Oprah's Investment Empire
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Sam Parr shares the story of Oprah's rise from local news anchor to billion-dollar media mogul.
"Oprah started at 17 doing beauty pageants and won Miss Black Tennessee. At 19, she got her first job at CBS station in Nashville. She moved to Maryland, then back to Nashville, eventually becoming the first African American news anchor on TV.
She struggled to show objectivity in news because she showed too much empathy. So she created a show called 'People Are Talking' in 1977. She would improvise and be casual, and by the end of the decade, she was beating Phil Donahue in local ratings.
In 1986, she got her own show, 'The Oprah Winfrey Show,' and established Harpo Productions (Oprah spelled backwards). At 32, she became the first black woman to have a nationally syndicated show, and she still owns 80% of that production company.
She kept innovating - in 1996 created her book club which made $130 million in year one. In '98 she cofounded Oxygen Media Group, launched Oprah Magazine, and had a radio show. The Oprah Show ended in 2010 after 24 years, and she launched OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network) in 2011.
Her investments have been incredible too. In 2015, she bought 10% stake in Weight Watchers and the stock 6x'd within a year or two. She's invested in True Food Kitchens which has 42 locations, helped start a food science startup that has a $1 billion valuation, and is a big investor in Oatly.
Her net worth progression was fascinating - first million at age 32, $340 million at 41, $550 million at 43, and became a billionaire at 48."
Sam Parr
Host of MFM and fitness influencer
Sam Parr is a serial entrepreneur and business media pioneer.
In 2016, he founded The Hustle, a business news media company that started in his kitchen with just $12 and grew to eight figures in revenue.
Sam led the charge in making newsletters popular when few believed in their potential.
After four successful years, he sold The Hustle to HubSpot, a publicly traded company. Now operating as HubSpot Media, The Hustle reaches 3 million readers daily, employs a team of nearly 100, and has been the launchpad for dozens of its staff to found their own media companies and newsletters.
Sam remains the host of the popular business podcast, My First Million, and continues to start and sell companies. He also co-founded Hampton, a highly vetted community for entrepreneurs, founders, and CEOs, and teaches people to write better through his platform, Copy That.