how to display custom fields or html

hi all,

can anyone please help me with this problem. I’m trying to get wordpress to display either a custom field or some HTML out side of the loop here is the code (it works but it displays the HTML and the custom fields on the pages with custom fields)

<?php if (the_meta()) : while (the_meta()) : (get_post_meta()) ; ?>

<?php endwhile; ?>

<?php else : ?>

<h3>heading</h3>
<p>text</p>

<?php endif; ?>

thanks steve