272. How I manifested meeting Oprah

I handed my book Voiceprint to THE OPRAH WINFREY.
In this episode, I take you behind the scenes of how I manifested this wild, magical moment.

You’ll hear the full story, including:
✨ How one casual comment from Mum became a powerful intention
✨ The words and energetic practices I used (straight from Chapter 13 of Voiceprint)
✨ The sliding-door moments that aligned with perfect timing
✨ Why action matters just as much as belief
✨ How energetic frequency puts you in the path of extraordinary opportunities

This isn’t just a story about meeting Oprah. It’s a masterclass in how to manifest with your voice, call in what you desire, and act with courage—even when your hair is wet, you’re makeup-free, and you’re sprinting down the street chasing an Uber.

If you’ve ever wondered whether your voice can shape your reality… this episode is your sign.

Transcript

Oh my gosh, if That Voice Podcast ever had some breaking news, it is this Episode 272. My mom joked, it was the moment two podcasting queens finally came face to face, and even recording this a few days later, the adrenaline has not left my body. I handed my book Voice Print in person to the Oprah Winfrey. For real!

In this episode, I'm going to take you behind the scenes of how this happened. No gatekeeping here, to show you that you can manifest with your voice. It's actually all in Chapter 13 of the book Voice Print. If you haven't got the book, take this as your sign to go and get it, especially if you see it in stock.

And I'd like to start by sharing an excerpt from Chapter 13:

Ready to call in what you want. Start by calling it out with your voice. You can't attract what you won't articulate. The way you speak to yourself and others has a direct impact on your experience of reality. The words we speak cast spells into the world. In fact, the word abracadabra, that's also very on theme for this week because I saw Lady Gaga in Brisbane, Abracadabra! That's the amount of singing you'll get. Gosh, her voice is unbelievable. Okay, back to the book:

In fact, the word abracadabra comes from the Aramaic or Hebrew phrase, meaning, "I create as I speak".

Now, this is a story. I'm not reading from the book anymore. This is a story with three key parts that all needed to come together to make this happen. You might call it luck, but as Oprah herself says, "Luck is when preparation meets opportunity".

The first part of this story was intention. So a few months ago, mom and I were chatting in the kitchen. I was at her place and she said, Oh honey, you should give your book to Oprah. She's all about the power of your voice. And I was like, Mom, are you serious? Like you can't just walk up to Oprah Winfrey!

But then I started thinking about it. We did have tickets to the show. It was the night after my book launch in Brisbane. She'd been in the same city, and my book Voice Print is literally about the power of voice. Something Oprah really values and shares. It's like pretty much her whole brand.

So that's when I started to do what I teach people to do, use their voice. So I didn't just write my intention down, I spoke it. And this is what Chapter 13 invoice print is all about. It's all about manifesting with your voice. You can't attract what you won't articulate. And so I began to say on a daily basis: "Oprah is holding my book. I'm meeting Oprah, she's holding my book".

And on the 14th of November, I went to the Ignite Conference put on by the wonderful Cherie Canning. I'd highly recommend going next year, get your tickets. And the opening keynote at Ignite was by Natalie Cook, the incredible gold medalist in volleyball. And as part of her talk, she talked about the gold medal moment and got us to draw a gold medal on our page and you had to put in the gold medal what you wanted to do.

And I wrote on that page: "Give Oprah my book". So this was a lot of intention laying. And I actually sat next to Nat Cook's partner, Sarah. Hello Sarah, if you're listening. And we were talking about this and she said, Oh look, I know where Oprah's staying. She's staying in South Bank. I'm like, Oh, the Emporium. And she's like, Maybe?

So I knew that was the location. And then at the opening of my launch party, which was the day before on the Sunday, those of you who were there, thank you for coming. Oh my gosh, how great was it? So good. The host for the afternoon, the beautiful, amazing Katrina Blowers, who is a journalist with Channel 7. She introduced me by saying, Wow, this is like an Oprah moment. You're going to give everyone a car. And then I grabbed the microphone and I said, Well, I do hear she's in town!

Little did we know, the real Oprah moment was less than 24 hours away. So something I didn't tell anyone. On my desk was a copy of Voice Print with a handwritten note inside addressed to Oprah. I had that written and I had that ready, sitting on my desk like she would, you know, casually knock on my door and say, Hello, do you have my book? So I had that written.

And then the next morning comes Monday and I am pretty spent. You know, it was a pretty big day for those of you who were there. I was signing and photos, and it was a pretty full-on day. And I'll get to more of that later. So I had had my shower, my hair was wet, I had no makeup on, no bra, living my best post party life. Like you know how good it feels when you just wake up and you have your everything: shower, you do your skincare and you're just settling in. And I was going to spend a day at home. The only outing I needed to do was to drop my dress off from Sunday. I hired the dress and I was dropping it off on Monday.

And the reason I'm starting this story from here is because when things like this happen, you realize there are a lot of sliding doors, moments, there are a lot of little moments that all led to it happening.

And it really started with the time that Patrick left for work because I'm like,Ookay, when you leave, I'll leave with my dress. And he left a little bit later than was planned, but I'm like, that's fine, I'll just, I'll leave with you. So I left with Patrick, he goes down to his car and I'm walking up the street to hand back my dress. And I had a little look on my LinkedIn messages. And I had a message from Kate from the Village Voice, which is the local mag in our area here in Brisbane. And she was asking to do an interview, which was fantastic.

Now because I was walking, I'm not a walker and a texter. I'm somebody that if I try to text while I walk, I'm gonna run into a pole. This is also why you don't see me doing much like walking social content, 'cause it's like too dangerous. I'm definitely gonna run into something. And so I decided instead of writing back and I had a lot of messages coming in, I'll just ring her.

So I gave her a call and we were chatting and she said, Great, let's catch up on Wednesday and can you send through just a couple of photos from the launch that might be good for the article? So I get back upstairs and I messaged Katrina. And I'd been talking to Katrina back and forth, you know, of course thanking her for Sunday, saying how amazing she was. How amazing was Katrina by the way?

So I was reaching out to Katrina again, because I wanted to give to the paper the amazing photo of the two of us. And it was on her camera. So I wanted her to send it through. And I'm going to read from the text messages, no gatekeeping here. I'm sharing exactly what happened.

So sorry, me again, because I didn't message in Katrina. So sorry me again. The village voice would like to do a piece and I was hoping you could send that amazing photo of us at the launch to use. And she sent through the photo, amazing photo and said, Oh my goodness, of course glad you were getting some publicity. And I said, thank you. It's just the village voice, but not giving up on Oprah. Katrina wrote back, I just met her. Haha. I was on stakeout at her hotel. She is so, so kind.

Katrina, Channel 7 journalist. The story she was put on was to track Oprah Winfrey, who's in Brisbane. I wrote back, Really??

Katrina wrote: Fortune Favors the Brave. I said, That is true.

Any idea how long I'd need to run from 10 Arif? For those of you who know Brisbane, 10 Arif over to Southbank in an Uber, you know, it can take 20 minutes depending on traffic.

Katrina: I wish I knew, but I'd imagine at least 20 to 30 minutes. I don dunno if she's just walking or having breakfast, too.

Now this brings me to the second part of this story. So the first part was intention. Now it brings me to action.

Katrina's message, again: I wish I knew, I imagined 20 to 30 mins. I dunno if she's just walking or having breakfast two. And that was when I went into action. I said, Okay, I'll Uber over. She wrote back, Do It, come to the front on Gray Street.

By that time I had grabbed the book on my desk. I hadn't even gone back downstairs to look in the mirror. I had some shoes up here in the office, which I threw on and literally bolted out the door. I ordered an Uber while I was in the hallway and I saw that it was dropping someone off nearby. So after it was secured, I just started sprinting towards the place where they were dropping the other people off. And I like leapt out on the road in front of this Uber to be like, Hello, I'm Sally. Hello, hello.

I'm like, Hello, we need to get to South Bank because I'm meeting Oprah!

And I did a video in the Uber explaining what was happening. And you might've seen that on my stories where I was like, I just got straight in this Uber. If I were to ever imagine what I would be presented like to meet Oprah Winfrey, it would not be: wet hair, no makeup, no bra around the house, little outfit... You know, none of those!

That's why they say with manifestation, you've got to just put into the universe what you want and not worry too much about the how. Because if we get too bogged down in the how, then you know the universe, she's a bit of a joke, Steve, if you ask me. She's just like, No, she was just her idea of a bit of a prank on me. But you know, it was perfect.

It was like, it may not have happened if it was any other way. So it's a good example of you are not gonna feel ready for a lot of things. You're not gonna feel ready to speak on stage. You're not gonna feel ready to go live on social media. You might not feel ready to start a podcast, to guest on a podcast, to speak at an event.

Whatever it is, don't be ready to take action. Take action to be ready. So this is, this is your sign. If you're waiting to feel ready, you might be waiting for a long time. As Katrina said, Fortune favors the brave. And I took action.

I immediately went down there and there was time we were waiting for a while, but could you imagine if I had gone to put on some makeup or something and just missed her? You'd never forgive yourself. So we're waiting for a while and then she starts walking down the street. And this is where I also needed to be courageous and take action.

I of course didn't want to invade her personal space, didn't wanna be one of those like crazy fans that her minders would have to tackle on the side of the street. I just took a breath in and I walked up to her with my book and I said, Hi Oprah, my name's Sally. I'm a voice coach and I grew up watching you on TV with my mom and we can't wait to see you tonight!

I'm telling you, it did not sound quite as resonant as then. I honestly have never been more nervous. I've done a lot of speaking, I've never been more nervous. And she smiled and she said, Oh, what's your mother's name? And I panicked. And that was when I suddenly couldn't say Sue. I said, Susan.

You know, like it was a royal protocol. Like she was the queen. I mean, she's the queen, right? And then Oprah opened the book. She read the note which said, Dear Oprah, thank you for inspiring so many people to own the power of their voice print. And then she said, Voice print. That's a nice idea. Very cool! And she turned the book and held it up to the cameras.

Oprah Winfrey, the Oprah Winfrey, touched my hand, read my words, and radiated so much warmth. I briefly left my body. The energy coming off that incredible woman is powerful. I felt like I'd been transported off the streets of Southbank and was about to go into some other dimension frequency-wise. I did. And that's the third part of the story.

So after it happened, Oprah walked down into her hotel, uh, did a bit of an interview with the, actually I missed that part. Did an interview with Channel 7 and Channel 9 while just casually holding my book. Oh my goodness, so good! And when she went into the hotel, Katrina turned around and was like, Oh my God!! And I was like, Oh my God!

I was so excited. My heart was pounding. Like I cannot remember a time in the last few years when I have felt like that elated! Maybe when I managed to secure Taylor Swift concert tickets, that was probably up there with this level of excitement!

I rang Mom. Mom, you will not believe what just happened. I mean, in truth, I said, Holy fuck, you will not believe what just happened. And I was on speaker phone with everyone who was at my mom's from the day after the launch. And mom was like, Oh honey, that's great!

But she was kind of completely unfazed. She said, Oh, I told her to give your book to Oprah, a good one. You did it good on you! It was so, it's like, turns out it was as easy as walking up and handing it to her. And I really do believe that mom's casual confidence, that real sense of not just possibility, but inevitability helped manifest this moment for me. And it's what's helped manifest a lot of things in my life, I believe.

Looking back, there was so many things growing up with achievement that became normalized. It's not that we weren't celebrated, and it's not that we felt in any way, like what we did wasn't fantastic. And it wasn't an expectation, it was just this inner belief.

So if I got A's at the school or won public speaking competition, or traveled overseas or whatever I did, mum was like, Yeah, of course you did! Of course you did. It doesn't surprise me at all. You're my daughter! And that true belief and confidence has made a big difference for me.

And as a coach, I know that not everybody had that experience growing up and not everybody was around these voices of unwavering belief. In fact, a lot of people who I work with grew up with the voice of, That's not enough or that's not for you. And I wonder whether if I had have said to mom, Oh mom, I'm thinking of maybe getting my book to Oprah, and she turned around and said, Oh God, how are you gonna do that? How's someone like you gonna walk up to Oprah Winfrey like, oh my gosh, get your head out of the clouds. Stop being delusional. Stop having these delusions of grandeur.

Perhaps things would've been different. And you might like to think in your life where someone else is poo-pooing your ideas, crushing your dreams, saying you're being unrealistic. Because I tell you what, I would not think it would be realistic to walk up to Oprah Winfrey and hand her my book.

Especially when all of the meet and greets at all of the big events around Australia are a strict no-gift policy. So even people who had the opportunity to have a photo with her, they were not handing her things. You weren't allowed to. There was lots of evidence for why this couldn't happen, but it did.

Intention was the first part, action was the second part. And it's got me thinking, do you want something badly enough that you would sprint out your front door with wet hair, no makeup and no bra and chase an Uber down the street as Lady Gaga says, How bad bad do you want me? I was thinking it's true. Like how bad do you want things to happen? Because the most challenging part of getting what you want is knowing what you want. I know you're all waiting to hear what the third part of this story is.

Part one, intention, part two, action. Part three, energetics. Energetics, frequency vibration.

I 100% believe that if on the Sunday I was having a quiet Sunday at home where I did a couple of loads of washing, did the sheets, went to yoga, did a face mask, you know, sounds like a pretty great Sunday, right?

If I'd been doing that, I don't think I would have met Oprah on the Monday at lunchtime. I have this knowing that I wouldn't have, having the big book launch party on Sunday put me in the frequency to meet Oprah Winfrey. And it's funny because maybe I said this to you, I was like, Oh my gosh, this is celebrity life.

Because after the formalities, I stood at the table signing books and taking photos for two hours straight. I did not move. I went from the formalities over to the photo table and I did not move for more than two hours. It was, it was awesome. A hundred people there. We were dancing. It was this beautiful venue looking out over the river. I had professional makeup, amazing professional makeup. My hair was done. I had a a floor length, black sequined gown, high hot pink heels.

I even got a spray tan for this. I'm real whitey white and I don't really mind being white, but I thought, No, you know, it's summer. Let's just get a little bit of a bronze look. So I even had the spray tan, which does look great in the photos.

But I was really in this celebrity frequency and that energy was still within me and around me into the next day. So even though I had had my after event shower, I had a shower on the Sunday as well. Don't, I think I'm like, you know, unhygienic or anything, but you know.

It was another shower the next morning just to wash my hair and relax. Even though I was not in the full getup, I still had that energy. I was able to raise my vibration just enough to kiss the bottom of hers. And I mean this, that woman has an incredible frequency and incredible aura.

Who she is and what she's done and what she stands for, and the way she holds energy. That was clear for anyone who went to her show, the way she could hold the energy of those enormous arenas that takes a level of frequency that most of us don't have. And because of Sunday, I had that brief crossover and was able to meet her intention plus action, plus the energetic match is what made this incredible meeting happen.

Now, if you would like the step-by-step on how to manifest with your voice, more detail around what I was saying in the lead up in the intention part, you have to get your copy of Voice Print and put a little post-it on page 178. So 178 to 179 is what actually has the step-by-step on what you need to do.

So from here, who knows, just from that meeting on Monday, so many amazing people have come into my world, people joining Soul Speakers signing up to my programs, my 12-month high-level coaching.

The conversations may have started with me saying, Oh, we can do a couple of sessions or for 12 months you can work with me unlimited for this amount. And everyone I've spoken to this week has been, Yep, 12 months, let's go. Yep, 12 months, let's go. Yep, 12 months, let's go.

By the way, I've only got a couple more of those 12-month packages left. If you wanna, if you wanna go, it's unlimited sessions. I'm completely on retainer for 12 months, then get in touch. That's the energetics.

So from here, who knows, Oprah may have walked into that hotel and given the book to someone on the front desk and never thought about it or saw it again. She may have given it to someone in her entourage. And one of the questions I got was, Well, was I able to just approach her? And the answer was yes. She had people like minders people around her.

But I'm pleased to say that as I approached, especially having the news cameras nearby, I don't think they saw me as much of a threat. And she was more than happy to talk to me. And to be honest, in hindsight, if I'd been too dolled up, she probably wouldn't have been as warm. I really looked like a regular blow-in off the street.

As my mother used to say, honey, look what the cat dragged in after some nights out when I was a teenager. Okay, so she may have opened it, she might tell someone about it at her show in Brisbane, Oprah spoke about voice scams and people cloning your voice after just a few seconds. And that's all of Chapter two, the VP black market. So when she started saying that, I'm like, Ooh, maybe she did read the book, or at least proves what I've written about is very topical.

You never know, it might get to Oprah's book club! You never know. I might get an invite on her podcast.

So the most common question I got after that meeting on Monday was, Sal, how did it happen? How did you do it? Was it random or did you plan it? And I say it was completely random and completely planned.

That's the paradox.

I'd like to leave you with a story at the end of Chapter 13 in Voice Print, Lucky 13. It's a good chapter to write about manifestation and it's not a story about how I met Oprah as that happened, well, after this went to print.

The story I share started with the same question that I got about the Oprah meeting:

"Sal, you're so lucky. How did you get that?"

An acquaintance from university was surprised to hear me reading the news on the local radio station and approached me one day after class. She assumed I knew someone or my parents knew someone, or I just got a phone call out of the blue. "I rang the radio station".

She looked baffled. "How did you get the number?"

"Oh, I looked it up in the phone book." This was before the days of Google.

"And how did you know what to say?"

No wonder she was studying journalism. All the questions.

"The truth is, I was extremely nervous and didn't know what to say, but I winged it and asked the receptionist if I could speak to the newsroom. Next thing, I was invited in to meet the news director, which led to work experience, which led to a job."

There are two types of people. Type 1, those who make up stories about why other people succeed and excuses for why they can't. Type 2: Those who get out there and make it happen, they work with what they've got, they ask and they act.

Manifestation is intention plus action. So make sure you take action to match your voice and don't underestimate the power of just asking. Ready to speak your dream life into existence? If you say so.