Latest / None of Your Business Podcast / Chi-Chi WaWa and the Art of Thanking Hashem with Mendy Worch

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Chi-Chi WaWa and the Art of Thanking Hashem with Mendy Worch · None of Your Business Podcast

• 0:00
  The main goal of Thank You SHM is not to make cool Jewish
• 0:03
  music, but to make Jewish music cool.
• 0:08
  Like, I'll say it again, not to make cool Jewish music, but to
• 0:11
  make Jewish music cool. None of your business, Oshi.
• 0:19
  None of your business, Michael. It's the None of Your Business
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  podcast hosted by Michael Anoshi.
• 0:28
  Qualmax is a leading distributor of housekeeping supplies, Oshi,
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  beaten. Big fans of what they're doing,
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  especially the owner Joel Greenfield, he's amazing and his
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  partners, all the people there. Welcome back everybody to
• 1:10
  another amazing episode of the None of Your Business podcast.
• 1:13
  Please don't forget to like, subscribe, comment, get
• 1:15
  involved. We're loving the feedback.
• 1:18
  We are joined by an amazing guest today, Mendy.
• 1:20
  Welcome to the program, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls.
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  Mandy Warsh. Woo.
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  Great to be. Here, this is very exciting.
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  This is a long time coming. This was one of my target
• 1:31
  guests. You don't know this, but for a
• 1:32
  long time I said one day I'm going to get Mandy on the
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  podcast. But first we want to go through
• 1:37
  the motions, you know, see what it's like.
• 1:38
  So we're prepared for you. First, let's get Shamili.
• 1:40
  Unger on right, I was going to say I was I was really first of
• 1:44
  all great to be here, but I was a little insulted that like I
• 1:47
  know ushi my whole life. We're going to, you know, we'll
• 1:49
  talk about that, but here he is super podcast superstar and he
• 1:54
  doesn't even think of me. Like he doesn't even share
• 1:56
  episodes with me. He had the popcorn guy on, he
• 1:59
  had the art scroll guy on. He had everybody.
• 2:04
  I'm I'm listening to I'm quietly at the gym listening to the
• 2:07
  podcast, fueling all that anger into more repetitions and like,
• 2:12
  you know, to go longer. But I see Shmuley anger came
• 2:15
  last episode. I just listened to it.
• 2:17
  He's awesome and I think he does.
• 2:18
  He's amazing. I think it's his passion.
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  But now I think we're ready for Mandy Warsh now that we had I
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  mean, you see churns was on the podcast, so he was you're pretty
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  much inviting everybody at this point.
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  So it's only about time that I'm only kidding.
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  I love you see. You see, no offense.
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  So Mandy, I want to give the viewers a little little
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  background on who Mandy Warsh is, and I want to give you my
• 2:40
  version. I want to give you my ticket.
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  I'd love to hear this. Other people, they introduced
• 2:43
  you. They, they made say things
• 2:44
  differently, but I want to break it down in two ways.
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  I want to break it down by what people know about my doors.
• 2:50
  I'm not divulging anything people don't know.
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  And then also what people may not know, somethings undisclosed
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  behind the scenes. So obviously what people know is
• 2:59
  you're a prolific singer-songwriter.
• 3:02
  You've been doing this a long time.
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  I already knew. Back in the day when you were,
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  like, 1415 years old, in our shul growing up, anytime there
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  was an event, they would give Mandy the mic.
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  And Mandy was the hype man. He was.
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  He got the whole crowd going and he was always singing.
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  So the, the writing was on the wall already.
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  Then I was the original Mr. Met. Yeah, exactly.
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  Without the outfit. Exactly.
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  Yeah. So that we all know you released
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  some of the most dynamic contemporary songs, I believe in
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  the last, you know, 20 years. Household names.
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  These songs become staples. I know in my house, we play your
• 3:37
  music at nauseam, like on repeat all the time.
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  The biggest one I think that really put you on the map was
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  NYEK was a big target. Yeah.
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  That was a huge, huge song. Almost 1,000,000 views on
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  YouTube. Yeah.
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  And it's been listened to so many times at so many events.
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  Schools, they're always playing the.
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  Song, you know you're doing well when there's like 13 remixes of
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  your song. Exactly.
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  Congratulations on that. Yeah.
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  That's yes. That was a that was a really,
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  really big hit. Yeah.
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  But amongst others, Uman Rosh Hashanah was a big hit.
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  Chichiwawa, one of my personal favorites.
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  I love that song. And now the most recent one,
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  which by the way, and this pay sock, I want you to know, in my
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  shul, everybody was singing. Everybody's just like humming it
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  to themselves, like, oh, Yum, Yum, Yum, Yum.
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  That song is like next level fishy swishy.
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  Yum Yum Yum. Yum Yum.
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  I want to know how much wine you guys drink that video.
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  That video, yeah, People always say how high were you when you
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  made that video? I said the question is, how deep
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  were we? It's not high.
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  It's about how deep we are. But if you think about that,
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  deep usually means down, but high means up, right?
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  But like, really, when it comes to like big ideas or like when
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  you're tap into that creative moment or like you're just on
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  fire, is it deep? Is it high?
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  And then I realized, I think we're at the bottom and the
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  higher you get, the deeper you get.
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  So I think it's the same thing. It's high is deep and it's about
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  letting go of what's restricting us now at the like leaving your
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  your comfort zone. Yes.
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  So it's not going deep as in down.
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  It's deep as an up. It's a small nuance for me.
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  And interesting. I like that, by the way.
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  In other words, people, how high are you?
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  Well, what does high mean? High means that that we're,
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  we're letting go of, of the chains and the resistance of
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  what's locking in our feelings or the status quo.
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  High on life, so high in life, but also that's a deeper yeah
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  level of consciousness, Yeah. Yeah.
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  I I still want to hear what you have to say.
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  I love. That I love that, yeah.
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  But by the way, the Yum Yum song racked up already 80,000 views
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  just in the last three weeks, so it's on pace potential.
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  You mean on? YouTube on YouTube alone and it
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  has below. You're right, not even counting
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  the other. Platforms.
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  It has almost half a million views if you count all the
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  platforms. Wow.
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  And it's only, like you said, only out what, 10 days or so?
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  And now we're in Sphero, so. These songs are so catchy.
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  They have like like a really good beat to it and you can just
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  get behind it and it's fun. They're fun songs.
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  That's the point. It makes everybody just want to
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  sing. It puts everybody in a good
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  mood. Like you're doing things very
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  differently, a whole different style than what's been out there
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  for a long time. I'm a big fan.
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  You have a lot of fans. You obviously also a huge part
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  of the thank you Hashem, the TYH movement, which is, which has
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  become a cultural, Jewish cultural phenomenon.
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  I mean, everybody knows, thank you Hashem.
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  You guys do wonderful things, which I would like to dive more
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  into today because I really sure do want to understand what
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  that's all about, what the mission is, what your vision is,
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  where you guys are going with this.
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  You're in luck, it's my favorite topics.
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  OK, awesome, awesome. And you're part of the executive
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  team. You're very saturated.
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  I'm just one of the artists on the team, but yeah, we'll talk
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  about it. They're amazing and I can't wait
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  to talk about it. Awesome, awesome, awesome.
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  OK. Also, Mandy used to do car
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  leasing for a very long time. Yeah, still do some do you?
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  What are you driving now? Is she?
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  He's always selling once you. Lease up is she?
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  I got a deal for you. Yeah, but. 42 months, 8000 miles
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  a year. You see these new deals they.
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  Have yeah, of course. Yeah, yeah.
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  He he he was one of the premier elite car leasing companies for
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  a long time do. You have a name.
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  Bay Ridge Leasing was the big one.
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  We had a bunch of different names.
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  I worked for a lot of the bigger companies, but right before I
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  got out of the car business, I partnered with a lot of the
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  dealerships in Brooklyn. They're owned by the Jewfrey
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  family. It's big Italian family, big
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  wealth. They own all the Bay Ridge
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  dealerships, Bay Ridge, Lexus, Bay Ridge, Toyota, Honda.
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  They own Manhattan dealership. So Lexus of Manhattan, Nissan,
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  like Route 22 is their stores. So they had like 30-40 different
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  dealerships and we partnered with them and we're going to
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  bring leases to the Jewish community.
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  I think there's a company called Plaza Auto Leasing in Brooklyn
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  that did a similar idea on a smaller scale.
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  And maybe that's why it worked for them.
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  But for us, there were too many cooks in the kitchen, too many.
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  You know, I did a deal with the man at the top, but there were
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  like 30 brother in laws and nephews each running their
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  stores. So each one like he couldn't
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  speak on behalf of everybody. And it kind of after two years
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  just we're making more money with other relationships than
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  with the ones. Yeah, and you always loved cars.
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  I like cars. You.
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  I like selling and I like, I like the feeling of delivering a
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  new car. Like when you give that guy his
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  new keys and the car smells great and I'm still like another
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  hour after the sale showing him like the features and I'm like,
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  I'm I just love. You're very passionate about it.
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  Yeah, I wanted. To take you to RIP off that
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  airbag warning. No, we leave those on.
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  The car's worth more money if you leave that on at the three
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  years. No, it's not.
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  It's not. And then you also were very
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  successful in business. You were part of Yellowstone for
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  a long time. Yeah, it's the big cash advance.
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  The big cash. Advance company, yes, yes.
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  And according to your LinkedIn page, currently you are a
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  managing partner of Blue Bridge Funding, right, Right, OK, which
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  is also in the. That's a company I started after
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  I left Yellowstone 5-6 years ago.
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  Right, right. OK.
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  So those are some of the very basic things I think everybody's
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  very familiar with. I don't think I caught anybody
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  off guard by this, but here are some of the things that people
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  may not know. OK.
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  And I could talk to this. I am a subject matter expert on
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  on Mandy Warsh because I was a very big part of your past, a
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  very big part of, you know, you growing up.
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  We grew up on the same block. We lived 2-3 houses.
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  Yeah. I take a lot of credit for all
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  of his success today, for sure. But I know I know a part of
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  Mandy that I don't think a lot of people know, you know, where
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  everybody reinvents themselves as they get older.
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  But one thing stayed true. And this was kind of the first
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  thing that I put down just to people don't know this about
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  Mandy, is that you have a tremendous sense of humor.
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  You're literally the life of every party.
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  Like if you want to have a good time, just invite Mandy, let
• 9:47
  Mandy show up and he takes over. And you don't have to plan an
• 9:50
  activity. Mandy is the activity.
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  And you're very quick on your feet.
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  You're very witty. You've pulled some of the most
• 9:56
  classic pranks. And I don't know if I can talk
• 9:58
  about those pranks on ear about things that Mandy has done, but
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  some outlandish wild things that Mandy pulled off.
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  We're going to have to start talking about oshi.
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  I know some secrets too. But like, you know, you, you
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  always, you know, people knew that many walked into the room
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  and everybody's eyes just lights up.
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  He's fun. He's a funny guy, great sense of
• 10:16
  humor. And I don't know if you know you
• 10:18
  get enough of you to say that enough credit for that, but
• 10:20
  definitely also pull. Up more about these pranks.
• 10:22
  Pull up some of the most epic prank pranks, I may add.
• 10:24
  But yeah, another thing that people may not know is that you
• 10:28
  were one of the founders of a day camp called Cam Hever, which
• 10:32
  today is very prominent, very successful day camp.
• 10:34
  Muncie blossomed. It became, you know, I think
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  it's, you know, they may have the second most kids that attend
• 10:40
  summer camp Muncie is Cam Hever. And you started that.
• 10:43
  You were one of the founders. You were one of the brainchilds
• 10:45
  of it. You saw a need in the community
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  for a certain type of camp and you were part of that with a few
• 10:50
  others and it really took off. So you don't get enough credit
• 10:53
  for that, but you should because you were there at the helm, so.
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  Like I want more credit for that.
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  Yeah, yeah, you. Definitely.
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  Maybe a couple checks santages, yeah.
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  Yeah. Another thing about Mandy is a
• 11:03
  trend and we just touched on it a little bit.
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  A tremendous salesman. Mindy has this style that he can
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  mix aggressiveness and politeness all at the same time
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  and get it done. And he articulates himself very
• 11:13
  well. He's just very convincing.
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  It's very hard to say no to Mindy.
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  Like if he wants you to do something, you're most likely
• 11:18
  going to end up doing. This meet my wife and kids.
• 11:21
  They have cracked the code on how to say no to me.
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  Exactly. Another fun fact about Mindy is
• 11:26
  that growing up, we grew up in a school where there was a he was
• 11:30
  a rough, but he was also somewhat of a rubber, I guess.
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  Yeah. And he had a lot of, like, the
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  model of that shul was very rubbish in a lot of ways.
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  And Mendu was the assistant Hoseberger for the rubber for
• 11:41
  many years. I mean.
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  Before he got established. Before he became a gigantic.
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  I was the the first, like the bat boy.
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  Yeah, or they were a Major League team.
• 11:49
  Yeah, guys, what? What's a hose bucker?
• 11:51
  What's a hose bucker? Oh my.
• 11:52
  Goodness, I mean how you can explain to Litvach what a hose
• 11:55
  bucker. Very different driving.
• 11:56
  So think of it as an executive assistant, but he or the rabbi
• 12:00
  for the Yeah, but he does everything for the Rabbo.
• 12:02
  Like he basically lives with the rabbit.
• 12:03
  He lives in his house. Helps him put on his strimmel
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  and like his. Not necessary.
• 12:07
  The rabbit is very old and yes he helps him do that.
• 12:09
  But you know, coffee he made assistant eats his meals.
• 12:12
  I don't think I was ever a hose Booker, but I was playing the
• 12:15
  role of helping the rebel before he had a hose buffer.
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  So I was, I was, I was like filling in.
• 12:21
  We were playing house at the time.
• 12:22
  He wasn't a real rebel and I wasn't a real hose Bucher.
• 12:25
  What I mean by that is he wasn't established yet.
• 12:28
  He was always a tremendous person.
• 12:30
  But we're talking about Rabi, Rothenberg and Forshay.
• 12:33
  Yes, the Forshay rebel. Who Shmill Younger mentioned on
• 12:37
  his last He was at his son Shiva, he learnt there and
• 12:41
  actually me and Shmilly sang together in shul before either
• 12:45
  one of us was anybody. We were singing together.
• 12:49
  We were both just teenagers. So those were my earliest,
• 12:52
  earliest memories. Gigs where singing.
• 12:55
  I got one more, one more last thing that and I think this is
• 12:58
  for me personally the most important introduction that I
• 13:00
  can give to the extent of this. I don't think we've ever
• 13:05
  actually talked about it, but when I was 17 years old, exactly
• 13:10
  17, I got kicked out of my house.
• 13:12
  My parents didn't want me to live at home anymore.
• 13:14
  I wasn't behaving. I wasn't following the rules.
• 13:16
  And I also wasn't in any yeshiva at the time, and I never wear to
• 13:21
  go. So Mehndi and his family, his
• 13:23
  parents very graciously took me into their home and I lived
• 13:26
  there for about 6 months. I actually lived with them.
• 13:29
  And at the time, I was very down on life.
• 13:31
  I don't want to do anything. I wasn't motivated at all.
• 13:34
  And Mehndi tells me, you know, there's a new yeshiva that's
• 13:36
  going to be opening up and I, I think you should try it out.
• 13:40
  Come with me. I'm going to go also.
• 13:42
  We're going to check it out. Only like 10 people are, are,
• 13:44
  are coming. The Rasha Shiva, I know him,
• 13:46
  he's a nice guy. Let's check it out.
• 13:48
  I was like, Nah, man, it's not for me, it's not for me.
• 13:50
  He basically dragged me to this place, dragged me to this place.
• 13:54
  And as soon as I got there, I did feel the warmth from the
• 13:57
  from the Rebbe and the Rasha Shiva there and the red.
• 14:00
  Wanna mention which you see but this.
• 14:01
  Is most those different eras Rabbi Levitans?
• 14:04
  The great Rabbi Levitan. The great Levitan.
• 14:06
  And that is How I Met Rabbi Levitan.
• 14:08
  Wow. And by the way, most people who
• 14:11
  are listening to know me. That shaped my entire life.
• 14:14
  So I kept the relationship with the Med levitants since then.
• 14:17
  It's over 21 years since I know him.
• 14:19
  Yeah, I was actually in that yeshiva for the longest from
• 14:21
  anybody, longest tenured yeshiva boy in that yeshiva in the
• 14:25
  history of seven years. You were just so happy they
• 14:26
  weren't throwing that exactly. Finally, somebody's accepted me
• 14:29
  after throwing me out. Exactly.
• 14:30
  I was there for seven years. I got married.
• 14:33
  I actually moved to a neighborhood together through
• 14:35
  about Levitan where he became the Rove Ribari and Irbari.
• 14:38
  Exactly. And he's my whole world.
• 14:41
  He's my, you know, I, I don't think I would be religious today
• 14:43
  or from today or have the quality of life that I have if I
• 14:47
  wasn't a part of that setting. And you were the one that set
• 14:49
  that all up. You gave me that first push.
• 14:51
  So I have a lot of appreciation. I actually don't remember this
• 14:53
  part. I don't remember the whole Rabe
• 14:55
  Levitan part of your life doesn't resonate with me.
• 14:59
  I was probably getting married and out.
• 15:01
  I think we just. Very quickly, yeah, I.
• 15:03
  Was in that yeshiva very quickly, and then I met my wife
• 15:06
  whose brother was in that yeshiva.
• 15:08
  Someone read it and then met my future brother-in-law and I was
• 15:13
  like, oh, he's, he's a cool guy, decent guy, Dovey and then.
• 15:18
  The rest is history. The rest is history.
• 15:20
  But but maybe you should just know that's one small act of
• 15:23
  kindness that you did is that you really pushed me.
• 15:26
  It led to an entire an entire life.
• 15:31
  And it's just, you know. I think I should.
• 15:32
  Thank you. Yeah.
• 15:33
  I actually want to add to that Oshi, because Oshi, Oshi's
• 15:37
  leading off a little bit here. Actually.
• 15:39
  I'm like a Big Brother to Ushi and he's the little brother.
• 15:42
  He's always trying to catch up to me.
• 15:44
  That's really what it is. I.
• 15:47
  Mean we grew up on the same block together.
• 15:50
  What am I, 4? I'm 40.
• 15:51
  How old are you? Ishi 3838.
• 15:53
  So 2 years. Two years is not a lot when
• 15:55
  you're growing up. We grew up on Quince Lane in
• 15:59
  Muncie. I, I call myself, we were like
• 16:01
  the inner city kids of Forshay. It was underdeveloped.
• 16:04
  There were very few year than living there probably in 1990,
• 16:07
  three 1995 that those years we were lucky enough to have
• 16:13
  Orchard Hill Park was behind us where they would play little
• 16:16
  leagues for a couple times a week.
• 16:18
  So all the other times we had this beautiful field with dugout
• 16:23
  and benches and home run fences. We learned how to play baseball
• 16:27
  over there. And sometimes they forget to
• 16:28
  lock the equipment box so you get into your grab a baseball.
• 16:31
  And for us, we have to explain this.
• 16:33
  So she like we grew up not watching sports and not
• 16:36
  following sports and not being exposed to anything of called
• 16:40
  the outside world. But I think the Yankees went on
• 16:43
  a crazy run. It was like 959697 and they won
• 16:47
  four World Series in a row. And we just right, it was me,
• 16:51
  you, my brother Ezra was another boy that was living with us at
• 16:54
  that time and some other, you know, we didn't have a team.
• 16:57
  We had maybe four or five guys in the neighborhood.
• 17:00
  My brother younger brother Mordecai hated sports, but we'd
• 17:02
  force him to play with. Us.
• 17:03
  We needed people. We need we.
• 17:05
  Need someone to to throw the bat at so I don't want to play
• 17:09
  Mordecai. Please come play.
• 17:11
  But we made-up games. We were on that field and we
• 17:14
  felt like we would Jeter and Gerardi and we felt like, who's
• 17:19
  your favorite player on the Yankees?
• 17:20
  I remember. Growing up, yeah.
• 17:23
  In the 90s, who was your favorite player?
• 17:25
  I'll give you a hint. I wasn't following switch hitter
• 17:28
  a switch hitter. #51. I don't even remember.
• 17:34
  Outfielder, musician today. Bernie Williams.
• 17:37
  Bernie, Bernie Williams. Oh, she loved Bernie Williams.
• 17:41
  He loved that. No, because all the kasidi loved
• 17:43
  Bernie Williams. Bernie, Bernie, Bernie, Bernie.
• 17:45
  Bernie Williams. Burn, baby, burn.
• 17:49
  So, yeah, I mean, we, but we, we would play pitcher, catcher and
• 17:52
  we. That was our game, pitcher.
• 17:54
  Running bases, What do you play with?
• 17:55
  Three people, All right. You started second, you started
• 17:57
  third. And running pitcher running
• 17:59
  bases pitcher always ended in a fight it.
• 18:02
  Always ended with someone getting.
• 18:03
  Hurt, dead right, And your father would come out screaming.
• 18:06
  Riches. This is riches this game.
• 18:09
  What are you doing? Yeah, you're killing each other.
• 18:12
  Because we were trying to throw as hard as we could and we were
• 18:15
  running and we, we, it was, we didn't even play baseball.
• 18:17
  We were watching baseball before we were playing it.
• 18:19
  So we were trying to emulate them.
• 18:21
  And that passion for baseball, though, got in so deep.
• 18:25
  And I think that's why me and you and certain people that grew
• 18:28
  up in that era are so passionate about baseball because it's like
• 18:33
  it was the first time we saw like ourselves doing something
• 18:36
  greater than where we're from or what we're doing.
• 18:38
  We. It was our outlet.
• 18:39
  It was our way of getting away from our everyday life, the
• 18:43
  grind. And it was a way to just, you
• 18:45
  know, hang out with friends and. She still plays baseball.
• 18:47
  Do you? I play, I'm in three different
• 18:50
  leagues and I play all the time. I play as many innings as I can.
• 18:52
  I love baseball and I just love the art of the game, the part of
• 18:56
  the game that you're trying to perfect your own game, like,
• 19:01
  like golf is like that. I don't play golf, but golfers
• 19:04
  say that it's you against you like there's nothing.
• 19:08
  You know that we had two people. On Oh yeah, of course I listened
• 19:10
  to all of. That talk just about golf the
• 19:12
  entire time at Nauseam, it was it was a little much.
• 19:15
  They're obsessed with golf. The golf culture is next level.
• 19:19
  Those are. Literally two of the most boring
• 19:21
  sports to me. Sorry there's balling.
• 19:23
  Golf doesn't get more boring. Actually, tennis another sport
• 19:26
  that you love. I love tennis.
• 19:27
  Yeah. Also Orchard Hill Park.
• 19:28
  Had a tennis. Yes, that's where I learned
• 19:30
  that's. Where she, I know she used to
• 19:31
  play Yoshi, but getting back to the point of this, Oshi was
• 19:35
  always trying to catch up to me and always try to be amazing.
• 19:39
  Like me, for example. I'll give you a couple of quick
• 19:43
  Well, actually during that time that you came and lived with us,
• 19:47
  we were actually roommates. Yes, we slept.
• 19:49
  We were roommates. Yes, we were.
• 19:51
  Matter of fact, I might even say I was your first roommate ever.
• 19:53
  You were. Maybe even your best roommate
• 19:55
  ever. Push again, but yes.
• 19:58
  Yes, we were the first time roommate.
• 19:59
  First time and I remember my parents were they had just.
• 20:03
  Wrecked their house because they were going to build a new house
• 20:06
  on the spot. So we were renting another house
• 20:09
  on Melanie. So for one year we lived in some
• 20:11
  rental and this house had every mocha from Mitzrayim.
• 20:16
  There was like mice. Do you remember the mice?
• 20:19
  There were mice in the ceiling and there were Wasps in the AC
• 20:24
  and, and as I think about all the mochas, I also remember
• 20:26
  that, oh, she was my roommate. So it was consistent.
• 20:29
  I had all the plagues all at once, but I, I, I remember we
• 20:36
  started the camp and as soon as I left and sold my portion to
• 20:40
  Yessi, oh, she took my spot. I was like, OK.
• 20:45
  And then I was a teacher in Degalatora for a few years.
• 20:47
  Did I forget? And then I leave and oh, she
• 20:50
  takes my spot. And then like, what else?
• 20:54
  I I think I, I was in the Baseball League and the next
• 20:56
  thing I know, oh, she's in that league.
• 20:57
  And then you became a celeb. I'm a celeb.
• 21:00
  And now, oh, she's, oh, she's like, if I see you at a wedding
• 21:03
  trying to sing a song, we're going to have a problem with
• 21:05
  she. If I even hear the word Chichi
• 21:07
  Wawa from you, the whole world's going to have a problem.
• 21:09
  I'm only kidding. Oh, she.
• 21:10
  I love you. But Michael, do do you know that
• 21:14
  I was almost your Co host for this podcast?
• 21:16
  Really. Yeah.
• 21:18
  About maybe two years ago, Moshi Gnuth, our mutual friend, called
• 21:23
  me. He says, you know, there's this
• 21:24
  guy Michael, and he has this podcast and blah, blah, blah.
• 21:27
  I think Sham, I think you should do the podcast with him.
• 21:30
  You guys don't know this, right? Yeah.
• 21:31
  Because I was giving Michael a hard time in the ending about
• 21:34
  doing. So I said, I said I can't do it,
• 21:36
  but try Ushi, just tell him I was interested and he'll do it.
• 21:39
  That did it, by the way. Yeah, so here we are.
• 21:42
  I want to thank you for coming on to my podcast.
• 21:44
  What's next? I want to know what my pipeline
• 21:45
  looks. Like, let me hear you best fishy
• 21:49
  swishy. Yeah, but but I I I just want to
• 21:53
  say something before we get into my life.
• 21:55
  I just want to say from a very young age, I remember Ushi being
• 22:01
  my roommate. He he didn't have his own house.
• 22:03
  He didn't have his own. Like, he wasn't around his
• 22:05
  family. He was down on life, to use his
• 22:07
  own words. He didn't belong anywhere.
• 22:09
  He felt like an outcast. And I remember being so
• 22:13
  impressed by Ushi because we were all like trying to hustle.
• 22:17
  And then we were all trying to like find our way in life.
• 22:21
  And I remember Ushi out of my bedroom, started a business, I
• 22:25
  think it was called Shoppers Smart Saver or something.
• 22:30
  And he probably sold this company for $100 million.
• 22:33
  But Ushi went around as I think he was 17 years old.
• 22:38
  I was, and he went around without a partner, without a
• 22:42
  game plan, without anything. One day I wake up, I know she's
• 22:45
  busy with this big pamphlet, this, this loose leaf and what's
• 22:50
  in here. And he's got clippings and
• 22:52
  savings. And he says, I'm going to start
• 22:54
  a business where I'm going to go around to businesses in Muncie.
• 22:58
  Correct me if I'm wrong. And I'm going to ask them how
• 23:01
  like for coupons or something like basically inventing
• 23:05
  coupons. He went into stores and saying,
• 23:06
  well, what do you want to, what do you want to give 20% off of?
• 23:09
  And then he would put it into this magazine.
• 23:12
  And I think, I don't remember what the business model was.
• 23:14
  How are you going to make money on this?
• 23:16
  But Ushy was hustling every single day.
• 23:19
  Remember say store to store by himself.
• 23:22
  No car, no phone. I don't even know if he had a
• 23:25
  phone. Did you have a phone that we had
• 23:26
  flip phones then right. The star techs or VTech or
• 23:29
  something on next, though, what do you have?
• 23:32
  Ushy went from store to store and I'm I'm sitting there at
• 23:34
  night shooting the breeze with him because we were brothers.
• 23:37
  We were roommates and I was going Ushy.
• 23:38
  This makes no sense. The guy's not offering a
• 23:41
  discount. He said, I know, but but I'm
• 23:43
  going to explain to him why he should I said, OK, but then
• 23:45
  who's going to buy this thing? Oh no, we're going to give it
• 23:47
  away for free. And it it's every every concept
• 23:51
  issue I brought up. But she was not just like saw
• 23:54
  past it. He was already 100 steps past it
• 23:57
  and. You know that Groupon basically
• 23:59
  came into business years later and digitalized the whole thing
• 24:03
  and took your idea exactly. It was a basically a Groupon
• 24:06
  idea is really what? It was, it's, it's, it's
• 24:08
  amazing. But the, the, the, the
• 24:10
  impressive thing is not how successful you were.
• 24:12
  The impressive thing was that you believed in your yourself
• 24:15
  that Despite that you were currently quote UN quote in the
• 24:19
  mud in life, you saw yourself as capable of more.
• 24:25
  And I always admired that. There was a confidence there
• 24:29
  that was like, no, my idea is bigger than my reality today.
• 24:33
  And all I have to do is work on it to make that idea a reality.
• 24:37
  And that's a little bit about Ushi that people don't know.
• 24:41
  Ushi is a go getter. I mean, Oshie, we were thrown
• 24:44
  out of every school and then they made us the teacher and
• 24:47
  basically just we crushed it. That's like the biggest revenge
• 24:49
  we got in all of our teachers. It was the moment ourselves.
• 24:52
  Became a teacher. We both taught in a school.
• 24:54
  I was an English literature teacher.
• 24:55
  Is that what you thought that was a subject?
• 24:56
  It was whatever subject they gave me, but it was, it was more
• 24:59
  like keep these kids from running through traffic for two
• 25:02
  hours, make sure that I but no, we were teaching English and the
• 25:07
  great Rabbi Isaac Camp Elion competition.
• 25:09
  But we love him. He was the principal.
• 25:12
  He had vision. He took two kids from the
• 25:14
  streets and we're like, yeah, these kids could do it.
• 25:17
  Right. And we did.
• 25:18
  We did it very. Well, we did, yeah.
• 25:20
  But yes, I'm impressed that he saw that within us, but I'm more
• 25:23
  impressed at us like that we had that, we went and did it.
• 25:27
  I mean buy and at the shake case.
• 25:29
  Yeah. Set the codes, click, click buy
• 25:31
  the chalk. We were doing PTA with parents.
• 25:34
  We were 18 years old and we're holding PTA with like, you know,
• 25:36
  40 year olds parents. It was wild.
• 25:39
  Yeah, I remember coming at a shoe one week, two weeks after I
• 25:42
  was hired and there was like a 2nd grader who is now my student
• 25:46
  davening at the show. You ever get though, you ever
• 25:48
  get that a lot the students coming over to you.
• 25:50
  Of course I love Remember Me. I love crazy.
• 25:51
  I love it. And they're like old now with
• 25:53
  like 3 kids themselves of. Course, of course, I mean over.
• 25:56
  I was 6th, 7th, 8th grade for three years in a row.
• 26:00
  So that's hundreds of kids. Yes, over the three that that
• 26:03
  come on and say you were the best teacher you would like, but
• 26:07
  what was I saying? Second grader coming out of shul
• 26:11
  students father walks over to me.
• 26:12
  I'm now the teacher, right? I'm the 17 year old fat lucid
• 26:17
  who makes noise during davening is now the teacher of his kid
• 26:21
  and he comes over to me outside of shul.
• 26:22
  I'm walking home with my father and he and his father goes.
• 26:27
  What qualifies you to to be a teacher?
• 26:29
  Exactly. And I was I was like deer in the
• 26:32
  headlights and my father and never forget this turns to him
• 26:36
  and goes and what qualifies you to be a father?
• 26:39
  And I was like, oh, shots fired, adults fighting.
• 26:42
  This is amazing. But I, I just think we knew that
• 26:46
  we could do it. I think we knew because we
• 26:49
  looked at how disconnected our teachers were with us and how
• 26:52
  like we just totally weren't engaged in class and we just
• 26:57
  spoke a different language and it resonated with the kids and
• 27:00
  we took it seriously. We took the education seriously.
• 27:02
  I care. I prepared lessons.
• 27:04
  I went to the library. I really prepared.
• 27:05
  I wanted to, you know, do something productive with the.
• 27:08
  Kids, I did my most learning as a teacher.
• 27:10
  That's not a me too. And, but, but there was an inner
• 27:14
  belief. We had a confidence that we
• 27:16
  could do this. And I think that is not
• 27:19
  something you could teach. It's something that despite you
• 27:22
  failing at 100 things, you know that that doesn't define you.
• 27:24
  You're capable of more, you capable of better.
• 27:26
  And I think a lot of your guests on this podcast have shown that
• 27:29
  trait where success is not always the first route you take
• 27:32
  and it's not always the easiest straight line.
• 27:34
  And, and it's the gritty ones, the ones that get up and see
• 27:37
  things differently and believe in themselves despite the
• 27:40
  results that they're seeing today.
• 27:43
  I think that's a quality that somebody needs if they want to
• 27:46
  I. Want to ask you.
• 27:47
  A question you touched upon something for a second.
• 27:48
  Obviously you both have tremendous amount of confidence.
• 27:51
  I think we all share that, you know, personality.
• 27:54
  But you know, we also, I don't know about you, but we talk
• 27:56
  about our anxieties all the time, you know?
• 27:59
  I talk about your anxieties too. That's great.
• 28:05
  Thank you for that. Right.
• 28:06
  I have a friend who's struggling from this, you know, asking for
• 28:08
  a friend. Of course, you're the friend.
• 28:10
  I always say Michael's dealing with this and this.
• 28:11
  What should I, what should he do about that?
• 28:13
  You know how it goes when you go to a doctor, You say doctor, my
• 28:15
  friend has this mole, you know, hold on your pants.
• 28:17
  Right. Exactly.
• 28:19
  But no, my I'm just curious, in your experience, you're out
• 28:22
  there a lot and do you find that there's a way that people can
• 28:26
  work on their confidence? Yeah, for sure.
• 28:29
  How? Well, I think everybody is by
• 28:34
  default believes in themselves to a certain extent.
• 28:38
  And I think if we figure out what where the lack of
• 28:40
  confidence is coming from, then I think you can address it.
• 28:44
  For example, if somebody is not confident about the way they
• 28:47
  look, it's probably because they don't like the way they look,
• 28:51
  right? Another is it's got to be based
• 28:53
  on something. If you're not confident that you
• 28:56
  can make the sale, it's probably because you failed at sales in
• 29:01
  the past. If you're the best closer,
• 29:04
  you're not going to have that anxiety, right?
• 29:06
  You're going to believe in yourself.
• 29:08
  Am I making sense? Yeah, So, so, so, so I think
• 29:13
  just getting better, working on on your weaknesses and working
• 29:16
  on the areas that I mean, I guess you're asking a different
• 29:19
  question. You're saying before success
• 29:21
  comes, can you help someone be confident to achieve success?
• 29:25
  And I think the answer is yes. Success is not something that
• 29:28
  you reach. It's success is a compilation of
• 29:31
  small acts. It's small wins leads to
• 29:35
  success. There's no one has ever reached
• 29:36
  a pinnacle where they go, I made it, I'm done.
• 29:39
  I mean, maybe some people do, but that's called giving up.
• 29:42
  In the middle of the of the journey.
• 29:43
  There's always more to do. There's always more to conquer.
• 29:45
  So there's always something that's out of reach and there's
• 29:49
  always something that you know you're capable of doing.
• 29:52
  And I think tapping into what you know you could do and
• 29:56
  understanding why you're feeling this lack of confidence can help
• 30:02
  give somebody confidence. You know that.
• 30:03
  It's very important when we hire new sales reps here, the first
• 30:07
  thing we do, we spend months just on this, is to build their
• 30:11
  confidence. And they don't know a lot.
• 30:12
  Yeah, they don't have a lot of the substance of the material,
• 30:15
  but the first thing I want to build them up is that a lot of
• 30:18
  times, even if it's unwarranted confidence, it doesn't matter.
• 30:21
  It's OK. First, be confident, because
• 30:23
  when you lack confidence, everything else is very, very
• 30:27
  difficult. It's an uphill battle.
• 30:28
  The people that walk into the room and they feel like they're
• 30:31
  going to get it done, they typically do get it done because
• 30:34
  they come in with that attitude. It's all a mindset.
• 30:36
  Yeah, I'm not to interrupt you, but I'll tell you something
• 30:38
  else. I think giving someone without
• 30:39
  confidence confidence is easier then finding that guy who was
• 30:44
  overconfident stinks at what he's doing and and now helping
• 30:49
  him dial. It back.
• 30:50
  Dialing it back for his own benefit, right?
• 30:53
  Sometimes he's his own worst enemy, right?
• 30:55
  He's his reason for failures because he's he's too confident.
• 30:58
  He's he's not prepared enough. He believes that he could do it
• 31:01
  without like he's too nonchalant about it.
• 31:02
  He's too, you know, so confidence you can, you can give
• 31:08
  somebody confidence, but just by pumping them up, just by saying
• 31:10
  you got this, you're giving them a form of confidence.
• 31:13
  But helping someone dial back and being like, hey, this is
• 31:15
  serious, you know, you got to prepare for this.
• 31:17
  Slow it down, man. You got to slow your roll.
• 31:19
  Sometimes that's much harder to do.
• 31:22
  So, yeah, you can definitely give people confidence and some
• 31:24
  people will always struggle with that.
• 31:26
  And and because there's a deeper issue, right?
• 31:29
  There's a deep, it's not the confidence and The thing is a
• 31:31
  deeper issue of why they're always doubting themselves.
• 31:34
  Yeah. I just met you for the first
• 31:37
  time and it's a real pleasure to meet you.
• 31:39
  Thank you. I'm enjoying watching the two of
• 31:41
  you. Have you never met Mandy before?
• 31:42
  No. Never met Mandy, wow.
• 31:44
  But I do know you from your music and I know you're from
• 31:48
  your passion. I know you're from your
• 31:51
  partnership with the Bloomstein Brothers, all the things that
• 31:53
  you're doing, how you slap stickers on people's walls, you
• 31:56
  know, so, but, but I have to ask you, Speaking of this confidence
• 32:00
  and, and, and your journey, right?
• 32:03
  Last year I went to Karastir. It was the first time and.
• 32:06
  Yard site in two days? Yes. 100th yard site.
• 32:09
  Well, gimmel ear, I'm not sure when this.
• 32:10
  Is you know how I know it's Gimmel ear?
• 32:12
  I know it's Gimmel Ear from your song, that's why I know that's
• 32:18
  actually worth putting out. That's in my head because of
• 32:20
  that. So I was about to say that, and
• 32:21
  that's what I'm gonna say. When I pulled in, I was looking
• 32:24
  for a song on Spotify for Karasteer.
• 32:26
  I just didn't. I wanted to know if there's
• 32:27
  something out there. I'm looking.
• 32:28
  I'm looking. And suddenly I didn't even know
• 32:30
  how to spell Karasteer. Right.
• 32:31
  Then boom, your song came up and I put it on as I'm driving into
• 32:34
  the town. Yeah.
• 32:35
  Such a beautiful town, by the way.
• 32:37
  One of the most beautiful experiences of vineyards.
• 32:39
  Oh, my God, It's just gorgeous. But that was I think in 2016 or
• 32:43
  17 when you came out with that song, right and then. 16 I
• 32:46
  think. Right.
• 32:46
  And that was that was your own little thing that you did.
• 32:49
  That's right. And then I think a year or two
• 32:51
  later, you had a collab with someone, right.
• 32:53
  Shalom bark or something. Bark.
• 32:55
  Shalom Barkowski. Yeah.
• 32:56
  There you go. Which song?
• 32:58
  And then there was like a break for like.
• 33:00
  Interruption Bark Shalom and I wrote Kara Steer together, so we
• 33:03
  actually wrote four or five songs in the really early days.
• 33:07
  I didn't record any songs there and I wanted to and he was a
• 33:11
  good friend also starting out. He's very, very musical.
• 33:14
  I loved his hair gish and his songs like his compositions had
• 33:17
  like an MBD esque like old school those those warm
• 33:21
  familiar, what we call teneus, like those movements and those
• 33:24
  chords. And we sat a couple nights in
• 33:28
  the summer, took a keyboard and we wrote a bunch of songs.
• 33:30
  So I'm. Just curious, how many songs
• 33:32
  have you composed that have not been released?
• 33:34
  Hundreds. Wow.
• 33:36
  Yeah. Hundreds.
• 33:38
  Hundreds how many songs are are worthy of being put out that
• 33:42
  that haven't been put out? First of all, I'm not a maven on
• 33:46
  what should be put out or not. And and my successes, I've shown
• 33:49
  that like Chichi Wawa and Fishy Swishy, like we'll get into it.
• 33:54
  But but I mean, that makes no sense that those songs should
• 33:58
  you know, if you're, if you want to be a sophisticated artist,
• 34:00
  those are not songs you're reaching for.
• 34:04
  But there's probably 20-30 forty songs.
• 34:06
  A lot of these songs that are not released.
• 34:08
  I sing for Azmiris at home with my kids and my friends know
• 34:11
  them. So they're like they, you know,
• 34:14
  I can't help it. If there's a song that I love, I
• 34:16
  sing it So and I'm confident to sing it alone till people learn
• 34:20
  it. So I'm always singing songs and
• 34:22
  and people sing along. So the the whole Thank you a
• 34:27
  Champ partnership has really helped me kind of refocus how I
• 34:33
  feel about my compositions or someone else's songs or this
• 34:37
  one. Like sometimes you feel like
• 34:39
  closer to your songs. And the the the last few years,
• 34:44
  the journey has definitely shown me that your success can come
• 34:47
  from the least obvious place. And sometimes you just need to
• 34:52
  be in the right place at the right time and take a risk.
• 34:55
  And that's called trusting Hashem, you know, seeing, oh,
• 34:58
  here's an opportunity. Should I do it?
• 35:00
  Should I not do it? And how many times do we
• 35:01
  overthink everything? We overthink everything.
• 35:03
  That's what Hashem gave us this gift that this brain with the
• 35:06
  only species with this brain to think, but it could be a
• 35:09
  detriment. You all you do is overthink
• 35:10
  things and get nothing done. So learning to like think about
• 35:14
  it, make a quick judgement call. I think Elon Musk says if you
• 35:17
  want to be a great CEO, you got to be decisive and quick with
• 35:22
  your executive decisions because there's always the flip side of
• 35:26
  of, you know, of, of a thought or an idea.
• 35:29
  Of it all the time. All the time, yeah.
• 35:31
  So if you feel like, you know, this is a good move, be decisive
• 35:35
  and then ignore the chatter. Just right blinders on and just.
• 35:39
  Get right where I wanted to talk about because you had again, I I
• 35:42
  didn't know you at the time and I didn't, I didn't recognize
• 35:44
  your name then. I just knew it was a good song.
• 35:46
  And then I heard the The Other Side King or something like
• 35:48
  that. I remember exactly what it's
• 35:49
  called. And then for a number of years,
• 35:51
  I didn't hear your name. Right.
• 35:52
  And then you had something with the with the rabbi in upstate
• 35:56
  New York, Right. And then the blown by Young
• 35:58
  Rice. Robbie.
• 35:59
  Young Rice was an unbelievable Jew, by the way.
• 36:01
  The best. That jewel's amazing.
• 36:02
  They have hats on the wall for you to take and cartels.
• 36:05
  It's just such a welcoming place.
• 36:06
  It's beautiful. Yeah.
• 36:07
  Absolutely beautiful. I snuck into his sitter just to
• 36:10
  see how many names he Davins for.
• 36:12
  That like a post it factory it's amazing unbelievable like
• 36:15
  unbelievable he's. Very, very unique.
• 36:16
  And that's when boom every, it's a big side that came out and
• 36:19
  said, I'm just curious what happened during those years?
• 36:21
  Where were you? What's what was going on?
• 36:23
  We're talking about confidence. We're talking about you being
• 36:25
  out there now that I know your music and it's playing in my
• 36:28
  home. And it's like, you know, Shabbos
• 36:30
  comes in, I have good Shabbos coming up and, you know, that's
• 36:32
  how they think. Yeah.
• 36:34
  Just if you don't mind. Take it, don't mind.
• 36:36
  It's it's something I think about all the time.
• 36:38
  So it's going to be a little bit of a longer answer.
• 36:40
  We'll try to cover a lot of that's OK, but it's all right.
• 36:43
  So I always sang. I always not, I never thought I
• 36:47
  had a great voice, certainly not like one of those stellar pure
• 36:52
  angelic voices, but I always knew that I could be authentic
• 36:58
  and, and authenticity is not something you can fake.
• 37:00
  But I always music. I felt music.
• 37:02
  I didn't just hear music, I felt it.
• 37:04
  And I, and I, I, I feel like I'm a very emotional person and I'm
• 37:10
  in tune to emotions. And that's probably what makes
• 37:13
  me able to be humorous, if I want to be humorous or serious,
• 37:17
  or it's being able to read a room and read people.
• 37:20
  And I'm very sensitive to the, the vibes and music makes me
• 37:24
  feel a certain way. And I always knew that I could
• 37:28
  be authentic. I loved singing, but I never saw
• 37:33
  it as a career or like, I didn't want to be just another singer.
• 37:37
  I wanted to be a little different.
• 37:38
  I wanted my music to have a showcase, a little bit of my
• 37:42
  funny side, my creative side. Have a message was very
• 37:46
  important. I didn't want to just sing a
• 37:47
  pusick. I wanted to come out there and
• 37:50
  say something. But Jewish music is is shrouded
• 37:55
  with taboos. There are circles that won't
• 37:58
  listen to other Jewish singers because that's too much out of
• 38:02
  their comfort zone. There are styles that are
• 38:05
  resonating in some places that don't write, you know, just to
• 38:09
  throw a name like Yehuda. Remember growing up in the
• 38:12
  night, Yehuda Maidim, right? He resonated and was awesome
• 38:18
  with a certain sect. And then there were Jews that
• 38:21
  never heard of him. So just to just, he just popped
• 38:24
  in my head just to use one like so I always want to do, to do
• 38:28
  music that was like universal and broke those boundaries.
• 38:33
  It's easier said than done, but I always wanted to do songs
• 38:37
  about subjects. So my family was always close to
• 38:40
  Shyla Kersteer and my great, great, great grandfather lived a
• 38:44
  mile away from Kersteer. We were very close.
• 38:46
  We were going to Kersteer before it became fashionable.
• 38:49
  So it was just one year and coming home from the Yard site,
• 38:54
  there were like maybe 200 people total there.
• 38:57
  Today you have thousands of people, you know.
• 38:59
  So we were coming home and I just wanted to write a song
• 39:01
  about Shyla. And I did it more for like me
• 39:04
  and my family. I went to the great lyricist
• 39:06
  Marty Ilowitz, who is Hassidosha today.
• 39:09
  He sings and he's an artist and very talented, but at that time
• 39:12
  he was a Batrin. He wrote me the words I would
• 39:14
  give him. He didn't even know too much
• 39:16
  about Charis there. And I told him like certain
• 39:18
  stories or different words that I wanted.
• 39:20
  And he came back like a day later with those lyrics.
• 39:22
  It was like plow. So I put out that song I was
• 39:26
  doing. The arrangement was done by a
• 39:28
  good friend, Ruley Ezrachi, who was like an Israeli guy who was
• 39:33
  who was very talented. He think it was in Lakewood
• 39:35
  today. Shout out Ruley, we love you.
• 39:37
  And he was in his basement and I would go over twice a week and I
• 39:41
  was working. So I had a day job.
• 39:43
  So I would steal a couple hours. My wife was like looking at me
• 39:45
  like in the studio again. I'm like, this is important.
• 39:49
  This is good. This is, you know, and we we
• 39:53
  just put out that song and I remember thinking to myself,
• 39:56
  like, if you really want to blow up and become like the next big
• 40:00
  cool singer, you don't put out a Yiddish song about Rebeccah.
• 40:03
  It's like at that time nobody heard about it and.
• 40:05
  So I just wanted to do it for me.
• 40:08
  So that was always my mission. It was like, that's that's a
• 40:10
  good song for me that suits me because it's different.
• 40:12
  It's not just the pusick. They're not going to say, Oh,
• 40:14
  this guy's trying to be just another singer.
• 40:17
  He's he's actually bringing some, some, some some deeper
• 40:20
  content to the conversation. So that's how that song came
• 40:23
  out. There was another song, Boonim,
• 40:24
  that I put out and that was also Yiddish words.
• 40:27
  And it was to, it was a, it was a riff, a popular Yiddish like
• 40:32
  poem that there's a tune for. And I took it and I kind of made
• 40:36
  it into like a pop song with Barsham and We Jack.
• 40:38
  But those songs didn't really go anywhere.
• 40:40
  Although the feedback and others when I say didn't go anywhere.
• 40:43
  They didn't get 20,000 views the first week, but they got 2000
• 40:48
  views. And I knew that they were all
• 40:50
  2000 real views. There were people that were
• 40:53
  connecting to it. They were, you know what?
• 40:55
  What I also did was I printed a bunch of CDs with just that song
• 41:01
  on it, hundreds and hundreds of CDs, and I put cases of them in
• 41:06
  Karastir, outside the TN. So when people were coming out,
• 41:10
  they would grab ACD in their rental car on the way back.
• 41:12
  They would listen to the track. These people don't have
• 41:14
  Internet, right? You don't have.
• 41:15
  It's like early days, I thought. You're going to say you gave it
• 41:17
  to those guys in time, spirit, drive out and that's how it.
• 41:20
  Got back Are you Jewish? Exactly?
• 41:23
  Is your mother Jewish? We'll be right back.
• 41:43
  And these guys, they know what they're doing.
• 41:45
  Is she? Yeah, The thing I really love
• 41:47
  about Qualmax is they have everything under one roof.
• 41:49
  You got your chemicals, your paper supply, your can liners,
• 41:53
  your floor cleaning chemicals, anything you need, they got it
• 41:56
  all. Everything you need that they
• 41:58
  got you covered. Qualmax.
• 41:59
  And now back to our program. Do you know Jake Paul?
• 42:02
  Here's ACD. So so that's kind of how like it
• 42:06
  just started like for me, I just liked it and I was always
• 42:08
  self-conscious listening to myself and I was always
• 42:10
  critical, like I could have sung this better that, but but what
• 42:13
  you put out is better than what you don't put out.
• 42:15
  That was always my message. Like, hey, some gains are better
• 42:19
  than no gains. Let's just do it.
• 42:20
  It's positive. It makes me feel good about, you
• 42:23
  know, using my talents at that time.
• 42:24
  It was like untapped talent, so to say.
• 42:27
  And that's how that came about. And then I did my Rosh Hashanah
• 42:31
  Oman song that was huge. I was going to Oman for a few
• 42:34
  years and wrote that song on the plane on the way to Oman.
• 42:37
  We sang it and rocked it in Oman.
• 42:39
  And then the next year I was like, I got to release this
• 42:41
  song, so put out the song. That song DJ Niso put out.
• 42:47
  We put out the original and then we did the remix.
• 42:50
  Big fan of remixes. I believe you should put out the
• 42:53
  authentic song what the way you want to hear it and then rock a
• 42:56
  remix. I think we're in the the era of
• 42:59
  Mushiyaf is the remix era. I believe that.
• 43:03
  I don't think Mushiyaf is going to pull up on the donkey till a
• 43:06
  slow song. I think he's going to rock a
• 43:08
  remix with a heavy drop. The DJs agree.
• 43:10
  And if he doesn't, if he doesn't, we'll make sure that we
• 43:14
  remix whatever song he comes in. They're ready for Mushiya.
• 43:17
  We're ready. And that was kind of it.
• 43:21
  You know, I had a couple of songs was getting traction, but
• 43:24
  I always saw myself as like this untapped, like I knew I had more
• 43:28
  in the tank and I was cautious. I didn't want to like first
• 43:32
  impressions or everything. And I didn't want to like take
• 43:34
  my big shot with, you know, like swing for the fences without.
• 43:39
  Like I didn't see an opportunity for it.
• 43:40
  So I just saw like opportunities to put out what I call like
• 43:45
  niche songs. And then the hand of a Sham was
• 43:51
  obviously seen the following story where I was hired to sing
• 43:55
  a Siam. I was playing the guitar, by the
• 43:58
  way, throughout this whole thing.
• 44:00
  I, I don't play instruments. I play like, just like a little
• 44:03
  bit of piano at home. I would write my songs on piano,
• 44:06
  very basic and but you used to play piano.
• 44:09
  No, no, I never did. Yes, you did more.
• 44:11
  Did I play the? Piano.
• 44:11
  No, but I remember you sitting at the piano.
• 44:13
  I tried. I took lessons.
• 44:15
  You took lessons, I feel. That's.
• 44:16
  What I mean, but I when you were when we were growing up together
• 44:19
  you. Took I took lessons.
• 44:20
  But you know what, CEFG. I mean, you knew it was terrible
• 44:22
  that. Was really bad.
• 44:24
  Yeah, well, you're trying to be like your Big Brother, you know,
• 44:26
  so. At least I tried.
• 44:28
  You know more than other people could say.
• 44:30
  So I wasn't playing any instruments and I just remember
• 44:32
  feeling like I was handicapped because I was I was being called
• 44:38
  to like, hey, Mandy, come here and sing this or Mandy, can you
• 44:40
  do Hollow and Schuler? There was so many things that I
• 44:42
  wanted to do, but I always felt like I was showing up to these
• 44:46
  events and and like someone wants to hire me and now they
• 44:49
  have to hire a musician to accompany me.
• 44:51
  And now the budgets doubled for the same guy.
• 44:54
  And I always felt like I was always busy chasing like kids
• 44:58
  that play guitar to come like play with me.
• 45:00
  And the company was like, and I remember one day sitting at my
• 45:03
  desk in Yellowstone in Jersey, you know what a 40th floor
• 45:06
  looking out at the, you know, the Hudson River.
• 45:09
  I remember thinking to myself, if I could only play guitar, I
• 45:12
  would conquer the world. Those were the words I thought
• 45:14
  it was like I could just walk in anywhere and take out.
• 45:17
  And I felt so empowered by the idea of me being independently
• 45:22
  like, able to like play the guitar.
• 45:23
  I went and bought a guitar and went onto YouTube and in like 20
• 45:28
  minutes learnt like four or five basic chords and that was the
• 45:33
  end of my guitar lessons. But from there I just kept
• 45:39
  playing and playing and playing and taught myself guitar.
• 45:41
  I'm, I'm terrible at guitar. I mean, I can get through a gig,
• 45:46
  but I'm by no means a a good guitarist and no one's hiring me
• 45:49
  from the for the guitar, but it allowed me to go out there and,
• 45:55
  and kind of be my own show. So that was like the first, I
• 45:59
  remember going to Oman for the first time with the guitar and
• 46:01
  then it it so you're going to quorum and you're playing the
• 46:04
  guitar, you're on the bus, you're playing the guitar and
• 46:06
  then you're getting hired for a gig.
• 46:07
  So now you're, you know, you have six months of experience,
• 46:09
  you're playing the guitar. So that really opened up a lot
• 46:13
  for me and, and my confidence that there's so many things I'm
• 46:17
  good at that I just haven't tried yet.
• 46:20
  Like, isn't that amazing? How many things do you think
• 46:22
  you're good at that you've never tried?
• 46:25
  We're all capable of so much more than what we're doing
• 46:28
  because we never give it a shot or never really put our mind to
• 46:31
  it. And I think that the the magic
• 46:33
  is being empowered and getting excited.
• 46:35
  Be like, wow, if I could only do XY and Z, then my life changes
• 46:39
  in such a tangible way. So then just go and do it.
• 46:42
  Try. At least try.
• 46:43
  It like you said earlier, by the way, which is resonating and a
• 46:45
  lot with me is those little wins.
• 46:47
  What is what builds the confidence so you can take the
• 46:49
  guitar. You go on YouTube, you learn
• 46:51
  CEF, correct? And then you're like, you have a
• 46:53
  little win, a little win, and then you start building your own
• 46:55
  confidence. That's it.
• 46:56
  And that now I'm now I'm two weeks in and I'm, I'm playing
• 46:59
  these chords that I learned and like I'm not hitting the strings
• 47:03
  right and the, the vibrato on the street.
• 47:06
  It's, it's, it's a cheap guitar and my strums are out of rhythm
• 47:09
  and, and, but, but nonetheless, there's like, hey, I just, I
• 47:13
  just wrote a new song on this guitar.
• 47:15
  Hey, I just, I'm feeling something when I, when I move
• 47:18
  from this chord to this chord. That's so, and you get lost in
• 47:21
  it. You know, playing the piano is
• 47:23
  one thing and you're, it puts you in, in like 1 box.
• 47:26
  But playing the guitar is now it's a Spanish feel and it's an
• 47:30
  acoustic feel and it's just so playing around with different
• 47:34
  elements brings different things out of you.
• 47:37
  And, and, and it was a huge eye opening moment for me.
• 47:40
  So I'm sitting there to see him and I'm playing this guitar and
• 47:45
  who walks in? Rabbi Young guys, the great
• 47:48
  rabbi Youngest. He should be Gazinthen Stark he
• 47:50
  is. Shout out to him.
• 47:51
  I think he's the Baal Shem Tov of this generation to the extent
• 47:55
  where he loves every single Jew. I've seen it.
• 47:58
  He's consistent whether it's in Brooklyn at a shoe or upstate in
• 48:01
  a shoe or you catch him on the street.
• 48:04
  He loves blessing people. He loves giving physic to
• 48:07
  people. He is just a yummy Yum, a fishy,
• 48:12
  swishy Yum Yum person. He is awesome.
• 48:14
  I should bench him with tremendous physic strength,
• 48:18
  kayak and many, many more years to be with Kazakh.
• 48:20
  So he's, he's a special person. I received one of those
• 48:24
  blessings, by the way. Very special, Yes, So, so.
• 48:27
  Because he means it when he bless it, he means it and and
• 48:29
  it's not just you should be it's like a 30 seconds now it's for
• 48:32
  you. Hold that it ended up gold and a
• 48:33
  kite and gold out of this. He has like a whole the same
• 48:35
  like he has a nusak and every person gets the same brocha.
• 48:39
  So he's awesome. So for those that don't know, he
• 48:43
  was I think like a first grade teacher or or or kit to Allah,
• 48:47
  whatever with a kindergarten or whatever was in in the school.
• 48:49
  I think it was a chi in Berlin. I'm not sure but thousands of
• 48:54
  students and he was like a a a first grade rebbe furry 20-30
• 48:58
  years and every year Parshis Noyak.
• 49:02
  He had the song. Ayak is a big Sonic from his
• 49:06
  Capella Oh. He.
• 49:07
  Is Capella Noyak was a big didn't have a hard part.
• 49:11
  It was just that and repeat. Noyak was a big Sonic and he
• 49:16
  came into the sea. I'm I'm on the guitar with a
• 49:19
  band and everyone's dancing and he walks in towards the end of
• 49:22
  the night and somebody, my good friend Dovie, has a coverage.
• 49:25
  Big shout out because everything came through that moment.
• 49:29
  He comes and whispers in my ear, Sing The Knife is a big Sonic
• 49:32
  song. Now I'm up there, I'm very proud
• 49:35
  of myself. I'm holding my guitar.
• 49:37
  I'm a real singer and I have a band here and I was hired for
• 49:40
  this job and I'm not in the mood of singing his kindergarten
• 49:43
  little riff of Kepler to the Feast.
• 49:45
  So I'm just not, I didn't think it was appropriate.
• 49:49
  Shows how much we know, right? So but then I tell myself, stop
• 49:53
  it, Mandy. Just who cares?
• 49:56
  Just do it. It'll make people happy.
• 49:58
  So the REB is already leaving and I start now.
• 50:02
  Yahoo is a big time that he turns around.
• 50:05
  The place goes wild because it's an uncommon song and everybody
• 50:09
  knows it. And it's the Rebus song and it's
• 50:10
  light hearted and it's got all the good feelings.
• 50:14
  And I'm singing it and he's on the Reb is on the chair and he's
• 50:17
  waving his hands and everyone's jumping and it's like a lit
• 50:19
  moment. And I didn't want to end it
• 50:22
  because the the room was so hot. So I'm singing from Miss Keppa,
• 50:28
  Victor Dick and I'm going back now.
• 50:30
  Yeah. And I don't know, it's actually
• 50:32
  on video. This moment's on video.
• 50:33
  Somebody was videoing it and just the melody, the high part
• 50:38
  melody popped into my head live while I was yeah, yeah, yeah,
• 50:41
  yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I didn't have words.
• 50:46
  I was like, the Rebbe is a big target.
• 50:49
  And then the guy made the scene was Akiva.
• 50:51
  Akiva is a big target from Miss Kepa.
• 50:56
  Those. And it was over night was over.
• 50:58
  Great. The next day I got a call from
• 51:01
  my good friends Ellie Miles Bloomstein and Ari Bloomstein.
• 51:04
  Shout out to the holiest Eden of all time.
• 51:07
  And and then Ellie Melas says, Mandy, we saw this clip someone
• 51:11
  posted on on WhatsApp status of this amazing song.
• 51:15
  Every is a big topic and we want to we want to do the song now
• 51:19
  we've been in touch before and they were always Mahasik me, the
• 51:22
  Bloomstein's always told me that I'm amazing and I want to do
• 51:26
  stuff with me. And they've always like
• 51:27
  supported me and and pumped me up and they're just incredible
• 51:30
  people. And I was like, he's like, no,
• 51:34
  no, no, no, why you laughing? This is like this could be a big
• 51:37
  song. And again, you have to remember
• 51:39
  where I am at that time and I'm like trying to, I just put out
• 51:41
  Rosh Hashanah Umana. And I see myself as like this,
• 51:44
  you know, potentially like, you know, chart shopping chart.
• 51:49
  Seriously. Like a sophisticated, like the
• 51:51
  legit, the real thing. And he's like, no, let's sing,
• 51:53
  you know, from the Keppala to the feasel.
• 51:55
  And I'm like, I'm going to be Uncle Moishe.
• 51:57
  They're going to call me Uncle Moishe.
• 51:59
  I'm going to be the next Uncle Moishe.
• 52:02
  And I was like, let me call you back.
• 52:05
  So an hour later I get a call from Ellie Malik Blooms.
• 52:07
  And he's like, I check your WhatsApp.
• 52:10
  I just sent you something. So I I turn on it and there's
• 52:13
  like an arrangement. They have the whole song
• 52:14
  arranged there with the music and and I'm like, these guys are
• 52:17
  serious. He worked on it by himself.
• 52:19
  Oh, he had a whole. He made it happen.
• 52:21
  His whole team was. And I'm like, oh, it's so great,
• 52:23
  man. And I'm like thinking to myself,
• 52:24
  Capitola to the feasible Mandy is not good.
• 52:27
  And an hour later, I get the final call and he's like,
• 52:30
  listen, we're going to be doing this song with or without you.
• 52:33
  So are you coming to the studio tomorrow to record or we're
• 52:37
  going to get the next guy. And whether he would have done
• 52:39
  it or not, I don't know. But he knew how to talk to me.
• 52:42
  It worked. And he knew that I was
• 52:44
  overthinking it. And he I got into the studio one
• 52:48
  take 20 minutes. We sang the song.
• 52:52
  And a week later they put the song out.
• 52:54
  And fun fact, as we were recording the song, you know, we
• 53:01
  were thinking like, you know, I know some year then that aren't
• 53:04
  such big Sadiq. I'm like, is every year the
• 53:06
  really a big Sadiq? Like that was the.
• 53:09
  Question people not to mention any names, but like some Jews,
• 53:13
  you know what I'm saying? So so.
• 53:14
  Is that the song? Is that, is that it?
• 53:16
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's the clip you're talking
• 53:18
  about, Mandy. That's not my clip, that's him
• 53:21
  doing a song at the house concert.
• 53:23
  So so as we were thinking, I was like, well, is there, is there
• 53:28
  ghazal? Maybe, maybe there's scripture
• 53:29
  that's that that talks to the point that every year it's a big
• 53:32
  Sally and we're like, oh, what about the other song via
• 53:34
  Markilam Sadiqim? Via Markilam Sadiqim.
• 53:38
  That was a famous song that talks about how all of Kaliasal
• 53:42
  as one whole, Kulam Sadiqim. I was like, that's great, let's
• 53:45
  throw that in as a bridge. And only afterwards, ready for
• 53:48
  this did we find out that that was also Rabbi Yung Reza's song
• 53:52
  from 20 years. No, a separate song, separate
• 53:55
  song sung by all the Rebus and all the Hasidim and a very, very
• 54:01
  adopted song. And it's literally the same
• 54:05
  message. And isn't it amazing how Hashem
• 54:08
  sends like if this Yid wants to be Mashpiya to the world, that
• 54:12
  everybody is a big sodic, right? Just to dumb down the idea that
• 54:15
  everyone's a big sodic. Meaning you have within you
• 54:18
  greatness. Forget what you're doing at the
• 54:20
  current moment, but you have within you the capacity of
• 54:24
  greatness because you come from greatness and you're part of a a
• 54:28
  unity of greatness. You know, the fact that that
• 54:32
  song came out like that with the bridge with his, it's just it
• 54:36
  was such a perfect aha moment. We knew we were on to something.
• 54:39
  So we put that song out. Obviously that song goes super
• 54:43
  global. It has that secret magic.
• 54:46
  It's a little controversial. That's always a good thing.
• 54:51
  Gets people talking about it, gets, you know, the ones that
• 54:53
  are pro it and then you need the ones that are anti it.
• 54:56
  And then by shall I show this, they can all fight about their
• 54:58
  perspectives. That's the magic.
• 54:59
  As long as they're fighting about.
• 55:00
  You that's as long as they're talking about it and listening
• 55:02
  to it and their children and that's where where we really
• 55:06
  untapped the power of 2 year olds and three-year olds were
• 55:09
  starting to sing this and suddenly everywhere I go people
• 55:12
  are bringing their kids to me going he's your biggest fan I'm
• 55:15
  getting videos and clips from everybody all the time I mean,
• 55:19
  oh she sent me clips of his kids in the car listen so like
• 55:22
  suddenly every two year old is singing these songs and I'm
• 55:26
  like, am I the next Uncle Moishe?
• 55:28
  But I saw something greater in it.
• 55:30
  And I said, I said, if we can put out songs that are family
• 55:34
  friendly, that are easy to listen to, simple lyrics that
• 55:38
  are catchy, that adults don't mind listening to, then we'll
• 55:44
  get everybody as our audience. Because the parent has to listen
• 55:47
  to Baby Shark whether he likes it or not.
• 55:49
  So if you can give him something that he actually likes, and
• 55:52
  sooner or later they'll see past the foolish flash and glitz that
• 55:56
  the kid likes about the song and he'll something deeper will
• 56:00
  resonate with him. Some of the authenticity and
• 56:02
  maybe some of the clever jokes. You know, everyone could watch a
• 56:06
  Walt Disney movie because there are deeper jokes within the
• 56:08
  deeper jokes and the new ones. Exactly because it's a family
• 56:12
  movie. It's not a kids movie, right?
• 56:13
  And that was like a aha moment for us.
• 56:15
  We want family music, not just kids music.
• 56:17
  Uncle Moishe is great for kids, but if we can do family music
• 56:21
  that was like, so that blows up, picked Sonic blows up.
• 56:26
  We then we're working on an album and Ellie Malik
• 56:31
  Bloomstein, who writes majority of these songs, when I say he
• 56:33
  writes them, he has the initial idea.
• 56:36
  He comes to the table with his version of the song and then he
• 56:39
  totally takes a step back and he allows what I call the writing
• 56:43
  team, the people in this circle. But it's Mendy Portnoy or Izzy
• 56:47
  or his brother Ari or this guy Yuda Pinsker or or myself or or
• 56:52
  you know, Sachi Majeski or Mikey Moss or whatever with that that
• 56:56
  for bringing a part of the same inion.
• 57:00
  We'll sit down and Ellie Mack will totally allow the song to
• 57:02
  be taken to where it needs to go.
• 57:04
  So I think that's really the recipe of why Thank You Sham is
• 57:07
  so successful is that they're not rigid.
• 57:10
  They're really want it to grow and they come to the table
• 57:13
  knowing it's incomplete and there's always room for deeper
• 57:16
  and greater. So he had the song Chichi Wawa
• 57:19
  and based on the great Toyota that the 8 Sahara, right, The
• 57:23
  evil inclination could either be this gigantic big dog that you
• 57:27
  see and you got to cross the street when when you see him,
• 57:30
  he's like, oh, that that guy's that guy's going to kill me.
• 57:32
  Or he's just a really loud, annoying Chihuahua.
• 57:36
  Just a small little Chihuahua that makes a ton of noise and
• 57:39
  barks and nibbles at your ankles.
• 57:42
  But you don't cross the street for a Chihuahua.
• 57:43
  You grab him and Mache Libby some edges wherever you were
• 57:46
  headed. You kind of just all right, He's
• 57:48
  noisy, he's annoying, but we don't have to detour the route,
• 57:52
  you know, like we can just keep heading.
• 57:54
  It's a small annoyance. And that idea of Chichiwala,
• 57:58
  that was the idea of the song. But I was like, Chichiwala, This
• 58:01
  is like, guys, we're asking to be the laughingstock of of the
• 58:05
  industry here. Like Chichiwala shows how much I
• 58:08
  know, right? The original lyrics were like,
• 58:11
  yay Sir hara yeah, chit chi wow. And I was like, I recorded it
• 58:15
  already and I was like, it's so cringy I can't do it.
• 58:18
  But they were open like Mandy tweak it how I I knew cheat chit
• 58:21
  chit chi wow. I knew that would be viral, but
• 58:24
  the rest of it needed to like fit.
• 58:27
  So we tweaked it 3 or 4 times. It was on the album, off the
• 58:31
  album at the very last minute. I'm like, this is too good to
• 58:33
  leave off. We'll put it on and we'll live
• 58:35
  with the results, whatever it is.
• 58:37
  And obviously that song is just blew up.
• 58:40
  People didn't know what we were talking about.
• 58:42
  So in the remix, we kind of like did the remix has an intro where
• 58:45
  it's like, Rabbi Si, I want you to know the explain.
• 58:48
  We kind of explained it, but the fact that it was open to
• 58:51
  everyone else's interpretation helped it go viral.
• 58:54
  People were talking about it again.
• 58:56
  So less is more, you know? And it was different.
• 58:58
  It was different. It was different and it's a
• 59:01
  banger, you know, it's fun to listen to.
• 59:02
  It's a common denominator between everything that Thank
• 59:04
  You Ashram is doing is that it's different, it's fresh.
• 59:07
  I mean, look at Saki Majeski. What do you mean?
• 59:09
  The guy's unbelievable. I mean, he's making a lot of
• 59:12
  good noise. It's noise.
• 59:13
  It's good noise, yeah. It's good noise and it's unique.
• 59:17
  He just started his WhatsApp group and thousands of people
• 59:19
  just. Like, but also Saki will agree
• 59:21
  right in the beginning and he's still in the beginning.
• 59:23
  It's super rough and it's easy to to say this guy's just
• 59:26
  annoying, but something's going to click along the way and it's
• 59:29
  he's going to find tune it and he's going to get his little
• 59:31
  bits that work and, and Hashem's going to give him siata deshmaya
• 59:34
  and it'll become amazing because there's a need for it.
• 59:37
  And the proof is that people are following him before it's before
• 59:40
  it's a polished idea. You know, I think your podcast
• 59:42
  is like that too. It's very much you guys came in
• 59:44
  saying, hey, we don't know what this is going to be yet, but we
• 59:47
  want it to be entertaining. We want it to be, you know,
• 59:50
  interesting for people to listen to.
• 59:51
  So allowing something to develop in real time in front of the
• 59:55
  world's eyes, you can't make that up.
• 59:57
  That's authentic as authentic exactly.
• 1:00:00
  That's where we're at, by the way, we have these 2000, you
• 1:00:02
  know, followers, then we're listening every day and it's
• 1:00:05
  it's kind of an amazing. If you're already doing
• 1:00:07
  something that's been established, we know how it's
• 1:00:09
  going to end, right. When you do something authentic.
• 1:00:11
  Hey, who knows where this is going to go?
• 1:00:12
  Come on the journey with us. That's right.
• 1:00:14
  Let's explore together. Yeah, let's see where this
• 1:00:16
  adventure takes us. So not not to interrupt you just
• 1:00:19
  want to finish my my long thoughts.
• 1:00:21
  So, so big Sodic is out. Everyone's like, oh, I can't
• 1:00:26
  listen to the song anymore. It's like my kids for four hours
• 1:00:30
  in the car. It's.
• 1:00:31
  Overplayed. Right.
• 1:00:32
  So then Chichi Wowa comes out. No one plays big Talaic anyone
• 1:00:35
  now they're all complaining about Chichi Wowa.
• 1:00:36
  It's like again. So we needed a fishy swishy Yum
• 1:00:39
  Yum sure so. If not, you can always turn on a
• 1:00:41
  rabbit. Tell me or yeah.
• 1:00:43
  So so my my advice to everyone is listen to Fishy Swishy as
• 1:00:46
  much as you can cause before you know we'll have something.
• 1:00:49
  Else, you know how I know the songs are good and just so you
• 1:00:52
  do something different and you know what?
• 1:00:54
  You're actually helping people listen to Jewish music versus
• 1:00:57
  listening to alternatives because you're making it fun,
• 1:01:00
  you're making it vibrant and, and you can get behind it.
• 1:01:02
  I'm chilling in my car just cruising and I'm listening to
• 1:01:06
  these songs. I'm sorry, I'm not putting on an
• 1:01:08
  MBD song. I'm just not, I'm not putting on
• 1:01:10
  an Avron Freed song. These are our all time greats
• 1:01:13
  and I respect that, but it's just not doing it for me.
• 1:01:16
  I, I, I live in a modern world. Society today is a lot different
• 1:01:20
  even in the Jewish communities than it ever was.
• 1:01:22
  And we need to keep, you know, growing with that and
• 1:01:25
  recognizing what, what we need. We need this.
• 1:01:28
  This is what we need more of this because and I'm so happy
• 1:01:32
  that my kid is, but my kid has no interest now in in listening
• 1:01:35
  to Justin Bieber or listening to they don't need it because they
• 1:01:38
  have other fun things that they can connect to better.
• 1:01:41
  And and you're providing that platform.
• 1:01:43
  Yeah, you're giving that and and you know, we, we love it.
• 1:01:46
  You know your kid. What?
• 1:01:48
  What are we giving your kid that's different than the other
• 1:01:50
  music that you mentioned? I, I, I don't, I don't think
• 1:01:52
  we're copying Goish music. No, no, no.
• 1:01:54
  What we're doing is we're repackaging old ideas, old
• 1:01:58
  values, even old melodies. So many of our melodies are like
• 1:02:02
  old Hasidicia songs or old Rebbe songs that we like, remix and
• 1:02:06
  put it. It's all about reconfirming who
• 1:02:08
  we are. It's not changing anything.
• 1:02:11
  If we weren't just keep. Packages in it. 100% Mitz Ryan
• 1:02:15
  get out the one new. I love that.
• 1:02:18
  I love how. You guys do that, but Michael,
• 1:02:19
  would you agree if we stay stagnant and try to hold on to
• 1:02:23
  our traditional ways, which I think our parents were in that
• 1:02:26
  mindset, right, that one generation prior to us is they
• 1:02:29
  tried to, you know, maybe make it a little bit interesting for
• 1:02:32
  us. But they really kept and held on
• 1:02:35
  firmly to what they believed in, what they were taught.
• 1:02:37
  And they forced it on us in a in a, in a very rigid way
• 1:02:40
  sometimes. Well, I think what we're doing a
• 1:02:42
  little different with the next generation for our kids is that
• 1:02:44
  we're we're trying to make it, you know, where we're keeping up
• 1:02:47
  with the rest of the world that I want to deprive you.
• 1:02:49
  Don't you're not sheltered. A matter of fact, your life is
• 1:02:51
  probably better than the rest of the world because we're giving
• 1:02:54
  them the beauty of what our community offers and what our
• 1:02:57
  religion offers. And we're also giving them the
• 1:02:59
  other side that you get entertainment too.
• 1:03:01
  You get that value as well. I'm giving you, I'm giving you
• 1:03:03
  the perfect type of life, almost right.
• 1:03:06
  And I feel like we're figuring that out.
• 1:03:07
  And you're a part of that. Mindy, you and all the people.
• 1:03:10
  And thank you. Let's show me you guys do.
• 1:03:11
  By the way, can we shift to thank you SM, because we haven't
• 1:03:14
  talked about that? Thank you by the way, I was
• 1:03:15
  thinking. We haven't talked about that at
• 1:03:16
  all yet. I don't actually know a whole
• 1:03:18
  lot about thank you SM I know a little bit about it, but I don't
• 1:03:20
  know like what you guys stand by you know what what your real
• 1:03:23
  mission is what your purpose like what is your mission
• 1:03:25
  statement on your website? Like why did they even create
• 1:03:27
  this? Why did they start this and
• 1:03:29
  where's it going? What is this about?
• 1:03:30
  Can you give us a little bit for?
• 1:03:31
  Sure, for sure. I think the main main, the main
• 1:03:35
  goal of thank You SM is not to make cool Jewish music, but to
• 1:03:39
  make Jewish music cool. Like, I'll say it again, not to
• 1:03:44
  make cool Jewish music, but to make Jewish music cool.
• 1:03:48
  Unlike schlock rock. Remember Schlock?
• 1:03:51
  At its moment, but. They made they made cool music
• 1:03:54
  like that's what they tried to do.
• 1:03:56
  They were. They were a parody.
• 1:03:57
  Yeah, they were a parody. This is, we're not trying to
• 1:04:01
  sound like geisha music. We want to sound super Jewy.
• 1:04:05
  It's very important. We want to be.
• 1:04:08
  As. Panemias dig as possible.
• 1:04:11
  We want to like, but we. Want to talk at the Jewish
• 1:04:14
  heart? But we're not distracted by the
• 1:04:16
  beat like the beat could sound however it wants to sound, we'll
• 1:04:19
  still find a way to bring out the the depth of the song.
• 1:04:22
  And give a good message. And I think that fusion is what
• 1:04:25
  you told is, is what makes it sound different.
• 1:04:28
  We're taking a lot of risks, both with the ideas that we sing
• 1:04:31
  about and with the way we present it.
• 1:04:35
  For example, this fishy, swishy song, right?
• 1:04:38
  Yum Yum is really a self mockery song.
• 1:04:43
  It's almost I don't know if you guys know how that whole song
• 1:04:46
  came about. I'll say it for your viewers.
• 1:04:48
  But if you look at the song, it says Rabbi Greenspan.
• 1:04:51
  Rabbi Greenspan is this alias this guy online who has like a
• 1:04:56
  meme account? And isn't that that bucker or
• 1:04:59
  something? What's awkward bucker?
• 1:05:00
  Awkward bucker. He's not a bucker.
• 1:05:03
  He's he's a great guy. His name is Yosef.
• 1:05:05
  I can't blow him. I can't give you his last name.
• 1:05:06
  But he lives in Lakewood. He does not have a beard.
• 1:05:09
  He's smarty. He has a great head of hair,
• 1:05:11
  though, and he has this, this thing where he like kind of
• 1:05:16
  roasts people and he roasts just like social standards and what
• 1:05:21
  people accept and take for granted.
• 1:05:22
  So he'll like, he'll poke fun at it the way like a guy in the
• 1:05:25
  mall will draw a caricature of you and he'll take like your
• 1:05:27
  slightly big ears and make them super big or take like Donald
• 1:05:30
  Trump's hair and make the hair like half the poster and then a
• 1:05:33
  small like exaggerate the things we know about him.
• 1:05:36
  That's what he did. And he would he would put out
• 1:05:38
  these esque songs. So if you go to YouTube to this
• 1:05:41
  Greenspan account, he would do like Ishai ruble esque and they
• 1:05:44
  would take he's he's slightly involved with like music, like
• 1:05:48
  he knows his way around the computer kind of beat, a basic
• 1:05:51
  beat and in a humorous way. He would like make fun of you.
• 1:05:54
  She put out a song and do like the OR like Avram Freed esque
• 1:05:58
  song and he would do like, you know, like copy that or Zusha or
• 1:06:02
  whatever. So about I'm at six or you could
• 1:06:05
  look it up, but like maybe 8 months ago or maybe slightly
• 1:06:08
  more did he put out a song called Mendy Walsh esque song
• 1:06:13
  and making fun of me and thank you Sham.
• 1:06:14
  How like we take silly words and we go like make a song out of
• 1:06:18
  anything like Chichi Wawa or whatever.
• 1:06:20
  So he goes and he writes a song you could take a horse to if I
• 1:06:23
  bring in you could also make and drink clink clink.
• 1:06:26
  You know, he's making fun of us and all that.
• 1:06:28
  You know, fishy swishy Yum I saw.
• 1:06:30
  That video, that's what I was saying to you.
• 1:06:32
  What were you guys drinking? Yeah, this horse is in the ocean
• 1:06:35
  jumping up and down. It's actually unique and their
• 1:06:38
  faces are like zoomed in that. One right there, yeah.
• 1:06:41
  Yeah. When was that release, Steph?
• 1:06:43
  Lower. Yeah, lower that one seven
• 1:06:48
  months ago 7. Months ago, right?
• 1:06:49
  Yeah, good stuff. So he puts that out and it's
• 1:06:52
  it's he's roasting me saying like, you know, puts it out with
• 1:06:55
  my name. So if you search Mandy Wash on
• 1:06:56
  YouTube, his video comes up. But that's a compliment, right?
• 1:06:59
  And when I when it came out, I was like, all right, I guess I'm
• 1:07:02
  big enough now. I'm popular enough that he's
• 1:07:04
  taking shots at me. That's how you know you made it.
• 1:07:07
  Well, probably only because I'm with him.
• 1:07:08
  Thank you, Sham, right, Because they're the real hero here.
• 1:07:11
  And then I here it is. And then I'm thinking to myself,
• 1:07:17
  like, wouldn't it be cool to actually take this song and
• 1:07:20
  actually like, there's no greater revenge to this guy than
• 1:07:24
  to actually put out like a like an amazing track.
• 1:07:28
  And I'm thinking, like, what's the Pinemius behind these words?
• 1:07:31
  Horace Fabregan, you know, but I always knew, like, fishy, fishy,
• 1:07:35
  Yum, Yum, Yum. I knew that was the next chichi.
• 1:07:37
  Wah, wah. I knew that was like, amazing.
• 1:07:40
  My kids at home are singing it. My one year old's walking around
• 1:07:42
  the house. Gee, fishy, fishy.
• 1:07:43
  Yeah. I'm like, that's amazing.
• 1:07:45
  So Long story short, we ended up doing a track with him sort of
• 1:07:49
  like Tom Brady showing up to his own roast.
• 1:07:51
  You know, we, we, we, we did it. The song's amazing.
• 1:07:56
  Some people have no clue what we're doing.
• 1:07:58
  They're like, why would you put out the song?
• 1:08:00
  Some people like it's, it's, it's like what what is like?
• 1:08:04
  It's off putting to some people. But I think to the clever
• 1:08:07
  listening, they just need to listen to the song a few more.
• 1:08:09
  Times we don't care about those and then they'll be an I'll be
• 1:08:11
  very clear like that, but I'll tell you this that what you're
• 1:08:14
  doing is phenomenal. So I don't understand.
• 1:08:16
  So thank you. Hashem is a music.
• 1:08:19
  It's all about putting out good music.
• 1:08:20
  Like I think it's worthwhile rewinding because I know a
• 1:08:22
  little bit about it. So I'd love to for you to answer
• 1:08:25
  Ushi. And just like the Bloomstein
• 1:08:26
  brothers, when they started this, this, you know, nation,
• 1:08:29
  right? What was their goal?
• 1:08:32
  Where did they want to see this heading and where do they see it
• 1:08:35
  heading now? Like we see a lot of music.
• 1:08:37
  They're bringing in a lot of talent, obviously.
• 1:08:39
  And that's very, very helpful for getting the message out
• 1:08:42
  there and making, you know, the music cool, making cool music,
• 1:08:46
  right? And they're doing a great job
• 1:08:47
  with it. What was their mission
• 1:08:48
  originally? What what do you think is their
• 1:08:51
  secret sauce? And other than music, what else
• 1:08:54
  are they doing? Where do they want to go?
• 1:08:56
  If you could just tell us a little bit of the background.
• 1:08:59
  You know, I asked them to come on the program and he said no.
• 1:09:01
  So you know you'll have to do it on his behalf.
• 1:09:04
  All right. So I guess I'm going to speak on
• 1:09:06
  his behalf. Yeah.
• 1:09:07
  None of your business, Michael. No, no, no all.
• 1:09:10
  Right, Charles, you're going to have to.
• 1:09:11
  Come on, thank you Hashem was started by some really good
• 1:09:17
  hidden and yes, the Bloomstein brothers are the big big push
• 1:09:21
  powerhouse behind the movement. I think the movement started
• 1:09:25
  more of like an awareness that we all say like, yeah, I think
• 1:09:28
  Hashem and Mavade Barkasha, all these things.
• 1:09:30
  But like, to really be like, hey, say it in English.
• 1:09:34
  You know, a lot of kids have no idea what the Barkashem doesn't
• 1:09:36
  resonate, you know, to a lot of people.
• 1:09:38
  Just I'm so. Stale you Hashem and they and
• 1:09:41
  and you know, they, they started this tremendous movement.
• 1:09:44
  I don't think it was more than a logo and maybe some stickers and
• 1:09:48
  like and I don't think there was an Instagram account in in the
• 1:09:50
  beginning. I'm gonna be sure it started
• 1:09:52
  with a bumper sticker. A bumper.
• 1:09:53
  Sticker yeah, and it became pop culture very quickly because
• 1:10:00
  they're marketing geniuses. That's what they do and very you
• 1:10:05
  know if you print a bunch of swag and give it out and have a
• 1:10:09
  bunch of cool people popular people wear it, you know
• 1:10:12
  everyone's going to want a piece of that.
• 1:10:13
  What's this new, you know, and I think that's how they got it
• 1:10:16
  started. They, they are all about
• 1:10:20
  Epidemius. They do not want to monetize.
• 1:10:22
  Thank you Hashem. I can tell you that despite what
• 1:10:24
  people say or think, I can tell you first hand they're not
• 1:10:28
  looking to make money on thank you Hashem.
• 1:10:30
  They'll sell merch on their website, tyhnation.com.
• 1:10:33
  Shout out they're selling it for less than it cost them to make
• 1:10:38
  it. They're constantly spending
• 1:10:41
  money self funding this thing with a couple of other good
• 1:10:44
  Yidden who see this as a void the sacredis holy work and see
• 1:10:48
  this as charity and see this as as outreach and a way to spread
• 1:10:52
  positivity spread Jewish pride and just you know we're we're in
• 1:11:00
  the anxiety age. We're in the age where
• 1:11:02
  everyone's stressed and thinking about their feelings.
• 1:11:05
  And here's a movement that just wants to spread happiness and
• 1:11:09
  light. And even if it's like makes you
• 1:11:11
  uncomfortable, it's like, whoa, they're, they're too happy.
• 1:11:13
  This is too happy cloppy. All right, here's a song called
• 1:11:15
  happy cloppy. You know, like whatever you want
• 1:11:18
  to say about it, There's, there's, there's merit to it.
• 1:11:21
  And, and and they're just about spreading you.
• 1:11:25
  This guy today. Thank you.
• 1:11:26
  Hashem cannot be defined by anyone department.
• 1:11:30
  They have an incredible team. They have the most talented
• 1:11:33
  people. It's super rewarding to work
• 1:11:36
  with them because everything you're working on is deeply
• 1:11:40
  impactful to the greater clout. I mean, everything that we do,
• 1:11:46
  we try to to we ask ourselves, is this going to be a benefit?
• 1:11:50
  Will be a net gain? Will there be a positive net
• 1:11:53
  gain to call yourself for this? And if if the answer is yes, we
• 1:11:56
  can mock ourselves. You can put me on a blow up tube
• 1:11:59
  with a banana on AI generated running on the beach with
• 1:12:02
  Chihuahuas. Like that's fine.
• 1:12:04
  If that's the cost of spreading positivity.
• 1:12:06
  That's what we're here for. And today.
• 1:12:09
  Thank you. Asham has the music department.
• 1:12:14
  They have a shul, they have emissaries.
• 1:12:19
  Mushbian. What do we how do you say on
• 1:12:21
  Mushbian in English influencers, influencers that are that are in
• 1:12:25
  colleges and schools around the country and around the world,
• 1:12:30
  people interviewing yet then on the street, they have a
• 1:12:34
  tremendous Internet presence there.
• 1:12:36
  You know, we're going to schools and singing and school lunches
• 1:12:39
  for an hour giving out merch. You know, giving out merch looks
• 1:12:42
  like a a joke, but it's not because that kid that puts a
• 1:12:44
  sticker or you may have AII came in here without asking.
• 1:12:48
  I put a thank you wish I'm sticker on your none of your
• 1:12:50
  business podcast poster here and I'm unapologetic about it
• 1:12:56
  because I believe that that's either yourselves or someone
• 1:13:00
  else may come in here one day and see that and it might
• 1:13:03
  resonate. And and I think it's a message
• 1:13:05
  we're all for. You know, you may not be for the
• 1:13:08
  movement or the schtick that that you saw.
• 1:13:11
  Thank you. But but at the core, I think
• 1:13:13
  we're all for the same message and thank you.
• 1:13:15
  Hashem just wants to keep spreading you, this guy and and
• 1:13:18
  I think thank you Hashem on a deeper level is a way of life
• 1:13:23
  for a lot of these people, including myself.
• 1:13:26
  It's a way of life. It's it's thank you.
• 1:13:28
  Shame is not something you say. It's a way of life.
• 1:13:30
  It's a. How you view?
• 1:13:31
  I want you know, I'm getting a little emotional inside.
• 1:13:33
  I'm being honest because I'm a father.
• 1:13:35
  And you proud of your Big Brother.
• 1:13:36
  Look at me. I'm.
• 1:13:38
  I'm, I'm loving this. So it used to be for thousands
• 1:13:41
  of years it was all about let's get rid of the Jews.
• 1:13:44
  How do we eradicate the Jews? We don't like the Jews.
• 1:13:46
  And they were literally just, they would kill us.
• 1:13:49
  Like that was kind of the way to do it, right?
• 1:13:52
  And people have tried for forever.
• 1:13:55
  There is a new warfare going on today.
• 1:13:58
  They don't need to eradicate the Jews.
• 1:14:00
  Matter of fact, let's welcome them into our circles, let them
• 1:14:03
  assimilate with what we have going on and bam, that's how we
• 1:14:07
  lose the Jews. Before you know it, it's a
• 1:14:09
  matter of time until our identity goes into total crisis.
• 1:14:14
  And there's so much that's out there.
• 1:14:15
  It's so accessible, it's so easy, it's so open.
• 1:14:18
  I started to think, how is my child that's growing up now?
• 1:14:21
  He's 7-8 years old by the time he's 13.
• 1:14:23
  Oh my God, how am I going to contain him?
• 1:14:25
  There's going to be so much at his fingertips.
• 1:14:27
  It's very nerve wracking and what's happening is that, you
• 1:14:30
  know, the old traditional styles with the casita have been doing
• 1:14:32
  for a long time. It's great and it's nice.
• 1:14:34
  You keep them in a bubble. Let's that is just a matter of
• 1:14:37
  time until that falls apart and you guys are combating this and
• 1:14:42
  you're fighting fire with fire. You're saying we're not going to
• 1:14:45
  take this whole thing and, you know, putting our content, you
• 1:14:47
  know, people might look down on it and say, oh, wait, no, no,
• 1:14:50
  no, you're doing an amazing thing is that you're not just
• 1:14:52
  stigmatizing something bad. You're actually giving it in a
• 1:14:55
  positive way and you're taking their brains and you're staring
• 1:14:58
  it in a really good a direction that they could grow from this.
• 1:15:00
  They could become A and I'm so happy that my kids and my
• 1:15:03
  friends kids and my community's kids have people like you that
• 1:15:07
  are thinking about this stuff. And your kids are busy, Mindy,
• 1:15:10
  Michael's busy. We're doing our whatever we're
• 1:15:12
  doing what I think. And you're just like creating a
• 1:15:14
  platform for all of us so we can keep the beautiful thing that we
• 1:15:19
  have intact. And it's just unbelievable.
• 1:15:21
  I'm, I'm loving this concept of thank you, Hashem.
• 1:15:24
  And I feel like we, we need to really embellish this.
• 1:15:27
  We need to make this even even bid and give you more resources
• 1:15:31
  so you could protect what we've protected for thousands of years
• 1:15:35
  that we could potentially lose very quickly in 20-30 years for
• 1:15:37
  that. We'll lose it all if we don't
• 1:15:39
  take the stance that you guys are taking by.
• 1:15:40
  The way you see what's happening, by the way, is
• 1:15:42
  already moving in, yeah. Yeah, it does.
• 1:15:44
  I was gonna I was gonna turn them on to Bitcoin, but shmill
• 1:15:46
  younger together. I'm absolutely because I didn't
• 1:15:49
  realize there was a real need for it.
• 1:15:51
  I'm so distracted in my own world and just trying to keep it
• 1:15:54
  all together for myself that I'm not realizing there's a greater
• 1:15:57
  picture. Here it goes.
• 1:15:58
  It's way beyond just me and my block and my little shul.
• 1:16:01
  I mean, what? This is something that's so
• 1:16:03
  sacred, that we've protected for so long that we're in jeopardy.
• 1:16:07
  Yeah, I just want to, you got me thinking now and I just had a
• 1:16:10
  tremendous idea. I think the, you know, a big
• 1:16:14
  shout out goes to the previous generation.
• 1:16:18
  You know, it's very easy for us to say previous generation, they
• 1:16:20
  were in their box, they had their music.
• 1:16:22
  But that's not going to work for us today.
• 1:16:24
  And I think it's very important to say that the previous
• 1:16:28
  generation had the job of patching like like Humpty Dumpty
• 1:16:33
  putting back together what was almost lost.
• 1:16:36
  It was like we came from Europe. We've been through the worst
• 1:16:39
  chapter of all time. Talk about like what you said
• 1:16:43
  before, what they're trying to. They almost did it like they
• 1:16:46
  almost did it. And morale was low and talking
• 1:16:50
  about like being influenced and being susceptible to like
• 1:16:53
  instant death. As a as a culture, we were at
• 1:16:56
  our weakest in the previous generation.
• 1:16:59
  And it was their job to put together the remnants and the
• 1:17:04
  remains of what was broken and try to patch it back up this
• 1:17:08
  generation. We can now go and take what
• 1:17:12
  they've saved and kind of repackage it and make it fresh
• 1:17:15
  again for, for today's ears, but really without the previous
• 1:17:20
  generation holding on to what we call stale.
• 1:17:23
  But that was so essential because we would not have the
• 1:17:27
  platform or the audience to do what we're doing if we didn't
• 1:17:30
  have the 2030 years of MBD freed and what you're calling, you
• 1:17:35
  know, washed out music, which I, I, I, I disagree.
• 1:17:38
  I think the sound is different, but I think the essence of that
• 1:17:42
  music, a lot of that music still the effect of that, the
• 1:17:46
  influence of those, you know, very, very influential singers
• 1:17:51
  or or people at that time. Previous generation.
• 1:17:54
  I think it's still flows through our avoided today.
• 1:17:57
  But the previous generation had a tough job.
• 1:18:00
  They couldn't thank you. Shen couldn't have worked 20
• 1:18:03
  years ago. It's only because we've healed
• 1:18:05
  and we've rebuilt and gotten to a place today where we have an
• 1:18:08
  audience that can accept positivity and happiness.
• 1:18:12
  It's we're ready for it right now, Yeah.
• 1:18:14
  We're I think we were too busy saying Bharghasham.
• 1:18:16
  Yeah. No, really, you don't.
• 1:18:18
  We made it. Right, but it came desensitized.
• 1:18:20
  And right and now, yeah. You don't want to bring a knife
• 1:18:23
  to a gunfight, right? Everybody knows that if we don't
• 1:18:26
  do what you're doing, we're not get I mean, everything around us
• 1:18:29
  is advancing so fast and happening so quickly that if we
• 1:18:33
  fall too far behind and not try to adjust appropriately and meet
• 1:18:38
  the the demand of the day, we're going to have a very difficult
• 1:18:41
  we're going to be lost very soon.
• 1:18:42
  So you guys are at the cusp. I I think of something really
• 1:18:45
  big and if you guys not just start like making it about.
• 1:18:49
  That's why I asked you. Thank you, Hashem.
• 1:18:51
  It's got to be a real movement that it becomes a lifestyle.
• 1:18:54
  It becomes a lifestyle for the kids, that Jewish pride.
• 1:18:57
  You said something, I think when we started this podcast.
• 1:18:59
  So those words, Jewish pride, Jewish pride, I don't want to be
• 1:19:02
  embarrassed, but I walk out in the street now.
• 1:19:04
  The October 7th thing was a big thing for us because we all felt
• 1:19:08
  it, every one of us where they wanted to admit it or not.
• 1:19:10
  If you were, I don't know, in the airport or whatever you were
• 1:19:13
  thinking, should I, should I wear the cap or should I rock
• 1:19:15
  the Amico? Or you were, you're walking down
• 1:19:17
  the city. You certainly weren't wearing
• 1:19:18
  your Trump cap and you weren't wearing an Israeli flag.
• 1:19:21
  And and maybe you were thinking twice about, you know, leaving
• 1:19:24
  the Mazuza on the door, right? We all heard, you know, Jews
• 1:19:28
  that were had very that was their one Jewish thing that they
• 1:19:31
  were doing is their their house that they got from their
• 1:19:33
  grandfather still as a mezuzah. They went and we're pulling it
• 1:19:35
  off the door. So talking about hiding your
• 1:19:37
  Jewish pride. We we lived through that and we
• 1:19:41
  just want to be more proud. We like, you know, we've been
• 1:19:43
  winning. You are winning.
• 1:19:45
  It's so it's so easy to say what we've been persecuted.
• 1:19:47
  No, you didn't have been winning forever.
• 1:19:49
  Despite everything we've gone through, it's a winning
• 1:19:54
  franchise. Yes, it is.
• 1:19:55
  You know what I'm saying? Got a pretty good record.
• 1:19:57
  It's a it's a winning franchise. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:19:59
  A lot of flags, a lot of pennants.
• 1:20:00
  It's worth a lot of money. Yeah, the stock keeps going up.
• 1:20:03
  Keeps going up. So.
• 1:20:04
  So we have to remember that. And that's what we should be
• 1:20:06
  driving into our children and we should be saying it's awesome to
• 1:20:09
  be a YID. And we have to be proud to be a
• 1:20:11
  YID and have fun. Yeah.
• 1:20:13
  Everybody relax a little. Just have fun.
• 1:20:15
  Yeah. It's OK to smile.
• 1:20:16
  It's OK to take something lightly.
• 1:20:17
  It's OK to yeah, to to even say, oh, that's silly without hating
• 1:20:21
  the people that you know, everyone just take a deep
• 1:20:23
  breath. Now, I will say that there are
• 1:20:25
  some people, unfortunately, because when you were coming on,
• 1:20:29
  I wanted to prepare myself a little bit and I didn't know
• 1:20:31
  anything about thank you, Ishim, other than I know what's around
• 1:20:33
  and I, you know, it's got a pretty big reputation.
• 1:20:36
  But I asked some people like, what do you know about Thank
• 1:20:38
  you. And apparently some people are
• 1:20:40
  hating on it a little bit. We're the reason that she is not
• 1:20:43
  here, don't you know? Yeah, Yeah, exactly.
• 1:20:44
  Exactly. I never heard this.
• 1:20:46
  Yeah. As a matter of fact, I heard
• 1:20:47
  this from someone who heard it from a rabbi who's not a big fan
• 1:20:52
  of it. I don't know why they didn't get
• 1:20:53
  into the weeds of what their issues.
• 1:20:55
  Are this rabbit doesn't know Hashem like we know Hashem
• 1:20:57
  right, right. Got to get closer because.
• 1:20:59
  They, they, I can kind of, you know, I'm not going to speak for
• 1:21:02
  them, but I imagine they're looking at it as that you're
• 1:21:04
  trying to twisting something and you're creating your own version
• 1:21:07
  of it. It hasn't been done like this
• 1:21:08
  forever, and you're coming up with the and then they're
• 1:21:11
  uncomfortable with it. They're uncomfortable with you.
• 1:21:13
  But I think that it's absolutely necessary.
• 1:21:15
  I think if you wouldn't be doing what you're doing, I think their
• 1:21:17
  version is going to die out very soon because the forces of evil
• 1:21:21
  that's around us are just too rampant and they're too strong
• 1:21:24
  that we need this. We absolutely.
• 1:21:26
  Need this, but I also understand where they're coming from and
• 1:21:28
  that's something we do at Thank You Asham.
• 1:21:29
  We try to understand the opposition because everybody has
• 1:21:34
  some truth to what they're they're all coming from
• 1:21:35
  somewhere. Now sometimes you meet a guy
• 1:21:37
  who's just off base and doesn't mean you have to always submit
• 1:21:40
  to their opinion, but understanding someone else's
• 1:21:43
  opinion is is the key to success.
• 1:21:45
  You have to understand like the needs of the other person.
• 1:21:49
  You know, I think a lot of the the pushback when you say now a
• 1:21:53
  regular Joe like me and you, if they don't like thinking sham,
• 1:21:56
  hey, plenty of other channels skip the track.
• 1:21:59
  But for like Das Tyra, for like a Rav or someone of of of
• 1:22:04
  influence to say that we're essentially not kosher or not
• 1:22:10
  good or does it? They just are simply they just
• 1:22:15
  don't know. Yeah, they just don't know
• 1:22:16
  because it's not possible to hate something that's amazing,
• 1:22:19
  right? It's the same people that want
• 1:22:21
  to ask for. They don't have enough
• 1:22:22
  information. Exactly.
• 1:22:23
  By the way, Shmuel, what is Shmuel?
• 1:22:24
  I'm going to say was Gayesh Music.
• 1:22:25
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, you know, we're getting
• 1:22:28
  carried away here. We have so much to talk about,
• 1:22:29
  but we have very little time unfortunately.
• 1:22:32
  I feel like we can do this forever.
• 1:22:33
  I had a list of questions. I didn't get to any of them, but
• 1:22:36
  yeah, I do want to ask you one question because, you know, this
• 1:22:39
  is a topic that has been strewn about within our community a
• 1:22:43
  lot. And a lot of people have their
• 1:22:46
  opinions on the matter. There's two sides to the coin
• 1:22:48
  here. But you're someone who could
• 1:22:50
  speak to the matter because you were actually, you know,
• 1:22:53
  involved in, in a way. So I'd like to hear your
• 1:22:56
  perspective. I'd like to hear your thought.
• 1:22:57
  And it's just following cash advance is a very, very familiar
• 1:23:04
  type of role that a lot of Jewish people haven't
• 1:23:06
  participated in, you know, real estate, car leasing, right,
• 1:23:11
  Healthcare, right? We have sort of our lanes that
• 1:23:13
  people live in. This is one of them Podcast,
• 1:23:17
  podcast actually isn't, you know, so, so we're getting
• 1:23:20
  there, but we're getting there. People are starting, you know,
• 1:23:22
  very quickly, but cash advance is definitely one of those
• 1:23:25
  industries that a lot of Jewish people are in now.
• 1:23:29
  I think the, the obvious is that, you know, cash advance
• 1:23:32
  could get very risky. It could get very suspect in the
• 1:23:35
  sense that, you know, just how it all unfolds.
• 1:23:38
  You know, somebody needs cash desperately and you make it
• 1:23:42
  available to them, but at a very high price, right at a very,
• 1:23:45
  very high price. And a lot of time it doesn't
• 1:23:47
  work out. And then, you know, things
• 1:23:48
  escalate and things start derailing very rather quickly.
• 1:23:51
  And you're in the other side of that, that you're somewhat
• 1:23:54
  supporting this because, you know, you initiate this and
• 1:23:57
  you're part of this. Now, we could say this about a
• 1:23:59
  lot of industries, people in the industry.
• 1:24:01
  Well, you're taking care of people that are dying.
• 1:24:02
  You're taking advantage of it. Yeah, but there's got to be
• 1:24:05
  somebody that's doing it. And typically those people try
• 1:24:07
  to do it in a way that they're trying to do what's best, you
• 1:24:10
  know, they're trying to make in cash advance.
• 1:24:12
  It's got a very bad stigma for a long time.
• 1:24:15
  So what is your perspective on the entire topic?
• 1:24:18
  What would you say to a lot of the people that have put out
• 1:24:21
  there, if you're in cash advance, you must be a bad
• 1:24:23
  person. You don't have a heart.
• 1:24:25
  You're somebody who I don't want to feel it myself, but you're in
• 1:24:27
  cash advance. Like what would you say to those
• 1:24:29
  people? Good.
• 1:24:30
  Question, though, she not here to talk about the pros and cons
• 1:24:35
  of cash events. I can only tell you about my
• 1:24:38
  experience in cash advance that I was given an opportunity to
• 1:24:41
  work in a big company very early on before cash advance was the
• 1:24:45
  big fad that you're describing today.
• 1:24:48
  Worked at a very big company in the city financial district was,
• 1:24:52
  you know, early days. And I'm typically on the lending
• 1:24:57
  side. We don't use the word lend, but
• 1:25:00
  I'm I'm on the money investment. It's called the investment side
• 1:25:04
  and I get the deals are brought to me through brokers.
• 1:25:08
  So when someone says he's in cash advance, 90% of the time
• 1:25:11
  you're talking about someone who's on the broker end of it.
• 1:25:14
  So he's looking for that business.
• 1:25:15
  He's trying to convince that guy why it's good to him to take the
• 1:25:18
  money. Now he took the money, he wants
• 1:25:19
  to sell you another deal like he's just looking for his
• 1:25:21
  Commission. So he's sell, sell, sell and
• 1:25:24
  money sells itself. So when you add a salesman
• 1:25:26
  behind that, it's, it's easy to to get those deals.
• 1:25:29
  I'm on the risk taking part of it.
• 1:25:31
  So I don't see the glitz and glamour of it and others.
• 1:25:35
  I'm not dealing with people, you know, with, with merchants, so
• 1:25:38
  to speak. I'm just more on the funding
• 1:25:40
  side. You're.
• 1:25:41
  Doing the underwriting you're evaluating.
• 1:25:42
  I have the people that do the the risk.
• 1:25:45
  I set up a fund and we fund the people running these books.
• 1:25:53
  Cash advance, like anything else is a tool that could be abused
• 1:25:56
  or could be very helpful. I can tell you stories about,
• 1:26:00
  you know, the guy who needed quick cash and we helped him.
• 1:26:04
  He was responsible. He followed our directions,
• 1:26:07
  didn't take multiple deals, didn't overextend himself.
• 1:26:11
  He, you know, paid off early, got a discount.
• 1:26:13
  It was helpful for him. Called us the next day, open the
• 1:26:16
  new location. Like we wouldn't be in business
• 1:26:18
  for this long if there were only failures and only people getting
• 1:26:22
  hurt. This would not be an industry.
• 1:26:24
  It's a booming industry because it's a great product that people
• 1:26:27
  need. That's the part that people
• 1:26:29
  forget now in every business, you know, it's hard to regulate
• 1:26:32
  this business because a lot happens, you know, between guy
• 1:26:36
  A, between, you know, A and B2. People can't really stop a guy
• 1:26:40
  from selling you his receivables.
• 1:26:42
  It's hard to regulate like all those things, but if your
• 1:26:47
  mindset when you wake up in the morning is to be, like I said
• 1:26:50
  before, a positive addition to the world and, and, and help
• 1:26:54
  people as supposed to hurt people.
• 1:26:55
  And if that's who you are, you'll find ways to do it,
• 1:26:58
  whether it's cash advance, whether it's healthcare, whether
• 1:27:01
  it's raising your children, driving carpool, like you can be
• 1:27:04
  a positive and have a positive impact on people no matter what
• 1:27:07
  you do. So really it's based on the
• 1:27:09
  person. I will say it's not fun to tell
• 1:27:11
  people that you're in cash advance.
• 1:27:12
  It's gotten a really bad Rep. But it has, you know, healthcare
• 1:27:19
  also had a bad rap for a long time and people every time they
• 1:27:23
  hear about a certain lawsuit or they hear about a certain
• 1:27:26
  situation with their patient, all healthcare operators, all
• 1:27:30
  they care about is the money. That's all they're driven by.
• 1:27:32
  They don't really care about the patient care whatsoever.
• 1:27:35
  And it's quite frankly not true because you know, you don't, you
• 1:27:38
  know, one person doesn't represent the entire basket.
• 1:27:41
  And there's a lot of people that are in healthcare really because
• 1:27:44
  they genuinely care and they like to help people and they
• 1:27:47
  also make money responsibly along the way.
• 1:27:49
  And that's fine. That's the only thing that makes
• 1:27:50
  the world go round and round. You got to have people that are
• 1:27:54
  actually turning a profit or nobody would do anything then
• 1:27:56
  otherwise you're reverting to a socialistic environment.
• 1:27:58
  We know that doesn't work, right.
• 1:28:00
  So I, I, I get the merit of what you're saying is that everybody
• 1:28:04
  can take anything and turn it good or turn it bad, But just to
• 1:28:08
  push back a little bit, specifically more in the cash
• 1:28:10
  advance field and these brokers, you're right, I'm talking a lot
• 1:28:13
  about these brokers that are out there looking for opportunities.
• 1:28:16
  You know, and more often than not, they'll hear about someone
• 1:28:21
  who needs help. They'll offer them what their
• 1:28:23
  solution is. And deep down they know, and
• 1:28:25
  this guy's never going to pay it back.
• 1:28:27
  There's no way. Like they know that they're
• 1:28:29
  almost somewhat, I want to say an accomplice to this because
• 1:28:33
  they're supporting it and they're going to make their
• 1:28:34
  money at the end of the day. But they know that they're
• 1:28:37
  saying this person for failure. And that person, by the way, is
• 1:28:39
  desperate. That person is not making a
• 1:28:41
  smart decision by by taking on that that extra loan, you know,
• 1:28:45
  and but they don't have any other choices.
• 1:28:46
  They don't know where else to turn to.
• 1:28:48
  I wouldn't want to be that conduit is what I and by the
• 1:28:50
  way, I'm not a good person. I wouldn't want to listen to.
• 1:28:52
  That person, because he wouldn't be able to pay me back, I'd lose
• 1:28:54
  my money. So it's a self correcting.
• 1:28:57
  It's a self correcting issue. In other words, if there's a guy
• 1:29:01
  who shouldn't be taking the money just because there's a
• 1:29:03
  good broker telling him that he should, you still got to find
• 1:29:06
  someone that wants to invest in this guy.
• 1:29:07
  So it gets underwritten and you know, if there has to be merits
• 1:29:12
  to the deal and anyone that that invests in a business and thinks
• 1:29:16
  it's bad for that business is a bad investor, right.
• 1:29:19
  We only invest in businesses that we want to do business 100
• 1:29:22
  years with you we wanted to. Those cash advance not take
• 1:29:25
  loans on, even though there's a lot of risk as long as they're
• 1:29:27
  getting collateral like someone's house.
• 1:29:30
  I mean, they're not necessarily looking at the underwriting to
• 1:29:32
  do like does it warrant getting a loan?
• 1:29:34
  Can do they have enough cash flow that they can eventually
• 1:29:36
  pay this back or is it they they take it on?
• 1:29:39
  Yeah. Typically cash advance is, is a
• 1:29:42
  non secured transaction. So there's no assets.
• 1:29:45
  If there's assets or if there's there's collateral, it becomes a
• 1:29:49
  loan. And then there's regulations.
• 1:29:52
  This is not a loan. This is a purchase of
• 1:29:54
  receivables, future receivables. So it's almost like a
• 1:29:58
  partnership. I give you 10,000 now.
• 1:30:00
  You buy your freezer, you sell ices on the beach over the
• 1:30:02
  summer. You make 30 grand.
• 1:30:05
  Give us back the 10 plus another 5.
• 1:30:06
  Or so, right. OK, so you're not denying that
• 1:30:09
  the cash advance industry could get a little bit dirty and it
• 1:30:13
  could get a little bit off the rails, but that's the part that
• 1:30:16
  people are seeing and glorifying.
• 1:30:17
  But there's another part of my business.
• 1:30:19
  Is to still do my version of cash advance and ignore what is
• 1:30:25
  going on there in the general sense, like staying in our box.
• 1:30:29
  I don't need to fund 100 deals. Give me my handful of deals that
• 1:30:33
  we like. Let me deal with brokers that
• 1:30:35
  are honest that syndicate on the deals with us so we know they're
• 1:30:38
  not doing anything malicious. This is we, we run a much
• 1:30:40
  smaller shop, very selective and we try to just do repeat
• 1:30:45
  business, you know, try to stay away from funding the garbage.
• 1:30:48
  I'm curious for those people that don't know, including
• 1:30:50
  myself, I know that I've spoken to a dentist once that needed a
• 1:30:54
  $40,000 machine and he had no idea how to get it and how to
• 1:30:58
  get the money for it and he did a cash advance and he took a
• 1:31:01
  loan. I'm curious what kind of
• 1:31:03
  businesses all because you're on this topic and you have a lot of
• 1:31:06
  experience in this for our listeners, what kind of
• 1:31:09
  businesses actually have good use from these types of loans?
• 1:31:14
  Like, you know, for those people that are out there, if I own a
• 1:31:16
  supermarket, I want a restaurant, I own a distribution
• 1:31:19
  in a company. Typically businesses that have a
• 1:31:20
  lot of receivables so like not the guy that gets one check from
• 1:31:24
  Neiman Marcus that he sells to once you know, or the the
• 1:31:27
  trucker who's who's getting one check when he delivers goods.
• 1:31:30
  That 30,000 a month is not as strong as a guy making 20,000 a
• 1:31:34
  month selling coffee at $2.00 a cup.
• 1:31:36
  But they have lending options for.
• 1:31:38
  But a lot of them are have have exhausted those options.
• 1:31:40
  Right. So once you've exhausted the
• 1:31:42
  receivable lending. I already have, I have a
• 1:31:44
  business loan and I have an SBA loan and I have a loan from my
• 1:31:47
  father and my brother's. My partner and I have everything
• 1:31:49
  And now my freezer broke and my ice cream's melting or now my
• 1:31:55
  landlord said like the the pipe broke in my store or my awning
• 1:31:58
  felt. And you're going to naturally
• 1:31:59
  have to pay more interest because the person's taking the
• 1:32:02
  most risk. Now I'm not, I'm not, I'm not
• 1:32:04
  helping you start your business. You already need to have, you
• 1:32:07
  know, reoccurring revenue predictability, but you asked me
• 1:32:11
  which businesses do well and and who I recommended for what.
• 1:32:16
  I think businesses that have good cash flow, consistent cash
• 1:32:19
  flow where every day you're not going to feel the 100 or $200
• 1:32:23
  that are coming out of your account to to satisfy this.
• 1:32:27
  Those are the ones that do well, the ones that so like like
• 1:32:31
  retail stores do really well or like many, many smaller
• 1:32:35
  transactions do better than a few larger transactions because
• 1:32:38
  those are unpredictable. You checks late one month.
• 1:32:40
  Now you're in trouble. What happens when someone can't
• 1:32:42
  pay back to a cash advance company?
• 1:32:45
  The day comes they've reckoning and now the interest was piled
• 1:32:48
  up and he has he's missing payments already and you they
• 1:32:52
  can see that I getting their money, but.
• 1:32:53
  You go through your recourse to legalities just to make sure
• 1:32:55
  that they're they're actually in the situation that they're
• 1:32:58
  saying right. Sometimes guys tell you they're
• 1:33:00
  struggling, but all they did was change bank accounts and now
• 1:33:03
  took your money and, you know, off to the races.
• 1:33:06
  So you get your lawyers to to search the courts and just make
• 1:33:09
  sure that, you know, put some UCC liens, make sure that that
• 1:33:13
  you can track some of the revenue, but.
• 1:33:15
  What's the typical person all the time that cash?
• 1:33:18
  I don't even know. I mean, I just imagine that it's
• 1:33:20
  very high, but. Can only speak for me, you know.
• 1:33:22
  And knock me off my knock my socks off my feet here for a
• 1:33:25
  second. Like what is the average
• 1:33:27
  percentage that they take? Let's say a regular guy, he owns
• 1:33:30
  a grocery store and he makes, you know, a little bit of net
• 1:33:33
  income at the end of the month and you know a little bit that
• 1:33:36
  he makes. But this month one of his, you
• 1:33:38
  know, his freezers, look at your example broke down.
• 1:33:40
  He needs 100 grand now to buy a whole new thing of yields and
• 1:33:43
  have that cash sitting around. There's not the capital as he
• 1:33:46
  comes to a cash advance company and they write out a three-year
• 1:33:49
  loan for him, a five year loan, whatever it is.
• 1:33:51
  Well. It's it's short, it's short,
• 1:33:53
  it's short and it's not a loan. It's not a loan.
• 1:33:56
  It's an investment. No, it's a purchase of the
• 1:33:58
  future receivables. The guy says mehndi, I need 100
• 1:34:03
  grand. I say what for because I need it
• 1:34:05
  for XY and Z and he clearly shows me how that hundred turns
• 1:34:08
  into 206 months. That's what we're looking for.
• 1:34:13
  We're looking for opportunities to invest in a short term
• 1:34:15
  investment with someone. We don't want to be a partner in
• 1:34:18
  their business long term. We don't want to give them a
• 1:34:20
  loan. We don't want to take
• 1:34:21
  collateral. I don't want to lock up their
• 1:34:23
  house. We just want to be like, OK, you
• 1:34:25
  have a short term plan of how this chunk of cash could help
• 1:34:28
  you make more and then from that, from your futures that
• 1:34:32
  you're predicting, we want to purchase a percentage of that
• 1:34:35
  and we'll take it. You're a short term temporary
• 1:34:38
  partner is what you want. You're going to make a little
• 1:34:40
  bit of money on this. I want to make a nice chunk on
• 1:34:42
  that as well. I don't want my six 7%.
• 1:34:44
  You're a business. I'm not giving you a loan.
• 1:34:45
  I'm giving you money that you could invest.
• 1:34:47
  I also want what might be I want.
• 1:34:49
  I want 3040% of what you're making.
• 1:34:51
  But I'm not here forever. As soon as you pay back, I'm
• 1:34:53
  out. You can continue.
• 1:34:55
  Over the next six months, you're going to give me back 15,000.
• 1:34:58
  Here's 10,000 now. So in finance talk, that would
• 1:35:02
  be a 15-O factory. OK, We use factory.
• 1:35:05
  It's not APR, not percentage factory.
• 1:35:08
  It would be 1.5 * 10 would be 15 K.
• 1:35:12
  That would be the payback 1.5, It's a factory.
• 1:35:16
  Typically cash advance deals go between A13-O and A15-O.
• 1:35:22
  There's probably a 10% Commission to the broker
• 1:35:24
  bringing you the deal. Got it.
• 1:35:27
  So you're putting this back on the oxy codeine, right?
• 1:35:29
  When we had that epidemic, you know, early on, right, the, the,
• 1:35:32
  when the pharmacy companies were pushing, you know, this product
• 1:35:35
  and it was really necessary. It was really a good thing.
• 1:35:37
  It was helping people. They're in chronic pain and this
• 1:35:40
  people were in endless amounts of real, real pain.
• 1:35:43
  And this got rid of that. And then what happened was it
• 1:35:45
  just got out of control and the wrong people got their hands on
• 1:35:47
  it and it, it's spiraled. It's spiraled.
• 1:35:50
  So it's it's like what you were saying in cash advance.
• 1:35:53
  Yeah, there's a dark side to it of people that abuse it.
• 1:35:55
  And they shouldn't be doing on both sides, on the receiving
• 1:35:57
  side and on the lending side, on both sides, there are people
• 1:36:00
  that are not so ethical and not, you know, doing the right way in
• 1:36:03
  every business, in every business, in every business.
• 1:36:05
  Let me ask you, what's if you have to pick like, what's the
• 1:36:08
  shadiest industry you can think of?
• 1:36:10
  The shadiest industry? Come on, what's the oldest one?
• 1:36:13
  What do you call a guy who's just sleazy?
• 1:36:16
  Podcaster. I don't know a car salesman a.
• 1:36:18
  Used car salesman. There you go.
• 1:36:19
  Right? They got the worst rap.
• 1:36:20
  They got the worst rap. Right.
• 1:36:22
  Does no one buy used cars all the time?
• 1:36:24
  All the time. Maybe more used cars than new
• 1:36:26
  cars being. But people are very wary when
• 1:36:28
  they move their car. Sales as they should be because
• 1:36:31
  the used car guy, it's the used car industry is unregulated.
• 1:36:35
  You never know what he's selling you.
• 1:36:37
  You never know where where he'll be tomorrow when you need your
• 1:36:40
  warranty. So in other words, oh, there's
• 1:36:42
  so much room for something to dishonesty.
• 1:36:45
  Yeah, so it gets abused, but they're also Fortune 500
• 1:36:49
  companies that sell used cars. Go to cars.com.
• 1:36:51
  They sell used cars, but they're doing it right.
• 1:36:53
  So just because there's an abused industry doesn't mean
• 1:36:57
  it's not a service for millions of people.
• 1:37:00
  Has there been any very notable stories that happened that maybe
• 1:37:05
  get, you know, gleaned a little bit of light onto this industry
• 1:37:09
  is very dangerous. Stay away from it must be
• 1:37:11
  because otherwise it didn't just happen on its own.
• 1:37:13
  That cash advance became like, you know, a notoriously dirty on
• 1:37:17
  its own. Something must have happened, I
• 1:37:19
  think because we've gotten to the point right now, like people
• 1:37:21
  wouldn't do shiduch unnecessarily with somebody who
• 1:37:24
  is in the cash and advance business.
• 1:37:26
  Like that's how bad it is. It's always in the cash and
• 1:37:27
  advance. I don't want my daughter
• 1:37:29
  marrying a guy like that, you know, and it didn't happen on
• 1:37:32
  its own. It must have been some type of.
• 1:37:34
  Well, you know a lot of guys make money, so the cash advance
• 1:37:36
  got a bad rap because all the little kids with their gold
• 1:37:40
  watches flying private and fast money.
• 1:37:44
  Fishy, Swishy Schmidt, schmitzy money.
• 1:37:46
  It's like too much. Too much and a lot of them made
• 1:37:48
  their money while somebody else. Had a hard time you have you
• 1:37:50
  have the general public is busting that their their tuchus
• 1:37:55
  trying to make a living. And here's the little kid buying
• 1:37:58
  all the alias on Shabbos and rolling in in his private jet
• 1:38:01
  and he's got a Maybach waiting from outside because he has no
• 1:38:04
  bills and he's doing cash advance for two minutes and he
• 1:38:06
  he he made a so it's understandable why people would
• 1:38:11
  if you're not even against the guy, you're against the whole
• 1:38:14
  industry, against the whole movement of like like so it's
• 1:38:17
  understandable. It is, but it's a huge product.
• 1:38:22
  Cash advance helps millions of people.
• 1:38:24
  There are really big companies on deck and really big Goyisha
• 1:38:29
  companies that are doing cash advance Amazon, Amex, Intuit
• 1:38:35
  QuickBooks right there. I think Chase for a while was
• 1:38:39
  doing the JP Morgan was doing their version of a cash advance.
• 1:38:44
  I would say Amazon is the most popular one, right?
• 1:38:46
  You're selling more. Let me give you money, right?
• 1:38:48
  And for a high interest. Right.
• 1:38:50
  So why is that? Just because it's regulated?
• 1:38:52
  They're bigger, They're too big to be corrupt.
• 1:38:54
  There's no Jewish kid, 18 year old selling you.
• 1:38:57
  You know, tomorrow I'll give you a line of credit.
• 1:38:59
  Just take this. I'll help you buy and then
• 1:39:00
  you'll never hear. From him, but I like the way you
• 1:39:02
  phrased it. It makes me feel a lot better
• 1:39:03
  about it. By the way, I have a whole new
• 1:39:05
  window into this right now is that we don't do loans.
• 1:39:08
  We don't lend people money for high interest rates.
• 1:39:10
  You're the wrong person. I don't want to give you money.
• 1:39:12
  We invest in people, in their ideas, and they don't have the
• 1:39:15
  money right now. But for our investment, we're
• 1:39:17
  taking more risks because a bank is clearly not giving you a
• 1:39:19
  loan, right? That's why you're coming to me.
• 1:39:21
  It's unsecured. It's unsecured.
• 1:39:23
  I don't know you right phone call right I'm.
• 1:39:25
  Wiring you my I want a big return.
• 1:39:27
  I want a big return. Based off your credit score and
• 1:39:29
  your driver's license picture, I wouldn't give you money if you
• 1:39:32
  walked into my office, I wouldn't give you $5, right?
• 1:39:34
  So why am I giving? Because you have to kind of
• 1:39:36
  detach from that and you have to like look at it as an
• 1:39:39
  investment. Look at the numbers.
• 1:39:40
  I'm curious by the way there. I get this question a lot from,
• 1:39:43
  you know, young people that are making money, they're starting
• 1:39:45
  to make money and they say, what should I do with $10,000?
• 1:39:49
  What should I do with $25,000? Not crazy numbers.
• 1:39:53
  I'd say the Max I've got asked is $25,000.
• 1:39:56
  And it's always a great question.
• 1:39:58
  I mean, you know, the answer that I always give is just put
• 1:40:00
  it in a secure place. Bitcoin as much as secure as
• 1:40:04
  possible. You know there's other answers
• 1:40:06
  to give when people come to you with large amounts of money.
• 1:40:08
  You know, you see divided into 10 and you know there's a smart
• 1:40:10
  ways of answering it. Recently someone just deployed a
• 1:40:13
  software where you can invest as little as $100 in cash advance.
• 1:40:18
  Not recommended. And I'm curious, yeah, that's.
• 1:40:21
  Not recommended. Thank you Hashem.
• 1:40:24
  I did not need to take outside money from anybody.
• 1:40:26
  I've never taken personal money, but we're so hungry to invest in
• 1:40:29
  this because I can make 30% comment saying I can make 20%.
• 1:40:32
  You could. You could, but you're not going
• 1:40:34
  to be spread across the whole portfolio and you're not going
• 1:40:37
  to be in every single deal. And the reason why we make money
• 1:40:41
  hopefully is, yeah, each deal is expensive, but then you have
• 1:40:46
  2030% that go bad and then the other 20%, we only collected 50%
• 1:40:50
  and the other. And then you average it out and
• 1:40:52
  then take off the commissions that you prepaid on every single
• 1:40:55
  deal and all that. So now you're left with your 20
• 1:40:59
  if you're just going to go in and roll the dice on one deal.
• 1:41:03
  Well, you're a collective of deals.
• 1:41:04
  Apparently, yeah, you you could. And listen, I'm not saying by
• 1:41:07
  design, maybe they maybe maybe it works.
• 1:41:09
  But yeah, I'm doing this a long time, over a decade.
• 1:41:13
  Not a lot of people running around saying they made.
• 1:41:15
  So what they made money? What should I do with 10 grand
• 1:41:17
  then? What would you say as a quick
• 1:41:18
  answer? I'm not kidding.
• 1:41:19
  I think you should buy Bitcoin. I'm a huge, I'm a huge Bitcoin
• 1:41:21
  guy. Good.
• 1:41:22
  I am good. Are you?
• 1:41:23
  You also run through that bandwagon.
• 1:41:24
  Did you buy? Some years you bought.
• 1:41:26
  We have. Yeah, we have for years and
• 1:41:28
  years and years. Wow.
• 1:41:29
  Yeah, good. Smart, but I, I believe that I'm
• 1:41:32
  not just I'm not just trying to be funny.
• 1:41:34
  I, I believe Bitcoin right now is probably the best, most
• 1:41:38
  secure, going to be the most upside possibility of any
• 1:41:43
  investment that I can think of. And you don't need to know
• 1:41:45
  anything. You don't have to be hands on.
• 1:41:47
  You don't need to know real estate.
• 1:41:48
  You don't need to know the guy. They did all the thinking for
• 1:41:50
  us. It's just plug and play and and
• 1:41:53
  that's good. But I, I see we got to finish.
• 1:41:55
  So I know you have a rapid round question, but I, I actually
• 1:41:57
  prepared some wrap around questions.
• 1:41:59
  Stop your wrap around questions have not been good.
• 1:42:02
  You guys. That is the weakest part of your
• 1:42:03
  podcast. So I'm just going to jump in.
• 1:42:05
  I want to. Help.
• 1:42:06
  He's not wrong. He likes.
• 1:42:07
  The idea I want to help you out. Not wrong you like the idea,
• 1:42:10
  though that's of course you do like.
• 1:42:11
  I do like the idea and I actually think it's it's it's
• 1:42:14
  not as bad as people say. I think you guys are doing
• 1:42:17
  better than than you're admitting.
• 1:42:19
  I think this podcast is awesome. I think I do.
• 1:42:23
  I like the lightning round. I I like the lightning round.
• 1:42:25
  If this, you know, if I would have taken the position and this
• 1:42:28
  would have been my podcast, Michael, I mean me and you would
• 1:42:30
  have, I mean, we would there are other podcasts.
• 1:42:32
  We would have been on the moon already.
• 1:42:34
  Or you hit me up with your. Lightning.
• 1:42:35
  All right, go ahead. Let me ask you a few questions
• 1:42:37
  of my own. Have a lightning round, OK?
• 1:42:38
  Ready. We gotta put a shot clock on
• 1:42:40
  all. Right, it's we're just, I'm
• 1:42:41
  gonna go as fast as possible. Which singer do you secretly
• 1:42:45
  have your heart set on singing with that you have not done yet?
• 1:42:48
  MBD although I've we've we've sang together a little bit, but.
• 1:42:54
  You wanna produce something with him?
• 1:42:56
  That would be pretty cool. You, you better get moving on
• 1:42:58
  that. He's not.
• 1:42:59
  He's not a young man anymore. You're driving to Orlando for
• 1:43:01
  Pesach. What's 1 entire album that
• 1:43:04
  you'll listen to from the beginning till the end?
• 1:43:05
  Every word, every nuance of every NH.
• 1:43:08
  You know what? Great album would be the eighth
• 1:43:11
  note by Yossi Green. The eighth note he put out,
• 1:43:16
  that's Jesse Green, a great composer.
• 1:43:18
  So probably 20 years ago he and you know.
• 1:43:20
  Every one of those songs. He put out that album and each
• 1:43:22
  song was sung with by him and another artist and I think it
• 1:43:25
  was game changing. When he came out it was like a
• 1:43:27
  themed album. The whole thing was about
• 1:43:29
  Mashiach and every song was a different thing and, and and
• 1:43:32
  every song sounds different and, and it was just awesome.
• 1:43:35
  What's your Friday night Shalom Alaikum tune?
• 1:43:38
  Actually, we have our own. Yeah, really, You created your
• 1:43:40
  own. Yeah, we have our own.
• 1:43:41
  How's it go? So you and.
• 1:43:59
  Your kids sing. That yeah.
• 1:44:00
  We sing that. Yeah.
• 1:44:01
  OK. Wow, OK, I only have a couple of
• 1:44:04
  more. Hold on.
• 1:44:05
  I know you have yours. You'll get to in a second.
• 1:44:07
  What's the most financial gain? How much money did you actually
• 1:44:12
  make on one gig or one album or one song?
• 1:44:15
  Like the net profit? Totally.
• 1:44:16
  Look back and say oh that song made me X amount of.
• 1:44:19
  Dollars travel gigs. So when you whatever you get
• 1:44:22
  called to travel, get on a plane you can.
• 1:44:26
  There's a lot of upside there. So like I was hired to do a
• 1:44:30
  Shabbos in LA. So I flew in a couple days
• 1:44:33
  early, hit the elementary school for an hour on Thursday night,
• 1:44:36
  hit the yeshiva Friday morning, did the So what you can like go
• 1:44:41
  out to a community and see three elementary schools and then hit
• 1:44:46
  the high school and then do the shul over Shabbos and then do
• 1:44:49
  the alumni. Like you get to meet thousands
• 1:44:51
  of people and spread He's like and those are.
• 1:44:54
  What's your total? I mean 30K on a trip.
• 1:44:57
  Love it, love it. OK, my final one is something
• 1:44:59
  that I've been thinking about before you came here is OK.
• 1:45:03
  I want to know what you're working on next.
• 1:45:05
  Well, I will tell you it's the the big hits have always come
• 1:45:10
  after. Like you think nothing's going
• 1:45:12
  on right before Pesach, I put out a song called Makimi.
• 1:45:15
  We did a hollow up mix and we did fishy swishy Yum Yum in a
• 1:45:18
  week, all three songs in a week right before Pesach, the week
• 1:45:23
  before that, none of these songs existed.
• 1:45:25
  I mean they existed, but none of the actual.
• 1:45:27
  They can happen in a vacuum. They do happen in a vacuum.
• 1:45:29
  Thank you. Sham was very fast.
• 1:45:31
  They they don't have the capacity or brainpower to hold
• 1:45:34
  things on the burner too long. It's in, we're out, and we're on
• 1:45:37
  to the next, next thing. There's a lot of so deep passion
• 1:45:40
  and then it gets stale. So one next thing you're working
• 1:45:43
  on right now, do you know we're working on some cool stuff?
• 1:45:46
  Come on. Come on.
• 1:45:48
  Are you gonna do more music videos in the future like that?
• 1:45:51
  I will say, I will say there's gonna be more AI.
• 1:45:53
  The guy that did the AI for Fishy Swishy, and we kept that a
• 1:45:58
  mockery. We kept it like looking foolish
• 1:45:59
  on purpose, but it shows the potential.
• 1:46:02
  I think we untapped a new level of the game for Jewish music as
• 1:46:07
  a whole. I think other artists are going
• 1:46:09
  to start using AII think I like. That by the way, because AI is
• 1:46:12
  the wave of the future in general for young people to know
• 1:46:15
  career wise. Open their eyes for for sure.
• 1:46:17
  And and we're and we're looking to hire this guy full time and,
• 1:46:20
  and this. Is a trailblazing video that
• 1:46:22
  you. Did I will.
• 1:46:22
  I will. Tell you something new.
• 1:46:24
  For sure. And we upped the bar, you know,
• 1:46:27
  seeing all the other singers singing our silly song at their
• 1:46:31
  concerts that there are, you know, their pays off concerts,
• 1:46:33
  you know, you're resonating with them, whether it's, you know,
• 1:46:37
  see past this and realize, wow, this is love it.
• 1:46:40
  This is the. The one thing actually we always
• 1:46:42
  end up with, and I, and I know you have your questions, but I'm
• 1:46:44
  going to ask you first, is who would you recommend to be on
• 1:46:46
  this podcast? Wow, what do you want?
• 1:46:49
  You want a singer? I want someone that's guy.
• 1:46:51
  You want to use car salesman? Someone.
• 1:46:53
  That's meaningful to you, someone that we can grow with,
• 1:46:55
  someone that you know fits our profile of what we're looking to
• 1:46:58
  do. Like you inspired me today,
• 1:47:00
  Mandy. All of our guests, we look for
• 1:47:01
  them, like to inspire us some way to learn one thing.
• 1:47:04
  What I learned from you today is just on this whole mission and
• 1:47:06
  this whole movement of what thank you she is doing and how
• 1:47:08
  necessary it is. Yeah.
• 1:47:10
  And it inspired me. It really struck a nerve.
• 1:47:12
  I thought you're gonna marry into cash advance.
• 1:47:14
  Now, no, no, I'm just saying he moved me.
• 1:47:15
  He moved me that like that. I agree this is part of our
• 1:47:17
  growth. It's part of his grown
• 1:47:18
  personally and professionally. So it can really be a a wide
• 1:47:21
  array I. Think you should?
• 1:47:23
  Yeah. I think you should interview Rev
• 1:47:24
  Ari Levitan and he should tell you about the community and how
• 1:47:29
  he's watched you and the rest of my old classmates.
• 1:47:32
  Pussy. I I love that to the great men
• 1:47:35
  that you've become. I would love that, but he's not.
• 1:47:37
  I don't think it's not. Happening I.
• 1:47:38
  Don't think so. Give us one more.
• 1:47:41
  I think you should interview Alex Clare.
• 1:47:43
  Do you know who that? Is love it?
• 1:47:44
  Where does he live? He's around.
• 1:47:46
  Is he? Yeah, I think he's in England
• 1:47:49
  and then I'd throw, but. He no I'm a big fan of it.
• 1:47:51
  Can you help? Us.
• 1:47:51
  Yeah, OK. I think it's a tremendous story.
• 1:47:54
  He was a chart topping. Artist he was I.
• 1:47:59
  Think he dated Amy Winehouse. Did he really?
• 1:48:04
  And I think he his his big hit was when his song was on the
• 1:48:08
  Microsoft, one of the computer laptops, Surface, Surface
• 1:48:13
  Commerce that blew him to the stratosphere, gave it all up.
• 1:48:16
  And now he's a mushbiya. Wow.
• 1:48:18
  And he could tell you about thank you, Shammy could tell you
• 1:48:20
  about his relationship. And I think he'd be a great.
• 1:48:22
  Would love to get him. Can you help us get him out
• 1:48:23
  normally? I was going, but he's in London,
• 1:48:25
  so. Yeah, no, we'll, I'll make a
• 1:48:26
  call and we'll try to put you guys together.
• 1:48:28
  All right, couple questions for you guys.
• 1:48:30
  First of all, thank you for having me on the None of Your
• 1:48:32
  Business podcast. This was amazing.
• 1:48:35
  Thank you Stefan for very few interruptions today.
• 1:48:39
  I guess I covered everything. I'm upset at you.
• 1:48:42
  It took you this long? I'm sorry.
• 1:48:43
  I mean, Mandy, I love you. I was waiting.
• 1:48:46
  Thank you. It's mutual.
• 1:48:47
  I love you guys and I love what you're about.
• 1:48:48
  And let's do it again for real. I think we have a lot more to
• 1:48:51
  talk about other than Ushi. All right, Ushi, I have a
• 1:48:55
  question for you. Yeah.
• 1:48:58
  Who do you think does a better solo podcast, you or Michael?
• 1:49:03
  He he went right for it, by the way, wrapping round.
• 1:49:05
  Rapid question, what do you think he's come on, guy?
• 1:49:08
  Me. You, of course.
• 1:49:09
  Mike, you agree of? Course I don't agree.
• 1:49:13
  All right, cool. Have you guys ever done solo
• 1:49:16
  shop? We did.
• 1:49:17
  We used to addition. We used to.
• 1:49:19
  And which one which was neck and?
• 1:49:20
  Neck, neck and neck. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:49:22
  You guys are being nice to each other.
• 1:49:24
  I feel like you need to come with more passion to try to
• 1:49:26
  really. Are you trying to break us up
• 1:49:27
  with each other? All right, next Ushi, would you
• 1:49:30
  rather? Well, actually there's questions
• 1:49:33
  for both of you. What would you rather a check
• 1:49:36
  for 1,000,000 bucks or that this episode gets a million listens?
• 1:49:42
  1,000,000 bucks? Really.
• 1:49:43
  Yeah. 1,000,000 listeners. 1,000,000 listeners.
• 1:49:46
  Yeah, yeah. What's your reasoning?
• 1:49:48
  Why $1,000,000 is she I feel? Like I could do something with
• 1:49:50
  that. Now I feel like a million
• 1:49:52
  listeners leads to something. Maybe, Michael, why a million
• 1:49:55
  listeners? You know what it is?
• 1:49:56
  Money is not something that you can actually grow in depth and
• 1:49:59
  in height. Money is something that's just
• 1:50:01
  like it's, it's almost invisible.
• 1:50:03
  I mean, it's like it's here. It's not.
• 1:50:05
  Just a million. I get a million listeners gives
• 1:50:07
  you a lot. A big we could, actually.
• 1:50:08
  It gives you a lot of a lot of yeah.
• 1:50:10
  A million listeners for this episode brings us a million
• 1:50:13
  listeners. All right, next episode.
• 1:50:15
  That's right. All right, I'm going to train in
• 1:50:16
  my answer. I'm going to say mail my
• 1:50:17
  listeners. Did you cash the check it?
• 1:50:20
  That's too late. Oh, is he allowed to do?
• 1:50:21
  That by the way, mentally you already spent it.
• 1:50:23
  We we heard I did clink clink, clink.
• 1:50:26
  All right, I think the right choice would be more views
• 1:50:29
  because then the podcast is worth more sponsors.
• 1:50:32
  Yeah, but OK, Ushi, this is a baseball question.
• 1:50:39
  Would you rather hit a World Series game-winning home run on
• 1:50:45
  your Little League Orchard Hill team hero Forever A.
• 1:50:50
  Legend of QLD. Legend forever or would you
• 1:50:54
  rather be the Yankees batboy for a week?
• 1:50:59
  I'm gonna go with the first one. Yes, yes, I would relish being a
• 1:51:03
  Yankees bad boy. I would even be a ball boy in
• 1:51:06
  tennis for the tennis players, like handing them their sweaty
• 1:51:08
  towels. I would do that too.
• 1:51:10
  I, I, I, I would love that job, by the way.
• 1:51:12
  And I would soak it all in and I would just be mesmerized by the
• 1:51:14
  whole scene. But you cannot beat the feeling
• 1:51:18
  of hitting a World Series Game 7 bottom of the 9/2 ounce home run
• 1:51:23
  to win the game. I mean, the good news is you
• 1:51:24
  won't end up doing either one of them.
• 1:51:26
  So this is just exactly. This is a little hypothetical.
• 1:51:30
  All right, one more question for both of you, and this is
• 1:51:33
  serious. Do you believe you're making the
• 1:51:37
  world a better place with this podcast?
• 1:51:41
  Yes, yes, it doesn't even need. For the people.
• 1:51:43
  Right now Or are you just being entertaining?
• 1:51:45
  Yeah, we don't need to do a. Little bit of both, a little bit
• 1:51:47
  of both, but I do believe we're making the difference.
• 1:51:49
  How? Because we are very vulnerable
• 1:51:52
  on this podcast, we open up. I'm not shy to say what a
• 1:51:55
  terrible person I think I am. And I need to do better and I
• 1:51:58
  need to grow. And I'm trying to grow.
• 1:52:00
  I'm trying to get better. And that gives other people, you
• 1:52:02
  know, hope that, you know, tomorrow should be a better day
• 1:52:05
  just because that's all. And we're just, we're connecting
• 1:52:07
  with people and, and I think that's what it's all about.
• 1:52:09
  But at the core, you want to be entertaining.
• 1:52:11
  Sure. So what I, I guess the point I'm
• 1:52:13
  trying to make is you could be entertaining at the core.
• 1:52:16
  Your, your whole focus could be entertainment, yes, but you're
• 1:52:20
  the, the, the depth of it could still be something that is
• 1:52:24
  valuable. You can still have a deeper
• 1:52:26
  message even though it's entertaining.
• 1:52:29
  And 90% of your ambition is to be entertainment.
• 1:52:32
  But really at the core, the, the true values shine through.
• 1:52:37
  And I think that sums up our mission.
• 1:52:41
  I thank you Sham and what we're trying to do with the music.
• 1:52:44
  Yes, it's 90% entertainment, but we ask ourselves, and I think
• 1:52:48
  people should ask themselves, what can I do today to make the
• 1:52:51
  world a better place? Not like in Africa, like right
• 1:52:56
  now in my own Daladamis, in my own space.
• 1:53:00
  How can I make the world that I live in a better place for
• 1:53:03
  myself and for everybody around? And I think we just wear the
• 1:53:06
  goggles of positivity and be bold with your pride, be bold
• 1:53:11
  with your happiness, be bold with your excitement for life
• 1:53:16
  and for everything that's going on.
• 1:53:17
  I think it's contagious. And I think we're going to see
• 1:53:19
  great success and everything we do.
• 1:53:21
  You guys are awesome. I listen to every episode.
• 1:53:24
  Ushi, I'm secretly a big fan. I'll never admit it, but I'm
• 1:53:28
  proud of you. I'm proud of what you're doing.
• 1:53:29
  I think you're, you're, you have a tremendous reach.
• 1:53:32
  I love the guests that you've brought on.
• 1:53:35
  I love being here. This room feels awesome and you
• 1:53:38
  guys should have success in everything you do.
• 1:53:40
  Keep listening to the music though.
• 1:53:41
  Yes, thank you. Wow, what a way to close.
• 1:53:43
  Yeah, that, that was amazing. What a way to close.
• 1:53:46
  I I told you I almost this was almost my podcast.
• 1:53:49
  Thank you so much. Thank you everyone for joining
• 1:53:51
  us. Don't forget the like subscribe
• 1:53:52
  comment. Thank you again for the Prime
• 1:53:54
  Source team and for Stefan for all behind the scenes with Will
• 1:53:57
  and Kim and everyone behind the scene, of course, at Prime
• 1:54:00
  Source. That's a wrap.
• 1:54:01
  Thank you Hashem. Thank you Hashem.
• 1:54:04
  Hashem.