Holy smokes, I met Oprah.
I still can't believe it.
I met Oprah, and it was truly one of the most monumental experiences of my life.
And I have to share this with you because in the brief, very brief time that I met her,
not only did I get like the worst picture ever with her...
We'll talk about that later.
But the other thing was that I learned so many lessons just being around her for a short
period of time that will impact me forever and I wanted to share them with you.
So I'm going to dive into all of them.
Give this video a like if you're excited to hear all of the lessons I learned from meeting
Oprah Winfrey.
First, let me provide you with a little bit of a backstory.
I have been watching Oprah since I was a little girl.
She went on the air before I was even born and I grew up watching her.
I remember watching her when I was little and thinking, "This woman and what she does
for a living, this is what I want to do."
And when you see somebody do something that might seem crazy, she was speaking, and entertaining,
and talking.
Communicating and inspiring people for a living.
It became possible for me that that would be something that I could do.
It's the reason that I became a journalist, it's the reason that I went to broadcasting
school in the first place.
She really is the greatest mentor, without even knowing her, that I've ever had in my
life, in my career.
And so to meet her was incredible.
And I remember when I was in high school and I was going through a pretty difficult time
because I was being bullied and I had kind of been exiled, I'd say, from my friend group
almost for a full year.
I would eat lunch alone every day and it was just a really hard and challenging time.
And I remember hearing this quote from Oprah where she said, "When I was a little girl,
I knew I was destined for greatness.
I knew it."
I don't remember the exact quote, but I remember hearing her say that.
And she's like, "I had this little voice inside me where I just knew I was destined for greatness."
And I heard it, and I held onto it, and I kept telling myself the same thing.
I was like, "I am destined for greatness, I am destined for greatness."
And I would hold onto that no matter what was happening in my life and it has been the
one steadfast thing that has kept me going.
And I truly believe in myself, and I know that I am destined to do great things and
greatness if I believe at first.
It doesn't matter what anyone else thinks, it's me believing at first.
So to say that she's been instrumental in my life is the understatement of the century.
And so being in her vicinity for a short period of time and to meet her, these were the five
lessons that I took out of our meeting that will stick with me forever and I think that
will be really impactful for you as well.
Lesson number one, is own who you are.
So I'm standing there waiting to get my picture taken and it's a meet and greet before Oprah
speaks in Vancouver, which is where I'm from.
So she's speaking in Vancouver and she's on her Canadian tour.
I get these meet and greet tickets from my mom and ended up being the first person in
line.
It was like everyone got scared and moved behind me, so I ended up being the first person.
So I'm first in line and I see and hear Oprah walking down the hall and she goes, "We're
here to take pictures."
Exactly what you would think she would say.
Joy rising.
And she's wearing her blue velour tracksuit, and she is exactly who you think she would
be.
She's grounded, down to earth, the most warm energy, and she just owns it.
And that is magnetic.
She knows who she is, she knows how she wants to show up in the world, and when you know
those two things, it creates this magnetism where people will line up.
There was about 100 people lined up behind me, just to meet her for a split second.
... or if you in any way are pretending to be something that you are not, you will never
ever become all that you were meant to be.
It just cannot happen if you're living in some kind of pretense, phony world.
Lesson number two, she's human.
I think when you idolize someone for as long as I've idolized Oprah, you put them on a
pedestal.
But when I met her, and also when I heard her speak that night, it made me realize that
she at the end of the day is no different than you and I, and she has overcome some
of the most incredible obstacles to getting to where she is today.
And it really wasn't in the cards for her to get to where she is today, but she believed
that she was destined for greatness, which is what I mentioned earlier.
And because she believed that with every bone in her body, every obstacle disappeared.
And so as I sat there listening to her, all I could think was, "If she can do it with
the most difficult upbringing and circumstances, why can't I and why can't you?"
... Mississippi, obviously a black girl.
At the time we were called colored people, Negroes, and my grandmother was a maid.
That's all she ever knew.
The only real expectation she held for me was that I would one day become a maid and
in her words have some good white folks, meaning people who would not speak negatively about
me, who would allow me to take food home, who would be good to me, would treat me with
some level of dignity and respect.
That was my grandmother's dream for me, but I had another dream for myself.
Another more than a dream.
I had a belief for myself.
I'm curious actually if you have ever been motivated like that, or felt that sense of
belief in yourself because of something Oprah has said, or if maybe I've ever said anything
that's made you really believe in yourself and know that you can do this.
If you have, I would love for you to share in the comments below, it would be really
cool to see your feedback on that.
Lesson number three, practice makes perfect.
When Oprah was standing on stage and she was talking about her journey, she said, she's
done 37,000, 37,000 interviews perfecting her craft.
She's still doing them to this day.
Did she start out being stellar?
No, but she's become the best in the world.
And for me, that makes so much sense, especially today when people think that overnight success
happens overnight.
Overnight success takes 10, 20, 30 years, and it takes practice, practice, practice,
practice.
No one who is great at what they do and no one who has achieved greatness has achieved
it by not doing the work, taking the action, being crappy first, and then learning to get
better and learning to become the best.
And one other thing that she mentioned was that when she started in her career, she would
always reference or model herself after Barbara Walters, who is one of her idols and another
one of mine, and then she started to find her voice.
And that's where the practice comes in as well.
And it's so powerful.
So if you give up after doing one or two videos, or podcasts, or posts, you don't really deserve
the success.
Lesson number four, keep that ego in check.
Oprah Winfrey, one of the biggest names on the planet, one of the most famous humans
ever, and she is grounded, she is down to earth, she hears you, she sees you.
And she talked a lot about ego when she brought out Eckhart Tolle, which I think I'm saying
his name correctly.
I've read his books but not sure about the name pronunciation.
They talked about his book, A New Earth, and dove into the topic of ego a lot.
And she mentioned that she kind of always was battling with it.
And the interesting thing is that ego is not being stuck up or snooty or cocky or any of
those things.
Ego really is attaching yourself to anything external.
So it's attaching yourself to a job, to a home, to a partner, to a car, to anything
that is external.
When you're attached to those things and they give you meaning and they give you fulfillment,
that means your ego is at play and you're not actually being your true authentic self,
which I mentioned in my first lesson is something that Oprah does so well.
She just is who she is and it's magnetic and she's grounded in who she is.
That makes people want to be around you.
When you're coming from ego, it's almost like a repellent.
So it's interesting to ask yourself, what are you attaching yourself to?
We all do it.
I do it too.
... in the business of showing myself, so I'm aware that there's a lot of egotism involved
in this business.
And I always thought that I had my ego in check, until I realized that it's not just
the obvious, it's not always acting out or showing off.
In 2008, I chose Eckhart Tolle's book, A New Earth, for my book club.
And this book will change the way you view your life and the people around you and your
world.
Chapters three and four literally changed the way I saw myself and my ego.
It changed for me what ego meant.
Tolle says that any identification with form, meaning any identification, identifying with
something that is not the center of yourself, that is possessions, material things, cars,
titles, social status- Lesson number five, validating people is one
of the greatest forms of creating your influence.
So I am at backstage, I'm about to have my moment, my little meet and greet with Oprah,
and I have max 30 seconds.
And they're shuffling people through because it's Oprah, and a lot of people want to meet
her and she's about to go on stage in like half an hour.
So I know I don't have much time, and I can just go in there, and I can take a picture,
and that can be it.
But I knew I wanted to make the moment count.
I wanted to be able to give her gratitude for how much she's impacted my life, whether
she remembered it or not.
It meant a lot to me to be able to share that with her.
So I walk in, I see her, I say, "Hi, Ms. Winfrey.
I just want to say I would not be who I am today or doing what I do for a living if I
hadn't grown up watching you being your authentic self every single day, and I just wanted to
say thank you."
And she put her arm around me, and she said, "That's really nice."
Something along those lines.
I kind of blacked out.
I was so excited.
And then we take a picture and then her cameraman was like, "Oh, your eyes are closed.
We need to take it again."
So I'm like, "Okay, I'm still here for a couple seconds."
So he takes another picture.
As he's taking another picture, she goes, "So what do you do?"
And so I answer the question as he's taking the picture, which is part of the reason the
picture is not my finest.
But I said, "I empower entrepreneurs to share their genius with the world via social media,
particularly YouTube."
And I'm thinking, "She's not going to remember this.
She's Oprah freaking Winfrey.
She's meeting about 100 people.
She's about to go on stage."
And she repeats it.
As I walk into the room, she repeats, "Share your genius.
I like that."
And she repeats it again, "Share your genius.
I like that."
So I'm thinking, "Wow, I mean, she heard me.
That's unbelievable."
I'm thinking, "She's never going to remember this.
Who am I?"
We leave.
I go and sit down.
My mom and I sit down in our seats, and all of a sudden she does this.
You know, I was meeting some people earlier today who were telling me that...
A young woman was telling me how I changed the trajectory of her life and someone else's.
That they are now training entrepreneurs to fulfill their own geniusness, and just all
the different lessons [inaudible 00:12:31]- And for me in that moment I was like, "Wow,
that is the power of being present, actually hearing people, and actually seeing people."
That validation that she actually heard and saw me made me feel so special and so joyful
that it only deepened my respect for her and my admiration for her.
So never discount or discredit being truly present with people when you meet them because
the more present you are, the more that can actually hear and see them, and the more that
you can actually validate their existence.
And one thing Oprah said on stage, which I found really interesting, was that no matter
how big the celebrity is that she's interviewed, they pretty much all asked the same question
after the interview.
And the question is, "So was that good?"
Everybody wants to know that they're doing okay.
Everybody wants to be validated in some kind of way.
So when you can provide that, it means a lot, and it goes a long way.
That's part of the reason that she's Oprah Winfrey.
And one little bonus, I guess a lesson that I wanted to share is that she said something
on stage that is something that I live by, which is your legacy is the impact that you're
making.
It's the people who watch this video- Your legacy, she says, your legacy is every
life you've touched.
So every person who's come here tonight, you are my legacy.
It's the people who have decided to work with me in some way, shape or form.
It's anybody who's listening to a podcast episode or anybody who's come into contact.
She mentioned this in relation to her Oprah Show, and talking about the experience of
meeting me, and me telling her what an impact that had on me, and that's her legacy.
And for me, that's why I do what I do, and that's why I often say my mission is to create
sucessrables.
It's to help you show up and create the impact you're meant to make and reach the people
that you're meant to reach so that you can have a great influence on the world.
And so that is your legacy.
It's my legacy and it's such a joy and an honor to have you here, and I don't take it
for granted.
So it only reaffirmed that I'm on the right track and that I'm building something.
I'm building a legacy that hopefully is built to last.
So that's my crazy story about Oprah.
It was honestly one of the coolest moments of my life.
I know I'm just getting started.
There's going to be lot more cool moments.
I'm hoping I get to read you on the picture.
I guess it's not my finest, but it's Oprah Winfrey and I think the value of what I said
in that moment meant a lot more than when the picture actually look like.
So if you enjoyed this video or took something from it, let me know in the comments below.
Give it a like and be sure to subscribe and don't forget to take a screenshot and tag
me and Oprah, of course, on Instagram and let me know what you thought of the video
and what you learned.
Thank you so much as always, for watching, it means the world.
And I'll see you in the next video.