Todd Herman
Founder, Herman Global Ventures · 1 appearance on the record.
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Todd Herman is a performance coach who trains elite athletes, Olympic competitors, and corporate executives in mental toughness, notably creating the 90 Day Year goal-achievement system. He is best known as the author of the Wall Street Journal bestselling book The Alter Ego Effect.
27statements → 9claims → 6claims resolved → 17%fully supported → 3.89/5average certainty → 2.15/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated →
1 supported 1 partly supported 4 contradicted 1 not yet assessed 2 not checkable as stated how the 9 claims stand · each chip opens the sources
9 assertions · 3 opinions · 15 insights · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 9 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 6 are resolved, 1 is not yet assessed, and 2 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.
The record, in short
What the tape says about how Todd argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.
Their most notable supported claim
The statistically optimal city size for athletic development is 250,000 people
“Statistically speaking, the best size of city or town to live in to develop your sporting skillset is around a quarter of a million people, because at a quarter of a million people, the level of competition can be well above average in that area. The quality o…”
How they sound: not measured why? →
We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Todd Herman on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.
Everything Todd Herman said on the Knowledge Project that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →
Kobe Bryant created 'Black Mamba' alter ego during 2003 Colorado legal crisis
“We came together during the time of him going through the allegations of sexual assault in in Colorado. That's why, that's where we built the Black Mamba from was in that moment. Cause he felt like he was losing his edge.”
Environment influences success far more than internal self-improvement efforts
“The under appreciation of environment and how that plays way more on your success than you, because we come in, right? Like Shane, you read amazing ideas and amazing books and we index a lot to making myself better. And it's, so it's a me thing. As opposed to …”
Imposter syndrome has degraded into a meaningless catch-all for mental maladies
“So imposter syndrome, I think has become a catch all term for all of the mental maladies of human beings. And it's crap to me.”
The early-calling narrative harms late bloomers by inducing unnecessary self-doubt
“It's a terrible narrative for you to constantly be battered with is these people who found their thing super early in life, because then you lament the fact that you didn't, or what didn't I see when I was younger? And then you beat yourself up and you're like…”
Sports commentators who emphasize 'high pressure' were usually mediocre athletes
“So the commentators who are saying that this is high pressure, I've found that most of those people were middle of the road performers when they played their sport. And they dealt with pressure, not like the people that are elite or legends.”
A singular authentic self does not exist because behaviors shift situationally
“There is no one you because we operate in the world in many roles that we have, even our behaviors and our attitudes, they shift and they change based on situation.”
Personality assessments like Myers-Briggs lack efficacy by ignoring situational identity
“Personality assessments like Myers-Briggs is a good example. I mean, I don't know how many more articles need to be written about how it doesn't carry very much efficacy in the world.”
Habits and behaviors sit directly on top of situational identity
“Your identity The person or the view of yourself that's going out to perform on that field is where all of your habits, attitudes, behaviors, your beliefs sit is on top of that identity of you as that performer.”
Constantly adding more tasks and tactics undermines peak performance
“More is the enemy to peak performance. Adding more to something, doing more things, having 17 more new ways of doing a breakaway deke on a hockey goalie is not going to make you better.”
Every additional assumption in a strategic decision cuts success odds in half
“And this one over here that looks even a little bit more sexy, but if we're looking at it and there's three assumptions that we're making, and this one over here is only one assumption or two assumptions, even with every assumption, the likelihood of success i…”
Elite performers intentionally attack boring fundamentals to create competitive separation
“I would actually change that and say it's not their ability to not get bored. It's for them to attack the boring things with an intention of understanding that that's what will separate them from everybody else.”
Passive hope provides a psychological safety net that keeps people stuck
“It's actually a place of safety and security because the moment I take action on it, I no longer have that warm blanket of hope that someday maybe I'll be able to go and do it. And I think that many people Stay stuck where they are, not pursuing the things tha…”
Tackling hard challenges evolves self-identity and alters desired outcomes
“Don't forget the things that you're wanting right now are coming from your current level of identity and how you view and see yourself. But the more that you push yourself into challenging situations, you do tough stuff, you pick up hard things, you have hard …”
The statistically optimal city size for athletic development is 250,000 people
“Statistically speaking, the best size of city or town to live in to develop your sporting skillset is around a quarter of a million people, because at a quarter of a million people, the level of competition can be well above average in that area. The quality o…”
Performance culture over-indexes on mechanical habits while vastly under-appreciating mindset
“We've indexed so much towards habit and behavior so much recently, and I appreciate all the talk about habits, but there's an, there's another side of this whole performance world that isn't as appreciated, which is the way you're going about it. And so in tha…”
High achievers over-index on career because business provides faster feedback loops
“The feedback loops for a lot of high achievers are so much quicker in your domain of career. And they're a lot longer in other areas like health, even or family or your marriage and relationship.”
Formulating distinct missions for specific life roles beats having one overarching mission
“And that goes to the power of isolating our identity. If I say like, Hey, what's your, what Todd, what's your mission as a coach? Todd, what's your mission as a CEO? What's your mission? And then at the end, when I maybe write out these eight different mission…”
Over-identifying with a specific role causes athletes and professionals to retire late
“One of the things I discovered in super over indexing early on on identity is like, oh crap, I'm trapping people in some ways because these identities are like causing them in some ways to stay too long in their sport. Because I'm a hockey player. That's my en…”
Rituals differ from routines when combined with personal storytelling and meaning
“Those rituals are rituals is when routine or habit meets storytelling. Cause that's meaning.”
Approximately 20% of society cannot form visual pictures in their mind
“Reality is there's about 20% of society that can't form visual pictures in their mind.”
Counter complacency by intentionally adopting an amateur identity in a new domain
“If you are noticing or feeling like you're being complacent, put yourself into the identity of an amateur somewhere. Start something new, and it could be in your personal life. Start building a new skill, start a new hobby where it's challenging you in some ne…”
Athletes aiming for 'average' deliver their best performance 77% of the time
“77% of the time that was their best performance of the week. Why? Because they relaxed into it. They weren't forcing anything. There was more of an allowing mindset that was there.”
Google searches for 'imposter syndrome' surged alongside Instagram's launch in 2010
“In 2010, when Instagram came around, you can see it literally in Google search algorithm. Imposter syndrome starts to take off.”
Children lack personal identity until roughly age seven and a half
“Our concept of me and myself and stuff is a lot of times carried out and formed before the age of eight. Now, a child has no concept of me. They don't even, they don't think of themselves as having an identity until around seven and a half when the frontal lob…”
Appearances (1)
| Episode | Date | Speaking time |
|---|---|---|
| Todd Herman: Unleashing Your Secret Identity | Nov 28, 2023 | 1h 8m |