Around the same time that Roy Williams was writing his first book, “The Wizard of Ads,” an appealing, enthusiastic buyer, store manager and cook at an upstate New York foodservice retail store had an idea: She would teach her overworked, overstressed customers how to make their lives easier and tastier with a series of classes that she called “30-Minute Meals.”
The classes became so popular that a local television station sent a reporter to capture some of the buzz surrounding this young cook in action. She became a local phenomenon, with her own brief cooking segment on the local TV news.
As her local fame was growing, Rachael Ray was also testing, tasting and writing down her recipes. Rachael Ray had seen how popular her ideas were, and how she was engaging with her audience, and she thought that she might have the makings of book that would further expand her audience.
Based on her local fame, she was able to procure an interview with a Manhattan publisher about creating a book based on her ideas and recipes, and so “30-Minute Meals” was published, becoming a modest success (as Roy H. Williams’s first book had been). Rachael Ray’s book was actually a better seller than Roy’s book had been – it sold nearly 10,000 copies in the New York area, and she was on her way to becoming a bigger celebrity.
Eventually, a television executive who was in the early stages of helping to build the Food Network thought that Rachael Ray would be a fit for the new channel. Ray’s program, “30 Minute Meals” premiered and became an instant hit for the cable network.
She’s now a household name. Rachael Ray has so far published 21 books, many of which have become bestsellers. None, though, was as instrumental as her first in helping her build her audience and anchor her platform. That first book substantially widened her platform, which in turn made possible her subsequent success.
As of today, Ray hosts her own syndicated daily talk and lifestyle program and three Food Network series. She’s also launched a popular magazine and has become one of the country’s best known lifestyle personalities.
What was her secret? Apart from her personality, hard work and talent: she recognized that her platform could launch her toward other ventures.
We’ll look at another example of this in the next post.