Join host Steven Pesavento as he sits down with Forbes Riley, the pitch queen who has sold over $2.5 billion worth of products. Discover Forbes' incredible journey from actress to infomercial sensation and learn the secrets of effective pitching. From childhood challenges to breaking through self-limiting beliefs, Forbes shares invaluable insights and unveils the art of persuasion. Get ready for a masterclass in communication and sales that goes beyond the pitch.
Key Takeaways
Resources Mentioned
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About our Guest:
Forbes Riley is a renowned pitch queen who has sold over $2.5 billion worth of products through infomercials and stages. From overcoming childhood challenges to navigating the acting industry, Forbes has transformed her life through self-development and communication mastery. As a teacher of the Ultimate Pitch Formula, Forbes empowers individuals to unleash their potential, communicate with confidence, and achieve unprecedented success. Join us as Forbes shares her inspiring journey and unravels the secrets of effective pitching.
Download your free strategy guide, The Passive Investor Playbook at http://www.vonfinch.com/playbook
00;00;00;02 - 00;00;10;02
Steven Pesavento
Welcome back to the Invest Your Mindset podcast. My name is Steven Pesavento, and today I have an amazing guest in the studio. Forbes Riley. How you doing today? Forbes.
00;00;10;04 - 00;00;13;29
Forbes Riley
You know, happy to be here. Very happy to be here. Thank you.
00;00;14;01 - 00;00;39;25
Steven Pesavento
You have an incredible story. I mean, you've sold over $2.5 billion worth of products, pitching products on infomercials from stages and helping other people learn how to be able to be the pitch queen that you are. I love your story. It's really incredible. We're going to get into a lot of it, but just a couple of highlights. You know, you were part of helping to create the X Games you hosted at the Laugh Factory.
00;00;39;25 - 00;01;04;20
Steven Pesavento
You were an actress and then you went on to teaching and pitching products on QVC and and all over TV. So everybody from my generation and older knows absolutely who you are. They've seen you everywhere. And I'm excited to share with you with some even more people. But before we get into that. Forbes Tell me, looking back at your so.
00;01;04;20 - 00;01;11;18
Steven Pesavento
Forbes Looking back at your childhood, what events or influences shaped who you are today? What was it like to be little Forbes?
00;01;11;25 - 00;01;28;02
Forbes Riley
You know, I don't know if we have about an hour and a half to talk about that. And I certainly tell this from stage guys. But as you're looking at me, who I deem by traditional sense, very successful woman, I've got two beautiful kids. My twins turned 21 yesterday. I'm in love with a man who is going to be Arnold Schwarzenegger's body double when he was younger.
00;01;28;05 - 00;01;45;12
Forbes Riley
That we're going to ask we're going to California for. And life is, knock on wood good. But it always wasn't always that way. And I talk about that you're the some of the obstacles to overcome. I had two loving parents. I think that is a distinct advantage. If you've got that, count yourself among the lucky ones. I don't care if you're rich, a poor of anybody loves you on this planet.
00;01;45;15 - 00;02;01;16
Forbes Riley
You were ahead of the game because I've met many people who've literally been thrown away and then left to fend for themselves. And that leads for a very challenging way that you think. So I was told that I was special, even though when I was eight years old, we discovered I had a weird thing in my mouth. My teeth were all in different places.
00;02;01;18 - 00;02;22;09
Forbes Riley
And for eight years this little girl wore braces, and for two of those I wore a tongue thruster actually, to create a truck, I guess. And nobody wanted to be my friend because nobody could understand me. And I think I strive so hard for massive communication on every level, especially verbally, because I know what it's like to be trapped in your own body and not be able to speak anything out your face.
00;02;22;12 - 00;02;39;10
Forbes Riley
And now I get to do it on stages in front of 10 to 20000 people. Beyond that, though, I had broken my nose when I was a little girl and my parents never fixed it. They I don't know what they were thinking back then, but it grew very odd. So now you've got a little girl with braces, a weird way she talks a broken nose, frizzy hair, overweight.
00;02;39;10 - 00;02;57;24
Forbes Riley
My mom, God bless her. We weren't didn't have a lot of money. We had a lot of fast food. And it was a when you looked at me, you're, well, seriously antisocial child. But I spent a lot of time dreaming and watching television and movies. And I got to tell you, Stephen, two weeks ago I just costarred as The Bad Girl in an action packed Western feature film.
00;02;57;26 - 00;03;15;04
Forbes Riley
So I'm still living the dreams of that little girl who wanted to be anybody but her. And then my dad was in a horrific accident. I mean, it's almost like it's a bad it's like a bad movie of use. Watch as you go. Don't do all those horrible things to just one girl. She spent three. He spent three years in the hospital.
00;03;15;07 - 00;03;29;11
Forbes Riley
But here's the turning point. My mom comes to me one day, we're the hospital room and she says, you know, we've you know, any money for college, we're just flat broke. And I don't you don't have a scholarship. And she said, But there's the Miss Teenage America pageant. It's coming to town. And they're looking to create Miss Teenage New York.
00;03;29;11 - 00;03;45;09
Forbes Riley
And I'm like, we both looked at me, my face. My mother had this moment where she was like, Yeah, well, huh. And Steven, when you're a girl, at least I think so. One of the things that you want to be is pretty and when your mom pretty much lets you know that you just aren't, it was heart shattering.
00;03;45;09 - 00;04;03;18
Forbes Riley
I've never forgotten it. It was decades ago, and my dad's doctor turned to us and said, You know what? You guys have been through so much, I'm going to fix your daughter's nose. I didn't think anything of that. I thought it was kind of weird. Crazy thing is, I woke up two days later and I looked at the little girl in the mirror and gosh darn it, she was cute.
00;04;03;20 - 00;04;20;13
Forbes Riley
The nose was cute, The braces were off, My eyes look bigger. And I said to myself, I'm going to win this competition and get a scholarship so I can prove be proud for my parents. And the crazy thing is, I beat 500 girls locally and I ended up going to the Nationals and I was on TV with Bob Hope.
00;04;20;21 - 00;04;27;10
Forbes Riley
And the moral of that story is if you dream it, believe it. You can absolutely achieve it no matter how crazy it is.
00;04;27;12 - 00;04;53;04
Steven Pesavento
Yeah, it's incredible how powerful identity is. And that identity that you had before you got your nose fixed, you were just dreaming about being this person. You wanted to be somebody else. And I imagine that's what led you towards acting. And then through this whole path of going down, becoming an actress, going through the rigamarole, all the challenges that go along with that you made your way towards.
00;04;53;07 - 00;05;13;03
Forbes Riley
Oh, let me share something with you. You know why you want to be an actress? Because you thrive on rejection. Because every single day somebody tells you, I don't care if you're the prettiest girl out there. Christie Brinkley is not a movie star. She was one of the prettiest girls ever. It was never about that. And every day you go on auditions and this is the next part of my career, is it?
00;05;13;03 - 00;05;28;11
Forbes Riley
I got work all the time. I got rejected all the time. That's what acting is. Soon as you got a movie or a television show or a play, you're done with it. You're out of work. You have to keep auditioning and you're too old, You're too fat, you too thing, You're too pretty. You're not too. But it doesn't matter why they reject you.
00;05;28;14 - 00;05;43;23
Forbes Riley
But if you've got a little bit of a fragile ego and Steven, your ego can only take so much. It's like going on a date and cause he told you that you're horrible. It only you can only take so much and and some of it kind of broke me. And I found my way into a seminar of self-development.
00;05;43;26 - 00;06;01;29
Forbes Riley
And that created a lot of the foundation of who I am today. I teach self-development training because not only just communications, but self esteem, how you look at yourself, talk to yourself in the mirror, get up in the morning and believe that you're worth it at all. In spite of people telling you that you're not good. You. It's a strange thing, this life.
00;06;02;01 - 00;06;18;15
Forbes Riley
Remember I said, it's nice to have two parents who love you and it's great to have, you know, a person, a partner who thinks that you're great no matter what. Because I got to tell you, everyone else spends a lot of time putting each other down, making each other feel bad, you know, posturing and jonesing. It. And I was like, wait a second.
00;06;18;16 - 00;06;43;18
Forbes Riley
How come of your friends aren't really happy for you when you're successful? Do you ever notice that you're like, Yeah, you're my friend. Yeah, well, I'm kind of a little jealous now. Well, that doesn't help me any. I need unconditional love and support. And I will tell you, of all the things that I've created, two things. And I just had a graduation of 1000 students yesterday, and I spent an inordinate amount of time getting to know my students, hearing their struggles, addressing their pains, and pushing them to get results.
00;06;43;21 - 00;06;51;00
Forbes Riley
They often say about me that for Forbes, Riley, a friend, loves you the way you are. Forbes Riley loves you way too much to leave you that way.
00;06;51;03 - 00;07;14;24
Steven Pesavento
Hmm. Well, it's I've found the same thing in going to the south development events. It shows you another group of people who are on this path towards creating a better life, towards creating a better version of themselves, and towards finding that that light inside that you always knew was there for you. What was it that drove you to that first event and how did that change your life?
00;07;14;26 - 00;07;30;10
Forbes Riley
Okay, that's a you know, that's an interesting story. What drove me was ignorance. I had met somebody. He invited me to a party. I was I was just turned 30. I was full of myself and I was an actress. I wanted to be an actress. I'd been on Broadway and I was out in L.A. and I had this.
00;07;30;13 - 00;07;48;14
Forbes Riley
Can you hear the aggression in my voice? Because I would say, What do you want? I wanted it. I wanted it. Well, if you want something so hard, you shatter it. And this guy, I went to his party one night and he said to me also a little bit of ADHD. I've come to understand that one of the things people with severe ADHD don't enjoy is mindless conversation.
00;07;48;14 - 00;08;03;04
Forbes Riley
You know, that kind of chitchat you do at parties, it makes me very uncomfortable. I want to get to the point quickly, and I think that got misinterpreted as being rude. I wasn't ever I'm not a mean person at all. But people thought that. And so he call he calls me, he says, I want to tell you something about the party last night.
00;08;03;04 - 00;08;20;01
Forbes Riley
I'm like, What? He's like, My friends didn't really like you. And you know what I said? Being a New Yorker, the fact is that everybody said that. But that's what New Yorkers did, right? You know, Is it is it I have a training, a thing that I went to that I think you'd really enjoy. And back then I had a thing about money.
00;08;20;01 - 00;08;35;26
Forbes Riley
I grew up with no money. Even when I had some. I always walked around with this broke mentality and I said I can't afford it. He says, It's only $400 back. I can't afford it. He said, Really? I said, Yeah. He said, You know what? I'll pay for you now, Stephen, here's how twisted my psychology was. Back in my early thirties.
00;08;35;28 - 00;08;52;08
Forbes Riley
I thought because nobody does anything for free was my belief this guy is probably going want to sleep with me for the 400 that was never. And he never did. It was not even an offer. But in my mind these days I was so glad I found this training. I get into the training and oh my God, it was.
00;08;52;08 - 00;09;13;14
Forbes Riley
I didn't know they were rules like this where you beat pillows and yelled and screamed about, you know, the bully that you had when you were in second grade and you ran around. And it was a very physical training. And here's the crazy thing. I had let some of my beliefs go in that room that one week I was 31, absolutely changed my life and set a course for my whole future.
00;09;13;16 - 00;09;28;06
Forbes Riley
But then what they always do is they upsell you on the way out. Remember, I hadn't done any infomercials yet. I hadn't sold any products yet, and I was going to get a massive training in marketing On the way out the door. They said, Hey, you, that was great. But now we've got the leadership training. We'd love to invite you for it.
00;09;28;14 - 00;09;50;15
Forbes Riley
It's $900. I called my friend, insulted. I'm like, this was a scam. They just want my money. And he likes you. Like, didn't you get anything out of it? I'm like, Yeah, it was brilliant, but that's just a skip. And I here is I'm telling you this story, What I hear in my students now, I hear people who've been hurt before and bring old baggage to new relationships and it doesn't work.
00;09;50;17 - 00;10;06;18
Forbes Riley
And this time he said, Look, I'm not going to give you the money. I said, Well, what am I supposed to do is to think about it. And I did. And this is the other thing about CEOs and entrepreneurs. You have to be your own driver. You have to accept rejection and solve problems all day, every day. And I said, well, can I would you loan me the money?
00;10;06;20 - 00;10;22;20
Forbes Riley
He said, Yes, I will. He said, I'll even let you set the terms. I said, Great, I want $100 a month. No interest. And he said, Yes. I've never seen him since, by the way. But I have been on a path for the last 30 years of self-development. Not only me, I've got I've broken through some unbelievable things.
00;10;22;22 - 00;10;31;06
Forbes Riley
But my joy now, Steven, is to watch my students, my clients break through their beliefs to become who I always thought they could be.
00;10;31;08 - 00;10;53;23
Steven Pesavento
Well, I feel like I share a similar story in the sense that I had two loving parents, but we grew up broke. It was extremely challenging. There was a lot of very difficult times and things that happened, but when I got on that path towards self-development, it changed my life. I saw a different version of myself that was possible, and I found a way to meeting him and really being able to connect with him.
00;10;53;23 - 00;11;17;29
Steven Pesavento
And I think there's nothing more powerful than getting on that journey and staying with it. And I know you're helping lots of people change their life because you've already had massive success. I mean, selling $2.5 billion in products is incredible. I've watched you pitch over and over. I've seen your pitch training. It's amazing. But at the core, what is pitching and why do people need to know how to pitch?
00;11;18;01 - 00;11;34;03
Forbes Riley
Well, the funny thing is you just you just hit on what I teach. They don't need it. Nobody needs anything. So when you've got a product or service, you can't wait to tell people what they need. They need that new vitamin. They need this pitch training, they need that investment deal. Now, nobody needs anything and nobody buys anything because of what they need.
00;11;34;06 - 00;11;53;11
Forbes Riley
They buy it because they want it. And it's a very interesting distinction. And I teach that at the core of everything that I do. When you're sitting across from somebody, you're in a crowd or you're on a camera, stop telling people that they need it. Get them to want it. So for one of the secrets that I've got and I'll just show your audience, you've probably seen me do this, but I have a blank piece of paper here.
00;11;53;11 - 00;12;07;02
Forbes Riley
And if we're doing it just audio wise, I have a blank piece of paper here and I have a big blue pen. Okay, I'm going to make a prediction and Stephen and I are going to do something that we did not practice. Okay, Stephen, my question to you is, do you want to see something cool? What do you say?
00;12;07;05 - 00;12;08;16
Steven Pesavento
Yeah, yeah, I do write.
00;12;08;16 - 00;12;09;24
Forbes Riley
What is the paper saying?
00;12;09;26 - 00;12;11;02
Steven Pesavento
It says yes.
00;12;11;04 - 00;12;24;23
Forbes Riley
So I predicted I knew what you were going to say before you said it. How is that possible? That's one of the secrets to pitch. I never ask a question I don't know the answer to Very often, beginner pitches will go, so I've got this product. So, Stephen, tell me about your life. And we like what we like to work out.
00;12;24;23 - 00;12;47;05
Forbes Riley
No, no, no. I already can make an assumption about you. And I teach a specific formula called UPF. It's the ultimate pitch formula, and it's got components called the Hub, the grid, the drive, train assumptions, relatability factors and springboard story. Now that most people that knows me nothing, but I'm going to tell you every single day, all day you pitch and you don't realize it.
00;12;47;08 - 00;13;02;00
Forbes Riley
What is it? Pitch. Pitch just means getting a yes. It doesn't actually mean making a sale. You pitched me to come on your podcast. You're not paying me, but it must have been something I wanted to do. Why would I want to do it? Well, you told me that, you know, some of my friends that I work with who are on high places.
00;13;02;02 - 00;13;20;05
Forbes Riley
You've said that you've got an audience. I love the timber of your voice, the name of your podcast. And I said, What? I said, Yes, that's a pitch. Guys, if you're listening to me, please, please enjoy this. Pitching is a life skill. As a business skill, it will make you a lot of money. All I did on television was pitch.
00;13;20;07 - 00;13;41;09
Forbes Riley
I pitched the 2.5 billion. I pitched Jacquelyn Juicer. We sold a billion of those. I've pitched 2 to $5000 a minute every minute I've been on home shopping. How's that possible? Because the human psychology of getting people to take out a credit card is what Zig Ziglar picked up on decades ago. He said the secret to getting what you want are getting the money that you want is giving people what they want.
00;13;41;12 - 00;13;58;26
Forbes Riley
Well, here's the thing. I have a fitness product. I'm holding it in my hand. And again, if it's just audio, you can't see it. But it's a silver thing with two rings, right? We call it a spin gym. Now, I could tell you all that you need it because for the holidays you need to have sexy arms. For the summertime, you need to take off your coat and feel good and you're like, Wait, wait, wait.
00;13;58;26 - 00;14;13;01
Forbes Riley
When? Steven, you know what I do? Pick up your arm. Literally pick up your arm for me. Now touch with your other hand. Touch the bottom of it. Is it nice and tight or is it got a little bit of like a wiggly jiggly? And if you're a woman especially, it's like, Oh, that's not so nice, right? Yeah.
00;14;13;06 - 00;14;24;05
Forbes Riley
Steven, if I told you that you spin gym 5 minutes a day, three times just 5 minutes, you wake up at lunch and dinner in three weeks, that will be at least 50% tighter. Do you want to spin, Jim?
00;14;24;05 - 00;14;29;06
Steven Pesavento
Now you're. You're walking me down the path towards wanting one.
00;14;29;09 - 00;14;45;15
Forbes Riley
Yeah. Now you're a girl. You're not my ideal customer. See if my ideal customer for you what I would do. Because Joshua, my husband, is a bodybuilder and he uses this every day. It does not build muscle, but for him he uses it a warm up. Great way to get your heart pumping. He'll do 3 minutes every single day.
00;14;45;21 - 00;15;07;06
Forbes Riley
This guy is competing in Mr. Olympia in like three weeks if he uses. Would that interest. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. So that's what the assumptions part of my training is, is that even though you might have a pitch already set, I've worked on my pitch, but I'm pitching to Steven's face and Steven is young and bright or I'm pitching to my face and I'm a woman that's a big difference.
00;15;07;14 - 00;15;11;06
Forbes Riley
Women buy. Women want things differently than men do. Is that a fair thing to say?
00;15;11;09 - 00;15;12;03
Steven Pesavento
Yeah.
00;15;12;06 - 00;15;24;23
Forbes Riley
So I'm going to not do the pitch. I'm going to do the formula, which has a couple of fixed components. This Benjamin didn't change. I didn't change. The person I'm talking to is the one that changes.
00;15;24;26 - 00;15;33;16
Steven Pesavento
And so it's when you understand the formula, then you understand how to modify the pitch based on the situation and the people that you're talking to and teaching.
00;15;33;16 - 00;15;50;19
Forbes Riley
That is why this man is successful. Yeah, that was a great deduction. That's exactly what it is. And that's how I make sales. That's how I make sales of you, which have gone through the roof this year, because people begin to realize that if they could get their ideas out to the world, if they could sell more product that they're sitting in their house.
00;15;50;22 - 00;16;08;01
Forbes Riley
And by the way, the beautiful part of my system is it doesn't require you to have a product. You do not have to write a new book or design something new. You can be a network marketer for somebody else's product. You can be affiliate marketer for somebody else's product that you love. And if you can pitch, you get paid.
00;16;08;03 - 00;16;39;19
Steven Pesavento
Yeah, well, and that's why I think it's such a core critical skill that whether people believe they need it or not, you're absolutely right. You need to be focused on what they want and what that's going to do for them. But when somebody has the ability to communicate in the fashion format that you do, when someone to understand is the psychology of how to get people to move forward to do what they want to say, yes, it unlocks so much potential because whether it's your relationships, your business or anything else in your life, you're communicating with people every single day.
00;16;39;19 - 00;16;50;03
Steven Pesavento
Even the ability to introduce yourself is a critical thing. And a lot of people aren't very good at it. And even the people who are good at it often get tripped up in saying things that don't matter.
00;16;50;06 - 00;17;09;15
Forbes Riley
Do you know if you're lucky, you all experience the greatest pitching in with that is Will you marry me? That's a pitch. The person can say yes or no. It really you have to make sure that you've kind of laid that situation out. Right? Right. For the person. Want to join now, yes or no, Right. I mean, it must be so bad when somebody gets a no.
00;17;09;16 - 00;17;12;29
Forbes Riley
Will you marry me? No, I'm not interested. It's like, really? You misread that missed signal.
00;17;12;29 - 00;17;17;21
Steven Pesavento
That's one of the most brutal things to watch on video. It's terrible.
00;17;17;23 - 00;17;33;21
Forbes Riley
I've never watched. You know, I think that's funny. But yeah, I love how you isolated guys. If you're listening to this podcast, obviously interested in investing in making money and I don't care if you want to learn to pitch or not. That's not why I teach it. Here's what you want. You want more leads, you want better relationship ups.
00;17;33;22 - 00;17;43;22
Forbes Riley
You want to introduce yourself with confidence. You want to walk across the stage and sell from stage. All of those things are what you want. And I hold a secret key to that, and I call it pitching.
00;17;43;25 - 00;18;01;12
Steven Pesavento
So I want to pivot away from the pitch conversation. I want to talk about you. Forbes personally, because I think, you know, hearing your story is probably one of the most inspiring things. I think anybody can walk away from this with. Obviously, you should go and learn how to pitch and learn how to talk about yourself, and we can get into some more strategies.
00;18;01;12 - 00;18;21;17
Steven Pesavento
But I mean, you're a woman who stepped into the world of pitching. You went from acting into this world of pitching a new space for you when you made that move. You know, when you're an actress or an actor, you're getting paid for the work that you're doing. Maybe you get some points in the backend, but usually you're getting paid for for showing up.
00;18;21;19 - 00;18;31;24
Steven Pesavento
How did it work in the pitch space when you got started? How did you start actually going out there and finding these opportunities? Then? How did you get paid to do that?
00;18;31;27 - 00;18;52;15
Forbes Riley
I didn't. They found me and I'm going to share something on your screen. That's one of my favorite stories. I didn't find this. This career found me. I was an actress and a television host, and I did a lot of that. And I really I don't enjoy selling. I would be very uncomfortable. I talked to story about money, and so I go on auditions all the time.
00;18;52;15 - 00;19;10;21
Forbes Riley
And the funny thing about being an actor is that you are really guided by by the hand of God. You really are. Leo DiCaprio was doing a sitcom called Family Ties when he walked into an audition called Titanic. He had no idea that this $100 million movie was going to change his life. For him, it was just an audition.
00;19;10;21 - 00;19;26;20
Forbes Riley
It was a character. This is what we do as actors. And so I walked into a studio. There was a camera on a table and it said, Sell me this pen. Get the guy in the camera said, Are you ready to go? And I'm like, Sell me this pen with that. And I immediately had a thought and something changed in my life at that moment.
00;19;26;22 - 00;19;42;24
Forbes Riley
And it said, I don't think they want me to sell the pen. I think I think all the other actresses are going to say, it's silver and you put it in your hand and it's got a click thing to it. That's not what they want. And they don't know why. I heard that voice and I looked at the camera and I said, You know, it's a funny thing about pens.
00;19;42;26 - 00;19;57;17
Forbes Riley
I went to college. I was only 16 years old. I was really young, a little insecure, and my mom would write me a longhand note. Every morning I would run to the mailbox, boom, like clockwork. There it was. And I realized about a simple pen like this. It could reach out and touch somebody's heart. Here's the crazy thing.
00;19;57;17 - 00;20;17;01
Forbes Riley
And I'm going to share my screen because there's pictures to this this story. And thank you for asking, because it's just I think it's just a pivotal point in in my story. But there was the first pitch. The first pen was the pitch. And Jacob Body by Jake walked out from behind the camera. He grabbed my face and said, You're going to make me a lot of money.
00;20;17;04 - 00;20;36;08
Forbes Riley
I didn't know what he was talking about. Well, cable television had just launched and he had this idea of doing a 24 hour network. And the last one, it was all about fitness and health. And the last 50 minutes should be selling products. This is the job that started my career, earning 24 hours a day. Now, get ready for the.
00;20;36;10 - 00;20;45;19
Forbes Riley
By the way, can you hear that? I'm not sure if I shared it correctly. Yeah, you can. Okay. I just want to make sure that you could hear it. Sorry. 24 hours a day.
00;20;45;25 - 00;21;10;23
Speaker 3
Now get ready with Olympic sports, fashion and exercise gear on fitness. Plus, I am for Brian. And then we got a group quality for you. Take a look at that. Hi, I'm Forbes Riley. I'm back by popular demand. The best way to develop rock Heart of Dominoes. Hi, I'm Fort Riley, and welcome to Fitness Plus. Now, if you want to burn calories and tune your whole body all in the comfort and privacy of your own home.
00;21;10;23 - 00;21;14;16
Speaker 3
So I'm feeling my thighs work. I love the pants, clothing and supply.
00;21;14;18 - 00;21;19;13
Forbes Riley
I am Forbes, Riley, and welcome to this plus that. Okay.
00;21;19;15 - 00;21;32;20
Steven Pesavento
So you're on TV. You're you're doing the patch. You're doing this stuff. And you moved into this role. I mean, the details are are amazing to be able to share, but.
00;21;32;22 - 00;21;48;17
Forbes Riley
Well, let me finish this. So, Jake, so so here's what happened. People would come to me with a product. I would write the pitch for them. I did that for five years. I literally I'm an idiot savant when it comes to pitching. Nobody taught me how to do this. There was no onboarding handbook. I have no idea where you can give me any product and I can just pitch it to camera.
00;21;48;20 - 00;22;08;13
Forbes Riley
Jake sold that network to Fox for $500 million and these are what forms. What did you do next? I didn't. Infomercials were born and there were no women who could pitch. And that's me standing next to Jack LaLanne. And it's funny you said that everybody your age and older will know me well next year. When Mark Wahlberg plays Jack LaLanne in a movie, everybody will know Jack LaLanne.
00;22;08;21 - 00;22;29;21
Forbes Riley
And that one infomercial, guys, grossed $1,000,000,000, so I didn't have to. This is the craziest thing. I don't know anyone who could tell this story. I never set out to pitch and I never had to look for work. It came to me as though it was supposed to be mine. And that's what's funny about it. And at some point I had to give up my acting career.
00;22;29;24 - 00;22;45;29
Forbes Riley
It's kind of a long story, but I moved from out from Hollywood and I moved to where home shopping is, and I started pitching for everybody. Everybody wanted to hire me. Oh my God, the girl who can sell my product. And I had a skill and a reputation that it didn't matter what you gave me, I could figure out the pitch for you in minutes.
00;22;46;02 - 00;22;58;29
Forbes Riley
And that's where the 2.5 billion came in. And it was like, Oh my gosh. And I never thought about it. It was just became it was not a job because every one of those jobs was individual people. But word spread fast and I was the go to hire for about ten years.
00;22;59;01 - 00;23;09;04
Steven Pesavento
So this is really I think this is really important. Forbes Did you know that you had this incredible skill before you showed up to that interview?
00;23;09;06 - 00;23;26;04
Forbes Riley
No, I first of all, let me tell you something. I didn't know I had that skill the entire time I was using that skill. I was pissed that I was not acting. I wanted to be Julia Roberts and Sandra Bullock and now is one of my friends said, Well, you sell crap on television. I'm like, Girlfriend, I just made $100,000 selling, doing a QVC appearance and you're selling it hamburgers.
00;23;26;04 - 00;23;28;06
Forbes Riley
Which one of us is a better actress?
00;23;28;08 - 00;24;05;09
Steven Pesavento
Yeah, and that's why I think that's so important, because you that that skill was pulled out from you. You didn't you weren't even aware of it, but you had this piece that was deep down inside. I think so many people need to hear that, that there's something within them that they don't know about, but that will get pulled out when they go out and they show up and they take action and they put themselves out there and they try new things because you tried something new and it led you down this career where you became the pitch queen or you developed this skill set that everybody in the world of TV selling wanted.
00;24;05;11 - 00;24;23;23
Forbes Riley
Well, the irony of this is that prior to that, I had auditioned for a lot of commercials, commercials of 30 to 60 seconds spots where you take a sip of something, go, Oh, that's delicious. And I so sucked at that. And I would go on. I would go on ten of those a day, and I would not get one of them because it was to me, it was frivolous, it was stupid.
00;24;23;23 - 00;24;42;02
Forbes Riley
It's like, Oh, look at that. Oh, that's cheeseburgers. It was horrible. And when infomercials came out, there was a lot of words to infomercials. You had to have a character. You had to tell a story to do all the things that I innately now teach that I knew needed to be there. And I'm going to I love the fact that you said it was pulled out of me and I'm going to share.
00;24;42;02 - 00;24;59;08
Forbes Riley
That's true for other entrepreneurs. I don't know. Just because you want one thing, be very mindful. I didn't want this career at all, ever. I wanted to be getting an Oscar and be Julia Roberts. I wanted to be those kind of movies, a little rom play around with George Clooney and Brad Pitt and have a great life that never materialized.
00;24;59;08 - 00;25;16;21
Forbes Riley
I did a couple movies and TV but never got there, and the universe kept saying, You're going to do this, you're going to do this. And then I'm in the National Fitness Hall of Fame. Stephen I don't know how I got there. I've never won a fitness competition. I don't have any muscles, but I sold more fitness products in any person on the planet.
00;25;16;23 - 00;25;19;13
Forbes Riley
Oh, that's interesting.
00;25;19;16 - 00;25;42;28
Steven Pesavento
Yeah. I personally believe everyone was born or put on this earth with a gift. And most people, what they need to do is they need to go out and try different things so they can discover what that gift is. And it sounds like that magically happened for you after years and years of going out and doing the thing that you absolutely wanted to do, and then you ended up having a message.
00;25;42;28 - 00;26;02;15
Steven Pesavento
You receive that message. And even if you didn't want to receive it and you kept rejecting it, you kept pushing back, it kept telling you over and over again, Forbes You're good at this. You are needed. This is your gift. Use it, accept it. At what point did you finally just say, You know what, I am the pitch queen and I love it?
00;26;02;17 - 00;26;18;24
Forbes Riley
Yesterday, that's you know, when I did. Okay, that's a great point. Couple was at I don't know if we have a too much time on this, but something happened to me. I was in my early forties. Hollywood is a horrible, destructive place, not only we find out that men literally stalk and rape women, but they tell you that at 30 you're too old.
00;26;18;24 - 00;26;33;21
Forbes Riley
And if you don't have big breasts and blond hair, you're not going to be a star. I was told all those things. I was chased around desks and it's very demeaning. Well, one day I'm at the height of my career and I go to my agent. My agent was a very nice guy, by the way, and I had $100,000 contract to host an infomercial that I'd found.
00;26;33;23 - 00;26;48;17
Forbes Riley
And I said, please negotiate this for me. He calls me two days later. He said, I've got good news and bad news. I said, okay, what's the good news? He said, They love you. And like, of course they do. I'm great at this. He said, But the bad news is they want somebody younger and less expensive. And I found it for them.
00;26;48;19 - 00;27;03;17
Forbes Riley
Oh, but the good news to that is they want you to teach her how to pitch. And I said, Wait a second, let me check and see if there's pigs flying or hell is frozen over because you're done when you're done. I was so hurt at younger. I was 41 when you said that. I said to the universe, I'm never teaching this.
00;27;03;17 - 00;27;20;22
Forbes Riley
I have the ability to print money. I know what I do. I don't really love it as much as I love acting, but I can print money any time I want. I've made millions, many, many times over. Well, now I'm in my late fifties and I'm sitting here during COVID and I've got two teenagers are doing high school in my house, and my daughter comes to me.
00;27;20;22 - 00;27;34;20
Forbes Riley
She's been a digital marketer for five years before that. She's already made a ton of money. She knows that I've been screwed over by digital marketers. I can't get my message on this computer. I'm not online at all. All my money be made on television. And she said, Mom, I'm going to build a company with you. You ready?
00;27;34;22 - 00;27;49;26
Forbes Riley
We're going to teach people how to pitch. I said, No, we're not. She said, Yes, we are. So your age, Mom, what you do is brilliant, and now it's You need to leave a legacy. You have no competition and I'm going to show you how to do it. And we sat and we pulled out all the things that I did over and over again.
00;27;49;26 - 00;28;06;06
Forbes Riley
And she made me see that I had systems and tricks that I already did, but I didn't really quite acknowledge. So we created an online business. And Steven, we launched on a Wednesday night with 25 people in the room. The next morning I opened their bank account and I said to McKenna, What does the K stand for? So what do you mean, Mom?
00;28;06;08 - 00;28;28;08
Forbes Riley
So it says 25 K She said you grossed $25,000 last night every single one in person in that room that you pitched $1,000 training. Do they all but you had 100% close rate. Mom, Nobody does that. They do 5 to 10, 30%. You closed every person in the room. Steven I did that for four weeks. My daughter at 17 years old is now the CEO of the company because $200,000 in six.
00;28;28;08 - 00;28;45;13
Forbes Riley
In four weeks. In six months, you're at 1.2 million. We got our Two Comma Club award for one funnel. We made $1,000,000. And so I became the pitch queen. I then set out and I now teach this to I teach a course called Next Level How to Craft Your Personal branding, because my branding was all over the place.
00;28;45;15 - 00;29;02;21
Forbes Riley
And the funny thing is, Steven, I feel like I've been guided by the hand of God. I was in a girlfriend's photo studio and there was this big old Flouncy dress and I tried it on. I thought, Oh my God, I feel like a queen. And she had this gold crown. And I took the gold crown, you know, with no pre-planning.
00;29;02;23 - 00;29;08;08
Forbes Riley
That's my logo, that's my brand. And it was created because I was guided to do that.
00;29;08;10 - 00;29;29;10
Steven Pesavento
Yeah, there is something out there that I really do believe is guiding us. And, you know, it took your daughter someone you love dearly, super close to you to to finally wake you up, to recognize that you need to share this gift to the world. So that's the next iteration of your career is to actually go out and be able to help other people with that same skill.
00;29;29;12 - 00;29;57;02
Forbes Riley
And that that that's the gift. That's why I'm alive at the moment, because the greatest gift that you can give to people I just got off the phone with a 31 year old who's having his first baby. My twins turned 21 yesterday and I thought, man, you're in for a beautiful ride. But I think as an older person who's been through a lot, the gift of your life, the purpose is to share to other generations and to let them know about the quest and that it's bumpy and that there's going to be ups and downs and then you're down as downs.
00;29;57;02 - 00;30;20;12
Forbes Riley
That becomes the best part of your pitch. I raised a bonus son who was murdered. I got to tell you, you don't want that story. But when I talk about it in the right context, it inspires people to take action to live for today. And so I believe that everything in life happens for you, not to you. And if you view it that way, you make stories out of the worst parts of your life and you inspire other people to live their life.
00;30;20;15 - 00;30;41;13
Steven Pesavento
Yeah, I think it's so true. I lost my little sister four years ago and it was the hardest thing I ever dealt with, but it changed my life. It made me more of the person that I am today. And when it comes to parenting, we just have a couple of minutes left before we wrap. But when it comes to parenting, I mean, you've you've raised a couple kids.
00;30;41;13 - 00;31;05;29
Steven Pesavento
You've obviously had some challenges with the Big Brother and Big sister program. Obviously, you're raising that young kid and he was murdered. What did you do or what do you recommend to parents when it comes to instilling in your children that they can go and do this? Because at 17, she helped you create this massive business and, you know, she started even younger.
00;31;06;01 - 00;31;26;15
Forbes Riley
Yeah, she started at 12 with her business. I'm going to tell you as a parent, the only way I'm qualified is I've raised two children who are 21, are healthy, happy and successful. One's in college, the other one's her own business. And they're both they both call me to tell me how much they love me, which is that's the most successful part of raising children, is, number one, stop living your life through them.
00;31;26;15 - 00;31;33;10
Forbes Riley
I mean, I actually, you know, I have a whole bunch of theories that I would love to put into a parenting book. And I know you have two kids, by the way.
00;31;33;12 - 00;31;34;09
Steven Pesavento
Not yet.
00;31;34;11 - 00;31;58;26
Forbes Riley
Well, you will definitely see that you're going to be a great dad and that your sister is going to watch over you and them. And so the crazy thing about these I have theories is and I'll just give you one of them. I didn't punish my kids. I made them punish themselves. I'm not quite sure where that came from, But my son called me not long ago in high school, in college, and he said, Mom, I got to tell you, the way you raised us, you did a really good job.
00;31;58;28 - 00;32;12;18
Forbes Riley
And what that means is that as an adult, I said, Look, I don't want to be the one. You did something wrong. I'm supposed to spank you or ground you or I'm now the bad guy. No, you're going to tell me what's the right punishment for the thing that you just did? And they were like, Well, you should probably take my phone.
00;32;12;18 - 00;32;27;14
Forbes Riley
I said, Okay, if you think I should take your phone, I will. And the crazy thing is that instilled an interesting sense of responsibility that they began to realize at a very, very young age that there were consequences to their actions. And it was not, Oh my God, I need to. I can't do that because mom will hurt.
00;32;27;15 - 00;32;45;11
Forbes Riley
No, I find out you're going to create the punishment. And then it was a fascinating way to do that. The other thing I created for them was the I want game. And this is really interesting. I train my kids. I used to train dogs. I had a dog game show on television for many years called Zig and Zag about dogs.
00;32;45;13 - 00;33;01;13
Forbes Riley
And the cool thing I learned about dogs is they they have souls. They can understand you. They remember. They just can't speak English. So if you go, Hey, puppy, stop chewing my shoe, because Mommy's going to get so mad at you. The dog is like, What is she saying to me? But if you say, Look, here's a treat, give me your pot.
00;33;01;13 - 00;33;14;19
Forbes Riley
There's the treat, give me the pot. There's a treat to go, Oh, guess what? There's a treat. Got it. Got a pour. Do the same thing with your kids. Train your kids. Don't let them run rampant. One of the reasons I did that is because we were checking out of a grocery store one day. I have two three year old twins.
00;33;14;22 - 00;33;30;15
Forbes Riley
I used to really hate when moms would have to listen to I want a candy. I wanted this one of them. Oh my God. I'm like, I'm not raising my kids like that. We get to the checkout counter. The kids are about three. MacKenna looks at me. She's like, Mommy, I said to her, I said, Can you grab me a piece of fruit that we need something healthy to eat?
00;33;30;15 - 00;33;46;27
Forbes Riley
We always focused on healthy food. We grew up with Jacqueline and Jacqueline always said, If man made it, don't eat it. So my kids would run around going, Mom, did man make the cereal? No man made the zero with it, but God made the apples. So maybe we do apple if man made it, don't eat it. And so we're at the grocery and there's all that candy.
00;33;46;29 - 00;34;02;28
Forbes Riley
And I said to my both of them, I said, Grab me a piece of fruit, find me a grape or something. And the mechanic looks at me like Mommy, there's only candy here, jelly sugar candy. And I said, Well, why do you think that is? And she said, Oh, I think bad men put that there to trick us.
00;34;03;00 - 00;34;19;10
Forbes Riley
And I said, You are so right. And you know what we did every single week when we went shopping growing up? All right, don't touch it. Don't look bad men put that there to touch us. And it became a game. My daughter doesn't really Candy even is my son. Not because I told them. No, they can't. They know they can.
00;34;19;12 - 00;34;37;29
Forbes Riley
And then when we were at a party, she was ten years old and she was standing around the group of people. And a mother comes up to me and says, You are just the worst mother. And I'm like, Excuse me? She said, You don't let your kids see candy or birthday cake. That's just horrible, you fitness people. And she walked away and I walked over to my daughter and I'm like, What's going on here?
00;34;38;01 - 00;34;58;24
Forbes Riley
Did I tell you that you can't eat candy? Your cake? She's like, No, mommy, I know that I could eat anything I want. I just don't want to. So I blamed you. That's the strategies to raising a kid. And I will tell you, for those of you, I can see the visuals. There's my queen of of of pitching picture the chair.
00;34;58;26 - 00;35;05;26
Forbes Riley
The dress was spontaneous, the crown was spontaneous. Or was it fate? That's all I'm going to say.
00;35;05;29 - 00;35;15;24
Steven Pesavento
All Forbes. I have so many more questions for you, but we'll have to save them for another day. Thanks so much for joining us. Tell the audience where they can follow you or get in touch.
00;35;15;26 - 00;35;26;04
Forbes Riley
Because I love social media. I got 1.8 million fans on my Facebook to search my name or simply go to WW W Forbes Riley dot com.
00;35;26;06 - 00;35;32;29
Steven Pesavento
Well thanks so much for joining us and thanks for listening to this episode. We'll see you guys next week everybody.