The first time it happened, he was at Mooloolaba, picking his mum up from the Surf Club.
A couple of guys spotted Spencer Abbott from across the street and ran over. They asked him for a photo.
At first, he thought they had the wrong person.
"I almost didn't believe it," Spencer laughs.
But it turns out they did have the right person - they recognised him from social media. Whether he knew or not at the time, this was a turning point for Spencer.
It started in high school - that's where Spencer and his crew of eight core mates became good friends.
At some point they started filming each other getting up to school-boy hijinks, which soon morphed into the group filming skits and posting them online.
"We embarrassed ourselves for a while," Spencer laughs. "But then they really started picking up steam - the popularity and engagement ballooned.
"It was crazy."
The group post under the acronym SCBMovement , which stands for "Success Comes from Belief".
But it's more than belief - it's hard work and having an entrepreneurial spirit too. As someone who's always been interested in business, Spencer understands this.
He saw how hard his mum worked to build her own businesses, including her naturopath clinic, which started in their home but has blossomed into natural health practices in two locations on the Sunshine Coast.
"Seeing her scale her business, I suppose, is what got me into it," Spencer says.
"I kind of fell in love with it from there."
Spencer enrolled in uni to study a Bachelor of Business , majoring in Finance and Economics . But the interest in it started well before then.
Apart from starting uni while he was still in high school - through the Headstart program - Spencer was already getting experience in the business world through ventures he'd started with mates from SCB.
First there was a clothing brand. He and his friend Jake would take shirts to parties, selling them out the boot of a car.
Spencer's reluctant to call it a business but it gave him the grounding in how that world worked - sourcing suppliers and producers, and marketing.
He took that knowledge and built on it with his next venture - post-surgery and athletic grip socks.
It was another venture with one of the SCB crew, this time teaming up with his mate Jack to develop, produce and promote the product.
Called Launched Sportswear , the duo went on to create a full-functioning business, getting recognised for their efforts when they took out the 2024 Generation Innovation competition, pocketing a $10,000 investment to funnel back into their growing venture.
International Business senior lecturer Dr Jacqueline Burgess said Millennials and Gen Z were the driving force behind new enterprise in Australia.
"Nearly 62 percent of new businesses last year were driven by this demographic," Dr Burgess says.
"They not only understand the changing marketing landscape, young entrepreneurs like Spencer aren't afraid to start building their business wherever and whenever they see opportunities in the market."
It's hard, of course, to talk about business without talking about marketing - and the world of marketing has changed. Substantially.
There is, of course, still conventional marketing, which Spencer uses to sell the sports socks. But the world of social media has opened other opportunities.
Spencer and his friends realised this when their posts started attracting more attention. They were growing.
By the start of last year, they were starting to get recognised - that was when Spencer had been noticed by the guys at Mooloolaba.
"We had a video go crazy viral in early January," Spencer says.
"The timing couldn't have been any better - it felt like we going into 2025 with a new slate."
From there, public sightings started happening more frequently. People were recognising them.
By that time, Spencer was working as an ambassador for UniSC too, paying visits to high schools to talk about our programs and opportunities.
He started getting mobbed - literally. Students would recognise him from the moment he walked through the door. It seemed absurd - a little comical.
But Spencer seemed to take it all in his stride - flattered at the attention but remaining professional in his approach. He stayed grounded.
"It's not like we're celebrities," Spencer laughs. "We do get people coming up to us and wanting to have a chat. But that's really good.
"It's pretty sick, actually."
The growing recognition has brought with it other opportunities too - brand deals.
KFC approached them early, wanting to capitalise on the group's new-found success.
From there, it's grown steadily, to the point where they enlisted the help of a management company, who have helped them navigate and negotiate other collaborations, including Dominoes, Dare iced coffee, a toiletry company and even UniSC.
The extra attention has meant the group of friends have had to take it slightly more seriously.
If the group were the Wu Tang Clan, Jake would be the RZA - the central figure or lynchpin of the group. He's who all ideas flow through.
Spencer and his friend Jake, who's studying Business at UniSC too, have taken on more of an administrative role, helping to not only organise the crew but looking after the business side of the project.
"We're getting to a point now where the income is enough that we need to start thinking about tax implications, so we need to figure out how to structure it - through a company or a trust.
"Having my degree has definitely helped me think about that side of business, which the other guys find boring anyway. But I love doing it."
As for the future, Spencer is as joking as he is circumspect.
"World domination is up there," he jokes.
"But, seriously - I think as a group we just want to continue our trajectory with shortform content and branch out into more longform stuff as well.
"I'd like to still have businesses that provide more a passive income - just because SCB is really hands on.
"But, honestly - it's a pretty open playing field. I just want to see where it takes me."
