An interview with Rachael Ray, the Daytime Emmy Award Winning TV show host of Rachael Ray, about her biggest influences, her business, being self-made, her first job and her best career advice.

Welcome to the twelfth episode of 5 Questions with Dan Schawbel. As your host, my goal is to curate the best advice from the world’s smartest and most interesting people by asking them just 5 questions.

This episodes guest:

Rachael Ray is a Daytime Emmy Award Winning TV show host. Raised in Glens Falls, New York, Rachael witnessed her mother managing restaurants. In 1995, she moved to New York City to work her first job at the Macy’s Marketplace candy counter. She left Macy’s to work at Agata & Valentina, a specialty foods store, and then eventually moved back to upstate New York to manage Mister Brown’s Pub in a hotel. Then, she became a buyer at Cowan & Lobel, a gourmet market, which inspired her 30 Minute Meals. The success of her 30 Minute Meals classes led to a weekly local TV segment, then a public radio broadcast and her first book. From there, she was on NBC’s The Today Show, which led to her first Food Network contract in 2001. Today, she hosts the syndicated daily talk and lifestyle program Rachael Ray, and the Food Network series 30 Minute Meals, Rachael Ray’s Tasty Travels and $40 a Day. She also founded the Every Day with Rachael Ray magazine and has written countless cookbooks, including Everyone is Italian on Sunday, Comfort Foods, Week in a Day and My Year in Meals.

The 5 questions questions I ask in this episode:

Who has most influenced your career and why?
What do people not know about you and your business?
What has surprised you the most about being successful?
What did you learn from your first job at Macy’s?
What is your best career advice?

Follow Rachael’s journey:

Episode 12: Rachael Ray