the customers never left.
Advertisers did take -- go to the sidelines
for a while.
It's -- and rebuilding something that's beautiful
and useful and good is a lot harder than building
it.
So the rebuilding process is painful, for
me, because, like, I never go the same route
to the same place ever, if I can -- if I can
avoid it.
You know, if there's a straight line, I will
go circuitously so I might see something new.
Because my motto is see something, learn something
new every day.
So avoiding -- avoiding, with the help of
maybe, you know, really the best advisors
or something, just avoid -- if you can, avoid
a disaster.
[ Laughter ]
>>Martha Stewart: And if you fall into that
-- into that crevasse, get out of it in the
fastest, best, cleanest way possible.
>>> Okay.
Thank you.
>>Martha Stewart: So --
>>Marissa Mayer: And let's take two more questions.
>>> Hi, Martha.
It's good to have you at Google.
So I don't actually quite enjoy cooking, but
I think it's because I don't know how to cook.
So my question is, how do you keep it fun
in the kitchen?
What's your advice for someone like me?
>>Martha Stewart: Well, I think you should
take some great cooking lessons if you don't
really know how to cook.
And it's hard to teach yourself how to cook.
I watch people.
And I like to sit, like, at a sushi bar, and
I sat watching Nobu himself doing sushi for
a long time, eating there quite often.
And he finally let me cut sushi with him.
And he gave me a sushi chef's coat, which
I'm very proud of, because very few people
get a Nobu Sushi coat.
So I watch.
And I learn by -- and I learn by emulating
the very, very best.
I'm lucky in my job, because I can invite
any chef on my show and learn from him.
We had Thomas Keller on the other day.
The way he uses his hands and the way his
-- the precise nature of his cooking is so,
so interesting.
And so you should -- if you're interested
in eating, you should be interested in how
that food is made.
And then it might induce you to learn.
>>> Thank you.
>>Marissa Mayer: Yep.
>>> Hi, Martha.
Thank you for being here.
I have one question.
You're very successful.
I would like to ask, I'm sure you had some
difficult times.
How did you put yourself together again in
those difficult times and just kept on going?
>>Martha Stewart: Well, I'm very strong.
I have good, solid family genes behind me
of longevity and strength.
And when you know that you are okay, you're
okay.
You have to just keep telling yourself.
And it's really about not so much self-preservation
as knowing that what you're doing is useful
and good and profitable and interesting.
That's -- it's a simple little formula.
>>> Thank you.
>>Marissa Mayer: Okay.
Well, there's one question I always like to
ask.
>>Martha Stewart: Yes.
>>Marissa Mayer: Which is, what is the best
piece of advice you've ever received?
The one that stands out in your mind, like,
oh, somehow I've carried that with me, or
it was just a really critical moment.
>>Martha Stewart: Well, my dad, when I was
about 16, I think, applying to college, I
sat there and said, "You know, dad, where
should I go?"
And he said, "You know, Martha, you're a smart
girl.
You can do pretty much anything you want,
and you make up your mind."
And that was -- when he said, "You can do
anything you want," I think that that kind
of encouragement is invaluable for life.
>>Marissa Mayer: Let's talk a little bit about
the future.
>>Martha Stewart: Oh.
>>Marissa Mayer: Where do you think the do-it-yourself
industry is going?
Where does it go in the future, in five years,
in ten years?
How does it change shape?
>>Martha Stewart: One reason I'm on a book
tour right now is because you think, after
so many books, do you get -- I get to see
people face to face.
And last night, at Macy's in Costa Mesa, south
of -- I guess that's south of L.A. -- there
were so many young people in line, young mothers
with babies.
So many babies came.
And this is at 7:00 o'clock at night.
The babies were there.
The young mothers were there.
Their husbands were there.
I can see that the craving for good, solid
how-to information is alive and well.
And I think that that's why the kind of work
that I do and our company does in terms of
teaching and inspiring is very important.
And if you forget how to learn, even the homeliest
chores, you're not going to -- you can't live.
You can't.
And it's -- you know, we're not all billionaires.
We're not all millionaires.
We all have challenges in life.
But knowing how to do things so things can
be done well, I think, is very important for
the rest of your life.
>>Marissa Mayer: And on that note, today,
the book is about entertaining, entertaining
and entertaining well.
>>Martha Stewart: Yes.
>>Marissa Mayer: We actually have books for
the first two rows.
If you reach underneath your seat, there's
a card underneath, and you get a voucher for
today's book.
Martha's book.
We're going to have a book-signing.
It's going to be in Seville tech talk from
noon to 1:00.
So Martha will be there, signing books.
You can also buy the book there.
So you can buy the book and have Martha sign
it.
Get a chance to meet her.
For the next hour, we're all going to go and
show you some of what we're up to here at
Google and how we get things done here.
But this has just been so wonderful.
It's such an honor to have you here.
And you've been so wonderful this morning.
Let's give Martha a really warm round of applause.
>>Martha Stewart: Thank you.
[ Applause ]
