David Meltzer: Daily habits & formula for entrepreneurial growth
When I was at what I thought was the peak of my career, I lost everything. Taking stock of myself, I realized I'd stopped applying the practices that got me there in the first place.
Today, when I work with and coach multi million and billion-dollar companies, I see them experience the same challenges: manual work becomes unsustainable as businesses grow. Fragmented data makes it difficult to make informed decisions, and increased complexity in business operations takes valuable time away from strategic work. The 5 Daily Practices, combined with Intuit Enterprise Suite, will empower you to keep growing, scaling, and thriving. I'm sharing these practices with you so you don't have to pay the same "dummy tax" I did.
The 5 Daily Practices are actionable strategies that integrate mindset, intention, and practical skills to drive growth and innovation in your business. The 5 Practices are: Know your WHAT, Know your WHO, Know your HOW, Know your NOW, and APPLYING your WHY.
Whether you're a seasoned executive growing your business from six figures to $3M+ or looking to enhance your leadership, these practices will help you navigate the challenges that come with a growing business.
Know your what
Many people live from paycheck to paycheck, or if they’re a business, from one paid invoice to the next. Paycheck in, paycheck out. I learned this lesson the hard way when I lost over $100 million and went bankrupt. I had built my entire definition of success around money and receiving. When I lost everything, I realized I was chasing external measures of success without a deeper understanding of what I truly wanted to create and become.
Today, my "what" is crystal clear: My mission is to empower over a billion people to be happy. I want to help people learn how to create abundance - to make a lot of money, help a lot of people, and have a lot of fun. But most importantly, I've learned that your "what" can and should change daily. What matters is that each daily "what" aligns with the trajectory of what you think you want in the future.
To find your "what," examine these four essential values:
Personal Values: Think about your character, love, integrity, and who you are as a person. Do your daily actions align with who you want to become? Are your plans for today and the future consistent with your core values?
Experiential Values: What do you want to experience today to make the most of your 24 hours? What do you want to learn? How can you grow through your experiences?
Giving Values: What would you like to give to others today? How can you contribute to your team, customers, and community?
Receiving Values: What do you need to receive today to support your growth and success? What resources or support will help you achieve your goals?
In business, this means defining clear growth metrics and KPIs, tracking progress toward objectives, identifying opportunities for automation, and monitoring real-time business performance. Intuit Enterprise Suite provides the multi-entity accounting and reporting capabilities to support these goals. This means you can automatically consolidate KPI reports across entities, giving you clear visibility into what's working and what needs attention.
Know your who
Through rebuilding my success, I discovered something powerful: The easiest way to get what you want is to help somebody else get what they want. When building my podcast, "The Playbook," I didn't just chase big names. Instead, I focused on creating value for everyone involved — guests, listeners, and partners. By building consistent, intentional connections, I had no resistance from people when I asked for help. Most importantly, I've created a network of relationships that generate ongoing opportunities for everyone involved.
The key is to be kind to your future self and give unconditionally, rather than always looking to trade favors. This approach attracts people who share your abundance mindset and creates a sustainable network of support.
In business, this means:
- Building a community of sponsors and power sponsors
- Creating strategic partnerships
- Developing your team's capabilities
- Understanding and serving customer needs
Success in this practice requires connected, scalable solutions. Intuit Enterprise Suite offers deep third-party integrations that help manage your accounting, financial analysis, payroll, and HR compliance. This integration ensures you can maintain strong relationships with employees, partners, and customers while efficiently managing the increasing complexity of your business.
Know your how
When I started becoming productive instead of busy, my life changed. I used to confuse activity with productivity, mistaking being busy with being effective. I remember sitting in my office and realizing my whole calendar was filled with "important" meetings, calls, and tasks. I was busy, but I wasn't productive. It was my wake-up call to start maximizing my time and stop treating my calendar as a to-do list.
To stop treating your calendar as a to-do list, you need to become what I call a “student of your calendar.” What this means is that you’re a person who studies three areas of your life to maximize them: What you have planned, the time you have unplanned (the “blank space” in your calendar), as well as your sleep.
Then, you need to categorize all your activities into four categories:
- Urgent and Important: Do it now.
- Not Urgent: Plan it, schedule it in your calendar. Give yourself a deadline!
- Urgent but Not Important: Delegate it. Trust your team to take care of it.
- Not Urgent and Not Important: Figure out a way to eliminate it. It’s obviously not worth your time.
Intuit Enterprise Suite helps reduce manual work on repetitive tasks. The platform's multi-dimensional reporting helps you study your business "calendar" more effectively, providing deep analysis for better decision-making. You will have the tools you need to start prioritizing urgent and important tasks and eliminating tasks that aren't worth your time.
Know your now
When I feel overwhelmed, I say "thank you." This confuses people, leaving them wondering why I'm feeling thankful for being overwhelmed. Being overwhelmed is a sign of abundance — you have too many options, too many opportunities, too many touches of favor.
Remember: 100% of the things you do now get done. Prioritization is the antidote to procrastination.
To master your "now":
- Create a repository: Organize tasks you can't do immediately, review and update your list daily, and maintain clear priorities and action items
- Master Focus and Refocusing: Treat focusing as a muscle to be strengthened, practice deliberate task transitions, and give full intention to current activities.
- Avoid Deadline-Based Thinking: Focus on consistent daily progress. Dedicate minimum daily time to important tasks, Let natural momentum drive completion
Intuit Enterprise Suite provides real-time insights and AI-powered analytics to help you identify immediate priorities and make informed decisions without delay.
Apply your why
When I lost over $100 Million, I felt like I was being punished. Today, I give that moment a completely different meaning. That "failure" promoted me to discover my true why - not just making money, but empowering over a billion people to be happy. When a business deal falls through, when a partnership ends, when things don't go as planned - these aren't punishments. They're promotions to a better place, a better position, a better situation, or a better person to be. The pain becomes an indicator of where I need to grow, not a sign of failure. To apply your why effectively:
Practice Ending Fear
- Identify fears holding you back
- Transform fear into fuel for action
- Use core values to guide decisions
- Learn to recognize when fear is creating interference
Master the Stop, Drop, and Roll Technique
- STOP when ego-based thoughts arise
- DROP down to your center to find calm
- ROLL back toward your intended direction
Accept Minutes and Moments
- Recognize when you're off-track
- Spend only minutes and moments outside your priorities
- Return quickly to aligned activities
Applying our why reminds us that we are healthy, happy, wealthy, and worthy, living in a world of more than enough.
The five daily practices integrate mindset, intention, and practical skills to drive growth and innovation. Your journey to scaling your business doesn't have to be overwhelming. By implementing these daily practices and using the right tools, you can transform business challenges into opportunities for growth.
Ready to take the next step? Learn more about how Intuit Enterprise Suite can help you implement these practices and scale your business efficiently. With features like AI-powered automation, multi-entity reporting, and integrated business intelligence, Intuit Enterprise Suite provides the foundation you need to put these practices into action and drive your business forward.
Visit Intuit Enterprise Suite to discover how you can automate manual work, gain actionable insights, and manage business complexity as you scale to new heights.
Disclaimers:
[1] Money movement services are provided by Intuit Payments Inc., licensed as a Money Transmitter by the New York State Department of Financial Services.
[2] HR and Employee Benefits are provided by third-party partners.