What an amazing podcast that was, Uschi, none of your business podcasts starting it off with interviewing you and you interviewing me is something that I think is very worthwhile to listen to.
Michael, I gotta tell you, I feel very full with the conversation that we had. I feel satiated. I feel like we accomplished so much. We got to talk about so many things that we typically don't just, we don't just talk about normally on a regular day.
We even ended up in a conversation about Tom Brady and the roast of Tom Brady. I'm not sure how we ended up over there, but that was fascinating.
Just talking about family and talking about how important it is to include your wife and your kids and friends and decisions that you make, it has an impact on everybody.
We talked about what it means to build a sales team, a successful sales team. These are things people try to do all the time.
I mean, companies live and thrive and the whole difference between success and failure is, are you going to have a successful sales team?
Music
Known of your business, Uschi, none of your business, Michael.
It's the None of Your Business podcast, hosted by Michael and Uschi.
Music
I don't like to start a podcast without a glass of wine making a lachai. I'm thanking Hashem for being in this moment. That's very important to me.
And lighting a candle.
I'm with you. I think a candle is going to add a nice element.
You know, but the candle to me is not about the element or the art or the beauty of the lighting. It's the spiritual capacity of why I like to light a candle.
No, that's too philosophical for me. I don't like that.
But that's me. That's me. I'm not a philosophical person.
I think it looks nice. It smells nice. So, you know, let's roll with it. But definitely the glass of wine.
Right. But you know there's other people.
You know, it's like 12 o'clock and we're drinking wine.
It's Arab. It's Arab Shabbat.
Should we feel bad about that?
It's Arab Shabbat.
It's almost like a Chiev to make a lachai and divorce.
The Jews were very good at making loopholes. We're really good at justifying things.
I just want to mention, Uschi, that I waited patiently. It's another thing. I'm pretty good with...
You do. You wait patiently.
And they say good things come to those who wait.
You know what came to me?
You.
Oh.
I'd love to hear about that.
Of course you'd love to hear about it.
Tell me more.
Because ego makes someone successful.
We'll talk about your ego soon.
But in a good way.
Well, ego could be negative.
I said I know it could. That's why I made you...
Everybody has an ego. Everybody's sense of pride. Self pride.
Sure.
Everybody wants credit for things.
Just how much? Where's the line in this end?
Two hours later. I'm holding this candle.
No, I wanted to say that I just like many people won't resonate with you.
And say, yeah, you know what I mean?
Of course, some people like stop making so much chimes.
Keep alcohol away. Don't let people see. Many people think that way.
No, we don't like those people.
No, no, no. But the point is, we'll get back to that later.
The point is that many people see candles as spiritual.
Okay.
And as Jews, we do too.
Yeah.
We do?
Yeah.
There's a Jewish story behind candle.
Are you kidding me? Friday night candle lighting?
Oh, that's true.
Nernesh Shama.
Haftala.
Lagbohmer.
The list goes on.
That was a foolish question.
Honestly, I like that question.
The fact that there are things that you know, like venerable.
And what was the other word today?
Sultry.
You know words like that. I don't know words like that.
I don't read.
Ooh, that's a problem.
A lot where I picked up these words is from reading.
I was an avid reader for a long time.
I don't read.
I read now. Friday night. Yeah.
Sometime even in the afternoon on Shabbos.
I'll pick up a book and I'll read.
Yeah. It's unfortunate.
I actually tell my kids to read on a weekly basis.
Not even magazine?
Not even newspapers or like the army or something?
I can.
You really want to talk about it?
I mean, you want me to get that?
No, no, no, no.
You want me to get that vulnerable?
No, no.
It's okay.
Firstly, it's to make a lechaim.
Yes, sir.
Lechaim.
The lechaim.
That's all right.
Michael, question.
What was the last time you drank wine at 12 o'clock?
What's happening?
What was that?
I recently learned to have a drink a glass of wine.
Okay.
I'll go with it.
You put it in your mouth.
Okay.
Do it with me.
Yeah.
Put a little bit in your mouth.
Now start swishing.
No, no, don't drop it.
Don't.
No, no, no.
Swish like this.
I'm not buying it to this.
I don't know why it's not.
I don't care to know how to drink wine.
I think that's totally irrelevant and I think that that's not going to serve me in my life
at all.
I'm going to drink it by, you know, get out.
I ask you a question on average.
Would you say 51% of the time when Michael says something he's right or 49% like this
kind of discussion that I will potentially prove to you that it's never black and white.
No, no, I'd say it's not.
I said more or less, I'm asking you if I stop you right now and ask you to have another glass,
do it again and let me teach it to you.
Okay.
And take the 30 seconds.
You're certainly very persuasive.
Thank you.
I'll give you that.
The reason why you're doing this is because during the process of breathing in while the
liquid is in the middle of your mouth, you're breathing in the flavors of the wine.
This is what I learned.
I did it and I'm going to do it again.
I'm going to do it again.
This is what I learned and I did it and it helped me enjoy wines more.
Okay.
I'm going to go take a little bit in and then whistle inwards, but leave the wine in the,
there you go.
That's it.
And then swallow.
Now you feel the flavors down your throat.
That was better.
Yeah.
I like that.
All right.
But quite frankly, I'm a little bored of this conversation.
Me too.
I'll be honest with you.
Wine isn't something I like to talk about.
There are people that are like very into wine.
Right.
And you can understand that, right?
I guess.
Yeah.
Like people are into sports, right?
No, no, no.
Just like most people like wine.
I mean, most of America appreciate sports.
Some type of sport, one of the sports.
I wouldn't say most of America appreciates wine.
No, most of America appreciates alcohol as much as they appreciate sports in my opinion.
Yeah.
So Michael, let me ask you, let me tell you, let me just kind of share with you a little
bit.
Let me share with you.
When you bought up the idea of doing a podcast, the first thing that I thought of was like,
what a great idea.
I mean, it's fun.
It sounds like it was very intriguing.
But then as I thought about it, I realized that, you know, I'm not going to be a big
fan of it, but I just didn't want to be a big fan of what's going on with me.
When I thought about it, I realized that it comes along with some pressure.
It comes along with you putting yourself out there and people are going to see you and
people are going to judge you and people are going to make comments.
And if you want to put yourself out there like in a public forum, like are you looking
for the long line?
You know, it comes with a lot of negative as well.
So I was hesitant and I started toiling with it, you know, when I was going back and forth
in my mind and if you remember you were pushing me and I was delaying you and I was procrastinating
a week went by and a month went by.
And you are very persistent.
I'll give you that, Michael.
You are persistent in everything that you do.
If you want something, you really go after it.
And I'll even say tactfully,
you don't get too aggressive,
you don't get too in your face.
And I think that's a very nice thing about you, Michael.
And I'm sure others will agree.
And yeah, finally, I agreed.
At that point, I was like, all right, let's do it.
Let's try it.
Let's jump in, let's do a little bit.
We got one guest, we got one guest on,
and it was somebody that we both knew.
And it was okay.
It was fine.
We were exploring, we were trying it.
And after that one, I walked away and I said,
all right, this isn't too bad.
This isn't too bad.
Let's try another one.
And then we did.
Was the first one the one in my living room?
Was that what that is?
Yes, it was in your dining room.
Okay, in your dining room.
Yeah, yeah, we set up, we had all the equipment.
You had just bought the equipment.
I think you went like, you know, one day.
No, no, no, we have to say it like this.
I went to be an H.
Yes, you went to be an H.
Everybody goes to be an H apparently.
I didn't realize they're still very popular.
It's amazing.
And Adorama.
Unbelievable.
Adorama's still around too?
Yeah.
I thought they, at one point, closed down.
Adorama?
I could be wrong.
I could be wrong too.
But B&H is definitely the powerhouse.
It's still very relevant.
And then.
I'm Googling it.
Are you Googling it?
Very into that, but go ahead.
Bottom line is, we did our first podcast.
We did our first podcast.
The audio completely failed unfortunately.
Right, right.
We ended up that the audio wasn't even captured.
Yeah, it was, but you know what?
It was the experience anyway that we were
absolutely that we were vying for.
You know, it wasn't anything.
And it was fun getting to know my best friend, Neil.
Yeah, exactly.
We heard different parts that you probably haven't
spoken about with him normally on a day to day.
That's what I said, you know, okay, let's, let's,
let's do this.
But basically what we wanted this podcast to be about
is specifically for healthcare professionals, right?
The nursing home industry is a very, very fascinating
industry really is.
If you think about it, it's a community.
Everybody knows everybody almost, you know,
and it's not such a small network of people.
There's a lot of people across the country
from an owner all the way down to,
to housekeeping maintenance director.
And everybody in between,
there's a vast, vast amount of people.
And you'd be surprised how many people know each other.
And there's a part of conferences and people are
always going to all the conferences
and we're meeting each other and we're seeing each other.
It's almost like a club.
It's like a club, this industry is like an exclusive club,
you know, to be a part of and you have to work your way in
and then you have to work your way up.
What other industry has this?
Like does the hospitality industry, the restaurant industry,
as I don't even know how many industries there are,
but this industry stands out in a way.
What's up with that?
Did you notice that as well?
You know what I'm talking about?
Yeah, I noticed it and I have an answer for it.
Okay. Yeah.
I actually have an explanation.
I take joy when people that are not from the Jewish world
ask me, what's going on?
What did you do?
Like, you know, certain...
That's another thing.
Yeah, like certain people, like, you know,
certain people dominate the cleaners market.
Certain people dominate the 7-Eleven market.
Sure, sure.
And the Dunkin Donuts.
Okay.
And certain people just dominate the senior care market,
the nursing homes and assisted living homes.
And that's what makes it such a small,
interesting, unique world.
Yeah.
There's a reason for it.
And I love explaining it to people.
And I'd love to explain it to you.
All right, I'm listening.
I'd love to, like, get a little perspective on it
because it's not something I've ever really thought about.
But if you stop for a minute, I mean,
it's right there in your face.
And it's just like, how did this happen?
It's wonderful.
How did this come to be?
So it's one of the fastest growing markets in the industry,
other than technology and AI, of course.
But in business, it's healthcare in general
is such a fast growing market.
And it's always been growing.
Yeah.
The trend has always been rising for a long time.
For sure.
And you can also get educated for two to four years
and make a nice income doing it.
And actually even go into a business within the industry
that you can make up your own hours.
As an RN, as a, you know, as a DON,
you can make a lot of money as a.
Administrators.
They make a big deal of it.
And BS coordinators.
I mean, there's a lot of good opportunity in healthcare.
And what happens is really.
And you have a job anytime, anywhere you want,
no matter where in the country you are.
If you have that expertise, if you are licensed nursing
or administrator.
You could take that anywhere.
You could take that anywhere with you.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
And the license is valuable.
And it's a message that I love for people to know.
I love for the world to know that, you know,
if you need to make a living, healthcare
isn't a great industry.
You know, it's funny at the conference in Oka,
I bumped into an individual who told me,
she gave me her card and she's a licensed nurse
and administrator.
And she said that she's right now at a place.
She's not happy.
She's looking to go elsewhere if I know of anyone.
And I was like, OK, yeah, sure, sure.
I mean, it's a hot demand for administrators.
I took her car and I immediately
I found a few operators that have a lot of homes.
I went over to them and I showed them the business card
and they wanted to take it from me.
I said, no, no, no, take a picture of the card
and you could have your recruiters reach out to her.
But there's a shortage of administrators.
People are, well, DON's more, but yes.
OK.
DON's are much more.
But to go back to the topic at hand of health care
and feeling like a small business that you have to work
your way in and work your way up, which you said really,
really nicely.
But this tremendous opportunity,
I met two administrators in Ohio recently that both started
off in the business office, not Jewish at all.
Both started off in payables and receivables
in the business office who are now active administrators
and amazing people.
And it brought me so much joy to hear it and to see it,
to feel it.
What other industry are Jews into, tell me?
Real estate.
There you go.
Stop right there.
Good point.
It says real estate as well.
So the one thing that I learned from watching the movie
about McDonald's is that it's all about the real estate.
And I think that what our, call it, our people.
Our circle.
Our circle, our people, our Jewish people,
noticed is that, hey, we're in real estate.
Within real estate, we can make a certain amount of money
and give a certain amount of business
to a certain amount of friends or people in our circle.
But in nursing homes, you can multiply that by 100.
Right.
So you're giving 100 more people jobs.
And that's a very interesting point because you're right.
If you think about it, a lot of these operators,
how many people are making a living,
not within their organization, that
are servicing the organization?
And they're very meticulous about who they do business with
and they give people a chance.
And there are so many vendors, so many suppliers.
And one nursing home, what you get out of one nursing home?
Seven nursing homes can feed a family
when it comes to a vendor.
In other words, if one person sold medical supplies,
the seven nursing homes, and all he did was buy it himself
and sell it himself, mark it up, manufacture it,
and distribute it, he'd be able to make a living.
Unbelievable.
That's the beauty, I think, of the industry in terms of,
obviously, you can't make a business out of it.
For seven facilities, you need to have more like 700
facilities in certain aspects of the supply chain.
And we can get into that another time.
But the point is that you have directors of maintenance,
housekeeping, environmental services, food service, MDS,
nursing, and administration, which is all Parnassa jobs
available for anyone who wants it,
and all has growth opportunity, like you said,
so eloquently getting in and growing up
within the industry, which is beautiful.
And the secret that I like to tell people,
and I laugh about this, is, and none of it
needs a major education.
Except for the clinical part.
Right.
The rest of it.
The rest of it, you know.
You figure out, you jump in.
You can become an administrator.
You can take a course.
I think it's a bachelor's year.
You can get a bachelor's online, take a course,
be an associate assistant administrator, and that's it.
And an executive director, an ED and a show administrator.
They see everything.
They're involved in every aspect.
And if you're good, and if you're good, like you said,
you can grow.
There was a woman in the airport the other day,
and almost like a 90-year-old woman,
she was sitting down on the bench, and she was crying.
Like, visibly crying?
A 90-year-old to herself.
To herself.
She had tears coming down.
I heard that.
You heard that?
I heard it.
I wondered why.
Did you bend down?
Right after security.
She heard her bag was right next to her.
She looked disoriented.
She was just whimpering.
I heard her whimpering.
I saw her face.
Wow.
OK, interesting.
Ma'am, is everything OK?
She looks at me.
She goes, I lost my husband.
Like, lost my husband permanently or at the airport?
Imagine, exactly.
That's what was going through my mind.
Oh my god.
I'm like, you lost your husband?
I'm so sorry.
I grabbed her hand.
I said, it's going to be OK.
You're going to be with him soon.
She looked at me.
She goes, no.
He's not here.
He's lost in security.
Oh, he's alive.
He's in security.
He's in the back.
By the way, when she said I lost my husband,
that could have gone easily anyway.
Yeah, yeah.
So I felt bad.
I thought it was her memory of something
that she just came from a funeral automatically.
But she's like, no, no, no.
My husband, George, she tells me,
is stuck on the security line.
And he has dementia, his early signs of dementia.
And he's there by himself.
And the security line pushed me through.
And I left him there all by itself.
Oh, that's so sweet.
I mean, I hope things work out.
Did you help her find her husband?
What do you think?
I'm sure you did.
You made a scene out of it.
Did you make a video out of it, too, and content?
There's a lot that goes on in my life, fortunately,
that I don't have the capacity to even record.
But let me tell you something.
I got on a chair and I started to scream.
George!
Did you really?
I promise.
In the airport?
In the airport.
You got up on that bench?
I got up on that bench.
And then all the security people looked at me.
Everyone around me was like, what is wrong with this guy?
It's a very risky move.
In the airport, doing something that's not.
I didn't yell bomb.
I yelled George.
Even so, just yelling alone is risky.
Yeah, I yelled George.
And I was waving.
OK.
George!
And did you spot him?
George!
And suddenly, an old man, a short, short old man,
with a cane looks up because.
And he waves his hand.
He waves his hand.
And I looked at her and I said, sweetheart, I found him.
I see him.
He's next in line.
He's coming right through.
When she looks at me, she goes, bless you, Angel Michael.
And I'm like, what?
How did you know my name?
She goes, your name is Michael?
I said, yeah.
She goes, I was praying to God and crying
to send me the angel Michael to help me find my husband.
Stop it.
What are you talking about?
You're making this up.
There's no way this story is real.
It happened.
No way.
I don't even know if we recorded it now.
I have no.
This story is not real, Michael.
This is a wild story to be published in a book and headline
in a newspaper.
For me, it's a Tuesday.
That's absurd.
Michael, you have a fascinating life, I have to say.
You know what it is?
You put yourself in these situations.
I see everything around me.
Yeah.
And you really go out there and you initiate.
It's unfortunate and fortunate.
A lot of people just go by and they mind their own business.
The chaiam to that woman and to that husband,
may they live alone.
Michael, how do I verify this story?
How do I verify?
Is there a way?
I think Jeremy was with me.
I'm going to ask him about it.
Wow, that's unbelievable.
What a crazy story.
That's you, Michael.
That's just who you are.
It's amazing.
I like to do my own thing.
You know what?
I'm an airport especially, especially on the plane.
I don't like to talk to anyone.
I'm not looking to make friends.
I'm not looking to make trouble.
Minding my own business, going about my own thing,
and just I want to get to the destination and then going.
Uneventful.
Nothing should happen.
I believe this is why our marriage works out so well.
To be honest with you, between me and you,
we are so different.
I don't read books.
You only read books.
I speak to people.
You don't like speaking to people.
I thrive off events.
You stay away from events.
It's what makes us so powerful to be honest.
But we do have a lot of synergies as well.
A lot of similarities, of course.
That's what I think a marriage is all about.
I think that you can't be all opposites.
You have to have some commonalities.
You know what?
I think it's about time.
I've never done this before.
And I was nervous to do this.
No.
The camera can maybe see me.
You're very unpredictable.
So I'm not sure what's about to come.
Never mind.
Now I want to know.
Now I want to hear it.
OK.
It's a little much, a little too much.
For me, getting involved and in front of the camera
and doing this whole process was a very difficult challenge
for me.
I would think none.
I would think that you were the welcome,
just like you thought me speaking in front of 1,000 people
at Medline would be easy.
Oh, that was crazy.
It wasn't easy for you.
You were so nervous.
Yeah.
I've never seen you like that.
Yeah.
I mean, it was a big deal.
You are going to get up on stage in front of thousands
of people.
It was also being recorded.
That was a wild moment.
That was scary.
And you were nervous.
You were like.
I felt like I was going to die.
Literally.
What a crazy feeling.
I was panicking.
I was having a panic attack the night before.
You were with me.
I was with you.
You were having a panic attack.
I was having a panic attack.
But you know what?
You plugged away and you had 42 to just keep going.
And you did it.
Because I had you in mark by my side.
Wasn't it the most satisfying feeling right afterwards,
right when you finished?
And you thought to yourself, oh, I did a pretty good job
actually.
That was nice.
That feeling, that sensation, that's priceless.
Don't you think?
And I told you before that you'll
have that feeling afterwards.
And savor that moment.
Savor that moment.
Not only was it priceless, I have to admit.
The second I finished, I wanted to do it all over again.
Of course.
Now you're greedy.
Now you want to do it again.
You want to do it better.
Settle down.
Now you want 2,000 people.
Look high into the med line speech.
That was wonderful.
Yeah.
Oh, Michael, stop it.
Stop it.
None of that, please.
Michael, we have to have a little respect here.
We've got to be a little serious.
Come on.
I have that balance.
By the way, naturally, I think that I have the benefit also
of being a Libra.
I'm very well balanced.
When you saw me having a panic attack the night
before my speech with med line, it
pales in comparison to the nerves
that I had to endure going public with my life.
Wow.
And I didn't want to do it.
I challenged myself and I pushed myself.
And with the guidance of my mentors and my rabbi
and my best friends and my family, I did it.
And here I am.
So what I just decided in my head right now
is that if I'm doing it, im kvall, as kvall.
If you're going to do it, just do it all the way.
Well, Michael, I got to tell you, it's very brave.
I forgot why I brought it up, to be honest with you.
There was a reason.
Yeah, but that was a very nice little background
because I imagine it couldn't have been easy.
It's not something that everybody
wants to be in the spotlight looking good.
Nobody wants to be in the spotlight when things aren't
going well.
So that's always the risk.
That's what you have to have.
Your family is brought into this.
Your friends.
Well, I think the reason why I said it earlier
is because we were talking about vulnerability
and getting out there and being yourself.
And being yourself means to admit to everything of who you
are and being completely vulnerable and transparent.
Do you think people that, well, not just a podcast,
but anything, a radio show or people
that are more well known, you think a lot of them
are the same as you see them behind the scenes?
Or are they always portraying themselves a little bit?
How many people do you know that this is the person?
Like on screen, off screen, on your own?
The reality is I don't want to embarrass anyone.
So I'm not going to say any name.
I'm not going to say somebody famous, not somebody semi-famous.
That would embarrass them, too.
We don't even know.
I don't know.
I mean, at the end of the day.
We don't follow them home.
We don't know what they're like.
I'll tell you what it is.
The reality is, in my opinion, is that a person that
is a different persona behind camera
versus who they are in person doesn't make them less of a person.
Right.
I mean, essentially, if they found themselves
in their audience through the camera, then kudos to them.
Yeah.
That's a version of them.
That's authentic.
Exactly.
Now, the reality is that there are differences with most people.
I'm not going to even say some people.
I'm going to say most people behind camera and on camera.
For example, me, I'm a different personality
when I'm on a camera talking.
I'm not comfortable yet.
It's going to take me more and more time to become comfortable.
Right.
And it's going to happen.
The more I do that.
The more I do that outside the world.
But it will just be yourself.
And be myself.
And completely myself.
Say whatever you would have said.
Having these headphones on is driving me nuts.
It's fake.
Right.
I am disgustingly transparent as people call me.
You know what?
That's the challenge.
That's what you have to overcome.
I have to overcome it.
I have a successful podcast.
I think what people want is they want
to hear people's raw stories, them being themselves,
let them into their lives.
Absolutely.
And that's what the podcast is all about.
And we have to bring our guests who we bring on.
We have to extract it from them as well.
What do you want to know from people?
What do you think people want to know about us?
Well, let me give you an example of what
I think people want to know.
You look at a guy.
And I don't want to say any names,
but I think people have a name in their own mind.
They know everybody knows a person like this,
who is a big time name.
Somebody that's well known in our industry and health care,
been successful for a long time.
Well, use a name that someone we just interviewed.
Israel Orzell.
That's really Orzell.
That's an example.
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
And a lot of people know a certain side of him,
or they know what they see.
And what they hear.
And they don't really, really know him.
And sometimes you wonder, how did that person start?
How did that person get to where they are?
Did he have help?
Did he get lucky?
What's their story?
Yeah, by the way, that concept, by the way,
everybody's into.
Meaningful minute, L'Chaim, Koshermani.
Everybody's into those concepts.
I think what's different about what we're doing
is we're targeting our market that we're thought leaders in.
And we're building the relationships.
So as much as living L'Chaim is successful,
the people that they're bringing on,
they don't really know.
99% of the people that we're bringing on,
the CEOs of operations of vendors and operators and hospitals
and liaisons and doctors, me and you know them personally
for over 20 years.
And we're talking to them about themselves,
but from the perspective of things
that we even want to know.
Right, we don't really, really know them.
We know they're professionals.
So the real question is, going back to what I was saying
a minute ago, is what do you think people
want to know about others?
Yes, those people, those truly Orzell.
Forget about those two shorts, just in the Michael Greenfields.
That this really Orzells of the world,
what do people want to know about them?
I think people really want to know how they got started.
What did they do?
What steps did they take that maybe they can replicate?
And also have some success.
I think that is something people would want to know.
And also people want to know what type of person he is.
Like what does he do for fun?
You know, what does this guy, is this guy all serious,
all the time?
By the way, earlier Orzell wakes up every morning
and he has chocolate milk.
I think it's so cool.
Yeah.
I like no big day.
Every day, every day.
By the way, that brings flavor to who he is as a person.
That means when I see him at Chakras,
I could say, hey, you had your chocolate milk today?
Right.
And it brings a nice positive discussion, which is cool.
I wish I knew what you drank every morning.
It would invite a conversation.
Well, it's a coffee.
What kind?
If you must know.
How many sugars?
I can't start my day.
Are you a Dunkin' Donuts 7-Eleven or a Starbucks?
Just get out and say it.
Dunkin' Donuts, Dunkin' Donuts all the way.
How do you order your coffee?
How do I order my coffee?
I order ice coffee usually.
How do you order it?
I order a latte, mocha latte, caramel latte.
Keep going.
Caramel, mocha latte, creppuccino?
One of those two.
Creppuccino, you mean?
No, no, a latte.
Like an iced latte.
An iced latte.
So it has the ice cubes in it.
Correct.
Yeah.
OK.
Now I know what you like.
But I don't buy that every day.
I have a coffee every day.
Hot coffee.
You have a hot coffee every morning.
How do you like your hot coffee for crying out?
Like everybody else.
I mean, how are you kidding me?
Is that a joke?
No, it's not.
I have no special way of making a coffee.
Every single person you ask how they like their coffee will tell you they like it differently.
Every single person.
So what are the variables into making a coffee that I have to say?
Two sugars, light milk, almond milk, red milk, blue milk, green milk.
No, it matters.
Blue milk or green milk?
Are you joking?
Two sugars, three sugars.
Three sugars per year.
Splendid.
Not Splendid.
Because Splendid kills you.
All right.
Two sugars.
I like two sugars in my coffee.
And how much milk?
A little bit of milk.
I put three quarters hot water.
And I put a quarter full of milk.
That's light and sweet, as you like.
And not so sweet.
That's what you like.
Yeah, OK.
But I don't know if that's noteworthy.
I don't think it is.
Are you joking?
When someone says you like coffee.
Stefan, do you like coffee?
I love coffee.
How do you like your coffee?
No sugar milk.
Thank you.
Everybody has an answer to that question.
OK, I'm sorry.
I actually do need it.
It used to be time I like four sugars.
Oh, so you?
And no sugar milk.
All right, Stefan, you're taking this a little too far.
It was just one question.
You know, I think that people will like the banter between ourselves and others.
I think that's what people also like.
Finding out if you resonate with a person or if you absolutely disagree.
That's interesting.
I don't agree with what she just said.
I don't agree with what Michael just said.
They're crazy.
That brings for discussion.
I love besides finding out a person's background and where they came from.
It's all very nice.
I love opinions.
I love arguments.
I love the art of an argument.
If I knew how to learn Gamara, I would love it.
Yeah, what does that mean?
If you knew how to learn Gamara, did you try?
I did.
Yeah, I didn't try enough, obviously.
And we can get into that this topic.
I didn't really go to high school.
It's that's a whole other topic.
You didn't go to high school.
I mean, how long of a podcast do you want?
What do you mean you didn't go to high school?
I was I was in Israel from 14 till around 21.
OK, and you didn't go to school in Israel?
I went to different schools.
I got kicked out of a couple.
I left a couple.
Oh, but you were in schools.
You just weren't.
I jumped every year.
I went to two or three different schools.
I got kicked out of Le'Vavram.
I left Le'Vavryet to start a new Yashiva, you know, with one of the rubbayim.
So that was my year that I was doing really well.
In terms of I tried learning Gamara.
I actually gave a Habura once.
You're familiar with that is course I gave a Habura one time in my life.
It was it was awesome.
It was great. You were the person giving the
power of the person who were there were 45 boys there and 45 boys.
It was the Yashiva every every Thursday night.
Someone from Le'Varya gave a Habura.
I would love to envision Michael the rabbi.
Here, you know, in the first episode of who
Ushi and Michael are, what do you think people want to know?
Do you think people want to know that I gave a Habura?
Do you think people want to know that you like your coffee with two sugars?
No. What do you think people want to know?
People want to hear things that they can take away something
and learn from it and use it, right?
Or good advice, learning about people and their experiences
and being inspired by it or or being moved by it, being affected by it.
I think those are things people want.
I think I agree with you, but with a flavor of entertainment.
Of course, it has to be entertaining.
That's what it's all about.
Yeah, it's got to be funny, interesting, can't be dry, unique,
it can't be characteristic, energetic.
Gotta have some color.
It's got to have some color.
Which is why, by the way, why we have the color red on our mics.
No, look at that.
You bring color to our characters.
Yeah. Yeah.
Red is the color of our brand, by the way.
I'm excited, but you know, it's going to be difficult to get everybody,
the guests to actually open up and to speak.
I'm not afraid to admit, guys, that we're trying things.
This is part of, you know, Kim, who runs our marketing at Prime Source.
She's amazing. She says all the time, it's trial and error.
Right. Let's just try it.
But something that I learned about you, which is where I love about you.
Only one thing.
No, so many things.
One of the things that I learned about you and why I married you,
why I'm in love with you, is because you're always open to listening, always.
The word merit comes out of your mouth a lot.
You always consider things, you're like, you know, I see the merit in it.
And sometimes it takes convincing and I need to have patience.
But if someone has patience in general, I think that's the message.
Forget about you.
I'm going to take what you just said and I'm going to step it up a notch.
People want to learn things.
People want to have takeaways.
You know what the takeaway is?
When you're dealing with someone that you seem or deem difficult,
just be pleasantly persistent in a respectful way.
Bring it up again with the right time.
And eventually, if the answer is no, you'll know the answer is 100%.
No, and you'll stop.
If not, get a therapist or you'll get through and the answer might be yes.
It's like when your parent says, I don't want you to go to that camp,
but it's better for me because my good friends are there.
And it actually might be better for me.
And you argue with them and you're 14 years old.
Sometimes actually a kid knows better than a parent, believe it or not.
Yeah.
Mike, let me ask you a question.
This is something that I've thought about a lot over the years.
Doing sales, right?
Doing sales is a very, very specific but broad category.
It can mean a lot of things, but it really ultimately means that you're hunting for leads.
You're trying to find prospects.
You're trying to find people that are going to buy what you're selling.
And you're in a position that you're vulnerable in the beginning.
A lot of times you're reaching out to people, most of the time you're reaching out to people that you don't know.
Cold calling.
You've never met before and everybody likes to make a good impression.
And there's nerves involved and it's not an easy thing to do.
Not everybody's cut out for it.
You know, everybody could learn to have a desk job.
Everybody could do it if they really had to.
Everybody could do it.
Doing sales.
And there are others as well.
I don't want to pretend like it's only sales, but it's certainly very relevant sales.
Not everybody's cut out for it.
Not everybody can do it.
You have to be, in a way, you have to be very vulnerable a lot.
You have to be ready for rejection.
You have to be prepared for people being mean to you and people that are very arrogant.
Is there a word, dejection, by the way?
Of course.
Right.
So it's dejected and reject.
Sure.
So when you get rejected, you are dejected.
Right.
But I'm saying sometimes, no, but sometimes it's like, okay, you get rejected, but sometimes
it's like, stay away from me.
Right.
I rude way.
Right.
And you have to put up with it.
But at the flip side, and the other side of the coin, it's also very rewarding.
You know, when you're trying to sell something and someone buys it because they believe in
it, they ultimately want to buy what you have, I think it's a very satisfying feeling.
And it's very gratifying.
And the real nice thing about sales is the sky is always the limit.
Right?
There's no cap.
There's no pretemptions.
As long as you keep selling, you'll keep earning more and more income, which is fantastic.
But why is it, and this is really what I thought about a lot, why is it that when we're out
there and we're selling, why are people not more receptive?
Where is like the used car sales.
Everybody always says that, you know, you standing on used car salesman, they gave you very bad
rep for people in sales and generalely, if the world wouldn't exist, the whole business
world, you cannot exist without some form of sales.
It has to be sales involved.
So why is this like almost people look down
at a sales position sometimes?
And not an elevated position that should get respect,
just like an administrator or just like a nursing home owner.
I'm a salesman.
People should be more proud of the fact
that they're a salesman.
Why isn't, do you understand what I'm saying?
I do, I have a lot to say on it.
I mean, number one is that let's not forget the car salesman
type of person.
But before we go back to that, it's important to note
that who's the owner of the Mavericks, the guy in the Shark
Tank?
Mark Cuban.
Mark Cuban, who by the way, I learn a lot from Shark Tank.
Yeah, me too.
I love that show.
I watched every episode of that.
I don't watch every episode, but I watched every episode.
Mark Cuban recently said that I do not want you calling me.
Right, email me.
Email me.
The reason why that's important to know in sales
is because timing is everything, respecting people's time
is important.
But again, going back to the idea of being a salesperson,
I wish that schools would have a class on this starting
in ninth grade.
How to better communicate and build your own personal brand,
public speaking, public speaking,
and all those things combined.
The reason why that's important is because everyone,
this is my belief, and I think everyone
will agree if they hear it.
But the way I'm saying it has never been said before.
Everyone is selling something to someone.
So true.
Everyone.
Every day.
A husband to a wife.
Yeah.
A kid to a parent.
Yeah.
A boss to an employee.
And by the way, every boss has a boss.
Every boss has a boss.
Everyone always answers to someone.
They answer to someone.
That's true.
So ultimately, even if you're a doctor at Montefiore,
the chief cardiologist that is the most sought after person,
you're still answering to the board.
You're still answering to your wife.
You're still answering to somebody.
And you have to sell them on something.
You have to communicate with them.
And everybody has an agenda.
Everybody has something that they want.
So take pride in sales.
And they have to.
My point is I agree with you.
Sales is so important.
You should be proud of selling.
Of course, you have to learn how to sell.
I think it's an art.
I think it's something that you have to learn.
It's an art to be proud of.
But the car salesman, like I said earlier,
sort of ruined it a little.
Yeah, that's very sleazy.
Yeah.
It's sort of ruined.
No, but it's sort of ruined the title of sales.
That's the point to you.
It's almost like they're trying to scam you, right?
Maybe we should.
That's a very different type of.
But if you change the title from sales reps
to communications expert.
No, that's a relationship manager, relationship builder.
The things that really a salesperson is doing,
then it'll have a better light to it.
That's all my point was in terms of the car salesman.
But I agree with you.
And by the way, Oshie, one of the things
that I do well these days in the past over five years,
since I hired a consultant, by the way, that taught me
two or three things is hire people that are smarter than you.
Hire people that are better than you.
I did that with you.
I found someone that actually tells a story better than I can.
And I wanted that energy and that talent
to be infused in the new salespeople that we hired and trained
to be expensive advisors.
Very proud of what we accomplished with our sales team.
I got to say.
And you know what's really the best feeling
is that these people came to us with zero experience, really.
No background, even in health care in our industry.
Some of them never even had a job before.
I think this was their very first job.
And when they came in, they just had a desire to learn.
They were very hungry.
They wanted to learn a craft.
They wanted to learn an industry.
And their minds were open.
And they soaked in everything that we taught them.
And we took at the time, weeks and weeks that we dedicated,
to build them up, to have them gain the knowledge,
and not just teaching them about the business,
but teaching them about the workforce, teaching them
what it means to talk to someone, how you talk to them,
how you write an email, the construction of an email,
where a lot of those intangible things
that they won't typically tell you about, we did all of that.
And you see two, three years later, some of these individuals,
the outcome of where they are now, it's worlds apart.
And you know you had a hand in that.
You had a real hand in developing this person
that they now have a craft for life.
They have now a skill set that they can bring,
hopefully by us, for a long time,
but they can bring elsewhere as well.
And I don't think there's a better, and teachers, right?
Teachers get that, that type of feeling.
Because they also pass on information
to the next generation.
And that's what keeps the world revolving.
And it's very gratifying.
It really is.
You know what's funny?
I have something with my kids.
It's called the teachable moment.
Now everybody heard of a teachable moment.
But actually gathering your kids around
and sitting them down in the living room
and saying, guys, we need to talk about this teachable moment.
It's not something that most people do.
What was the last teachable moment you did with your kids?
Probably something to do with communication.
And that's my point.
And ultimately, I think that in our podcast
and in the things that we do, in order
to infuse that positive energy of what you said people might
be looking for, which is to learn from something.
Whenever we have a teachable moment,
we need to lift our glass, make a look at him,
and talk about that teachable moment.
So I'd like to lift my glass.
By the way, we have teachable moments all the time.
Good, but mentioning it.
It's just a matter of looking for them and opening your eyes.
Let's talk about the teachable moment that we just had.
Teachable moment that we just had is many companies
have a product or a service.
And they get so excited, they just want to sell.
Let's sell, sell, sell, sell, sell.
Right away.
It's like a drug.
It's like, oh my god, I just discovered cocaine.
Let me set up a cartel.
Let me push it out.
Right, I got the word out.
But when you sell a product or a service, it's not cocaine.
It really isn't.
It's not a drug.
We're selling a service that requires education,
that requires training, that requires the ability
for someone to communicate properly.
And everyone's doing this, by the way, not just us.
Everyone who's selling a product or a service
requires a certain element of education, of training,
communication.
My point is that the thing that we learned over the past decade
at Prime Source, at us, at our organization,
and this is not a plug.
This is what I'm saying is a teachable moment,
is that it pays to stop everything,
build a trainual system, reconfigure.
Reconfigure your systems, bring in a support system,
develop a software to manage everything,
and then hire the people, which is what you do to scale,
to teachable moment.
Don't just hire a salesperson because you
have a good product or a service.
First, create the infrastructure.
It'll go out 10 years longer.
They need the tools.
They need the resources.
They need the support.
Build that first.
Selling is when you're fully ready.
You're fully functioning.
People get excited, though.
Oh, I have a new product.
Let's sell it.
I think I've seen so many failures of companies doing that.
Take a deep breath.
It's OK.
They start selling prematurely.
They're not really ready for the market just yet.
Because nowadays, you can't just sell a price and a product.
You need a white paper.
You need research.
That's not sustainability.
You need history.
You need experience.
You need to impact their business in other ways
outside of just selling them.
Right.
Readmissions.
We're talking about health care, by the way.
The interesting thing that I like
that we're doing on health care and our topic of health care
is because everyone knows someone in health care.
And because it's such a wide industry
that I think everyone should consider getting a part of
for the growth of our future and our children.
Therefore, I like the topic.
I like that we're only talking to people in health care.
Now, yes, we specialize in senior care, which
is nursing homes and assistive living homes.
But we're going to get people from the hospitals
to talk about the perspective of the relationship
with nursing homes.
We're going to get doctors.
We're going to get people to talk about, you know,
by the way, bringing up different classes of trade,
like hospitals, nursing homes, and assistive living homes.
Shoot, I'm ready.
I was talking to an individual just a couple of days ago.
He's an operator in Hawaii.
Get this.
He has three facilities in Hawaii.
You're funny, by the way.
How did we get to that customer, Oshie?
How did we get to that customer?
I don't remember.
I think it might have been my status.
That matters.
It matters a lot.
Yes.
Oh, and they reached out from there.
Yes.
And they said, we need help.
Hey, Michael, we just bought three homes in Hawaii.
And I saw your status.
I totally forgot about you.
You're in my phone.
Haven't spoken to you in two years.
Look at that.
Let's do business.
How are we doing with that customer in Hawaii?
Amazing.
We're doing amazing.
I just wanted to plug my status.
I love my status.
We're doing something.
By the way, I love my status.
Yeah, status is a great.
I'm openly admitting it.
I don't like Instagram.
Yeah.
I feel like the stories of Instagram is great.
And the reels that we're going to work on is.
Anyway, this individual moving on, this individual in Hawaii,
he has three facilities.
One of his facilities is very interesting.
Their clientele is not senior citizens, actually children.
Peeds.
Yeah, it's a pediatric.
Wow.
By the way, we call it peeds.
Yeah, peeds.
Right.
And it's a vent unit.
Teachable moment.
It's a vent unit.
And another teachable moment.
These are children.
That we are servicing children.
Yeah.
It's amazing.
It really, when I heard it, it was describing his needs
and the products that he gets.
And it was very interesting, these products.
And then I asked him, what type of people
do you have in your home?
Which product?
I'm curious.
Which product?
A lot of enterals.
You buy is a lot of supplements.
You saw the enterals and supplements and you asked?
Yeah, like a astronomical amount.
Like he spends probably $100,000 a month.
No.
Just on the enterals products.
It was a high number, very high number.
And I knew it wasn't just your standard.
Sorry, just for people that don't know,
enterals are what supplements your intake for protein,
calorie.
For those that cannot eat orally,
they get fed enterally.
They get fed through a tube.
And they get fed through it.
So he has children that were born with the,
they're not able to eat orally, can't be fed orally.
And they're on a vent right away.
And they get a tube put in them immediately.
And I asked them, are these kids eventually
going to get better?
Or is there is a no?
No, this is for life.
They're born this way and they take care of them there.
And they grow older, they grow up in that institution,
in that facility.
And there was like five or six people on the call.
And I stopped the call.
And I almost said to her as a man,
I was like a little choked up because I've never
heard this before.
And it was like such a morbid thought.
And it was a self-awareness moment.
And I said to everybody on the call,
I said, you know, this really puts things in perspective.
Like I feel like a bad person right now.
I feel like we're just going about our lives
and we're complaining about things this and that.
And like, look what's out there.
Look what's really going on in the world.
Like you just have to open your eyes a little bit.
And you hear things like this.
You see things like this.
And it was like, and this is the industry that we're in.
And there's so much that you learn.
There's so much that you, we're doing this for a long time,
Michael.
And still, we come across a lot of these interesting things.
Like that, for me, was a teachable moment.
That was like, this is crazy.
Really is crazy.
I can't even talk about it now.
And let's move on to something else.
But what did you experience recently, something new,
something fresh that you didn't know before,
given you have a long history?
Honestly, the fact that there are residents suffering
with dementia that don't get paid enough attention to.
And a year or two ago, got introduced to the Alzheimer's
types of patients.
And five years ago, I did music therapy
in a facility, and it moved me.
And it's something that I can literally write a book about.
You ever went into a facility and played music for people?
Yeah.
Like a guitar?
Yeah.
Because you do it.
You're very good at the guitar.
I appreciate it.
You play the seven chords, the kalabakhs, and like,
who are my sunshine?
And you sing.
What more do you need?
Yeah.
I appreciate that.
The answer is dementia.
And the fact that there are people that suffer
from early stages of dementia, people
that I know as parents, but seeing
that there are tools out there that we can make a difference
in those residents and those people's lives,
and that we're a part of something so amazing
and revolutionizing the way people treat people with dementia,
just like you're doing.
You're introducing yourself to the idea and the fact
that what you do on a daily basis now
is going to affect infants and children that
have actually longevity.
They live for a long time, not moving from their bed,
but you're giving their families.
And you're giving sometimes even them,
because they notice it, comfort.
You know what's interesting, by the way?
It's like a hospice, almost.
It's like, you know, it's comfort.
It's all about comfort.
We're serving a lot of hospices.
Makes me feel great.
And knowing that we're making a difference in people
that have dementia or pediatric challenges
and Alzheimer's, et cetera, makes me feel good
about what we do.
Yeah, at the end of the day, people
are into business to make money.
That's the capitalistic environment we live in.
Everybody is out there to earn a living.
Yeah, you can make money selling toothpicks,
but when you do it affecting the steps of people, it's helpful.
You're also actually impacting people's lives
in a real way, in a big way.
These are people with families, with kids, sons,
and daughters, brothers and sisters.
We're blessed.
We are real people.
We're blessed to be serviced.
And they're living here.
This is where they live.
This is their life right now.
And hundreds of people.
It's not one to five people.
It's hundreds of people in a facility.
And they have 10% thousands of people
that are living under their care, their responsibility.
It's a big undertaking.
I have to do a plug, because I'm thinking about it.
And we said earlier, a teachable moment, to an idea.
And the idea is that the best therapy that I've gotten
in my life is going to an amputee hospital in Israel.
And if people can take away from that and go once a month,
Rosh Chodesh, once a month, and visit a hospital,
or visit a nursing home, and bring music, or bring a pet,
or bring a book, or a game, it can make a difference
in this world tremendously.
Each one of us, every single person,
can make a difference in this world.
Just go visit a person.
We'll all realize our lives are not bad after all.
The best therapy in the world.
And it's giving back to the community.
And it's not costing you.
It's such an amazing.
And you grow from.
And you can do it easily.
Every person can stop what they're doing,
and go visit a nursing home, and play Connect 4 with a patient.
Everyone can do it.
We should start an initiative of getting a program of sending
people out to nursing.
I'm in.
To recreationally to spend time with.
Looking at me like, not another program.
Some of these senior citizens, by the way,
in the nursing homes, are fascinating people.
Some of them actually have real stories.
We're going to be getting them on our podcast, Rosh Chodesh.
Yes.
Random older people.
A previous author, like a retired author for the New York
Times.
A guy who was like a real publicist.
The ex.
You know, you're the one that told me, I think it was,
that there's a certain company that has a nursing home.
Or something like that.
Was it Ford or something?
You're the one that told me this recently.
What was it?
There's a company that also owns a nursing home.
That they send their nursing homes all to this one place.
You said it to me at this point.
Oh, a fireman.
Fireman.
Right.
Yeah.
This is for the hired.
Fireman.
I want to get on our podcast, the senior firefighter.
Like this.
What's the head of firefighter's called?
I don't know.
The chief?
The chief.
An ex-chief.
A very well-known, respected, someone
that was part of 9-11, let's say, and interview them,
how their care is in their facility.
Let's go to the fireman nursing home.
Let's do it.
It's got to be an interesting place.
I imagine every decoration is all with fire trucks.
Are you into it?
Are you ready to do it?
I'm not sure where the facility is.
I don't remember.
But it was a.
That's a challenge.
It was a very interesting concept.
I'd never heard it before.
Michael, can I tell you something fascinating?
Something that I discovered about myself,
and I don't fully understand it.
So last night, there was a Knicks game.
And I'm a big Knicks fan.
You know that.
I filed a Knicks religiously.
And I've been doing it for years, even when they were terrible,
even when they were bad.
And they were always bad in my lifetime, when I was born.
30 years.
Yeah, it's a long time.
Yeah, a long time.
Maybe in the 86, they were good to 90
with the Patrick Ewing era.
But it was a short little stint.
But for the most part, they were always bad.
And yet I still followed it.
And I still watched it.
But now, recently, I've been saying
the last couple of years, they've really
started playing well.
They're actually a team to be reckoned with.
They have a lot of bad luck on their side.
People are getting injured all the time, left and right.
But ultimately, I am really into the games.
I'm really like, I get involved.
I feel like I have something that's stake here.
I feel like it's personal for me.
And I'm wondering, this doesn't affect my life.
At the end of the day, tomorrow, I'm waking up the same way.
I'm going to work.
I'm going about my day.
I'm coming back home to my family.
Doesn't matter if they win or lose.
And I get it.
There's an entertainment value to it.
And that's the part.
But I think it's more than that for me.
And I'm wondering, why do I care so much?
I'm attached to this in a way that I think
is maybe a little unhealthy.
Maybe there's something else going on.
But it's just fascinating.
And I feel a lot of people out there that
are like that as well.
I was texting with a friend of mine
as the game was happening.
And they weren't doing so well and looked
like they were about to lose.
I was texting them.
He's telling me, he's throwing things.
And his wife is like, what are you doing?
What's happening?
Is the house being destroyed?
So I know there are others out there.
I have to tell you that.
If I could hold up a sign in front of every Yeshiva in the world,
it would read, besides teach communication,
it would read, help your students follow and play sports.
You know what?
I agree.
I think that that literally brings a lot of help.
Your students follow and play sports.
Let them be in.
Let them throw pillows.
That's where their passion and their dopamine
should be lying.
Throw the darn pillow on the wall when the nicks lose.
Get upset.
Go to the games.
Ignore the cheerleaders.
You should have enough Ashkafa.
And you should have enough of an upbringing
that the cheerleaders is not distracting you.
Or the commercials you need to walk away from.
It's a way for you to channel your energy
to something else.
And so back in the day, we're talking about 1,000 years ago,
they had coliseums.
And they had the sporting then was basically people
killing each other.
I know the Gamora talks about not going to coliseums.
Of course, people see people killing each other.
That was their idea.
The entertainment.
I saw the live bullfighting.
It was terrible.
It was disgusting.
I experienced why the Gamora said not to see it.
Not to see bullfighting.
Not to see those types.
Or animals in general fighting, or specifically bulls.
My stomach is hurting right now talking about it,
watching bullfighting.
It was terrible.
And I really understand why the Gamora would say not
to go to such theaters or events.
But today, in today's society, we sell hamets.
We sell our matzah.
We should watch sports.
It's like we figured out a way to do this.
It's a good thing.
I think it's a great thing.
We've evolved as a people.
Stadiums today is not what it used to be.
Yes, of course, you should have the right.
Keeps you active.
It's exercise.
I said it.
The predecessor that goes on in the cheerleading
is not to be ignored.
No, following sports.
Meaning that challenge is not to be ignored.
But the overall positive of it, and for what the kids are
challenged with these days in ninth grade starting.
You know, I've spoken to a Rebi recently.
I don't have a ninth grader.
So I don't know what they're going through.
I'm sure you do.
But ultimately, your ninth grader
is going to start your son or daughter
by the time they reach the ninth grade.
They're going to be going through the challenges
in eighth grade.
Because my son that's now in ninth grade
is experiencing what my older son started experiencing in tenth
grade.
And that's what the Rebam told me.
They told me that the boys are actually
maturing in certain ways slower and in certain ways
immature faster.
Because they have access, more access to things than ever.
Absolutely.
They're friends of more.
They're exposed to it a lot earlier.
There's nothing you could do about that.
Nothing you can do.
The reality is that.
So they build a hobby.
And if they really get into sports,
and they use a lot of their time for that,
that's a good place where they should be living.
Versus other things that you might say, no, both are no good.
OK, so if you're living in that bubble, good luck to you.
That's fine.
If you're able to keep your kid away from everything, what's
the downside to having your children play sports or follow
sports?
What's the downside?
Precise.
I'm telling you the preces.
That's what it is.
Yeah.
And idolize.
Where are there those two things?
Where is their preces?
How about cheerleaders?
Yeah, commercials.
They show that for a second here and there.
OK, fine.
But there are people that take their kids out of the school.
If you had a live game, maybe then you
would see the cheerleaders.
OK, I'm telling you those are both challenges.
Number one, and number two is that you're idolizing somebody.
But there's so much greater good.
By the way, I'm sorry to interrupt you,
but growing up, what I was told was,
you should be idolizing the remusher feintstein.
And I'm not saying that's wrong, but I'm not following
remusher feintstein's every move.
Maybe it would be better in my life if I was versus Patrick
Ewing.
But Patrick Ewing was exciting for me,
and it was healthy for me.
And I was told growing up, don't do it.
And it's a challenge.
That's why I want to hold up that sign and say, guys,
of course you should follow every move.
But I feel like that's changed now.
In our generation, I feel like we're actually
promoting it with our kids to play sports at the father's
board.
Sure, sure, sure.
I literally watched the Rangers game.
I never watched hockey, by the way.
It's the one sport I can't get into.
Well, Rangers are finally doing well, so.
I cannot get into hockey, but there's something
about hockey in the playoffs.
Something about play of hockey, the pace that they play in,
and the back and forth.
And they miss a shot.
And they're like, it was right there.
And I find myself actually yelling and screaming.
It's fascinating hockey in the playoffs.
With my son, the Rangers were playing.
It was game six.
The Rangers are up 3-2.
And they were up 3-0, mind you.
And they lost two games in a row,
and they were losing this game.
So they're about to, you know, they're
in jeopardy of tying the series at 3.
Now, they lose the series, mind you.
This would be a very embarrassing thing.
They were up 3-0.
I don't know the fact, but I imagine there weren't many teams,
if any, that came back from an 0-3 hole, from an 0-3 deficit.
There was a lot at stake in this game.
And I happened to be upstairs in my son's room,
and I'm putting him to sleep.
And I say, you know, we can watch.
He asked me, can we watch something?
Again, he always likes to watch a game.
And I say, you know, there's a Rangers game on right now.
Let's watch it together.
And we both watched it on my phone.
The Rangers were down 3-1 in the third quarter,
in the third period.
And Crieder, I can't believe I know his name even.
Again, I'm just following into play-offs now.
I'm a bandwagon Rangers fan.
And Crieder actually got three goals in the third period.
It's called a hat trick.
He got three goals.
And they ended up winning 5-3.
They ended up winning the game.
But towards the end of the game, there was about two minutes
left, and me and my son were counting down the minutes,
1-59, 1-58.
One because at that point, you know,
Carolina, who was the Rangers' opponent,
was trying to really score a goal.
They had to tie the game at that point.
So they brought an extra person and got rid of their goalie.
And they were furiously hitting shots one after the other
at the Rangers.
The Rangers had to ward them off.
That was two minutes.
Those two minutes was so passionate.
It was amazing, two minutes.
It really was.
And I assured that with my son.
And me and him both.
And when the Rangers scored a goal, we high-fived.
We hugged, they actually hugged me.
It was a really touching, intimate moment.
And I experienced that together with my son.
Why don't more people endorse this?
Encourage?
Why don't people encourage this?
Kids to play and follow sports.
One of my closest friends, I also saw.
I experienced it with him.
I was watching a hockey game with him.
We were at an event.
And he called his 12-year-old son.
Did you see that shot?
And they had a moment.
They had a moment.
That's priceless.
Yeah.
That's really amazing.
Yeah.
It really is.
And it's a way to bond with your kids.
It's something that you could both get behind.
Bang.
And you could both be on the same page.
A futureable moment.
That's a futureable moment.
Follow and play sports with your kids.
Yeah.
Now, how do we get people that are not on board with this?
And they're actually very against it.
You ignore them and move on.
It's not our clientele.
We can't solve the world's problems.
It's not our circle.
I'm sorry.
Yeah, exactly.
But it really was a nice moment.
They should listen to a different podcast.
What can I tell you?
I'm not appealing to those people.
And at the end of the day is that they have a right
to do whatever strict world they want to live in,
because they have the ability to follow every move
of emotional feints thing.
That's what my point was.
And kudos to them.
It's better if you do that.
I agree that it's actually better.
But I'm saying is that this is more than norm.
That's more my norm, I guess.
What did you do on Chabas when you were growing up?
Was it OK to play sports?
Oh, yeah.
Chabas?
Yeah?
Yeah.
It was OK.
But again, I was living in an environment where it wasn't OK,
but for my parents, it was OK.
Yeah.
But like, you know.
Oh, where I grew up, it wasn't OK.
Not for Shalom if you sweat on Chabas.
Right.
It's not just that.
You're playing the sport.
It's not Chabas' dick.
It's not Chabas' dick to play the sport.
A lot of things that weren't Chabas' dick.
But no, I'm outside in my backyard Chabas afternoon
having to catch with my kid.
I'm not even thinking about it.
And it's a Chabas activity.
It's actually very Chabas' dick.
You really think about it.
It's our Chabas thing that we do.
I have to stop you right there, I'm sorry, I have to stop you.
That makes sense.
Yeah.
That makes sense.
You see that I can get behind.
Organized sports is already taking away from the day.
I know, but there are blocks that I've lived on.
What, leagues?
Yeah, that literally have leagues almost going on in Chabas
somewhere.
Everybody comes and it's an arranged sport.
And the parents are there and they're coaching.
That's a little much, I think.
A little much.
And I think that it's not in the tom of Chabas.
Right.
Chabas is not in the flavor of Chabas.
Yeah, that's all.
It's not, forget about halacha.
It's not sweating.
That's something when we grew up, it was, you can't sweat.
You can't play sports.
You know, do you know how many times I have described Chabas
to, we work with a lot of people that are non-Jews.
I would say 70% of the people that we interact with
are not Jewish.
You don't even know what Chabas is.
And we're very close.
We have relationships.
We do a lot of business together.
We speak pretty often.
We have a nice rapport.
And when we talk, it comes up a lot of times.
We talk about religion.
We talk about family.
And we talk about Chabas.
When I have to explain it to them,
I have to really articulate it in a way
that they could understand.
And they always receive it very well.
They love the concept.
They love the idea of the family time, which they can
resonate with.
You sit down for a formal meal.
And everybody's talking to one another.
These are family moments that you don't get to have
throughout the weekend.
It's Thanksgiving every weekend.
Literally, it's the best way to describe it.
I'm going to use that.
I give you permission.
It is Thanksgiving every single weekend.
Crazy.
What a nice thing to have.
I love explaining these things to non-Jews, by the way.
And I have to tell you that years ago, I thought it was fake.
I had a lot of non-Jews coming over to me and saying,
tell me more about Chabas.
They don't really believe that we don't do electric.
We don't drive a car.
Besides that, because we look like normal people.
They know us.
But I was saying, besides that, I felt like, OK,
they were making believe they cared
because they're working for a Jewish organization.
Right.
I thought that.
They're pretending.
But then I realized, actually, it's genuine.
People look for religion.
People look for God and hope more than you can ever imagine.
God is not the or just for Jews.
God is there for everyone.
And it's another segment that we should always
talk about on our podcast.
I think even though people maybe have a hard time
believing things, they want to believe in it.
They want to get behind it because it is a better quality
if you can live that type of lifestyle.
It's a better quality.
It serves you so much better that family-oriented style
is way more appealing.
This is one of those cores that you and I
are so in love with together.
And it's what bonds us so closely.
Because you and I love Shabbos.
You and I love family time.
You and I love our wives.
I think a lot of people do.
I think most people do.
I think a lot of people do as well.
People get behind family.
I think that's something that unites us all.
I think everybody loves their children.
Everybody would do anything for their children.
By the way, I'm sorry to say, not everyone loves Shabbos.
That's my point.
You want to hear something interesting on my phone?
Go ahead.
You got to hear this.
So I was chilling with a couple of people in our company.
I'm not going to name any names.
And we were talking.
And somehow the topic came up.
And he mentioned that he doesn't want to have to.
I wasn't listening.
Start over.
Sorry.
I was listening.
So something very interesting that I just learned.
I was hanging out with a couple of people from our company.
And we were talking about a lot of different things.
Non-juice.
Yeah.
We're talking about a variety of things.
And somehow one thing came up, the topic of having children,
having kids.
And they both said they both agreed.
Women or men?
Men.
Both of them are men.
They both agreed that they never want to have kids.
Like that's off the table.
Are they married these two men?
No.
OK.
But they're in serious relationships.
They're in serious relationships.
But they said they seem very firm about it.
They don't want kids.
They never want kids.
And it seems like they thought it through.
And they started telling me why.
And everything I heard was purely selfish.
It was purely because it's going to interrupt their life.
They're living in a certain way that they don't want to give up.
And they feel like if they have kids,
then they're not going to be able to have what they have now.
And if you think about it, if you really think about it,
we know, because we have kids, we know that once you have kids,
all those things go away.
Those things don't.
Your perspective changes.
Everything shifts.
And they don't know that yet because they just
haven't experienced it.
And they're talking from a place of unintelligence,
not really knowing.
And I respect their opinions.
And I certainly hear them.
But it was just fascinating to learn.
It was really unbending.
They're going to miss out, potentially,
on one of the greatest accomplishments
that a human being can have.
And this work.
By the way, from a Jewish perspective,
the greatest mitzvah that a person can have as well.
I just want to mention to you that I
don't remember the statistic or the average
census or whatever.
But it surprised me to learn that on average,
where the world was going, where the world was heading,
I think on average, couples have less than one kid.
Meaning numbers are scary low.
And shockingly low.
Shocking.
Lower than you would think.
Yeah, because I was exposed to what you just experienced
five years ago.
I learned about this.
It shocked me just as much as it shocked me.
It's crazy.
You don't want kids?
What are you talking about?
Yeah, I want to go on a cruise.
But I do think that a lot of people
change their minds when they fall in love
and then they see other kids.
But I do believe in the statistic
that it actually is true.
A lot of people kind of do that.
I mean, it's a fact.
It's a fact.
You can't deny it.
Yeah, I'm going to Google it, by the way.
Yeah, I'm interested.
By the way, a funny joke on the topic of chassidim
and other religions too, and not just chassidim
and other religions as well.
It's pretty common.
They have a lot of children.
They make up for everybody else not having.
They actually double down on it.
So this woman in Israel, she gets onto a bus.
And she has a bunch of kids trailing her.
And she's clearly disoriented.
She's clearly not handling it well.
And the kids are being rowdy.
And she's having a hard time.
So she gets on the bus and the bus driver immediately notices.
And he tells her lady, you couldn't leave half your kids
at home.
And she looks at them and she says, I did.
I left half my kids at home.
This is the other half.
There are a lot of people that have 12, 13, 14.
Do you think, Michael, that that is also questionable,
like suspect?
How do you give 14 kids, 10 kids?
How do you give 10 kids the devotion that a child needs
to develop and to really have the best life they can possibly?
Listen, I grew up in Brooklyn next door to someone who had 21
kids.
21 kids?
21 kids.
Wow.
Yeah.
And I want to tell you something.
21 kids?
Yeah.
I mean, they're obviously of many both.
They're the oldest and the youngest.
There were two.
I think there were two sets of triplets and like three sets
of twins.
Oh, the hat have been.
Yeah.
And I have to tell you that the mother was thin and vibrant
and energetic.
And she was amazing.
And it takes a certain type of person, obviously,
to have kids.
Now, unfortunately, many people think
that they can have a lot of kids and they just have it.
And they're dysfunctional.
And that's a challenge in our community,
which we could discuss another time.
But the fact is that what ends up happening is,
is that you teach and you ingrain in your older kids
such great values is that it passes.
They pass you on to them.
Yes.
And you know what?
Yes.
That's such a good point.
So I've seen it.
You know this.
My father's side, my grandfather, is one of 19.
Yeah.
He's one of 19.
Yeah.
Pretty.
Yeah.
My father's one of 16.
Wow.
My father's one of 16.
My grandpa's one of 19.
And my father always told us, always,
always told us that some of the older siblings
have relationships specifically with some
of the younger siblings.
And everybody has their peer.
They have their match.
Of course.
Because what happens is that the older kids grow up
and they get to a certain age and they
start taking care of the next kids.
And they build that.
So it's not just a father and mother that's giving attention.
You have a team of people.
You have the older ones, the five or six as well.
Interesting point.
That's a very interesting point.
And it's actually a pretty positive environment.
Yeah.
Sometimes it's like happy.
You're having a big family.
It's a beautiful thing.
If you can afford it.
If you can afford it?
So that should be a factor?
In my opinion.
You think financial is something you
should think about when you have kids?
Really?
Yeah.
In my opinion, I know that you may not agree with this.
And it's OK.
Half the listeners may not agree with this.
I think that people have been having kids for decades,
decades, for thousands of years.
And finances weren't necessarily an option.
People have been doing it with or without finances.
So obviously, finances, I don't know for sure.
Listen, I don't want to use the word great.
Really play a role.
I don't want to use the word crazy.
But I think it's not responsible to continue to have kids
when each kid costs you another major topic.
There's got to be a line of the same.
I agree with you.
I'm sure this is a gray area.
The line in the same is if you want to have more kids,
move to Ohio.
What's in Ohio?
Vouchers, affordable.
They have good social programs?
Yeah.
Better than New York?
Move to Florida.
Better than New York?
Much better than New York.
You realize New York has the most social.
New York doesn't have school vouchers.
That is the challenge of our middle class Jewish from world,
is that we are all living in the middle class
paying tuition that are too much for us to handle.
So if you move to Ohio or Florida, you get vouchers.
Even for private schools?
Especially for private schools.
You kidding?
Private schools are free when you make a certain amount of money.
You know, you bring up.
Of course, getting jobs is challenging,
but that is a solution when you say,
I want to have as many kids as I possibly can.
So don't move to Wesley Hills.
Right.
That's not your demographic.
That's what I'm saying.
Yeah.
That's not your crowd.
No, but I'm saying if you can't afford it,
this is what I'm saying.
Of course, it's a great crowd.
You can have 20 kids in Wesley Hills.
But if you're starting off and you're saying you want that,
if you're setting yourself up and you know
that you're a physical therapist,
you've got 200,000 a year.
Exactly what you're saying.
Somebody we both know, OK, and he's actually
moving to Las Vegas.
He told me that.
Why?
So apparently, there's a Jewish community
that's starting to grow there.
Love it.
I love those.
The housing is cheap.
Sure.
And there's a lot of things there that are more affordable.
Sure.
Very challenging.
It's very hot.
It's very hard to get jobs.
Right.
And I asked him about that.
I said, you're not going to see.
What did he say?
He said that it's away from the strip.
It's like, you know.
Sure.
It's a 20-minute drive away from the strip.
It's like they're all in a little bubble.
And he's getting a really nice house
at a very, very good price.
And there's a community there already.
There are schools that are there.
And he knows people that are there.
And they're going to grow it.
And they're going to try to really build.
He knows them.
What industry is he in?
He's actually in health care.
OK.
Good.
That makes sense.
It works in a software.
Yeah.
If you have a career, if you have,
if you're a doctor, a lawyer, and you have the ability
to move anywhere, you should move to a place that's more
affordable if you want to have more kids.
You should have it in mind.
At the end of the day, your kids should not have to suffer.
Now, a lot of people say, my kids aren't suffering.
They have everything they need.
I get it.
But in today's environment, to pay a mortgage and to pay
tuitions, and to allow your kids not the luxury but the
necessity, unfortunately, to go to seminary.
Right.
because if they don't come back with that on their shidech resume,
unfortunately, the reality is sometimes it hurts them.
Or if they're not with their friends, it hurts them as well.
So it's something that they need.
So it's not even a luxury anymore.
So just have that in mind.
That's all.
Again, I'm not going to play something.
I don't know if this ever happened to you.
And I'm curious if it did.
And not necessarily this exactly, but something relating to this.
This is embarrassing.
I'm actually sharing something now that, you know, it's quite embarrassing.
But it's the truth.
My wife and I, we were looking.
We were looking at a picture of our son when we're obviously in love and
fatuated. How old is he now?
He's seven.
He just turned seven, literally a couple of days ago.
OK.
Mazel's up.
Yeah.
And that was a great age.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Perfect age.
Like I'm loving every moment.
Enjoy till the end.
I don't want it to ever end.
All right.
He'll be a teenager before you.
It's unbelievable.
It's and I'm taking advantage.
I really am.
But we were looking back at photos and we came across the photos from when he was
born and when he was, you know, three months old, six months old, a year old.
And it was like it was an eye opening moment for us.
We were like, wait a second.
Is that what he really looked like?
We don't remember him like that.
And yeah.
But you know what?
At the time, we were like, we thought he's the most, you know, handsome.
He was the most precious.
You know, and that's that's apparent for you, right?
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
You know, so it's a it's a natural.
It's a natural thing for a parent to only see the good and only see, you know,
the amazing about about your children.
But for us, it was like, you know, because we look at Lady Now and we're like, wow,
he's he's he's really like the coolest, you know, and I'm wondering, am I biased again?
Like, am I still not seeing something?
You know, we're so biased with our kids, you know, like when they come from school
and then tell where we got into a fight, it has to be the other person's fault.
Right.
They must have started the fight, not my son, not my daughter.
You know, they they're they're perfect, right?
Like, how do you overcome that?
Because you're naturally biased in that way.
You ever had those moments?
You know, I have to disagree with you on this one.
Sorry, I don't think it ever happened to me.
I don't think it ever happened to anyone.
In fact, not anyone.
I'm saying 50.
You know, I'm a very big 51 percent of 40.
Yeah, OK.
I think 51 percent of the people will always recognize their kids as being the cutest
and the best looking.
Right. Always.
Yeah. No matter what.
At the end of the day, because you see the beauty in them from within.
So regardless, ultimately, that's what counts.
And that's why that's all you see.
So you might be looking.
And by the way, there are times that maybe I if I saw a picture of your kid,
I might admit, you know, you remember, right?
We had a restaurant.
I didn't agree with you.
You didn't even agree with me.
You're like, oh, he's actually very cute.
Yeah, I was.
I think that it was it was I was being a very hard critic.
I think that the I think what was funny to you, to be honest with you,
he looked different.
Right. Exactly. Exactly.
Is that he was so different, different.
That's all. And you're surprised by how good looking he is now.
Right. Right.
That's all contrast.
But by the way, in 10 years from now,
you won't even agree with yourself with what you just said.
OK. Yeah. In my opinion.
And as part of the beauty of our relationship is that I have 10 years on you. Michael, are you ready to be a grandfather?
I am not. Are you ready for this?
I am Michael. It's coming.
Yeah. It is absolutely happening.
You know, your your daughter's getting married in a couple of weeks.
Very exciting. OK.
That's another vulnerable thing.
You see how I was talking before about my wife.
So talking about my daughter and her wedding and it's not something
normally I'm comfortable sharing with the world or talking to anyone who wants to hear what part.
I mean, this is a very normal thing.
But it's my it's it's life.
It's personal. I don't need people.
I'm afraid of people being jealous.
That's a challenge of mine.
OK. And it's also, you know, someone else in your family, you know, that you're talking about, you know,
so you have to take that consideration.
You know, you know, by the way, not a topic, but Tom Brady just did a roast, right?
The Comedy Central that a roast on him, by the way.
Nikki Glaser killed it.
Nikki Glaser was the best.
By far, she was the best.
Yeah. And Hinchcliffe, this other guy, he was phenomenal too.
But Tom Brady came out now and is saying that he would not do this again now that is Monday morning quarterbacking.
OK, like that. Very good.
Very good. Very good.
No pun. Because of who?
Because of his family. Because of his kids.
Because of his kids. His kids.
You know, and is that not something he thought about prior?
It is. Do you know why he doesn't regret it ultimately?
Because he's the producer and he did it for the money.
He's making money. He's making money.
He's banking. The world goes around.
Money really goes.
Money, unfortunately, by the way, even your family is taking
precedence over his kids.
I mean, that's not cool. I don't like.
No, no, it's terrible.
I don't like it.
Tom Brady was a cool guy.
He should have been in the back of a cereal box.
Now he belongs the back of a tissue box.
By the way, after this roast, I want you to know his stock, at least in my eyes,
is down decreased.
That's what I'm saying.
Yeah, I don't think he's such a good guy.
You actually think, you know, a lot of the things that were being said,
like this truth to it, right?
Obviously, exaggerated some things and certain things that can get behind the
judging were all, you know, very, very, very talented, dude.
Very talented.
But what we're learning is that's it.
That's it.
Here's a talented football player who was the one of the greatest quarterbacks.
You know, it's funny, by the way, Yoshi, this is what our
a bun him don't want us idolizing.
Right.
They don't want us idolizing people that just sleep around with one another
right or people that think that doing drugs is OK.
Right.
And unfortunately, some people get the off field.
However, I really, really, really don't think any child today would say,
if my basketball player, who I love the way he slams dunk, does drugs,
I'm going to do drugs.
I don't think anyone thinks like that.
Yeah, it doesn't go that far usually.
And it doesn't go beyond.
Which is why, by the way, case in point, you thought Tom Brady was a cool dude.
Yeah.
And he actually was a cool dude until now.
Right.
And then you realize, wow, his wife left him and he's left
being embarrassed in front of all his kids.
Yeah.
And that was terrible.
So you have to take your family into consideration.
I mean, everything you do.
Yeah, everything you do.
So I totally get it.
Doing this.
So let's not talk anything specific.
Let's talk about you being a grandfather.
By the way, I think you're going to be the greatest grandfather ever.
I really do.
I think you're going to adore your grandchildren.
And the beauty of having a grandchild is that I so cute.
Oh, he diapered himself, so to speak.
Right.
Okay.
Take him.
That's it.
Have a nice.
Exactly.
It's like a rent.
Just the fun part.
Perfect.
Just I want to hold her.
Him looking forward to that.
I want to just, I want to just, you know, cuddle a little bit, cheek to cheek.
You know, get the get the fun part.
And then here you got to feed.
You got to feed the baby now.
Deal with the challenges of school or a bay or teachers or you
create putting crayons on the wall.
You earned it.
You know what?
I appreciate that.
I think anybody who gets that point being a grand, they earned it.
They went through a lifetime of raising.
I don't agree with that part, by the way.
That's not true.
Many dysfunctional parents raise dysfunctional kids who have
dysfunctional.
So they don't deserve it.
They don't deserve it.
I've done it.
You think parents have to earn respect or is that something you have to
automatically 100% parents are not respected because their parents.
It says Cabrez Avicha Vesimecha to an extent, right?
It does say to an extent.
I don't think there's an after this.
By the way, everything it says in the Torah is to be translated in
Torshal Alpah, which is what we live by.
Right.
So Cabrez Vezimecha doesn't mean listen to them if there's dysfunctional.
In fact, you have to like shy away from them sometimes, you know,
obviously with guidance of a rabbi or a mentor, but there are unfortunate
minutia of incidents where parents are dysfunctional.
I hate saying it, but it's just the truth.
I know someone who really has both from the his mother and his father are.
Look, I like, I try not to judge people.
And by me calling someone a bad person is absolutely judging.
And that's a terrible thing.
But from, from what I see, from what I know, from what I've heard, they're not
the greatest parents, either of them, not the greatest parents.
And the respect that he gives and the money that he spends for his parents
is, is unbelievable.
And I asked him a few times, I asked him, like, how do you do that?
Like, you know, what they put you through and, and you know, you're
in a very good position today.
And, you know, thank God, you, you know, you turned out amazing.
But, and he said, look, I just, I don't know how not to do it.
He says, I don't, I don't have it in me.
This is, this is my father.
This is my mother.
And I feel the part of him is still chasing, getting their approval or getting.
This is what I was about to say, because he's, he might be helping them
and helping them potentially realize that they should transition into better people.
And it's okay.
It might happen.
By the way, people grow up sometimes when they're 70.
Does that make sense to you what I just said?
Yeah.
It takes a long time for them to.
People sometimes grow up when they're 40.
Right.
Everybody hits that.
People sometimes never grow up.
Everybody hits their sweet spot at a certain time.
Not everybody, though.
We hope, yeah.
Yeah.
If you're fortunate enough.
Or you hang around with people that are, and that's a big rule of mind, by the way,
you should just know what she.
Which is?
I only hang around with positive, energetic, influential.
I agree.
Wow.
Attributing people to society.
Michael, from anything we spoke about, I think this is the, the, the, this is the most,
most important thing that we can.
I learned it.
Anybody can listen to this is it.
This is the learning moment.
Teachable moment.
Ben, this is the most teachable moment right here.
This is it.
This is spend time with people that build you up.
Absolutely.
Do not spend time with people who try to cheer you down.
My father taught me this my whole life.
Stop hanging around with bad friends and you don't realize it until it's like, oh my
God, it hits you like a, like, like a brick.
Cut them off.
And it might be hard because they might have other things that you enjoy and that you like.
You don't know how to do it.
It's like, it's not, it's not diplomatic and you don't want to, you want to avoid the
confrontation.
But the greater good is to cut them off because they are literally making the miserable
parts in your life is coming from that.
It's funny, by the way, people were asking me, you're okay with like, you know, 21
year olds and 25 year olds following you and listening to you.
What, what do you, how is that helping you?
They asked me.
Yeah.
You understand that question?
No, I don't understand the question.
If people are following me on my status, right, on Instagram or, right, or they're looking
at my LinkedIn profile and they're 20 years old.
Okay.
What was it?
Make a difference in my life and your life or how are you impacting them?
Why is it helping anybody?
Why is it helping you?
Is what you're asking anybody?
Why is it helping anybody?
The 20 year old who cares?
My point is that was it supposed to help people or I didn't even know what it was
doing.
It's just entertaining quality.
No, no, no, of course, the whole objective of all this is to help people.
Right.
Otherwise, I'd stop it all right now.
Right.
The whole idea is to influence others in a good positive way.
Otherwise, I would literally take this mic and just burn it.
But, uh, which, and even one person, I imagine, even one person, even one person.
And this is, by the way, I'm a pyromaniac and we'll talk about that another time.
You're a what?
A pyromaniac, a guy who likes to make fire.
Maybe that's why I like candles as well.
But that's a great word.
I don't know that word.
Oh, really?
Nope.
I don't know that word.
I don't know.
Do you want to collect a maniac?
Sure.
It's the same idea as often pyro is someone who likes to make fires.
You kidding me?
Yeah.
Pyromaniac.
Interesting.
Why would somebody like to make a lot of fires?
It's enjoyable.
Just like old Jews like to make bonfires and like those people that just on
there, they have a habit of building fires, dragging those trees and those doors
in Israel to make fires.
It's fun to make a fire.
Very interesting.
Yeah.
No, no, I haven't experienced that.
But okay, I guess you learn new things.
By the way, phobias is a real thing.
Of course.
And people have the weirdest phobias.
You would be shocked that people think that people are afraid of.
It's unbelievable.
But yeah, go back to what you were saying.
Okay.
I remember what I was saying.
You were saying on the why do people follow you?
Why does this?
Oh, what I was saying was is that ultimately, if I can convince, forget about a
20 year old, if I can convince a 14 year old to learn this message, to eradicate
bad friends, to get rid of people who are not building you, then it would be so
advantageous to the world.
Sure.
That's unfortunately when you're a teenager, you're like, but that's what's fun.
Yeah.
But how are you doing that in your, in your content?
When you're, how are you sending that message?
When you're sending message by, by talking about it, by understanding.
Have you talked about it?
I don't know.
We're talking about it now.
Right now.
Making me proud.
So I'm happy.
Maybe you should actually do some content around that.
Maybe you should put it out because I think that is something that if you can
get one, two, three people to take away from and really explain to them, you know,
in a way that like the narrative should be that it's hard.
It's not easy to do, but it's the right thing to do because you'll have a better
quality of life by really just sticking to people that compliment you, people
that want good for you and they build you up.
I have to tell you a issue when, when I spoke publicly, right?
We spoke about this earlier, right?
Yeah.
I had a few topics that I was able to talk about, right?
And I prepared myself.
You're talking about the Medline speech.
Okay.
One of the topics that was like six things that I said, six messages all built
around the story.
Right.
Oh, about listening versus speaking versus hearing, listening versus hearing.
And one of the things that I said was when I met, when I was 21 years old, and
I started in business and I mentioned this, and I'm going to mention it again now
because I think it's important that we talk about this.
He's a very wealthy man, came over to me, he had an office on top of the Empire
State Building, literally like one of the high floors.
Wow.
Beautiful office.
I'll never forget this.
He said, Michael, you want to be rich?
You want to be rich?
Let me tell you the secret of being rich.
Okay.
Pray tell.
I was so excited to tell it to me.
Yeah, sure.
Beautiful office.
And the Empire State Building?
Yeah, two personal assistants had his own customized safer Torah.
I didn't even know the Empire State Building has like offices, of course.
Like on the top floors, like, I mean, it's not like a visiting center.
Don't people, it's not like a tourist area.
Yes, yes, yes.
But Empire State Building makes money from a lease of office space.
Okay.
Um, besides the observation, who owns the Empire State Building?
Oh, I think it switched hands recently.
I'm not sure.
I don't know.
Is there privately owned?
I can call motion majestic and ask him, but I don't know.
Or, you know, I don't know.
I'm curious if it's privately owned or maybe an
entity owns it, but I'm pretty sure it's Larry, whatever the heck his name is.
It was the same guy from Twin Med.
I don't know.
I mean, not Twin Med.
It's Twin Med.
Twin Tower.
Twin Towers.
Yeah.
Okay.
Very cool.
So this person, what was the secret?
What did he tell you?
Secret.
How do you get rich?
By the way, people are, ears are perked up right now because, you know, this is
something that people are, are very into.
So go ahead.
What's his take on it?
The secret to being rich is hanging around rich people.
I like it.
I did digest it a little bit, but I like it.
You know what?
I had a friend, by the way, who used to go to Prime Grill in Manhattan every
Thursday night and he would walk over to tables where he saw big business
deals happening and he would say, hi guys, my name is John Doe and I represent
a financing company that does mortgages.
And I, but that's a little bit, that's a little bit socially off.
He would walk over to people.
No, no, no.
It's Thursday night.
People having dinner and he would like, you know, do a sales pitch, you know,
introduce himself randomly.
I don't know if that's so appropriate.
Built his business.
No, no, no, no.
About that.
The point is he hung out in restaurants where he knew people have money.
Prime Gula was known that every Thursday night, all the wealthy people would come
Till today, by the way.
So he hung out.
Hasn't changed.
My point is he hung out with those people.
Look, ultimately, I want to go back to my point.
My point was that I turned to him and I said, I don't actually want to be rich.
I want to be happy.
And I said to him, there's a difference.
I'm going to choose my life.
I actually made it conscious.
I'm going to hang around people.
I'm going to hang around people that are happy.
That are happy.
And I'm going to take your advice because I like the advice.
Great advice.
You are who you hang around.
We're saying by the picker hang around people that build you up happy people.
Exactly.
They want to see you made that decision and knowing that I'm going to be around
happy people will make me successful.
And thank God, you know, I had to see out to the Shamiah of hanging around people
that were positive and happy.
And by the way, many positive and happy people are now.
Major contributing people to the world.
You know, like people are happy sitting around parks all day.
You know, we all know people.
Everybody.
Everybody knows at least one person that is dirt poor.
Okay.
That's I don't know about dirt poor, but not rich.
I can't not even not even middle of the middle class.
I'm sorry.
Just pause.
Yeah.
Pause.
Okay.
I'm in the middle of smiling.
But nothing.
I'm just like, you're right.
It's not the somber moment.
I'm not happy to know where I'm going with this.
I know.
No, I don't.
But I know quite a few people.
That are poor.
So I'm okay.
I'm just changing the energy.
Everybody knows somebody family and have a lot of kids, right?
You know, and they clearly don't have a point.
Is you're saying like a story like everybody knows calm down.
Like there's a guy in our Gaba in our shoe.
It says we're full of Shalema.
So he announces we're making a big reforce.
So I'm a little call a highly many does like that.
What do you do?
Where's your energy going?
Let's be a little more somber.
You're talking about very poor people.
Can you change your energy a little bit?
Well, I said I was like disrespectful to say poor people.
Not disrespectful, but recognize that there's a lot of people that can't make ends meet.
Yeah.
Yeah, but you'd say where you're about to say recognize it.
It's very hard to be like, you know, a high level of dirt poor in in our community.
That's true.
I don't agree with you.
Yeah, because you have a lot of help.
You have a lot of assistance.
No, I am.
I vehemently disagree with you like they can buy bread, eggs and milk.
Shabbos.
What does it mean?
What does not being able to make Shabbos mean?
It means that you have to think about what you're buying for Shabbos because you know.
Okay.
A lot of people do that.
Even people that are mainstream, that are middle middle class think about what they buy at the grocery.
No, by the way, I'm not talking about what you buy at the grocery.
I'm talking about every Shabbos thinking about how to pay the mortgage.
I got to pay tuition.
I got to put it in my bills.
I need to think.
A lot of people have that problem.
I don't consider that dirt poor.
When I say dirt poor, I mean like they don't.
They don't have extra money for anything like every dollar that they that they get has to go towards
my God.
It's main necessities to live.
I don't believe this.
This is my argument with you.
I believe I'm having this argument with you in 2024.
I'm telling you that most people suffer like this is what I'm trying to tell you.
You look at it as piss poor.
I look at it as middle class.
I'm trying to send a message here to you and you're not getting it.
No, no, no, no, no, no.
I don't think that's considered the middle class.
I think that, you know, this is a high.
I'm not going to.
I will save it for another regardless.
Let me hear your point.
Regardless.
Let's assume that, you know, whichever one it is, whatever, exactly.
Everybody knows somebody about the dirt.
Everyone knows someone who's dirt poor.
A level of poor, a level of poor.
That's very sad.
And somehow you observe them and you watch them and they just seem merry, joyous, happy.
They just seem like nothing faces them.
Nothing is bothering them.
They don't have any worldly problems and they're just they're just living life.
They're living life to its fullest and it makes you think it makes you think is that model like really perhaps better is having too much is having things actually a problem.
Is that possibly the cause of why we think we have issues and things that are bringing us down and some people even become miserable, depressed.
These people seem to be like they maybe they have the formula.
Maybe they have the recipe to what I mean.
And we all know this person.
We all know this family.
Everybody's thinking right now of that person that they know and they're happy.
So what's what's up with that is there's got to be something to it.
Are you resonating with what I'm saying?
Yeah, but I want to identify something that you're saying because, you know, I heard something else in the beginning.
I interrupted you because I was like, whoa, let's change the energy.
I want to clarify something that you're saying here.
It's a very sensitive topic for me.
I see that you got a little triggered.
Very sensitive.
What happened because I resonate a lot because I've had times in my life that I couldn't make Shabbos and I want you to know that.
What does that mean that you couldn't make Shabbos?
That I was dirt.
I was dirt poor.
What do you mean?
I couldn't make Shabbos.
So explain to me, I had to think where I was going to eat for Shabbos.
Are we getting invited out?
Because if not, I can't afford to make Shabbos.
Are you listening to me?
You had kids at that point?
I had one kid.
You had one kid and your refrigerator was empty?
I mean, yeah, I don't know.
We had milk at bread, eggs.
Come on, relax.
But you didn't have a meal.
That's what I'm trying to tell you.
We'll get back to that.
I wasn't talking about that.
I wasn't talking about not having.
We were talking about the guy in Brunei Brock who's happy all day going to Kailil.
And he's just the guy in Lakewood that's just always in a good mood and he has 19 kids.
And he doesn't know where he's going to make Shabbos, but he's anyways always joyful.
I got, I got the one person that you're right.
Yes, yes.
But that's so minute.
That's so very little people.
Most people who you see who are happy, go lucky.
By the way, it all resonates to one thing.
In my opinion, it's betachan and emuna.
That's what it all boils down to.
In my opinion, most middle class people are suffering.
Our dirt poor.
I don't want to tell you, bro.
They're dirt poor.
You're just not listening to me.
Most people don't make enough money to pay for tuitions and salaries.
I mean, tuition and camp and seminaries and food and, and, and going out.
And they don't have money to take vacation.
They're dirt poor.
Now it doesn't mean they're suffering because they're making it and they're happy
that they were able to pay tuition and they're happy that they're able to,
to have a washing machine to do laundry with.
So my point that I was making to you was that it all boils down to one thing.
It's a zeu ashar.
Some help the health goes a long way.
Those who are happy with what they have.
But don't kid yourself.
Oh, she most people, in my opinion, if not 100% of people are suffering from some
level of anxiety or another, especially people who have too much money.
It's a separate topic, but I don't know where you want to go with this conversation,
but because I could literally write a book.
Wow.
You seem to have a lot to offer here.
You mean just through something at the very end, like people who have too much money.
Yeah.
That's for even more.
That brings even, even more problems.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
That might actually be something that you want to stay away from.
That's unhealthy.
It's responsibility.
Someone who has too much money that they don't know what to do with it.
You think all your friends want something from you.
It's a very difficult life.
You can't live that way.
That's terrible.
Yeah.
Nothing is that in real anymore.
It's very difficult.
Not that it's not real anymore.
People, I'm very good friends with a lot of people that are.
We all are.
We all know that.
This level.
Yeah.
You know, we all know that person, but I'm friends with them on a daily basis.
And I'm telling you is that there are people that make it because they give,
they use their money and their.
And they're.
That makes you happy.
Yeah.
Ultimately giving makes you.
But you know that a university, I think,
Columbia University did a study of what it takes to be happy and it's been millions of
dollars and years on this.
They spent millions of dollars on all ridiculous kinds of.
Figure out of things that giving makes you happy.
Do you know that I was listening to one of the things on the floor of the house,
the committee, they were talking and one of the guys gets up and he says,
you know what they spent?
There was a budget that was put into this bill.
It was like, I don't know, a few, a few million dollars.
Why do frogs fall in love with one another?
How did it? What triggers them to fall in love?
Frogs.
Like that was what the money was being spent on to research that.
And he says, like, this is what we're actually putting in our budget.
Can you imagine the kind of waste that's going on in this country?
And it was an eye open.
He gave a bunch of examples.
Actually, he wasn't just one.
He gave, I don't remember all of them,
but he gave like 10 examples of things.
It shocked you to the core.
And it's like, is this really going on in this world, in our country?
Are people really paying money to research?
You know, this is a great idea.
Research why people are what makes people happy.
Spend as much money as you possibly can.
Because that's like almost curing cancer type level things.
That's really something that can make a dent in people's lives.
If you accept what you have in your lot and give,
by the way, a person that is in the middle class suffering
about not knowing what they're going to do for Shabbos or holidays
still has an obligation to give.
From the Torah, right?
Meaning, not the Torah, but I'm saying Meiser, Zadaka,
is a concept that we've all accepted upon ourselves as a big reset thing.
Right?
So giving makes people happy.
So those people give and those people believe,
and that's what makes them happy in my opinion.
Getting back to your answer,
but I have to tell you, by the way, just on the frog note.
There's something you want to add to that frog story?
I do.
Okay.
I do.
My close friends know that I have something called Switch.
Switch.
Switch, a concept called Switch.
And Switch is that I can always see the other perspective.
It's just the unique, I guess, natural ability that I have.
I always see the other perspective.
I could see that.
I believe that.
So I have something called Switch.
Let me do a switch on you about the frogs.
You're actually going to defend this?
Yeah.
Exactly.
I can always do a switch on anything, even frogs.
I would love to hear this.
Yeah.
By the way, this is huge.
This is smart because if you can do,
if you could defend this and articulate this in a way that's believable,
I think you can sell anything.
I think you can do anything.
Because this to me is like, there's no excuse.
Right?
This is deplorable.
I'm going to tell it to you.
OK, go ahead.
OK.
Yeah.
With the little that I know with the information that you gave me,
exploring the idea of what turns people and animals on
is something that can be very insightful.
There is an animal in every one of us.
And the fact is that if you explore animals
and you understand how they project their love to one another
and how they communicate with one another,
how birds sing to one another,
how caterpillars become butterflies,
how frogs fall in love, you can better understand people.
Michael, moment of, I want to process what you just said.
Because this is, you're right.
That's actually pretty damn good.
I'm very impressed.
I switched.
I'm very impressed.
Yeah.
Not that I didn't.
By the way, raise the budget.
Raise the budget.
Another couple of mills.
That's good.
Won't hurt anybody.
Right.
But anyways, I like doing switch because honestly,
the reason why people always ask me to get involved
in macholokis and arguments and business partnerships
and sometimes marriages even and kids,
especially in parents and kids,
is because I like seeing both perspectives.
And I like when I showcase it and I have patients
and I listen and I showcase them.
Michael, teachable moment.
Teachable moment right there.
Teachable moment is to put yourself in the other person's
and try to understand that from their perspective,
from when they're coming.
Sometimes it's not easy, but that might actually
make you happy.
But going back to you.
And the reason why I think, again,
like I said earlier, is that we love each other so much
is because we respect each other and we listen to each other.
I listen to you and you listen to me.
You took the chance.
Other people that I'm friends with, by the way,
say, nah, leave it alone, Michael.
Let's move on.
You actually say, you know what?
I'm ready to listen.
This is the kind of people that I hang out with.
People that are ready to listen and they're ready to do
and they hear about it.
And change their mind, possibly.
Exactly.
And change their mind.
Exactly.
It's OK to change your mind.
But by the way, that's why I don't respect politics and news
because what they do is the media is they take on things
that people said from five years ago.
The environment change.
Politicians will defend their position at all costs.
It's crazy.
You could bring any evidence you want.
But it's crazy, though.
You could show them the facts and they're just going to stay firm
on what they what their party is trying to find to sell.
Things can change.
Your view on abortion can change.
If I actually explain it to you from us,
from a physical, monetarily, spiritual, raising kids,
there's just other perspectives you need to listen to.
I don't want to get into a portion discussion, but.
But yeah, I look, I think that this podcast that we're trying
to do, which is the none of your business podcast,
it speaks volumes to our personalities.
And that's why I think that we're going to be successful
in doing it because we're both transparent, very transparent.
We both love arguing to a to a fault.
And we're both competitive.
Yeah.
And we both love winning.
No, everybody loves winning.
And we both we both the question is at what cost do you want to win?
Well, at the cost of seeking truth.
Yeah.
Ultimately, we like the truth.
We're truth seekers.
And we know a lot of these people that people look at them
as untouchable or unrelatable.
Yeah.
We've met a lot of these type of people.
Yeah.
And they're actually sometimes really interesting.
Yeah, they're our friends.
And if they if you give them the chance.
Yep.
And you just treat them like they're, you know.
They can help you grow.
Yeah.
They we've had that experience, Michael.
You know what I'm talking about.
Say it.
We had this.
I'm not going to say the name of the person.
Say the story.
We went to somebody's office.
Yeah.
Okay. This person is a very, very known, respectful person.
Yeah.
Credible.
Okay.
Go running big businesses, not just healthcare.
He does other things as well.
Yeah.
And it was two of them, two people in the room.
And you and I, we went there for a meeting.
And we were there for three hours.
It was three hours.
And we talked about what we came for maybe 15 minutes.
Maybe 10.
10 minutes.
Literally.
And we accomplished so much.
And we accomplished more because of the fact that we didn't harp on
just what we were actually trying to accomplish.
Right.
And they were both, they were like, it was a fluid conversation.
And they were just on fire.
And we were on fire.
And we came out of that meeting.
You and I were feeling so good.
We were on a high.
I remember I told you, I remember these words.
I said, Michael, thank you for schlepping me out of the office
and taking me on a, on a, on a, and reminding me about the beauty of having meetings.
Right.
Because a lot of time I got stuck in my office and I'm there, you know,
one second.
For days and days.
That's when the podcast was born.
That's when the podcast said you were born.
Right.
And we said this would be a perfect podcast.
We have to do it.
Right.
We have to do it.
So we have to take information from people and pass it on in a good.
That's the goal.
The goal is the goal is to find these individuals that people don't really know,
but they know they heard of them.
Extract the golden nuggets.
Yeah.
The golden nuggets.
Extract those thoughtful, provoking, insightful discussions.
Correct.
And extract those teachable moments.
Teachable moments from them.
Let's take those teachable moments and help each other grow.
Mike, I'm excited to embark on this journey with you.
I have to say, if there's any partner that I would rather do this with, it would be you.
It would be you.
So I'm excited.
I think, and I think that, you know, you and I, we're going to do okay.
And we need to get some, we need to make sure we get some good, some good guests.
You know, that's going to be the key here.
And let's, let's keep this momentum going.
Love it.
I think that the guests are.
Cheers.
I think that the guests are super important.
But I think that the beauty is, is that me and you, you and I are great storytellers.
And what we do and what we've learned over the past few years is to listen
and to bring out the story and others.
Right.
And that is what I'm most excited about.
And when you're vulnerable and when you speak, the other person feels more comfortable to speak
as well.
They reciprocate.
They respond to how you are interacting with.
And also people that normally would say no, or it's none of your business, are going to come on.
Yeah.
And they're going to talk about their life and their background.
And their business even.
Yeah.
I want to talk about the industry.
Right.
You know, and how the relationship works between hospitals and nursing homes and,
and why it is that, you know, you know, surveys make such a difference or what do nursing homes do
for people?
Is it really scary?
Should I put my grandfather or uncle or brother or son in a nursing home?
What is it?
Should I buy a nursing home?
I buy it or do I get involved?
Should I invest in a nursing home?
Should I provide a service for nursing home?
Does every nursing home automatically make money?
They think people think of their Prince Margaret.
And what's the difference between assisted living homes and nursing homes?
Independent living.
What does that mean?
I know rehabilitation centers and what's post acute versus acute.
This is a world that I think people should take an interest in.
And the fact is this is our world.
It's our journey.
And the healthcare industry is really a widespread community.
Yeah.
There's a lot of people, but everybody's in it together and people know each other.
And it's fascinating because I think the healthcare industry is very unique in this sense.
I don't know how many other industries have this.
Where they have conferences where everybody's getting together not once a year,
not twice a year, 10 times, 15 times a year.
And we get together for two, three days.
We spend time talking about business and selling and buying and transacting.
But a lot of the time is just mingling and getting along and having fun,
creating a nice, good, positive environment.
Healthy, positive and healthy.
How many industries do this?
I don't know.
There's the real estate industry, which is a lot bigger because it's not really a community.
The real estate industry.
Right?
It's not like everybody.
It's becoming.
Yeah.
But it's nice.
But the healthcare community adds definitely this podcast was a lot of fun.
I can't wait to really bring into everyone's world.
Michael?
What would seem none of your business.
Michael, I got to tell you, we just did this for about two hours.
And I looked at my phone and I said, wow, two hours felt like 10 minutes.
Felt like 10 minutes.
Bless you.
What a compliment.