Oprah says her success comes from staying centered and understanding others so audiences see themselves in her. She hires for spiritual practice and believes serving stakeholders matters as much as profit. Evan tells entrepreneurs to share their picture, story, and passion to compete with bigger brands.
Good morning, Believe Nation! Today's message is learn to connect. Over to you, Oprah Winfrey.
My life is fueled by my being. The being fuels the doing. So I come from a centered place. I come from a focused place. I come from compassion. It's just my nature. I come from a willingness to understand and to be understood. And I come from wanting to connect. I mean, the secret of that show for 25 years is that people could see themselves in me. All over the world, they could see themselves in me. And even as I became more and more financially successful, which was a big surprise to me, I was like, oh my God, this is so exciting.
You mean you got more than that $30,000?
I got more than $30,000 by the time I was 30. So, so my, but what I realized is through the whole process, because I'm grounded, in my own self. That although I could have more shoes, my feet stayed on the ground, although I was wearing better shoes. These are kind of cute today, too. So I could keep my feet on the ground even though I could get more shoes. And I could understand, I could understand that it really was because I was grounded. I've done the, was doing and continue to this day. To do the consciousness work. I work at staying awake. And being awakened is just another word for spirituality, but spirituality throws people off and they think you mean religion. When I was hiring people for my company for OWN, looking for presidents, when people would come in, I'd say, tell me, what is your spiritual practice? And literally, it would throw up people. I'm dumb. Well, I'm not religious. I said, I didn't ask you about your religion. I ask you, what's your spiritual practice? What do you do to take care of yourself? What do you do to keep yourself centered? What do you do to the— and one woman started crying. You know that's not the person. So that's a sign. That's a sign. So to answer your question, everything is fueled that comes from me really wanting to be a better person on Earth. And this is what I know to be true. The reason why the show worked is because I understood that that audience, my viewers, the people who watched us every day and would come and just like you all did, get tickets and they would come with their fam— you all just came across campus, but that's good too. But people would come from all over the world just to be there with their aunts and their mothers, and they'd come with their cousins, and there'd be a few men in there going, what the hell? Or saying, well, I went to Oprah with you. I went to Oprah. At least get me clear for 3 or 4 weeks. I went to Oprah with you. I had such regard for that. And I just had a conversation with John Mackey, who runs Whole Foods, and has written this a fabulous book, you should get it, called Conscious Capitalism. And he was talking about how the investment in the stakeholders, the people who you are serving, that connection between the people who you're trying to serve and sell to is equally as important as the people who you're buying from, equally as important as the people who are supporting you financially. As your stockholders if you are, you know, a public company. So I always understood that there really was no difference between me and the audience. At times I might have had better shoes, but at the core, the core of what really matters, that we are the same. And you know how I know that? 'Cause all of us are seeking the same thing. You're here at this fabulous school and will go out into the world and each pursue based upon what you believe your talents are, what your skills are, maybe your gifts are, but you're seeking the same thing. Everybody wants to fulfill the highest, truest expression of yourself as a human being. That's what you're looking for. The highest, truest, expression of yourself as a human being. And because I understand that, I understand that if you're working in a bakery and that's where you wanna be, and that may be what you've always wanted to do is to bake pies for people or bake cakes for people or to offer your gift, then that's for you. And there's no difference between you and me except that's your platform, that's your show every day. So my understanding of that has allowed me to, you know, to reach everyone. And there's no way that you wouldn't, because that's, that's what I truly feel.
So this is a super important message for entrepreneurs and one that I myself have been working on over the past couple of years. I have a media coach that I work with named Janie, and her one word is connect. So I know she can strongly relate to this video, and I've been working on being able to connect better to my customers, to my audience. And it's helped me have a lot more success in my company. You see, as entrepreneurs, it's something we can all get better at because your story, your ability to connect with your customers, is one of the things that can help you stand out against the big customers, right? Why is someone gonna buy from you over some big name brand that I've already worked with before? It's because of your story, because of your passion, because of your energy. And a lot of entrepreneurs, when, you know, if I just go to your website, It's super boring, it's corporate, it's commercial, it's plain, it's average, and you want to be able to use your story and your ability to connect to get those new customers in the door. If I look at my own business, you know, I've had success with my companies, but I'm still able to connect with a guy who's just starting up and struggling to get by because that was me. I've had, you know, this month I'm going to have between 12,000 and 15,000 new subscribers on the channel, but I'm still able to connect with the person who's just starting up or has 100 subscribers and is trying to grow. And that's not bragging, that's not to say how great I am. I'm trying to share that this is something that's led to my success and has helped me, and I know that if you're better able to connect to your customers and tell your story, you're much more likely to be able to bring more business to your company. So tell your story on your website. Put your picture up there. Create a video. Let me feel your passion. 'Cause if I can feel that, then I'm much more likely to buy from you than somebody else. So my question of the day for you today is, what are you afraid of? What's holding you back from connecting truly, from really telling your story and putting yourself out there? I'm curious what's holding you back. Leave it in the comments below. I'm gonna join in the discussion. Thank you so much for watching. Continue to believe, and I'll see you again tomorrow morning for another shot of espresso. Good morning, Believe Nation. Today's message is learn Today's message is learn— Oh my God, okay, let's do that again. Today's message is learn— Oh my God, what is wrong? Learn how to plug something in, man.
