David Meltzer is the cofounder of Sports 1 Marketing, former CEO of Leigh Steinberg Sports & Entertainment, and a three-time best-selling author. He’s a highly regarded speaker, business coach, and thought leader in the worlds of sales and marketing.

Today on Stay Paid, David explains how you can live a life of abundance—and how to execute the sales strategies that will get you there.

Key Points:

• David’s “5 to Thrive” approach will allow you to close more deals.
• It’s important to know which questions to ask (and when).
• Your loved ones won’t always give you the best advice.

Q: Introduce yourself to our audience.

I grew up poor and feel sorry for those who didn’t. My journey has been all about life lessons. If you haven’t had pain, you haven’t learned your lesson yet.

Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to be rich. That’s because the only time I wasn’t happy as a child was when I’d catch my mom crying over financial stress. I was 5 years old when my dad left. I said I was going to be rich, buy my mom a house, and be happy all the time.

I went on to play football in college. I originally wanted to be a sports doctor. But then I went on to law school. I reverse engineered where I went by how much money I could make in the field. I saw that the number one school for the highest paid litigators (oil and gas) was Tulane in Oregon.

I studied hard and got two job offers after graduation. One was to be an oil and gas litigator, and the other was an internet sales job that paid $250,000. I took that second job despite my mom telling me that the internet was a fad.

That taught me that just because someone loves you doesn’t mean they’ll give you good advice.

Just nine months after graduation, I was a millionaire from my sales job. I bought my mom a house. I continued my journey onto Silicon Valley, where I learned to raise money with some of the biggest VCs in the world.

From there, I became the CEO of Samsung’s PC-EPhone CyberBank Division, which developed the world’s first smartphone (a Windows CE device).

I met Lee Steinberg, who was the most notable sports agent in the world.

I went on to become CEO of Lee Steinberg Sports & Entertainment. That’s where I met Warren Moon. We started our boutique marketing company, Sports 1 Marketing, which evolved into a media company.

I took on mentorship from Gary Vaynerchuk, and I’m still receiving great advice from him that I’m making my own.

Through building my brand, I came up with my life mission, which is to empower 1,000 people to impact 1,000 people to influence 1,000 people to be happy. That’s 1 billion people who I want to make happy.

Q: Why do you believe in a mind-set of abundance, and how do you practice it in your life?

Whether you have nothing or a 40-million-dollar home in Newport Beach, there will always be people who live as if there’s not enough.

Then there’s the world of “just enough.” That world blends scarcity with abundance. Even people who are generous will trade rather than give—they’ll give, but they will always expect something in return.

The world I’m trying to manifest is a world of “more than enough,” where people are living in truth and consciousness.

I have five different rules for businesses looking to live in this world of more than enough:

1. Know your personal giving and receiving values. Evaluate those four things every day.
2. Learn to ask a series of questions to learn how you can provide value to every person in every situation.
3. Learn a series of questions with which you can ask for help—which is the most difficult and radically humble thing. I lost over $100 million by not asking for help, and my world changed when I learned how to ask the right questions.
4. Study with a lens of productivity, accessibility, and gratitude what you are doing every day. Study your sleep. Study your calendar and figure out what’s urgent, and what you can delegate to someone else.
5. Practice ending fear. When you feel like you’re on fire, stop, drop, and roll. Figure out why you feel that way.

When we do these things, we’re more successful and happier.

Q: What tips would you give to someone trying to build or grow their business?

Understand the 5 to Thrive.

1. Stimulate interest through emotion and credibility. People think that features sell—not even close. The number one thing that sells is credibility, but most salespeople ignore credibility. The second thing is that people buy on emotion for logical reasons.
2. Transition interest based on quantifiable reasons.
3. Share the vision and add the impact.
4. Manage and develop that vision. Explain the terms and what to expect. Provide more value than what you promised.
5. You will thrive.

There are only four ways you can sell—in person, on the phone, online, or in the media.

You’ve got to be tough. Toughness is a lost art. Everyone gets their feelings hurt. If you want to set yourself apart, be tough!

Use the telephone. You can reach everybody in the world, basically for free. People can hear your voice like they can’t in other channels. But you can reach more people by the phone than you can in person.

Learn what you can do to get someone to call you back. When they do answer, follow the “5 to Thrive” steps. You’ll have every advantage in the world over the people who are trying to sell by text or through media.

Fact: 80 percent of calls aren’t answered, and most people don’t leave a message. To set yourself apart, just leave a message!

Q: Which routines have driven success for you?

I have two routines. I have a home routine (when things are on schedule). I meditate in the morning, go to the gym for one hour, and then study for an hour. Then, it’s family time and getting ready. I have coaching calls on the way to work. I execute whatever is on my calendar. Next, I do more coaching calls. Then it’s family time, research time, and more family time. After that, I put my 9-year-old son to bed. Anything after that is all intimate time with my wife.

My other routine is when I travel, or things otherwise aren’t normal. I spend a minimum of an hour a day on my health. If I can’t take care of myself, I can’t take care of others. Then, it’s at least 30 minutes with my wife and 30 minutes with my son. I have at least 2 minutes a day with my teenage daughters—I asked for 5, they gave me two.

I give a minute a day to my mom. You should tell your parents four things:

• You’re happy.
• You’re healthy.
• You appreciate them.
• You love them.

This will make their day more than anything else you can send to them.

Apart from that, I spend a minute catching up with a friend or family member on speakerphone while doing pushups.

I believe in consistent behavior. Two minutes a day every day is better than 20 minutes on a Saturday. These routines are important to have and to execute consistently.

Action Items:

• Get tough and master the phone.
• Do David’s 5 to Thrive.

Connect with David:

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