Fine living: San Rafael woman wants to get you on
Oprah
 By
PJ Bremier
05/29/2009 Marin Independent Journal
Forty-four million people
watch Oprah every week. One of them studies her.
For 15 years, Susan Harrow, a
San Rafael media coach
and marketing strategist, has studied "The Oprah Winfrey
Show" to learn what it takes to be a successful guest.
Recently, this Oprah expert was in Chicago to discuss
her insights on "The Oprah Effect" on CNBC.
Her appearance coincides with the release of her updated
book, "The Ultimate Guide to Getting Booked on Oprah,"
which comes with her guarantee that "you will understand
what it takes to be a guest on Oprah and what it takes
to make your appearance a success.
Oprah, says the former publicist, "is the Holy Grail of
books and products. Even if you're a full-time
publicist, getting one guest on Oprah is a major
milestone."
Marin residents are innovators when it comes to green
home and garden products, organic skin-care lines and
healthful lifestyle ideas. What would it take for one of
them to get on Oprah?
A quick way, she says, is to "identify the negative: How
is your house poisoning you? How can skin-care products
harm you? Bring the alert of the imminent danger,
particularly for Oprah, to children, dogs or women, and
then go to the positive. How does your product or idea
solve the problem?"
Oprah, she says, "focuses on issues that are important
to women with themes of education, protecting women and
children from abuse, and a bigger picture of people
contributing to the community. Lately, she's also
focusing on health, particularly on anti-aging and
perimenopause."
For guests, she says, Oprah turns to "experts who really
understand their subject, are mediagenic, authentic and
natural, and can converse in 10- to 20-second sound
bites."
Still, she says "you can get on the show and not have
any results if you're not prepared."
Here are some tips:
-
Brand wisely. Harrow
looks at - and improves - clients' Web-and social
media sites, and YouTube videos. "You can't slap
just anything up there," she says. "It has to be
well-done."
-
Channel beauty. "For
Oprah, beauty is important. It doesn't matter how
functional your product is, if it's not beautiful,
it's not getting on Oprah. That's one of her
values."
-
Consider O Magazine.
"People ignore that option, but it features a ton of
products and it's a super place for longevity," she
says. "Readers don't throw it away. It's been
estimated that 2.65 million people buy the magazine
and six people read each copy. That's 18 million
readers."
-
Practice what you
preach. She's not surprised any more when clients
first ask what they should wear to a media
appearance rather than what they should say.
Her advice: "Determine your
deepest intention. Focus on how you can serve rather
than what you can get. Study the show, watch the style,
practice what to say, choose anecdotes and one-liners
that back up your story and make it compelling. You
don't ever want to sound like a commercial; your job is
to give great information that no one else can give."
- Embrace sound bites. "Oprah's segments typically run
four- to eight-minute segments. You want to be
conversational, but you really only have two to four
minutes total; she and other guests share the rest of
the minutes. "
- Sit up, sit still. "Ninety-seven percent of what
people perceive about you is nonverbal," she says.
"Under pressure, people default to their natural
behavior. I have clients practice all of their mistakes
in front of me, not an audience. What they do in the
first 30 seconds, they'll do in the whole interview and
it ranges from wiggling to slouching, smacking or
looking away."
She pushes clients to perform under extreme pressure,
calling it the "60 Minutes" part of media training. (A
former client, she says, was actually on "60 Minutes."
He was interviewed by Morley Safer, taped for six hours
and positioned positively.)
So, will Harrow be promoting her book on Oprah? "I'll
keep you posted," she laughs. "Her producers are aware
of me. In fact, I've done as much for them as for my
clients. I train people how to pitch them well and be
good guests."
"The Ultimate Guide to Getting Booked on Oprah" is
available on www.prsecrets.com; prices range from $99
for book or e-book, $147 for a book with CDs or $847 for
the superkit, which includes the book, CDs, transcripts
and an online course. All versions contain pitch
letters, sound bite tips, personal branding information,
potential pitfalls and case studies. "I interviewed lots
of publicists and former guests who got on the show by
themselves," she says. "They share their strategies so
you can do it, too."
Guess the color of her jacket she wears on the CNBC clip
at www.prsecrets.com for a chance to win a superkit.
There are plenty of free publicity tips there, too.
PJ Bremier writes on home, garden, design and
entertaining topics every Saturday. She may be contacted
at P.O. Box 412, Kentfield 94914 or pj@mindspring.com.
Click here for the PDF version of this article.
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Susan has also been interviewed,
quoted, featured or profiled in: The New York Times,
USA Today, The Washington Post,
The Boston Globe, The Chicago Tribune,
The Christian Science Monitor, Inc.com, CNN, Advertising Age,
Woman's Day, Ladies' Home Journal,
Women's Wear Daily, Entrepreneur,
Salon Magazine, Pink, the San Francisco
Chronicle, The Orlando Sentinel, and
Investor's Business Daily, and on CNBC,
NPR, national/syndicated TV and radio. |
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