Takeaways from My Interview with Tom Bilyeu

I really hope you watch my entire interview with Tom Bilyeu.
It’s part blueprint for how to live, part entrepreneurial insight, part inspiration and even part human biology lesson… but ALL stuff that relates directly to how you operate on a daily basis and how to achieve success.
Here in the blog, I’m breaking the interview down into my top 12 takeaways. Some of them are simple quotes, others are concepts that require greater explanation.
Let’s get started!

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Takeaway No. 1:

“Control the resources. Then you can control the art.”
Tom learned this lesson as a broke film school graduate. When you control the resources, you then become capable of controlling the art itself.
 

Takeaway No. 2:

“I was only thinking about money, and it was a grind.”
Tom told himself from the time he was 11 years old that he’d one day be rich. But once he made that goal a reality, he realized money alone cannot be your motivation.
 

Takeaway No. 3:

“Pain is amazing. Pain is powerful.”
Our natural tendency is to shy away from pain. But if you embrace it, it will help you get where you want to go.
 

Takeaway No. 4:

“The struggle is guaranteed. The money is not.”
Building a business will always involve struggle, but all the struggle in the world doesn’t guarantee a financial reward. So what’s the moral? Make sure you’re doing something you love.

Takeaway No. 5:

Tom’s biggest lessons from building Quest Nutrition…
In the early days of Quest, a decision was made that social media would be the only marketing the company would do. The key, Tom said, was to “fall in love with adding real value.”
In real estate terms, that means falling in love with becoming that “knowledge broker” for your marketplace and always operating from that perspective. It needs to be genuine, however. You need to truly want to add value to people’s lives, and trust that you’ll receive business in return.
That trust also extends to eliciting reviews. When Quest launched its nutrition bars, they sent them out to people and didn’t ask for people to say anything in particular. They just wanted them to tell the world what they thought. Do you believe in your product enough to guarantee you’ll receive 98% positive feedback?
Build that authentic connection with your community and evangelize people to become your biggest proponents!
 

Takeaway No. 6:

Four common threads from Tom’s Impact Theory interviews with successful people.
They all have:

• A growth mindset.
• Grit.
• The ability to push through when things get difficult.
• A passion for what they’re doing, because passion is the fuel that pulls you through when you get stuck.

Takeaway No. 7:

Tom’s No. 1 hack in life:
“What you build your self-esteem around matters.”
 

Takeaway No. 8:

The importance of pride:
“People need pride. Pride fuels you. It gives you energy and enthusiasm.”
 

Takeaway No. 9:

Tom’s Matrix fascination:
If you know anything about Tom Bilyeu, you’re probably aware he was heavily influenced by the movie “The Matrix.” Today one of his stated goals is to “pull people out of the Matrix.” He explained to me why this motion picture was so powerful to him:
“It’s a great metaphor for limiting beliefs. Simply by believing in himself, Neo was able to do these incredible things.”
 

Takeaway No. 10:

Taking that explanation further, Tom said:
“Humans lead with belief. It’s not enough to be good at something. If you think you’re bad at it, then you’re gonna act like you’re bad at it. But if you believe you can learn, which is all anybody needs to believe about themselves — you don’t have to think that you’re already capable or extraordinary; you just have to believe you can become capable or extraordinary — you’ll take that first step and really go down that path.”
 

Takeaway No. 11:

Somewhat related to Nos. 3 & 4, Tom says:
“Embrace the suck. The only people who are really going to succeed are the ones who find the power in that. Who realize that for the human animal to adapt, to grow, to get better, you’ve gotta be willing to suffer and push past the pain points, the difficulty, the boredom. To be able to push through all that because you want and believe in that thing you’re trying to create so much that you’ll, to quote The Shawshank Redemption, literally crawl through a river of $#!% to get to the other side.”
 

Takeaway No. 12:

The “dirty little secret” Tom knows about people:
“I don’t think most people are actually excited about the vision of their own future. And because they’re not excited, they’re not trying to make it happen. Most people don’t want what they say they want. Deep down in them is something that could be an ember of something that can turn into a raging fire. And they think they’re going to dig around and uncover a raging fire.”
“It doesn’t work like that. You build a raging fire, through a process.”
“Most people aren’t excited enough about their future, which is why they don’t have the energy to push, which is why they don’t have the desperation to find the path, because they’re not excited enough by it. If people took the time to develop that excitement, they really would be able to do something extraordinary.”
“If you haven’t done what you want in your life, it’s all your fault.”
 
I’m so excited to hear more from Tom Bilyeu when he speaks at our ELITE+ Retreat in Palm Desert in January. This event is exclusively for ELITE+ coaching members.
 
I’d love to know YOUR top takeaway(s) from Tom Bilyeu! Share your comments below!

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