104: Tapping Into the Power of Your Story with Bo Eason

Hi, I'm Natalie Jill, fat loss expert turned high performance coach. When odds are stacked against us, how do we shift and create everything from nothing? How do we level up when we aren't feeling it yet or we've had a big setback? On this podcast, I'll be talking to some of the most inspiring and courageous men and women on this planet who at their worst learned how to achieve success greater than they ever dreamed possible. Leveling up and creating everything from nothing. When I think of the ability to create everything from nothing, I can't help but to have Bo Eason come to mind. He's one of the first speakers I had ever heard present on the idea of creating everything from nothing. And I was just remember being so amazed by him and so inspired so to come full circle and be able to interview him today. I am just so thrilled to be able to dive in deep with him. Now for those of you that don't know him, Bo Eason started his career in the NFL and he when he played, he competed against some of the greatest players of his generation. But that's not what makes him so unique. What makes him so unique is when his football career ended, he branched out to something totally different. He became an actor. And not only did he become an actor, he created a one man play called Run of the Litter and that extended to an off Broadway and a 5050 city national run. I mean, incredible to go from football to that. Now he now says that in his third act, what he calls it now, he is a speaker and leadership coach and he trains some of the most successful people in the world, athletes, artists, entrepreneurs and more. Now what makes him super unique? Well, he uses the story of his own unlikely but for him, of course, inevitable success in the NFL and on stage to train thousands of top achievers to become the best in their field by tapping in to get this the power of their personal story. So join in today as I interview Beau Eason on exactly how he created everything from nothing time and time again. Today I'm so excited because I'm talking with the one, the only Beau Eason who I had to remind him that he met me years ago at one of his workshops where I embarrassed myself. He said that that's a normal thing, but I embarrassed myself at his worksh. So excited to dive in and talk with him today because he's just such the epitome of someone who's created everything from nothing so many times. Beginning with at age 9 when he decided that he was gonna be an NFL player and created his own plan to make that happen, and it did. And then after that, created even a new goal after his NFL career to be a stage performer. He knew nothing about acting. He knew nothing about performing, and he did it. And he became a top performing, one man show that New York Times recognized as one of the top shows of the decade. Incredible. And then he's. He's done so much. He's a coach, he's a bestselling author. He's just incredible. So I am so excited to have you here today, Beau. Thanks for joining me.

Thanks, Natalie. Great to be here.

So. Oh, my gosh, where do we even start? Because, like, how I want to go back to when you were nine. Let's start with that. Like, what made you want to be a football player? And not only that, what made you decide that it was even possible?

Yeah, well, it didn't ever seem like it was possible, but that's never how I've operated, actually. You know what's so funny about the genesis of that whole plan and that whole story, which I rarely talk about, but it's a big part in the play, is it happened because of O.J. simpson, of all people.

Oh, really?

Isn't that crazy?

Yeah.

How did. How did it happen?

My dad. My dad was watching him play.

Okay.

I had never seen my dad. My dad's a rancher, like a farmer, right. So he doesn't talk a lot. Right. But this game was on, and he was, like, yelling at the tv, and he was yelling at my mom and my brothers and sisters to come and see this kid running on the tv. And he kept calling him a kid because, you guys get in here. And we never heard my dad so excited. And he kept calling this guy a kid. That was beautiful. And I never heard my dad call anybody beautiful.

Okay?

Especially this guy on tv, but he keeps saying it. So I ran in and I'm looking at who this guy is, and it's O.J. simpson. And O.J. simpson was breaking the record for the most rushing yards in a single season. And I was 9 years old, and I was watching my dad really carefully, and I was like. Because look at school and everywhere, every. All the boys around me, they all wanted to be O.J. simpson. Right?

Right.

I saw how excited my dad was about O.J. simpson, and all I kept thinking was, I'm gonna stop him.

Aw.

So I'm gonna make it my business to stop what is beautiful, you know, so wild. Right? And many, many years later, after the play was written and I had already finished playing in the NFL. I'd never met O.J. simpson that whole time, right? And this is when the murders happened. That was in the 90s, right? And then in the 2000s, I get my wife and I. Dawn. My wife gets a call on her cell phone, and she goes. Her face kind of turned ashen, you know, and she goes, Bo, it's O.J. simpson on the phone for you. And I was like. And then my heart just started pounding because I had these ambivalent feelings because, for one, I was in awe of him as a kid. He was my hero as a kid. But after the trial and all that, I was, like, you know, confused and crazy about it. And so I get on the. I get on the. I answer the phone and I go, hello, this is Beau. And he goes, hey, Bo, it's the Juice. And I'm like, hey, man, what do you say? What's happening, Juice? And what he was calling me for was some of his friends in New York saw the play, and they saw that he was, like, this integral part of the play. And what he was calling for was to thank me for not taking any cheap shots at him, because he said, you know, that would have been easy for you to do at this point, and you didn't. So I just wanted to thank you for that. And that was pretty much it. Just like, wish me good luck. And that was it. But that was kind of the genesis of the plan. So when I was nine, I saw my dad excited about this kid. I said, I'm going to stop running backs. I'm going to stop people who are trying to score touchdowns. And that's where I came up with. I wanted to be the best safety in the world. And a safety is a position that really stops the offensive players from scoring.

Wow.

And so that became my plan. That became my dream. And I followed that up until 1984, when I was drafted as a top safety in the NFL to the Houston Oilers. And that was the driving force behind it. Now, just like everybody who has a dream or everybody who has a plan, you know, when you're young, you don't see the obstacles, and you don't see how difficult it's going to be. It's just a dream. And then along the way, there's all kinds of obstacles, right? There's all stories that. That. That everyone. No one believed I was going to do it. And no one recruited me in college. Like, not one college wrote me a letter. Not one college recruited me. And here I was trying to be the best safety in the world, right?

Right.

And so I had to talk my way onto UC Davis team, which is, you know, UC Davis is in a football factory. They play Division 2 football. They don't give any scholarships. Right. Basically, you just walk in there and you play football. Well, they sent me home, you know, they said, no, no, you can't play here. You're too small, you're too slow. And so what I did was just stick with my plan instead of stick with what they were saying to me.

I love that because I always talk about what I call false assumed truths. And that's my definition of fat. False assumed truth, where people, we start out as these kids with these wonder and dreams and a vision. And then somehow in life we get told all these limiting beliefs, things that are not possible, and then we start believing them as truth, like it's not possible, and we start listening. But you didn't do that. Like you. You stuck in your vision and you shut down what other people were telling you. How did you keep that going? Because it is challenging when so many people are telling you it's not possible.

It is. It's really. It's really hard. Here's the. There's a couple of things I had an advantage. One, I had the plan. So it was written when I. In 1969, right? So I still have this plan. It's 49 years old now, and so it's falling apart. It looks like the Declaration of Independence, you know, but that's the document. That's the Declaration that righted the ship. Every time someone told me I wasn't able to do it, and that was pretty much everybody I met, you know, all the way from 9, all the way till I was 22 years old when I got drafted. And that was every college, that was high school, that was scouts, that was everybody. And every time they told me it, I, you know, it hurts your feelings, right? Like you're being. So you're going, shoot, am I? No. Good. Is this a stupid dream? I would always look back to the plan, which, if you think about it, and this is, you know, this is a big part of the book is this is the Declaration. You know what I call these plans, these 20 year plans, which I've done like four of them in my life, I call them Declarations. And it's no different than the Declaration of Independence, right? Because, like, you and I are living out the Declaration of Independence. We're living out our freedoms every day, yet we never met the guys who wrote this declaration of independence. 240, whatever years ago, that was but you and me bring it into existence every day by the lives we live.

Sure.

So no different. That's what I have my clients create. That's what I've always created, starting at 9. And I didn't really know what I was doing then, obviously, but I wrote the document, I wrote the declaration, and every time somebody said I couldn't do it, I returned to the document. The document says I can.

Yeah, I love that too. And you just said, I didn't know what I was doing. But you did. And I feel like the kid in us does know what we're doing. That's our authentic self. So your 9 year old self knew what to do. And thank goodness you wrote it down as that nine year old self and stuck to it because you didn't let those other opinions affect you. That's such an incredible story. And then when you accomplished it, when you were there, what did you think? Was it like everybody else was wrong? What was the thought that was going through when you actually found yourself living that?

Yeah. When, when I was actually there, it seemed as though everybody always believed that I could do it, you know?

Yeah.

It's like once the dreams achieved, everyone goes, I knew you were gonna do it.

I knew you had it.

But, you know, to the player or to the, you know, the person that's trying to achieve the dream, it seems as though everyone's against you. And that's how it seemed to me too. The two people that I had in my corner though was my mom and dad. They were unbelievable people when it comes to. They weren't very reasonable. You know, like most parents are trying to rescue their kids from being in pain.

Yeah.

Like having their hearts broken.

Sure.

So, like, if you go to your parents and you go, mom and dad, I want to be the prima ballerina, they might say, oh, Natalie, that's really hard, you know. Yeah.

They're trying to protect you.

Let's save you some pain down the road and let's pick something that's a little easier. Yeah, right. My parents were not like that. They were like, we think you're going to be the best safety. We believe in it. I don't care who believes in it. We do. We see it in the future. And I have four older sisters and I think they probably had their doubts, but my mom and dad did not let them voice them to me.

So let me ask you about that, because I had the same type of parents and there's things my parents did wrong, of course, but that is something they did right. They always Told me, you can be anything that you want, no matter what my crazy dream was. They're like, you can do it. And I believed that I could. And it wasn't until my later 40s that I was like, oh, maybe I can't, because my parents told me I could. But speak into that a little bit, because what if somebody doesn't have the parents that believe in them or anyone that believes in them? Do you think you still can create your vision or make that happen when really no one's there and you don't have any cheerleaders?

I do. I think both. If you have really supportive parents, it works. And if you have 0 people in your corner, it really works. But one is a little more healthy than the other. Right. Because look, if your parent. If you look at most elite performers, like elite athletes, for example, elite ballet dancers, elite stage performers, most of them, not all of them, but most of them at the highest of highest levels don't have a dad.

Okay.

Right. So there's something to that. Right. There's something to the anger that, that the absence of a strong father in your life brings to. Yeah, you know, I'm not, I'm not. I'm talking a little bit general, but if you look at elite athletes, they all have the same story. Most of them. And that is that we, most of us have no dad.

Wow. 7.

You know, like 75% of them have no dad. So you get pissed.

Right.

You know what I mean?

Something you prove. You're wanting to prove something.

Hell yeah.

Yeah.

The man that was supposed to love you the most is not there.

Yeah.

So you go f this. You know what? I'm going to prove it. I'm going to show people that I'm worthy of something.

Yeah, that makes sense. So I guess. So it sounds like you really can go both ways. I mean, you can argue both ways. Like you. Yes. You have the support system, and that can be a leg up. But then also, not having the support system can be a leg up.

Yeah. That's why there's no victims in this world. Right. Even though we kind of live in a victimhood culture right now, there's really no such thing as a victim. You've got to take control of your life, whether you have no support or you have all the support in the world.

Yeah.

One of them can be used to make you mediocre, and each one of them can be used to make you the best.

Makes sense, right?

Yeah.

Okay. So you did that at 9. You created this amazing career, and then that wasn't enough for you. So when NFL was done, you decided, of all things, you're gonna be a stage performer. Where did that come from? And how do you even venture into that? Because now you're an adult, and you're like, I have no acting experience, but I'm gonna do this. How does that even come up? And how did you go about creating that?

It came out of fear. Complete fear. I was on the field in the Orange bowl playing the Miami Dolphins, and I blew my leg up for the seventh time. So. So I broke my foot, my ankle, and blew my knee all in one play. And it was. So I was laying on the bottom of a pile, actually. So I was on the bottom of about a couple of tons of men on top of me. I heard the snapping, and I didn't know it was me because I didn't feel anything. And when you hear this pop, pop, pop in a pile up in the NFL, everyone in that pileup starts reaching for their extremities to check and see if it's them, because you don't.

Is it. You don't feel it because you're in shock or what's the. Why don't you feel that?

Yeah, you're just. You're in the middle of a game, you hear the snapping. I just felt completely numb that. Couldn't feel anything. But, Natalie, what's crazy about it is I couldn't move because I was. There were so many guys on top. I was just laying like this, and I turned my head to the side, and my shoe was right next to my head.

Oh, my gosh.

Yeah. And I couldn't move it because all these guys were on top of me, and all these guys on top of me were reaching, going, who was that? Who was that? Was that me? Was that. And I said, hey, fellas, I think that one was me. And they were, like, good. And they unpiled off of me, relieved it wasn't them. Well, right in that moment, my whole life, like, flashed before my eyes, because for 20 years, I trained to be the best at one thing, and that one thing was to hurt people, right? So to run full. To run 25 miles per hour and throw my body into other guys, that's what I was the best in the world at. That does not transfer very well to the civilian world. So when you. This is my seventh knee surgery coming up. I knew it. And I was like, this is over. What am I going to do? And the first. The fear just jumped all over my back. And I said, man, you know what? I'm going to end up in prison because the thing I do best is hurt people. And that doesn't translate over to the other. You know, you don't get paid for that in the real world.

No.

You in the NFL, but nowhere, you know, you can in the military, but nowhere else. So.

And both did you battle with me.

Off the field, Natalie, This. This. This slow motion, my life passing before me. I said, I've got to avoid prison. I've got to keep myself out of prison. So the next thought I had, and this is all happening within a minute, is, I'm going to move to New York City, I'm going to get my butt on a stage, and I'm going to learn to express myself the way I did in the NFL, but get paid for it. Find a way so I can express myself physically and verbally on a stage, but which I didn't know how to do. I said, but if I could do that, man, that would be powerful. That would keep me out of prison, too, which is great for me.

So that's. That's incredible. But how did that. So that happened in the moment. Like, you're literally injured on the field, so you're having this, like, shock experience. And it came from that. It wasn't even. Like you went through a depression and you're healing. None of that. It just literally came from that.

That can't. That the depression came a little bit later because I was just trying to survive the moment. I was trying to think of what occupation does a person have to have that has the abilities that I have, that has the wherewithal to show up, who's unreasonable, who can run fast, who can. Who can hurt people, who can express themselves on a field? But is there another avenue for me to take that so that I can express that and I will be safe and the audience will be safe. Where is that? And all I could think of was Broadway was New York City.

Yeah.

I think it's brilliant. And I wonder how many people have those thoughts in a moment, but then ignore the thoughts because then they're, you know, the logic kicks in and, like, I don't know how or the details.

Oh, heck. Yeah.

So it's almost like you have the huge hit, and it's like, how did. I would love to have people be able to channel that. Like, when you have those initial thoughts, how can you remember those? Or how could. Because I'm sure you're not the only one who has had that happen. Like, in a moment, you have this brain idea. Like, this is what I'm going to do. And then we forget it.

Well, one thing great about us humans, this is one of my favorite things about us. And you're right, we always don't trust this instinct, Predatory, primal instinct, which is to survive.

Sure.

Right. So in that moment, I knew that I was good at one thing, and I was really afraid that there was no place else to go unless I could take all this tea that I felt like I had inside my body to be a pro athlete. I thought if I could channel that somewhere, I could actually turn that into an occupation just like I did in football. It would just be. Look a little bit different. So that survival instinct kicked in and I just started. My brain just started going. I could go to the military. I could be a fighter. I could be a stage performer. And that's.

Those are so random. Stage performer. I don't even know how those go together. But I love it. I love that you chose that.

It's all about expression of the body. That if I can express myself.

Yeah.

People safe. Then it would be cool. I could do it.

Yeah.

So then you start healing and you have this vision, but do you start almost talking yourself out of it? Do you have that period of like.

Why don't I have a course? Yeah. You know, the rationale kicks in after the survival goes away. And I'm like, I was 27 years old at this point, so most stage performers have been studying this in college. And I already had a career, so I was kind of long in the tooth starting a new one, even though I was only 27.

So did you take that same sort of approach? Like, now you had a vision. Just like when you were nine, you have a vision. Did you write it out? What was. What did you do to make that come to fruition?

Same thing. I go, look, the only thing I've been successful at is making a plan and a declaration.

Okay.

So I started again. So the next declaration and now the first declaration was now in the year 2021. Something like that. And so I just said the same exact thing. Instead of being the best safety in the world, I just wrote the same exact thing. The best stage performer of my time.

Yeah.

And so I moved to New York City. I started studying my ass off. I was in like eight different classes at once. And I used all my football money to keep myself so that I could train and not have to take waiter jobs and stuff like that so that I could train with the best teachers there were. And that's what I did. And every class that I was in. You'll laugh at this. But I would go to all the kids. All 18, 19 year old kids were in my classes and I would go to them. I go, okay, guys, who's the best stage performer of our time? Who is that? And they were like, oh, this was 1990. They were like, that's Al Pacino. And I'm saying, okay, cool, that's Al Pacino. Where is he?

They're like, you can't just call him.

And they were like, I don't know. He's a movie star. He's probably on a movie set. I go, no, no, you guys don't understand. I want to take what he's got. I want what he has. I have to talk to him about it because only he can help me.

So people thought you were crazy. Clearly you're committed is your thing.

Yeah, crazy. And same thing I did, like, when I wanted to be the best safety, I found the best safeties in the world. And I said, what do I got to do? And they told me what to do. It's pretty. This is what's pretty simple in life. You have to go to the very best. Whoever's number one. You have to ask them, I want to take your mantle. Tell me how to do it, and I promise you, they will tell you how to do it.

Really? So. But with that approach of like, I want to take what you have or I want to look.

Yeah, the best. They like the competition and they don't believe you. They don't. They're like, yeah, here's the information. You can do what you want. Like Al Pacino. He goes, hey, this is funny, man. I go, al, tell me what to do. He goes, I'll tell you what to do. And if you do it, you'll be the best, but it's gonna take you 15 years from today. And I said, that's cool, because that's how I work. I like those kind of timelines.

That gave you plenty of time.

Yeah. I ended up in Al Pacino's house. Right.

How did you end up in his house?

I started telling people that I needed to meet Al Pacino.

Okay. And they. So most thought you were crazy, but someone liked that, thought they're gonna.

Someone goes, I know a lady who knows Al Pacino. In fact, he's the godfather to her. His.

Wow.

Yeah.

And so I had dinner with her name's Ana Strasberg. She was married to Lee Strasberg, one of the most famous acting. And he had died at this point. And he had two Sons who were twins. And the sons, that was Al Pacino is their godfather because their dad was Al Pacino's teacher.

Yeah, you see?

See how crazy this is?

Incredible.

So they arranged for me to play a touch football game with Al Pacino. Imagine this with Al Pacino and the twins.

Okay.

Like younger than me, right? They're like 18, 19 year old kids. And you know Al Pacino's. This is in 1990, so I don't know how old he was. So I'm on a snow covered field during Thanksgiving with Al Pacino and his two godsons and we play two on two touch football in the snow.

Wow.

After we get done, Al goes, hey guys, come on over to the house. I'm leaving tomorrow for a movie I'm doing in la, but the whole family's over to have a big send off for me. So come on over. And he knew why I was there, because I wanted to talk to him about this. So we go there and it's exactly, Natalie, how you would imagine it is. Fifteen Italians in a kitchen, stirring pastas, making these Italian dishes, and no one spoke English except Al. They all spoke Italian, right. But I go in the back room and Al Pacino's got this great pool table. And we start talking. He goes, I know why you're here. I'll break it down for you. And that's when he told me it would take 15 years. I said, cool. Basically, he broke it the 15 years down for about three hours.

Wow.

But this is what it came down to. This is the nuts and bolts, what your audience will love. He basically told me my butt had to be on a stage more than anybody else's. But for the next 15 years, okay. He goes, if you want to be the best stage performer in the world, then you have to spend more time writing, playing the great roles, the Shakespearean roles, writing plays, understanding theater, understanding the physicality of performance. And if you do that for 15 years and you do it more than anyone else on the planet, after 15 years, you'll be standing on top of the heap. And so I did.

And it makes sense because if you think back to your athlete training, I mean, that's what athletes do. You train more than anyone else. Like you do. You do that like you put in the 10 times more than everybody else. So that makes sense.

It's exactly. That's why this is beautiful part about it is there's no difference between being the best safety and being the best stage performer in the world and being the best playwright in the world or Being the best speaker in the world or being the best ballet dancer, there is no difference. It's just disciplines that are changing. The principles are all the same, which is basically, you're just showing up more than anybody else, but you're showing up also, Natalie, and you'll love this, because this is your life. You have to live outside of your own comfort zone. So you have to live beyond your current capacity.

Give me an example of what that would mean to you. How did living outside of your comfort zone look in that situation? Whoops.

Get comfortable. Can you hear me? Okay.

It froze for one second there, but it looks like you're back up.

Oh, you just. Yeah, you froze for a minute.

Okay. Yeah, we're back. So sorry. Let's repeat that.

Okay. Do you want to start or do you want me to start?

Just, I think my. Quiet. Well, I'll ask the question again. So what is working and operating outside of your comfort zone mean to you?

Yeah. So when you. When you. When you're a pro athlete. Right. At first, when you become a pro, it's very uncomfortable because everybody's fast, everybody's big, and you're completely beyond your comfort zone. Nothing is comfortable. Right. You're beyond your capacity because these guys are better than you. They're faster, they're bigger. But that survival mechanism kicks in, and then now you improve and adapt so quickly. And this is what human beings are great at. But no one ever gets beyond their comfort zone. So there, after a while, you get to be comfortable with their speed and their size, and now you have to push beyond that comfort zone. So when I first started as a stage performer, being on stage and saying words was completely foreign to me. I was completely nervous and beyond my comfort zone and beyond my current capacity. So what that made me do was improve and adapt really fast, especially when you're around great performers.

Yeah.

When you're around Al Pacino, guess what the level of your performance turns into. It goes through the roof, really.

I would imagine it levels you up. And that's part of. If you're surrounding yourself with the best, how do you not become the best?

That's how. That's exactly how it happens. So if you and I decided today that we wanted to be. You wanted to be the fastest woman on the planet, and I wanted to be the fastest man on the planet, who do you think you and me would be hanging out with?

Yeah.

The fastest current people on the planet. Yeah.

Fastest human beings there are on the planet. And soon enough, you and me would adapt to those uncomfortable Situations, those demanding situations. And we would. Eventually our dreams would come true of being the best.

Okay, so here's. So I'm totally with you on that. And I think back to anything that I've accomplished new out of my comfort zone. I go to the best of the best to learn from them. But here's what's coming up for me. And I'm sure listeners are thinking this too. How does that always level you up versus discourage you? Because, like, there could be a comparison thing too, where like, oh, they're so much better than me, I shouldn't even try.

Wow. You know, I just never really considered that. I mean, I knew, Look, I knew when I got drafted into the pros, I knew when I started this performance stage performer career, everybody was better than me. So I wasn't shocked by it. I got there, I was like, man, they have Al Pacino's 30 years on me.

Yeah.

You know, the safeties at that time, they had. They had years on me. They were bigger, they were better, they were faster. I knew it. But I said, give me time, give me the turnover. Allow me to catch you and I will. As long as I. That's what my aim is. Here's the problem with most people, Natalie. They just. They quit right about there. They go, oh, they're better than me. And they decide that their life is over, then that you can improve. The only reason they think that they won't pass them is because they don't think they can improve. I knew I could improve. I knew I could adapt based on sports, based on the survival.

So what I'm hearing, too, is a perception shift. So if someone's listening right now, I'm going to share that. If they're feeling that way, like they feel like being around someone better than makes them feel bad about themselves, change your perception about it. Because you could have gone that direction, but you went the opposite direction. Like, no, of course they're better. They practice more, they put more time in. I'm going to learn from them. It's a different perception that's.

You're 100% right. Surround yourself with people who are doing the things that you want to do and it doesn't matter what. And then make sure they're ahead of you. Make sure they're better than you, more experienced than you. Watch how fast you grow. And what now listen, it's not satisfying. It's not like you feel, oh, I'm so great. You're not feeling that all the time. You're right about that, Natalie. But at the same time you're getting better. If you surround yourself with people who you're better than, it's really hard to improve. Yeah, and the name of the game is get better. If you have any dream of being the best in the world, there's one thing you've got to do. You've got to get better day in and day out. And eventually, maybe in 20 years, maybe in 10, maybe in five, you're standing on top of the heap. That, that's the guarantee. That's why forget about this. These quick hits, these quick little satisfactions like you don't need to be the top today. I'm never the top at what I'm currently doing. I'm always striving to get there.

Totally. You just really a light bulb moment for me big time. And I hope listeners pick this up. But this really just hit me so, so many people are worried about how they feel right now. They want, it's the ego, like I want to feel good right now. So you're right, they're surrounding themselves with average or people that are not better than them. So they could feel good in the moment. But that is a short game, that is not the long game and that is not how to improve and get to your goals.

That's. You're exactly right. And look, first thing I would do too is throw away these short ass timelines. I just, I think they're wimpy, I think they're weak. I don't think we're made to achieve these little short goals. It doesn't turn us on enough. It doesn't wake you up in the morning to go, oh, I hope I lose like six pounds in the next month. You're not going to get out of bed for that. But if it's 30, you might get out of bed. You might, you know, work your ass off to achieve it. Since you got to uplevel your game and your game, bigger game, bigger goals.

Okay, so how do you handle people that try to talk you out of your declaration and your goals? So I know you don't actually listen, but how do you handle them? Like what do you say to them? Are they out of your life? What do you do there?

I mean, look, some people get scooted out of my life and it's usually not me who's, you know, rejecting them. It's usually them extricating themselves from being around somebody with big dreams. You know that. And I'm sure you found this in your life and I'm sure most of your listeners have too. You know, when you start to play the game at a really high level, people start to, like, disappear. They even, and I'm talking about, like family members, they start to distance themselves because they don't want your dreams to expose them.

Mm, really good. Yeah.

I understand that that is painful. Right. But that's also not my job to drag them across a finish line if they're not willing to go.

Right, that makes sense.

Yeah. But also, it's not your job to slow down. Think of it like this. My son was, first time he was playing on his basketball team, he was like five or six. And I was watching the practice and they were doing these sprints after these races, after the practice was over, and the coach told my son to slow down, okay? So he said, hey, Axel, you're winning all the races. Why don't you let someone else win? Why don't you slow down? And so I approached the coach and I said, wouldn't we have a better team? Wouldn't it be better for all these boys if they actually sped up instead of asking Axel to slow down? Wouldn't our team be better? Wouldn't the world be better if everybody sped up to the fastest runner instead of the fastest runner having to slow down to the pack?

Really good point.

And that's. It's not your job. We are human beings. Our DNA is to be the best. Otherwise you wouldn't have been born.

Yeah.

On the day you were conceived, 300 million sperm. And you were one of them. Right. So you're competing against 300 million driven, swimming their ass off sperm. And you won. You won.

I won.

So now I'm supposed to prove that I'm mediocre when I'm number one? It's 300 million to one odds. We're made that way. So our job is not to slow down and help the other sperm. Our job is to go to the top and let everybody follow us.

That's our job. Yeah.

Bo, you have such contagious energy and you're so positive and so motivated. Like, do you ever have self doubt or setbacks ever?

All the time. Look, all day, every day. But here's the little tool I'll give everybody who has that. Because, look, all of us have it because we're living a society and a culture that is trying to prove that we are mediocre. And I, I never go with the culture. I always go with Mother Nature, okay? Because she's undefeated. Right. She's always going to win. So I like winning, so I go with her. Mother Nature tells me I'M number one.

I love it.

Right? She's the one says she goes, Beau, you're number one. 300 million to one odds. You were born and you are the gold medalist. You are the champion. And that goes for everybody listening right now.

So when you're down, you think about that.

I think about mother Nature, but I also think of this. I can either choose to have self doubt, which is all I'm bombarded with day in and day out, every day I'm bombarded, or I could choose to be the best. So I am constantly choosing and you guys are going to. It's going to feel mechanical to you at first, but after a while you will automatically choose being the best in the world at something rather than choosing other people's opinions or what the news or the media is telling you about who you are.

Yeah.

So all of us have to choose day in and day out. And I would love everybody to think of it as if you're an automatic pilot. If you and me went to Maui today in a jet, we would be off course 99% of the time. But the automatic pilot that the pilots turn on once they're up in the air writes that jet all the way to Maui and it lands on the exact spot it's supposed to land on. But 99% of that trip to Maui, we are off course.

Wow.

The self writing mechanism writes that jet all the way. All the way. And it's on course 1% of the time. So think of your dreams as give yourself a break. It's okay to be off course 99% of the time as long as you, as the self writing mechanism is choosing to be the best.

Yeah.

So this and this, Natalie, is where everybody goes off. This is where everybody quits. You know why they quit? They quit because of shame. Because they just don't give themselves enough of a break to be off course when you're, when you're trying to achieve being the best safety in the world. For 20 years I was off course, but I kept choosing the best. And eventually, you know, when the 1984 rolled around, boom. Who's the best? Me. Because I was the only one left standing because everybody else quit because they couldn't stand being off course.

Yeah.

This is so good. You know, I've done so many interviews on how people created everything from nothing. And nobody has ever pointed out, like you have the idea of choice. There's commonalities with everyone I've interviewed, but not. And that's so critical. I love that you're bringing that up like it's literally a choice because yeah, everyone's human and I love that you're sharing that. You, you have self doubts all the time but you're just making a choice, a conscious choice, constantly.

That's right. So I'm just. And now I've done it for so many years, Natalie, that, that automatic pilot just writes the ship like that fast. I'll have self doubt and boom. That fast. I'm right back to what's my dream.

Yeah, so you notice it quicker, so you have the moments but you shift out of it quicker.

That's right. So for your listeners when you first start it just like it is like learning to walk. It's a little bit mechanical, you're off course a lot and you just have to go what's my dream? What's my declaration? Writes the shit.

Okay, Another question about that. And I've got, I've got a million I could take. I could ask you questions all day. But I'm going to try to, try to stay laser on what I really want to know. So if somebody is gets this and they want to do the whole I've got it, I'm going to stay in my vision. I'm going to what's my declaration? I'm going to make the choice. But then there's the actual like factual things like there's no money in their bank account or they're in debt or their spouse is leaving them. Like there's that fact that's like right there glaring at them. So lost their job and that was their vision. What do you do then? Because you're really getting pulled with some facts like when do you decide? Like I'm in my choice now in my declaration or wow, maybe I really should look at this and make a shift and a change.

I always look at everything that happens in your life. You know, like you lose all your money, you have a knee surgery, you get dumped at the prom. Whatever it is, this is how I want you to think about it, okay? Everything that happens is to your advantage, okay? It's all, it's just there to help you get to your dream.

Okay?

So on my way to being the best safety in the world all those 15 years, all those 20 years, I had four or five knee surgeries during that time, every time I had one guess what the doctor told me. And these are facts. Like you just said. You said losing all your money is a fact. Well, a doctor walks into the room, he goes, beau, we're going to operate on your knee. Football is over. For you. I know it's your dream, but the dream is over. I know. You're 15. The dream is over. My parents are standing right there. And he says to my mom and dad, parents, guess what? Bo's dreams are over. This is his fourth knee surgery. That thing is no good anymore. He'll never make it. And my mom and dad look at me and they go, I think he's going to make it.

Yeah.

So it doesn't matter. This is why. Look, quit trying to be so damn reasonable about life and about your dreams. Like, I hate this when people go, make a goal, but make it reasonable, make it attainable.

I'm like, why would you do that?

If you're. If the dream is going to come true, then it might as well be a big ass, crazy ass dream. It's coming true. You're just not giving it enough time.

Yeah.

So if, like, talk about. I want to talk about finances for a minute. Have you ever had an experience where you. Where finances were not working for you?

Yes.

Okay. So in that spot, because that's really heavy for some people at all different levels, like their finances are not working. So then that's a really glaring thing. And then they have this, the story of. But I can't afford it. But I can't afford. How did you operate from a place of still working towards your goal, knowing that that was there?

The times, you know, I grew up, we didn't have any money, you know, as a kid. And, you know, no pro athletes do. That's why they play pro athletes. They become pro athletes. I didn't know anything about the acting world, you know, and eventually when my football money ran out there, struggled. But here's the thing. Every time I got low on money or no money, I got very smart. And anyone who's been out of money or bankrupt or whatever the case, you get very smart, you get very hungry, and you start to make things happen. Whenever you hit these what look like financial walls, you know, I always knew this, something great is about to happen.

That's good.

I always look at the advantage of the situation that I'm in. This knee surgery is making me smarter. I don't have any money. I got to be smarter and I got to play harder.

Yeah.

Look at everything as an advantage.

Yeah, I love that.

Attractive, the most unattractive. I know a lot. I have a lot of actor friends, right? Who. Some are like 300, 400 pound people, right?

Yeah.

How are you going to be an actor if you're £400? Well, you're going to be John Candy. You're gonna be Chris Farley. You've got to take that disadvantage and make it your advantage. Which turned them into movie stars.

Right, so Good.

Because of their. Right.

Yeah.

Say a beautiful actress or an actress doesn't like their face, they use that to their advantage. That makes them very vulnerable on the screen. Everything, every dream, every obstacle, whether it's no money, your looks, your weight, all this shit, it all is to your advantage. Use it instead of using it against yourself.

Yeah, I love that.

Okay, Bo, I'm gonna. I have a million questions, but I'm gonna dial it back towards your book because your book is epic. And can we talk a little bit about that? Because you have a new book. There's no plan B for your A game. And I want to dive into that because I think a lot of people go wrong having a plan B. So can you speak onto that and why you wrote the book? Like, what. Why you want this for people?

Yeah. I wrote this book because, look, I learned at a very young age that if the title of the book, there's no plan B for your A game. How to be the best in the world at what you do. When I wanted to be the best safety in the world, that declaration, there was no plan B. Right? So my. You know, my. The friends of my parents watched me and my brother grow up, right? And they kept coming over to the house and they would go like this. Look, I know Bo has this dream, but he's really small. He's not very good. He's not even the best high school player. How's he gonna be the best safety in the world? His heart is going to be broken. We have to come up with a plan B for Bo.

Yeah.

I swear, Natalie, I watched my parents, especially my mom, physically take people by the collar and drag them outside of our house and never to let them in our house again.

Wow.

After they said that, they said, beau can't have his dreams. You have to have a fallback plan. You have to have. Not you. They kept saying this. Don't put all your eggs in one bag.

I hate that expression.

Yeah, well, how. You tell me how you're going to be the best safety in the. If you don't put all your eggs in one basket. You tell me how that's going to happen. That ain't going to happen. So they kept trying to give me a soft cushion because they knew my heart was going to be broken, which they were right about that. Right. So you don't go without a Broken heart, trying to be the best. For sure. That's why I wrote the book. Because I have found out that every person that's ever had a plan B, their plan A, their dream, never worked.

Yeah. Because they're not decided it's going to happen. They're not fully in conviction that it's happening.

Yeah. If you have an option. It's not happening. It's not happening. And people do this in marriage. They do this all the time. They date somebody who's kind of okay because they think that their dream person's not out there. So they all just settled here and play in this department. They do that all the time. Well, look, remember, everyone may be too young to remember this, but when John F. Kennedy announced that we were gonna put a man on the moon and then return him safely to Earth, no one had ever done that before. Right?

Yeah.

Imagine the faces of the guys and the gals at NASA when he announced that we were gonna do that within the decade.

You're right. He said.

He said, we're gonna do it within the decade. And everyone in NASA's like, what did he just say? Is he crazy? But did they have. Did he give us, as Americans, did he give us a plan B? Did he go, and if we don't get to the moon.

No, he didn't.

How about we just circle the moon and then come back?

Yeah, no, you're right.

He didn't.

He didn't. If he would have said, now, listen, America, just. So if it doesn't work out, it's still going to be okay. We'll just cruise around out in space, turn him safely. It'll be fine. He. If he would have said that, that would have never. We would have never walked on the moon. That would have never happened.

So.

Good, because human beings always go. Always go to the most comfortable position. Yeah, settle. It's just. It's kind of in our. It's kind of the way we are. But if you look at. If you look at the people who go, here's the plan A, and then they go, well, what's your fallback plan? Well, I don't have one. So all these parents who were coming to my mom and dad's house saying, bo should really study his books. Really good, because he needs to get a real job. He needs to have a plan B. My mom and dad, I watched him throw these people out of the house. And I knew they were serious about my dreams as much as I was. I knew there was no other option. Now. There was also no other Option to be in the best stage performer. There was no option to being the best playwright. There was no options for me. And if you don't have any options, you're going to end up being the best in the world at whatever you choose. But the promise is this. It's not milk and honey the whole way. It's hard, you get your ass kicked. But look what the hell else you doing in your life. I mean, look, you're going to be around for the next 20 years. You might as well dedicate it somewhere.

Yeah.

Now in your book, you came up with a four. Really like a four step process. So you narrowed down to four things. Can you speak on? Do you really think it's these four things that can help anyone do this?

Well, look, I've done it like four times, you know, in my life and my clients do it over and over again. My kids are now doing it. You know, I just, I've done it so many times for myself and it takes many, many years, but it just is pretty darn simple. It's pretty darn basic. And when you, when you get the book, you'll see. But the first one is we've already really talked about, which is declaration.

Yeah.

You know, no different like I talked about earlier, the Declaration of Independence. You have to name what, you have to declare what you want to be the best in the world at.

And you said make a drawing with it.

Yeah, I love. Yeah, I always, I wish I had one with you, just to kind of show it to you between you and I.

And you said even if you can't draw too. Because I read that even if you don't know how to draw, you're gonna.

Doesn't even matter. Doesn't matter if you can draw. You need to draw where you're gonna be in 20 years. This is how I've always done it. My kids have done.

Okay.

And once you draw, it comes from your. It comes from deep within you, that thing. Not only do you have the ability to create it, but you have the ability to make it come true. If you can create it, if you can draw it and you know what you want to be the best at. And now you just start running these miles. And I've used 20 year timelines because. Because I know given 20 years, there is no way that anyone can compete with you at 20. Given the 20. Yeah, no one's going to compete. Just like Al Pacino said, he goes, hey, Bo, this is going to take you 15 years. You're never going to make it. I Go, well, shit, actually, I am going to make it because I know, I know I'm going to show up for 15 years. And I also know that nobody else is.

Yes. And what I love about that too is then you're really not comparing to what others are doing today, six months from now, a year from now, because you have a 15 year plan. You're going to keep going when they've given up.

That's right. And everybody quits. Even you and I will quit, but we're also going to re. Engage.

Yeah.

Quit for an hour.

This book is amazing. I was very fortunate to get an advance copy. So I highly suggest getting this book. I do have one more question before I go more into where they can get the book and where they can find you and all those things. And this is a question I ask every single guest on the show. If somebody's listening to this right now and they're in their own personal rock bottom, maybe it's their injury, maybe it's finances, it's her marriage, whatever it is, whatever is their personal rock bottom. If you were to give them three pieces of advice right now that they could start implementing to start shifting and leveling up and creating everything from nothing, what would you tell them?

Three things.

Yes.

Well, I look at it as an advantage for number one. I would go, okay, I'm at rock bottom. Just like I was at the bottom of that pile. Nowhere to go.

Yeah.

Know what? There's only one way to go up. You better create the next thing. So you just have to understand that is a huge advantage to be at rock bottom.

So change your perspective. Look at it as an advantage.

Yeah. You're actually lucky.

Yeah.

Change the way you see things. Stop seeing everything like rock bottom. Such a bad thing. It's a great thing. Right. Second thing I would do is declare what you want to be the best at.

Okay.

Love that. And the next thing is you're going to accelerate this by you have to get into ideal fighting shape. So whatever that is for you, you got to get this body in this mind in a fighting spirit. So a lot of us that may look different for everybody, but if, look, if I want to be the best stage performer, my body has to look a certain way.

Yeah.

So I'm going to get this body and this voice and this expression as lean as it could possibly go and perform my ass off. Because look, what I'm asking you to do with those three things is give all that you got. Right. So you have to be. You have to have the stamina to fulfill on your dream, which is going to take several years.

Yeah.

So you've got to be in ideal shape. You've got to be like a marathon runner when it comes to that.

This is really good.

Put yourself in that kind of condition and do it. You are so lucky if you're rock bottom. I know no one wants to be there, but that's where all creation comes from.

Yeah, you're right. You're totally right. And I know that people that are in rock bottom don't see it right then, but that perspective shift is real and it is true because you will look back on that rock bottom and know that that's where it came from. It's amazing.

And you've got nothing to lose. You're already at the bottom. You got nothing. So create your ass off.

Yeah.

What you want to be the best at and go do that. The only reason you're at rock bottom is you never chose to be the best at that. You chose to be okay at that or mediocre at that. You chose that. Now I want you to play a bigger game. Choose the best, then fulfill on that birthright.

I love that. There's no plan B for your A game. Where can you find it, boys? And where can they find it?

They could go to. You can go to boeyson book boeasonbook.com and if. And also, look, if you go there, you can learn a lot more about the book. You can get the book there, but also there's a program there, a free guide that I'll give you. It's seven ways to play a bigger game.

Oh, that's amazing.

Right? And the only people that don't reach the top is because they don't play big games.

Yeah.

And they. They should, because that's how they're made. They're like, if I said to you, Natalie, like right now, or you and me made a truce or a commitment right now, like something crazy like, I've never run a marathon. I don't know. Have you ever run a marathon?

No, but don't make that my thing. I'm not doing that. That's not my dream. But.

No, I know, but, like, so even.

If it wasn't, I'm gonna have a private jet. Let's go with that one.

Yeah. Private jet. So if we committed to that, that's a huge game. Just because of the financial cost that that is. Well, automatically, if you and me committed to that and we said Natalie and Beau are going to have a private jet, we're going to share it. And we're going to have it in six months. Just think of what we have to do tonight. Fulfill that. Think about what we have to what time we have to wake up tomorrow morning. Think of what we have to eat. Think of our exercise program. Think of the energy that we are going to expend in the next six months that have to take place now.

Yeah.

Think of are you and me going to waste any time in these six months listening to people who say we can't do it?

No. No. Or wasting time on scrolling social media or things that don't help towards the goal?

Yeah.

Are we going to watch the news tonight? No. Are we going to eat junk food tomorrow morning? No. It makes your life so simple and so easy. But that's why I want you to have the free guide. Because if you learn to play a bigger game. Because look, my experience is these things, dreams come true. They always do. So why would you dream for something half assed?

Yeah.

Why would you dream for something mediocre when you know it's coming true given the timeline?

Yeah.

You've completely motivated me. I'm making all new goals today and they will be a lot bigger. And I draw a picture I'm going to draw.

That's right.

Yep.

Yeah. Boasin book.com they could pick it up and it walks you through the steps, you know, that I've done my whole life that my kids do and my clients do. It's really exciting.

Thank you so much Beau. This has been great.

Thank you. You're welcome. Natalie, it's great spending time with you.

Thanks for leveling up with us today. Please share this episode if you found it helpful so others can join in. And don't forget to hit that subscribe so you don't miss out on future shows. And if you would leave me a five star review. I appreciate those so much. I read all of them and it's how I know that I'm giving you information that you find valuable. And come interact with me over on Instagram @nataliejill. Fit. I read all the direct messages and comments over there. Make it a great day. Creating everything from nothing.