The Billion-Dollar Psychology of Selling with Dr. Forbes Riley

Summary

The $100M Entrepreneur Podcast

Episode: The Billion-Dollar Psychology of Selling with Dr. Forbes Riley

Host: Brad Sugars
Guest: Dr. Forbes Riley
Date: May 27, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Brad Sugars sits down with Dr. Forbes Riley, legendary pitch innovator and infomercial star, to dissect the psychology and practice of selling at a billion-dollar scale. Forbes shares remarkable stories from her rise out of humble beginnings to orchestrating over $2.5 billion in product sales, demystifies the art of pitching, and explains how a shift in mindset—not just strategy—creates both massive earnings and life satisfaction. The conversation is filled with practical advice, memorable stories, mindset breakthroughs, and blunt truths about wealth, life, and selling to millions.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. From Humble Beginnings to Billion-Dollar Sales

• Childhood & Early Mindset

  • Forbes describes growing up poor, with a father hospitalized for years and barely any friends due to health issues.
    • “When I hear people talk about I’m broke, I’m like, you got a broke mentality. And I literally set out to study. What does it mean to be rich, to act rich, to appear rich?” [00:00]
  • Early exposure to wealth came as a social secretary for a billionaire, which gave her an “education” in the habits and mindset of the truly wealthy.
    • Story: Mistakenly thinking ‘Louis Vuitton’ was a person in the trunk, not a bag. [00:00, 01:55]

• Breakout Moment: The Pen Pitch

  • The life-changing moment was being asked to “sell me this pen” on camera, which she did by turning the object into an emotional bridge—less about the object, more about connection.
    • “I realized a pen like this can reach out and touch somebody’s life. That moment changed my life.” [04:17]

2. Mindset Shifts for Massive Wealth

• Evolution of Thinking Big

  • Forbes did not start out with an eye on riches; her focus was always on acting. Money was a byproduct, not a goal.
    • “I didn’t set out to make money... If I had, I would have gone to Wall Street.” [02:27]
    • “Because money was not important, I made a lot of it.” [00:18, 31:24]

• Breaking Limiting Beliefs

  • Forbes challenges the learned limitations from family and upbringing, describing how her daughter’s approach with no mental baggage opened even her eyes to effortless scaling.
    • “My daughter was not raised with those (limiting) beliefs. She’s been teaching me about how big the sky is...” [11:25]
  • Forbes credits action and experimentation over formal education for her progress—"building the plane while flying it."
    • “The biggest mistake that I made was never truly understanding ...I didn’t go to business school... my business school was being at HSN, was figuring out as I went along.” [11:55]

3. The Art and Psychology of Pitching

• One-to-Many Selling

  • Both Brad and Forbes emphasize the paradigm shift needed to sell not one-to-one, but one-to-many (via camera, TV, or social media).
    • “I talked to a television camera. So I never sold. I never met any of the people initially.” [13:32]
    • “If there’s one thing you’ve proven, you can sell anything through a TV camera if you pitch it right.” [15:31]

• Pitch vs. Sales: What’s Different?

  • Pitching is about enrolling, not convincing—getting people curious, saying “tell me more,” rather than pushing a close.
    • “The first thing about pitching: just get a yes. Get someone to say, tell me more. When you’re selling... there’s an energy about it. When I pitch, it’s like, I have a solution.” [21:04]
  • She cautions against over-focusing on avatars, advocating instead for tailored in-the-moment enrollment.
    • “Stop telling them what I think they need. Get them to want what I have. I got a solution for more followers with your posture.” [22:33]

• Demonstrations: The Key to Scale

  • Forbes details how live demo and showmanship—the “magic trick” style of infomercials—generate mass appeal.
    • “Don’t talk about your product... that’s the death of a pitch. Understand you’ve got a solution, don’t tell people what it is.” [14:46]
    • Describes creating compelling demonstrations and using assumptions about the real audience (their needs change at different times, etc.). [17:41]

4. Overcoming the “Broke” Mentality & Limiting Patterns

• Conquering Procrastination and Mindset Traps

  • Forbes teaches that procrastination is a fiction—just an absence of consequence. She uses stakes and public accountability to drive action.
    • “Procrastinate is somebody who doesn’t have a consequence... You change the consequence, you change the outcome.” [35:01]
  • She encourages listeners to set goals they believe in, hit micro-achievements for confidence, and not be seduced by arbitrary huge numbers if they don’t fit their reality.
    • “Set goals that make sense for you, that are micro achievements, because $100 million takes a whole lot of steps to get to.” [36:29]

• Living Life, Not Just Making Money

  • Forbes and Brad note that chasing more money for its own sake can distract you from joy and family.
    • “There is no amount of money that makes... takes the place of those things.” [25:05]
    • “Please don’t make money the only goal because you miss out on all the good stuff that life has to offer.” [38:50]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On broke mentality:
  • “When I hear people talk about I’m broke, I’m like, you got a broke mentality.” — Forbes Riley [00:00]
• On evolving into big thinking:
  • “If there’s one thing you’ve proven, you can sell anything through a TV camera if you pitch it right.” — Brad Sugars [15:31]
• On the art of pitching vs. selling:
  • “Pitching is enrolling people where they are. I truly believe that everyone in front of me is going to buy my product.” — Forbes Riley [22:33]
• On demonstrations:
  • “Chapter D is: How do you create demonstrations? This is where I had an absolute edge because I am relentless. I’m a magician.” — Forbes Riley [15:34]
• On not knowing the system:
  • “I didn’t go to business school…my business school was being at HSN, was figuring out as I went along, it sucks to build the plane when you’re flying it.” — Forbes Riley [11:55]
• On how money follows passion:
  • “Here’s the crazy thing: it was never to make money. And because money was not important, I made a lot of it.” — Forbes Riley [00:18, 31:24]
• On consequence and action:
  • “You change the consequence, you change the outcome.” — Forbes Riley [35:01]
• On setting appropriate goals:
  • “Set goals that make sense for you, that are micro achievements, because $100 million takes a whole lot of steps to get to.” — Forbes Riley [36:29]

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Important Timestamps

• [00:00] — Forbes’s childhood story, “broke mentality,” first brush with wealth
• [04:10] — The “sell me this pen” origin story
• [07:13] — Hustling, unconventional gigs, relentless work ethic
• [10:57] — Daughter’s role in breaking limiting beliefs and scaling a new business
• [13:32] — Discussion: One-to-many sales, TV pitching, importance of mastering the pitch
• [17:41] — Secrets to great demonstrations; knowing your (mass) audience
• [21:04] — Difference between pitching and traditional sales; problems with “avatar” dogma
• [25:05] — Life beyond business: billion-dollar infomercials, kids and values
• [31:24] — “Because money was not important, I made a lot of it” — the paradox
• [33:02] — How to think MASSIVE (mindset shifts, “epidemic of wimpy goals”)
• [35:01] — On procrastination and the power of consequence
• [36:29] — Micro-achievement goals vs. chasing “billionaire” status
• [38:50] — The value of enjoying life through the journey

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Practical Takeaways

• Pitching at scale requires mass empathy and storytelling, not just product knowledge.
• Mindset is based on possibility, not self-limitation. Break “broke” mentalities by noticing the stories you tell yourself.
• Demonstration and showmanship matter—people buy feelings, not features.
• Reject rules that don’t fit. Many “truths” (about avatars, money, business education) are outdated.
• Set real consequences for your goals to move past procrastination.
• The goal should fit your life—not just the biggest number possible.
• Leverage media—they’re your one-to-many force multiplier.

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Closing Note

This episode is a masterclass in how thinking big goes hand in hand with emotional intelligence, relentless drive, and the courage to break societal expectations. Forbes Riley demonstrates that pitching is about human understanding, not just clever words; and that true wealth comes through passion, risk-taking, and, above all, an abundant mindset.

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For more, follow Forbes Riley’s pitching secrets, study her work, and remember: the fastest way to scale is to learn from those who've done it. [39:07]

Transcript

[Forbes Riley]

The most embarrassing moment was Mrs. Grace had me in the car one day and said, you need to get Louis Vuitton out of the trunk. And I turned to her and I said, who's in the trunk? When I hear people talk about I'm broke, I'm like, you got a broke mentality. And I literally set out to study. What does it mean to be rich, to act rich, to appear rich at the end of the day. Here's the crazy thing. It was never to make money. And because money was not important, I made a lot of it.

[Host (possibly a business podcast host)]

All right, $100 million podcast. Forbes, Riley. Way more than 100 million. First question, though. What gets the mindset of someone to be capable of thinking hundreds of millions?

[Forbes Riley]

Evolution. Because I didn't start out this way. I started out broke. And I have kind of a weird mindset. In fact, it was a little bit of a shock to me how much money I could be making. Yeah. And I was. You know, I didn't set out to make money. I set out to be an actress.

[Host (possibly a business podcast host)]

Yeah.

[Forbes Riley]

And you do that because you love it. So I would do theater anywhere. If you put me on a stage, I would just do that. Then you make movies. You got to make a little bit more money. And then my entire life changed. One day I walk into a studio, and there's a pen on the table and says, sell me this pen. Now, I don't like to sell. My dad was in the hospital for three years when I was a kid, and we were flat broke. But I did have a moment. And this is where I just love how life leaves clues if you're smart enough to look at them and pay attention. And so even though, you know, it's my entire high school, my father was three years in the hospital. He was an inventor and a printer, and he ripped off the whole front of his hand and a printing press. But his hospital room overlooked the only mansion in my hometown. Now, I grew up as a very awkward kid. I couldn't speak. I had braces for eight years, but they wired something in my mouth for two years. So for two years of my life, no one wanted to be my friend. So I have very few friends, and I'm pretty awkward. But so communication was always very important to me. So I watched a lot of TV and movies because I couldn't go out a lot. I literally had no friends. So I'm dreaming about all the rom coms and the Oscars and all the places I could. I wanted to be James Bond. My entire world was in my own Head. And so now I'm sitting there, I'm looking at this beautiful. And you couldn't see it from the street because it had cypress trees around it. But it was a giant red brick mansion with two chimneys and a circular driveway. And I kept thinking we had a 1300 square foot house. And I'm like, what is Christmas like there? What is Halloween? Do they give out full but candy bars? And who are the. What do you have to do to do that? And so I set out to discover what it meant to be a millionaire billionaire. Right out of college, I got a job as a social secretary for a billionaire. And I'm living in their 11 room house in this townhouse in New York City. Who has an 11 room house like that on the Upper east side? Well, I got quite an education because I am a scrappy little girl from, you know, Ukrainian immigrant parents. And I'm like, you guys want me to be your social secretary? I didn't even know how to wear clothes. I didn't know how to do a lot of things. But I was very innovative and I think they like having me around. And the most embarrassing moment was Mrs. Grace had me in the car one day and she said, you need to get Louis Vuitton out of the trunk. And I turned her and I said, who's in the trunk? And she looked at me and she said, you'll learn. And I said, you're right. And I literally set out to study. What does it mean to be rich, to act rich, to appear rich and then. But I didn't set out to just make money. If I had, I would have gone to Wall Street. I would have done some job that had to do with money. Want to hear something really naive? This is going to be embarrassing, but I grew up in Long Island. Long island is a very blue collar small town. I didn't know what the word CEO meant until I was 30 something years old. I'd never met one. I kind of distantly heard about it. There's no social media and I never knew anyone who owned a company. So it was very interesting when I discovered what marketing was and I looked at. So brands were the first thing that kind of clicked for me going, Coca Cola is a brand. I watched a girlfriend of mine who was in a marketing class. I studied poli sci. I was going to be a lawyer. I went along the path that they told me, by the way, they are wrong.

[Host (possibly a business podcast host)]

Yeah.

[Forbes Riley]

You know, they told my. They called me to school one day when my daughter was like 12 years old and they Said, your daughter's being disruptive. I said, why is it? Well, because we're making resumes and she needs to get a job after school. And she keeps telling people she'll never need a job. And this is the kind of mom that I am. I walked into school because. And I sat down and my daughter's like, oh, please, mom, don't. I'm like, excuse me, Ms. Guidance Counselor, how much money do you make a year? And I said, you don't even need to tell me. It's public knowledge because I pay your bills. $62,000. I said, here's my daughter's bank statement. She's been online for the last four years. She made 62,000 last month. And so all of a sudden that kind of clicked in for me. So I do this pen thing. And I didn't do it like any of the other actresses. I looked at the camera and I said, you know, I was 15 and a half when I went off to college. I was smart enough to skip a grade, but not smart enough to be insecure and really lonely. And my mother, God bless her, would write me long hand notes every day. I'd raced to the mailbox because that made me feel comfortable. And I realized a pen like this can reach out and touch somebody's life. That moment changed my life. I then started working for Body by Jake, who had a 24 hour cable network. And he asked me to pitch products. He gave me no training. I'd never seen anyone do this before because no one had done it before. And I literally pioneered the concept. That's why this book is written, because nobody really knows it's what I did. You can go on YouTube now and watch. I did 1500 products. Jake sold that company for $500 million in 1993. And that's what woke me up.

[Host (possibly a business podcast host)]

Yeah, it's funny that. So many similar stories of successful people, you know, 16 year old kid. I worked at the local Kmart and my job was announcing the flashing light specials because one day I was left to my own devices. I was in menswear and the lady told me, you have to sell all these shirts. And no one would do an announcement for me. So I went and did the announcement and all these people come rushing down there, including the general manager of the store who's running down there about to yell at whoever did this wrong announcement. And he runs down and sees people running to buy these things and he goes, who did that announcement? And he looks around, he goes, go do it again. And so he bought Me a microphone to just walk around the store and announce specials from there on out. So you and me grew up pitching, and that's where it all started. So how did. Or who did. Who flipped you into. Was it the Body by Jake, where you got the idea that millions and hundreds of millions was the capability? Or was it before that? Where was that point for you? Where, because most people never get it, that you can do hundreds of millions,

[Forbes Riley]

you know, I could keep doing down the road. Here's my personal problem. I still want to be an actress, so. And I don't really care how much you pay me. I don't know why. Money was never a driver for me. I always assumed I could make it. Now, that's. There's another little funny caveat to this. I don't know if I should be telling you this. This is going to. This is going to bite me. I'm sorry, but in my 20s, I. I didn't want to. I knew I wanted to be an actress. I knew I didn't want to be a waitress. How do you make money? So you're going to laugh. Friend of mine is the writer strike in the early 80s, and he comes to me, he and his buddy. He's a comedian. His buddy is an agent for strippers. I know a story is going to get good, right? And I don't tell this one a lot, but I would love this to be a TV series. So I'm going to start to talk about it. He calls me up and he says, hey, I know you've been a Broadway dancer. And you, you know, I had kind of view of my body. I was very prudish, but my body, because you have to. Literally had to take off all my clothes in front of somebody pulling a curtain one day. Who, when I said, turn around, he said, not on your life, little lady. That's why I got into this business. So as a dancer, you don't really think about your body sexually.

[Host (possibly a business podcast host)]

Yeah.

[Forbes Riley]

So he said, look, here's what. Here's the idea. We're going to have a girl go into a. Like. Like meeting you at a. Even on a podcast. And at some point you're going to act and set up a scene. And then you're going to press a little button on a tape recorder, boombox, and you're going to go, happy birthday, baby. Happy birthday. And then. That's very cute. You got a singing telegram, Brad. Yeah. And then the music would go, da da da da da da. And I had 15 layers of clothes underneath my outfit. I know You've never heard this story. And at the end of it, I ended up, I had the garter belt, I'm with the stockings. I'm like going. And you, your wife is. Now that they got the. The stockings are coming off, the garden belts coming. Your wife is laughing her ass off. Your business partner is going, gotcha. And I punked people. And I was wearing more, less, you know, I wore the same that I wore at the beach. So for me, it was not about nudity. Yeah, no sex, no nudity, no touching. My parents, my conservative parents knew what I was doing. All of a sudden people started paying me. It was 100 bucks plus a tip. Plus at some point, I had $10,000 in cash in my apartment. Because my beautiful parents, this is what I got taught. How limiting beliefs was that money was finite. If you get cash, don't put it in the bank, don't tell the government about it. And I had drawers with 10,000 everywhere. And I'm like. All of a sudden I'm like, I have to get educated about this. Still didn't happen. Yeah, I'm now, no, I did 10,000 of those, by the way.

[Host (possibly a business podcast host)]

10,000 of those.

[Forbes Riley]

I was. See, here's the thing. I was relentless. I just. I had a drive that when I look at me as a 20 year old, is bizarre. I had a whole lot of jobs. And again, when I couldn't get what I wanted, I found an alternative. So I know you want to go back to the money thing, but the money thing came a little bit later for me. It was not ever my focus. In fact, I can remember. I'll fast forward when my daughter and I opened our coaching company when Covid started. And we're all sitting in the house and doing nothing. And my daughter says to me, my mother's doing nothing. I said, yeah. And my husband had just been in a really bad motorcycle accident. And she said to me, she came downstairs, she was 17 years old, this is six years ago. Said, mom, let's start a company. And I'm like, could you just get a B in English? I really looked at her and she's like, mom, let me share something with you. You know, because I used to take her with me to all these events because I firmly believe don't let school get in the way of a good education. And she would come with me, and she was very innovative. And I noticed that she was talking to my friends like Les Brown and Joe Theisman. Turns out she wasn't just talking to them. She was building their websites, their Landing pages. And she came over to me and said, mom, can I show you something? Her account had six figures in it. She's 17. And my first reaction was, where did you get that money? And she said, well, you're the only one who doesn't believe in me. I said, okay, that's not true. I'm your mother, and I want you to get a B in English. And so she said, look, you teach pitching. Let's teach the world. I said, I can't teach people. This is how I print money. I mean, I've already done in the Jacqueline Juicer did $1 billion in sales. I already kind of knew that part, but it wasn't my company. I always got paid as the spokesperson. I got paid really well to do my job. I never thought about owning it all. Was not. Was not even in my framework. Yeah, that sounds crazy. I know. She. We put 25 people in. Our very first webinar was March of 2020, and I had $1,000 product. I would teach people to pitch for a thousand bucks, you come to me for four weeks. I know how to do that part of it. And I wake up the next morning. Now, I had clickfunnels for three years. I made no money. I'd hired two agencies to help me hook it up. They both screwed me over. And my daughter literally said, my mom should not get. I'm gonna fix this, okay? The next morning, after that first webinar, I opened the account, and I have to call her. And I said, what does the K stand for? What do you mean? I said, it says 25K. What is K? Said Mom. I know. How naive am I, right?

[Host (possibly a business podcast host)]

Come on.

[Forbes Riley]

You made 25,000? Well, because that was almost incomprehensible. Like, literally, my life changed at that moment. I'm like, I could just talk. There's. Nobody has to hire me. There's no QVC. I mean, I did $1 million a day in my fitness product. I understand all of this, but I'd never owned it all with no gatekeeper.

[Host (possibly a business podcast host)]

Yeah.

[Forbes Riley]

And I said, let's do this again. In the first month, four weeks of 25 people each, we made $100,000. Nine months later, we're walking across the stage getting a $1 million funnel. The 2 comma club. We are now making a million dollars a month in that company. Yeah, that was. And you know what's interesting? When I look at this, I had a lot of issues growing up, a lot of limiting beliefs. My daughter was not raised with those. She came to these events. She Saw her mom at a different level. I had a different energy about money. We'd already made a lot of money. I own a TV studio. I made my. There was not an issue about that. So she didn't have these beliefs. And so she's been teaching me about how big the sky is and how effortlessly, within reason, it is to generate that much money. And I wish someone had taught me what you're doing in this podcast several decades earlier. I would have organized things differently. And the biggest mistake that I made was never truly understand. I didn't go to business school. I didn't, you know, my business school was being at hsn, was being at home shopping, was figuring out as I went along, it sucks to build the plane when you're flying it. And that's what I did. I would have loved to have gotten a little bit more education on how you do this. Unfortunately, that's not in college. It's by watching shows like yours. Right?

[Host (possibly a business podcast host)]

Yeah. Look, I mean, I go back to the education you got at HSN at QVC, of doing millions of products, not just 10 of something or 100 of something, just the knowledge you get out of seeing Jake. Like Body by Jake. They just sold thousands upon thousands a day. And that's what you just casually say, we're doing a million a week. Do you know what I mean? Like, it's just a casual thing right now. And the leap from starting my own business to thinking about writing a business plan to do 100 million or writing a business plan to do a billion today, ChatGPT will write it for you. For goodness sake. You can cheat every single strategy, but there's got to be a psychological shift. And I think you've said it a lot about how your daughter didn't need to make the psychological shift. She was born into it, if that makes sense. So is there something that you think that you could help people that are not there yet to get volume and get scale and understand that process?

[Forbes Riley]

Okay. The world has just become so easy. If you master literally the one thing that I teach. Yeah. How to pitch. And that's what you did also in Kmart. Here's the crazy thing. I talked to a television camera. So I never sold. I never, by the way, I never met any of the people initially.

[Host (possibly a business podcast host)]

Never sold one at a time, one to millions.

[Forbes Riley]

I would never do that. No. And that's.

[Host (possibly a business podcast host)]

It kills me, though, that people think one to one is still the thing.

[Forbes Riley]

Unless it's really high ticket. Don't do one to one. Yeah, but there's skills in here. And this is what I came to understand. I innately knew how to do this. So I looked at the camera. That's what Jake got from me. By the way, I did have the best mentor. Jake was already well established and he was a phenomenal pitcher directly to camera. The way he. I mean, he was my mentor every day for five years.

[Host (possibly a business podcast host)]

I know. I bought three of his programs.

[Forbes Riley]

He was. He was really, truly brilliant. And then fascinating because I was right there when infomercials happened again. One too many through a television camera. You know what's awesome about right now? You have a television camera in your hand. So there is no excuse, except if you don't know how to pitch. And so I'm offering everyone the opportunity to ramp up to hundreds of millions of dollars. Yeah. Because the concept is, and I've got a formula for this, don't talk about your product. And maybe you innately know this, but as soon as somebody's got a product, they can't wait to tell you all about it. And that's the death of a pitch. And so what I teach is understanding. You've got a solution, don't tell people what it is. So, for example, I've got a solution here. I've got a handheld fitness product that, by the way, this is the story about. This is. This is the first company that I created. I built this from scratch. I own the entire company. And so business things that I learned along the way. Most people want to borrow money. Yeah, I was the bank. And this was a very interesting lesson. At some point on HSN, I made 85% profit margin. Why would I want to invest in any other company and make 15% or 24%? No, I'm making 85. So I invest in double down on the creation of this. And then people are like, well, you can't sell it through a TV camera. You have to touch it to feel it. No, this is really based on that. So again, if there's one thing you've

[Host (possibly a business podcast host)]

proven, you can sell anything through a TV camera if you pitch it. Right.

[Forbes Riley]

Well, that's what chapter D is. How do you create demonstrations? And so this is where I had an absolute edge because I am relentless. And, you know, I'm a magician. My dad was a magician. And this is how I managed to create brands on television to work. It's a magic trick. So one of the brands that I did was an insult. And here's the other thing too, guys. I didn't have my own company or a business plan for the first 30, 40 years of my life, I represented other people's companies. All I did was have to pitch. And I got paid. I handled no customer service, no inventory, no business management, nothing. I showed up, did my magic, and left with a very nice check over and over again. Well, the cool thing about that is if you can do that, and this was my small mindedness, why do I need to own a company? Yeah. And I do think if my daughter hadn't come along, I might not, because I am very happy not having all that responsibility. Is that terrible?

[Host (possibly a business podcast host)]

But you, but you look at the model, and the model, now that you've proven Shaq, I mean, let's go back to 50 cent with vitamin. And you know, you start looking at the water. How did that guy, he walks down the aisle and goes, I want to sell water, right?

[Forbes Riley]

Because being that visionary is very powerful in business. So this guy comes to me with an insult. It's called barefoot science. And it's got a little insert. And every week you put him a higher and higher insert in it. He says, and I'm taking it on home shopping. And he says, you need to share with people about the proprioception in your foot. That's why it works. And I'm looking at him going, dude, you can either be right or rich. Because I am never. And this is my genius. I'm never going to say that word because I don't know what it means. Yeah, you sell to the masses as though they're 8 year olds. And I said, look, we're gonna put this in our shoe. And it mimics walking in sand. And doesn't your feet feel so good and your ankles feel awesome and your hips get activated. Cause you are walking in sand. $28 million worth of insoles, Boom, cool towels. Comes to me. And so that really is my genius. And now even when I look at business plans, I can see holes in things that other people don't see, which makes me very valuable. The guy comes to me with a cool towel. I don't know if you've seen it. It's a piece of material. You snap it and get it wet.

[Host (possibly a business podcast host)]

I've bought them. So. Yes.

[Forbes Riley]

Okay, well, you might have bought it because I created the pitch for this. They were on TV and they were talking about it. I'm like, stop talking. Go to chapter D and start demonstrating. So here's what I did, and it was a magic trick. I got a bowl of hot water and a heat gun. Ooh, the water's hot. Put this in there, Al. And I give it to the host. The host is somebody that they trust. So step five of my formula is assumptions. We're taught today to not make assumptions. I'm going to teach you it's the best thing that you've got. You don't need to ask somebody a question. Look at you. Look how he's dressed. Look how he talks, look what he drives and figure out what he wants. Are you always accurate? No, but this is a skill that if I didn't do what I did, I wouldn't have been so successful on TV. You show up at a Tuesday morning, 9am to sell a product. Do you ever think about who's watching you? Most people, and I watch it, only think about what they're there to sell. Wrong answer. I'm thinking 9am that woman is sick. She's got young kids, she's got old family members. She's been fired. Talk to her then at 3am because you're on 24 hours a day. That woman is very different from 9am she's up late at night. Maybe her kid's not sleeping. She had a fight with her husband or she's an insomniac. I would talk to people like they were people through a TV camera. And this is probably the biggest thing I want to teach all my tiktokers. Now you want to make some serious money. I'm watching people make a million dollars a day on TikTok again, with no gatekeeper. But if you don't know this thing, if you're just yelling and screaming at the camera or talking about the features and benefits of your product, you're not going to sell nearly as well as the secrets that I've got for you.

[Host (possibly a business podcast host)]

It's kind of crazy, though, that people learned selling one to one. They never learned selling one to a million or one to many.

[Forbes Riley]

Who's gonna teach that, right?

[Host (possibly a business podcast host)]

Well, you.

[Forbes Riley]

No.

[Host (possibly a business podcast host)]

Well, who else is gonna teach it? There's not many people to know it.

[Forbes Riley]

Have you taken sales trainings?

[Host (possibly a business podcast host)]

Yeah.

[Forbes Riley]

Okay, the overcoming objections. What? The five or six things I never dealt with that. I don't believe in that. In fact, here's another thing I don't believe in. Do you believe in avatars?

[Host (possibly a business podcast host)]

Sometimes.

[Forbes Riley]

Okay, avatars, I'm gonna tell you, are great when you do outbound marketing, but for me, I had an MBA come and analyze my company. My f. And so, by the way, so this is a product that tones your upper body, right? But you can't feel if you're through a TV camera. So you have to go hmm. How do I get that woman at home to want to buy this? Oh, the first thing I'm going to do is get a half naked man, turn him around. Come on. I'm relentless. And you're going to watch his muscles fire. And I'm going to. I literally looked at a man, his back is firing. And I said on camera, I said, this is where your bra fat lives. But I'm on a man. So the woman at home is drooling over the man, thinking, oh, I want to get rid of that bra fat, but he's cute. And then one of my favorite moments on camera ever, I'm relentless about this, is when you do this and you got a really tight bra on and big boobs. Your boobs pop up and down. And so I'm having fun and laughing about what this will do for you. But the woman. Then I say to the woman at home, you want to look great in that mother of the bride dress. You want to look great when you take off your sweater. You want to look great when you get naked, whether it's for your husband or not. You look in that mirror, you're gonna feel so good about yourself. I'm talking about a hunk of metal. Right. But that's not what I'm selling. No. And so when you teach people that, it's like, oh, my God, this is a. It's. It's. It's a very unique way to get people to say yes to you. Yeah. And I'm really good at that.

[Host (possibly a business podcast host)]

How do you get it? Get over the sales and pitching the difference? Because it's. It's entirely different.

[Forbes Riley]

Oh, completely different. Well, here's the thing. The first thing about pitching. Just get a yes. Get someone to say, tell me more when you're selling. Selling to me is a very harsh concept. I want to get you in this car. I'm going to get your money or I'm going to invest. And you're like this. There's an energy about it. When I pitch, it's like, I have a solution. Here, watch this. Put your arm up like this. Oh, I was going to talk about avatars. When you feel the back of your arm, is it tight or is it a little wiggly jiggly? If yours is tight, I'll bet your wife is not quite as tight. Right. Oh, let's think about how do we get her this product? Because she wants to feel good about herself. Happy life, happy wife, happy life. I just. You're not my avatar, by the way. And this is what I do. So the MBAs come in and they're like, all right, your avatar, his name is Sheila. Which is kind of ironic, Mr. Australia. She's Sheila. She's 43 years old. She's got two grown kids. She drives a Lexus, not a Tesla, walks a Labradoodle. And I'm listening to them say all this and I'm like, God, that's so one to one annoying. Why would you limit yourself? And so I did this in front of an MBA class. I said, I appreciate you think I need to go out and find Sheila. I'm going to sell five of these in that same amount of time you're looking for that woman. And I'm going to sell them to people you would never imagine. Let's start with a seven year old girl. Hey, little girl, I'm watching you do gymnastics. You got to be really strong, but you're too little to go to the gym, right? Oh, purple's a great color for you. Here, look. I know. And your mommy's got your credit card. Boom. One sale. I've got two TikTokers about 18 years old. They're doing this on their phone. I'm like, you know what, guys? You want more followers, you got to get some better posture. This is going to give you that posture so you get more followers. Notice what I'm doing. Stop telling them what I think they need. Get them to want what I have. I got a solution for more followers with your posture. And then I'm going to go to a 70 year old man sitting in his Barco lounge with a little belly and a beer and he's like, you can't sell me. I don't need to sell you, my darling. I need to enroll you into your life because your wife's a little sad that you're sitting on that couch all the time and you're missing out on your grandkids. You want that back? This is it. I've just sold five in the amount of time somebody's looking for their avatar. So what I learned is that pitching is enrolling people where they are. And I truly believe that everyone in front of me is going to buy my product. Because you may not want it, but that beautiful wife of yours from Boston, come on, she wants you do. Right? Right?

[Host (possibly a business podcast host)]

Oh, yeah. It's going to improve the pickleball game.

[Forbes Riley]

That's.

[Host (possibly a business podcast host)]

That's what's the biggest thing right now. It's like. But when you think about that though, your mindset isn't like most people. And this is. I I hate to say it this way, but they've niched themselves down so much that they've forgotten they can sell to anyone and everybody sort of thing.

[Forbes Riley]

That's what people are being taught.

[Host (possibly a business podcast host)]

Yeah.

[Forbes Riley]

I mean, did you go to business school?

[Host (possibly a business podcast host)]

I went to business school. I became an accountant. So, you know, I learned how to count other people's money.

[Forbes Riley]

Oh, well, but, but that's an interesting thing. Number one, you realize you don't want to be doing that anymore. But also, understanding the books, I'm going to tell you something. I am such a visionary and I do see things so big and I'm lucky. Infomercials, by the way, when I started, because right after Body by Jake infomercials came out and again, it's through a television. Yeah. And I worked with expert marketers. I mean, the Jack lalanne powered juicer. Do you remember this show?

[Host (possibly a business podcast host)]

Oh, yeah.

[Forbes Riley]

Okay. First of all, they had an actress hosting that show, a very well known actress, and she read the script and it bombed. And they called me and they said, hey, you know, we watched you do this pitching thing. You're doing really well over there on that network. Can you maybe talk to us? I said, yes. First of all, stop selling a juicer. Nobody wants a juicer. But they do want Jack's energy. They want to be young and vital. And I literally had to re educate them on what it means to get other people to want what you have. This exists, by the way, on YouTube. You can watch this video because we got Jack to come out and simply say, I'm so doggone excited about this. I can't sleep at night because I know what it's going to do for you. And I will tell you, that opening pitch that we created is probably the most fantastic pitch I've ever seen. That show, that one conversation, Jack, me and Elaine at a juicer ran for eight years in 80 countries. I've heard myself in Hindu and Japanese and Portuguese, in every language. It was translated into $1.4 billion of juicers. And I'm going to tell you, it's that pitch, it's that conversation, it's that dream. And when I saw, first of all, I didn't even know we made that kind of money because I have a. I had a royalty deal and I remember I had flown to. I'd moved to Florida, I'd left my husband for the first time with my two kids and I was a little lost. And is it okay? Here's the thing too. Even though you see 100 million, it seems Flashy. You cannot forget to live your life. You have five kids, I have two beautiful ones and some step kids. And don't miss out on that. There is no amount of money that makes that takes the place of those things. And so I'm sitting there and I'm a little confused what I'm going to be doing next. And I do think you got to hit rock bottom at some point to go, okay, I'm going to reconsider what this means. But I also know what it's like to go on home shopping and make a million dollars in a day. I don't know other people who talk like that. I don't have a whole lot of people to even share this with who they don't think I'm insane. And I sat down and somebody called me, said, hey, did you hear? Juicer crossed a billion dollars? I'm like, I'm sorry, what? I honestly, I was good with hundreds of millions, but a billion dollars, like, you add the zeros, that's a whole lot. And then I started adding up not only that show, but all the hundred million dollar hits I had with Montel Williams and George Foreman and Kevin. Like, you're worth two. You did two and a half billion dollars in sales. I stopped counting 10 years ago because it's. I don't need to prove anything anymore.

[Host (possibly a business podcast host)]

Yeah, I know. When the first year we crossed 100 million in revenue. And then the team came to me last year, early this year and said, you know, boss, we've done two and a half billion in sales since we started. And you sit there and you just go, huh, that's kind of cool. And now it's like, well, maybe I should aim for a billion in one year. You know, what if I just did that sort of thing? But it's not about the goal. And this is something back to. You've made this point, this reference several times. It's not about the money. It's not about the actual thing. It's what that gives you. You've talked about it in your pitching. It's not about the thing, it's about what it gives you. For me, the 100 million podcast is more about. It's a vehicle that can give you your life back. And we talked about this before. You're going to exit your business. Whether it's in a pine box, you kill it. It kills you. Or whether you're going to exit business with a passive exit or financial exit. The whole point of business is to give you back more life. It's funny how you are so in tune with that though, as is it. Was that always the thing or did that change when you hit Florida?

[Forbes Riley]

No, you know what? I've always managed to have a great deal of amount of fun, seriously fun. And I don't quite know why I figured this out, but I did. Do you know what Club Med is? Yeah. Okay, So I am 25 years old, I'm working on Broadway with Christopher Reeve. And by the way, how did I get that show again? I can't wait to see the movie of my life. It's going to be so exciting to watch this. Well, because I'm working as an actress and one of my biggest issues in my entire life was being a little overweight. And so I got criticized. I'm doing a Broadway show, I got sent to Overeaters Anonymous. So I've always had this weight thing which allowed me to crush the fitness. I'm in the National Fitness hall of Fame because of all the things I had to go through. I failed at every diet. I all the crazy things. Fitness wise. I'm an amazing model, but I was never the ab fit girl. I was the one always struggling for that. So I'm in New York and you're supposed to get an agent. Here's another thing I want all of you to listen to. Stop listening to what they tell you to do. They don't know they have their head up their ass.

[Host (possibly a business podcast host)]

Well, we all build our own they.

[Forbes Riley]

Yes, but I will tell you, they, they influence us from, from. Because even I went out to Hollywood and they told me if you're not big breasted with blonde hair, you're not going to be successful. And I'm like, but wait a second. My role models are Jane Fonda. She's little boobs and short hair.

[Host (possibly a business podcast host)]

Yeah.

[Forbes Riley]

And so you got to be careful how you create your they because it's could be either side. Look at all politics. Everybody's right because that's what you hear in your own head. I'm not going to go down that road. But so now I'm in New York and I get a great agent. He's going to meet with me at a hotel, I'm going to have lunch with him, we're going to sign. This is what I wanted. And I would have been very happy to be Julia Roberts and Sandra Bullock, by the way. I did not set out to sell anything. And oh, it's not at the lunch, it's not at the restaurant, it's up in his room. I'm like, okay, that's fine. And I'm so naive in my 20s, and there's a whole big spread of food, but it wasn't about food. I was on the menu, too. And I'm like, little. Luckily, he was a shorter man, and he started chasing me around the bed. And I'm like. Like, strong. What. What are you doing? Really? That's what. That's not. That's never happened here. And I went home and I thought, okay, what do you do now? I'm going to go back to the fact I didn't have a circle of friends, I didn't have anyone that I could go to. And go, man, this happened to me. This was horrible. I went home to me, and I know that sounds kind of weird, but me, myself and I have good conversations. And one of us said, let's open an agency. And I created a thing called cma Creative Management for Artists. Now we need to hire somebody. We don't have any money. Okay, we're going to hire a British woman named Lindsay Maxwell. And Lindsay thought Forbes Riley was a wonderful actress. Lindsey was also a great pitcher because she was Forbes Riley. And for three years of my life, I pitched myself to be in movies and television. That's one way I probably learned the art of this. And you want to talk about imposter syndrome? I was. I was like, leading a double life. And I thought, at some point they're going to arrest me, but I'm going to just keep going because I'm doing. I'm doing what I want. I'm on soap operas, I'm on movies, I'm on tv. There was one really awkward moment. I'm on set, and the producer's like, I need to call your manager. I'm like, this is pre cell phone. I'm like, I'll be right back. I need. Anybody got a quarter?

[Host (possibly a business podcast host)]

The reason I laugh so much is my first telemarketer. His name was Brett Simpson.

[Forbes Riley]

Yeah.

[Host (possibly a business podcast host)]

Sounded a lot like this guy.

[Forbes Riley]

Are you serious? 100.

[Host (possibly a business podcast host)]

Brett Simpson was the alter ego. It was like I. I kind of wanted it to be Bart Simpson, but, you know, that would have been a whole weird thing. But I know sometimes I didn't feel like pitching myself was the right thing to do, but I was still pitching me. And it's like, oh, well, let me get Brad on the phone for you.

[Forbes Riley]

Deferring authority.

[Host (possibly a business podcast host)]

People said to me, that guy sounds a lot like you. Yeah, I've trained him real well, you know.

[Forbes Riley]

You know, I remember the first time somebody said, it's Forbes. Is that you? I'm like, no, you know, we should have been friends. We were younger. Because I don't. I've not met anyone who else has done that. I think it's a very odd sense of I'm just gonna keep going. And at the end of the day, here's the crazy thing. It was never to make money.

[Host (possibly a business podcast host)]

Yeah.

[Forbes Riley]

And because money was not important, I made a lot of it doing strip programs. I had more cash than I knew what to do with. I've never not generated money. When I hear people talk about I'm broke, I'm like, you got a broke mentality. Let me tell you, you can always sell something. Do. There's so many things to do. And nowadays with that cell phone, you don't need. In fact, we just talked about two days ago, QVC filed for bankruptcy. They were a great role model. I was on them in every country. But here's what I learned, is that the buyers were always challenging. The goals were always kind of weird. And then I watched things that they weren't doing right. But I had no over when the Internet just started. And yes, I'm old enough to remember the Internet starting. I think I invented fire. Not that old, but I'm on air. Let's have a 3,000 sale goal. I came off air and I said, yeah, we made it because you can see the numbers. And the producer go, no, you didn't. Like, what do you mean, no, I didn't? He said, no, you made $200 of sales on TV and $1,000 of sales on the Internet, but those don't count. And you go, wait a second. I mean, they don't count. It's that same hour. I'm responsible for those. They count. And. And they would say no. And when they say no, you left because it was no. I did that for three years of my life. And I'm sitting here the whole time going, you guys need a new CEO because you're missing out on what's coming. Took them three years to acknowledge that the total sales was your sales. That's a big corporation. Why would it take them that long? And I don't know the answer to that. I've never really been in a C suite, aside from my own. But I'm going to tell you, the more moving parts, the more. The harder it is to get things done. Isn't a camel a horse made by committee?

[Host (possibly a business podcast host)]

That's the joke. And it's definitely close to the truth. So, okay, final question. Someone.

[Forbes Riley]

No, I don't want to stop.

[Host (possibly a business podcast host)]

Look, we need to get to this I think this point and that is this thinking, big thinking, massive thinking. You know, I told you earlier my TED talks diary of a wimpy goal because I think we live in an epidemic of wimpy goals. Where did or how does someone shift to that massive thinking rather than. Let me just get one.

[Forbes Riley]

Well, let me ask you that question. I'm kind of curious because this is obviously something that's burning in your head.

[Host (possibly a business podcast host)]

How do you think I think I know. For me it started with this thought. If I know how to do it, it's not a goal. If I know how to do it, if I don't have to grow, learn, develop, get better, right? It's not a goal, it's a to do list item. Unless I have to grow, I haven't actually set a goal. Unless I have to become new because. And one of my professors names Alan Pease, he said how is the enemy of goals?

[Forbes Riley]

Yes, he's.

[Host (possibly a business podcast host)]

Because you start asking how do I do this? How do I do this? And eventually you talk yourself out of it because you asked how. So my thing is, you know, you got an Elon Musk, I want to settle on Mars, you got a JFK and I want to go to the moon. You gotta, you've gotta have a goal. That means you have no clue how, but you're willing to learn and grow into it. 16. When I met Jim Rohn, I decided by 25 I would financially retire. Everyone said can't possibly happen and technically they were correct. 16 year old version of me could not make that a reality. But I was willing to read a book a week, I was willing to do the study, do all the things and become that person.

[Forbes Riley]

Yes.

[Host (possibly a business podcast host)]

You know, I've watched your story and even just the things you say today, I don't even think you noticed how some of those things changed how big your thinking became and it took your daughter to actually make it a reality.

[Forbes Riley]

Well, I will tell you, it comes down to mindset. You know, you're focused. As I look at what your company is about, it is the goal to get there. One of the things that I do on this planet and why I think I'm a blessing at this moment, I'm going to start to cry is that I've helped heal a whole lot of people who can't even get to that mindset because they can't get over their past. And so one of the things that I don't talk about publicly, I do a training, breakthrough training and I've now had thousands of students who will come to me and they're never going to get to the $100,000 goal. That's how small minded they are. So I'll hear words and I'm all about shattering these. And if that's my legacy on the planet, I've helped a whole lot of people who will say, I'm a procrastinator. And I'm saying, you know what, there's no such word. Procrastinate is somebody who doesn't have a consequence. And you've never set up a consequence for your goal. So for example, when you said you want to retire at 25, who cares if you made it or not? But if you said, you know, if I tell the world I'm going to do this and I don't do it, I'm going to be embarrassed. Okay. You ever set the snooze alarm and then turn it off? Yeah. Right, because you can. Because you didn't have to show up for work or it was a Saturday, no consequence. It's a Monday. You don't hit the snooze alarm. You know when you're not procrastinating about the snooze alarm, when your house is on fire, boom, you're up and out and you don't even ask about. Right. But watch this. You change the consequences, you change the outcome. That is one thing I teach a lot. I fact, I just ended a bodybuilding competition because I after a car accident, I told everybody I was going to do this crazy goal. And I don't want to be embarrassed. And that was enough to keep me in the gym when it was really hard to do. I didn't want to do it. I lost my own personal goal. I'm like, don't be, don't make me embarrassed. I had a student the other day who said, I want to, I've got to finish this paper. But I can't seem to do it. Which I hate the word can't. I mean, I am a huge fanatic about the words that you use. Create your reality. And so I said, great. Do you think you can do it by next Friday? Yeah. I said, great. You know What? I get $500 if you haven't done it. She's like, and watch the adage like what? I'm like, you said you could. And I'll tell you what, that Netflix show you want to watch is worth $500 to you. Watch it or pay me. The paper was done by Wednesday. So I've over and over again proven this. But the other part of this that I'm very passionate about is that you cannot write your future from your past. I'm happy to tell stories of my past, but I no longer feel them. You know, if you literally. Where do you put your past in space? Is that a curiosity? Put your hands on behind? Okay? Most people do this. They're like, my past is here. I'm like, if your past is here, you're living in that shit. I want you to take your hand and literally push it way back to where it is. And let's figure out why you're still dealing with the fact that your mom told you with this or your dad touched you or whatever it happens to be. That is why you keep repeating the bad relationships. That's why your mindset is so small. So I encourage people to clean this up because that is very different if you're not being dragged down by all this weight. The second part of this is people come to me all the time. I want to be a billionaire. I'm like, you know, you don't. Let's get real about your goal, okay? And I think that's what I'm on the planet to do. Not to get you to achieve it, but to get you to set it up in the right way so you don't get disappointed. If I say I'm going to make $100 this week and I make it, I win. I get confident I'm going to make $100, and I don't do it, I'm not so confident. So set goals that make sense for you, that are micro achievements, because 100 million takes a whole lot of steps to get to. Second thing, I think, personally, you don't want to be a billionaire. Talk about having to work way too hard and missing your life. Oh, my God. There's three ways you become a billionaire. You can sell a company, you can marry it, or you can inherit it. I don't think you're going to work for it in the span of your lifetime. And why is that your goal? Can you not live on 100 million? Let's get real here. Do you not live on 10 million? Have you never made 10,000amonth? Let's start here. I want to be in a world where people are happy. And I was going to say the thing about Club Med. When I was so. I was doing a Broadway show, I went to a Club Med. But, oh, I like this. I ended up getting a contract where I could go to Club Med anytime I wanted and help create their entertainment. I talked my way into this paid $15 a day. But you know what I got? I got to go scuba diving, play tennis and golf and horseback riding. Learn people from all around the world. Please don't make money. The only goal because you miss out on all the good stuff that life has to offer.

[Host (possibly a business podcast host)]

Full, dryly pitch secrets, follow, learn, study, read, do all the things.

[Forbes Riley]

There you go. That was good.

[Host (possibly a business podcast host)]

Thanks for joining me on the hundred million dollar podcast. If you've got value from today's episode, make sure you've subscribed and share this with all of your friends. Never miss a strategy that could change your business and and your life. And remember, the fastest way to scale is to learn from those who've done it. That's what this show is all about. See you on the next episode.