In episode 24 of Wake Up to Wealth, Brandon Brittingham interviews David Meltzer, a renowned entrepreneur and former sports agent. David shares his journey from success to bankruptcy and the valuable lessons he learned along the way. He also emphasizes the importance of asking for help and how it can accelerate your success.
Tune in as they discuss the true meaning of wealth and how to achieve financial freedom through asset management.
David Meltzer is a legendary sports executive and formerly served as CEO of the renowned
Leigh Steinberg Sports & Entertainment agency, which was the inspiration for the movie Jerry Maguire. He is one of the world's top Entrepreneurs, Investors and Business coaches. David has been recognized by Variety Magazine as their Sports Humanitarian of the Year and awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor.
David is the Executive Producer of the Apple TV series 2 Minute Drill and Office Hours. He is also the executive producer of Entrepreneur’s #1 digital business show, Elevator Pitch. David is featured in many books, movies, and TV shows such as World’s Greatest Motivators, Think and Grow Rich and Beyond the Secret featured on Netflix.
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’ll receive. For the past 20 years, David has been providing free weekly trainings to empower others to empower others to be happy
SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS
Brandon Brittingham
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mailboxmoneyb/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brandon.brittingham.1/
David Meltzer
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidmeltzer/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/davidmeltzer11/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmeltzer2/
WEBSITE
Brandon Brittingham: https://www.brandonsbrain.org/home
David Meltzer Enterprises: https://dmeltzer.com/
This is Wake Up to Wealth, a podcast dedicated to helping you change the way you think about wealth. And now here's your host, Brandon Brittingham.
Hey, everybody. Thank you so much for tuning in to another episode of Wake Up to Wealth. Before we get started today, I just have to say thank you to everyone because we have hovered in the top five on Apple Podcasts in the United States for the last 60 days, and we've gotten to the number two position. We're sitting at number three today. So I got to thank everybody out there for tuning in and listening. Never in my wildest dreams is I think I'd have a top five podcast in the United States. So thank you guys so much for your support and tuning in and listening. And it helps me get great guests like I'm having the privilege to have on today. A couple of weeks ago, it's funny how the world works because we coach, um, somebody, both of us coach the same guy. And for years, he's like, I've got to figure out how to get you two in the same room together or get you guys on a pod, something. And what was really cool is we got on together and it was like synergy from the absolute gate. It was really, really cool. And I said, man, we got to do this together. So today I've got a really, really special guest. I'm super excited about this. David Metzler is here with us and I cannot be more excited to have him. Thank you so much.
Brandon Brittingham
Well, congratulations. Uh, one of my podcasts, I've done 1930 episodes and only touched the top five, a few times we hovering in the top 50 in the United States, a lot of times, but, uh, it's quite an accomplishment and it says a lot about your community as well. Uh, so congratulations and yes, uh, you know, we have shared in proximity, uh, great, uh, input and wisdom, uh, and, I can tell the impact that it's had on our friend Devin DeNova and his community. So I am so excited to be here and let's share our ideas and see where exactly we're going.
David Meltzer
Yeah. So, so many things I want to ask you and we've got limited time, but one thing, um, which is, I think is really cool is, uh, the sports agency background that you were in. And I read in your bio that your company was the company that inspired Jerry Maguire. Is that true?
Yeah. So I ran Lee Steinberg sports entertainment and Lee and Troy Aikman and Warren moon, they all were in the movie, Jerry Maguire. And, Cameron Crowe followed the firm around for over a year. Lee, who went to Berkeley, impacted his vision of being this more humanitarian sports agent, which had never been seen before. A lot of the stories were taken from Lee's experience as the most notable sports agent in the world. We are blessed to have that lineage with Cameron Crowe. Tom Cruise and Renee Zellweger and of course Cuba Gooden Jr. to be a part of that project and the history of what has been deemed one of the greatest sports films of all time, but it's actually a love story with the backdrop of sports, which actually made it so good because men and women alike. They love a great love story and we gave permission for men to go to watch a love story and we gave women a permission to go watch a sports film. It's been a big part of my career of using industries, careers, and jobs as backdrop to my passion and my purpose.
Yeah, so I also saw, I've followed your stuff for a while because of Devin, obviously. And I've seen you talk about it, mentioned a few times how you kind of got to the top of the mountain and then lost it all, which I think is part of many entrepreneurial stories, right? Myself included. I'd love for you to just walk our audience through that because I think that's part of everyone's journey.
Yeah, you know, I grew up in a world of not enough single mom, six kids. So I just wanted to be rich. I wanted to buy her a house and a car. And so everything I did from my identity to all that I did say, think, feel, and believe revolved around money. And so, of course, because I do have an extraordinary ability to commit to consistent behavior, I was rich right out of law school. Nine months out of law school, I became a millionaire. And I use that work ethic, that focus, clarity, and balance in my life to facilitate being a multimillionaire. And the only negative of the ability to make over $100 million by the time I was 30 was that I started to actually believe that money could buy love and happiness, that money was my identity. And I was in store for a rude awakening that although I left the world of not enough where everything happened to me, that my money brought me to a world of for me, which I pretended was an optimistic philanthropical world. where the more I gave, the more I received. But in actuality, everything was a trader and negotiation in my life. I actually had more scarcity than the love and abundance of my family upbringing. Although we were financially insecure and desperate at times, I actually, although I was worth over a hundred million dollars, I was living in more scarcity, buying things I didn't need to impress people I didn't like. My richness was not wealth because wealth is actually having your assets. As you know, part of the reason we're in real estate, having our wealth is being able to make more money off of our assets than our expenses. That wasn't the case for me the first time around. For me, entering the world of more than enough, took a hard basement. My basement had a basement. I lost over $100 million, went bankrupt, primarily because of my ignorance and my arrogance. My arrogance that there was always going to be more ways to make money and I didn't need anybody's help. and my ignorance was that I actually knew what I didn't know. And so for me, I learned a valuable lesson that there's only two ways to get what you want in life. One is to help other people get what they want, but two, it's ask people who sit in this situation where you want to be to help you get what you want, to give you instructions and directions. People have already paid the dummy tax like you and I, Brandon. And so it's ironic that we've had the same journey We both understand real estate, but it's not an accident or a coincidence that we're helping the same people get to where they want to be or better.
Yeah, so that's great. I mean, it's. amazing points of clarity on that. So you've, you've done a lot of different things as an entrepreneur, right? You know, there's, I could talk to you for hours about what you've learned, but kind of the journey that you've been on to now, like, what do you think is, is one really big piece of advice that you've learned that you, if, if, and you could give hundreds, don't get me wrong, but if I had to nail you to one today that you said, if you do this, or if I did this, this is the one gem I want to give you.
Ask. Ask for help. Especially with how accessible people are today. I mean, when you and I were younger, it wasn't easy just to reach out to people like us. I mean, we're so accessible. And I just find, even internally in my life, my family, my friends, and my employees, they don't ask enough. And let me explain the infinite loop of abundance to you why it's so important to ask and why it is the number one lesson that I teach myself again and again. It's most people think the more you give, the more you receive. That's absolutely true. But within the context of understanding that, you have to understand the more you give, the more you're given. And so a lot of times we're given things, but it comes in a different form than we wanted it. And so we don't elevate our awareness to, wow, losing everything is actually a gift. Wow, this business deal that didn't go through, this property I wasn't able to acquire, this loan I wasn't able to get, this investment that never happened is something I'm given, not punishment. Then more importantly, those people that are grateful and forgiving, elevate their awareness to what they're given, then a lot of those people aren't worthy of receiving it. They're constantly in the zero-sum game of, I'll give 100 percent to everyone, but you know what? I don't need all of it back. That's good enough for me. Well, if you keep giving 100 percent and only taking 99 percent back, eventually you end up at zero. Then finally, where my piece of advice really hits home and means the most, is that even the people that give more, given more, receive more, they don't ask for more than more. If you don't ask for more than more, then you can't give more than more, be given more than more, receive more than more, and ask for more than more than more. My biggest piece of advice to everyone, 18, 28, 38, 48, 58, 68, and on, Ask for help. Find people in a situation you want to be in. Ask for help. Keep asking for the deal. Keep asking and asking. And I promise you, it'll be the greatest accelerant, aggregate, as well as give you exponentiality of outcomes than you can even imagine.
So real world application, this isn't something you pulled out of the sky. I remember Devin texting me, like I reached out to this guy, David on Instagram. And then he said, and I looked him up and I'm like, what? And he's like, yeah, I'm going to go meet with him. I'm going to ask him for his help. And I was like, Dude, are you sure that wasn't a bot or a VA responded to you? He said, no, no, no, he responded to me. And then I think like three days later, I went on, this has been years ago, obviously, I went on one of your posts, and I commented, and you responded, let me know how I can help. And so that's not fictitious, you're just saying it. A good friend of mine actually did this and formed a relationship with you by reaching out to you on Instagram, which is pretty wild.
It's funny because I still, people don't believe me. I still look at my outbox every day of my emails to make sure every email has an ask. Either, how can I be of service, or join my free Friday training, or would you like one of my books? I'll sign it, send it to you, pay for shipping and the book, which by the way, with your big community and your podcast, please reach out to me, david.dmelzer.com. I will sign a book, send it to you. I will pay for the book and shipping. So reach out if you want to meet up. As you know, Brandon, Devin trusted me, took a train in from Philly to New York City. I did a free meetup to answer questions and provide help to people in New York City. Like 50 people showed up and he pulled me aside and asked me, could I help him, mentor him, coach him, and teach him? Of course, I said yes. I have all types of buckets in order to help people, 90 percent of them are free. but more importantly reach out david at dmelter.com. I promise you I'm here or I know someone to help you.
You know, that's really important that you say that, because I think sometimes as entrepreneurs, and you experienced it, and I know sometimes I experience it too. It's kind of like, man, I don't want to ask anybody for anything. And I will tell you that my life has changed dramatically when I did. I gave a real world scenario over the weekend. I was chasing a really large apartment complex, and I was in the middle of a deal, and I was in the water where I'd never been. called my good friend Bobby Castro. And Bobby's like, hey, I'm in the Bahamas. I'm just getting off a boat. Give me a few minutes. He called me back. He said, give it to me in five minutes. And he said, walk from the deal. And he probably saved me a couple of years of my life. And the best advice he gave me in that phone call was, let the deals come to you. Don't chase. And that came from being at a mastermind and pulling him aside and asking him a question. sparked a connection. He's like, hey, here's my cell phone number. If you ever need anything, call me. So I mean, it's it's I'm the same way. You're the same way. People don't think that exists, but it does. I can't say that enough of the advice you just gave. Don't be scared to ask, man.
It's so funny because Bobby and I are both instructors at the $100 million mastermind. We're really close friends. And I probably have used Bobby for five different deals in the same way. And out of the five deals, he saved me on four and gave me great advice to invest in one, which did really well, by the way. And so just simply by asking, he's probably saved me millions of dollars. But even more importantly, that's hypothetical because I don't know if he actually saved me, but he probably did. But I can tell you the one that he told me to invest in has made me millions of dollars as well. And so you got to have those Bobby Castro's in your life. And most of the people that are billionaires like Bobby, they wouldn't have gotten there without asking other people for help. So you make them feel so good. Like way more than they got plenty of money, but when you call them and say, Hey man, thank you so much. You saved me millions or maybe millions. They actually get greater joy and purpose in your success than they do their own.
Yeah, that's a really good point. That's a really good point. So now you've done, you've done so much, you know, what are you up to nowadays? What, what is, where's your focus?
Yeah. So it's, it's creating content in every way. So podcasts, TV shows, I do interviews, live speeches, over 200 meetups, holding court, masterminds, uh, Every day, I probably do more interviews and content than anyone at least my age. I know that for sure. But more importantly, there's a reason I'm doing it. My purpose is to build a community of people that are here to help one another and know people that can help each other. It's my legacy. I'm on a mission to teach people how to make a lot of money, help a lot of people, and have a lot of fun, to be happy. And I'm finding people like you, Brandon, and Devin, and Bobby, and all the people that are in our inner inner circles, the spheres of influence that are going to empower other people to do the same. Knowing that 1,000 Bobby Castros, and Devin DeNopas, and Brandon Birmingham, that you guys are going to empower 1,000 to empower 1,000, 1,000 times 1,000 is a million, a million times 1,000 is a billion. So my job is to create as much wisdom and faith with my community so that we all benefit with a better and brighter world of people who live in abundance, are here to help one another, and know people that can help each other. Remember, one particle of light overcomes a million particles of darkness, and when you're shining in the top five podcasts in the United States, those particles of light are just shining and we're creating unity, faith, and abundance that's going to help everyone buy from each other and sell for each other. There's nothing better you want for a lifetime community than a bunch of people that are buying from each other and selling for each other.
Yeah, I couldn't sell it better. That's powerful. We end the show every time in the same way. And I'm actually very excited to ask you this question. What is, we call the show Waking Up to Wealth. My idea behind the show was to teach people and have a different spin on how to become wealthy. And that's why I choose to interview people like you. To you, and it can be anything, it's your version, what is Waking Up to Wealth mean to you?
I'm very pragmatic in my idea of waking up to wealth. So I want to achieve a point where my assets, the income from my assets are always greater than my expenses. That has nothing to do with being rich. And so if you can manage to derive income from your assets greater than your expenses, then you're wealthy. It could be a thousand dollars. It could be a hundred million dollars. But that to me is true wealth because the person whose assets are creating more income than their expenses, they can do what they want, when they went, what, what they want with who they want for as long as they want, when they want. and that to me is freedom, joy, and happiness. I have really subscribed to the rich dad, poor dad philosophy of wealth, and I want everyone to understand that we can build assets especially through real estate, which is why Brandon is such a great mentor. We can create wealth for people by having our assets create more income than our expenses, and you can manage both sides of the fence and live this amazing abundant life.
Where can people check you out, check out your content, follow you?
You know this everywhere, my brother. You could Google me. You could just put my name, David Meltzer, like seltzer with an M, David Meltzer. But my favorite is email me. I love to specifically find out how it can be of service or value. David at D Meltzer.com. Anyone that emails me, you can get my free book. I will sign it, send it to you, pay for shipping and the book. Uh, and I'm just blessed to have you in my community. And I am blessed that you're helping our friend Devin and so many other people that we know and share. I can't wait to see you in person next trip back East.
Thank you so much, man. I appreciate you being on the show today. Thank you, Brandon. Take care.
Thanks so much for tuning into this episode of Wake Up to Wealth. We sure do appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, make sure you're subscribed to the show wherever you consume podcasts. This way we'll get updates as new episodes become available. And if you feel so inclined, please leave us a review on Apple Podcast and tell your friends about the show. It is how new people find us. Until next time.