Young and Profiting (YAP) with Hala Taha
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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Get a $75 sponsored job credit at indeed.com profiting. Terms and conditions apply. As always, you can find all of our incredible deals in the show notes or at youngandprofiting.com slash deals. Yap gang, 2025 is a year of change for me. I'm single and there's nothing tying me down to Jersey anymore. And so I'm looking to set up residence in Texas or Florida.
And I've got to stay there at least six months and one day so that I can save on taxes and switch up my dating pool. Now it's a toss up between Miami and Austin. I'm super familiar with Miami, but I haven't really explored Austin much. And with so many entrepreneurs raving about it, I've at least got to test it out.
So I rented a beautiful home on Airbnb with my business partner this winter so that we could try out Austin and see if it's the right fit for us. Now, I don't really know what I'm going to do in terms of the city I'm living in next year for most of the year, but I do know what I'm going to do with my pad when I'm not in it. And that's hosting on Airbnb, of course.
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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.
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Chapter 2: How did Tom Bilyeu overcome his early struggles?
And I mean, look, when you see political campaigns and stuff like that, that's exactly what they're doing. They're telling a story. Stories simplify things and they focus attention. And that is the magic of storytelling. This is exactly how humans are able to come together in these gigantic, flexible groups with people they've never even met and cooperate. You have shared stories.
It could be shared story of a nation state, could be shared story of a religion. but you need some sort of shared story to pass on values, to pass on identity, to give people a unifying narrative. So for better or worse, humans are a meaning-making machine and stories allow you to transmit meaning. So they're just a mechanism by which you simplify things enough to extract meaning from.
So we do it all the time. When we stub our toe on the coffee table, we tell a story. We're an idiot because we don't pay attention enough to our surroundings. And that's what stubbing our toe means. Or you could tell yourself the story of, man, I'm so hardcore. I probably broke my toe just now, but I don't stop. I don't quit. I'm the kind of guy that keeps pushing forward.
So it all comes down to what's the story that you tell yourself about that thing. So it isn't what happens. It's what it means. And once people understand what it means, you're telling yourself that story. Someone may have said it from the outside, but you decided that that's what you were going to repeat. That's what you were going to adopt.
So whether you're a marketer, whether you're just trying to lead your own team, you've got to tell them a story. This is why every company needs a mission. Your mission statement is about galvanizing your team. It's about telling the consumer what it means to buy your product, what they're sort of becoming a part of.
And then in your marketing, you want to tell something that's simple enough that people can remember it Like it's a story. And oftentimes just literally telling a story inside of your marketing is one of the most useful things that you could do. A couple of times in this interview, you've asked me to tell stories from my childhood or whatever. And so we all just resonate to story.
So in the same way that when humans look at an image, we look for eyes. When people are hearing, okay, this thing happened, they're looking for the story in it. And so if you reveal character through it, if you reveal a moral through it, people are going to remember it way more than if it's just a list of facts.
This is why humans get so bored in high school history only to later discover through, you know, like a hardcore history episode. Actually, history is amazing, but history is only amazing when you tell it like a story. If you tell it like a story, it's fascinating.
You tell it like disembodied facts and figures, not interesting at all and hard to remember because that's not the architecture of the human mind.
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