← 🎙️ Interesting Humans Podcast
🎙️ Interesting Humans Podcast
Ep. 66: Beau Rials - Fishing Lures to Billion Dollar Brands — The $2 Billion Pitchman
00:51:12
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- [00:00]
A
Some of you guys sitting out there right now are probably, you have a million dollar idea. But the real question is this. Can you get people to say yes? That's the hardest part, right? Today's guest pitchman, Bo Riles, has he literally helped move billions of dollars in infomercial products by turning attention into action. And we're going to talk about a lot of that today. But first, I want to give you a brief story of how I met Bo. And our relationship goes back to 2009, where I had a product that I was marketing called a kettlebell. So I was developing these things, bringing them here to America, selling them into gyms and households, and Bo had reached out and said, have you ever thought of an infomercial? And I thought, well, those are those overnight things, and that's probably not the right fit for us. Right? Because that's what I had thought about the infomercial world. Wow, was I wrong? So Bo said, well, let's go see one of my good friends and marketing companies up in New York. And we did. And I learned all about the fascinating infomercial world. And while my product at the time wasn't a fit for infomercials, I got to develop a great relationship with Bo. Have brought products into the infomercial in our last decade and a half. And today, my whole goal, folks, is to take you behind the scenes. And I'm talking from idea all the way through the steps, and Bo's going to walk through them one by one, all the way through the steps of what it takes to get a product out there. And some of these products are doing tens of millions, even hundreds of millions of dollars of sales. So, Bo, thank you for being here. First off,
- [01:46]
B
it's great to be here, Jeff. It's great to see you again, my friend.
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A
Yeah, thank you. It's just gonna be a. It's gonna be a fun time. So let me frame this up. Beau Riles is on and about his day and happens to see wherever it is, a cool product. And something goes on in Beau's mind. Take me all the way through that product that you want to pick a product, all the way through all the steps of what it takes to get that thing on TV and be successful.
- [02:15]
B
Well, and you say get it on tv, and that used to be the mark of success, Jeff. And as you and I both know, the. The amount of products bought online now dwarfs TV and certainly gives retail a run for its money as far as percentages. And who. Who buys what and who buys when. But the first Thing we want to do is identify, does the product solve a common problem? Does it really do that? And if it doesn't do that, you're going to have a hard time introducing something through TV and through the Internet and getting it into retail and getting, getting it on to Amazon, which are the keys now. Yeah. So it's, first thing, identify, does it solve a common problem? If it does, do you have a patent, a pending provisional patent or a real patent? And do you have a prototype? You gotta have you. You generally need to have a prototype to sell something in because you're gonna have to go make the thing and manufacture it. So these are just some of the things you need to be thinking about when you see a prop, a product and you think it can make it. These are just some of the questions you have to ask yourself.
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A
Okay, is there a list of common problems?
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B
A list? Not really. Not really a list. It's just when we see them, we know them. And I say we myself and the people at the companies I deal with in the infomercial industry, still, that would be Bulbhead, Telebrands, All Star, Tristar. These are still companies. Imsn, out of New York City, fantastic company. These are all companies that do this.
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A
Okay, now you're a pitch man, so we know you by your face on TV with all the, all the motivation getting people to buy, but you can
- [04:24]
B
also
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A
find a product yourself and get in the deal in a bigger way.
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B
And that's what, that's what I mainly do for a living. I do a lot of fun things, but my main job is to find great products and get them all the way through. We've got one, Jeff. It starts. I can tell you the name of the product and your listeners and viewers can go to the website. I can't really speak to which retailers it's going into in late March, but it's going to be in the front of the store in an end cap. And the product is called Tank Crank. T A N K C R A N K Tank Crank. And I invite everyone to go take a look at this product because you're talking about a product that really does solve a common problem. And in this case it is bending down to turn or stooping over to turn on your, your propane at the point of, of down below where you gotta, you gotta kneel down, stoop down and turn on this propane. Well, with the Tank Crank, you alleviate that step completely. And now, now we've. It used to be you would run an infomercial, Jeff. You would record an infomercial. You would run the infomercial, you would make the retailers salivate for that product, and then you would go into retail. But not anymore. Not anymore. The huge retailer that saw this product saw it and wanted it immediately wanted it for the spring. So sometimes that happens. Sometimes you get lucky. And it just all boils down to does that product solve a common problem? Seems pretty simple. But it's very true.
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A
But it's very true. Wow. Okay. What's. What's your favorite, favorite product you ever worked on?
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B
Oh, my goodness gracious. Boy, that's a great question. I've pitched everything from Mitsubishi electric air conditioning systems to. Probably my favorite product that just did what it said it did was the H2O steam mop. And it's still around. It's called the H5 or the X5. They've got several different versions of it. But I just love that steambop because the demo is so great, Jeff. The before and the afters are just amazing.
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A
Wow.
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B
So that would be my favorite, the H2O Steam Mop. Yep.
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A
Take me, take me on a set. What happens?
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B
Take you on a set? Well, a lot of things are going on on the set. Obviously for me as the executive producer and I. Sometimes I'm the on air talent as well. Not always, but there. A set, an infomercial set is usually comprised of a three camera shoot with a jib arm, you know, so you can get some movement into the shots. And you've got a crew just like you would out in Hollywood. Shoot, you've got your director photography, you've got your, your grips and your gaps and all that stuff. And what you're trying to do is quickly. I say quickly because the, the expense is pretty enormous. When you're on set, you want to quickly and concisely get your product shot, get the, get it filmed, get the testimonials filmed. You know, you have to have testimonials to sell these products, Jeff.
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A
So.
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B
So you go ahead.
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A
Oh, no, no, I want to, I want to just pause you right there. So. So I got the testimonial part, but how long does it take then before a product actually gets on tv? How many testimonials do you need? And there's got to be a long testing phase of a product, right?
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B
Yeah, yeah, you have to test it. Obviously the products have to work. There's. I don't know. Infomercials got a weird vibe back 20, 30 years ago because some of them were just plain weird. You know, the infomercials themselves were weird and the presenters were weird. It was. It came off as a little pushy. You know, yell and sell became the term yell and sell. But not anymore. It's. It's a whole different game now. It's.
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A
It's.
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B
It truly is. And what I'm going to set, it's. It's. Generally takes about two days to shoot an infomercial and another two or three days to shoot the testimonials, you know, and again, they tie down everything, and they are a must when it comes to shooting at infomercials.
- [09:19]
A
Yeah. What about the careful articulation of every word and every sentence? I remember. I remember in the meeting I was at with you, and Gary was there up in New York, and I remember him explaining that every couple words or every three seconds or every five seconds had to be a. So carefully analyzed. Who does that? How does that work? What is that process like?
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B
Well, there. There are a handful of maybe two handfuls of really great infomercial writers out there, and John Miller is one. Derek Schwartz is another one. They're. They're. Scott Oppfer is another one. They're just incredible at wordsmithing the script. And again, everything has to fly through the Federal Trade Commission, too, at the end. So that's. That's always leaning on you. A lot of times, lawyers will even be on the set, Jeff, while you're shooting an infomercial, just to make sure that everything goes down properly.
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A
Wow. Okay.
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B
Yeah, just to make sure that everything goes down properly. And then these great wordsmiths put together these scripts and these ideas. I think one that really stands out right now over the last 15 years has been Flex Seal with Phil Swift. Have you seen Flex Seal, what he's been able to do?
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A
Oh, absolutely. See it everywhere.
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B
Yeah. Yeah. Well, this did start in his garage. It actually did start in his own garage. And the first spots were filmed in his garage. And. And now he is. You walk into any major retailer and they've got a whole aisle of Flex Seal family of products. And this is what happens when you put great creative together with a great pitch man, which Phil. Phil Swift is. He's a different kind of cat, but he's very good at what he does.
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A
Yeah, fascinating. So when the first infomercial was ever created, I know they're probably in the 50s, I think. Who were the. Who were some of the.
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B
Yeah.
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A
Who. Who were like the All Stars, as we go through the generations, who were some of the most known pitchmen?
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B
Well, if you go back to the 60s and 70s and 80s and 90s, it's Ron Popeil who gave us everything from a rotisserie cooker to spray on air. But Ron Popeil was one. And then as we, we got into the real boom of real, of infomercials. Billy Mays, of course became the, the, the household name as far as pitch men go. The guy was amazing. He was probably. And I've done a lot of live work. I worked in the comedy industry out in L. A years for years with a lot of comedians and I've never seen anyone live quite as good as Billy Mays. And. But this is a guy that sold at, in the fairs, at the fair circuits at that level. So he was used to selling one on one to people and he was able to bring that to tv. And he just had literally hundreds of successes. He truly did. Myself, you could add me in there, I've been around a long time, since the early 90s. I've done close to 250 infomercials as a talent and on camera pitching you everything from Wagner spray painters to Mitsubishi electric H vac products, all the way down to medica swing trainers in the golf industry. And you know, Forbes Riley is another great name in the infomercial business. Forbes is an incredible female pitch artist. In fact, she is, she goes by the queen of the pitch, you know, that's how good she is. And so some of these people are quite amazing.
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A
Yeah. So it's a whole, it's a machine. It's not just the pitch man, it's the pitch man, the script writer, obviously the product. I mean, there's much more that goes into it. All right, makes sense. Do you, do you have a, was there a shoot you were ever on that was like you're just absolute. One of one, your favorite shoot ever, whether it was the location, whatever, for whatever reason, but you're just your favorite one.
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B
My very favorite shoot. Oh, my goodness gracious. I would say when we were shooting these Invictus vacuum infomercials for a company called Genius of Germany, I got to work with my dear friend Jenny Bond over and over. We would do three shows per year for Germany and for international. And I really enjoyed that because it was with a company called Opera Communications out in Missouri. Scott Opera, a genius writer, director, producer. And I would have to say those, those Invictus infomercials were in. The product was just so bulletproof, so amazing, so easy to pitch. When a product works, it makes it very, very easy to sell. It really does.
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A
Yeah. Would you Personally read off of a script or did you memorize your lines or what does that look like?
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B
Generally? Nine times, nine and a half times out of 10, I'm memorizing my lines. Yeah, it's just as the pitch, man, you got to know where you're going, step to step. And if you're. If you're caught up in reading a prompter, it makes it very difficult to do that. You know what I mean? It's because the pitch is really where they part. The people part with their money, and you've got to. You've got to have all the parts working in the pitch.
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A
Is there a psychology that you guys have figured out that gets somebody to part faster or part differently or part better? Like, what is that psychology?
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B
Well, kind of a difficult question to answer. The psychology is pretty much always the same. We're here to help people find a great product to solve common problems and in part, with their money to do so, man. And that's really the main theme when we go into these projects, is to just remember that we have to have a common problem that we're solving and have the proper demos and testimonials lined up to sell that product through.
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A
Yeah, makes sense. Now, fast forward to the Instagram days. Right now. You could put a video out and test it. You could use something called trial reels and change headlines and colors and test things pretty much live time. Right. You didn't have that luxury, though, back then.
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B
Right.
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A
You wouldn't run the same commercial, ABC testing, basically. Or was it that scientific?
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B
Yes. I mean, we would shoot, shoot and edit the infomercial. Then you go to a media company. These are specific companies that buy remnant time and infomercial time. Because if you went on and tried to make a product successful on TV right now, the cost would be ridiculously expensive. The media costs have gone through the roof. That's why a great media buyer is very, very key. And they're. They're basically the same ones, have been around for a long, long time. And the best one I know out there right now is Blue Water Media out of St. Petersburg, Clearwater. They really, really do a great job, both, you know, with digital and tv, of getting the product and getting. Getting out there, but being able to do it within a budget, Jeff, you know, within a budget because the media time is so, so, so expensive. But, you know, it all comes down to, you know, being able to buy the right time at the right time and, you know, hopefully that people are watching.
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A
Yeah. So who's buying it all in the financing. And what does that all look like? Can I bring an idea in and, and just be the idea guy and give away a bigger piece of the deal? I would imagine every deal looks differently. Walk me through some of that. Some of that.
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B
Well, you could, you could definitely do that. You know, you come in with. Without a prototype, let's say without a provisional patent or a patent, you know, you're going to give away a lot of the, you know, a lot of the deal there. You know, you're better off to have a patent. Whether it's, or, excuse me, prototype, whether it's from a 3D printer or it's a real prototype. You want to be able to go in like you did with the kettlebells that day and show them how to do the workout. You know, that's always the best way to sell the marketing. Big marketing companies, you know, they're, they're in with retail. That's, that's the way you go. You go in with a, with a big company that does this every day, that manufactures product around the world and also markets the products around the world. And I named a few of those earlier, but they are all star, you know, imsign, Bulbhead, which is Telebrands, Idea Village, which is Copperfit. You've seen Copper Fit, I'm sure. And then there are a few others still out there, Top Dog Direct. And these people are, these companies are, are perfect for getting products, you know, on tv, on digital and into the, into retail. But like you mentioned a little while ago, you know, we didn't, we're not that big on Instagram. And you, you can use TikTok to test products and certainly Facebook, Jeff, we use that a lot to test products, you know, to test the demo.
- [19:34]
A
Yeah, for sure. So, all right, so the infomercial, whether it's, whether we look at this from back in the day when it was just tv, one o', clock, two o' clock in the morning, or we look at it now as a Facebook or a TikTok test. At the end of the day, it's about stopping somebody, right? It's about stopping somebody in their tracks and getting them to take action and, and not move to the next thing. So it's, it's, it's still a game of attention, right?
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B
Yes, it is. Yeah, it's. You've got to get people to stop and, you know, on, on what in it, you know, as people are flipping through on television, that's, that's a pretty tough thing to do. But, you know, you You've got to put some entertainment value into the commercials and infomercials that you're. You're making. And certainly some of them are very, very entertaining. I don't know if you've. You got favorites or not, but, you know, I certainly have enjoyed all of Phil Swift's commercials, and I mentioned that earlier, but you got to come up with some hook to get them to open their wallets and take out that credit card. Jeff, as brutal as that sounds, that is what it's all about.
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A
Take. Yep. Take out the credit card. Okay, let's. Let's look at the Snuggie. Let's talk about that product. That's got to be one of the top. Is that top five ever?
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B
Top five, for sure.
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A
Okay.
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B
Yeah. Yeah. And it was. It was called the Slanket. The Slanket. And they were on qvc. And the story goes that Scott Boylan, who is a wonderful human being and someone you should really get on your show here, he would be fascinating to have on. Scott owns All Star Marketing Group, and, you know, but the Snuggie was on as the Slinket, and Scott Boylan went to the owner and said, look, this is what I do. We market in a big way. We can get into retail. We can get you into tv. And he is basically told no. He was told no. So Scott Boylan looked at. Had already looked at the patents, and there was. There was really no strong patent here to be had. So he renamed the product Snuggie and went to, you know, had the commercials first Snuggie commercials produced, and the rest is history. Next thing you know, they're. They've literally sold millions of these. These backward robes called the Snuggie. And it's one of the biggest successes in the history of the infomercial business. And it goes back a few years, but it's still holding its own. As far as, you know, in the history and the annals of infomercials, it's still one of the top of all time.
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A
Wow. Did it. Did it break any rules? I don't remember a pitch man with it. Maybe I'm wrong. Was there a pitch man?
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B
No, there was no pitch man. There was no pitch man. It was. It was done very cleanly on pretty low budget. Just a lot of people wearing Snuggies with happy looks on their faces. It sold a lot that way.
- [22:57]
A
Wow. Okay, I'm gonna. I'm gonna ask. I'm gonna ask a favor from you to connect me to Scott Boylan. Because I would love to have him on the show. So when we're done, I'll do that. Send me an email. That'd be incredible. All right, this, this is going to be a tough question. What was the hardest product you ever had to believe in? And how did you make yourself believe in it enough to sell it authentically?
- [23:22]
B
Oh, wow. Boy, is that a great question. You've done some, you done some work on your questions, man. Well, I don't want to say they were all tough in a way, but they really sort of are because of, you know, the arduous process that you, you put the product through. But I, I, I only times that I really felt ill at ease on a set, Jeff, was when I had to do things that I normally did not do. And I did an E. Tools infomercial one time, and these are obviously, you know, they're power tools. And I wasn't, I'm, I'm not that guy. I'm just not, I'm not a power tool guy. So that, that put me in a. Yeah. I mean, it's just, you gotta admit it, sometimes you're not an expert at what you do. You're just the conduit to get the information out there and to tell people and show people. But, yeah, that was one where I was really kind of trapped, looking at my own mortality, you know, in the mirror, because it was not coming off too well. But I, I believed in the product enough, and by golly, the show actually made it and ran and did, did well for the client.
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A
Wow. How. What was the most amount of, what was the most amount of takes or retakes, whatever you call them, that you had to do on, on a set?
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B
Oh, 20. 25 takes on the same. The same take? Yeah, yeah, 25 takes on the same scene. I mean, easily, sometimes, you know, especially in the cleaning infomercials, the vacuuming infomercials, and the indoor cleaning, everything has to be perfect. That before and after has to be unbelievable. And, yeah, that's what you gotta, you gotta make it happen.
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A
Wow. So, so, so, so incredible. All right, after, after decades of watching what makes people say yes, what have you learned about why humans actually buy things? What has that taught you?
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B
Wow, that's another great question. It, it's, it's, it's taught me that people are smarter than they look. They're, they're, they're, they're savvy buyers. You can't fool them. You can't try to jerk them around. You've got to show them A problem. And I go back to this for the third time now. You show them a problem, then you show them the product that's going to fix the problem. Then you show them again, and you show them again, and then you build an offer. Jeff, you say, okay, well, if you. If you want the tank crank, we'll give you this handy grill cover as well so your shrimp won't be falling through the barbie. And you build an offer, and then you ask for the money. It's called the call to action. And it is the commercial within the commercial that actually gets people to take out their wallet and to take out their credit card.
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A
Right. So as I think back through every infomercial that plays in my mind, it always started. You're right. I never thought of it, but it always starts with I broke something, or it starts with showing the problem. Right. I spilled something. I dropped something.
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B
That's right.
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A
Interesting. So there's an. Absolutely.
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B
They'll. They'll.
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A
Yeah. Is the. Is the template the same for every single product, or does that ebb and flow based on the product?
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B
It just depends on the product. It really does, you know, but you can always go back to that old black and white shot of, you know, the guy stooping down in the. In the case of tank crank underneath the grill to try to turn on the propane. You know, that's your black and white shot. That's the before shot. And then you go to the after shots of everybody happy, and they're. They're. They're just turning, pressing, and grilling, you know, now there's no more bending over.
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A
Yeah, that's. That's so cool. I can't wait to see that one when it comes out. So do you think that people today. Do you think people today are harder to persuade or are they more distracted?
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B
Well, they're both. You know, they're obviously distracted, and that's why we have to come in with great creative to get their attention, because they're certainly distracted and they're skeptical. You know, people are still very skeptical of. Of anything that they're going to buy off of tv. And, you know, you can't really. You can't blame them for that after all the years of kind of suspect products getting through, but, you know, yeah, awesome. Really blame them.
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A
You took me to another place, actually, and it just came to mind. I forgot. I had forgotten all about it. Right. Until right now. You took me down to Kevin Harrington, right?
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B
I did. That's right.
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A
So what's his significance to the infomercial world? Father, Grandfather?
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B
Well, he was. He's on the Mount Rushmore of it, I would say, of the infomercial business, just by virtue of the millions and billions of dollars worth of product that he was able to sell as. As the top. Really the top dog in the campaigns. I mean, he put it all together. He's the super executive producer, if you know, for lack of a better word, and in a super motivated guy, motivating kind of guy. You know, if you've ever seen him on Shark Tank, you know, he's. He's a lot more animated than that in real life, to be honest with you. He was pretty serious on Shark Tank. But, yes, we did go see Kevin, and he and I are playing golf really soon. He's a great guy. And certainly again, on the Mount Rushmore of the infomercial business, he's another one
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A
that would be awesome to get on. I'd love to have him on.
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B
Yeah, yeah, yeah. He could tell. He could tell you a lot more about the business side of things than myself being mainly a pitch man and, you know, a product finder, product scout, which is mainly what I do.
- [30:05]
A
Okay. So I remember when I went to. I remember when I went to college, looking through the list of majors, and I know I'm. I'm positive, even though it was a long time ago, there wasn't a major on there that said pitch man. And there's probably not one. There's probably not a major for pitch man. How did you even get. How do you get into something like this?
- [30:28]
B
Well, I was a rock radio DJ out in Los Angeles, and I was doing regular commercials. I had, you know, a commercial agent, and I had a certain look, you know, I looked like a golfer, among other things. So I booked a lot of golf commercials or parts where I played a golfer, you know, But I was asked to do. I was an actor as well, and I was doing this one film, and the director called me up. He goes, I've got this other little project that's gonna go on before we shoot the film. It's an infomercial. And I'm like, oh, man, are you kidding me? This is going back to 1991. This is June of 91, when I first started. And I'm like, I'm not doing a damn infomercial. I'm just not going to do that. You know, I'm just not. They're silly. They're ridiculous, you know, and that's what I thought about them, Jeff, before I got into the business and realized, you know, what an Art it is. And how instrumental the business has been for the last 60. 60 or so years. 65 years on TV and how solid it still is after all these years.
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A
Incredible. And just reminded me now that you said la, you took me to another guy out there who had the golf club that snapped in half.
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B
Who's that?
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A
What was that thing called? Medical. The Medicus.
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B
Yeah, the Medicus.
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A
The Medicus, that's right. You introduced me to that guy too. I forgot all about it.
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B
Yeah, yeah.
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A
Is that product, is that product still around?
- [32:15]
B
Oh, yeah, the product's still available. Both the Medicus driver, the iron, the seven iron, I think a wedge.
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A
Yeah.
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B
And there's a new infomercial on looming in the works for a tri hinge. Because right now the, there's a, you know, or two hinges on the Medicus swing trail. And now there's going to be a third. And we've got a brand new product that'll be coming out. I don't know if it'll be out this year, but it will definitely be out in 2027. But yeah, we, that was a, that was cool. Yeah. We brought you to several of these deals. Yeah, no doubt about it.
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A
Yeah. Wow. I for, I had forgotten about two of those. So. Okay, awesome. Who decides who the pitch man is going to be for a product? Is it the, the founder of the product has somebody in mind they want. Do they hire the marketing group first and then the marketing group brings you in. What does that all look like?
- [33:15]
B
It can, it can vary, but mostly it's the, it comes down to the producers of the infomercial itself who got hired by the, you know, the product marketing company. And they all get together and they, they, they, you know, they come up with, you know, do we want a host? First of all, do we want an on camera pitch person? Because not every product is, is, is suited for a pitch person, but when they do, then they, they kick it around. They kick around the, they kick around the same names luckily because the, the ones of us that have been working continue to work in present day. So. Yeah, that's how it works, man. There's a very small market and to your point, there's no pitch man major in college. You just kind of learn to do it. You fake it till you make it. And that's what I did. I was a salesman at heart. You know, when I started becoming a pitch man, I was already a salesman and a spokesperson, but I had to learn how to really do that. You know, when we were cranking out infomercials one after another.
- [34:26]
A
So is the best. Is your favorite deal when you get the entire bite of the apple, so to speak.
- [34:33]
B
Get to be. Yeah, get to be executive producer guy and pitch man and all that. Yeah, that is. That's the biggest piece of the pie to get. That is a lot of responsibility and a painful process. Personally, I'm not a lazy person. I like to work because. But that's a lot of work. I'll give you an example. We did a pillow infomercial about three and a half years ago and I had to direct, I had to executive produce and I had to direct and I had to be the on camera talent. And that's a little, let's stretching it a little thin, you know. Think about that. If that were a motion picture, how hard that would be to do. Not too many people do it. And I was able to get through and we had a great shoot and a great infomercial that ended up running overseas.
- [35:22]
A
Wow. Is there a time when you'll find the product, bring it to a company? I'm just going to use All Star because they first come to mind. You bring it to All Star and then maybe you don't have any involvement after that. You might want to, but you don't. But you get, maybe you can get in that deal because you brought the deal to them. Does that work?
- [35:46]
B
Yes. Yeah, you get, you get, you get some. A fraction, a fraction of a point. I can't really say what fraction. It depends on the negotiation and you know, but yeah, there are just certain, certain times when, you know, it might be a female oriented product. I'm certainly not right to pitch that on TV or in digital. So yeah, man, it could be, it could be anybody at that point, you know.
- [36:18]
A
Well, what would you say is your. What are you. I'm looking for a very specific answer. What is the absolute thing that you're best at connecting.
- [36:30]
B
Connecting with the audience and getting their attention off of whatever they're doing on, onto what I'm talking about. You know, it's. I think it is a real gift. And I've been able to build on that gift through doing radio, which I still do and which is a great exercise, what you're doing right here. There's no better exercise for someone than to sit and interview somebody. That's one of the hardest jobs ever, is to do what you're doing. And it's also a tough job to do what I do to be able to, you know, come up with these pitches and help people part with their money. For these wonderful products.
- [37:12]
A
Yeah, right. Fascinating, man. Wow. All right, so we talked about the evolution, what it looked like when it started. Now we're sort of in the. We'll call it the Amazon era. We all know what that is. What, what now looking forward, what does the future look like for bo? I know you have your radio show. I want to talk about, talk about that. What, what is, what does it look like? What's the Runway?
- [37:35]
B
Well, I, you know, I, I do. I'm both the Travel Guy on YouTube. I've got a travel series that I've been doing for a while. I still do a great show with my dear friend Gary Garver called Bet the Fix, which is on iHeartRadio. It's. It's on actually in Los Angeles on KCAA radio. But it's also, you know, spit out to iHeart, Spotify, all of those. And. But it keeps me, keeps me very sharp to do these things. Keeps me, keeps my pitch. I just read for something the other day, as a matter of fact, and I was very sharp because of the. Doing the radio and doing the other things.
- [38:22]
A
Yeah, makes sense. Now, are you still tethered to the infomercial? Infomercial world? Actively working?
- [38:29]
B
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yep. Still doing infomercials, still bringing products to market. We are very excited about, again, about Tank Crank. We think it's going to be one of the biggest home runs that we've ever hit, and at least we hope so. You know, we hope that the people will, will buy the product and use it. We think it's going to save them some time and some effort and then they're not going to have to bend down and stoop down anymore. You know, so we got that one going and lots of others that we really can't talk about until they get out there. You know, Jeff, we're kind of sworn to silence until the product is actually out there on the market because, you know, people will knock you off. And that's the fact. That's just the way it goes. Until, till the product is being shipped out to people, we don't do a whole lot of talking about it.
- [39:27]
A
Yeah, I'll bet. That's. That's incredible. Well, I'm wishing you the best on that one, man. I can't wait to see the launch come out for it. The. The launch day.
- [39:38]
B
Yeah. Yeah.
- [39:39]
A
All right, so let me. Yeah, so the. Okay, the last piece of this, I want to focus on the person that's sitting out there that has a million dollar idea. And let's Start here. They have the idea. They didn't do anything yet. So they don't have a prototype. They don't have any of that stuff. Now, I would imagine ideas are probably like showers. Maybe everybody's got one or has to take. Right. It's got to be a dime a dozen. Right. So you probably have 90% or terrible ideas, but they still have the idea. Take me through. What should somebody do that's sitting on an idea and they might have had it for years, who knows?
- [40:20]
B
Well, I say get to it and get yourself a provisional patent or apply for a patent. And that's the first thing you want to do is protect your idea. Right. And that's the way to do it. And then I would get to seeing how you can build a. It doesn't have to be a perfect prototype, but it needs to show what the product is doing. I'll give you an example. Back to All Star. They had something called the Perfect Bacon Bowl. Perfect bacon bowl that they sold under a line of products that were perfect, you know, perfect this, perfect that, perfect this. And the gentleman basically just had a rough at a bowl with some bacon draped over it that he had microwaved in that. That. That prototype became enough for All Star to jump on it and get it made into a real working product. And they sold millions of these perfect bacon balls. In fact, I think I can say this because they were. It was told to me, the Inventor made about $4 million on that, that little crude invention of his called the Perfect Bacon bowl in royalties From All Star. 4 million off of that idea. That's what was told to me. So that's what I'm telling you guys.
- [41:45]
A
And I would imagine the 4 million is a small percentage. That's a small piece of the. I would imagine he had a couple percent, maybe a couple points.
- [41:56]
B
I'd say three, probably three points. As the owner, as the inventor. Yeah, something like that. Now that shows you the. You know, walk into any Walmart and go to the as seen on TV section. You'll see and, you know, and the products will end up in different sections other than the CINNOTV section. But that's where you really see the. The fruits of the labor of the infomercial business is in Walmart, in some of the other stores as well. But they have their, as you know, TV sections. Yeah. Especially for infomercials. Yeah.
- [42:35]
A
Time I want to identify when is the time that a person should call you and say, bo, I don't know how to navigate this. Take me to these companies. And shop me around. When do they do that? They got to be protected first?
- [42:50]
B
I would say. So, yeah. I like to have somebody that has actually got a patent or has applied for a patent. That's the first thing. I mean, just protect yourself and then get to making a prototype, a rough prototype. If it's, you know, the more finished, the better. But something is better than nothing. And a prototype is going to get, as I just told you with the perfect baking bowl guy, it's going to get you a long way. So that's the next step. And then you come to me and we go and we see other companies, these marketing companies, and we find which one really believes in the product and willing to back it and go the distance.
- [43:37]
A
Yeah.
- [43:38]
B
Because it's when it all happens and the thing rolls out, Jeff. It does require a lot of capital to roll it out. So that's why we go to the All Stars and the Tristars and Bulbheads and people like that.
- [43:53]
A
Yeah. Do each of those companies bo. Have a wish list, like, maybe I only want home products, or this one is I only want outdoor products. Or they all pretty much will look at any deal.
- [44:11]
B
Well, they'll look at it, but some have their areas where they're stronger than they are in other areas. You know, I just came across that the other day where I was pitching a product and they said, well, you know, it's a kitchen product and it solves a pretty common problem. And, you know, once I was able to pitch it to them, they were. They were like, well, we don't really do that much in the kitchen. I said, well, what if it had. With. With chicken and. And cooking with chicken? And they went, wait a minute. Yes, yes. Women go crazy and men do, too. You know, just the. The toxic nature of cooking with chicken gets everybody's attention, you know, and so look for something like that, it'll be coming down the pike soon.
- [45:07]
A
Wow. Yeah. Talk to me about shipping. If I took all the products and looked at them lined up, they all can ship easily. Right. You're not taking things with weight. Do you have a marker, so to speak, where it's. You might see a product, but know right out of the gate it's too heavy. And if so, is it a set number of pounds or what does that look like?
- [45:36]
B
It's. Well, it could be the size of the box, a set number of pounds as well. But I mean, that's what we ran into with the kettlebell.
- [45:43]
A
Yeah.
- [45:44]
B
Is the shipping. They love the idea of the kettlebell. It is just like they had to wrap their heads around, oh, can we really ship something this heavy and do it, do it in abundance. But no, it's, you know, it's all going to come down to the weight and the size of the, of the, of the, of the package itself.
- [46:06]
A
Because in the, in the actual infomercial, I know you, you promote people to buy more. Right. So the famous words. But hold on, there's more. Right? And you're, you're, you're basically. Yeah. You're stacking. So now you're taking a person from I, I will buy one to. Now maybe you've gotten them to buy five. Does that all bulk ship or is there profit in all the different units?
- [46:35]
B
Well, it would all, they would all ship together. Yes, it would, but. And that is the goal is to sell them as many as you can hand.
- [46:43]
A
Yeah.
- [46:43]
B
And that's why there's always that good deal on. Well, if you do this right now, we'll send you a second. Just pay separate processing and handling. Or we'll do it for, for half off, you know. Yeah, for 50 off.
- [46:57]
A
Yeah. But it is the separate.
- [46:59]
B
Lots of handling.
- [47:02]
A
Yeah, yeah.
- [47:04]
B
Separate. Yeah. That opens you up to the shipping and all that other stuff that's got to be, gotta be paid for by somebody.
- [47:11]
A
Yeah. What do you think is the phrase that's gonna go down forever for the, the infomercial phrase? What do you think's the most famous one?
- [47:21]
B
But wait, there's more. You know, as seen on TV was. AJ Cabani came up with that. You know, the, you know, the logo as seen on the. That's probably going to be those two. But wait, there's more. And as seen on tv, those are two biggest ones.
- [47:43]
A
Yeah. Awesome. All right, let's end on your show. Tell me about your show. Where do I find it? What is it? How long you been doing it?
- [47:54]
B
You're talking about the radio show?
- [47:55]
A
Yeah, the radio show. Yeah, radio show.
- [47:57]
B
Radio or radio show? Yeah, I've been doing it for about two and a half years now. And we basically like a couple of guys sitting around talking about sports, talking about odds and happenings in sports. And again, we tape once a week. It runs out on the East coast at 8am and runs live on the east coast at West coast at 8am East coast at 11am on Saturday mornings is called Bet the Fix. And it's a heck of a lot of fun. I. We invite you to listen and maybe help win you some money betting on sports.
- [48:39]
A
Love it.
- [48:40]
B
And then, please, you know, I would really like for people to go to my YouTube channel and check out some of the travel videos that we've done under Bo the travel guy. And we've got a new Tampa show coming up and we're looking for a top of the line sponsor to take the thing to tv, which may be happening sooner than later.
- [49:05]
A
Very cool.
- [49:06]
B
For now, everything market YouTube.
- [49:08]
A
Okay, we'll link, we'll link over to that last thing then. Where do you want people to go to? Where do you want people to go to that that might want you to go? Take them and shop them to all these places. They might have an infomercial.
- [49:23]
B
They can, you know, go right to bowrills.com. my contact information is there. BO is spelled B E a U. It's not BO and B O. And riles is a little different. It's R I A L s like dials with an r and R I L s. Almost looks like realis. Yeah. But if you, if you were to goodwill, B O R I L A s, I think, I think stuff will come up. My website will pop up there. Anyway.
- [49:54]
A
Yeah, my seven year old is so. Was so excited when I told him I'm interviewing a guy. Bo spelled B E a U because his name is Beau spelled B E a u. And at 7, they don't necessarily. They don't comprehend that there's another person out there with their same name. So it's like so sweet that, you know, cute. So.
- [50:15]
B
Aw, it's awesome. How old is Bo?
- [50:18]
A
My boat. Is he seven? Yeah.
- [50:22]
B
Seven years old. That's great.
- [50:25]
A
Sweet as can be.
- [50:26]
B
That's beautiful. You got a beautiful family, Jeff.
- [50:28]
A
Thanks a lot, man. I appreciate your time today. This was phenomenal. Thank you.
- [50:34]
B
Well, you're certainly welcome. And I hope the folks and yourself got something out of it, out of my ramblings. But your questions were amazing. Thank you.
- [50:45]
A
Thanks a lot, man. I'll talk to you soon. See you. Bye.