Martha Takes Us Through a Day in Her Life, Including the Inception of 'Martha Stewart Living,' in New Class on MasterClass

For decades, Martha Stewart Living taught thousands of readers how to master all of life's good things, from cooking and baking to hosting and homekeeping. But when Martha started the publication as a quarterly magazine in 1991, she had a very small team by her side.

In an exclusive clip from Martha's new class on MasterClass, an online education subscription platform, our founder shared how she took the magazine from inception to a household name. "When I started Martha Stewart Living magazine, I started off with a very small team of like-minded people," she said. "Then each of us brought in the people that we really liked and then we trained people."

From the start of the magazine, Martha wanted her team to feel like they were a part of something collaborative. "It should be about collaboration. It should be about coming to work and everyone getting along well together in a nice workplace," she said in an interview on Thursday with MasterClass CEO, David Rogier. "Workplace means a lot to me."

When asked where her desire to create a positive work environment stems from, Martha reflected on the magazine's first office location, which was above the utility floor of a tall office building. "Our feet were swollen from the heat that emanated from the floor," she told Rogier. "Within two years we had moved to a much nicer place—where windows opened, where there was natural gas for the kitchen—and that's all very important to me."

Since the early days of the magazine, Martha said she has worked with thousands of like-minded individuals. "Over the years I've had more than 2,500 talented people work for me—amazingly talented people," she said in the video clip. "I could never have done 40 years of a magazine like Martha Stewart Living or 100 books without working with the best of the best."

You can learn more about the magazine's inception and get a closer look into Martha's life by watching her class on MasterClass, which is available to stream now. It takes audiences through a day in Martha's life as she runs her 156-acre farm in Bedford, N.Y., manages her business in New York City, and prepares for the launch of her 100th book.