Lessons Learned From Oprah

One of my main jobs in life is to keep my wife happy. Yesterday, I did just that.

Over the years, I've been on many sets, but my wife hasn't. For years she has had the dream of attending a taping of The Oprah Show.

So yesterday, I took her there and for the first time, I watched from the audience, as opposed to being the guest, client, or producer of a TV show.

The first thing I noticed as we walked into the waiting room, was that this was a very estrogen-laden room. My brother and I were among less than 20 guys in a room of 250.

The Oprah employee at the top of the stairs suggested that this would be a great place to pick up women... Single guys, he's probably right!

But the PR lesson I learned yesterday occurred during the actual taping.

This was a show on summer parties (Yes, we scored! I feared it would be a "rip-on-men" show, and instead we got fed and got stuff!)

The first guest was a catering expert. Her job was to present easy, inexpensive, stress-free ideas on how to decorate for your party. That was reinforced 3 times in the first 2 minutes of her on-air time.

Unfortunately, almost none of the things that she recommended were easy, inexpensive, or stress-free.

They were cute, but not easy or cheap. And they certainly were stress-creators!

You could just see the minds of Oprah and us as audience members as we added up the numbers and hours and saw the totals hit pretty high levels.

After a few minutes, Oprah started putting in little digs. She was trying to be funny, but it was bittersweet, as it was clear that the concepts being presented weren't what they were positioned to be.

The highlight came when the caterer showed an artificial hanging plant decoration over the table. The caterer said something like "go down to Michaels and get a couple of Styrofoam rings and some silk greenery. Then glue the greenery to the rings and hang it above your table to get an instant 'wow' factor." (Keep in mind that I'm doing this from memory, so these quotes aren't exactly right, but this was the essence.)

Oprah: "You actually expect me to glue that stuff to those rings? Are you kidding?"

Expert: "Yes, it's really easy."

Oprah: "Who did this for you, is he in the audience?"

Expert: "Jesus (pronounced yay-sus) did it - he's right there."

Oprah: "Jesus, how much time did it take you to do that?"

Jesus: "Not long"

Oprah: "How long?"

Jesus: "Only about 45 minutes"

Oprah: "And this is what you do for a living, right?"

Jesus: "Yes, but it was easy."

The point was well taken.

Then, as soon as we were off air, Oprah turned and said "Jesus, how long did it really take you to make that?"

Here's the lesson - the caterer made a key mistake in positioning her content for the show: she pitched her hints as being easy and expensive. They simply weren't.

The exact same content, labeled as "perfect summer party decorations you can make yourself" would have gone over perfectly! The problem was in the positioning. Or, since she was probably asked by Oprah's producers to give easy and expensive, perhaps the problem was in what she presented. Either way, the gap killed the presentation.

What do we learn from this?

Be straightforward in what you pitch, as you'll have to deliver it later on. Don't say you'll do A and actually do B - everyone can name examples where we've seen hosts lay into guests for gaps in what they are presenting.

The show got lots better after that, and I recommend watching it. They told us that it would air July 16th. I'm the slightly balding guy next to the foxy redhead wife you might see beside the aisle as Oprah enters.

Oh, and by the way, the book club's back! East of Eden by Steinbeck.

And yes, I bought my wife the sweatshirt.

And yes, she was happy.

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Tags: Oprah