In this episode of the Main Street Business Podcast, Mark J Kohler welcomes author, actress, influencer, and acclaimed Queen of the Pitch, Forbes Riley to discuss her amazing journey and reveal some of her secrets to making the perfect pitch.
Here are some of the highlights from this episode:
Learn more from Forbes Riley at Forbes Riley Media https://www.forbesrileymedia.com/optin24842600
In this episode of the Main Street Business Podcast, Mark J Kohler welcomes author, actress, influencer, and acclaimed Queen of the Pitch, Forbes Riley to discuss her amazing journey and reveal some of her secrets to making the perfect pitch.
Here are some of the highlights from this episode:
Learn more from Forbes Riley at Forbes Riley Media https://www.forbesrileymedia.com/optin24842600
Welcome to another episode of the Main Street Business podcast, where I have the pleasure of interviewing an influencer impacting small business owners all over America. Well, today we get to speak with Forbes Riley. Billionaire business strategist, award winning TV host, bestselling author, motivational speaker, and known as the Queen of Pitch. Forbes has grossed over 2.5 billion in product sales. She not only ignites CEOs, top earners and sales teams, but also strongly moves and touches the hearts and minds of the future leaders, emerging entrepreneurs, action takers and visionaries around the world. Well, frankly, Forbes is my own little joy Mangano from the movie Joy, played by Jennifer Lawrence. Forbes is living that life and she is absolutely amazing. Forbes, thank you for being here. It is such an honor.
Forbes Riley:Mark, I got to tell you, it's been years since we sat across from each other. Do you remember how we met?
Mark J Kohler:Oh, I do. And it was actually an emotional experience for me. You tell me what you remember.
Forbes Riley:Wait, what was emotional about it?
Mark J Kohler:Well, of course, for those who don't know, were doing an infomercial for an RV. It was before outdoorsy even got going.
Forbes Riley:It was like the turo for RVs.
Mark J Kohler:Yeah. And they were ahead of their time. And I was there as the four out of five dentist guy. I was the expert that said, hey, this for small business owners, having an RV and making money with it could change your life. And were in such a cool scene. And you do all this every day. But we had.
Forbes Riley:What I don't do every day is that the gentleman who shot that is Debbie Reynolds son and Carrie Fisher from Star wars brother. So were in a house that was Hollywood history with a man who has more equipment than I've seen most major studios have. And so I love the entire experience. And it was great meeting you. So thank you.
Mark J Kohler:Yeah, it was neat experience. And with that ambiance, I think you set the stage, no pun intended, perfectly. Is that it was so well done that when you started to ask me questions, we're just 3ft from each other and you're like, so how does this impact a small business owner? And I just got emotional connecting with the small business owner on the other end of the camera. And you were such a good interviewer and it was a neat experience.
Forbes Riley:Well, I'm grateful that we came full circle and we've both grown up a little since then, have a whole lot more to share with people.
Mark J Kohler:Yes. Now, for those that, of course, I mentioned this in the introduction, for those that don't know, man, you are a pitch artist being on this, billions of dollars of product sales you've been able to generate for your clients. Being on camera, you're just a master. So we're going to talk about these pitch secrets.
Forbes Riley:I'll talk a little bit about what pitching is, and pitching is truly getting anything and everything that you want in life. Now some people will focus on sales training, and that's great. How to sell something. I personally hate selling. I grew up with no money at a family. My dad was very hardworking, but when I was in high school, he had a horrible accident, and he spent three years in the hospital. He almost cut off the front of his hand in a printing press accident. And I learned what it was like to be completely broke. And so I somehow managed, although I just wanted to be an actress and a TV host. Sometimes life takes you on a journey that maybe you didn't plan, but maybe utilizes your talents. And it's funny, Mark, as I look at where you are in life and what you wanted to do versus what you've ended up doing, it's very lovely in life to figure out your purpose.
Mark J Kohler:Yes.
Forbes Riley:And for me, having grown up and not being able to get a lot of what I wanted, but seeing other people who had it, like when you watch TV and social media, you see people with great vacations and private planes, and you wonder, am I not as good a person? What's wrong with me? Why can't I have that? And I realized that a lot of the skill comes down to verbally communicating. And the second part of that is truly believing that you are worthy of excellence and whatever you want. And when you put those two things together, you begin to manifest the life that you dream of. And kidding aside, Joshua, aside from looking like he walked off the COVID of a romance novel, which is what I wrote on my list of what I wanted for a second husband. I'd gone through the abusive thing the first time, and I said, I want a whole bunch of things, and then I want that. And when he showed up and had a lot of the qualities and then also looked amazing, I was quite enamored with the idea that I wanted that. And some people settle. What do you want for your next husband, or what do you want for your partner? Well, I want tall, dark, and handsome. Okay, that could be anything. But when you want tall, dark, and handsome and a man who opens a door for you, when you say, honey, will you help me? He runs, stops what he's doing to support me, those are traits that I wanted. And as selfish as that, can be. I mean, I give that to him as well. And so we created a unique partnership. But when you think about what you want in business and how you want to affect lives, when you've got something that you think is great, whatever it is your business is, you don't make any money if the other person doesn't buy it or buy into it or believe in your idea. And so pitching for me comes down to Mark getting one thing, and that's a yes. And, in fact, I have a piece of paper here. Let me just do this for you. I've got a blank piece of paper on both sides. Now, my dad, aside from being a wonderful man who was in the hospital, was also an amateur magician, and he taught me all kinds of things. I have a blue paper here, and I wrote down a prediction. Mark, would you like to see something cool?
Mark J Kohler:Yes. You got me to say yes.
Forbes Riley:I literally just predicted what you would say seconds before you said it. Now, how did I do that? That is the genius of pitching, is understanding how to coerce someone to do what you want them to do. And you literally gave me the yes I predicted. You can take that into so many aspects of your life, and truly, you can make more money, and you can stop suffering and believing that you're not worthy if you understand some of these secrets.
Mark J Kohler:And what I love is explaining the craftiness of the question, which you just demonstrated. So cool. But you started with the fact that there was two pieces. That was the first piece, is making sure you're artful in the question. It makes sense you're going to elicit the answer you want. But I love the second part, too, that if you don't believe in it and you don't believe that you're worthy to receive it could be the best technical pitch. But if that belief isn't there, people don't feel it. Is that what you mean by there's got to be that aura going across the table, too?
Forbes Riley:Well, Mark, I'm sure you and I encounter a lot of people in what we do, and I ask people all the time. I simply start with the phrase, what do you do? When I ask people and I hear the stammering and the stuttering and, well, I do a lot of things, or I just retired. And the level of confidence that comes out, or lack of confidence that comes out just from that first question astounds me, because you should know what you do, what you're up to, and what you want the world to know. And you don't start out by going, well, let me break it down for you guys. When someone answers me that question, they say, well, I'm retired. I'm left going, why did you say that? I don't know what you retired from. Retired doesn't mean anything. But here's the problem. When you pitch, you know what you do, but you haven't taken the moment to realize your job is to get the other person to understand what you do. So the question isn't what you do, it's what can you do for me? So if somebody says, I'm retired, that goes nowhere. If you say, you know what, I've just retired from being a second grade school teacher and after learning to herd children who are eight years old, I'm now in the business of blah, blah. Oh, I now know something about you, and I understand what you're up to. And if that intersects with what I do, we can have a conversation about it. We can have a J. Reeve relationship. We can make money, mark, I call this the $100,000 handshake. In just a moment of meeting somebody, if your pitch is aligned and your attitude and your energy is about helping other people, you make relationships in seconds. And it astounds people when I do this with them. So I guess I should ask you the question, Mark, what do you do?
Mark J Kohler:Well, I'm a tax lawyer that helps little small business owners all over America, on Main Street America. Save taxes, build wealth and protect it.
Forbes Riley:I love that. Can I give you a little coaching?
Mark J Kohler:Yes, please.
Forbes Riley:What if you changed the first couple of words instead of what I am? What if you said as a, how would that change you? So as a tax lawyer, just change that and see what happens.
Mark J Kohler:Okay.
Forbes Riley:And add in how many years as a tax lawyer of how many years?
Mark J Kohler:Okay. As a tax lawyer doing this, close to 25 years. I help small business owners on Main Street, America, all over the country, save taxes, build wealth and protect it.
Forbes Riley:I love that more. I don't know if you felt the difference, but it was very empowering to me that it just sounds more solid.
Mark J Kohler:Yeah, it's not. I'm here. It's more as a, so it's like moving forward, not a destination, too.
Forbes Riley:And then one further thing that I help people do is I'm known as. So if you had three words to say what you're known as, what might that be?
Mark J Kohler:It's going to, again, create another subtle point that I'm known.
Forbes Riley:Correct. And that is exactly. And that's how smart you are, guys. Rather than saying, I'm a digital marketer by the way. And the can change someone's perception of you. I'm a digital marketer. I'm the digital marketer. What, what does that mean? All of a sudden you've elevated yourself. And when you layer in, I'm known as. So, Mark, I'm known as the tax savings best friend because as a tax lawyer for almost 30 years, I bub, oh, really? I want a best friend who knows taxes. Or I'm known as the tax secret guru. What does that mean? Well, that means I unlock the strategies to save you money that doesn't go to the government but goes for you paying your favorite vacation.
Mark J Kohler:What I love is it's beyond the elevator pitch, which everybody is like 5 seconds, 20 seconds, 30 seconds. It's freaking one sentence. It's just like to.
Forbes Riley:The point is one sentence, but it's also one sentence designed to perk up the other person's chance. I was working on becoming a big platform speaker, and I had a chance many years ago to run into Grant cardone and his wife. And it was down the hall that I saw him. And I knew I wanted to be on his stage. He just didn't know me. And so I used all my strategies. Now, most people would walk right up to Grant and say, oh, my God, I love you. You're inspirational, you've made millions, and blah, blah, blah, and he'll say, thank you and leave. I didn't do that. I had a very powerful intention and like you said, to revamp my elevator pitch. And I wanted something, so I walked right up to, not him, but I walked up to his wife, who's right next to him. I did the research. And in my world, I stress for all of you to do three things. Research, strategy, and leverage. Okay? So I walked up to Elena and I said to her, I love that he's taking notes. That's a smart man. I said to Elena, you may have watched me on television. I work with one of your friends, Kevin Harrington, and I've grossed over a billion dollars in sales. I would love to do that for your husband as well. You know what she did? She turned to Grant and said, you need to meet her, but that you need to meet her is what we call an open door, which means you've got about 30 seconds, because his wife, who he trusts, just said, you need to meet her so he's willing to listen. I said the exact same thing. I said, grant, so nice to meet you. I work a lot with Kevin Harrington, who I know is one of your friends. I've grossed over a billion dollars in sales. I would love to do that for you. In the world of infomercials, are you interested? He was like, man, come to this party of mine. The next thing you know, we got a relationship, and I end up on stage at ten X in front of 10,000 people. Do you notice what I didn't do? I didn't go, blah, blah. This is who I am and what I do. No, I pretty much very quickly established who I am and what I can do for him. And when you do that, you win. And what do you win? You win opportunities. You win networking. You win at the game of life. And I coach this over and over again because it breaks my heart that people blow that opportunity, because those opportunities don't come around very often.
Mark J Kohler:No. And you get one shot. So many people, you get one sentence.
Forbes Riley:Well, because that's busy. People are successful for a reason. They don't have a whole lot of time. They don't need to be complimented up the wazoo. They know they're doing well. Why are you in that moment with them, and what do you want? And I will tell you, it not only takes practice, but a little bit of courage. And, like we started out, a belief that you're worthy of that.
Mark J Kohler:Well, I love, there's so many moving parts here. And embedded in all that, and you said it early on, too, is, you know, your purpose. So you're strategizing. You know what you want, you know it, and then you feel worthy for it. There are subtle differences there, but I like how you said yes. It. Isn't it sweet when you know what your purpose is?
Forbes Riley:I don't know about you, but it's not the easiest thing to figure out.
Mark J Kohler:No.
Forbes Riley:I think it comes from doing the work, figuring out what you no longer want, tolerate, figuring out what makes you happy and what you enjoy doing. And I know that I now, and believe me, this was not my initial purpose. Guys, I am very happy being an actress. I've been an actress my whole life. It's all I wanted to do. And in fact, I still do it. Mark. In April, we have a feature film coming out that I costar in. It is an action packed 1890s western with all these old martial artists. I'm a martial artist by trade. I've been doing that since I got mugged in the 1980s. And it's quite a beautiful film, and it's a costume drama. It's like, oh, and I get to costar in it.
Mark J Kohler:What's the name? I gotta watch it?
Forbes Riley:Oh, it's called Black Creek. I'm very excited about it. You're gonna love this.
Mark J Kohler:All right.
Forbes Riley:You'll see a lot of news about it. And I play the bad girl, which is one of my favorite things to play.
Mark J Kohler:Oh, I love it.
Forbes Riley:But being an actress is hard because you always have to be in someone else's project. When you're a speaker or a business owner, you are responsible for your success. Now, I could start producing movies and maybe, like Tyler Perry, produce my own movies. I don't have enough confidence yet to really do that. Being in movies and raising money for movies takes a lot of time and energy, and it's not always a guaranteed success. I have taken that talent, skill, and desire to the speaking stage. In fact, Mark and I just recently ran into each other again. We were in Utah speaking on Chris Crone's stage, and I love that because you control what happens to you, and you literally control your destiny. Are you enjoying that part of your career?
Mark J Kohler:Oh, yeah. Because the beauty of the success is yours, but the pain of the failure is also yours to own. And so you've got to have that thick skin of being willing to dust yourself off and go again, but you control it, which is you do. It's so amazing. So how did it evolve just for you as an actress, to the point where you realized you were good at the pitch? I mean, you were hired to maybe be on an infomercial, and then was it like, and I apologize. I bring up the movie again with Jennifer Lawrence, that she kind of found herself on stage going, oh, my gosh, I got to dig this out and.
Forbes Riley:Do it as an actress. You go on auditions all the time. You audition for commercials. I have a commercial that once aired in the Super bowl. I've been in a lot of little. And then movies and television, and as the World turns in 24 and Broadway. One day I walked into an audition, and it's the same thing. I use the analogy of Leonardo DiCaprio. Leonardo was a sitcom actor. He literally had a part on the sitcom with Michael J. Fox. And one day he walked in for an audition called Titanic, which no one thought was going to go anywhere. What a stupid idea for a movie about a ship sinking. And we all know how it ends.
Mark J Kohler:Yeah, we've all seen ten of them.
Forbes Riley:But he went in anyway, and he booked this part, and then three years later, it became a billion dollar hit and his career skyrocketed. Well, I walked into an audition, and it had a camera here, and it said, sell me this pen. And I don't like to sell. I'm young. And like you said, when you don't go with money. So I told a story and I said, you know, funny thing about pens, when I was in college, I was only 16. I got there very young. I skipped a year of high school. And my mother used to write me notes every day, reminding me how much I was loved and secure. And I would get them from the mailbox and just feel. So then, you know, I realized a pen like this can reach out and touch somebody's heart. Well, Jake of body by Jake came out from behind the camera, grabbed my face, and you're going to make me a lot of money and you're going to watch this clip right now. And there was no onboarding. There was no what a pitch is. I don't know why. I instinctively know how to pitch things. And for five years, every month we met, I sold 1500 different fitness products, from the chair to the bread man, to the slam man, you name it. Take a look at this. And so what you're seeing, it's a cute little compilation montage of all of these different products that you may remember from the, from that. Jake sold the network to Fox for $500 million. I didn't look for pitch. Pitch found me and pitch let me know that it was my thing because during that time period, a lot of those products became infomercials. Who were they going to hire? I got hired almost 200 different infomercials. I did Billy Blanks, I did George Foreman, I did Jack Lalaine, you name it. I was the go host. I was the girl, the go to girl. There weren't a lot of women in that industry anyway. And some of my infomercials turned into 100 million dollar hits. And then because I helped start the idea of selling products on television, QVC and HSN evolved. And that was the crazy thing. I've been like Joy, I've been on QVC for 15 years. I went on HSN. I sold fitness products and hair products and skin products. And I made a very hefty living all of those years, pretty much doing exactly what Joy did. And the crazy thing about the movie Joy, a little bit of backstory is that her father came to me. I was teaching hosting at the learning annex 30 years ago, and this gentleman comes to me and says, I'd like you to sell my products. I do plastic garbage disposals and a lot of plastic things. And I pretty much passed on him. But he came so close to my family that he went to my mother's funeral. Well, when I watched the movie Joy, that man was played by Robert De Niro. I was a little floored because it was Joy's father looking for someone else because he and his daughter had a big fallout. I then created, and I think you've seen this, my handheld fitness product that when I started, nobody wanted, just like joy. I ended up taking it into a reality show on Discovery called Pitchmen. They told me it was a bad idea and I should go home. I told them that was not in my cards. And in fact, when that reality show aired on Discovery, Mark, this was the downest moment of my life. They made fun of me. They did a voiceover making me look bad. And they highlighted that this was never going to work. And it was really upsetting because that night in Google, Spinjim was the number one search word. Forbes Riley was number three, and it did not have a happy ending. My husband at the time rolled over to me the next morning after it aired, and it was very embarrassing. And he said, so what are you going to do now? And I said, I'm going to sell spin gyms. He said, but nobody wants it. And I said, but they're wrong. He said, they can't all be wrong. And I said, but they are. You have to be really careful about that kind of a statement. And I did something I'd never done before. I believed so heavily in my idea and my sense of truth, given my history, that I pushed all my chips in. I mortgaged my house and my kids education, and I said, we're doing this. I went on home shopping. In day number one, I sold 5000. We literally sold out in 34 minutes. Even they didn't think it was going to work. My biggest day on home shopping, I sold 64,000 and got a million dollar check for one day. Sometimes you have to believe in what you're doing against all oDs. I'm walking proof of that.
Mark J Kohler:Forbes, thanks for sharing that. That was just incredible because it really explains your story from start to finish of what you did on network TV in that infomercial space. But when I just bumped into you a few months ago, it was exciting to hear the next chapter of your life, helping other people learn how to pitch and being on the stage and helping business owners. What's next on the horizon for you.
Forbes Riley:Mark, as you're so gracious to let me tell my favorite stories? When COVID hit, it was a very tragic time for me. January 2 of 2020, my beloved, my life, my bodybuilding sweetheart was in a horrible motorcycle accident shattered his ankle, his body, his back and his ribs. Sat for six months in a wheelchair. I was pretty depressed. So was he. COVID was happening. My industry shut down and who knows what we're going to do next. My daughter, who's 17 at the time, who'd already been in digital marketing and making money since she was twelve. She used to design websites for some of my famous friends, like Joe Thisman and Les Brown and Sharon Lecter. And she was pretty prolific. But I wasn't really paying attention to all that. She was just doing it and making money on the side and not even telling me to be honest. And she came downstairs one afternoon and said, so what are you working on, mom? I said, nothing. She said, what? My mom doesn't, oh, my mom always works on something. I'm doing Facebook. She said, how about we start a company? And I looked at my 17 year old who not yet graduated high school and thought, I'm good. She said, no, mom, the pitching thing that you do is perfect for creating a training and an online course. I said, look, I tried the online thing and it didn't work for me. She said, you weren't with the right partner. I'm your best partner. Oh, my sat down for three weeks and we created a course, a whole training on what I teach and how I really teach pitch. And we broke it down to words like I focus on assumptions and the hub and features and benefits. And I didn't even realize it did all those things. It was just intuitive for me. We broke it down. We went online on a Wednesday night and I had 25 people in the class and I was going to teach a training course I've taught before. The course was $1,000. I do my little webinar. I wake up the next morning and I had to say to my daughter, what does K stand for? She said, mom, what do you mean? I said, well, in our bank account it says 25K. Said, mom, you made $25,000 last night, every single person online with you on Zoom bought $1,000 program. Congratulations. Nobody does 100%. I'm like, what? Yeah, your infomercial pitching is paid off. We did that every week for four weeks. We had $100,000 in the account in four weeks. In six months, we made $1.2 million. 17 year old and a first time digital marketer. That was four years ago. I have spent 40 to 60 hours a week all throughout COVID, teaching what I know to thousands, literally 28,000 students around the globe from South America to Sri Lanka. I've got students because Zoom allows you to not have to be physically somewhere. I perfected what I do. I've touched and changed lives and it literally is the. We're four years later, we have now grown to 16 people in our company. We have books and courses and I'm traveling around the world and I got to tell you, my daughter, who is now 21 years old, is the CEO of our company. She will not go to college because she can't afford to. She can't afford to stop making amazing amounts of money for 16 people around the world. She's gotten more than of an education that she will ever get because her twin brother is in college. His dad made him do that and he's studying business and she's living business. Got to tell you, it's a great story.
Mark J Kohler:Wow. But great story on so many fronts. And for me personally, if I just may share briefly, I'm hopefully not going to get choked up either. But Friday, just this last week, I'm walking out of the building with my son who's a marketing genius and digital marketer and he's like, we got to do XYz with your YouTube channel. I can't share it now because it's freaking awesome. And he's like goes, I know how to do it. Let's do it. Let's partner on it. I'm like, okay, let's figure it out. And he is just amazing. And he's actually in the studio here today and watching you intently. And these young people are just so amazing and the skill sets they have. And to do that with your daughter, how bonding and incredible that must be too.
Forbes Riley:Mark, I can't even write the movie about this because it's hard to believe that I take marching orders from her. And then she and I also, it's a beautiful story about how much she loves her mom. And I say that because I personally have gone through some serious trauma and tragedy in my life. From losing my parents within a year of each other to losing a little boy that I raised for twelve years. He was murdered, to being screwed over by believing in people who I thought were going to help me and they didn't. And she's watched all this growing up and her love for me, it almost doesn't even make sense because she's literally devoted a good portion of her life to making my dreams come true. She saw how special I am and it's been very hard to get that to be understood by certain partners in life because her only motivation is to elevate me. And I'm going to tell you, be in business with your son. Because that bond is something so rare, so beautiful. And then two years ago, she took me to Greece for four weeks. Last year, went to Portugal. Next week, we're all as a family going to Iceland. And we can do that because we work together. And by the way, not always easy. Some days there's some pretty much yelling and screaming, but overall, I feel like I stepped into a fairy tale. I really do.
Mark J Kohler:Wow. So special. So how do we get this digital training? Damn it, I need it. I already improved my pitch just here with you today.
Forbes Riley:Oh, baby, let me take you on a journey. Okay. I've got one of my biggest trainings coming up called pitch like a pro. You know what? Go to forbesreilly.com. I will have the link to pitch like a pro, which is happening April 2 for three weeks. I don't do this a lot. In fact, my live teaching schedule is now two times a year, in the spring and in the fall. And that's all I do. And so this training is three weeks where I literally sit with you for 9 hours. I still believe in the live training on zoom. I work with people because you can't learn to swim from a book. You cannot learn to pitch from a training course, because it's about the practice, and it's about my ear listening and tweaking you in a live setting with lots of other people. Because what you begin to realize is, oh, my God, I didn't realize I was saying those things. For example, I highly recommend you all stop saying this group of words. Stop saying the word actually, basically, like, and the word trying. And you're going to hear it in everybody's conversation with you once I point this out and you're gonna realize how lame it is. Well, Forbes, I was trying to get my course done. No, you weren't. You failed. I'm not interested in what you tried to do. I'm interested in what you did or didn't do. Wow, that's kind of brutal. No, it's called taking action. Take that word out. Because you can try to do things all day long and never succeed. People say the word. Well, Forbes, I actually am on stage with Mark. No, you're not actually anywhere. You're on stage with Mark. And we talked about. Right. But people say these filler words because it allows them to play smaller. And when you begin to notice that, and people speak because, Mark, we talked at the very beginning of this conversation about your self confidence and all of your self confidence is very evident from the words you choose to articulate to someone else. And when I point this out, the more and more I show it to people, the more people go, oh, my God, I didn't know I did that. Or, look, everyone around me is playing small. I now see that. And the shift that occurs in people is nothing short of miraculous.
Mark J Kohler:Well, I'm filling up enough posts on my own social media for a week here. You know, I wrote down, I want to tell you what I wrote down. Self confidence is in your words.
Forbes Riley:Yeah, words you choose. So true. And most people never realize that. I'll tell you a real quick story, and I can show you a visual of this, too. When I was eight years old, it became very evident. My mother took, they took a mold of my mouth, and I still have it because she was a bit of a hoarder. And my teeth all went in different directions. When I was eight, they put me in a full set of braces with everything, the headgear, the rubber band. And my jaw was really messed up. But for two years, I was about ten to twelve, they put a tongue thruster in my mouth, the true sharp. My mouth like this. I couldn't talk for two shallow years. The problem with that is nobody wanted to be my friend. Nobody couldn't share a word I was saying. And back then, it was a little bit of special needs. Nobody could help me. And so I isolated myself, and I got very envious of the fact that you could speak words and you were wasting them. And I had to understand how to communicate without words. And when I finally got that off, I made a decision to myself that the use of these words is precious. The articulation. I mean, when you cannot talk, you can't even get what you want. How do you point at food? I mean, it's so insane what happened in my own head. And so now I hear words. Like music. A great piano tuner only has to hear one note to go, ooh, that's not right. I don't hear music. I hear words. I hear vocabulary. I have another training. I called 1 minute to millions, because in just 1 minute, if you can articulate who you are, you win. And for people who don't realize 1 minute is so important, try buying a minute on the super bowl. It will cost you $13 million. So I then went into the world of infomercials and commercials, where you only get 30 seconds to tell a story on TV, 1 minute maybe to sell your product when you're on home shopping like joy, you must sell $2,000 a minute of product every minute you're on the air. They do not invite you back. Well, the pressure is insane to make those minutes matter. And that is one of the things that I hold a light up to people and say, look, you're wasting time. You're boring people with your pitch or whatever you're talking about. You use too many words. And I can take your entire five sentence introduction and do it in one. Then you get heard, you get understood, and I believe you get what you want.
Mark J Kohler:Forbes, you're phenomenal. And I just am so blessed myself personally for this interview. It's been very impactful for me personally, and I know how precious your time is and thank you for sharing your valuable time with us. And I want to reiterate for everybody, pitch like a pro. Starting April 2. I want to be there. The link will be down below in the description. Get over to forbesriley.com. Forbes, you are freaking amazing. And thank you for being here.
Forbes Riley:I can do this all day long if you keep telling me on oh.
Mark J Kohler:So many great takeaways. Well, we wish you the best. I look forward to seeing you at your conferences. I know we bump into each other now more frequently in our circles. And thank you. Thank you so much.
Forbes Riley:Well, Mark, you know what? It was a pleasure working with you back then. It's an honor being on your program. I know how successful you've become. I am thrilled to hear the stories. And you should come on my podcast called Forbes Factor to talk about your relationship with your son. Because I think given the stress and the know, we have a generation of kids who missed two years of their life going to school. It got interrupted. I can't imagine what that's like. My children didn't go to graduation, didn't have a prom, and it was not their fault. But a lot of kids are suffering from a bit of depression and understanding how they fit in. And I love that you are working together. And I wish that more mom and dads realized the resource they have in their children and that working with them and bringing them along and showing them that world. Most people when I was growing up with my kids would say, oh, kids, you stay over there, I'm working. I didn't do that. I grabbed my kids, my daughter went, I pulled her out of school probably 30 to 50 days a year to go to events, to meet speakers, to see what I was up to. And it radically had an impact on her life. And then her brother by virtue also got to see all of this. But when you push your kids away and don't listen to them, they feel discarded. And at the end of your life as a parent, one of two things is going to happen. Your kid can go well, mom, congratulations. You made a lot of money. I've bought a big inheritance, but you didn't spend any time with me or mom. I appreciate that you live by the credo. Nobody ever wants to spend one more day at the office on their deathbed. But they do wish they had a vacation with their kids or went to their school play, or just paid attention to them. And that's what I've been doing my whole life. I learned from my father. Never let school get in the way of a good education. And I'm proud of how it turned out. Obviously, yours did as well. But for all of you guys out there, number one, don't discard your older parents. Don't just stick them away in a nursing home. There's so much value and things that you can learn from a generation past and then pay it forward to the generation ahead of you because they're pretty clever, they're smarter than you realize. And all that time you thought they were just playing video games. They were learning skills that really can help them and you, in business and in life.
Mark J Kohler:Forbes incredible message. I want you to know I'm living it, too. I was just doing the math here. Of my four children and two of them with spouses, four out of the six work for me either from just part time to full time in some capacity. And we work together, we play together. I want them stepping on my shoulders, going to the next level. And I think business is family.
Forbes Riley:I love you for saying that. Thank you.
Mark J Kohler:Well, thank you. And we will have you back. And if I can be on Forbes factor, it'd be an honor. And I'll be talking to you soon.
Forbes Riley:Yes. Biggest hug. Thank you, my friend.
Mark J Kohler:Thanks for.