Georgetta Foreman Embodies the Power of Pursuing Your Dreams
Today’s guest is the lovely and inspiring Georgetta Foreman. She’s a supervising producer for court TV; a Jefferson, Texas native; and the daughter of legendary heavyweight world champion of boxing, George Foreman.
In our engaging and motivating talk, we learn what it’s like to grow up fishing and crabbing on the ranch with The Champ. We talk about her job at HBO Sports, her feelings about working alongside her dad, the pivots she made while she was away from law school, and how this mother of two boldly moved her family across the country to pursue her dreams.
This episode is loaded with words of wisdom and truth as we get to the heart of why everybody loves a comeback, how tough times build tough people, and why it’s most rewarding to feel the fear, but do it anyway.
Thanks for tuning in to today’s episode, and please follow along below.
In this Episode
[01:15] Jason and Georgetta chat on the topic of their families, and Jason mentions that they both have children graduating. Both share their children’s plans for the future.
[03:57] Georgetta recalls her 8-year-old aspirations, which included hosting the Today show. She tells us about her 10 siblings, and the reason her dad, George Foreman, named all her brothers George.
[06:41] Jason asks Georgetta when she realized her dad was the iconic boxer who went toe-to-toe with the likes of Muhammad Ali. Georgetta recalls her dad being a regular father-figure and how the family helped him make his remarkable comeback.
[12:28] Georgetta remembers how she became interested in attending Pepperdine in Malibu, working at HBO Sports in New York, becoming a schoolteacher for a year, then producing a show called Texas Justice in Houston, and eventually landing back in LA.
[16:38] Jason is interested to know how the George Foreman Grill was developed. Georgetta gives us the scoop on why her mother, Mary Foreman, influenced her dad to partner with the grill manufacturers, and how her father successfully helped promote it.
[18:56] Georgetta begins interviewing Jason. She asks how he ended up in LA, how he started his podcast, and how he knew he wanted to be an entrepreneur. Jason adds that he wants his kids to develop the same drive he has.
[24:40] Georgetta describes her time in Georgia working on Let’s Make a Deal and the path that led her to produce court shows like Texas Justice, Judge Alex, and Divorce Court. Jason is curious if she ever aspired to be a lawyer.
[30:55] Jason decides to join the Georgetta Foreman Get Fit Get Fine Facebook Group. Georgetta tells the story of how Hurricane Harvey, Craigslist, a TEDx Talk, Will Smith’s “Big Willie Challenge,” and her brother’s guidance inspired its formation.
[37:40] Jason verifies the accuracy of the story of George Foreman’s grandfather declaring baby George Foreman would be heavyweight champion one day. Georgetta details the facts and shared with us what motivates her to be a champion at life.
[39:46] Jason and Georgetta share some personal stories during our signature segment of “Hennessey Heart-to-Heart.” Georgetta’s questions include what makes her smile, who her role model was when she was a kid, and what she’s most proud of in her life.
[53:10] Georgetta reminds us of her Instagram, Facebook, and Georgetta Foreman Get Fit Get Fine. She also forgets that she doesn’t have a TikTok. Jason and Georgetta proceed to end their delightful conversation with a couple of thank yous.
Transcript
Jason Hennessey: Georgetta Foreman. Thank you so much for coming down here to Hennessey Studios.
Georgetta Foreman: Thank you so much for having me. I’m looking forward to this.
I appreciate it. So, first of all, do you live in LA or did you travel to be here?
No, I live in LA.
You do? Okay.
I’m a Texas native. All the Foremans, that’s where we come from. I went to school here at Pepperdine in Malibu. Once you go Malibu, it’s hard to go back. [laughs]
I can’t think that there’s another school that has a nicer view than that one.
Hard to beat.
It is so hard to beat. You have to have good grades to get into a school like that.
Yeah, you do.
You did good in school?
I did good.
You did good in school. Got it.
Speaking of school, I think we have something in common because I have two boys that just graduated high school.
What? Congratulations.
Thank you. Don’t you have somebody that’s graduating here?
I do. This weekend the eldest is graduating from Culver Academies in Indiana. We’re flying out to the cornfields.
The plan is now she’ll be at Howard this fall. We’re looking forward to it.
Very cool.
Do your sons have plans yet?
My one son is going to just do community college. Then maybe transfer to a different school later.
Then my other son, I think, is going to go down the entrepreneurial path.
I love both options. Good for them.
Right? As long as we, as parents, can support them.
They don’t have all the answers. They just got to figure it out the hard way like we did.
Yep. Remember, even when I was saying, it’s like, plan now because when school starts, you just never know. I’m here to support.
You have two daughters?
I have two daughters. One is 19, and the other one is 8 and she runs the place. She’s the real leader. We follow.
I pretend like I’m not following her, but she’s the master. [laughs]
Similar. I’ve got a 19-year-old boy, and then the 17-year-old boy, and then my wife and I started all over. We have a 5-year-old daughter.
We have a lot in common here. I get this.
Yes, we do! What is your 8-year-old daughter? What’s her name?
Eight-year-old is Kendall. The 19-year-old is Jessica.
Jessica. What’s your 8-year-old into?
She’s a dancer. She probably, if I’d let her, she’d be professional at TikTok, like all the kids now. She loves gymnastics. She’s a strong kid.
With COVID and all, we really haven’t got to immerse her into it the way we want to, but I’m looking forward to that because she loves it.
She’s a people person. She’s ”all of that,” as they say.
That’s awesome.
Going back to when you were 8 years old, what was that like?
When I was eight years old- Funny you should ask because it makes you think. I was into singing. You couldn’t have told me I wasn’t going to grow up to be Diana Ross.
Is that right?
Yeah. I think somewhere in my brain, I was like you probably should aim differently.
Then I went into broadcasting. I just knew that I’d grow up, and I’d be on the Today show, hosting. That didn’t happen either, but here we are.
Good life.
It’s not too late.
It’s not too late.
It’s not too late. I think you’ve got a pretty famous dad that did things later in life, right?
Yeah. That’s true.
View this post on Instagram
You grew up with a large family?
Large family. Let’s see. My father, George Foreman, he had 10 children in all.
Ten children.
That’s a lot of people. A lot of personalities.
I’ve learned to love people and then find my space. I was that girl like, “Let me get my Fisher-Price radio and let me go in the corner.”
Great childhood. No complaints here.
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The story is, your dad named all of his boys, George. Then, Georgetta, but not all the other girls are Georgetta, right?
You know that is so strange because I hear different stories.
Clearly, he named all these boys George because- He always says that it’s because, “Oh, you get yourself hit in the head a couple times, you’re not going to remember.” But it was also a deeper thing.
He learned later in life who his biological father was, so he wanted to make sure no matter what, that his kids would always know that you’re connected to someone else.
When it came to Georgetta, I’ve heard many stories. My mother said, “I named her.” No, my mother said the doctor named me. My dad said, “Well, she must have called me the doctor.”
I’ll never get the real story, but I’m here.
Then my sister was Freeda George Foreman.
Did everybody have nicknames?
Yeah. All the boys. There was George Junior, which we called “Little George.” There was “Monk.” There’s “Big Will,” “Red,” and “Joe.”
[both laugh]
Where is everybody living? Are they all over?
Mostly. Now my brother Monk, George III, is out here in Calabasas. He just opened a gym called Craft Boxing. He’s always up for some fun, so it’s nice to have someone on this side of the world with me. One of the Foremans.
Then, also, I have a sister in Minneapolis, Minnesota; and then I have- Everyone else is in Texas. They’re not leaving.
They’re all in Texas.
Texas. They’re every bit of Texas.
Got it. You are the middle child?
I guess you would say that. I’m number 4 out of 10.
When was the moment that you realized that your dad was a big deal?
That’s how I learned how to read. I know that sounds silly. I grew up in a really small town called Jefferson, Texas.
My dad was in Houston, but my mom grew up in Jefferson, Texas, which was near my dad’s ranch. They both remarried. Great life, no complaints there.
In this small town, everyone would walk up to me and be like, “Hey, so you know, George Foreman’s your dad.” For me, I thought that meant that I was supposed to know kids’ parents.
I’d be like, “Oh, so Mary’s your mom.” I’d learn-
Then people would just always talk to me. After a while I started thinking- This is a very young age. I started thinking, “Who is my dad?” because my dad didn’t talk about it. He was just a loving guy, bringing in the watermelon and coming home and playing.
My mom and my grandmother would have newspaper articles. Young age, I would start reading. That’s how I started learning how to read because I would be like, “Well, who is he?”
I guess, as a kid, it would be logical just to go ask your parents. “Who are you? Why are they talking about you?” But that’s how I learned to read.
He’s not just a boxer. He’s a world champ.
First of all, in order to become a world champ, you have to be an icon and at the top level of what you do because there’s a lot of kids that have parents that are boxers, but he stepped foot and beat Joe Frazier. He got in the ring with Muhammad Ali.
I can’t even downplay that. I can’t say no. There’s nothing to it, but that’s legendary.
Did you and your brothers and sisters spend time at the gym? Did you watch him?
The first part of the childhood, maybe up until about 9 or so, dad was just a dad. Then there was a time where- I always tell the story of how he sat us all down at the kitchen table, the Foreman kids. He tells us he’s going back into the ring to boxing.
My brain is like, “I don’t even know what that means.” Though I’ve read these things, having this conversation that’s just over our heads.
He’s like, “I’m going to be the heavyweight champion of the world. I’m never going to embarrass any of you. I’m going to remain a faithful husband. If you do something and you do something, we’re all in this together. We all go down.”
He’s given us all this responsibility, and I don’t know what to think.
Later, we find out that dad’s really in the ring, so we’re looking at the ring. We’re helping him because boxing, as my dad says, it’s a lonely sport.
But when you have 10 kids or least that many- Some kids at that point because more came after that. When you have these kids, we’re in the gym. We’re helping him count the rounds. My sister Natalie is helping him run on the track.
We’ve become part of his training camp in some way.
What a great thing to put into your kids’ heads, as far as just the mindset. That positive, can-do attitude, right?
He didn’t say “I’m just going to go back and fight. I’m going to become the world champ again.”
Nope. He had a big goal.
Then along the way, as you know the story, he gets big, right? At first, he’s a joke. He’s big. He’s fat. They’re saying, “Oh he’s a joke to the sport.”
Well, then he’s winning. Next thing you know, dad’s on McDonald’s holding up the Big Mac. He has on Nikes. He has all these big endorsements, and he’s cashing in and that could have been it. Then the grill was coming.
He said he was going to be the champion. He didn’t stop at any type of amount. There was no money that could have been paid until he did what he set out to do.
That is amazing. Because who does that? At some point you go, “Oh you know, this is good. I don’t have to do that.”
How strong is the mind? The mind is so powerful, and it tells the body what we’re going to do, and he did it.
Because I got to imagine growing up- Because he was big in the ‘70s, and I think you probably were just born.
I was born in ’77. That’s when his last fight was.
You probably grew up with your dad watching, probably, Mike Tyson fights.
Absolutely not. That is not what my father did.
At that point, in 1977, he had his religious experience. My childhood was in a house where there was no TV. We went to the movies, but we were playing games.
My father was extremely engaged. Talking to us and things of that. “Let’s go fishing. Let’s go crabbing.”
Never. We didn’t even watch TV at home. It was not a thing.
Sometimes I’d be like, “Oh dad, I saw you on the show at my mom’s house.” He wouldn’t even comment on it.
My early childhood was not that.
I can remember when the television rolled into the living room. That was after he told us he was going to be the heavyweight boxing champion of the world because then he had to watch film on these guys.
But before that, there was no TV. There was never him gloating about his past. I never heard that. No. That’s why I had to read about it.
Back in the day, there’s no YouTube or anything. You can’t go back and watch a lot of his old fights.
I saw him on Sanford and Son. That’s my reference. “You were on Sanford and Son.” He’d be like, “Eh.”
As an 8-year-old, what were you into?
I was just an 8-year-old, okay. Like I said, trying to be Diana Ross. [laughs]
Going to be the singer. Got it.
But not really. Just being a kid.
My dad had a ranch. I grew up on 5 acres. Being outside, riding my bike, that was what I was into. School was important to me. Being into sports. I was such a clown. I was actually the school mascot. I was the drum major.
I’ve done it all because I was just that person that I was going to try it all.
What was mom like, or is mom still around?
Dad married my step-mom, who is Mary Foreman. We call her “Joan” with all love. She’s great.
They’re back in Texas too?
They’re all in Texas and living their best Texas lives.
That’s awesome.
So you graduated high school, and you said, “I’m going to Cali.” Is that right?
Well, that’s what I ended up doing. Initially, I wanted to go to the East Coast. I really did, but back then, the East Coast just wasn’t as clean as it is now. You know what I mean? It was just a little like- I don’t know. I was a little intimidated by the city.
Even my mom was like, “I’m not dropping you off in New York City or any of those cities.”
Then I came out to visit California, and when I saw Pepperdine, they had a television station. Great views. I was like, “Sign me up.”
As a matter of fact, this week they had a camp.
My dad- The reason why we had come out to Pepperdine is because the chancellor at the school had been to my dad’s fight. He invited them to speak at this seminar that they have every summer.
My dad’s done that for many years. That was his first time. I was just tagging along, like okay. When I got to that school, I was like, “This is it. This is where I’m going.”
I’m proud to say, this summer, I am actually speaking at that same camp.
That’s amazing.
Now, you mentioned that there’s a TV program. Did you know what you were wanting to do after high school? You wanted to get into TV?
Yeah. I always wanted to be in TV.
You did?
Yeah. I think it really revolved around that’s what I did every morning when I was growing up.
You had to watch TV to know what the weather was. It was like, every morning the TV was on, and I watched the Today show, and I watched the weather person.
“Well, that’s what I’m going to do.”
That’s what you’re going to do. You said Good Morning America. That’s what you wanted to do. You want to be in front of the TV?
That’s what I wanted to do.
And then as college happened, back then it wasn’t like now. You can be on Instagram, you can have your own show, you could do whatever you want to.
I didn’t feel like that. I’d send my tapes out to different places. That never happened, but I was also good at producing, I didn’t know what that was called before that, but you know in school you start doing things.
And so, I just kept getting producer gigs and I kept saying, “Nope, that’s not what I want to do,” and then here we are doing it.
And so, do you remember your first gig out of college, when you’re like, “Wow, this is cool. I’m doing what I love.”
Oh, I got really spoiled because my first real out-of-college gig, which was little pay, but I got to work at HBO Sports. And so, I got to go to all the boxing matches and all of that.
Oh my gosh, when I think about it, I was like, “If I could just go back in time and realize what that was.” It was little money, but it was everything.
So, what were you doing? So, you were traveling on the boxing circuit and covering-
Well, I was living in New York. And then afterwards I ended up working with Dad. I think I stayed there for maybe 9 months a year.
Then I started working with Dad, and at the time, the grill was coming up, so we were helping out. There was so much to do when I started traveling with him and so forth, and I did that.
And then the little girl in me was like, “I want to do it on my own. I want to do it on my own.”
So, trying to figure out my bearings. I taught school for a year. My grandmother was a teacher, so you’re like, “Well, I’ll try this. I’ll try that.”
Nothing wrong with that.
So, I did that for a year. And I remember at the end of the school year, I said, “I can’t teach these kids how to go follow their dreams if I won’t do it myself.”
That’s powerful.
Yeah. And so, I was like, “This was fun.” Respect to any teacher out there, respect.
And I didn’t know what I was going to do, and there was a lady that was working with some projects, trying to work with some projects with Dad and she remembered that I was into TV.
And then she says, “I know there’s this job I’m a little overqualified for, they need an associate producer.”
So, a national show came to Houston, Texas. It was called Texas Justice. And it was over the top. We bought horses in the courtroom. Anything crazy you can think of, it happened on Texas Justice.
Yeah.
Because at first I was like, “Ah, there’s no way I’m going to-” I didn’t think I was going to do it but here I am.
Texas Justice.
So, that was cool, roots led back home to Texas, but there was a lot of stuff that you covered in between there.
I did.
So, you said that the grill, how did that even come about?
Well, I don’t know the specifics because I’ll mess that story up and that’s what I don’t want to do.
You don’t want to talk about that again?
No, not that I don’t want to talk about it, but I don’t want to mess it up.
Mess it up. Okay, got it.
But I will say that the grill was Mary Foreman, Joan, Dad’s wife.
Yep.
I will give her so much credit because she had to feed these kids, all of us. She would bring the grill out and she started telling Dad, “This thing works, this thing works.”
So, Dad was able to call up the people who had once given him the grill or whatever and they made a deal, a small deal that he won big on.
So, yeah.
Wow.
They all won big on, let’s be clear.
Well, because A, they had your Dad, that was a big part of it, but then they put so much marketing behind that.
And I think you worked in the marketing department, right?
Yeah. I got to help out along the way, alongside him. But the biggest thing is with him, it’s funny how things change because I’ve heard different stories here and there. Mind you, I was younger, but some of it is that, initially they had him just as the boxer on this grill.
“Oh, that’s great.” It was selling.
But when they put his family on there, as a family thing, boom, that changed the thing. And then obviously seeing Dad on television.
That’s so powerful, just to be such a part of that and see your dad doing what he loves, and then later on, making a product that is probably in most homes.
Pretty cool stuff.
The grill was one thing, but Dad was able to put his touches on it and he says, “Make it prettier,” put his signature on it.
That was actually even before he came back to boxing, right? The grill?
Nope.
That was not?
No, that would not have been able to happen without that comeback.
It wouldn’t have.
Because everybody, as I say it all the time, everybody loves a comeback.
That was probably a huge deal for the family, was seeing that comeback.
The whole comeback itself was just life-changing. We went from that kitchen table moment to seeing, “Okay, Dad’s working out, he’s winning some fights,” to our lives are just changed.
Next thing you know, Dad has a television show. So, our lives just shifted in a way that is just hard to explain.
Now, there was a time that you moved to Atlanta. Is that right?
Well, so that was a story in itself.
Okay. I want to hear that because we have a lot in common.
You did live. How long were you in Atlanta?
I lived in Roswell, Georgia…
Okay.
…if you’re familiar with the area.
We moved from Vegas back when my wife and I had kids and they were 4 and 3 years old, and we wanted to raise them in a different area.
And so, we decided to up and move to Georgia.
Well, I’m curious how you got back here.
Yeah. I’ll tell you that story.
So, we went to Georgia. We were there from 2008 to about 2015, and then my son who was about 11 years old at the time woke up one day, similar to you, and said, “I want to be on TV.”
And so, we’re like, “Okay.” And so, I sold my company and we were going to live vicariously through my one son’s dreams and it brought us out to Hollywood, and here we are.
He ended up pursuing the acting, and he was doing a lot of Disney and Nickelodeon, doing a lot of commercial work as you do as a kid.
My wife was the mommy manager, taking them all over town.
It was so surreal. All of a sudden it’s like, “Hey, you’ve got an audition. You got to go to Paramount Pictures.”
Right.
Or Universal Studios, and going through the backlot, not as a tourist, but as somebody that’s going to audition for a major TV show. It was so surreal.
And he booked a lot. He never really booked his debut role. He came very close on a couple things. Stranger Things was one that he came close on, a couple movies.
And then he turned 17, and when you turn 17, it’s a lot harder to book things because they take 18-year-olds.
I got it.
You know the world, where you don’t have to have a tutor on set, it’s a lot cheaper.
But he’ll be 18 in July, and then he’ll kick that back off again.
It sounds like he brought you here.
He did bring me here. He’s the reason why we’re here.
Please tell me, I need to know. How did you get in this seat? How did you start with your own podcast?
I love this. Look at you, shiftin’ the table here.
[laughs]
So, as a kid, I would always watch talk shows.
Like you, I was going to be a professional baseball player. You could not tell me that I was not going to be a professional baseball player.
It was either that, or I was going to take David Letterman‘s job. For whatever reason, I would watch him at night and be like, “This guy’s got the life.”
Right.
He’s just himself.
Yes.
And he just brings on interesting people that are all fascinating, and he just sits there and talks to them about life and about just whatever.
And I’m like, “That’s awesome.” I’m like, “Someday, I’ll take David Letterman’s job.”
My life played out where I did not become a professional baseball player, instead I became more of an entrepreneur. I built a business and then I sold a business and then I built another business.
And the business that I have now is a digital marketing agency.
Love that.
And so, that’s what I do. I’ve got about 150, 160 full-time employees. It’s a remote company, so we got people from New York to Bulgaria, and everywhere in between. And then this was really, “If you build it, they’ll come.”
And so, I basically built this studio and we do all kinds of shoots here.
This was just me having a vision to be David Letterman and interview people like you coming onto the show here.
That is so amazing. I’m so proud of you.
Thank you.
But my biggest thing is the entrepreneur route. Most people’s like, “I’m going to start a business.” I don’t think that’s what people, I don’t think they really- I don’t.
Yeah.
How did you know you had it, first of all, to do that?
So, as a kid, I thought differently. It’s either nature or nurture, I guess, and for me, I think it was more “nature.”
Where I would be at a pizza shop at 12 years old, and while most people are enjoying their pizza and thinking about homework in class, I’d be sitting there being like, “Man, how awesome is this place? They’ve got 7 people in line, everybody’s paying them $6, the location’s right by a school.”
So, my mind is thinking, as like, an entrepreneur as early as those days.
Wow.
I was just bold, I took a lot of chances.
Did you have support? Were your parents like, “Oh yeah, here’s 50 cents, go do this”?
Yeah. The support, that I did have.
So my mom cleaned houses and my dad wasn’t in the picture. So, I came from very humble beginnings.
We would go to Costco, “Price Club” is what it was called back in the day. And so, we’d go there and my mom would give me $6 to buy the Juicy Fruit gums that come in a pack of 12.
And then I would buy that and then I would sell it at school and I’d make double the profit.
And so, I was doing all kinds of stuff like that, but it was because I didn’t want to ask her for money. I wanted to buy my own video games and stuff.
They say tough times build tough people.
That’s right.
Though you sound like you had a good childhood, you had that sense of like, “I don’t want to bother my mother, she has enough.”
Now, here we are.
I’ve made a lot of bold decisions, and not that everything was perfect, I’ve made some mistakes, but you learn from your mistakes. You fail forward.
And not minimize that type of boldness.
The drive, the hustle. Yeah.
Can’t minimize it.
But I fear for my kids though.
Yeah.
To your quote, they say hard times create strong men or women.
Right.
But then strong men and strong women create easy times. And so, I think my kids are living in the easy times.
But what they see in you, I get it. I understand. We think about that all the time.
Yeah.
But what they see in you, they’re going to…
They’ll have that.
…take something.
At least you know you left something behind that they can always fall back on.
Sure. So, that’s how I got here and ended up in Hollywood.
So, now back to your story about Atlanta, what brought you there?
I was wrapped up at Let’s Make a Deal, the game show.
So, there I was doing trade outs. It’s a big game show, so I would call different companies like, “Hey, we’d like to promote your,” whether it’s your hotel or whatever it is, “your luxury item on our show. Let’s trade the prize for air time.”
And then about 5 years into it, you can only trade out so much. For me, I was getting bored. Be honest.
Love the show, probably have never worked at a better situation. Sometimes I go, “Why did I leave that?”
It was in me to go back to story. So, I went to my brother. As a matter of fact, I just didn’t know what I was going to do, and I have a brother who’s in the military and he was living in Evans, Georgia. So, he was out there.
So, I’m like, “Okay, I’m going to come stay with you for, I don’t know, maybe a month or so to figure it out.” And as I’m moving there, I get a job in Atlanta.
Unfortunately the youngest kid was really just having a tough time. She was about 3, 4. She just wasn’t well, so she needed more of my attention.
So, I actually did not get to live in Atlanta, but I got a job there and planned on living there. And I never got to and it was really, I just feel like always, we’re where we’re supposed to be.
But sometimes it was the one thing of like, “Man, I wish I had gotten to actually live there.”
I did stay in Evans, Georgia for 6 months. So, once I was there, I was like, “Oh, I’ll just finish out this time with my brother for a month.”
Didn’t get to move to Atlanta, always thought about it, but the sunshine keeps calling me back, so here we are.
Like you said, everything is meant to be.
Yeah.
And it is what it is, right?
Yeah.
I like Georgia. It was a good place to raise kids. My kids got into The Walking Dead show.
Oh yeah, you were right there.
That’s right, yeah.
Right.
And that’s why he wanted to be on TV, we’d watch that.
So, why didn’t you think, “We could just do this right here in Atlanta”?
Well, he was signed with a group called the People Store. So, he did have representation there.
We had a manager that was in LA and then he also had another representation which was in LA, and we just thought that the bigger opportunity was to come out to Hollywood.
Got it. And things have changed since then too, by the way.
It sure has.
But that’s awesome.
Yeah, it sure has. And what they’re doing now in Atlanta, it is Hollywood now, you know what I mean? It’s like the second Hollywood.
So, you were working a lot in court TV? What was the Texas show called again?
Texas Justice.
Texas Justice.
That’s where it all started. Judge Larry Joe Doherty.
[laughs]
It was a mess.
And so, was that during the same time as like the Judge Judys of the world?
It was all of that.
It was all happening at the same time?
It was all the same time.
Ah, okay.
And somehow, 20th Television got hold to this situation in Houston. I don’t know how that came about, but that’s what happened.
And then from there, I ended up coming back to LA. I don’t know how I just end up, like I said, coming back to LA. It wasn’t planned.
So, I moved here to LA and I started working at Divorce Court.
So, I did that for a bit. And I’ve been lucky enough, with these kids and stuff, to be able to take a little time off. So, I took some time off.
Then there’s Judge Alex. Now, I do six shows at Entertainment Studios.
So, I’m a supervising producer there. Yeah.
Okay. And it’s still court TV shows?
Six court TV shows.
Really?
But this one is a little different, there’s a little bit of a twist on it.
And so, what does a-day-in-the-life look like for you? What do you do there?
To sum it up- I can’t tell everything.
Okay.
But I’ll just say, before a person goes out in front of that podium, I make sure they know their story, they’re confident about their story, it’s going to be clear, it’s going to be entertaining, going to be a good time, and they’re going to feel good about it.
Did you ever have aspirations of going to law school or anything?
How did you know that? It’s so funny you should ask, again.
Why am I saying that? It’s funny. That’s one of our shows at Entertainment Studios. I don’t work on it, but I keep saying, “Funny you should ask.”
So, I did. I actually got accepted into a law school, and last minute, I was like I was going to go to this law school. Then I just got nervous and scared.
I already had my first kid, and I moved down to Florida to go to law school. Then I was just like, “Oh my God. I’m going to have all this debt. I don’t know.”
Sure. Yeah.
I just got afraid, even though I think it would’ve been a really good turn for my life. What I’ve learned from that is what you’re afraid of, do it. Just do it.
Sure.
I can’t go back in time. I could always move forward if I wanted to do that again.
That’s right. Yeah.
But go for it.
Sure.
Just go for it.
I have to tell myself that every day, because I don’t necessarily live by that. You don’t do it enough. You know what I mean?
If we all lived by that, do you know how amazing we all would be?
Right.
But there’s so much fear in things, because you feel like, “Well, I need to take care of something else,” but it’s just excuses. Go for it.
Hey, that’s a good way to put it.
So, I was in the Air Force. I did 4 years in the Air Force.
While I was in the Air Force, I was doing community college, right? So, the same path my son is going to take.
I got out of the Air Force, and I was going to UNLV. Then I was studying for the LSAT, because I, too, had aspirations of becoming a lawyer.
I’m like, “All right. Before I do this and go into so much debt, like you said, do I really want to be a lawyer?”
So, what I did was I reached out to a district attorney, and I told them my story. I said, “I’m thinking about this, but is it okay if I shadow you a couple weeks?”
Right.
They let me shadow the attorney, and I spent 30 days doing it.
Come to find out, I didn’t want to be a lawyer, right? Because I had this entrepreneurial thing, right, that I was into.
So, I never pursued becoming a lawyer, but like you, right, where you’re working on court TV, the path led me to becoming a marketer.
Right.
I do marketing for a law firm. So, that’s what my agency does now.
Right. Took some time off, and I was living in the DC area.
I met with these amazing attorneys, and they all told me, “Don’t do it. Don’t do it.” So, maybe I did the right thing. I don’t know. But they were all like, “You don’t want to do this. Don’t do it.”
It’s what they do. They’re not necessarily happy in what they do.
So, I don’t know, but for me, it’s like, a little extra something on the résumé never hurt anybody.
[both laugh]
So, positive mindset, fitness, those are things that are a big part of your life, and I hear you have a Facebook community that you created?
So, listen. I’m like, “The struggle is real.” That’s where I’m coming from.
So, I always tell this story, because from after- the Atlanta turned off, I didn’t get to take that job, though I was doing different things. I was doing- trying to work on a podcast with my dad type of situation. We got some things in the can.
I was in Houston. It just wasn’t finding my “gish.” It was just like I was doing different things, helping- Hurricane Harvey was a big deal there.
Oh, wow.
Just trying to help out in communities, reaching out. I was doing everything I can, but I just was like, “I don’t know what I needed,” but I wasn’t finding the work in the sense that was making me feel fulfilled. Okay?
Sure.
So, I reached out to a friend that I’d really forgotten about, hadn’t talked to in years, and I called her up. I’m like, “Hey, I know you do these court shows at Entertainment Studios.”
I think I was like, “Oh, and I’m looking for work.” It was really quick. You know how somebody’s picking up the phone like, “Uh-huh. Uh-huh”? That’s what she- She said, “Okay,” and this was the end of November. She’s like, “Okay. Be here January 7th.”
I was like, “Huh?”
You know how when you’re applying for jobs and then somebody just said, “Okay, be here”? I was like, “Oh, she didn’t mean that.”
I was nervous, because, one, it didn’t give me a lot of time to pack up. Two, did she really mean it? Because she just sounded like she was like, “Next. I got something else to do.”
So, she’s in LA. You’re in Houston.
She’s in LA, and I’m in Houston.
Okay.
She doesn’t hear me properly. She thinks I’m in LA, too. I am not in LA. Nothing about me’s in LA. I’m in Houston.
Then so I’m like, “Okay.” So, I don’t really trust it, because it was weird. So, I call her back the next two weeks like, “So, you sure?” She’s like, “Yeah. Okay. Stop calling me, lady. I already said yes.”
So, I packed my stuff up, move out to LA, literally, get here a day before first day of work, and just start grinding. I really don’t even have a place to stay.
I found this lady, this place off of Craigslist or one of those lists. You know?
Sure. Yeah, yeah.
It’s like, “Okay. It’ll be alright.” I start working. That place gave me lots of stories. I wouldn’t have been able to do my job without those stories that I got to write.
Sure.
But anyway, I get here, and it’s just such a grind. It’s such a grind. I appreciated every second of it, but I wasn’t taking care of myself.
But I didn’t really notice that, because I’m grinding, and I’m like, “Yay, I’m back.”
I got to do a TEDx Talk.
Thank you.
So, I’m doing the TEDx Talk, and right afterwards, people are sending me pictures. My hair looks good. My makeup looks good. But I’m like, “Who’s she? I don’t look like myself.” You know what I mean?
It may not be dramatic to anybody else, but for me, I was like, “Okay.” It wasn’t about just physically what you look like, because I’m not a small person now. You know what I mean?
I’m a person, do not talk to me about food, because I love it. It was about what did that mean? I realized I was trying to make sure everybody else was good, but I wasn’t treating myself well.
Fast forward, seeing those pictures, and I was so embarrassed to share that TEDx Talk. I didn’t want to, and one of my friends, she’s a bully. She was like, “Share it. Share it. Share it.” So, I was like, “Okay, fine.”
I didn’t tell her whatever was going on with me, and I shared it. It was such a release, because what I released at that moment was who you are at this moment, that’s who you are, and that’s okay. I’d done something great.
So many times, oh, we look at ourselves, and we just try to criticize, find something to criticize. I let it go. I let the message do whatever it did.
Moving forward, when I was ready to go, “Okay. Let’s hone this in.” It took a while. Then COVID came and all those things. “Let’s hone this in.”
I literally shared it with a few people on my Facebook, like, “Okay.”
Will Smith had this thing called “Big Willie Challenge.” It was a 12-week challenge. I don’t know what happened to him, and I don’t know what happened to a lot of people, but after 12 weeks I actually did it.
So, people were like, “Oh, how did you do it?,” because no one did it with me, nobody, nobody.
After 12 weeks, I was like, “Oh my gosh. I lost 30 pounds.” It wasn’t even the pounds. It was like, “I’m back.” You know what I mean?
I’m still not all the way where I want to be. I’m back to a person that I know. People were just inboxing me like, “How’d you do it? What’d you do? Da-da-da-da-da.”
At the time, I was like, “I can’t tell people what to eat. I don’t know. I was just determined.”
I talked to my brother, who was like- At the time, his company, Craft Boxing, was just online. So, I was like, “Hey, brother, I’m going to start a Facebook Group, and I need some fitness. Can you give us some fitness?”
He’s like, “Okay.” Then he was like, “Well, I’ll give everybody-”
I was like, “Can they have 90 days,” or something like that. I said 12 weeks. He said, “I’ll do better than that, 90 days.” Okay.
Okay.
We did that, and then I was like, “They keep asking me what to eat. I can’t tell people what to eat. I don’t know, because I know what you eat and what I eat have nothing to do with each other.”
Sure.
You know?
Uh-huh.
So, he was like, “I have some nutritionist friends.” I’m like, “Great.”
So, he lent me the 90 days and his nutritionist friend, and we’ve been going strong. It’s a very small group. It’s a group of 800 people.
Okay.
But the results are so big, and everyone’s there, just holding each other accountable.
We’re finishing up one of our 12-week challenges at the end of June, and we’re just there to remind each other, “So, what? You fall down, get up.”
Sure.
Just don’t give up on yourself.
It’s so amazing, because most of the people are people that knew me my whole life. So, everyone’s there.
I’m the person they have all in common, but it’s in a community, and it’s so great to see everybody cheering for each other.
That’s amazing, right? Because a lot of times, people just don’t have the support.
It’s like no judgment, but come on. It’s called Georgetta, Get Fit, Get Fine. That’s where we’re at: Georgetta Foreman, Get Fit, Get Fine.
So, GFGFGF.
Sometimes I find myself- You get on the health kick, but then you fall off the health kick.
Right.
Motivated, motivated.
All of a sudden, you’re at an In-N-Out Burger, and you have that soda. Then it’s like, “All right. Well, I cheated once. I can cheat again,” right? You cheat again.
Then you go down that path, and it really is so powerful how it can change your whole mindset when you’re not making the right choices.
Discipline can take you a whole lot further than motivation.
Sure.
Motivation is great but if you don’t have discipline, forget it.
That’s powerful. That’s so true.
That’s something I learned from my dad. At the end of the day, to do what he did, that was discipline. I watched it.
Sure.
Not just in the ring, but outside the ring, there’s so many distractions.
I always tell the story when he sat us down at that table that day. He literally said the weirdest thing on earth. He was like, “I’m going to remain a faithful husband.”
As a kid, you’re like, “Okay. Okay,” but that was discipline. He knew what was out in the world beyond our walls, and he was like, “I’m not going to let anything mess up this.”
Is it true- I watched a video in preparation for this. Your grandpa held up your dad and said, “You’re going to be the champion someday,” as a kid.
Is that a true story?
True story.
It is a true story.
Weirdest thing that that means- If you asked me, that means we can talk life amongst each other.
Sure.
You know what I mean? Adn over your kids. JD Foreman, he did. He raised him up. “George Foreman, heavyweight boxing champion of the world.”
He did? Is that right?
He knew.
Huh.
Or maybe he did know, but he spoke it.
Sometimes you think you’re just saying something or you don’t even- like, “Why did I say that? Where did they come from?”
What was Grandpa like? Was he into boxing?
I would imagine back in those days, a slugger was something that everybody was into.
What do you think is your biggest motivation in life?
I’ve always understood mental health, and I’ve known family members that struggle or people that struggle.
So, I’ve never drank, because I’m afraid. I’ve never- Drugs, any of those things, because I’m so like, “This is all I have.” I’ve seen when people don’t have it. Nothing else matters. So, no.
Anybody else, they can do what they want to but that’s just my stance on things, because I’m just so afraid to lose that.
If you ask me what my motivation is, doing my best for everyone around me to be alright. And not just around me like my little circle of people, but if I can help in the whole grand scheme of things, like remind everybody of why they matter, why they need to be here, that’s it.
Every day, you wake up. It’s showtime, right? Whoever you’re going to speak to, if you’re going to buy somebody coffee behind you, right? It’s just-
Give. Money is cheap. So, everything is not about money.
Totally not.
When you look at Oprahs of the world or the Bill Gates of the world, how much money do you really need?
With that said, I want money. I like money, and there a lot of things money can do.
That’s right.
I love the Bill Gates and the Oprah and all those worlds, because they have it to give.
So, we like to end our segments with a thing called “Hennessey Heart-to-Heart.”
Okay.
That’s where I just ask you questions, and then you just answer with whatever’s on your mind.
What makes you smile when you’re having a bad day?
Memories. Just memories of just- I’ve had a good life, and I don’t care what you’ve been through. If you can have a couple good memories, that can take you a long way.
Yeah. Who in your family do you feel the closest to?
Well, I have to say my children, and both of them, there’s just something about those girls. They are everything.
Of course, everybody else, I love you, love my dad, all those things, but those girls right there, they get me. They are me.
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I look forward to meeting them someday. Do you think there is an age where people should be settling down?
You mean like marriage? Ha-ha-ha.
Yeah.
I tell my kids it’s 30.
30?
I tell them 30.
Okay.
That’s for women, because I’m a woman. I can’t speak for a man, because I don’t know men. I’m not a man. I do know men, but I’m not a man.
So, I just tell them, because for me, that gives you a time to enjoy life, build you an education, figure out what you like, who you are, have some experience, and then go, “A’ight. I’ll do this.”
That’s my thought.
That’s a good age, although my daughter’s not allowed to get married.
[both laugh]
Right.
Is there something you think a lot about parents that they do that negatively impacts children?
They don’t listen to their children. They talk at them, and they expect them to just do. But they are children. They are real people. Though they’re small people, they’re real people, real thoughts.
You just jumped out with your son and said, “Okay, let’s do it.”
Let’s do it. Yep.
That was positive.
Sure.
But had you said, “Go sit down somewhere” or didn’t hear him- Listen, not everybody can jump up and go to Hollywood with their kid.
Sure.
But even if you, for a parent, for example, “Well, tell me about what kind of roles you want to do,” just listening and engaging and treating them like real people.
Being present, right?
Being present. Yeah.
Yeah. I had a story I’ll share with you.
I’m sitting at my home office, just working.
My daughter and my wife go to a birthday party. My daughter’s 4 years old at the time.
They go to this birthday party and they’re away for 2 hours. It’s a Saturday morning. I’m like, “Okay, I’ll be able to catch up on some emails and stuff.” I’m doing that.
They come home. My daughter comes running in my office and she’s like, “Daddy, daddy, look. Look what I made. Look what I made.” She had made this slime at this birthday party. It was really cool.
She was so proud of it because you got to put beads in your slime. She was so excited about it. She came running in my room and I looked over at her, because I’m in the middle of writing an email that’s important.
I’m just like, “Oh my God. That’s awesome. That’s so good.”
I went back to my desk and I started working, but I wasn’t living in her moment, because that was a big deal for her and I didn’t make that my big deal.
I think, as parents, we do that a lot, whether you’re on the phone, or texting somebody, or dealing with a work issue and something happens to your child that’s such a big deal and it’s just not your big deal, at the moment.
I totally get it. My master Kindle reminds me all the time. You didn’t pay attention. You didn’t really see it. I’ll go, “Okay. Okay.”
Yeah, but it’s important for us parents to recognize it.
Anyway, so I keep slime on my desk now. It’s a reminder.
I love that.
Yeah. It’s just a reminder. What keeps you up at night?
My brain. It just doesn’t go off. I literally have to be like, “Go to sleep,” or I’m so tired that I just- When I fall out, I fall out. It doesn’t matter. I can be right in that corner.
You go, “What just happened?” She left.
But it’s just I have so many thoughts and ideas, because, again, it’s like I live- I’ll just say it. I live so small knowing that there’s so many possibilities.
Again, it’s not just about myself. It’s because you want to do something to even show somebody else that they can do something, because you can’t tell me unless you know. That keeps me up.
But other than that, I have a lot of peace. I know there’s a lot of things that go on in the world. There’s so many issues in the world that I have to turn it down and go into prayer because there’s so many issues.
If you sit and watch news long enough, which I know when I was visiting a lot of people in Houston, like the elderly community, they’re afraid to go outside. It’s like the mailbox is a thing for them. I’m not going to get stuck, that I can’t even go to the mailbox.
You have to learn how to pray, do what you can. If you can do something, do it, and then turn down.
Would you rather be an expert at one thing or average at a lot of things?
My dad told me, and I did not understand it. I had no clue what he was talking about. He was like, “You got to be an expert.” He told me that when I was younger.
I didn’t know what he was talking about. I’m like, “An expert? What you mean?”
An expert.
Just be an expert at one thing.
Just be an expert. I’ve learned a lot of things, but if I were an expert at something, I’d be valuable.
That’s it. Find your passion and live with it.
Who was your role model growing up?
If I really am going to be honest, obviously my dad was such a big, big, big, big person. It’s hard not to say he was my role model, but also, my grandmother. She was just an educator. Not just an educator, she was an educator.
And she lived her life with so much class. Mind you, my grandmother would be 90-something now. This was a woman, she had four- She was married, four children. She was living in- She was from Texas, but she lived in Chicago.
She was brave enough to leave her husband, which at that time, I talked to a lot of women, that’s not- People couldn’t do that. She left the situation. It didn’t work for her. Left, went to college, finished her education, got her master’s degree.
This was long before I was born. Master’s degree back in those days, and took a job in a small town, Jefferson, Texas; and made a whole life for herself and inspired so many people in her community.
Just the tenacity, and the audacity to do those things. That means a lot to me.
She was always giving. I remember there would be maybe a family of people that she may see on the side of the roads. I can remember- There were no cell phones when I was younger.
I remember her getting back home, getting on the phone, like, “Hey, Letha. Hey.” She would call her friends. Next thing you know, there would be pies and everything. They would find those people down the street and she would have food.
Every thoughtful, giving, kind, she just had it. It was just nothing to her. It wasn’t extra work. It’s just what she was.
Inspiring. That’s your mom’s mom?
Yes.
Mom’s mom. What’s her name?
Doris Gross.
What do you like most about yourself? It’s a hard question.
No, not really. I think I’m funny sometimes. I like that I like to smile. I like that I enjoy food and friends.
I just like that I’ll do it. If you say, “You do it,” I’ll do it.
What are some qualities that you wish you had?
I’m going to talk to you because you’re going to help me. I wish I could be an entrepreneur. I wish I could turn my brain off and on, and you could help me be a business person. I wish I had that.
I find that so amazing. That’s a superpower I wish I had.
Speaking of TED Talks, I watched a TED Talk recently about being bold versus being smart.
In some cases, entrepreneurs are very bold, but not very smart, because they just kind of do things. Sometimes smart people end up talking themselves out of doing bold things.
It’s a general rule.
Yeah. I got it.
It’s a good TED Talk. I’ll send it to you.
But for me, I didn’t have- I was not number five in my class. I barely graduated high school, that kind of a thing, but I would always make bold moves.
You know why? I guess, because when you come from nothing, you got nothing to lose.
I love that.
That was the mindset I always had growing up.
Here’s a key. If you’re bold, surround yourself with smart people. That’s important. That’s the secret to, I guess, my success, if you will. I surround myself with very smart people.
What was the best time of your life?
I don’t subscribe to that because I was thinking that the other day. I’m like, “I’ve had some good times. Good moments, good times.”
I just like to live in the now and to know that this is the best it’s going to get today. I’ve had my childhood, and some good times, but I’ve just, I’ve had some great times.
I can’t say a best time. I really can’t. I refuse to, because I don’t even know what’s going to happen next. I have a feeling that life’s going to get better.
Oh, for sure. Just because it talks up here, is going to make it reality. That’s how it works. I feel the same way. Every part of life is just a different chapter of every book.
If you had to go back to school, what would you study?
You would think I knew by now. I still don’t know. Sometimes I go, “Oh, I’ll just do that law thing.” Sometimes I’m clear on that.
Then the other thing is I really have a big passion about mental health. I really do. I’ve tried to take classes in biology and health to become a doctor.
Then I realize, “Well, that’s going to take a lot of work to get my brain turned in that way.”
I’m a storyteller, but the way the algebra works, I don’t know. But I really wish I’d have set out to be a doctor.
Do you have any superstitions?
I don’t. I’m not superstitious at all.
No.
But the biggest thing is, a rule that I have: Do unto others. I figure you live by that, as you want them to treat you, that situation, so.
Yeah.
That’s not superstition. I think that’s everything.
My only superstition is I have this number that follows me everywhere.
What?
Yeah. It’s three digits. It’s the number 127.
What do you mean it follows you? Is it in here now?
It might well be.
I was born on January 27th. It’s the first three digits of my social. I’m not going to get everybody else the rest of it here. My son was born on October 27th, at 1:27.
When I got my first job working on the radio, I was a radio personality. I worked on 127. It’s just the weirdest thing. They call it your “angel number.”
If you research it, people have angel numbers and I didn’t know this. When I researched it, how I interpret it, it’s a sign from the higher powers that be to encourage you that you’re doing something right and to keep moving forward.
I love that. Sometimes you’ll just look around, you’ll be like, on a document or something, it’s like 127.
All the time. Last night, we went to dinner and there was 127 that was on the bill. Just random things like that.
You’re like, “I’m good.”
Yeah.
“I’m on my way.”
That’s the only superstition I think that I’ve got, is this weird number that follows me.
The last question here. What is something that you are most proud of in your life?
Something that I’m most proud of is being able to show my daughters, every time I do something like this, to show them mom’s here, mom’s present, and she’s trying, because I know I’m only a woman.
I can only speak about that, is that I know life will continue to knock you down, knock you down. It’s not because- It’s just what it is. You got to keep getting up. Got to keep getting up.
I learned that from my father. I watched him really, really get up in a way that most people can’t even fathom on a big stage and have a comeback. From nothing to something, and then fall back down and have the will to just do it again.
I want my children- Because they’re going to- Not many- Most people can’t be a boxer. That’s just not going to happen, but you can be a regular, everyday person who just keeps saying, “Okay, I’m going to try and get up.” That’s what I’d like to leave for my daughters.
I’ve done probably more wrong than right, but that’s it.
Do your girls ever go back and watch some of your dad’s old fights?
I actually don’t know.
No, huh?
I really don’t know, because they’re young. They’re so much younger. They’re like, “Oh, he’s cool.” Both of them have done reports in school on him. I think they think it’s cool, but they love him.
To them, it’s like- It’s a part of their everyday situation. They didn’t see. They don’t know what I’m talking about when it was like, no, wasn’t like that before.
Not like it’s the same thing or anything, but my kids don’t watch my podcast shows either.
Well, Georgetta, I really appreciate you coming down to the studio to be on this show. For those that want to keep up with you, where can they find you at?
Well, I’m like everybody else. I don’t have a- I’m on TikTok.
No, I’m not. Take it back. I’m not on TikTok. I don’t know why I said that. That’s dreams and aspirations in my head, I guess, but no.
I’m on Instagram: GeorgettaForeman. Facebook: Georgetta Foreman.
Please, please, please, please, join me at Georgetta Foreman, Get Fit, Get Fine. I think you’ll find it fun. Yeah. We’re coming up on the end of our 12 week challenge. That’s it.
I’m pretty easy-breezy.
Well, I will be one of those that join that group.
Yay!
Yes. We’ll have to get together for lunch or something soon.
I want to just leave by saying thank you. I feel like I talked way too much on here. I just want to let you know that, in my head, this was going to be a whole lot more fun.
I really enjoy hearing your stories.
Oh thank you.
I wish you would’ve told more.
Thank you.
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