The Alex Hormozi Phenomenon

Max: People have just started crowning Alex Hormozi as the greatest marketer who’s ever lived. 2.5 million subscribers on YouTube, 2.8 million followers on Instagram and an impressive net worth of over $100 million according to Forbes. His brand is undoubtedly one of the strongest on the internet, but how? Well, let me tell you one thing – Alex is not special. Don’t get me wrong, he’s really really good at what he does, much better than me, but the things he did to go viral and grow his brand are replicable because they’re adhering to simple psychological triggers that aren’t fancy or new or anything. They’ve just been forgotten by most of us and that’s why the algorithms keep blessing him with beyond average exposure. But you can replicate these very same things. In fact, there’s six simple marketing techniques Alex has been using that you will learn in this video.

Visual Hooks and Social Dynamic Marketing

Max: First, it’s important to understand what I call social dynamic marketing to hijack what he does and apply it to your content too. Have a look at this: “My dad’s successful doctor, he wanted me to be a physician. I didn’t want to be a physician.” Did you see what he just did there? Have a look at this one: “No blue hat.” So I said that once, so I was with the team and I was trying to be hip and I was like “yeah, no blue hat.” It’s Alex giving cool advice while walking shirtless towards the camera. Now why does this work so well? Well, because he’s huge, like he has a very interesting body to say the least. That creates curiosity, it triggers us psychologically, we start staring. It’s called a visual hook.

In fact, funny story – I once asked one of my mentors, this guy made 900 million last year alone, about my tattoos. I asked “Hey, is it okay that I have all these tattoos? I’m a business consultant.” He said “Those tattoos are great because people stare at them and the longer people stare, the more they hear what you have to say.” And it’s true because those seconds where people give you their attention are worth a lot in today’s economy. And no, you don’t need to be as jacked as Alex. The idea of visual hooks works kind of for anyone as long as you can look interesting or show something interesting into the camera.

Have a look at this – I’ve used visual hooks in many of my viral reels. I had a pretty girl interview me, I swam in a pool with my clothes on, I held something into the camera. So these are very specific simple things that you can replicate.

Format Magic and Testing Strategies

Max: But these are only Alex’s mid to high performing short form videos. The ones that really made him blow up get almost double the views. So what are those? And the cool thing is those are super easy to copy, so pay attention. “Almost like you could post content that you know is going to get views, like you’re freaking Nostradamus foreseeing the future, Nostradamus.”

So take a look at this – it looks pretty basic right? But why does it work? It’s pretty simple. Alex is using his best performing quotes that he tests on Twitter and then posts them on Instagram. But he doesn’t just post them as photos, he posts them as short form videos which are far easier to consume, plus the algorithms love short form videos as opposed to just photos.

Now these hyper viral reels are using what I call format magic. So you can apply two things from this. Number one, you can use Twitter as your testing ground for other posts. It’s super fast to knock out a cool one-liner or a quick mini article and see how people react to it, and then you only turn your top 20% Twitter posts into other social media posts. This is part of a concept that I call reduce, reuse, recycle – more about this in a minute.

And the second takeaway is there’s actually a detail that everyone’s overlooking. Have a look at these quote reels of Alex – you notice anything? He’s literally constantly testing out different formats on what the Twitter quote looks like. Within my team we call this honoring Testor, the god of testing. “Who are you?” “I am God.” That basically means you never want to just rely on one simple format and kind of become a one hit wonder. Instead, you want to constantly make little tweaks – what if we use a different color? What if we make it look slightly different? – to see if you can squeeze out even more performance of something. That’s honoring the god of testing.

The Viral Tree of Shareability

Max: But if you look at Alex’s Twitter content, you’ll notice that he’s also really really good at his craft. He’s extremely educated, he’s very very smart. So what do I do if I’m not as crazy of an expert as he is? Well, lucky you, because there’s more than one way to go viral even if you’re not a 10 out of 10 expert. In fact, over the past 12 years I’ve been dissecting human psychology and really analyzing the social dynamic aspects of marketing. My very first business was literally teaching social dynamics to young men for dating advice and personal development advice. Made me 3 to 5 million every single year since then. Ever since 2019 I’ve been teaching business consulting with a very very strong focus on social dynamics.

There’s one key factor that makes content go viral – it is, drum roll, shareability. So what makes people share your content? Well, multiple things, almost like different branches of the same tree, a viral tree so to speak. Now on one hand you have Alex Hormozi, which basically means you got to be really really good at your content, borderline genius. But there’s also the Andrew Tates and Donald Trumps – the reality of shareability. These are people that are just extremely provocative, so people share that because it’s pretty crazy and outrageous what they say. On the other hand you have things that are very pretty, very beautiful to look at. On the other hand you have things like being very humorous. And on the other hand you of course have things that are very extreme display of skills. And last but not least, you have the relatability aspect where people really feel like “this is totally me, this is totally us.”

All these things are different branches of a viral tree that help you with the shareability factor that helps you go viral. So if you’re not as genius as Alex Hormozi, you can still go viral by being really provocative within your niche. If that’s not you either, you can still go viral by talking about the things that are really relatable to your audience. And if that doesn’t work either, you can be funny and entertaining. And if all things fail, you have nothing else going for you, you can at least look good and be pretty to look at.

The Reduce, Reuse, Recycle System and Social Dynamic Marketing

Max: But hold on a second, Max – Alex has it easy, he’s already rich, he can just focus on creating content all day long. I don’t have that much time. Well, what if I told you there’s a way you can post content literally every day and it only takes you a couple minutes per day on average? In fact, John Carmack, the creator of some of my all-time favorite video games like Doom or Quake, he once said “Smart work is finding the most efficient path to the best results.” And that’s exactly what Hormozi does, and also you can easily replicate for your own content creation.

Look how Alex here is reducing his time to create content by reusing the ideas that he tests on Twitter. Look how he’s recycling short form content from long form content like his long form YouTube videos or his podcast episodes. I call this system reduce, reuse, recycle. You’re reducing your time, you’re reusing ideas, and you’re recycling content.

By the way, quick side note here – videos like this is kind of like a new format that I’m testing on this YouTube channel. So far I’ve only shared such details with paying clients, but if you want me to share more of those analysis of big creators for free here on this channel, drop a comment down below. If you want me to analyze someone specific, then let me know as well in the comments. I’d highly appreciate that.

Now anyways, if you think the points so far have been interesting, just wait till you hear Alex’s strongest psychological content hacks that you can copy right away. There’s a psychological process called neural coupling, meaning when people listen to a story, their brains can synchronize with the storyteller’s brain and they resonate more with the storyteller’s content. So I want you to take a look at these Hormozi reels and let’s see what our brains associate with him when we look at it.

“The biggest predictor of future success is past success, and so I think it’s like stacking those wins.” So here we have a podcast clip – this shows instant authority. Wow, this guy is speaking on all these podcasts. “What do you think is the best business for people to get into right now?” “I think the best business for someone to start most of the time…” You also see the famous podcast host asking him questions, listening attentively to what he has to say. This elevates Alex’s social status and we see him as an authority. Also you can see him speaking on stage – great speaker on stage, people are listening, even more authority.

I call this social dynamic marketing. We’re being socially hijacked in a positive way. We see Alex as an authority not only because of what he says, but also with what we see of him when he says that. Now here’s the kicker – Alex masterfully doesn’t only trigger authority, but he’s also triggering relatability. So have a look at these here – these are memes, right? The good old memes. Alex is using popular meme formats in a very creative way that doesn’t only teach us things because obviously his content is educational, but the underlying psychology of this is also “Ah, look at Alex, he sometimes also looks at memes. He’s not just a rich guy in the ivory tower, he’s one of us.” “Gooble gobble, one of us, gooble gobble, one of us.”

So if you can combine authority with relatability in your short form content, it won’t only help you get shared more, but people will also resonate with you and your content more. And if you want to know more on how to go viral consistently, I’ve actually stolen Mr. Beast’s trick on how to go viral instantly. I’ve created a free video on my website – you don’t have to pay anything, you don’t have to opt in or anything, you can literally watch it entirely for free. There’s a link down in the description for you to watch the free video on how you can go viral instantly using Mr. Beast’s trick. Enjoy!