Athlete CEO #005: High Performance Lifestyle With Eric Cressey

Episode Notes

Eric Cressey is a long-timer personal friend and the President and Co-Founder of Cressey Sports Performance, with facilities located in Hudson, MA, and Jupiter, FL.

Eric is considered the leading expert in the strength and conditioning industry for professional athletes – specifically baseball players.

Every off season the top baseball players and pitchers travel to Jupiter, FL to have the opportunity to train with Eric.

As a testament to the type of Eric work does specifically with baseball players – he trained both Cy Young Winners in 2017,

As an accomplished author, Cressey has authored over 500 articles, published five books, and co-created four DVD sets that have been sold in over 60 countries around the world.

Eric has been an invited guest speaker in six countries and over 20 U.S. states

He serves on the advisory boards for both the IYCA and Precision Nutrition, and is a baseball consultant to New Balance.

In the business world, Eric has worked with several start-up companies as both an angel investor and advisor.

A couple of things to listen for in this episode:

How Eric caught the “strength and conditioning bug”
Why being an outlier in baseball forced Eric to become obsessed with the sport
How Eric became the go-to guy for high-performance training for athletes and professional pitchers
The leverage that family-life has given Eric in his career
Eric’s “saying no” thought process (and examples of him saying “no” to business deals that distract him from his goals)
The difficulties of running a training facility (and how it’s similar to other businesses)
The crazy story behind a failed angel investment Eric made (and how the money was blown!)
How Eric’s best investment happened in the financial crisis (and helped create his legacy)
Advice for soon-to-be-drafted athletes
Where players are costing themselves in the on and off-season with how they handle (or don’t handle) training
The advice Eric HATES when it comes to staying in shape when the season is over (and what he recommends you do)
Why Eric has to coach his baseball players to properly hold their babies
Advice for 35-55 year old entrepreneurs who are limited on time and facing obstacles as they age
The mentors that helped shape Eric’s career and life trajectory

Quotes

“If you want to build a business, solve a problem.” – Randy Hetrick
“You’re always going to get a lot more done if you meet people in the middle.” Eric Cressey
“You always have to be better at saying no than saying yes.” – Eric Cressey
“The only things I’m going to invest in is myself and things I know well.” – Eric Cressey
“If you have a surgery in minor league baseball it cuts your chances of making it to the big leagues in half.” – Eric Cressey
“They don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” – Eric Cressey
“Family. Work. Sleep. Fitness. Friends. Pick three.” Cheryl Samberg
“You can’t be everything to everybody.” – Eric Cressey
“It’s always good to have someone that you feel is rowing in the same direction as you.” – Eric Cressey
“The idea of following your passion is garbage” – Eric Cressey
“You don’t want to follow your passion you want to build substantial career capital.” – Eric Cressey
“Sometimes the players that fail become the best coaches.” – Eric Cressey
“You make your money on the field. That’s the absolute truth.” – Eric Cressey