How to Protect Yourself in Business: 6 Strategies for Smarter Decisions

In today’s episode, I share how to protect what we’ve built by learning to trust and verify, rather than allowing charisma, promises, or fear of missing out to interfere with our decisions. I explain how gratitude, empathy, accountability, and effective communication help us recognize character, ask the difficult questions, and align our partnerships with our values. Most importantly, I share why removing emotional interference, taking accountability for our choices, and trusting our divine direction allow us to make better decisions and create lasting passion, purpose, and profitability. To join my next free Friday Training sessions, email me at [email protected] mailto:[email protected] See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  A lot of people feel as if they have been cheated, lied to, manipulated, oversold, back end sold. A lot of people use blame, shame, and justification instead of learning how to protect yourself in business, how to trust and vet people. Today's training, our Friday training, will be on how to protect yourself in business. And it's important to learn so we take accountability in protecting ourself as we go forward in business. And I know all of us have experienced that.

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  In business, some of the most expensive mistakes come from confusing confidence with competence. We confuse charisma with character and promises with performance. When we fail to verify that the people and the opportunities we trust, we risk far, far more than just money. We risk our time, our energy, our relationships, our remembering, recollections, and our reputations. When we enter a partnership because someone has an impressive background,

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  influential connections, or compelling vision, months later, we discover their promises weren't supported by their experience, their resources, or their ability to execute. We can be kind to everyone without trusting everyone. Trust should be built through consistent behavior, accountability, and most important, our verification, our vetting process. And when we learn to trust and vet, when we learn to say to somebody, hey, look, you've represented, and I trust you so much, I'm willing to ask you uncomfortable questions,

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  or ask for proof of that, or verify in case it was a miscommunication, or maybe it was intentionally. The first lesson of how to protect ourselves in business is the following results, not the resume. Following results, not the resume. A compelling statement doesn't guarantee competency, and it definitely doesn't guarantee integrity. When we rely on someone's reputation instead of their actual results, we expose ourselves to unnecessary risk.

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  Past performance doesn't guarantee future success, but it can reveal clues, important patterns, so that we make better choices. We're considering a partnership with someone who claims to have built multiple successful businesses. So instead of accepting their story, we speak with previous partners, and we actually discover that their actual results don't match their promises, their representations. How many salespeople have come to you and claimed to be these amazing closers with a great amount of money made, and then asked for their W2?

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  It's uncomfortable to ask people to match what they represent. But what happens if we don't is we end up blaming those people for something that we already knew. We should not measure credibility by what people say they've accomplished, but by what they can consistently demonstrate. Look for the clues that demonstrate their success. Look for patterns that demonstrate their success. And then make a choice aligned with the results, not the resume. When we are able to ask uncomfortable questions and review relevant details,

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  things that don't make sense, be able to reveal partnerships or transactions before we make a significant commitment, we are saving both parties from interfering from their success, regardless of intention. That's what overselling and back end selling is, is someone that has an intention to perform, but can't match with their results. When we're able and capable of speaking directly with previous clients, partners, associates, or documentation, don't be afraid to ask to prove what they've represented. This is a matter of trust.

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  It's not that I don't trust you. It's I trust you so much that I need to verify what you're saying to make sure I heard it correctly, because it's not what you say, it's what I hear. And how many times both parties have good intention, but we hear two different things because we didn't vet it? Make sure that we are comparing what was promised, represented, recollected, and remembered with what was actually delivered. This is why I create go no go plans, a checklist of items with times that they occurred, so that I can consistently review in a comfortable, confident manner, what exactly will be done, when it will be done, and how it will be done, and check it off.

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  It also gives me an opportunity to stay aligned with the timing and risk tolerance that we agreed upon, even though timing, energy, emotion changes immediately when we come up with a plan. We got to learn to follow the results, not the revenue. If you would like the replay from today, if you'd like the exercises from today, if you'd like a go no go plan, if you'd like to join our strategic alliance group, there's only one simple way to do it. Email me directly, [email protected]. David means beloved, @D is my first initial, Meltzer is my last name, which means servant.

• 6:35Speaker 00

  Let me be your beloved servant. Let me be your beloved servant. Email me, [email protected]. The second lesson for today of how to protect ourselves in business is to verify not only the results, but verify financial and operational credibility. So a lot of times, we're not looking deep enough in the capabilities aligned with what's doing well, what's stable, what I think is doing well. Appearances can create the illusions of success. This is why I never count other people's money.

• 7:18Speaker 00

  I verify their financials. I verify their operational credibility. I never count their money. Appearances can create the illusions of success. And when we confuse someone's lifestyle, influence, or perceived value with their actual financial and operational capacity, we risk making decisions based on assumptions rather than reality. And we all know when we assume, well, we are certain to make it ass of you and of me. When we consider investing in a business because its founders appear successful,

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  claim significant revenue, but after reviewing the appropriate financial documentation and the operational evidence of that company, we discover that the company lacks the resources to fulfill its commitments. How many multi-billion dollar companies go out of business? Why? Because nobody verified the financial and operational credibility aligned with what's doing well, what's stable, and they think is doing well. And so many different relationships, the appearance is not the reality. The backbone of reality is financial and operational credibility.

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  We must understand the difference between perceived value and actual value and bottom line value. What someone's saying their worth matters far less than what they can substantiate and deliver. We look for substantial evidence, financial substantial evidence and operational substantial evidence in order to facilitate a greater understanding of the timing and risk tolerance of any investment. That's what we do at Meltzer Cap. Go to meltzercap.com, look and see the application process, look and see how we verify financial

• 9:22Speaker 00

  and operational credibility to understand how we can be of service or value, understand an investment properly to provide the help that we need. Other things to verify in the operational credibility, business registrations, applicable licenses, regulatory standing, of course, litigation. Do not feel uncomfortable. Request appropriate financial documentation or utilize independent verification for significant transactions. When we evaluate whether the business has the resources, has the infrastructure and

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  capacity to deliver, mitigating the risk by verifying the financial and operational credibility. This simple yet effective way of protecting ourselves and business can save millions and even billions of dollars. Asking the uncomfortable questions, trusting every investment and partnership opportunity by vetting it and verifying it is essential. If you would like to learn how to vet and verify financial and operational credibility, what documentation, independent verification sources, meltzercap.com, email me directly,

• 10:49Speaker 00

  [email protected]. [email protected]. Also get the replays, guys, and exercises. You can even get my book. I'll sign it, send it to you, pay for shipping and the book, not a problem. We appreciate you and want to protect your business. All right, the third lesson for today. Evaluate character, not charisma. Charisma, character, character determines how people have behaved when circumstances become difficult.

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  I think it's interesting, so many people ask me for financial advice, not because they want money, it's because of what I did when I lost over a hundred million, including my mom's house. We attracted someone's confidence, connections, or their personalities, which causes us to overlook the behaviors that reveal whether they're actually trustworthy or not. When we meet an entrepreneur who communicates an exciting vision and has influential relationships,

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  however, conversations with former partners with documentation, financial and operational, reveals patterns of avoiding responsibility, attraction, perception, accountability, when things get tough, when challenges arise. And one thing I guarantee you in business, every single day, the evidence will be there. The evidence will be contrary to where you want to be. In other words, the challenges will arise. We learn more about someone's character through how they handle the adversity, the interference, than how they celebrate their success.

• 12:50Speaker 00

  When we utilize our four values, gratitude, to find the light, the love in the lessons in the difficult situations and the situations where there's no evidence, where the situations evidence is contrary, when we find and use gratitude to find the light, the love and the lessons, it gives you the perspective of character, of doing what is aligned with the divine direction. We use nothing to forgive ourselves for the mistakes that we make, to keep ourselves out of interference, allowing it only to occur for minutes and moments, to live at ease.

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  We now are able to evaluate and communicate through character, not charisma. Well, who's the third value of accountability to ask ourselves, as I mentioned before, what did I do to be responsible? What did I do to attract this? What did I do to participate in this perception? And most importantly, what am I supposed to learn from it? Tying in gratitude and empathy to learn in an efficient, effective, and statistically successful way in the divine direction, identifying what we're doing to interfere with it. And most importantly, how am I living in spirit, inspired, not only effectively communicating

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  with others, but effectively communicating with the infinite, the infinite abundant unified system of thought that we all belong to, an infinite amount of energy, intuition, intelligence, and inspiration that exists for everyone. And this is how we provide a foundation through gratitude, empathy, accountability, and effective communication, a foundation for evaluating energy, value, the relativity of relationships of what we do, say, think, feel, and believe, the relativity of relationships of the people, places, circumstances, each and every day. We evaluate character, not charisma.

• 14:54Speaker 00

  Once again, we have to be more interested than interesting in research, the professional and personal history and the reputation of the potential partners that we have. We need to speak with many people who have worked with them through challenges or disagreements or even lawsuits. When we're able and capable of evaluating whether their behavior consistently demonstrates our four core values of gratitude, empathy, accountability, and effective communication when things don't go as planned, because we know if you come up with a well-developed plan, God will certainly laugh at you. God will laugh at you.

• 15:37Speaker 00

  We must evaluate character, not charisma. Lesson number three. If you would like the exercises and guides, the replay, or my book, any one of these lessons, name one of the temp, David is my first name, at D is my initial, Meltzer is my last name, [email protected]. [email protected]. The next one. Never let urgency replace due diligence. This is a common, common mistake. People use compelling events, urgencies, to replace due diligence, to replace the process

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  that. Don't let pressure interfere with our ability to make informed, intelligent, intuitive, energetically aligned, divine decisions. When we allow the fear, missing out, or the fear of other people's opinion, to control our choices, we become vulnerable to unnecessary financial, emotional, reputational risks. How many times do you say yourself, oh my gosh, if this doesn't close, it's going to be embarrassing. If this doesn't happen, it's going to be embarrassing.

• 17:02Speaker 00

  If I don't do it, I'm going to miss out on all this profit, all this money. Don't let urgency replace due diligence. When you're presented with an opportunity, an option, a touch of favor in your life that requires an immediate commitment, instead of taking time to verify the details as you should, we feel pressured to act because we're afraid someone else will either take our place or it'll be embarrassing. It was funny, I was just setting up a new phone and, you know, I have like every type of Apple care, every type of insurance, and they tried to upsell me into another $25 a month.

• 17:44Speaker 00

  And it was like, the guy had just helped me, they know what they're doing, right? And I almost was compelled, I felt pressured to act, because I didn't want to feel bad and say no and embarrass myself, but I knew it was a waste of $25 a month. I'd rather give that to charity. And when I can replace the urgency with due diligence, with an evaluative process, it became obvious, would you like to buy this for $25 a month, or would you like to save a child's life in Africa for $25 a month? Great options, great opportunities, great touches of favor, don't require us to abandon

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  our good judgment, our divine direction, our non-negotiables, our alignment with where we want to be or better, our priority process, reprioritization and pre-prioritization. We protect ourselves when we respond with intention, that means with what we do, say, think, feel, and believe, rather than react with emotion, we're going to be left out, or we're going to be embarrassed. When we're put into these situations, urgent, compelling situations, our mind, our body and soul are on fire. And what we need to know is that when we're on fire, it's stop, drop and roll.

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  We stop and pause before making the decision of urgency, excitement, motion. We stop and pause, breathe through our nose, out through our mouth, we drop and release the fear, the FOMO, the, the, release the fear of missing out, the FOPO, the fear of other people's opinion. We relieve this remit of others and embarrassment. We turn it into JOMO, the joy of missing out, the joy of other people's opinion. I'm going to miss out on this so I could do this for the sake of this hour rolling, moving forward in a divine direction of what's important to us and who we can help and who can help us.

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  And how best can I use my $25? We move forward only when the facts, the timing and the risk, the timing and risk tolerance align with our divine direction, with our goals, with our potential. Never let urgency replace the due diligence. If you would like to learn how to stop, drop and roll, knowing that your mind, your body and soul are on fire. So there's been minutes of moments in this interference. If you want to look about the stop, drop and roll, the exercises, the guides, the replays from today, you know where to email, [email protected]. [email protected].

• 20:38Speaker 01

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• 21:07Speaker 00

  The next lesson on how to protect ourselves in business.

• 21:13Speaker 00

  Not, not yet, questions are after the training, is that okay? Thank you, thank you for your patience, my friend. Appreciate it. Okay, the next lesson, protect our information, protect our relationships and protect your reputation, knowing that if you're in a room of a thousand people, you got a thousand reputations. It's their perception, which you can't control, of the thoughts, perception and meaning that they give, but you need to protect it. Our information, our IP, intellectual property, our relationships and our reputation, which is perceived, our valuable business assets.

• 21:57Speaker 00

  When we give others access without establishing appropriate trust and protections, we may compromise options and opportunities and touches of favor that we spent years building. So many times people manipulate, lie, cheat and oversell to damage our IP, our information, our relationships and our reputation. So many times I've had people on my podcast and then years later, they do something wrong. And I find out that audience members, because they trust me, automatically trusted a guest on my show.

• 22:43Speaker 00

  And I don't represent that just because I interview someone, that everything they do is in integrity or aligned with what I believe. I'm there to learn from them and a lot of these people I disagree with that I have on my podcast. But it's called the playbook because I want to learn their playbook to success. I verify their business acumen or their relationships with their wife or, you know, whatever history or not history that's there. And we share our confidential business strategies. When we share our customer relationships or financial information, for information especially today,

• 23:28Speaker 00

  with potential people, partners, before verify their credibility or establishing clear expectations for how that information will be used. This is why we have Strategic Alliance Group guaranteed. So that we qualify the people that want to help each other, know people to help each other. We can verify those people if you need us to, that are part of the group, what we know about them and what they do and what they look for with non-binding codification and memorialization of how we could help one another. That's why thousands of people are in that group to help, to protect their information, relationships and reputation

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  with people of a higher frequency, a neighborhood of people that want to help each other and know people that help each other. A neighborhood of people that want to buy from each other and sell for each other. When you elevate awareness or create awareness and build relationships that don't require us to surrender control, like in a group, a mastermind, a meetup, a holding court, a VIP dinner, we can be very generous with our knowledge while remaining intentional about protecting those most valuable assets aligned with the neighborhood and the frequency that we belong to and through.

• 24:56Speaker 00

  We need to verify the identities. We need to verify and establish the appropriate confidentiality protections before sharing sensitive information. We should provide the information necessary to transition interest and then establish credibility and verification to share that vision so that we can build that neighborhood to manage and develop that vision effectively. If you would like more information in joining our Strategic Alliance Group to protect yourself, to create a neighborhood of people that protect each other, the information, relationships and reputation,

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  you want to be in a frequency, come show up to one of our events. If you join our group, I'll give you a free VIP dinner, a free mastermind. Come and show up in the neighborhood, see what people are benefiting, talk to them, verify. That's why we guarantee it. We guarantee, I don't do any type of business without guaranteeing it. That's why I don't lock people in the shit. I work month to month with them so that they can prove it and get a refund if they don't receive the value that they're asking for. If you would like to join that group or get a read from A, exercises, guides, my book, [email protected]. [email protected].

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  The final lesson for today, get proximate to the truth and take the accountability with that proximity. The closer we get to the actual operations, the closer we get to the actual people, the closer we get to the actual information, the closer we get to the performance behind the option, opportunity or touch of favor, the better equipped we become to make an aligned decision with the divine direction based off of our timing and risk targets. Accountability, what did we do to take responsibility? What did we do to attract it? What do we do to participate in that procession?

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  Perception means taking that accountability for what we have verified, what we have questioned, making people uncomfortable. And most importantly, what we ultimately choose. Get proximate to the truth as close as you can to ultimately choose the aligned divine decision. Before we enter a major business partnership.

• 27:39Speaker 00

  We visit companies' operations and meet key team members, review relevant documentations, tour facilities, ask difficult questions, uncomfortable questions, and utilize independently verified sources to align the capabilities with what's doing well, what's stable, and what you think is doing well. This allows us to identify the potential risks and allows us to align it with the divine direction before committing any resources at all. Mitigation of risk, too many people jump 100% in

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  without asking uncomfortable or difficult questions. Just because you show up or wait a year doesn't mean that you've asked the difficult or unquestionable questions. You've just utilized the year to support what you think, to support the fear of missing out and the fear of other people's decisions. If you wait two years, it doesn't matter if you haven't asked difficult questions, uncomfortable questions, if you haven't taken responsibility for those decisions. We don't protect ourselves by becoming suspicious of everyone. Just the opposite. We trust everyone and protect ourselves by trusting what they say so much that we're willing to do the due diligence

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  to make sure that we heard what they said or are aligned with what they're representing so we can ask better questions by becoming more aware, more interested than interesting. And when we ask better questions, difficult questions, uncomfortable questions, it is a process of alignment of the divine direction so that we can both take responsibility for the decision that is ultimately made and agreed upon, knowing that time, value, and emotion changes instantly after every decision is made, oral, written, with consideration or out, implied even. Time, emotion, and value will change.

• 29:52Speaker 00

  It's so important that we protect ourselves not by being suspicious, but by trusting them and vetting them appropriately. When we seek direct evidence through site visits, through live demonstrations, through independent references, through uncomfortable and difficult questions, when we seek that evidence, we are mitigating risk and assuring success and divine alignment between both parties. If we can identify the most important unanswered questions before entering a significant agreement. I'll give you an example.

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  So many times people say to me, "Oh, our revenue's up 300% this year." And so many people won't ask, "Well, what's your revenue last year?" What if you were signing a significant agreement that they've tripled their revenue, but their revenue last year was $9 and it's now $27, not $9 million like you thought and $27 million this year? But it appeared as they have all... Yeah, we don't count other people's money in that way. We trust and vet them. We look for the live demonstrations, the actual records. When you're evaluating opportunities through the four categories that we mentioned,

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  verified track record, financial and operational credibility, character and accountability, and alignment of our values and timing and risk tolerance, now we're able to get proximate to the truth. Now we're able to take accountability by asking ourselves, "What did I do to be responsible? What did I do to attract it? What am I doing to participate in this perception of the values that occur, of the people I'm doing business with, of the operations, of the finances? How am I perceiving this and participating in that perception?" Get proximate to the truth. If you want to learn the four categories to verify track record,

• 32:04Speaker 00

  financial and operational credibility, character and accountability, and alignment of values and timing and risk tolerance, email me. David means beloved. @D is my first initial. Meltzer means servant. Let me be that beloved servant. Join our Strategic Alliance Group. Join the replay. Come and join us every Friday on Breakfast of Champions or the Multicast, [email protected]. In business, some of the most expensive mistakes is from confusing confidence with competence, charisma with character, and promises with performance.

• 32:47Speaker 00

  You got to follow the results, not the resume. You need to verify the financial and operational credibility. You need to evaluate the character, not the charisma. You can never let the urgency, the compelling events replace doing due diligence, vetting appropriately, being more interested than interesting. You got to protect your information, your relationships, and your reputation by picking and choosing and articulating value correctly. And finally, as mentioned in the last lesson, we got to get proximate to the truth the best that we can to take that accountability, to ask ourselves, "What did I do? And what am I supposed to learn from it?

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  What did I think, say, believe, and feel? And what am I supposed to learn from it?" Protecting ourselves in business. Protecting ourselves in business isn't about avoiding risk or refusing to trust people. It's the exact opposite. It's about trusting people and vetting them because you trust them. It's about developing awareness, developing a discipline, developing accountability to recognize, remember, and recollect the options, opportunities, and touches of favor that align with our divine direction and our values of gratitude and empathy, accountability and effective communication, while still protecting what we worked on

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  and what we've created. When we consistently verify beyond trusting, when we consistently verify these results, evaluating character, understanding financial realities, and asking those difficult, uncomfortable questions, we become better positioned to build the relationships, partnerships, that create what we desire, our divine direction of long-term value. Our greatest protection isn't our ability to recognize, remember, recollect when someone is misleading us.

• 35:01Speaker 00

  It's our willingness to ask the difficult and uncomfortable questions we need to be answered, even when we're excited about the opportunity. Without the fear of missing out, without the fear of other people's opinion, turn the FOMO into JOMO, turn the FOPO into JOPO, the joy of missing out, the joy of other people's opinion, protect ourselves in business. We've been doing this for over 29 years, as of October 11th, by the way. This has been how to protect ourselves in business, be more interested than interesting, be kind, be kind to your future self, and do good deeds.