On this episode of Alumni Direct's show "ATHLETES TO ENTREPRENEURS: The Alumni Journey," we chat with Jim Cederna, former college football player at Central Michigan University, businessman and CEO of multiple companies, and founder & CEO of Cederna International.

Tell people about growing up playing sports and how that shaped you, ultimately. 

"Well first of all Rob, thank you for involving me, and I hope that my story of going from small-time football to big-time business can be lessons learned for others, and I hope I can provide some help there. So, I come from very northern Michigan, from a very small town. We didn't have many sports. We didn't have baseball teams because school was done in the spring before the snow was melted and all those kinds of things, so football was THE sport in our town, and you were a rockstar if you were a successful football player. My father had done very well, loved the sport, and there was no question that I was going to play football. And I didn't have a lot of other choices anyway, so that's where it began, and I was successful enough to get a scholarship to play at Central Michigan and I played at that level also."

Jim's advice for current athletes preparing for a transition out of sports: "My first coaching tip to anybody who is in a position where you need to start making an income for a living and it's not gonna be sports: Your network comes in handy...and we don't really take advantage sometimes of all the people we know."

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Check out Jim's website: https://www.cedernainternational.com/

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