Interview with David Meltzer:
Jennie Reid’s Skype Interview with David Meltzer by Lastwordonsports on Mixcloud
David and I share the same passion to grow the game of rugby in the USA and we recognise the goodness of the sport and help others realise this reality. I had the honour to discuss these topics with him during a Skype call and the audio of our conversation is included here for your listening pleasure.
David Meltzer’s Success
David Meltzer, CEO of Sports 1 Marketing inspires the goodness in people and in sports. His early success in sports stems from his role as CEO at Steinberg Sports & Entertainment (SSE), which was the largest sports agency in the world at the time. Sports Agent, Leigh Steinberg, who founded the agency, is the “real-life Jerry Maguire.” Unfortunately, David’s success was not everlasting and he lost his financial wealth for a while.
Not only has that life experience allowed him to find himself, but he utilises his newfound passion and faith to inspire and motivate others. He found his way back to the success ladder, after realigning his priorities. With Sports 1 Marketing Founder, NFL legend Warren Moon, he climbed that ladder again back to the top, where he is today.
Rugby is a sport that is connected to goodness and David is playing a big part of that, helping to grow the game in the USA with the goal of creating a professional league, as well as grow the sport at a club level. The ultimate goal is to build the type of structure that exists in rugby in Europe, New Zealand, and Australia.
What inspired your advice to “Be more interested than interesting”?
“Be more interested than interesting” is David’s advice, which he shared in his book, “Connected to Goodness.” This advice was inspired by him spending his life trying to figure out how to get the most out of life. Through his sales background and being a young executive, initially as CEO of Samsung USA, he was tasked with bringing the first smartphone to the USA. We can all thank him for that success.
He realised that really successful, fulfilled people that he met had the same value system and they did not just sit back waiting for things to happen. One of the problems with spirituality he found was that “people could not combine fact and faith.” Some were “completely faithful, yet took no pragmatic action,” and others were “like a bull in a china shop with all action, but no thought.”
Where that combines is that those people that are more interested than interesting ask the extra question, go the extra mile, which is a mantra David lives by. At the end of the day he would “ask one more question, or ask for one more thing from the universe, or one more thing from his employees.” He says, “If you consistently make that a habit, you attract so much more in your life.”
Why do you think it’s so important to ask questions?
Asking questions is so important, yet under appreciated or discouraged by some people. David understands the importance of asking questions and links it back to our anatomy that “God gave us two ears, and only one mouth and you can’t learn by talking.” With our speech, we can inspire others, and David does an incredible job at this, by giving motivational speeches around the USA. He says that “what we learn has to come from the input…and it’s not necessarily what they say, but how they say it.”
“In order to get alignment to connect to people, and to understand that we are all one, you need to listen and understand what their values are as well as their aspirations and inspirations.” This mutual, deeper understanding of people we meet allows us to collaborate in sports at a more meaningful level to achieve greater success in our communications and relationships.
Do you consider yourself to be a lifelong learner?
The people involved in rugby, especially the coaches, athletes, and referees are always striving to be better, even if they are considered to be great already. They review game footage and find areas they can improve, and train harder or differently to achieve even greater success.
In his third book, which he is writing about the eagle, called “Getting Out of Your Own Way,” one of the points is that “we are constantly learning and progressing from just a moment ago.” David believes that “We learn and experience as much as we can using all of our senses.” He demonstrates this by meditating, reading, and public speaking.
…Click here to continue to Part II.
Note: Audio is not divided into parts, as the article is.
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