Oprah Winfrey: It Was Hard to Accept Being a Brand

You might think that someone who puts her famous name on everything she does would be comfortable with the notion of self-branding. Not Oprah Winfrey.

"The idea of being a brand was hard for me to accept," the daytime talk show host and soon-to-be cable network founder said during a Q&A session at the American Magazine Conference in Chicago. Winfrey was interviewed by Susan Casey, editor in chief of O, The Oprah Magazine.

"I had no intention of being a brand," she said. "My intention was to just do the work and represent the truth in the work every day. But I guess that's what a brand is."

"I accept that I am a brand now," she added. "I had to learn that being true to yourself is what creates a brand, and as long as you are true to yourself you don't have to worry what the brand is or how the brand is doing or how the brand is faring in the world. I never thought about what are the attributes of my brand. That's for other people to tell me."

Winfrey also talked about her mindset as she approaches the end of The Oprah Winfrey Show next year. "I said to my producers I can't think about it being the last show because every show consumes so much of your energy, and to be present for that show and that moment is all the energy I can give.

"So I'm really not thinking about what the end will be. I'm just trying to focus on making every day memorable for myself. I want this year not to be like the big wedding where you don't remember anything that happened."