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  • What do all these people have in common?

  • Theyve all been been touched by The Oprah Effect.

  • The Oprah effect is the benefit you get when Oprah decides to endorse your product.

  • Oh that's good!

  • Even Barack Obama is said to have won both his presidential bids with the help of

  • Oprah’s blessing.

  • There are some people here that are here to see Oprah.

  • But of all the celebrities whove appeared on her show, who out there is the greatest

  • beneficiary of the Oprah Effect?

  • Oh it's definitely Oprah herself!

  • She's got a fortune of three point four billion, that makes her one of the richest people in the world.

  • She's been referred to as one of the most powerful people in the world

  • which I think is maybe a little hyperbole.

  • I'm not so sure, I mean seriously, who else has the power to do this?

  • Everybody gets a car!

  • This is the story of Oprah and her effect on the world.

  • You know why I loved you so much because you always let me lead devotion.

  • From shedding nostalgic tears over her 4th grade teacher, to sobs from unthinkable tragedies-

  • tears were the unmistakable trademark of the Oprah Winfrey Show.

  • Oprah really stood out pretty much from the start of her career was this idea of authenticity.

  • I try not to go into the ugly cry, stopi it!

  • When did you first realize you had this power just

  • to make people cry?

  • Once on my show a father said very father hasa dream for his children.

  • Oh shut up!

  • But this trademark was not something she stumbled upon by accident; it’s ingrained into the

  • fabric of her soul from a tough childhood.

  • Oprah is probably the classic rags to riches story.

  • she was born really in extreme poverty in Mississippi.

  • She grew up wearing dresses made out of potato sacks.

  • What she did was she really embraced that.

  • She used her own experiences to really empathize with her listeners, first on the radio then television.

  • It was In 1983 when Oprah was given the task of hosting a low-rated half-hour morning talk

  • show, AM Chicago.

  • Within months the show went from last place in the ratings to overtaking Phil Donahue as the

  • highest-rated talk show in Chicago- making her an instant local celebrity.

  • And just two years later in 1985 she was so famous that she found herself acting in a Spielberg movie.

  • By 1986 Oprah was already broadcast nationally and the rest is history.

  • By the mid 90s Oprah was a multi millionaire.

  • She had moved her show away from a tabloid news shows, taking on harder subjects like

  • social justice, disease, geopolitics, spirituality, anorexia.

  • No topic was off limits.

  • The tears kept flowing.

  • And her audience continued to grow, as did The Oprah Effect.

  • Deep End of the Ocean ya'll are gonna have to buy it.

  • She might recommend a book or she might draw attention to a particular endeavor that has

  • an enormous impact.

  • In 1996 Winfrey started an on-air reading club, making her the most powerful book marketer

  • in the world.

  • Her endorsements made the careers of countless young authors, not to mention herself.

  • She is the author of 10 books and counting ranging from autobiography to weight loss to self help.

  • Oprah maintained creative control over her show until the last episode in 2008.

  • From there she took an even larger leap into show business by launching her own TV station.

  • Basically that's got a valuation of close to a billion dollars.

  • She's actually only got a minority stake in that company, but that minority stake still

  • has a carrying value of about 300 million dollars.

  • For something that grew completely out of the strength of sort of her rapport with the American people.

  • Her most recent fortune spurned from her partnership with Weight Watchers, a deal that began in

  • 2015 with 10% ownership equalling about $43M, but since then her stake has ballooned to

  • $450M and Weight Watchers has more than doubled its stock price.

  • That started a major comeback for what was at the time a struggling diet brand.

  • OK OK we get it- Oprah is an institution.

  • What else can she possibly do?

  • Well, aside from making a recent open ended billion dollar content deal with Apple, Oprah

  • is clearly intent on using her power to change the world for the better.

  • Oprah is also very active philanthropically, so she donated millions to the Smithsonian's

  • National Museum of African-American History and Culture.

  • She's given a million dollars for the Green Belt Movement for sort of tree planting and

  • Community Development in Africa.

  • Her girl’s school in South Africa has been highly publicized and her Angel Network has

  • raised more than $80,000,000.

  • In total Oprah has given away over $400M over her own money to charity.

  • And now the time may have finally come to start kissing babies as many are wondering if

  • the Oprah Effect will take her straight to the white house in 2020.

  • We already have a reality TV show President in the White House and there's plenty of people who would back her run.

  • And I thought oh gee I don't have the experience, I don't know enough.

  • And now I'm thinking Oh!

  • But you have to wonder about what that would mean for her brand- obviously politics are

  • very divisive in this country and youre talking about someone who’s really loved

  • across the spectrum.

  • So a move into politics suddenly kind of thrusts her into the some of the most controversial

  • issues of our day and I definitely don’t think that would be a good thing for her brand.

  • But Oprah’s story is a series of unlikely firsts, so there’s really no telling how

  • far her own effect will take one of the richest and most powerful women in the world.

What do all these people have in common?

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