David Meltzer: Empowered Over A Billion People | The Tyler Wagner Show #1027

Alright everyone, welcome back to another episode. Today we have David Meltzer with us. So welcome to the show, man.

Hey, thank you so much, Tyler Wagner Wagner. My name is Dave Meltzer. I am a speaker, author, entrepreneur on a mission to empower over a billion people to be happy. I'm doing that through my books, my TV shows, my movies, my coaching, my free training, which I've done for over 21 years. And my mission to empower others will be through 1,000 people like you to empower 1,000 people to empower 1,000 people. So thank you for having me on, and thank you for everything you do to help empower others to empower others to be happy, to make a lot of money, help a lot of people, and have a lot of fun.

Of course, man. And grateful to have you on. So there's 3 main things I want to talk about in this interview. So first one, kind of like the origin, like how did you decide on the word happy? Right? Because you say it's a million or billion people happy. So what about happiness is like the core foundation for you?

So happiness encompasses to me the process of enjoying the consistent, every day, persistent without quit pursuit of your own potential. So many people are pursuing what other people want, what's missing, what they don't want. They've lost focus on what they want, who they can help, who could help them, how to get it done, and even the prioritization of what's important to them. They're so focused in on their urgency of change and all the void shortages and obstacles. They see pain as a punishment. Not as an indicator that you have a lesson to learn, propelling us into a better place, a better position. In other words, they're searching for their why. When, when you're truly happy, you can apply your why to everything you do.

Okay. I love that. And then let's go into like your story because it is fascinating. So I'll just, I'll actually say kind of what the talking point is. And then I'd love like all the details because it's pretty crazy. So you grew up poor, you became a millionaire 9 months after law school, and then you lost over $100 million, which is just like, I don't know, that's crazy. And then, um, you know, after that, I think you really self-reflect. So to kind of start back, how, how'd you lose $100 million? Like what happened there?

Yeah. So first of all, I lost it because I didn't ask for help. I lived in ignorant arrogance, knowing that I didn't know what I didn't know, but pretending like I knew everything. And those lessons were learned through a journey of a terrible relationship with money. You see, I believed because I grew up with poor and because I wanted to buy my mom a house and a car, because I was happy growing up and I thought the only times I wasn't happy were revolved around financial distress, the car would break down or we couldn't afford summer camp. That the last corner piece of happiness was money. And so I lived in this world where money bought love and happiness. And it was reaffirmed 9 months out of law school when I was a millionaire and I bought my mom a house. It was reaffirmed when we sold the first company that I worked with for $3.4 billion in 1995. It was affirmed when I made hundreds of millions of dollars in the internet and working as CEO of Samsung's first phone division, owning a golf course, a ski mountain. It was affirmed when I ran the most notable sports agency in the world, which they made the movie Jerry Maguire about. So not only did I have multi-millions of dollars, but I had access to things that even money couldn't buy. And so in my world of ignorant arrogance, where I knew I didn't know what I didn't know, I was a fraud because I arrogantly told people or at least let them think that I knew everything, that I was Midas, that everything I touched turned to gold. I had these 3 beautiful children. I had married my dream girl from the 4th grade. I had 33 homes in San Diego, a ski mountain, whatever I wanted I could afford to buy. But the truth is, I was living in a world for me. I was living in a world buying things that I didn't need to be happy. I was buying things to impress people I didn't even like to be happy. I was miserable, surrounding myself with the wrong people and the wrong ideas, doing the wrong things. And thanks to 3 different red flags in my life, I always say 3 different times that people didn't give me a yes for an answer, that people who truly cared about me told me the truth about myself, that I was ignorant and arrogant. Thanks to those 3 red flags, I shifted my paradigm and perspective. Even though I lost over $100 million, I was able to make it back the right way with the right purpose, the right passion, and the right type of profitability.

Wow, that's incredible. So I'm curious, 'cause Jerry Maguire is one of my favorite movies, and I'm sure maybe that's true for a lot of people, I don't know, but I grew up like watching that movie with my dad and stuff. So how did that come to be? Like, how did that conversation start?

Yeah. So that conversation started with Lee Steinberg, who is the main character, the Tom Cruise who went to Berkeley, went to Berkeley Law School, had a vision of being a sports agent to create social impact, to create social change. And Cameron Crowe was extremely intrigued by Lee and the firm, and so he followed him around to create that story. What makes Jerry Maguire so interesting is most people list it on their favorite sports films of all time. Now, mine's Rudy, but mine are mostly Piso and Anspaugh, right? Rudy, Hoosiers, movies like that. Because to me, Jerry Maguire is a love story with a backdrop of sports. And why that movie is so important to me is working as, you know, one of the key sports executives over the years, I learned that sports is not an industry. It's truly a backdrop, right? You— if you want to get into an industry, technology, social market, media, marketing, advertising, sponsorship, coaching. These are all things that are in the backdrop of sports. You know, somebody that does, you know, advertising in sports can do advertising in music, can do advertising for automobiles. So Jerry Maguire was the first proof that you could sell something in the backdrop of sports and suck in men and women with a backdrop of sports for the emotional connection that you gathered.

That's awesome. Okay. Um, and then I wanted to talk about your 4 core values because I feel like that's kind of like your story of losing the $100 million and coming back. I'm assuming through all that turbulence, let's call it, um, you know, these 4 core values is kind of what you've become in a sense. So can you describe those?

Yeah, my wife told me to take stock in who I was and what I want to become, and so I came up with 4 4 core values that led to 5 daily practices. And the 4 core values were gratitude— that is the superpower of life. Gratitude is the power to find the light, the love, and the lessons in everything and determine whether it's worth the time for something that you may energetically or genetically not be aligned with, but still want to put the effort into finding it. And I use a great chain of bleeding to figure out, hey, if this is something that feeds me, I'm going to find the light, the love, and the lessons. If it's something bleeds me, I'm not going to. So gratitude gives you perspective. It's a superpower. Forgiveness is the second one, empathy. And the key to forgiveness is that you don't forgive other people because they deserve it. You forgive other people because you deserve it. And the only one person you have to forgive is yourself. And forgiveness is so important because it gives you peace. It clears the interference between you and what you already are. It clears the interference between your happiness, your health, your wealth, and your worthiness. It is the cleanser, the peace that allows you to be at center and neutral to plateau and grow every day. And the third value is accountability. And counterintuitive, accountability gives you control. Accountability gets rid of the voids, the shortages, and the obstacles, gets rid of living in liability with blame, shame, and justification. It allows you to live above the line. And accountability, where I ask myself two questions: what did I do to attract this to myself? And two, what am I supposed to learn from it? Once again, indicating that pain allows us to learn and move to a better place a better position or make our situation better. It's not a punishment. And then finally, fourth was effective communication, which leads to inspiration that I'm connected to the greatest source of light, love, and lessons. I'm connected to an omniscient, all-powerful, all-knowing source that cares about me as much as I care about my children. The only difference is, instead of being ignorant and arrogant now, because I know there is that source, I live in ignorant humility. Knowing that I don't know what I don't know, but I'm blessed to be connected to and through the greatest power, the greatest source, the omniscient, all-powerful source that cares as much about me as I care about my own children. That faith allows gratitude, empathy, accountability, and effective communication to create inspiration in my life, to live in spirit, connected to and through, allowing me to receive everything that I dream of and give it away. The only way we know what we have is to acknowledge what we have. When we acquire the knowledge, the only way to acquire the knowledge is to give it away. And through appreciation, the ability to not take for granted what other people are wishing for and not take for granted for what we're wishing for, we're able to accelerate, grow, appreciate, learn, and to most importantly, be happy.

So really my last question for you for this interview is like, what's current for you? Like, what are you most excited about right now? Are you involved in like multiple businesses? Kind of like, what's your life look like now that you've had success, you've lost it, you got it back, and now you kind of seem like happy and at peace with things. So yeah, what's your life look like now?

So now it's about my mission. So how can I create enough content? So my books and my coaching and my— I do free trainings for over 21 years every Friday. I have one of the top podcasts in the world, both the entrepreneur one and a sports one. I have a you know, stadium podcast at SoFi Stadium studio. I have a studio at the Wynn in the lobby with Blue Wire for my sports podcast. I have movies, I have several TV shows. I'm the executive producer of Elevator Pitch with Entrepreneur Magazine. I am the star and executive producer of Two Minute Drill, a pitch-only show where they give $50,000 in cash and prizes. And then my newest show on Bloomberg Television. Office Hours is the first late-night TV show for entrepreneurs. So I bring the biggest billionaires like Tilman Fertitta, millionaires, entrepreneurs, you know, like Rob Dyrdek, Sadhguru, Cameron Diaz, celebrities, athletes, entertainers, Apollo Ohno, Marshall Falk. I bring the greatest names in entertainment and sports and business to talk about their entrepreneurial success and giving advice on how they got to where they are, not just in TV, movies, football, baseball, gold medals, but whatever, how they are successful and carry the spirit of excellence into monetizing it in the business world. So between the books, the training, the podcast, the coaching, I, you know, am here available to be of service. david@dmeltzer.com. I actually am one of the few people I send free books to everyone, ebook, audiobook. I sign copies, pay for shipping and the book. Anyone that emails me, david@dmelzer.com, I'd be happy to send that to you. I am on a mission to find 1,000 people like Tyler Wagner Wagner who will empower 1,000 people to empower 1,000 people to make a lot of money, help a lot of people, and have a lot of fun. In other words, enjoy the consistent, persistent pursuit of their potential and be happy.

I think we can leave it there. Thank you again, man. Appreciate it.

Tyler Wagner, thank you so much.