#197 David Meltzer – The Fall From $100M to $0 and Back Again

Imagine if your mom knew the truth , and that was the acknowledgement that I had gone from . This is who I am and this is what I'm becoming to . This is who I am and this is what I want people to think I am .

It was only then that David realized , in order to revive and thrive , he needed to simplify what made him successful in the first place . He breaks this down to gratitude , empathy , accountability and effective communication . These four principles allow David to live by his mission to make a lot of money , help a lot of people and have a lot of fun .

Now he's on kickoff sessions , showing you exactly how you can do it . What's up , people ? Before we get into this video , please make sure to subscribe , like and comment down below so we can get bigger and better guests for you every single week . Let's get straight into the video right now . Let's kick off , david , I really appreciate this .

I've been following your work for a long time and it's going to be very helpful for many people that are younger to me 25 , 26 , that are trying to break into the sales and entrepreneurship space . Where I want to start is what was the sales days like back in the 90s and even early 2000s , and what was that experience like for you ?

When I was starting sales in the 90s , I had a roll of quarters . I stood in phone booths Some people may not even know what that is and I had a handwritten list of who I was going to cold call while I was on the road knocking on doors and going to meetings in person .

And even before the paper fax machine , there was thermal paper fax machines , which a lot of I was in the legal field . A lot of the people did not have fax machines or believe in fax machines . It was too advanced of a technology similar to AI today . There was just a lot of resistance and fear about the thermal fax machine .

So selling was different and you had to be extremely targeted of who your avatar was and making sure that the 15 phone calls that you may or may not have been able to make via a coin operated phone while you're on the knocking door scene and going to meetings in person Sometimes just to collect paperwork , by the way .

So it wasn't just going to the meetings to sell , it was . Sometimes I got to go back and pick up a check and the paperwork can sign , or else the company's order processing would accept it and then I would have to FedEx . Then I have to go to FedEx to send in the agreement .

I laughed today because I can get in about five seconds in touch with maybe 10,000 people every five seconds If I wanted to , via social media and shipping and picking up contracts docusigning . It's just an amazing efficiency . I don't know how anyone can't sell a ton of people if they know how to sell .

The way I hear you talk about closing and your sales process in the 90s and 2000s that's something that I'm trying to do in 2023 as a young salesperson , and that's what's been very memorable is the fact that the techniques are fundamentally there . The foundations are there .

So my question for you that is why do you think that you were the salesperson that was miles ahead of the average person and maybe miles ahead of the people that were even in your team and everything back in the day ?

I lived in the empty mile . I was a student of time . I utilized lenses of productivity , of accessibility and even gratitude to find light , love and lessons in the rejections , in the mistakes , in the void shortages , in obstacles , and that still holds true today .

I outsold the next closest sales rep to me when I started selling three to one because I got more sales , more sales calls , I got more people to get back to me . I managed and developed the expectation . When I got a verbal yes , I used the go-no-go plan , I used the three-no rule , I used the 21, . I mean 25-no concept and perception .

There's so many things I still teach and use today that put me at the top of the class when I first started selling , but the main thing was I enjoyed the consistent , persistent , everyday pursuit of my potential . Where I saw so many people waste time . Let me give you the rule of 64 that I created when I was 24 years old .

My goal was to sell twice as many hours as anyone else . Therefore , at average , I would sell twice as much . Then I always took that gratitude lens and created systems to be twice as efficient . With my time , now that 16-hour day turned into 32 hours of productivity through efficiencies .

Then I practiced articulating the quantitative value of what I was selling to exceed what I was asking for my 32 hours of productivity . I wanted to be twice as successful . The average person was selling two out of 10 . I was selling four out of 10 , but I was more efficient .

Now it was eight out of 20 in the same amount of time and I spent twice as many hours . Now it was 16 out of 40 in a day I had 16 sales compared to everyone else's too . It was the power of 64 that I , in essence , was as productive as someone working eight days for every one day . Then I did it seven days a week , which made it even greater .

It's 56 days every single week , when everybody else was working five . Over 11 times the productivity . Now wonder I made over a million dollars nine months out of law school . I was laughing at it when they're like oh my God , you blew out our number , all this stuff . I'm laughing inside going no , I just know math and I lived in the empty mile .

Everybody could do what I did .

He was saying if you don't do it , you're losing this like 17 or 20% of the entire week , every week , for so many years that it's been compounded when you have someone like yourself , David , who's just 100 miles an hour consistently , who's balancing different variables at the same time but it's the way you pull away you will eventually just pull off so far ahead

that it's almost like you're unnoticeable . That's the beauty of it , and even from a technique perspective , so we can get into some of your closing frameworks . But there's no doubt that you're going to get better at it because , as you mentioned , it's all about practice , right , it's like the NFL player . I'm like a sport as a bodybuilding .

The more time we execute the reps and the sets , we're invariably going to get better . I think that's a big gap that a lot of people miss is the fact that when you do the volume with the quality , you're just going to become this super machine at the end of it , right ?

We had lunch on the deck as if we were on vacation in one of the most beautiful spots in the world 72 degrees and sunny here in Southern California . And then I came back and I got right back to it . I got right back to utilizing what I know and how I know it , because I know the math of time .

You know , see , even in parenting , two minutes a day is worth more than two hours on a Saturday . And those weekends work within the context of the collective continuance of our own consciousness the conscious , the subconscious and unconscious . They regulate the information from that practice and we get three variables of energy when we're consistent .

Every day , seven days a week , one behaviors aggregate on themselves . That's your bodybuilder , your end of fitness . You know there comes a time where , when it used to be , oh , I don't want to work out , it's I don't want to take a day off . That's the conscious continuum working in your favor .

You're addicted to working out and it's actually a more difficult things for people that are in the bodybuilding to realize . Okay , I got to fight this urge that I need to go lift today . The rest is better for me than the lifting , but two minutes a day is worth more than two hours on a Saturday .

And if you do the math about being consistent and you take minimum of 10 minutes a day or an hour a day on the non-negotiables of your life , you're getting the aggregation right . It's attracting more . You get exponentialality of outcomes and , to appease human nature , it accelerates the outcomes that you want or better , come faster .

So I highly suggest people doing seven days a week at everything and , as far as balance go , throw it out the door . And I used to say it's a weighted balance . I don't even say that anymore . You know what it is . It's a harmony . Your activities today should create a harmony in your life .

The non-negotiables , your sleep you know that from being a bodybuilder the sleep , the non-negotiables of family and faith , and finance and fitness , as well as studying time . You know , really being a student of how you're utilizing your time for planned , unplanned money-making activities , non-money-making activities , and I find it amazing .

People are like I need to go off the grid for six weeks or I need to go off the grid every weekend . I'm like then you're not living life in harmony . You shouldn't see things as I get to do or I got to do . You shouldn't feel punished and call it even work . Work seems so hard to me .

All you know , alex is a friend of mine , been on several of my shows , and we share that idea that if you learn to love what you do , it's not that you won't work a day in your life . Trust me , there's the struggles and challenges of being an entrepreneur for both Alex and I , and we're pretty good at it .

But if you learn to love what you do , it'll tell you all its secrets . And if you do it every day and you do it long enough , you will know all the secrets . Those are the cheat codes you know . Here in America they just launched Fortnite again and I asked my son .

I said you know what , if I gave you the cheat codes to every level , how long would it take you to win that game ? He goes with the cheat codes . I was like , yeah , he goes , it wouldn't take long at all . I said how hard would it be ? It wouldn't be hard at all . Well , it's the hard . That gives you the cheat codes .

Being consistent is the hard part . Once you're consistent and you learn to love everything , you learn to love it , then you're going to know all the cheat codes , the secrets , and you're going to get there faster and further than anyone else .

I wasted many years doing this , making it all up as I go , so I put everything together in a very seamless and easy to follow course for you guys to follow and just learn exactly how to do it .

So if you want to bypass a lot of the mess with your podcast , check out the links down below the podcast university and we'll show you exactly how to launch and scale your own podcast . And you stick through the rough times right ? You might be familiar with Daniel Prisley , really good entrepreneur in the UK .

He says rough roads and smooth , smooth roads and rough and it's about the path that you take right and of course , you've had your challenges . We can get into that .

But when you're someone who seeks at this comfort and really pushes the boundaries and you look at that overarching goal , which for you was a million dollars in nine months , which is literally insane as someone coming out of university that it just compounds in a snowball effects and I want to ask you about the components of money .

So I found very , very interesting in your work the energy and the money components and how they work together . Can you talk me through that process and where that came from in your mind ?

It's going to be utilized in the appropriate manner Instead of trying to get more of it . Money is never ending , never stopping when we get more of money . Instead of thinking that way , why not understand there's more than enough money for everyone . That money is an energy that will track itself back to everyone .

You can take all the money in the world and I promise you it would go right back to a lawnmust the same amount he's had today . I would come back to me the same amount , because it's an energy . What I want people to do is think about what am I doing to interfere with that energy , not how do I go get the energy . The energy is never ending .

It's all around us , all over us and beneath us . We have to learn what are we doing to interfere with that energy ?

I see so many young entrepreneurs trying to get something that they already have , instead of identifying what they're afraid of the past or the future and instead of accelerating into the wrong direction , wanting what other people want for them , or worried about what other people think about them , or worried about what they want people to think about them , or what's

missing or what they don't have , especially with money , that's what they end up with . That's where that understanding of hey , I'm going to seek that which I want . I'm going to know what I want , who I can help , who can help me , how best to get it done and prioritize my day according to the unlimited amount of money that exists . I set goals every day .

I want to empower over a billion people . I want to double the amount of money I make as fast as I can . It's so much healthier to say that than I want to make a million dollars by the end of the year . Think about this .

The minute you say I want to make a million dollars by the end of the year , instead of I want to double the amount of money I make as fast as I can , you create resistance for yourself , because linear time once you attribute it to money , you run out of it .

All of a sudden , time starts ticking the minute you say I want a million dollars by the end of the year . Tomorrow I have less time , the next day I have less time . What do you think that does ? That creates resistance .

It creates more void shortages than obstacles , and it's just a perception , whereas here I am on November 21st and I say you know what I want ? To double the amount of money I make as fast as I can . Now I have unlimited amount , no resistance .

My doing , saying , thinking , feeling , believing is in an infinite nature and I don't have to create this trajectory that I don't want to be on .

You made a good point about wanting other people's desires and I think this is a big thing in social media . So when you were in the 1930s it wasn't as profound . But someone who's like 27 , you know everyone these days is driving a Lambo , they have a Rolex , they have an apartment in Dubai .

But I feel like that's the wrong way to view entrepreneurship , because entrepreneurship is like solving problems , helping , like solving problems in the world and getting paid for that value to provide .

When you were on the run from like zero to 100 million and on that pursuit , did you find yourself leaning into like other people's expectations of you or following the wrong goals , like how did that go from like a trajectory perspective Because you got to the money ? But I would love to know more about your personal kind of like desires along that way .

But I truly believe that money would buy me love , and the reason I believed it was the only time I wasn't happy as a child Six kids and a single mom was when we didn't have money for repairs of a car or to go to summer camp or pay for college and I catch my mom crying if something should happen economically .

So I put into my mind that money buys me love and happiness . And then when I made that first million dollars at 24 , right out of law school , I was confirmed . I was super happy . Man , money buys me everything and if I was sad I'd buy more things . If I was still sad , I'd buy different things .

I was still sad , I'd buy things to impress people I didn't even like , and money had confirmed in my life that it buys love and happiness . But there came a time when I was worth over $100 million that I realized that I never had been so empty and shallow that all I wanted was to identify with how much money I had .

I wanted people to respect me because I had money . I wanted people to like me because I had money . I only cared about what people thought I was , not what I truly was , and the separation became greater and greater . What I was and what I wanted people to think I was was very closely tied to each other .

When I graduated law school , slowly but surely , the disparate difference between who I was and who I wanted people to think I was was terrible , because I surrounded myself with the wrong people and the wrong ideas . And I remember the night when I came home at 5.30 in the morning after going to the Grammy Awards with Little John .

I came home and my wife told me she wasn't happy , she was worried about me , she thought that I was parting too much and she was going to leave me because she thought I was going to end up dead and she didn't want my girls or her to go through what she saw coming for me .

And the one thing that struck me that night as I was so angry at her , she said imagine if your mother knew who you were . Imagine if your mother knew what you were doing . Imagine if your mom knew the truth and that was the acknowledgement that I had gone from this is who I am and this is what I'm becoming to .

This is who I am and this is what I want people to think I am , and I had to close that gap , and it cost me over $100 million to close that gap . I went bankrupt . I learned my lessons . Pain was the indicator that I had a better place to be and a better position .

The lesson that I learned was a capability of human beings , and what I learned about that whole process was not only does it money by you love and happiness , but money is super important because it allows you to shop .

And if you shop for the right things not the Lambo , not the apartment in Dubai , not the Rolex but if you shop for the right things for the right reasons , you will be passionate , purposeful and profitable . It will make you happy , and that's why money is important to me , because it allows me to shop for the right things for the right reasons .

In fact , I love the fact that you say wearing a Rolex . I got to share a quick story with you . When I was 13 years old , I got a expensive gift a tag Hoyer watch and I'm a broke kid . I wear it to school the first day and everybody makes fun of me oh , that's fake , you stole that .

So I hid the watch and my mom asked me a few weeks later hey , where's your birthday present ? I said I put it away . Kids are mean to me . I don't want to wear it . They're making fun of me . They're saying I stole it . Most of them are saying it's fake . And my mom said to me I'll never forget , david , someday you're going to be so rich .

I only want you to wear fake watches and nobody's going to believe that they're fake . And so , still to this day , that's all I wear and I give them away . I have so much fun with them and people are like there's no way that's fake on here , you can have it . And so I live that life of understanding .

Money allows me to shop for the right things for the right reasons , and I encourage everyone to look at yourself and ask I am versus ? This is what I think I am . It's a huge energy crisis for our young people because of social media especially .

So , as you mentioned , you have some amazing people in your network . Do you find that to be more true as time goes on ?

You know you can't just tell your children especially about money , and I tell my children all the time my biggest challenge is that I love you and want you to have things that I don't or didn't have myself , and I know that sometimes you think I'm promoting you by what I buy you and you don't see the punishment in it .

You don't see the value of hey , you know it's late . Most of the people I know right now are not doing what I'm doing . Right , it's a holiday week , thanksgiving and they're not good enough with time to have already spent so much time with my family doing all these things .

And look , in about 10 minutes I'm going to be leaving for Nobu , a fancy restaurant , with all my family again and spending the rest of the evening with my four children and my unbelievable wife , and they're not going to know the fact that I put in about 10 hours today of activity that I get paid for either for me or for other people , like your community of

people , and it's just a matter of utilizing my time correctly .

If you would look back on it , would you foresee like sales is the number one skill you would build , or is there other aspects ? All right , guys . One short little update for Vox

. I want to give a short little overview about my own company , my media company called Vox . So if you are a company or you are an enterprise looking to grow your brand and looking to grow your podcast , feel free to reach out to work with us at Vox . What we do is a fully fledged end to end management of our podcast .

We take care of the strategy , the consulting , we take care of the growth , the management . We take care of all the editing , all the boring stuff , so you can focus on creating good podcast and create and growing your brand .

If you want to grow your podcast and get to new users , if you want to grow your business , generate more revenue and all that good stuff , check out the links down below to Vox . You can follow through to schedule a call with our team , or else you can fill out the application form to see if you qualify to work with us . Thank you .

But let me just tell you the easiest piece of advice Ask for help and give help . The earlier you learn . The fastest and easiest way to get to where you want to be is to find someone who sits in the situation you want to be in and also find other people that you can help get to where they want to be .

Exponentially , you will get to where you want to be in an accelerated manner . It's the easiest and best way , especially today with the size , scope and scale . You know I mentioned how long would it take you to get in front of a thousand people . Just 10 years ago it'd be over a month . It could be minutes or even seconds for some people today .

Imagine if in those communities you're looking for people that sit in the situation that you want to be in . I reached out . I sleep to me , I want to be in the hall of fame of sleep . I want to be the best sleeper in the world because I know it'll have the best impact on my life and a third of my life .

I'll be the greatest active person for a third of 26 years . Nobody will be better than me . But I didn't get there myself . I've had a sleep coach for 17 years . I found the best and I said give me directions on how to get to where I want to be , because you're already there . You paid the dummy tax . You know the people that can help me get there .

There's all these things that you can do . So if you're 18 , 28 , 38 , 48 , 58 , I don't care who you are the best practice and the best practical advice I can give you ask for help . I promise you , if you ask for help and you give people help , if you create a community of people that want to help each other , you know what the outcome is .

I'll tell you you will have a group of people for the rest of your life that will buy from you and sell for you for life . And if you have a community of people that buy from you for life and sell for you for life , I promise you you will make a lot of money , you will help a lot of people and you will have a lot of fun .

There's no better solution to that issue .

That's exactly what the podcast has been around for the past four years . Right , it's connecting people like yourself , learning from these examples and having tens of thousands of people every week listening from them . Now , why do you think that is that people , especially men , don't put their hand up and look for help ?

You think you got to get something back for giving , where I believe the more you receive , the more you can give , and then the more you give , the more you receive . But if you don't have anything to give , you're not going to receive very much , I promise you .

So you better focus in on filling your cup and then filling other people's cup , and then it'll be refilled and overflow for you and you'll be filling everybody's cup , I promise you .

But it's because people don't realize that when you ask for help , you're creating a triple entendre of value , because everybody feels good when they're asked for help and when we're actually able to help people , we feel good . You're adding value to people . This you asking me to be on your podcast adds value to me .

I feel good , you receiving it , you feel good , and those that are witnessing it , they feel good . So this is a value add game , but in a zero-sum game , and I said well , why should I go on the podcast ? It's almost the holiday . Why should I take my ? You're not going to feel good .

I'm not going to feel good If you never asked me to be on the podcast . I'm not going to feel good about the fact that , hey , there's someone that really values the information that I give . In fact , I want to offer to your community anyone that wants my book . I will sign it , send it to you , pay for shipping and the book .

If you're outside the US , I'll send you the ebook or the audio book for free . I'll send my exercises and guides , my five to thrive sale , whatever you want . Email me , david , at demelchercom . That's a value add statement . That's a value add statement for you and the community and for me , because it makes me feel good when I'm helping other people .

I want anyone out there , especially salespeople . Let's get out of the realm of zero sub . You're not in a competition . There's no comparison . You don't have to trade and negotiate when you want to confirm your faith . There's more than enough of everything for everyone .

Ask for help and three people will benefit when you ask for help , where , if you don't ask for help , there's only one person that will benefit .

Or two , take away some or all of what they don't like . When you're conversing with someone , all you need to find out is hey , what are you doing today ? What do you like about it ? What don't you like about it ? Then you can say , hey , would it help you if ?

And then add value by giving them more of what they like or taking away some , if not of all , of what they don't like .

I promise you , when you focus in on that type of value , simplifying sales and articulating the value to exceed what you're asking for your exponential success will allow you to create , like I have , a tremendous amount of wealth to help a tremendous amount of people and create a tremendous amount of joy and happiness for you , those that you give to , those that

you ask from and anyone witnessing this at all . Please join my community of people who want to help each other and know people that can help each other . Reach out David at D-Melzercom . I appreciate you so much for taking the time to allow me to shorten the amount of time I could be here so I can spend more time with my family on this holiday .

There's so many different variables we could get into , but for today , this was incredibly helpful for people .