Conversation with David Meltzer: Finding Happiness

In this episode of The Rise, join Skrizz and Adam together with a special guest, co-founder of Sports 1 Marketing, host of The Elevator Pitch, three-time best-selling author, motivational speaker, and a Top 100 Business Coach, the one and only David Meltzer! 

David has made a name for himself as an author and motivational speaker. He has written several books on entrepreneurship, success, and personal development. Some of his notable works include "Connected to Goodness: Manifest Everything You Desire in Business and Life", "Compassionate Capitalism: A Journey to the Soul of Business", and "Game-Time Decision Making: High-Scoring Business Strategies from the Biggest Names in Sports".

He has been featured in various media outlets, including Forbes, Entrepreneur, and ESPN, and has appeared on numerous podcasts and TV shows.

Learn more about David, his upcoming events, and his book Game-Time Decision Making by visiting his website below:

https://dmeltzer.com/

You can check his social media accounts and podcasts below:

Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/davidmeltzer/

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/davidmeltzer11/

The Playbook With David Meltzer:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-playbook-with-david-meltzer/id1271087930

& you can email him directly at david@dmeltzer.com.

Transcript

[00:00:00] Adam: Talking music, building businesses, and the grit in the journey. We're Skrizz and Adam and welcome to the Rise.

[00:00:09] Skrizz: This is Skrizz and Adam with the Rise. Very excited to say we have a wonderful guest today. Adam, who is our wonderful guest? 

[00:00:25] Adam: He's my, uh, I feel like my new friend now. I just just saw you, Dave, and, uh, I don't know where you are right now, but I know you're in sunny Florida, uh, just a month ago when we last talked. But I am honored and super excited to welcome David Meltzer here.

[00:00:38] Uh, so big thank you to you and. If you don't know David, you probably should. I feel like he's all over right now. Uh, but he's big time. You know, he's, uh, a sports exec and entrepreneur, investor, TV show host, bestselling author, father, a husband. If you've seen Jerry Maguire, it's based off of him and his agency, so you should know if you don't know.

[00:00:59] But, uh, David, thank you so much for being here. We are honored to have you. So how are you doing today? 

[00:01:04] David: Fantastic, great to be here and just building more friends like you, two people who really are out there trying to help people or know people that can help people. And I know that's a simple philosophy and maybe I'm a little bit older and a little bit more traditional, although I use non-traditional means in which to amplify that message.

[00:01:23] It comes down to providing value. And there's two things that you guys do, and one of the reasons I wanted to be here is it's a community of people that give people more of what they like. And take away some of what they don't like. And I, throughout my years, have tried to simplify the modalities, the methodologies, mechanisms to help people truly be happy.

[00:01:45] Uh, and in my opinion, if you make a lot of money, help a lot of people and have a lot of fun. Haven't met anyone with those three things in their lives that isn't happy. 

[00:01:54] Skrizz: Love it. It's that simple. 

[00:01:56] Adam: And I feel like the happiness thing is something that we all know we should, we should want, and we're all kind of chasing that.

[00:02:02] It's kind of like the lifelong journey that we all have. But one thing, you know, I feel like it's a problem with really every generation, but especially Gen Z, like mental health is the, the biggest thing. And I was just at a cafe and I'm, I'm in Florence right now, and these three young people that are all studying abroad, they're having a great time.

[00:02:18] Or they're trying to have a great time, and they were talking about Heather in Tuscany. Everything was amazing. But they were so depressed because they're like, I'm not happy right now. So Dave, what's your advice? You've been through everything. Your story's phenomenal. You've had highs, but you've also had lows.

[00:02:32] So how do you help young people or just people in general find happiness? 

[00:02:37] David: We gotta change the way that you look at things. And one of the things that I do is I use time as a dependent variable of how we look at things. What do I mean by that? Number one, the past. A lot of times people are defining, uh, their happiness by giving meaning to the setbacks, failures, and mistakes.

[00:02:56] The defining moments, uh, historical references, snapshots of the past. And we see this in social media all the time. People take snapshots of the past, either to separate themselves as superior or to separate others as inferior. Um, and so if I can teach people that the only limitation of your past, the pain, setbacks, failures, successes, defining moments, historical references, snapshots, Is the meaning you give it.

[00:03:28] And so I teach people to give a meaning aligned with what you're doing today in the trajectory of what you think you want in the future. Okay. And then before I get with the practices of today, in order to incorporate abundance and making money, helping people and having fun, being passionate, purposeful and profitable, being happy, I also talk about then the future.

[00:03:53] And so the past is defined and infinite in its manner, but it's the meaning you give it that's so important, aligned with where you want to be in the future. And then what I do to the future, to young people, they say, look, the only limitation of the future is your self image. Right, you'll never overachieve your own self-image, so let me help you change your mindset with faith and hope and happiness in order to facilitate a bigger picture for you, a greater self-image of yourself, a more confident, coincidental, circumstantial.

[00:04:29] Future that's based off of the attention that you're giving today and the intention that you're giving today. Once I can help them frame the past and the future, now it's just a matter of practice of teaching them, Hey, let's look at what you want today, what you say today, what you think today, what you believe today, what you feel today giving it the meaning aligned with that, as well as the trajectory of where you think you want to be.

[00:04:56] In the future or better. And this construct, which incorporates a bunch of exercises, guides in my books, which I give for free, I'll be happy to give to free, uh, for everyone in your community. I'll sign them, send them pay for shipping. Just my emails right there, david@meltzer.com. But when I can get them to work within the conscious continuum by utilizing time as the dependent variable, then we have a framework.

[00:05:22] We also have a structure to create something that's reliable and full of faith and inspiration to get us to where we want to be or better. 

[00:05:31] Skrizz: Love it. 

[00:05:32] Adam: What, uh, what I really like about what you're saying there and what you talk about in your books too, like, I just finished, uh, your book Game Time Decision Making and I, I, I loved your concept around 25 nos.

[00:05:42] Cuz if, if you just think about that, it's like I can't wait to get that first No second, no third no. If you do that, that 25th No. Or the 26th was gonna be the exact yes. That you're. Four. And so a lot of what you talk about is shifting the mindset, and one of the things I was always taught at a young age was like, dream big and go for big.

[00:06:00] Mm-hmm. But I found, I thought everybody was like that. Like I wanted to be a professional athlete that no nervous force team. Like I always had these ridiculous dreams. I love it. Um, but I, I always thought everybody was like that, but I found that a lot of people don't have those big dreams. So how do you help Dave people shift their focus to stop thinking small and start thinking about what could be possible, if anything could be possible?

[00:06:20] David: Mm-hmm. Well, it starts with believing one thing. And the only reason I believe this, and it's not religious, it's not spiritual, it's not philosophical or theoretical, although people apply origin, uh, you know, religion and philosophy theory and uh, um, spirituality to, to it. I think the best option for all of us is to believe that there's something bigger than us, an ammunition, all powerful, all-knowing Source a system that's unified and abundant in its nature in thought.

[00:06:53] And if we believe there's something bigger than us that knows everything and it loves us more than our mom, now when I told you this is a best option, uh, it's because nobody's ever come up with a better option to base your life off of. For sure. Uh, and so for me, if I can get people to have that faith, then they're always protected and promoted.

[00:07:14] Then they start understanding abundance. They start thinking bigger and bigger and bigger. I like you, Adam. I grew up, I could do whatever I wanted. I wanted to be a professional athlete. I wanted to own a team. Luckily I have owned a minority interest in the team, uh, but or be a sports agent. Mm-hmm. And I ended up doing that.

[00:07:32] So, you know, you reach up there, you, you never know what happened. Un unfortunately, your skills and your knowledge are your basement. My basement was far too low when it came to being an athlete. Uh, but I had a great delta at least. But more importantly, if we can get people to have faith in something bigger than them.

[00:07:48] That protects them. That promotes them. Then everything that happens is like a hot stove. You know? What do I mean by that? If you were three years old like me, and you went to put your hand in a fire or on the hot stove, and if your mom, you know, Adam, I'm sure you have a Jewish mom like mine, they, they don't really hit you a lot.

[00:08:05] But if your, if your mom saw you reach for the stove, she would scream at you and hit the back of your hand. No, and when that happened to me, I started to cry. I was like, oh my God, mom, why did you hit me? What'd I do? Why are you punishing me? And she hugged me and said, no, no, no, no. You don't know what the stove's gonna do to you.

[00:08:23] I'm protecting you. I'm promoting you. So for me, when I didn't become a professional athlete, when I got the 25 nos for the girl that I wanted to marry, you know when, when I didn't get the deal, I didn't get into Stanford Law School, all the punishments in my life because I gained faith. I realized that I'm being protected and promoted that I was much better going to Tulane Law School.

[00:08:49] And you know, wherever I end up is the better for me. Why? Because there's something bigger than me that knows everything and it's protecting me. I just don't know it. I think it's a hot stove. I think I want to touch it, but it's gonna burn me. 

[00:09:03] Skrizz: For sure. 

[00:09:05] Adam: One of my favorite quotes is perseverance and spirit have done wonders at all ages, and George Washington said that, you know, back in 1776.

[00:09:12] And when, you know, with, with your journey, that's what I think about is around the perseverance and, and, and the spirit to go through that. But is that always what carried you through? Because you had to persevere a lot from being a little kid to your twenties, your thirties, and, and that's a, it's a never ending cycle, but like, did you get it at a young age or like what powered you through when you were a little kid or a 20 year old?

[00:09:34] David: Yeah, so different things powered me. You know, what powered me when I was young was taking care of my mom. So there, you know, I had the advantage of having nothing. Uh, I always tell people when I speak around the world, I have, who here grew up with nothing and half the crowd raises her hand and I said, I feel sorry for the rest of you.

[00:09:52] That's crazy because I know what it has, man. I, that's what created, you know, the consistent persistent pursuit of my potential is I wanted to buy my mom a house. I wanted to buy her car. Mm-hmm. You know, and so that drove me. Then what drove me was insecurity, uh, through my twenties, that, you know, I became a millionaire and I wanted to prove that I was better.

[00:10:12] Okay. Than all the people that grew up with everything I wanted to prove. And, and the only quantifiable measurement that I had in my life was my bank account. So if I was gonna win life, I was gonna have more money than you guys. Yeah. Right. And then when I lost everything, I realized that I could win life by helping other people get to where they want to be.

[00:10:35] Hmm, their potential. And so the last 17 years, you know, I lost over a hundred million dollars, made it back, but I did it the right way by elevating others to elevate myself. So the Dave Meltzer logo of my life, if they're gonna build a statue outside of, you know, the Jewish Community Center somewhere, it's gonna look like this.

[00:10:55] It's gonna have me reaching back. To help everyone get to where they want to be, but also reaching up and asking for help, which was this arm, is what was missing when I was young. Okay? Because I didn't know how much I needed to ask for help. And I tell people all the time, I get to where I want to be by finding people who are already there and asking 'em for directions.

[00:11:17] Even today, I have some of the greatest mentors, biggest billionaires, millionaires, entrepreneurs, celebrities, athletes, entertainers. That's why I built my podcast was to. Not only ask for help myself, but have other people listening to the advice. 

[00:11:32] Skrizz: That's great. Um, if you don't mind me asking, you were kind of speaking of a, of a higher power kind of guiding you at, at what age in your life did you kind of let that higher power in and then did it kind of grow over time to taking more. 

[00:11:44] David: Yeah. So I was resistant. I was resistant to it. So much to the point. Uh, when I was younger, one time, I, my, my family's very religious, they're very Jewish. My brother's a famous rabbi. My mom was the principal at the San Diego Jewish Academy. My uncle started his own temple. The Meltzer family is well renowned to be very Jewish.

[00:12:05] Let's just put it that way. I'm impressed. And I was, I was not. I actually told my mom at one time, mom, I don't believe in God. I did this all myself. My mom said, you're so blessed. You're anointed. God has blessed you, you're protected, you're promoted. I said, I don't believe in God. I did this all myself. And she said, oh.

[00:12:25] She said, sweetheart, she said, you believe in God. You just believe in the wrong God. Mm-hmm. And she was telling me that I made money. My God. And I'll tell you today, money is not my God. It's beneath my feet. I believe in a God. I believe in something bigger than me, and I believe, I don't wanna separate myself by religion or conservative, Orthodox, whatever, reform, habad.

[00:12:50] I don't care. I just make it simple. Everybody. Here, here. Here's what's so interesting about religion, and I found a way to articulate this better than I ever have. Just recently at a commencement speech I did last week, um, in South Carolina. Mm-hmm. I said, I find it interesting that. 99% of all religions on Earth believe in 90% of the same things.

[00:13:14] Oh, probably more. Right and right. They all believe there's something bigger than than us that loves and protects us and, and that we're unified. But somehow as human beings, through fear, we managed to take 1% of the religions and maybe 10% of the 1% of what they're teaching and completely separate ourselves.

[00:13:37] Which is counterintuitive and productive to the reason that we have a codified spirituality for daily practices, for a better life. And it blows my mind. So, you know, I believe in culture. I'm Jewish culture, I believe in education, family, but I, as far as religion, I, I believe in 99% of the religions, 90% of 99% of the religions. That's what I believe. 

[00:14:03] Skrizz: I'm totally on the same page. 

[00:14:06] Adam: Yeah, it's kind of, uh, it, it kind of goes into another topic I wanna talk about with you too, cuz I feel like we hear so much more around the negativity. Like it's always doomsday and that's how the news Yeah. Makes their monies around scaring people.

[00:14:18] Doomsday kind of pushing us against each other. Even if 90 or 99% of what we believe is the same. Because we all want the same things. We all want, love, safety, all the same type of things we all care about. We all want. But you're an incredibly optimistic person. I have a strong feeling you hang out with a lot of very optimistic people.

[00:14:37] So can you tell me why we shouldn't believe the doomsday scenario and why we should be excited and bullish on the future? Mm-hmm. 

[00:14:45] David: Well, look man, when you focus in on there's a mathematical equation of manifestation or luck of consequence and coincidence, and here's the math. What you pay attention to, which can be what you have or what you don't have.

[00:14:59] What you want or what you don't want is that simple. What you pay attention to, and then give your intention to, if you start doing things towards what you want or doing things towards what you don't want, saying it, thinking it, believing it, or feeling it. Guess what? What you pay attention to, plus what you give attention to equals the coincidences in your life.

[00:15:21] The consequences and the karma. And so for me, it's physics that tell me to be positive because I focus in on what I do want, not what I don't want. Worrying duplicative negative. It's not only focusing in on what we don't want, but it's creating interference between us getting what I do want and what we don't want.

[00:15:40] There's so many examples in physics, metaphysics, and quantum physics. Why you wanna put your attention and intention on what you do want. Especially my best piece of marriage advice is focus in on what you do want from your wife. Right. If you wanna be, you know, you, you want the say that you're married to a bitch, look for your wife to be a bitch if you want her to be a queen.

[00:16:04] You focus in on why she's a queen and you're gonna get it, I promise you, and it will save or hurt your marriage. And I've made that transformation in my life. I stopped looking and searching for what I didn't want. Why do you think, you know, the news is so great in America, especially, right? They feed you a whole bunch of anxiety and depression, and then all the commercials are about pills that you take for exactly.

[00:16:25] Skrizz: What a trade off.

[00:16:26] Adam: It's unbelievable. 

[00:16:27] David: Smart. I look, I, I, I'm a good business man. I'm a great marketer. Like I appreciate what they're doing in a marketing sense, but it's extremely diff disappointing in my life's mission, what they're doing. Yeah. 

[00:16:39] Skrizz: Yeah, exactly. 

[00:16:40] Adam: Yeah. Absolutely. And I, I know we're coming up against the clock right now, so, uh, uh, Dave, be before we, we hop off and I, I appreciate your offer for, for your book to, uh, to our audience.

[00:16:50] But is there anything, uh, where can they find you? Where can our audience find you to learn more about you? Uh, if they wanna take advantage of your book, how can they do that? And we'll put all the links and everything in the bio in, in, uh, in this episode. But how can they find you, Dave? 

[00:17:04] David: Well, first of all, 90% of what I do is free.

[00:17:07] Right, free books, guys exercises. All you have to do is email me to get any of my free stuff. Just make it ask david@ d meltzer.com. I do free Friday trainings Over 80,000 people thanks to the virtual world that we entered in the last three and a half years. Come to my free Friday trainings, which I've been doing for over 23 years.

[00:17:27] That's, I have groups that meet on Monday. I give office hours on Monday. So any, especially entrepreneur business people, uh, you join me, you get one-on-one coaching from me every Monday, just like office hours. I have one-on-one coaching as a wait list. I can, I'm limited who I can work with. I. But get on the wait list.

[00:17:46] It's people are on the wait list for August. Get on the wait list for me to help you one-on-one. And then I have a business advisory program. I have podcast TV shows on Apple I, anything I can do. So the best thing you can do is email me if you forget my email, david@ d meltzer.com. Just google me, you'll find my email there.

[00:18:05] Uh, David Meltzer. And guys, we gotta do more together. You're two of my 1000 empowering people to rise up, to elevate, to elevate others. We got a ton of fun things. Hopefully they've invited you to V Econ or Collision. I got Chandler Eckler. Me, Jim Quick, Tom biu. Gary, everybody gonna be hanging out at v econ with us.

[00:18:26] Have a V I P dinner. I'd love to see you guys there. Anybody out there wanna come email me, david@dmeltzer.com. 

[00:18:33] Adam: Amazing. Awesome. Thank you so much, Dave. I, I, I appreciate you, I admire you and, and thank you so much for all that you doing and we appreciate you coming on here and joining us for a few. 

[00:18:41] David: You got it my friend. Appreciate it. Peace. Thanks.

[00:18:44] Adam: See ya.