Reading: Reinventing When Your Boss Is Sent to Jail

“My twitter [bio] is ‘Warrior,’” says Heidi Diamond. “You want to be in the foxhole with me.”  And a foxhole is exactly where she found herself on her first day at work as President of Television at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia in August 2002. Stewart was in trouble for insider trading and the television partners wanted out. “Every day I went to the court house,” says Diamond of the trial. “Every evening at five it was crisis management.” By being a “good communicator” and “transparent with the team,” however, she was able to pivot the brand and save the jobs of people who depended on Stewart’s show. “There were days when my eyelashes hurt,” Diamond says. “But we rose [Martha] back up like a phoenix….She’s still relevant to popular culture today.”

Heidi’s Vision for Post-Covid Reinvention

“We’ve all proven that we don’t really need to be in big offices working together to accomplish things and be productive. And I think there’s gonna be more and more people choosing their side hustle versus what their day to day is. I’m speaking as a boomer, not as a millennial, but I’m really in great admiration to see what some of the younger people have figured out on their own.”