Founder's Story - Empowering One Billion, A Founder's Story with David Meltzer | S2: E12

Episode Date: January 23, 2024

David Meltzer is the Co-founder of Sports 1 Marketing, having previously served as CEO of the renowned Leigh Steinberg Sports & Entertainment agency, and now is a go-to speaker for events worldwide. He also helps organizations create a path to closing more sales in order for them to grow and scale. Subscribe to our newsletter so you don't miss out on exclusive interviews and special content: https://foundersstory.beehiiv.com/subscribe For more info on guests and future episodes visit pix11.com/impact and https://fox5sandiego.com/fox-5-partners/impactful/Our Sponsors:* Check out PrizePicks and use my code FOUNDERS for a great deal: www.prizepicks.com* Check out Rosetta Stone and use my code TODAY for a great deal: www.rosettastone.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Welcome to Founders Story, the podcast where trailblazing entrepreneurs share their extraordinary journeys, uncover the passion, grit, and vision that drive the world of business and innovation. Welcome back everyone to another episode of Founders Story. Going from executive, entrepreneur, founder, to then building your personal brand can be one of the most important things that you do in your career to really meet your impact. That's why today we have a great friend, an amazing mentor. He is incredible. I see him everywhere. I mean, I've seen him in multiple countries, not just in person, but online.

It's really incredible. But David Meltzer, he is the founder of Sports One Marketing, but he also is the David Meltzer personal brand. David, welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. And we're talking about what I try to empower people with is the importance of building a community, utilizing your personal brand no matter who you are and it doesn't have to be a kardashian community to build it's just

a community of people that are going to help each other and know people that can help each other because if you build a community of people that help each other know people that help each other like you and i then you'll have a community of people for a lifetime that will buy from you and sell for you, whether it's a product service solution or brand. I love that. And I love your mission of a billion people. So let's pack up though. Before we get into that, what was that spark that you said, I want to be an entrepreneur? Well, it was really easy. I wanted to make a lot of money to buy my mom a house and a car. I grew up with six kids in Akron, Ohio, and five boys, one girl. My mom used to have to actually pack my dinner in a paper bag in between being a second grade teacher and filling up turnstiles of greeting cards at convenience stores. That's the type of

poverty that I lived in. And so the only time that I didn't feel loved or blessed was when I caught my mom crying because of financial stress, whether it be food, car, dishwasher, or summer camp, there was always a financial loss or scarcity in my home. So I said, I'm going to make a lot of money to buy my mom a house and a car. And so in the journey at a young age of just always seeking not what I was doing, but how much it paid, it led me to entrepreneurship. Even when I graduated law school and got $150,000 job in 1992 to be a oil and gas litigator, I took a job in sales because it paid more than being a lawyer in oil and gas. And so that journey of entrepreneurship was money driven, not to say later on in my life,

I didn't learn lessons about chasing money and money, buying love and happiness. But at first my entrepreneurial journey was for a desire to buy my mom a house and a car and to make as much money as I can. I was willing to shovel poo with my hands six days a week, 12 hours a day. If it was going to buy my mom a house and a car, I would not have cared. Let's go back because I know you love sales. And I think that motivation that you felt is what a lot of entrepreneurs feel. You want to make a better life for yourself, for your family. You want to make money. And then you start to realize your passions and in your missions and what you can do. Let's go back to sales though. What were the

first things that you started selling when you're like, wow, you know what? I'm really good at this. Yeah. So because I named my other two things I started selling was first in college, I sold books. I sold an educational system, which was like $1,200 a year, $100 a month from the time your baby was born until they were 18. So it started with the PIP and CIS books that you would read while the baby was in the stomach. And then finally, it was really an encyclopedia sale with a shelf. But it was a lot of money

because you were financing $1,200 a year for 18 years. And I used my family story of my siblings going to the Ivy Leagues and how education got us out of where we were. And we would buy our leads from hospitals of pregnant women. And I learned sales and I learned to make more money in any of my friends going on two appointments three times a week while i was in college at night a six o'clock p.m appointment and an eight o'clock p.m appointment and i made huge commission checks then ironically in law school i was hit with a recession and so my big internship that paid like eleven hundred dollars a week it dropped out so i sold tennis shoes from 4 a.m. to 9 a.m. incoming calls at Road Runner Sports,

the number one superstore for running shoes. And I was the top salesperson making more money per hour than I made at the law firm from nine to five that I would run over in between. And I was the top sales person selling five hours a day, five days a week. So sales was in my blood. But ironically, what I learned in sales, I created in my own selling system through selling out of law school, making nine in nine months a million dollars. We sold the company for three point four billion billion in 1995. But what I learned was in order to thrive,

in order for people to sell for you and to buy from you, that you had this system. And so I created a five to thrive system that not only will allow you to make a lot of money, but help a lot of people and have a lot of fun. It's my mission to empower over a billion people to be happy. It's the five to thrive system that I can teach people to stimulate interest, transition it, share a vision, but most importantly, to manage and develop a vision.

Whether it's actually a product, service, or solution, or a brand, or a philanthropic cause, you better know how to do all five of these things if you want what you want to thrive. I always tell people that if you learn sales, you'll never not have a job. Like it's probably the most important thing any entrepreneur can have is understanding sales. If they don't know sales, they don't get leads.

If you don't have leads, you generate no revenue. It doesn't matter your impact or what you want to do, but if you cannot sell, you will not exist. So I can totally understand the importance there. Can we dive into, I love your mission of a billion people. That seems like a lot. How did you come up with that? Well, it's over a billion. I don't like people to limit me. I believe in an infinite world. And the way that I came up with it was that I had access to a thousand people like you who empower people yourself. And so although mathematically and defined by time, it'd be impossible for me to reach out to a billion people.

Even the Kardashians can't do that. So what I decided to do, what if I use my five to thrive system to empower a thousand people like you, Dan, to empower a thousand, to empower a thousand, a thousand times, a thousand, a million, a million times, a thousand, a billion. I can create a collective consciousness of over a billion people that know how to utilize the five to thrive system to make more money, help more people and have more fun. I've never met anyone that makes a lot of money, helps a lot of people and has a lot of fun that isn't happy. So I'm going to change the world, not by myself, but I'm going to change the world by the empowerment of others to empower others. And you're a perfect candidate to join our community to do that. Yeah, I love the amplification. So I'm excited to get in there

and find let's go through some challenge that you had at Founders Story. We like to make sure that other people learn something and have a takeaway. And I think learning about what other people's challenges really helps us as an entrepreneur. So walk me through maybe one challenge or one learning that you had that you would wanna tell everyone. Yeah, I learned about giving by losing everything. I lost over a hundred million dollars in 2008

and went bankrupt. My basement had a basement because not only did I have to tell my mom, who the only reason I wanted to be rich was to buy a house for her and a car, that not only was I bankrupt, but I lost her house as well because I forgot to take my name off of title of her home. And through that, I realized that I've been living a false understanding of the more you give, the more you receive. Because it's true. But this is what happens.

If you don't understand receiving, you may give more. But the more you give, the more you're given. But if you're not willing to receive all that you're given, you're going to receive less of what you're given. And pretty soon, you're going to keep receiving less and less compared to what you're giving. And you're going to end up with zero. And so this zero sum game was the lesson that I learned. And so in all business, I learned that not only must I give, but the more that I give, the more that I will be given. And if I ask for more, pray for more, manifest more, whatever it is, then if I'm ready to receive more, I then can give even more of more and then be given more and more and then receive more and more and then ask for even more and more and more.

In other words, instead of living in a zero sum game that ended up in bankruptcy, I learned to live in a more than enough world of value add world where there's more than enough of everything for everyone. If you learn how to receive from the process of giving to be given more and receive more instead of feeling bad, not worthy, all the other things that most people that I coach, Dan, they don't have a problem giving. They don't have a problem working hard. They don't have a problem being kind and gracious. They have a problem receiving because they feel bad

or not worthy of what they've been given. I go through that problem in the past where I have a really hard time receiving, but I have a really good time giving. And it does make you feel offset. It created a lot of resentment. There's a lot of people that I stopped liking, but I realized it was my own fault. I was thinking it was their fault, but it was my fault. They were just receiving.

I was just giving. So I think a lot of people, we can relate to that. And it really does cause a lot of issues. So thank you for sharing and thank you for being so vulnerable. Lastly, I just want to understand your building of your personal brand. I see you everywhere and we run into each other in multiple countries, conferences. I mean, you're really out there putting yourself everywhere. How did you find or what was it that one day you said, this is super important for me and the future. I'm going to put all this because I know there's so much time and effort that goes into it.

People think you just show up and you speak. They don't realize it's so much energy and output every time that you have to do these things. So what was it that made you say, this is important to me? Well, I had branded so many famous people in my life. When I ran Lee Steinberg Sports and Entertainment, the most notable sports agency in the world, I learned about traditional brands, but it was limited to who could have a brand because you had to have access to TV, radio or print. And very few people had access to TV, radio and print.

But now what I realized through Shakespeare, when he said the whole world is your stage, it may have been for him. And he had some premonition or vision of the future that most people of his time did not have. But today it became apparent as well as elusive to everyone that the total addressable community, no matter who you are, you could be a dancing bear, you could be a single mom, you could be a famous sports star. It doesn't matter who you are. You have a total addressable community of 7.6 billion people. And so what I realized from my traditional understanding of marketing and branding

is that I was not gonna pass up an opportunity to be one of the first middle-aged mutant turtles to build a brand and start accessing millions of people for no expense at all, other than capturing who I am, my essence, modifying it for all the platforms, amplifying it in person on the phone via email and media, and then creating a perpetual silo,

a social silo for all those people that resonate with me to come visit me in my own community. Never before has ever in the history of time, the average Joe, like David Meltzer, been able to have a total addressable community at such a low expense of 7.6 billion people. So if you find inside of you, your essence, I say, capture your essence, modify it, amplify it, and perpetuate. You can build a community, a silo, a brand, and you will have a community of people that will buy from you and sell for you for life amazing david thank you so much for being here today on founder's

story there's so many great sound bites and super inspired by you so thank you again and we super appreciate your time thank you for having me and And please, anyone in your community, I would love to sign a book, send it to you, pay for shipping and the book. Just email me david at dmelter.com. For anyone in this beautiful community, I want to send that to you as a gift from me to you. Thanks for having me, Dan. Thank you for tuning in to Founders Story.

Keep exploring, keep dreaming, and join us next time for more inspiring entrepreneurial journeys.