Chi-Chi WaWa and the Art of Thanking Hashem With Mendy Worch

The main goal of Thank You Hashem is not to make cool Jewish music, but to make Jewish music cool. I'll say it again. Not to make cool Jewish music, but to make Jewish music cool. [Music] None of your business, Oshi. None of your business, Michael. It's the None of Your Business podcast hosted by Michael and Oshi. This episode is sponsored by Qualmax Supplies. Qualmex is a leading distributor of housekeeping supplies, Oshi, and they're a tremendous partner vendor of ours and they're backed by Brady, which is a company that has over 180 locations throughout the country. What can you tell us about Qualmax? They have distribution centers everywhere. They can get you supplies same day, next day. They sell hundreds of thousands of SKUs, any EDS, janitorial supplies. They got you covered. They have that local touch, feel customer service. Their reps will assist you through anything. They'll do visits to your facilities. They'll tell you exactly what you need. They'll get you brand new dispensers all for free. And their pricing is not to be beaten. Big fans of what they're doing, especially the owner, Joel Greenfield. He's amazing. And his partners, all the people there. Welcome back everybody to another amazing episode of the None Your Business Podcast. Please don't forget to like, subscribe, comment, get involved. We're loving the feedback. We are joined by an amazing guest today, Mendy. Welcome to the program. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, Mendy Worsh. Great to be here. This is very exciting. This is a long time coming. This was one of my target guests. You don't know this, but for a long time, I said one day I'm going to get Mandy on the podcast, but first we want to go through the motions, you know, see what it's like so we're prepared for you. First, let's get you on, right? I was going to say I was I was really first of all, great to be here, but I was a little insulted that like I know Ushi my whole life. We're gonna, you know, we'll talk about that, but here he is, super uh podcast superstar, and he doesn't even think of me. like he doesn't even share episodes with me. He had the popcorn guy on. He had uh the arts girl guy on. Take it as he had everybody. I'm I'm listening to I'm quietly at the gym listening to the podcast fueling all that anger into more repetitions and like you know to go longer. But I see Schmoly younger came last episode. I just listened to it. He's awesome at everything he does. He's amazing. I think it's his passion. But now I think we're ready for Mendy Worsh now that we had I mean Yissi Churns was on the podcast so you're pretty much inviting everybody at this point. So it's only about time that I'm only kidding. I love Yissi Yi. No offense. So Mandy, I want to give the viewers a little little background on who Mendy Wash is. And I want to give you my version. I want to give you my take. I'd love to hear this. Other people they introduce you they they may say things differently. But I want to break it down in two ways. I want to break it down by what people know about Med. I'm not divulging anything people don't know. And then also what people may not know. So some things are undisclosed behind the scenes. So obviously what people know is you're a prolific singer songwriter. You've been doing this a long time. I already knew back in the day when you were like 14, 15 years old in our shul growing up. Anytime there was an event, they would give Mandy the mic. And Mandy was the hype man. He was he got the whole crowd going and he was always singing. So the the writing was on the wall already. Then I was the original Mr. Met. Yeah. Exactly. Without the outfit. Exactly. Yeah. So that we all know you released some of the most dynamic contemporary songs I believe in the last you know 20 years. Um household names these songs become staples. I know in my house we play your music at Nauseium like on repeat all the time. The biggest one I think that really put you on the map was No was a big tadic. Yeah. That was a huge huge song. almost a million views on YouTube. Yeah. And it's been listened to so many times at so many events, schools, they're always playing this song. You know, you're doing well when there's like 13 remixes of your song. Congratulations on that. Yeah. Yes. That was a that was a really really big hit. But amongst others, um Rashana was a big hit. Chi-Chi Wawa, one of my personal favorites. I love that song. And now the most recent one, which by the way, on this Pesak, I want you to know in my sh everybody was singing. Everybody's just like humming it to themselves like, "Oh, yum, yum, yum, yum." That song is like next level. Fishy swishy. Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum. I want to know how much wine you guys drink. People made that video that video. Yeah, people always say, "How high were you when you made that video?" I said, "The question is how deep were we?" It's not high, it's about how deep we are. Beautiful. But if you think about that, uh, deep usually means down, but high means up, right? But like really when it comes to like big ideas or like when you're tap into that creative moment or like you're just on fire, are you are is it deep? Is it high? And then I realized I think we're at the bottom. And the higher you get, the deeper you get. So I think it's the same thing. It's high is deep. And um it's about letting go of what's restricting us now at the m like leaving your uh your comfort zone. Yes. So it's not going deep as in down, it's deep as in up. It's a small nuance for me. And interesting. I love that. By the way, in other words, perspective people, how high are you? Well, what does high mean? High means that that we're we're letting go of of the chains and the resistance of what's locking in of our feelings or the status quo. So high in life, but also that's a deeper level of consciousness, I think. Yeah. Yeah. That's I I still want to hear what you have to say. She I love that. Yeah. But uh by the way, the Yum Yum song racked up already 80,000 views just in the last three weeks. So it's on pace potentially. You mean on YouTube? On YouTube alone. You're right. Not even counting the other platform. It has almost half a million views if you count all the platforms. Wow. Uh and it's only, like you said, only out what 10 days or so. And now we're in Spra. So yeah, these songs are so catchy. They have like like a really good beat to it and you can just get behind it and and it's fun. They're fun songs. It makes everybody just want to sing. Puts everybody in a good mood. Like you're doing things very differently. A whole different style than what's been out there for a long time. I'm a big fan. You have a lot of fans. You're obviously also a huge part of the Thank You Hashem, the TY movement, which is which has become a cultural Jewish cultural phenomenon. I mean, everybody knows Thank You Hashem. You guys are doing wonderful things which I would like to dive more into today because I really do want to understand what that's all about, what the mission is, what your vision is, where you guys are going with this. You're in luck. It's my favorite topic. So, okay. Awesome. Awesome. And you're part of the executive team. You're very saturated. I'm just one of the artists on the team. But yeah, we'll talk about it. They're amazing and uh I can't wait to talk about it. Awesome. Awesome. Okay. Also, Mendy used to do car leasing for a very long time. Yeah, I still do some. What are you driving now, Oshy? He's always selling. When's your lease up? I got a deal for you. Yeah. But 42 months, 8,000 miles a year. You see these new deals they have? Yeah, of course. Yeah. Yeah. He's he he was one of the premier elite car leasing companies for a long time. Do you have a name? Uh we at the Bay Ridge Leasing was the big one. We had a bunch of different names. Uh I worked for a lot of the bigger companies, but right before I got out of the car business, uh I partnered with a lot of the dealerships in Brooklyn. They're owned by the Juay family. It's big Italian family, big wealth. They own ba all the Bay Ridge dealerships. Bayage Lexus, Bay Ridge, Toyota, Honda, they own Manhattan dealerships. So, um Lexus of Manhattan, Nissan, like um Route 22 is their stores. So, they had like 30 40 different dealerships and we partnered with them. We were going to bring leases to the Jewish community. Uh I think there's a company called Plaza Auto Leasing in Brooklyn that did a similar uh idea on a smaller scale. Maybe that's why it worked for them. Um, but for us there were too many cooks in the kitchen, too many, you know, I did a deal with the man at the top, but there were like 30 brother-in-laws and nephews each running their stores. So each one like he couldn't speak on behalf of everybody. And it kind after two years of just we were making more money with other relationships than with the ones. And you always loved cars, but I like selling and I like I like the feeling of delivering a new car. Like when you give that guy his new keys and the car smells great. And I'm spending another hour after the sale showing him like the features and I'm like I'm I just love You're very passionate about it. How long does it take you to rip off that ear air earbag warning? No, we leave those on. The car is worth more money if you leave that on after three years. No, it's not. It's not. And then you also were very successful in business. You uh were part of Yellowstone for a long time. Yeah. That's the big cash advance company. The big cash advance company. Yes. Yes. And uh according to your LinkedIn page, currently you are a managing partner of BlueBridge Funding. Right. Right. Okay. Which is also in the that's a company I started after I left Yellowstone uh five six years ago. Right. Right. Okay. So those are some of the very basic things I think everybody's very familiar with. I don't think I caught anybody off guard by this. But here are some of the things that people may not know. Okay. And I could talk to this. I am a subject matter expert on on Mendy WH because I was a very big part of your past. a very big part of, you know, you growing up. We grew up on the same block. We lived two, three houses uh each other. Yeah. Yeah. I take a lot of credit for all of his success today for sure. But I I know I know a part of Mendy that I don't think a lot of people know, you know, everybody reinvents themselves as they get older. Yeah. But one thing stayed true and this was kind of the first thing that I put down the people don't know this about Mendy is that you have a tremendous sense of humor. You you're literally the life of every party. Like if you want to have a good time, just invite Mendy. Let Mendy show up and he takes over. You don't have to plan an activity. Mendy is the activity. And you're very quick on your feet. You're very witty. You've pulled some of the most classic pranks. And I don't know if I can talk about those pranks on ear about things that Mendy has done, but some outlandish wild things that Mendy pulled off. And I think we're going to have to start talking about Ushi. I know some secrets, too. But like, you know, you you always, you know, people knew that Mandy walked into the room and everybody's eyes just lights up. He's fun. He's a funny guy. a great sense of humor and I don't know if you know you get enough to say that enough credit for that but definitely also pull more about these pranks pull some of the most epic prank pranks I may add but yeah another thing that people may not know is that you were one of the founders of a day camp called campra which today is a very prominent very successful day camp my blossomed it became you know I think it's the you know they may have the second most kids that attend summer camp my is cam k and you started that you you were one of the founders you're one of the brainchilds of you saw a need in the community for a certain type of camp and you were a part of that with a few others and it really took off. So you don't get enough credit for that but you should because you were there at the helm. So I feel like I want more credit for that. Yeah. Yeah. You definitely a couple percentages. Yeah. Yeah. Another thing about Mendy is he's a tre and we just touched on it a little bit. A tremendous salesman. Mendy has this style that he can mix aggressiveness and politeness all at the same time and get it done. And he articulates himself very well. He's just very convincing. It's very hard to say no to Mendy. Like if he wants you to do something, you're most likely going to end up doing it. So meet my wife and kids. They have cracked the code on how to say no to me. Exactly. Another fun fact about Mendy is that growing up, we grew up in a sh where there was a he was a r but he was also somewhat of a reb. Yeah. And he had a lot of uh like the model of that sh was very rebish in a lot of ways. And menu was the assistant hose booker for the reba for many years. I mean before he got established I was before he became gigantic. I was the the first like the bat boy or they were a major league team. Sorry guys. What what's a hose bucker? Uh what's a hosbucker? Oh my goodness. I mean how you can explain to a litak what a hose very difficult. So uh think of it as an executive assistant but he does or a rabbi for the Yeah. But he does everything for the rabbi. Like he basically lives with the rabbi. He lives in his house. Helps him put on his strimal and like his not necessarily if the reb's very old then yes he helps him do that. I see. uh you know coffee, he eats his meals. I don't think I was ever a hoster, but I was playing the role of uh helping the Reba before he had a host. So I I was I was like filling in we were playing house at the time. He wasn't a real reba and I wasn't a real hosbaker. Um what I mean by that is he wasn't established yet. He was always a tremendous person. Um but we're talking about Rabbi Rottenberg in Forch. Yes. the force rebum who you mentioned on his last um he was he learned there and actually me and Schmilly sang together uh in Shul before either one of us uh was anybody we were singing together we were both just teenagers uh so those were my earliest earliest earliest memories gigs were singing I got one more one more last thing that and I I think this is for me personally the most important introduction that I can give to the extent of this. I don't think we've ever actually talked about it, but when I was 17 years old, exactly 17, I got kicked out of my house. My parents didn't want me to live at home anymore. I wasn't behaving. I wasn't following the rules. And I also wasn't in any yeshiva at the time. And I didn't know where to go. So Mendy and his family, his parents, very graciously took me into their home. And I lived there for about six months. I actually lived with them. And at the time, I was very down on life. I didn't want to do anything. I wasn't motivated at all. And Mandy tells me, you know, there's a new yeshiva that's going to be opening up and I I think you should try it out. Come with me. I'm going to go also. We're going to check it out. Only like 10 people are are coming. The Russa, I know him. He's a nice guy. Let's check it out. I was like, nah, man. It's not for me. He's not for me. He basically dragged me to this place. Dragged me to this place. And as soon as I got there, I did feel the warmth from the from the Rebi and the Rashiva there. And the reb you want to mention which is yeshiva at this place. This was most of eras. Rabbi Levitan is the great Rabbi Levitan. The great Levitan. And that is how I met Rabbi Levitan. Wow. And by the way uh most people who are listening and know me that shaped my entire life. So I kept the relationship with Rabbi Levitan since then. It's over 21 years since I know him. I was actually in that yeshiva for the longest from anybody. Longest tenure yeshiva boy in that yeshiva in the history. Seven years. You were just so happy they weren't throwing you that. Exactly. Finally somebody's accepted me after me out. Exactly. I was there for seven years. I got married. I actually moved to a neighborhood together with Rebel Levitan where he became the RV Rabari andari. Exactly. And uh he's my whole world. He's my you know I I don't think I would be religious today or from today or have the quality of life that I have if I wasn't a part of that setting. And you were the one that set that all up. You gave me that first push. So I have a lot of appreciation. I actually don't remember this part. I don't remember the whole Rab Levitan part of your life. Doesn't resonate with me. I was probably getting married and out. I think we just each other. I was in that yeshiva very quickly and then I met my wife whose brother was in that yeshiva. So someone read it and then met my future brother-in-law and I was like, "Oh, he's he's a cool guy, decent guy, Dovy." Um, and then the rest is history. The rest is history. But but Mandy, you should just know that one small act of kindness that you did is that you really pushed me, it led to an entire an entire life. Um, and it's just, you know, really I think I should thank you. Yeah. Yeah. I I actually want to add to that, Oshi, because Ushi Ushi is leaving off a little bit here. Actually, I'm like a big brother to Ushi, and he's the little brother. He's always trying to catch up to me. That's really what it is. I'm not going to deny it. I'm not going to deny it. We grew up on the same block together. What am I? Four. I'm 40. How old are you? Is she? 38. 38. So, two years. Two years is not a lot when you're growing up. Um, we grew up on Quinc Lane in Muny. Mhm. I I call myself We were like the inner city kids of Forche. It was underdeveloped. There were very few living there. Probably 1993, 1995. that those years we were lucky enough to have Orchard Hill Park was behind us where they would play little leagues for a couple times a week. So all the other times we had this beautiful field with dugout and benches and home run fences. We learned how to play baseball over there and sometimes they forget to lock the equipment box. So you get in there, you grab a baseball and for us we have to explain this like we grew up not watching sports and not following sports and not being exposed to anything of call it the outside world but I think the Yankees went on a crazy run. It was like 95 96 97 and they won four World Series in a row and we just right it was me you my brother Ezra was another boy that was living with us at that time and some other you know we didn't have a team we had maybe four or five guys in the neighborhood my brother younger brother Morai hated sports but we'd forced him to play with us we needed people we needed we need someone to to throw the bat at so I don't want to play Morai please come play but we made up games we were on that field and We felt like we were Jeter and Gerardi and we felt like who was your favorite player on the Yankees? I remember growing up. Yeah. In the 90s, who was your favorite player? I'll give you a hint. I wasn't following. Switch hitter. A switch hitter. Number 51. I don't even remember. Outfielder musician today. Bernie Williams. Bernie Williams. Bernie Williams. Oh, she loved Bernie Williams. He loved you. All the cas loved Bernie Williams. That's Ben. Bernie Williams. Ben, baby Ben. So yeah, I mean we but we we would play pitcher catcher and we would That was our game. Pitcher catch running bases. What do you play with three people? All right. You started second, you started third. And running pitcher running c bases pitcher c always ended in a fight. It always Well, always ended with someone getting hurt in the head and your father would come out screaming. This is this game. What are you doing? You're killing each other. cuz we were trying to throw as hard as we could of course and we were running and we we it was we didn't even play baseball. We were watching baseball before we were playing it. So, we were trying to emulate them. And um that passion for baseball though got in so deep. And I think that's why me and you and certain people that grew up in that era are so passionate about baseball because it's like it was the first time we saw like ourselves doing something greater than where we're from or what we're doing. We It was our outlet. It was a way of getting away from her everyday life, the grind, and it was a way to just, you know, hang out with friends. And she still plays baseball. Do you? I play I'm in three different leagues, and I play all the time. I play as many innings as I can. I love baseball. Um, and I just love the art of the game, the part of the game that you're trying to perfect your own game. Like get like golf is like that. I don't play golf, but golfers say that it's you against you. Like there's nothing, you know, that we had two people on. Oh, yeah. Of course, I listened to all of them that talked just about golf the entire time at Norium. It was it was a little much. They're obsessed with golf. The golf culture is next level. Those are literally two of the most boring sports to me. Sorry. Baseball and golf. Doesn't get more boring. Actually, tennis. Another sport that you love. I love tennis. Yeah. Also, Orchard Hill Park had a tennis court. That's where I learned that. That's where she used to play. Oshi. But getting back to the point of this, Oshi was always trying to catch up to me and uh always trying to be amazing like me. Um for example, I give you a couple quip. Well, actually, during that time that you came and lived with us, we were actually roommates. Yes, we slept in the same. We were roommates. Yes, we were. Matter of fact, I might even say I was your first roommate ever. You were maybe even your best roommate ever. They're pushing it. But yes. Yes, we were the first time roommates. First time. And I remember my parents were they had just wrecked their house because they were going to build a new house on the spot. So we were renting another house on Melanie. So for one year we lived in some rental and this house had every maca from Mitsayan. There was like mice. Do you remember the mice? There were mice in the ceiling and there were wasps in the AC. And and as I think about all the mockas, I also remember that Oshi was my roommate. So it was consistent. and I had all the plagues all at once. Um, but I I I remember we started the camp and as soon as I left and sold my portion to Yissi, Oshi took my spot. I was like, "Okay." And then I was a teacher in Dega for a few years. I forget. And then I leave and Oshi takes my spot. And then like what else? I I think I I was in a baseball league and the next thing I know Ushi's in that league. And then you became a celebrity. I'm a celeb. And now Oshi's Oshi's like if I see you at a wedding trying to sing a song, we're going to have a problem. Oshi, if I even hear the words Chi-Chi Wawa from you, the whole world's going to have a problem. I'm only kidding. Osie, I love you. But Michael, do do you know that I was almost your co-host for this podcast? Really? Yeah. About maybe two years ago, Moishi Ganuth, our mutual friend, called me and says, "You know, there's this guy, Michael, and he has this podcast and blah blah blah. Thank you, Hashem. I think you should do the podcast with him." You guys don't know this, right? Yeah. Because I was giving Michael a hard time in the beginning about doing. So, I said I said, "I can't do it, but try Ushi. Just tell him I was interested and he'll do it." That did it, by the way. Yeah. So, here we are. And I want to thank you for coming on to my podcast. By the way, what's next? I want to know what my pipeline looks like. Let me let me hear your best fisty swishy. What an intro, guys. By the way, but but I I I just want to say something before we get into my life. I just want to say from a very young age, I remember Ushi being my roommate. He he didn't have his own house. He didn't have his own like he wasn't around his family. He was down on life to use his own words. He didn't belong anywhere. He felt like an outcast. And I remember being so impressed by Ushi because we were all like trying to hustle and we were all trying to like find our way in life. And I remember Ushi out of my bedroom started a business. I think it was called Shoppers Smart Saver or something. And he probably sold this company for $100 million. But Ushi went around as I think he was 17 years old. and he went around without a partner, without a game plan, without anything. One day I wake up and ushie's busy with this big pamphlet, this this loose leaf on what's in here and he's got clippings and savings and he says, "I'm going to start a business where I'm going to go around to businesses in Muny, correct me if I'm wrong, and I'm going to ask them how like for coupons or something like basically inventing coupons." He went into stores and saying, "Well, what do you want to what do you want to give 20% off of?" And then he would put it into this magazine. And I think I don't remember what the business model was. How are you going to make money on this? But Ushi was hustling every single day. I remember saying store to store by himself. No car, no phone. I don't even know if he had a phone. Did you have a phone? We had flip phones then, right? The Star Tech or Vtech or something. A Nextel. What do you have? Ushi went from store to store and I'm I'm sitting there at night shooting the breeze with him cuz we were brothers. We were roommates and I was going this makes no sense. The guy's not offering a discount. He said, "I know, but but I'm going to explain to him why he should." I said, "Okay, but then who's going to buy this thing?" Oh, no. We're going to give it away for free. And it it's every every concept issue I brought up was not just like saw past it. He was already a hundred steps past it. And you know that Groupon basically came into business years later and digitalized the whole thing. Yeah. And uh took your idea. Exactly. It was basically a group on idea is really what it was. It's it's it's amazing. But the the the the impressive thing is not how successful you were. The impressive thing was that you believed in yourself that despite that you were currently quote unquote in the mud in life, you saw yourself of ca as capable of more. Right. And I always selfconidence admired that there was a confidence there that was like no my idea is bigger than my reality today. And all I have to do is work on it to make that idea a reality. And that's a little bit about Ushi that people don't know. Ushi is a go-getter. I mean Ushi we were thrown out of every school and then they made us the teacher and we just we crushed it. That's like the biggest revenge we got in all of our teachers. It was the moment we ourselves became a teacher. We both taught in a school. I was an English literature teacher. Is that what you taught? That was a subject. It was whatever subject they gave me, but it was it was more like uh keep these kids from uh running through traffic for two hours. Make sure that I But no, we were teaching English and the great Rabbi Isaac Camp Elon competition, but we love him. Uh he was the principal. He had vision. He took two kids from the streets and we're like, "Yeah, these kids could do it." Right. And we did. And we did it very well. We did. Yeah. But yes, I'm impressed that he saw that within us, but I'm more impressed at us. Like, how did that we went and did it? I mean, buy an at the Shay case. Yeah. Set the codes. Click click. Buy the chalk. We were doing PTA with parents. We were 18 years old and we're holding PTA with like, you know, 40-year-old parents. It was it was wild. Yeah. I remember coming out of shoo one week, two weeks after I was hired and there was like a second grader who is now my studenting at the shoo. You ever get You ever get that a lot? the students coming over to you. Of course, I love remember me. Isn't that crazy? I love it. And they're like old now with like three kids themselves. Of course. Of course. I mean over I was sixth, seventh, eighth grade for three years in a row. So that's hundreds of kids over the three years that that come to say you were the best teacher. You like um but what was I saying right before this? Second grader coming out of sh students father walks over to me. I'm now the teacher, right? I'm the 17-year-old fatusid who makes noise during davining is now the teacher of his kid and he comes over to me outside of Shu. I'm walking home with my father and he this father goes what qualifies you to to be a teacher? Exactly. And I was I was like dear in the headlights and my father and never forget this turns to him and goes, "And what qualifies you to be a father?" And I was like, "Oo, shots fired, adults fighting. This is amazing." But I I I just think we knew that we could do it. I think we knew because we looked at how disconnected our teachers were with us and how like we just totally weren't engaged in class and we just spoke a different language and it resonated with the kids and we took it seriously. We took the education seriously. I cared. I I prepared lessons. I went to the library. I really prepared. I wanted to, you know, do something productive with the kids. I did my most learning as a teacher. That's not a joke. And uh but but there was an inner belief. We had a confidence that we could do this, right? And uh I think that is not something you could teach. It's something that despite you failing at a hundred things, you know that that doesn't define you. You're capable of more. You're capable of better. And I think a lot of your guests on this podcast have shown that trait where uh success is not always the first route you take. And it's not always the easiest straight line. and and it's the gritty ones, the ones that get up and see things differently and believe in themselves despite the results that they're seeing today. Uh I think that's a a quality that somebody needs if they want to I want to ask you a question. You touched upon something for a second. Obviously, you both have tremendous amount of confidence. I think we all share that, you know, personality, but you know, we also I don't know about you, but we talk about our anxieties all the time. You know, I talk about your anxieties, too. That's great. Thank you for that. Right. I have a friend who's struggling from this. You know, asking for a friend. Of course. You know, you're the friend. I always say, "Michael's dealing with this and this. What should I What should he do about that?" You know how it goes when you go to a doctor, you say, "Doctor, my friend has this mole. You know, you pull on your pants." Right. Exactly. But no, my I'm just curious in your experience, you're out there a lot. And um do you find that there's a way that people can work on their confidence? Yeah, for sure. How? Well, I think everybody is by default believes in themselves to a certain extent. And I think if we figure out what where the lack of confidence is coming from, then I think you can address it. For example, if somebody um is not confident about the way they look, it's probably because they don't like the way they look, right? In other words, it's got to be based on something. If you're not confident that uh you can make the sale, it's probably because you failed at sales in the past. Um if you're the best closer, you're not going to have that anxiety, right? You're going to believe in yourself. Am I making sense? Yeah. So far, what do you So, so, so I think just getting better, working on on your weaknesses and working on the areas that I mean, I guess you're asking a different question. saying before success comes can you help someone be confident to achieve success and I think the answer is yes success is not something that you reach it's success is a compilation of small acts it's small wins leads to success there's no one has ever reached the pinnacle where they go I made it I'm done I mean maybe some people do but that's called giving up in the middle of the of the journey there's always more to do there's always more to conquer so there's always something that's out of reach and there's There's always something that you know you're capable of doing. And I think tapping into what you know you could do and understanding why you're feeling this lack of confidence can help give somebody confidence. Another very important I when we hire new sales reps here the first thing we do we spend months just on this is to build their confidence. They don't know a lot yet. They don't have a lot of the substance of the material. But the first thing I want to build them up is that a lot of times even if it's unwarranted confidence doesn't matter. It's okay. First be confident because when you lack confidence, everything else is very very difficult. It's an uphill battle. The people that walk into the room and they feel like they're going to get it done, they typically do get it done. Yeah. Because they come in with that attitude. It's all a mindset. Yeah. And and not to interrupt you, but I'll tell you something else. I think giving someone without confidence confidence is easier than finding that guy who's overconfident, stinks at what he's doing, and and now helping him dial it back. Humbling him. Yes. Dialing it back for his own benefit. Yeah. Right. Sometimes he's his own worst uh enemy, right? He's this reason for failures because he's he's too confident. He's he's not prepared enough. He believes that he could do it without like he's too nonchulant about it. he's too uh you know so confidence can you can give somebody confidence just by pumping them up just by saying you got this you're giving them a form of confidence but helping someone dial it back and being like hey this is serious you know you got to prepare for this slow down man you got to slow your role sometimes that's much harder to do so yeah you can definitely give people confidence and some people will always struggle with that and and there's a deeper issue right there's a deep it's not the confidence and the thing is a deeper issue of why They're always doubting themselves. Yeah. You know, I I I just I just met you for the first time. It's a real pleasure to meet you. I'm enjoying watching the two of you. Have you never met Meny before? No, never met Meny. Wow. But I do know you um from your music and I I know you from your passion. I know you from uh your, you know, partnership with the Bloomstein Brothers, all the things that you're doing, how you slap stickers on people's walls, you know. Uh so but but I have to ask you speaking of this confidence and and and your journey right um last year I went to kerosier it was the first time and u yard site in two days 100th yard site gimmel year I'm not sure when this you know how I know it's coming up I know it's gimlier from your song gimier that's how I know it's worth putting out sticks in my head because of that so I was about to say that that's what I was going to say when I pulled in I was looking for a song on Spotify for Kirstere I just didn't I wanted to know if there's something out there. I'm looking I'm looking and suddenly I didn't even know how to spell carousere but then boom your song came up and um I put it on as I'm driving into the town. Yeah. Such a beautiful town by the way. One of the most beautiful experiences. Vineyards. Oh my god. It's just gorgeous. But that was I think in 2016 or 17 when you came out with that song. Right. And then 16 I think. Right. And that was that was your own little thing that you did. That's right. And then um I think a year or two later you had a collab with someone. Right. Shalom Barak or something. Barovski. Yeah, there you go. On which song? And then there was like a break for like interruption. Bar Shalom and I wrote Krister together. So we actually wrote four or five songs in the really early days. I didn't record any songs yet and I wanted to and he was a good friend. Also starting out he's very very musical. I loved his herish and his songs like his compositions had like an MBD like old school those those warm familiar what we call tenius like those movements those chords and we sat a couple nights in the summer took a keyboard and we wrote a bunch of songs. So but I'm just curious how many songs have you composed that have not been released? Hundreds. Wow. Yeah. Hundreds. Hundreds. How many songs are are worthy of being put out that that haven't been put out? First of all, I'm not a maven on what should be put out or not. And and my successes have shown that like Chi-Chi Wawa and Fishy Swishy, like we'll get into it, but but I mean that makes no sense that those songs should, you know, if you're if you want to be a sophisticated artist, those are not songs you're reaching for. Um but there's probably 20, 30, 40 songs. A lot of these songs that are not released, I sing Fresmeirus at home with my kids and my friends know them. So they're like they, you know, I can't help it. If there's a song that I love, I sing it. So, and I'm confident to sing it alone till people learn it. So, I'm always singing songs and and people sing along. So, uh the the whole Thank You Hashem partnership has really helped me kind of uh refocus how I feel about my compositions or someone else's songs or this one. like sometimes you feel like closer to your songs and the the the last few years the journey has definitely shown me that your success can come from the least obvious place and um sometimes you just need to be in the right place at the right time and take a risk and that's called trusting Hashem you know seeing oh here's an opportunity should I do it should I not do it and how many times do we overthink everything we overthink everything that's what Hashem gave us this gift of this brain we're the only species with this brain to think, but it could be a detriment. All you do is overthink things and you get nothing done. So, learning to like think about it, make a quick judgment call. I think Elon Musk says, "If you want to be a great CEO, you got to be um decisive and quick with your executive decisions because there's always the flip side of of, you know, of of a thought or an idea. Pull yourself out of it all the time." All the time. Uh so, if you feel like, you know, this is a good move, be decisive and then ignore the chatter. just right blinders on and just and you right where I wanted to talk about because you had again I I didn't know you at the time and I didn't I didn't even recognize your name then I just knew it was a good song and then I heard the the other song King or something like that I remember exactly what it's called and then for a number of years I didn't hear your name right and then you had something with the with the uh rabbi in upstate New York right and then the Rab Rabbi Yung who's an unbelievable Jew by the way that Jew is amazing they have hats on the wall for you to take and cartels it's just such a welcoming place It's beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. I snuck into his uh sitter just to see how many names he davins for that like a post-it factory. It's amazing. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. He's very very unique. And that's when boom every that came out. And so I'm just curious what happened during those years. Where were you? What's what was going on? We're talking about confidence. We're talking about you being out there. Now that I know your music and it's playing in my home and it's like you know Shabas comes in. I have good shabas coming up and you know the sadic thing. Yeah. just if you don't mind take a Don't mind. It's it's something I think about all the time. So, it's going to be a little bit of a longer answer. We'll try to cover a lot of the That's okay. That's all right. Um, so I always sang. I always not I never thought I had a great voice. Um, certainly not like one of those stellar pure angelic voices, but I always knew that I could uh be authentic. Um, and and authenticity is not something you can fake, but I always music. I felt music. I didn't just hear music. I felt it. Um, and I and I I'm feel like I'm a very emotional person and I'm in tune to emotions and that's probably what makes me uh able to be humorous if I want to be humorous or serious or uh it's it's being able to read a room and read people and I'm very sensitive to the the vibes and music makes me feel a certain way and um I always knew that I could be authentic. Um, I loved singing, but I never saw it as a career or like I didn't want to be just another singer. I wanted to be a little different. I wanted my music to have a showcase a little bit of my funny side, my creative side, have a message was very important. I didn't want to just sing a pock. I wanted to come out there and say something. But Jewish music is is shrouded with taboss. There are circles that won't listen to other Jewish singers because that's too much out of their comfort zone. Um there are styles that are resonating in some places that don't re, you know, um just to throw a name like uh Yehuda, remember growing up in the Yehuda, right? He resonated and was awesome with a certain sect and then there were Jews that never heard of him. So just to just he just popped in my head just to use one like so I always wanted to do to do music that was like universal and broke those boundaries. Um it's easier said than done but I always wanted to do songs about subjects. So my family was always close to Rshia the Kristier. My great great-grandfather lived a mile away from Kristier. We were very close. We were going to Ker before it became fashionable. So it was just one year and going coming home from the yard site there were like maybe 200 people total there. Today you have thousands of people you know. So we were coming home and I just wanted to write a song about Shila and I did it more for like me and my family. I went to the great uh lyricist Mati Ilawitz who is today he sings and he's an artist and very talented but at that time he was a bachin. He wrote me the words I would give him. He didn't even know too much about Kristair and I told him like certain stories or different words that I wanted and he came back like a day later with those lyrics. It was like wow. Um so I put out that song. I was doing the arrangement was done by a good friend Rui who was like an Israeli guy who was who was very talented. He I think he lives in Lakewood today. Shout out Ry. We love you. And he was in his basement and I would go over twice a week. You know I was working so I had a day job so I would steal a couple hours. My wife was like looking at me like in the studio again. I'm like this is important. This is good. This is you know and we we just put out that song and I remember thinking to myself like if you really want to blow up and become like the next big cool singer you don't put out a Yiddish song about Ripsh like at that time nobody heard about it or no. So I just wanted to do it for me. So that was always my mission. It was like that's that's a good song for me that suits me because it's different. It's not just a puss. They're not going to say, "Oh, this guy's trying to be just another singer." He's he's actually bringing some some some deeper content to the conversation. So, that's how that song came out. There was another song, Bunim, that I put out and that was also Yiddish words and it was uh to it was a it was a riff on a popular Yiddish like poem that there's a tune for and I took it and I kind of made it into like a pop song with Baram and we j but those songs didn't really go anywhere. Although the feedback, in other words, when I say they didn't go anywhere, they didn't get 20,000 views the first week, but they got 2,000 views and I knew that they were all 2,000 real views. They were people that were connecting to it. They were, you know, what what I also did was I printed a bunch of CDs with just that song on it. Hundreds and hundreds of CDs. And I put cases of them in carer outside the TM. So when people were coming out, they would grab a CD and in their rental car on the way back, they would listen to the track. These people don't have internet, right? You don't have It's like early days. I thought you were going to say you gave it to those guys in Time Square out, you know. That's how it got. Are you Jewish? Um, is your mother Jewish? We'll be right back. This episode is sponsored by Qualmax, backed by Brady Companies, and they have over 180 distribution centers around the country. If you have a problem in your facility, whether it's a healthcare facility, a school, or any other type of location that you're servicing people, you need to figure out the ways to clean your floors, get your elevators smelling good. And these guys, they know what they're doing. Oshi? Yeah. The thing I really love about Qualax, they have everything under one roof. You got your chemicals, your paper supply, your can liners, your floor cleaning chemicals. Anything you need, they got it all. Everything you need, they got you covered. Callmax. And now back to our program. Do you know Jake Paul? Here's a CD. So, uh, so that's kind of how like it just started. Like for me, I just liked it and I was always self-conscious listening to myself and I was always critical like I could have sung this better, that better. But what you put out is better than what you don't put out. Exactly. And that was always my message like, hey, some gains are better than no gains. Let's just do it. It's positive. Makes me feel good about, you know, using my talents. At that time, it was like untapped talents, so to say. And um, that's how that came about. And then I did my Rosha Shona Oman song. That was huge. I was going to Oman for a few years and wrote that song on the plane on the way to Oman. We sang it and rocked it in Oman. And then next year I was like, I got to release this song. So put out the song. Um that song DJ Nisso put out. We put out the original and then we did the remix. Big fan of remixes. I believe you should put out the authentic song with the way you want to hear it and then rock a remix. I think we're in the the era of Messiah is the remix era. I I believe that um I don't think Mashiach's going to pull up on the donkey to like a slow song. I think he's going to rock a remix with a heavy drop. The DJs agree with and if he doesn't if he doesn't we'll make sure that we remix whatever song he comes in. They're ready for machine. We're ready. And um that was kind of it. You know, I had a couple of songs. was gaining traction, but I always saw myself as like this untapped like I knew I had more in the tank and I was cautious. I didn't want to like first impressions or everything and I didn't want to like take my big shot with, you know, like swing for the fences without like I didn't see an opportunity for it. So, I just saw like opportunities to put out what I call like um niche songs. And then the hand of Hashem was obviously seen uh the following story. I was hired to sing a CM. I was playing the guitar. By the way, uh throughout this whole thing, I I don't play instruments. I play like just like a little bit of piano at home. I would write my songs on piano. Very basic. And you used to play piano. No. No, I never did. Yes, you did. More played piano. No, but I remember you sitting at the piano playing. I tried. I took lessons. You took lessons. I failed at it. I That's what I mean. But I when you were when we were growing up together, you took I took lessons. But you know what? C E FG. I was terrible at it. I was really bad. Yeah. Well, you're trying to be like your big brother, you know. Yeah. Exactly. So, at least I tried, you know, more than other people can say. So, I wasn't playing any instruments. And I just remember feeling like I was handicapped because I was I was being called to like, "Hey, Mandy, come here and sing this or Mandy, can you do Hollow and Shul?" There was so many things that I wanted to do, but I always felt like I was showing up to these events and and like someone wants to hire me and now they have to hire a musician to accompany me and now the budgets double for the same guy. And I always felt like I was always busy chasing like kids that play guitar to come like play with me and accomp it was like and I remember one day sitting at my desk in Yellowstone in Jersey, you know, what a 40th floor looking out at the you know the Hudson River. I remember thinking to myself, if I could only play guitar, I would conquer the world. Those were the words I thought. It was like I could just walk in anywhere and take over. And I felt so empowered by the idea of me being independently like able to like play the guitar. I went and bought a guitar and went on to YouTube and in like 20 minutes learned like four or five basic chords and that was the end of my uh guitar lessons. But from there, I just kept playing and playing and playing and taught myself guitar. I'm I'm terrible at guitar. Um, I mean, I can get through a gig, but I'm by no means a a good guitarist, and no one's hiring me for the for the guitar, but it allowed me to go out there and and kind of be my own show. Yeah. So, that was like the first I remember going to Oman for the first time with the guitar and then it it So, you're going to the guitar. you're on the bus, you're playing the guitar that, and then you're getting hired for a gig, so now you're, you know, you have six months of experience, you're playing the guitar. So, that really opened up uh a lot for me and and my confidence that there are so many things I'm good at that I just haven't tried yet. Like, isn't that amazing? How many things do you think you're good at that you've never tried? We're all capable of so much more than what we're doing because we never give it a shot or never really put our mind to it. And I think that the the the magic is being empowered and getting excited. Be like, "Wow, if I could only do X, Y, and Z, then my life changes in such a tangible way." So then just go and do it. Try at least try it. Like you said earlier, by the way, which is resonating on a lot with me, is those little wins is what builds the confidence. So you take the guitar, you go on YouTube, you learn C E F, and then you're like, you have a little win, a little win, and then you start building your own confidence. That's it. And that now I'm now I'm two weeks in and I'm I'm playing these chords that I learned and like I'm not hitting the strings right and the the verd on the it's it's a cheap guitar and my strums are out of rhythm and and but but nonetheless there's like hey I just I just wrote a new song on this guitar. Hey, I just uh I'm feeling something when when I move from this chord to this chord. That's so awesome. And you get lost in it. You know, playing the piano is one thing and you you're it it puts you in in like one box, but playing the guitar is now it's a Spanish feel and it's an acoustic feel and it's just so playing around with different elements uh uh brings different things out of you and and and it was a huge eye openening moment for me. So I'm sitting there at the CM and I'm playing this guitar and who walks in? Rabbi the great Rabbi You. He should be Gazen Stark. He is. Shout out to him. I think he's the BMP of this generation to the extent where he loves every single Jew. I've seen it. He's consistent whether it's in Brooklyn at Ash or upstate in Ashul or you catch him on the street. He loves blessing people. He loves giving to people. He is just a yummy yum a fishy swishy yum yum person. He is awesome. should bench him with tremendous strength and many many more years to bear. So he's he's a special person. I received one of those blessings by the way. Very special. Yes. So so because he means it when he bless it. He means it and it's not just you should be it's like 30 seconds for you ended up golden a kite and gold this. He has like a whole the same like he has a nus and every person gets the same. So he's awesome. So for those that don't know, he was I think like a first grade teacher or or or kid to Allah what it was a kindergarten or whatever it was in in a school. I think it was a in Berlin I'm not sure but thousands of students and he was like a a first grade rebby for 20 30 years and every year parasyak he had the song is a big oh no was a big didn't have a hard part it was just that and repeat no was a big and he came into the scene I'm on the guitar with a band and everyone's dancing and he walks in towards the end of the night and somebody my good friend Doviaakovich big shout out because everything came through that moment he comes and whispers in my ear sing the no is a big tadic song now I'm up there I'm very proud of myself I'm holding my guitar I'm a real singer and I have a band here and I was hired for this job and I'm not in the mood of singing his kindergarten little riff of Kepler to the fiscal I'm just not I didn't think it was appropriate shows how much we know, right? So, but then I tell myself, "Stop it, Mandy. Just who cares? Just do it. It'll make people happy." So, the Reb is already leaving and I start is a big He turns around. The place goes wild because it's an uncommon song and everybody knows it and it's the Reb song and it's light-hearted and it's got all the good feelings and I'm singing it and he's on the Reb is on the chair and he's waving his hands and everyone's jumping and it's like a lit moment and I didn't want to end it because the room was so hot. So I'm seeing from Miss Kea big dick and I'm going back know you and I don't know it's actually on video. This moment's on video. Somebody was videoing it and just the melody the high part melody popped into my head live while and I didn't have words I was like is a big and then the guy made the scene was a big promise ke those and it was over night was over great the next day I get a call from my good friends Ellie Mal Bloomstein Um, and Ari Bloomstein, shout out to the holiest of all time. And um, and Ellie Mel says, "Meny, we saw this clip someone posted on on WhatsApp status of this amazing song. Every is a big tadic and we want to we want to do the song." Now, we've been in touch before and they were always maz, the Bloomsteen always um, told me that I'm amazing and they want to do stuff with me and they were always like supported me and and pumped me up and they're just incredible people. And I was like, uh, he's like, "No, no, no, no. Why are you laughing? This is like this could be a big song." And again, you have to remember where I'm at that time. And I'm like trying to I just put out Rashana Oman and I see myself as like this, you know, potentially like, you know, chart chopping uh chart top. Yeah. Like a sophisticated like the legit the real thing. And he's like, "No, let's sing, you know, from the Keepa to the Fisil." And I'm like, "I'm going to be Uncle Mishi. They're going to call me Uncle Mishi. I'm going to be the next Uncle Moi. And um I was like, "Let me call you back." So an hour later, I get a call from Ellie Melik Blooms and he's like, "All right, check your WhatsApp. I just sent you something." So I I turn on and there's like an arrangement. They have the whole song arranged there with the music and and I'm these guys are serious about this. He worked on it by himself. Oh, he had a whole he made it happen. His whole team is and I'm like, "Oh, it's so great, man." And I'm thinking to myself, Kappa to the Fisil Mendy is not good. And an hour later, I get the final call and he's like, "Listen, we're going to be doing the song with or without you. So, are you coming to the studio tomorrow to record or we're going to get the next guy?" And whether he would have done it or not, I don't know. But he knew how to talk to me. It worked. And he knew that I was overthinking it. And he I got into the studio, one take, 20 minutes, we sang the song. And a week later, they put the song out. And fun fact, as we were recording the [Music] song, you know, we were thinking like, you know, I know some yen that aren't such big sadik. I'm like, is every y really a big sadic? That was the question people not to mention any names, but like some Jews, you know what I'm saying? So, so is that the song? Is is that is that it, Steph? Yeah. Yeah. That's the clip you're talking about, Mandy. That's not my clip. That's him doing the song at the H concert. Okay. So, so, um, as we were thinking, I was like, well, is there is there maybe maybe there's scripture that's that that talks to the point that every like, oh, what about the other [Music] song? That was a famous song that talks about how all of one hole is. I was like, that's great. Let's throw that in as a bridge. And only afterwards, ready for this, did we find out that that was also Rabbi Yung's song from 20 years ago? No. Separate song, separate song sung by all the Rebs and all the and a very very um adopted song. And it's literally the same message. And isn't it amazing how Hashem sends like if this Yid wants to be Mashia to the world that everybody is a big sadic, right? just to dumb down the idea that everyone's a big talic. Meaning you have within you greatness. Forget what you're doing at the current moment, but you have within you the capacity of greatness because you come from greatness and you're part of a a unity of greatness that you know the fact that that song came out like that with the bridge with his it's just it was such a perfect aha moment. We knew we were on to something. So we put that song out. Obviously, that song goes super global. Um, it has that secret magic. It's a little controversial. That's always a good thing. Um, gets people talking about it. Gets, you know, the ones that are pro it. And then you need the ones that are anti- it. And then by this, they can all fight about their perspectives. That's the magic. As long as they're fighting about you, that's as long as they're talking about it and listening to it and their children. And that's where where we really untap the power of two-year-olds and three-y olds were starting to sing this. And suddenly everywhere I go, people are bringing their kids to me going, "He's your biggest man." I'm getting videos and clips from everybody all the time. I mean, Oshi sent me clips of his kids in the car listening. So like suddenly every two-year-old is singing these songs and I'm like, "Am I the next Uncle Mishi?" But I saw something greater in it and I said I said if we can put out songs that are familyfriendly that are easy to listen to simple lyrics that are catchy that adults don't mind listening to then we'll get everybody as our audience because the parent has to listen to Baby Shark whether he likes it or not. Exactly. So if you can give him something that he actually likes and sooner or later they'll see past the foolish flash and glitz that the kid likes about the song and he'll something deeper will resonate with him. Some of the authenticity and maybe some of the clever jokes, you know, everyone could watch um a Walt Disney movie cuz there are deeper jokes within the deeper jokes and the new there for the adults. Exactly. Because it's a family movie. It's not a kids movie, right? And that was like a aha moment for us. We want family music, not just kids music. Uncle Moshi is great for kids. But if we can do family music that was like ah so that blows up big tadic blows up. We uh then were working on an album and Ellie Malik Blumin who writes majority of these songs when I say he writes them he has the initial idea. He comes to the table with his version of the song. And then he totally takes a step back and he allows what I call the writing team, the people in the circle. It's it's Mendy Porto or Izzy or his brother Ari or this guy Yoda Pinsker or or myself or or you know Saki Majeski or Mikey Moss or the Kev with that that Fbrangan are part of the same um will sit there and Ellie M will totally allow the song to be taken to where it needs to go. So I think that's really the recipe of why thank you Hashem is so successful is that they're not rigid. They really want it to grow and they come to the table knowing it's incomplete and there's always room for deeper and greater. So he had the song Chi-Chi Wawa and based on the great Torah that the at Sahara, right, the evil inclination could either be this gigantic big dog that you see and you got to cross the street when when you see him it's like, "Oh, that that guy's that guy's going to kill me." Or he's just a really loud annoying Chihuahua, just a small little Chihuahua that makes a ton of noise and barks and nibbles at your ankles, but you don't cross the street for a Chihuahua. grab him and wherever you were headed, you kind of just all right, he's noisy, he's annoying, but we don't have to detour the route, you know, like we can just keep heading. It's a small annoyance. And that idea of Chi-Chi Wawa, that was the idea of the song. But I was like, Chi-Chi Wawa, this is like, guys, we're asking to be the laughingstock of of the industry here. Like, Chi-Chi Wawa shows how much I know, right? Um, the original lyrics were like, "Yay, sir, horiwa." And I was like, I recorded it already. I was like, "It's so cringy. I can't do it." But they were open. They're like, "Meny, tweak it." How I I knew chi chi chi wow. I knew that would be viral. Yes. But the rest of it needed to like fit. So, we tweaked it three or four times. It was on the album, off the album. At the very last minute, I'm like, "This is too good to leave off. We'll put it on and we'll live with the results, whatever it is." And obviously that song is just blew up. People didn't know what we were talking about. So in the remix we kind of like did the remix has an intro where it's like Rabbi Sai I want you to know the we kind of explained it but the fact that it was open to everyone else's interpretation helped it go viral. People were talking about it again. So less is more you know. Yeah. And it was different. It was different. It was different. And it's a banger. You know it's fun to listen to. It's a common denominator between everything that thank you Asham is doing is that it's different. It's fresh. I mean look at Saki Majeski what he's the guy is unbelievable. I mean he's making a lot of good noise. It's no it's good. It's good noise and it's and it's unique. He just started this WhatsApp group and thousands of people just like but also Saki will agree right in the beginning and he's still in the beginning. It's super rough and it's easy to to say ah this guy's just annoying. But something's going to click along the way and it's he's going to fine-tune it and he's going to get his little bits that work and and Hashem's going to give him sat des and it'll become amazing because there's a need for it. And the proof is that people are following him before it's before it's a polished idea. You know, I think your podcast is like that too is very much you guys came in saying, "Hey, we don't know what this is going to be yet, but we want it to be entertaining. We want it to be, you know, interesting for people to listen to." So allowing something to develop in real time in front of the world's eyes. You can't make that up. That's authentic as authentic. Exactly. That's where we're at, by the way. We have these few thousand, you know, followers and we're listening every day and it's it's kind of an amazing journey. If if you're already doing something that's been established, we know how it's going to end. When you do something authentic, hey, who knows where this is going to go. Come on the journey with us. That's right. Let's explore together. Yeah. Let's see where this adventure takes us, man. So So not not to interrupt you, I just want to finish my my long thought. So, so Big Tadic is out. Everyone's like, "Oh, I can't listen to the song anymore." It's like my kids for four hours in the car. Big overplayed, right? So, then Chi-Chi Wawa comes out. No one plays Big Todd like anyone. Now, they're all complaining about Chi-Chi Wawa. It's like again, so we needed a Fishy Swishy. Yum yum. Sure. Or if not, you can always turn on a rebbit. Tell me or so. So, my my advice to everyone is listen to Fishy Swishy as much as you can cuz before you know, we'll have something else for you. You have something else. You know how I know the songs are good and the so you're doing something different and you know what you're actually helping people listen to Jewish music versus listening to alternatives because you're making it fun. You're making it vibrant and you can get behind it. I'm chilling in my car just cruising and I'm listening to these songs. I'm sorry. I'm not putting on an MBD song. I'm just not I'm not putting on an Aram freed song. These are are alltime greats and I respect that but it's just not doing it for me. I I I live in a a modern world. society today is a lot different even in the Jewish communities than it ever was. And we need to keep, you know, growing with that and recognizing what what we need. We need this. This is what we need more of this because and I'm so happy that my kid is but my kid has no interest now in in listening to Justin Bieber or listening to they don't need it because they have other fun things that they can connect to better and and you're providing that platform. You're giving that and and you know we we love it. you know, your kid, what what are we giving your kid that's different than the other music that you mentioned? I I I don't I don't think we're copying Gisha music. What we're doing is we're repackaging old ideas, old values, um even old melodies. So many of our melodies are like oldish songs or old Reb songs that we like remix and put it. It's it's all about reconfirming who we are. It's not changing anything. If we weren't just repackaging it, I love% I love that. I love how you guys do that. But Michael, would you agree if we stay stagnant and try to hold on to our traditional ways, which I think our parents were in that mindset, right? The one generation prior to us is they tried to, you know, maybe make it a little bit interesting for us, but they really kept and held on firmly to what they believed in, what they were taught, and they forced it on us in in in a very rigid way sometimes. Well, I think what we're doing a little different with the next generation for our kids is that we're we're trying to make it, you know, where we're keeping up with the rest of the world. I don't want to deprive you. Don't you're not sheltered. A matter of fact, your life is probably better than the rest of the world because we're giving them the beauty of what our community offers and what our religion offers. And we're also giving them the other side that you get entertainment too. You get that value as well. I'm giving you I'm giving you the perfect type of life almost, right? And I feel like we're figuring that out and you're a part of that, Mindy. You and all the people. on Thank you. You guys doing by the way. Can we shift to thank you because we haven't talked about that yet. Thank you. By the way, I was thinking about We haven't talked about that at all yet. I don't actually know a whole lot about Thank you. I know a little bit about it, but I don't know like what you guys stand by, you know, what your real mission is, what your purpose, what like what is your mission statement on your website? Like why did they even create this? Why did they start this? And where is it going? What is this about? Could you give us a little bit of insight? For sure. For sure. Uh, I think the main main the main goal of Thank You Hashem is not to make cool Jewish music, but to make Jewish music cool. I'll say it again. Not to make cool Jewish music, but to make Jewish music cool. Unlike Schlack Rock. Remember Slack Rock had its moment. I love But they made they made uh cool music. Like that's what they tried to do. They were they were a parody. Yeah, they were a parody. This is um we're not trying to sound like geisha music, right? We want to sound super Jewy. It's very important. We want to be as panemous dig as possible. We want to like but we want to target the Jewish heart, but we're not distracted by the beat. Like the beat could sound however it wants to sound. We'll still find a way to bring out the the depth of the song and give a good message. And I think that fusion is what you told is is what makes it sound different. We're taking a lot of risks both with the ideas that we sing about and um with the way we present it. For example, this Fishy Swishy song, right, Yum Yum. Um is really a self-mockery song. It's almost I don't know if you guys know how that whole song came about. Um I'll say it for your viewers, but um if you look at the song, it says Rabbi Greenspan. Rabbi Greenspan is this alias, this guy online who uh has like a meme account and isn't that bucker or something? What's awkward bucker? Awkward Bucker. He's not a bucker. He's he's a great guy. His name is Yoseph. I can't blow him. I can't give you his last name, but he lives in Lakewood. He does not have a beard. He's smarty. He has a great head of hair, though. Um, and he has this this thing where he like kind of roasts people and he roasts just like social standards and what people accept and take for granted. So he'll like he'll poke fun at it the way like uh a guy in the mall will draw a caricature of you and he'll take like your slightly big ears and make them super big or take like Donald Trump's hair and make the hair like half the poster and then a small f like exaggerate the things we know about him. That's what he did. And he would he would put out these esque songs. So if you go to YouTube to this Greenspan account, he would do like Isshai Ruboesque and they would take he's he's slightly involved with like music like he knows his way around the computer. He would find a beat a basic beat and in a humorous way he would like make fun of yay put out a song and do like the can or like a freedesque song and he would do like oh yeah you know like copy or zusha or whatever. So about I don't know six or you could look it up but like maybe eight months ago or maybe slightly more he put out a song called Mendy Worsh uhesque song and making fun of me and thank you Hashem how like we take silly words and we could like make a song out of anything like Chi-Chi Wawa or whatever. So he goes and he writes a song. You could take a horse to a fbring. You could also make him drink clink clink. You know, he's making fun of us and all that, you know. Uh fishy swishy yum yum. I saw that video. That's what I was saying to you. I What were you guys drinking? Yeah. This Morris is in the ocean jumping up and down. It's actually unique. And their faces are like zoomed in. That one right there. Yeah. Yeah. When was that released, Steph? Which one? This one. Lower. Yeah. Lower. That one. Seven months ago. Seven months ago, right? Yeah. Good stuff. So, so he puts that out and uh it's it's he's roasting me saying like, you know, puts it out with my name. So, if you search Mandy Wars on YouTube, his video comes up and that's a compliment, right? And when I when when it came out, I was like, "All right, I guess I'm big enough now. I'm popular enough that he's taking shots at me." Exactly. That's how you know you made it. But probably only because I'm with them. Thank you, Hashem. Right. Cuz they're the real hero here. And um and then I Here it is. And then I'm thinking to myself like, wouldn't it be cool to actually take this song and actually like there's no greater revenge to this guy than to actually put out like a like an amazing track. Then I'm thinking like what's the panmus behind these words, horse fabangan thing, you know? But I always knew like fishy swishy yum yum yum. I knew that was the next chi-chi wawa. I knew that was like amazing. My kids at home are singing it. My one-year-old's walking around the house. Cheese fishy swishy. I'm like that's amazing. So, long story short, we ended up doing a track with him. Uh, sort of like Tom Brady showing up to his own roast. Yeah. You know, we we we did it. The song's amazing. Some people have no clue what we're doing. They're like, why would you put out this song? Some people like it's it's it's like what is like it's off-putting to some people, but I think to the clever listening those people, they just need to listen to the song a few more times. We don't care about those and then they'll be an very clear. But I'll tell you this, the what you're doing is phenomenal. So I don't understand. So thank you. Hashem is a music uh it's all about putting out good music. Like I think it's worthwhile rewinding because I know a little bit about it. So I'd love to for you to answer Ushi and just like the Bloomston brothers when they started this this uh you know nation, right? What was their goal? Where did they want to see this heading? And where do they see it heading now? Like we see a lot of music. They're bringing in a lot of talent obviously and that's very very helpful for getting the message out there and making you know the music cool making cool music right uh and they're doing a great job with it. What was their mission originally? What what do you think is their secret sauce? And other than music, what else are they doing? Where do they want to go? If you could just tell us Yeah. a little bit of the background. You know, I asked him to come on the program and he said no. So, uh you know, you you'll have to do it on his behalf. All right. So, I guess I'm gonna speak on his behalf. Yeah. None of your business, Michael. No, no, no. All right, Charles, you're gonna have to come on. Uh, thank you, Hashem was started by some really good yidden. And yes, the Bloomstein brothers uh are the big big push powerhouse behind the movement. I think the movement started uh more of like an awareness that we all say like, "Yeah, thank all these things." But like to really be like, "Hey, say it in English." You know, a lot of kids have no idea what uh doesn't resonate, you know, to a lot of people. You Hashem and they and and you know, they they started this tremendous movement. I don't think it was more than a logo and maybe some stickers and like uh you know, I don't think there was an Instagram account in the beginning. Um I'm pretty sure it started with a bumper sticker. A bumper sticker. Yeah. Um and it became uh pop culture very quickly because um they're marketing geniuses. That's what they do. and very, you know, if you print a bunch of swag and give it out and have a bunch of cool people, popular people wear it, you know, everyone's going to want a piece of that. What's this new, you know, and I think that's how they got it started. They they are all about Pinemius. They do not want to monetize Thank you, Hashem. I can tell you that despite what people say or think, um, I can tell you firsthand, they're not looking to make money on Thank You Hashem. Uh they'll sell merch on their website tyhnation.com. Shout out. Um they're selling it for less than it cost them to make it. um they're constantly spending money self-funding this thing with a couple of other good yidden uh who see this as a holy work and see this as charity and see this as as outreach and a way to spread positivity spread uh uh um Jewish pride and um just you know we're we're in we're in the anxiety age. We're in the age where everyone's stressed and thinking about their feelings. And here's a movement that just wants to spread happiness and light. And even if it's like makes you uncomfortable, it's like, whoa, they're they're too happy. This is too happy clappy. All right. Here's a song called Happy Clappy, you know, like whatever you want to say about it, there's there's there's merit to it. And and they're just about spreading Yiddish today. Thank you, Hashem, cannot be defined by any one department. Um, they have an incredible team. They have the most talented people. It's super rewarding to work with them because everything you're working on is deeply impactful to the greater clout. I mean, everything that we do, we try to to we ask ourselves, is this going to be a benefit? Will be a net gain? Will there be a positive net gain to claw yourself for this? And if if the answer is yes, hey, we can mock ourselves. is you can put me on a blowup tube with a banana and AI generated running on the beach with Chihuahua. Like that's fine. If that's the cost of spreading positivity, that's what we're here for. And um today, thank you Hashem has the music department. They have a shul. They have um emissaries, mashp, how do you say a mashpia in English? Influencers. influencers that are that are in colleges and schools around the country and around the world. Um people interviewing Yidden on the street. They have a tremendous internet presence. They, you know, we're going to schools and singing in school lunchrooms for an hour, giving out merch. You know, giving out merch looks like a a joke, but it's not because that kid that puts a sticker or you may have a I I came in here without asking. I put a thank you Hashem sticker on your none of your business podcast poster here and um I'm unapologetic about it because I believe that that's either yourselves or someone else may come in here one day and see that and it might resonate and and I think it's a message we're all for. You know, you may not be for the movement or thetik that that you saw thank, but but at the core, I think we're all for the same message. And thank you, Hashem just wants to keep spreading Yiddish. And and I think Thank you, Hashem on a deeper level is a way of life for a lot of these people, including myself. Uh it's a way of life. Yeah. It's it's Thank you, Hashem is not something you say. It's a way of life. It's how you view I want you to know I'm getting a little emotional inside. I'm being honest cuz I'm a father and you're proud of your big brother. Look at me. I'm I'm Yeah, I'm stepping. I'm loving this. So, it used to be for thousands of years it was all about let's get rid of the Jews. How do we eradicate the Jews? We don't like the Jews. And uh they would literally just they would kill us. Like that was kind of the way to do it, right? And people have tried for forever. There is a new warfare going on today. They don't need to eradicate the Jews. Matter of fact, let's welcome them into our circles. let them assimilate with what we have going on and bam, that's how we lose the Jews. Before you know it, it's a matter of time until our identity goes into total crisis and there's so much that's out there. It's so accessible. It's so easy. It's so open. I shuddered to think, how is my child that's growing up now? He's seven, eight years old. By the time he's 13, oh my god, how am I going to contain him? There's going to be so much at his fingertips. It's very nerve-wracking. And what's happening is that you know the old traditional styles of what the have been doing for a long time. It's great and it's nice. You keep them in a bubble. Let's shut. But that is just a matter of time until that falls apart. And you guys are combating this in you're fighting fire with fire. You're saying we're not going to take this whole thing and you know putting our content you know people might look down on it and say oh you no no you you're doing an amazing thing is that you're not just stigmatizing something bad. You're actually giving it in a positive way and you're taking their brains and you're steering it in a really good direction that they could grow from this. They could become amaz and I'm so happy that my kids and my friends kids and my community's kids have people like you that are thinking about this stuff and you're because I'm busy Mendy. Michael's busy. We're doing our whatever we're doing. We're not think and you're just like creating a platform for all of us so we can keep the beautiful thing that we have intact. And it's just unbelievable. I'm I'm loving this concept of thank you, Hashem. And I feel like we we need to really embellish this. We need to make this even even bigger and give you more resources so you could protect what we've protected for thousands of years that we could potentially lose very quickly in 20 30 years from now. We'll lose it all if we don't take the stance that you guys are taking. By the way, you see what's happening? By the way, she's already moving in. Yeah. Yeah. I was gonna I was going to turn him on to Bitcoin, but Schmila took it. Um, absolutely. because I I didn't realize there was a real need for it. I'm so distracted in my own world and just trying to keep it all together for myself that I'm not realizing there's a greater picture here. It goes way beyond just me and my block and my little shul. I mean, what this is something that's so sacred that we've protected for so long that we're in jeopardy. Yeah. I I just want to You got me thinking now and I just had a tremendous idea. I think the you know, a big shout out goes to the previous generation. You know, it's very easy for us to say previous generation, they were in their box, they had their music, da da d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d but that's not going to work for us today. And I think it's very important to say that the previous generation had the job of patching like like Humpty Dumpty putting back together what was almost lost. It was like we came from Europe. We've been through the worst chapter of all time. Talk about like what you said before what they're trying to They almost did it. like they almost did it and morale was low and talking about like being influenced and being susceptible to like instant death as a as a culture. We were at our weakest in the previous generation and it was their job to put together the remnants and the remains of what was broken and try to patch it back up. this generation, we can now go and take what they've saved and kind of repackage it and make it fresh again for for today's ears. But really without the previous generation holding on to what we call stale. But that was so essential because we would not have the platform or the audience to do what we're doing if we didn't have the 20 30 years of MBD freed and what you're calling you know washed out music which I I I I disagree. I think the sound is different but I think the essence of that music a lot of that music still the effect of that the influence of those you know very very influential singers or or people at that time previous generation I think it still um flows through our avoida today but the previous generation had a tough job they couldn't thank you Hashem couldn't have worked 20 years ago it's only because we've healed and we've rebuilt and gotten to a place today where we have an audience that can accept positivity and happiness. It's we're ready for it right now. Yeah, I think we were too busy saying really we made it right. But it came desensitized and right and now yeah you don't want to bring a knife to a gunfight, right? Everybody knows that uh if we don't do what you're doing, we're not get I mean everything around us is advancing so fast and happening so quickly that if we fall too far behind and not try to adjust appropriately and meet the the demand of the day, we're going to have a very difficult we're going to be lost very soon. So you guys are at the cusp I I think of something really big and if you guys not just start like making it about that's why I asked you thank you Hashem it's got to be a real movement that it becomes a lifestyle it becomes a lifestyle for the kids that Jewish pride you said something I think when we started this podcast I said those words Jewish pride Jewish pride I don't want to be embarrassed when I walk out in the street and the October 7th thing was a big thing for us because we all felt it every one of us whether you want to admit it or not if you were I don't know in the airport or whatever, you were thinking, should I should I wear the cap or should I rock the yamaco or you were you were walking down the city, you certainly weren't wearing your Trump cap and you weren't wearing an Israeli flag and and maybe you were thinking twice about, you know, leaving the muza on the door, right? We all heard, you know, Jews that were had very that was their one Jewish thing that they were doing is that their house that they got from their grandfather still has a muza, they went and were pulling it off the door. So talking about hiding your Jewish pride that we we live through that and um we just want to be more proud. We like you know we've been winning. Yether than are winning. It's so it's so easy to say well we've been persecuted. No you have been winning forever despite everything we've gone through. It's a winning franchise. Yes it is. You know what I'm saying? Got a pretty good record. It's a it's a winning franchise. A lot of flags. A lot of pennants. It's worth a lot of money. The stock keeps going up. Keeps going up. So So we have to remember that. And that's what we should be driving into our children. And we should be saying, "It's awesome to be a Yid." And we have to be proud to be Yid. And have fun. Everybody relax a little. Just have fun. It's okay to smile. It's okay to take something lightly. It's okay to to to even say, "Oh, that's silly." Without hating the people that did, you know, everyone just take a deep breath. Yeah. Now I will say that there are some people unfortunately because when you were coming on I wanted to prepare myself a little bit and I didn't know anything about thank you Hashem other than I know it's around and I you know it's got a pretty big reputation but I asked some people like what do you know about thank you and apparently some people are hating on it a little bit. We're the reason Mashia is not here. Don't you know? Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. I never heard this. Yeah. A matter of fact I heard this from someone who heard it from a rabbi who's not a big fan of it. I don't know why they didn't get into the weeds of what their issues are. This rabbit doesn't know Hashem like we know Hashem, right? He's got to get closer because they they I can, you know, I'm not going to speak for them, but I imagine they're looking at it as that you're trying to twisting something and you're creating your own version of it. It hasn't been done like this forever and you're coming up with the and they don't like they're uncomfortable with it. They're uncomfortable with you. But I think that it's absolutely necessary. I think if you want to be doing what you're doing, I think their version is going to die out very soon because the forces of evil that's around us are just too rampant and they're too strong that we need this. We absolutely need this. But I also understand where they're coming from and that's something we do at Thank You Hashem. We we try to understand the opposition because everybody has some truth to what they're all coming from somewhere. Now, sometimes you meet a guy who's just off base, and it doesn't mean you have to always submit to their opinion, but understanding someone else's opinion is is the key to success. You have to understand like the needs of the other person, you know, I think a lot of the the push back when you say now a regular Joe like me and you, if they don't like Think Hashem, hey, plenty of other channels, skip the track. But for like uh das tora for like a rv or someone of of pos of influence to say that we're essentially not kosher or not good or doesn't they just are simply they just don't know. Yeah. They just don't know because it's not possible to hate something that's amazing. Right. It's the same people that wanted to ask for something. They don't have enough information. Exactly. By the way, what did say was music? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, we're getting carried away over here. We have so much to talk about but we have very little time left unfortunately. I feel like we could do this forever. I I I had a list of questions. I didn't get to any of them but um yeah I I do want to ask you one question because um you know this is a topic that has been strewn about within our community a lot and a lot of people have their opinions on the matter. There's two sides to the coin here. But you're someone who could speak to the matter because you were actually you know involved in in a way. So I'd like to hear your perspective. I would like to hear your thought and it's as following. Cash advance uh oh is a very very uh familiar type of role that a lot of Jewish people have and participate in. You know real estate, car leasing, right? Healthcare, right? We have sort of our lanes that people live in. This is one of them podcast actually isn't uh you know so so rapid. We're getting there but we're getting there. People are starting them you know very quickly. Well, cash advance is definitely one of those industries that a lot of Jewish people are in. Now, I think the uh the obvious is that, you know, cash advance could get uh very risky. It could get very suspect in the sense that, you know, um just how it all unfolds. You know, somebody needs cash desperately um and you make it available to them, but at a very high price, right? At a very very high price. A lot of time it doesn't work out and then you know things escalate and things start derailing very rather quickly and you're in the other side of that that you're somewhat supporting this because you know you initiated this and you're a part of this. Now we could say this about a lot of industries people in a few industry well you're taking care of people that are dying. You're taking advantage of people. Yeah. But there's got to be somebody that's doing it and typically those people try to do it in a way that they're trying to do what's best. You know they're trying to make cash advance. It's got a very bad stigma for a long time. So, what is your perspective on the entire topic? What would you say to a lot of the people that have put out there, ah, if you're in cash, you must be a bad person. You don't have a heart. You're somebody who I don't want to affiliate myself, but you're in cash advance. Like, what would you say to those people? Good question, Oshi. Um, not here to talk about the pros and cons of Cash Advance. I can only tell you about my experience in cash advance that um I was given an opportunity to work in a big company very early on before cash advance was the big fad that you're describing today. Um worked at a very big company in the city financial district was you know early days and um I'm typically on the lending side. We don't use the word lend, but um I'm I'm on the money investment. Let's call it the investment side. And I get the deals are brought to me through brokers. So when someone says he's in cash advance, 90% of the time you're talking about someone who's on the broker end of it. So he's looking for that business. He's trying to convince that guy why it's good for him to take the money. Now he took the money. He wants to sell you another deal. Like he's just looking for his commission. So he's sell. And money sells itself. So, when you add a salesman behind that, it's it's easy to to get those deals. I'm on the risk-taking part of it. So, I don't see the glitz and glamour of it. Um, in other words, I'm not dealing with people, you know, with with merchants, so to speak. I'm just more on the funding side of it. You're doing the underwriting. You're evaluating. I have people that do the under. I'm like, I set up a fund and we fund the people running these books. Um, cash advance like anything else is a tool that could be abused or could be very helpful. I can tell you stories about um, you know, the guy who needed quick cash and we helped him. He was responsible. He followed our directions. He didn't take multiple deals. He didn't overextend himself. He, you know, paid off early, got a discount. It was helpful for him. Called us the next day. Opened a new location. like we wouldn't be in business for this long if there were only failures and only people getting hurt. This would not be an industry. Uh it's a booming industry because it's a great product that people need. That's the part that people forget. Now in every business, you know, it's hard to regulate this business because a lot happens, you know, between guy A between, you know, A and B, two people. Um can't really stop a guy from selling you his receivables. It's hard to regulate like all those things. But um if your mindset when you wake up in the morning is to be like I said before a positive addition to the world and and and help people as opposed to hurt people and if that's who you are you'll find ways to do it whether it's cash advance whether it's healthcare whether it's raising your children driving carpool like you can be a positive and have a positive impact on people no matter what you do. So it really is based on the person. I will say it's not fun to tell people that you're in cash events. It's gotten a really bad rep, but uh it has, you know, healthc care also had a bad rep for a long time. Yeah. And people every time they hear about a certain lawsuit or they hear about a certain situation with their patient and oh, all healthcare operators, all they care about is the money. That's all they're driven by. They don't really care about the patient care whatsoever. And it's quite frankly not true because, you know, you don't, you know, one person doesn't represent the entire basket. And there's a lot of people that are in health care really because they genuinely care and they like to help people and they also make money responsibly along the way and that's fine. That's the only thing that makes the world go round and round. You got to have people that are actually turning a profit or nobody would do anything then otherwise you revert into a socialistic environment. We know that doesn't work right. So I I I get the merit of what you're saying is that everybody can take anything and turn it good or turn it bad. But just to push back a little bit, specifically more in the cash advance field. And these brokers, you're right. I'm talking a lot about these brokers that are out there looking for opportunities, you know, and more often than not, they'll hear about someone who needs help. They'll offer them what their solution is, and deep down they know this guy's never going to pay it back. There's no way. like they know that they're almost somewhat I want to say an accomplice to this because they're supporting it and they're going to make their money at the end of the day, but they know that they're setting this person up for failure. And that person, by the way, is desperate. That person is not making a smart decision by by taking on that that extra loan, you know, and but they don't have any other choices. They don't know where else to turn to. I wouldn't want to be that conduit is what And by the way, I'm not a good person. I wouldn't want to lose money to that person because he wouldn't be able to pay me back and I'd lose my money. So, it's a self-correcting It's a self-correcting issue. In other words, if there's a guy who shouldn't be taking the money, just because there's a good broker telling him that he should, you still got to find someone that wants to invest in this guy. So, it gets underwritten. And you know, if there has to be merits to the deal and anyone that that invests in a business and thinks it's bad for that business is a bad investor, right? We only invest in businesses that we want to do business aundred years with you. We want you does cash advance not take loans on even though there's a lot of risk as long as they're getting collateral like someone's house I mean they're not necessarily looking at the underwriting to like does it warrant getting a loan can do they have enough cash flow that they can eventually pay this back or is it they they take it on yeah typically cash events is is a nonsecured transaction so there's no assets if there's assets or if there's there's collateral it becomes a loan and then there's regulations this is not a loan This is a purchase of receivables, future receivables. So, it's almost like a partnership. I give you 10,000 now. You buy your freezer, you sell on the beach over the summer, you make 30 grand, give us back the 10 plus another five or so. Okay. So, you're not denying that the cash advance industry could get a little bit dirty and it could get a little bit off the rails, but that's the part that people are seeing and glorifying. But there's another part. My business is to still do my version of cash advance and ignore what is going on there in the general sense like staying in our box. I don't need to fund a hundred deals. Give me my handful of deals that we like. Let me deal with brokers that are honest that syndicate on the deals with us so we know they're not doing anything malicious. There's there's we run a much smaller shop. We're very selective and uh we try to just do repeat business. You know, try to stay away from funding the garbage. I'm curious for those people that don't know, including myself, I know that I've spoken to a dentist once that needed a $40,000 machine and he had no idea how to get it and how to get the money for it and he did a cash advance and he he took a loan. I'm curious what kind of businesses all because you're on this topic and you have a lot of experience in this for our listeners what kind of businesses actually have good use from these types of loans like you know for those people that are out there if I own a supermarket I own a restaurant I own a distribution company typically businesses that have a lot of receivables so like not the guy that gets one check from Neiman Marcus that he sells to once you know or the the trucker who who's getting one check when he delivers goods that 30,000 a month is not as strong as a guy making 20,000 a month selling coffee at $2 a cup. But they have lending options for Yeah. But a lot of them are have have exhausted those options, right? So once you've exhausted the receivable lending, right? already. I have I have a business loan and I have an SBA loan and I have a loan from my father and my brother's my partner and I have everything and now my freezer broke and my ice cream's melting or now um my landlord said like the the pipe broke in my store or my awning felt like and you're going to naturally have to pay more interest because the person's taking the most risk. Yeah. Now I'm not I'm not I'm not helping you start your business. You already need to have you know uh reoccurring revenue predictability. But you're asking me which businesses do well and and who I recommend it for. I think businesses that have good cash flow, consistent cash flow where every day you're not going to feel a hundred or $200 that are coming out of your account to to satisfy this. Um those are the ones that do well. The ones that so like like retail stores do really well or like many many smaller transactions do better than a few larger transactions because those are unpredictable. Your check's late one month, now you're in trouble. What happens when someone can't pay back to a cash advance company? The day comes, they have reckoning and now the interest just piled up and he has these missing payments already and you they can see that they're not getting their money back. You go through your recourse to legalities just to make sure that they're they're actually in the situation that they're saying, right? Sometimes guys tell you they're struggling, but all they did was change bank accounts and now took your money and, you know, off to the races. So, you get your lawyers to to search the courts and just make sure that you put some UCCC leans, make sure that uh that you can track some of the revenue, but what's the typical percent that cash? I don't even know. I mean, I just imagine that it's very high, but I can only speak for me, you know, knock me off my knock my socks off my feet here for a second. Like, what is the average uh percentage that they take? let's say a regular guy he owns a grocery store and he makes you know a little bit of net income at the end of the month and you know a little bit that he makes but this month uh one of his you know his freezers like in your example broke down he needs 100 grand now to buy a whole new thing he doesn't have that cash sitting around doesn't have that capital so he comes to a cash advance company and they write out a three-year loan for him a fiveyear loan whatever it is it's it's short it's short it's short yeah and it's not a loan it's not a loan it's an investment no it's a purchase of their future receivables. The guy says, "Meny, I need a h 100red grand." I say, "What for?" He goes, "I need it for X, Y, and Z." And he clearly shows me how that 100 turns into 200 in six months. That's what we're looking for. We're looking for opportunities to invest in a short-term investment with someone. We don't want to be a partner in their business long-term. We don't want to give them a loan. We don't want to take collateral. I don't want to lock up their house. We just want to be like, okay, you have a short-term plan of how this chunk of cash could help you make more. And then from that, from your futures that you're predicting, we want to purchase a percentage of that and we'll take it daily. You're a short-term temporary partner is what you want. You're going to make a little bit of money on this. I want to make a nice chunk on that as well. I don't want my six, seven%. I'm not giving you a loan. I'm giving you money that you can invest and I also want what might be I want to I want 30 40% of what you're making, but I'm not here forever. As soon as you paid back, I'm out. You can continue, right? Hey, over the next six months, you're going to give me back 15,000. Here's 10,000 now. So, in finance talk, that would be a 150 factor rate. Okay? We use factor. It's not APR, not percentage. Factor rate would be 1.5 time 10 would be 15K. That would be the payback 1.5. It's a factory. Um, typically cash advance deals go between a 130 and a 150. There's probably a 10% commission to the broker bringing you the deal. Eight 10%. So you're putting this back on the It's like oxycodin, right? When we had that epidemic, you know, early on, right? The do the when the pharmacy companies were pushing, you know, this product and it was really necessary. It was really a good thing. It was helping people. They were in chronic pain and this people were in endless amounts of real real pain and this got rid of that. And then what happened was it just got out of control and the wrong people got their hands on it and it it spiraled. It spiraled. So it's it's like what you were saying in cash advance. Yeah. There's a dark side to it of people that are abuse it and they shouldn't be doing on both sides. On the receiving side and on the lending side on both sides. There are people that are not so ethical and not you know doing it the right way. In every business in every business. In every business. Let me ask you uh what's if you have to pick like what's the shadiest industry you could think of? The shadyiest industry. Come on. What's the oldest one? What you what do you call a guy who's just sleazy? A podcaster. A car salesman. A used car salesman. There you go. Okay. Right. They got the worst rap. They got the worst rep, right? Does no one buy used cars all the time. All the time. Maybe more used cars than new cars being sold. But people are very weary when they meet their car sales as they should be because the used car guy, it's the used car industry is unregulated. You never know what he's selling you. You never know where where he'll be tomorrow when you need your warranties. In other words, there's so much room for dishonesty. Yeah. So it gets abused. Mhm. But there are also Fortune 500 companies that sell used cars. Go to cars.com, they sell used cars, but they're doing it right. So just because there's an abused industry doesn't mean it's not a service for millions of people. Has there been any very notable stories that happened that maybe g you know gleaned a little bit of light onto this industry is very dangerous. Stay away from it. must be because otherwise just happen on its own that cash advance became like you know a notoriously dirty on its own something must have happened I think because we've gotten to the point right now like people wouldn't do necessarily with somebody who is in the cash advance business like that's how bad it is in the cash advance I don't want my daughter marrying a guy like that you know and didn't happen on its own it must have been some type of well you know a lot of guys make money so the cash events got a bad rep because all the little kids with their gold watches flying private and fast money fishy swishy schvitzy schvitzy money. It's like too much too much. And a lot of them made their money while somebody else. You have you have the general public is busting that their their tus trying to make a living and here's a little kid buying all the alias on shabas and rolling in in his private jet and he's got a a mayback waiting for him outside because he has no bills and he's doing cash adance for two minutes and he he he made a so it's understandable why people would you're not even against the guy you're against the whole industry you're against the whole movement of like like so it's understandable it is But it's a huge product. Cash advance helps millions of people. There are really big companies on deck and really big goes companies that are doing cash advance. Amazon, Ammex, into it. Uh QuickBooks, right? Uh they're I think Chase for a while was doing JP Morgan was doing their version of a cash advance. I would say Amazon is the most popular one, right? You're selling more, let me give you money, right? and for a high interest, right? So, why is that? Right? Just because it's regulated. They're bigger. They're too big to be corrupt. There's no Jewish kid uh 18-year-old selling you, you know, tomorrow I'll give you a line of credit. Just take this. I'll help you buy and then you never hear from him. But I like the way you phrased it. It makes me feel a lot better about it. By the way, I hear a whole new window into this right now. Is that we don't do loans. We don't lend people money for high interest rates. You're the wrong person. I don't want to give you money. We invest in people in their ideas. and they don't have the money right now. But for our investor, we're taking more risk because a bank is clearly not giving you a loan. That's why you're coming to me. It's unsecured. It's unsecured. I don't know you. Phone call. I'm wiring you money. I want a big return. I want a big return based off your credit score and your driver's license picture. I wouldn't give you money if you walked into my office. I wouldn't give you $5. So why am I giving? Because you have to kind of detach from that and you have to like look at it as an investment. Look at the numbers. I'm curious, by the way, I get this question a lot from, you know, young people that are making money. They're starting to make money, and they say, "What should I do with $10,000? What should I do with $25,000?" Not crazy numbers. I'd say the max I've got asked is $25,000. And um it's always a great question. I mean, you know, the answer that I always give is just put it in a secure place. Bitcoin, as much sec as secure as possible. You know, there's other answers to give when people come to you with large amounts of money. you know, you say divide it into 10 and you know, there's smart ways of answering it. Recently, someone just deployed a software where you can invest as little as $100 in cash advance. Not recommended. And I'm curious. Yeah, that's not recommended. Thank you, Hashem. I did not need to take outside money from anybody. I've never taken personal money. But we're so hungry to invest in this because I can make 30%. Comment and saying I can make 20%. You could. You could, but you're not going to be spread across the whole portfolio and you're not going to be in every single deal. And the reason why we make money hopefully is yeah, each deal is expensive, but then you have 20 30% that go bad and then you the other 20% you only collected 50% and the other and then you average it out and take off the commissions that you prepaid on every single deal and all that. So now you're left with your 20. If you're just going to go in and roll the dice on one deal, well, you're a collective of deals apparently. Yeah, you you could. And listen, I'm not saying by design, maybe they maybe maybe it works, but yeah, I'm doing this a long time over a decade. Not a lot of people running around saying they made money. What should I do with 10 Brandon? What would you say as a quick answer? I'm not kidding. I think you should buy Bitcoin. I'm a huge I'm a huge Bitcoin guy. Good. Are you you also run to that bandwagon? Did you buy some? For years. You bought? Oh, we have. Yeah, we have for years and years and years. Wow. Yeah. Good. Smart. But I I believe that I'm not just I'm not just trying to be funny. I I believe Bitcoin right now is probably the best, most secure going to be the most upside possibility on of any investment that I can think of. And you don't need to know anything. You don't have to be hands-on. You don't need to know real estate. You don't need to know the guy. They did all the thinking for us. It's just plug and play. And and that's good. But I I see we got to finish. So, I know you have a wrap round question, but I I actually prepared some wraparound questions cuz your wraparound questions have not been good. You guys, that is the weakest part of your podcast. So, I'm just going to jump in. I want to help likes the idea. I want to help you out. Do you like the idea, though? That's the question. You do like the idea. I do like the idea. And I actually think it's it's it's not as bad as people say. I think you guys are doing better than than you're admitting. I think uh this podcast is awesome. He likes round. I do. I like the lightning round. blow it up. I I like the lightning round. If this, you know, if I would have taken the position and this would have been my podcast, Michael, I mean, uh, me and you would have I mean, we would have there are other podcast. We would have been on the moon already before you hit me up with your lightning round. Let me ask you a few questions of my own of a lightning round. Okay, ready? We got to put a shot clock on. All right, it's we're just I'm going to go as fast as possible. Which singer do you secretly have your heart set on singing with that you have not done yet? MBD. Although we've we've sang together a little bit, but you want to produce something with him. That would be pretty cool. You you better get moving on that. He's not he's not a young man anymore. You're driving to Orlando for Pesak. What's one entire album that you'll listen to from the beginning till the end? Every word, every nuance of every you know what. Uh great album would be the eighth note by Yasi Green. The eighth note uh he put out. That's Yassi Green composer. So probably 20 years ago he and you know every one of those songs he put out that album and each song was sung with by him and another artist and I think it was gamechanging when he came out. It was like a themed album. The whole thing was about Msiah and every song was a different thing and and and every song sounds different and and it was just awesome. What's your Friday night shalom tune? Actually we have our own. Yeah. Really? You created your own? Yeah, we have our own. How does it go? [Music] Fishy squishy. Yum. Yum. Yum. No. So, you and your kids sing that. Yeah, we sing that. Yeah. Okay. Wow. Okay. I I only have a couple of more. Hold on. I know you have yours. You'll get to it in a second. Um, what's the most financial gain? How much money did you actually make on one gig or one album or one song? Like the net profit totally look back and say, "Oh, that song made me x amount of dollars." Um, travel gigs. So, when you whenever you get called to travel, get on a plane, you can uh there's a lot of upside there. So, like I was hired to do a shabas in LA. So, I flew in a couple days early, hit the elementary school for an hour on Thursday night, hit the yeshiva Friday morning, did the budget. So when you can like go out to a community and see three elementary schools and then hit the high school and then do the shul over shabas and then do the alumni like you get to meet thousands of people and spread like and those are f total I mean 30k on a trip. Love it. Love it. Okay my final one is something that I' I've been thinking about before you came here is okay I want to know what you're working on next. Well, I will tell you it's it the the big hits have always come after like you think nothing's going on. Right before Pesak, I put out a song called Mckimi. We did a hollowot mix and we did Fishy Swishy Yum Yum in a week. All three songs in a week. Right before Pesak. The week before that, none of these songs existed. I mean, they existed, but none of the actual They can happen in a vacuum. They do happen in a vacuum. Thank you. Hashem moves very fast. They they don't have the capacity or brain power to hold things on the burner too long. It's in, we're out, and we're on to the next thing. There's a lot of like So, you don't need passion and then it gets stale. So, one next thing you're working on right now, do you know? Do you have something in the burning? We're working on some cool stuff. Come on. Come on. Um, are you going to do more music videos in the future? Like, I will say I will say there's going to be more AI. The guy that did the AI for Fishy Swishy and we kept that a mockery. We kept it like looking foolish on purpose, but it shows the potential. I think we untapped a new level of the game for Jewish music as a whole. I think other artists are going to start using AI. I think I like that, by the way, because AI is the wave of the future in general for young people to know career-wise, open their eyes for it. For sure. And and and we're looking to hire this guy full-time and and a whole This is a trailblazing video that you did. I will tell you something new. I for sure. and we up the bar, you know, seeing all the other singers singing our silly song at their concerts that they're, you know, their paceoff concerts, you know, you're resonating with them, whether it's, you know, see past this and realize, wow, this is love it. This is the future. The one thing actually we always end up with, and I know you have your questions, but I'm going to ask you first, is who would you recommend to be on this podcast? Wow. What do you want? You want a singer? I want guy. You want a used car sales? I want someone that's meaningful to you. someone that we can grow with, someone that, you know, fits our profile of what we're looking to do. Like you inspired me today, Mandy. All of our guests, we look for them like to inspire us some way to learn one thing. What I learned from you today is just on this whole mission, this whole movement of what Thank you, Hashem is doing and how necessary it is. And it inspired me. It really struck a nerve. I thought you were going to marry into cash advance now. No, no. I'm just saying you moved me. You moved me with that. Like that's is part of our growth. It's part of us growing personally and professionally. So, it could really be a wider array of I think you should Yeah, I think you should interview Reb Aari Levitton and he should tell you about the community and how he's watched you and the rest of uh my old classmates. I love to the great men that you've become. I would love that, but he's not I don't think it's not happening. I don't think so. Give us one more. Um I think you should interview Alex Cla. Do you know who that is? Love it. Where does he live? He's around. Is he? Yeah. I think he's uh in England and then I throw but I'm a big fan of his. Can you help us? Yeah. Okay. I think he has a tremendous story. Uh he was a uh chart topping artist. He was I think he dated uh Amy Winehouse. Did he really? Um and I think he his his big hit was when his song uh was on the Microsoft uh one of the computer laptops surface Surface uh commercial that blew him to the stratosphere. Gave it all up. Um, and now he's a Mashia. Wow. And he could tell you about Thank you, Hashem. He could tell you about his relationship. I think he'd be a great guy. We'd love to get him. Can you help us get him on? Normally I would call him, but he's in London. So, yeah. No, I'll make a call. We'll try to put you guys uh together. All right. Couple questions for you guys. First of all, thank you for having me on the None of Your Business podcast. Um, this was amazing. Thank you, Stephan, for very few interruptions today. I guess I covered everything. By the way, I'm upset at you. It took you this long to get to like here. I mean, Mandy, I love you. Thank you. I really do. It's mutual. I love you guys and I love what you're about. And let's do it again for real. I think we have a lot more to talk about other than Ushi. Uh, all right. Um, Ushi, I have a question for you. Yeah. Who do you think does a better solo podcast? You or Michael? Oh, wow. He He went right for it, by the way. Wrap around. Rapid question. Who do you think he's gonna Come on, guy. You Mike, you agree? Of course, I don't agree. Good. All right. Cool. Uh, have you guys ever done solo shop? We did. We had competition. We did one. And which one? Which one? It was neck and neck. Neck and neck. Yeah. You guys are being nice to each other. I feel like you need to come with more passion to try to really You try to break us up here. I like this. All right. Next. Um, would you rather Well, actually, this question is for both of you. What would you rather? A check for a million bucks or that this episode gets a million listens? A million bucks? Really? Yeah. A million listeners. A million listeners. Yeah. Yeah. What's your reasoning? Why a million dollars she I feel like I can do something with that now. I feel like a million listeners leads to something maybe. Michael, why a million listeners? You know what it is? Money is not something that you can actually grow in depth and in height. Money is something that's just like it's it's almost invisible. I mean, it's like it's here. It's not. Truth is a million get a million gives you a lot a big project. You could actually grow a lot of a lot quicker. A million listeners for this episode brings us a million listeners for next episode. That's right. All right, I'm going to change my answer. I'm going to say a million listeners. Did you cash the check it? That's too late. Oh, is he allowed to do that, by the way? I mentally you already spent it. We We heard clink clink clink. Um All right. I think the right choice would be more views cuz then the podcast is worth more sponsors. Yeah. But okay. Um Ushi, this is a baseball question. M would you rather hit a World Series game-winning home run on your little league Orchard Hill team, hero forever, a legend of Queensland? Legend forever. Or would you rather be the Yankees bat boy for a week? I'm going to go with the first one. Really? Yes. Yes. I would relish being a Yankees bat boy. I would even be a ball boy in tennis for the tennis players, like handing them their sweaty towels. I would do that, too. Okay, I I I would love that job, by the way. And I would soak it all in and I would just be mesmerized by the whole scene. But you cannot beat the feeling of hitting a World Series game seven, bottom of the ninth, two outs, home run to win the game. I mean, the good news is you won't end up doing either one of them. So, this is just Exactly. This is all hypotheticals. All right, one more question for both of you. And this is serious. Do you believe you're making the world a better place with this podcast? Yes. Yes. It doesn't even need for for the people right now. Or are you just being entertaining? Yeah. We don't need to do a little bit of both. A little bit of both. But I do believe we're making a difference. How I Because we are very vulnerable on this podcast. We open up. Um, I'm not shy to say what a terrible person I think I am and I need to do better and I need to grow and I'm trying to grow. I'm trying to get better and that gives other people, you know, hope that, you know, tomorrow should be a better day just because that's all. And we're just we're connecting with people and and I think that's what it's all about. But at the core, you want to be entertaining. Sure. So, what I I guess the point I'm trying to make is you could be entertaining at the core. Your your whole focus could be entertainment. Yes. But your the the depth of it could still be something that is valuable. You can still have a deeper message even though it's entertaining. And 90% of your ambition is to be entertainment. But really at the core, the the true values shine through. And I think that sums up our mission at Thank You Hashem and what we're trying to do with the music. Yes, it's 90% entertainment, but we ask ourselves and I think people should ask themselves, what can I do today to make the world a better place? Not like in Africa, like right now in my own daladamis, in my own space, how can I make the world that I live in a better place for myself and for everybody around? And I think if we just wear the goggles of positivity and be bold with your pride, be bold with your happiness, be bold with your excitement for life and for everything that's going on. I think it's contagious and I think we're going to see great success in everything we do. You guys are awesome. I listen to every episode. Oshi, I'm secretly a big fan. I'll never admit it, but I'm proud of you. I'm proud of what you're doing. I think you're you're you have a tremendous reach. I love the guests that you've brought on. I love being here. This room feels awesome and uh you guys should have success in everything you do. Keep listening to the music though. Yes. Thank you. Wow. What a way to close. What a That that was amazing. What a way to close. I told you I almost This was almost my podcast. I love it. Thank you so much. Thank you everyone for joining. Please don't forget to like, subscribe, comment. Thank you again for the Prime Source team and for Stefan for all behind the scenes with Will and Kim and everyone behind the scene of course at Prime Source. That's a wrap. Thank you, Hashem. Thank you, Hashem. Thank you, Hashem.