Just what does Oprah sell anyway?

At the beginning of his presentations, Casey Eberhart usually asks two questions: who is the most powerful woman in America and what does she sell?

According to Casey, his top 3 answers are Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton and Oprah Winfrey. As you can tell from the title of this blog post, he usually concentrates on Oprah. A couple of weeks ago I wrote about networking like Oprah and today I'm going to talk about what she actually sells.

When he asks "What does Oprah sell?", the usual response is "Herself"..."So, she's a prostitute" is Casey's response. The audience laughs and says no. After a few more attempts, Casey reveals the answer: "She sells influence".

Oprah has a huge following and she has a huge influence on their buying decisions. When she recommends a book, millions of copies will be sold. When she recommends a movie, it'll be a blockbuster.

When she has a guest on her show, Oprah uses the formula OPC + TR = MC. If you're familiar with the term OPM, you've got two-thirds of the first part. Other peoples' content plus their reach equals more contacts. She has Tom Hanks on her show and he talks about his latest movie (his content), he shares with his fans on social media and TV Guide shares it in their listings (his reach) and his fans will tune in to watch the show (more contacts...or in Oprah's case more viewers).

How does this apply to you? Last week I wrote about "The Five People You Meet in Networking Events" and told you about making a video of the speaker, the organizer and the 3 yap jobs. When you create these videos you're using their content (the answers to your interview questions), their reach (they'll likely share the link to your blog or video on their social media) and when they do you'll have more contacts (viewers of your video or blog).

I hope this helps and as you can see I'm applying this formula. In fact, this post plus the two others that I linked to are all based on Casey's presentation (OPC) and when I post this I will post the link on Casey's wall (TR) and hopefully I'll get a few more readers (MC).

Interesting days

Today - Mad Hatter Day and Physician Assistant Day

Tomorrow - Bathtub Day and Frappe Day I've looked up the pronunciation and I've seen it pronounced frap and frap-pay. On the McDonald's commercials they pronounce it the latter way, so I think tomorrow I'll have a chocolate chip frap-pay

Next Tuesday - Yorkshire Pudding Day I had Yorkshire pudding a few times at Gulliver's near SFO, but alas, they're closed now. It's also Face Your Fears Day and Ada Lovelace Day She's one of the few woman to have a computer programming language named after her...Ada

November 6 - Saxophone Day Listen to some sax right here. It's also Nachos Day I may have to see if I can find who has the best nachos in the area. Any suggestions?