Most of you know Oprah Winfrey. Oprah is an iconic and incredibly influential figure in the business world. While it is a tad unrealistic to assume everyone is going to have success like Oprah (can you say multi-billionaire… and by the way, she was the first African American Billionaire!), her career provides some incredible gems in terms of marketing and more general business lessons when you look at her more than 30 years of uninterrupted success.
Here are 5 of my favorite business lessons from Oprah.
SUCCESS IS A SLOW BURN
Entrepreneurial people often go into business thinking that they’ve got the contacts and experience to launch their new business and blow past $100,000 in revenue (and if you are selling a product that costs $100K+ then that might be true!). There are certainly some unicorns out there and several of our Evolve Community have done it. Paw Pals, DG Services, and The Search Republic come to mind, but even for them, success didn’t happen overnight. It will likely take a couple of years to build up the referral network and successful strategies to generate new clients consistently en masse.
When Oprah started the Oprah Winfrey Network, it took three years for her to create the right strategy and get her winning foundation in place. As usual, the press (others opinions) were quick to prematurely call her network a failure. The lack of short term success is not failure. It takes time to form the right team, create the value proposition you’re comfortable with and create a winning product or service.
Now, if it took Oprah…OPRAH, who had every resource imaginable at her disposal (millions of dollars, a network of influential contacts, millions of loyal fans and followers, and all else imaginable) 3 years to build a solid foundation. Then wouldn’t it be reasonable to expect that it may take you a similar amount of time to get going and growing?
Don’t become disheartened when you get started and you are not instantly successful. I can tell you with certainty that working hard and putting in the work WILL PAY OFF FOR MANY YEARS TO COME. Hard work and providing massive value will lead to success, clients, and financial wealth.
In Oprah’s own words: “You can have it all. You just can’t have it all at once.”
For those of you who are just getting started, you may find this helpful… When I first got started into coaching I was introduced to this pricing model called scaled pricing. It was a way to help me close the deal and show that I was serious and confident. At the time I was charging $997 per month for my coaching (This is very cheap for coaching by the way!!!) and I’d do it like this. Month 1: I’d charge $100, Month 2: $200, Month 3: $400, Month 4: $800, and finally on Month 5 I would charge the full $997 per month. Closed a TON of clients this way (all I needed was a payment of $100 to get started and it doubled each month) and showed my certainty of long term success. I kept many of those clients for years as well, so the first 4 months didn’t matter that much.
I also experimented, and successfully, with the “puppy dog close” This is a technique where you offer something for free or on a trial and get them to pay at the other end of it. So if the technique that I used above didn’t work then I would downsell into my “puppy dog” close, where I offered to coach them for free for the first 3 weeks… and on week 4 they start paying (but at the full $997). I had a small stipulation that they would need to pay for the journal, books and binders to be sent to them prior to the first session, which was never more than $20-30, but this allowed me to get credit card information up front (This was CRITICAL). The magic here was in week 4 I didn’t need to get a credit card, it just started charging. Worked awesome, provided I did a great job with them in those first 3 weeks, and once again many of the clients I did this with stayed with me for many months, and years.
Your clients NEED to be CERTAIN you can help them. The above “tactics” will help you provide, or increase, that certainty.
If you think the above pricing models are not a great idea….I want you to consider this. How long do you think Ben Simmons was sinking free throws for no charge before he started getting paid by the Philadelphia 76’s? How long did Jason Day swing a golf club before he started getting paid obscene amounts? It’s okay for you to do a little work short term to gain the valuable skills required to become a bulletproof 6 to 10 Figure Business Owner.
EXUDE HUMILITY
Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.
Oprah was the most watched television host for 20 straight years. One of the primary reasons she grew her media empire and stayed on top for 2 decades was her ability to maintain an emotional bond with her audience despite her incredible power and wealth. My wife still loves her to this day.
When I got started in business I was still quite young, and I actually had a lot of early success. Placed hundreds of thousands of dollars through bank accounts that I wasn’t quite ready for, got a little arrogant and too big for my britches… and frankly paid a very heavy price. Cough, cough… can you say “self-sabotage”. Here is the good news: lesson learned and there is no question it’s super important to stay grounded and connected with your clients and team members as per Oprah’s advice.
When you see a professional speaker you’ll notice they always humble themselves by showing you or talking about some imperfection in order to connect themselves with their audience, and not have them think “ya, well that’s easy for you because you have millions or you’ve been doing this for 20 years…” What you need your audience to be thinking is “If this guy who failed 8th grade math can work it out… surely I have a shot if I follow his system?!?!”
THE ART OF THE DEAL
Man…I will probably take a bit of a hit for linking Trump to Oprah, but he put out a great book. My guess is that Oprah thought so too and read it because there is no question she’s a master at crafting winning deals. Many years ago when she had a falling out with her network, rather than going back to the table to negotiate a salary… she negotiated ownership of her TV show, the studio where she produced it, and the distribution! Rather than just become a spokesperson for Weight Watchers she negotiated a piece of the company (for a cool $43 million by the way). Now take note that in both of these deals they weren’t risk free, both could have ended very poorly for her.
These types of “deals”, and her willingness to back herself, are the reason she’s a multi billionaire today.
In business, rather than negotiating a higher price….back yourself in the right situation, and take a piece of the upside. Or offer your client and insanely discounted rate (free in some cases, see my example under Success Is A Slow Burn) to prove your worth and lock in a long term client.
Two things are going to happen when you take this approach: One, you’ll get very good at what you do regardless of the outcome. Trust me, you just will and it will be AMAZING for you, your career, your business and your future .Two, the BIG WINS will be worth their weight in gold.
Humility is a lot like philanthropy. The more money you give to worthy causes… the more that will come back to you. Subsequently the more humility you show (combined with HARD WORK) the more people will want to connect with you and the faster your business and network with grow.
PROMOTE YOURSELF
When you become a self promoter there is a pretty good chance you’ll attract some flack. But the reality is that if you’re not comfortable and willing to promote yourself and your business products and services… why would anyone else?
Oprah is a rock star in this area. She’s built her personal brand and the Harpo name as a self-promoter. And if you want proof… she has made herself the cover model for each edition of her own magazine!! I bow to you Oprah.
What this does is maintain her “brand consistency” and obviously it is working… because she’s a billionaire and a marketing rock star. So take a page out of Oprah’s book and be willing to shamelessly promote yourself, your business, and your products and services. Others might just start doing it as well.
BE BEST IN CLASS
If you decide that you are going to put yourself on the cover of your own magazine… every edition…ever… then you are going to need to be able to back that up. The only way to do that is be the best in your class.
Oprah herself is a multi billionaire, but she has helped other people and businesses create brand after brand simply by recommending their products/services on her show. To say she backs herself would be a total understatement.
In any industry if you’re going to be a successful self promoter you’re going to need to back it up as well.
If you say you provide amazing breakthroughs for your small business clients… you’ll need to start doing that. If you say you solve a problem then you need to solve it. If you say you give some amazing results then you better deliver on that and be able to back it up. If you tell say their company will reach new heights of profitability after working with you… you’ll need to back it up and increase revenues in a number of different ways. And by the way, if you want help in this area of finding legitimate and incredible financial breakthroughs for your business, just ask for a test drive of our game changing Evolve Software!
Reality is the BEST <INSERT YOUR BUSINESS> IN THE CITY (MARKETPLACE), is never short of a client nor someone to help for a fee. Simply take a small step EVERY DAY to becoming the best at what you do in your market and success will be yours.
“It doesn’t matter who you are, where you come from. The ability to triumph begins with you—always.” Oprah Winfrey
BUILD A TEAM
While Oprah is a master in the art of “self promotion”, she’s also built an incredible team. She not only seeks out and hires the best of the best to work with her companies. IE Adam Glassman, the creative director of the The Oprah Magazine… but she has literally also launched the careers of designer Nate Berkus, Dr Phil, Suze Orman, Robert Kiyosaki, Dr Oz and so many more.
Like a good sports team, by putting THIS lineup together, she’s able to create an incredible value proposition that her followers love and respond to.
When it comes to building your business, make sure that you partner with and align yourself with great business people. Get yourself a great business strategist and marketing consultant that you can trust and go above and beyond. Get people that have the same burning desire to HELP your client base. Get involved with a networking group that is run with inspiration, and helps its members grow and connect. Align with these types and watch your business grow and succeed beyond your wildest dreams.
GIVE AND YOU SHALL RECEIVE
You can’t even watch her show without seeing the incredible giveaways and gifts she gives. . “You get a free car!” is locked into every die hard Oprah supporter’s mind. Her constant giveaway strategies created a ton of excitement for the show, not just with the people who won and left with tons of cool stuff, but with fans across the world who heard about it long after it was done.
While it is probably not the most advisable idea to have your company give away free cars (although if you are going to you can sign me up) perhaps you can give away something else of value to your customers. For example: a coaching or advisory business may give 12 months of free coaching to one lucky winner, and in the process receive applications from all over their marketplace along with lots of free press or word of mouth advertising. You could partner with another aligned company to offer something of value. Like the website company that partners with a digital marketing firm to offer 12 months of free SEO. It will help them gain exposure so you should be able to come up with a great deal, and once again you might find the clients that did not win may be willing to buy yours or their services (and you get a hefty affiliate commission for lining up the relationship).
Whatever you might give away, just make sure you’re creating excitement for your clients, for your business and for your brand.
Mike Johnston
Co Founder and Architect of Evolve
