July 2, 2025 • 17 mins
Celebrity host, actress, and TV pioneer Forbes Riley dishes on overcoming physical insecurities, hitting it big with Body by Jake, being the original host of the X Games, working with her kids, being at the "right place at the right time with the weirdest talent", and her slightly controversial opinion on legacy.
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Episode Transcript
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Gary Michels (00:00):
Hello everybody. Welcome to our show today, Let's
(00:02):
Talk Legacy, and today, we haveForbes Riley on. Forbes Riley is
known as the Queen of pitch.She's a celebrity TV host,
pioneer and industry leader inthe field of infomercials and
the home shopping TV withproduct sales over $2.5 billion
that really that opened my eyeswhen I first heard about it
coming on, having a appeared innearly 200 infomercials, and
(00:27):
you've had a lot more go on inyour life. Welcome to the show.
Forbes Riley (00:30):
I appreciate you. Welcome, welcome. Thank you.
Gary Michels (00:32):
So let's dig into this a little bit. You didn't
have it particularly easygrowing up, and things got
turned upside down for you whenyour dad, who was an inventor,
had a terrible accident.
Forbes Riley (00:43):
I love that you mentioned my dad right off the
top, and I appreciate that mydad was this beautiful inventor,
magician and an engineer whodidn't graduate college. And
when I tell my story, people askme, Why are you so interested in
communication? And I'll startwith just talking about my story
before I lead into his becauseone of the problems when I was
growing up is that I had an odddeformity in my jaw, so they put
(01:03):
me in braces. Not a big deal,right? You embraces for a year.
Two years, I was in braces foreight years of my life. And not
only braces, but they put thisthing in my mouth. I'm
interested in memory, chocolatedress. For two years, they
bolted it to the top of mymouth. I couldn't talk. What
came out of that is that myfather, who built a printing
press, he was standing on theprinting press, and he slipped,
and he tore off the whole frontof his left hand, and that would
(01:25):
send him to the hospital for 15operations over three years
while we were in high school, myfamily was completely broke
because of this. My mother turnsto me when we kiddo we have no
money for college, which is theonly dream that I really had.
What do I do? Well, there's abeauty pageant in town, and what
happened was my father's doctorlooked at my mom and me and our
situation and said, I'm going tofix your daughter's nose. And I
(01:46):
got kind of cute, and I enteredthis pageant locally in a hand
me down bridesmaids dress, and Iwon. There were 500 girls when I
walked into that room and I saidto my dad, one of these girls
going to be on TV, and it'sgoing to be me. And I learned a
lot. I learned about people'sopinions about you, but I also
learned about insaneperseverance and his idea the
law of attraction, and I'vetaken that throughout my entire
life. And when people say youcan't do it, all I hear is the
(02:09):
word go. At some point aftercollege, my went to college to
be a lawyer. I graduated inthree years with two degrees,
like I was weirdly smart, but Ialso just want to get out of
school. I wanted to be anactress, because that's all I
had when I was growing up, wasmovies and TV and books. I'm
gonna figure this out. I didn'thave a whole lot of help. I
didn't have any inheritance. Ididn't sleep my way or marry my
way, anywhere I did it. I was ona soap opera called As the World
(02:32):
Turns with Julianne Moore andMeg Ryan. They were both my co
stars. I wanted to be onBroadway, and I discover I can
control this. And I opened, andI'm 26 years old. I opened an
agency. I got stationary, I gota voice answering service. Back
then it was a woman, not even amachine, and I hired a woman
named Lindsay Maxwell. AndLindsay was the manager for
(02:53):
Forbes, Riley, and she wasfreaking brilliant, because she
knew all the things about Forbesbecause I was her, and I would
get on the phone and pretend,and I booked commercials and
movies because I was my onlyclient.
Gary Michels (03:05):
Oh my gosh.
Forbes Riley (03:06):
And for years I never told I mean, I was afraid
I was gonna get arrested, youknow, arrested or found out or
blackballed. I never toldanybody.
Gary Michels (03:12):
So now, when you were getting rejected and
whatnot, how did you pivot tothat new path of TV hosting?
Forbes Riley (03:19):
A lot of life is about showing up whenever it is.
Now, the cool thing about beingan actor is that you show up for
auditions all the time. If youland an audition and get a job,
it will change your life. Now,there's probably no other
business where that's quite aseasy. I walked into a lot of
auditions that I just booked outof the blue. One of them that
(03:40):
changed everything was a pen ona desk. And so what happened for
there was, I walked into anaudition and it said, Sell me
this pen. No one is interestedin buying a pen at that moment.
They don't even know what you'retalking about. I have a whole
formula. If I'm going to sellthe pen, I'm never going to talk
about it. I'm going to saysomething like, you know when I
this is what I did. This is whatI said. I don't even know back
then, how I knew this? I lookedat the pen, I said, disappoint
(04:02):
my mom. When I went off tocollege, I was I skipped a year
high school. I was 15 and a halfyears old, and I was really
nervous and shy and veryinsecure, traveling away from
home, and my mother would writeme handwritten notes. Every day.
I'd race to the mailbox to getthem, and I realized a pen like
this can reach out and touchsomebody's heart. I did that,
and I expected to leave becauseI thought it was kind of silly,
right? I silly, right? Well,Jake of body by Jake walks out
(04:26):
from behind the camera, grabs myface and says, you're going to
make me a lot of money. And I'mlike, dude, okay, if you'd think
back 30 years ago, cable TV hadjust started. I did that job for
five years. We made so muchmoney that Jake sold it to Fox
for $500 million in 1993 andwhat happened was infomercials
(04:46):
came along, and there were nogirls who sold who sold
anything. That's not what theydid on TV, right? Men were
carnival barkers, and that iswhen the infomercial industry
started. I was one of thepioneers. I was one of the first
females, like you said. I'd donealmost 200 Infomercials. I was
at the right place, at the righttime with the weirdest talent. I
don't know if you know this, butI'm the original host of the X
(05:07):
Games.
Gary Michels (05:08):
Wow.
Forbes Riley (05:08):
I have a little bit of ADHD. Maybe you noticed.
So one of the things I found inmy 20s was I took a trip to Club
Med. So I was doing a Broadwayshow, and I was a little burnt
out, and I booked a trip in 1986to Club Med, and I fell in love
with it. And I walked into theClub Med corporate office, I
said to the receptionist, shesaid, Can I help you? I said,
Well, I'm here to help you,who's in charge of your
(05:29):
entertainment. And I sat down,and I said, Look, I've just been
to your club. Here's what Inoticed. I think I can offer you
a way to do something different.And I went down there, and I
created game shows from that. Icame back to New York, and now I
had a new idea. I wanted to ski.I opened up the newspaper, and
there's a little thing that saysClub Med style show person
(05:49):
looking to work for a companycalled ski, whatever it was, he
view. And I applied because thejob had nothing to do with
skiing, and I knew that it hadto do with creating a bar party
at four o'clock in the afternoonto entertain people. All I know
is it was a crazy thing that Icreated. And one day, ESPN, two
hears about this and makes alittle half hour special out of
all the things that we're doing,because we also had an outdoor
(06:11):
snow volleyball game. It was abig production. Then next year,
they call me out of the blue, Iknow nothing about sports, and
they said, Hi, this is ESPN.We'd like to offer you $75,000
for two weeks. Two weeks to hostthe X Games on ESPN. And I'm
like, Mike, why are you callingme? And the X Games was
launching. There was no X Games,so I didn't even know what I was
(06:32):
getting involved in, and theyhired me. But you know what? I
did that job for six years. ThenI worked for nine more years
doing a dog game show for themand doing the great outdoor
games. And I guess I was rightthat I maybe said to myself, you
belong on TV. You'd be greatdoing that. Here's the thing
about the work that I do, isthat you can do a commercial in
two days. There are 365 days ina year. I could do 10
(06:56):
commercials, three movies, fourepisodic TV shows, and still
only get up to June. And soyou're like, wow, we saw you all
over the place, and you weredoing all of these things.
That's very different than atypical job. I just kept going
from experience to experience,and we've been trying to have a
baby. It wasn't working, and Irolled the dice and said, Let's
do in vitro. And I got blessedwith two twins. And so now I
(07:18):
give birth to twins at 42 mykids are now 22 and they both
run my company, so I must havedone something right in all of
that crazy you have, because Iwill tell you, I enjoy my kids
very much. I'm in business withthem. I travel with them. I love
them so very much. So I traveleda lot around the world, worked
on QVC and home shopping andsold products. And then at some
point, while I was overseas, Ifound a spin gym, a handheld
(07:40):
product. But I looked at thiscrazy product in the middle of
the night when the gentlemanshowed it to me on set at home
shopping, and I said, this is afitness product. He said, Oh,
no, no, no, no. It's an officede stressor. It's like a fidget
spinner. I said, No, no, I knowfitness. This is the greatest
fitness thing I've ever seen. Isaid, Tell me about the company.
He said, Look. He said, I don'twant to do I don't want to do
the company anymore. I've beendoing it for five years, not
made a lot of money. I'll giveit to you. If you sell 25,000 in
(08:03):
the first year, give me a smallpercentage. It's yours. I wrote
manuals and books, and, I mean,I went nuts, and then I
manufactured them, and then Iwent on home shopping, and I
went on a TV series, and I'vesold 3 million of these things,
and I could have created anentire empire, but when COVID
kind of hit, I stoppedmanufacturing China for a while,
and my daughter came downstairsat 17 and said to me, I'm going
(08:26):
to build you a company. I'vewatched you get screwed over
online. Mom, you suck at it.You're not good at the digital
thing. You're just, let me buildyour company. I'm like, but
you're 17. She's like, okay,Mom, let me show you something,
because I used to take her withme everywhere. My son stayed
more at home. She traveled andshe met all my friends, like Les
Brown and Joe Theismann, the NFLfootball player. And she said,
Mom, I've been building websitesand coding and YouTube channels
(08:47):
for all of your friends. And sheshowed me her bank account and
had six figures in it. And I'mlike, where did you get this
money? She said, You're the onlyone who doesn't believe in me.
I'm like, well, because Ithought you were just my
daughter, I didn't know thatyou're going to be a business
partner. She said, Mom, if yougive me three weeks, we're gonna
put you online. And give me ayear, I'll make you a million
dollars the first night I golive, I do my very first
webinar. I do my first webinarwith 25 people in the room, and
(09:11):
I sell my training for $1,000 Ihave a four week course on how
to pitch. I wake up the nextmorning and I look at the
account I have to call her, andI'm like, I don't understand
this yesterday, and for the lastthree years, this account that
I've been playing with had $0 init today. It says K, what does
the K stand for? So what do youmean? I said, it says 25k said,
Mom, you made $25,000 lastnight. You sold 25 people in the
(09:32):
room. You sold. You closed 100%in the room. We did that four
times in a row. We had a sixfigure business in four weeks.
And five years later, we have47,000 students.
Gary Michels (09:41):
Wow.
Forbes Riley (09:42):
When you talk about legacy, that's literally
what she said. Because she said,Mom, you should stop doing spin
gym during COVID. Let's focus onpitch. And I said to her, I
said, McKenna, I said, Look atme on television. I can't teach
this. She said to me, Mom, Iappreciate and you are brilliant
in what you do. But. You have asystem, you have a formula. You
(10:02):
do the same thing every time.And I looked at it through her
eyes, and she was 100% right. Iliterally, like I said, we never
start with the product. Youstart with an assumption of,
well, you know what you'reselling. You look at an
assumption, what is thatperson's biggest problem, given
what my solution is, and youorchestrate it in a very
specific way to get a yes. Shesaid, Mom, this whole thing that
(10:23):
you teach about pitching, we'vetraveled around the world. We do
very well so, but if you don'tteach other people this system
what you know, you won't have alegacy. And that's what we built
the company on.
Gary Michels (10:33):
So, you know, our show is called, Let's Talk
Legacy and and a very highlevel, what is legacy mean to
you?
Forbes Riley (10:40):
You know, I used to argue about this, because I
thought there was no such thing,because I worked with Jack
LaLanne. So I worked with Jackfor eight years. We sold juices.
We had one TV infomercial thatgrossed over a billion dollars.
It ran for eight years in 80countries. If I ask anyone under
the age of 25 they have no ideawho Jack LaLanne was. No idea
this man was on television for35 years. This man has pictures
(11:03):
with Marilyn Monroe and JohnnyCarson, and he's Arnold
Schwarzenegger's mentor. Heliterally started fitness, and
no one knows who he is. So ifJack LaLanne doesn't have a
legacy, you and I don't stand achance. And I truly believe that
on some level, that us fightingfor a legacy is not the right
thing to do. The legacy needs tobe here while you're on earth.
How many people can you impact?How profound is your life and
(11:23):
how happy are you? Because I doreally, truly believe that about
10 minutes after you're gone,the only people who care about
you after the people look onFacebook is the people who loved
you, whose lives you touched.
Gary Michels (11:33):
For a lot of people, there's a difference
between a personal legacy and abusiness legacy. Are they the
same for you, or are theyintertwined?
Forbes Riley (11:42):
No, you know, we're still dealing with
companies that are hundreds ofyears old. We still mention
names like Vanderbilt andCarnegie, and we drive forwards
long after he's dead. I'm goingto tell you, it's the top 1% of
1% of 1% from Apple. Peopleremember Steve Jobs forever
because we use his product. Butthat is such a small thing to be
looking at. I don't think TonyRobbins will have a legacy long
(12:04):
after he's gone, because he willno longer be teaching. And a lot
of his teachings, he's gotbooks, and it's great, and
people will write, you know, hewas also on television and a
couple of movies, they'llremember him, but short of him
as a coach, how many coaches areyou going to remember? So I just
don't think that people this isme, focus on the here and now.
Focus on who you touch and whatyou do, because that is your
(12:25):
legacy. Your legacy is how manypeople you help, you impact, and
how happy you are in this life.
Gary Michels (12:31):
Right. So what are you currently doing now?
Forbes Riley (12:34):
Well, you know what I'm what I do right now is
I have a new book coming outcalled Pitch secrets, A to Z,
and it's my a lot of the storiesthat I love telling and very
helpful for people that'll belaunching a little later this
year. Very excited about that.That is part of the legacy that
is part of outside of me, andliving beyond that. There is a
thing that's happening now withAmazon live and Tiktok live, and
(12:55):
people are selling all over theplace. I do not think I'm going
to jump on that bandwagon,because that's a young person's
game. I spent 30 years doinghome shopping. I was very well
produced, and it was beautifuland fun, and I made a lot of
money doing that. Beyond that,I've got a bunch of movies
coming out. I still love beingan actress. I have an action
packed Western, I have adocumentary that I just got
asked to do, and I'm just goingto enjoy the ride, because I am
(13:18):
65 years old and that. And Idon't know about how you feel,
but there's a little bit of atick tock. You know, when you
were in your early 30s, 40s,going this little time thing
about having a child, and nowthere's, how much fun Can I
have? How much How can I enjoy?I mean, I'm in love with my
second husband, and I'm havingthe time of my life. People say
Forbes, you know, what do youwant? What's your future look
like? What is your five years?I'm like, my five years is to
wake up with this man everymorning and still be healthy
(13:39):
enough to enjoy it. He is abodybuilder. I have no desire to
be a bodybuilder. But thensomething happened last year.
He'd said, there's abodybuilding competition in our
hometown. And I said, You knowwhat, I'm 64 years old, but you
know what, I'm going to go forit? And I did, and I ended up on
stage, and I ended up with amedal, and I ended up with the
next chapter of Forbes Riley'slife.
Gary Michels (14:00):
That's amazing. Where do people find you? I
mean, you're all over the place,but if they wanted to be in your
course, or they wanted to learnmore about you or just be around
you, how do they get in touchwith you?
Forbes Riley (14:13):
So my name Forbes Riley is rather un-unique. It's
that on all the social medias,but if you go to Forbes
riley.com All my links arethere, and here's what I'm going
to offer you guys. Every SundaySince COVID started, I show up
to do a two hour training onZoom. I ask people, What do they
do? And I will spend timerevamping their pitch. When I'm
(14:36):
done with you, your pitch isgoing to get an applause. That's
how good it is. So I highlyinvite you guys to go to a thing
called Pitch secretsmasterclass. I teach it every
Sunday. I teach it to realestate professionals, to
lawyers, doctors, entrepreneurs,teenagers and when you can
articulate and communicate, whatyou do to get a yes from someone
else. I promise you your lifechanges forever. This thing
(14:59):
about pitching. Training. It'snot sales training. It's just
getting Yeah, so Gary, watchthis. If I said to you, Hey, you
want to see something cool, whatare you going to say? Yes, see,
my dad taught me as a magician.There's things that you do and
you set people up to takecertain actions. Imagine when
you're doing a deal that youalready know what someone's
going to say, because you'vebeen training on assumptions, on
(15:22):
what that person looks like,feels like, and is more likely
to do. You know how you show up.You know what you're offering
has value. You don't over talkit. And when you connect all of
these dots, and I love teachingteams, we do a lot of that go to
pitch secrets with an Smasterclass.com and you'll be
(15:42):
blown away. The system works.It's not about you being a
genius or you being the best.McDonald's exists because of a
system. A lot of things that aresuccessful in legacy outlive the
person because they weresystematized, and that is the
only way that effectiveness runswell.
Gary Michels (15:59):
Thank you for joining us today. This has been
an amazing time.
Forbes Riley (16:03):
It has been such a delight.
Gary Michels (16:05):
Absolutely.
Hello everybody. Welcome to our show today, Let's
(00:02):
Talk Legacy, and today, we haveForbes Riley on. Forbes Riley is
known as the Queen of pitch.She's a celebrity TV host,
pioneer and industry leader inthe field of infomercials and
the home shopping TV withproduct sales over $2.5 billion
that really that opened my eyeswhen I first heard about it
coming on, having a appeared innearly 200 infomercials, and
(00:27):
you've had a lot more go on inyour life. Welcome to the show.
Forbes Riley (00:30):
I appreciate you. Welcome, welcome. Thank you.
Gary Michels (00:32):
So let's dig into this a little bit. You didn't
have it particularly easygrowing up, and things got
turned upside down for you whenyour dad, who was an inventor,
had a terrible accident.
Forbes Riley (00:43):
I love that you mentioned my dad right off the
top, and I appreciate that mydad was this beautiful inventor,
magician and an engineer whodidn't graduate college. And
when I tell my story, people askme, Why are you so interested in
communication? And I'll startwith just talking about my story
before I lead into his becauseone of the problems when I was
growing up is that I had an odddeformity in my jaw, so they put
(01:03):
me in braces. Not a big deal,right? You embraces for a year.
Two years, I was in braces foreight years of my life. And not
only braces, but they put thisthing in my mouth. I'm
interested in memory, chocolatedress. For two years, they
bolted it to the top of mymouth. I couldn't talk. What
came out of that is that myfather, who built a printing
press, he was standing on theprinting press, and he slipped,
and he tore off the whole frontof his left hand, and that would
(01:25):
send him to the hospital for 15operations over three years
while we were in high school, myfamily was completely broke
because of this. My mother turnsto me when we kiddo we have no
money for college, which is theonly dream that I really had.
What do I do? Well, there's abeauty pageant in town, and what
happened was my father's doctorlooked at my mom and me and our
situation and said, I'm going tofix your daughter's nose. And I
(01:46):
got kind of cute, and I enteredthis pageant locally in a hand
me down bridesmaids dress, and Iwon. There were 500 girls when I
walked into that room and I saidto my dad, one of these girls
going to be on TV, and it'sgoing to be me. And I learned a
lot. I learned about people'sopinions about you, but I also
learned about insaneperseverance and his idea the
law of attraction, and I'vetaken that throughout my entire
life. And when people say youcan't do it, all I hear is the
(02:09):
word go. At some point aftercollege, my went to college to
be a lawyer. I graduated inthree years with two degrees,
like I was weirdly smart, but Ialso just want to get out of
school. I wanted to be anactress, because that's all I
had when I was growing up, wasmovies and TV and books. I'm
gonna figure this out. I didn'thave a whole lot of help. I
didn't have any inheritance. Ididn't sleep my way or marry my
way, anywhere I did it. I was ona soap opera called As the World
(02:32):
Turns with Julianne Moore andMeg Ryan. They were both my co
stars. I wanted to be onBroadway, and I discover I can
control this. And I opened, andI'm 26 years old. I opened an
agency. I got stationary, I gota voice answering service. Back
then it was a woman, not even amachine, and I hired a woman
named Lindsay Maxwell. AndLindsay was the manager for
(02:53):
Forbes, Riley, and she wasfreaking brilliant, because she
knew all the things about Forbesbecause I was her, and I would
get on the phone and pretend,and I booked commercials and
movies because I was my onlyclient.
Gary Michels (03:05):
Oh my gosh.
Forbes Riley (03:06):
And for years I never told I mean, I was afraid
I was gonna get arrested, youknow, arrested or found out or
blackballed. I never toldanybody.
Gary Michels (03:12):
So now, when you were getting rejected and
whatnot, how did you pivot tothat new path of TV hosting?
Forbes Riley (03:19):
A lot of life is about showing up whenever it is.
Now, the cool thing about beingan actor is that you show up for
auditions all the time. If youland an audition and get a job,
it will change your life. Now,there's probably no other
business where that's quite aseasy. I walked into a lot of
auditions that I just booked outof the blue. One of them that
(03:40):
changed everything was a pen ona desk. And so what happened for
there was, I walked into anaudition and it said, Sell me
this pen. No one is interestedin buying a pen at that moment.
They don't even know what you'retalking about. I have a whole
formula. If I'm going to sellthe pen, I'm never going to talk
about it. I'm going to saysomething like, you know when I
this is what I did. This is whatI said. I don't even know back
then, how I knew this? I lookedat the pen, I said, disappoint
(04:02):
my mom. When I went off tocollege, I was I skipped a year
high school. I was 15 and a halfyears old, and I was really
nervous and shy and veryinsecure, traveling away from
home, and my mother would writeme handwritten notes. Every day.
I'd race to the mailbox to getthem, and I realized a pen like
this can reach out and touchsomebody's heart. I did that,
and I expected to leave becauseI thought it was kind of silly,
right? I silly, right? Well,Jake of body by Jake walks out
(04:26):
from behind the camera, grabs myface and says, you're going to
make me a lot of money. And I'mlike, dude, okay, if you'd think
back 30 years ago, cable TV hadjust started. I did that job for
five years. We made so muchmoney that Jake sold it to Fox
for $500 million in 1993 andwhat happened was infomercials
(04:46):
came along, and there were nogirls who sold who sold
anything. That's not what theydid on TV, right? Men were
carnival barkers, and that iswhen the infomercial industry
started. I was one of thepioneers. I was one of the first
females, like you said. I'd donealmost 200 Infomercials. I was
at the right place, at the righttime with the weirdest talent. I
don't know if you know this, butI'm the original host of the X
(05:07):
Games.
Gary Michels (05:08):
Wow.
Forbes Riley (05:08):
I have a little bit of ADHD. Maybe you noticed.
So one of the things I found inmy 20s was I took a trip to Club
Med. So I was doing a Broadwayshow, and I was a little burnt
out, and I booked a trip in 1986to Club Med, and I fell in love
with it. And I walked into theClub Med corporate office, I
said to the receptionist, shesaid, Can I help you? I said,
Well, I'm here to help you,who's in charge of your
(05:29):
entertainment. And I sat down,and I said, Look, I've just been
to your club. Here's what Inoticed. I think I can offer you
a way to do something different.And I went down there, and I
created game shows from that. Icame back to New York, and now I
had a new idea. I wanted to ski.I opened up the newspaper, and
there's a little thing that saysClub Med style show person
(05:49):
looking to work for a companycalled ski, whatever it was, he
view. And I applied because thejob had nothing to do with
skiing, and I knew that it hadto do with creating a bar party
at four o'clock in the afternoonto entertain people. All I know
is it was a crazy thing that Icreated. And one day, ESPN, two
hears about this and makes alittle half hour special out of
all the things that we're doing,because we also had an outdoor
(06:11):
snow volleyball game. It was abig production. Then next year,
they call me out of the blue, Iknow nothing about sports, and
they said, Hi, this is ESPN.We'd like to offer you $75,000
for two weeks. Two weeks to hostthe X Games on ESPN. And I'm
like, Mike, why are you callingme? And the X Games was
launching. There was no X Games,so I didn't even know what I was
(06:32):
getting involved in, and theyhired me. But you know what? I
did that job for six years. ThenI worked for nine more years
doing a dog game show for themand doing the great outdoor
games. And I guess I was rightthat I maybe said to myself, you
belong on TV. You'd be greatdoing that. Here's the thing
about the work that I do, isthat you can do a commercial in
two days. There are 365 days ina year. I could do 10
(06:56):
commercials, three movies, fourepisodic TV shows, and still
only get up to June. And soyou're like, wow, we saw you all
over the place, and you weredoing all of these things.
That's very different than atypical job. I just kept going
from experience to experience,and we've been trying to have a
baby. It wasn't working, and Irolled the dice and said, Let's
do in vitro. And I got blessedwith two twins. And so now I
(07:18):
give birth to twins at 42 mykids are now 22 and they both
run my company, so I must havedone something right in all of
that crazy you have, because Iwill tell you, I enjoy my kids
very much. I'm in business withthem. I travel with them. I love
them so very much. So I traveleda lot around the world, worked
on QVC and home shopping andsold products. And then at some
point, while I was overseas, Ifound a spin gym, a handheld
(07:40):
product. But I looked at thiscrazy product in the middle of
the night when the gentlemanshowed it to me on set at home
shopping, and I said, this is afitness product. He said, Oh,
no, no, no, no. It's an officede stressor. It's like a fidget
spinner. I said, No, no, I knowfitness. This is the greatest
fitness thing I've ever seen. Isaid, Tell me about the company.
He said, Look. He said, I don'twant to do I don't want to do
the company anymore. I've beendoing it for five years, not
made a lot of money. I'll giveit to you. If you sell 25,000 in
(08:03):
the first year, give me a smallpercentage. It's yours. I wrote
manuals and books, and, I mean,I went nuts, and then I
manufactured them, and then Iwent on home shopping, and I
went on a TV series, and I'vesold 3 million of these things,
and I could have created anentire empire, but when COVID
kind of hit, I stoppedmanufacturing China for a while,
and my daughter came downstairsat 17 and said to me, I'm going
(08:26):
to build you a company. I'vewatched you get screwed over
online. Mom, you suck at it.You're not good at the digital
thing. You're just, let me buildyour company. I'm like, but
you're 17. She's like, okay,Mom, let me show you something,
because I used to take her withme everywhere. My son stayed
more at home. She traveled andshe met all my friends, like Les
Brown and Joe Theismann, the NFLfootball player. And she said,
Mom, I've been building websitesand coding and YouTube channels
(08:47):
for all of your friends. And sheshowed me her bank account and
had six figures in it. And I'mlike, where did you get this
money? She said, You're the onlyone who doesn't believe in me.
I'm like, well, because Ithought you were just my
daughter, I didn't know thatyou're going to be a business
partner. She said, Mom, if yougive me three weeks, we're gonna
put you online. And give me ayear, I'll make you a million
dollars the first night I golive, I do my very first
webinar. I do my first webinarwith 25 people in the room, and
(09:11):
I sell my training for $1,000 Ihave a four week course on how
to pitch. I wake up the nextmorning and I look at the
account I have to call her, andI'm like, I don't understand
this yesterday, and for the lastthree years, this account that
I've been playing with had $0 init today. It says K, what does
the K stand for? So what do youmean? I said, it says 25k said,
Mom, you made $25,000 lastnight. You sold 25 people in the
(09:32):
room. You sold. You closed 100%in the room. We did that four
times in a row. We had a sixfigure business in four weeks.
And five years later, we have47,000 students.
Gary Michels (09:41):
Wow.
Forbes Riley (09:42):
When you talk about legacy, that's literally
what she said. Because she said,Mom, you should stop doing spin
gym during COVID. Let's focus onpitch. And I said to her, I
said, McKenna, I said, Look atme on television. I can't teach
this. She said to me, Mom, Iappreciate and you are brilliant
in what you do. But. You have asystem, you have a formula. You
(10:02):
do the same thing every time.And I looked at it through her
eyes, and she was 100% right. Iliterally, like I said, we never
start with the product. Youstart with an assumption of,
well, you know what you'reselling. You look at an
assumption, what is thatperson's biggest problem, given
what my solution is, and youorchestrate it in a very
specific way to get a yes. Shesaid, Mom, this whole thing that
(10:23):
you teach about pitching, we'vetraveled around the world. We do
very well so, but if you don'tteach other people this system
what you know, you won't have alegacy. And that's what we built
the company on.
Gary Michels (10:33):
So, you know, our show is called, Let's Talk
Legacy and and a very highlevel, what is legacy mean to
you?
Forbes Riley (10:40):
You know, I used to argue about this, because I
thought there was no such thing,because I worked with Jack
LaLanne. So I worked with Jackfor eight years. We sold juices.
We had one TV infomercial thatgrossed over a billion dollars.
It ran for eight years in 80countries. If I ask anyone under
the age of 25 they have no ideawho Jack LaLanne was. No idea
this man was on television for35 years. This man has pictures
(11:03):
with Marilyn Monroe and JohnnyCarson, and he's Arnold
Schwarzenegger's mentor. Heliterally started fitness, and
no one knows who he is. So ifJack LaLanne doesn't have a
legacy, you and I don't stand achance. And I truly believe that
on some level, that us fightingfor a legacy is not the right
thing to do. The legacy needs tobe here while you're on earth.
How many people can you impact?How profound is your life and
(11:23):
how happy are you? Because I doreally, truly believe that about
10 minutes after you're gone,the only people who care about
you after the people look onFacebook is the people who loved
you, whose lives you touched.
Gary Michels (11:33):
For a lot of people, there's a difference
between a personal legacy and abusiness legacy. Are they the
same for you, or are theyintertwined?
Forbes Riley (11:42):
No, you know, we're still dealing with
companies that are hundreds ofyears old. We still mention
names like Vanderbilt andCarnegie, and we drive forwards
long after he's dead. I'm goingto tell you, it's the top 1% of
1% of 1% from Apple. Peopleremember Steve Jobs forever
because we use his product. Butthat is such a small thing to be
looking at. I don't think TonyRobbins will have a legacy long
(12:04):
after he's gone, because he willno longer be teaching. And a lot
of his teachings, he's gotbooks, and it's great, and
people will write, you know, hewas also on television and a
couple of movies, they'llremember him, but short of him
as a coach, how many coaches areyou going to remember? So I just
don't think that people this isme, focus on the here and now.
Focus on who you touch and whatyou do, because that is your
(12:25):
legacy. Your legacy is how manypeople you help, you impact, and
how happy you are in this life.
Gary Michels (12:31):
Right. So what are you currently doing now?
Forbes Riley (12:34):
Well, you know what I'm what I do right now is
I have a new book coming outcalled Pitch secrets, A to Z,
and it's my a lot of the storiesthat I love telling and very
helpful for people that'll belaunching a little later this
year. Very excited about that.That is part of the legacy that
is part of outside of me, andliving beyond that. There is a
thing that's happening now withAmazon live and Tiktok live, and
(12:55):
people are selling all over theplace. I do not think I'm going
to jump on that bandwagon,because that's a young person's
game. I spent 30 years doinghome shopping. I was very well
produced, and it was beautifuland fun, and I made a lot of
money doing that. Beyond that,I've got a bunch of movies
coming out. I still love beingan actress. I have an action
packed Western, I have adocumentary that I just got
asked to do, and I'm just goingto enjoy the ride, because I am
(13:18):
65 years old and that. And Idon't know about how you feel,
but there's a little bit of atick tock. You know, when you
were in your early 30s, 40s,going this little time thing
about having a child, and nowthere's, how much fun Can I
have? How much How can I enjoy?I mean, I'm in love with my
second husband, and I'm havingthe time of my life. People say
Forbes, you know, what do youwant? What's your future look
like? What is your five years?I'm like, my five years is to
wake up with this man everymorning and still be healthy
(13:39):
enough to enjoy it. He is abodybuilder. I have no desire to
be a bodybuilder. But thensomething happened last year.
He'd said, there's abodybuilding competition in our
hometown. And I said, You knowwhat, I'm 64 years old, but you
know what, I'm going to go forit? And I did, and I ended up on
stage, and I ended up with amedal, and I ended up with the
next chapter of Forbes Riley'slife.
Gary Michels (14:00):
That's amazing. Where do people find you? I
mean, you're all over the place,but if they wanted to be in your
course, or they wanted to learnmore about you or just be around
you, how do they get in touchwith you?
Forbes Riley (14:13):
So my name Forbes Riley is rather un-unique. It's
that on all the social medias,but if you go to Forbes
riley.com All my links arethere, and here's what I'm going
to offer you guys. Every SundaySince COVID started, I show up
to do a two hour training onZoom. I ask people, What do they
do? And I will spend timerevamping their pitch. When I'm
(14:36):
done with you, your pitch isgoing to get an applause. That's
how good it is. So I highlyinvite you guys to go to a thing
called Pitch secretsmasterclass. I teach it every
Sunday. I teach it to realestate professionals, to
lawyers, doctors, entrepreneurs,teenagers and when you can
articulate and communicate, whatyou do to get a yes from someone
else. I promise you your lifechanges forever. This thing
(14:59):
about pitching. Training. It'snot sales training. It's just
getting Yeah, so Gary, watchthis. If I said to you, Hey, you
want to see something cool, whatare you going to say? Yes, see,
my dad taught me as a magician.There's things that you do and
you set people up to takecertain actions. Imagine when
you're doing a deal that youalready know what someone's
going to say, because you'vebeen training on assumptions, on
(15:22):
what that person looks like,feels like, and is more likely
to do. You know how you show up.You know what you're offering
has value. You don't over talkit. And when you connect all of
these dots, and I love teachingteams, we do a lot of that go to
pitch secrets with an Smasterclass.com and you'll be
(15:42):
blown away. The system works.It's not about you being a
genius or you being the best.McDonald's exists because of a
system. A lot of things that aresuccessful in legacy outlive the
person because they weresystematized, and that is the
only way that effectiveness runswell.
Gary Michels (15:59):
Thank you for joining us today. This has been
an amazing time.
Forbes Riley (16:03):
It has been such a delight.
Gary Michels (16:05):
Absolutely.
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