Thread by @ryanhashemi_

Alex Hormozi is going to be a billionaire by 2033.

He made $50M by selling his businesses and is now using video content to disrupt traditional private equity (his portfolio is already at $200M/year)

How he is using YouTube to become a billionaire right in front of your eyes 🧵

Alex's journey started when he invested $50K into his first gym.

Money was so tight he'd sleep on the gym floor & bathe at LA Fitness!

But over the last 3 years, he's sold companies for ~$50M and grown his portfolio of businesses to $200M+ with content.

The majority of his most viral videos on YouTube are 20-50+ mins long and collectively have 13M views.

He's using long-form educational videos to grow his brand, build deep trust, and get strong deal flow for acquisition(.com)

This is only possible on YouTube.

But before we get into his content strategy ... how did he make his first big money?

In 2013, Alex started United Fitness with $50K (money saved from his corporate job)

Over the next 3 years, he opened 6 gyms and mastered the art of launching gyms.

United Fitness was just a stepping stone in his journey.

In 2016, he took a risk and paid $25K to join an internet business mastermind and met Russel Brunson.

He looks so young in one of their ads! Maybe Hormozi's first video??

Russel Brunson was impressed by what Alex had done, but he saw way more potential.

He said, "You are a level-10 person stuck running a level-2 business."

The gym chain was limited by physical locations, but knowledge and experience of launching 6 successful gyms was UNIVERSAL.

With his knowledge leverage, he helped launch 4500+ gyms, and GymLaunch reached ~$2.4M in revenue/per month.

Alongside, he also built Prestige (supplement business) and ALAN (SaaS), and in 2021, sold these three for $50M+

That's how he made big money for the first time.

But where did the idea of growing Acquisition(.com) come from?

In 2020 the pandemic closed down everything, gyms too. It was then he saw Kylie on the cover of Forbes and how she'd become a billionaire.

He was confused. So he dug deep and realized the power of "media" leverage.

He set out build his own media leverage and started making videos on YouTube. He grew slowly, putting out 3 long-form vids/week for a year before seeing any real traction.

In the last 2 years, he's cracked YouTube, grown to 1.7M subs, and created strong deal flow through it.

Think about it, Alex is disrupting the entire PE world by mixing money with MEDIA.

In traditional PE, firms get money from others (limited partners, institutions), then acquire businesses to grow.

He does the same but with his money and distinct advantage of his audience.

In fact, I bet in 5 years no traditional PE firm acquiring businesses with <$10M revenue will be able to compete with Alex and the 100M+ people in his audience.

And this number will only grow as he keeps iterating on and improving his content, and expanding distribution further.

Last reported he gets 400+ deal flow / month through content.

What I love is the CLARITY with the goals of his brand. He creates content for business owners who are doing:

• <$3M /year, to help them scale to $3M.

• $3M+/year, to build trust so they want to partner with him.

Alex is playing the LONG game with his content.

His videos attract the serious business operators of today, but also viewers who haven't made it yet but will become the business owners of tomorrow.

He wants to reach 1,000,000 of the right people 200 times and build deep trust.

He runs with a volume-first strategy and creates a truly insane amount of content/week.

In a video, he explained how he ran a 6-month experiment of HIGH volume content, and more importantly, volume within his niche.

He went from creating 7x/week, total, to 80x/week.

The result of high volume was $2M worth of impressions across his socials, and almost 7X growth in his total following.

This was back in 2022, but the growth was insane!

80 pieces of content a week is no joke.

How does he do so much volume? Two things:

1. Schedule two days a month to record content

2. Hire a team to help with ideas, research, scriptwriting, editing

Also, his videos are focused on PURE VALUE instead of skimmability.

He only cares about building trust using in-depth long-form videos. It's pretty rare to come across a 50-minute video of someone talking at you with 1M+ views.

This is his unique edge.

An important tactic: Alex uses @X (Twitter) as a testing ground for his long-form videos.

Creating a tweet takes minutes while creating a video takes days (pre-production, editing, design, etc)

Don't waste time on untested ideas when you can test without major investment.

In short, his content machine looks like this:

1. Test short form on X
2. Convert high-performing tweets into in-depth education videos
3. Contextualize little bits/insights for each platform (YT, IG, TikTok, LinkedIn)
4. Inject CTAs in the content and distribute

Note that he pumps out 50 shorts per week. These short-form videos, collectively have 1 BILLION views!

His shorts work because:

- Focused on ONE BIG idea
- A great hook title and a lingering thumbnail
- Editing, engaging captions, text sizes, colors

Building this media empire and pushing so much volume cost him $240K/month (team + production)

He converts organic reach into deals, so this is cheaper and long-lasting vs spending MILLIONS per month on short-term paid ads.

(Thanks to @ericosiu's interview)

Alex's content strategy is smart because he focuses the majority of his investment & creative power on the long-form content.

The short form is top-of-funnel, quick hits to reach a massive audience.

But long-form is where the real relationship + long-term leverage are built.

Hey @AlexHormozi, in the last 6 mo, your YT vids received ~50M views.

That's great, but you should be doing 3x this.

I do 200M views/mo and believe the single change that would 3x your audience next year is .. format expansion. Here are just 3 formats that would blow you up:

Tentpole interviews:

Kylie Jenner, Mark Cuban, Michael Jordan, The Rock, Schwarzenegger

You study people who make more than you. So, once a quarter make 1 tentpole interview/ day in the life vid. We want to see you study them.

It'll break the internet with the right packaging.

Entertaining / viral charity:

Often can be simple productions - it's all about strangers' reactions. Focus on giving in a way that makes sense for you and your niche.

Why:
- showcases your 'means to give' to a broader audience
- deepen fandom: see a whole new side of you

Man on the Street (friendly confrontation):

You often say winning is a mental exercise. Challenge people's mindsets to their face. Ask other people questions your audience wish they could.

Why:
- Showcases your wit
- Reinforces you as a coach
- High-stakes = high clickability

If you're an entrepreneur or business looking to scale via YouTube, here's my one-pager on how I'd do it + tips on who to hire in order to succeed:

If you learned something new, please retweet this thread.

Follow @ryanhashemi_ for more about YouTube, business, and growth.

https://twitter.com/ryanhashemi_/status/1722663934505935028