It was a little confusing. It was very early on in the early days of the EIB Network, and, as I think back, I don’t think it was one of my best, because I was confused as to what was expected. I had an entourage of people traveling with me for this speech that only were with me because this was the NRA. I wasn’t sure what they were expecting, my views on guns or just me to be me, and so I showed up with a view on guns. I actually prepared a speech rather than just wing it, which is what I usually do. And I just wasn’t all that pleased.
They were great. I’ll give you an example. In the very early days of the program, there were a number of different organizations around the country that would come in with speech requests, and one of them was — what was it called? It wasn’t the Economic Club of Detroit. It might have been the Detroit Advertisers Club or some such thing. Anyway, we had a couple of salespeople at the time — ahem — at the EIB Network who told me this would be an excellent opportunity to do a sales pitch, go out and tell these people to try to overcome some of the obstacles.
I said, “I don’t think that’s what –”
“You need to do that. You need to get up there.”
So I had salespeople trying to tell me what I should talk about. And during the cocktail hour before it started I’ve got one of my salespeople standing next to me that had advised me to do this, and I ask a guy, “What are you expecting in this speech?”
“We want to hear what your take on the news is. Just do what you do on your radio show.”
I said, “You’re not expecting me to give you an advertising pitch?”
“If you do that you’re gonna be booed out of here.”
So I looked at my sales executive and I said, “Thanks.”
I was ticked off. I can’t tell you how ticked off I was. I mean, it was a sales guy trying to have me do his job for him in front of a bunch of advertising execs, and had misled me. You gotta be careful out there, folks, you just have to be careful. And when there’s ever any confusion about what you’re to do, be who you are. Always fall back on that. Wendy does it every day. Just be who you are. (laughing) Not even listening. What? I just heard my name. Be who you are. Don’t try to be what somebody else tells you to be or what they tell you others are expecting you to be.
If you’ve been invited to go somewhere it’s because they already know who you are and they want you to be who you are, so just do it. (interruption) No, no, no, no. I’m not. No. And I’m not gonna get such an invitation anyway. You can stop dreaming of that. Snerdley’s asking me if I get an invitation to speak at the convention, will I do it. I’m not gonna get that invitation. I’m not a political guy. I’m not a party guy out there. When was the last speech you saw me give at a Republican convention? Never, is exactly right. Never.
Donald Trump’s been at conventions. (interruption) Oh, in charge of… Well, yeah, true, but… No, no, no, no. That isn’t gonna happen. I’d be shocked. And I don’t know if I would do it if asked. I’ve got this no-speech policy right now.