What better way to kick off 2025 than with a killer podcast?

Peek behind the curtain at Drunk Business Advice in the latest episode of The Copywriter Club.

I got a little personal with host Rob Marsh, and chatted about:

Listen here, or search for it wherever you get your podcasts.

Now, on to this week’s issue…

If you don’t know who Alex Hormozi is, you’re probably not in the LinkedIn / Twitter hustle-verse.

Which is 100% commendable. 👏

Alex Hormozi is a gym bro turned entrepreneur turned investor turned author turned business influencer.

With a portfolio of companies worth ~$250 million, he’s amassed a cult following — by oversimplifying what it takes to be successful in business.

Hormozi’s blanket message is: 

“You’re just not working hard enough, bro”. 👇

Hormozi’s whole persona makes me cringe, and I really can’t understand why people worship this guy.

But I guess they find him… Motivating?

I dunno.

I just find him insufferable. 

I don’t care about him enough to publicly bash him (keep reading to see why this story doesn’t fall into that category), but I certainly don’t follow him, read his books, or consume any of his content outside of what randomly pops up in my feed.

About a month ago, Hormozi hit up LinkedIn with this gem:

After this absurd proclamation, folks began calling out Hormozi on his toxic approach to business by asking some pretty sensible questions:

👉 Is wealth accumulation worth living an isolated existence?

👉 Is it worth abandoning all enrichment?

👉 Is it worth being a shitty friend?

👉 Should anyone actually aspire to this kind of lifestyle?

And one dissenter even drew a darkly ironic comparison:

I had a similar reaction when I saw Hormozi’s LinkedIn post, which of course went viral.

Not just because he was sharing details of his life that made me seriously question his mental health, but because he was framing it as a call to action.

During my time running The Hustle’s premium community of 15k+ business builders, I was constantly encountering members who were aspiring to a life in entrepreneurship by following the Hormozi bible.

I would quietly roll my eyes and introduce them to real mentors who could balance out the one-dimensional advice they were receiving from their hero — but I can attest that there are absolutely people out there who live by what this guy says. 🤦

Then last week, Hormozi reversed the shit out of his entire mantra. 🤯

Badass Stealth Mastermind member, Kirstin Russ, shared this with our community. 👇

I must be honest, reading Hormozi’s…

Apology?

Clarification?

Come to Jesus moment?

…sparked reflection on my own struggles as a “public” figure.

I realize that I’m far from a celebrity (thank god), but reading what Hormozi wrote in response to the backlash from his social media posts made me empathize with him.

Here’s why:

If people judged me based on my handful of viral LinkedIn posts, they’d probably think I’m pretty insufferable, too.

And I wouldn’t blame them. 

If I read those posts without knowing anything else about me, I’d roll my eyes — at myself.

Those posts only represent a tiny fraction of my beliefs and experiences, but they went viral because they’re controversial. The experience of writing them is sort of like sitting in business school, shouting out spiky perspectives to spur a little bit of fun discussion in the classroom. 

But instead of that discussion happening in a private space where the participants know me as a three-dimensional person, it happens in the singularity and anonymity of the internet.

And the numbers are f*cking insane. 🤯

In the last year, my LinkedIn content received a little over 985k impressions, total.

740k of those impressions came from only four posts.

And 506k impressions came from a single post. 👇

👉 More than half the people who have viewed my content in the last year only saw one stupid post.

And the only information they had available to judge me on was that one stupid post.

While I stand behind the point I was making in that post, it certainly doesn’t represent who I am. A single social media post isn’t capable of capturing the complexities of anyone's life experience, or nuanced view of the world.

F*ck, it’s hard enough just to get a single point across.

But if someone only saw that one post (like over half a million people did 😬) their perception of me would be way off.

Possibly.

He has now publicly acknowledged that the viral content he’s created doesn’t represent him. I’m not sure if he’s backtracking as a result of the outrage, or if it’s true that his public persona —compiled of short bursts of controversial ideas— is truly that far detached from his actual world view.

I’d have to read his books and consume his long-form content to draw that conclusion. 

And honestly, I probably won’t. 🤷

But I’m thankful to Hormozi for a reason that I’m sure he never intended. He reminded me to judge others as I would like to be judged.

You can hate me if you want. 

But for the love of god — get to know me first.

As I shift into 2025, I’m going to try to be better at following that advice.

That’s a fair question.

While my viral posts don’t represent a version of me that I’m super proud of, they did provide an inroad for folks who are interested in getting to know me—

By gaining me over 1,500 new followers.

Being concerned over what thousands of strangers think of me as a lifeless algorithm pushes one of my punchy posts to their palm is pure vanity.

Instead, I should focus on delivering value to you — this incredibly kind and clever community of people who have taken the time to get to know the contrary, imperfect, and ever-changing real me.

So I’m going to keep posting on LinkedIn.

And I’ll continue to be spicy from time to time.

But Hormozi’s story serves as a great reminder to balance the spice with “boring” content that may not hook the algorithms, but reflects all the different parts of who I am.

Thanks for sticking with me. ❤️

Cheers! 🍻

-Kristin :-)

P.S. — Thanks again to Kirstin Russ for igniting this conversation in Stealth Mastermind. You rock.