Bo & Dawn Unplugged, Part 1
Dawn: I’m going to put my husband on a “hot seat” right now and I’m going to ask him a few questions for you to make sure that you guys get a little bit of an idea of how he prepares for a speech. I’m always with him and I know and I see it so I want to make sure you guys get that information. So we’re going to do a little Q&A.
When I get you a speech and send you somewhere in the country to speak, what do you usually do once you have that speech to prepare for it in terms of the client or knowing who they are or who’s going to be in the room?
Bo: I want to know who’s in the room. I want to know what their business is. I want to know what turns them on. Why are they in this room? I want to know that for sure. I also want to know how they make their living for the most part. And the most important thing is I want to know the environment of the room. I’m a stickler for that. I never take that lightly. I never show up in a room that I haven’t been in before. I’m in there doing the Sacred Six way before, that’s why I have Dawn fly me out a day early. I never come in the day of—I always come in the day before and I’m marking my territory throughout whatever room I’m going to be in.
I hate going into rooms that I don’t own—yet. Because I know the audience feels it, it’s subtle, but they feel it. And it shows up in the performance so I’m a stickler for preparation, the Sacred Six, getting ready to deliver the goods. I know my body is going to come through for me. If it’s freed up, my body will come through for me so I’m really a stickler for that—freeing this sucker up so that it will come through for me and the audience.
Dawn: A lot of times I’ll set up a call for him, too, just to ask some of the questions. Or if we don’t do that, he’ll go find the person who hired him and say, “tell me a little bit about who’s in the room, what do they do” to get an idea of it. But I thought it was really telling the other day when we were doing a big speech with a new client that we have a yearlong contract with. We were really prepared and ready for this. Bo spoke on a Friday and the event started Wednesday. We were there when the event started and we were in the room for the entire event. We didn’t leave.
One of the guys who works for the company was shooting a video and said, “Hey Bo, I’ve never seen this with any other speaker but you’re always in the room before you give your presentation. You come to the event. You’re sitting there. Do you do that all the time?” And we said, “Yeah, we do. It’s the only way to know what the energy is and the environment is that you’re speaking in, but a lot of speakers just show up, too, right before they speak.
Bo: Most speakers, it’s just like anybody, nobody prepares for greatness. They want to be great. But they don’t want to prepare. Bobby Knight is correct. Everyone has the will to win but no one will prepare to win. And the ones that do prepare to win, you know all their names. I could spout their names right now and you’d go ‘Yep, Michael Jordan. Yep, Kobe Bryant. I can go right through the list and all the other guys are just trying to be famous. They’re just trying to be good. And they wish they were great. But they’re not willing to put the preparation in place to be great. Championships are scheduled.
Championships are scheduled.
They’re not willy-nilly. It’s not like “I hope we win the championship this year.” That’s what most teams do. Most teams go, “Hope we win this year.” They’ve got no chance. Because guess what? Tom Brady’s got it scheduled. It’s part of his schedule. Now, he may lose, right? But it is scheduled. He is set up to win. The greats, that’s how they set up their life. It is scheduled for a championship—that’s what you must do too. That’s why you must be in control of your schedule. So those of you who are a slave to your schedule, meaning you’re not in control of it, grab ahold of the reigns because you’ve got to be in command of your own schedule if you want to be the best. You’ve got to take control of your schedule.
Some people go, “Bo, I can’t work with you. I don’t have the time. And I go, “Yeah, you shouldn’t.” If you can’t control your own schedule then you’re certainly not working with me. Your greatness lies in your schedule and what you’re willing to prepare to do. And I’m just crazy enough to prepare more than others. There are so many better athletes than me out there. You know what I mean? There were better safeties than me. They were faster, they were bigger, they were whatever. But I knew they weren’t awake at age 9 on the wet grass in the fog. I knew they weren’t awake. And I knew by the time 1984 rolled around I knew that I’d be standing on top because no one was willing to run those miles. That’s the only talent that I have. And my kids, it’s the only talent I teach them to have is we’re going to outwork everyone else. And if we do, we get to stand on top. We get to be called the best in the world at what we do because eventually the day is coming where all those miles add up to you standing on top.
Did I answer the question?
Dawn: I don’t know.
