How Forbes Riley Became the “Queen of Pitch”

Forbes Riley, entrepreneur, business coach, and widely recognized “Queen of Pitch,” joins The Female Founder Show to discuss how storytelling, confidence, and communication shape success in entrepreneurship and sales. Drawing from a career spanning television hosting, infomercials, product marketing, and coaching, Riley shares how early personal challenges helped her develop the emotional connection and adaptability that later became the foundation of her pitching philosophy.

Riley reflects on her rise during the infomercial era, where she built a repeatable framework centered on customer pain points, relatable storytelling, and clear messaging. She explains why entrepreneurs often overcomplicate communication and how authenticity, consistency, and visibility drive long-term growth in today’s digital landscape. From lessons learned alongside fitness icon Jack LaLanne to insights on social media, mindset, and overcoming fear, Riley argues that pitching is far more than a sales tactic—it’s a core life skill that influences leadership, relationships, and business success.

Join us as we discuss:

•  How childhood adversity shaped Forbes Riley’s communication style 
•  Building a career in television, comedy, and infomercials 
•  The storytelling framework behind successful product pitches 
•  Why emotional connection matters more than product features 
•  Lessons learned working alongside Jack LaLanne 
•  Using TikTok, Instagram, and live video to grow visibility 
•  Overcoming fear, perfectionism, and hesitation in business 
•  Why pitching is a foundational leadership and life skill

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Transcript

Welcome And Guest Introduction

SPEAKER_00 0:07

This is the Female Founder Show with host and entrepreneur Bridget Fitzpatrick exclusively on ASBN.

SPEAKER_01 0:18

Hello everyone and welcome to the Female Founder Show. Joining me today is someone who truly knows how to command a room and connect with an audience in a way that feels authentic and effortless. For Riley is widely known as the Queen of Hits, and for good reason. She spent decades mastering the art of feeling through storytelling from her early days on infomercials to building a global brand around communication, confidence, and connection. She's worked alongside some of the biggest names, including Jack Elaine, and has taken everything she's learned and turned it into practical strengths that help entrepreneurs and executives show up fancy and actually be heard. She's also the author of Hitch Secrets A to V, where she breaks down what it really takes to communicate in a way that moves people to action. Today we're going to talk about her journey, what she's learned along the way, and how all of us, whether we like it or not, can get more comfortable and more effective when it comes to filling ourselves and our businesses.

SPEAKER_02 1:21

Oh, it's my pleasure. I'm down here in very balmy Florida.

SPEAKER_01 1:24

Very nice. I wish I was there. So I would love to just dive right in. And

Braces And The Gift Of Voice

SPEAKER_01 1:30

if you could take us back to the early days, how did you first get started in the world of pitching and infomercials?

SPEAKER_02 1:38

Oh my gosh. Well, it goes all the way back to being a five-year-old in L in kindergarten, daughter of uh second generation immigrants. And when I went to school, my teeth went in all different directions. I'd sucked my thumb and it was really bad, and my parents did nothing about it. And it's funny, I have this philosophy that life happens for you, not to you, and then you're the sum of the obstacles that you overcome. And so they put me in braces. Now, have you been in braces? Yes, I have too much. Have you had your kids in braces?

SPEAKER_01 2:02

No.

SPEAKER_02 2:04

But but for like a year or two. Well, I'm an eight-year-old little girl, and I get slapped with a full set of railroad tracks for eight years. I get rubber bands and headgear, but they put they screwed something into my mouth, and so for two years of my mouth, I track I dash. And no one can understand a word that I said. And what did what happened because of that, because I had to point and couldn't get what I wanted. I couldn't, no one could understand me, is I developed this unique sense and love of communication. And that has propelled everything that I've ever done. And you know, people used to say to me, Forbes, you're all over the place. I was a stand-up comedian, I hosted the Laugh Factory, I started the X Games for ESPN, I'm an actress in movies, television, soap operas, commercials, infomercials. They're like, and then I realized I just wanted to communicate. It didn't really matter what the platform was. And it's led to the most beautifully fleshed-out career you could imagine. I just wanted to be Julie Roberts and Sandra Wullock. But somehow I walked into an audition like you do, and there was a pen on the table. The time is 1991, way before Wolf of Wall Street, and it said, sell me this pen. Now, when I was growing up, not only did I have this strange thing, but my mom was a bit of a hoarder. She was overweight and she played very, very small. My dad was an inventor and a magician who never talked to anybody but me. And it was an odd, I mean, I knew that we were the fairly odd family on the block. My dad made me a go-kart out of a half a garbage can, a lawnmower engine, paper machine, it looked like the Batmobile. And I would sit in his garage as he tinkered and made the most fantastic things. If I describe to you the medicine cabinet in my house, we had one tiny bathroom and it's 1,300 square foot, but he made a four foot deep lazy Susan. It's hard to understand the world that I grew up in. I literally could crawl over the sink, get this, as a shy kid, and get into my medicine cabinet to read my book with a flashlight. Now, the only person who've ever heard that was that weird was Harry Potter, and look where he ended up. Exactly. And so I had a very perspective on things. And when he said, Sell me this pen, well, by the time I got to high school, my dad had slipped and in a printing press accident ripped off the whole front of his hand. So now my hero is in the hospital for three years, 15 different operations. We're completely broke. And what a unique environment that that does to your psyche. The only thing that I had was my dreams. I used to watch TV, movies, award shows. I dreamed of going to the Academy Awards, hanging out with and kissing all the sexy superstars, and being that girl. And the crazy thing was the braces came off, and then I broke my nose. You're like, okay, really? So I have a crooked, awkward nose, and you and I'll send you some photos because when you see them, you go, Oh wow, you look really odd. And I'm in the hospital, and my mom says to me, We have no money for college. That was my big dream. And she said, Well, there's a beauty pageant, the Miss Teenage America pageant is happening, and they're giving a full scholarship. And she looked in my face and she said, That's not gonna work for us. And Bridget, she didn't mean to hurt me. She meant to protect me. But the crazy thing at that moment, and this was life-changing, I want all my listeners to hear this. My dad's doctor overheard this. And he turned to my mom and said, You know what? I'm gonna fix your daughter's nose just for free. You guys have been through so much. Three days later, I wake up, and that awkward, ugly little girl who always had silver, a broken nose, frizzy hair, and is overweight, somehow the nose got cute, the smile was there, and I said to myself, I'm gonna enter this competition. I need a scholarship. I'm not, I'm not going down with the ship here. I'm gonna save my family. I entered, I had a hand-me-down bridesmaid's dress again. I'd be happy to share these photos, and I won. And all of a sudden, it clicked in my head, and it's clicked over the decades, that if you want something bad enough, you have to dream it, put the work in, believe it, tell other people about it, and then just go for it. And so that's been my life up until that point. And then I walked into this audition and there's a pen on the table that said, Sell me this pen. Uh,

Sell Me This Pen Breakthrough

SPEAKER_02 5:54

don't sell me anything. I don't, I don't have money, I don't, I don't do retail, I've never been in sales. I looked at the camera and I said, funny thing about pens, I was 15 and a half years old, I was smart enough to skip a year of high school, but I was so shy and insecure that my mother, God bless her, would write me long hand notes every day. I'd race to the mailbox, I'd read them, and I realized a pen like this can reach out and touch somebody's heart. I went to leave, and Body by Jake comes out from behind this camera, grabs my face, and says, You're gonna make me a lot of money. He had just bought a cable network, 24-hour network. He was gonna teach health, wellness, and fitness in the early 90s, long before Instagram. And get this, long before TikTok shop. He had a vision that we could sell health and wellness and fitness products, and he literally said, You're it. Now, here's the problem with that. I don't know if you had training to be a newscaster. I had no training to be anything. I was a college graduate of a degree with political science, right? But I understood something. I understood how to get people to want whatever it is I had: the Thime Master, the Abroller, the Matt, the Teeth Whitener, the bread maker. We sold 1,500 products right up until the time that infomercials launched. And the crazy thing was there was no women out there who sold things like this except me. I ended up doing 197 infomercials. I know you have my book, but I listed all 197 of them in there. Jake, by the way, we did 1,500 different products. It didn't matter what you gave me, by the way, I could pitch it. And I don't know why. There was no training. I just knew I could do this. And he sold that network to for $500 million in 1993.

SPEAKER_01 7:31

Oh. Oh, and you had such a hand in that. And you know what I love about your story is you have this ability to go for it without thinking about what could like this is what I'm picking up because I too grew up very similar. I had the braces, I had a I had surgery to fix my mouth, and I was always, you know, I had two beautiful sisters, and I was always kind of like the ugly duckling, as they say. And it it took me a long time because I I mean, I think getting into the beauty patchment was huge, but you just went for it, it seems like you did it without any hesitation. And then going for it being on camera and what you do, that's a really huge message, I think, for a lot of people. And you say, um, you're selling. I I want what you have, I want that ability to go for it. So, what can you say to this audience that that can help them overcome the fear of not going for it, so to speak?

SPEAKER_02 8:25

You know, it's a very funny thing. In a former life, you and I could have been friends because I didn't have any. I looked at everyone else and thought they were prettier and better, and and I just was so withdrawn. But I had the ability to dream. I also think this is a little crazy. If you don't have friends, you talk to yourself a lot. And I did that. My I have board meetings with just me and myself and I, the three of us sit down and we talk about the strategy here, and one of us is always like, you can do anything, you just go for it because nobody cares about you anyway. And it's not like I was out there to brag or I just did whatever it is I did. And every time I got a job, this is funny, I I um ended up getting chosen for the launch of the X Games for ESPN. Now, I don't have any brothers, I don't know anything about sports at all, but I had been doing this stand-up comedy thing at ski resorts. I know this sounds crazy, and I did a half-hour little video with one of their guys, and they called me out of the blue and said, hey, we'd like to offer you this X Games. And I thought it was a joke about it, I don't know anything about sports. And when I showed up at the location, it was a $10 million set with the launch of this whole thing, skysurfing, street losing, BMX bike, half pipe. I don't know anything. I had a book of athletes and a book of sports I'd never heard of, and it was live. And I knew they were gonna fire me. So I didn't care. I literally, I walked in going, they're gonna fire me, they're gonna find out that it's a joke, that I play news reporters on TV, but I've never been one. And we do the first year, and I is fully expected to get fired. They call me for the second year. I show up and I fully expect to get fired. I had this kind of weird thing like, if you do it, it doesn't matter, who cares? But if you don't have friends and family, now my parents just thought I could do anything. They didn't know anything about the world. They were like, we love you, go and keep calling us and tell us how wonderful it is because we have we can't tell you no. But I didn't have anyone to tell me that I couldn't do it. And I watch conversations among people, and the the one who's pulls everyone else down is the one who doesn't believe in anybody, and it's like, oh, you know, you can't, who do you think you are? I don't listen to those things. I read books, I watch movies, and I see epic stories of heroes. And it always seemed to me that the hero, and now heroines, always did it alone, went through horrible stuff, and did it anyway. And that was literally my motto. Forms you're the hero in your story, just go for it and enjoy the ride.

SPEAKER_01 10:48

Absolutely. I love that. And I think you're helping so many people learn every day how to do exactly

The Real Job Of A Pitch

SPEAKER_01 10:54

that. Let's let's talk about sales for a minute here. You are the queen of pitch, and you did this didn't happen overnight, you've won awards. You're you're amazing. So, was there something that you figured out early on in the sales in when you were selling that most people completely miss?

SPEAKER_02 11:12

Well, here's a funny thing. I didn't figure it out, I just did it. It was my daughter who figured out what I was doing. I kind of knew because I mean, remember, I did 1,500 different products. We were a machine here. You would give me whatever it is, and I would be able to tell you. And what happened was I knew in some back of my mind I was always doing the same thing. But I just could hear it like music. Now I'm gonna take full credit for this because Mozart, no one taught him to play the piano, nobody taught me how to pitch. I just could hear it like music, and I would get founders of companies or models who would, you know, demo the products, and they would look at me like, well, what do we do? And I'm like, okay, here's what you're gonna say, here's what you're gonna do, and you can't tell people what they need. You gotta get them to want what you have. And then there's a thing called feature benefit, I call it Febit. And I would just do this, and I would, I was relentless about it. In fact, sometimes annoying because I'd be on a set doing an infomercial, and I would make the writers change things, and they would go, I'm like, I just know, I can just hear that if you do it this way, it will work. Well,

Turning Instinct Into A Formula

SPEAKER_02 12:10

fast forward to COVID, and we're all my world shuts down, and my daughter, who's 17 at the time, had already been online. She'd been building websites and funnels for my friends like Joe Thizman, the sports guy, and Les Brown, and other of my famous friends, and they've been paying her, and I didn't know this. She comes down at 17 in the middle of COVID as a junior in high school and says, Mom, you know, you're not doing anything. What are you doing? And she says, if you don't move your needle forward, if you don't get people to pitch and you just die, there'll be no legacy, and that's not fair. And I said, Really? I said, What do you know about all this? I just want you to get a B in English. And she said, Look, I've been online, she showed me her bank account. She already had six figures in her bank account from the work that she'd been doing, and she said something. She said, Mom, you're the only one who doesn't believe in me. I said, That's not true. I've been I've been your biggest advocate our whole lives here. I just, you're a little girl, seven, I didn't know you could do this. First of all don't underestimate your daughters. She has a twin brother who was not as put together as she was at that time. And she's gone on, she is now the CEO of my company. But she said something really annoying to me. She said, Mom, I know you think you're a genius and you've sold all of this, you've given us a great life, but you do the same thing over and over again. I'm like, no, I don't. She's like, yeah, it's a formula. She said, you start out this way, the way you present that you never talk about the product, you make people want it because you point out the pain points they have, you then list some features, benefits, you do a little bit of relatability, you give a little story, and you close. And I'm like, oh my God, that is what I knew I had been doing. She unlocked this, and we have been teaching this for the last six years in a training called Pitch Like a Pro with the ultimate pitch formula. It is an eight-step formula, and I now have 127,000 students. So for everybody here listening, guys, every Sunday I go live and it's free. I have been doing, I know, I've been doing a two-hour live training every Sunday. It's the most amazing thing. I had 3,000 people show up last Sunday. So you go to Pitch Secrets Training, which I know you got a link for that, and watch me do this. And I'll bring people up on stage. I will flip their pitches and I will give as much value as I can because at this point, I in next week I turn 66 years old, which I'm grateful for. I'm very much in love with my husband, as I know you are. And I can only do this, guys, because of the love I have in my personal life. Otherwise, I think I would be very sad for a period of my time, a period of my life, with uh my first husband, and we had a little boy who we raised who was murdered. Um, we went through a lot. And life was tough. And it was hard to give from an empty cup. But I set out, I met my beautiful man at 57, and he just loves me. He's also my videographer, he runs our TV studio, and he believes in who I am. And I will tell you, who I am right now is designed to help you, wherever you are, because pitching is not just a business skill, it is a life skill. It is how you get your kids to clean your room, your spouse to take out the trash when he doesn't want to, uh, you to get a raise, you to get a story sold. You know, somebody pitched you, literally pitched you, Bridget, that said, I would be a great fit for your show. And then you pitch me and said, please come on the show. Those are pitches, guys. And when you understand how to do this with ease and grace and fun, you start pitching all over the place. Oh, and by the way, good pitches make profit.

SPEAKER_01 15:32

That's right. Well, you must be so proud of your daughter. I'm sure you're proud of your whole family. You have such a great support system. I have a twin sister, by the way, so there's a tie. I know, I know, I love it. Um, and it's really cool that she was able to watch you as she was growing up, and she was really picking up, which goes to show you how important it is to set that example for young women, especially um, and just make sure that they can see all that they can accomplish. And you were such a huge role model to your daughter, and it clearly showed where she came to you and said, Mom, I've seen you do this, this, this, this, now let's do this. So, kudos to you.

How To Back Your Kids

SPEAKER_02 16:08

Well, I will tell you, and this is a this is a very important for all moms, and I now can preach a little bit because I'm at the other end of that, my kids are grown. One of the things that she tells everybody is that nobody believed in her either. Her grandmother said, Why don't you get a job in retail like your cousin and make $16 an hour? And she said, Mom, I'm gonna own that store. I'm not gonna work for anybody. When her guidance counselor said, You need to do a resume to get a job, and I got called into school because my daughter was causing trouble. She said, You know, everybody needs a job. And I said, Well, that's not true. And I did something in front of my daughter that helped empower her. I said to this counselor, I said, How much money do you make a year? And she's like, Excuse me. I said, Look, you're a public servant, I pay your bill at $62,000 a year. And I had shown her then what my daughter's bank account was. I said, My daughter made more than $62,000 last month. When she says she doesn't need a job, I'm gonna stand with her. And now she's got her first keynote and her first TEDx, and she just turned 23. She tells people that her dad said, because she didn't go to college, her twin brother is going to college, and her dad laid into her, if you don't go to college, you're gonna end up on the street, you're gonna be a homeless crack whore. And I'm like, don't say that. Well, he meant it to push her, but that wasn't what she needed. And as a mom, I'm gonna tell you, we can feel our kids differently than maybe dads do. But stand by your kid. They need you to believe that they have a rock that they can spring from. Because if you drag them down, they're gonna, they're gonna be lost.

SPEAKER_01 17:29

Forbes, maybe your next book could be How to Raise Successful Children. Because I think you've done an amazing job.

SPEAKER_02 17:38

You know, Bridget, I was 42 and I had my babies. And I did specific things with them that no one's ever done. And did I pitch them? Yes. Did I create some crazy routines? I did a whole game about, you know, what do you want? And I there was a lot of there was no fighting in our house because I I created Google. So maybe we'll I'll write that book for us. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 17:58

I would love it. I would love it.

Lessons From Jack LaLanne

SPEAKER_01 18:00

So talk to us about you have worked with so many wonderful people, and one of your great relationships was with Jack Lelane. So, which is incredible. Um, what did you learn from him that you that still shows up in what you do every day today?

SPEAKER_02 18:16

I feel like the most kid on the most blessed kid on the block. He was my babies were really little when I first met him, and his one of his big lessons is if man made it, don't eat it. And my kids would say that all the time. I met Jack when he was 88 years old, and if you don't know who he is, Mark Wahlberg is doing a documentary and a feature about him next year, so stay tuned for that. He passed away at 96. He wanted to live to be 100. Bridget, get this. March 15th, a month ago, I got to call his wife of 50 years and wish Elaine a very happy 100th birthday. So, what I learned is that this thing from your neck down is the most important vehicle you will ever drive. Screw the car, you got to take care of the house. So, this is a body that needs to be moved, loved on, and fed well. And he had so many isms. You know, it's not what you do all, it's not what you do some of the time, it's what you do all of the time. And I listened to these and I took them to heart because when I met him and his wife, they had already, they were doing a Jacqueline juicer and they'd hired a very successful actress. Now remember, I used to idolize actresses. It was somebody I really liked, and the show didn't work. And when they called me and said, Hey, we see you pitching, can you come in and tweak this pitch? And I did. And then they said, Wow, could you host this? And I did. And that one show, you can find it on YouTube, sold a billion dollars worth of juicers in eight years in 80 different countries around the world. And I use that as a teaching mechanism because when Jack finally got it, he didn't talk about the juice of the blaze, the color. He said, I'm so doggone excited about this because I know what it can do for you. And I learned some of my greatest pitching secrets by working with him and seeing the results of this. Also, again, having a beautiful love relationship taught me a lot. He has four beautiful kids. One of them sadly was killed in a car crash when she was 21. And I watched how he and his wife rebounded because they realized that their message was way bigger than the messenger. And they never stopped. Jack was in a wheelchair at the end of his life at 96, still juicing, still doing jackknifts in bed, still doing push-ups as much as he could. He never gave up, he never stopped. And the thing that I discovered is there is no word called retirement. Don't do it. Live your dream until the very end and go out thinking there's still more to do.

SPEAKER_01 20:29

That's right. I've heard that so many times, and I've seen it firsthand. A lot of people retire and they sit and do nothing, and it just is so unhealthy for you.

SPEAKER_02 20:37

Yes, it is. And so if man made it, don't eat it. And now I love what RFK is doing. I don't care what your political side is, that man is showing us that we put really bad food chemicals into our plastics, into our kids' candy. I love the message that he is doing right now because for the first time someone is wide awake going, look, we can't poison our bodies. There are so many things that we do in this country they don't do around the world. And the idea that we want to exercise and get fit, I'm such a fan of this messaging.

unknown 21:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:07

So important. So let's go back to sales for a second, if we can. Now,

Why Avatars Can Limit Sales

SPEAKER_01 21:12

how has your sales, the the pitching evolved from your early infomercial days to now?

SPEAKER_02 21:18

You know, that's very funny. Nothing's changed. And in fact, no, and that's what's really funny. So I created a handheld fitness product. Most of my life I pitched other people's products. And I recommend that you do that because the first thing you don't want to do is go, I've got to get my book out there, my course, my this. Learn to pitch something else. And that is why I use this formula. And then I at some point said, you know, I would like something to put my name on. I watched my friends like Tony Little and Beach Bodies and Denise Austin. I didn't have any ego. So I was happy to promote their stuff. And then one day I said, you know, I gotta find something that's just mine. And I ended up creating a little handheld fitness product. Now I know you can't feel it, but this thing spins so fast that it tightens. 66-year-old arms. This vibrates through your entire body, and I think it's the greatest fitness product on the planet. Wow. So I watched how I pitched this because I created it 14 years ago. The pitch has never changed. I have people lift up, and I don't talk about it. I'm simply going to say to you, Bridget, everybody out there, put your arms up like this. Feel the bottom of your arm. Is it a little wiggly jiggly? Come on, summer's coming, right? What if I told you, Bridget, in just five minutes, literally sitting in a Zoom call or at your desk, you give us some energy, you punch out some frustration, and in three weeks everything changes? What's your reaction right now?

SPEAKER_01 22:33

Well, I'm looking, I'm ready. Let's go.

SPEAKER_02 22:36

I want that, and it comes in pink and purple. Right. Now, here's what I didn't say, guys. I didn't pitch the product. I didn't say, guys, this is based on a 2,000-year-old Chinese toy. I'm in the National Fitness Hall of Fame. All those things that everyone likes to blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You set up the problem. And the other thing that I love, and this is a huge myth buster, the MBAs are all mad at me because I don't believe in avatars. This is the big thing. You need that perfect ideal customer. Well, so I had somebody come and do an evaluation of my company, and they said, My perfect customer is her name is Sheila. She's 43, two grown kids, drives a Lexus, not a not a Tesla, has a Labradoodle. And so now I'm looking for where's Sheila. And I said, This is baloney. Watch what I'm gonna do, and this is why I'm so successful. I pitch whoever's in front of me like they're the most important person in the world. And I'm gonna pitch this, not to Sheila, but how about to a seven-year-old little girl, teenagers, and a 70-year-old guy? Forbes, I would just sell a pink spingum to them. Well, watch. To my little seven-year-old girl, I would say, you know what? I watched you do gymnastics. You need some good upper body strength, those parallel bars, but you're too little to go to the gym, right? And she says yes. When you get a yes, you get a credit card, only you don't have a credit card. If you want a pink spingum, go get it from your mom. Bingo, one sale. I've got two teenagers here, a boy and a girl, and they're hunched over texting, but they like to do TikTok dances. I'm like, look, if you wanna dance and get more followers, you gotta start opening up your chest and being a little more upper body straight. It comes in silver for the boy, go pink for the girl, we're good. Then my 70-year-old guy is sitting in the barker lounge going, you can't sell me. Oh, come on, I mean, look at that belly that you got. Your wife is in the kitchen, she's gonna love you, she wants you around. You gotta get a little tighter. And your little grandkids, they don't want to lose you. You can sit right in front of a sports game and do this, and he's like, Oh, all right, I'll take one, this, and I'll give my wife another pink one. Bridget, I just sold five spin gems, and none of them were my avatars.

SPEAKER_01 24:28

That's huge. That's huge. Because there's so many missed opportunities when you're when you're that narrow, that focus is so narrow.

SPEAKER_02 24:36

I want to empower people to understand that they've got a product or a service that's wonderful. And when you've got something, you have what I call a solution to somebody's problem. All I did was find people with different aspects of the problem that this product solves. Now it's a completely different thing if I said, okay, I've got a hard drive here. Well, who's got a problem that needs a hard drive? Yeah, if I said, Bridget, this is the best hard drive in the world because it's got four terabytes, and you're like, Forbes, I don't want a hard drive right now. Well, no, but you really need no, nobody needs it. But if I said to you, hey Bridget, did this ever happen to you on your phone or your computer that maybe you lost it or it crashed and all the family photos you've taken of your entire life are gone? How important is it for you to back up? This is so big it can take your entire history of some odd years and one disc and put it in a safe and save them forever. See the difference?

unknown 25:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:29

Right. That's how you pitch. And pitching is not selling. You don't jam something down somebody's throat. I had a gentleman on my call last night crying. He said he'd been in the sales team for insurance and he was not very good at it. And since he met me, his sky his sales have skyrocketed. And he just said, Forbes, you just don't think like anybody else. And I don't know many women, I don't own, I didn't sell a company to make my 2.5 billion, by the way. That is certainly a way to get that. I sold products that generated that much money because that's what I know how to do.

SPEAKER_01 26:01

Thank you for sharing that. That's amazing. Like you are huge on social media as well, which is so important today in business and any anything that you're doing if you want to really make a name for yourself and get out there. Can you

Showing Up On Social Media

SPEAKER_01 26:14

talk to us about um so many people have a big fear of uh putting themselves out there on social media and you're so good at it. What do you have any advice for people like that?

SPEAKER_02 26:25

This is the greatest thing in the world for you. And right now, you can make money on this instantly between TikTok shop and Facebook Live and Instagram Live. Here's the first thing you need to know. Nobody really cares about you. I don't mean to be rude, but they don't. That's what I discovered by not having a whole lot of friends, nobody told me what I couldn't do. People are so consumed looking at themselves that they don't really care. And in fact, if you're kind of goofy and kind of funny, they enjoy that. We're in an age of authenticity and no perfection. Stop letting the perfect ruin the good. Now, the issue with that though is you do have to come to an understanding of who you are. And I invite all my women to do that. Guys, look in the mirror. The first thing you want to do, because most of you, if when you look in the mirror right now, and I could challenge you, Bridget, what's the first thing you look at? Do you see, oh, I got a new wrinkle, new gray hair, there's a pimple? Let's stop that. Let's knock that off. Start in the morning and just go look at that mirror, say your name, go Forbes. You know what? I love you. You are perfect just the way you're not even perfect. You're just wonderful, and you're enough. Because if you don't tell yourself that you're enough, no one ever will. If you tear yourself down and you, oh, I got a fear of this, a fear of what? You go live, it sucks, you trip over it, you do stutter, the house falls down, and the world didn't change. There's nothing that you can do aside from, I would stay away from politics because every time you say something political, 50% of people don't like you anymore. That's the only thing I would recommend. But people are curious about who you are and what you're doing, and you would literally have to anoint yourself. You know, Bridget, it's a very funny thing. I love film, and I'm a big film buff. And in the old 40s and 50s, they took young people like Norma Jean Baker or Frances Gum, who became Marilyn Monroe and Judy Garland, and they turned them into these people. They made them something else. And poor Marilyn was dead by 36, and Judy also destroyed herself. Here's the cool thing now. We can't wait because there's nobody coming to save us. There's no studio gonna find you and make you a star. You get to do it on your own, which is a blessing and a curse because it takes some work, some organization. I highly recommend a couple things. Get educated, understand what the platforms are, understand what you love to do and how you can make money, do your research. My favorite little phrase is research, strategy, and leverage. And we all have a little gift. Find that niche and dig in and have some, I mean nothing to it. If you're not having fun with it, then don't do it. But I am loving social media because it allows me to be me. It does, however, take work, but something magical just happened. I believe if you put enough work in, it's like a it's like a ball. It starts to roll, and then at some point it rolls downhill and it starts to pick up speed and go faster and faster. But you gotta get it over. And sometimes the kill is uphill a little to get it over, but it eventually goes down. So the gentleman from School of Hard Knocks, a guy named James, he finds millionaires and billionaires and accosts them on the street and interviews them. Well, I'd reached out to him just to say, hey, congratulations, I love what you do. And he says, I'd like to interview you. And I'm like, Really? Okay. He said, Yeah, I didn't know who you were, but my parents love you. I'm like, I'll take that. I saw the interview. I know. So he does this, he's like, I'll meet you at this hotel. He literally pulls up, like, hey, how'd you get rich? And I have no idea what he's gonna say. On TikTok, that has now got 20.5 million, that's mean 20,500,000 views, 9,000 comments. And on Instagram, it's about 12 million. I've never had videos that have done that before. And I'll tell you something, guys. My ball was going like this, kind of moving a little bit, and all of a sudden it went phew, and all of a sudden everybody has recognized me, wants to know, and meet me. And congratulations. I am an overnight 60-year-old, 66-year-old success.

SPEAKER_01 30:12

Congratulations.

SPEAKER_02 30:14

Well, but here's my advice to you let's speed up time. That is one reason I teach, and I'm so busy right now teaching and coaching. Because Bridget, I have secrets. It's why I named the book Kitch Seekers. I have things that nobody is one willing to tell you. See, I have nothing to lose. I'm not your competition. When I was 40 years old, I wouldn't, I would never put this book out. In fact, I had a contract for $100,000 to host a show that I'd gotten on my own. I brought it to my agent. He said, Oh, that's great. Call me two days later, Bridget. True story. He said, They love you. I said, Of course they do. It's my contract. He said, Yeah, but they really want somebody younger. I was 42 and less expensive than you. And I found her for them. And I'm like, You did what? He said, No, no, it's okay. They want you to teach her all that you do. And being the crazy little girl I am and very protective of the only little thing I had, I said, you know what? I will happily teach them when hell freezes over. So welcome to my world. Hell is hell is frozen. There's no more. We're good. And I finally, it took me five years to say, you know what? I everyone deserves to know this. Everyone deserves to have a joyful life where people say yes to you all the time. Here's a little one more little game I play, really quick. I'm gonna, I have a little magic trick. My dad

Fear, Purpose, And Leaving A Legacy

SPEAKER_02 31:31

was a magician. I love doing these. If I said to you, would you like to see something cool? What do you say? Of course, of course. Yes. How did I know you'd say yes? There's nothing on the other side. So one of my big secrets is don't ask a question you don't know the answer to.

SPEAKER_01 31:45

That's great. There's so many great tips in this book as well. Um my favorites are A and M, because it's all about attitude and mindset. But I really loved F as well. Forbes, the Forbes one. But you talked about fear in that. And um, you mentioned that fear is really like if you just look at it as like, okay, pay attention, this is something that's really important. And that that resonated with me a lot. So um, and that's there's just so much more of that in here. But talk to us about what you really want the readers to get from your book.

SPEAKER_02 32:19

Oh my gosh, I want them to do exactly what you did. Every chapter is about three or four pages long. There's Easter eggs everywhere where you can scan and get videos and free material. Wait, do you get? I don't know if you read P, my permission card. Oh my gosh, to give yourself permission to feel the fear and do it anyway. And I love that you're such a big-hearted woman that you picked up on attitude and mindset. Everyone's gonna have a different letter. And what I love about this is that I would love you to dig in and go for it. You mentioned F. So F stands for Forbes It. Now, here's the funny thing. You guys, I am introverted, I'm a little shy and goofy, and I had to get over a lot of the fear of whatever that was to just move forward. My my my way of getting over fear is to just do it anyway. I feel it. You know, Bridget, when you turn on the camera, do you feel little your little butterflies?

SPEAKER_01 33:05

We all go every time. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:07

Right. And that's to understand that there's nobody out there doing it better than you. I understand Beyonce throws up before a performance, but you're never gonna see her nervous on stage. So to create this world for yourself, sort of forbs it, means well, what happened? It's funny, because it means to manifest something, especially when no one else thinks it's possible. What have you forbes lately? And when you start to realize all the things that you have created, how you got through school, how you maintain your own personal body, maybe how you gave birth to kids, whatever it is that you people didn't think I could be anything in high school. I was like the least likely to do anything. And I recently went to a reunion and I'm the one on television with the books, and it was like, wow. So by the way, if you peaked in high school, you peak too soon.

SPEAKER_01 33:48

I agree with that. I was just talking about that with my husband. We were looking up people that peaked in high school, and well, they peaked early.

SPEAKER_02 33:56

Well, but you know what? Here's the thing you can also re-peak. Yeah, and I just made that up. You can repeak. Well, because I've done that. It's about it's about perseverance and people sell and resilience. Yeah. Bad things are gonna happen to you. People are gonna die that you love. You're gonna all kind of things are gonna happen to you, and the universe does test us. Yeah, you know, they often say God doesn't give you anything you can't handle. Well, you know, not all at once, God. Thank you very much. Be nice. And the more you give, the more you get. I would not stop by saying, I don't know what my purpose is. What's my purpose? Here's the thing: your purpose reveals itself through your actions, through your life. Be of service to other people and do things outside of you. Every time I've ever done that, I become a better person. And the better that you are, the more that you build, the more people like Bridget say, Hey, come on my show. And I will also tell you something else. We're in an age now between AI and computers and internet where anyone can tell their story. You know, I've written a lot of books before this. They were all compilation books or partnerships. This is the very first one with just my name on it. And it's gotten a lot of attention for that. I'm gonna urge you, I've coached a lot of people to write down your story. Have the courage, because something in your life is worth listening to, something you overcame that you thought was your obstacle, that you thought it was your door closing, that you thought it was your end, and you kept on going. And that's the stories that we all want to hear from you. Please don't die with all of that inside of you. That is your legacy. Telling your story, whether you make a video about it and you maybe do a series on YouTube, even if just it's for your family. It's the most interesting idea. I've got a friend of mine who just started putting, get this, QR codes on tombstones. You know what that's about? That means that you can see that, you can see the tombstone, okay, but now you QR code and you can see pictures of that person's life, and you can meet veterans and war heroes and and people who did beautiful things and doctors, and you just all that's their life, and now it becomes three-dimensional. So your life is absolutely a gift. Please, if you're hurting on any level, my advice to you there is to stop looking backwards. Yesterday it happened, there's nothing you can do about it. And if you want to take your hand and literally push it all the way back to the past, not like this, this isn't this is not your past. Your past is way back there, and your future is way over there. And this, if you do it right, has yet to be written. Stop the patterns, the procrastination, all the things that you used to do. A lot of that is in this book from mindset to goals to understanding open doors. And the last letter, kind of funny, and bridge you're the first, one of the first people ever to hold the book in your hands, is Zoom. You know, A to Z. Before Zoom came out when COVID hit, it would have to have been A to Zebra, and that made no sense. So Zoom is a way for us to connect to people all around the world, to talk to your family at dinner. I can talk to my, I have dinner with my son, but he's up in Boston, I'm down here in Tampa. And it's the coolest connecting tool that I've ever imagined so that you don't feel isolated and you can connect to the world. And then if you don't know where to go, there's trainings and motivation. Connect to those. Turn on that why for YouTube and get out there and go, I want to learn a new skill. I want to jump in and enjoy your life. Because as I said on the School of Hard Knocks, I don't know if we get to do this a second time, but if you live your life right once, once is enough.

SPEAKER_01 37:26

Great advice all around. I love that you're giving back to something that has been giving to you all these years, and we all are benefiting from it and appreciate it so much. Borbes Riley, I wish I could talk to you every day because you're so inspiring and you make me want to just go out there and tell my story.

SPEAKER_02 37:43

Well, I'm gonna say yes to that because I would love to read your story. You're also a wonderful interviewer because you listened, and thank you. That that's

Final Takeaways And Invitation

SPEAKER_02 37:52

a very, very important skill that so many of us are not good at. You did not come with much of an agenda, but you're like, I'm gonna listen and jump in, and I I love jumping rope with you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 38:01

Yes, thank you so much. I'd love to have you back on again sometime soon.

SPEAKER_00 38:05

Bye, you guys. This is the Female Founder Show with host and entrepreneur, Bridget Fitzpatrick, exclusively on ASBN. If you're a female founder and would like to help other female founders with your inspiring story, we would love to hear from you.