Superstar Guest Terry Rich

I've— the app, I mean, it's not the worst, it's not the best. It's one of those things I'm using it, and— but anyways, here we go. All right, everyone calm down. Okay, now I'm talking about myself. I'm so excited. Oh my gosh. Okay, calm down. So I want to introduce everyone to my new friend Terry Rich. Is that really your last name, Rich?

Uh, it really is. They call me a son of a rich every once in a while.

With TerrySpeaks.com, I'm just so excited. So I just want to— I like to jump right into things, just jump in that water. All right, so tell us, tell us about— let's go with the zoo first because you were the zoo before the lottery.

Okay, well, I think I'm best known for 3 things. 1, being on the Johnny Carson Show back in the day. 2, running a zoo, turning it around from a $600,000 deficit. And 3, giving away $1 billion in addition to cracking the largest lottery fraud in U.S. history. But let's talk about the zoo. You talk about crazy things. I did a lot of TV production, helped in the days of cable television, helped to start up MTV and HBO and did a lot of work for ESPN, all these different agencies as a part of a cable company. And at 50, I decided to retire. Oh, no. Okay, wait, this app is giving us a problem.

Hold on, Terry, we're just getting a little problem. No, I just want to make sure I'm hearing everything. Okay, keep going.

So, uh, they— he said, uh, it's losing money, would you— we're going to take it over, make it a nonprofit, would you be interested in helping out? Heck, I grew up on a farm, why couldn't I run a zoo? So I got to run a zoo for all these years. Now, it was pretty easy to turn it around. A couple of things we did. First, marketing. Think about marketing. You do a lot of marketing. If you run a zoo and any kind of museum, you go 3 times in your life. Once when you're a kid, once when you take your kid, once when you take your grandkid. Well, this zoo had people coming, and really, 2 to 10-year-olds, you've got them. That audience is yours. They'll come and come all the time and enjoy it. But how do you get, at that point, those millennials or the younger generation to come in? And so we kind of brainstormed, how do we get new people in to get additional revenue in to help with the animals, to help feed the animals, to help take care of the animals? We figured it was booze. So we started Zoo Brew. And what Zoo Brew does is you get to come in. So the younger generation comes in, not married, no kids, no kids are allowed. We serve booze, we have bands, The animals are out and it's an early evening event that just went nuts. And last year, I think they sold over $250,000 just in alcohol at Zoo Brew. But it took no time at all between that and we had some new exhibits like Scoop on Poop, where kids could come in and giggle about that's elephant poop and that's tiger poop and that sort of thing. And then we thought, well, we got a lot of poop around the zoo, so why don't we sell the tiger poop to people who have deers coming into the backyard to eat their flowers. So we started selling that at $20 a bucket and made about $20,000 doing that. And we thought it'd be fun. The giraffes have these great big long tongues. So we started selling lettuce to people to feed the giraffes, and that brought in $20,000 to $50,000 a year. So all of those combined really gave the zoo a new perspective. It wasn't just a little kids, you know, event to go. It was a destination to have some fun and a big open park that just made it fun. And it became the second largest attraction in our state.

Wow. Wow. So then why did you say goodbye?

Why did I say goodbye? Well, once you get the zoo going, the operations are doing well. Marketing-wise, everybody knew about it. We had all the people coming through the door. It takes a lot of fundraising to grow a zoo. You've got to build new exhibits. And I'm not into construction. And when I ask somebody for a buck, I'm usually asked for a buck back. So I thought, you know, we're in the right hands. Let's get a big and a really good fundraiser, which they did. To raise millions and millions of dollars. I think we raised about $13 million before I left in endowment, which is where you put it in the bank and just work off the interest so that the operational side will work forever. But the new CEO came in and did do well. And at the same time, the guy that headed the lottery retired. And so I got a call from that governor, said, hey, would you be interested? And I thought, I like giving away money. And so I got to give away over $1 billion in my 10-year term as the lottery.

Oh, okay. So I can't even imagine what it would be like to be the CEO of a lottery. So, so, okay, I want to hear everything. I'm just—

well, there are two— there are a couple of things that make it really fun. One is you are building dreams. You're trying to not overpromote or overpromise. It's your responsibility as a CEO of a lottery to try not to get people in trouble with gambling, right? You want them to play with their discretionary dollars, not to empty the bank with that. So we had some phenomenal winners. Probably the biggest one was, I think, over $260— no, it's about $300, $400, $500 million. And to hand that check out with all the press and the confetti and all of that was pretty cool. But also being the CEO of a lottery, you are in a very political position. You're appointed by a governor, confirmed by the Senate. And so every day you walked in hoping the decision you make wasn't your last. And the directors in most states are always asked to leave. The governor leaves. So all of the people that report to that governor leave. I was one of 3 in my 10 years that got to retire when we wanted to rather than when the governor wanted to. But in the middle of this darn lottery, about 2 or 3 years in, something happened that I didn't expect because I love marketing, I love sales, I love— you can tell— promotion, being on camera, being on TV and talking about how great something is, selling it. We figured that we had a winner and it just didn't feel right. Somebody won a game called Hot Lot, our regional game, and, and no one came forward with $16.5 million. And then we got a call from a lawyer in Canada, said, well, I got it. I'm sending you the ticket. You send me the money. Ding, ding, ding. That just didn't feel right. So we started investigating. By the time it was done, it took almost 6 years. We found it was an insider of one of our National Association of Security Officers that actually put a code in so that he and his brother and his best friend could win hundreds of, I guess, millions of dollars. We stopped it. We didn't pay it because we knew it was screwy. But ultimately, he's spending up to 25 years in prison. And the others were also found guilty. They all pleaded guilty because of the investigation. Our DCI, our Iowa prosecutors, and our staff at the Iowa Lottery put together. So it was the largest claim by CBS, is the largest lottery fraud in U.S. history. I don't know if I'm glad or part of it, but it was an interesting time, screwy time. It just makes for a heck of a story. So we wrote a book about that, and I think you'll see— I think CNBC did American Greed, had a session on it, and another hour special on GSN. And I think you may see a big— I can't say the network that starts with N— that might have a big special on it here in the next year or two. But It taught me about oversight, checks and balances. You know, if you have a church somewhere, you hear about a church secretary who writes the checks and writes the purchase orders. That's pretty fraught for fraud. And it's never the person you expect. And this wasn't either. But anyway, we lived through it and things are going well. And now I'm retired and traveling the world talking about that and why it's important to have checks and balances.

Okay, so I have questions. I love this. Love this. All right. So, so when he knew at one point that you're investigating, Could he back— like, so, so all of a sudden he's like, wait, things aren't going smoothly right now, something's happening.

What—

how did you guys— did he know, oh gosh, I am like gonna be in trouble, and how did he fix that? Or did you— did he just think that this just takes a long time to, uh, to hand out the money?

Well, he, he thought he could fix it because the game that was drawn, it was, I think 17 states were involved in it, and the computers that he had programmed were out there, but He got the one that was the big $16.5 million jackpot, the Hot Lotto. And he said, you know what, we need to change this computer out as soon as we started an investigation because, you know, we had no idea it was him. Well, he changed it out, wiped it. That computer was gone. So we had no evidence of that particular computer. But he messed up in that in Wisconsin, he had another one, a state game that he had programmed, and they kept the computer after they switched it out and didn't let him touch it or wipe it. And that ultimately is where we found that code when it was all said and done. But yeah, it was, as we got toward the end, he couldn't believe that we did it 2 or 3 years after he had wiped it. He thought he got away with it, as did his friends. But it was the ticket itself that helped trip him up. Second were 2 hot dogs. He ordered 2 hot dogs when he bought the ticket. And his brother got on the stand and said, my brother don't eat hot dogs. Well, this guy was 400 or 500 pounds, or 300 or 400 pounds. Everybody thought that's weird and it made the national news. And an FBI agent said, wait a minute, that guy on the stand, his brother that testified in his behalf, he won the Colorado lottery because we were investigating for money laundering because they had all this cash. And then finally, Bigfoot, his brother also hunted Bigfoot and he had Bigfoot friends cashing in his tickets. So his last name was the same, of course, as the guy who committed the crime. So all of those miraculously came together. There's about probably 10 or 12 key breaks, or we would have never solved the case. But it is. And if we hadn't, I'm convinced he'd still be doing it today. But I— now that I don't work for the lottery, I can play the lottery. I'm not winning anything. So you can see it's— it is truly pretty fair and honest if you enjoy playing the lottery.

That's crazy that he did so much. Like, why? Like, wouldn't you just be happy with like $500,000?

Well, you find, as I do research and I do— I do a lot of speeches to, uh, business officials to accounting folks, just all companies in general, you find that if somebody thinks they can get away with it and they get away with it a little bit and they want to test something, then they try it again and they try it again. There, there are kind of 3 key elements. One, they have a financial need. Maybe their kids just went to college, they're broke, or somebody racked up too many credit cards, or they get into drugs or too much gambling. The second is opportunity. Eddie wrote the code, compiled the code, serviced the computer that ran the numbers. So he had all the keys. It wasn't split up. And that, of course, has been fixed. And then finally, rationalization. When he did his testimony after he was found guilty and was sentenced, they did a proffer and he talked about, you know, we asked him, is this all there is? And he just said, you know, they worked me too hard. It was a small organization and I deserved it. So those three key elements, if you have all three, Pretty likely. I mean, it's the same as though I came by your place and dropped a $100 bill and you didn't know where it came from. No one else did. Somebody's going to pick that up. It doesn't feel right, but you rationalize, well, nobody said anything so far. I need kind of need that money. And the opportunity is right here. I'm the first one to see it. So should I take that $100 bill or not? He, he got greedy and he tried some small ones, got greedy, and ultimately most people get caught.

Amazing. I really do. The more you have, the more you want. And so I always say it's a good thing because I don't have anything. So the little I have, the happier I am to give it away. And I think that that's a— that is a crazy story that took up a lot of time. Was that taking up your day-to-day or were you still just— you were— someone else was working on it and you were doing your thing? Like how much time of your time was it?

It was— it took up two things. One, initially it took up a lot of time. It took some money. The DCI and the Attorney General's Office typically don't have travel budgets. We paid for the investigation. Our governor said, do whatever it takes. We want the games fair and honest. So let's investigate if it doesn't feel right, get her fixed. So it took a little bit of money, but ultimately mentally was the anguish because I had people that said— I had people within our own industry that said, pay it. You know, you don't— you leave this alone. Quit being so vocal. You know, you're going to hurt her. That's why we call the book The $80 Billion Gamble. $80 billion, what people spend on lottery tickets today in America, $80 million plus. That's more than sports revenue. That's more than movie revenue, and that's more than music revenue combined. So a lot of money spent. And we were gambling with a lot of different states' money that go to good causes by being vocal that somebody inside, an insider, may have done this when it's all said and done. So mentally, we're dealing with losing friends and things that felt we were trying to be too aggressive. And on the flip side, thinking, this just doesn't feel right, we gotta do something. Wow.

So is, and now I feel bad for all the people that worked with him that had to all of a sudden find out that someone they worked with is a crappy person. Is he serving time? Is there a golf course in the federal prison that he's in?

It's a real small state prison. I wouldn't want to be there. I just heard they had a big COVID-19 outbreak. I hope that he didn't get it, you know. Hope that— I hope he learns his lesson. I think that again, you just get greedy and it's— it was available and it's there, and hopefully he'll get out and be a— contribute back to society in one way or the other. And I know he's got restitution to the states that paid out. We didn't pay it, we stopped it.

So amazing story.

That's amazing. If you look at it, I go back to the church or the school where it's a small organization and a small business manager. I've never heard anybody that's had fraud— certified fraud examiner said this to me many times— most of the people that are caught, most people say, I had no idea that Aunt Mabel would ever do anything like this. It's usually the nicest person, most unsuspected person, but those three factors I mentioned kind of combine. To make people or entice people to do weird things.

Crazy, crazy. Now you can't say he's a nice guy now because he clearly is not.

Well, he's found guilty. We, you know, most people don't get closure. You know, if it's a, if it's a murder or rape, a physical assault of some sort, uh, that person takes 5, 6, 7 years to go through the court system whether they're found guilty or not. And then it's appealed 2 or 3 times and there's always this doubt because they'll deny it all the time. But The investigators in this case did such a good job that all 3 said yes and they confessed. And you know what? That's closure. That in itself helps a lot, Slee, because we were doubted that we were doing the right thing and it really vindicated that we were.

That's interesting. And it stops anyone else from thinking that they could get away with it. So interesting. That's a great story. And I wanna go back to just at the end of what we're talking, I wanna talk about your keynotes and how you give them so that my friends that are in the meeting and event industry can, uh, can, it can look at booking you. But I want to hear now about— I don't even know how Johnny Carson— what, how'd they greet him when he got on the show? Like, what was his, his thing?

Johnny, Johnny Carson was interesting. It was a promotion, my first big promotion of my life. We just, we were going to have a centennial in my small hometown, and, and, uh, we— the guy said, you're our most famous person, because I've done some radio, TV. I said, well, we need to adopt somebody, so We sent out letters to every celebrity we could think of saying, we want to— we have only 50 people in our town. We want to adopt a 51st citizen. Just be somebody famous for one day in our 100 years. And lo and behold, I sent a press release out to 44 places. One place, UPI, United Press International, sent it out on the national wires and it got on Johnny's desk. They called us. They talked about doing an entire show from Cooper, Iowa. They'd never done that before because they just fell in love with the town. But ultimately had 3 of us go out and it's still on YouTube. Just Cooper, Iowa, Johnny Carson, or Terry Rich, Johnny Carson. He was great. He walked in during the makeup. We were on for 2 commercial breaks. Tom Jones sang afterwards. But he's everything that everyone said, just very personable. And the guy was just a prince and just helped us great. We had— my official number was 253,000 people show up for the centennial. The Des Moines Register said 12,500, but it was a big crowd.

Wow, bigly, I'm sure. That's awesome. Wow, that was— that sounds amazing.

That—

and then did you like watch every Johnny Carson show after that?

Uh, well, you know, there weren't that many networks at the time, so, you know, we, we did kind of watch it. It replayed on The Best of Carson was all said and done. But they gave us a limo, they flew us out, they put us up at the Universal Sheraton. Uh, they, the We had our own dressing room with our names up above, had to go into makeup. It was a pretty cool deal. And they said 20 million people watched that evening. So that kind of launched my career and my desire and fun of doing promotions, which I've done a lot and had the opportunity to meet many, many celebrities obviously and work even with Bob Hope on an event. But more recently, you know, we did a lot of prize fight pre-shows for the pay-per-view for HBO. It was really, it's been really a fun career and it's fun to go out and cross the world. I just got back from Germany before COVID hit, telling the kinds of stories and just meeting people like you. It really makes it fun.

That is awesome. Okay, I have a question. This is an important question I'm asking for all the ladies that are older. Tom Jones, were all the women like absolutely crazy when they like, first of all, did he have an audience? Was it a live audience too?

It definitely was a live audience. I don't know how many they had, you know, it always looks bigger, but it was at least 100, 150 people. And when we did the show, it didn't seem like we got very good reaction. I thought we actually bombed because the laughs were okay. But when they played it back, it looked like the greatest thing ever because they sweetened the sound when it was all said and done. So it looked like a huge hit. Everybody was giggling and having a great time. But he just is, uh, oh, and by the way, Ed McMahon, who sat beside me, uh, drinks— was drinking straight whiskey, swear to God, in his cup.

Wow, that's what keeps him— that was keeping him all happy. And Tom Jones, that's amazing. I love that. I— when you think about celebrities, it's interesting. I, I remember when I first met Adam Sandler, and the first words out of my mouth were You look like you.

Really?

He looked at me like, you're creepy. Like, who are you? I didn't even know what to say to him because he really did look like himself. But that's— I love that you— I love your stories, first of all. I think that that's really exciting. And I love that you're in the event industry, or you are a speaker in the industry. Tell me what you're feeling about events right now. So you feel like they're going to come back? What are you thinking?

Well, there's no doubt that a lot of people are switching to virtual. I'm doing a lot of virtual keynotes, particularly that seems like they want to do 1 or 2 a day or do it over a week so that they have different topics but not try to slam it on because everybody's somewhat tired of being sitting in a chair if you do it 8 hours versus if you were at a convention. I think it is going to come back. It's coming back slow at this point. But it's still probably one of the most exciting things I've done and thing that I enjoy most because I get to, you know, if you go somewhere to do a keynote speech, they hire you to go out, they fly you in. I always take 3 or 4 days and see wherever I'm at and see the location and then come back. And then if I decide I don't want to speak for a few weeks, I just, you know, block that off. So it's a really fun profession, a tough one. There's a lot of boutique companies that help support it. But it's really fun to tell and to see and to have people come back and say, I really enjoyed the program. I really enjoyed the speech. And secondly, say, I really learned something. I took it back and used that in my business.

I love that. I love business. I am with SCORE and I'm a certified SCORE mentor and the vice president for SCORE here at Volusia Flagler. But I have a question for you. So I actually think that having a keynote speaker in with your Zoom meeting. So if you're doing a networking or if you're doing an event, it really is fun to just take that break and then have a speaker like you come in. So I definitely think that people like the chambers around, the meeting planners, that they really should look at changing things up a lot and giving us a speaker like you to come in. And then you can, you can tweak it to the business or tweak it to whatever they need, but it's great stories. Do you have your book? Where's your book?

I do have it. I can grab one. Just—

yes, please. Yes, you say a quick—

uh, are you wearing pants?

Oh good. Oh no, you're not wearing pants. Is that really your home? That's a beautiful backdrop. Look at your backdrop. That's beautiful. Oh, that's a nice looking book.

Well, there's Bigfoot, that's for sure, and then the tickets in the background that you— it's all— I think the other thing with, with as we do more speaking and do it virtually, the key to success that I've heard is you don't want somebody just to stand and speak. In a presentation at a conference, often there are people, they often say less PowerPoint or less visuals or less videos are better. But I'm finding that I'm mixing in a lot of different visuals and trying to make it very interactive, polling so people can watch and you say, hey, what do you think? Boom, boom, boom. Doing the interactive things and breaking it up with videos is much more important on the virtual stage than it is on the real stage or on the actual stage.

I love it. So behind you, your scene behind you is actually perfect. Was it always like that, or did you scramble when you were starting to do virtual to get your background looking so perfect, like the couch?

It's always a debate. I wanted to make it simple. I wanted to make it look nice. But my kids kept saying, if you're going to be doing Zoom, you got I've got to have a big darn bookcase with a bunch of junk on it because everybody you see that's doing Zoom seems to have a big bookcase. But I just wanted to keep it easy. Create is what I do. I love to be the idea dude. I love thinking new ideas and believe that anything we do, we can find a better and a bigger way to do it. Everybody's got a million-dollar idea. I love creating and trying new things and encouraging people to try new things.

So what are your kids' names? I want to talk to them for a second.

Yeah, Amy, Adam, and Alex. They're all grown. They're all— they all have grandkids.

So Amy, Adam, and Alex, this is a message. The three of A's. I'm Adrian. I have an Alex, actually. My husband's Alan. My daughter's Alana. Not that we like to go with the initials, but we really do. But anyways, your father, he created the best background that Zoom will probably want to take it and use it as a virtual background. It's actually perfect. No bookcase would be not good because that's distracting. So from now on, you guys need to listen to your father because you know what, he speaks and he— what, he knows what he's speaking about. So yes, that's just fine.

I do have, besides the creating and the businesses that I've been involved in, over my shoulder is a bike. I did 2,000 miles this year on my bike in the COVID So that's been my passion from trying to keep healthy so we live a few years longer anyway.

So yeah, so I sit like for 8 hours at my chair and I'm spreading out. My shape round is now becoming a big oval. So actually I was doing census, so I was enumerating for census. So the first week it was like, oh, the stairs. And then all of a sudden I'm like, woo, I can run up those stairs, knock on the door. How many people live there? I want to know now. I'm sorry, but I do like— I, I did that because I want to run for city council, and I figured— I was scared of knocking on doors because when people knock on my door, I literally scream and I frighten them away because I don't— I get like, I don't know, I get creepy about that when someone knocks on the door. So I thought everyone screams.

And here's a little secret, little secret on knocking on doors. I learned this my very first job, door-to-door selling. When you knock on the door, hit it with a little pattern. Dun dun, dun dun. That's a much more friendly knock. Number 2, when you see the keyhole, you can see the light. And as soon as it goes dark, take a step back and go, and they'll open the door every time.

I love that. I love that. Don't put your badge up like, this is who I am.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So Terry, I love this. I love talking to you. So I'm going to put this, I really feel that my friends that are in the event industry and I served 3 years with Meeting Professionals International, went to a lot of meetings in South Florida. I was Director of Communications and VP of Communications. I just love everyone in that group. And I think you're going to be a perfect speaker and hopefully we'll have you come to Florida. But otherwise, I want people to know that they can reach out to you. So the best way for everyone to reach out to you?

Easy. TerrySpeaks.com. T-E-R-R-Y-Speaks.com. There are samples of both. I do a Dare to Dream, Dare to Act on innovation, and then The $20 Billion Gamble, which has been very popular recently. But either way, I love to work where it's a fit, where— because I like success. So it only works when what I do and when I speak, that it means— and people say, I got value out of that. So it's been working well so far, and I enjoy doing it for sure.

I, I like you right away. Hey, wait, so if you order your book, are you able to get it signed, or do you order the book How does that work for an author?

For some, it's on Amazon and on— it's got Audible, Amazon, and also Audible. So I think that the— if you'd like one signed, it's my website, terryspeaks.com. Somebody would want one can just contact me and I can sign one and send it out that way too. But either way, enjoy that. The books have been fun. The speaker— speaking is even more fun because I get to look and talk to people like you to to say hello.

Do you do book tours?

I did do book tours when I launched the books. Now I'm just doing speaker's tours and using the book as part of it either. Many organizations, when you do them in person, I like to give away the books as part of the fee to do the speech. And that gives everybody extra value. I'm amazed at how many people like a signed book. I didn't realize that when I wrote the first book. Uh, when you have a book, the people— I, I want it signed. Okay.

So, and you know why? So when you sign a book for someone, first of all, I used to love having books signed for my parents. And because to me it was always a big thing. Now they passed away and I don't even know where all those signed books are, but, but that's something that I think that you— and it's just a beautiful thing. So as much as I love a signed book for myself, I always tend to ask for someone else I don't know why, but that's— but I think it's just a beautiful thing because it stays with the family. You're less apt to give away a book that has a personal to the person.

So it adds personality to it for sure.

It does, it does. Thank you so much for your time and energy today. You're terrific. And this will go— it's live right now on Facebook, and then I'll go to YouTube, and then I'll push it out, and I will keep pushing out Terry Speaks. And thank you, Mr. Rich.

Thanks. And just send me the links. I'll do the same on my social media.

Awesome. If you're ever in Daytona Beach, you're going to look me up. Have you been here?

Okay, absolutely.

Have you ever been? Have you been to Daytona Beach?

Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Now I get to Florida quite a bit. Fort Myers a lot, down, you know, all over. A lot of cruises out of Miami and the area of West Palm too.

Awesome. Awesome. All right. Thank you so much. I'll talk to you later. Thank you.

Be safe.

This is fun. Thank you. All right, that was wonderful.

Hope that's what you're looking