Eric Potterat, Ph.D., and Alan Eagle

Eric Potterat, Ph.D., and Alan Eagle are co-authors of Learned Excellence (Feb. 2024).

Eric Potterat is a clinical and performance psychologist and a leading expert in individual and organizational performance optimization. Eric retired as a commander from the US Navy after twenty years of service, the last 10 of which he spent as the psychologist for the U.S. Navy SEALs. He also created the Navy SEALs' mental toughness curriculum. Eric spent several years as the director of specialized performance for the Los Angeles Dodgers and has also worked with Red Bull athletes, the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team, the Miami Heat, and numerous Olympic athletes, first responders, business leaders, and NASA astronauts. He has personally worked with approximately 25,000 elite performers within multiple performance occupations: military, athletics, first responders, medicine, law, and business. Years of working with and researching these elite performers has allowed him to better understand the science of mental toughness and how the same techniques that make elite performers amazingly successful are 100% teachable. He’s been the performance psychologist on teams that have won the MLB World Series and the FIFA World Cup.

Eric is the co-author of the book, Learned Excellence (Feb 2024), has 30 peer-reviewed, professional journal and/or chapter publications, and has been featured on national media.

Alan Eagle is an author and executive communications consultant, helping leaders and companies shape and tell clear, compelling, consistent stories. He spent 16 years at Google, partnering with executives to communicate the company’s story to clients, partners, employees, and the public. Prior to Google, he worked in sales and product roles at five different Silicon Valley startups, two of which were successful, the other three not so much. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Dartmouth College and an MBA from The Wharton School.

Alan is the co-author of the books How Google Works, Trillion Dollar Coach, and Learned Excellence (Feb 2024), and the author, all by himself, of seven letters-to-the-editor published in Sports Illustrated. He has never won the New Yorker Caption Contest.

A Northern California native, Alan lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and golden retriever. Their four twentysomething children come by from time to time.