Episode #20 'A Yid In The West' with Shlomo Levinger

Welcome, welcome everyone to episode 20 with Aid in the West. We have our guest with us, magician Schlommo Levenger. Now, let me make a little introduction. Yep. Usually, Schlommo, we have like a little moreish crowd. So, maybe we should I'll let I'll let the audience know a little bit. Sure. How I know you and how this interview happened. So first thing is I'm sure a lot of you have heard about LinkedIn and I happen to love that platform and I believe I remember when Schlommo like was just getting started with LinkedIn unless you were there for a while but I still remember when it was like just like getting three four likes nobody was like you know no very very little engagement and I was like what's going on this guy's doing good stuff very exciting stuff on LinkedIn And it was like a good boost start my day with a it always popped up on top because you know LinkedIn knows what you like. appreciate and I was always liking it and commenting and then slowly it picked up picked up like all right every everybody got it they got it and a lot of times in LinkedIn we we get to know people from LinkedIn but sometimes they don't know you and then at one point somehow you bump into them in real life that happened to me many times so that's what happened to us what happened to us is not too long ago right before Pes I see Schlommo walking in to a restaurant in Phoenix. Now, I was like, "Okay, I know this guy. This is him." But he didn't know me. That's fine. I don't blame him. I'm the one liking his stuff. His stuff are more much more interesting. I'm good at like I'm good at like see like like I if I see like names and profiles, I could put it to the profile, but I I if I saw someone in real life, I probably probably wouldn't recognize them. So, yeah. No, no. Uh, no, no, I wasn't no uh what do you call it? I wasn't tried to um I wasn't no no insult. Uh, no worries. Yeah, no worries. So, yeah. And then here he is coming into Labella there and I'm like, "Wow, I know this guy. I got to go over to him, have a conversation. First time meeting in person. I love his content." And that's what I did. I went over and I introduced myself. I said, "I know you from LinkedIn." And then we got into little conversation, very little. We touched on the topic of moving out. Now, there's two reasons why what triggered this interview. The first thing is because being that I talk a lot about it online and a lot of people call me because they know that I'm someone that did the move. So, I speak with a lot of people. Now in general I would say the common denominator the reason why people are not doing it that they they say different things but it's a fear. Yeah. And they're almost saying, which is what I'm hearing, is that they're waiting for that magician to come and do some magic and just bring them over along with all the comforts along with the whole infrastructure literally like just with a tractor take the whole like ground with you and replant it and it's not going to happen. So they're waiting for like like magic to happen. I And it's funny because I use that word a lot a lot with them. I tell them there's no magic. You got to go and make it happen. So in walks the magician number one. Number two, we start talking. Don't mind my my seasonal allergies. Another reason to move out. It's New York is the allergies are this year specifically. I don't know what it is. Absolutely killer. It's it's it's not great. So if you're if you have allergies, you know exactly what I'm talking about. But yeah, continue. Sorry. I don't want to distract everybody. No, no. We It's funny because we had a live yesterday and then when that person was from New York, it said the same exact thing. It's crazy. Um, so and then we started talking about the the topic of moving out and then you know Schlommo mentioned I really don't see any reason why people are not doing this. I know you mentioned that for you for your business it doesn't work but for people that could do it there's really no reason. So when I saw that I got very excited because you you sound very passionate about it. Now I meet two types of people. There's either people that understand it and they're passionate about it and there's people that just don't get it. Think I'm crazy. They think anybody think you can move out is crazy. So when I meet a passionate person, especially someone that can do magic, I got excited. I said, you know, something, let's have a conversation about it. Yeah. So, you know, just just go through the few questions that I ask everybody. But before we we jump in, is there anything that you wanted to say about this topic before we get started? Um, yeah. I think just going off of what you're saying, I think that um I think that moving out of town is something that um I don't see anything I don't see any reason for someone I mean I understand why people don't want to do it and we could touch on some of that stuff uh in a few minutes, but um yeah, I uh I think it's a great concept and I think more people should be doing it. So, um, you know, I know it sounds definitely it could sound like an excuse like, oh, he's a big talker, like, you know, he he he's talks a big game. He's telling everybody else to do it, but then he can't do it himself. Um, that's fair point. It's a fair point. Um, but it happens to be that, um, I think Bar, a lot of my business, it's a shame because I if if not for my business, I would be moving out of town in a heartbeat. Um but uh yeah, I mean all my businesses here and all my clients, you know, obviously the tri-state area is definitely the most popular from the area in the world. So um it's definitely uh you know, it would be tough to travel if I was living out of town all the time. You know, I'd have to be in New York probably most of the week anyway. So um you know, just makes sense for me to live here at the moment. But um yeah, I just think that uh if not for that reason, I think I'd be out of here. Yeah. Right. Right. So the first thing is let's let's start. I you know I like I like like the way you started that you would love the idea of moving out of town. Now I hear that from people and there's a click because that's who I was. So what's that thing that you you would say is that you would love the idea of moving out of town. There's obviously you know mindless about of moving out of town. So what would you say that is? Um like the negative things I think. Uh the positive. Oh the positive. Oh I think okay. I was just going to go the other way. reasons why there's something there's obviously a little birdie inside you that's saying it's a good thing to do. So what what would you say why? For so many reasons. I think u number one I think just in general I think there's so many ways you can go with this. There's um cost obviously is a huge one. You know it's a it's so much it's infinitely cheaper to live out of town. um even just housing costs and taxes and just just so many things that um forget forget putting aside even like living out of town, you obviously don't have as many opportunities to spend big money in terms of you know going out to eat or um you know opportunities like that where here like you don't necessarily need to do it. You're just kind of doing it because it's easy. So you're just saying okay like you know every day I'm gonna go buy lunch for $25. um you don't need to do that, but it's just it's it's excessive, it's accessible, and it's easy to do. So, people just uh resort to doing that. So, like costwise, obviously, it's pretty straightforward. I mean, living out of town is is is infinitely cheaper. Um you know, so some people that are living, you know, let's say New York, they feel like, okay, in order to um be comfortable, I have to be making $500,000 a year. um you know to be comfortable living out of town you got to be making you could be making half of that literally half of that and be more than comfortable. So um you know I know tuition tuition's expensive here and if you're out of town you're not paying as much tuition and just life in general is a cheaper lifestyle. That's that's number one. Um, and I promise like I I I can't promise. I've never done it, but I'm pretty sure the um the lifestyle like the you know the quality of life is not worse than living in New York. You're not you're not uh you're not going to be you're not I guarantee you're not going to be not you're not going to be less happy living out of town. Like you're not the things that are m you think the things here that are making you happy are not they're not actually making you happy. So, um I think and going off of that, I think that leads into family. I think um you know, being out of town, it's a much more probably community-based um environment generally. So, um you know, you're closer to the people in your sh, you're closer to the people in your community and pretty much everyone has to do everything together because um you know, there's there's those are the only people that you that you're seeing on a daily basis. You know, you're going to sh you're seeing the same 20 30 40 people. Um so you definitely there is a sense of now listen if you go somewhere and you don't like the people you are stuck with them you know I can't can't you can't make that up but um you know you'll figure it out and you can either go somewhere else or you'll figure out what to do but um no one's no one's saying you're stuck there I think people feel like you know like if I'm moving out of town I'm going to prison you know like you're not going to jail like you can do whatever you want if it doesn't work out for you and your family then you know you can figure come back no one's stopping you um I just think it's it's definitely definitely uh you know to give it a shot is definitely worth it because I feel like some people even would appreciate that small you know that small town kind of community feel where you know maybe yeah maybe you are doing a shabasuda with everybody you know once in a while and like maybe you are you know doing uh you know maybe your kids you know they could they there's only you know 10 kids in their class but guess what like maybe they'll maybe they'll get more personal attention from their rebu or from their teacher. So there's so many there's so many factors there that could uh help that. Um I think there's different opportunities for out of town communities also like there's different sizes, there's different shapes. Um I think you know I know where you are is definitely probably on the smaller side but um you know where you know anybody who's you can go out of town. You can go to let's say I don't know Dallas, Texas. It's a massive Jewish community still considered out of town. Um, and you know, it's not the same feel as if there's, you know, 50 families. There's a thousand families, you know, so 5,000 families. So, every community is different. Wow. No, really. Unbelievable. You really nailed it. You nailed it. This is the these are the topics that we go through. I think those are the two big ones. I think cost and fam, I think those are the two like the two big ones. And then there's so many other positives like I don't know just um just like even like stupid things like traffic like like I don't know just like congestion like you're you know obviously don't get me wrong and I will say this and I'll be very very very very straight up with this. Um I love New York. I I I I love New York City and there's no other city in the world besides that's like New York. I mean they're not they're not the same at all. They're completely different. Um, but I think New York City is one of the greatest cities in the world and there you can't get this city anywhere else. It just doesn't exist. Um, it's uh, you know, there's something there's a certain charm to New York. Um, but that being said, if that's not something you feel like makes a difference in your life, it's nice, but it's not, you know, it's not more important than your family and you know, the quality of life that you want to live. So, um, yeah, I think that the pros definitely outweigh the cons for sure. Yeah. Yeah. So, that's what it is. Definitely definitely there's there's pros in New York and question is you know for everybody what does it mean what does it mean what are you giving up on um that's number one and number two you know for people to go and make the move which it's not easy and I'm with you that definitely is worth a shot and nothing's wrong if it doesn't work out to come back but people are very scared to do the move and from just talking to people and seeing myself the only people that that actually do something are the ones that are fed up. They're so fed up that that's what gets them to just get up and go do something about it. But if you're not fed up, it's very hard to talk to people to try to, you know, do the move. I really think that I think that the I think the money aspect is a huge is a huge boost. Like, you know, if I'm able to live somewhere where I'm happy and pay half the cost of living that I'm doing here, like I don't know why is that so bad? I think that's great. I think I like you know obviously like and I know that a lot of you know let's say even the cases community like you know like let's say like you're a living bar park like everything is so accessible and so easy and you can walk down the block and buy a strima like I I understand that it's like the beauty of that and like the easiness of that and that yeah that is something you're giving up on for sure. Um, but at the same time, like, you know, you're you're paying you you you pay uh $2 million for your for your three-bedroom house and you can live out of town and buy a 10bedroom house for the same price, like or a 15bedroom house for the same price. Um, I don't know. It just doesn't I'd rather do that than walk down my street and buy a shall. I'd rather, you know, come back to New York once or twice a year and get the things that I need. I I don't Yeah, 100%. It's a mindset thing because people they think it's easy and they think like, "Oh, I could just walk down the block and and you know, do this or do that or go there and it's easy. I can walk everywhere. I haven't been 247. I don't have to worry about anything." Um, I think it's just like an anxiety of like, oh no, what if I don't have it? How am I going to survive? Like, you just adapt. You just adapt to your surroundings. There's no, you won't, right? You're not going to be not as happy because you don't have those things. You just learn to like do it a different way, which is which is okay. Like there's nothing wrong with that. Wow, you really nailed it. I'm amazed. Like it would sound like you you lived out of town. That's that's I'd say you have this. Yeah, I've been So the thing is I have been out of town a little bit. Um I've been in yeshiva out of town and I've been um when I travel for work, I do a lot of gigs in different in different communities. you know, I'll do different, you know, shul dinners or different things in other communities and I see other places and um it's they're not less happy because they live out of New York, right? Right. Yeah, it's true. It's about the anxiety. Like people really think that life is coming to an end if you don't if you can't walk down the block and have a grocery that's open 24 hours or you won't be able to have access to every single, you know, kosher product right at your fingertips. And the truth is, you know, I won't say I was maybe like when I was moving, I was a little bit scared, but I like the challenge and I I liked, you know, being part of building the community, but once I'm here, I'm pretty, you know, I would say six months after I moved, you start seeing the beauty and there's something like a puress about just not having every single thing and you just have the the basic things and when you need it, yes, you get it delivered from New work or you know you're going in for something you make sure to buy whatever you need and you bring it along with you certain puress and it makes actually that that's part of what makes like the life a little bit more like calm because it's like there's not so much options there's not so many things and I'll go further even the minion like I know many people tell me that like I have a minion whatever I want down the block and over here we have just one minion 7 am and honestly in the beginning it was like oh my gosh just one minion 7 am but right now it it like my day is so much like more structured and there's no choice. Yes, this is my schedule. You make sure to be there. You get a head start to the day. It forced me to learn how to do that to you be on top of the day. Yeah. I think that people, it's funny, people think like, oh, they're going to have more anxiety when they live out of town, but I think it's the opposite and you have less anxiety because everything is just so much more relaxed and you're not, you know, you're not 247, you know, running around traffic yelling this that like I don't know. I just think the the the slowness like the pace just you're you're able to your blood pressure could like go down a little bit. You can you can take a little deep breath and say, "Okay, everything's, you know, there's nothing. I'm not like, you know, there's no pressure. There's no social pressure. There's no family pressure. There's no there's zero pressure. You're just taking all that pressure and you're saying, I'm leaving it behind and I'm going to live my life and actually like enjoy and just live in the moment and be able to like focus on, you know, learning and Ding and Yiddish and be able to, you know, be on top of, you know, what's going on in my kids' life and with my wife. I can, you know, I could I could I could finally not be worrying about what the neighbors are thinking or this person's thinking. You know, I could just live my own personal life, what I want to live. So, I think that's that's kind of like I think the main idea really beautiful. Yep. Yeah. So true. Real family. By the way, again, I I literally like I would be living out of town if like if I didn't if again like if I didn't have my business, everything surrounding my business here. It's a shame because like I I get I get the beauty of it. like I want like I would want that for my family. And I'm not saying that I would never live out of town. I I I think that there are closer out of town places for me to be able to possibly possibly live. Um but uh yeah, I think it's just uh I think it's um I think it's really uh it's a it's a beautiful thing. So So how can we get you to move out of town? If I It's a tough call. I mean, if I had a job that was I mean, thank God like my business is doing great. So, um, like, you know, I can't go. Yeah. I see you traveling around the whole world anyways. If I'm Yeah, but I would say like a good like 80% of my gigs are still local. So, you know, if I'm uh, you know, if that number changes and I'm, you know, more not in New York than in New York, then obviously that could change, but for now, it's kind of the way it has to be, unfortunately. Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Listen, the message from one day, you know, the Glies will spread out across the whole United States and it won't even make a difference. Like, we'll be like New York. Like, oh, that place. Oh, yeah. Some people living there. Yeah, but I I do think I think it's worth it for someone to give it a shot. I think that really like people should like it's easy to say and harder to do and I think that you know I I know that for sure I don't know. I think there's I think I would say it's probably even harder in the cedish community. I would say now there's more of a push for it. I think like every exit in New Jersey is another community, you know. I know. Um I mean that's still technically local and in town. um you know, you can drive to Lakewood in 30 minutes and get whatever you need or whatever it is, but at the same time, I think that, you know, really going out of town, really pushing the limit is is something that I think, um, you know, is really is something nice. I think at the in the litmus community, I I don't I don't I think there's a little bit less of I think there's people do it more. I think it's it's done more often. Yeah. Um, you know, I know I have friends that especially like I learned the Cubs Sky for a while, so there's Cub Sky communities everywhere. Um, so you know, I have friends that live in Vegas. I have friends that live in uh the most random places all over Florida. I have a friend who lives in Orlando. Like like I have friends who literally live all over the place all year round. So I I definitely have a little bit more of like an understanding of like how it works and what people are doing. But um yeah, I think there are different I think like you know a lot of people live in Chicago and Cleveland and all these different places. Those are definitely already a little bit more established bigger communities. Um, you know, but I think like a place like where you are in Arizona, like I don't know, just like there's something like every time I go and I I'm there usually like twice a year for different work things, but um whenever I come to Arizona and I'm in the Scottsdale, Phoenix area, like I just look around and I'm like this like this place is so beautiful. Like imagine you could live here all year round. Like and you can you can you absolutely can which is pretty cool. Which is pretty really really cool. And you know what? And even in Phoenix and Scottdale, the amount of kosher food that they have there is actually unbelievable. Like the restaurants and the grocery stores, they're they have you'd be surprised. You'd be surprised what they actually have. Like it's it's not bad at all. Like the food the food there was really good. Yeah. Yep. Sorry. I think that's what makes it one of like the uh I'd say like the top like low-key like vacation spots I think for people here because you can go to Arizona and you will have food like you'll have restaurants to go to every night like you won't be you know Yep. it won't be slow. Wow. I will say this was unbelievable where I try to you know stick to 20 minutes. We're already at 21 so we'll finish up. But you just the way you said everything. You literally went through everything. You went through the struggles. You went through the the pros. You went through, you know, encouraging people to do it. It was it was really amazing. I really I'm shocked, but like I said before that it it would seem like you live you live out of town. That's how you really have a good I wish I could. I genuinely wish I could. I would. I if I would if I could, I would. I hope so. One day. Yeah. I think also one more point like I think it's I think it's cool for people to like I travel a lot so I see places but like I think it's cool for people to like be able to like see other places like I think I think people would be surprised in how much they actually like other other parts of the country and you know I I think it's just a different it's a change of scenery and I think it's it's a it's a it's a positive change of scenery. I think people would be surprised um you know how beautiful some places are and how even you know even though things are let's say spread out or whatever but like you know people are nice everywhere and people are accepting and I think there's a certain stigma that like oh if I leave Bar Park or if I leave Williamsburg I'm going to be uh you know people are I don't know the guy are going to they're going to be you know they're gonna they're going to hate us and they're going to go here or whatever and maybe some people do but I think majority of the time if you go out of town people are nice people they don't really as long as like as long as you're not making any like trouble or anything like I don't think it's I don't think that's an issue. So yeah. No, honestly I could say my experience just I feel more respected and I feel like they're they're like Oh yeah, it's worse here for sure. That's it's for sure worse here. 100%. Yeah. But I I get what you're saying. There is a fear that that it might be worse. There is that fear out there. Yep. Last last thing before we before we go. Is there is is there any type of magic that could help a person just move out of town or you just have to make it happen? I think just do it. Just commit to doing it. Just just do it. Like I I think I think don't think about it too much. Don't overthink it. And again again you're not making a life decision that you can't go back on it. I think that's important. Like if you're really scared, give it a shot. What's the worst thing that's going to happen? You'll go back. Okay. You'll go back and you had a cool experience. You'll have some stories. That's that's the end. That's the worst. Beautiful. So So guys, whoever's listening, you heard it from the magician himself. There is no magic. If you're waiting one day for that magic to happen, it's not going to happen. Trust me. What was that? Waiting for They're waiting for Msiah. Right. Right. Right. Yeah, to make it happen, you just got to make it happen. And like Schlommo says, just give it a try. Nothing's going to happen. You're not signing any contracts that there's no return. If it doesn't work out, go check it out first, you know, just for a little bit for a vacation or something and see for yourself. You could always rent to start. You could always rent and then if you want to buy, you can buy. You're not you're not buying a house right away. You can go try it out. No, there's no harm in that. Yeah. Go for a vacation. Go for a week. Go for a chabas. see what it's about. No harm in that. Exactly. Anyway, we're gonna finish up now. Schlom, thank you so much for giving the time. Appreciate it. Was a pleasure and looking forward to doing some other good stuff together. Absolutely. Thank you so much. You got it.