Rachael Ray Dishes Up…Time Management

Bankrate, one of my absolute favorite financial websites, recently posted an interview with Food Network mega-star Rachael Ray. I can’t say that I’ve ever been a huge fan, but many of you are (hi Mom!) and you may find this small glimpse into her rise to fame interesting.

Ray hosts two TV shows and a syndicated talk show. She also runs a magazine, writes and releases a couple of cookbooks every year, and even has her own line of kitchen and bedroom accessories. Given these demands, the fact that she always seems to maintain an incredibly (and perhaps overly) chipper disposition is amazing to me. The following are highlights from the interview:

Bankrate: How are you able to do so much and produce so much output?

Rachael Ray: I have such a great staff. We’re all the same kind of people, all that kind of “can do, little bit adventurous, nothing too tough” sort of people. Our motto is “take a bite out of life.” So they know what they’re doing when I can’t be there.

I was wondering the exact same thing – how the heck can these people accomplish so much without cloning themselves? I can boil Ray’s answer down to a single word: delegation. She obviously has a staff she believes in and isn’t afraid to delegate tasks. This method has obviously worked out pretty well for her.

Bankrate: Now that you’re also a talk show host, what have you found is the most surprising aspect of that job?

Rachael Ray: That our viewers are a huge part of the programming itself. They give us so many great programming ideas. It’s really a show where people see themselves, and that’s the part I’m really surprised about. That was a goal of ours, but to see it working out so well for us and to really, really look to involve our viewers in so much of the programming and let them tell their own stories has been a great joy. And I love being in a building where we can all bring our kids and our pets and our cats and our dogs. We have a very happy work environment.

Ah, another pearl of wisdom from Ms. E-V-O-O – the audience is a huge part of the programming for a reason – they’re also her only customers. If she woke up one day and all of a sudden had zero fans, how successful do you think she’d be? Keep that in mind – whether you write a blog, tend a cash register, or play left field for the Atlanta Braves, you’re doing it for a customer (either directly or indirectly) and that customer writes your paycheck.

Bankrate: How did you wind up turning your cooking success into travel shows?

Rachael Ray: “30 Minute Meals” started out as a little cooking class that turned into a local news segment. The news director said to me, “Well, what else do you wanna do? Would you like to try another thing?” And it just sort of happened.

I did a little thing — what I could do within a hundred miles for under a hundred bucks — and the Food Network took a look at that, as well as the “30 Minute Meal” segments we were doing on the local news, and said, “Hey, we’ve been noodling around with the idea for a bunch of travel shows. How’d you like to do a pilot for that, too?” So I did a couple of test (episodes for) “30 Minute Meals,” and some test (episodes for) “$40 a Day” and they hired me for both. So, good for me. All from a little local news segment where I went a hundred miles for under a hundred bucks.

Ending on a high note, Ray talks about segueing into other business opportunities and diversifying her income streams. Instead of being content to simply do cooking classes, when the opportunity to kick it up a notch came knocking, she jumped all over it and never looked back.

As far as I’m concerned, you have to admire a woman with such a strong business sense – it looks like Rachael Ray may have just picked up her newest fan here at MoneyRemix.