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The Playbook With David Meltzer

The Real Power Behind Authentic Branding

The Playbook With David Meltzer

David Meltzer, Entrepreneur.com

Entrepreneurship, Business, Careers

4.6 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 31 October 2025

⏱️ 25 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In today’s episode, I share how my misunderstanding of digital presence led me to one of the biggest lessons of my career. What started as skepticism toward social media evolved into a deeper understanding of community, authenticity, and energy. I explore the difference between followers and true influence, explaining why emotional connection always outperforms logic in marketing and leadership. From “dark social” networks to Apple’s effortless brand loyalty, I break down how consistency, honesty, and the right frequency of energy can attract people who not only buy from you but also sell for you—turning your brand into a lasting legacy.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Somehow I became a virtual digital presence.

0:07.0

I have no idea. I'm looking at myself, thinking I'm a middle-aged mutant turtle.

0:11.0

I remember Gary Vaynerchuk, his brother, A.J. asked me to help them with their sports agency.

0:18.0

Now that made sense to me, so I told them to meet me in the Nike

0:21.7

suite. And I was with AJ at the time and a guy named Jim Laeritz, which I had a radio show with.

0:26.9

So we were doing that at the Super Bowl. And everybody in the Nike suite went crazy. They're

0:32.2

like, oh my God, this is 10 years ago. Gary V's here. Now you can see my mind set because I looked at A.J. Vaynerchuk and I said,

0:39.3

who does he play for? And he's like, are you kidding me? That's my brother. He doesn't play for anyone.

0:45.6

And Gary told me at that time that I should start building a digital present, that I should start

0:51.0

building a legacy. And I personally thought that the social media scene

0:56.3

was about likes and that really was not aligned with my mission because what I saw with social media

1:02.8

just from my own kids and their friends was this huge energy gap of what I stand for which is

1:08.6

I am I am happy I am healthy I am happy, I am healthy, I am wealthy, I am worthy,

1:13.8

what am I doing to interfere with it, with a whole genre of this is what I want people to think

1:19.3

I am, you know, the digital great Gatsby's of the world. The good news about the digital great

1:23.6

Gatsby's compared to like Vanderbilt historically, they don't have any money to lose.

1:29.1

At least Vanderbilt actually spent his money on things he didn't need to impress people he didn't

1:33.4

like, which is this huge energy gap. When we want to build a brand, especially a small business,

1:39.8

a mid-sized business, what we want to create for that legacy is a community.

1:45.9

And there's one successful formula in building a community.

1:49.0

It's to find people that are going to, one, buy from you, but more importantly, sell

1:55.5

for you for life.

...

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