Cruisin' with Oprah's crew Local 'insider' says 'Yay!'

If you're ever in a photo with Oprah Winfrey, just say, "Yay!"

"That’s what she always does," Shelley Webb of Coeur d'Alene said Tuesday. "She said she always tells everyone to say 'Yay' in the pictures, which I've learned now, because it gives you a nice, soft expression."

Webb, an O, The Oprah Magazine Insider, just returned from a Girls' Getaway Cruise to the Bahamas with Winfrey and other Insiders. Webb was one of six who won the trip by submitting a stellar 10-page social media marketing plan for the Girls' Getaway partnership between O, The Oprah Magazine and Holland America Lines.

"On the O-themed cruises, they’ll do things like meditations and yoga. They’ll have conversations behind the scenes of the magazine," Webb said. "They’ll have some beauty talks, things that are related to what women like because basically that’s the target audience for the magazine."

Webb was selected to be an O Mag Insider after she saw an advertisement for the new program in the January 2017 issue of The Oprah Magazine and decided to apply.

"I thought, 'Why not?'" she said. “Out of thousands of people, they selected 50, and I was one of them."

O Mag Insiders are brand ambassadors who develop relationships with the companies advertised in the magazine. They try out the products and share reviews on social media, and they get to participate in events and vacations where they have opportunities to rub elbows with Winfrey herself.

The Insiders come from a variety of professions and backgrounds: chef, writer, photographer, entrepreneur, veterinarian, art teacher, marketing consultant, life coach, lawyer.

"Pretty much our one thing in common is Oprah and the magazine," Webb said.

Webb said she has followed Winfrey since she first read a Cosmopolitan article about her in the summer of 1984. She said a big part of why she and other Insiders gravitate to Winfrey is the kindness she exhibits — "Kindness towards everyone and everything."

"She also talks about what you send off into the world comes back to you multiplied," Webb said. "If you are sending off kindness, kindness will come back to you. If you send off critical thoughts, those kinds of thoughts will come back to you.

"I admire her as a mentor and a person who just does great things in the world. She’s not out there just for herself — she’s out there doing good, making sure girls get educated."

Webb got to shake the influential Winfrey's hand and have a photo taken with her, as well as attend a VIP reception where Holland America awarded Winfrey $40,000 for the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa.

She also got to sit in on an interview with Tara Westover, the author of "Educated," a memoir of being raised by survivalists in the Idaho mountains without a formal education.

"I knew she was going to talk, but I didn’t know Oprah was going to interview her, so they did a 'Super Soul Sunday' session," Webb said. "She interviewed her about the book. I loved that, that was great. And Tara comes from Idaho."

Webb, a retired nurse, now works in social media and writes a lifestyle blog, "Intentional Living," for women 50 and older.

Although her time with Winfrey was brief, she said it was the other Insiders who really made the experience special.

"The best part about the cruise is meeting the other Insiders and talking with all the people who were there," Webb said. "I’ve only been on two cruises, but the people on the cruise are so friendly and they’re all talking to each other, and I would never expect that to happen. I'm sure it has something to do with the like-minds of Oprah and living your best life and getting along with everybody. That really amazed me."

Info: www.intentionalcaregiver.com