Definition of a pep talk — Merriam-Webster dictionary:
A usually brief, intense, and emotional talk designed to influence or encourage an audience.
“Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose.”
Those of us who are fans of the recent classic TV series Friday Night Lights could tell you that Kyle Chandler’s Coach Taylor gave the best pep talks a high school football team could possibly ask for. Frankly, they’re the best pep talks anyone could ask for.
Sporting coaches aren’t the only source of great pep talks. Good Will Hunting’s title character receives powerful motivation from his therapist Sean Maguire (the late, great Robin Williams), including a particularly memorable talk urging Will to experience life rather than reading about it in books: “Your move, chief.”
These cinematic pep talks are iconic in our culture. Most people know the references, and a good number know those speeches by heart.
Why is that?
We think it’s because we all instinctively recognize how crucial this encouragement is to the journey of a hero — it’s just plain classic storytelling. (There’s an entire field of study around that, pioneered by the great Joseph Campbell.) In life, we’re the hero of our own story — that’s true for us as individuals and as teams — whether we’re talking about individual experience, relationships, or career and life achievement.
We know that it goes like this: the hero struggles, their success or livelihood is threatened in some way, and they’re at a low point. Maybe they want to quit, or they do. Maybe they lose something that’s important to them. Just when everything seems impossibly dire, a moment of hope and encouragement occurs. And quite often that’s a mentor, expert or friend who gives the right pep talk at a crucial moment. They help the hero overcome whatever is holding them back.
Sometimes we all need that PepTalk moment.
As you know, because you’re on this page, we’re literally The PepTalk Co. Because we know pep talks are crucial to your hero’s journey, and it’s not like you have Coach Taylor on speed dial.
We decided to do the next best thing. We reached out to some of the greatest achievers in sports and athletics of the past couple of decades — Formula One legend and 13-time Grand Prix winner David Coulthard, Olympic gold medalists Mark Hunter and Sam Quek, Olympic track and field legend Michael Johnson, soccer leader Bex Smith, victorious 2003 rugby World Cup team coach Clive Woodward, and a whole bunch more.
Ok, we have amazing athletes and sporting coaches — but we’re not just about sports. We have folks from the arts, adventuring, social justice, business, entrepreneurship, aviation, and more. We’re all inspired by different types of people and achievement. Not all of us are in a sports movie.
The best part is — no matter where you are in the world, they’ll hop on our live video platform with you and give you or your team a virtual PepTalk. Because no matter what you have going on in life — and with the world being pretty heavy these days — we all need a pep talk. A lot of us are wondering how to keep our journeys on track in trying times, in a professional context as well as a personal one.
It’s not only football teams that can use regular motivation and inspiration. Workplace teams need it too. We’re seeing a lot more companies and teams commit to long-term remote work, and we’re hearing a variety of different stats and near-term outcomes from research firms. The time we’re in — living through a worldwide pandemic — is having a great deal of impact on us as individuals, our well-being, outlook and performance. Teams are struggling to stay productive, fight burnout, feel motivated, and feel connected. A team off-site or an inspirational speaker event once or twice a year — the traditional model — isn’t enough. As we adapt to new ways of working and interacting, we need new ways of keeping teams engaged and cohesive.
What’s the hero’s journey for your team? Do they need the experience of hearing from the coach who tells them exactly what they need to hear at exactly the right moment?
You don’t have to be in a movie or TV show to get the kind of inspirational pep talk that changes your life. You can just log on to PepTalk and connect with your own Coach Taylor.
If you need cinematic music for your big moment, though, we’re still working on that one.
