The biggest YouTubpreneur blatantly copied my email?!?!?

Two days ago I sent out an email with the Subject Line: „Two-way door.“

(Go read that email right now if you haven’t – otherwise this email won’t make much sense.)

Anyway…

Today I was checking my Inbox for a little while after being done with some lunch…

I clicked on Alex Hormozi’s newest email…

And about 2/3 of the way through reading it I realized…

Alex Hormozi STOLE my email idea?!?

Because he – like I did two days ago – also wrote about One-way/Two-way doors!!!

(Albeit his email wasn’t as quality but I’ll get to that in a second too.)

What a „coincidence“…

Or IS IT!?

Okay, now jokes aside:

He obviously didn’t steal my email idea because… well… there’s no way he possibly could – he isn’t on my email list, on my newsletter.

So I’m sure it’s just a fun coincidence.

But there’s something other crucial to notice here:

How SUPERIOR my email was to his!

You can call me biased. You can call me arrogant. You can call me whatever the hell you want…

But right now I’ll break down, side by side, each of our emails and why my email left a bigger „poke“ – a bigger impact on the reader than his did.

First:

Here is his email repurposed in almost its entirety:

(Your newsletter is free and accessible to anyone who signs up to it – so don’t even think about suing me, or something, if you’re reading this Alex lol.)

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Subject Line: Mozi Minute: How To Scale Faster

Email Body:

Words I like: By the time you have all the information to make an informed decision, the opportunity will be gone.

Mozi Minute: Speed of Decisions

The speed of your decision making is the speed of your business.

Most entrepreneurs think they need complete information before deciding.

Wrong.

You need enough information to move forward, and most times that’s way less than you think.

Here’s the reality:

You will always have incomplete information.

The market won’t wait for you to gather more data.

Competitors won’t pause while you deliberate

Opportunities don’t extend their deadlines because you’re “being thorough.”

The solution:

Learn to distinguish between one-way doors and two-way doors.

One-way doors are truly irreversible decisions.

• Selling your company.
• Firing a key employee.
• Shutting down a division.

These deserve careful consideration because you can’t easily undo them.

Two-way doors are reversible.

Most business decisions fall here:

• Hiring someone.
• Launching a product.
• Testing a new price. Or a new offer.

You can walk back through these doors if needed.

Most entrepreneurs (and especially their teams) treat two-way door decisions like one-way door decisions.

They spend weeks analyzing reversible choices.

This kills momentum and hands opportunities to faster competitors.

The speed hack: Make two decisions simultaneously.

Decision 1: Do this.

Decision 2: If this doesn’t work, do this instead.

Example:

“We’re launching the premium service next month. If we don’t get 50 signups in 60 days, we’ll pivot to the basic version and test different messaging.”

This lets you move immediately while building in your pivot plan. You’re not hoping it works – you’re planning for both outcomes.

Implementation framework:

Ask: Is this reversible? (Most are).

If yes, decide quickly with Plan A and Plan B.

Set clear success metrics and timelines.

Move fast, measure results, adjust accordingly.

Remember:

It’s usually faster to decide immediately then course-correct than to wait for perfect information that never comes

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Now go read my email from yesterday again… and then answer me this question:

Which of these two have more „sticking“ power??

In other words:

Which of these will you remember more?

Will you remember mine – which had the complete ‘origin story‘ of how AWS was born and how it’s one big clear example of a two-way door…

And which also had that Japanese guy who foolishly threw away two of the best decades of his life, just so he could have the same lifestyle pretty much everyone else has…

Or:

Will you remember Hormozi’s overly abstract examples?

(„Hiring someone“ and „Firing a key employee“are as generic as genericism goes. And generic doesn’t get remembered.)

The main problem with Hormozi’s email is how…

There’s too much of „How to“ content already out there.

Yes, the „How To“ is coming directly from him – and he IS sending this to his warm email list…

So he’ll get some „sticking“ power out of that alone…

But the email itself just sounds like another one of those How To/Checklist type of content.

The internet is flooded with them.

Whereas with MINE…

There are zero emails/blogs like that out there.

Why?

Because I took a known concept of One/Two-way doors…

But I put my OWN spin on it – with my stories, my examples and my take on it…

And I wrote it in a way which is, honestly, much more entertaining to read than Hormozi’s is.

He writes like he’s making a checklist – which, while the content itself might be useful…

…is boring to consume.

And what point is of the content if it’s boring to consume so very few – if any – will consume it…

LET ALONE apply it?!

The next time you’re faced with a One/Two-way door in your life in real-time…

I guarantee you this:

You have SUBSTANTIALLY higher odds of remembering my stories about the birth of AWS and that foolish Japanese guy…

Than you do with Hormozi’s examples of ‘it’s like shutting down a division’ or ‘hiring someone.’

The latter sounds commoditized – and therefore quickly forgotten.

The former does not – and therefore it gets stored somewhere in the back of your brain to be brain farted out by your subconscious when needed.

(i.e., you’ve not only acquired a mental model… but a mental model with STAYING power.)

Now…

Let’s get down to the good stuff…

The Subject Lines

Mine was a simple „Two-way door.“ His was: „How to Scale Faster“.

While his SL isn’t inherently bad on its own…

(It’s showing business owners how to scale their business faster – which is a topic they’re pretty much always interested in…)

The problem is how the SL isn’t ‘out there‘ enough.

Why?

Well… put yourself in the shoes of the ideal customer he’s targeting:

(i.e. business owners.)

They’re probably already signed up to a lot of newsletters that give out biz opp tips like this.

So I wager they hear the word „Scale“ AT LEAST once a day…

In other words:

While scaling their business IS a topic which they’re always interested in…

… there’s also an inherent fatigue that sets in once you hear that word too many times.

Especially from people who are trying to sell you something.

(Sort of like how the words Racist/Facist/Nazi etc. have pretty much lost all their power with the legions of people throwing it around wayyyyy too freely nowadays…)

The same with that word – „Scale“.

Whereas mine?

It’s not my best effort – I’ll admit that I got a bit lazy…

But it’s still better than his.

Because it’s at least a term that the reader probably hasn’t heard much of – if at all – before.

(Not to mention that my email preview text of: „Back in the summer of 2012, the guys over at Amazon had a board meeting. Now one of the points…” also helps the SL be more curiosity-inducing & intriguing. You see a story start being told – and people are suckers for always wanting to see where the story is going next…)

With that said:

If you want to see where the story of „Email Storyselling“ is going next…

(And if you can tell a Two-way door from a One-way one – into YOUR brand…)

Then we may be able to do something about it: