#220: The Alter Ego Effect: Helping Ambitious Entrepreneurs Do Hard Things & Overcome Their Limiting Beliefs

Todd shares the mindset-changing framework he created in his book The Alter Ego Effect to help you break through obstacles and eliminate your self-limiting beliefs for amazing success. This is the mental playbook used by Olympic and professional athletes, world-class entertainers, and top-tier entrepreneurs to achieve their most ambitious goals. If you're ready to up your game, this is the episode for you.

What You Will Learn In Today's Podcast Interview:

• Why “just deal with it” is terrible advice to a business owner who is evolving their role and what to do to address the underlying issues.
• How to access your inner hero.
• The people who win in life have the most valuable skills; do you or your alter ego manifest those skills?
• When you change the way you relate to yourself, all things change.
• Why imposter syndrome is a buzzword in the self-help world these days.
• That discounting your achievements ("oh, that was just luck") contributes to real imposter syndrome and feelings of anxiety over being “found out” (despite said achievements) and what to do about it.
• How to avoid self-help traps that take away your power rather than provide real ways to succeed in overcoming mental blocks and imposter syndrome.
• Why “fake it ‘til you make it” is good advice and how to figure out when you’ve made it.
• Anyone not getting the results they want is acting in a fake way.
• What traits entrepreneurs and athletes share that draw them to their fields.
• How to break your brain to achieve success by overcoming some built-in drivers (such as to seek comfort) that hinder us when we aren't intentionally choosing them.
• Why you should carefully choose heroes to emulate in all aspects of your life from work to home and how to “show up” as those people day after day for ultimate success.

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Podcast Summary

Business owners often have to reevaluate themselves and their relationship with their business in order to shift their mindset to long-term value creation.

Todd shares how drawing on an alter ego isn’t about ‘faking it until you make it’, but rather bringing out the 'real you' so you can conquer any challenge life throws at you, drawn from decades of experience with elite athletes, entertainers, and public figure.

Todd’s work on the alter ego led him to a key discovery: We need to establish a persona that can handle the tasks we don’t take pride in so we can ultimately achieve success in the areas that are holding us back. ​​If you want to be the chairman of the board, emulating owners who have successfully worked themselves out of the business can help you get there. Ask yourself, "What they would do in that situation?" and follow their roadmap to success.

This is a practical conversation on how to become the person who always wins. This is not a self-help fluff piece. Our mindset, ego, narrative, control issues and personality attributes (like Allie Taylor talked about last week) are limiting what we can do with our businesses. Todd’s episode is a framework to identify your field of play and your limiting beliefs to help your alter ego evolve so you win more and settle for comfortable less.

Obviously this isn’t a simple process. You’ll need to figure out what exactly “making it” looks like to you. In the process, you’ll learn to take ownership over your successes instead of chalking them up to luck (or worse!) and eventually grow into a fuller person with a larger, more valuable skill set. 

About the Guest:

Todd Herman Has Been Entrenched In The World Of Elite Performers Working With The Highest Achievers In Sports And Business For Over Two Decades.

Creator of the award-winning Leadership & Skills Development Program, 90 Day Year, author of the WSJ bestselling book, The Alter Ego Effect: The Power of Secret Identities to Transform Your Life, and recipient of Inc. 500’s Fastest Growing Companies Award, as well as the Rama Award for Wisdom and Leadership, Todd’s professional programs are delivered annually to over 200,000 people in 73 countries.

Named by the Boston Herald as a “Training Superstar”,  Todd has been featured on the Today Show, Sky News, Inc Magazine, CBS, and Business Insider, among others.

Originally from Alberta, Canada, Todd grew up on a large farm and ranch (where he developed a healthy dislike of chicken coops). Todd now lives in New York City with his wife and three young children, and is currently the world’s worst ukulele player.

Quotes:

04:02 - “Practical advice and a practical framework that is actionable. That is the biggest takeaway from this episode.” - Ryan Tansom

11:57 - “Most of the people who have written books for people have maybe worked with above average people and they’re writing it for average people.” - Todd Herman

21:57 - “I’m here to speak the truth with a knuckle to the jaw because that’s what wakes people up.” - Todd Herman

30:43 - “The need for significance is at the very top right? It’s not even a core psychology; it’s just biologically the truth of how our brains are built. We need to learn how to break out brains.” - Todd Herman

Links and Resources:

The Alter Ego Effect: The Power of Secret Identities to Transform Your Life, by Todd Herman

Website: Todd Herman

YouTube: Todd Herman

Twitter: @todd_herman

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