[00:00] Bo Eason: A book publisher came to me and said, Hey, I think there’s a book in you. There’s no plan B for your A game. I always used to talk about options. Like the people who have the most options in life usually are kind of mediocre. The people who have no options, but the gold medal. Usually win the gold medal.

[00:23] Bo Eason: That’s where the title came from.

[00:28] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Welcome to another episode of Success for the Athletic Minded Man. Real talk on harnessing your athletic drive for clarity, consistency, and focus in business and life. This is your host, Jim Harshaw, Jr. And today I bring you Bo Eason. I tell you, sometimes I go into these interviews and I just don’t know what to expect.

[00:48] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And I am so often blown away by the conversations I had. This conversation with Bo Eason today was just Amazing. So I’m recording this immediately after recording the interview. So just got off the recording with Bo and, you know, you kind of have a script for these interviews where you’re going to go and, and sometimes they just go off script and the conversation you have is just so powerful and so deep.

[01:12] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And that was the case here today. So Bo Eason started his career in the NFL as the top pick for the Houston Oilers, no longer around. He was the number one safety in the draft. And this is a guy who has found success in multiple, like world class success in multiple different areas. So when you find somebody like this, you tune in and, and really listen to what they do.

[01:35] Jim Harshaw Jr.: He shares some, you know, for lack of a better term, hacks about how he did this, right? So he became, you know, one of the top safeties. Then after his NFL career, he became one of the best in the world as a playwright and as an actor, a stage actor. He wrote and starred in his own one man play called Runt of the Litter, which he performed on Broadway to rave reviews.

[01:58] Jim Harshaw Jr.: The New York Times called it one of the most powerful plays. In the last decade, it went over toward in over 50 cities and is now being adapted as a major motion picture. Get that a major motion picture. And now in his third act, he speaks and trains some of the most successful people in the world on how to communicate for maximum impact and maximum success.

[02:19] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Okay, here’s another one, right? He’s written a book, eight time bestseller, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, USA Today, bestseller list. And the book’s called There’s No Plan B for Your A Game. Be the best in the world at what you do. This is a guy who’s found success in just about everything. Well, everything he’s done.

[02:39] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And he talked about the hard times and the setbacks. And he reveals his strategies. And so what I ask of you is to share this with one other person. Who do you know who would get value out of this? Maybe it’s somebody who played football, a friend of yours, or maybe it’s just somebody else who you think would be motivated and inspired by this.

[02:58] Jim Harshaw Jr.: So give this a share. Uh, if you’re not already subscribed on YouTube or Spotify or Apple podcasts, wherever you’re listening to this, please give it a subscribe. And that lets the algorithm know. That you love more than you’d love this content, and it should be shared with others as well. So, all right, here we go.

[03:14] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Let’s get into it. My interview with the incredible Bo Eason. So there was a nine year old who wrote a 20 year plan. To make it into the NFL or become the best safety in the NFL. Tell us about that nine year old.

[03:30] Bo Eason: Yeah. Yeah. That nine year old was a little skinny little kid. And I was, I remember watching a game, uh, one time it was NFL game.

[03:38] Bo Eason: And I just remember my dad, it was actually a game that OJ Simpson was in. He was running the ball. And I distinctly remember the way he moved. It was beautiful. And then to, you know, have what happened to OJ after that just was a whole nother story. But I just remember my dad saying, Wow, like my dad’s a very, like, He’s a rancher, like he’s a cowboy, right?

[04:01] Bo Eason: So doesn’t talk a lot, but I just remember his opinion of this guy. He’s like, God, this is beautiful. It’s beautiful about another man. And I’d never heard my dad say anything like that about anybody. Right. And he’s saying that this guy runs beautifully. What I noticed was the guys who were trying to stop OJ Simpson.

[04:20] Bo Eason: And I later found out that those guys were safeties. Safeties were trying to stop this beautiful runner. And I go, you know what? I’m going to be one of those guys. And that was it. So I drew up a declaration, a plan, a dream that I couldn’t fulfill until I got drafted. You know, so that I would, it would have been like 20 years into the future, 17 years into the future.

[04:46] Bo Eason: So I drew it up. All it said was, you know, best safety in the world. And I just began that journey and I did. And like, it’s funny because people looking back, people go, Wow. You actually became like, you know, one of the top safeties in the world. That’s, that’s weird how it happened. But my reflection of it, when I look back the whole way, Jim, like in grammar school, high school, college.

[05:15] Bo Eason: Getting drafted. The whole way of those, however many years that was, let’s see, I drew the plan in 1969, so it was 1984 when I got drafted. A long time. Every day of all of those years, it looked like it wasn’t going to happen. It just appeared to me like I wasn’t getting enough evidence that this could ever happen.

[05:37] Bo Eason: But I didn’t, I stayed loyal to the dream. And that was a big part of, I think, what I’m able to do now too. I stay loyal. To whatever my vision is, I would stay really loyal to it regardless of the feedback because obviously as you’re growing up you’re getting a lot of bad feedback like you’re too small, you’re too slow, you’re not great, other people are better.

[06:01] Bo Eason: And so I played in high school, me and my brother played together and my brother ended up being a Super Bowl quarterback. We played together at this little tiny high school.

[06:11] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Who’s your brother?

[06:12] Bo Eason: My brother’s Tony Eason.

[06:13] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Tony Eason. So he took New

[06:14] Bo Eason: England to their first Super Bowl in 1985.

[06:16] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

[06:17] Bo Eason: So, and we went to a high school that didn’t have, never had a pro athlete for a hundred years.

[06:22] Bo Eason: Never won before. We got there, never won since we left, but on that one little team, we had 27 boys on this little high school team called Delta High School. Four guys played in the NFL out of 27 for a total of 25 years, two Super Bowls. Isn’t that crazy? And just think about the high school. It’s 103 and three years old, never won before that year, never won since.

[06:57] Jim Harshaw Jr.: So that, that seems like more than a coincidence.

[07:00] Bo Eason: Right? That’s what I always say. That’s what, people always go, Well, wow, Bo, that’s That’s really a lot of luck. I mean, did God point his finger down to Delta high school football field and say, give me some pro athletes there. But when I tell this story, Jim, people always go, man, that is, that’s crazy if you think about the odds, because.

[07:23] Bo Eason: I’ll give you the odds. So if you play high school football, the odds of you playing in the NFL is zero. The percentage that goes to the NFL is 0. 03%. So it’s, you know, it’s not good odds, obviously. So for a little team of 27 guys, farm boys, for four of them, all from the same team to go on and play pro football.

[07:50] Bo Eason: But the, here’s the funny part, Jim. When it came time for us to go to college, like we thought we’d get recruited. We thought we were pretty good, you know, we didn’t get recruited. So my brother walked on to a junior college called American River Junior College in Sacramento. He walked on there. He’s a year older than me.

[08:12] Bo Eason: So that then the following year, I thought I would get maybe recruited. I didn’t. I walked on to a school called UC Davis, which is in Northern California, which at that time was Division II, no scholarships. So everybody was a walk on, every, every player on their team. So I walked on there and played there.

[08:35] Bo Eason: And now cut to four years later. So no, nobody getting recruited, walk on to schools, four years later, my brother’s a first round pick. And then four years, one year after that, I was a second round pick. But the crazy part, Jim, and I always tell my son this, I tell the people that I know this, how it seemed to me, nothing went like smoothly.

[09:02] Bo Eason: Nothing went like the original plan was. It was all through failure. It was all through just battling and fighting my way onto teams and demanding that I, that I be the best at this and outworking people, waking up earlier, staying up later. All those principles we did and when we got to that place where we were the picks, it’s like a miracle almost.

[09:29] Bo Eason: You’re like going, I’m actually exactly the dream that I had way back then. I am actually that person today. But it’s not surprising Because you’ve been that way for a lot of years. So the minute I, when I was nine, when I drew up the plan, I started becoming the best safety right on day one. I didn’t wait till I had evidence.

[09:51] Bo Eason: I didn’t wait till someone said, well, you’re a great athlete. I just did what I thought the best. World would do. And I started acting like them. Like, I, I’d eat what I thought they were eating. I’d train as if I already was the best safety. I treated people like I already was that. It was almost like getting a movie script and playing the part and learning the role and rehearsing.

[10:20] Bo Eason: My future. And then by the time my future got there and ESPN goes, Bowie sends the top safety. I was like, Oh yeah, yeah, that’s right. I, you know, it was kind of weird. And it was the same kind of experience for my brother too.

[10:37] Jim Harshaw Jr.: I want to stay on this topic of not seeing the evidence. Because there’s a lot of listeners right now thinking, gosh, I thought I’d be further along at this point.

[10:47] Jim Harshaw Jr.: You know, they’ve achieved a lot of things in their life. Maybe they’ve checked a lot of the boxes that you’re supposed to check and have some professional and personal achievements, but they know there’s more in the tank. They know that there’s this other level, this higher level, this more potential that they have.

[11:04] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Maybe it’s the CEO of a company or maybe running an Iron Man or whatever it might be, but they’re not seeing the evidence right now. What do you have to say to that person?

[11:15] Bo Eason: Yeah, my kids go through this all the time. They’re constantly pushing back because I made them draw up their declarations when they were, you know, of age.

[11:24] Bo Eason: You know, like 9, 10, 11, right in there. And so they’re living these declarations out. No different than being the best safety in the world. They’re constantly getting feedback that they are not. These declarations, they are not up to par. They are not the best quarterback. They are not the best chef. They’re not the best volleyball player, whatever it is.

[11:45] Bo Eason: And they cry, you know, especially when they were younger, they cry. And I remember those nights where you’re crying and I always say to them, I go, you can cry for an hour, but hour’s going to pass, right? And we’re just going to re engage on the declaration, on the dream, because The only people that their dreams never get to come true is the person who stays crying.

[12:11] Bo Eason: And if you’ll just get up, you can cry, but you got to get up eventually. You got to re engage. So that was a principle that I was really steady with. I could, I could actually do that over a number of years. And it turns out my kids are really good at it too. Now it’s painful as hell when they’re going through it and they’re not getting the feedback that they would like to get, because I think our world gives them information that if you’re great, As an adult, you were always great, right?

[12:45] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Yep. Looks easy. It was easy from the start, and everything just happened to work out for this person.

[12:49] Bo Eason: Yeah.

[12:50] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Everything.

[12:51] Bo Eason: And then you have to tell them the story of, if you’re talking to athletes, you have to tell them the story of Michael Jordan. You have to tell them the story of Tom Brady. And then they get it.

[12:59] Bo Eason: They go, wait a second, weren’t they always great? Actually, no. And I think how we develop as athletes, as a musician, as a chef, I think we develop not so linearly, you know, as we’re being told we are. Like, it’s never like it’s Little nice little curve that goes up like this. It’s always like goes like this and then you bang and then boom.

[13:26] Bo Eason: And then you get this tremendous amount of growth all of a sudden. And then you just suck for a week, you know, you’re like bang. And you’re like, I can’t even throw the ball. I don’t even know what I’m doing out here. And you have to go through those ups and downs. To really, you know, excel at the very top because I think the people that end up like me and my brother when we were in high school, if you look at what we were able to do later, looking back, I would go, Oh, we were just more consistent with the work that it takes and never stopping that, regardless of injury, regardless of, you know, Setbacks.

[14:10] Bo Eason: We always stayed loyal to the dream and then all of a sudden at the very end the dream just happens and you’re like, shit, I’m here. Here I am. I’m here. And it doesn’t seem like a dream anymore. It just seems like. Yeah, it was just a tough path. It’s just a struggle. And most people, Jim, I have a buddy who’s a great, he’s trained about, I think, 35 gold medalists, he’s a mental coach, 35 gold medalists.

[14:37] Bo Eason: And he, I always tell him, I go, what is, what’s the deal, man? How are you able to. Get these people to win these gold medals.

[14:44] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And for the listener, by the way, for the listener, if you’re wondering who that is, after I hang up with Bo, after he has stopped the recording, I’m going to ask Bo his name and we’re trying to get him onto the podcast, but go ahead, Bo.

[14:55] Bo Eason: Yeah. He says every time they don’t win a gold, it happens in the last 24 hours before their event. So they’ve trained, obviously, you know, the Olympics, right? They trained for so many years to get there. Now the event is tomorrow morning and say, we’re doing the balance beam. He said the night before they’ll all of a sudden have this great idea to go out and eat five Big Macs and he goes, it always happens in the last hour before you’re about to win the gold, because it’s scarier than it looks.

[15:32] Bo Eason: To have your dream come true than it for not to come true. And he said, we do whatever we have to do. We pull a hammy. We eat five Big Macs. We go, you know, out carousing, right? Just to just to give ourselves some relief of this dream that is about to come true.

[15:53] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Yeah, it’s scary to have to put it on the line like that.

[15:55] Bo Eason: Ah, Man, and the, you know, I, I just feel like there was a lot of, a lot better football players in high school than me. There was a lot better college football players than me. It got too hard at some point, like the training got too hard or he wanted to go party or they wanted to chase girls. Whatever the case, I knew I somehow I knew they would eliminate themselves and I could be the last person standing.

[16:20] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Yeah, that’s it. Sometimes just the last person standing. Keep going. Apply the principles that you know that that successful people do. Get coaching, you know, show up early, stay late. Do the extra work, write it down. So I want to go back to that. So you wrote this declaration down. You have a professional football career.

[16:39] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Then you found success. I’m always fascinated by guys like you, Bo, who have found success, not just in one thing, not just in two things, but in multiple different areas. And what is the through line that you see between all of the different areas that you have had success in, right? Writing a play at Broadway, actor, motivational speaker, author, all of these, and you’ve all done them all at an extraordinarily highlighted world class level in every single one of these things, but what is the thread that you see between all of these?

[17:12] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Did you write a declaration for all of these? Yeah,

[17:15] Bo Eason: I did actually. So like as soon as football was over, I had my seventh knee surgery. I knew it was over. There were certain principles that are, there’s a through line all the way through. And that’s in my book, there’s no plan B for your A game. The reason I wrote that is because all the brands or the careers that I’ve had, it’s always had this term called the best.

[17:37] Bo Eason: In the declaration, like the best at this, the best at this. That’s what I wanted. And I would write the declaration and I learned that the declaration is basically a story that I’m telling myself and living into it. And so that principle went all, that was a through line all the way through. I had a story for each career that I took on because I didn’t have any experience in it.

[18:04] Bo Eason: I said, as soon as football was over, I go, I’m going to be the best. Best playwright of my time. Now, at that time, Jim, I never wrote a play in my life. I never been in a play in my life.

[18:17] Jim Harshaw Jr.: For the listener. I want you to, I want you to just pause and listen to what Bo just said. There’s no proof. There’s no background.

[18:24] Jim Harshaw Jr.: There’s no, you know, my dad or mom was a, or my, my sister, or there’s just a thing that I want to achieve. And you set it and you pursued it, regardless of what background or potential that you have to do that. You set out for it. Fear be damned.

[18:43] Bo Eason: Yes, because, look, here’s the truth of it. So, I’ve been a playwright, a stage performer, speaker, author, you know, husband, dad.

[18:54] Bo Eason: All of those things that I’ve done, all had the ter I would, you know, I wanted to be the standard bearer of those things. Occupations, right? I wasn’t afraid of how long it was going to take me. My timelines aren’t like the current timelines in the world we live in now, where people want to be instant, you know, millionaires, or instant athletes, or whatever it might be.

[19:19] Bo Eason: I had time. And I gave myself time. Second principle that I gave myself time. First principle. Second principle is I always went to the best. Whoever was the best at that thing, I would go to them. So, when I wanted to be the best stage performer in New York, I had no background. I, guess who I went and got? I went and got Al Pacino.

[19:41] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Wow. What do you mean you went and got Al Pacino? You called him up and said, Hey Al, train me.

[19:45] Bo Eason: Yeah, yeah. I was in an acting class. I was in performance classes trying to learn, trying to train because I knew how to train to be a safety and I could do that. So I just said, I’m going to do the same thing. I’m just going to take all these years.

[19:59] Bo Eason: I’m going to train the most. I’m going to do the most on stage in a given amount of years. I will be standing at the top. Well, I told this to a woman one time at a dinner that I was invited to in New York City, and I was studying at this time. And I was asking every kid in my class, because they were all like eight, nine years younger than me, because I was playing in the NFL and they were, you know, just, you know, coming out of college.

[20:23] Bo Eason: So I would meet these kids in my class and I would say, you guys, who’s the greatest stage performer of our time? Who is that? And this was 1990. Everybody said Al Pacino. And I said, cool, where is he? And they’re like, I don’t know where he is, but he’s a movie star. And I knew who he was, but I never met him.

[20:45] Bo Eason: So I met a guy named Lee Strasberg was this famous acting coach for Al Pacino and Marlon Brando, Marilyn Monroe, Sophia Loren, all of them. He was a legend in New York. He had died, his wife was still living. So his widow and I were at a dinner together and I didn’t know it. But she was asking me questions and I was talking like I always talk like this, like, like what I want to be a, why I want to become.

[21:10] Bo Eason: And she goes, you, her name’s Anna Strasberg. She says, you ask a lot of questions. And she goes, how would you, um, Al Pacino is the godfather to my twin boys, teenage boys. I’m like, really? God, uh, Al Pacino is a godfather in real life too. And she goes, you ask a lot of questions. How would you like to sit down with Al?

[21:36] Bo Eason: And I go, that would be fantastic. I know he’s the best. I’d love that. So I went to his house like a week later. It was during Thanksgiving. Went to his house. I’m in his house. We’re playing pool. And he goes, you know, Bo, I know why you’re here. Um, we’re playing pool. And he goes, let, let’s talk about what you want.

[21:58] Bo Eason: And I go, I want what you got. I want to take your mantle. And he’s like, okay, but you know, here, let’s, let’s plan that out. Let’s see what that looks like. But Bo, that’s actually going to take you a long time. And that may be 15 years. And I go, well, that’s good because I work well in those kinds of timelines.

[22:17] Jim Harshaw Jr.: That’s right. It’s right on track for me.

[22:19] Bo Eason: Yeah. And so he, we broke it down, took a few hours. Then I left him. I never. Never talked to him again, saw him on movies. That’s the only, you know, time I saw him. And almost to the day, 15 years later, I am opening a play in New York City that I wrote, and I’m the only guy in.

[22:39] Bo Eason: And I take the stage, Jim, and I’m, you know how nervous you are before an athletic event, especially if it’s for the championship? This was tough. 10 times worse than that. I’m running out to New York critics. I think they’re going to hammer me. I run out on stage. I start to talk to the audience because it’s a one man show.

[22:59] Bo Eason: And all of a sudden I make eye contact with a guy in the fifth row. Right on the aisle, it’s Al Pacino. Wow. Al Pacino’s at my play. And it was the coolest moment. All he did was nod his head. Like, he was just sitting there watching me. I could tell he was like studying it. And he was like, just like that.

[23:18] Bo Eason: And I go, that’s the best review I’ve ever had. That nod of Al Pacino, right?

[23:24] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Absolutely incredible.

[23:25] Bo Eason: Yeah, so the principles that go all the way through my life are those two for sure. The time element, I’m not so concerned about speed and the time. I want to be the best. The other one is I’m going to go to the best and ask them because only the best could tell you, right?

[23:44] Bo Eason: If you notice like people who are second best, third best, 150th best, they’re not generous. They don’t want to tell you what they’re doing to be the best. Because they think you’re going to pass them. Well, number one always wants competition. So number one will actually tell you what it takes to be number one.

[24:04] Bo Eason: And I’ve been lucky enough to find these people in whatever field I’m in. For example, my play. I’m doing a workshop I swear, Jim, there was 18 people in the audience. I’m doing my play as a workshop in L. A. to, you know, to see if people like it, to get their feedback. So I’m performing this play. After the play’s over, you know, half the audience claps, the other half just leaves.

[24:32] Bo Eason: A dude walks up to me, and I, I’d never seen him before, I don’t know who he is. He says to me, I want this play to be my next movie. And I go, well that’s cool, but who are you? And he goes, my name’s Frank Darabont. And I go, you’re Frank Darabont? So those of you who don’t know, Frank Darabont is the guy, now this is in the, you know, this is in right around 9 11.

[24:54] Bo Eason: So Frank Darabont is the guy who wrote and directed The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, Saving Private Ryan, Collateral,

[25:04] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Holy mackerel.

[25:05] Bo Eason: His show is The Walking Dead. He created that show. So this dude’s been nominated for 12 Academy Awards for writing. He goes, I want this to be my next movie. And I want you to write it.

[25:20] Bo Eason: And I’m like, I don’t know how. I don’t, I’ve never written a screenplay. He goes, I think you can do it. I’ll coach you. I’ll help you. And so the first screenplay I ever write. Which I don’t know what I’m doing is I’m being mentored by Frank Darabont, the most coveted writer in Hollywood at that time. So it’s funny when you use these terms like the best and you’re you’re loyal to them, some kind of some kind of magical thing happens where the right people You know, show up.

[25:55] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And I’m also going to interject this for the listener. Like when you make this declaration, things just start to happen. Al Pacino, you know, it’s like, wow, how lucky, how lucky that you were at a dinner and you talked to this lady. And she said, you know, Al Pacino is the God, my God, parent to my sons. And like, That was a coincidence.

[26:15] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Yeah, but like, but, but you put this out into the world, you created this declaration and, and I have my own. And for the listener, I’ll put the link to, I have a, it’s called the Pathfinder Vision. My program is called Reveal Your Path. And, and for the Pathfinders who were at my retreat, my clients who were at my retreat, everybody created one and we have a personal and professional one.

[26:33] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And I have it right here. It’s, it’s, it’s in front of me and I have it in a journal. I just, if you’re watching on YouTube, you can see, I just reached my arm across my desk and it’s, it’s here. I read it every morning and it’s my declaration. I built the leading success coaching brand in America and helped tens of thousands of clients.

[26:48] Jim Harshaw Jr.: I’m not there yet. It’s a little scary to say it, but that’s, that’s where we’re going. And as soon as I wrote this down about six months ago, it was weird how things started to change. Things started to happen. And I don’t, I don’t see all the steps to get there. I don’t see all the steps to get there. And some days I’m like, Jim, maybe it, maybe you should back off on that, but it’s like, No, I’m not going to.

[27:11] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Things, things are going to happen.

[27:12] Bo Eason: Yep. That’s how, you know, it’s going to happen because, you know, you want to reduce yourself. You want to apologize for it. You want to like make your goal or your declaration lesser, but if you stay true to it, my experience is it just, it’s going to happen. And it kind of happens like almost without you noticing, you know, like they just, you know, Al Pacino.

[27:33] Bo Eason: Oh, I’m at his house. I’m playing pool with Al Pacino. What the hell am I doing here? And same thing with Frank Darabont. You know, he just came into my life, taught me how to write a screenplay, and then I have a career in screenwriting with, like, I wrote a screenplay for Leonardo DiCaprio, for Tobey Maguire.

[27:50] Bo Eason: Because Frank Darabont. Took me under his wing and said, write like this, don’t do this, do that. Just like Apacino did, just like the safety coach that I had back in the day. Same thing. And so those principles of time, like that timeline, that’s big. Getting the best in the world to point you in a direction.

[28:11] Bo Eason: And then the last one is the story. You have to live the story out. I wasn’t a great screenwriter to begin with, but I got pretty damn good after I started acting like a screenwriter. I just started carrying myself different because he’s the best screenwriter in Hollywood told me I could do it. Not the second best screenwriter, not the third, not the worst screenwriter, the best said you got this.

[28:37] Bo Eason: And I, somehow I believe him. I go, okay, if you say so. You know, and I just don’t think there’s enough of those people in the world either, right? Like when, when, when people come up and tell you their dreams and then the first thing the parent does or the coach does is just squash the dream instead of going, you know what?

[28:57] Bo Eason: I like where you’re going with this.

[28:59] Jim Harshaw Jr.: I’ve had that done many, many times in my life. Squashed the dream, lower your goals, settle for less. Things are okay as they, as they are. And you got to override that. Is there an investment that you’ve made in your career in terms of time or money or energy that, that you feel has been the best investment and maybe you already shared it and if so, we can move on to the next question, but is there, is there an investment that you made it, whether time or money or energy that has significantly improved your performance and or your mindset?

[29:29] Bo Eason: Yeah. I think the biggest investment that helped me the most is the one that Warren Buffett says. That if he could do it all over again, this is the investment he would make. He would learn to speak publicly. He would learn to be a public speaker. He thinks that would, that would, uh, grow his wealth. He could

[29:48] Jim Harshaw Jr.: really get rich then.

[29:49] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Yeah, right. Really rich. Yeah.

[29:52] Bo Eason: But I thought that’s funny coming from him. But I, somehow I heard that, I somehow I understood that to be true and took that on and I got trained at that. At the ability to share myself, you know, personally and storytelling. And I have found that all the brands that I’ve built and the occupations that I’ve had, that’s another principle.

[30:18] Bo Eason: I always lead with story. The ability. To just get in front of a person or in front of several people and tell them your vision and tell them what you want and tell them what you want for them and tell the story where you came from. That has been the biggest thing for me to get people to help me, to have people join the dream.

[30:41] Bo Eason: Like my son, he has a dream of being a Super Bowl quarterback, right? So if he comes up to you, Because he’s 17. If he comes up to you, Jim, and he goes, Hey, Jim, I have this dream of winning like more Super Bowls than Tom Brady. Well, somebody like you, Jim, is going to go like this. Okay. That sounds good. Let’s figure this out.

[31:03] Bo Eason: Hey, Axel, I know a nutritionist that you might want to work with. I know a mindset coach who I want to pass your way. You’d go to work for Axel, wouldn’t you? Well, that’s what greats do. So we just don’t tell people our dreams. We don’t share ourselves in front of them, so they don’t know what to do. They don’t know how they can be a part of this dream.

[31:27] Bo Eason: And I noticed that as I look back, all of my dreams, once I told people what I wanted, they went to bat for me. Some of them were strangers. They were just moved by my ability to be in front of them and share with them. And they wanted to be a part of that. And that’s why storytelling for me, and that’s why I train people this way, is to physically be able to embody your story.

[31:56] Bo Eason: And then rehearse, rehearse, rehearse, and just keep going day in and day out with your story and your vision. And eventually, The world comes to your service. It helps you. And then all of a sudden, you’re not, you don’t have to get anywhere. Like my brother told my son the other day, he goes, Axel, you don’t have to try to be a Super Bowl quarterback.

[32:21] Bo Eason: You’re already being it. There’s no place for you to go. You’re just running miles. You’re waiting. You’re working hard. You’re being great to people. You’re learning how to lead. You’re learning how to persevere. You’re learning how to handle a bad coach. You’re learning how to handle a big crowd and that’s all you’re doing.

[32:39] Bo Eason: You’re not getting anywhere. You’re already being a Superbowl quarterback. A Superbowl quarterback has to be something. They don’t have to get something. They already are.

[32:52] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Be yeah. Be that person first.

[32:54] Bo Eason: Yeah, so it, and once you know your story and you’re, you can physicalize it and carry it everywhere you, you go, I don’t know.

[33:03] Bo Eason: My experience is, and the people that I trained to do this, my experience of them is their companies and their projects, whatever they’re building grows. Just gross, because they’re, and I think it’s an attractive thing. I think once somebody gets clear on their vision and the ability to articulate it, I think they get very attractive.

[33:26] Bo Eason: Have you ever been around somebody, I remember being in a class and, and a girl was up doing a scene, and I wasn’t particularly, She wasn’t classically beautiful. I wasn’t naturally attracted to her, but she did something really courageous on stage, like kind of revealed something about herself. And I was like, Oh my God, I think I’m in love with this girl.

[33:47] Bo Eason: All of a sudden it’s, it just changed like that because somebody had courage. You know, and was willing to, you know, expose a little bit of vulnerability about their own upbringing or about their own shortcomings.

[34:02] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Yeah, and makes that person more attractive, makes you want to help that person, connect to that person, help them move towards their dream or their vision.

[34:11] Bo Eason: Yep.

[34:13] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Bo, tell us about your book, There’s No Plan B for Your A Game.

[34:16] Bo Eason: Yeah, that, you know, it’s so funny, I, I always tell people, or I was told when I was trained to be able to be on stage and, and tell a story, people said to me, my teachers, they would say, you know, once you master the art of human expression, then people are going to invent occupations that you don’t have.

[34:37] Bo Eason: And I was like, wait, what? What does that even mean? And it was true. It turned out being true. As soon as I got really good at it, people would come up and go, you’re a screenwriter, you’re a book author, you’re a speaker, you’re a, you know what I mean? They’re like making up. I go, no, I’m not. And they go, yeah, you are.

[34:54] Bo Eason: Because it’s, it’s that whole old saying, you know, Jim, which I love this quote, master one thing, master all things. Master one thing, master all things. So I wrote, a book publisher came to me, said, Hey, I think there’s a book in you. There’s no plan B for your A game. I always used to talk about, I didn’t talk about it much today, but options like the people who have the most options in life usually are kind of mediocre.

[35:22] Bo Eason: The people who have no options, but the gold medal. usually win the gold medal. That’s where the title came from. And I, me and my brother growing up, you know, we grew up on a farm. There wasn’t, I didn’t, I wasn’t interested in farming. All, all my teammates, all my buddies, they became, you know, farmers. And so I, we, me and my brother were like, what the hell?

[35:45] Bo Eason: There’s no options for us out here. We better play pro football.

[35:52] Bo Eason: And so that’s, that’s kind of how it works. So the book kind of came from there and it just Follows the principles that we talked about today, as far as bringing your dreams and your declaration into existence. And, you know, the people that are involved, the actual nuts and bolts of how to write up your declaration, how to draw it up, how I did it and how I stayed loyal to it, all those things.

[36:17] Bo Eason: So that’s where the book came from because the publisher came and she said, you know, people stay up at night wondering what it would take to be world class. And I go, yeah, that’s true. She goes, well, you seem to know how to do it in different occupations. Can you teach them to do it? And I said, yeah, let me just retrace my steps and think about what we did and how we did it.

[36:41] Bo Eason: So that’s where the book came from. So it’s been an eight time bestseller. So I didn’t realize that that was good, but they told me that was good. Sounds pretty good.

[36:52] Jim Harshaw Jr.: It’s not too shabby.

[36:55] Bo Eason: Yeah, so that, that’s the book. No, no plan B for your A game. And there’s, there’s one little gem. There’s one thing in there.

[37:03] Bo Eason: I have a little section in that book that it’s called, it’s a section that’s called Get A Dawn. And my wife’s name is Dawn. And I always tell my clients, hey, Hey, you know what you need? You need a don. You, you get a, you better get a don. I can’t, even women I say that to. Doesn’t matter, you need a don. And because my wife is like this really beautiful gal, but she is like a grizzly bear with cubs when it comes to dreams.

[37:33] Bo Eason: So if you have a dream or your, your kids have a dream, she will make sure they happen and she will destroy anything in front of you. And that’s what she did for me. She does that for my kids, for my clients. And so I guess that would be another principle too, is just that other, that co creator that we all need that is just in your corner and they are totally Unbending with their commitment.

[38:00] Bo Eason: Get it on. Yeah. So you got to have one.

[38:02] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Bo, there’s so many great takeaways from this episode today. For the listener who wants to learn more from you, where can they buy your book? Find you, follow you, et cetera.

[38:11] Bo Eason: Yeah. The, um, you know, on Instagram, it’s BeauEason21. At Bowie’s and 21 is, is Instagram. The book you can get wherever books are sold.

[38:20] Bo Eason: It’s all over the place. Uh, no plan B for your A game. And if you like Jim, or if you’re cool with this, I can give them a number to text that they can begin. It’s just a free something we send out that is a story playbook that gets them started on their story. Because most of the time when I’m training story, Which is every day people go like this.

[38:44] Bo Eason: I don’t have a story. Well, that’s just not true. I haven’t met anyone who doesn’t have a great, great dramatic story. And that story, I always think is the most valuable thing that you’ve got. If you’re in the business of building something like a business or coaching business or a company or your kids, once you know the story, then you know how to rehearse and you know how to live that thing into existence.

[39:06] Bo Eason: So I can give you a phone number. Text personal story. So text personal story to 323 310 5504.

[39:19] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Can you repeat? Go ahead and repeat that number.

[39:21] Bo Eason: 323 310 5504.

[39:28] Bo Eason: Text personal story to that and we’ll send you a, a story playbook and you get started on your story because that’s the thing. People just don’t start. You know, you start like today, like being the best at whatever you want today. You start acting like it, like you walk into Starbucks, like you’re the best in the world at whatever you choose.

[39:48] Bo Eason: Well, you walk differently. You act differently. Your energy’s different and then things show up. So I’d love for you to know your story and actually embody that thing.

[39:58] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Listeners, you’re hearing it from a guy who’s lived it out and he’s found success in so many different areas. I mean, success leaves clues.

[40:04] Jim Harshaw Jr.: So Bo, this was such a fun conversation. Uh, really enjoyed it. Super great. Grateful to Scott Mann, a mutual friend of ours who I’ve had on the podcast a couple of times who connected us. So Bo, thanks for making time to come on the show.

[40:15] Bo Eason: Thank you, Jim. Thanks for having me.

Note: This text was automatically generated.