Originally from long island, New York Forbes Riley began her life in the limelight when she was named miss teenage New York and made her television debut with Bob hope and the miss teenage America pageant. Since then, she has appeared on numerous TV shows and movies. However, She has become a familiar face to millions for hosting and appearing on countless infomercials and live TV.
She has been a spokesperson for some of the biggest brands and is literally sold billions of dollars worth of products and services through direct response, TV, and live appearances. In addition to that, Forbes is a successful entrepreneur and inventor, the fashion star and author, a mother. A life coach and a motivational speaker Forbes.
It’s an honor. Welcome to the run GPG podcast. You know, David, I should just wake up in the morning. Have you read the bio? Cause it makes me feel very important. I love it. Thank you. It’s impressive. And it’s your bio actually. That’s not really impressive. Actually. What you’re missing is, and I helped create a little thing called the X game.
1995 with Stuart Scott starting more than two dozen movies. And actually it’s 2.5 billion in sales, but Hey, we’re just getting started. And this little guy also 2.2 million of these things. So, you know, come a long way from being this teenage New York. Absolutely. There’s a lot to get into here today. You know, when we break down your bio, I mean, So much interesting, you know, facts to, you know, where you started, where you are now, but I’ve heard you speak.
And I was telling you this before. You’re one of the most dynamic speakers motivators I’ve ever listened to. So the first question is, have you always been like that? Are you someone who’s always been a dynamic person? I’ve always been absolutely picture. Perfect. Life is so easy for me and Ooh, never freaking know.
In fact, it’s so funny because you start out with, in this teenage New York thing, you want to start by who I am. I’m a little girl from long island, grew up talking like this who had frizzy hair. I braces for eight years of my life. When I was eight years old, I got hit in the face with a baseball bat. My nose grew really crooked and I was anything.
All the things that you’re mentioning. And, I was also overweight because fast food had just come out. I’m going to actually bring up a picture because I think one of the problems with media is that we’re all comparing ourselves to something that looks picture perfect on camera. Right. But so not what you see here is what I create is what I dreamed I could be if I got it all together.
And there’s no way, I mean, I think in high school I was voted least likely to even show up. Like no one knew I was there because when I was 15 years old on top of everything I dealt with, my dad stuck his hand in a printing press by accident, had an accident. It’s been three years in the hospital, 15 operations, and now there’s ugly, awkward, goofy little girl who has no friends anyway is in the hospital every night with.
Okay. Now people always say to me, I love the power of zoom because I’m going to show you something to prove this point. Okay. Can you guys see my screen here? So this is my dad and I will say the biggest thing that I had going for me was two loving parents, because that makes a big difference growing up.
And I started out very cute. But as you can see, I had this big gap in my mouth. Apparently I had a very weird cleft, that cute little nose when I’m eight years old will go by, by when I get hit. And for eight years, David, do you have kids? Yes. To. 22 and 19. And then when they were little putting a brace, your daughter embraces for eight years and then, then that Patricia for a crew here I talk, I get for her for, I couldn’t even be heard here.
I am a very overweight, ugly, broken nose, frizzy hair girl with very few friends. My dad’s in the hospital, right. My mom says to me, we have no money for college. And I’m like, well, there’s my dad actually. And there’s a printing press and that’s how it all happened. And so this is me and. Well, there is a beauty pageant coming to town.
I’m like, and we both looked at each other. It’s like, yeah, I know you don’t look like Marsha Brady. And my dad’s doctor overheard us talking and he said, I’ll fix her nose. I was 15 years old when I fixed her nose. Well, he did. And David, I got to tell you I’m an advocate of any kind of plastic surgery because it made that girl look really.
Like really cute. And I entered this pageant and entrepreneurs are always talking. We need this. Why? You know what my, why was my, why was I wanted to save my family? We had no money. My dad was in the hospital for two years. And just because that little nose and a sense of confidence, I beat out 500 girls from miss teenage New York.
And I, when there. And it was, and that’s a hand-me-down bridesmaid’s dress, but I had a very clear that my teeth were straight. My nose was fine. And all of a sudden then I went to the nationals, Ms. Teenage in New York with Bob hope. I’m a little overweight, but I was cute enough to get there. And here’s the crazy thing about that.
I did get to college and there’s my mom 260 pounds, her whole life, which is why. I am so P I care about fitness so much, but now I created this forms. Riley, and I look the way I had dreamed because I grew up watching TV and movies. And as an isolated, awkward, weird kid, it kind of paid off. You know, I have a great understanding of people who suffer.
I looked the way I want to look. I think, I think I’ve got acute and you know what, and I’m older than most people, which is weird. Like, yeah, you don’t, you don’t look a day over 29, you know this, do I look 61? You’re 61. I know. See that’s the part. I, I did not do the research on that. I didn’t. I didn’t think you were 61 though.
Well, here’s the funny thing I, in my license says it, but I just don’t believe it. And if you don’t believe it, it’s not real. And then the other part of my story is I wanted to fall in love with an amazing map. I had been married. I also raised a kid who was murdered. There’s a lot to this. I raised a little boy for 12 years from south central, who six months after my beautiful twins were born, was gunned down by a gang member.
Not he was in a gang. He was walking from a haircut to church, wrong place, wrong color. He was wearing blue. And, and, you know, and so for me, one of the things that’s been important that kind of destroyed my marriage. It destroyed both of us for a long time. We have these two beautiful twins who just turned 18 and I wanted to do the second act of my life.
And I said something crazy. I said, I want to follow with somebody who looks like he walked off the cover of a romance. I had a whole lot of other things. Like he needed to be really nice. He needed to roll over in the morning and say, when my hair is all frizzy, my mascara is down my face going, you’re the most beautiful thing in the world.
And he does. And then January of this last year, 2020, he was on his motorcycle. He got hit by a car. He lost all of his muscles. He shattered his entire ankle coma surgery, a horrible things. And I want to share with you that this man, it’s kind of a cool thing here is. My love, but he shriveled away to nothing.
He was a bodybuilder before that and he said, I’m going to be Mr. Olympia in 20 21st of October. And David, this is what he looks like now. And he is 17 years younger than me. And I will tell you, it’s one reason I have to work out so hard to look good. Cause I want to look like his wife and not his mother.
There we go. Wow. That’s impressive. That’s. Yeah. How long did that take? How long did that take one year, one, one year, one year. That’s it. Now he’d trained before, so I’m sure there’s some muscle memory, but I have to tell you, I’ve watched this man with a crutch. He still limps get out of bed every day, whether he wants to or not, and live the life of a champion.
We have three weeks left to go and I don’t want to cry, but I’m so freaking proud of him. And we met. This is another crazy thing. I’m all about manifesting. So while all I passed is nice. And now I like the fact that I kind of set you straight, that it’s not all that it looks, this is a life that I fought for.
And now I fight for other people’s because Forbes Riley, we even have a banner thing is what would Forbes do Forbes would do is she would be outrageous. She thinks outside the box. I’ve had, I’ve talked about her and sometimes in the third person, because she’s pretty. At home. My actually Joshua calls me by my given name because I learned something about male and female energy.
How long have you been married? 25 years graduations. I bet that your wife is sweet and pretty and loves you, but she doesn’t challenge you. Like she doesn’t want to be more macho than you. No, no, I don’t think so. Well, here’s what happened for us is that when after Dexter died, I went to work because I was, my career was building and my six foot six ex-husband was a Notre Dame football player.
I’d come home like this going on. I slayed the world. I did all this and he’d go, well, here’s dinner, honey. Let’s watch the babies. And then I go, let’s go to the bedroom. And he’s like, I got laundry and I lost a little. Again, we’re both young and naive who knew, right. I then would come home really tough and he’d be really tough and we’d go, bam.
You know what? It didn’t Dawn on me. It didn’t Dawn on me to come home in my feminine because I’d been working so hard. And when, by the way, when you’re in business, you get rejected. You gave it, you know, hooked on all over the place. And I now learned that I need to be my. And I need to let my man be his, be who he is.
And that’s been an interesting journey for us because when women are on their own long enough in business, we get really tough. That’s not fun to be around because you also have a male and female energy inside of you. And that’s been a, a great life lesson. I like to tell my women, especially my single women don’t be at, you know, don’t be the matches.
You’re laughing. Don’t be well, it was because I just, I just replayed that. The only reason I thought about is cause my. She’s, you know, she’s pretty tough, right. So she can push me a little, but you’re right. You know, there has to be, she pushes you as a woman because we know how to do that. Oh yeah. Trust me.
I, nobody explained the, the little ins the idiosyncrasies I probably should have been. Yes. Well, Hey, shout out to us 25 years. I’ve never said that on the show though. Monumental. Yeah. It’s a long time. It’s a long time and yes, I was a teenager. Had to be look how young I look. I had my babies at 42. Yeah.
Is that right? I’m going to ask you, I do want to get into this because I think you have so much to say to like working moms today. I do. So I do want to get into that, but, let’s back up for a minute. So you got into acting though, which eventually led to the infomercials and direct response sales, et cetera.
So before we talk about, you know, the infomercials and TV, how did you get into. Well, you know, that’s that? No, one’s been asked that question a long time, by the way, go look up splatter university on YouTube. It’s the first, my first audition, first feature film. I landed the lead role in that film. And it’s still a cult classic, you know, when I finally got the nose fix and went off to college, I always had a dream inside of me that I thought I was special, but nobody else was.
Nobody. They saw the outside of me and they put me down and made me feel bad. I was a little over, I was overweight. I was broken up, whatever it was, senior year of college. I’m going to be a lawyer, which is what you are from my hometown. If you’re smart and I audition for a play, I always auditioned for plays.
And I always got towns, person number three, or chorus person far from the left. Never got a lead role ever, but I always audition. I just kept having this feeling inside of me, which is about perseverance. I learned a lot of lessons. I think, I believe that life happens for you not to you. If I got my lead at the first audition, I wouldn’t be here helping other people I’d be living.
I just be living a shallow life somewhere, but I never got. A lot of struggles that I’ve overcome. So senior year audition for Shakespeare’s as you like it, biggest role. We have a road for a woman named Rosalyn Wright, and I do got dish and I go to the call sheet. They post those and I’m looking for person.
I need to make towns person. I’m looking like my name’s got anywhere. And I got really upset. And it’s funny how you put yourself down, even when you don’t need to. Have you ever done that? Like, you’re the first one to tell you how bad you are, even though people think you’re wonderful. I then said, well, who’s the lucky girl who got the lead role in this plane.
I went to the very top and. There was my name. And I w as I’m home and I went to professor David Richmond and he was our drama coach. I said, can you help me out here? See, I don’t even know what, what are you thinking? He’s like, you are my ideal Rosalind. He sat me down and he said, look, he said, I get a sense from you about all the struggles and all the pain and all the humor and all the pathways and all your communication skills.
And he went on and on and on. And you know, the really weird thing about professor David. He was 100% legally blind. He never saw anything. He just went on what was inside the play was a big success. And based on that belief, one man’s belief in me. I called my parents and said, I love you guys very much.
I’m not going to be a lawyer. I’m moving to New York city to pursue an acting career. And there was silence on the other end of the phone. I look, we’d love you. We can’t financially help you, but go for it. And I did, and I’m going to start to cry. And I moved into a little tiny studio in New York city. And I auditioned for my first feature film and I got the lead role and I was off and running.
And that, by the way, I did a lot of movies and soap operas, but I always fought my weight during that time. And so that was. Debilitating thing. I’m on Broadway with Christopher Reeve and I’m being told I have to go to Overeaters anonymous. And even though it was like 15, 20 pounds overweight, it never, it didn’t stop.
And it fueled a fire in me to create fitness solutions, which is why I know we’ll get into a little bit where spin gym came from and we. The why you do things. I have amazing wives, why I had to prove to my parents. I had to prove to myself. I had to prove to everybody in high school. We thought that I didn’t matter.
And I went on this mission to prove that I did cause something, some spirit inside of me said, you’re going to make a difference in this world. And I know that sounds crazy, but I’ve always heard that. And I had been on a mission for four decades to do that. And I finally arrived. At this age, at this point in my life.
Oh my God. And I’ve been through so much, you have no idea, but I also have a trail of accomplishments that are second to none. Like, so when people look at me and then that’s how the infomercial thing started, turns out. I have a gift. Some people can sing, some people can play the piano or the guitar. My gift is being able to pitch what a weird gift I can pitch anything anytime, anywhere.
This is how it started. I walked into an abandoned studio. It was a camera on a piece of paper and a pen. And it’s somebody, this pen, I thought this was a joke as an actress. I’m like, I hate being sold. All right. All right. Here goes my mom, when I was in college, I got to college at 16. She used to write me these long hand notes in ink.
And I’ll tell you something really funny about a pen. But a pen like this can reach out and touch somebody’s heart. Well, okay. I just did that and this is what I got out of that Jake, a body by Jay comes out from behind the thing grabs my foot. You’re going to make me a lot of money. Like I’ll know what you’re talking about.
Well, guess what? I landed this job from that. And we started an industry where we sell fitness products on time. And it all started from convenience 24 hours a day. Now get ready for the latest fashion and exercise gear on fitness plus hi I’m forms Wiley. And today we’ve got a great product for you. Take a look at this high on Forbes Riley and back by popular demand.
The best way to develop rock hard abdominals. Hi, I’m Forbes Riley, and welcome to fitness. Plus, if you want to burn calories and tune your whole. All in the comfort. Hi, I’m Forbes Riley. And joining me to explain how you can, what vote with, I loved your face, David that’s me and my late twenties. Well, I remember that Forbes, like I remember those, right.
I, I D I listened. I remember those. And it was kind of funny because I was at a party last night. That was act, you know what, what’s going on this week, you know, who’s who you have next on the show. And I said, do you know who Forbes Riley is? And the gentleman across the island from the. I don’t Forbes. I know who Forbes Riley isn’t.
It was very random. And it’s because of that. Right. So, you know, to our listeners and viewers of Forbes looks familiar, that’s why it’s part of it. So here’s, what’s interesting about this story. I’ve been on television all your entire life. You just didn’t know it was me. Yeah, exactly. That’s my point. Yeah, that was this network for $500 million to Fox TV.
Okay. Literally came out of that. So I helped create, get this, imagine this, the concept of selling fitness on television. It did not exist before we got there. And then I did the first 35 infomercials ever. ’cause that’s what came out of this. And in fact, this is Jack Lalaine. Remember this guys, this, the Jacqueline juicer ran forever on television here.
So today as Jacqueline, Elaine, his lovely wife, Elaine and celebrity host and product expert, orbs Riley, tell you everything you need to know about the amazing power juicer. He was breathing testimonials to the wonders of juicing, Elaine and Jacqueline LAN infomercial. My friend ran 400 times a week back then, and it grossed a billion dollars in sales.
Nobody really notices that. I’m like, oh my God, that’s insane. Right. A billion dollars in sales. So all of a sudden I went from just being an actress to having this crazy career. Yeah, I’ll just do one more little video. Cause then you’re gonna go, oh my God. You’ve seen me everywhere. You just didn’t know it here.
Watch this queen of infomercials is Forbes, Riley, Riley, his son. She’s interesting. You’ve got five minutes. You got the time for Kylie is dynamic. She helps people and you’ve lost 140 pounds. She’s eclectic. She’s a storyteller. And I talk about her in the third person because sometimes I can’t believe that I get to be that person.
All the vegetables are in that one glass. That’s actually good. I have made for you a gourmet panini, but it’s so easy.
And so, yeah, and I haven’t, I don’t have a great PR person, cause I think probably people should probably know this story. Cause it’s extraordinary. I’m just, I was very happy for the last 18 years, raising my children to be kind of quiet about my life. And before social media came out, my friend, there was no way for people to know what.
Okay, so backing up then. Juicer dot infomercial, grossed over a billion dollars. What was it about that one that made it so successful? Can you think of that? Oh, I know exactly because I teach this subject number one, Jacqueline Lane. When I met him, he was 88 years old. He started health and fitness news 15, and he was a revolution.
He’s the reason this fitness is every health club. He is the reason that we do a lot of the things he killed, created carnations and breakfasts. Half the equipment you see in our gyms came out of his brain. When I met him, it was what’s called a perfect. I was eager. I just pushed out to seven pound babies and I little bit of belly on me.
And I was so desperate to lose the weight. I, you know, I’d always been juicing, but I met the man. I met him and there was so much love and respect to this day, which is now 18 years later, his wife and I are still best friends. I just saw her she’s 95 years old. And. It was this honest conversation and I do teach pitching and we should get into this a little bit because I’m passionate about pitching any idea, product or service that you have in your head, in your heart to get it to somebody else is the act of pitching.
I’ve hosted 194 infomercials. That’s insane. There’s no other woman or man at this point who has done that many infomercials, because the other thing is you don’t see how they go all around the world. I mean, I’m huge in Russia, in Egypt, in south America, we’re big here, but it keeps going. And then you lace in this home shopping.
Now I’m pursuing a real acting career. I’ve worked on Broadway, I’ve done movies and television and soap operas, and people would make fun of me. Oh, you’re going to just sell crap on QVC. I’m like, I’m like printing. Do you guys understand that? I took my fitness product. First. I launched on a reality show that I did QVC and HSN.
I did one day, one day I sold 64,000 of these. I got a $1.2 million check and people are like, wait a second. So you didn’t even understand the world that I was playing in. You could gross that much money. And it was, it’s kind of like digital marketing. Now. Nobody really believes you can make, you know, do a 5 million, $10 million launch in a weekend, but you can’t.
And so I’ve lived in this crazy world. And now the only reason people know about me is I set out to teach it a YouTube and Facebook and those kinds of outlets. But before social media, no, it was very hard to get PR for what you were doing, unless you were a major. Yeah, it’s really interesting because, you know, I I’d like to get your perspective on this because you’re someone who created a brand or branded yourself through direct response marketing, as you just talked about there.
Right. So I asked this question quite a bit, you know, especially the entrepreneurs, what’s the difference between branding and selling. Can you think of that from your. Well, my God, you know, when you’re gonna have to come take a pitch class. All right. So first of all, a brand, you’re your brand right now.
Your brand is a dad. Your brand is a husband. Your brand is a podcast hosts and your brand. I’m looking at the leather jacket and a slick hair. You don’t look like you’re boring. You don’t look at middle class like middle mindset. You look a little hipper than that. That’s about. Just looking at you. And so brands are how we perceive something, whether it’s real or not.
And then you can push that forward to create a color for brand new. See two little MZ. Oh, McDonald’s you see red, you go, that’s the end. That’s getting in somebody’s psyche. So for the last 20, some odd years, I’ve been obsessed with the brain, how it thinks our processes both to itself and to other people.
And that’s what I teach. I’ve taken it so far to become a hypnotist and NLP expert and pitching. This is a crazy thing. Most people think. I choose to communicate. So I’m thinking right now that I know I’m talking to you, but I know there’s an entrepreneur out there. Who’s just starting. I know there’s a mom listening to me.
He was like, well, this is cool if she could do it, but all those things are happening. And so most people only think about themselves and they’re talking, do you have a point to your story and you all? So I teach these principles like begin with the end in mind. How do I want this to end? How do I want people to fall in love with what I’m doing and be inspired to have a better life themselves?
Are you over. Yeah, I coached. Yes, no, no. Are you open for me? Coaching you for a sec? Oh yeah, let’s do it. Absolutely. So, Hey David, what do you do? I help real estate associates create an exit plan out of their business. So here’s my next question. Why did you sell it? Why did you tell me that? Oh, cause I always think it’s about helping acts with the desired results.
But why did you tell me that I’m real? This is, this is the psychology of pitching. This is how I make $3.5 billion. Honestly, I don’t really care cause I’m not in real estate. I don’t live where you are. So you told me something that has no reference to me. You’re talking to me, but you gave me some pat answer about exiting real estate people, Mike.
Well, great for you. That’s what you do. Here’s the deal, guys. Everyone listened to this. When someone asks you what you do, they don’t care what you do. They care what you can do for them at that moment. It’s really an interesting reason and right. And if you think about it, you’ll make more connections and you’ll generate revenue faster.
So watch this. Now you’re talking to me, Forbes, Riley, right. And if I asked you what you do, how could you get a yes from me? It’s fascinating. How could you get a yes for me? Go ahead. Go. How can I get a yes from you? Well, would you like to help. Tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people by talking about your story for a few minute.
Okay. So that’s how easy this is. So David at Forbes, Riley is at a party with you and says, Hey, David, what do you do? You don’t tell me about real estate because it’s not the thing that’s going to get anything out of me. You would say, Hey Forbes, do you know what I do, man? I’m one of the top podcasters.
And we would benefit by having you as our guest. Would you like to do that? That’s the answer to that question in this situation. That is kind of crazy, right? No, no, no, no. I agree with you, you pitch to different people. Different ways. I do believe in that. I do, but people don’t realize that. What do you do is the beginning of a pitch.
Yeah. Yeah. It could be. Yeah, well actually it always is. And this is, let me tell you something. It always is because pitching is not selling. Pitching is enrolling. Here’s what I define pitching as excite, engage and enroll. I just want to enroll you into what I’m up to so that you and I become friends here.
So ask me the question. What do you do? Forbes. Okay. I can say I’m a $2.5 billion host. I’m the former host of ESPN. I’m this, I’m that? And you’re like, well, yay. Rock on. Good for you. But when I’m at a party, here’s what I actually do. This sounds crazy. Almost always ask me what I do. What do you do? Forbes? I created the greatest fitness product on the planet.
Do you want to see it? Wow. Yes. I would like to see it. So I just got a yes from you. And I’m going to say, give me your thumbs. Yeah, and then I’m going to do this. I’m going to put this on there and we’re going to actually spin gym. Now. Here’s the crazy thing for everybody who watched, why did David give me his thumbs when I’m not even in the same room with him?
And you know why? Because I told you to in psychologically, people will do things that you tell them to do. And if you can understand my craft of pitching, you can get a, yet literally you can get yeses and make money from a handshake.
Well, if you know, if this is Brad’s show, we drop a bomb right now. Cause that was fantastic floors. Well done. That was incredible. That was a clinic, everyone. That was a. So well done Forbes. So yeah, that that’s called the spin, right? So I guess it gets to a second. Can I give you an insider thing? That’s going to blow Brad’s mind and ground, right.
So I had a chance to speak at TEDx couple years ago, Greg was just becoming well-known and he was at another clinic in, how do you get what you want? Number one, you have to know what you want. And I call that. Hey grub hub. Yes. Ma’am. What do you want? I’m on food. I’m hungry. No, no. What he want? I don’t, I don’t, I don’t want, I want a hamburger.
A hamburger. Yeah. What do you run? And they hang up at some point, cause you’re not telling them the universe is the exact same. What do you want? Well, I’d heard about this grant Malane couple of years ago and I said, oh, I want to meet him. I think I have an idea. I’m not gonna tell you just yet. Well, if I met him, here’s what I would do.
And I’m a big person in research, leverage and strategy. So I go to an event to meet him and sure enough, down the hall here, he comes with Elena and a whole bunch of other people and I’m with Joshua. And I said, okay, now when you meet a celebrity in an elevator or something, People normally just throw up all over them.
Hi, my name is so-and-so. I just love you all and nothing. I grub hub. Yes. Ma’am. What do you want? I want a Caesar salad, extra chicken curtains on the side, 20 minutes later at my door, Caesar salad, extra chicken coupons on the site. How did they know? Because I wanted it. So I’m walking down the hall, right?
And. Don’t I see grant and I think, okay, don’t talk to him. He doesn’t know you. I go to Elena and I’m like, hi. And I say something about who I am, I’ve grossed this. I said, you know what I’d like to do. I’d like to put your husband in an infomercial. I think that we can up his popularity. She give them what they want.
She immediately says, grant, you need to meet this girl. Well, what better than an introduction? I got an introduction to the man I wanted to meet by his wife. Think about how quickly I put those numbers, things together. Grant, nice to meet. You took a look at Joshua, which doesn’t hurt. Cause Joshua looks really big.
I said, I don’t think he knew who I was when I met him. I said, I informed drive goes to 194. Infomercials grows a couple of billion dollars. And I think that you need to be with me doing a show on the air about real estate and ended up, he said, of course. He invited me to the Mandalay bay to his big event.
And because of all these pitching skills that you don’t realize this happened, and I’m forever grateful to the two of them for trusting me and letting me on their distaste for months in the making and a lifetime to actually get here.
When I heard her story, it just touched my heart. Do it on my own, so I gotta get through it. And the only thing I know is the level of what I’m doing never gave up near the slow till I found out the approval, never listened to it and knows. I just want to move the house.
Came out of a handshake. My friend, I was just going to say from an elevator pitch to the big stage. Forbes. Yeah. It ways I’m not kidding about how I just got chills when you just said that, because that’s what a pitch will do for you. And a pitch is about also having your sense of self-esteem altogether, even if you’re nervous, but understanding how to serve others in the moment quickly and stop talking all about you.
Well, I’m passionate about this and I can do that. And that was great for you. Why are you telling me? Well, as everyone just heard, I failed, I failed the test, but I got coached through it by Forbes. So I am very grateful. Cancel, cancel, cancel, cancel. I can’t. You have to, I didn’t do it right. I didn’t do it right.
Say cancel, cancel, cancel, cancel. I learned more from my failures than I do from. I learned more from my failures than I do from my successes. So now you just learned a great lesson and everybody else didn’t thank you with the time we have left, because you do have that hard stop. You showed us the spin gym, a few other things.
What was your first taste of entrepreneurship? Well, all right. I’m actually, that may show you spin gym because this is my, this is my big lesson in entrepreneurship on every level. Because up until that point, I’ve been hired as a spokesperson. I write pitches for major companies, for small entrepreneurs and everybody in between.
And then I coach people to do them, but this is kind of a miracle I wanted to for years find a product that I wanted to put my. And people used to get mad at me. Oh, well, Suzanne Somers has hers and told you a little ha. I was like, I don’t see anything. I really love. And I found this over in England, it was being used as an office de-stressor and I’m a Broadway
dancer.
I’m actually the national fitness hall of fame. And I got electric inducted in 2000. Did see that I did see that, but there’s only so much. Yeah, I know it’s been a great time to stick this all into one life. And when I felt this and touch this, I said to the gentlemen who owned the company, I said, this is the greatest fitness product I’ve ever seen.
He’s like, no, no, no, it’s a fitness product. It’s an office. De-stressor. And I said, oh, okay. And then I said, well, can I get it? And he said, well, you could have this one. I said, no, no, no. Tell me about the. Now up until this moment in time, I’d never been really an entrepreneur. I’ve been a sole preneur and done, you know, as an actress and stuff.
But he said to me, look, I don’t want to do the business anymore. I will give it to you if you can sell 25,000 in the first year and then gave me a small percentage. Well, 2.2 million units later, I not only own the company and all the IP and everything that goes with it, but I created an entire movement about how you can get fit at your desk.
And this little thing actually spins at 125,000 RPM. This thing is so fast that Stanford just did a Ted talk on it, that you can put a vial of blood here, spin it. And it works as a centrifuge. And in third world countries, this is now what they’re using okay. For your body. It means that it actually fires every muscle all at the same time and unbelievably you lose weight crazy.
You tone your muscles and you also get yourself in a really fun state. In 60 seconds, you double your. No other product like that, it’s not a resistance band. It’s not a dumbbell. It’s a sprint gym. I gotta tell ya. Now the only problem is I have pretty much focused on home shopping, where I did so well that we haven’t really launched it out to the public.
So that is the focus coming up about getting trainers to do this. And let’s face it. If something as silly as Zoomba Zoomba is Latin dancing to music, how do you even patent that? It’s a global sensation. Spin gym stands a real chance of like blowing up as big as we can. Hmm, that’s incredible. Listen, I want to buy one after listening to you for a few seconds, right?
You do have a gift. It is pitching, you know, you’re very good at what you do, but is there, is there something, you see entrepreneurs doing that they shouldn’t be doing? Like, is there a mistake? You see entrepreneurs making 200? Yes. Yes. They make mistakes everywhere. Oh my gosh. My daughter and I teach a class right now called GSD.
It’s called. Yeah, because most entrepreneurs talk a lot, but they don’t take much action. They don’t have good follow through skills. And even entrepreneurs like who are doctors and lawyers, they’re not entrepreneurs as what am I? They had entrepreneurial seizures. They didn’t go to school for entrepreneurial-ism.
They don’t know how to do data and books and email marketing. They went to school for surgery, hopefully, or being a doctor or. And so very often people don’t realize that the other side of this business is really important. So I’ll show you something, you talked about your kids. So COVID was a very cool thing to happen to my kids when we all got sick and I just lost my best friend, by the way.
So not saying that part, but the act of having to have your kids at home with you for their senior year of high school changed our lives. One, I got to love on them, have a lot of dinners together, but we started my daughter and I started a business. She literally said in March of last year, mom, let’s take your, you know, all the live events that you do.
We own a very big television studio and four times a year, I do Forbes factor live in my studio. Well, no one’s going anywhere. So we like a lot of people embraced zoom and people who embraced it early did well. I think I have a huge, I, we put 4,000 people through my basic pitch class. I charged $19 for the class and it’s on Sundays, two hours live with me and it’s been an amazing.
And then people were taking more and more classes. Well, let’s go back to that girl who turned 18. Okay. She turned 18 on December 4th. She is a systems girl. She has been making money online since she was 12 Russell Brunson, actually at 10 X, shouted her out from stage. He’s a bit of a prodigy when it comes to this.
So one watching mom do infomercials and home shopping, and he always coming with me. She’s put together some systems and processes. We launched our business within 11 months. She made a million. She just turned 18:00 AM. Damn a hundred thousand, a hundred thousand dollars a month. Unbelievable. And so being an entrepreneur, but now we teach this, she actually teaches with me this thing called GSD because she was noticing the problems that entrepreneurs have.
One, if you’re over 21, you might have a whole lot of tabs open on the top of your thing. You don’t have a management time management system. You don’t even brainstorm. Right. She said to mom, here’s the difference? You, the entrepreneur and his success story. If you write anything on a piece of paper, you’re not an entrepreneur.
You’re not a success story. I said, mom, it’s systems it’s processed is Google docs. Like she has a team of nine people. She has now employees because she just runs it like a business. Most entrepreneurs run it like a hobby. They don’t know their metrics. They don’t know their numbers. They don’t know their techniques.
And, and, and we all say, now just get emotion out of the business. It’s all about Metro. And for people who are like me, who are very heart-centered we’re like, no, no, no. Don’t call them prospects. Call the new friends. Out of the mouth.
are you a new real estate agent or thinking about getting a real estate license? If so, you’re going to want to ask about the greater property goose agent scholarship pro. Y paid for the cost of the course yourself. When the greater property group will subsidize the cost for you, make sure you reach out and get all the details on the greater property groups, agents, scholarship program.
No. Is there a commonality you see among successful entrepreneurs and salespeople? Is there one quality you see? Yeah. And bill gates and Warren buffet said it very clearly and my daughter says it to me and we all preach it. And it’s focus. I literally will ask somebody in a training. So what do you want to do?
What are you working on? Well, you know, I’ve got this one book I’m doing, and I’ve got a second book. I want, I’ve got to focus in the last eight months. I’ve made 800 people bestselling authors by putting them in compilation books by really embracing people. But the first thing you have to do, if you’re listening to this, a couple of things, number one, get clear on what you mean.
And the words matter. This is what I preach the actual words out of your mouth. David, if you’re in my class and you say the word trying, I make you do five pushups, like literally you stop. Give me five no more time. Notice that it no try. Just do. And it’s true. I’m trying to touch you. I’m trying stop trying, just do it.
The second thing is you can never say in my world is, I don’t know the IDK your brain. When you say this, your subconscious hears that and it goes don’t it closes every door of possible. Finishing is happiness. I have so many books right now because I finally bought into the fact that finishing is happiness.
I had a lot of ideas before and a lot of frustration, and I’m a lot happier now that I’ve gotten things done. So GSD it. Just get, no, I like it. That’s incredible. That’s incredible. Okay. So Forbes, what are you working on now? Like what do your business goals look like? Right. All right. So a couple of things, if your audience is just listening, I just decided to do a live event again.
So I’m doing Forbes factor live in my studio. Again, very excited about that. I have a brand new book called Forbes factor. I’ve really taken in delineated. What I do, and I I’m a big acronym person, like for the word diet, because I have this whole fitness thing. I do diet becomes decisions. I eat today and I created up here.
Oh, hold on. Forbes.
Hey, Brad, I’m sitting here with somebody that wants to say, hi, he Brad, I’m your biggest fan. And I publicly wanted to say how much I love to drop bombs with you. That was Forbes.
Just talking. I got a job, a bomb here. I got a job at balmy. He’s like, oh my God, we’re talking about Bradley. And he just texted me. The wrong was amazing. I said, get that boy on the phone. You guys were awesome. Well, let me tell ya, oh, it’s Riley. I’m telling you the best of the business. You guys are listening to the right episode and that would be a bomb drop for the guy who also has one of the coasts.
You know what? Brad, I’m addicted to you on Instagram. I wake up in the morning and right after Joshua, I see one of your videos and it makes my day, listen, Brad, doesn’t need to hear.
Yeah. Yeah. He doesn’t need to hear that Forbes. Well, I know, but all kidding aside, he is, he is creating some amazing content and at his level it doesn’t mean he doesn’t need to do that. And I think it’s, it’s become a great outlet for him as a lot of us, you know, I have the most beautiful mentors in the world.
One of my best friends is like, Hmm. I have less, I taught him pitching. He taught me pitching coaching, speaking. I have him on videotape, really just talking about who I might be to the world. And I’ve now spent a lot of time living up to that because at the end of the day, as cool as this all might look, I do need you to tell me how wonderful I am.
I do need you to tell me that it changed your life. I love getting letters and emails because it’s not about ego. It is about that. There’s still a voice in my head. That’s that fat little goofy kid from long island who doesn’t necessarily think that she fits. You know, and the truth is I got to leave you guys with this is that you never enough, you know, we always had get him I’m enough.
Well, you never going to be enough. You’re not thin enough or pretty enough, or you’re never going to be rich enough. That can be anything enough because there’s always something. Where you think you might want to be? So the smartest thing I think that you can do is to step back and stop comparing and to say to yourself, you know, this is who I am for all the goofy faults for my nose being a little silly or this or that.
A work in progress. I love me very much. I don’t think that I’m perfect at all. And I love the journey and this is, you know, it’s funny. Cause like I look at great pictures. I get, everybody looks great in a photo, right? How it doesn’t change. He doesn’t get any older there, by the way. This is one of my favorite all time books because I have a different take on dieting.
I don’t want us to suffer. I created a really cool system that it says just what you eat today. Stop feeling guilty. I struggled David so much in my life. That to be at this point. And to be asked me on a podcast like yours or to know people like Brad and grant and Kevin Harrington’s down the street and Les brown.
These are folks I dreamed of when I was little, I’m friends with lots of TV and movie stars. There’s I get a real kick out of it. I always, and maybe it’s, I don’t know. I get it. I get a kick out of it that I can talk to. It used to be Florence Henderson from the Brady bunch was one of my closest friends.
And she’s since gone or if you go to YouTube, oh, I want to see something crazy. And again, you don’t, nobody really knows that you store it. You’re going to get a little insider tip, but you’ve heard of this girl named, what, what is her name, Kim? Yeah. Yeah. That’s her name? Well, you know what? When I met her, nobody knew her name and I gave her her start on television.
We invited a top Hollywood stylist. Who’s known to be the closet organizer to the stars. Please. Welcome my dear friend Kim Kardashians. You’ve seen her in all the magazines and on the E entertainment network with her best friend Paris. Beautiful. Kimberly Kardashian is a model. Film and TV wardrobe stylist.
Plus she’s busy with her two businesses doing celebrity closet makeovers and her upscale fashion store dash in Southern California. What is this fashion pro think of the all new press of Ella. That was Kim. When I met her, that was a year before keeping up with the Kardashians. I just done an infomercial with Bruce, Chris, and I wrote a little bit of a book together and she’d said to me, can you get my daughter on TV, funny world?
Isn’t it. Boy. Is it ever incredibly interesting now? We do have three minutes left Forbes. We have three minutes and I’m using up all three minutes, even less. Now that I keep talking, but, you answered the question I had about legacy. Like what does the Forbes Riley legacy look like when all is said and done, but here’s a question.
This is a fun one. This makes you think if you could have dinner with any three people in history, past or present, who would they be and why? Oh, I would love to be with Bob Fauci who you may or may not know. I met him once when I was a little kid. He revolutionized how Broadway was. Harriet Tubman comes to mind how one woman in the middle of all of that could have done what she did, what a treat it would be to meet her.
And the third one. Well, I got to think about who in history just excites me to no end. Wow. I, you know, I, I’m just going to, you know, I’ve not met, I’ve not met Barbara Streisand. And I, when I look at funny I’m to start to cry, when I look at funny girl, that was the movie that changed everything for me. I looked at this.
Big nose, goofy girl. She was the star of the movie. She got the hot guide and keep him, but, and I thought if she could do that and then she would open her mouth and sing. And so I’d love to have dinner with her. So Barbara, you’re still alive. Beautiful husband. I think we can all arrange having at least one meal together.
We can make it happen. We’ll make it, if anybody can make it happen. It’s us so very interesting Forbes. I really appreciate your time with us today. It was so good to hear your story, get to know you better. So many takeaways from this one, you know, working mom, all you’ve been through, you know, from acting to and from billions of dollars in sales.
Billions of dollars in sales telling me how I am introducing myself incorrectly. I just, I got to fix that, a few other takeaways, but thank you very much. Forbes. Where would you like the people to go and find you follow you? We’ll put it all in the show notes, et cetera, time that you want to come take a pitching class.
I’m going to offer where people are really special deal. You go to pitch secret. Masterclass. And so far, every Sunday I’ve been there and I will always keep that going because there’s so many insights. And then just join me at Forbes, rally.com. I put everything up there. I have lots of free gifts. If you go to Forbes, riley.com, you will notice I’ve got free videos you can have and free insights.
I’ve got a new newsletter coming out. They keep calling you the queen of pitch. And so I’m taking this whole branding concept to the enth degree and enjoying it to no end because I truly believe. I’ll leave you with a couple of what I call magnetism. Literally what I used to see on the magnets in my refrigerator, one was leaping.
The net will appear, stop playing small, embrace your fear, the butterflies, and go for it because life is on the other side of fear. It really is where all the good stuff lies. And I know that from experience. So go do it anyway. The second one is you are the sum of the obstacles you overcome. You’ve all had bad things happen to you.
And I know that. And then that’s okay. I do a, I do a little work with people called breakthrough training because nobody should suffer. And this is a side of my career in my business that nobody knows about David. I know it’s in my last minute, but if anyone’s been through a very bad trauma rape, molestation, crazy thing, we have a thing that we do.
And I would love you to reach out to me because we’re doing a call to healing and it’s. Well, I started doing an extra on clubhouse. Phenomenal. Nobody should suffer because of your past events. This is what, this is actually why I’m where I am now, because I also had a closet full of things that were weighing me down.
I would drag that closet everywhere to every new relationship I’m in. It’s big and ugly and dirty. When I cut that rope and let go and not dragged down by what is actually happening now. You get to write a really cool future for yourself. And lastly, I think that life happens for you not to you. So take all of those things and make it work for you because we only may live one time, but if you do it right, once is enough.
