About Bo

About Bo Sanchez

Bo Sanchez is the author of 9 bestselling books and publisher of seven magazines. Bo also has a weekly TV show on ABC 5, Tuesdays, 10:30pm; a daily Radio program on Radio Veritas from Monday to Saturday, 5am, and Sunday, 8am; and a daily internet TV show called www.preacherinbluejeans.com.

Bo is also an international speaker, travelling extensively around the world. So far, he has spoken in 14 countries, including 38 cities in North America. (Click FAQ for more information on how to invite him to speak.)

He founded many organizations, such as Anawim, a special home for the abandoned elderly and the poorest of the poor, and Shepherd’s Voice, a media group that publishes the widest read inspirational literature in the country. He also founded the Light of Jesus Community and the Light of Jesus Counselling Center. (For your counselling needs, click here.)

Bo was also awarded one of The Outstanding Young Men or TOYM for 2006.

Privately, Bo is also a micro-entrepreneur. He engages in small business and real estate not only for his family’s needs and for his various projects, but also from his firm belief that one of the most important solutions to his country’s economic problems is to raise up more micro-entrepreneurs among his countrymen. He frequently teaches and writes about financial literacy, believing that our poverty is hugely a product of people’s low financial I.Q. on subjects such as debt-management, saving, investing, and business. Click here to attend a FREE Financial Health Check-up by Bo’s Team of Financial Coaches. Or click here to attend Bo’s How To Be Truly Rich Seminar and the Truly Rich Financial Coaching Program.

A firm believer in working with others, he has partnered with Gawad Kalinga and other groups that work for the poor.

Recently, he’s formed the KerygmaFamily—a borderless, international, non-physical community. All over the world, people are signing up as members of this virtual community—where they receive a mountain of great stuff for their spiritual and personal growth. (Click here for details.)

In another endeavor he’s very passionate about, Bo started the Catholic Filipino Academy to help parents who want to teach their children at home. (Click here and read why Bo believes in homeschooling.)

But above all these, Bo believes that his first call is to be a loving husband to his wife Marowe and a devoted father to his sons Benedict and Francis. They live in Manila, Philippines.

If you want to contact him, click here.

Steve Ray`s Open Letter To Filipinos

Steve Ray is a friend. Several times now, we've invited this brilliant American Catholic Apologist to speak here in the Philippines. His inspiring articles on the Filipinos have been circulating for some years now, but a KFAM member requested that I post it here, and I guess there might be some people who haven't read it yet--so here goes... For more information on who Steve Ray is, you can go to his great website at www.catholic-convert.com

Do you want to preach? Here are 8 Suggestions From An `Old` Preacher

Hi, Preachers. And Would-Be Preachers.
I’m also a Preacher. Been one for 25 years now.
But many times, I’m also your audience.

Many times, I'm also the ordinary Mr. Guy-At-The-Pew because I too listen to Lay Preachers and Priests give their talks. So I see you, the Preacher, the way 90% of the world sees you: A figure in front some seventy feet away, three-fourths of your body covered by an old pulpit.
Competing against your talk is the humidity of the Philippines, the noisy kids around me, plus the lovely girl in front of me wearing a spaghetti strap blouse that exposes her exquisite neck and flawless shoulders.
And as if all these aren’t enough, I’m very distracted by my problems at my job and my family that keep replaying in my mind like the refrain of a hit song on radio. I’m thinking of my big and small concerns. The debt that needs to be paid on Tuesday. The electric fan that my wife asked me to fix 6 weeks ago. The DVD that my son wants me to rent after Mass…
How can you compete?
I have 8 suggestions.
I gave this talk to a group of 90 priests—and they were immensely grateful.
Here they are…

I Felt Small At The TOYM Awards

Through them, I regained hope for the Philippines. If there are Filipinos as great, passionate, and sacrificial as these, then wow—we as a nation can rise up from poverty.
Friends, if there’s one thing that is common in all these incredible people, it’s their passion. They love what they do—and they’ll go to the ends of the earth just so they could serve others.
Ladies and gentlemen (drumroll please), let me introduce to you the Most Outstanding Young Men and Women of the Philippines (in alphabetical order):

We`re Having A Weekly FEAST Soon!

I was taken aback by her response. I blinked hard and asked, “Why?”
“Oh Brother Bo, I don’t feel spiritually fed here. The homilies are lifeless. I don’t feel ministered in my soul. My spiritual thirst isn’t quenched. After Mass, I don’t feel inspired.”
“I’m sorry to hear that, but…”
I couldn’t interrupt her. “But Brother Bo, six months ago, my friends invited me to this Born Again church in the Ortigas area and I’ve been so blessed. My life has changed! The preaching really feeds the spirit. And the worship is alive. I go home after the service bringing home God’s message in my heart.”
“I understand. But if you really understood the truth of the Eucharist, you’ll realize it’s the life-giving Body and Blood of Jesus Himself. How can you not be fed?”
“But where will I get fed with Gods’ Word? Don’t get me wrong Brother Bo, I’ll always remain Catholic and I’ll still go to Mass here. But right after Mass, you’ll also see me attending in that Born Again church. Because that’s where my soul is fed with God’s Word.”

Another Reminder On Core Gift

I wanted to post this as a comment to one of your blogs, but it turned out to be quite long. So I decided to write it in instead.

I make use of all 24 hours in a day - and feel like asking the Lord for 1000 more... I work in events and marketing and have been known to work from 6am to 6am. And yet the work is never done. There is always something to email, some small bit to complete.

I am primarily a writer (mostly I write scripts and event concepts). But I am also an event programmer-slash-production manager-slash-talent coordinator-slash-account manager-slash-sponsorship marketer-slash-voice talent-slash-entrepreneur-slash-whatever else I need to be. Little wonder why I have so little time. Though I am a writer by profession, I have yet to write a single blog, despite its extreme popularity; it's been years since I've even kept a diary. I'm so busy writing for other people, I barely have any words left for myself.

Except today. I read your article on Manny Pacquiao which my mom forwarded to me. It has led me to question - what is MY core gift? I've always thought of myself as a Jane of all trades. (Whatever I did, I had to be good at it - not because I had "natural" talent but because I wouldn't stop until I got it right.) But the one thing no one taught me to do, the one thing that I knew I had since I was young, was a certain way with words. I recognize it as God’s gift to me.

And now I wonder if I’m using it wisely. Since the onslaught of events for the Christmas season, I wake up at 8am each morning with my heart beating so fast, worried that I might have slept in too late although I’d been awake the previous “night” until 4am. The first thought in my mind as I jump up from bed would be “S***! (profanity edited) What did I not do? What have I not finished?”

After weeks of this, it had to take its toll. On my way home from work today, I had shortness of breath; I was just sitting and I felt my heart constricting. Not a sharp, piercing pain, but a slow squeezing of my chest. I was running all things I needed to do in my head: write new concept paper, revise a website article, finish my event checklist… block the anxiety attack that’s coming.

Then I got home and checked my mail. I happened to come across my mom’s email of your article. And just now, as I was reading your words, it was as if God whispered in my heart, “Be still.”

“So you can hear me. So you may know this is not what I planned for you. You never have enough time because I do not mean for you do all these things. I only need you to FOCUS on what is important.”

And so tonight, I won’t be doing a new concept paper, revising a website article, and doing an event checklist. All that will have to wait for tomorrow morning. I will breathe deeply, lie in bed, pray, and wait for my mom to get home so I can hug her in a way I haven’t been able to do since I started working more than 5 years ago. In the coming weeks, no matter what needs to be done, I will not panic. I will do my work but it is not my life. And hopefully I will learn to wake up each morning and think “Thank you, Lord, for this day. I will do my work; I will let you take care of the rest.”

But before I do that, I just wanted to write and say “thank you.”

Thank you Bo. I hope more people hear God through your words.

The Philippines Is #1 In Call Centers

Ang galing talaga ng Pinoy.
One of the TOYM co-awardees with me is Benedict Hernandez, the guy behind E-telecare, one of the three largest Call Centers in the country. Under his leadership, his company grossed P8 Billion last year. (I told him, “No wonder we’re both TOYM awardees. Gosh, we’re so alike. Last year, my food business earned the same figure. Almost. My business grossed P8T…”)
From him, I learned that the Philippines is now the #1 choice for Call Centers in the entire world. Hey, we’re not only #1 in Boxing, #1 in Billiards, we’re also #1 in Call Centers. (I’m sure Benedict Hernandez won’t like my analogy, but to me, he’s like the Manny Pacquiao of Call Centers.)
Somehow, I always thought India was first, and we were second. I got that idea after reading Thomas Friedman’s humongous book, The World Is Flat.
But Benedict said that three years ago, that question on who’s the best was already settled—and the Philippines is champ. Though our Call Centers are 20% more expensive than other countries, Filipinos provide superior quality. Naks!
Because this superior quality spells repeat customers (and thus higher profits) for these giant companies, the Philippines has become their first choice.
In fact, Benedict told me that he had American companies who at first turned them down, built their Call Centers in other countries, only to return to them again after a few years. They were not satisfied and wanted the quality that our Call Centers provide.
The entire Call Center industry now gives 150,000 jobs to Filipinos. Benedict’s own company hires an additional 650 new Call Center agents per month. They actually double in size every year.
Here’s the projection: In four years, the entire Call Center industry will give 500,000 jobs to Filipinos. Half-a-million people and their families will be fed!
But here’s something that I didn’t know.
In four years, the Call Center industry will give the country $10B each year. Do you know that’s the same amount of money that OFW’s remit back to the Philippines each year? Remember how people always say that without the OFW remittances each year, our country’s economy would have gone down the dogs? Well, here’s another industry that will bless the Philippines with another $10B!
And the bonus? No one has to go out of the country.
I believe that the CALL CENTER industry is a gift to our country.
I asked Benedict, “Five hundred thousand agents is a lot of people. Can you find enough qualified Filipinos for that?” He said he’s confident they can, even if the standards are very tough.
Reality: For every one hundred applicants, only one gets hired.
But from those that they reject, they choose a few with potential to undergo free training—and even pay them to be trained! Today, 30% of their new hires come from these “once-rejected-but-now-trained” applicants.
Gosh, I felt so much hope for our country.
After talking to Benedict, I realized that all these wouldn’t have been possible if English wasn’t our second language. Both the Call Center industry and even the OFW industry wouldn’t have been possible without it.
But mind you, Call Center agents aren’t just telephone operators.
Benedict’s company even has agents that sell mutual funds and stocks for the US Stock Market. That sophisticated. Don’t be confused with the technology they use (telephone) with the high expertise they need to have.
I thank God magaling talaga ang Pinoy.