The Dave Crenshaw Success Show

The Formula 1 Performance Coach, Pyry Salmela

• Dave Crenshaw • Season 3 • Episode 13

Share episode

Hear the story of Pyry Salmela, who went from playing ice hockey in Finland to becoming a performance coach and trainer of the world's top Formula 1 drivers, including Pierre Gasly and Daniel Ricciardo. His lifelong curiosity about understanding and improving human performance created a foundation he uses to develop winning drivers on and off the track. In this episode, you’ll learn how he nurtured his strengths and prepared himself for a golden opportunity. Listen to his story and pick which action will help you reach the finish line. 


Action Principles 


Pick one to do this week: 


  1. Know your “how” ahead of time. When working towards a goal, determine how you’ll measure progress before you start. This will help you stay focused and assess each step of your plan. ACTION: Decide how you’ll measure your progress and track it consistently as you work towards your goal.
  2. Provide value. Focus on ways to add value, and more opportunities will become available. ACTION: Ask yourself how you can add more value to your job and create an action plan.
  3. Prioritize self-care. The higher the demand, the higher the need for self-care. Otherwise, you’ll burn out before you reach success. ACTION: Schedule a recurring appointment in your calendar to do something fun or relaxing and commit to it.
  4. Create a positive environment. You're more likely to succeed when healthy, positive influences surround you. ACTION: Pick one thing in your environment you can change to encourage a good habit or mood.



Guest Resources


Learn more about Pyry Salmela by following him on Instagram. You can also download his new app, Pyry.


Suggested LinkedIn Learning Courses


Discovering Your Strengths

Balancing Work and Life


Dave Crenshaw develops productive leaders in Fortune 500 companies, universities, and organizations of every size. He has appeared in Time magazine, USA Today, FastCompany, and the BBC News. His courses on LinkedIn Learning have been viewed tens of millions of times. His five books have been published in eight languages, the most popular of which is The Myth of Multitasking—a time management bestseller. As an author, speaker, and online instructor, Dave has transformed the lives and careers of hundreds of thousands around the world. DaveCrenshaw.com

Pyry Salmela:

I was hating him the way he was bragging about himself how good he was at young age compared to me. And this was a clear driver for me to move forward that I hate listening his own bragging about this, how good he was compared to me when I was at my age. So I said, like, Screw your father. Yeah, I'm gonna show you one day I'm gonna be asking.

Dave Crenshaw:

In this episode, you'll get to know Pyry Salmela, the Formula One performance coach, and you'll hear the story of how he went from playing ice hockey in Finland, to becoming a Performance Coach and Trainer of the world's top motorsports drivers, including Pierre Gasly, and Daniel Ricardo. I'm Dave Crenshaw, and this is my success Show. Welcome back friends to the Dave Crenshaw Success Show. This is where I speak to some of the most successful people I've met in my life journey. And I'm on a mission to find universal principles of success. I want to find them to help my family succeed, and to help you succeed. In case it's your first time here. I'm a best selling author. I speak around the world to Fortune 500 companies, and I've taught millions of people how to be successful through my online courses. With this show, I wanted to create something lasting sort of a legacy project to help my family succeed, and I thought you'd enjoy learning along with them. I interview people who have multifaceted success, not just financial or career success, but success in many areas of their lives, so that they're happy, and they're well rounded. And I do that because I want to help you have that kind of well rounded success. Before I begin, if you know someone that you think would make a great guest for the show someone you admire, please email your suggestion to guests at Dave crenshaw.com. The other thing I'd like to ask you to do is during this episode, I want you to look for something you can do. The goal, your goal in listening to this should be to take action, find something you can do to make my guest success story, a part of your success story. I'll help you out with that, too. As we go along, especially at the end, I'll summarize a few action steps that you can take from my guest story and my guest today. I admit, I'm a little bit of a fanboy about what's going on here. I'm into Formula One. I'm into motorsports. And so the fact that I get one of the world's top performance coaches to Formula One drivers is absolutely amazing to me, I think you're really going to enjoy my conversation with today's guest. Pyry Salmela is a Formula One performance coach with over a decade of experience. He joined Formula One in 2014, where he's currently coaching Daniel Ricardo for the visa Cash App. RB Formula One team that's Red Bulls second team. His background as an ice hockey athlete and fitness trainer has given him a unique perspective in the motorsports industry. Pyry was born and raised in Finland, and he enjoys traveling across the world with his fiancee. Pyry, thank you so much for joining us today.

Pyry Salmela:

Thank you so much. I'm super excited to be on this podcast. And thanks for the kind words and the invitation. And I'm very much looking forward to it.

Dave Crenshaw:

And I'm especially grateful to because I know how demanding that schedule is. Where are you located right now. Currently,

Pyry Salmela:

I'm in my hometown, Dubai. But I just came from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia from our previous race. And I'm getting ready for my next travels to Australia in Melbourne. Now we are fully into the f1 season. And there's a lot of travel days, but been there quite a while already. So I know what's coming for it. So

Dave Crenshaw:

yeah, because I think about the time demands and the travel and the many different locations you have to go to, for me, someone who works from home. That seems very tremendous to have to deal with all of that.

Pyry Salmela:

I think what I see is like when you build a plan for yourself how you want to plan your day or routine, and I think a lot of us is functioning pretty well when we have a plan and we have a routine to repeat. I think where many people fall off is when they fall out from the routine. And for many people it means when they start traveling. And it was also like it took time for me to you know, get used to for the lifestyle that you're consistently packing, unpacking, finding your routines in a foreign place, which is not yours. And that definitely took quite a while for me to get on top of my game on that.

Dave Crenshaw:

So I want to come back to that a little bit later. I want to talk about how you manage that new techniques for that. I want to start with you in the place where I start with every guest, which is where were you when you were a teenager before the career began. What did you think you were going to be doing in the future with your career rear.

Pyry Salmela:

But the funny thing is that I certainly didn't plan to be where I am today. So I was born and raised in Finland, I was driving ice hockey player who wanted to make into the NHL, the big league. And you know, ice hockey was for me something that I was living and breathing. And that's where I thought that's my destination will be also the end destination. But despite I, I made to a level where I did it as a full time job, I still did not receive the reach the level that I was looking for.

Dave Crenshaw:

How did you know you hadn't reached that level? What told you that so wait, maybe this isn't gonna work out the way that I thought,

Pyry Salmela:

you know, you've come to those crucial years where you have the draft year and you see the your peers, what is the next step. And when you feel like this is next step, and then you take two step back, and then you take the next step back. And that's where I started realizing that despite I was moving forward, I was also moving too often backwards. And then you go through injuries, and you always every year you seeking them, which team I'm going to sign in is a two year contract is a one year contract, and I start feeling like I'm in this trap, that it's just not moving to the direction that I wanted to. And I think this was also naturally the time for me where I started, you know, thinking about the after carrier, I started studying or in my latter stage of my hockey carrier. And I kind of had a feeling what was coming for, because I was always so into for the human performance factor. And you know, I think where the inspiration came from Mr. Light, because I thought I had pretty good skills. And yet, I still made it to the top. So it was a source of inspiration, personally, where I wanted to understand why I didn't make it. What was the reason? And how could I translate it to other people that they wouldn't do the same mistakes, I always say I wasn't the smartest athlete. And I truly believe that's also true. But this was something that I wanted to translate. If I learned from my own mistakes, if I get more knowledge base, maybe I can help someone else be smarter than I was. Right

Dave Crenshaw:

there. There are a couple of things that I really want to highlight because your career is in coaching. And as a coach, both in performance and entrepreneurship, our job is to see others get amazing results. And at an early age, you were already demonstrating a couple of the traits required for a great coach. One is introspection, right? Where you're always evaluating how well you're doing. And then the second one is, how can I relate this to someone else? How can I teach someone else with this? So as you started to think that way, did you think you know what, maybe coaching is for me? Or were you not quite to that point yet, when you were, you know, in your late teens or early 20s?

Pyry Salmela:

I think in the late teens and teens I already felt inside. Not to say different but I was super curious, I was super curious, on understanding who we are, why we are who we are, psychologically, physically? And what are the key traits on high performance that I could you know, learn and properly translate to future clients. And you know, I started coaching or like, while I was still playing, I did my first few assistant coach roles already at 15 years old. So when I was preparing for my season, I was already participating on camps that I could learn from others like how they are doing and I just always had this curiosity on learning and coaching and leading,

Dave Crenshaw:

there's a word that is used a lot of different ways in different careers. And you're using it right here, which is performance. And I think in professional context at work, someone is thinking, oh performance, maybe in sales, how many sales I get, or how the company is doing? How do you define performance? Is it just about physical fitness? Or is it something more to you?

Pyry Salmela:

No, not at all. I always say like, when we talk about my specialty, and how people are calling me as a fitness trainer in Formula One, like, you know, top performers is so much more than a physical performance. And I think this is so much product topic. But it's really about this holistic performance on human performance, which encounters so many different elements, which are somewhat task specific. You know, you personally have tasks specific skills that makes you perform top in your own field. And then they say, for example, about Cristiano Ronaldo, that okay, Cristiano Ronaldo is not the best in all of those aspects, but he's there at that one person in so many skill sets. What makes him the top performer?

Dave Crenshaw:

Yeah. So let's continue your story here for a moment when Did you start developing your career in performance coaching? Was that something that you were studying for? Or was that something that a mentor was helping you with? Where did you first get your foot in the door for performance coaching.

Pyry Salmela:

So while I was playing since I was six years old, in ice hockey, I was also working out in the gym at very early age. And my father pushed me into weightlifting. And that's obviously something that was very much where you were comparing your result by one pillow, one pillow, and that's where you started seeing how logical is that the physical effort you can put in, that's what you're gonna get out. And that's where I kind of learned that the discipline that your own effort equals outcome as a black and white thinking. And that also means that all we're doing things will cost you more than it gives. So I got into the human performance world at very early age, seeing examples on how you can really maximize human potential on certain areas of physical performance. But then I did study started studying or I went to the sports College in Finland while I was playing. So this helped me understanding that I could incorporate both ice hockey and the school and then my early 20s, I went to general sports instructor school where I got the first, you know, educational specific course, that I did for sports coaching. And that kind of gave me the road to actually for this performance coaching. And then later on my age, I applied for university, and I did four years in university and so forth, plus all the courses. So I think I always been also very curious that it's not only experienced base, but it's also knowledge base that comes through educational path. Was

Dave Crenshaw:

there a mentor who helped you during those years, someone that you look back on and say, Wow, they really had a huge impact and the approach that I take to coaching, there's something maybe I think about all the time that they told me, could you relate a story about a mentor you worked with?

Pyry Salmela:

I think I had few of them. And I think the first one was my father, my father used to be an Olympian in speed skating, and I was hating him the way he was bragging about himself how good he was at young age compared to me. And this was a clear driver for me to move forward, that I hate, pleasing his own bragging about his how good he was, compared to me when I was at my age. So I said, like, Screw you, Father, I'm gonna show you one day, I'm gonna be as good. But then I had multiple good mentors. And I never said that I never invented my own wheel. It's a product that I've learned from plenty of people that has helped me the carrier. I have so many, starting from the weightlifting gym, where I had Olympians teaching me how to lift weights, then I have had performance coaches that used to work in Formula One. I have professors that helped me to learn those foundational skills in physiology and biology and so forth. And you know, like I said, it's not only about having had to mentor, but the hours and hours dedicated to understanding not only in performance, but all in aspects in life. I think this always been the strength on mine, that I've always been so curious about everything in life.

Dave Crenshaw:

So as a coach, I've learned the importance of having a philosophy, a perspective from which you come. And I don't believe there's one right philosophy. But I do think it's critical to have one. And it's interesting, because my wife is the High School swim coach. And that's a fairly new position for her, but she was a collegiate swimmer. And when she was, you know, first thinking about what she was going to do, I said, Well, what's your philosophy? Coach? Have you developed that perspective? So that you have a foundation for coaching others? So, what is the core of your philosophy and coaching? When you approach working with someone like a Formula driver, like Daniel Ricardo, what's the mindset that you have coming into it? That's going to help someone succeed?

Pyry Salmela:

I'm a very simple person, and that's why therefore, so is my philosophy and it start always from what what are we targeting, so what is our end goal? And then we start looking the next step. How do we get there which start meaning that okay, we need to break down the picture, what are our strengths, our weaknesses, and then we start building the plan after so this is the how, and then the last question based on what based on What? Yes, the last question is based on what? What does that mean? It means that like, Okay, is there evidence that our strategy is going to work? If we don't have the evidence, research evidence? Do we have experienced evidence like that? So while we're building this plan and this strategy, but we actually know, does it work? And can we justify our actions? Because when I always think there's so many different roads to Rome, and there's so many great application solutions, technology, that we have a really available, and I think we are so much more limited about the time. So I think it comes down to this needed meeting that actually what is important, what is the most important thing? Are we focusing our time on the 99th? Most important thing? Or is our plan actually following the linear? What is the most important thing that we get? What is the second most important? What is the third? So this is the kind of the framework that I'm playing with?

Dave Crenshaw:

And I'm assuming if the based on what if the evidence starts to look, not what we hoped, not what we expected, then you're going to make adjustments to the how and the process that you're using. Because

Pyry Salmela:

then you also have time variability that if we see a weakness, which we want to improve, if we know that we have only a limited time, and then we have to evaluate, will it pay back the time we're going to invest? And is that going to take time away from what is actually even more important? So I think it's a very logical framework.

Dave Crenshaw:

I like it. And I love that you're saying that it's simple. Because I believe that it's easier to execute on something simple than something that's very complex, lots of steps, especially in the world of Formula One where there's so many different inputs happening in a very, very brief amount of time. It has to be simple, or it's not going to be very usable, is it? And

Pyry Salmela:

he's going to lack efficiency. Yeah. Because you know, when you have a plan, and when that plan creates autonomy, that's where you pick the efficiency. Yeah.

Dave Crenshaw:

Okay, let's return to your story for just a moment, when you first began performance coaching, I'm assuming there was another group of people that you specialized in, or who were your first clients as a performance coach,

Pyry Salmela:

as a performance coach, like I said, my first clients were ice hockey players, okay, both the Youth and Development athletes. And I always felt that like, this was the easiest for me, because I could understand what an athlete mindset is, I think the second step where I went into the general population, I understood that this field is actually very different. Our goals are very different, even though there are similarities, but coaching an athlete compared to someone that has, for example, aesthetics drives, for exercising, it's a very different world.

Dave Crenshaw:

Just to clarify that you mean, someone who's trying to get beach muscle, someone who's just trying to look good, versus someone who's actually trying to win at their sport?

Pyry Salmela:

Yes. Because that's why start again, what is the first question? And the what is so different to the other one? That that's why the roads will go left and right.

Dave Crenshaw:

Okay, so you were coaching ice hockey players. And where did this pathway start where you started to get your foot in the door with professional racing, is that seems very, very different to me than ice hockey.

Pyry Salmela:

That is a very different and it was something that I never planned, and I was never even seeking. So everything till that point was quite logical. I saw it coming. But this formula one, and this, I never saw it coming. And this came by total coincidence. I was one Thursday evening, I was in my car coming back from work. And I got a text message, where I read an old friend of mine, who was working in motorsport, text me, a gentleman called Aki Hinson knows about you. And he's interested on hearing more about you, because he has a possible job for you. Are you interested on getting into an interview? And that's all and I called him and I said, Okay, what is this about? He said, I don't know. And you just reach out to him, and he will tell more, reach out to him. And he has, yes, I know about you. Could you come to Helsinki and meet me for an hour? I did it. And after the talk, we had a talk for two hours where we didn't speak for one word about Formula One. And I always say after the interview, and that like whatever that was, I'm never going to get the job, because I was way too honest.

Dave Crenshaw:

What does that mean? In what ways were you way too honest.

Pyry Salmela:

I had no filter because, like I He said, I always say why I got the job was not because I was more experienced, or I was more, you know, advanced compared to other coaches or I was more experienced? No, it was purely because I think they saw that there was a guy who understands nothing about Formula One. And he's almost this young, naive mindset that don't care about the clam, or anything, what he's just passionate about is both helping others, and working with the people that is willing to do the next step. So I think the what they saw on me that they can, you know, develop, they can mold me with a skill sets that are applicable for Formula One. And, you know, week after they call me and Okay, we have a job for you. Are you interested? The thing is that you have to be in Bahrain in three days. That's your first day. And I remember, like I said, I didn't see coming because I had already other plans. But I said, why not? We live only once. And I always wanted to live the life in the fast lane in a way. So yeah, three days after I checked my passport, it has just expired. So I had to get an extra passport, and three days after I was in Bahrain, and that's where it all started. And the whole life changed in two weeks.

Dave Crenshaw:

Were you starting in Formula One? Or were you starting at like Formula Two or something like that,

Pyry Salmela:

I went straight to the deep end, the Formula One, which I would say that never suggest to anyone? Wow. Because when I started, I can literally say, I didn't feel like I knew anything about it. On my luck, what I have is that I had a very talented driver. But the thing is that his physical qualities were very raw,

Dave Crenshaw:

who was your first driver? Are you able to say that

Pyry Salmela:

I had the Red Bull driver called Danny, yet, he was my first driver, okay. And he was 18, he was about to start his first year in Formula One. And I was thinking when I was in Bahrain, so how on earth I can help this kid because I have no clue about the sport. The luck being on my side is that he was so raw, in his athletic qualities, that there was so much to do from a basic, fundamental physiological development perspective, that that gave me the time, before I had to know more. That gave me the time to just focus on those key pillars on physical development, which are the base of all qualities of physical performance. The last pillar you enter a lot later, where you start really about focusing on task specific skill sets and qualities from a performance perspective.

Dave Crenshaw:

So you use the word. And I think it's important to highlight for someone who is listening to this, and they're saying, I want to have the kind of success that Purdue has had, and the word is luck, and luck, certainly factors into things. But I think that just chalking it up to luck, sells your story short, you prepared, you went to school, you were working with clients, and you were building a reputation, which without that reputation, the luck would have never occurred. Did you just kind of expand on your thoughts about that? Yes,

Pyry Salmela:

I have to agree with you that there's definitely the lack of momentum where I thought about, but you know, I always had the feeling that I will get lucky. Because how intentional I was, since I was young, you know, like, after school after my own training, what I was doing, I was spending my time on a sport Institute, looking at other people, other sports, how do they prepare themselves? What kind of difference they how do they prepare differently compared to myself? So I was surrounded by this symbolize that was coming all over because I was living and breathing the sport and understanding the different fields. So I was very intentional, since I was very young. About that. And I had a feeling that you know, at some point, that luck is going to knock my door when I just keep showing up.

Dave Crenshaw:

Where did that come from? Was that from you internally? Or was it the way that your parents talk to you? What did you do to create that feeling is I guess what I'm asking.

Pyry Salmela:

It's difficult to say because I have to say, I have this naive belief on myself. And I always remember that I somehow felt different compared to other kids, because I have this huge drive on succeeding and I always felt that like one day I'm gonna make it a one day I'm gonna you know, the Lucky's gonna knock my door and I'm gonna crap it on it and I'm gonna make it work. So I always had that night belief on myself. But I was lacking self confidence, I was a little bit shy. And I felt like, I wish I had the courage to express what I have in my side because the fire is incredible. And I just wish that one day, I want to show that I have the courage to, you know, excel in my carrier, and I'm going to show what I have to give and I was very poor at selling my own self, you know, I was very poor giving a price tag. So then I knew, I will start from adding value. So this was a key point for me, I always just tried to get my foot in the door between the door and start adding value. And people would, after all, they will see that when I just keep adding value, someone will notice it sooner rather than later. I

Dave Crenshaw:

love that phrase adding value, I've found that to be true, where I've made my goal. And I've seen many people do this meet their goal to give more than they're receiving. And I think that a lot of people, when they think about their job, they go, I'm going to do just what I need to do to get paid. And that's the mindset that gets you stuck in the same spot, over and over and over. But if you say I'm going to do more than what I'm getting paid for, I'm going to deliver more value than I've got that I think is what opens up the door to luck. And it sounds like you agree with that perspective,

Pyry Salmela:

I have to say, like, I didn't grow up in money. So I didn't even understand about money. What I was just passionate about was adding value. I just had this huge fire on myself on helping people and understanding what makes Michael Jordan Michael Jordan then trying to replicate it and transfer those skills to new athletes. Personally, I never thought about that. It has to be ice hockey, it has to be Formula One, what I all I wanted is to have resources, which also means individuals that are willing to make the extra effort the extra mile without asking what time it is, or how much it cost.

Dave Crenshaw:

So let's return back to that story. You started coaching immediately. Did you feel like you struggled early with it? Did you feel that you were adequately prepared? Or was it natural? The reason why I ask is because as an entrepreneur, a lot of times where I've had successes, I sold myself into a situation meaning I got people to agree that I'm going to provide something for them. And then I was like now I need to figure out how to provide this. And the moment that I put myself in forces me to be prepared and do better. Where do you feel you fit on that spectrum of your early experience with coaching,

Pyry Salmela:

I do have a good example to give you like I was giving a presentation and there was a colleague of mine who was telling his story. And he said that before I took this opportunity, I went through a very logical framework on what I ready for it. And I said to him, like, amazing, you know, when I took the job, I didn't think for one minute, I just went for it. And then I will figure out damages. But I actually don't Yeah, so I always have had this kind of moving forward, and I will figure it out. And it sounds wrong. But I was still saying to myself, fake it till you make it doesn't mean that I'm a big believer on honesty. And I think everybody who knows me who I work with, knows what an advocator I'm for honesty. But for myself, I was saying many times I have no clue what I should do, but I'm going to figure it out. It hurts. But I'm going to figure it out. Clearly

Dave Crenshaw:

you deliver. Because the world of Formula One and for those who are not familiar, it's a revolving door. Yeah, right. There are constantly driver transitions, constant team transitions, constant new sponsors, all of this. It's very chaotic, from my perspective. And yet you have remained in the midst of all that chaos. So clearly, you're doing something right, that says, Well, we have to keep you on the team, no matter what happens.

Pyry Salmela:

So I would also say that very early on, I realized that I got lucky. But the luck usually doesn't sustain if you don't actually deserve it. And I realized that very early on. And I realized that now I've got a golden opportunity, which I'm going to hold on, but I need to earn the respect. And earning that respect means that you go through the bend, you figure it out. You work hard on yourself that you develop the skill and you show evolution. And I'm just a big believer on that. You know, you earn your respect, the respect is not given. It's earned. And I realized very Early on, and I knew that Okay, Now is my time to, you know, work hard and get through it and show to the world that I'm here to stay. You

Dave Crenshaw:

just use a great phrase, which is show evolution, can you expand a little bit on what you mean by that,

Pyry Salmela:

you know, when you are young, you think you know a lot more than you do. And it's actually a scary place because you don't know what you don't know. So showing the ability, actually having the awareness that I don't know everything, but I have the will to learn. And I can show that like, despite I'm not good at everything, I can still progress. And even on things where I think I know everything, when someone brings a different viewpoint. And you're still able to change your mindset and evolve with the more information you have. Because after all, we make our decisions based on the information we have. Which means that it's likely that we are not always right. Because when someone else making more information, also, our decision making should be able to be open to different decision.

Dave Crenshaw:

That's a great perspective, thanks for sharing that. And I think that's what people want to see of their co workers, the people that they lead the people they manage, even family members, we want to see that someone is growing, we don't necessarily expect perfection. But if you can demonstrate that evolution, that's a huge thing.

Pyry Salmela:

I think you'll see in the work environment, I always even know more that when you see the hungry individual who is showing the humility, the willingness to learn, and showing that while they're willing to learn, they're also showing the progress that actually that's what you thought I took on board. And I'm evolving and creating this own ownership on their own thought process. So I think this you really value on a work environment for yourself that independence, independent decision making, based on the information that you learn from others. Okay,

Dave Crenshaw:

so let's return to your story again. And I'm going to call back to what you were saying about based on what write that evidence, the proof that it's working. What was the first moment where you look back? Because Formula One is all evidence based? Right? You won? Or you didn't? What was the first moment where you felt I made an impact? What just happened that victory? I feel like I had a hand in that. I know, you're humble guy. But yet, you can also recognize, wow, I trained this driver to do something that they didn't do before. Did you have a moment like that? Where you felt like, Okay, I belong here. You know,

Pyry Salmela:

I think that was the time also, that's a very early, early stage on where I really didn't know everything where I thought about like, okay, now I made amazing offseason preparation. And now they are hitting new PRs, they are developing as an athlete. And I thought that that's the result because of key results on track. But that was also the time where I didn't know what I didn't know. And it was almost the other way around, that I started learning about the Formula One that it's so complicated. It's so complex, where the physical performance, the driver is just one big piece of the puzzle, but not all. So I think those were the enlightening moments that you understood that like, Yes, I can see the progress on the athlete, I can see that they are developing skills, what they didn't have, how it's going to impact the end result, after all, and that's where I started realizing that, okay, this formula one is actually a lot more complicated than I thought. But that also keeps you very much grounded. That despite you see, you're growing as an athlete, having a new skill sets in the sport, but also outside the sport. Those are the moments where you really feel rewarding that okay, you know, after all we are, so to say that teachers for the young kids or the young athletes, and that's why you feel immense reward. When you see them growing, however, the sport is so much more the car and the 1000 people that is working on those two cars, keeps you quite grounded on that despite you doing your job, it doesn't mean that it that's all down to you. So

Dave Crenshaw:

in a situation like that, where there are so many variables, right, massive team, hundreds of people, the car is a factor. The track is affected the weather is all these different things. How do you measure your success as a performance coach? How do you How can you say objectively that what you did is having an impact on the outcome? So I

Pyry Salmela:

think this has been a big struggle over the years because it's such a skill With an past specific sport with so many elements on it, that I really struggled on, really quantifying my own input. But at the same time you go again, back to the first question, what are we looking for? And then you start looking for, are we getting closer? Where we're supposed to go? What part of a smile? And what is not? Is that important? I don't think so. Because in the end, I'm there for the athlete, not for myself. So if we are moving towards our what, what is the target and the goal? I think that's after all, the most important thing isn't about me, it's about that self. Always that there is KPIs where you see that, like, there is some markers reports that where you try to have objective and subjective measures where you think about a lot, okay, you know, for

Dave Crenshaw:

those who are not familiar, what is a KPI and what are some of your KPIs with the driver,

Pyry Salmela:

it's a key performance indicator. So it can be as easy as let's say, hi, you jump, and you measure the jump height over time where you see your evolution. That's an easy example of KPIs

Dave Crenshaw:

for Formula One driver though, what are those KPIs? That's,

Pyry Salmela:

I think, what is the one of the most difficult thing to actually set objective where you can say, Okay, now for the Formula One driver, this is a very relevant KPI. So then you are rather having KPIs which are external, and not internal, because those KPIs has so many variables that they have become very unreliable. So then it's really a physiological markers, which can be a test results. It can be autonomic nervous system data, longitudinal sleep tracking, whatever you use it in your training to measure your own performance. So it's more like those external KPIs rather than internal because in the internal, it's difficult to set one internal KPI because there's too many variables. Yeah. Which makes it very unreliable.

Dave Crenshaw:

So you mentioned sleep, which I imagine is a huge factor in what's going on. Let's dig into this just a little bit. What is a training week, like, with you? And one of the drivers like, let's say, Daniel, how many times do you meet? How many hours are you spending each time? What are you doing? Can you just kind of paint a picture of what the day and life is of a performance coach for f1?

Pyry Salmela:

Yes, I think every single driver has their own bus driver performance coach. But I also think there's almost 20 different roles. When I started the job. I was a 24/7, performance assistant for my athletes, where I spend the morning till the evening with the driver. So it varies a lot between the drivers. For example, now I'm with Daniel, where Daniel is already a lot more experienced athlete, which needs a lot less one to one time, because he's been in the game for very long. And for us, it's mostly a distance coaching when it comes to outside of track training activity. It's more like consultation. As then if I compare my previous ones, for example, for PA Gastly we spend about 300 days together from morning till evening. So the framework looks very different. How a week look like, that also varies because we think that we have 24 raises in the calendar. But there is 25 simulator days, there's 30 marketing days, and so much more, as well as there is also the personal life. So there's a lot going on also outside a track. So your whole schedule, pretty much tells how much time we have. And then you try to play between the recovery time and the development time. And that's the Juggle. I always say that getting fit in Formula One, I think, is doable, because it's just following a logical framework and path. What is most difficult is the lifestyle of an f1 driver. Because it's so chaotic. Okay,

Dave Crenshaw:

so let's talk about that a little bit. First, let's paint a picture of the chaos that is a Formula One driver. And then the more important thing with me speaking to you is what do you do? What do you say to them? To help them manage that, so that it doesn't become physically and mentally fatiguing? So yeah, if you can just kind of paint like, what it's like and then what you're doing to help them with that. I

Pyry Salmela:

will start from the framework again, it's like I think so much time we're paying attention on optimizing everything, but the real life world in Formula One is non optimal. So I always approach the coaching philosophy on building resilience, because like Say, now we came from Saudi, Daniel flew back to London form simulator the day after he flew to Australia, then he's having number of marketing activities before the crown Prix in Australia. So it's far from being ideal. And the same pattern, repeat itself, so often, that the preparation between optimal is far from being optimal. And therefore, being having the resilience psychologically, and physiologically is so important. How

Dave Crenshaw:

do you arm them with that resilience? And what does that mean in the context of Formula One? What practices do I need to have to be resilient,

Pyry Salmela:

there's resilience, let's say psychologically, you already know is that you build that framework for them that they know what they are supposed to do, and repeating, repeating. And then you know, building resilience is applying, breaking, regenerating, breaking. So it's this kind of cycle where you create this toughness on just repeating similar activities, and being able to go through when it doesn't feel always good.

Dave Crenshaw:

And regardless of where they are, right, even if they're on the road, they repeat those same activities, yes,

Pyry Salmela:

because after all, they have so many stakeholders that are expecting them to perform at the highest level, you have 330 days when someone is expecting something from you. And it's no way that they always feel optimum. As

Dave Crenshaw:

a time management guy. I feel overwhelmed just thinking about that. Because when you're not on the road, it's easy to have a regimen, it's easy to say I wake up at this time, I exercise at this time, that's how I operate. So I can see this difficult balance that you must have to help them achieve, which is the regimen, but also the flexibility. Right? How many hours a day when all this other stuff is going on? How many hours a day, does a driver have to devote to physical fitness or doing things that promote their wellness? Is it an hour a day? Is it two hours a day like? And how do you help them manage that

Pyry Salmela:

I think that's also varies a lot. Because you know, when you have preseason, the drivers can train up to 20 hours a week. But when we come to NCS and then the competitive season, it suddenly goes down at half, and then you have between five and 15. And we are probably somewhere in the middle 10 hours a week that they have the time. And you know, even the trainability because you know that it's not pointless to push over the limit when the body's not ready to receive the stimulus. So there's always this battle of playing with what is optimal? And what is the development work and what is like, let's say when we gather sleep data from the weekend, and then we still have to go for session on Monday or Tuesday, we know that body is not ready yet. The battery is not 100%. And we still we got to go through it.

Dave Crenshaw:

I want to ask one question specific to that, which is the sleep data. What is your belief, or what have you seen is necessary for the right amount of sleep for a Formula One driver, I've

Pyry Salmela:

seen quite a big variety on the way they sleep and some of them functions in my extremely well with six. And you still know that that's not an optimal amount. As we know that if I had the six hours a day, which I have, often I feel sub optimal. And yet I've seen other examples that feels like they just can't go. And despite the types of changes, they just be able to repeat this nine hours of great sleep. So I've seen such a huge variety on that. And what I always say is that, like I think individually, you cannot look fully on the daily number. You gotta go look at the trends. Interesting.

Dave Crenshaw:

Yeah, I think that's a huge factor in productivity and performance. And I think it doesn't get talked about enough. Yeah, I know. Personally, I require nine.

Pyry Salmela:

Yeah. Then I think there's always the differences. I think the harder your life is, the more demand there is. There's also the more demand for self care. And I think that's where the balance always fall out, is that when things get tough, we also fall out on that self care. Whereas when the harder the physical stress on the body, the more you need to recover. And that's not usually the balance that we see.

Dave Crenshaw:

That is so true. I wrote a book imperative called The Power having fun and I Talk about how it's mandatory, it is something that we need to schedule in our life. In addition to the sleep and all of the exercise, we have to have that self care. And yes, I love that the higher demand, the higher the need for self care. What a great statement. And

Pyry Salmela:

I think that's always the first one to fall out. You know, like when the things gets tough, when it gets stressful, that's where we start eating bad, sleeping bad. And just feeling bad as it's should be the other way around, the harder it gets, the more self care we need. It's such a reality in today's world that, you know, when I don't sleep well, or when I'm very stressed, I started skipping on the things that actually really make me feel good and relaxed and recovered.

Dave Crenshaw:

Yeah, I think that's a great place to bring up a question I had about your personal life. You were recently engaged. Congratulations on that. Thank

Pyry Salmela:

you. Thank you.

Dave Crenshaw:

So brings up a couple of questions with such a demanding schedule. How were you able to carve out time to build that relationship? And how do you continue to make time for that relationship?

Pyry Salmela:

You know, I always had the rule on me that like, I really want to separate my private line and work life. So I always was thinking that I never want anyone that knows that world. Because when I come home, I want to be in a world where my partner doesn't talk about my work, or doesn't know about this so much. Yes, after all. That's the place where I met my fiancee. And then I realized that actually, she understands me. And this is such a relief, because I always had the struggle that if I ever met someone that I felt like they could never relate and fully understand why I'm not at my peak, when I come from travels, why I need a little bit time to recover why I've seen the challenges on keeping the relationship because the limited time I have and the very unstable life I have. But then soon, I realized that actually, it was great to have someone that actually understands the world. And yet, it's still always a juggle. She doesn't work in Formula One anymore. But she's been working there. And she knows exactly how it is. And that's been amazing support for me that I don't need to feel always bad when I come home, and I have no energy. It's rather being someone having understanding and giving you the energy and support and that I have time to, you know, recover myself, but also actually, what I always value is the time then outside of work. And this is something what I learned over the years is how important for me is to separate those two worlds.

Dave Crenshaw:

From a systemic perspective, how do you carve out that time, we've talked about the demands and all the different things that need to take place with Formula One? So how do you say here is time and I'm going to protect that time? I'm not going to let other things get in the way. From a practical standpoint, how is that accomplished? So

Pyry Salmela:

for the most part, and for the most part of my life, I have failed massively. Because the internal drive and the fire that I have had to make it no matter what. And I still feel like I haven't made. So the fire that is inside has always been. I saw that. I don't care how much I have time, I'm just willing to sacrifice over and over and over time to get to the next stage. And this. I think having Kiara in my life has brought for me the contrast on understanding what actually can be also very important and even more important than the work and the success. And I think she's been the biggest impact on my life on bringing the contrast and the understanding for my own blind spots. That is not all about work in then you know, like one day when you're in the deathbed, you don't think about your your bank account. What do you think about is the people that you have spent time with?

Dave Crenshaw:

Yeah. And so do you have a specific date that you have each week or you look ahead on the schedule to beginning of the week and say, here's the time that we can reconnect?

Pyry Salmela:

We do that actually, when I'm back from travels, we always try at least once a week to do a date night. And I think we have been pretty adamant on having that time together. And but also now with a partner I have, it's almost also coming also naturally, because I also look the place for myself where I feel like I'm relaxing. It's almost like this vacuum cleaner that I start pulling towards because I felt like that's the place where I recharge my battery.

Dave Crenshaw:

That's great. Talk to me about the future. What do you see ahead? In the next few years. I saw that you have an app that you're working on. Is that correct?

Pyry Salmela:

Yes, that is a work in progress, which I've been working for over a year now. And I always also been in my career quite strategic. And I knew that the Formula One won't be there for the rest of my life. And there is skill sets that I would like to learn with outside of Formula One. And that's why I took this app project on my own as my personal development project, to develop skills. But again, even more importantly, give for the people that I didn't have a chance to do it before. Because I've got so many times I've got reach out where people are asking, like, Could you help me on this? Could you have advices, and I always felt so bad that I just didn't have the time what it required to really build the system. So I wanted to create a platform where it's accessible for very low price and gain get into my coaching system where which I believe, can provide life happiness, better performance, because I'm not particularly a big fan of the current fitness trend. And the mentality that seems to be where it's very aesthetically driven. Because I feel like working inside out is probably even better. Like finding a purpose that improves your life quality is something way more valuable than your biggest biceps or your quads or something like that. So I wanted to bring something that come from my heart and brings my system into people's approachable for people to join into the moment, and I can't wait to be out it will take probably some months. But it's working progress. And it's coming nicely together. I'm super excited. Where's

Dave Crenshaw:

the best place for people who want to follow you they want to stay up to date with what you're doing with the app? Where would you like people to go to to stay connected with you.

Pyry Salmela:

I'm probably the most active on Instagram, I could still be even more active. My handle is Guru dot Salmela. And my app is called period app. And

Dave Crenshaw:

for those who are not familiar with Finnish, pronunciation, that's p yry. Sal me la Yeah,

Pyry Salmela:

that is called a p y ry.

Dave Crenshaw:

All right. So here's the point in the interview. And by the way, I feel like we could and, and I honestly feel like I should go on talking to you about this for quite a while. But I know your time is very limited. So what I'm going to do now is I do this with every guest, where we summarize possible action items. And I'm sure you'll agree with this. It's not just about hearing, it's not just about learning, it's about doing it's about putting it into practical application. So what I want to do is suggest action items that someone listening to this, regardless of their job, could implement this week, something small that they could do. So I'm going to suggest three and I love periodo for you to suggest one as well. My gosh, there's so much here in this interview. The first one I'm going to start with is that concept of when you're helping someone perform when you're helping a driver improve. You look at the what, which is the end goal, the how, and then the based on what the evidence, I'm going to focus first of all on the based on what the measurement, too often we set goals, and we are not properly measuring them. We're not saying here's how I know I'm moving toward that goal. So I'd invite someone who's listening to this, whether you're trying to lose weight, or get a promotion, or crease your savings, define how you're going to measure your progress on that and then start tracking that measurement over time. And that's going to help you know whether or not you have to make adjustments to what you're doing. The other one that I want to highlight is that concept of adding value, how you recognize that you had this lucky moment, you created the lucky moments for your preparation, but you had this lucky moment with Formula One. And then you said I'm going to hold on to this, I'm going to maximize this. And the way that I'm going to do this is by adding value. And I would encourage anyone listening to this to ask the question, How am I adding value to my job call my adding value to this opportunity that I have not? How can I do what's expected of me? That's not enough. It's how can I do just a little bit more than what's expected of me. And that's what's going to help you maximize the value of these opportunities. That's what I did with LinkedIn learning. That's what I try to do with my books. That's what I'm trying to do with these interviews is to add value give more than expected. And then the last one is I'm going to highlight that phrase, the higher the demand, the higher the need for self care. So with whatever it is that you're pursuing in life right now. Always need to carve out time to take care of yourself. That's physical fitness that's getting the sleep that you need. That's making time to have fun. So ask yourself, Am I giving myself enough self care? And if not, where can I schedule some time to provide more of that for myself, and make that a priority in your week? All right, those are just three that I focused on Pier two, what would you add to that?

Pyry Salmela:

I would add on winning a focus on your environment. We often talk about the motivation, the how important is the internal motivation. And I say that, whereas it's important, personally, it's a little bit, or I would say that motivation is important, but often overlooked, because that's only the initial spark. It's the consistently what gets you things done, not the motivation, the first part that you got. So creating an environment that is posting those positive behaviors, that makes you in a good mood, that's how I always create the framework on how I make my day. And this is a lot about how you create your environment. So what are the steps that makes you in a good mood, how you get started, you get a good start on your day, how I make my day. And that's a lot about posting environment.

Dave Crenshaw:

I love it. Anyone can take a moment and consider their environment.

Pyry Salmela:

And just think about your fridge. If you only see the healthy stuff, you're likely going to stick with the healthy stuff. If you walk by your fridge, and there's always those junk foods. So no later, you're gonna crap on one of them. So creating those Yeah, habits and behaviors that are boosting good habits. And that's why the environment is such a powerful tool on empowering those

Dave Crenshaw:

behaviors. Fantastic. Thank you for sharing that. And we all can take a moment to consider if the environment is contributing to what we want to achieve. Here, too. Thank you so much for your generosity of this. I know that it's a demanding schedule right now, in the middle of the season. So I'm absolutely grateful that you took the time to do this.

Pyry Salmela:

Thanks to you. It's been a pleasure. And I hope there was some valuable thoughts on that listeners can learn from it's been a great pleasure. Thanks for inviting me. Yes.

Dave Crenshaw:

And thank you, everyone for being here and listening. Remember, it's not so much about what you heard, or the knowledge you gained. It's about the action that you take. So do one thing based on this interview and you'll make periodu success story, a part of your success story. Thank you for listening.

Unknown:

You've been listening to the Dave Crenshaw Success Show, hosted by my dad, Dave Crenshaw, and produced by invaluable incorporated research and assisted production by Victoria Bidez Sound Editing by Mark Lamorgese az waste group by me Darci Crenshaw, and the music is by Ryan Brady via con five licensing. Please subscribe to the Dave Crenshaw Success Project on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you'd like to get your podcasts. If you have a suggestion for someone my dad might like to interview, please send it to guests at Dave crenshaw.com. And please don't forget to leave us a five star review. See you next time.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Dave Crenshaw

Host