World Series MVP Ben Zobrist on Pressure, Leadership and the Power of Showing Up

World Series MVP and two-time World Series champion Ben Zobrist built his baseball career by learning to adapt, stay present and focus on what he could control, lessons he says extend well beyond professional sports. Zobrist, who will bring those lessons to the stage at FranCamp Miami, joined GoodSpark Franchise Growth Accelerator Chief Strategy Officer Nick Powills for a webinar ahead of the event to discuss how his experiences with pressure, leadership and personal growth can translate to entrepreneurship and business.

“Our lives are made of far more than the bottom line, and we all know it deep down,” Zobrist said. “We know that it’s our heart, it’s our connections to people and, at the end of the day, we want to just feel like, man, I loved people well, and I was loved well by those around us. That’s the same in the business world as it is on your street, in your community.”

That perspective was shaped over a career in which expectations and pressure continued to grow. Rather than measuring himself only by statistics or outcomes, Zobrist learned to focus on preparation, the people around him and whether he was making the most of what he could control. It is a mindset he believes matters just as much for business leaders navigating the pressure to perform and grow.

“For me, it was never about focusing on the end outcome,” Zobrist said. “It had to be the details, not the flash, not what everybody else sees, but what I know I need to focus on.” 

As his career progressed, success became less about his own performance and more about recognizing when a teammate needed encouragement, knowing when to have a difficult conversation and understanding that some of the most meaningful contributions never appear on a stat sheet.

“It’s more about a timely word given to the right person at the right time, knowing that met them right where they needed you to meet them,” Zobrist said. “It’s not the numbers. It’s not that I led this many people. It’s the legacy of that moment.”

A transcript of Zobrist’s interview with Powills has been provided below. It has been edited for brevity, clarity and style.

Nick Powills: All right, Ben. I want to go back, way back. I want to break down your career and relate it back to what a business or entrepreneur goes through. I think there’s a comparison. When we go back to graduating from high school, you don’t think you’re going to play baseball. There aren’t a lot of offers. You pay 50 bucks for a tryout. Go back to that stage. Has your dream been put on pause? Are you still dreaming of baseball? Are you feeling lost as a human, just trying to find your path?

Ben Zobrist: I was trying to merge a passion for sports and also something that would eventually pay the bills, something else I was interested in. I mean, that’s kind of the normal entrepreneur path, if you’re talking about that, or some people’s path, maybe.

For me, I had no offers, by the way, not even a few. I had zero. I was just going to follow my dad and sister’s pathway. They went to this Bible college, and my faith has always been very important to me. So I was like, all right, let me just go to a college like that, and I’ll figure out what I want to do.

They had some sports there, so they had some club teams where I could still compete. I could still scratch that itch, I guess. That was going to be my plan. At the same time, I was highly aware of any doors that might open. I wanted to walk through a door that felt like I was going to get to dive into that passion a little bit more. Really, I just thought, well, maybe I’ll just get to extend it. That was my thought: Can I just extend this passion that I have for this other thing while I’m gaining a degree?

I honestly didn’t think that was part of my plan or the path that I thought was even possible. I didn’t know anybody who had ever experienced that, so it wasn’t that I didn’t think it was possible. I just didn’t think it was probable for me. I was willing to follow that passion a little bit further into college.

Once I got the chance to follow that passion on a daily basis more and more, school was still important. I was still trying to get good grades. I was still making sure that was my main job, technically, because everybody’s got to get a degree and you’ve got to be eligible to play sports. But my real passion was the actual athletics.

I think for people who are passionate about something, you’ve got to balance it out. You’ve got to figure out what is going to pay the bills, what’s going to be the thing that might be what I end up doing in my job versus what I’m really passionate about doing. I really want to do this, and I think there are some potential parallels there.

Powills: You haven’t experienced any level of success in the sense of, how am I going to make money off of having to figure this out? Then, as life goes on, the pressure just keeps building. The same goes for a business owner. When you open up your doors to a store or you go in for your idea, everything is gratitude. Then, all of a sudden, money or greed or whatever else is on top of you, and it almost erases that.

What I’m leading to is that foundation of you not getting offers, you having just a love for what you were doing. How did you hold on to that for so long, and how important is that to how you live everyday life now?

Zobrist: As a young person, I was more present-minded, day to day, focused on: “Today, here’s what I have to do today, and how can I be the best version of myself today?” That was something I learned early on from my parents. My dad has been a pastor for as long as I can remember. He started when I was in first grade or something like that, and he’s still the pastor of the same church.

I learned to live by a present-minded thought before it was really something that Joe Maddon taught me in the major leagues. It was something I realized was kind of put into me, but Joe just accentuated that much more and said it’s that much more important to do it here because everything’s coming at you really quick.

I think having that mindset has always been something that benefited me because it was combined with the expectation that I was going to try to be better, try to get better today, try to grow today. Sometimes in my career, I needed to get better in this particular aspect of my game, or else our team might lose. Sometimes it just meant I wanted to get better in the tweaking of my routine to make me feel a little bit more like I’m in flow by the time the game starts.

Early on, I felt the same amount of pressure because it was never, for me, about how many people were watching or how much money I was going to make or lose. It was always about: What am I capable of? What am I capable of? I don’t even know what my ceiling is. I’m a high school kid. I’m going to play college now. I have four years to develop, potentially. Who knows? Why not me?

There were sacrifices in college that a lot of people weren’t willing to make that I was willing to make. But I wasn’t making that sacrifice going, “I’m going to make it to the major leagues.” I had four years to see what I’m capable of. Why not give it a shot for this amount of time? Then, when it’s done, it’s done, and I transition to something else.

Powills: Do you think that’s because of how you were raised? Is that where that comes from?

Zobrist: I would like to say yes, but if that was the case, then everybody who was raised that same way would be the same way, right? I think some of it was inborn. I just had a drive, a personal drive, to want to be the best version of myself. I think some of it was that I didn’t really feel like I was enough.

You talk to a lot of high achievers, and they will say similar things. Early on, they just needed to perform to feel like they were enough. That was me. I was like, I’m not going to get less than my best. I’m going to push myself and get the most that I’m capable of. It never felt like I ever reached that or attained that. Even in the major leagues, I’ve got to get better. We won a world championship. I’m like, I’ve got to be better.

I think at some level, and this is part of what I write about in the book, you’re preparing for the pressure to go crush it and be the best version of yourself. But there’s an internal pressure that, if you’re not paying attention to that, you can go achieve everything you want to achieve on the outside, but you still have to deal with that feeling of, “It’s still not enough.” There still is seeking a level of peace that doesn’t come from money, doesn’t come from career, doesn’t come from attaining dreams or goals. It’s coming from something internal.

Powills: In business, you start a business, you get it growing, you make some money. You’re like, wow, this is awesome. But then you’re like, I’ve got to make more money. I’ve got to do things better. I’ve got to get more deals. The pressure just keeps on building for no reason. Obviously, the outcome is beautiful, but I think that’s the lonely part that’s happening inside of most humans that most humans don’t talk about.

Zobrist: I agree with that. Let’s just assume for a second, though, that that tension is a part of life on Earth. There is no one who succeeds or lives a good life who doesn’t experience tension. I think it’s a fallacy to believe what we might see on social media, that, wow, that life is the life that’s really going to make it all feel like it makes sense.

There is a level of tension and struggle that we deal with here that I think we’re always going to deal with. You’ve got to stay on top of being the best version of yourself. Otherwise, we know if you let it go, it will go south quickly. That’s the same with business. That’s the same with a family or relationship. It’s the same with your self-care. It’s even the same with your relationship with the Lord, at least in my faith.

But there does come a point where, if you can’t give yourself grace, the tension is going to be more than you can handle. You have to find that balance of giving yourself grace and knowing when to rest and relax.

Powills: I’m going to flash forward. You wrote a book. You do care about it. You put time and energy into it. No matter what, if you’re writing, you’re away from your family. Do you feel similar pressure? Are you looking at it the same way, or have you given yourself permission not to?

Zobrist: Honestly, I think in baseball, and it would probably be similar in business, I would guess, you have to look at the numbers. You’ve got to pay attention. Particularly with the book, I will say, if this goes anywhere, it didn’t matter to me. It wasn’t going to make or break my career. It’s like, let’s write a book and let’s put this message out because, first of all, it’s an opportunity to do so. But second of all, it will clarify some of what I like to speak about when I go do my speaking, which is more of my job-job.

The book is a way to connect with people at times when I may just see them once. It’s a great chance to get the word out on what I like to talk about. But I think at the end of the day, if you’re in charge of what you really want to do and don’t want to do, there’s a lot of freedom in that. I think when you can take those expectations and realize, you know what? I’ve already been blessed with the opportunity of doing what I wanted to do with the book, and now I get a chance to talk about it to you. I get a chance to talk about it to other people.

Honestly, I did that in professional sports at times when I knew I was facing a great pitcher that I probably was not going to do that well against. Instead of going, “No, I’m going to get four hits against this guy today,” I would say, “Hey, a win today against this guy will be: I’m going to make good contact and I’m going to enact my plan at the plate.” Then I’m not trying to control the outcome. I’m literally just saying I’m controlling what I have the capability of doing.

I think that’s a healthier way for me to look at this book-writing process or any sort of smaller wins that aren’t my career necessarily. It’s like, is this a win? Yes, it’s already a win.

Powills: You’re one of 69 human beings who have won a World Series MVP. You did it three years before you retired. When you’re talking about the book, I feel like you’re saying the same thing. It’s like you’re giving yourself permission just to enjoy it.

Zobrist: Well, yes, enjoying it is important, and also paying attention to the details. For me, the details are like the three things I write about in the consistency section of the book, which I think is really great for professionals to read, and also the latter part, which is talking about mental and emotional health and resilience.

But particularly, the central part of the book is: How do you show up consistently when you need to? For me, it was never about focusing on the end outcome. It had to be the details, not the flash, not what everybody else sees, but what I know I need to focus on. Then there’s presence, which we talked about a little bit, and the last piece is versatility, being able to shift and change quickly.

You mentioned the bike and riding in uniform. That was a last-second decision that ended up being very popular. I was like, you know what? We just clinched the pennant. I’m not playing tomorrow. There are kids playing at a local park who will love this. What if I took my uniform home and rode to the park and stopped by this little field, took some pictures and signed autographs? What a cool feeling and experience to have.

I was present, and I was like, “Hey, who cares? Nobody does this, but I’m going to do it. Why not? Why not?” Now it’s part of my story. It’s part of my journey as an athlete that I used to ride my bike to the field.

Powills: I think what’s symbolic about it, though, is when we were kids, it’s a different type of pressure as a kid, but the world is so beautiful. That moment, what it did is it gave permission to be a kid. There’s something magical about that that I think ends up driving when adults can go back there. It gives them a chance for a happier second half of their life.

Zobrist: Oh, yeah. Not only is it a benefit to you as a person when you get to step back into that mode, but I think if you look at it from a professional standpoint, people are more and more drawn to the purity and innocence. It’s endearing to see someone step back into, “Oh, I know what that feels like. Gosh, man, that’s so fun.” It’s like, I want to be around that person, that joy, that level of purity and innocence before everything was corrupted in the monetization of everything.

Building healthy, good business relationships starts with building personal relationships at some level and letting people see why you’re doing what you’re doing and that there is purity and innocence to it. I do believe that’s a major selling point, but it’s also something that makes you enjoy the experience that much more.

Powills: As you’ve had success in life, to the outside world, you’ll be deemed successful. How have you kept the ego in check? How have you kept greed in check? Is it because of your faith? Is it because of how you were raised? Is it because of the moments that happened to you in your life?

Zobrist: Yeah, it’s both. Part of it is the way I was raised. I’m from a small town, Eureka. Eureka, Illinois, is a place for blue-collar people who care about their neighbor and care about being a good person. Nobody there is trying to be a hero. They’re just trying to do their job well and raise their family well and, at the end of the day, be a supportive part of the community.

But I think my faith is really the thing that keeps that as a focus all throughout my life. I realize I’m just a small-town kid, and I didn’t deserve all the things I got. Did I work for them? Yes. And can I recognize that I was a big part of why those things were successful? Yes.

But there are so many opportunities that we were given, so much of the upbringing that we have, or even when you have any level of success, that you could not have done it without everybody around you. You could not have done it without God blessing you in some way with the talents and the abilities you have. At some level, I think we need to point up and point out to say, look at how I was blessed. That’s why I was able to make good on some of these things I did.

That perspective keeps me going, hey, it’s not about me. It’s about what God has gifted me to do and be around. I’ve already been blessed far beyond what I ever deserved, and I’m going to keep working hard and keep trying to grow in whatever way. But I am satisfied. I am blessed.

Powills: I think a lot about toxic relationships in the workplace, and I would imagine the same is true in sports. There are toxic relationships everywhere. Now you’re obviously a leader in a clubhouse, and you’re dealing with egos and many millions of dollars. How do you level up maybe those who are stuck in the middle? How are you trying to let that rub off on teammates to build culture without pushing it too heavily on them?

Zobrist: It starts with being comfortable in your own skin. I think early in my career, everybody’s like, “Do I fit here? Is this something that I should be doing? I don’t know if I can be successful here. Look how good they are. Can I ever be that good?”

But as soon as you realize you do, and you can get comfortable in your own skin and just being yourself, being authentic, being genuine and also caring about the people around you, I think that’s a level that you can almost notice.

Here’s the thing I realized about people with egos. Look, I’ve got one too. We all have it. The only question is, when is it going to come out the most?

When it’s coming out for somebody, I look at it like this is an opportunity for me to pay attention to find the moment when they’re ready to listen, because in that moment they may not be ready to listen. So I’ll first validate that. Be like, “Hey, dude, you’re awesome.” Toward the end of my career, I would bring a young guy along and be like, “Hey, here’s what I think you’re capable of. You may not be there yet, but we’ve seen flashes of it. Dude, you have the ability to do this.”

I think someone understanding first and foremost that you believe in them, if their ego is up there, it’s like, oh, they’re not trying to just knock my ego down. They’re recognizing I am capable of greatness.

At the same time, there will come a time when they get kicked in the pants, and you’ve already told them you believe in them. Now it’s that moment where you come back and you say, “Hey, I know that probably sucked, and I’ve experienced that too. I know what that feels like. What are you thinking about right now? What are you working on? What is something that I can help you with right now?”

If you’re able to crack that code a little bit in that moment, it really takes a lot of emotional awareness to recognize whether they’re open or not in that situation.

That’s the moment I believe, as a leader, that you can actually build a greater glue and help them recognize: You are capable, and you’re going to get your teeth kicked in at times. Are you able to be like, yeah, that was a tough one. Back to the drawing board. I’m going to learn from this. I’m going to grow from this, and I’m a valuable part of this team.

Powills: I was watching the Cubs game last night, and the announcers were talking. PCA had a two-strike count. He just seems more comfortable under pressure at this point in his career than he did, say, a few years ago. What infrastructure around this guy, who is clearly a superstar, made him become humble and look at this moment and take the pressure off and say, let me just be confident when I’m up to play?

Zobrist: That confidence in a player, in a younger player, that you see him starting to come into his own this year, it really starts with that relationship with yourself and the way that you’re talking to yourself, the way you’re thinking about yourself. The older you get, the more you realize, I don’t need confidence in the result as much as I need confidence in the feeling that I am doing and saying and being the right person that I need to be in this area.

You’re talking about a younger player who had a lot of people trying to get in his ear and saying, “Hey, you need this. You need that. You need to do this, do that.” But one thing I do know is he’s got a couple of people who really have his ear, and those people are really helping him. He’s not so worried and focused on everything out there and everything working out perfectly because he knows he’s confident in his routines. He’s confident that he’s capable of it.

It’s realizing, going through those ups and downs and having the right voices to say, “Hey, don’t focus on everything out there. Don’t focus on the result. You’ve got to focus on your routines.”

Ultimately, he’s going to look back on the season, and I look back on my career as, like you said, it’s not the stats. Who cares? I don’t care about the stats anymore. What I care about is those moments. Was I in flow the way I’m capable of being in flow?

It’s more about a timely word given to the right person at the right time, knowing that met them right where they needed you to meet them. Later down the road, they’re like, “I will never forget you said this to me at that time, and that meant so much to me.” It’s those things that I hear now that I’m like, yeah. I hear things that I’m like, I don’t remember saying that at all, and they remember it because it meant something to them.

Sometimes right now, that means you’re going to be in pain. That means you’re going to hurt, and that sucks in the moment. But if you can be the person who says, “I know what that feels like, and I’m with you, and I want to help you, encourage you, because I know you’re going to get there,” sometimes that’s the thing that really is the legacy. It’s not the numbers. It’s not that I led this many people. It’s the legacy of that moment.

Powills: I think about the delicacy of life a lot. I’m thinking about the last day on Earth. I doubt God’s going to be like, “Hey, there’s that MVP guy. Come on up here.” More like, look at what he did with others that matters. Or at least that’s my perspective. When you look back at your career in baseball, and even now, are you more proud of those conversations that happened and that impact that you had than numbers?

Zobrist: I really don’t think God is going to measure anything based on the numbers. I definitely don’t think it’s going to have to do with quantity. Honestly, if I’m truly honest, I don’t even think it’s going to be about quality. It’s going to be about connection at that very moment. I’m just a big believer that it’s all about a healthy connection with God, a healthy connection with yourself and with others.

The whole point of a career, in my opinion, and to make money is to take care of other people. It’s to work together to take care of the needs that everybody has. Everybody has basic needs, and if we can not only take care of our own and our own families, but also the community around us, then that’s going to feel really good. That is a great way to live life.

If you look at it from a very simple standpoint, it’s: I need other people, and they need me. If we work together, life is going to be bearable, and it’s not only going to be bearable; it’s going to be enjoyable.

But when it comes to God, I really truly believe to have a connection with Him is to be connected to the Spirit in a way that is so authentic and so genuine and so humble in recognition that He’s God, and I am not a god. I am a man. But if I’m connected to Him, then my hope is that I’ll enter not because I’m an MVP or because I was good. I’ll enter into that presence because I was connected. I was connected to Him.

Really, the end of the book that I just wrote is all about — the last chapter is about connection. Healthy connection to yourself, which starts there because if you’re toxic toward yourself, that’s not going to lead you anywhere good. The people that you love the most in this world, others. That includes people at work, your work family. You want to care about them almost as much as you care about your own family because you’re in the trenches together, trying to earn that paycheck and take care of everybody.

But that final piece, and I think a lot of people miss it, is they’re just searching for a connection with God that is performance-based because that’s all they know. That’s not the way God is, in my opinion. God is like, I’m going to take care of you regardless. So it’s just letting God take care of you and give you grace that you don’t even have for yourself.

Until then, it is a tension that we balance. I’m going to take care of my business, I’m going to take care of myself well and take care of everybody else around me well. If we do that together, gosh, the sky is the limit, right?

Powills: Even if, for whatever reason, you don’t believe in the message that you just gave, whether it’s a professional sports team or a business, if you just take what you just said as a message of what equals greatness, then it’s a win.

Unfortunately, in today’s time, the kinds of pressures that we put on ourselves, the pressures we put on our business, the pressure we put on making money, the pressure we put on family, all these things that are happening, and probably the uncomfortableness on the mental health side of talking to others about what’s going on up here. If you just take that last message, I think there’s plenty of value in just taking that, right?

Zobrist: A hundred percent. Our lives are made of far more than the bottom line, and we all know it deep down. We know that it’s our heart, it’s our connections to people and, at the end of the day, we want to just feel like, man, I loved people well, and I was loved well by those around us. That’s the same in the business world as it is on your street, in your community. It’s the same feeling.

You have to find a way to work with people that you don’t love sometimes. In a way, you are loving them. You’re loving them by working together with them for the overall good of everybody involved.

You don’t have to be best friends with everybody. I keep my circle pretty small of my best friends and people that I’m closest to in this world, but I like to think that I can love a lot of different people in the work world by just trying to benefit them, just trying to help them. They’re trying to help me, and we’re working together.

Here’s the thing I do need to say about sports versus business. I think sports are a zero-sum game. If we win, they lose. At the end of the day, it’s zero-sum. The business world does not have to be that way. I know it feels that way oftentimes. It’s like, it’s us or them.

But in the business world, I like to believe it can be win-win-win. If what you sell or what you do for people is benefiting them and they need it, I think there’s a place for you. It can be a win regardless of how big your business grows or how small it is, or whether you have big wins this year or big losses this year. It may change how many people you can take care of, but it doesn’t necessarily change the impact you’re making and the quality of the impact you’re making if that stays true.

Powills: For the way that I’ve operated our company, there are always high performers. We need high performers. You need superstars. I care more about people who show up, are respectful and do their best. That’s trainable. You can continue to coach and mentor those folks.

The ones who are perfect all the time and have a high ego, those are difficult to work with sometimes. Then those who show up and complain and are unwilling to give their best effort, those are really tough, too. It’s like the middle. There’s magic in the middle. When you can celebrate those who have the same mentality you have — how do I just become a little bit better every day? Why am I staying in the cage to get a little bit better? Whatever is driving you forward, there’s magic in that.

Zobrist: That’s the adaptability quotient, right? That’s the versatility I’m talking about in Chapter 6 of this book, and I think it’s the thing that made me special in the sport that I played. I was not the best at anything, any certain facet of the game. But if you could say I was pretty good at something, it was that I can shift gears pretty quickly and jump into another position and be serviceable.

Every great entrepreneur has had to learn how to do that at the beginning of their business because they had to be serviceable at some level to keep things going. That’s what they used to do. Everything’s grown at certain times. You just want them to be like, “Hey, yeah, I might not be great at this, but if you need me to do it, I got you. I’ll do it. I’ll do it to the best of my ability, and I’ll figure it out.”

If they don’t sit in their morals and just go like, “Oh, I’m no good at all,” there’s like, “I just want to get better at this.” You can work with that person, and that’s right in the middle. That realm is the realm that is, like you said, magic if you find people like that.

Powills: I’m going to close with this. Do you know what 517 is? There are only 517 human beings who hit more home runs than you. The point that I’m making, though, whether the Hall of Fame ever calls someday or not, there are only 500-ish human beings who hit more home runs than you. The most magical thing is a home run. That’s what’s cool. Superstars and the best things in life, perception-wise, come from consistently showing up and doing your best. And 517, that’s magic.

Zobrist: The lesson in that, I think, is that you may not think you’re going to be able to do some of the greatest things. But like you said, if you just are there long enough, you’ll probably experience enough of those moments that, next thing you know, I’m in that 2%.

I never would have — at the time, I was never in the top 10 of home run hitters in my era, ever. At any season I ever played in. You name it: college, high school, Little League, nothing. Never. But I played.

Powills: I’m grateful that you gave us time. I’m looking forward to unpacking this at FranCamp.

Watch the whole webinar above or on YouTube.

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