David Meltzer - Co-Founder of Sports 1 Marketing | When You Lose Everything

By the time I was 30, you know, I went from owning 33 homes in San Diego alone, owning a ski mountain, a golf course, to living in a rented house with rented furniture and one car, 3 daughters under 8 years old, and a pregnant wife with my 4th child. I lost everything, which was proof that not only was there a currency of money, but there was a currency of— Dave Meltzer, co-founder and CEO of SportsOne. He started with nothing and yet became a multimillionaire. He's written 2 bestselling books on the subject of success. My mom was a single mom who raised 6 kids, worked 2 jobs just so we could eat. My father left when I was 5. I was born into the world of not enough, but my life of not enough had enough love. It just didn't have enough money. It was the only thing that was missing in my life. Anytime I wasn't happy or I caught my mom crying was because of a financial stress. And so I created a new perspective on life. Why me? Why not me? But Through the why me perspective, I created a try me strategy.

World of infinity plus one. Explain to me what that is, how you came to the conclusion this was something that should be practiced, and how to actually practice it.

As I moved into the world of abundance, I realized.

What is your take on those habits that will actually get you to the finish line and then some?

I think there's a reconciliation about fifty-fifty between.

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You know, I like to start, uh, by talking about the worlds that I've lived in because I believe I've lived in Yeah. I grew up in 3 worlds. The first was the world I was born into. My father left when I was 5. I was born into the world of not enough. My mom was a single mom who raised 6 kids, worked 2 jobs, packed my dinner in a paper bag lots of nights so that she could fill up turnstiles at convenience stores with greeting cards just so we could eat. But my life of not enough had enough love. It just didn't have enough money. And in fact, that's where I decided that money bought love and happiness because it was the only thing that was missing in my life. And anytime I wasn't happy or I caught my mom crying was because of a financial stress— car broke down, dishwasher, couldn't go to summer school or camp or whatever it was that I wanted to do. And so I created a new perspective on life of having a skill. scarce existence of why me, why not me, and why does everyone else have. But through the why me perspective, I created a try me strategy, and I started to enjoy the consistent, persistent pursuit of my potential. Unfortunately, like many, I didn't know what I didn't know, and so I picked a potential that had an immediate love attached to it, which was football. I loved football, so I decided that I would enjoy the consistent, persistent pursuit of my potential as an NFL star, and it served me well. I got a scholarship to go to college, but very quickly in college I realized that I had reached close to my potential, that an average Division III college football player was probably as close as I could get to my potential. And so I shifted that perspective. In order, one, to be a doctor, and then realized doctors had to be in hospitals, where my brother gave me a great piece of advice that you may want to write down: be more interested than interesting. Because I was pre-med and I didn't realize doctors had to be in hospitals, which I find is funny because I ran the most notable sports agency in the world. And still today, people come up to me and tell me they want to be a sports agent and they don't know anything about it. They know about as much as I knew about being a doctor. But eventually, I graduated law school keeping my options open, and I got 2 job offers, one for $150,000 to be an oil and gas litigator, the other a $250,000 sales compensation package to sell legal research online. And this is when I transitioned from the world of not enough to the world of just enough. But before I transitioned, I had to learn one more lesson. as I went to my mom and asked her, what should I do? I want to buy you a house and a car. I want to complete your happiness. This is the only thing that's missing in our life. This is going to buy us complete happiness. And she told me that the internet was a fad, that it never was going to work. I say that for people who believe in crypto or NFTs. So many people, if they're telling you that— my mom actually told me the internet was a fad. But I ended up realizing that just because someone loves you, Doesn't mean they give you good advice. That as much as my mom loves me, she's still ignorant and arrogant in some things when it comes to my security, stability, and happiness. She is just as if somebody was manipulating, lying, or cheating me, telling me stuff that she doesn't know about. Second-grade teacher who worked 2 jobs filling up turnstiles at convenience stores with greeting cards does not know about the internet. So I took the job in the internet. And 9 months later, I entered a new world, the world of just enough, where money bought love and happiness. In fact, everything in my life reaffirmed that money buys love and happiness. I ended up selling and being part of that merger, $3.4 billion in 1995 to go to Silicon Valley, raising hundreds of millions of dollars in the middleware space, transcoding the internet onto wireless phones, WAP phones. By the time I was 30, I was deep entrenched into the world of just enough. I was buying things I didn't need to impress people I didn't like, married to my dream, dream girl. I owned cars and houses and golf courses, ski mountains. I owned everything. I was CEO of Samsung's first phone division and also an entrepreneur where I met a guy named Lee Steinberg who ran the most notable sports agency in the world. And I became the CEO of the most notable sports agency in the world. So not only was I a multimillionaire married to my dream girl who I met in the 4th grade, who I asked to go steady through a friend at 6th grade camp who told me no and made fun of me, so I threw an egg at her. Everything in my life in the world of just enough was an affirmation that money buys love and happiness. And through that job of running the most notable sports agency, I met Lee Warren Moon and we spun off a marketing company. And in 2006, I would transition from the world of just enough to a new world, a world of more than enough. My wife threatened to leave me. I surrounded myself with the wrong people and the wrong ideas. Multimillionaire with access to everything, even things that money couldn't buy, reaffirming in every aspect of my life that money was my currency. Money was my object of energy that I put into the flow to get what I want. But I transformed. My wife threatened to leave me. She told me to take stock in who I was and what I wanted to become. I took stock in gratitude and forgiveness and accountability, learning effective communication to be inspired, not just motivated, not just getting up, getting back up, getting started, getting restarted, but inspired, living with the most powerful source, omniscient, source of the world, who cared about me as much as my mom cared about me, who cared about me as much as I cared about my own children. And I reengineered my life. Ironically, in this world of abundance, 2 years after I transitioned from the world of just enough to the world of more than enough, I lost everything, which was proof that I lived in the world of more than enough, proof that not only was there a currency of money, but there was a currency of faith. Faith that pain itself was an indicator pushing me, always propelling me to something better, a better situation, or making my situation better instead of punishment. And that's where I've lived through my journey the last 16 years, in a world of infinity, a world of limitlessness, a world of more than enough where I empower others to empower others to be happy, where I make a lot of money, help a lot of people, and have a lot of fun, where I spend minutes and moments In ego-based consciousness, not days, weeks, months, and years. I am happy, healthy, wealthy, and worthy. I now just determine what I'm doing to interfere with it.

I love that. I love— I've heard this story before as I've listened to many of your— as you've spoken at keynotes and on podcasts. I'm glad, you know, you got to share with my audience. My main question, I think this is like the turning point in your life when you lost the money, when you adopted that mindset, How did you maintain that mindset? How did you realize that gratitude and a life of abundance was something that could actually get you back to where you were before? Because that's not the mindset that you had going in it the first time.

Correct.

So all of a sudden you lose everything. Well, now you're like, oh, let me try that again. But let me try it less, maybe, I don't know, less aggressively. Maybe that's not the right word, but with a completely different mindset. I don't know how you had the cojones to do that. So, I want to get your take on that.

Look, I'll tell you one thing about losing everything is I went from owning 33 homes in San Diego alone, owning a ski mountain, a golf course, to living in a rented house with rented furniture and one car, 3 daughters under 8 years old, and a pregnant wife with my 4th child, which ended up being a son. And the way that I Utilized it was with faith, you know, understanding, like I said, that I didn't know what I didn't know, but I was connected to and through the greatest source of power, omniscient source of all-knowing power that cared more about me than I even cared about my own children. And so when I now went out, I realized what I already was. I am happy, healthy, wealthy, and worthy. I wasn't looking for my why anymore. I was applying my why to the what, the who, the how, and the now. I became very disciplined in what I had learned. I had taken the good and the bad from the past and taken the lessons and effectuated a daily practice of what, who, how, now, and apply my why. And so I got very clear, very balanced, and very focused. I created all types of different systems. I started to meditate. I started to use an unwinding routine. I started using an adaptable routine with non-negotiables. You know, one of the main changes in my life is understanding I had control of my mindset, that I had control of the heartset, how I felt, and I had control of my activities, the productivity, accessibility, and gratitude. I had control of these things. What was I doing to interfere with my control through the need to be right, offended, separate, inferior, superior, anxious, frustrated, angry? guilty and worried? What was I doing to create resistance, voids, and shortages in my life? Instead, realizing what I was and what I was connected to and through in this world of more than enough allowed me to rapidly and accurately start manifesting exactly what I wanted because I stopped paying attention to what other people thought, making fun of me, mocking me, scoffing at me, but instead they started to applaud me when I started looking Not at what was missing or what I didn't want in search of an end, attaching my emotions to an end result, but instead taking all that energy in motion, all that emotion, and attaching it to my mindset, heartset, and my conscious continuum to enjoy the consistent everyday, persistent without quit pursuit of a new potential, my best, my higher self, my faith combined with the currency of money Created an unbelievable abundance of everything that I wanted, and I became very efficient, effective, and statistically successful in my activity I get paid for, activity I didn't get paid for, and even my sleep.

So when you, when you shifted this mindset, I'm also curious because now you teach, so your vision is to help a billion people, and that's 1,000 times 1,000 times 1,000, and that makes sense, and that's what your vision is right now. But for somebody who hasn't ever consumed your content or listened to you, or even where your head was at when you were doing well, how do you break yourself out of the rat race so you can shift your mindset to be more in line with where you're at right now? Because I think that's the biggest issue. Once you're going down the rabbit hole, it's easy to pick up speed. It's easy to learn more, but it's hard to get paycheck to paycheck trying to cover rent. You have kids, you have mortgage. I just need the— I need the better job. I need the— I need the raise. I need the promotion. So how do you get out of that mindset?

With gratitude. Most people take for granted what other people are wishing for. And so I use gratitude. The simple place to start is to say thank you before you wake up, say thank you before you go to bed. Most people think that they can do that. In fact, I tell you, anyone, if you want to change your life, the fastest, most proven way From the greatest thought leaders that I'm blessed to be around, from Deepak Chopra to Oprah Winfrey to Sadhguru to Jack Canfield and Bob Proctor, Brian Tracy, all teach gratitude. If you could say thank you for 30 straight days, it'll change your life. You will not have a different mindset. You won't have obstructions, voids, shortages, and obstacles. You'll start to implement the ability to find the light, the love, and the lessons in everything. You'll start manifesting what you want rapidly and accurately. You'll start to see the world differently. start increasing the momentum of faith in your life that the pain that you have, the setbacks, failures, the bills, all the different challenges that you have are simply pushing you to a better place instead of stopping you or punishing you. But it all starts with gratitude. But here's the saddest thing about gratitude, Scott, is that it sounds so easy to say thank you for 30 straight days before you go to bed and when you wake up. It took me, me who teaches this, 9 months. And so I always tell people, who here thinks they can do that? Everyone raises their hand. By tomorrow morning, half of the people won't do it. By the next 3 days from now, nobody will be doing it. It's so difficult. And so you have to start practicing gratitude. You have to start shifting the mindset, the heartset, and what you consciously are doing to find the light, the love, and the lessons. You have to start realizing the law of gravity applies to you. Even though the world's spinning, hurling, and rotating at such a speed you should be thrown off of it, you're at the right place at the perfect time. You are happy, healthy, wealthy, and worthy. You need to shift your paradigm and perspective to what you're doing to interfere with it. So utilizing the Law of Goya, G-O-Y-A, you got to get off your ass, and instead of trying to make it happen, attaching your emotions to an outcome, you have to attach all of that energy to clearing the interference. By recognizing the needs of the ego, the need to be right, offended, separate, inferior, superior, anxious, frustrated, angry, guilty, resentful, worried. Worrying is wishing for what you don't want. You know how much time, emotion, value, and money is wasted on worrying? I used to sit in law school and say, God, I hope the rules of perpetuity aren't on this test. I would say it again and again, and guess what would show up first? We're actually wishing for what we don't want. So when I can have people institute the law of gravity, institute the Law of Goya, now they start to realize with that momentum, with the awareness that the Law of Attraction works, the Law of Allowance works. And so when we start with gratitude, we move to forgiveness, which leads us to accountability, which leads us to effective communicating, effectively communicating with the greatest source of light, love, and lessons, appreciating what we receive, acknowledging it by giving it away. In other words, Allowing us to be inspired in spirit. Gratitude, forgiveness, accountability, and inspiration will allow things to come more rapidly and accurately, which creates that momentum, which then makes things easier and easier and easier, allowing it to aggregate and accelerate on itself.

As you all know, Success Story is part of the HubSpot Podcast Network. The HubSpot Network has incredible podcasts like the Goal Digger Podcast. If you are looking for a new podcast, You have to check it out. It's hosted by Jenna Kutcher. The Goal Digger Podcast helps you discover your dream career with productivity tips, social strategies, business hacks, inspirational stories, and so much more. I tune into them every single week. They just did an episode on a 4-day workweek experiment that they actually conducted in their own office. A few other recent episodes I enjoyed were on how to hire A-players in your organization in 14 days or less. Jenna Kutcher is an OG in the podcasting game. You got to go check out the Goal Digger Podcast at the HubSpot Podcast Network or wherever you get your podcasts. And you mentioned a really interesting point, how it's so simple to just take that first step and just be gracious and have gratitude for everything that's in our lives. But most people don't take that step. So follow-up question to that is, why do you think we're so keen on self-sabotage? What's the reason?

Well, number one, it's understanding time and how things aggregate upon themselves, how they compound in interest. Let me give you an example. When we do positive things, we expect an immediate result. When we do negative things, we never think there'll be any impact on us. So, and the reason is because of time. So if I was going to start a business, for example, and I said to myself, this is going to take 20 months, in order to break even on my business, to get profitable? Well, the hardest part to understand is if I do all the right things, it'll take about 90% of the time just to get to a point where we can be aware that we've even made progress. So what happens in 18 months of the 20 months? People tell you you're wasting your time. You have doubts, self-sabotage, because we don't see the result. So 99% of the people get in their own way, create interference between them and what's actually going to happen, and they quit. Here's the even sadder part. Everything doubles upon itself under the theory of 72, Einstein compound interest theory. So at 18 months, you finally see a minimum result. Now you're really doubting it because you're like, I've worked 18 months, I'm never going to get there in 20 months. Well, in month 19, you get to 50% of the way there. You've doubled the percentage. But yet in the human aspect of perception and mental disability of self-sabotage, this is when we grab onto what's missing, what we don't want, and what other people think. And another 99% of the 1% quit at 19 months, even though if they could see reverse, they'd realize they're almost there. And of course, those who have the enjoyment of the consistent, persistent pursuit of their potential, that they've instituted faith as their currency, that know that they're happy, healthy, wealthy, and worthy, they get there in 20 months. They get to profitability. Here's the best part. In month 21, you get 200%. In month 22, 400%. So the key to self-sabotage is to understand that I'm enjoying the pursuit. I am not attaching the pursuit to an end, which may or may not make me happy. And when we learn to be happy by finding the light, the love, and the lessons, by being consistent and persistent, In the pursuit of our potential, not allowing time to aggregate and compel or to resist ourselves. Instead, realizing that sooner or later at the right place at the perfect time, if I utilize the Law of Goya, the Law of Attraction and allowance will bring exactly what I want or even better at the right place at the perfect time.

One thing that you also speak about often is— actually, no, I want to first touch on one thing in terms of faith. You mentioned faith a lot, and I actually thought this was an interesting question because I hear a lot of people speak about the most successful habits of high performers, entrepreneurs, individuals. But you mentioned faith as one of the things that is sort of like that North Star metric for success. Is faith the most important mindset, habit, thing that you have to adhere to if you want to be successful, or are there more tangible things like grit, perseverance, tenacity? What is your take on those habits that will actually get you to the finish line and then some?

Yeah, I think there's a reconciliation about 50/50 between patience and persistence. And so faith will give you patience, persistence will make it happen. The problem is when you're persistent, you're going to make mistakes, failures, and setbacks are going to occur. Pain is going to be the indicator that you're learning and growing and expanding and propelling yourself to a better place. Faith is what allows you to see that pain, setbacks, failures as progress, not punishment. And therefore, pain and persistence and patience are so closely tied together that without the Law of Goya, without persistence, you'll never get there. And without faith, you'll never get there. Because If you stick into the learning curve or the learning zone and without faith, you'll quickly enter the anxiety zone, which you'll feel like you're being punished and you'll go back down to your comfort zone. And if you do have faith when you're persistent and you're out in the learning zone and you get to the anxiety zone, you'll continue to trudge forward and just get better at what you do. And things get easier and easier. They accelerate, they grow and compound on themselves. So keep doing the right things. Being kind is one of them. So faith and persistence are the 50/50 combination necessary to make it.

And one other concept that you speak about, which I thought was interesting, which I've never heard of before, is the world of infinity plus 1. So explain to me what that is, because I've— this, you know, we do enough interviews, you start to hear threads of similarities between, you know, different people and how they teach over a But I've never heard this before. So explain what this is, how you came to the conclusion this was something that should be practiced, and, and how to actually practice it.

Well, you know, as I moved into the world of abundance, I realized what infinity was and what unlimited— unlimited, like more than enough of everything for everyone. And I started challenging my own perspectives, the world that I lived in. If I truly was in an abundant world that had no limits, It reminded me when I was 5 years old and I got into arguments with my siblings and they would, you know, well, you know, 10. Oh, really? 12. Oh, 20, 100, 1,000. Oh, infinity. Oh yeah? Infinity plus 1. Whoa, infinity plus 2. And so I started realizing I was asking for crumbs, that as big as my dream and my mission of empowering over a billion people to be happy, I meet Sadhguru, Who, by the way, is going to be on the first episode with Cameron Diaz of Office Hours on Bloomberg Television and Amazon. But he's an infinity— he truly gets it because he almost mocked me for thinking too small when I said, I'm going to empower over a billion people to be happy. He's like, well, I'm empowering the whole world. It may take me multiple lifetimes, but I'm glad you're going to take at least a billion people for me, Dave. I only got 6.4 billion others. Well, I started thinking. Sadhguru's in infinity plus one. He lives in limitlessness and infinity. And I had to do that with respect of all man-made constructs— time, money, all the things that we have built to be a reality in the man-made construct of light, meaning the time that it takes a particle of light to get from the sun to the Earth, 186,000 miles per second. This cannot create the construct of what? My imagination. It can create a construct for my reality. But I like my reality to surpass other people's imagination. I see it as a key indicator that I'm thinking infinity plus 1 when people laugh at me, scoff at me, make fun of me, tell me that that's crazy or impossible, the same way I would have if Jeff Bezos 25 years ago would have told me, selling books out of his garage, that he was going to be the richest man on earth and make a trillion bucks. I would have thought crazy. But no, he's living in infinity plus 1. He understands abundance, limitlessness. And that's what I try to teach people, to look at what you think is big right now and tell yourself, plus one, I'm asking for crumbs.

I love that. Okay, very good. I wanted to do a couple quick rapid fire. You spoke about a lot of stuff, a lot of great value. I want to also give you a second to speak about what you're working on now. So of course, drop some socials if people haven't been following you or your website, wherever you want to send people. But I know you're working on a ton of projects as well. So if people are going to go and check out, you know, David Meltzer, what are they going to go find?

Yeah, so they're going to find free coaching. For over 25 years, I've been training people for free for 25 years. All my content goes on a top podcast I called, called The Playbook on every platform. I have The Playbook Entrepreneurs, The Playbook, and I have The Playbook Sports and Entertainment with Blue Wire. I have a studio at the Wynn, a studio at SoFi. stadium, the new stadium in Los Angeles, a studio in Orange County. I got books out there, 4 books, all bestsellers for you. I give for free. I have TV shows. I'm executive producer of Elevator Pitch with Entrepreneur Magazine. I have 2 Minute Drill on Bloomberg and Amazon in season 3. Try out, $50,000 of cash prizes every episode. Try out. I'm looking for the best pitches. It's not a funding show. It's a competition. Who could pitch the best? And I also have Office Hours with billionaires, millionaires, entrepreneurs. It's the first late-night entrepreneurial show from Cameron Diaz to Sadhguru to Tilman Fertitta to Ray J to Ja Rule to Clinton Sparks to John Hennessy, the chairman of Alphabet. It's the biggest names in the world, the biggest names.

Big names.

And it's on Bloomberg and it's on Amazon. All my content, you can email me directly. To get any of these, we have over 50,000 people registered for training, david@dsmeltzer.com. If you lose all my handles, @DavidMeltzer, just Google me, David Meltzer, and you'll find a place to find me. dsmeltzer.com, david@dsmeltzer.com. Remember, most importantly though, be kind to your future self and do good deeds and be happy.

Amazing, man. Amazing. Okay. Can I do a couple quick rapid fire to pull out some soundbites? All right, cool. Okay. Biggest challenge you've had in your personal life. What was it? How'd you overcome it?

Always ego. I still have it, and I overcome it by stopping, dropping, and rolling. Identify what the ego is, stopping, breathing through my ears and my mouth, and rolling in the right trajectory.

Your anecdotes are on fire. You got, you got this, you got this stuff mapped out. I love it. Very good. Okay. If you had to choose one person, there's obviously been a ton of mentors in your life, but you have to pick one. Who was it? What did they teach you?

My mom taught me how to be a parent, how to create a true legacy for myself with unconditional love.

Okay. A book or podcast that inspired you that you'd like to recommend people go check out?

Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich book.

Amazing. Tell your 20-year-old self one thing. What would that be?

Same thing as my 30, 40, and 50-year-old self. Ask for help. Ask for help.

And last question, what does success mean to you?

Enjoying the consistent, everyday, persistent, without-quit pursuit of my potential. That is true success.