[Transcript] – How A 9-Year-Old Created A 20-Year Plan To Play In The NFL, How To Move So People Can’t Take Their Eyes Off You, Parenting Tips For Raising Impactful Children & More With Bo Eason.

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Transcripts

May 20, 2021

From podcast: https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/podcast/parenting-tips-for-raising-impactful-children-more-with-bo-eason/

[00:00:00] Introduction

[00:00:54] Gues Introduction

[00:02:19] Podcast Sponsors

[00:04:29] How Bo's “Best” Program Stemmed From His Upbringing

[00:16:30] How Bo Improved His Speed

[00:19:40] How Bo's Unique Movements Influence His Stage Presence

[00:25:30] The One Key Element In Making Bo's Play So Successful

[00:26:41] Podcast Sponsors

[00:29:18] cont.  The One Key Element In Making Bo's Play So Successful

[00:32:10] Why The FBI And CIA Needed Jean-Louis's Training.

[00:40:55] Why The Way We Walk Into A Room Matters

[00:44:26] How Bo Uses Storytelling, Voice Timbre, Tone, And Inflection To Capture Audiences

[00:51:00] The Bridge Between The Hero's Journey And Great Stories

[00:55:30] What Bo Does To Influence His Children To Go After Their Dreams

[01:02:02] Closing the Podcast

[01:03:27] End of Podcast

Ben:  On this episode of the Ben Greenfield Fitness Podcast:

Bo:  I just remember when my dad would say that to us, I would look behind me, like, “Is he telling me I am?” Because I don't feel like it. If you're unapologetic, everybody in Starbucks feels the safety that you provide inside that environment. If you can bridge trust between human beings, rebuild that trust that's been eroded over time, you just became a leader. Musicians who have to have stage gravitas. Guess what all of his training is based on. It's based on–

Ben:  Health, performance, nutrition, longevity, ancestral living, biohacking, and much more. My name is Ben Greenfield. Welcome to the show.

Alright, you guys, this is it. My guest on today's show is a guy I hung out with for a few days with in LA while speaking at his event. And, he's a pretty cool dude. You may have heard of him before because he was a guy who started his career in the NFL as top pick for the Houston Oilers, and then he played for the San Francisco 49ers and played with some of the greatest players in his generation as a defensive back and safety. And, he's also a speaker. He's a performer. He's an author. His name is Bo Eason. In 2001, coming out of the NFL, he wrote and performed a one-man play called “Runt of the Litter,” one-man play, one of the most powerful plays in the last decade, The New York Times called it.

So, Bo toured with that in over 50 cities. And, that's now being adopted as a major motion picture, that one-man play. And, he's trained with some of the world's best and most brilliant performance and movement and voice coaches. And, now, what he does is he helps people tap into their own personal story and become really good communicators and really good movers and really good athletes and really good stage speakers. He's got a book called “There's No Plan B For Your A-Game.” He teaches this stuff to people all over the world, both online and in in-person courses.

And so, I'll link to all of that and everything we talk about if you go to BenGreenfieldFitness.com/BoEason. That's BenGreenfieldFitness.com/B-O-E-A-S-O-N.

By the way, I'm happy to share with you that this podcast is now available through Samsung. That's apparently very important because it wasn't possible in the past, but now it is. Navigate to the Listen tab of the Samsung free app, and you give me a listen over there. Give us a listen over there. As always, the best way to support the show is by leaving a review. So, if you're listening on Samsung free, I want to hear from you. So, leave a review, baby. Alright, Samsung Galaxy and all that jazz, you can get the show there now.

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Well, Bo, I have to say that this is probably one of the stranger beverages that I've drank yet during a podcast. But, I have to say this hair-brained idea of mine that I sprouted yesterday isn't half bad.

Bo:  You know what? It actually gives the coffee some weight and almost like a latte feel.

Ben:  Some pluckiness.

Bo:  Pluckiness, there you go.

Ben:  We took vanilla stevia, which I always have around because it makes all my sparkling water taste like vanilla cream soda. But then, I was here at Bo's event. And, it was a fabulous event that I'll explain to you momentarily. But, one of the guys there at the event handed everybody this yellow packet of this stuff called Pluck. And, it's like salt made out of organ meats. It's like liver and kidney and spleen and heart and pancreas, but it's a seasoning with some smoked paprika, lemon peel, black peppered, mustard seed, parsley, green onion, and thyme, which basically makes it sound like it tastes ass, but it's actually pretty good. It's this savory salty. It's called Pluck. Shout-out to them. So, it's in my coffee. So, my coffee is one big brown liquid multivitamin. It's pretty good.

Bo, this is a cool event that you put on. I came down and talked to some people about health, but you call it “Best.”

Bo:  The Best.

Ben:  The Best. What's “Best” stand for?

Bo:  It doesn't stand for anything.

Ben:  I thought it stood for “Bo-Eason-something-something.”

Bo:  No, no. Somebody said that during the event.

Ben:  Yeah, that's me.

Bo:  That's the first time I've ever heard that. It's just the way my dad woke me up, who woke all of us up. I'm the youngest of six kids. So, my dad woke us up every morning at 5:00 a.m. because he's a farmer, a rancher. And so, they'd get up early.

Ben:  How old were you when you started getting up at 5:00 a.m.?

Bo:  Right from the get-go.

Ben:  Wow.

Bo:  So, that's how he woke us up, that I could hear. So, I'm the youngest. So, I have sisters that are 11, 10, 9 years older than me. And then, me and my brother are the two youngest. I could hear him coming down the hall every morning. I knew he started in the older sister's rooms, and then, eventually, get to me and my brothers.

Ben:  You could hear his footsteps coming down the hall at 5:00 a.m.?

Bo:  Yeah, and you could hear him whispering, too. So, he'd pull back the covers. He'd rub our back rough, not gently waking up.

Ben:  Not like, “Let's snuggle.”

Bo:  And, he would whisper in our ears and he would drop cuss words along the way.

Ben:  Wow.

Bo:  Because that's how he–I don't know why all the men of that generation ended every sentence with a cuss word.

Ben:  Wow.

Bo:  But, he was one of them. And, he would rub our backs, and he'd whisper in our ears, and tell us we were the best. And so, years–

Ben:  That's nice. So, it was a rough back-rubbing, but you're starting with the positive affirmation.

Bo:  That's right. That's right. And so, for the first 18 years in my life, that's how I got woke up until I went off to college and moved out. But then, when I came back, when I was married and come back with kids, when we'd go visit my mom and dad, he would do the same thing. He would say the same thing. He'd rub our backs the same way, all those years later. So, when I started waking my kids up, I just automatically started waking them up like that, same way.

Because when we were kids, it was a source of embarrassment. Me and my brother, growing up, he would say it in front of other parents. He would say it in front of our friends.

Ben:  He would tell you you were the best in front of other parents and other kids?

Bo:  Yeah, but he also told them they were the best, too. So, it wasn't like he was trying to–

Ben:  He's like, “Everybody, be your own best,” that type of thing.

Bo:  Yeah.

Ben:  Not like, “My kids are better than all the other kids.”

Bo:  No, it wasn't like that.

Ben:  I get that.

Bo:  He said it to them, too. He said it to my sister's friends, our friends. But, we were always embarrassed, like at Little League, when he'd scream it through the backstop, like, “You're the best.” And, I'd be striking out, going, “I'm actually not,” because I just struck out.

Ben:  You train people at these events. I guess, the best way I would describe it, is to be the best version of themselves and you have people following all these positive affirmations and you call them declarations, as they each, the guy here with the liver seasoning, growing that business. Another gal I sat in on a few of the sessions, she's trying to be the best cybersecurity expert in the world. And, another gal, a life coach who reaches a billion people. But, for you, starting off with that mentality of the best that your dad would whisper in your ear when he wake you up with that rough back rub in the morning, did you actually grow up really truly convinced that you were the best? Because I know you played in the NFL, and we can get a little bit here into how that progressed for you from childhood. But, did you actually grow up thinking that you were going to be the best in whatever you tried?

Bo:  At first, no, even though he continued. He was really consistent all the way through. I remember, when me and my brother, we both had this dream of playing in the NFL. And, we came from a high school that never had a pro athlete, a very small little high school.

Ben:  Where did you get that dream from? Was your dad in the football?

Bo:  My dad played football. He was in the military. He fought in Korea. He was mostly just around animals his whole life, animal husbandry.

But, I didn't really believe it at first. I thought he was talking to my brother, because my brother and I were together because we were only a year apart. So, we played sports together. We had this dream together. But, in my eyes, my brother was much bigger, much better than me, and just still to this day, one of the greatest athletes I've ever seen. And, growing up with that, I was small. I was much smaller. And, my job was just to try to keep up with him. I knew I'd be okay if I did that.

So, I just remember when my dad would say that to us, I would look behind me, like, “Who is he talking? Is he really talking to me? Is he telling me I am?” Because I don't feel like it.

Ben:  Physically?

Bo:  Yeah. But then, it was time for us to go to college. So, for our dream to come true to play in the NFL, obviously, you got to play college football. My brother and I both didn't get scholarships. And, not only did we not get scholarships–

Ben:  Were you good, though, in high school?

Bo:  Yeah.

Ben:  Did you think you were going to get a scholarship based on how you were performing in high school?

Bo:  I didn't know because it was much different back then. They had to actually send a coach or a scout out to see you. And, we were way out in the sticks. And, we had a really good team. In fact, I always tell this story, but it's a statistical anomaly. It just can't happen. And, it happened at my high school. So, the high school I went to has never had a pro athlete of any kind, before I got there, and never won since I left.

Ben:  Wow.

Bo:  So, it's like 100 years of the high school's existence. But, here's the cool thing. So, me and my brother both had these dreams. And, the statistics for high school football are there's 1.2 million high school football players in the country, and that's how many there were in 1978, '79 when we were in high school. So, the statistics of those 1.2 million is, 0.03% of those 1.2 million, 0.03% will play NFL football.

Ben:  Wow.

Bo:  So, that's the statistics. So, off my little high school team that's never had a pro athlete, we had 27 farm boys on that team. And, we were good. We thought we were good. And, we were. We were undefeated. Four guys out of those 27 played in the NFL for a total of 25 years, two Super Bowls. There's no statistics for it.

Ben:  There was something in the drinking water.

Bo:  That's what everyone–

Ben:  Or, the cow's milk or whatever you guys were feeding on back then.

Bo:  That's what everybody always says.

Ben:  Wow.

Bo:  Like, “What was going on there? What was happening? Why?”

Ben:  Interesting.

Bo:  It's almost like one of those hotbeds of talent that Daniel Coyle talks about, like most Olympic medals in swimming have come out of one pool in Northern Maryland in Baltimore. And then, the greatest number-one tennis players, women's tennis players, come out of a little crummy tennis court in Russia.

Ben:  Personally, as much as I embrace to a certain extent, the woo and the energy vortices that you find in Big Sur or Ojai or Sedona and areas where there's less geopathic stress and all that jazz, I don't think it's that as much as you are the equivalent of who you hang out with, and if you come from an area where even just during a brief period of time, you had four fantastic football players at school, I'll bet you guys all pushed each other to be a little bit more next level than you would have pushed if you had been on your own.

Bo:  Of course. I think it's because we had these dreams and they were public, like we told people about it. I remember they laughed, or, “We don't have athletes from this part of the world that. It just doesn't happen here.” Because we stayed loyal to our dreams, I think other kids saw the possibilities. They go, “Wow, if Bo is going to do this, I certainly can do it. Let's look at him.” And, the crazy part is, Ben, out of those 27 boys, four of us played in the NFL for all those years. There were four or five other guys on that team that were better than us.

Ben:  No kidding.

Bo:  If you can imagine that, four or five guys better, bigger, faster.

Ben:  Subjectively to you, or, statistically, they were better?

Bo:  Well, it was hard to keep the statistics because it was different positions. But, in my eyes, in all of our eyes, we're like, “Those guys can play.”

Ben:  But, you made it from high school to college. You weren't quite sure you were going to, though, to get into college football?

Bo:  Yeah, because no one recruited, neither my brother and myself.

Ben:  What'd you do? How did you wind up getting into college football?

Bo:  I went to a school called UC Davis, which is a Division II football at that time with no scholarship. So, basically, you just walk on and you can play there. And so, I went there. And, that was fairly close to where I grew up. Went there, and then kept the dream alive there.

Ben:  Your brother didn't?

Bo:  My brother went to a junior college, just obviously, no scholarships at a junior college in Sacramento. And, after two years there, he then got a scholarship to the University Of Illinois, which, within a season, he had broken every record and was a Heisman Trophy candidate, the number one pick in the New England Patriots. He's the first quarterback to take New England to a Super Bowl.

Ben:  And, what was his name?

Bo:  Tony Eason.

Ben:  Tony Eason.

Bo:  And then, he was first-round pick. I was a second-round pick to the Houston Oilers in 1984.

Ben:  Did you play the same position high school through college into the NFL?

Bo:  Yeah, I was a defensive back. I was a free safety in the NFL. In high school, I played both ways because we didn't have enough guys. So, I played offense and defense. So, the one thing that I tell people and I go, “Look, the whole 13 years toward chasing that dream, every day it seemed like it wasn't going to happen. Every day. And then, every day, a little glimmer would show you, maybe, it is going to happen.” And, the rest of the day would be like there's no way this is happening.

Ben:  What size were you, physically, height and weight?

Bo:  Pretty small. So, when I went to high school, so I was 13 or 14, I remember the weigh-ins. I was 100 pounds and 5 feet tall. But, I grew, because now, I'm 6'2.” So, I was a big free safety in the NFL in the '80s. I was 6'2″, about 216, about same the weight that you were in college. Now, I'm 180, 185.

Ben:  The same way I was eating 6,000 calories a day and living in the gym.

Bo:  And, that's what they did with me once I got to the college level.

So, I was pretty small, but I could run. I was pretty fast. And, I got faster as I got older. As I matured, I got really fast until I could really run.

Ben:  Do you think that was one of your keys to success, was your speed?

Bo:  Heck, yeah.

Ben:  Why do you think you were so fast?

Bo:  Well, I worked on it a lot.

Ben:  How did you work on it?

Bo:  Well, I ran a lot. I ran a lot of track. My form wasn't perfect. I don't know how this miracle happened. One day, my dad shows up. So, my dad, you got to imagine this. So, he's a cowboy kind of guy, but he played football in college at Cal Poly.

Ben:  Who can't walk softly at 5:00 a.m., we've already suggested.

Bo:  That's right, and has rough dirty hands. And, he brings home– This is in the '70s, so this was before speed coaches were around. He brings this guy who's a speed coach to our little grass area where we would work out at the elementary school where we grew up. I grew up in a town with 725 people, so we had a little elementary school with a little patch of grass. And, that's where me and my brother trained for the pros, right there. And, we were about 14 and 15 right around there. So, this was mid-'70s. And, my dad shows up with a speed coach. I don't know how the heck he even found him.

Ben:  Like a bag full of ladders and cones?

Bo:  He didn't have that stuff yet, but he was helping–So, the Russians were always beating the Americans in the sprints in the Olympics back in the '70s. He went over to Russia and was studying what they did.

Ben:  Like a spy.

Bo:  He was like a spy. He brought those things back to America. And, me and my brother were just lucky enough. And, I don't know how it all transpired. I just remember him showing up at this little grass with us, with my dad, and teaching us plyometrics, which we've never heard of, form-running, like A skips, B skips, and all the bounding, all that stuff, way–

Ben:  In the '70s, that would have been–Even for me, because I've been reading the “Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research” since I was in college. And, that was in the late '90s. Plyometrics and bounding and skipping and hopping were still pretty cool and novel, even in the in 2000–that would have been 2004, 2005. So, in the '70s, that was definitely before its time.

Bo:  Yeah, I don't know, that's what's so crazy. Before my dad died, I wasn't able to let go, “Where did you get this dude?” Because I remember we'd be out there doing–Imagine this in the '70s. You're on this grass and you're doing A skips and you're doing bounding, and you're doing B skips. And, the neighborhood kids would come out and they would be cracking up, because it looks so foreign and so funny, like a dance move, that we were trying to coordinate ourselves to do. But, I'm telling you, Ben, right when that happened, whoa, me and my brother took off to another level of athleticism because we could outrun everybody on the court or on the field.

And, once you have that advantage, then you start to put things together. You're like, “If I walk on any field, for the rest of my life, and I can outrun everybody on it, that's good for me. That's a big advantage.” And, that's how I made my bones.

Ben:  Obviously, playing professional sport, but I'm sure doing entire podcast on your career in the NFL. But, you're obviously not only using your speed to your advantage, but your movement and your body awareness in general, I would imagine, especially with a career as a pro athlete, not only is naturally high but then develops and becomes even greater in that scenario. One thing that I've noticed about you when you're on stage when you're speaking is you move in a very unique fashion, almost like it's hard for people to take their eyes off you with the way that you move your body. Is that something that you developed in the NFL? Or, is that something that became part of your speaking career afterwards, just this whole movement, we're on the topic of, what it is that got you success in the NFL?

Bo:  Yeah, partly. Partly due to the prowess that you have to have on an NFL field just to survive. So, you get a sense of your own animal instincts. You get a real sense. And, it's actually acknowledged instead of being frowned upon. You get a sense of your predatory nature out there, especially if you're a defender, like I was, who have to defend the fastest men in the world and stop them. That's your job. So, you have to be very unapologetic physically, because if they smell, these guys, they're predator animals basically out there, especially back in the '80s. So, if they sense weakness, you're going down. So, I learned part of it there, just purely a survival method.

Ben:  Moving with confidence.

Bo:  Yes.

Ben:  But, also moving, did you have an actual animal that you would visualize and channel, or was it just like being a predator?

Bo:  Not in the NFL. I didn't know to have an animal. But, literally, some of the guys I played against, guys like Barry Sanders or Bo Jackson, Herschel Walker, Walter Payton, I give them animals. When I go up to tackle them, I'm like, “Damn, how am I going to get my arms around? How am I going to get this dude to the ground?” Because when you grab a dude like that, it's different than grabbing a regular man. You know what I mean? When you put your arms around somebody like that and try to get them to the ground, it's a different animal.

And, I always thought, “Man…” We had this one guy named Earl Campbell who was one of the great running backs of all time. We played together, and then we traded him. I had to play against him. And, he just would destroy defenders, and it would take seven, eight guys to get him on the ground. So, basically, if you're the first guy in there, you're just hanging on to a shoelace if you can and wait for your teammates to get there. And, it felt not like a man. When you're grabbing somebody's leg or somebody's calf or somebody's haunches, it doesn't feel like–

Ben:  It's much more like springy, coily, like that?

Bo:  Yes, and expansive. It expands once you grab it.

Ben:  Super interesting.

Bo:  So, I remember–Isn't that wild?

Ben:  Well, there is this idea that despite them being a similar size as humans, some primates, like chimpanzees, for example, are disproportionately strong based on their body size. But, it's because both the humans and the chimpanzees have a Golgi tendon organ in the muscle belly that contracts at a certain point to keep the muscle from tearing itself. It's kind of the governor of the muscle.

Bo:  Wow.

Ben:  And, when you see a mother lift a burning car off of her baby that's trapped underneath, you see, basically, what would be an example of a complete disinhibition of that Golgi tendon reflex. And, it turns out that some people actually have, basically, a higher governor point at which that Golgi tendon organ kicks in and says, “We got to hold this muscle back now because it's contracting too hard, it's going to rip the tendon off the bone,” or something of that nature.

And so, I would imagine there might be a little bit of a component where their springiness is so enhanced, not only due to plyometrics and speed training, maybe, a higher fast-switch muscle fiber capacity or whatever, but also due to the fact that their brains just aren't shutting down those muscles quite as readily quite as quickly.

Bo:  Yeah. So, it's something I never experienced in high school, I never experienced in college, but once you got to the best of the best, running backs, especially, built that way low to the ground thick and just glutes power. And, I never forget this experience. Normally, when you get your arms around another man, your arms are locked in and you got them, and you just get him to the ground. Well, I just remember this experience grabbing this kind of players, like Earl Campbell, around like that, and then their body expanding right when I grabbed them. And then, my hands came apart.

Ben:  It's crazy.

Bo:  Isn't that crazy?

Ben:  Yeah.

Bo:  And, I go, “Actually, I've never felt that before. It's like an animal.” Remember how Popeye would eat the spinach and then he would expand, the cartoon?

Ben:  Yeah.

Bo:  Well, that's what these guys–

Ben:  I wonder how much it was just diaphragmatic rib cage air expansion from them just, “Ugh,” right as you hit them, or whether they actually, if you watch a bodybuilder on stage, for example, when they contract the muscle, it just keeps contracting and contracting, and it just balloons in size. Maybe, something like that but done just over a split second, just boom. That's crazy.

Bo:  Yeah. So, I had that sense, but I wasn't really trained at it. It was mostly a survival mechanism. Then, after I got done playing and I got into writing, I wrote a play and it became a hit, it went to New York, all over the country for several years, that's where I learned to move on stage.

Because the guy who directed my play, “Runt of the Litter,” when we went to New York, he said to me, and he didn't know anything about football or athletics, he was a great acting teacher and a great performance coach, and he said, “Okay, Bo, here's what we're going to do before we go to New York. We are going to hire a movement coach.” And, I'm like, “Are you kidding me? I'm an elite athlete, dude. I don't need a movement coach. I never even heard of a movement.”

Sure enough, brings in the guy named Jean-Louis Rodrigue. That's his name.

Ben:  Jean-Louis Rodrigue.

Bo:  Jean-Louis Rodrigue, he is a professor at UCLA. He is the Master of Movement.

Ben:  Wow.

Bo:  In all of his movements. So, not only does he coach me and the people that I work with who need stage presence, he works with Leonardo DiCaprio. He works with Tobey Maguire. He works with Margot Robbie, the best actors on the planet. He works with musicians who have to have stage gravitas and weight.

Ben:  Wow.

Bo:  Guess what all of his training is based on. It's based on predator animals.

Ben:  Wow.

Bo:  Crazy, right?

Ben:  What are the chances? And, you were already pre-programmed for that in the NFL.

Bo:  That's exactly right.

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Bo:  They explained to me that, look, moving on stage is a little bit different than moving on the field, because you're going to have to do this performance over and over and over again, in which I did do the performance 1,300 times over–

Ben:  The Broadway performance that you wrote after getting out of the NFL?

Bo:  Yeah. So, he came on board. We started picking animals like you asked me earlier. And so, we picked for that performance, particularly, it was a cheetah.

Ben:  So, you had to pick from a predatory animal?

Bo:  Yes.

Ben:  What would be another example of a predatory animal or some of the others, like a panther or a lion?

Bo:  A panther, a lion, a great white orca.

Ben:  It'd be hard to move like an orca on stage.

Bo:  Right, but it's not. Here's the cool part, Ben. It's not that you have to move like an orca, but you take on their sensibilities on stage. Here's the great part: audience does not know what you're doing. All they know is they're not looking away. That's the–

Ben:  They can't keep their eyes off you. They don't know why, but they can't keep their eyes off you.

Bo:  That's the promise of this kind of work. I would dare anybody to be in a live audience, or even virtually, with a predator that can eat you, and you look away. As human beings, we're locked in on them. If I put a lion on a stage in front of you live, you're not walking around. You're not casual. You're not looking at your phone. You're not throwing peanuts at the lion to mess with it. You're locked in for survival purposes on a predator that has brought danger to the room and a sense of nobility and trustworthiness. That's how I was taught to be on stage, because these two guys that I trained with, Jean-Louis being one, Larry Moss being the other, the one thing I noticed about all the performers that they worked with is they won Academy Awards or they won musical awards. Something about them, you couldn't look away from them. So, here's what happens. I'm performing like this predator on stage, and as it turns out–

Ben:  Moving like, you said, a cat, a cheetah.

Bo:  A cheetah, yeah. So, very sleek, very fast, but a real sense of vulnerability.

Ben:  Tell me you didn't have the leotards on, though.

Bo:  No leotards.

Ben:  Okay, no cheetah leotards.

Bo:  And, no, it's funny because no one knows, because they can't see that you're being a predator cat. They just don't understand why they're not leaving or standing up and walking out or going to the bathroom or calling their spouse during the performance. So, that's why we did it. So, as it turns out, Ben, and I think your audience would be really interested to know this,  it's so cool about Jean-Louis. Jean-Louis is just regular dude who trains people how to be unapologetic about their predatory nature, which gives them a sense of gravitas and power.

What happens is the FBI comes calling. So the FBI one day calls Jean-Louis. And, they're like, “This is the FBI.” And, Jean-Louis is like, “Shit, what did I do? Was I on the wrong website?” He's panicking like you and I would do if they called us. What was happening at the FBI, and Jean-Louis can't tell me everything, but he can tell me some things, what was happening at the FBI was, over in the Middle East, our FBI agents who are infiltrating those cells, who are Middle Eastern descent guys themselves, but they were Americans infiltrating the cells, what was happening, they were being killed at these high rates because their bodies were betraying them. They would spend years training these guys, years trying to get them on the inside of the cell close to the leader. Once they got close to the leader, the leader would embrace them and then step away and kill them. And, it wasn't anything they were doing. It wasn't anything they were saying that was wrong. They were playing the part right. Their heart was pounding.

Ben:  That's when he hugged him, he could feel the heart.

Bo:  He could feel it. And, you know, obviously, if you're infiltrating the cell, those cell leaders, they're predatory animals, just like the NFL, just like what I've been taught to be on stage. So, they started training with Jean-Louis the top 15 agents. Imagine this, in Hollywood, in a little theater, they rent a little theater, got 15 of the top agents. He can't say what they look like. He can't say anything about them. He's training them to not allow their body to betray them. So, now, think about that.

Ben:  Or, even their physiology. He's training them to even control their heart.

Bo:  Yeah, so think about that now, say you're a speaker, say you're a writer and you have to do speeches, or anybody who presents, which is all of us, and you have this in your pocket, the same training the FBI agents have because they got to be a lot better performers than you and me. But, Jean-Louis doesn't see it like that.

Ben:  We might not have access to beta-blockers or their heart rate.

Bo:  That's right. He said, “They're the best performers I've ever seen because they have to be.”

Ben:  Wow.

Bo:  Because if you're off there, you're dead. But, isn't that true for you and me, too, if you think about it? If you and me–

Ben:  Look at it from Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs standpoint, yeah, to a certain extent. But, subconsciously, I really don't think that our lizard brain is able to recognize a giant audience that we are super fearful of, that we associate with a negative outcome, should things go wrong, and an actual, whatever, army attacking us or a lion about to eat us. I think that, sometimes, we can spin our subconscious into the same state.

Bo:  Yeah, I agree.

Ben:  So, there is a certain, I suppose, fear of death when you're on stage. People, that is literal.

Bo:  Well, it is. I've often felt like that, like, “Shoot, if I fail right now with the New York critics in the house, I'm done. They're going to send me home.” So, it felt like death. So, then, after the success that the FBI started to have, working with Jean-Louis, the CIA came along and wanted the same training. So, the bottom line is, I always take comfort in that I've worked with the guy who the agents of our country to keep us safe are using also. And, that's why, at all my events, and when I bring up physicality as a part of my training, people are like, “What do you mean physicality? I don't have to be physical. I just have to move my mouth. I just have to talk,” you find out that talking doesn't move the dial. The mouth doesn't really move the dial. Your body does. Your physicality, and–

Ben:  Anybody who has watched someone give a speech from behind a lectern with a bunch of slides that he's pointing a laser pointer at knows the difference between that and that person who's–I guess you could use an analogy in the realm of Christian pastors that you see. There's the stereotypical guy with the neat suit and tie standing behind the oak lectern and giving a message, again, with a PowerPoint behind him. And then, there's a guy like Joel Austin, just all over the stage and moving and waving the hands in a manner that definitely dictates that he's much harder to ignore.

Bo:  And, in the times that we live in now where the trust level is so low because Gallup's done a poll ever since 1974 every year on the trust level in America, and it's never been lower. It's at its all-time low. So, to restore that trust, that's going to be leaders. That's the position that I know that I'm trying to play, and I'm sure you are, too. To get that trust, you have to show people your body. They have to be able to see your body because people believe–

Ben:  Even your hands, too. That's what I've heard, is that you must show your hands if you want to be trusted.

Bo:  Yeah, 100%.

Ben:  People don't want to subconsciously think that they might be hiding a weapon or hiding something away from them. Showing the hands is a sign of trust.

Bo:  That's right.

Ben:  And, you can trust me.

Bo:  So, the people believe about 50% of what comes out of your mouth, and that's just across the board. You might be telling the truth the whole way. And, 50% of it's not being believed, not being trusted. But, your body trusted is trusted 100% of the time because a body can't lie. A few years ago, ESPN started putting poker. You ever seen this? They put poker on —

Ben:  Eh? Texas HoldEm.

Bo:  Yeah, on sports. And, I'm like, “Why is this?”

Ben:  ESPN2, but it's not the ESPN.

Bo:  But, I always thought because I'm not a card player, but I'm like, “Why?” And, it's all because of the body. Everyone's watching for a tell. Watching for a reveal. Watching, “Am I trusting this guy or not?” Same thing we do with politicians, which is why they stand behind podiums because just imagine what's happening behind that podium. Their body is betraying them. So, if those politicians were trying to infiltrate a cell, they would not make it, not very long. But, that's why they stand behind those lecterns that you just mentioned. My mouth is trying to tell you the truth, what I want you to believe, but behind this lectern, you don't know what's going on. And, if I can't look at somebody's legs or the way their feet are sitting or their hands, like you said, I don't trust them.

Ben:  Well, comma, all my notes are on the lectern, too. But, I've noticed that the guys who do a good job moving around stage, sometimes, for a massive 40-minute sermon or something like that, there's a lectern up there, and every once in a while, they pass by it. They glance at the notes.

Bo:  Yeah, that's what I do if there's a lectern up there. I just use it as a prop.

Ben:  You're right, though, the body doesn't lie. It's one of our favorite games right now to play as a family. I think I was telling you in the car the other day, it's the best 25 bucks I spend every month, is to go buy a family game because it just provides our family hours upon hours of new entertainment each month and bonding and laughing and relationship-building. And, the kids are learning game theory and logic.

Bo:  And, how to compete, how to win.

Ben:  And, how to compete, yeah. And, the fact that, in most games, there's one winner, not everybody gets a medal, which is typically the person who gets to, whatever, to pick dessert or not have to clean the kitchen. It pays to win. So, anyways, there's this game called Chameleon that we play. And, Chameleon, I won't describe the entire game, but suffice it to say, a great deal of it involves trying to hide from someone that you are the chameleon, and everyone else on the table is trying to identify who the chameleon is. It's like that old game, Mafia, but in a cooler, more fun way with these special cards.

And, it is crazy how quickly my kids began to pick up on things, like, when I'm the chameleon, I just subconsciously put my hand on top of my card as I'm talking to people, almost as though I don't want people to know that I have the chameleon card. Whereas, they notice, the people who aren't the chameleon, they really don't even care where their cards at. It's just sitting there or whatever.

Bo:  You don't have to protect.

Ben:  “This card's nothing to me. I don't have to protect it.” Or, things like the amount of eye contact that people make with their card when they–So, now, when the cards get dealt, they're all watching everybody's eyes, just to see, are they looking at the card and putting it down quickly, which is sometimes the case with the Chameleon.

So, it's relevant, too, I think, for people, Bo, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on this, who are listening in to us talk and thinking, “Well, I'm not a speaker. I don't have to be on stage. I'm not giving presentations. I'm not giving a sermon, whatever,” but in any situation in life, the way that you enter into a room and the way that you move about a room is pretty important, isn't it?

Bo:  Very, 100% critical, even when you just walk into Starbucks and there's a long line at Starbucks and you walk in. All of a sudden, if you're unapologetic, if you're actually your own predatory nature, everybody in Starbucks feels the safety that you provide inside that environment. So, think about every environment you enter, whether it's a church, whether it's at school, whether it's at a stage, whether it's at your business, when you're unapologetic, people feel safe.

It's counterintuitive because you think you'd be afraid of predator, a predatory nature. But, you're not. You actually feel safe around it. No different than a mama grizzly bear. You step in between her and her cub, that's a problem for you. You're pretty much done. And, when you're in the presence of a mama bear, my wife's like that, my mom was like this, as far as protecting her kids' dreams and her kids' health, we as human beings love that feeling of being protected.

I work with a lot of elite military, whether it's Navy SEALs or Green Berets. And, when I'm around them, I never have felt safer. They're the most dangerous people. Same with NFL players. The most dangerous NFL players that I ever played with, vicious on the field, dangerous, you feel so good in their presence because you know you're taken care of.

Ben:  That's the funny thing, is that, if you think about it, let's say you're on a subway train with someone who actually is moving like a predator, obviously, carries with them a great deal of confidence and pride and almost a don't-mess-with-me type of mentality and you can't keep your eyes off of them, you subconsciously know that should somebody who's actually dangerous or a threat to you walk on, that that person might be your protector, that everything's going to be okay, or that you're not going to have to fight because there's somebody else on this freaking train who's probably going to fight before you do.

Bo:  That's right. That's right. So, I think our world, we're so ashamed of that part of ourselves, our human nature, we're so ashamed of it that you and me are walking around trying to hide that, that great aspect of this protective nature. But, I tell the people that I work as far as stage work, as far as being the boss, you're the leader everywhere you go. And, that goes for everybody. Your responsibility is to lead every environment you enter. So, you can't enter that room half-baked. You can't enter that room like a prey animal. You can't. Otherwise, everyone feels it and everyone goes, “I don't feel good in this room. I don't feel safe.” And, that's how our world feels right now, so we need more of these leaders. So, you have to be unapologetic about your true nature.

Ben:  And, for you, it comes down to everything, from planting your toe before your heel as you're taking a step, or I've noticed you'll glaze your hand over the back of a chair as you're walking through a room and be feeling out the room. You're kind of standing two inches taller and making very good but deep eye contact. Are these things that you teach in your book or these things that are primarily taught in your courses?

Bo:  Yeah, we touch upon it in the book. The book is more about being the best. We'd talk about storytelling a little bit in there. But, it's mostly in the speaking training that I do, personal story power.

Ben:  And, you train people how to use their voice. I know a big part of it's storytelling, for you how to tell their story. Is that something that you learned along the way, the importance of story?

Bo:  Yeah, if you go–Again, I always go back to mother nature. So, if we can align ourselves with mother nature, we're pretty much going to be undefeated. Every time I go up against her, I usually lose. Every time I have an argument with her, I lose. When I fly with her, I usually win. So, that's how the training goes. So, most people in this modern society that we live in, they do presentations. Like you said earlier, they're trying to manipulate the audience and not be human, not make mistakes, be polished, be perfect, use slides.

Well, there's nothing, there's no connective tissue there. There's no human connective tissue on a slideshow. There's no connective tissue when you're staying distant from your audience and trying to manipulate them whether with your voice or your body. We don't train that way. We train to be human. And, the human is the one that connects with other humans, that vulnerability you have. And, when you share your story, everyone starts to connect to you because they go, “I didn't really know how to connect to Ben. And then, he told me his story. He told me this quick story about what his grandfather may have told him sitting in front of the fireplace.”

Ben:  It doesn't have to be your life story. It could be a story.

Bo:  It's a tiny little two-minute story. And, right when that happens, the audience drops their guard. Every audience right now, whether it's virtual, whether it's in-person, whether it's at Starbucks, everybody's got their armor up. We're protecting ourselves.

Ben:  The audience/someone who might be on a date with you/someone who you might be networking with a cocktail party, even if it's not from stage, once you start telling a story about yourself, that turns you into an authentic, potentially more trustworthy, human.

Bo:  That's right. That's the only way people know how to connect to you. They don't know how to connect to you if you're distant, if you're not going to share.

Ben:  And, especially, if you've nailed the predator moves, people are probably going to keep their distance until that predator actually starts telling stories and people realize that the predator is human.

Bo:  Yup and the predator is me. That's the connection they get. Here's the beauty of storytelling. Because people–Sometimes, I'll be training people and they'll go, “Well, Bo, I don't want to tell my personal story because it's not about me. It's about my clients or it's about my audience.” And, I'm like, “Yeah, but the only way to get the trust from your audience or your client or would-be client, the only way to get the trust is to share who you are, your perspective of how you grew up.”

You could say a sentence like this. This is one of my stories. “When I was nine years old, I had this dream. So, I drew up this 20-year plan.” So, if I say that's once–

Ben:  You're nine years old when you drew up a 20-year plan to be in the NFL?

Bo:  Yeah.

Ben:  That's crazy.

Bo:  I can show it to you.

Ben:  You still have it?

Bo:  Yeah. I have it, right.

Ben:  And, you followed the plan?

Bo:  Where is it? It's in my backpack.

Ben:  It's just hanging around your house?

Bo:  Yeah.

Ben:  Wow, that's crazy.

Bo:  But, I just said a sentence. And, you stopped everything we were doing, you stopped the podcast. Not stop it, you just stopped where we were and you asked me a question about it. Because now, that's storytelling. So, that's one sentence of storytelling that was personal to me. And, now, it's personal to you. So, now, you and me, here's the magic of storytelling. Now, you and me have a connection that we didn't have before. You're thinking back, “Shoot, because he just said he was nine, and he said 20. What was I dreaming of at nine?”

Ben:  That was what I was thinking about.

Bo:  Right? And, did I make up a plan? And, I could have. I didn't think–That's–So, now, you and me are real dudes not trying to fake connection, actually just sharing a dream, a thought, a pain point, and you get connection. And, that is the key to the kingdom when it comes to storytelling. And, most people, they're so afraid to share themselves. They're so afraid to share the pain that they've been through, like whether they got dumped at the prom, or they got cut from the choir team, or they got cut from some athletic team. It's all this rejection part people don't want to share, because they'll go, “Well, no one will want to work with me if I'm rejected.” Actually, the opposite is true. Everybody will work with you because guess what? They've been rejected, too. Everybody knows the pain you're talking about.

So, if I said, “My dream was to be the best pop singer in the world. And, my mom, I was singing in the back of the car one day, my mom turns around when she was driving. She said, ‘You know what, Bo? You're the worst singer I've ever heard in my life.'” That is a great story. That's a great story because everyone connects to that, that dream that somebody destroyed right there. And then, what did you become? And, that's why we use story because, in a world that will not connect, we will. Now, you're the leader. If you can bridge trust between human beings, rebuild that trust that's been eroded over time, especially now, you just became the leader.

Ben:  And, people, I think, have story almost woven into their DNA. I talked about this in my last book, “Fit Soul,” about how, when you see a lot of the very successful Disney movies like “Frozen” and “The Lion King” and “Snow White” and “Sleeping Beauty” and beyond, they all follow the classic “Hero's Journey” story, as does “Star Wars,” as does “The Matrix,” as does nearly every successful Hollywood flick that exists, and many of the most successful novels, including, even just the story of Jesus Christ, the whole gospel tale of how the world was saved, all of it returns to someone in an ordinary world crossing a threshold, having mentors and allies along the way, finding the enemy, fighting the enemy, sometimes nearly dying, returning home with the elixir.

And, I think that humans crave, not only story, but they crave that story to a certain extent.

How much do you emphasize having as part of your story being that “Hero's Journey,” including elements of it?

Bo:  All great stories are the “Hero's Journey.” It's funny how it fall, all those archetypical things that you just talked about, like the mentor and the elixir and all that, that falls into almost every story.

Ben:  Well, it does. It even sounds silly, because last night, I was talking about my wife and I made the bicycling trip to Italy. We left our ordinary world of poor college students in Washington, crossed the threshold, crossed the sieve, battled the hills to find the gelato and the bread and the pastrami, and eventually return with the elixir and got to Florence, and then the road home, the end of Bilbo Baggins, the train back to Rome and fly home. But, if I tell a story like that, even subconsciously, I'm telling the “Hero's Journey” story without even realizing it.

Bo:  And, here's the science behind it. That's intoxicating. That means you're bonded forever with those people, not just for the moment. Forever. “Hero's Journey” is the hero's journey.

Ben:  The “Hero's Journey” people also relate with it and feel comfortable around it, because it is a tale of non-morally relativistic absolute truth. Because in a hero's journey, there's always got to be good and evil. There's always got to be the light side and the dark side.

Bo:  Always.

Ben:  There's always got to be the winner and the loser, the bad guy and the good guy. And, I think people like the fact that there's some shreds of absolute truth in that tale as well.

Bo:  100%. There is the play that I wrote. It's called “Runt of the Litter” that was this big hit. So, it got all these movie companies started to come to me and my wife and say, “Hey, we want this for a movie.” This one guy approaches me and he comes up and he goes, “I want this to be my next movie.” And, I go, “Okay, but who are you?” And, he goes, “My name is Frank Darabont.” And, for those of you who don't know, Frank Darabont is the writer and director of “The Shawshank Redemption,” of “The Green Mile.” He wrote “Collateral.” He wrote “Saving Private Ryan.” He created the series, “The Walking Dead.” So, at this time, he's the top Hollywood writer.

Ben:  That's crazy. I'm not big into Hollywood, but I've actually seen all four of those movies, and competed in reality TV show, filmed down at “The Walking Dead” location.

Bo:  Is that right?

Ben:  So, I've also been there. Anyways, though, I digress.

Bo:  So, he's the one. So, Castle Rock Pictures bought the screenplay rights for him to direct, and I wrote the screenplay.

Ben:  Wow.

Bo:  So, now, I'm writing a screenplay of which I've never written a screenplay before. So, I don't know the form. I don't know how it's supposed to go. All I've written is a play, one play, a one-man play. So, it's just me. So, now, I got him now mentoring me. So, now, he's the top screenwriter in the world. Now, he's looking over my shoulder, going, “Move this. You're misspelling that.”

Ben:  Wow.

Bo:  So, that was my first touch of screenplay-writing. So, I got trained on exactly the stuff you're talking about, which is this “Hero's Journey,” Joseph Campbell's “Hero's Journey.” Because if you're one minute off on certain things in a movie, if that turning point comes at minute 29 or minute 31, you have problems with your audience. Your audience is now looking at their watch. Your audience now is thinking about if they should go get some popcorn in the theater. And, now, you've lost, if that turning point doesn't come on page 30, which is 30 minutes into the movie. And then, there's a second one. And then, there's the end. It's like a map. It's like science storytelling, as far as screenplays are concerned, for sure.

Ben:  There's even a book. Christopher Vogler wrote the book, “The Writer's Journey.”

Bo:  Journey.

Ben:  Which is actually a great one for story-writing.

Bo:  It's the best. That's the one, Frank Darabont, I can't believe you just brought that book up. He goes, “Bo, you're going to write the screenplay for me.” And, I'm like, “Okay.” I'm so nervous because he just got nominated for 12 Academy Awards, and he handed me that book.

Ben:  Really?

Bo:  He goes, “This is your bible.” It was a big green book.

Ben:  It was funny. It was one of the first books I had my kids read when they started writing. I'm like, “You guys read it.” They were seven when they read “The Writer's Journey,” just because I wanted at that early in age for them to begin to see story through that lens.

Bo:  So smart. No wonder you have such a connection to Frank Darabont. Not you didn't know it, but you do.

Ben:  Subconsciously, yeah. I keep using the word, “subconsciously,” on this podcast. Subconsciously.

Well, gosh, there's so many other things that I could get into with you, but sometimes I do follow my gut and my heart when I'm recording with someone. And, I think the one other thing I think would be interesting for your audience to hear, I don't know if you have or have not talked about this on podcasts before, but you obviously are a family man. You love your family. You got wonderful children. And, I see how you're raising them and how much you pour yourself into them. I noticed that they both seem to have some pretty definite goals in life. How is it that you have either seen your children respond to the type of lessons that you have learned? What have you implemented with them you think has allowed them to–Because your son, he's about 14 and already knows he wants to compete in the NFL. And, your daughter's got a cooking show or a video series she's producing.

Bo:  Yeah, she's 16. She wants to be a great chef.

Ben:  What's the special sauce for your kids?

Bo:  You know I what I did from the word, “go,” is I did what my dad did, followed the same. Because he was quieter than me, my dad, but he saw greatness in people. He saw it, and then he spoke to it. And then, he gave you all kinds of space to kind of figure it out for yourself. All the time, he did that. So, I did that with him, initially. And, the one daughter you haven't met. So, I have two daughters. And, Axel's in the middle. So, they all immediately showed them, when they were fairly young, the 20-year plan. And, my 20-year plan is very–

Ben:  You showed them your 20-year plan that you made when you were nine?

Bo:  Yes. At this point, it's 50 years old, so it looks like the “Declaration of Independence.”

Ben:  Which is parchment paper.

Bo:  It's like that. It's like a brown–

Ben:  Quill pen.

Bo:  Quill pen. And, it's very regular. It's me in a football uniform as a nine-year-old might draw that with cleats that are about 14 feet long. It's just crazy. And, me and my brother, that's how we started our dreams. We just drew them, and we kept drawing them and drawing them. So, I showed that to my kids. And then, they created theirs. They go, “I want to create my dream.” And, some of their dreams have shifted around, but shifted from thing to thing, like, “I want to be a pop star,” and then, “I want to be a chef, oh, my gosh,” and then, “I want to be a Broadway star.”

But, Axel's have stayed really consistent since he was seven. Since he was seven, he drew it up. And, we can go back there in the gym and I can show you that he drew up when he was seven.

Ben:  I will see it.

Bo:  But, here's what's cool. He's 14 now, so he's been following this dream for seven years already, training for the dream and rehearsing his future self. And, the dream, it's never been done. So, it's to play in the NFL and the NBA. So, that's never been done.

Ben:  I didn't know he was playing the NBA, too.

Bo:  Yeah, he wants to play both, because no one's ever done it. There have been two people in–

Ben:  That's why you showed me a video before we started recording of your 14-year-old son throwing down with about 2 feet to clear over the rim.

Bo:  Right.

Ben:  Wow.

Bo:  So, and adults our age will come to him all the time. They do, for the last seven years, and they go, “Axel, which sport do you like better? Which one are you going to choose?” He will not say. He goes, “I'm doing them both. I'm doing both.”

Ben:  Wow.

Bo:  And, if you look at the dream, if you look at his plan, that's exactly what it is. He drew it up little stick figures of him playing both of those sports.

Ben:  Wow.

Bo:  And, he will not back off.

Ben:  Wow.

Bo:  So, Dawn and I, when our kids declare their dreams, we take it seriously. So, we go, “Let's get the whole family involved in this dream. Let's go public with it. Let's make sure people know about it, so we can get their energy to help us.” And, that's what we've done. We build boards, vision boards because there's certain–

Ben:  That is so cool. That is inspiring. Wow.

Bo:  It's really cool. And, a lot of their friends come over, and they're teenagers now, so some of them laugh at their stuff. Then, others go, “You know what? I think you're going to do it. I think you got this.”

Ben:  I love that. So, you instilled in your kids at an early age an appreciation for having a long-term vision, long-term plan for their life. And then, you support that with vision boards, with goal setting, and with them not just having a dream but creating a road map for that dream to happen.

Bo:  Yeah, and we take little segments of time. Sometimes, we take a 66-day segment. Sometimes, we'll take–Axel just went with Jeff Spencer. He went through this four-month–

Ben:  He's been on my podcast before.

Bo:  Great.

Ben:  Champion's mindset.

Bo:  Champion's mindset, yeah. So, that's what he's been working with Axel on. Because Axel's going to go into high school in the fall, I just thought Jeff was the perfect guy to prepare him for that big step.

Ben:  You surround your children with amazing people, too, because I notice you talk to another former podcast guest of mine, Teri Cochrane, someone else who's worked with your family. And, I love that, that you bring in the outside experts, too. And, I know that, sometimes, people think, whatever, silver spoon mentality, you can afford to bring in the experts. But, I tell you what. I personally learned just about everything that I've learned, not from mentors, not from experts, not from spending $50,000 on online courses, which I know are often a good investment and come back to pay in dividends, but for me, I have built most of my knowledge on $5 to $10-books off Amazon, downloaded to my–The experts exist out there, even if it's the stuff the experts wrote.

And, I think that introducing those into a child's life early on–My kids, every day since they were 8 years old, dad gives them a book. By the end of the week, they return a one-page book report on that book. The next week, I choose a book. And so, every time I read a good book, I'm setting those books aside for my kids. And, again, it would cost me, literally, tens of thousands of dollars how the expert wrote that book, move into my house and live with my kids for a week and teach them everything they know. But, if you're listening in, don't think that it's expensive to do this type of thing with your kid. But, it's such great advice.

Bo, in wrapping up, if people wanted to reach out to you and learn how to move and how to present, and how to speak, and how to get this predatory type of confidence that you've alluded to, or maybe, take one of your online courses in which I know you do some of the same things, what's the best way for people to look you up?

Bo:  If they go to BoEason.com, that's B-O-E-A-S-O-N.com, all my events that I do, Personal Story Power, that's the one where we really get physical and we find everybody's signature piece, their story.

Ben:  Cool.

Bo:  And then, physicalize it, attach it to some solar plexus, so that people trust. And, we've had huge success in that. And, it's been really, really, really amazing. So, if you go to BoEason.com, that's usually the best place. All the stuff we do is on there.

Ben:  Cool. And, other podcasts, other books that Bo and I talked about everything that we discuss, I'll also link to, if you go to BenGreenfieldFitness.com/BoEason, B-O-E-A-S-O-N. Just to go to BenGreenfieldFitness.com/BoEason. Bo, I'm pretty stoked my audience gets to meet you and know who you are. You're a special guy, and I love what you're doing. So, keep it up, man. You're changing the world.

Bo:  I will. Thanks, brother. Appreciate it.

Ben:  Alright, folks. I'm Ben Greenfield and Bo Eason, signing out from BenGreenfieldFitness.com. Have an amazing week.

Well, thanks for listening to today's show. You can grab all the show notes, the resources, pretty much everything that I mentioned, over at BenGreenfieldFitness.com, along with plenty of other goodies from me, including the highly helpful, “Ben Recommends” page, which is a list of pretty much everything that I've ever recommended for hormones, sleep, digestion, fat-loss, performance, and plenty more. Please, also, know that all the links, all the promo codes that I mentioned during this and every episode, help to make this podcast happen and to generate income that enables me to keep bringing you this content every single week. So, when you listen in, be sure to use the links in the show notes, to use the promo codes that I generate, because that helps to float this thing and keep it coming to you each and every week.

 

 

Speaker, performer, author, and my guest on today's show, Bo Eason, started his career in the NFL as a top pick for the Houston Oilers and then continued on with the San Francisco 49ers.

During his 5-year career, Bo competed beside and against some of the greatest players of his generation.

In 2001, Bo wrote and performed his one-man play, Runt of the Litter, which opened in New York City to rave reviews. The New York Times called it “One of the most powerful plays in the last decade.” Bo toured with the play in over 50 cities and it is now being adapted as a major motion picture.

In his quest for excellence on the stage, Bo trained with some of the world’s most brilliant performance and movement coaches, Larry Moss and Jean-Louis Rodrigue. Bo now draws from their techniques and wisdom to coach others to be excellent presenters and storytellers.

Bo is dedicated to helping others tap the power of their personal story and become effective, persuasive communicators. He has delivered his keynotes and workshops to groups such as Protective Life Insurance, Dimensional Fund Advisors, Morgan Stanley, and Young Presidents Association. Bo has also appeared as a guest on shows like Bill Maher, Fox Sports Net, ESPN, The Rosie O’Donnell Show, and CNN.

Bo has had the opportunity to share his life experiences and inspirational lessons with the world. He wrote There’s No Plan B For Your A-Game because he truly believes that anyone has the ability to be great. Bo's book uses inspiring, practical, and real-world guidance, coupled with absolute accountability, to teach anyone how to be the best in the world at what they do: the best leader, the best business owner, the best athlete, the best artist, the best partner, the best parent.

Recently, I spoke at one of Bo's events, and also had a chance to drop by his house for an intriguing and inspiring podcast.

During this discussion, you'll discover:

-How Bo's “Best” program stemmed from his upbringing…06:00

  • Why Bo named his program “The Best“
  • Bo's family background and being told daily, “You're the best”
  • Bo and Tony Easonalways share their mantra of being “the best” with teammates
  • Statistically, only 0.03% of college football players will play NFL
  • From his college team, 4 guys out of 27 went on to play in the NFL for 20+ years and in 2 Super Bowls

-How Bo improved his speed …16:30

  • Bo got faster as he got older by running track and training with a speed coach
  • Trained plyometricsbefore it was cool

-How Bo's unique movements influence his stage presence…19:40

  • Sense of animal instincts and predatory nature on the field
  • Tackling is animalistic
  • Being physically unapologetic on the field translated to the stage

-The one key element in making Bo's play so successful…25:30

  • Runt of the Litter
  • Jean-Louis Rodrigue, Master of Movement Coach
  • Jean-Louis's training is all based on predatory animals
  • Taking on the predatory animals' traits on stage captures the audience's attention
  • Become unapologetic about your predatory nature

-Why the FBI and CIA needed Jean-Louis's training…32:10

  • Jean-Louis assisted the FBI and CIA to train military infiltrators
  • Trained the top 15 FBI agents to not allow their heart rate to betray them
  • Our country's protectors are the best performers out there

-Why the way we walk into a room matters…40:55

  • When you're unapologetic about your body language, people feel safe
  • To gain trust from people, you have to show people your body
  • We may feel the safest around some of the most dangerous people
  • Our world feels unsafe right now so we need more animalistic, unapologetic leaders

-How Bo uses storytelling, voice timbre, tone, and inflection to capture audiences…44:40

  • Human vulnerability is what connects us to other humans
  • Storytelling + shared pain point = connection = trust
  • Stories of failure, destroyed dreams, turbulence are the best stories
  • Leaders bridge trust among human beings
  • Ben's book Fit Soul

-The bridge between the Hero's Journey and great stories…51:00

  • All great stories are the Hero's Journey
  • A non-morally relativistic absolute truth = Hero's Journey
  • Famous movie writer Frank Darabontapproaches Bo about his play
  • How Bo's Hero's Journey correlates to his one-man play
  • The Writer's Journeyby Christopher Vogler

-What Bo does to influence his children to go after their dreams…55:30

-And much more…

Resources from this episode:

– Bo Eason:

– Books:

– Podcasts And Articles:

– Other Resources:

Episode sponsors:

–Kion Flex: The ultimate recovery formula, Kion Flex is a bioavailable blend to support joint comfort, mobility and flexibility, and bone health. Ben Greenfield Fitness listeners, receive a 10% discount off your entire order when you use discount code BEN0.

–Paleo Valley Beef Sticks: 100% grass-fed AND grass-finished. Keto friendly and higher levels of Omega 3 Fatty Acids. Receive a 15% discount off your order when you go to paleovalley.com/ben.

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