Martha Stewart

Martha Stewart built the first lifestyle media empire, turning homemaking into a billion-dollar brand decades before influencers existed. She published cookbooks, launched a magazine, hosted a TV show, sold products at Kmart and Macy's, and created a publicly traded media company — all centered around the radical idea that domestic arts deserved the same respect as any other form of expertise.

Stewart's career was nearly destroyed in 2004 when she was convicted of obstruction of justice related to an insider trading investigation and served five months in federal prison. Most people expected her career to be over. Instead, she came back stronger — relaunching her show, partnering with Snoop Dogg on an improbable hit cooking show, and becoming the oldest Sports Illustrated Swimsuit cover model at age 81. Her post-prison comeback is one of the most remarkable second acts in American business.

Before the lifestyle empire, Stewart was a stockbroker on Wall Street and a model. She started her catering business from her Connecticut home, published 'Entertaining' in 1982, and systematically built the Martha Stewart brand into every corner of American domestic life — from kitchenware to paint colors to gardening tools.