05/09/2026
🔥 The question that kills more ambition than anything else?
“Why do you want that?”
Said with care. Said with the best of intentions.
And it still murders dreams in real time.
Spent Tuesday at GrowthCon Chicago with Todd Herman — 29 years coaching pro athletes, Olympians, Super Bowl champs.
He calls it the APOLOGY TAX.
Every time you qualify your goal.
Every time you apologize for your fee.
Every time you shrink the number before you say it out loud You’re literally rewiring your brain to believe in it less.
(That’s not motivation talk. That’s Daryl Bem, 1972. Self-Perception Theory. Science.)
Here’s the unlock 👇
“What you want is yours. How you pursue it is your art.”
Stop apologizing for the goal.
Stop shrinking the number.
Stop explaining the dream to people who didn’t earn the answer.
Faith. Family. Fitness. Business.
You don’t owe anyone an explanation for the order you’re climbing the mountain.
📩 I built a ONE-SHEET from this talk:
✅ The 5 comebacks for the next time someone asks “why?”
✅ The Two Circles framework
✅ The Pyramid of Pressure (5 levels)
✅ 3 moves to make this week
One page. Print it. Stick it on your wall.
DM me “UNAPOLOGETIC” and I’ll send it. 🐂
Todd Herman brother, what you do between the six inches of people’s ears is unmatched. 29 years in the trenches with Olympians, Super Bowl champs, and pros most coaches only dream of working with — and you still show up raw, real, and zero fluff. You’re one of my favorite speakers of all time and Tuesday reminded me exactly why. 🙏
