Giada de Laurentiis doesn't take no for an answer. In fact, it only gives the celebrity chef fuel to work harder and prove them wrong. Despite all of her success as a globally-revered celebrity chef, Emmy award-winning television personality (she has eight shows on the Food Network), New York Times-bestselling author (she has nine cookbooks including a series of children’s books), and NBC Today Show contributor, Laurentiis’ biggest obstacle has been getting people to take her seriously.
“I was in a field that was very heavily male-dominated—I didn't look the part,” she told us at the Self-Care Summit. “It's best that we just show them—actions are always louder than words. You show them every day and you don't get emotional. Men do not work well with emotional women. Be consistent with your work and that’s when they know, and start to take you seriously.”
Read on to hear more of her sage career advice, how motherhood made her better at her job, and what she attributes to her success.
CREATE & CULTIVATE: You are one of the most recognizable faces in the food world—you’re now a globally-revered celebrity chef and Emmy award-winning television personality with eight shows on the Food Network, nine New York Times bestselling cookbooks (including a series of children’s books), and you’re also an NBC Today Show contributor. Tell us about the first product you made under the Giada brand and what it feels like now to be a household name around the world?
GIADA DE LAURENTIIS: The first products I launched under my name were Sicilian sea salt, a herb de province mix, and a few pasta shapes. I knew that I didn't want to put my name on a product unless a story could be told and I had a story and great recipe with those ingredients when paired together, but unfortunately, a lot of people would buy the items separately, like just the salt or just the pasta, and that was disheartening for me. After that first product launch, I decided to partner with Target because they had the shelf space to show the story I wanted to tell with my products. The story behind anything I do has always been key for me and it still is to this day.
You launched your lifestyle and e-commerce platform, Giadzy.com in 2017. Can you talk through why you created the brand? What the response has been like? And how you manage to fit it in with all of your other commitments?
Giadzy first started as a passion project because I wanted to have a direct voice with my fans and I wanted to talk to them about what they're interested in, what kind of recipes they wanted to see. A lot of the stuff I do is evergreen because other companies push for it to last forever and please the largest number of people, so I really wanted to do something that was different. What was refreshing about launching Giadzy is that I could narrow the focus and talk more about being a mom and my genuine interests and have more of a conversation directly with my fans.
“The more that people tell me no, the more I’m going to prove them wrong and work harder.”
In those the first stages building Giadzy and the Giada brand what were some of the obstacles you faced early on and how did you overcome them?
I think the biggest obstacle was people taking me seriously. I was in a field that was very heavily male-dominated and I didn't look the part—I was ‘too little’ and ‘too cute.’ And I was constantly told that no one could trust a skinny chef (people still say that to me to this day). So I didn't fit the mold and I think that's what the problem was—when you love something so deeply, but somehow you don't look the part and maybe don't act the part, it's really hard to change peoples' minds. So I think my biggest challenge was getting through that.
We read that every millionaire has at least 7 streams of revenue and you’ve definitely nailed that—what advice do you have for other women looking to emulate your success and financial freedom?
Diversify your portfolio, don't put all your eggs in one basket—but you need to think about what baskets you're putting them into. For me, I started with television shows and from television shows, I went to cookbooks and from cookbooks, I went to products and then eventually I went to restaurants. The goal for me was to not always be on television.
For years I was on planes and in different places for months at a time and it was taxing on my body, so I tried to find ways to not always be on camera. Also throughout everything don't forget your core business and try to have every additional source of income you have, be an arm to your core business and feedback into it.
You were the first woman to open a restaurant on the Las Vegas Strip with “Giada in The Cromwell” in 2014. You followed that success with “Pronto by Giada”, also in Las Vegas at Caesar's Palace last year. What were some of the obstacles you faced as a woman in the traditionally male-dominated restaurant business?
It was really hard. I didn't really want to do restaurants. I really just wanted to be the owner of the place my grandpa had when I was little, but Caesars kept knocking at my door for years until finally one day they showed me a space that was a two-floor parking garage that overlooked the strip. The view was incredible and my name would be right on the strip and I thought I'm going to go for it.
But it was really hard because the industry is so male-dominated and a lot of the men I was working with quite frankly didn't know how to talk to women and I found myself yelling in board rooms which I'm not proud of. There were many times I thought, ‘this is going to be the biggest mistake I've made,’ but at the end of the day it put me on the map and it got everyone to take me seriously. Plus, Vegas is an international city so all of a sudden my brand went from being in the U.S. to being known internationally. It was hard but so worth it.
In among all of this professional success, you had your biggest personal achievement, giving birth to your beautiful daughter, Jade. How has motherhood changed your relationship with work? Do you think it has given you an advantage? Why/Why not? and how?
I thought getting pregnant would end my career, I didn't think it would be possible to juggle everything. Surprisingly though, Jade helped me overcome a lot of those fears and realize that I could still have a career. She also taught me how to cook quickly. I think before I had Jade my recipes were a little longer and a little more complicated, but becoming a mom made me better at what I do because it taught me how little time we actually have for food, but how important it is. Jade also made me think of how important my culture is, which from a young age had taught me the importance of sitting down and eating together with family. So in short, I learned a lot of things from Jade and she truly made me better at what I do.
With success comes opportunity but that also means you have your hands full. What keeps you inspired and motivated to keep going even on your most challenging days?
I'm not done yet. I feel like there are more conversations to be had, especially with helping women and helping moms. I think there's a lot of stuff going on that women don't share about aging, career, relationships, etc. I think that through food, culture, and self-care we can get to a point where we take care of our body and mind first and have better all-around success.
“I think that through food, culture, and self-care we can get to a point where we take care of our body and mind first and have better all-around success.”
You are an incredibly successful and accomplished businesswoman, but unfortunately, women at the top are still rare—women hold 6.6 % of Fortune 500 CEO roles and while female millionaires are on the rise, men are still ahead—we’ve heard it can get lonely at the top, so I’d love to know, who do you turn to for business advice? What is the best advice you’ve received? Or your favorite piece of #realtalk?
My Aunt Raffy has been a mentor to me forever and also my chef friends, as well as my lawyer Eric Greenspan. I used to actually cook for Eric and his family before I got my Food Network deal. He's the person I turn to all of these years later and look to him to make important decisions. My grandfather used to say, “you always want a doctor and a lawyer at your table, so if you get sick you have someone to take care of you and if you get in trouble you have someone to get you out of it!”
What advice do you have for other entrepreneurs and young chefs? How can they achieve the same success you've experienced? What key characteristics do they need?
You really have to believe in yourself. I always told myself, ‘the more that people tell me no, the more I'm going to prove them wrong and work harder.’ I thought as long as I continue to give people great recipes, eventually, I'll break them down and eventually they'll trust in me. But I knew I was going to be in it for the long run and honestly it's taken 18 years and it hasn't been until the last five or six years that I've really felt like I've risen to the place I want to be. So don't forget that it's a journey and make sure you ask yourself if whatever you're doing is what you really want to be doing, otherwise it's going to be tough.
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