To method-act the persona
and circumvent the ego

Dress – Winfrey is quite glamorous and stylish and obviously takes great care and pride in her appearance. Over the years, her appearance has changed frequently, with a varying weight gains and losses. Her hairstyles also change frequently, even daily. While you are being Winfrey, you will need to pay careful attention to your personal grooming and your clothing. You should also find ways to change your appearance on a daily basis like styling your hair differently or wearing clothes you would not normally wear. Combine your clothes in new and interesting ways to reinvent your look frequently.

Speech – Winfrey does not rein in her emotions. She can be boisterous, gushing, or sentimental, but she always speaks from the heart. Speak passionately and loudly. Use popular colloquialisms to show you are “hip” and try to energize those around you. Don’t be afraid to be earthy. Mentioning things like your stomach is rumbling or you need to pee make you more relatable.

Hone your oratory skills – When Oprah was young, her grandmother recognized her talent for oration and encouraged her to learn Bible verses and other passages to recite in public. She performed these at churches around Nashville. In school, she continued to refine her oratory skills by competing in dramatic recitation and oration contests and winning awards. Her mellifluous voice and comfort with public speaking helped her land her first break in radio news and provided the backbone for her anchoring jobs and then her talk show. Now she is a much sought-after speaker, and you can find dozens of her speeches on YouTube. Her ease with candid, emotional, and often intimate speeches contributes to her ability to influence others. The following activities will help you master Oprah’s speaking style.

Practice dramatic recitation – Find a dramatic speech or passage that speaks to you, a piece that stirs your emotions, and practice it in many different styles until you’ve learned it by heart. Be very dramatic and act it out using different voices, cadences, tones, and volume. Your goal is to bring your audience to tears.

Create your own TED Talk on your passion – Choose a topic you’re passionate about and begin writing a speech. Watch Oprah’s 2018 Golden Globes Acceptance speech for inspiration. Follow this formula:

1. Open with a revealing or personal narrative about how this topic relates to you. Talk about and express your feelings.
2. Capture the humanity of the story – tell a tale of a specific person and how they were impacted.
3. Empathize with your audience’s state of mind – Reference what you believe they fear or doubt or their likely reaction. For instance, “you may think this is impossible, but ..”
4. Describe a better world that we could build together – appeal to people’s hopes and dreams and their better selves
5. Intersperse relatable pragmatism and humor with the hopes – For instance, saving the world is more difficult when your feet hurt or you can only afford McDonalds. This type of interjection shows that you are relatable and understand practical objections using humor. Oprah will often adopt the voice of a character to provide comic relief.
6. Add specifics – Pepper your speech with concrete examples and actions
7. End on high – Appeal to the audience to imagine that better world and their role in helping to create it.

Manifest your passion – Oprah is a fan of The Secret, which states that your thoughts can bring about positive changes. First, you need to pray or put your request out to the universe, then believe that your prayer will be answered, and, finally, be open to receiving the gift in whatever form it takes. Part of this process is to visualize what you want, in order to make it concrete in your mind. Keep in mind that Oprah is not a visionary. She built her career one step at a time without having a master plan, so your request should be a small step toward your passion, not a grand vision. Draw a picture of yourself with your request fulfilled and revisit that picture at least once a day to keep it in your thoughts.

Connect your passion to your purpose – One of Winfrey’s favorite guest was a woman from Zimbabwe, Tererai Trent, who was born into extreme poverty in a remote village. Tererai dreamed of coming to America and getting an education. After years of poverty, Tererai eventually realized her dream, even pursuing a PhD. When she was young, Tererai wrote down her dreams and buried them under a rock. Write down three life goals and find a place to hide them. Remind yourself daily of their existence.

Perfect your interviewing skills – In addition to being a gifted orator, Oprah conducts remarkably open and candid interviews with her guests, so well that the phrases “You got Oprah’d” means someone extracted a confession from you, and “Oprahfication” means increased attention to emotional states and personal problems. When people think of empathy, Oprah is one of the first people who come to mind, and her empathy with her guests and audience are part of what make her a trusted influencer. Use the following steps to practice an empathetic interview.

1. Select interesting people – Through her show, Oprah was able to make many connections and used it as a vehicle to meet people she admired. While you may not have a show, people tend to be giving of their time when you are seeking their advice and expertise. Find a reason, preferably related to the topic of your speech, to conduct a few interviews, in-person, virtually, or by phone, and begin to schedule those. You should do at least one, but take the opportunity to do more if it will get you noticed. Oprah is definitely an opportunist.

2. Be prepared – Oprah often says that luck is preparation meets opportunity. Find out everything you can about your interviewee without being creepy and highlight what you have in common. Write out your questions in advance and review them several times, committing them to memory.

3. Open with a commonality – When Oprah interviewed Whitney Houston, she started by showing childhood photos of her and Whitney with the same braided hairstyle and joked about how every black girl of that age wore that style. Find an introduction that shows you have something in common. Make sure you talk about that common ground to establish that you are similar.

4. Give your complete attention to your interviewee – While many interviewers openly refer to their note cards during an interview, you don’t see Oprah doing this. Nor does she plan her next response or question while the other person is talking, which is what most of us do. You can see that she gives her subject her complete attention, nodding along with uum-hmms in agreement, repeating portions of their statements, and often clarifying to make sure she understands completely. This is why you need to be familiar with your questions.

5. Try to get inside their heads and hearts – She often asks “How did you feel about that?” And you should similarly ask about their emotional states. If that question seems abrupt, preface it with a statement about your own emotional reaction, like “I would have been very angry, were you angry about it?”

6. Act like you’re friends – Many journalists take an aggressive approach to their interviewees, but Oprah’s interviews seem more like a couple of friends gabbing about their personal lives. This friendly atmosphere is key to people feeling comfortable about opening up. Use chit chat during your interview to keep it friendly. Reveal personal information about yourself to keep the conversation going.

7. Go with your gut or heart – If the interview doesn’t go as expected, let your gut lead you to where it should go. But don’t let your interviewee off the hook if they evade questions. You want honest and candid answers, but you want your interviewee to be comfortable talking. You might want them back for another show in the future.

Perform your speech – Find opportunities to perform your speech and your dramatic recitation. You didn’t learn these to keep them secret. At a minimum, you can record and post on social media, but there’s no substitute for performing in front of a live audience. It’s okay to tell people that you are imitating Oprah if that gives you the courage to take the stage.

Share a revealing story – Oprah shared many personal details of her life on her show, including her sexual abuse as a child, her teenage pregnancy, and use of crack cocaine. While criticized for oversharing, this intimacy established trust with her audience. People felt that they knew everything about her, as they would a friend. In a social situation, reveal something personal about yourself that you wouldn’t normally share. See if that revelation leads to a more personal conversation.

Give small gifts – Winfrey famously gives gifts to her audience, some being quite extravagant, like cars or trips. While you cannot be expected to buy your friends and associates new cars, find small gifts that you can share, like bringing in bagels or donuts to work, or buying funny souvenirs for your friends, to make the people around you feel special and appreciated. Better yet, if you’re crafty, make personalized mementos. And be the person who instigates celebrations for birthdays, anniversaries, and small wins.

Share what interests you – Winfrey is also known for her “My favorite things” segment of her show. Begin sharing some of your favorite things, for instance bringing in favorite foods, sharing articles, music, or videos and also start recommending books, movies, TV shows, products, or retailers. Be sure you let people know why you are recommending it as one of your favorite things.

Expand your role – A noteworthy aspect of Winfrey’s career is her ability to recognize opportunities and grow her business. Each of her successes opened a door for a new success. She parlayed her hosting job into ownership of her show, then ownership of a production company, then a full-blown studio, then more shows, and eventually a multi-media empire, all one step at a time. She had no grand plan to enact, rather, at each decision point she obtained more control over her fate. Oprah was mindful of the “slave mentality” where you worked to please your boss. She wanted to be her own boss and have creative control over her endeavors. Your activity will be to evaluate your current work and find ways to expand it and/or own it. Some ideas are to take on full ownership for a particular task or create a larger audience for your work. Look for a small step rather than a big leap in responsibility.

Nurture others to succeed at what you do – Winfrey helped start the careers of successful TV personalities Rachael Ray, Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz. Oprah met Dr. Phil when she hired his firm as trial consultants in a lawsuit filed by the Texas beef industry. Afterward, she invited him to be a guest on her show where he became a regular fixture until Harpo Productions launched the Dr. Phil show. Similarly, Winfrey groomed Ray and Oz through appearances on her show before they went on to host their own. Your activity will be to groom someone else in what you do, but they shouldn’t be a direct imitation (or your competition.) The new shows were different from Oprah. Find someone who wants to learn part of your job and start inviting that person to your meetings, sharing some of your managerial responsibilities, and, if applicable, allowing them to manage another team member. Throughout this process, provide coaching on how to perform the work and positive feedback to build confidence.