Ilana

You did allude a little bit to the 2008 crisis. How did you maneuver that?

First of all, you as a company or as an individual, there is a little bit that you get a little more creative when things are hard, right? So you have to figure things out and that creates more efficiencies.

And we saw it, we'll go into the pandemic later, but we saw it in the pandemic, how much innovation actually happened in the pandemic because it kind of accelerated a lot of the things that people didn't necessarily adopt until they had to.

I still want to go into Zillow for a second because you at some point become CEO and you've played a lot of different roles, which I think is also a big part of when you need to be number one, it really helps when you understand you have a very broad look at different things. How did you become CEO, Spencer? What would you say to someone else that wants to get on a fast path?

So you knew from the get-go that you'll take the CEO role?

How did you feel about the difference between being CEO and all the rest? Because it is different being sort of the buck stops here and most of the decisions need to be channeled, although there's boards and stuff, but still.

What about when things are really, really hard or scary or you need to lay off? Do you still have the same or does it still weigh on the CEO a little more than others?

Yeah, I heard that. So you grew it to incredible market size. And then at some point, I think 2019, if I'm not wrong, you decide to leave. First of all, why? And we're going to talk a little bit about all the great things that you're doing now, Spencer.

And then there's pandemic for you. Yeah, I didn't predict that.

That's incredible adaptability. And if I'm not mistaken, you're also taking outside investors into Picasso.

Exactly, which is usually closed. So that's very exciting. And I think you're involved with a few other things. What is your mission now? And I want you to tell a little bit about these things, but how do you see your mission now?

It sounds like you're basically having fun and still creating an impact. That's what I'm hearing, basically.

And that's brilliant because mentorship at this level of somebody that builds such mega things, it is really remarkable. So I just love that. Based on everything you've done, what would be an advice to yourself or to our listeners that maybe they want more for themselves, maybe they don't exactly know what, but they know that there's more out there.

They're just not sure what it is, how to get there, how to maximize their potential. What would be some of the advice?

To me, that is so important because there's also a lot of negativity. There's a lot of naysayers. There's a lot of, I mean, if you want to surround yourself with things that will crush you, that's easy to do. I think it's harder to find the people that will actually lift you, mentor you, tell you the truth when you need to hear the truth, all of that. And that's incredible.

And I think the curiosity is

an incredible tip because you're right people just move on they see something but instead of going deep you want to be obsessed with whatever it is in order to take it to the next level which is amazing to hear spencer this was so inspiring thank you for sharing all your experience been following you for a long time and it's just been so great to hear the story in real life

Tom Bilyeu, co-founder of the billion-dollar company Quest Nutrition. You also started Impact Theory, a media company that helps others realize their full potential, build massive thought leadership. I mean, you have, what, 4 million YouTube subscribers, 500 million content views.

Tom Bilyeu, co-founder of the billion-dollar company Quest Nutrition. FYI, my kids and their friends are huge fans, so I'm so excited, and they're gonna love this episode. You also started Impact Theory, a media company that helps others realize their full potential, build massive thought leadership. I mean, you have, what, 4 million YouTube subscribers, 500 million content views.

It is incredible, massive impact. But Tom, will you take us back in time to Tom who was a teen? Maybe your mom kind of believed that you will not be as successful. Tom, take us there for a second.