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There was a time when you couldn’t turn on the television without watching Susan Powter. Platinum buzz cut. Barefoot. Fierce. Unfiltered. And that battle cry that still lives on in pop culture: “Stop the madness!”

In the 1990s, Powter built a huge wellness brand by rejecting diet culture and talking about real life. Then the light went off. The part that most people overlooked was brutal: the financial collapse, the isolation, and the crushing hopelessness.

Powter says the years after fame weren’t a quick fall. They were a long job. She describes driving for Uber Eats for nine years, working “eight to 10 hours every day, seven days a week, trying to make $80 to $100 a day so I could pay my damn bills.” Then comes the twist that makes this story seem very 2026. Technology didn’t break her. Technology helped her rebuild.

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Susan Powter attends the “Stop the Insanity: Finding Susan Powter” New York Screening at Village East Cinema on November 21, 2025 in New York City. (Santiago Felipe/Getty Images)

How Susan Powter Built Her Original Wellness Empire

When Susan Powter sat down with me in my Los Angeles studio for my Beyond Connected podcast, she began by rewinding the story to where it all began. Power’s story begins far from Hollywood. She took me back to 1982 in Garland, Texas. She had two babies a year apart. After her divorce, she gained more than 130 pounds. He says he did not recognize himself physically. She felt financially doomed and emotionally overwhelmed.

Then she discovered something. “I would go to the supermarket, Piggly Wiggly. This is the truth,” he says. Other moms stopped her and told her she looked great. Powter would respond, “No, no, you don’t understand. I found out that with modifications, you could get in shape,” and she says, “a crowd would gather at the grocery store.”

That moment was not a marketing plan. It was a single mother talking to other women who were also struggling. That voice and that honesty became classes, then a studio, then a media machine. Power never liked the labels people gave him. “They always used to call me a fitness guru. I’ve never used that term,” he says. Her version is simpler and more relatable: “I said, I’m just a housewife who realized this and started talking to other housewives.”

But the business side turned ugly. “He became a monster,” he says. “It started making a lot of money and then they started producing me.”

Why Susan Powter lost her fortune and disappeared

This is where her story strikes a chord with anyone who has ever felt trapped in a system that benefits them. Powter describes the administrative chaos, the lawyers and the huge legal bills. She says, “My last legal bill was $6.5 million.”

But the real breaking point came the day he decided to leave. He was living in Beverly Hills when he says he discovered what was going on behind the scenes with unscrupulous management and bad faith actors. She says the empire she built no longer seemed to belong to her. As a result, his response was quick and absolute. “I sent a paragraph to everyone; Simon & Schuster, Time Warner, all the management, literary agents. And I said, so-and-so is no longer representing Susan Powter. Stop the madness. One paragraph.” That was it. She dismissed everyone. Then she left. “I moved to Seattle and started teaching in basements,” he says. “I left everything.”

He also rejects the tidy narrative people prefer about his downfall. “I didn’t go from Hollywood to Harbor Island, which is the welfare hotel I lived in for too long in Las Vegas. I didn’t go there for three years. That’s not what happened.”

Instead, she describes years of work, changing family dynamics, and what she calls “silent poverty.” And he mentions the part that people tend to skip because it’s uncomfortable: what poverty does to identity. “It’s dehumanizing and dehumanizing,” he says.

At one point, he remembers walking eight miles in the brutal heat of Las Vegas. “My dollar store flip flops literally melted under my feet. It was 120 degrees.” And he adds: “That’s when you feel dehumanized.”

During that period, he drew strength from the late Joan Rivers, who had faced her own trials. “She said, ‘Wait, boy. This is a tough game,'” Powter remembers meeting her early in his career. Years later, when her own world fell apart, Susan says she often asked herself, “What would Joan Rivers do?”

‘STOP THE INSANITY’ SUSAN POWTER EXPOSES THE TRUTH BEHIND THE COLLAPSE OF FITNESS EMPIRE AND LIFE DRIVING FOR UBER EATS

When 1990s fitness icon Susan Powter sat down in Kurt’s Los Angeles studio for getbeyondconnected.com, she talked about the breakdown few people saw coming. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

The moment technology went from a distraction to a lifeline by Susan Powter

Powerter doesn’t talk about technology like it’s a cute productivity gimmick. She talks about it like it’s survival. He used a phone, an app, digital platforms and the decision to use the same tools that many of us blame for distraction as a way to come back. Powter says the Internet helped her see a path forward. “I’m obsessed with the Internet and I’m proud to say it,” she says. She also shows self-awareness about the darker side. “I know its darkness. I understand it, I understand it, but it is a great power.”

Then she says the phrase that sums up her entire strategy: “I’m going to digitize everything. I’m going to sell it myself. I’m going to own everything.” That’s your new business plan. And it’s the part that many creators, freelancers, and founders will immediately recognize: when you stop waiting for permission, you start creating assets that you control.

How Susan Powter is taking back control with the help of technology

Powter talks about property as someone who has learned the cost of not having it. This time he wants to see everything. “I’ll be checking the bank balance every 12 seconds,” he says. “I will be reviewing the analyzes every second.” There is no confusion in his voice. He will never give up control to anyone else again.

For nine years, he drove for Uber Eats, eight to 10 hours a day, charging between $80 and $100 just to cover the bills. There was no cushion or mysterious income. It all depended on what she could see and control. After that, the data feels like protection.

She considers gig work and the Internet “literally saving lives” and says that “access to what’s happening now is important, especially for 68-year-olds.” For anyone who thinks technology belongs to young people, his story proves otherwise. A phone and apps can drain your time. They can also rebuild your life.

Now, Powter is rebuilding itself on its own terms, using technology to reclaim its voice, its brand, and its future. (Images darkened)

How Susan Powter uses Instagram and TikTok today

Powter is no longer standing on tiptoe in the public eye. She goes at full speed. She says she’s “obsessed with TikTok, Insta” and is experimenting with TikTok Shop. Power also draws a clear line on how he wants to appear.

“I’ll recommend showing and telling, not selling what I want to be,” he says. Her style is classic Susan. Great energy. Great honesty. Zero patience for fake polish. At one point, he laughs and describes his approach this way: “It’s like affiliate marketing on acid.”

And she’s thinking bigger than social networks publications. She talks about doing “vertical reality shows,” showing people the brand rebuild in real time, filming meetings and appropriating content. “I’ll film it, I’ll own the content, I’ll post it live. We’re done,” she says.

The book, the movie and the part that matters most.

Powter’s memoir is titled “And Then EM Died: Stop the Insanity, A Memoir,” available on Amazon. She calls it “a letter to my dead dog” and says, “This is the first product I have of all the products, of all the years, of all the work, and I can see every sale.”

The documentary “Stop the Insanity: Finding Susan Powter,” produced by Jamie Lee Curtis and directed by Zeb Newman, is available on Amazon and Apple TV. But if you take one thing from this conversation, make it this way: Powter rejects the tidy, inspirational narrative arc. “The only reason I survived anything… No, I died a million deaths,” he says. Then she says what really fueled her: “A lot of it was rage. I wasn’t going down like that.”

And yet, she doesn’t end there. “It doesn’t matter what happened. To hell with it. My being survived.” That honesty comes because it sounds like real life, not a poster. And maybe that’s the real message now. Survival is not always pretty. Sometimes it’s loud, confusing, and driven by a simple refusal to disappear.

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Kurt’s Key Takeaways

Susan Powter’s story resonates because it is familiar, even now. First, it collapses a public identity. Then private life becomes heavier than anyone sees. However, that is not where his story ends. Instead, you find influence where few people think to look: on a phone, on an app, on a platform, and in the power of publishing without barriers. Of course, she doesn’t pretend that technology will fix everything. She sees the darkness. At the same time, he sees the power. Now, she’s using that power as she always has: loudly, honestly, and on her own terms.

So here’s the question we need to ask ourselves: If your life fell apart tomorrow, would your tech habits help you rebuild or push you deeper? Let us know by writing to us at Cyberguy.com.

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