is advertising.”12
Chapter 16
Oprah Winfrey
On Building a One-PersOn Brand
The purpose of this book is to celebrate people whose influ-
ence has gone beyond the bounds of their own company. As
such, it would have been difficult not to mention Oprah Winfrey
and Arianna Huffington. They have had unparalleled success in
the business of influence, and their brands resonate with people
at a level rarely achieved before they came onto the scene.
I would guess that Winfrey and Huffington are no great fans
of advertising. Despite this, following Lee Clow’s thinking, a
lot of what they do could be considered as advertising, or at least
promotional. Each, in her own way, has patiently built a brand
of very great value, in both symbolic and financial terms. Like
Steve Jobs and Richard Branson, Winfrey and Huffington are the
indisputable faces of their companies—but each one’s name has
become the brand. They embody what is now known as personal
branding—and Winfrey, like Huffington, is a paragon of her time.
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the Ultimate Celebrity Brand
Winfrey understood very early on that she was a brand—and
she had strong intuition about how to progressively shape it. In
doing so, she has become an iconic brand.
Some years ago, Airbnb and TBWAChiatDay worked
together on a research paper about what makes a brand iconic.1
Their work indicates that truly iconic brands embody all five of
these attributes:
1. They are instantly recognizable.
2. They create deep emotional connections.
3. They have a universal value proposition.
4. They play a role in culture.
5. They stand for higher-order values.
The Oprah brand excels when it comes to these five attri-
butes. Let’s consider each of them.
First, Oprah Winfrey’s charismatic broadcasting style is not
just due to the way she acts and the way she talks, but also to
her physical presence. Hundreds of thousands of fans all over
the world find her relatable. And yet, her first boss at WJZ-TV
insisted she change her appearance—and, in a way, betray the
reality of who she was. The story is well known. At the time,
Winfrey was 20 years old. She was considered to be a bit over-
weight and she was not white, a combination that made her vastly
different from the trendy television personalities of the time.
But one day the head of Chicago’s ABC affiliate station
assigned her the morning show. He “let Oprah be Oprah.”2 She
succeeded in transforming what many had considered a disad-
vantage into the very foundation of her image. She never tried
to be anything else than herself—and that became her strongest
asset. From the very outset, Winfrey understood that success
relies on defining herself instead of letting others define her.
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Second, Winfrey creates deep emotional connections with
her audience. She was not the first person to host a talk show on
television, but she gave new meaning to the format. She brought
a personal, almost intimate approach to a well-established, glitzy
type of program. She knew how to create close ties with millions
of people. The expressions that are most frequent when people
describe her are: genuine, candid, real. She exudes honesty. It
is her hallmark, and it’s hard to think of another celebrity hav-
ing built such a close degree of confidence with the public. This
comes from always putting herself on an equal footing with her
viewers, by opening up about her own personal vulnerabilities,
and by addressing issues that were previously considered private.
And in this way, she has always related to her guests in such a
sensitive, emotional way that the camera cannot escape it.
This has been described by Time magazine as “rapport
talk,” and “an approach of personal dialogue, confession and
compassion.”3
For Winfrey, it all starts with an intention. By intending to
become something, you have a better chance of succeeding. This
is because our intentions, in addition to our actions, influence
our realities. It’s the firmness of intent that opens up new pos-
sibilities and allows us to approach the life we aspire to. This is
why Winfrey always asked her guests to describe their inten-
tions in life, and why she clarified her own intentions in invit-
ing them to her show. It has become a structural element of her
interviews.
Winfrey knows hundreds of celebrities and she has an astute
observation on their role with brands: “While you can grow your
brand with celebrity endorsement to capture attention, being
real and engaging with everyday people will capture hearts.”4
Third, Winfrey has always had a clear and compelling value
proposition, encapsulated in the line “Live your best life.”
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This phrase is, as Lee Clow would say, a big brand idea. It’s an
encouragement to take care of ourselves, an exhortation to live
our lives to the fullest. It’s about self-growth and finding mean-
ing. Since the beginning of the 2000s, dozens of articles on how
to “live your best life” have appeared in O, Winfrey’s magazine.
The expression has become ubiquitous. A Google search on the
phrase generates 6.1 billion results, including articles, social
media posts, and websites dedicated to the subject.
Deep down, Winfrey’s purpose is none other than to help
people find the path between what they are and what they seek
to become. It’s a struggle for every one of us. This purpose is
the constant across her media empire. And along the way she
gives us lots of both insightful and down-to-earth advice. One
example is tied to the theme of vulnerability: “Turn your wounds
into wisdom.” Among my favorites are: “Real integrity is doing
the right thing, knowing that nobody’s going to know whether
you did it or not” and “You don’t become what you want, you
become what you believe.” A final example is: “So go ahead. Fall
down. The world looks different from the ground.”5
Why do all these phrases stir us up? Not only because they
light a spark when we hear them, but also because they clearly
reflect decades of dedication, commitment, and tenacity. Per-
sonal branding takes time—25 seasons in the case of The Oprah
Winfrey Show.
The fourth element of great brands is that they play a role in
culture. This is obviously true for Winfrey. Mary McNamara,
a leading TV critic from the Los Angeles Times, credits Winfrey
with having made a major impact on culture as a whole. Among
her contributions are her role as the catalyst for the genre of
celebrity memoir and of journalists opening up to share their
personal feelings and experiences with the general public. “You
see it everywhere, from the explosion of memoirs to social media
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151
to journalists sharing their own opinions and own stories. That
all started with Oprah,”6 says McNamara.
Her work on her TV show, magazine, blog, and TV channel
has immersed Oprah Winfrey in popular culture. At the same time
she reflects it and shapes it. She has encouraged her audiences to
exercise, to follow diets, to read, to become self-aware, to partic-
ipate in community volunteering, and even to meditate. She has
discussed women’s empowerment, racial discrimination, gun con-
trol, the path to citizenship for immigrants, social justice, and free-
dom of the press. She does all she can to make her fellow citizens
take interest in subjects that are too often hijacked by the elite or
niche groups that hold special interests.
Last but not least, Winfrey was the first to air subjects that
had previously been considered taboo. She has turned issues
like protection of abused women and LGBT rights into every-
day topics of discussion. Her speech at the 2019 Golden Globe
Awards, where she vigorously denounced sexual assault, harass-
ment, and gender inequality, has been a milestone for viewers all
over the world. It ended with the statement of a firm belief that
“a new day is on the horizon.”7
Turning to the fifth element of iconic brands, Winfrey stands
for higher-order values. Not only is she a great advocate for social
causes, but she also acts on them. She has personally given back
to society through her numerous philanthropic actions. She has
always been discreet on the subject, but it’s a fact that through
the Oprah Winfrey Foundation, she has distributed more than
$50 million of her own money. She has contributed to the edu-
cation of thousands of underprivileged women and children, all
over the world. She has also founded the Oprah’s Angel Network
to raise funds from her audience to support nonprofit organiza-
tions. She has built schools in several different countries, offered
scholarships, and set up youth centers and shelters for women.
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Oprah Winfrey contributes to what philanthropic organizations
call the promise of equity,8 which consists of reaching the most vul-
nerable people. This includes the poorest families, child victims,
those plagued by ethnic or religious segregation, and people with
handicaps—to name just a few who have always been left behind.
To sum it up, I would say that Winfrey has implemented the
five elements of what constitutes an iconic brand in a way that
has rarely been done before. Her work has created an extremely
solid foundation for what has become a media empire. And other
brands—not only personal ones—can follow her example.
For the record, and especially for those non-American read-
ers of this book, it’s worth remembering that her show had
44 million viewers a week in the United States, making it the
highest-rated talk show in television history; it was broadcast in
145 countries. O, The Oprah Magazine has an average monthly
circulation of nearly 2.4 million, making it one of the leading
women’s titles in her country. Oprah’s Book Club has promoted
many previously unknown authors, catapulting books onto
the bestseller lists. It has become a real force in the publishing
industry and is estimated to be responsible for sales of more than
60 million books. And it’s important to remember Winfrey’s
highly successful film-production company, Harpo.
All of these achievements have made Winfrey a powerful
voice in America and one of the most important female voices in
the world. They have contributed to Oprah the person becom-
ing Oprah the brand.
the One-person Businesses
Many celebrities have attained the status of a worldwide brand.
One that immediately comes to mind is Kim Kardashian,
who has never denied making it her intended objective. But
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153
for others, it happened over time. You find personal brands in
many different domains. In sports, there are of course Michael
Jordan and Tiger Woods. But maybe the sector that has the
largest number of personal brands is music, which includes
artists like Michael Jackson, Beyoncé, and will.i.am. As Jay-Z
puts it in one of his raps, “I’m not a businessman. I’m a busi-
ness, man.”9
In the last decade, more and more previously unknown peo-
ple have begun to think of themselves as brands. Today we are
observing the rise of “one-million one-person businesses.” In
2015, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, 35,584 nonemployer
firms earned between $1 and $2.49 million in revenue.10 This
was rendered possible thanks to digital developments, low-cost
outsourcing, 3-D printing, automation, free access to software,
and pay-per-click advertising.
Most often, the difference between these success stories relies
upon the capacity of the individuals involved to brand them-
selves. The expression “personal branding” is not new; it was
used by Tom Peters11 back in 1991. But today, the issue is not so
much to know if you want to become a brand, but rather if you
have willingly decided to master the way you’re going to build it.
How will you control the impression you leave in the minds of
others? How will you shape what people are going to think when
they hear your name? What do you imagine could be your best
digital footprint?
As we’ve seen from Lee Clow, who cares about every minute
detail of the brands he’s in charge of, everything counts. Each
tweet you make, every picture you share, every post you write.
Your brand image is an accumulation of many little things. Win-
frey understood it intuitively right from the beginning. She
controls absolutely everything that touches her brand, and even
approves every page of O magazine before it goes to print.
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Forbes12 listed the best practices for becoming a successful
one-person brand:
• Use digital tools to verify your hunches.
• Own a narrow niche.
• Put community happiness first.
• Pay attention to reviews.
• Know when to quit your day job.
• Learn basic technologies.
• Connect.
I would add one other point: Once you’ve defined what your
image should be, you have to live up to it—and never try to
be someone you are not. Authenticity like Winfrey’s is of par-
amount importance for any one-person brand. Self-packaging
must be genuine and true.
Influencers are a category of their own when it comes to
one-person brands. They seek to capture and hold the attention
of the segment of American 13-to-24-year–olds, who spend an
average of 11.3 hours per week watching online videos.13 Once
the influencers have constituted their audiences, brands solicit
them to conduct influencer marketing. Companie
s such as May-
belline or L’Oréal, for example, partner with bloggers to cre-
ate tutorials on makeup. According to Variety,14 one of the most
popular entertainment publications, a YouTube tutorial with a
star influencer can be up to seventeen times more engaging than
a traditional celebrity tutorial.
Individuals are blending less and less into the collective.
American statistics predict that in the near future, 40 to 50 per-
cent of the U.S. workforce will be made up of independent work-
ers.15 These people are happier working alone, at their own pace,
for multiple organizations. Many believe this work arrangement
provides a richer experience than working for a single company.
The best of these freelancers will become like brands. They will
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155
be in high demand and will have more work they can handle.
Companies will compete to have access to them.
This gives me the answer to the question: Will the impor-
tance of corporate culture decline as a growing part of the work-
force comes from the outside? The answer is no. It may seem
paradoxical, but I believe that culture will remain as important
as ever. The best outside talents will be attracted by the most
seductive cultures. It’s a company’s unique way of thinking and
creating, its distinct way of working, that will enable it to secure
contracts with highly demanded talent. Every company will look
to become the company of reference for these freelancers. It will
be the determining factor when demand exceeds supply.
Great corporate brands will attract great one-person brands.
As for Winfrey, it’s been said that, in the early years, she
resisted being seen as a brand. She was always distrustful about
anything to do with marketing, a discipline she found lacking in
authenticity. She feared that becoming a brand would distance
her from her fans. She explained that she changed her mind
when she came to understand that her way of being and behav-
ing, the elements that made up the Oprah brand, helped people
to change their lives. The lesson for her was that a trustworthy
brand “enables others to trust in you and to connect with exactly
what you stand for and who you are.” And she simply concluded:
“Be your own brand.”16
Chapter 17
AriAnnA Huffington
On Digital JOurnalism anD
WOmEn’s EmPOWErmEnt
Thank You for Disrupting Page 16