Eric Wei
Appearances
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
He exposed him, I remember.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
And so like, there's also Jake Paul also has a VC fund now.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
Especially online. It's amplified.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
This is not me trying to proselytize. This is me sharing what's worked for me. But of course, people see it and they're triggered because this conflicts with their worldview. My content is a documentary, not a sermon. When you think about the different axes of control, the different models you've said, what's interesting is I've seen a lot of creators stay on the media emperor side.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
I've seen a good number of creators make money via their own products. Like obviously there's festivals. The middle area, what you've done, it's actually very, very rare.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
You have the audience now, Alex. Is he saying put up or shut up?
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
Here's your question. When you look at, say, like what Jimmy, Mr. Beast has built. Yeah, perfect. I was going to come back to that. Yes. Okay. Is that a business you'd want to invest in yourself?
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
It was Congo brands is another company that previously had worked with other creators to do other drinks as well.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
Right.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
Yeah, he's hired his own team and everything.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
Yeah.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
He's talked about how stressful it is.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
So that makes me think of two things. The first thing is, for yourself, what are the elements of business that you're most willing, like, sure, I could learn this, but do I want to spend time on this?
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
You're doing the calls. You're consolidating. Yep, 100%.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
It's fascinating too, because what you've built, it's a private equity firm in a way, but most private equity firms add value by cutting and slashing operations. In a way, you're adding value because one, here's the business processes to run. The influence you've now built about talking about facial systems, now you've been able to
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
You're picking these products that have, to your earlier point, extremely high retention. People need it. It's just people don't historically like it. And acquisition is really hard. And you're coming in and saying, well, I could help with the acquisition side. Oh, but people still don't really like it.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
And there's like limitations in my ability to prove that right now because some of these things are regulated.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
I don't think the answer is yes. You mentioned that it's something like 20, 30% of the businesses coming to you, they make content in some way. Yeah. Do you think that those businesses, because a lot of people talk about creator, creator content, are they better than those that don't grow and have content as part of their workflow?
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
It's fascinating because, well, two questions immediately come to mind. The first is, on key manners, this is what you and Layla have. Are you thinking about bringing a roster of folks to slowly took for the faces of even the condensate of your business?
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
Makes sense. Yeah, the second question I had related to that was, when I look at creators in the space who've successfully executed on this, it's actually very minimal. Yeah, I can tell you one who I look at. Who?
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
That's right, he's brought in George, he's brought in other people under him.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
It's you're maintaining or some creators who are OG on YouTube, now they shift to a podcast.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
It's a really interesting point because you mentioned that a lot of creators start with one thing and then they eventually burn out and build a scalability. Like Graham Stephan's a good mutual friend of ours. And Graham has openly talked about how he is getting really tired on his main channel.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
Yeah, I've noticed Graham every year talks about and even when I met him, he was doing like three videos a week and you just run out of topics. And to your point, you just become a news reactor. And that's not something he enjoys as much as doing. And in a way, he's found a lot of success now with his podcast channel. But for a while, like he spun up a coffee business.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
And he's also talked about how the coffee business didn't work. Yeah. And so I think it's interesting because on the one hand, everybody's like, well, acquisition is one of the most important things to a business. If you're a creator, you're going to succeed. On the other hand, hey, Graham did the coffee business, didn't necessarily work.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
Emma Chamberlain's talked about how Chamberlain Coffee Line also doesn't apparently make money. There are many creators who go to the business path, and it seems like, well, maybe that was not the right play.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
Yeah, monopolize it.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
You might remember 2021, everyone is really excited about the creator economy. Everyone knows it's going to be the biggest thing in the world. One, because COVID, everyone's at home, they're watching online videos. And two, because TikTok, short forms going on the scene, everyone's getting millions of followers. And then 2022, 2023, there actually was a bust.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
where a lot of people were like, oh, creator economy is not going to be a thing. And it's because people weren't able to monetize. They have all these short form followers. They didn't really see what you do.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
Oh.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
What are you thinking?
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
Does it matter how rich or powerful you are? I'm the bartender.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
There's a tension in what you said. You became the face for faceless systems. Your premise was, I have these processes that work, 100 million offers, 100 million leads. You don't need Alex Ramosi to literally be doing this for you.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
So I have no proof that- She actually did partner with a credit card company, by the way.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
Athletic Greens. Yeah.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
The value to be other than you've reached a million people or whatever.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
It's to empower you to do it. As you said- The business model of the creator is very different. Colin Samir talked about how there's an inverted pyramid where the creator is almost the chokehold, the gate point for everything because you need Taylor Swift to be there. Now you are an influencer. And so it's funny because you're like, well, I'm going to help you do a system where you don't need me.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
See, what's fascinating, you described the primary function of short form to drive to long form. Because you go to a broader point, you're saying that people had followers, but they didn't have influence.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
Because influence comes from the four things you just described.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
Likeness, credibility, power, status. Yeah. Initially, what was going through my mind was, yes, 2020, 2023 saw a bust because a lot of investors confused influence with followers.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
Because there were more followers brought to you because it's a short form.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
But nothing else. The initial premise I was operating was in 2025, which now I'm rethinking was, oh, but now people have figured out how to use short form to upsell to products and services, whether on school or these other 15 different monetization methods where the short form units are just becoming really marketing creatives. And where school is the best one. I mean, it is the best one.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
Well said. Well said. The premise for me was, oh, now short form, it's actually just marketing like they're just like commercials. Yeah. And so the monetization is coming back. The short form is not really successful in growing your influence, but it is successful just from a distribution POV.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
Foot up or shut up. When I met you three years ago, you had just started on your creator journey. Since then, millions of followers.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
Do you think more businesses should be trying to follow content creator-led models? Like we've talked a lot about, hey, there's five different ways these businesses make money. Here are some of the challenges they have. Should the other, you know, 60% of entrepreneurs coming to you be thinking about, oh, I should be incorporating content more into what I do?
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
But now people follow you for that. I think once upon a time, there's a conception of a creator as like the Casey Neistat auteur. Like, oh, hey, I make money to make content. Where I've started is on YouTube. And the advertising, the brand deals is what supports me. I think now you're seeing creators becoming entrepreneurs and content is just becoming how they market themselves.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
When you think about what you're investing for acquisition.com or now for ACQ Ventures, it sounds like traditionally it started from let me bring you better business processes. With school, it actually shifted a bit to I can just bring you tremendous distribution via my own content. What types of companies were you leaning more toward investing?
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
Once you help with the processes or ones where you think the content distribution actually is what matters? So I'll say that it's both.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
Would you invest in content creators?
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
Sometimes you're incubating them.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
Yeah.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
Makes sense because for you, you're either, obviously you're bringing capital, money. Right. But you're also either bringing your image and likeness, which is distribution. Right. Or you're bringing the operational expertise. Right. You're working with these businesses that are less savvy on the distribution side, clearly something of value. Yeah. You're working with these creators.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
Well, you have distributions. You don't necessarily need theirs. And they don't have the operations side, which means you have to spend tons of time building. Tons.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
When I was chatting with Michael earlier today, he did say you've been shifting more to investing.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
Yeah, ACQ Ventures. And from my understanding, that's much earlier stage. What prompted that actually?
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
is its venture, you need to have really, really potential big exit outcomes.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
Yes. For creators who want to fall in your footsteps, do you think you'd advise them to double down on the creative distribution side of what they do or to try and get better at the building business piece of what you do?
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
Yeah. It's your job to put out money.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
Yeah.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
When you started to make content before your previous businesses, you hadn't really gone hard on content marketing. And so was the motivation because you saw this as good lead generation for acquisition.com or was it more, hey, it's time for me to share what I've learned?
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
Totally.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
You mentioned in the beginning, you weren't even sure you wanted to do it. Do you enjoy having over a million followers now in that piece of accomplished?
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
There's no control Z. Alex, thanks so much for making time. That's a wrap. 100%.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
In 2024, you started working with school. Yeah. And so I think it's an interesting question using yourself as a case study. Number one, the product that you're associating with, it's not one that you like built it all nuts and bolts yourself. No. It was very much, here's an existing company. but I can grow it.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
And so it kind of comes down for creators to question of, hey, like, do you really want to lean into being an entrepreneur and do it yourself? Or do you just want to do a brand deal?
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
No one knows better than you do.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
It's the brand value.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
Now you've got me on board.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
The point of short form is one thing, which is to drive them to long form. Would you invest in content creators? Alex Hormozy might be the first creator billionaire, and he's built his business really differently from other YouTubers who might follow like MrBeast.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
Today, Alex shares why most creators aren't a broken business model, the five ways to make money from content, and how to turn your social media into a real business. If you're a creator wanting to grow, listen to this pod for 21 secrets from Hormozy on how he did it. When I met you three years ago, you had just started on your creator journey.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
Interesting. So for your POV, if you've successfully built the media side of your business, like that's a win. But the upside, according to your degrees of control, it's very limited. And as you mentioned, I was trying to think of people who I think have built these successful media empires. So there have been many who failed like BuzzFeed. That's a great example. Many, many have failed.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
We're going to reinvent the game. It's like, well, you're just doing a newspaper state. I'll be on a new medium, the internet. There are some creators who have succeeded in building- Or tabloids. Yeah, exactly, tabloids, right? Yeah, daily mail. And there are some creators who've gone, they've taken steps in this direction where they've almost scaled their content.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
So one that comes to mind, Linus Tech Tips is a very good example, where Linus Tech Tips started with just Linus, and over the time, he's brought in other creators to be on his channel instead of himself. And then you also have creators like, I think MKBHD is a great example too. MKBHD, I still think of as primarily as a media business. He doesn't do that much with products.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
And well, he actually tried one, a wallpaper app that got a lot of backlash, which I, you know, if I were MKBG, I feel like I would be like, yeah, I know. You know what? I'll just stay and do content over here because whenever I sort of go over there, people get mad at me. Now, it sounds like you're saying, though, from your POV.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
Since then, millions of followers, over 250 million are writing for portfolio companies.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
Of course, I'm thinking of liver king because the whole premise was his gains came from his diet, not from other things. A hundred percent. If you've been honest, I think it would be fine. I think, yeah.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
Yeah, fine. Maybe not fine.
The Game with Alex Hormozi
How to Survive Creator Burnout and Still Scale (Karat Reshare) | Ep 888
It's the interaction between the two.