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    Virdition: Celebrity Success Secrets to Fast Track YOUR Path to Stardom
    Virdition: Celebrity Success Secrets to Fast Track YOUR Path to Stardom
    Virdition: Celebrity Success Secrets to Fast Track YOUR Path to Stardom
    Ebook221 pages1 hour

    Virdition: Celebrity Success Secrets to Fast Track YOUR Path to Stardom

    By Forbes Riley and Will Quinones

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    About this ebook

    In this digital age, it is more exciting than ever to seek a career in the entertainment industry—from stuntmen and musicians to actresses, dancers, and even make-up artists. With the advent of social media, YouTube, Facebook, and more, someone with talent in any medium can (and needs to) create their own brand, steer their career, and master the art of “virtually auditioning” at all times with every post. This is a far cry from the “old days” of paper headshot and cattle calls. Forbes Riley, an overnight success 20+ years in the making, shares her insights, obstacles, and successes as she pursued her career as an actress, dancer, and TV host. For her, meeting Will Quinones and hearing his dream of building his audition platform, Virdition, to help struggling artists of all levels was a dream come true. Virdition takes auditioning to a whole new level and helps aspiring entertainers truly understand the possibilities from contest shows like The Voice and American Idol to feature film casting.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMorgan James Publishing
    Release dateJul 3, 2018
    ISBN9781683508380
    Virdition: Celebrity Success Secrets to Fast Track YOUR Path to Stardom
    Author

    Forbes Riley

    Forbes Riley is an award-winning TV host, health and fitness expert, and is credited with selling more than $2.5 billion dollars worth of products via infomercials and home shopping. Forbes started out as an actress, having appeared in more than one dozen TV series from Fox’s 24 and Picket Fences to the Practice and Boy Meets World. She’s worked on Broadway, acted in movies, and hosted TV series on Animal Planet, Discovery, and even ESPN’s X-Games. With an eclectic, exciting, and highly profitable career, Forbes now hosts her own talk show and speaks on stages globally, inspiring and motivating others to build and follow their dreams. Although originally from Long Island, she maintains homes in Los Angeles and St. Petersburg.  

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      Book preview

      Virdition - Forbes Riley

      Introduction

      What is Virdition? To virdition is to virtually showcase talent, audition, and brand an artist online in all mediums.

      So why do we care? Because the magic is in the matchmaking.

      How often have you turned on the television and seen a world-class talent come from someone virtually unknown? The premier example is the English recluse Susan Boyd. When she debuted on Britain’s Got Talent, her vocal skills changed forever people’s expectations about talent shows.

      But she was not unique. Soon we heard ten-year-old Jackie Evancho, an opera sensation. Then we met Terry Wayne Fator, ventriloquist, impressionist, comedian, and singer. Jennifer Hudson, a singer, actress, and spokesperson, was discovered and rose to fame in 2004 as a finalist on the third season of American Idol, and went on to win an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award.

      Talented performers need to be discovered somewhere, somehow. Cindy Crawford talks about gaining attention on the streets of Paris. Hollywood legend claims that Lana Turner was noticed sitting on a bar stool in Schwab’s drugstore, and Oscar winner Charlize Theron met her manager standing in a check-cashing line.

      But these stories aren’t typical.

      To get cast in a television show, a movie, a talent competition, a stage production, or a reality or game show, you have to go through an audition process.

      But—news flash! Much like the postal service, this process has remained much the same for more than a century. Think back to Shakespeare and his plays in England. Even then the actors stood on a stage and auditioned. For centuries little changed, until now.

      This book uncovers the overnight (twenty years in the making) success of Forbes Riley. We’ll walk you through the process so that perhaps like a Susan Boyd or Jennifer Hudson you can truly become an overnight success.

      These are some recognizable rock stars of success.

      Clay Aiken: Singer, songwriter, television personality, actor, author

      Kelly Clarkson: Singer, songwriter

      Jennifer Hudson: Singer, actress, spokesperson

      Steve Jobs and Bill Gates: Computer development

      Michelle Pham: YouTube

      President Trump: Twitter

      Carrie Underwood: Singer, songwriter, actress

      Mark Zuckerberg: Facebook

      All of these people emerged from obscurity into the limelight of success.

      Besides actors, the entertainment industry also includes makeup artists, reality stars, chefs, producers, directors and other members of the filmmaking team. Join this revolution to jump on the entertainment bandwagon and learn how to do each skill and master every media platform.

      By understanding the medium and by learning to create your own unique selling proposition—your brand—you will learn how to set yourself apart from a pack of wannabees. This book provides the blueprint that will catapult you to your highest success and is perfect for actors, writers, producers, singers, dancers, makeup artists, variety performers, and all of their parents.

      For anyone anywhere who has ever had stars in his or her eyes, this book is for you.

      Section One

      Forbes Riley

      One

      My Overnight Success Story

      Alook at my success story today reads like a Hollywood script, but the journey wasn’t the one I had originally planned. My life illustrates the familiar saying, If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans. My motto is You are the sum of the obstacles you overcome, so I’m sharing my story to motivate you to go for your dreams—no matter what.

      From a young age, I was an ugly little kid with a badly broken nose due to a baseball bat mishap (don’t ask), buckteeth, frizzy hair, and thanks to fast food, a chunky body. In my dreams, however, I was a beautiful actress who traveled the world, tap danced with Gene Kelly, helped pilot the Millennium Falcon with Han Solo, and was a stylish secret agent alongside James Bond. Dorky, huh?

      They say success is the best revenge. So, I thank all the kids in school who bullied me and called me dorky for motivating me to persevere, stick to it, and win.

      Today I’m credited with over 2.5 billion dollars of global product sales from infomercials and home shopping. I’ve worked on Broadway, soap operas, television series, a dozen feature films, more than 150 infomercials, and hosted two national talk shows.

      I introduced the concept of selling fitness on television through a successful five-year association with Body by Jake on a cable network called FitTV. In addition, during 1995, along with Stuart Scott I helped launch ESPN’s The X Games, a series which I co-hosted on networks from Animal Planet, Discovery, and TLC to ABC Family.

      Recognition of my dedication to health and fitness culminated with my 2010 induction into the National Fitness Hall of Fame. I went on to create a multimillion-dollar fitness empire featuring my flagship product SpinGym and my revolutionary non-diet system, the e.a.t journal.

      I’m a motivational speaker who gets to travel the globe and is blessed to hang out with A-list celebrities. Throughout my career I’ve enjoyed many opportunities to inspire millions. In 2014 I built my own television production studio in St. Petersburg, Florida, where with my amazing team we host a national talk show called Forbes Living and shoot movies—my own playground. As the queen of multitasking, I’m also the proud mother of teenage boy/girl twins, but that’s only the start.

      So while I didn’t achieve the acting success of my peers Julia Roberts, Sandra Bullock, and Jodie Foster, it turns out we all starred in projects that have individually grossed hundreds of millions of dollars. (Given my luck and perseverance, there’s an Oscar in my future).

      Actors are told the key to being successful is becoming someone else; it turns out that my greatest gift, like Oprah Winfrey, is simply being myself.

      My mom called her wise sayings words to live by. Will and I call these valuable nuggets verdits—modern actionable principles.

      Verdit: When you’re true to yourself, you have no competition. You win, no matter what.

      Two

      In the Beginning

      A ll my success sprouted from profound rejection and loneliness. Auditioning was always painful. Each year my middle school and high school did six to seven plays and musicals. I faithfully tried out for each one, but time after time was relegated to the chorus, to play a townsperson, or to some other non-speaking part. The more I auditioned, the more I got rejected, and my ego was crushed.

      I pretended in my heart that I was the pretty girl with the lead role and while I spent much of my time daydreaming, my reality was anything but a fantasy. I didn’t have a glowing start, but it’s funny how life turns out. Over the years I learned valuable lessons from my high school reunions.

      Verdit: Don’t peak in high school—you’ll have nowhere to go from there.

      My family faced real and painful challenges while I was growing up. When I was just fourteen, my dad, an engineer who built printing presses, slipped, and got his left hand caught in the plates. It ripped off the front side of his palm and fingers. He suffered in and out of hospitals for three years and endured fifteen operations. This left my mom and baby sister frightened, emotionally devastated, and our family financially broke.

      I handled our family crisis a different way. I dreamed of being anyone but me, escaping into sitcoms and movies where I found joy, excitement, and hope. To this day I’m a trivia expert on The Brady Bunch, The Partridge Family, Charlie’s Angels, I Dream of Jeannie, Gilligan’s Island, F Troup, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., and other shows of the time.

      As you might imagine, I didn’t have much of a social life.

      When I graduated from high school a year early, Mom broke the news that even though I was an A+ student we had no money for college. She added, But there’s money available through the Miss Teenage America pageant.

      A pageant? I winced.

      And then she said, Don’t worry. It’s not a beauty pageant.

      That didn’t make me feel any better. I rolled my eyes, or at least I did in my head. I knew what I looked like.

      Around that same time, one day when we were at the hospital, my father’s doctor who felt sorry for me and for my family, offered to fix my nose. He sweetly told my mother, She’ll be able to breathe much better and … she might look more normal.

      When the bandages were removed, the moment was like a scene in a movie. Overnight I had this cute little nose—a ski slope. Gone was Captain Hook. Next, after eight years of silver railroad tracks, my braces came off and I had this stunning, Farrah Fawcett smile. For no apparent reason I would grin from ear to ear and say to random people I met, Hi. Look at my teeth. Let me show you my teeth! Then I discovered the blow dryer and flat iron and tamed my frizzy hair. Suddenly, the ugly duckling was transformed into a teenage swan.

      Talk about life imitating art.

      Verdit: Some say beauty is only skin deep. They’re not ugly. It’s important if you’re going to be in front of the public to uncover and embrace your own inner and outer beauty. So whether you are a 4’10" Danny DeVito or a size 22 Melissa McCarthy, don’t let anyone superimpose their standard of beauty on you.

      Before my dad took me to the initial pageant audition, my mom reminded me, It’s not a beauty pageant. It’s a written test plus talent and personality. And you have those. So at sixteen, I left with my dad for the cattle call. When I entered the room filled with beautiful girls, I felt like crawling out of my skin.

      One instinctive concept became my motto back then and I preach it today. If you can dream it, and believe it, you can achieve it. At the audition they announced that one lucky girl in the room would get to be on NBC with Bob Hope. I had a vision it could be me. And then I realized I wanted to win so bad and make my Dad proud. As I stood by him with his hand still bandaged, I knew it would be the greatest gift I could ever give back to him.

      The judging consisted of three parts. First, we took a hundred-question pop culture written test; it turns out all the time I spent watching television paid off. Then we presented our talent and I tap danced in a black and white outfit. And when I finally got the chance to talk during the interview, I had a lot to say.

      Soon after that, I stood in Roosevelt Field Mall with my family and my best friend, Janet, the only friend who knew I had competed, and they announced my name. I’d won Miss Teenage New York in a borrowed, powder blue, used bridesmaid dress with a giant rhinestone buckle. Secondhand or not, I felt like a princess. Next, the pageant whisked my mom and me to Tulsa, Oklahoma, for the National Miss Teenage America Pageant. Before long, I was on television with Bob Hope. Amazingly crazy! I thought this was my start in show business. After all, Lucille Ball had gotten her start with Bob Hope and this was mine … or so I

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