David Meltzer – Co-Founder of Sports 1 Marketing and Former CEO of Leigh Steinberg Sports & Entertainment

Kara Goldin  00:00

Hi everyone, it’s Kara Goldin from the Kara Goldin Show. And I’m super excited to have our next guest here. So this is David Meltzer, who is the co-founder of sports, one marketing, and host of one of my favorite entrepreneur’s podcasts, the playbook. And he’s a top 100 business coach, he is the best-selling author, which we’re gonna talk about in his latest book. And he was also served as the CEO of the renowned Leigh Steinberg, a sports and entertainment agency, which of course, was the inspiration behind Jerry Maguire. So welcome, welcome, welcome. And we are so excited to have you here. And also, I should have mentioned, one of his greatest things that I want to really, really dive into is really his mission to empower over a billion people to be happy, and I love all of the stuff that you’re doing around. Do you officially call it coaching? I mean, it’s

David Meltzer  01:04

Yeah, it’s so hard, right? mentoring, coaching, or just, you know, being kind. It’s so elevating and inspirational to be in a position in my life where I can be of service, and change and impact people’s lives through the dummy tax that I’ve paid. So it’s so nice to see the payback of all the stupid things that I’ve done to help other people not do the stupid things that I’ve done.

Kara Goldin  01:28

You know what I absolutely love that because I think it’s it’s luck. It’s so needed. I think everybody would say being kind, being grateful paying back is super needed. But I also just think that how you’re doing it is it in a way that that really teaches people and especially the next generation, so total side note, but it’s, it’s something that I’m really passionate about, and something that I’ve heard from my book actually from, I’m a Gen Xer. And so I’ve had a lot of millennials actually say to me that, you know, the authentic nature and me talking about some of the failures and some of the stuff that I just didn’t really do, right, and kind of bouncing back changing industries doing things that I wasn’t having for kids, when I’m starting a company doing all this stuff that, you know, it is sort of against what people talk about, I feel like that is a lot of what you talk about whether it’s in your podcast, or whether it’s in, you know, any of your books, too.

David Meltzer  02:28

Yeah, I think the perception of happiness is distorted. And as I’ve evolved in technology since the early 90s, I’ve seen people amplify the wrong things. And we see that through now, especially in politics, that how powerful it can be to amplify the wrong things. And that certain perceptions and certain stories can change people’s lives. And through the failures, or I should say, the lessons of my life, I’ve learned that that’s my story. And the more that I told my story, and the closer I came to the truth of telling my story, the more people felt comfortable or liberated to live their lives and to live their stories instead of some facade, or some unrealistic perception of how life is supposed to be, or how life is. And so it really started building a life of its own with a really simple mission of understanding why people commit suicide, especially very young people, I have three teenage daughters that for kids to like you, and I get my wife all the credit because she had her own business and raise those kids. And I support that. But I have to admit, she put much more concentration into those wonderful kids. But I couldn’t understand how a 12-year-old or a 10-year-old, could even fathom the idea of taking their lives, where was happiness, there was hope, you know what happened, and I still get choked up talking about it. And it just kept evolving that as I watched how social media worked, and how media, digital media worked in the amplification, I started saying, Wow, there needs to be someone out there that’s human, someone that just isn’t pretending and standing in front of a car that he doesn’t own or a house that he is leasing, telling everyone how happy is for being rich. Well, I have a great story about coming from nothing. And thinking that money was gonna make me super happy just to realize I was happy before I made the money. And there has to be some sort of way to have both in your life. And that’s really been my journey, especially the last 15 years.

Kara Goldin  04:31

What was kind of your first job and sort of how did you get to where you are today.

David Meltzer  04:36

You don’t have to interest My life was about my relationship with money and because I didn’t have any I had a single mom, who raised six kids and was a second-grade teacher who packed our dinner in a station wagon in Akron, Ohio, and filled up turnstiles at the 711 and convenience stores with greeting cards. And I watched her I didn’t listen to my mom at all, but I watched her my mom was the typical Jewish mom doctor lawyer failed fetuses infants. devote to after graduate school. You know all the things the pressures of education and my siblings all adhered to her and went to the Ivy League’s and graduated Summa Cumma Laude. And I just wanted to be rich, I wanted to buy my mom house and a car, and that drove me. And there’s a lot of positive things from believing that money would buy you happiness and love. For example, I lived a very open-minded life because I wanted money, I was always looking for the next option, the next deal, even at a young age, I was just looking to see what I could buy and sell how I could hustle to make you know, whether it was bottle caps or trading cards, or any type of weird job I could get that constantly trying to make money. Even when I went to law school, you know, still respecting my mom. I didn’t just take I got a great job offer to be an oil and gas litigator I did very well went to Tulane University specifically to make a lot of money because I had a great maritime program. I did my research, oil and gas lawyers made the most money. I was very money. My nickname was money, money. Even when I played college football. My nickname was money, money, I love all money. And but I took a job in sales on the internet, you know, and I in 1992, everyone thinks that’s such an easy decision. Not in 1992 with dos computers, carrying around on a luggage cart. My mom freaked out. You know, literally one of my best lessons I learned at that time. Just because someone loves you, doesn’t mean they give you good advice. Because I adored my mom. I wanted to be rich to buy her house in a car. That’s what motivated me. But she told me the internet was a fad. And that I was making the biggest mistake of my life. Nine months out of law school I was a millionaire. And everything from that point on reaffirms money but love and happiness. I bought my mom the house in a car. We sold our first company in 1995 for 3.4 billion to Thomson Reuters I went to Silicon Valley, learn to superpower raising money hundreds of millions of dollars in the wireless proxy service base. By 30. I married my dream girlfriend in the fourth grade, I had everything I ever wanted. I was CEO of Samsung’s first phone division. They called them convergence devices back then it was a window see Microsoft remember, yeah, 1999 and I was on top of the world. The funniest thing was, for the first time in my life, I wasn’t happy. I literally had everything. I was healthy. I had a beautiful wife gonna start my family and I was not I didn’t know it at the time. But I was very lonely, very empty, very separated from everything. And it took about, you know, six to eight years to learn the lessons. That money doesn’t buy love or happiness. I ended up being the CEO of The most notable sports agency in the world surrounding myself with celebrities, athletes, entertainers, access to everything you could imagine that you dream of Super Bowl, Pro Bowls, Masters Grammys, SBS Emmys, and through those six, eight years, I learned the real relationship to that currency, that object of energy that you put into the flow to get what you want. And through my dad, my mom, my wife, and my best friend, Robbie, they slapped me in the face a few times over the six, eight years to finally get a life and that’s where my journey to help people and to shift the paradigm of that currency money to my money, no longer will buy happiness or love, but it’s super important, which is kind of my nuance that money allows you to shop but you have to shop for the right thing. So the way that I put it guys, I lived in a world of not enough in Akron, Ohio, six kids single mom, I was a victim. Everything happened to me. I went around like why can I Why me Why? And then I made all this money. And I thought I was an optimist. I was a Philip, a philanthropic guy I gave to receive. And I was living in a world of just for me. Even giving was for me. There’s some acknowledgement, recognition, something, some trade or negotiation that had to occur even in my giving. And yet, I was buying things I didn’t need. If I wasn’t happy, I buy more things I didn’t need. If I wasn’t happy, I buy things to impress people or even impress people I didn’t like. And it ended up in a very shallow, lonely place. And I had to re-engineer my life. Take stock in who I was. The irony of my whole life is I bottomed out two years before I lost everything. So I lost over $100 million in 2008 learn many, many financial lessons. But my life lessons my transformation occurred when I was running Leigh Steinberg two years before I lost everything. When I had to take stock in who I was and what I wanted to become when I learned what values in my life were important. How

Kara Goldin  09:36

did you have the courage to actually admit it to yourself that this was kind of was going on and I need to pause and what was it three,

David Meltzer  09:46

those three things that happen and I’ll save them as quickly as I can, but they’re really important number one, when I was 30 years old, I just had married my dream girl and I had known her since the fourth grade. My best friend Robbie and law six asked he asked my wife for me to go study in sixth grade. And he embarrassed me because he’s like, no Tom das me himself and he screams out, dude. She said no. So I threw an egg at my wife. But at 30 years old, my father of all people, I’ve been estranged for 20 years from my father, he left when I was five. He was my superhero. One of the biggest Jewish guilt things I have still to this day is I can remember sitting in the back of that station wagon, my poor mom in the 70s. Back in the 70s. There were actually deadbeat dads, dads like mine that made a ton of money, married girls closer to my age than his budget didn’t give any child support. So I’m in the backseat of the car telling my Mom, why can’t you be more like dad. And you know, she never humbly never said anything negative about my father till I was 10. And he forgot my birthday. Now, it wasn’t bad enough he forgot my birthday is that he lied to me and told me he didn’t forget my birthday, that he didn’t believe in birthdays. And that was such horseshit because he was celebrating his birthday, my sibling’s birthday, his girlfriends, you know, I was like, You’re a liar, cheater manipulator, over the seller and back end seller. So at 30, I get my first birthday present in 20 years. And it changed. It was the start of this lesson because I opened it. It was a beautiful sport coat. And I started to cry. And my wife’s like, What’s the matter? I said it fits me. He, my dad cares. He gets it. I’m going to get this approval that I’ve been looking for for 20 years. I just want my dad to tell me he’s proud of me. Right. I open it up. I’m looking for the happy 30th birthday especially made for David Meltzer or Imani, you know, I’m looking for something. He tore all the pockets out. I was so furious. I called him up. I said, Dad, why are you punishing me? I haven’t had a birthday present. 20 years you send me one to punish me. So what are you talking about? said I can’t wear the jacket you sent me. He said it’s not for wearing. I said why would you send me a jacket not for wearing he said, it’s to remind you that you’re just like me. And I need you to know that money doesn’t buy happiness or love. I don’t want you to be the richest man in the cemetery. I’ve made these mistakes on I don’t want you to and I said to him, I’ll never forget. I hate you. You’re a liar, a cheater, a manipulator over seller back and I’m nothing like you, f you. And thanks for nothing. And I hung the jacket in my closet. Never word again, at you’ll never even looked at it really. Six, six years later. This is how the universe works. Six years later, I’m running Leigh Steinberg, sports entertainment. I left Samsung, and I have access to everything. I’m playing golf with my friend Rob, the guy who asked my wife to go study. And I asked Rob to go to the Masters with me and I told him you love golf. Curtis strange invited us to his cabin. You can meet Wayne Gretzky, we go to the net jet parties. It’ll be the time of your life. And Rob being Rob looks at me and he goes, Not a chance. I said, What do you mean? Not a chance. He said, Dave, I don’t like who you hang out with and I don’t like what you’re doing. I said, Come on, Rob. I’m not doing what those guys are doing. He looked me right in the eyes. And he said I’ll never forget. He was like, Dave, you can lie to me. Don’t lie to yourself. I still have trouble saying it. Because it crushed me. So yeah, this was so true. You’re talking about how could you be honest, I went home once again in tears. And I realized today, there’s a book written about don’t take yes for an answer. And you’ve been around the circles in the Silicon Valley, high net worth individuals, athletes, celebrities, you know, it’s very dangerous when everyone tells you Yes. And everyone around me for 10 years has been telling me Yes, that nickname money might is all the false values that I had about myself and impressions. Rob shattered because I knew he knew who I was. And he knew what I was doing. And it was hard for me to take two weeks after that my life would change forever. I asked my wife to go to the Grammy Awards with little john the rapper. And my wife told me, no, you’re not paying attention to the family. You’re not paying three girls under eight years old at the time. She said you’re not paying attention to business. And I’m really worried about you. You’re partying way too much. You need to stay home. I lied to her, went to the Grammy Awards, came home at 530 in the morning, a complete mess. And there she was sitting to change my life. She sat there 530 mornings and told me she wasn’t happy that I was going to end up dead that she was going to leave me that I better take stock in who I was. And even at that moment, I told her to eff off. How dare she talked to me that way how unappreciative Could you be Look around you. Do you know what kind of cars is in the garage? I mean, I would be embarrassed to tell you everything I said I went to bed woke up ready to call all my divorce lawyer friends from law school and past associates to figure out how I was going to steal her happiness and love by taking all the money And my life would change because I looked in the closet. And there it was that goddamn jacket. I can’t ever tell this story without choking up. Because I remember looking at it thinking, I do not hate my father, I hate myself, I hate myself, I’m a liar. I’m a cheater. I’m an overseller, a back-end seller, everyone thinks I’m something I’m not. I’m a complete imposter and a fraud. And I am going to end up dead. And that’s when I spent the day outlining my core values that have built-in evolved to four key values that I wrote my first book about, have now you know, written for about those values in some way or another, but also created five daily practices as well, to simply be happy, and to be of service of other people. So no longer do I live in a world of just enough or for me, just enough or not enough. I live in a world of abundance, I have faith, there’s more than enough of everything for everyone. My life is about giving myself away, I have a great skill set to receive. I’ve learned to be proud of receiving to be worthy of receiving, but only because I know faithfully that I intend to give my life away. I’m from nowhere to nowhere. My goal in life is to give everything I have away through me, not for me or to me.

Kara Goldin  16:17

I love that that is so great. So the four points that you touched on from the first book, do you want to share?

David Meltzer  16:24

Sure, just real quick gratitude is an obvious one, I always tell people will say thank you before you go to bed when you wake up, you’ll change your life. I promise 30 straight days, Gary, no doubt, so simple. So gratitude gives me perspective, I practice finding the light, the love, and the lessons and everything. And gratitude allows me to do that. The second was forgiveness. And I learned that forgiveness was something I had to give to myself so I could give it to other people. And the interesting thing about forgiveness, because it’s evolved in all my books, is that first, the obvious thing about forgiveness is it gives you peace, right? If you’re able to forgive the unforgivable, you can live extremely peacefully. But you know what else it gave. And I learned this through the pandemic. Forgiveness is the only form of certainty. And I know it’s a little bit complex and deep to think about, but I want people to let that germinate a little bit how that if you’re capable of forgiving the unforgivable, how certain Your life is, how all the ego-based consciousness fears and voids and shortages and obstacles, they literally dissolve or dissipate. The third one was accountability. And this was powerful because I was a lawyer, I always thought in the terms of liability, blame, shame, justification. And I never thought of things in a higher sense that I’m accountable for everything in my life that I’ve attracted totally, what am I supposed to learn from it? even, you know, accidents, people can’t separate liability and accountability, I have found a way to do so. And it’s so powerful, and can I have complete control of my life because I’m accountable. I know, it’s counterintuitive, but I’m in control of my life, because I’m accountable, not anything else. And then finally, the inspiration, which I originally called effective communication. So when I started out, my goal of this value was to communicate to people like you, my thing was, I can effectively communicate with other people, that’s going to change my life. And what I realized through the last 15 years, is it’s really an inspiration. It’s far beyond just one-way communication with others. It’s a communication with everything, especially the greatest source of power, light, and love that exists that things come through me. And I am supposed to clear the connection to this unbelievable source, and everything else. There are no gatekeepers in my life anymore. There are only sponsors and power sponsors, one three brands would not go to war against another tree brand, I have no judgments or conditions or attacks for a very long period of time, any day, I live minutes in moments in ego-based consciousness or fear. And I keep practicing to diminish that amount of time every day. But I want to remind everyone, I’m still afraid, I still have the same issues that I’ve always had. I just spend minutes or moments there instead of days, weeks, months, or years.

Kara Goldin  19:11

Yeah, no, I absolutely agree. And I’m such a huge believer that often when you’re sitting in this, you know, challenging spot, and it could be you know, business or personal or whatever. You don’t necessarily see it when you’re in it. But it’s meant for the journey, you’re gonna learn something, and sometimes you can’t see it until much later. But the dots as Steve Jobs used to say the dots eventually connect. Right? And I thought that they do and I just launched my own book and that’s what I talked about in there that it’s just you know, all successful people have fears, they have failures, they have doubts, and the smartest ones are the ones that are owning those things and also recognize Seeing that the dots do connect. And there are certain things that happen for a reason. And it doesn’t mean that it’s was comfortable at the time that you know, you didn’t, maybe you were embarrassed in some way. But I think that it’s such an important piece to go back and connect those things versus the saying that I hate the most that I’ve heard over the years is forget about the past, right? I always said, like, No, no, no, like, there’s stuff where you can actually look back. You can, don’t dwell on it. But also look at those times as learnings on how to be better and how to do things, which I know you talk a ton about in your podcast, what was the kind of the biggest thing I have to touch on your time as CEO with Leigh Steinberg, what was the biggest takeaway from your time there?

David Meltzer  20:53

You know, for me, because Lee had his own personal problems. alcoholism is a disease. It was the idea of being kind, you know, I was in this just storm and Lee, although he had his own personal issues, and there are all types in you know, thank goodness, it’s public now. But he was so dedicated to kindness, he would tell me all the time, be kind to your future self. Be kind to your future self. And I’ve added in my own slogan, right, be kind to your future self do good deeds, that he had all types of other issues, but how important kindness was, and I saw him negotiate multi-billion dollars with a B deals with the biggest egos in the world. And if anyone you know, has been in the Silicon Valley, which Lee has negotiated on, take it a step farther when you’re talking about owners of professional baseball football teams, in our talk. And somehow he taught me this kind of approach of always being fair, never negotiating to the last penny, and the true lesson of not doing business with dicks to align your value, don’t sacrifice who you are if your values aren’t aligned, and that guy’s in a hole. I don’t care how much money is involved, we’re walking away, we’re not gonna waste our time. Whether it’s the greatest player that we could sign an owner of a team that we could, you know, make money off of it was a non-negotiable for Leigh Steinberg, be kind, don’t negotiate to the last penny always be fair, and don’t do business with dicks.

Kara Goldin  22:29

Right. That’s so interesting. So So you’ve been you obviously have your podcasts but you’ve dealt with a lot of athletes, you’ve dealt with a lot of entrepreneurs. you’ve interviewed entrepreneurs like Gary Vee and Joe Foster, and guests. He’s, I guess he’s an entrepreneur as well. But John has the What do you think is the consistent thread between these, you know, phenomenal athletes and entrepreneurs? Is there a consistent thread I will tell you about female entrepreneurs, in particular, I’ve noticed that most of them that I know, played sports, through at least through high school,

David Meltzer  23:12

yeah, that there is one common denominator men, women, and I’ve had some extraordinary women entrepreneurs like Cindy Eckert and Kim parral. And some just amazing women like yourself. And I’ll tell you, there is absolutely one common denominator. And it’s real simple. Every person celebrity athlete entertainer, billionaire millionaire entrepreneur, they have a desire that they must be what they can be. That’s it. That’s the common data, they get there in a whole different direction. And that’s why the women are athletes, is because that’s an area where they if you have that personality trait, that characteristic athletics at a younger age, are completely synergistic and supplementary to that desire to be what you must be because you can prove your potential. And Chris Gardner from the movie with Will Smith, you know, the pursuit of happiness. My biggest joke with him, right? I love that movie. I told him, he screwed up the title. And he’s always joking with me. He goes, What are you talking about? I said, honestly, Chris, it should be happy is the pursuit. Because the people that pursue things that desire to be their best to pursue their potential that doesn’t listen to other people’s limitations that don’t pursue what other people want or what’s missing or what they don’t want. People that truly have that vision like you, man, that’s the common denominator. Hands down. I see it in every single person I’ve interviewed.

Kara Goldin  24:35

Yeah, absolutely. I think that the other thing I learned at a very young age, my dad had a rule in our house, we had five kids, I was the last of five who grew up in Scottsdale. And my dad had a rule that we always had to play sports. And so it was the search. It was like the stress in our house. And so I was either running or I was a gymnast I and then I remember that during certain times a year. The only thing that I could play was softball. And I hated softball. I was so bad at it, that I had that it became this joke because there were people that were so much better they’d put me, you know, they’d sit there and like, the poor coaches would be stumped. Like, where do we put parish? Can’t head she can’t, you know, she can run she’s like an okay hitter, but she’s not. But what I learned was just being humble and having an appreciation for people being better than you. Right? And, and I think that as, not only as an entrepreneur but also as a leader, that there’s always going to be people that are better than you. Right? And that you bring in people with different skill sets. And I remember playing with people who all they wanted to play was shortstop, and I was like, go ahead, you can go do whatever you want to do. Right? And then I became kind of the funny one on the team, because I, you know, I just, I mean, I wouldn’t sit there and mope and be angry. And you know, I instead I just say, you know, where should I go today, guys. And then on the flip side, they all knew that I was, you know, a good runner, I was a gymnast, I did, you know, all these other things. But anyway, I just think it’s so it’s so interesting, you know, just the idea of sort of learning because I think that that there is this demon that goes on, especially in building a company. So many people have said to me in building hint that, you know, how could you get started knowing that there were these giant billion-dollar companies like Coke and Pepsi, and I just never even thought about it. I mean, I think about it for a second, but I didn’t fear it. Instead, I just said, I’m going to play with these people. And I’m actually, I have a better idea. And today, we’re the largest independent nonalcoholic beverage in the country that doesn’t have a relationship with Coke, Pepsi, or Dr. Pepper Snapple.

26:59

And,

David Meltzer  27:00

you know, this is why they all want to acquire you.

Kara Goldin  27:03

But it but it’s an interesting thing because I think I’m okay with having like, really good people out there. And really big companies sitting next to me, I don’t sit there and like, lose sleep over them, I just say we’re, we have to figure out how we’re different. And we’re not only different from a product standpoint, but over 50% of our business is direct to consumer, which, you know, during the pandemic, was a big deal. And, you know, for those companies that didn’t know, and it’s a big deal. And so that was something we’ve been doing for the last seven years, quietly, there’s a lot of people who don’t know that we are the largest independent nonalcoholic beverage and, you know, I mean, that’s, it’s a big deal. And, but again, you don’t have to, like sit there and broadcast it all day long. You just, you know, word the, you know, the tortoise and the hare story, the underdog that just keeps going and keeps going forward. But again, I think I think that goes back to athletics and kind of in the better people versus the demons that go on because, you know, I am competitive. But I’m also picked my lane and I picked the things that I know I can do and, and, you know, try my best to learn all these things. But I also know how to bring people in, who are better than me. And I confidently say that you know that I actually had launched the original website on the hint and learn how to code and I didn’t know how to code, but I learned it was terrible. I was embarrassed about this website for the first three years. I was like, Can somebody just like redo? It’s really

28:41

a softball.

Kara Goldin  28:42

Yeah. Right. And I said, just redo it, but then we did we, you know, we ended up redoing it eventually. But it was because I brought in people that were way better than me. But I still know enough about that business. I still know enough about softball to be able to go to a softball or baseball game or whatever. But again, I think that there there’s that consistent thread so but But getting back to you and your amazing podcast the playbook. So you have talked to a ton of businesses, entrepreneurs along the way. What was one of the better interviews, not the most in

David Meltzer  29:20

the 606 hundred? I probably could remember but I will tell you that Deepak Chopra, and I normally have an interview where I’m looking for a broad mass understanding and questions. You know, I’m really more interested than interesting. So I asked questions. My goal of any interview is like, no one’s ever asked me that or, huh, you know, that’s where I want to get to, but Deepak Chopra. I went at him. from a personal perspective, I wanted this opportunity to be my own. And I asked questions that I imagined still today that 10% of the audience could even understand my question. Because I went to a spiritual enlightenment level of woundedness, which I really enjoy as my own person. And I learned so much about human existence, human nature, energy, frequency, things that you and I may discuss behind doors, but very rarely do I do it on my podcast. And to this day, I had the time I learned the most from him. It was a very selfish interview. So I wouldn’t say that people would vote to say that’s the best interview Dave melt. I mean, I’ve had Cameron Diaz and Dan Aykroyd, and Ray Lewis. I mean, the list goes on. And they’re amazing. And I love Ray Lewis, too. I’ll tell you the scariest part of any interview I’ve ever done. But pre-COVID was Ray Lewis at his house when he’s so passionate and intense and so strong. He was saying something, and he grabbed my leg. And I don’t think you realize how great how hard he grabbed my leg, and it was just passing, right. And I’m like, Oh, my God. He’s gonna break my leg. Because he was so excited. So I’ve had just the best time the podcast to me is like Napoleon Hills Think and Grow Rich. I’ve had an opportunity to get the playbook to success for people like you. And I’m keen enough to do the research and be more interested to ask the right questions, so everybody can learn the secret sauces of what it takes to be passionate, purposeful, and profitable.

Kara Goldin  31:27

I love it. So the new book game-time decision making. So how did you decide to write another book?

David Meltzer  31:36

Well, this one we are now McGraw Hill asked me to write. So I kind of entered the world of publishers. And it was interesting because they wanted the sports side of what I do. So would

Kara Goldin  31:46

you self-published before? Oh, yeah, the books? Oh, well, I

David Meltzer  31:50

did. I did. My original book actually was from Hay House, it connected to goodness, I took it back. And I had my things, I like to get my books for free. And obviously, if you use a publisher and take a big advance, that’s not a possibility. And but they wanted me to do the sportsbook, and I wanted to do a book about happiness. And so the biggest and greatest challenge of game-time decision making is I have lessons and I do a pregame analysis about what I want to teach you. I tell sports stories and entertainment stories to teach you the lessons, then I do a post-game analysis to review the lesson. And all the lessons if you go back and read it under this perspective, are about teaching people and empowering them to be happy. And I use just like Jerry Maguire, the backdrop of sports to teach a lesson the thing most people don’t realize about Jerry Maguire, beyond the extraordinary writing of Cameron Crowe and you know, all the one-liners. It’s a love story. Why is it so popular? It’s not because it’s a sports story. There’s no great inspirational sports story in J. McGuire. It’s a love story. And it’s this human. And that’s what made it great. And truly, that’s what that book is about. It’s a book about happiness. And I utilize a different frequency or vibration, one of mass appeal to use sports as the backdrop to allow people to open up their mind, and hopefully empower them to see things a different way about making decisions based on the inventory of their personal experience of giving and receiving values to allow life to come through them. But in a vernacular, that’s really based on Tom Brady and Bill.

33:32

Yeah, I love it.

Kara Goldin  33:34

So that so controlling the mindset, so I love that what how can you do that?

David Meltzer  33:42

practice. So everything I believe is in the conscious continuum, and our bodies minds and souls need practice. You know, that’s just books like outliers, as you know, that go through the consistent behavior. Well, I believe that practice is the key. So to that extent, we practice controlling our mind, I call it being a ferocious Buddha. And there are four steps to practicing your mindset. One is to just identify ego-based consciousness. And there are two types of fear primary fear, which is the Freudian fears that we all know the EFS. And then there’s the secondary fears, one that ruins our lives that we don’t even know money, time, emotion, and relationships are ruined by the need to be right the need to be offended. The need to be separate, inferior, superior, anxious, frustrated, angry, guilty, resentful, if you learn number one to identify when you’re in this consciousness, and then instead of resisting it, going over it under it, around it underneath it, fight it, accelerate through it, oversell it. backends. Lie to it. Just stop. Be a Buddha. Drop down to your higher self breath, find your higher self, your center, your neutrality, this frequency that’s connected to this source of everything, and then be ferocious about moving in the right trajectory, that delta between ego and truth consciousness That Delta resistance is exponential and applied in a consistent manner will create that compound interest that Einstein talks about in the power of 72. It will create people like you who will end up far beyond where we even can imagine. Because what it allows us to do is be happy where we are at the right place at the perfect time, angle with great velocity towards what we want, but still have faith that we’re going to end up somewhere better. And your story about the hint is a story about being happy where you were at the right place, angling with great velocity towards an objective or a goal or vision. But what resonated to me through your story is the enormous amount of faith that you’re going to end up somewhere better than everybody, including you, probably thought.

Kara Goldin  35:47

Yeah, totally well, and I think I, something that I’ve talked a lot about over the last year is that I didn’t realize So prior to launching, hint, I was at America Online. And I was running their eCommerce and shopping partnerships, and I had been through that hockey stick in the late 90s. And then, and I was starting my family and decided and want to be on a plane all the time. And so then ended up leaving and it was we weren’t AOL wasn’t in freefall at that point. But it was sort of naturally kind of leveling out the way that it was supposed to level out. As a leader, I felt like my responsibility, and I’m sure you’ve been in this situation as well as to manage mentor, and but not learn myself. And so when I left, I kept saying things like, I’m bored, maybe I should go invest in some companies, maybe I should go be on some boards, all of those things. And then I didn’t do any of that. I took a couple of years off. And then I started looking at myself and couldn’t believe how unhealthy I had gotten by drinking diet soda, Diet Coke, in particular. And that’s when I went into learning mode where I was just learning, you know, this entirely new category. I mean, it sounds silly to a lot of people, but things like looking down at this cap that the fact that it’s not called a cap, it’s called a closure in the beverage industry. And once I actually figured that out, I could communicate with people, who wouldn’t they, all of a sudden I spoke their language. I mean, it’s a simple, tiny little thing like this. But the bottom line is, is that I was finally learning. And I think that that also is the key to happiness, that putting yourself into positions where you feel a little uncomfortable. That there you don’t know if you’re going to succeed or not. But I always told people and the same with you. I mean, if none of this works out, you could go back to Samsung, maybe you don’t want to go to Samsung, but you could go back to sports, right? You could if you were proud of what you had done, it’s really not a risk. And I think that there’s something in there and that mindset to that is, you know, people get so you talked about the walls, people get so hooked on, you know, what, if I fail or be embarrassing, I’ve got all these walls, whatever, you know, up. And instead, I think just thinking about what will you learn, and in the end, having confidence that this is your journey, and you know, and I do believe that the people that kind of live with this mindset of learning are really the happiest. So I, I’ve heard many of your interviews, I was listening, actually, this morning to one that you did with Gary and Gary Vee, and you know, it’s I think even people who are successful, it’s like if you’re not learning and instead you’re, you know, you’re grumpy, right? If you’re not sitting there saying I have no idea about your business, talk to me about it and really engaging in some kind of learning.

David Meltzer  39:01

You know, so funny is when I was worth over $100 million, I don’t think I could have gotten to the worth of a billion dollars, but because I lost all my money, the lessons that I have learned have enabled me and empowered me to make far more than that and empower far more people to do the same. And it’s, you know, you spoke so eloquently about that journey of learning and you know, stemming from one of my favorite lessons of just being more interested than interesting. And I fell into the challenge of being I was super interesting. And I fell into that trap for a while in my life. And I still pride myself you know, 53 years old but I still am probably one of the most interested people in it. Whether I’m interviewing someone or I have research time every day. Um, you know, I’m a seven-day-a-week consistent person. So I vacation every day, health every day, but research every day. I have a minimum of an hour a day that I spend on research. To learn, to be more interested in that has carried over into my formula of happiness more than anything and is very much aligned with the enjoyment of the consistent persistent pursuit of my potential. Because without that learning, I’ll never know what my potential is.

Kara Goldin  40:15

I love this. So your kids, your four kids, are they’re gonna, what do you hope that they’ll end up doing? And and

David Meltzer  40:24

what a great question. See, I’m gonna give you the compliment No one’s ever asked

40:27

me. Really, you know, that’s

40:29

a good interview.

David Meltzer  40:33

Wow, the first lesson for my kids, they come through me, not for me. And so there are four things I want for my kids. And it’s the same four things. I tell my mom every day, that has really changed my life and relationship with my mom and she’s still, I’m a mama’s boy. In fact, I’m doing mommy issues. Training next Friday, I do free training every Friday.

Kara Goldin  40:52

I love it.

David Meltzer  40:53

I have four things. One, I want all for my children to be super healthy. I want them super healthy, which is aligned with your product. Second, super happy. If those are the only two things, you know, man, it’s gonna be fulfilling for me. But I’d also love them to be full of love to love themselves. So I want them to be healthy, happy, and love themselves. And then the last part is a little bit more selfish. I want them to be appreciative meaning that they add value to my life and that I add value to their life. So happy, healthy, loving themselves, and appreciative.

Kara Goldin  41:35

I love it. I think that is that’s beautiful. So by the way, my son is at Tulane.

David Meltzer  41:41

Oh, right on. Yeah, no, Biden’s daughter went too late I just found out is

Kara Goldin  41:46

really badass one that wore a tux did ya say? Yeah, so great. I just saw that actually. That’s so great. But yeah, he’s freshmen there. So

David Meltzer  42:00

I’m an executive resident executive. They call me I speak there. Normally, every year, my daughter just graduated early from there and it’s a fabulous place. So please make sure he looks me up.

Kara Goldin  42:12

Yeah, definitely. I love it. So he’s, you know, it’s been a weird year, right? For sure. Forever.

David Meltzer  42:20

Be a freshman. I don’t know how he did it.

Kara Goldin  42:22

Yeah. So he’s just going back and as is super excited to be back there. So it’s, it’s Yeah, it’s super great. But anyway, that was great to hear that you were there as well. And good to know. So David, how to do you I mean, obviously your podcast the playbook, everybody. It’s a must, must. There are so many lessons there I think in many ways, similar to what we do here bringing on amazing people and lots of different nuggets and insights from people leading in all different industries to buy the book gametime decision making so good at and really, really exciting that you got this out there. And of course, the sports analogies. It’s not just a guy’s book, it’s definitely even if you’re not a professional football player, you’ll understand the analogies and a lot of the mindset that a lot of these people have for sure. And where can followers find you?

David Meltzer  43:25

You know, I love people to email me directly at David at D Meltzer. COMM. D Meltzer, Comm. If you just Google David Meltzer, you’ll find me I do have a new TV show as well Two Minute Journal just want to give a quick plug. It’s on amazon prime video and Bloomberg Television is the first just pitch Oh, no funding is $50,000 of cash and prizes every episode, but we don’t fund the companies. We just give an evaluation of the pitches. So anybody that’s interested in trying out for that season two will be in June. We’re taking applications now. But most importantly, David at meltzer.com I do free training, free books, free exercises, guides, just email me I’ll sign it, send it to pay for shipping, I don’t care. Just be kind to your future self and do good deeds. And I certainly appreciate the opportunity to be here.

Kara Goldin  44:11

I love it. Thank you so much, everybody, and obviously, give this five stars and all of that stuff and come back and see us every Monday and Wednesday. And thank you so much, David. I really appreciate this and Goodbye everybody and thanks for listening