The Power of Personal Stories in Business Success

Life is a very challenging, bumpy road. And the way you win is to continually navigate it with grace, elegance and perseverance.

What's that because of today for Forbes?

Riley? Well, it's never changed. I had one because I wanted to matter and I. That's all I've ever wanted to do. And it's a kind of a funny thought because there were many times when I thought that I didn't matter at all.

And you have the best energy of anyone that I know.

Hear the universe say, if you stop, you never go back. Don't do that.

$2.5 billion worth of products sold.

Okay, so how did I generate all of this money? One, I was the right place, the right time.

Not many people can say that. And it's not the sell, it's the connection. How important is the connection?

Before the Pitch, I ended up serving the universe and communities in a much bigger, more impactful way. And so one of the things that's important is that when you have a great idea, you don't tell people they need it. Well, you need to listen to this podcast. You need to buy that car. You need this noni juice. No. The secret to getting anyone to do something. Welcome to Mick Unplugged, where we ignite potential and fuel purpose. Get ready for raw insights, bold moves and game changing conversations. Buckle up, here's Mick.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another exciting episode of MC Unplugged. And today we're bringing on one of my most favorite people in the world. I'm talking about. She has done and continues to do everything from TV shows, being an actress, entrepreneur, the queen of pitch. Having sold over 2.5 billion with a B dollars of product. She is a mother, she is a wife. She has the most energy I've ever seen in life. Get ready for an inspiring conversation with my friend, Dr. Forbes, Riley Forbes. How you doing, dear?

Nick, you can do that. I'm going to record that and just save it every morning. It just sounded so nice coming from you.

One is the truth. Two, I'm honored. And three, it's about doggone time we've done this together.

I know, I know. I'm excited to ignite your audience with some great ideas and some strategies and things that I'm working on. And I've got so many students right now who keep telling me that what we're doing is changing lives. And that was the legacy shift for me when I shifted my career.

Yeah. You know, Forbes, you're known as the queen of pitch. I also say you're the queen, the authority. I don't need titles. You're the authority of mindset and energy as well. Where did this all begin from Forbes? Like, what was that moment when you were like, this is what I can bring to the world?

Well, you know, I don't. I know that. I knew that. I just didn't stop. I was a very awkward, ugly little kid. Do I have the ability to share my screen at all? I do. You know, I should probably show you something is things that you don't know about me. When I was younger, I started out life as on Long Island. Very cute little girl, very happy life. Except at some point, I ran into a baseball and I shattered my nose. That was the first thing that happened. And then my parents noticed that I had a very. You know, if I can share this, when you look at me and you look at me with these sweet, adoring male eyes that you have, I get that you love your partner. And when I say this story, people are like, oh, you couldn't have been that bad. Well, I want to share with you about what bad looks like because. And here's another thing, too, as people are, you can never compare yourself to someone else. Oh, you know, you're not this. Or you're, you know, you're prettier than you thought. It doesn't matter. I didn't think that. I was growing up. They looked at my mouth to start with, and my teet went in all different directions. First thing that my parents did and they didn't have a whole lot of money was they put me in braces. And that was bad enough, but the doctor put me in a thing called the Tongue Thruster. And for two years I couldn't talk. And she was like, I'm a short girl. I had braces for eight years, by the way. And so for two years, I can't communicate to anybody. I got a broken nose, I got frizzy hair. I'm overweight. I'm rather ugly. I'm very antisocial. I don't can. No one can understand me. And my family was a little odd. My dad was a magician and an inventor, and I was doing magic tricks from the time I was 6 years old. And one day I'm in the garage with him, and he literally invented a house. He invented a go kart out of a half a garbage can, a lawnmower, and paper mache to look like a Batmobile. We were fairly odd kids on the block. One day he turns me, said, kiddo, how do I get my ideas out to the world. I'm like, dad, I have no idea. I'm eight. I will tell you that when my dad passed away, that that sense of getting all these ideas out before you die became paramount for me. And part of my career was getting other inventors to live their dreams. But for me personally, what happened was things got worse. My dad had a horrible accident when I was in high school. He slipped, cut off the whole front of his hand. Spent three years in the hospital. And so my mom turned to me one day. She said, kiddo, we have no money for college. I'm really sorry. And it was very, very disturbing because that was my big goal. Then she said, well, there's the Miss Teenage America. Pat is coming to town, and there's a scholarship. She looked at me, Mick, and she's like, that's not going to work for us. Nothing like your mom telling you that you're not pretty, right? Irony of this, and this, for everybody listening, this is the moment that a lot changed for me. I have a concept called Dream it, Believe it and achieve it. My dad's doctor heard what we were saying and said, I'm going to fix your daughter's nose for free. You guys have suffered so much. As if that's going to do anything. Well, guess what? It did everything. I woke up a couple of days later, and my cute little nose. You could see my eyes. And all of a sudden, I looked in the mirror and I had a conversation with that little girl. And I said, you know what? We're going to save our family. I got. We're going to enter this pageant because you're. You're darn cute. We can do this. And I had no real reason to believe it, except I just made a decision. I now call it flipping the switch. It doesn't matter why you say yes, or what is it you say yes to in yourself, but no one's stopping you. And I went on this path. I didn't tell anybody because I was kind of embarrassed, even if it didn't work. But I didn't think it wasn't going to work, if that makes sense. I get. Hand me down bridesmaids dress. I get up there, I win Miss Teenage New York. I go to the nationals. I end up in the Miss Teenage America pageant and did get a scholarship to college. And my dream started. And the thing about me, though, that I think is worth sharing is that every one of my big, lofty dreams is fraught with pitfalls. All along the way, I fell down rabbit holes. And it's funny because I'm looking at you and something very interesting happened to me. There's a difference between our color skin, isn't there? You can see that, right?

A little bit. A little bit.

Well, no, just a little bit. But the world sees that. So when I was 10 years old, but this is my blessing in life and I wish everybody had to have gone through this because I got a gift that hardly anyone ever gets on your side or my side of the spectrum. But we went to school one day and everybody with brown eyes had to stay after school, get extra homework and got treated like shit. Everybody with blue eyes got to go home, got extra credit. Well, I've got hazel eyes. I'm like, hey, they're green, they're green. When I'm happy, they're like, no, no, you're in the brown eyed kids. And it was a horrible week of existence. Like, it was just like, what the heck happened? Why are you being so mean to us and having all this work and picking up garbage? End of the week the principal calls us in and said, how does it feel? How does it feel? We're protesting, I'm 10 years old. He said, well, it's 1970. All the kids in our community were white. It was Jewish and Italian pizza, pasta matzah. But 1970 was a big, there's a lot of other cultural things going on. And he said, you can't change the color of your eyes and look how bad it feels for people who can't change the color of their skin. And it was like, wow. So that was a pretty big like aha moment. Well, when I went to college, the same thing kind of happened again. There was a black and a white acting group. But now I saw life differently. And I was the one in my, my college 37 years later just awarded me some things. They made a big deal in the paper about this. I put the two groups together and I did a multicultural musical. And I did it because of, of what I was educated going, I don't see the difference. But also I've got a lot of rhythm. I like to dance, I like to hang out with all the kids, I gotta tell you. And I got really good lips. Well then it led to me in my late my 30s, my husband and I, who's 6 foot 6, white haired Notre Dame football player, we get a little kid who looks a lot like you. Crazy enough as part of big brother's little brother, and he becomes my son for 12 years raised this kid and I have all this opportunity to talk about what it means to be different and how we're not so different. And then six months after I gave birth to my twins, Dexter was walking from my haircut to church in his neighborhood in South Central, right near usc, and a kid who didn't have a mentor walked up behind him and killed my boy. And you're like, wait a second, Forbes, I thought your life was all sunshine and low roses. I'm like, no. My wedding photo was on the COVID of the LA Times, and we spent three years tracking down the kid who killed him, who's now spending 52 years to life in jail. So if you ever dare, whoever you are, I've had this recently going, oh, Forbes, you had it easy. I don't think my life is anything but easy. My life is about perseverance, determination, having vision, and just caring a lot along the way about other people. A little more than I cared about myself. And the irony of that is, I played small, right? Many of you know me from infomercials. I stood next to the guy. And I also went through the whole sexism thing of the 80s and 90s and the me, too thing. I lived all of that, and I'm so proud that I'm on the other side of that. But I stand here as a woman about to turn 65, going, you know what? I got some stories to tell. Because for all of you who think it's one way, it's not. Life is a very challenging, bumpy road. And the way you win is to continually navigate it with grace, elegance, and perseverance.

Orbs. My heart is pouring because as much as I know about you, to hear you tell that story the way that you just did, and I know the story, but I've never heard you tell it. That is so impactful. That is so powerful. And that's something that I always tell people almost as a metaphor. Your story's never as powerful as when you tell it. And I love that about you because I know that that's. Maybe not as a certified teacher of that message, but that's what you tell people, right? It's. Your story is what's impactful. Why let someone else tell it? Why let someone else live the story that you were supposed to live? And so, Forbes, I just want to tell you face to face. Thank you. Like, genuinely, thank you.

It means a lot coming from you, and I appreciate that.

You got it. And you know, Forbes, on Make Unplugged, we talk about your. Because that thing, that's deeper than your. Why that's your true purpose. And you know, for me, my because is always a promise that I keep, right? It started at 10. I made a promise to my mom and to my sister that I was going to change our life. I didn't know how, but I promised that I would. And so for the, the next 20 years, all I did was fulfill that promise. And then I had kids and I promised them that I was going to provide legacy. And so every day of my life is about a promise that I keep. If you're in my circle, right? And you know when I make a promise to you, that's my because. And so for Forbes, what's your because? What's that because of today for Forbes Wiley?

Well, it's never changed. I had one because I wanted to matter and I, that's all I've ever wanted to do. And it's a kind of a funny thought because there were many times when I thought that I didn't matter at all. And I can remember right back in early 20, the year 2000, my parents had both got diagnosed with cancer and died within a year of each other. And I wanted a baby very badly. And how it happened was rather beautiful because I ended up. I also think that I see my life as a movie. I've always, it's always been a wonderful thing. And I love telling the stories because that's how you tell, that's how you see movies. I grew up watching movies and television. When you have no friends, that was my friend. I do trivia with people like nobody's business you want to do from I Drew a genie to Brady Bunch to shows you've never even heard of. I love doing that. And so the universe blessed me with kids. And here's just a funny story that allows me to know that maybe I do matter in the whole grand scheme of things to the world, not just to myself or to other people. But I lost my parents. Nine, 11 happened. I lost nine guys that day who went to high school with me. My brother in law didn't go to work as a fireman that day. When the second building came down, they all died. He didn't thank God as that is. And that December I ended up saying to my husband, I need a baby. I don't know, I'm 41 years old. If I don't have this now, I don't know what to do. And the universe has been very sneaky and wonderful to me. But I, when I went into, I ended up doing in vitro and the doctor says, well, you're not pregnant, you're Very pregnant. Like, excuse me. He's like, you're going to have twins. And when he told me this fact, Mick and I know you've got kids, this is one of those moments that only 1 in 5 billion people have ever had. Your children were conceived on March 20, my mother's birthday, the first year she passed away. And they were due on December 7, the first year that my dad passed away. And I ended up having boy, girl twins. Now when you just look at that story. So when they told me that, that moment of that conception, and I'm like, I'm going to have a great healthy pregnancy. I'm going to be fin. I literally worked all throughout my pregnancy. I did movies and TV and infomercials and carried 39, I pushed to have two healthy babies. 39 and a half weeks pregnant. And they came home with me two days later. Well, 22 years later, I'm in business with both of those babies. My. And this is because I not only wanted to matter, but I must have instilled in them that it was very important that mommy matters. And I know that sounds crazy. I stepped aside for a while to raise them. I never stopped working because I could hear the universe say, if you stop, you never go back. Don't do that, do that. Don't lose your physical. My mom was 260 pounds my entire life. And I remember looking at her at 17 when I left the house for the first time. And I said, I love you so much, Mom. She was a Ukrainian hoarder of a bit, and she went through her version of life as an only child. And what she did, I said, I love you, but I don't want to be you. And I set out on a path because mattering is literally what it is. So at 17, my daughter comes downstairs doing during COVID And for the first time in my life, my beautiful husband had been on a motorcycle accident. He's a professional bodybuilder. He was crushed. He will always. He sat in a wheelchair for six months, lost all of his muscle. It was a very, very tough beginning of COVID for us. I remember sitting at my desk, my daughter comes downstairs, she's like, mom, what are you doing? And I'm like, nothing. And she literally said, my mom's doing nothing. I've never seen that. My mom's worked my entire, you know, our entire life growing up. And she always came with me. She was my right hand, she was my best friend. So from the time she was 8, I would take her out of school to go to conventions and meetings and home shopping around the world and infomercials. And she met everybody from Joe Theisman to Les Brown to all the big digital marketers. And she started getting very fascinated. I kind of knew that, but I didn't give it a whole lot of credit. She's a kid, right? Well, 12. She created her very first online business. She did dropshipping, as the story goes. Made $10,000. And she said to herself, I'm going to do this and I'm going to be a millionaire by 18. I don't know that. She comes down at 17 and says, Mom, I'm going to put you online. I'm going to build your pitching business. I'm like, oh no, baby, look, the whole online thing, I've wasted a lot of money. People have taken my money building this site and that site and I just, I don't know how to figure it out. And she said, I got you. She give me three weeks, I'm going to make you a millionaire. And I'm like, listen to this 17 year old girl going, excuse me, what are you talking about then, Mick, this is a crazy thing. She says, mom, look, you haven't really listened to me. You didn't listen to me when I told you to buy Bitcoin at $100. She did. You didn't listen to me when I told you, oh, here's the deal. I built Joe Theisman and Les Brown their website, put them on YouTube. Here's my bank account, it had six figures in it. And I looked at this and I'm like, I'm sorry, what is this? You wouldn't listen to me. I can do this for you. And I thought, oh my God. And it was because she literally said, I want you to matter. I want you to have a legacy. And if you don't get it out there, no one's ever going to know who and what you are. And you deserve that. So this whole mattering thing is transferred to her. We sit in a room for three weeks and we unpack all my pitching thing. And my daughter is a systems girl. She just says, mom, you think you're good at the pitching thing? We unpacked it. I do my first webinar online. There's 25 people in there. I created a thousand dollar program, right? The next morning I called her going, mckenna, what is this? I said, yesterday there was no money in this account. Today the click funnel says K. She said, what do you mean? It says 25K. What does that mean? She said, mom, you made $25,000 last night. Every person in the room bought from you. We did that four weeks in a row. We had a six figure business. Eight months later, we're walking across Russell Brunson stage getting a 2 comma million dollar funnel award. And we did it. That was five years ago next month.

Amazing. Amazing. Forbes. So I hear your daughter, I know your son, they've got the Forbes genes, right? Because it's that some people call it hustle. I just call it energy. Right? Like the energy is what moves, energy is what's felt, energy is what's seen. And you have the best energy of anyone that I know. And so now I want to talk about the pitch. Right, 2.5 billion worth of products sold. Not many people can say that. And it's not the sell, it's the connection. So for those that are listening and those that are watching, how important is the connection before the pitch?

Okay, so how did I generate all of this money? One, I was at the right place at the right time. I was an actress and a television host. I still act, by the way. I have a movie that just came out called Black Creek. I play the bad girl madam in an old fashioned western. I'm shooting a film next week. And I still love my acting. But the universe let it be known to me that I was never going to be Julia Roberts or Sandra Bullock at that part of my career. And that's good because I ended up serving the universe and communities in a much bigger, more impactful way. And so one of the things that's important is that when you have a great idea, you don't tell people they need it. Well, you need to listen to this podcast. You need to buy that car. You need this noni juice. No, the secret to getting anyone to do something is getting them to want what you have. And I think I got this from being the daughter of a magician, because you're doing crazy things. You're getting people to believe that, that this trick is really magic. And so that's part of the ether that you create. And so one day I walked into a studio and on a desk it said, sell me this pen right to the camera. I don't like to sell. I didn't grow up with any money. And so I looked at the camera and I said, you know, it's funny. I got to go to college when I was really young, 15 and a half, and I was very nervous and insecure. My mom wrote me longhand notes every day, and I would race the mailbox to get them. I realized that a pen like this can reach out and touch somebody's heart. Well, Jake of Body by Jake comes around from the corner, grabs my station, because you're going to make me a lot of money. He has a new idea for cable TV called Fit tv, where we're selling fitness on television. Never been done before. Talk about being at the right place, the right time. And for five years, Mick, everybody came to me with their products. There was no script, no onboarding. I just instinctively knew what to do with it. And I knew what to do with everything, whether it was Tony Little's gazelle or Suzanne Somers thigh mask. I sold all of these products. I sold all the little guys products. And it just made so much sense to me that you on the other side of this camera, not you don't want to hear what the product is. It's a machine. Who cares? But what it does. In fact, did I introduce you to my fitness product when we met last?

We did, yes.

Yeah. Okay, so I have here, for those of you watching, I have three pieces of metal and a string. I call it a spin gem. And what it does is it rotates so quickly that it tones your arms and your whole upper body. But you know what I do when I go to pitch this, Mick? I don't show it because it's confusing. Why would I talk about it? Because you don't want it yet. So, Mick, you're married, right? You got a beautiful wife. I would have you raise your arm. Raise your arm right here. Touch onto the bottom of your arm. Is your arm nice and tight? You got some big buys. And tries. But I'll bet your wife sometimes feels insecure. All women do. You want a great gift? Get this. In just five minutes a day. You give me three weeks, I'm going to give her tight, toned, sexy arms. She takes off that sweater when. When winter is over and she's going to look like a rock star. Are you getting a vibe like you want to know more about this?

Yeah, I want three of them.

Want three of them. That's exactly. Well, so what did I do? I didn't tell you that I'm in the National Fitness hall of Fame. I didn't talk about me, me, me, or even the product because the product is Irrelev, where so many people get stuck in the weeds. So I have now been teaching this because no one teaches this. Just to be clear. After those five years of working with Jake, infomercials was born. Kind of came out between Kevin Harrington and a couple of us And I did one of the very first infomercials. And infomercials, to me, this half hour format just made so much sense. It was storytelling, it was interactive, it was Testimonials. I did 197 of them on camera and many more behind camera. And then home shopping came out. And for 30 years, I found a home. You give me a TV camera and somebody on the other side of that camera, and I'm going to make you want what we have. Two and a half billion dollars later. And you know what? I also created a legacy for other people. Do you know who Jack LaLanne is?

Yes.

Well, you're gonna next year because Mark Wahlberg is going to play him in a biopic. Was the godfather of fitness in the 1930s and 40s. He created health clubs and fitness workouts before anybody did any of this. Right? 88 years old and he was committed to juicing. I had just lost all my baby weight because of juicing. We met on a set in Toronto, had one conversation. You guys can go to YouTube and type in Jack Lalanne and Forbes Riley. See $1 billion conversation between the three of us. That juicer TV show, Half Hour ran 400 times a week on US television. 80 countries, eight years, made a billion and a half dollars. I got money from it, he got money from it, and a legacy was built. But that was just one of my shows. And while you don't have to have that heart stopping a product, I talk every day to people who are coaches and have, you know, fitness products and whatever it is that you're launching. Stop talking about the product and get the other person to want what you have. And I do something really crazy. I just launched a training called elevator pitch 2.0. So, Mick, you and I are at an event. That's how I met you. And I asked you like you get asked all the time at home, what do you do? What do you say when I ask?

I say nothing.

No, no, no. Yes, you do. I'm meeting you socially. What do you do? Yeah, I'm asking.

I help people provide solutions and leadership.

You know that 98% of people start with those words I help. What book did you read that in right now? Here's the thing. I didn't really ask you what you do. I really asked you what could you do for me? Because it's not my literally response is good for you. But if you said Forbes, you know, as someone who's got one of the hit podcasts going, I take entrepreneurs with spunky energy like you and I can put you in front of millions. Would that be okay? Dude, yes. Now, I'm going to give you my business card, and we're going to talk, and we're going to have a relationship. And that is just. That's a door opener. Here's another great phrase. Mick, what did you do before this?

I was the leader of insurance consulting.

Okay, how many years?

25.

Okay, what's one thing that you really learned that you do really well through that work?

I help CEOs think like CEOs.

Okay, so you know Forbes. You know what? Here's what I do. As someone who spent 25 years in the insurance industry helping CEOs think like CEOs, I now take that expertise and I do. Blah, blah, blah. In one sentence, my friend, I know what you've done, why you're good at it, and what you can offer me. And now it's like, I feel sometimes when I do this, this little exercise with people, like, I've given them their life. They're like, God, I can. This is the. And now, the other thing is, when you get excited about this, you want to start telling people, hey, wait, yeah. No. As somebody who did this, this is what I do now. And it's fascinating. The same thing happened for me when I unlocked my name. And again, remember, go back to that little girl who couldn't talk right. A lot by listening back then and watching people not communicate. So a lot of my stuff recently when I came out, I would say, people, hi, my name is Forbes. They would go, what? My name is Forbes. Forbes Riley. They go, oh, O'Reilly is your first name? And I said, no, it's Forbes. And they would say, are you sure? I said, wait a second. Why am I wasting the first precious few seconds? That's like having a bad hook on Instagram. It goes nowhere. Now I just say, hi, my name is Forbes. Forbes Riley. Forbes. As in the magazine. Boom, you know who I am, and you will never forget that. And you magically associate it with success and money. What did I say?

Right, right. That's why she's the best. I learned from Forbes. I knew she was setting me up, so I had to be the setup person. But Forbes, that's what you teach people, and you're transforming lives. So, you know, we were talking offline, as we always do, when you were talking about the new teachings that you're doing, the new classes and courses that you have. Talk to people about what's in there.

All right, let me share something with you guys. I did the Most unusual thing that you will find for somebody. I don't have to work anymore. I've made money. I own television studios and shopping centers. I'm doing just fine. But I love this. And as Mick pointed out, something that really drives you, if you want to matter, I show up. So every Sunday since COVID except super bowl and my birthday. Although this Super Bowl I did teach, I do a two hour live interactive training on Zoom. And you know what I charge for it? I charge $19. Now you could pay me the $19 or Nick, I'm going to give you a free pass if that's okay. Now, the reason I don't like doing free is when people sign up, they don't show up. I would prefer you to pay the 19, but I'm going to give it to you for free. You go to free. Gift from Forbes. Riley, if you're inspired, intrigued at all to what I just said or how I do it, I literally, sometimes I have 20, sometimes I have 200 people who show up. And I do this kind of live interaction. And I do it for two reasons. One, a lot of my OGs and students come because they want to see the transformation just like I did with you. They want to see people's lives and just go, my gosh, I love this girl. And it makes me feel like what I do does matter in real time. And so that's what I would suggest you guys, if you want Elevator Pitch, go to elevator pitch with Forbes.com that is a self contained. Again, I'm still doing things live. I show up live. I don't. I guess at some point, as my daughter says, you know, maybe when I leave this planet, I won't be live. And we've recorded everything that day. But right now, if you have an opportunity to work with me, I would take it. Because I'll tell you what Mick, if I could have met a me or met a you years ago, my life would have been better. I didn't take a lot of opportunities to study with people because they charged 20, 30 thousand dollars. Masterminds were 50, 100 grand. And I had this stuck in my head. I come from no money. That's a weird thing. Come from a mom who was a hoarder and who really always, you know, bought the $1 T shirt. Never 10 of the 10 minutes. She'd buy 10 $1 T shirts, but she would never buy a $10 T shirt. And so I had a little bit of mixed things. I missed out on meeting some amazing people because I couldn't break those barriers. So what I've opted to do is to make take price out of the equation, and everything I do is affordable so that nobody has to say, I can't do this. You want to pay a lot. I have a lot. I have fun trainings where you can come to my TV studio and we can make video magic together. But if you just want to start with me live, I think it's a gift. Because if I want to matter at the end of my life, I will.

Absolutely. And for everybody that's listening or watching, I want you to understand the brevity of what Forbes is giving. Not offering, but giving. There's not two people on earth that I could think of that I would rather have one on one time with, whether it's virtual or in person, than Forbes Riley. Like, I can guarantee, I can promise, not only does your life change, your legacy changes. And if you're like me, legacy is more important than anything. Like, Forbes is not about money. It's about the legacy that I can give and offer. And there's no one better than Forbes Riley that can help you establish, create, and transform that for you. So my selfish little plug for Forbes, she doesn't need it. If you're listening or watching what she just offered, what she just allowed, what she just gave, Please take, please take or don't ever listen to me again. And I'm okay if you don't listen. I'm good. My feelings aren't hurt. I need people that want to be around Forbes in my circle.

Well. And I tell you what, what's come about when you can articulate what you do and who you are. I've found that a lot of people get all kind of messed up and get nervous. And I used to do that. I used to literally throw up on your makeup. I met you at a party, like, hi, who are you? What do you do? I'm like, well, I'm an actress, infomercial host. And I've just finished two movies, and I got one that's western. I've got two kids, and I'm writing a new book. And I would look and I don't know why I needed to say all of those things so fast. And then I would go, wow. And you'd go, nice to meet. And what I have done, which is crazy, Mick, is I'm gifting people confidence. And that's one of the sexiest things you can walk into a room with. You know, I had an opportunity because the way the system and I call this elevator pitch 2.0 in the early days about six years ago to meet Grant Cardone, I'd wanted to meet him. I knew who he was. I did a little bit of my research. And when I finally had a chance to meet him, where most people go wrong is they start telling the other person who's more famous than them, oh, I love your work. I'm a fan. I'm this. I didn't do any of that. I said, look, you know me from infomercials. I've grossed two and a half billion dollars. I think you would be great on a TV show just like Tony Robbins did. Let's gross you another billion. Stop talking. He says, come into an event tomorrow night with me out of that Mick. I got on stage in front of 10,000 people at 10x and got to do a speech because of that elevator pitch.

That's it done.

I know if you can get that level of clarity and confidence, you then combine that in the back room with what you say you want to do in this world and doors fly open, opportunities happen and all of. I mean, you just shared something. I won't say who, but you've got a pitch after this with a big company, right? I do think about not what you want, but how does what you do serve what they want? You position it that way you will get everything you want.

Yes, ma'.

Am.

I'm receiving it. I'm receiving it. So, Forbes, you also accomplished author. And now we have something coming out really soon. Let's talk about this new drop.

And I've got something else to share with you about fitness. Don't let me leave without saying this because something really dramatic just happened to me that you may not know about. Okay. I just wrote I'm going to drop a book called Pitch Secrets A to Z and it is literally attitude belief closing Demonstrate all the way to zoom. Great timing around that. It is a couple of personal stories mixed with 26 lessons that any one of those chapters will radically ignite your head to go. Oh, my gosh, I never thought about it this way. That's been the big gift in my life. My perspective on life is just so different from Everybody else's because 1 of how I was raised 2 but how I've been blessed. And you know when I did, while we were talking, find a couple of pictures and I know you guys who are audio. Mick, where do we get to watch your show? Where can we see it?

YouTube.

Really? Okay, because I'm going to share with you. Remember Body by Jake?

Absolutely.

That is a visual so Jake sold the network that we did for $500 million. That is Jack LaLanne, who I promised I was going to show you. That show is the Billion Dollar Show. That's just a crazy thing to imagine about how we managed to do all of this. And I won't show anymore. You'll have to come to my Sunday and hear me pitch all this. But something crazy happened last year. This next month, my kids and I. When I was growing up, aside from movies, I wanted to be James Bond. Didn't want to be a James Bond girl. I wanted to lead a life of adventure and fancy cars and clothes and scuba dive and snow skiing. We couldn't do any of those things. I will tell you guys, manifestation is real. I've done all of them. I've gambled in Monaco. I've been on yachts. I've skied the Alps. I've done all of the things that I set out to do. I've scuba dived around the world. Why? Because I had money? No, because I said I wanted to. And I became wildly creative to imagine how you can make these things happen. Well, my family and I are on a spring break in Iceland last March. Wow. I can't believe it's a year and we're snowmobiling on a glacier. Oh, my God. James Bond moment. Like, it was freaking, radically amazing. And we're coming back on this. This tour bus with about 16 people in it. I'm sitting against the window, sleeping there. Next thing I know, the bus goes flying through the air and crashes down on my side of the bus. I open my eyes, there's glass everywhere. My face is on the street. My kids are behind me. Nobody's moving. My daughter says, I think Mom's gone. And I heard her say that. I'm like, I'm. I'm here. I'm here. I don't know how I'm here, but what's going on? Y' all got pulled out of the ban. We're in the middle of Iceland, in the middle of nowhere. If any of us had gotten severely hurt, we were two hours from the hospital. I'm going to just say that whoever was watching out, thank you. Because otherwise I would have been a byline that you read in Facebook going, oh, that's too bad. I really liked her and her energy. So something crazy happened. My husband turned to me and he said, he's a bodybuilder. He said, you know, there's a bodybuilding competition in St. Pete, our hometown, in 99 days in June, 29th. I said, Congratulations. Why do I care? He said, well, because there's a category for women over 60. And I'm like, why would I care? Now, Mick, this is what the bus looked like. Okay. This is on my Instagram. You see that? My face was right down there by the. See the inside of the bus? Yeah. It ended beautifully, but it didn't have to. It could have been a lot worse. Wow. And so. And then as we're leaving, a giant volcano erupts. It was like a very insane kind of trip. And so as I was saying, why would I care? Something tapped me in the back of my head and said, you know what, Forbes? Go for it. I'm like, go for what? The beginning of last year, I took a fat scan, Dexa scan. And you know what? I was the heaviest I've ever been. The girl on the left. I weighed 160 pounds, 33 body fat. I told everybody, in 99 days, I'm going to get into a bikini. And I did 99 days. I entered the competition alongside my husband. This was the end result. And I will tell you, I got on stage. This is Joshua. He always wins. He looks fit. He's fantastic. He's 47 years old this year and competing again in the arnold. In just two weeks, his little girl got on stage. And at 64, with all the 20, 30 year olds, I got myself a medal.

Let's go for it.

I'm going to tell you, I will always be able to hang on to these pictures. That's 64 is somebody's grandma. I don't know many grandmas who walk around going, I am doing it. And that. You know why? You know why, Mick? Because I wanted to matter. Not to you, not to anyone else, but to myself. And I proved it. And I look at this picture and I'm like, girlfriend, you did it. You took control of the thing that. My whole life, my weight plagued me as an actress. I fought this so hard. You know, I was on a soap opera with Meg Ryan, Julianne Moore, called as the World Turns.

Yeah.

And if I hold up a mouse, a computer mouse, does this mouse look fat to you?

A little bit.

Oh, no, it looks like a mouse. That's what a mouse would look like. Right? Right, right. I put a mouse next to a pen. The mouse looks chunky and fat. I was 15 pounds overweight. They were 20 pounds underweight. And I was made fun of and told to go to Overeaters Anonymous. Every movie I ever did, every TV show, I did a Broadway show with Christopher Reeve. They made me go to Overeaters Anonymous, make one of the greatest things in life was I lived long enough to see Lizzo have a career. To walk into Macy's and see a chunky mannequin, to see a woman who's 70 pounds heavier than normal on cover of Sports Illustrated. Our tolerance has changed.

Yeah.

All of a sudden I'm like, oh, my God, where would I have been if I hadn't been so miserable? But I'm watching Lizzo diet and exercise. And I will tell you for everyone who's listening, to be fit and healthy at any size at every age is like the best revenge in light to put on a pair of clothes and feel strong. And a lesson that I learned from my bodybuilding husband took me eight years. I never listened to him before. He has. He has a very cool weightlifting program that is how to build muscle. I filmed it for him. I knew it. I just didn't want to do it. Well, when this all happened, thanks to PTSD or whatever, I have another book that's coming out called Flip the Switch. The Secret to Making Decisions. I flipped a switch. I said, girl, you've got 99 days to do this. You are not eating any pasta, cake, candy, cookies. There no wine. There's a lot of protein. And every day there's a ton of water and two hours in the gym every day. But, Forbes, you don't have time to go to the gym. You work so much. You know What? That's what 5 to 7am in the morning are for. And I did it. And I did it because I said I was going to do it. And I didn't know if the outcome was going to work because the first three years, that needle didn't move on the scale. I was like going, why? But you know what was happening? I lost. Not only did I lose pounds, I lost 13 body fat. Everything changed. Yeah, you need some resistance training. Everybody in your life, I am high on this. That if you don't get to the gym, get some weights in your home, but you gotta lift something heavy. You want a sexy shoulders, toned abs, it is yours for the taking. And so I got a new lease on life.

Let's go. You know what I took from that Forbes? I'm gonna say this to all the husbands. Just be consistent. They'll listen at some point.

They'll listen at some point. I will tell you something. When I asked Joshua, I said, joshua, you think I can do this? He looked at me and he very resoundingly said, yeah. And I'm like, what did you just say? Did you just say I can't? He's like, look, I'm not being mean to you, but you work all the time, and you're not focused on it. You never go to the gym. You haven't gone the last four years. You know, funny enough, Mick, that was enough for me to go. You know what? I love you, honey. I'm gonna so show you up. I'm gonna. Every day that I have to do another rep, it's. Cause I'm gonna prove to you I'm right.

Every last rep, you were saying his name, right?

There was a moment when I walked off stage that my baby was standing there. He was beaming. It's one of the most proud. It just. All the hard work paid off. So what do I get out of this? Here's the thing for you guys. Flip the switch. I was told I was pre diabetic. I was told I should go to the gym and work out. I was told I was getting flabby. I didn't care. You know what changed? I did. I set a goal. I said, In 99 days, I'm going to get on stage in a bikini that I've never owned and a pair of high heels that I don't have. I haven't been in high heels all during COVID In fact, I have some funny comedy bits about that because you buy these little clear high heels, and they're kind of. I put my foot in it and I had like, one toe, two many. My feet had spread from city. Being in sneakers for five years, I'm like, I had to go get drag shoes. Like, I had to go get men kind of shoes because my little girl shoes weren't fitting me. I then discovered I wasn't in a bikini because I was. Not only was I molested at 15, and I kind of knew that, but I suppressed how bad it was until I went through this competition and I let go of something. Mick, the you that you're looking at right now is somebody who has dealt with her past and is now writing a completely new future. And I did that at 64.

Let's go. Ladies and gentlemen, that is my friend Forbes, Riley Forbes. I love you more than you'll ever know. You mean the world to me. And I'm going to do something because again, I know the book is coming for everyone that messages me. I shouldn't say everyone. The first 20 people that message me for as I'm going to purchase 20 books. I know you were given. Don't give them to me because I'm purchasing them for listeners and viewers.

So.

So the first 20 people that message me, and you all know when I have something important, this is what I do. The first 20 people that message me, you're getting a book from me, from Forbes, but you have to message me. And if you're number 21, 22, 25, I'm sorry, it's the first 20, so do it now. Forbes, I love you. My people love you. From the bottom of my heart. Thank you.

I'm going to send you a picture of Dexter because as I'm looking at you and I'm listening to you, if my boy had grown up, I would want him to be just like you.

Damn it, Forbes. Damn it, Forbes, don't do that to me. Don't do that. My people haven't seen me shed a tear. Forbes, we're not going to start now. But damn it, I'm just looking at.

You and I'm listening to your heart, and I'm like, you know, thank you. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Forbes.

Oh, my gosh. Wow. You guys, I'm not gonna end that way because here's the thing. I don't know if we get to come back. I don't know if my little reincarnation over here is somebody that I just love and adore. But I do know that if you do life right, once is enough. And so far, I want to thank you very much for making mine better and for everybody listening. I appreciate you guys. Come join me on a Sunday. Take, take advantage of free gift from Forbes. Riley. It is a gift from my heart. I don't want anything for it except for you to be better, learn more, be more, and enjoy your life and spread it forward. And let's all create legacy, shall we?

There you go. And for all the listeners and viewers, remember your because is your superpower. Go unleash it.

Thank you for tuning in to Make Unplugged. Keep pushing your limits, embracing your purpose and chasing greatness. Until next time, stay unstoppable.