Young and Profiting with Hala Taha (Entrepreneurship, Sales, Marketing)
Tom Bilyeu: The Billion-Dollar Entrepreneur Mindset That Turns Failures into Success | AI, Entrepreneurship | E327
Mon, 06 Jan 2025
After his senior thesis film at USC flopped, Tom Bilyeu abandoned his dream of becoming a filmmaker. As he worked low-paying jobs and relied on his fiancée for financial support, he found himself spiraling into depression and struggling with a lack of purpose. But then, he immersed himself in personal development and brain plasticity research, discovering that effort and learning were the keys to unlocking his potential. As a result, he adopted a growth mindset, leaned into deliberate practice, and overcame self-doubt to become a highly successful entrepreneur. In this episode, Tom shares his journey from building a billion-dollar business to pivoting into the world of media and personal empowerment. He also shares insights into how AI could transform the creator economy. In this episode, Hala and Tom will discuss: 00:00 Introduction to Tom Bilyeu 02:18 Tom's Philosophy on Impact and Purpose 05:08 Balancing Work and Personal Life 07:36 Handling Overwhelm and Prioritization 11:49 Approaching Failure and Learning from AI 16:50 First Principles Thinking 21:37 Tom's Personal Journey and Overcoming Laziness 32:04 Film School and Realizing Limitations 33:28 A Terrible Senior Thesis Film 34:58 Discovering Brain Plasticity and Growth Mindset 36:11 The Loop of Desire Explained 39:08 The Power of Storytelling 43:41 Journey to Entrepreneurship 50:17 The Future of Content Creation with AI 56:10 Project Kaizen and the Creator Economy 01:00:19 Final Thoughts and Advice Tom Bilyeu co-founded Quest Nutrition, a billion-dollar company that revolutionized the health and wellness industry. After exiting Quest, he founded Impact Theory, a media company focused on empowering people through mindset education and storytelling. He hosts Impact Theory Podcast, one of the leading business and personal development podcasts. With experience building multi-million-dollar businesses across nutrition, software, and media, Tom is a recognized leader in entrepreneurship and innovation. He is also the creator of Project Kyzen, an immersive virtual platform blending personal development and technology. Resources Mentioned: Impact Theory: impacttheory.com/ Tom’s Podcast, Impact Theory: https://apple.co/404gbk7 The Tao of Jeet Kune Do by Bruce Lee: https://amzn.to/3VJCsSA Sponsored By: OpenPhone - Get 20% off 6 months at https://www.openphone.com/PROFITING Shopify - Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at https://www.youngandprofiting.co/shopify Airbnb - Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at https://www.airbnb.com/host Rocket Money - Cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with Rocket Money. Go to https://www.rocketmoney.com/profiting Active Deals - youngandprofiting.com/deals Key YAP Links Reviews - ratethispodcast.com/yap Youtube - youtube.com/c/YoungandProfiting LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/htaha/ Instagram - instagram.com/yapwithhala/ Social + Podcast Services: yapmedia.com Transcripts - youngandprofiting.com/episodes-new All Show Keywords: Entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship podcast, Business, Business podcast, Self Improvement, Self-Improvement, Personal development, Starting a business, Strategy, Investing, Sales, Selling, Psychology, Productivity, Entrepreneurs, AI, Artificial Intelligence, Technology, Marketing, Negotiation, Money, Finance, Side hustle, Startup, mental health, Career, Leadership, Mindset, Health, Growth mindset. Career & Entrepreneurship Career, Success, Entrepreneurship, Productivity, Careers, Startup, Entrepreneurs, Business Ideas, Growth Hacks, Career Development, Money Management, Opportunities, Professionals, Workplace, Career podcast, Entrepreneurship podcast Artificial Intelligence & The Future of Work AI, ChatGPT, AI Marketing, Prompt, AI in Action, Artificial Intelligence, AI in Business, Generative AI, AI for Entrepreneurs, Future of Work, AI Podcast
Chapter 1: What is the main topic of this episode?
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Meaning and purpose is ultimately all that matters. If you have all the money in the world, but you don't believe in what you're doing, then it will be a very empty pursuit. Progress is a foundational pillar to human happiness. The average human is designed to get better. So if you put time and attention into getting good at something, you will actually get good at that thing.
How do we push through our emotions to achieve our goals?
I think people should don't let anybody tell you something is impossible unless it legitimately violates the laws of physics.
You've built billion dollar companies across different industries. And right now, money is really not a concern for you.
Money only monetizes once. You can only spend it one time. But knowledge and connections monetize forever. As long as you're then you can have everything you want.
Yap gang, hold on to your screens and get ready for an inspiring and insightful episode as we welcome Tom Bilyeu, the co-founder of Quest Nutrition and the visionary behind Impact Theory. Tom's not just a successful entrepreneur, he's a master at transforming challenges into opportunities.
And in this episode, he'll share his journey from building a billion dollar business to pivoting into the world of media and personal empowerment. He'll also share his thoughts on how AI could transform the creator economy. Tom is somebody that I've looked up to for such a long time. I'm so excited to have this conversation. He's been such an inspiration to me.
Impact Theory is a legendary platform. And honestly, like he's just inspired so much of my journey. I can't wait for this conversation. So without further delay, here's my discussion with Tom Bilyeu. Tom, welcome to Young Improfiting Podcast.
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Chapter 2: How can we find meaning and purpose in our work?
Obviously, I'm very thoughtful to make sure that I enjoy what I'm doing, even when I'm failing, that it's a thing that I not only care about the potential outcomes, but that I enjoy the process. So you got to fill your time somehow. And I'm not a retired to the beach kind of guy. So impact is to say it in a word.
Yeah, and something that I love for you is that you've got so many different like philosophies and ways that you live your life. And one of the things that you've said is that the most crucial aspect of life is what you think about yourself when you're not alone.
Now, what you think about yourself when you're by yourself. So there's no one there to hype you up, no one there to tear you down. What do you think about you? And it's normally in that quiet space that people start beating themselves up and they don't feel they're living up to their own ideals. That matters. I think ultimately we just were hardwired for it.
And so how do you feel self-respect and having self-respect for yourself is impacted by the work that we do and the jobs that we have?
Well, so we are a hungry species. We are designed to pursue. We're designed to grow, to keep getting after things. When you think about it from an evolutionary perspective, you would be hardwired to do the things that are gonna keep you alive long enough to have kids that have kids. And so hard work,
contributing to the group, facing difficult tasks, making progress, like all of those things are hardwired. So the things that you do either make good on those evolutionary algorithms that you have running in your brain that say like, hey, you've just been lazy. I don't feel good about that. Or whoa, like you really did something and it helped a lot of people.
You're going to feel great about that. So in that sense, what you do becomes a critical component. So the way I like to explain it is we are both the shout and the echo. So we're the things that we do. That's the shout. And then we're what the world tells us they feel about the thing that we did.
And anybody that thinks that they can escape that sense of like that feedback impacts me in some way is delusional. You are going to be impacted. Now you want to keep it in balance. You don't want to let that get out of hand where you only live for the validation of others, but we are a social animal. And so you will be impacted by what other people think.
And so something that I know about your journey is that at certain points in your journey, you worked really hard, like 120 hours a week at some point, and you didn't really have so much work-life balance. So how has your mindset changed regarding the way that you prioritize work and life?
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Chapter 3: What strategies can help manage work-life balance?
There was never the additional layer of I'm mentally breaking because I just, it's all about priorities. I have them in priority order. I draw a dotted line and say the things below the dotted line just are not going to be addressed right now. And I'm able to just shut that door.
And what I find is people are not able to shut the door on the things that exceed the number of hours that they're willing to work. And so they're trying to track everything, even the things that are what I call dormant priorities. And that's the thing that drives them crazy.
And you literally just have to do what's known in behavioral cognitive therapy as cognitive behavioral therapy, excuse me, as a pattern interrupt. And so like anybody, I get that initial impulse of like, oh my God, like I can feel my brain speeding up. And that's when I say to myself, I don't do overwhelm. And then I do diaphragm breathing and I slow down ironically.
And in slowing down, rather than trying to speed up, to do everything, it just dissipates. And I thought this would be something I could just tell people about. They would adopt it and it would be great. Man, I see people get overwhelmed all the time.
I feel like so many entrepreneurs get overwhelmed and it's so true what you're saying. Overwhelm is a feeling that is maybe not necessarily real. We can only do so many things. And so if we just prioritize what we're doing and set some boundaries, then we shouldn't necessarily get overwhelmed. It also helps that you have a wife where you guys are very communicative about your goals.
You both set out to be entrepreneurs. You've decided to do things like not have children so you can be successful entrepreneurs. So do you feel like the relationship that you chose with your wife also helps you be a better entrepreneur?
No doubt about that. My marriage has given me more of everything that you could want than anything else. So my wife has certainly made me a better person. I do not know who I would be if I had not met her. I met her in my early twenties and we've been together for 24 years, married for over 22. It's crazy. Yeah, it's extraordinary. Absolutely.
And having somebody that supports you and having somebody that sees things that you would otherwise be blind to, somebody that instead of getting on their knees and crying with you when things are going rough, they're like picking you back up and reminding you who you are and brushing your shoulders up.
My wife has given me the Jerry Maguire speech many times to get me back in the game when you're starting to flag. So that's really been incredible. Being self-aware and having a partner that is also self-aware and that can talk with you and lay options out and help you problem solve, that's really the thing that I would give the credit to. And so you don't necessarily need a significant other.
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Chapter 4: How can we overcome feelings of overwhelm?
Evolution has one goal, to make sure that you survive long enough to have kids and have kids. Okay, so I'm doing something right now that hurts. That means I'm doing a thing that evolution does not want me to keep doing, or I'm doing something pleasurable. This is something that evolution wants me to keep doing.
Okay, now, if my goal is not focused on having kids that live long enough to have kids, I have some different goal, then those emotions might not be what I need to reach my goal. And this is what I see all the time. People confuse feelings. Feeling with thinking. Don't make that mistake, boys and girls. Feeling is not thinking.
So feelings are literally a very high bandwidth communication from the part of your body and your subconscious mind that can read a lot of points of data very, very quickly. But it's hard to translate that into conscious thought, into communication. words, even more narrow of a data pipe. And so you just get a feeling, right? Tiger and bush run. You don't have to think through it.
In fact, you may not even get to tiger. You just have a sense. I need to get out of here right now. You don't know why. You don't know what it is. Maybe you picked up on a rustling in the bush. certain way, you know, a stick cracked. And the same is true in relationships, in business, you just get this overwhelming feeling. Now, if in that moment, you realize my life isn't actually in danger.
So the fact that I'm having this really strong emotion should lead me to pause and go, why am I feeling this? And if you can pull that very high bandwidth emotion through that low bandwidth pipe into your conscious mind and say, oh, this is what all of that is boiled down to something very simple, which is almost always if you're having a negative emotion anyway, it's almost always an insecurity.
So I'm worried if I don't get this right, my business is going to fail and then I'm going to lose her. I'm a loser and my parents are going to disown me or my girlfriend is going to break up with me, whatever it's. And it's all happening, again, based on that level of emotion. If you can slow down and say, hold on, that's overwrought. That's ridiculous.
This is one of many things that I need to think through. I can make a lot of mistakes and still be fine. I do need to be thoughtful. I need to learn my lessons. But people don't do that. They get mad and they react mad. And then that makes things worse. And they never take the time to say, why am I mad? Oh, wow, this is an insecurity, not anything positive or empowering.
This is an emotion designed to mask the underlying thing.
I know a lot of entrepreneurs that are tuning into the show, like we're talking right now about challenges, failure, trying to not trust our emotions, like you said. And I know that you talk, or at least in the past, you've mentioned before, you might have changed your approach to this, but you take a first principles approach to thinking. Can you talk to us about what that is?
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Chapter 5: What is first principles thinking and why is it important?
What do you mean start with human psychology for info products? Because I think I have a lot of like online entrepreneurs listening.
So I don't want people to feel like this is an exercise where it's like, oh my God, do I really have to go back to quarks and bosons and all that stuff, which we don't even fully understand anyway. So most of the time when I'm running this experiment, it's for something for sales and marketing. And so forget all the early stuff, just get to how does the human mind operate?
What do people look for in products? Like what is the truth, the inescapable truth of the human mind? So like, for instance, people don't make decisions rationally. They make them emotionally. I mean, I can just tell you that from the architecture of the human mind standpoint, that is true.
And so once you get to that, it's like, oh, well, you may want to sell this product on features and benefits, but it won't work because that's not the architecture of the human mind. So now, instead of like, if you're looking at somebody else in your field, And you think, well, they're doing it as good as it can be done. Well, not necessarily.
What are they missing in terms of their approach that would allow you to get more bang for your buck? If you go back to instead of the frame of reference that they're handing you and go, what do I know to be true about the way the human mind works? Now you can do something better. You can do something different and win because you're building up from universal truths about how people think.
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Chapter 6: How can we learn from failure and move forward?
But people give you positive feedback. This is why so often adults are pursuing something that they first got that positive feedback on as a kid.
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Chapter 7: What role does mindset play in entrepreneurship?
When I started, there were 400 podcasts. There's now 6 million podcasts. So it is just insane how many more podcasts, I may have said 400,000 podcasts. So the world has just changed absolutely dramatically. And that's going to keep happening where the format of a podcast itself is going to get disrupted by somebody alone with an AI doing things that nobody's ever thought of before.
And the difficulty of production, the friction of going from idea to execution is the current moat. That's going to go away, which means this will be more like TikTok.
So instead of there being a person that has a podcast, take a Rogan or something like that, instead of that person dominating the landscape, you're going to have like, oh, one of his episodes might pop off, but somebody else is going to release something else that's a totally unique format that nobody saw coming. And it'll just be like that.
And people will just be scrolling onto the next, onto the next, onto the next. And that's going to happen across everything. It's going to happen across video game production, which I trust me, I have just as much anxiety as you. But the key is to adopt AI faster than the competition. And then just remember that one, we're moving towards an abundance reality where it's
If AI does all of the wildly disruptive stuff that people think it's going to do over the next, say, 10 years, it's also going to be dropping the cost of virtually everything. So everything is just getting cheaper. Now, this takes you into a post-capitalistic society, and there are big questions around what that looks like.
But people will have access to the things that they want for far, far, far cheaper. Now, that doesn't mean people won't find a way to peacock through other means, because we will. But especially when you throw in the mix brain-computer interfaces, This is all gonna get real weird.
There are already people that can play video games, like proper video games, using just their brain-computer interface. It's nuts.
And you were just saying, when you first started, 400,000 podcasts, and everyone was telling you, there's no chance, it's already saturated. AI is gonna make things even more saturated. So what is your perspective about the increased competition and if there's even a point to participate if there's gonna be that much competition?
So I think people make a mistake when they do preemptive quitting or preemptive strikes. The reality is you want to pay attention. You want to be at the cutting edge. You want to be integrating AI. Right now, AI is a phenomenal tool and it is a terrible master. So it's not going to be able to do things without humans yet. So people should be excited right now for this phase.
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Chapter 8: How can storytelling enhance our entrepreneurial journey?
Amazing. Well, it sounds super fascinating and very exciting. And I can hear the passion in your voice about it. Tom, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast. I was very nervous. I never get nervous. And I was so nervous in the beginning for some reason. So I just have looked up to you for a long time. So I just appreciate your time.
I end the show with two questions that I ask all of my guests. And this can just come from your heart. Doesn't have to be anything that we talked about today. What is one actionable thing our young and profiters can do today to become more profitable tomorrow?
Always be learning. Always be learning. So it should cue off of your goal. So again, your goals make demands, but I spend on average two hours a day, 365 days a year, every day for the last 15 years, maybe more learning. Be a relentless learning machine.
Amazing. And what is your secret to profiting in life?
So for me, I know that nothing matters more than reciprocated love. So I make sure that I put a ton of time and attention into that. And then also I manage my biology. So I get sleep. I eat healthy. I exercise. I work out. I maintain loving relationships beyond just my wife. Those things are incredibly important.
And then if I can really ground this for people, guys, you have to learn how business works. Like business has physics. And if you really want to get good, you need to learn those physics. And they are available for anybody to learn, anyone to master. The game is really relatively simple. Learn it. Learn the game. Do not let yourself get overwhelmed. Just one piece at a time.
Pick apart the skill set. Learn it.
And when you say physics, do you mean like sales, marketing, finance, those kinds of things?
Yes. And where it interfaces with leadership and human psychology? Yes.
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