George Foreman: Your name is an asset. Put it on something people use.

Almost everyone who grew up in the 1990s or early 2000s had a George Foreman grill somewhere in the house. It became that common.

Rod got to hear Foreman explain how a boxing career turned into a kitchen product, and how a name earned in the ring ended up on a burger grill in millions of homes. It was a talk about marketing and brand recognition, and about using what you already have. Foreman died in March 2025, and Rod is glad to have heard the story from him.

What Foreman built

Foreman won Olympic gold in 1968 and the undisputed heavyweight title in 1973. After a loss in 1977 he left boxing, became an ordained minister and spent years working with his church in Houston. He returned to the ring in 1987 at 38, and in November 1994, at 45, he knocked out Michael Moorer to win the heavyweight title again. He was the oldest heavyweight champion in history.

The grill came in 1994 as well. It was not Foreman's invention. Michael Boehm conceived it and Salton, Inc. made it, but Foreman's friendly face and easy humor made it sell. Before his name was bought out, he reportedly took about 40 percent of the profits on each grill. In 1999 Salton paid him $138 million for the rights to his name on the product. More than 100 million grills have sold worldwide, and estimates of his total earnings from the grill run to about $200 million, more than he made in the ring.

What Rod heard

Foreman is publicly known for the way he sold the grill, with a big smile and plain talk. A grill is an ordinary product. A trusted, likable face made it the one people picked.

Rod took away that brand recognition can lift an ordinary product, and that you do not need to be the inventor to build real value. You need something people already know and trust, and a clear place to put it.

How Rod applies it

Build the name before you need it. Rod speaks, writes books and shows up for local business events so that Coulee Tech is the name people think of when they have a security worry. Trust gets built long before the contract.
Make the complicated simple. The grill promised one clear thing. Rod's talks, such as "AI Without the Hype," do the same for AI and cybersecurity: one plain idea a busy owner can act on.
Use what you already have. Foreman used a famous name. Rod coaches leaders to look at their own data, customer trust and years of experience before buying anything new, which is how the AIBMM levels build on each other.
Be easy to like. Foreman sold with a smile. Technical experts who are pleasant to work with are rarer than they should be, and clients remember it.

Rod met each of these people at business growth events where they were the featured speaker. The lessons are his own takeaways and do not imply an endorsement by anyone pictured.