Bo Eason
Appearances
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
I don't think my school has one. And he told me a story about the dog, the ranch dog on our ranch. So in those days, a cattle rancher, you couldn't afford to hire a bunch of men to help you with all the cattle. So you had excellent dogs that helped you. And one particular dog was the ranch dog. And it was always like really heralded in my family. Like that dog was special. And it was valuable.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
You could tell the way it was fed and the way it was treated and the way everybody loved it. And the dog was serious, right? The dog wasn't playful. It wasn't like chasing sticks. It was a serious working dog on the ranch. And that dog could do the work of 10 men. And that's what my dad told me. He goes, for the ranch dog? And I said, yeah. I said, I love that dog.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
And my dad goes, yeah, that dog does the work of 10 men. And the reason you love that dog is because before you ever met that dog, it was a little puppy and it was born to the prior ranch dog who used to work on the ranch. So when the working ranch dog has puppies, the rancher does something.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
The rancher takes all of the puppies, except for the runt of the litter, the smallest puppy born in that litter, he takes that puppy and he ties a little piece of yarn, like a pink yarn around its neck and then puts it back with his bigger brothers and sisters and watches that puppy grow over the next six, eight, 10 weeks.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
And the whole family is watching all of these puppies and keeping their eye on the rut with the pink yarn around its neck. And my dad says, do you know why the runt of the litter becomes the next working dog on the ranch? And I said, no.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
He said, because it is the smallest, it is the weakest, and it has to battle and it has to compete for food and survival against its bigger and stronger brothers and sisters. Well, eventually after eight, 10 weeks, they take all of the puppies from the litter, except for the runt and they give them away to other ranchers that in, in the, in the area. but they keep the runt of the litter.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
And I said, why do you keep the smallest one? And he said, because the smallest one's heart is the biggest. And if he can survive or she can survive those eight, 10 weeks, then that is going to be the smartest, the fastest, the most determined dog that you have. And you can't afford to keep all the dogs. So you give them away to other ranchers and that is your dog.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
And that's the dog can do the work of 10 men. And he said, you're the runt of our litter. Like I had four older sisters and one older brother. So he said, I bet on the runt every time. And once he told me that story, I knew what he meant. I was like, oh, okay. He's telling me that they ain't getting rid of me. Like I'm going to be around because I've made it this far.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
And that was always my way, even though I was small body, that was always my way to compete. I always knew because when your dad tells you something like that, you believe it. He said, your heart is the biggest. And I go, okay, I'm going to count on that. And eventually my body, as I grew up through high school and then to college, my body actually grew up to my heart size. You know what I mean?
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
My body caught up with myself. And that's when I was really able to excel and really able to achieve the dream and make it come true. But that moment in that pickup truck, boy, when you have a parent or a coach or somebody that sees your greatness, which is pretty rare, most of them do like your coach did, like you're too small, like my coach did, or you're too slow. My coach said I was too small.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
Your coach said you're too slow. Well, let's do something about that. Let's go, let's get faster. Let's get bigger. And when you have somebody who sees your greatness and then speaks it, and then you live into it, I've always surrounded myself because the dreams were always big for me. I always surrounded myself with people like that because I knew that was somehow innately.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
I knew that was really important for my development and for me reaching my dreams. And I, you know how like when you grow up and you start being around other kids and you're getting to be an adult and you realize that not everybody had a dad like me. I just figured everybody must have a dad that told them that, but they didn't. And it took me a while to understand that. No, I didn't have a dad.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
And I certainly didn't have a dad who told me that or saw greatness in me and said it was okay. Keep going, son. So that's why he was such a rare guy and meant so much to me.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
Yeah, there is. Great question. And you know what, John? Great question, because no one really I don't I think you might be the first person that's ever asked me about that. And that is I do this for one. I'm really familiar with it because I do it.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
with my kids all the time as they grew up, about drinking, about drugs, about sex, all the things that you do as a parent, those conversations that are hard to have, and the conversations that if you tell a kid not to drink, they're probably gonna try it anyway. My dad never did that. Always used a story, and it was a tiny story, like an anecdotal story.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
Like he would, you would, I remember this one thing my dad always told me and my brother in high school, because he knew we wanted to be professional athletes. And I remember he said, if, and this was marijuana, I remember it was specifically marijuana. He said, because this was in the seventies, he would say, now, if anyone brings out, he would call it dope and light lights up the dope.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
You excuse yourself from that person. You get away from the person. You leave that party. You leave that. You just leave. You're gone. You're out. You're not going to be around that. That was the story he told me. For us to do, because that's what he did. Like when somebody drank when he was a kid, his dad told him, you just walk away.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
And my dad said he lost some friends because he just walked away from them. And he still liked them as friends, but he wasn't going to be in the area of drinking. And he was telling us not to be in the presence of marijuana. He called it dope. So funny. So one time we're coming home from football practice and me and my brother got a ride from some older guys.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
We were probably freshmen and sophomore, and they were probably seniors or juniors. And We looked up to these guys. They were older guys. They were bigger. They were football players. So we wanted to be as good as them. And they were giving us a ride home, right? And one guy pulls out, I think it was a cigarette.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
It was either cigarette or marijuana and started to light it up while he was driving in the front seat. Me and my brother were in the back seat. I'll never forget this because we lived down the country. There was no public transportation there. It was 17 miles between the high school and our house and just farms in between.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
So my brother, as soon as he saw that, I was looking at it, the guy about to light it up. And I was looking around. I didn't know what to do because I didn't want to say that to an older guy who I admired. But my brother goes like this. Could you pull the car over? Just like that. Could you pull the car over? And the guy goes, what do you mean? Pull the car over. He goes, just pull over.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
We have to get out of the car. And I was like, I was embarrassed that my brother was saying that, but the guy said, well, what do you mean you got to get out? And he goes, our dad just told us a story about like when he was around somebody who was doing something that he didn't want us around. He just said, you got to get away from that. You got to somehow get away from that.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
So if you'll pull over, we'll just, we can walk the rest of the way. And the guy, the cool football player guy who was about to light up said, you know what? I'm not doing it. I'm not going to do it. And he didn't light it up. He put it back away and continued to give us a ride. Well, that all came. from a little anecdotal story that my dad told me.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
Somehow innately, maybe it's because of him being a cowboy. Like cowboys are, they don't talk a lot, but if they do talk, they talk in story. And that's how you teach the youngsters how to herd the cattle or how to win a war or how to overcome something. You did it through story. And I learned then that story was much more effective.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
Telling a story as you're raising your kids to what you want them, tell them a story of the example that you went through, they will follow suit. But if you tell them not to smoke marijuana, they might try marijuana. But if you tell them the story of getting out of the car, because I tell my kids that all the time, I go, you guys, my dad told us, that we had to get away from marijuana.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
And one time I was driving and just a story that I just told you, John, my brother said, hey, could you pull over? Me and my brother got to get out of the car. And I tell my kids that all the time. And you know what? I don't know if it's been helpful for them, but it's much better to train people and teach people Based on story, on anecdotal evidence, instead of telling them what to do.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
Because even my kids too, right? Like I'm a good parent, but they do not listen to what I tell them to do. They don't, right? They listen to what other people tell them to do, but they listen to the story and they live into their future. Likewise, because of the story. Anyway, my dad did that our whole lives.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
He gave us example after example of a person that did something that he didn't want us to do. Whether that was drinking, whether that was womanizing, whether that was cheating on your girlfriend, whatever it was, he would give us examples of it in his life. And then we would just sit there and listen to him and go, okay, I think I know what he's training me to do.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
And you just become those stories that a great storyteller tells you. You become those stories. And that's why I talk a lot about storytelling because I think in the end, looking back, it is the thing that kind of saved my butt, storytelling. Like when I had to transition from the NFL to being a civilian, a regular person out there in the public,
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
It was really hard because I was trained to be great. I was trained to be the best in the world at one thing. And that one thing was very violent and it was to hurt people. That's what safeties did in the 80s. That's what we were known for. That was legal on the football field, but completely illegal in the civilian world. So I had to find a story for myself that got me through that.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
In fact, it was storytelling in itself that I had to start doing to make a living in the civilian world rather than hurting people and myself, because that was what I was trained to do. And I was really good at it, got paid a lot of money to hurt people and intimidate people. Well, that doesn't work too well in the civilian world. So just to avoid prison, I learned
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
how to be expressive on a stage in front of people. And that's really what saved me. So that's why I don't take storytelling lightly because it's really saved me on a few fronts in my life.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
Usually your best story is the one you don't want to tell. Isn't that funny to say? Like there's a lot of stories that we want to tell, right? Like about, oh, I won the championship. Look at my trophy. I'm sure Tom Brady loves telling that story. Look, I won seven Super Bowls. I want to know the lowest moment Tom Brady's ever had, because that's the one that has the most connective tissue to it.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
You do have it correct. I moved to New York City. Every kid in my class was much younger than me because I already had a career. I was playing in the NFL and they were fresh out of college. All these young theater students, acting students, improv students, writing students, they were all in my class. And I was like, you guys, who's the best stage performer of our time? Well, this was 1990.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
So everybody said Al Pacino is the best of our time. And I said, cool, where is he? I got to talk to him. And they're laughing at me. This boy's crazy. And I said, because I knew that if he held the mantle, if he was indeed the best on the stage, then he would be the only one to tell me or to help me compete with him and eventually take his trophy of being the best stage performer.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
So lo and behold, about a week later, I'm in Al Pacino's house. Imagine this crazy. I'm at his house. It's just how you would imagine it is. It looks like a scene out of the Godfather with 15 Italian people in a kitchen, stirring gravies and pastas and cooking this crazy big old meal. And no one speaks English. They all speak Italian except for Al. And Al comes out and he greets me.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
He's like, oh, hey, Al Pacino. I'm like, no shit. I've seen all your movies. And he said, Bo, I know why you're here. Come on back. We went to this room that he had a pool table in. And we played pool for about three hours. And he broke down my next 15 years. He didn't say it was going to be 15 years until later, but he just started breaking down what my desires were.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
Like I said, look, I wanted to be the best safety in the world. When I was nine, I got that. Like it came true. I want to do it again. I want to do it with stage performance. I want to be the best at that. Help me. Who do I work with? Where do I go? What's the first thing I do? And this was in New York and I,
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
He told me who to work with, who the teachers were going to be, who the movement coach was going to be, who the voice coach was going to be. I mean, there was so much more to it than I knew. I just thought you got up there and winged it. And it wasn't, it was just, I was happy to learn that it was exactly like playing a professional sport. It was exactly the same principles.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
Had to be taken care of. Like you had to train and you had to eat in a specific way and you had to be with the specific coaches that were the top at the top and could teach you and accelerate your training. And that's what I did. And I saved all my money from football and I used it for 15 years.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
to get me to a place where I thought in 15 years, if I did what Al said to do, then I could be the top guy. And basically, John, he told me exactly what you would tell me, which is, he said, Bo, basically your ass, your feet are gonna be planted on a stage in a theater more than anyone else in the next 15 years.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
And you're gonna be up there rehearsing, sweating, working through the text, trying to decipher Shakespeare, trying to move authentically, trying to get a better, stronger resident voice. And if you do that for 15 years, then chances are you're probably gonna be the top of the heap Because no one else will do that. And I said, you know what? I happen to be really good with those kind of timelines.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
And I'm just thinking of one lesson for your listeners right now is that, you know what? And I tell my kids this all the time. No, I don't know if they believe me. I don't know if anyone believes this, but I always knew since I was a kid,
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
that if I didn't stop whatever this declaration was at the time, if I just didn't stop, like I stayed loyal to it and only it, I somehow knew that no one else would. I somehow knew that despite my abilities, despite my shortcomings, if you give me that long, that big of a runway, I'm probably gonna be the best at that given the 15 years.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
And I didn't talk about this earlier when I had the declaration of being the best safety. All the way up growing up, there were certain things I didn't do growing up. Like I didn't go to the prom, right? Because in my little 15-year-old, 16-year-old mind, I thought that was a conflict of me being the best safety. I thought that ran... against being the best safety. So I didn't go to the prom.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
I didn't drink. There were certain things I didn't do going on dates that I knew all the other safeties were probably who wanted to be the best safety growing up in whatever city they lived in. I thought they were going to the prom and that's where I would get ahead of them. Well, still, I had a very simple mind in my late 20s. And I did the same thing in the entertainment business.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
I just said, I'm going to train more than anyone else can train. I'm going to be on a stage more than anyone else can be on a stage. And I'm not going to have any conflicting interests. And so I wasn't searching for an acting career. I wasn't trying to get an agent. I was trying to be the best. on stage.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
And I figured if I was, then it like Al Pacino, if you're the best on stage, chances are people are going to come calling and saying, Hey, can you do this? Hey, can I hire you for this? And that is exactly what happened. So 15 years later, after meeting Al Pacino, 15 years later, I'm on stage, uh,
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
on Broadway and off Broadway in front of an audience of a play that I wrote, that I was the playwright of, and that I'm the only guy in. So it's a play I wrote, and I'm the only guy in. And I'd never written a play in my life. I'd never written anything in my life other than English papers. But I wrote a play. It was a one-man play. opened in New York, ran forever, went on a 50 city tour.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
It got bought as a movie. And that play, because I took the time to be great at that play and hired people around me to make sure to hold me accountable and to make sure I was authentic and great at the performance. 15 years later, I'm in a house in New York City, opening night, critics are in there. I am so nervous. I've never been this nervous and I've gone up against 350 pound dudes.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
They were like cupcakes compared to the critics in New York. So I was going out. I went out on opening night. I did the play and right on the aisle in the fifth row was Al Pacino sitting there watching me do a play that I'm the only guy in. And I remembered like looking at him going, shit, that is Al Pacino.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
And I'm trying to remember my lines while saying, wow, I can't believe Al Pacino came to my play. It was like these two things going on at once. And all he did, all I remember him doing was he had his arms crossed like this as he sat there. And he just was watching the play. And he just went like this. Just nodded his head. And that was the moment. And that was the best review that I ever got.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
It was like as if he was saying, kid, you did what you said you were going to do. And you did. And here you are. right here, where everyone is out to murder you in print because you're a football player thinking you can write a play and bring it to New York City and actually perform it. And that play was a huge success. Success, not only for my development, but it made me a screenwriter.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
I got bought as a movie. So I got to write the screenplay. I got to write several other screenplays for other movie stars because of that. And I never saw myself as a writer, but it turns out I knew how to tell a story. And that's basically that play saved my ass, John, because I,
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
i was really nervous i was scared you know i was scared because i was great at one thing and that one thing did not translate well to the civilian world so the ability to express myself on a page and the ability for this instrument that my coach has built to be able to express this thing in a storytelling manner it gave me forever ever since that day a voice
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
to share my own self, to share the expression of what I feel inside this body. And I was really good at that as a football player. Like athletes, elite athletes are really excellent at expressing their physical body on a field or on a court. And I wasn't good at expressing myself verbally. I was pretty good physically, but not great verbally. And that's what I learned.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
And once those two things matched, like the physicality and the verbal, it really set me free. Like it gave me like a sense of health and a sense that, wow, this art form that I have mastered can't be taken away from me. Like a knee surgery cannot take it away from me. I'm going to do this for the rest of my life. And, and then it turned into. me teaching people to do it.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
People would come to the play, John, and mostly people come to plays and they want to come backstage and meet you as a performer or as a writer. But no one wanted to meet me in that way. The people who came backstage to meet me, and this was over 17 years, the people who came backstage were business owners, were CEOs of the biggest companies in New York City and in the world.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
They were coming backstage and they weren't there to say, hey, can I get a picture with you? Hey, you're a really great performer. What they wanted to know was how did you do that? And can you teach my people to do that, what you just did? And that's how I began to train people, business people, salespeople, doctors, financial advisors.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
I trained them to do what I did on stage, which is basically to tell my own story and have a connection, physically have a connection with other human beings. Well, these business people wanted it because if you can do what I did, you can make a lot more money for that company. You can build your own company based on the ability to physically and verbally share yourself.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
And that's what built trust. And that's what they knew. So that's how that whole career started as me training people to do what I did best. So I'll pause.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
Thanks, John. Thank you for having me.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
I 100% think that's true. Everybody requests things of people who are successful. Like, can you introduce me to important people? Can you fund my project? Can you introduce me to your agent? Can you get me a movie part? Well, somehow I knew that a movie part was not going to help me. what was gonna help me take care of my whole life was being the best at something.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
So I always chased the best rather than the money. But what I quickly understood was that when you were the best, the money actually comes because it's pretty rare that somebody is the best at something and is dedicated to that or takes the time to master something.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
And here's another thing I learned, John, was those famous people, the people who are actually in position to help you, I swear, they're the most generous people. They are, you just don't know they are. They're so generous because there's no way they could reach the height that they're in without being generous. They can't. If they're a dick, they ain't going to the top.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
It just, in my experience, it doesn't happen. Al Pacino is a great dude. But if I went to him and said, hey, Al, can you give me a little small part in your next movie? Now, that would have been fun to do, right? But he would have looked at me just like I was any dude coming down the pipe. And yeah, I could do that. But is that really going to help your life? A small movie part?
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
It's not going to help you. How about I tell you the miles to run And then you run them. And then you'll be valuable to every movie maker, to every stage, to everywhere you go, because you have the ability to perform. You have the ability and you've mastered something. And here's the one thing I've learned about mastery is if you master one thing in your life, you master all things.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
Master one, master all. And people just don't, I don't think they believe it because they don't want to do it. They don't. And I mastered a position called safety, but that mastering of that position, which is, it's completely unrelated, but I'm a great husband. I've mastered what it is to be a great husband and a great dad because of the training I had
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
for those years attempting to be the best safety. It's the same principles. It's the same exact principle. Playwright, people like New York Times called me like one of the most powerful playwrights in the last decade, right? The only reason they said that, you guys, the only reason I became a good playwright was because I mastered what it took to be a great safety. That was it.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
I knew the principles were exactly the same. And I just repeated these principles over and over in my life. And it turns out it works in every field. So say today, John, you and me decided, Hey, let's start a new declaration together. John, how about we become the best ballet dancers in the world? And we give ourselves 20 years. Now,
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
Yeah, that was really the key to my life. I grew up, I was the youngest of six kids. So there was a lot of mouths to feed and there was a lot of attention to be given to each one. And I was the youngest, right? So I was always battling for that attention and to be great at something because that was big in my family. My dad woke us up. He's a cowboy. He's a rancher. So
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
The principles would be exactly the same as playwright, as safety, as podcaster. Once you master a thing, then your timelines get shorter because of the principles, the miles to run. That's what I'm always training, not only my kids, but my clients. I always want the people that I'm training to be great presenters. And they think it's going to take a long time.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
And I always ask them, well, where are you going in this time? Are you dying? Are you going to die? Or are you going to live for the next few years so we can master this thing? And they're like, no, I'm going to be alive. I'm like, okay, cool. We got time then. So relax. Let's learn this thing. Let's master this thing. That way you're completely in control of your own life.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
Because if I can control the stories that I tell and the ability to move people, then I always get paid for that. There's always somebody wanting to invest, wanting to pay, wanting to be in, because no one does it well. They do it, they just don't do it well. Imagine if a politician did this well, they'd be really dangerous, right?
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
They're just, they're really bad at this, which keeps them powerful, weak, like no one trusts them anymore. If you notice, no one trusts them anymore because they're just no good at being them, at being authentic and being able to tell a story that is tried and true. They really are bad at that.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
And thank God they are because we put them in a little cupboard over here and we go, okay, you're a politician. I don't believe anything you say. And not only do I not believe it, no one believes it. And so they have a certain amount of power and that power just keeps dissipating as our world goes forward.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
And people in our department who could actually express themselves authentically coming directly from their heart. Well, we become the powerful, we actually flip the script on our so-called leaders. And now we are the leaders because we're better communicators. We're just better at being us. Now, I'm not saying we're more polished. That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying we're more real.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
I'm saying we're more trustworthy. And that's my big push now. That's really where I'm headed now in training people. Because I think the whole leadership model is bankrupt. And I feel it. I can feel it in my own life. It's bankrupt. And I keep looking around for another leader to show up because I'm a good player. So I like following leaders.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
And I realized a few years back that there's just nobody coming. No one's coming. So why don't I take the lead? Why don't you take the lead, John? And why don't my clients and my family, why don't we take the lead? And that's a big responsibility that really nobody wants, but too bad. That's how it is nowadays. That's how it's going to have to go.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
He didn't talk a lot, but when he talked, it meant something. So you listen. And the way he woke us up, all six of us was by telling us we were the best. That's how we were woke up. And we, when you grow up on a ranch, you wake up really early. So it's five in the morning and he's rubbing your back and he's telling you're the best.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
You guys, just so everybody knows, including me, including John, no one thinks they have a powerful story. You just don't go around going, wow, I got a really powerful story. No one thinks that of themselves. Do you know why that is? It's because over your lifetime. So I'm 63. So my stories of planes being the best safety in the world that took 20 years to come into fruition.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
So I initially didn't think that was a powerful story. Who's going to care about me at nine years old, having a dream. and then fulfilling on that dream 20 years later. Does anybody really care? Because I was thinking personally, it's me, it's 20 years. It seems like a boring life. I didn't go to the prom. I missed a lot of parties.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
I missed a lot of fun stuff because I was doing my safety training. It seems our lives seem mundane to us because it takes a long time for these stories to develop. But after 20 years, you look back and you go, wow, I used to think who would give a crap about me and my little plan? Well, you know what it turned out to be? Everybody cares about my plans.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
Everybody who's ever heard the story cares about my dreams and my 20 year plan. Everybody cares and is inspired by somebody who sticks with that dedication for that long and brings it into existence. Everybody. Well, I thought no one cared because it seemed boring to me because I just did it. It was my life. Well, same for you. You think that when your mom
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
You had a dream of being a pop star, say, and one day your mom was driving you to choir practice and you're sitting in the backseat and you're singing your lungs out. And your mom turns around and says, you know what, sweetheart, you're the worst singer I've ever heard. Which parents sometimes do that, right? It's not the greatest parenting, I wouldn't think, but it's what they do.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
Well, that moment to a kid, 13, that is the most painful moment of your life. Now, you've worked through that by now as an adult, but that's where I always start my students. The people that work with me, they always say, well, Bo, that's not an interesting story. My mom just said that to me. And I say, well, what did you say? What did you do right after your mom said,
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
Because you're the one with the dream of being a pop star. And then your mom says, you're the worst singer in America. You did something next. You said something to yourself. You decided something for yourself in that moment, in that car. What was it? And that is their defining moment. It's a moment that defines you for the rest of your life.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
And then he's dropping a few cuss words alongside of it just for punctuation. And so that's how I was. I was woke up like that every day until I went to college. And then even when I was married and went back home and for Christmases and stuff, he's still wake us up the same way, but that's how I always woke up. So it set the tone.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
And you have these defining moments all throughout your life. But the really dark ones, the ones that hurt the most, those are the most powerful. And it's usually at an age between 9 and 12, usually. Not all the time. But those are usually the powerful ones. Like mine, just so you know, every elite athlete on the planet, Michael Jordan, Tom Brady, me, we all have the same stories.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
Our story goes like this. I was cut from my high school basketball team. That's Michael Jordan's story. So Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player ever to play the game. Yet he was cut from his high school basketball team, not once, but twice. How could that be? That is his defining moment story. It is the story that defined him for the rest of his life.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
Tom Brady, same story, just in football, right? No one wants him. No one likes him. He is defined by not a very good quarterback. And now we know him as the greatest quarterback of all time because he decided to change things through pain of his defining moment. You suck. You're no good. He defined himself as the greatest quarterback and lived it into existence. I did that.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
Every elite athlete does that. Well, everyone who's accomplished, like all of you listening right now, say you're a doctor, say you're a doctor of note. You're a well-known doctor. The only reason you are is because you had a defining moment story. And that defining moment story is It could be you got an F the first day of medical school.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
It could be that you were told you were stupid and you wouldn't amount to anything as a child. Those, you guys, are the most powerful thing you've got. I don't care what your education is. I don't care what your resume says. Your defining moment story came from pain, a lot of pain. When I got cut from Little League, I never had that much pain in my life. Never.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
And I decided in that moment as a kid that I'm never going to get cut again. No one's going to send me home ever again. And guess what? You guys, that made me a pro athlete. That made me get paid a lot of money. Just that decision. Those are called defining moment stories. That's what I train people to learn about themselves. And no one wants to tell it, for one, because of what John said.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
They don't think it's important. They don't think people want to know that story. Everybody wants to know that story. So think about this in your life. Everybody think about this right now. The what's your favorite movie. Just think about what it is. What's your top three favorite movies.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
I guarantee you every one of them started the first frame of film started at the lowest moment, a defining moment. Everyone, if it's Rocky, guess where Rocky starts. He's a bum. Rocky's a bum. He's shaking down old men for change. Right. But what is he at the end of the movie? He's the heavyweight champion of the world. You guys, that is a defining moment. He is a bum fighter.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
His desire is to be the heavyweight champion. Your story is no different than that. That is what great storytelling is all about.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
I knew, okay, I'm supposed to be the best is, and I always was wondering, is he sure about me? Maybe the other kids are going to be great or the best. but I don't know. I was little, I was younger, but I was just trying to find a place to put all my energy and what I was going to be the best at. And lo and behold, at about the age of nine, I was watching this game.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
so if this is why i train people to start at their lowest moment and tell me what that was the one where there was no answers for you that moment is the moment that you decided you were going to take matters into your own hands that is all human beings are interested in we reward courage And since time, and this is the only thing that's been rewarded since time is courage.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
So if you're at the lowest moment and there's no answers for you, you have to have courage to decide and define yourself as having a dream and then getting after it. Just like Michael Jordan, just like Tom Brady, just like me, just like Rocky, just like you. Once you have this story, then we rehearse it and we physically attach it to your humanity.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
Because, you know, here's the truth of the matter. People believe about 50% of what comes out of your mouth. That's the statistics. That's the science. Science tells us that people believe 50% of what comes out of your mouth. But people believe your body, this physical instrument that we all have, People believe your body 100% of the time because the body cannot lie. The body cannot lie.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
So my workshops are all about finding this most valuable story that you have. And then I bring in my movement coach, the guy who taught me to be on stage physically with a presence. And then we attach this verbal story to your solar plexus, to your molecules. So now this instrument, the greatest instrument that God ever created, as far as expression goes is the human body. Well,
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
We want this body expressing the exact story that you're telling. And I have found that this is how people, all of my clients, including myself, have built their businesses, have built their companies, have built their brands based on a defining moment story of pain. Isn't that wild? You would think it would be the opposite, but it always starts there.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
Then once people trust you, which they will because physically they not trust your body. Understand that people have to trust your body because your body cannot lie. That's why it's important for me and for you is to attach this story to a physicality to our body. This is why you trust animals. no matter what.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
You trust babies, little kids, no matter what, because they're so physical in front of you. They're so unapologetic. Physically, that you must keep your eyes on them and you must trust them. Well, that's all we train to do in my workshops so that all my people get the trust.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
All my people can then raise the funds or build their business, however big or small that they want to, but they're in control. I'm in control of my business. That's the freedom I would like everybody to have because once I was given that freedom and trained to do this, that's what I've experienced is just like this freedom of movement and a voice and of dreams. This is what I want to build.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
Can somebody help me build this? Here's my story. And they follow the story and then they build the business with you. It's very cool.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
Oh, wow. Yeah.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
My dad was actually watching a game with OJ Simpson in it. OJ Simpson was in the game. He was a running back for the Buffalo bills at USC and he won the Heisman trophy. Anyway, I had never really heard my dad use the word beautiful because he's just not that kind of guy. And rarely had I ever seen him sitting down in front of a TV.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
That is a hundred percent. And just a quick tip for everybody. Usually your best story, is the one you don't want to tell. Isn't that funny to say? There's a lot of stories that we want to tell, like about, oh, I won the championship. Look at my trophy. I'm sure Tom Brady loves telling that story. Look, I won seven Super Bowls. I want to know the lowest moment Tom Brady's ever had.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
Because that's the one that has the most connective tissue to it. There's a reason why a guy wins seven Super Bowls. It is pain. It is not from joy. It is not from fun. It is not from any of that. It is from pain that he felt as a kid when they cut him. When they said, you're no good. You're not a good player.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
you can't play here same story we all have that's the story we're interested in tom brady because can you really connect to another human being based on a trophy you cannot you can only connect through pain it is the most intimate It is the most, this vulnerability that John's talking about, that pain makes you vulnerable. Well, that is the greatest connective tissue that human beings have.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
It's embarrassment. It is shame. It is, I'm reluctant to tell that, to share that. That is the story for you. You got to know this.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
do the think everybody do this we're going to do a 10 second exercise the first one's five seconds think of your greatest moment of your life five seconds think of it right now greatest moment of your life proudest moment of your life five seconds go everybody got it good forget about that one it's not a good story it sucks as a story no one can connect to that
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
Here's another five-second exercise. Think of your lowest moment, the one where you looked around and there were no answers for you. Five seconds, go. That's your story. That's the one. That's the one that connects you to human beings. The other one doesn't work. It doesn't work. That would be like this. They start the movie of climbing Mount Everest.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
Say we're making a movie of climbing Mount Everest. Do we start on the top of the mountain? Does the movie begin with us on top of Mount Everest planting the flag? waving with our successes. No, it does not start there, does it? No story starts there. The movie starts us looking up at the top of the summit and saying, there's no way in hell we can make it. And there's dead bodies all around us.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
That's where you start a story. No one's interested in your success. They're only interested in the climb. That's it. That's what connects us to human beings. That's why you've got to start at your lowest moment.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
And that's where we were this one afternoon when I was nine and he was watching a game with OJ Simpson in it. Well, I didn't know who OJ Simpson was. I don't even know if my dad knew who he was, but he did say that this kid is beautiful. And he's pointing at the TV and I'm like, looking at my dad, I'm looking at the TV, wondering what is, he's never used the word beautiful.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
Here's why people go to the theater. This is why you go to the theater. I heard a movie star say this once. It was a lady movie star. And she said this, people don't come to the theater to see me. They come to the theater to see themselves. That is so accurate, you guys. No one goes to an event. No one goes to a speech. No one comes to a podcast to see me or to see John.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
You're here to see yourself. And the only way you can find yourself is through my story or John's story. And that's what you relate to. So you see yourselves differently. inside of, well, I'm the guest on this podcast. So you're seeing yourself through my journey. I'm telling you stories of my dad. Well, you're not thinking of my dad. You're thinking of your dad.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
The more personal your stories are, the more effect you have, because here's what it does. It puts people inside of their own life. And that's where people want to be. They go to the theater to see themselves, not the act, not the actor, but if the actor can put me in my life, he gets rewarded for ever. So think about that. You guys, your stories are not selfish.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
They are personal and they mean something to you. The more they mean to you, the more they mean to the audience. So you're giving your audience the greatest reward you can give to any audience, which is to put them into their own life, which is where they want to be. And they see themselves through your life, through your story, through your dreams, they see their dreams.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
Do you see how this works? There's this term that was invented a couple of decades ago, and I hate it. And people use it all the time when they speak or when they tell a story, they preface their story by saying, well, I'm going to tell you a story. It's not about me. They'll say this term. It's not about me.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
Well, right then you should run out of the room because that's going to be a crappy story of narcissism. Don't use that term. It's not about me. If you tell a personal story, you are giving your audience the greatest reward you can ever give, which is putting them in their own lives. That's what I want. That's where people go wrong. That's why they sound like they're bragging.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
A, B, he's talking about a man on TV and he was talking about the way he moved and the way he ran and what beauty it had. And so I was like, I just remember watching OJ Simpson and going, okay. That kid is beautiful, the way he moves, the way he runs. I've never seen anybody do that before. But what I remember being more interested in is I didn't want to be OJ Simpson. I wanted to stop him.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
They sound like narcissists because they're trying to prove that they're not bragging. Well, you don't have to brag. Just share your life, share your dad, share your grandmother, share your child. And if you do that, You put them in their own life and now you're on the same wavelength. Now you have trust. Now you have intimacy.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
Something that our leadership model right now cannot have, does not have, which is why trust is so loved. But you and me, we get to have it. We get to rebuild the trust that's been eroded over time by these idiots because they don't know what they're doing. We do. We know how to share ourselves. It's through pain. It's through the pain of that lowest moment story that defined you.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
That's how we do it. And once you do that, you guys, you can take your people, your audience, whether it's virtual or it's one person at a time, or when you're in a big arena speaking to people, you get to take them wherever you want to take them because they trust you. And they don't trust the rest of the world. Remember how you used to trust every doctor that you met?
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
Remember how you used to trust everybody who spoke in front of a podium or behind a podium? You believed them. You trusted them. You did what they said. You don't do that anymore. You don't do it anymore. Think about it. You don't. You go, I don't know. You don't trust them because they're not trustworthy because they don't share themselves. And they certainly don't share their lowest moments.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
which is the only thing we can connect to.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
Yes, you're welcome. It was a pleasure for me. It's great.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
John, you're welcome. And John, I'd love to put something in the chat for you guys too. Just a number they can text and I'll send them some, a video where I train people how to uncover their signature story, their defining moment story. So everybody listening can watch that video and go, Oh, okay. I'll give you some prompts. You can start to write it.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
You can start to understand what that story is for you and then start using it. Okay.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
Okay, great. Thanks, John.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
I mean, that's actually a really good place. BoEason.com is my website. It's got all the programs that I do. I do some live stuff, three-day events. I'd love to have some of your audience come and work on their story and physically embody their story with my movement coach. It's a very powerful event called Personal Story Power, which we do in La Jolla twice a year for three days.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
And I'd love to have you guys come and learn this powerful story so you can start using it.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
Man, you know what? That's what most of the people that come to La Jolla are like, oh my gosh, there are seals on the beach right next to the theater that we do our event in. It's so beautiful and so cool.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
You're welcome, John.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
I wanted to tackle him. Right? And look, a lot of therapists have tried to figure that one out. But I... Later learned that there's this position called safety in football. That is the last line of defense. And if you can get past the safety, then you score, you win. But if you can't get past the safety, you can't win because you can't score. So that's when I decided. And it's strange.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
I can't put it all together with my memories. But I remember that being very important to me. Like, I want to be that guy who can stop these beautiful runners from scoring touchdowns and beating us. I wanted to be on that side of the ball. So I drew up the plan. I called it a declaration only because I just, I liked the, because we were learning the Declaration of Independence in school.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
And I just remember being in awe of founding fathers writing this document like 250 years ago, yet I didn't write it. I wasn't related to these founding fathers, but they wrote something that us Americans bring into existence every day. And I was one of those Americans. So I was like, so these founding fathers created this declaration. They declared who we were going to be.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
And I, me, who didn't know them, who didn't write it, by the way I lived brought their declaration into existence. So I put that kind of all together as I was growing up. And so I never had, I never liked the word goals. I just, that, that didn't, I just didn't like the word. I liked the word declaration.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
So that's what I drew up a plan, a declaration that said I would be the best safety in 20 years because that's how long it was going to take me to grow up and be able to be drafted in the NFL as the top safety. So that's how my life began. That's how the dream of the declaration began. That was the genesis of it.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
And then along the way, all those years, so going through grammar school, going through high school, college and then eventually the pros, as you, as I look back, that, that actually came true. Like it came, my declaration of being the best safety actually came into existence, but so many years after I had written that declaration, so many years.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
But the one thing that people always ask me about that particular declaration is, well, were you just great all the time? Were you just the best athlete in your school? And the answer is not even close. So all my buddies, it felt like to me, were better than me. They were bigger than me. They were faster than me.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
So I always tell people all those years leading up to being named the best safety in the NFL, all those years leading up to it, It was like I had no evidence for my dream coming true. I had no feedback except from my family. They're like my brother, my dad, they saw it. A couple of people saw it, but almost no one else did. Almost no one else was going, yeah, Bo, you're really special.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
You're going to make it. You're going to go all the way. So when I was playing in high school, I thought I was a good player. My brother thought he was a good player. And neither of us was recruited coming out of high school. So 350 colleges play college football, but nobody wrote us a letter. No one recruited us.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
So then you think, well, God, I guess I'm not very good being that 350 colleges don't want me. The worst colleges don't want me, so I must be really bad. And it just didn't look like to the world that it was going to come true. But somehow, I knew that it was going to. I'm not sure how, but somehow I knew that if I just don't quit...
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
that this thing's going to come true because if I don't quit, I'm probably going to be the last safety standing and everyone else would have quit by then and I'll get to be that guy. So I'll pause right there, John, just to let you know if you want to follow up on anything or if you want to know more about like that journey, I'm happy to tell you more about it.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
It really did. In fact... I wrote a play that ran for 17 years and the play's title is Runt of the Litter. And that is the story my dad told me that changed everything for me. So the first time I was going to ever play tackle football, I was a freshman in high school. So what was I, 12 or 13? The first day of practice, they weighed and they measured us for the game program for our freshman year.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
And so I remember like being in line and getting up on the scale in front of the whole team. And the coach is sitting there right next to the scale and measuring my height. And I remember I was, I think I weighed about a hundred pounds, right in between 105 pounds. So on the smaller end, and I just remember the coach laughing and saying that I was too small.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
to play football, but he didn't know I had this dream of being not only a football player, but the best at my position, right? So I just remember being in tears after he told me that, and my dad picked me and my brother up after practice, and we had a 17 mile drive back home in my dad's pickup. And I just remember my dad said, what's the matter? And I said, well,
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Bo Eason on How to Transform Your Lowest Moments Into Power | EP 529
they weighed and measured us for the game program today dad and the coach thinks i'm too small and my dad without skipping a beat my dad said did they measure your heart god damn it i was like i remember telling him i remember thinking in my third 12 13 year old mind i don't even think our school has one of those heart measuring things whatever you're talking about
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
5 Life-Changing Lessons from Josh Hamilton’s Journey of Redemption | EP 528
Usually, your best story is the one you don't want to tell. Isn't that funny to say? Like, there's a lot of stories that we want to tell, right? Like about, oh, I won the championship. Look at my trophy. I'm sure Tom Brady loves telling that story. Look, I won seven Super Bowls. I want to know the lowest moment Tom Brady's ever had because that's the one that has the most connective tissue to it.