A perfectly primped Martha Stewart revealed her secrets for building a business empire before a crowd of several hundred in Sanders Theater yesterday, offering her tips to aspiring creative entrepreneurs.

Stewart, who gained prominence in 1982 with her first book, Entertaining, described her life as a multimedia mogul, presenting the model for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia with color-coordinated pastel slides, familiar icons from her business and pictures of delectable food items.

Since Entertaining, Stewart has branched out into magazines, television, radio, merchandising and e-commerce, earning her the #9 spot in Fortune Magazine's Top 50 "Women in Business" for 2000.

It's a model, she said, which is now being emulated in Japan, Brazil and Canada, and which theoretically gives 90 million consumers access to her myriad selection of content and products each day.

Stewart's speech, sponsored by the Ann Radcliffe Trust, also featured occasional bits of humor.

When speaking about how people "need to decorate their houses," she caught herself and added, "And when I say have to, I mean want to!"

Stewart then launched into a discussion of symbols and icons commonly associated with her company. She said that she did not coin the well-known catchphrase "It's a good thing!," but merely "used the phrase to its best advantage."

Her lecture also spun off into some offbeat topics.