The Alter Ego Method

Performance coach Todd Herman spent over two decades working with elite athletes — including the New York Yankees and Danish Olympic teams — executives, and high achievers before writing The Alter Ego Effect. His central discovery: the world's best don't just try harder. They become someone else.

The alter ego method is the practice of creating a heroic identity you can step into when the stakes are highest. It's the opposite of "fake it till you make it." It's about activating a more authentic, capable version of what's already inside you. Research from around 2008 found that people who see themselves as having many selves and many roles are actually the healthiest mentally — individuals trying to address every part of life with one single identity struggle the most.

Herman's framework is simple. Here's how it works.

Step 1. Grab a pen and paper. Instead of asking "what do I want?", make a list:

• What do I want to stop doing?
• Do less of?
• Keep doing?
• Do more of?
• Start doing?

Step 2. Pick one thing from that list.

Step 3. Ask yourself honestly: what's holding me back? Imposter syndrome. Not being intentional. Worrying what others think. Doubting your abilities. Not being in control of emotions.

Step 4. Think of someone who does that one thing extremely well — a real person, a fictional character, an animal. That figure becomes the foundation of your alter ego.

Step 5. Name it. Choose something that makes you immediately think of the qualities you want. Beyoncé = Sasha Fierce on stage. Kobe Bryant = The Black Mamba. Then decide how you'll call it up when you need it — a prop, a mantra, a visualization. Practice and repetition is everything.

A note from March 17th, 2026 — Jay from the future, adding a somewhat somber disclaimer to this note from the past.

2026 has just started and has already been a shocking year. The Epstein files were probably the grandest moment of realization that the elite who run things actively despise the people they claim to serve.

It is worth noting that while these elite who achieve great things by creating an "alter ego" may not be building a surface-level persona at all. They may quite literally be traumatizing themselves into multiple personality disorder. There is little evidence to support this hypothesis directly. But consider another example.

Nicki Minaj has several publicly disclosed alter egos: Roman Zolanski, her self-described "demon" side; Harajuku Barbie, "an innocent girl"; and Martha Zolanski, Roman's mother — a "crazy lady" there to discipline her demonic child.

It is a little uncomfortable to write this, but it is worth naming. This sort of pattern has been going on for a long, long time. As far as we know, it originates with the Egyptians, who would traumatize and grievously abuse would-be pharaohs so that these pharaohs would develop multiple personalities. The Egyptian priests believed this would allow the pharaohs to operate in the way that ruling required — most concretely, to sincerely love the people and at the same moment, or a moment's notice later, be fully willing to sacrifice as many as necessary for the collective. This is not normal behavior.

And we see it not just in pop-culture elites like Nicki, Beyoncé, and Kobe. We see it in political and business elites as well. Donald Trump needs no explanation as an example. In Walter Isaacson's Elon Musk biography, he writes: "There's no single Elon Musk. He has many personalities. Almost multiple personalities."

These multiple personalities are a feature, not a bug, for the elite to perform at the highest levels given what those levels require. However, the cost is very, very high for these individuals.

So use the alter ego method. It works. Just go in with your eyes open about where it leads when taken to its furthest extreme.

— Jay