Reach Your Highest Potential - and Enjoy the Ride

Everybody's connected to everybody else in so many different ways that if you attract an open mind and ask them, do you know anyone that can help me? They're going to either say, yes, I can help you because I have an open mind and an open heart and open hands, or they're going to say, no, but I know somebody that can help you. This is how you scale a business. This is how you thrive. Open mind, open hearts, open hands. Ask big, ask often.

Welcome to the Scale or Fail show. I am your host, Alison Maslin. I am the CEO and founder of Pinnacle Global Network, where we mentor business owners around the globe to grow and scale companies that change the world. And we love bringing people on this podcast over the last decade that are going to make the journey for you just a little bit easier, more meaningful, more rewarding, and more successful. And so today I am super excited because we have just that person for you. David Meltzer is the co founder of Sports One Marketing and formerly served as CEO of the renowned Lee Steinberg Sports and Entertainment Agency, which was the inspiration for the movie Jerry Maguire. David has been recognized by Variety magazine as their Sports Humanitarian of the Year and awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor. He is also the executive producer of the Bloomberg and Amazon prime television series Two Minute Drill and Office Hours, which I am dying to dive into today and learn more about. His life's mission is to empower over 1 billion people to be happy. This simple yet powerful mission has led him on an incredible journey to provide one thing, value in all his content and communication. That's exactly what you're going to receive. And as part of his mission, for the past 20 years, he's been providing free weekly trainings to empower others to be happy. My goodness. It's like a simple thing, but it's something that I think people could use a lot more of. So thank you, David, for being here on the Scale or Fail show. Welcome.

Oh, it's a perfect place to be with the perfect person. Thank you for having me.

Yeah. Well, I'm excited that you're here and I'm excited what you are up to in the world. Super inspiring. Can you tell us a little bit about your backstory and what led you to this journey of being an entrepreneur?

Sure. Well, being poor is what led me to be an entrepreneur because I wanted to be rich. At five years old, my dad had left. I lived in Akron, Ohio. I had a single mom with six kids, five boys and a girl. And an extraordinary mom. Just, you know, she was a typical Jewish mom. So she woke us up early and let us. She was a black belt in the martial arts. I'd say third degree black belt in the martial art of Jewish guilt. So she woke us up early and guilted us. Doctor, lawyer, failure, fetus isn't fully developed till after graduate school, you know, all the different things. But we lived in a two bedroom apartment with six kids. I just wanted to be rich. And to be rich, I wanted to keep my options open to what paid the most. So that made me very entrepreneurial. It was disappointing to my mother, although I was bright enough, or at least my siblings, you know, were more academic than I was, but I just got by. I was only only brother to get a B. And it was like the death of my mom that I actually got a B. But I made up for it because I wanted to be rich to buy my mom a house in a car. Only thing that wasn't happy in my life was when we had a financial stress, a car breakdown, summer camp, we couldn't afford food sometimes. And so in my mind at five, I said, in order to be happy, completely happy, I. I'm going to be rich. And so everything in my life went towards making a lot of money. And now it's evolved. But back then, money was going to buy me love and happiness.

Wow. Isn't that interesting too, because you were like, I don't want to live in this circumstance. So in a sense, not having early on propelled you forward and I wonder if you would have had that drive if all the money was there.

I would. I speak around the world and I always start out by asking the audience, who here grew up poor? Half the audience always raises their hand and I always say, gosh, I feel sorry for the rest of you because I can't teach, I can't teach poor. But it certainly is a great lesson.

Oh yeah, I think, you know, my biggest transformations were when my back was against the wall, you know, as a single mom. So I get that. And then you went on to make your first million in nine months.

Yeah, I graduated.

Wow.

I graduated law school and I had two job offers because I was entrepreneurial. One was to be an oil and gas litigator, which is why I went to law school. I reversed engineered being more interested than interesting. What paid the most out of law school, which was an oil and gas litigator. So I went to a specific school, Tulane University in New Orleans, that it had the top maritime program. But I also got a job offer in 1992 in the Internet selling legal research on the Internet in 1992. I have an entrepreneurial lesson for everyone because I went to my mom, who you could probably tell I adore, and I said, mom, I don't know what job to take. The legal job pays $150,000 salary. There's bonuses, and I'll be a great litigator someday and even make more money. And I can buy you that house in a car. Or I got this job selling the Internet. And without blinking, she's like, david, Internet, it's a fad. It's going to come and go. You definitely want to be a real lawyer. Take the oil and gas job. Well, I ended up taking the sales job because it paid $250,000 a year at plan. And my mom freaked out. She said, you know, biggest mistake I made, I learned a valuable lesson as an entrepreneur just. Just because somebody loves you, and my mom probably loves me too much. But just because someone loves you doesn't mean they give you good advice. And for the first time, I put my attention and intention towards what I wanted. Not what other people wanted from me, what's missing, or what I didn't want. I specifically put it all in towards selling legal research online in 1992, and within nine months, I was a millionaire. Within three years, we sold the company for $3.4 billion with a B to Thomson Reuters in 1995, which set my career in a completely different trajectory than being an oil and gas litigator.

Wow. I mean, what an incredible story. You know, that's so interesting. My mother was so afraid too, of my entrepreneurial leanings. And she just kept saying, get a job, you know, and now she says, thank God that you didn't listen to me. But I think it's they do. They love you so much that they're afraid and they're projecting that fear on you. And luckily you listen to your gut because here you are. Wow.

It's interesting because I always say there's four things that parents want for us. And they get disrupted by certain perceptions of what they think they want for us. But there's only four things they want. They want us to be happy, they want us to be healthy. They want us to love them, and they want us to appreciate them. Meaning that they want to know that they add value to our lives. They don't care what we do. They really don't. And as long as we're happy, healthy, Appreciate and love them. Explore what you do and the enjoyment of the consistent, persistent pursuit of your own potential. Not your parents potential. Don't live up to what they missed out on, don't live up to their expectations, but simply pursue your truth, your potential by being and enjoying the consistent, persistent pursuit of that.

That is such a great message and a reminder for the parents too, for sure, about what is important, really, with our kids. Now you've got two new shows, is that right? Like you're doing two shows at the same time, developing two minute drill and office hours.

Yeah, I was blessed. I did a show called Elevator Pitch with entrepreneurs six seasons and it kind of frustrated me. It was very successful, but it was very much like Shark Tank and Dragon's Den where you had the facade of funding. Right. We had these entrepreneurs that pitched in the elevator for a minute and then you funded them on a show. And if anyone knows the reality of the funding process on TV shows, it's not how you get funded in real life. And it was very frustrating to me because I tend to teach and coach and mentor people on how to raise money. It's one of my superpowers on how to articulate value to exceed what I'm asking for. And there's a systematic way of raising money. So I came up with this idea. Why don't I just teach people to pitch and give them a ton of money for the best pitch? So we created a show for $50,000 of cash and prizes every episode and you get two minutes just to pitch. And it doesn't matter what you pitch. You could pitch eating broccoli to a five year old and you can win $50,000. I want to teach people how to stimulate interest, transition, interest, share vision, manage and develop and thrive by being able to pitch. So it's the world's first pitch. Only show got picked up by Bloomberg and Amazon. Well, in the meantime, Covid hits and I have all of these extraordinary guests like you that want to be on my playbook. The podcast that I have, I've done, you know, with billionaires, millionaires, entrepreneurs, celebrities, athletes, entertainers. Well, I need more places to put people. So I create this show called Office Hours and it was really the first entrepreneurial late night show, but it was, you know, digital. And I brought on people with co hosts and we had a conversation with really famous superpowered people about not their movies or their career in sports sports, but their businesses and how they applied, what they learned from being an Olympic gold medalist or MVP of the super bowl or an owner of a team, what they learned and applied it to business. Well, when Bloomberg, I did over 200 episodes during COVID and when Bloomberg saw it, it was a must have. And we just finished filming season one. The guests are ridiculous. Cameron Diaz, Saad, Guru Tillman, Fertitta Vivek, the owner of the Sacramento K, Jack Canfield from Chicken Soup for the Soul, Apollo Ono, Marshall Falk hall of fame running back. I mean there's Rob Dyrdek, the list went on. I can't remember everyone. And you know, Tom Bilyeu, of course. And the list goes on and on. But it's all about teaching people how to make a lot of money, help a lot of people and have a lot of fun. From the biggest names, billionaires, millionaires, entrepreneurs, celebrities, athletes and entertainers. And so I'm in season three of Two Minute Drill. We just finished season one filming October 8th will be the first episode on Bloomberg that you'll be able to catch the first late night entrepreneur show. It's kind of like a Letterman show and it was the best thing I've ever done.

Oh my gosh, that's so brilliant. I mean it's like a talk show, but people sharing their success, I mean their journey and their wisdom, it's just.

So smart and applying to how in what the show is about, right. What's so interesting is it's about scaling. And what do I mean? People ask me all the time how do I scale my businesses and I'm blessed to help people do that. But it's really about knowing the skills, the knowledge and desire and how it's synergistic, supplementary or aligned with what you're doing today. Right. And that provides this aspect of exponential growth, compound interest and acceleration in a business. So you take someone like Danica Patrick, you know, who drove in circles for her entire career and how she applied discipline, strategy and awareness to her Rose company as an entrepreneur. How she scaled that business from the teamwork aspect of what she learned from being one of the best drivers in the world, obviously the best woman driver ever. But there's so much that we can learn about scaling our business through applying our skills, our knowledge and desires to what we're doing today and where we are today. I call it five daily practices. Right? Know your what, your who, your how, your now, and applying your why. You could scale any business to whatever you want. Live between limitlessness and infinity with your business. Don't stop yourself by evaluating your own talent and what you think you are limited to do.

Wow, I love that. I'm definitely going to have our community with Pinnacle Global Network with our, you know, business owners that are around the world. They will Definitely be tuning in. I do agree the scaling is not just business to me. Scaling is really stepping into your highest potential. And I'm a trapeze artist. I have a full size trapeze in my backyard and I've been flying on the trip.

I want to come over.

Yeah, come on over. It's so much fun. I've been doing it for over 20 years, and every time I take a bigger leap or a bigger risk up there, it helps me with my feet on the ground to take my business to the next level. It's all related.

Yeah. You have to have. I had the Willinda brothers, the Win Linda family.

Yes.

You got to have them on your podcast.

Yeah, they are. Talk about risk takers. I think the. The woman, I forget her name, but she's like in her 80s and she's still climbing this hole. Like, it's kind of scary. You know, your stomach's in knots watching her. But congratulations on doing these two shows. Wow. @ the same time. And I love the pitch idea and that's something we work with our clients on a lot because you need to be at the ready at any given moment to make your offer in a compelling way in all areas of your life. Right.

And it's important for people to work with people like you because I don't think a lot of people know their own business. They've invested so much of themselves and their own resources in their business, and they feel because of that, that that makes them capable of. Of articulating the quantitative value that their business represents to exceed what they're asking for, whether it be to raise money, invest money, make more sales, create more channel partnerships, business development, whatever their objectives or milestones may be. But they don't realize that the fastest way to get to where they want to be is to find someone like you and ask them for directions. You know, I talked about knowing your what, but the second thing I know, I said it really quickly, is knowing your who. And it's who can you be of service or value to obvious in scaling a business? But more importantly, who can help you? Who sits in the position or situation that you want to be in and ask them for directions. I see in the pitch show and office hours the idea of practice, which is why I have, you know, my books and my five daily practices which I give away to free for everyone to learn how to enjoy consistently what they're doing and. And articulate what they've achieved or what they've created. And you can just email me davidmeltzer.com if you want that. But you need people like you, Alison, to give us directions, because you have sat in the situation. You've been there before, and it's the fastest way to get to where we want to be. I find radical humility to be a superpower of people that are afraid to ask. And it's so unbelievable. I was one of them. Remarkable that you can get an entrepreneur who worked 20 hours a day, seven days a week, and never ask for help. It's so important that they'll ruin their family life. They'll spend every penny they've ever have, risk everything except for one thing. They won't risk their ego because they won't ask someone who actually knows where to find or what to do simply for help. And they won't practice asking for help. And those are the things that I think you help people do. And why I encourage them, why I'm here on this show, is to encourage people to find that help from you.

Wow, that's really amazing, David, and thank you for that. I appreciate that. And it's interesting because I think in our culture, we look at asking for help as a sign of weakness. Like, I should know this, and I'm just going to keep plowing away until I figure it out. But it's just that definition of insanity. And it is such a pain point for so many business owners, as you know, that are working 20 hours a day, that have their marriage is over, their health is, you know, kind of falling apart. They. They've lost the joy, and it doesn't need to be that way. And it's lonely at the top. It's lonely at the top, you know, So I think that's. Thank you for that reminder. For sure. Now, you said something on Twitter, and I love this quote. You can't out ask the universe. You have to ask big and ask often. Can you talk about that a minute?

Well, that's pretty timely according to what we were talking about. That's amazing. One of my favorite quotes, right? I live my life between limitlessness and infinity. And I think, especially with the nature of the social network, that we have the access to almost 7 billion people. That was unfathomable to me. I understood the number, but I never understood the power of the strength of my signal, the spectrum that I could reach and the clarity of my message and how that keeps growing upon itself. And what I realized was that, wow, every time that I thought I was asking big, somebody else was asking bigger. And every time I thought I was asking too much, somebody else was asking More. I'll give you an example. I was born on January 11th. It's my lucky number, 111. My business partner is Warren Moon. His number is one. You know, everything around me are these ones. 11, 11, 111. And so I had decided that I would live to 111. I was born at 111pm as well, but I would die on.

Seriously? You were. You were born at 111?

Yeah. So I thought I would die on. I told my kids, don't worry, I'm going to live to 111. Die on my birthday, January 11th, at 111. And I told one of my friends, I share my Laker seats with an older actress named Diane Cannon. She's very, very famous. A famous Laker fan at best. She was in the movie Heaven Can Wait. And she's one of the most beautiful women I've ever met in my entire life, inside and out. And she's 86 years old now, and she looks like she's my little sister. She looks younger than I do. And anyway, I tell her this proudly, you know, that, you know, I'm asking the universe to live this long. And she gets kind of upset. I said, what's the matter, Diane? And she's been mentoring me about Mindset for years. And she said, why are you limiting yourself? And I said, no, 111. I said, I want to live to 111. She said, I know, but think about technology. What if they come up with some, you know, medical device that makes you live to a thousand, and here you are for 50 years telling the universe, I want to die at 111 on January 11th. You've limited yourself when everyone else is going to live to a thousand. You're not thinking big enough, you're not asking big enough. And so I use that as an example because I see people all the time that don't charge enough. Their businesses could be three, four, five times as much. But they tell themselves, oh, I want to be a five million dollar business by the end of the year. And I'm like, you're limiting yourself. Tell yourself, I want to double the amount of money I make as fast as I can. See that has no resistance at all in the universe. And keep asking people, do you know anyone that can help me in person, on the phone, via email and social media? Do you realize that when I was younger, when you asked, hey, do you know anyone that could help me? You reached about five people because all they had was a golf game, a card game, a church group, a girl Scout group, a baseball team crowd, and There was like five close relationships today. You know, my 11 year old has like 1400 followers. You know, you literally have a thousand different connections, everybody. So if you're asking, do you know anyone that can help me? One of the secrets to scaling a business is not creating avatars of your clients or business partners. See, in the past, because we were so narrow in our scope and scale that we had to be very specific about an avatar of a client, a business partner, or some sort of prospect. Not today. All you need to worry about is a closed mind. Right, because everybody's connected to everybody else in so many different ways that if you attract an open mind and ask them, do you know anyone that can help me? They're going to either say, yes, I can help you because I have an open mind and an open heart and open hands, or they're going to say, no, but I know somebody that can help you. Meanwhile, you may be addressing, you know, for example, if I had a business and I wanted to sell to, you know, beautiful women in their 30s that are trapeze artists, you'd be a perfect avatar. But if you had a closed mind, I'd be wasting a thousand times the energy trying to sell you my trapeze shoes because you'll never say yes because you have a closed mind. Meanwhile, you may have six friends with open minds that know 30 women like yourself and that would I could sell 30 shoes to. But they're not a trapeze artist. They might be an 80 year old man who just happened to be a trapeze coach when he was younger. And I didn't know about it, but he had an open mind and helped me. This is how you scale a business. This is how you thrive. Open mind, open hearts, open hands. Ask big, ask often.

Oh my gosh. Wow. That was worth the whole show, David. I mean, that was absolutely brilliant. I think drop the yes buts. Anytime you feel a yes but coming on, it should be a yes and right. Because you're just shutting the door on all the possibilities. So that is so powerful. You know, I've always said I'm living to 123. So now you've inspired me. Maybe I need to up my game.

Yeah, just add one word. I always say I'm going to live at least to 111. So you add the minimums to at least. Yeah, good. So that just becomes a milestone for you.

Oh, and feeling great too. Let's add that caveat as well.

Healthy, happy, worthy and wealthy.

That's what you'll be, oh, my goodness. So let's look at the other spectrum, because I think a lot of people are afraid to take the leaps because they are afraid of failure. How has failure, or just things that haven't maybe worked out to what the original intention was? How has that set you up for later success?

Well, you have to have faith. See, I didn't have faith when I was younger. I lost over $100 million because I didn't have faith. You know, I attached my emotions to outcomes, and the happiness never came. I used all the hundreds of millions of dollars I had to buy things I didn't need to impress people I didn't like. And what I learned was that pain, mistakes, failures and setbacks, the things that people are afraid of are indicators. They're turn signals. They're not stop signs. They're not something to be afraid of. See, for me, I know that my life's about lessons, and the lessons will keep on coming. And pain is a turn signal or an indicator that I have a lesson to learn to get to a better place or a better position or make my situation better. See, once I determine and shift the paradigm of my perspective that these mistakes, failures and setbacks and pain was simply pushing me or propelling me, not punishing me, my faith grew stronger and the outcomes came greater and my emotions became more inspired to pursue even more. More abundance. So instead of living in a world where I was a victim by pain, that everything was happening to me, or even the world of for me, where I was giving to receive in some sort of trade or negotiation or buying things I didn't need to impress people I didn't like. But thinking still that pain was an indicator that I was going the wrong way, I should stop once I moved to the world of abundance with full faith that there's more than enough of everything for everyone. And faith became my gps. So what do I mean by that? A GPS will tell you, hey, you got off at the wrong exit. Let me reroute you to where you want to go. Or it'll say, hey, you got a flat tire, traffic has changed. Let me reroute you to where you want to go. Or it'll say, hey, bozo, you're at the donut shop. You're supposed to be at the gym. Let me reroute you and get you back into shape. See, faith is even greater than a GPS because not only when it gets off at the wrong exit or you have a flat tire, a setback, a mistake, or you end up at the donut shop instead of the gym. Not only will it reroute you, but it actually knows a better destination for you. And this is where faith comes into mind, because we have attached our emotions to an outcome. And when we don't get into the school that we want, or we don't get the job that we want, or the money doesn't come fast enough, or our relationship, our dream girl doesn't love us, we immediately say, oh, I was wrong. Let's quit, let's stop. Instead of, oh, my goodness, you know, I didn't get into that school because there's a better school for me. I didn't get that job because there's a better job for me. I didn't get that house because there's a better house for me. And this is how gps and faith utilize themselves in order to expand and grow. You now live in the world of more than enough, of everything for everyone. And you trust the fact that if you are enjoying the consistent, persistent pursuit of what you want, that you'll end up somewhere better.

That is. That's really, really profound. It is that those. When we have this ideal in our mind of how exactly we want it to turn out, and when it doesn't work, we, you know, oftentimes people will project that experience on their future. If this happened, well, then this is not going to work. And what you're really saying is that wall is opening up a new door for maybe an even better possibility, something that you hadn't even dreamed of, happened.

To me all the time. And I will tell you that I just get excited when I make a mistake or have a setback or a failure, that something bigger and brighter and better is coming or my position or situation will get bigger and brighter because of the lessons that I learned. And I'm always seeking light, love and lessons and everything. And the key to that, to me, is with the lens of productivity that I'm always looking to see how much value I can provide. A lens of accessibility, which is a duality of how accessible am I to others like yourself and your community. And how am I accessing what I want? How am I receiving because I can't give what I don't receive. And then, most importantly, as you know, my lens of gratitude. Gratitude's a superpower. It allows me to find the light, the love and the lessons and everything I can learn to love what I do. I have activity. I've paid for activity. I don't get paid for activity. I planned activity. I don't have planned and I'm seeking the love, the light and the lessons at all times through that kaleidoscope of productivity, accessibility and gratitude.

That is fantastic. Have you ever read the book the Go Giver?

Yes. I love that book by Bobberg.

We just interviewed him a couple days ago and we. It is a book that our, our whole community and in Pinnacle leads by. So we say we're a community of generosity. But I love this idea of leading with how can I support you instead of showing up thinking what am I going to get? It is what am I going to give? And when you do that, so many more doors open and you're able to make an impact for a lot more people and including yourself.

Yeah, the go give inspiration to all. And I'm happy to send your whole community my book connected to goodness. I'll sign it, send it to or they're going to say no, but I know somebody that can help you. Meanwhile, you may be addressing, you know, for example, if I had a business and I wanted to sell to, you know, beautiful women in their 30s that are trapeze artists, you'd be a perfect avatar. But if you had a closed mind, I'd be wasting a thousand times the energy trying to sell you my trapeze shoes because you'll never say yes because you have a closed mind. Meanwhile, you may have six friends with open minds that know 30 women like yourself and that would I could sell 30 shoes to. But they're not a trapeze artist. They might be an 80 year old man who just happened to be a trapeze coach when he was younger and I didn't know about it, but he had an open mind and helped me. This is how you scale a business. This is how you thrive. Open mind, open hearts, open hands. Ask big, ask often.

Oh my gosh. Wow. That was worth the whole show, David. I mean that was absolutely brilliant. I think drop the yes but anytime you feel a yes but coming on, it should be a yes and right. Because you're just shutting the door on all the possibilities. So that is so powerful. You know, I've always said I'm living to 123. So now you've inspired me. Maybe I just, I need to up my game.

Yeah, just add one word. I always say I'm going to live at least to 111. So you add the minimums to people.

Oh, at least.

Yeah. So that just becomes a milestone.

Oh, and feeling great too. Let's add that caveat as well.

Healthy, happy, worthy and wealthy.

That's what you'll be, oh, my goodness. So let's look at the other spectrum because I think a lot of people are afraid to take the leaps because they are afraid of failure. How has failure, or just things that haven't maybe worked out to what the original intention was? How has that set you up for later success?

Well, you have to have faith. See, I didn't have faith when I was younger. I lost over $100 million. And because I didn't have faith, you know, I attached my emotions to outcomes and the happiness never came. I used all the hundreds of millions of dollars I had to buy things I didn't need to impress people I didn't like in. What I learned was that pain, mistakes, failures and setbacks, the things that people are afraid of are indicators. They're turn signals. They're not stop signs. They're not something to be afraid of. See, for me, I know that my life's about lessons, and the lessons will keep on coming. And pain is a turn signal or an indicator that I have a lesson to learn to get to a better place or a better position or make my situation better. See, once I determine and shift the paradigm of my perspective that these mistakes, failures and setbacks and pain was simply.

Pushing me, maybe I, I just, I need to up my game.

Yeah, just add one word. I always say I'm going to live me. Or propelling me, not punishing me. My faith grew stronger and the outcomes came greater and my emotions became more inspired to pursue even more. More abundance. So instead of living in a world where I was a victim by pain, that everything was happening to me or even the world of for me, where I was giving to receive in some sort of trade or negotiation, buying things I didn't need to impress people I didn't like. But thinking still that pain was an indicator that I was going the wrong way, I should stop. Once I moved to the world of abundance with full faith that there's more than enough of everything for everyone. And faith became my gps. So what do I mean by that? A GPS will tell you, hey, you got off at the wrong exit. Let me reroute you to where you want to go. Or it'll say, hey, you got a flat tire, traffic has changed. Let me reroute you to where you want to go. Or it'll say, hey, bozo, you're at the donut shop, you're supposed to be at the gym. Let me reroute you and get you back into shape. See, faith is even greater than a GPS because not only when it gets off at the wrong exit, or you have a flat tire, a setback, a mistake, or. Or you end up at the donut shop instead of the gym, not only will it reroute you, but it actually knows a better destination for you. And this is where faith comes into mind, because we have attached our emotions to an outcome. And when we don't get into the school that we want, or we don't get the job that we want, or the money doesn't come fast enough, or our relationship, our dream girl doesn't love us, we immediately say, oh, I was wrong. Let's quit, let's stop. Instead of, oh, my goodness, you know, I didn't get into that school because there's a better school for me. I didn't get that job because there's a better job for me. I didn't get that house because there's a better house for me. And this is how gps and faith utilize themselves in order to expand and grow. You now live in the world of more than enough, of everything for everyone. And you trust that the fact that if you are enjoying the consistent, persistent pursuit of what you want, that you'll end up somewhere better.

That is. That's really, really profound. I. It is that those. When we have this ideal in our mind of how exactly we want it to turn out, and when it doesn't work, we, you know, oftentimes people will project that experience on their future. If this happened, well, then this is not going to work. And what you're really saying is that wall is opening up a new door for maybe an even better possibility, something that you hadn't even dreamed of, happened.

To me all the time. And I will tell you that I just get excited when I make a mistake or have a setback or a failure, that something bigger and brighter and better is coming, or my position or situation will get bigger and brighter because of the lessons that I learned. And I'm always seeking light, love and lessons and everything. And the key to that, to me, is with the lens of productivity that I'm always looking to see how much value I can provide. A lens of accessibility, which is a duality of how accessible am I to others like yourself and your community. And how am I accessing what I want? How am I receiving? Because I can't give what I don't receive. And then, most importantly, as you know, my lens of gratitude. Gratitude's a superpower. It allows me to find the light, the love, and the lessons and everything I can learn to love what I do. I have Activity I've paid for activity I don't get paid for, activity I plan activity I don't have planned. And I'm seeking the love, the light and the lessons at all times through that kaleidoscope of productivity, accessibility and gratitude.

That is fantastic. Have you ever read the book the Go Giver?

Yes, I love that book by Bob Berg.

We just interviewed him a couple days ago and it is a book that our whole community in Pinnacle leads by. So we say we're a community of generosity. But I love this idea of leading with how can I support you instead of showing up thinking what am I going to get? It is what am I going to give? And when you do that, so many more doors open and you're able to make an impact for a lot more people, including yourself.

Yeah, the go get inspiration to all and I'm happy to send your whole community my book Connected to Goodness. I'll sign it, send it to ship it to everyone or ebook audiobook. Just email me davidmeltzer.com I'll send it out to you. It's all free, don't worry.

Oh, would love that. Would love that. So we'll definitely make arrangements for that. What do you think is the biggest roadblock? When you talk to business owners all the time, what do you feel is that one thing that keeps business owners from getting to that next level or reaching their dreams?

It's the understanding of time. And so incorporated in there is the ego based consciousness. So let me explain. If a business was a pond and you start off with one lily in the pond and you know, I told you that it's going to take you 20 years to fill your pond. You know, after a year there would be two lilies. And most people look at that and like, oh, this business isn't working. And after two, another year there'd be four lilies and then everybody would say it's not working. Very few people make it to 18 years in a business because at 18 years the lily pond is only 25% full. And by that time most people have started putting their attention and intention into what other people think, what they don't want, what's missing? All the ego based consciousness of, you know, the needs of the ego and they quit. Well, here's the saddest thing is that after 18 years you're finally aware that you have progress. But you're in the next year, you're 50% of the way there in year 19. And in year 20, in year 19, believe it or not, more people quit than Ever. They're that close. They're one year away from a doubling again and getting to what? Completely full. And here's the saddest part. In year 21, you need two ponds of business. And in year 22, that's four ponds of business. And if you there are no overnight successes. There is segmentation of success. There's acceleration, growth, and compound interest from the speed in which we learn the lessons through doing the business. And there is no overnight success. When I built my brand four years ago at the Super Bowl, I was helping Gary Vaynerchuk with his sports agency and he said, you would have a phenomenal brand, Dave online, on Instagram. And I'm like, come on, I'm a middle aged mutant turtle. Who's gonna watch me? He said, well, let me help you. I said, fine. He said, what would be your objective? And I understand segmentation. Cause I built businesses, scaled businesses, and I know that I can work hard, but everybody can work hard. What makes me such a great business person is I can work long, right? I'm patient, I'm consistent and persistent. I don't attach my emotions to an outcome that has to happen in one year. I'm okay with a 20 year plan. Well, I told him I need two ambassadors to my content a year. He said, what? He said, you only want two people? I said, I need two ambassadors. I need two people a year that will tell. Two people. You got to listen to Dave Meltzer's podcast, the Playbook. You got to watch elevator pitch, two minute drill, office hours. You got to listen to his speeches, read his four books. You gotta dig into Dave Meltzer. I need just two people a year that will get me two more people. And he said, really? I said, yeah, because in 20 years I'll be the most popular 70 year old on the Internet. He's all, how do you figure that? I said, well, if you know exponential growth 2 times 2 times 2 times 2 to the 20th power is 2 million people getting me 2 million people. Not followers, but people who will stand up, engage in all the content to make a lot of money, help a lot of people and have a lot of fun. This is the secret sauce that entrepreneurs are missing because they quit. 99% of the people quit before they are 25% of the way there. Another 99% of the 1% quit before they're 50% of the way there's. Then the 1% of the 1% get to experience the hockey stick of exponential growth and acceleration. They keep doubling and doubling and doubling and they end up a trillionaire like Jeff Bezos or, you know, all these guys that are flying up to the outer space. You know, Branson and all the great entrepreneurs that we know, Elon Musk, they all think long.

Yeah. Wow. It is a marathon, not a sprint. We're in this quick fix society and people put so much pressure on themselves. This is such an important message. And I had the honor of talking with Richard Branson a few years ago because I was the emcee at Traffic and Conversion, and he said, you know, we only have so many days on this earth, so you might as well go right for the top. And, you know, obviously this was before he was headed to space, but he absolutely did that. It was a long journey to get there, for sure.

Yes.

Staying the course. Staying the course. Wow. So we're definitely going to be tuning in to your shows. I want to get my. Your books into my community, and I would definitely love to have you speak at one of our big events that we lead. David. I mean, I know, and I'm sure we're going to hear after everyone hears this podcast that they would be so excited to listen to you on stage.

I would love it. I'm getting back on stage. Has been so much fun recently to be there in person and virtually. So however I can be of service, please let me know. I do always have one last piece of advice, the best piece of advice that I've ever received, and I pass it on and share it to everyone I meet. If you want to make a lot of money, help a lot of people and have a lot of fun. If you want to enjoy every day by being consistent, persistent in the pursuit of your potential, not what other people want or what's missing or what you don't want. It's really simple. Be kind. Be kind to your future self and do good deeds. I promise you, you will allow everything to come your way. I appreciate the time, Allison. I appreciate your community. Please reach out to me. Davidmeltzer.com thank you.

Wow. What a way to wrap things up here. Be kind. Be kind to those around you. Be kind to yourself. Wow. This has been so inspiring. You've totally inspired me and thank you for taking the time. I know you've got a lot going on here. We can't wait to tune into your shows. Those of you that are listening, thank you for being here today. If you love this episode, definitely share a review and share this with all the business owners that you know that need these messages. And until next time, get out there, elevate yourself, because you are worth it. Bye, everybody. If you enjoyed this episode of the Scale or Fail Show, I invite you to watch my episode with Vishen Lakhiani, who is the founder of Mindvalley, talking about breaking through and what are some of the tools he's used to make that happen and to create an unbelievable enterprise right over there. We always overestimate what we can do in one year, but we underestimate what we can do in three years. And so you always want to think three years ahead. So all our business planning, all my personal goal setting, is always three years ahead. It's never one year. And know that you're naturally going to underestimate. So when I write down my goals for three years, I then think, well, what.

What happens if I could double this and then I double that?

So.