HERO High Performance Academy™

The Neuroscience and Practice of High Performance

 

High performance is not built in a single workshop, not even two or three. Most organizations provide training and development filled with useful information, practical insights, and good intentions. People attend workshops. They take notes. They leave inspired. And then real life happens.

 

Pressure rises. Deadlines tighten. Sleep gets short. Emotions flare. Misunderstandings happen. Stress accumulates. The brain slips back into old habits, familiar reactions, and people don’t show up as they intend. Not because people do not care but because information alone rarely changes behavior. Real development requires more than knowing what to do. It requires:

 

• practice

• repetition

• reinforcement

• reflection

• and consistent application in real-world situations

 

That is what the HERO High Performance Academy™ is designed to provide.

 

A practical, neuroscience-based ecosystem for high performance

The HERO High Performance Academy™ is a year-long organizational membership experience designed to help people think, communicate, respond, and perform better under real-world conditions. The Academy combines practical neuroscience, human behavioral science, and ongoing application to help organizations build more consistent, adaptable, emotionally intelligent, and high-performing people and teams. At the center of the Academy are the HERO Skills:

 

• Humility

• Empathy

• Reflection

• Open-mindedness

 

These are not abstract leadership concepts. They are practical human skills that influence how people:

 

• respond under pressure

• handle feedback

• navigate disagreement

• build trust

• communicate clearly

• regulate emotions

• collaborate effectively

• and perform consistently over time

 

In a world increasingly shaped by AI and automation, these deeply human skills matter more, not less.

 

A different way to think about high performance

Many high-performance programs focus heavily on things like productivity, discipline, motivation, and output. These things matter. But sustainable high performance is also about what happens when conditions are not ideal. How do people behave when they are tired, stressed, emotionally triggered, distracted, frustrated, uncertain, or under pressure? Because that is where performance often breaks down.

 

One of the foundational ideas within the Academy is this: High performance is about raising your ceiling, lifting your floor, and narrowing the gap between the two. In other words, high performance is not just about how good people can be on their best day. It is about helping people become more consistent, more intentional, and harder to derail on difficult days.

 

What the Academy includes

The HERO High Performance Academy™ combines three integrated components that work together to create an ongoing ecosystem for learning, reinforcement, reflection, and behavioral application. Each component can stand alone. Together, they create a far more powerful developmental experience, for individuals and organizations.

 

COMPONENT 1: HERO High Performance Lab™ -- Monthly live learning and application

The HERO High Performance Lab™ is the flagship live experience within the Academy. Each month participants engage in a structured learning cycle built around a practical high-performance topic connected to human behavior, communication, emotional regulation, and performance under pressure. Each monthly cycle includes:

 

• a live interactive webinar (see 2027 Webinar topics and schedule)

• a companion article or chapter

• practical application and reflection challenges

• two Neuro Nuggets™ burst-learning videos

• additional Special Edition Neuro Nuggets™ for deeper exploration

• quarterly Ask Dr. Steve Sessions™ focused on real-world application and discussion

 

The Lab is intentionally designed as more than a webinar series. It is an ongoing, practice-based learning experience focused on helping people improve how they show up in the moments that shape performance. Click to learn more about the lab.

 

Standalone Organizational Membership: $44,500 annually

Included in the HERO High Performance Academy™

 

COMPONENT 2: Burst Learning Video Library -- Short-form learning for reinforcement and scale

The Burst Learning Video Library provides organizations with a growing collection of practical, science-based videos designed for reinforcement, scalability, and ongoing engagement. The library includes:

 

• Neuro Nuggets™

• Sayings + Science™ videos

• practical lessons on communication, stress, focus, emotional regulation, decision-making, trust, and human behavior

• additional content added over time

 

The videos are intentionally designed to be:

• short

• practical

• relatable

• easy to share

• easy to discuss

• and easy to integrate into existing development efforts

 

Standalone Organizational Membership: $19,500 annually

Included in the HERO High Performance Academy™

 

COMPONENT 3: HERO Skills Challenge™ Toolkit -- Build internal capability

The HERO Skills Challenge™ Toolkit provides organizations with a structured train-the-trainer system that allows internal facilitators to continue developing the HERO Skills within their own teams and culture. The Toolkit includes:

 

• facilitator guides

• participant resources

• implementation materials

• practice structures

• challenge activities

• internal delivery support

 

Organizations may also choose to add a Dr. Steve-led HERO Skills Challenge experience.

 

Standalone Licensing Investment: $30,000

Included in the HERO High Performance Academy™

 

2027 Academy Theme: Foundations of High Performance

The 2027 Academy year focuses on the foundational human skills and brain-based behaviors that influence sustainable high performance in work and life. Monthly topics include (see 2027 schedule):

​

• pressure and performance

• emotional regulation

• defensiveness and learning agility

• empathy and communication

• assumptions and certainty traps

• stress, sleep, and recovery

• trust and psychological safety

• focus and distraction

• AI-era human performance

• reflection and behavioral consistency

 

The Academy is intentionally designed for employees at every level—not just leaders. Because stress, communication, assumptions, defensiveness, distraction, and emotional reactions are not just leadership problems. They are human problems. And people do not stop being human when they come to work.

 

Why organizations choose the full Academy

Each component within the Academy provides value on its own. But together they create something much more powerful. The HERO High Performance Lab™ creates the rhythm of learning and application. The Burst Learning Video Library reinforces and scales the concepts. The HERO Skills Challenge™ Toolkit helps organizations build sustainable internal capability. Together, they create a practical, neuroscience-based ecosystem for helping people:

 

• think better

• respond better

• communicate better

• and perform more consistently over time

 

Organizational Membership Investment

HERO High Performance Academy™: $59,500 annually

 

Review

The HERO High Performance Academy™ is offered as a year-long organizational membership experience designed to help people think, communicate, respond, and perform better under real-world conditions.

 

The Academy combines ongoing live learning, practical neuroscience, behavioral reinforcement, short-form video learning, and internal capability development into one integrated ecosystem focused on sustainable high performance. Organizational membership includes:

 

• HERO High Performance Lab™

• Burst Learning Video Library

• HERO Skills Challenge™ Toolkit

• Quarterly Ask Dr. Steve Sessions™

• Neuro Nuggets™ and Special Edition Neuro Nuggets™

• Companion articles, reflection tools, and practical challenges

 

Standalone Value: Over $90,000

 

Founding Organizational Membership Opportunity

Organizations joining the HERO High Performance Academy™ early may qualify for a special Founding Organizational Membership investment of: $54,500. Founding organizations will also receive immediate access to all remaining 2026 Relational Intelligence Academy programming prior to the official 2027 Academy launch.

 

Limited availability for 15 Founding Members.

 

Existing Relational Intelligence Academy Member Renewal

Current Relational Intelligence Academy member organizations may renew into the 2027 HERO High Performance Academy™ at a preferred organizational membership investment of: $49,500. This preferred renewal investment recognizes the continued partnership and support of existing Academy organizations as the Academy expands into a broader high-performance ecosystem.

 

Standalone Component Investments

Organizations may also choose to participate in individual Academy components separately.

 

• HERO High Performance Lab™: $44,500 annually

• Burst Learning Video Library: $19,500 annually

• HERO Skills Challenge™ Toolkit: $30,000 licensing investment

 

While each component can stand alone, organizations often experience the greatest long-term value when the components work together as part of the full HERO High Performance Academy™ ecosystem.

 

Final Thought

High performance is not created through information alone. It is built through repeated moments of awareness, reflection, practice, communication, recovery, and better responses under pressure over time. The HERO High Performance Academy™ was designed to support that process in a practical, scalable, and sustainable way.