🎙️ Episode 9: 🚀 “Standing out isn’t about your resume — it’s about how you show up.”

This week I had the opportunity to chat with Silly Shane, a super cool guy, an executive at LTC Ally, and he shared with us honestly what it was like to sit in a cubicle at the bottom of the totem pole and today to sit around the executive boardroom table very honest about his personal growth, his definitions of success. And I surely hope that you will enjoy as much as I did hearing from Silly this week on Jewish Grit. [Music] It's a pleasure to welcome Silly Shane to the podcast. Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule and joining us. >> I really appreciate it. I'm so happy to be here. >> So, I'm going to jump right in here. So, you're a medical biller. I mean, there's nothing wrong about medical billers, but at some point in your career, you're a medical biller and you're just doing medical billing. And today you have like a seat around the table at LTC, one of the pre premier healthcare, you know, companies. How does a guy start as a medical biller and end up where you are today? >> First of all, a medical biller is not offensive, right? It's a good >> It's a great well-paying job. I'm embarrassed to say how much I got paid in my first time uh starting as a medical biller. But yes, um the way I I got into it and the way I got to where I am is obviously um Hashem took care of it, but I knew two things. I wanted to get into healthcare. I knew it was a growing business and I knew that the only way that I'm going to get in is at the bottom. Whatever it took, I was looking for a job in healthcare and the only thing available was a medical biller. When I interviewed, they're like, "You sure you want to do this? It's not really like people like you usually doing this." I'm like, "I'm in to set me up." And I did it uh for two years at at my first company that I worked with. Um at a certain point, I hit a like a ceiling there where I couldn't really advance. I moved on to LTC and I was so excited to like change out of the medical biller role into something more exciting, which they told me I'm going to get to. But the problem is you don't know how we like to do things. So start at the bottom again and do medical billing for another two two and a half years, which I did. And I'm so happy I did it because I learned it from the bottom up. I know the foundations, how this company works, how the medical billing part led into how our clients need to be serviced. And from that gradually, it's now my 13th year, I believe, where I'm happy to say that I'm a partner at LTC Ally, and I would not want it any other way. >> So, if you had to do it all over again, you would start at the bottom and climb your way up. >> Absolutely. And I would recommend it as I do for for students or or interns that I speak with is that a lot of times they're looking to just get that management role or get into a place where they think they can advance quicker because they they skip two steps. It's not worth it for two reasons. One was what I just said is that you're going to learn foundationally exactly what everything runs. So when you're a little bit past that, you still understand how that works. But secondly, especially when you're working for a larger corporation, your underlings, the people that report to you, when they know that you went through the same grind they went through, you understand what they're going through, they're going to take your direction so much more acceptingly because they is acceptingly a word? I don't know. but they're going to take it because they realize you know what they're going through. >> How do you know that? >> I think that it really came down to knowing what I think my potential is and what I think I can accomplish and how much of that am I utilizing now. So medical billing was great. I learned it and then I moved on to learning specific nuances and how to build the government and how to work on the applications for certain programs. But at a certain point I'm like this can't be what I what all I'm going to be doing. I know I could do more. And I think that was probably the push that told me I need to look for for for more which I spoke with my supervisors and you know the people that I work for to try to identify where else I could be of value based on what my skill set is. >> So you shared with us that basically it's a great idea to start and kind of work your way up now that God has gifted you the opportunity of where you are right now and you're looking down not down at the people but just down at the process >> never. Right. >> Right. Um, what jumps out at you when you see some of the people who are just starting or maybe they're just a few years in their career? What are things that jump out at you is you this guy's going to be successful or that person has an incredible quality and I think that quality is going to bring them greatness. Uh, I don't know if I can think of one specifically off the top of my head, but I'm trying to think of actual people where I felt that. And one thing that comes to mind right now is the people there are kind of two kinds of people where I see uh one's even by an interview. I'll interview people um whether it's you know somebody's starting job or even an intern. A lot of times I make it my business to mention to them, by the way, it's not all fun and games. Uh, some of the work you can need to do is clerical work. Some of the work you need to do is cold calling for, let's say it's a sales position, I literally, even if it's not really part of the job description, I make sure that they know that that's part of it. And I want to see how they're going to respond. If they're like, I'll take it. I'll do it. I'm ready. I'll do it. That's somebody that I see is willing to roll their sleeves up and do whatever they need to do because they're not really looking at what's the cushy job or the position that I'm going to hold. It's I have I want to advance. This is where I want to go. And people that are willing to roll their sleeves up and work. And sometimes it means, you know, people can say this is not my job. It's not what I I was hired to do. That's a little beyond my scope. I'm not doing that. Or there are some people that say, "All right, let's figure this out. As a group, we need to solve this problem. Maybe it's not my problem, but as a group, we need to solve this problem. how could I contribute? Anybody that's going willing to go beyond their comfort zone is somebody that you see will always shine out because it's going to continue to go that way. >> Looking back at just your career and I I do want to segue a little into the person that you are because you have a very um rich and interesting type of personality as we'll see soon, but looking back at your >> I got nothing on you by the way. >> Thank you. Um looking back at your career, I'm sure it's not all peaks. There are definitely valleys because life is not a bowl of peaches if you want to call that. There's always some pits. I'd like you to maybe bring us into a moment where you had a very substantial career challenge or just a challenge on the company in general and most importantly how do you deal with the stress with the anxiety with the challenge when I I mentioned earlier that I reached that point where I was a medical biller. I was doing some other things and it kind of reached a point where I didn't feel I was utilizing my potential. So I tried some other opportunities within the company. Uh, one of them was going out in the field more instead of being in the office, which my personality lends to. I tried that. Didn't really work. And at a certain point, they gave me an opportunity to move out of state and start something new there for the company. And it appealed to me because I like a clean slate. I like an opportunity that I could build something and I could really accomplish. And I thought that was amazing. They were they said they were going to make me an offer that I couldn't refuse and it seemed just on paper like exactly what I wanted. Get me out of my cubicle, get me into something awesome. It didn't work out. It didn't work out uh combination of a few reasons, but mainly because I didn't think the offer was compelling enough to pick myself up and my family and make the move. At that point, I felt like I hit a wall. What am I where am I going from here? Like I I can't turn back. I got to move forward. And I'm not that old, but I've had enough of these challenges to realize that there's two ways to look at it. You're either walking and you're hitting a wall, or you're walking in a maze. And if you hit a wall, that means, oh, I guess I got to turn because I because clearly I can't go forward anymore in this direction. So, it must be my life needs to take a direction that way. And every time you do that, at least for myself, but I'm sure it's for anybody that's listening and yourself as well, is that you realize that that you obviously weren't supposed to continue going in that direction, and and just take that turn and you obviously have to have very very strong belief that God is running the show here and he has your best interests in mind. And you you mentioned um one of the pieces of content which I'm very proud to put out every day is uh it's called 30 seconds for Simhka. It's simply happiness >> for happiness. Simply as happiness in Hebrew. It's simply just giving everybody, myself included, I listen to it myself, a boost just to give yourself that happy approach knowing God's got your back. He's looking out for you and this whatever is working out is for your best interest. When I have that mindset, at least for myself, it helps me go ahead and take on something and take a step back instead of being caught in that moment where this is a difficult challenge. This really sucks. I can't believe this is what I'm stuck with. It's taking a step back. One second. It doesn't feel good. Let me just ride through that pain. It's going to work out. It always does. Look at how many things worked out until now in my life. Look how everything was always going in the in the right direction. God's not dropping me off a cliff today. I'm sure he's got this worked out, too. And you just make it through. >> So, you've got professional success, thank God, and you attribute it to Hashem, which is really amazing. But you also come from a pretty illustrious background. Um, if I'm not mistaken, your family, who's your mentor in life? Like when you need when you need to work something out, you need to talk something through, who do you go to? >> That's someone I don't have to think about. My mentor is my father. >> I knew you would say that. >> Yeah. Um, I'm very proud um to have him as a mentor and I'm very lucky. I use him. >> Do you want to share who your father is? I think it's important for people to know. >> My father um is a Roshiva. He's a dean of a yeshiva a yeshiva high school um for about 55 years now. Um they dealt with um not the typical teenager that would get into a standard high school. It was more ones that were troubled or had had >> I call it high energy. >> High energy, high potential, >> right? >> Always goes hand in hand. >> And uh on a personal level, on a professional level, he's really my mentor, thankful. >> I have seen >> guys who are in their 30s, maybe 40s, see her see her dad, and they haven't seen him obviously for a while. It's magic to see them hug him, shake his hand, look in his eyes, and the investment is paying. It's totally paying dividends. So, you're also a content creator. Can you share with us a little bit about how that started, where you're at, and uh what your unique uh approach is to creating meaningful content? >> Why do I do it? Uh sometimes I ask myself that because, you know, from somebody that creates content, it takes a lot of work. >> It does. >> Uh all the mess ups and all the time that you have to put in. And no matter what, if you plan on putting out content on a schedule, no matter what's going on in your life, you're on schedule and it's very very hard and I admire that a lot, somebody like you that's doing so much. But for me, um it was a combination of co uh where I had time to recalibrate and kind of think like, can I really do a little bit more, which I try to always do if I feel like I can. And um I'm in touch with many many students uh throughout the year. And I found that initially it was like great let's set a time for me and you we can chat uh we can learn something we can we can study uh some text together which was awesome but at a certain point you're just one person and you max out and I said I really just want to have some way to keep in touch and have an excuse to communicate. So, I I thought about a podcast and then the video content uh the video idea came up because uh a good friend of mine, I don't know if you know who he is, Label Schwarz. >> Oh, yeah. Sure. >> Is a video >> the photographer. >> Yes. >> Oh, he's amazing. >> So, he's high energy and he he's awesome. But he creates content for professionals. Um, and we had this idea together basically where I would film the content, his back-end people would edit it, polish it up, and we're partners in this, and I put out every single week a 2minut or less idea on the weekly Torah portion, uh, called 2 minutes for Torah. And then as I mentioned I also have 30 seconds for simka which is 30 second content based on a bigist in Jerusalem Rabbio Rabinowitz who puts out who has a book which we go through uh just a bit every single day and this is something that I selfishly do because I enjoy it and I gain from it and if other people get something from it too that's amazing. taking everything you've said until this point and putting it together professional, personal, content, co um what's your understanding? How do we stay happy? Because I think that at the end of the at the end of the day, if people are happy, they can deal with all the other things that life throws at them. I I I'm not I'm not anybody to profess that I know the answers, but I I know what works for me. And if it works for me, it could work for other people, too. One big key for happiness is gratitude. I see it for myself is that I'll tell you exactly what I do. I'm not ashamed. I have on my iPhone. I have a notepad, a note section. And in my note section, anytime something comes up that I'm thankful for. God did something for me that I know was something that was amazing. It doesn't have to be on a grand scale. It could be something small. Could way be the way the conversation went that just pivoted in the right direction. So, I was less uncomfortable. It could be anything that I felt, "Wow, that was great." And I jot it down and I continued to jot it down aside for the fact that that list gets enormously large, but I'm making my business on a scheduled basis to review that. And when you're looking at every single thing that you're so thankful for and you're so happy that you have, and I'm going to give you one small uh tidbit, which I know personally um that another great rabbi did, but for me, that helps, gratitude. But I want to share one tidbit. Uh my brother-in-law is a grandchild of Rabbi Victor Miller, who was a great rabbi. If you've never heard of him, check out his content. He has real good content. >> He does. >> Rabbi Victor Miller, uh after he passed away, my brother-in-law was assigned to go through all of his books, um make sure if there's anything that they want to publish, they're going to publish. Anything that they want to save for the family, they're going to save for the family. He opened up I believe it was a uh it was a prayer book but I think it was specifically for one of the holidays and there's one section in hal which is part of the prayer where there are four stanzas that we say thanking Hashem we say right it's four right >> um and he had noted by each one being thankful for each of his daughter-in-laws that he was lucky to get that his children, his sons married. And that's a minute detail and that was probably years after they already were married. But he took it to such a minute focus which I I tried to learn from that every single thing that happened be thankful for it. And I'm sure the next the next prayer book had different things that he was thankful for. But in this one, this is what he chose to recognize and be thankful for. And I think I have a picture of it. But I took a picture with my phone because it really made an impact on me. That that really talks about gratitude. >> A lot of our viewers are young professionals or even college students who are trying to figure out how to be successful. We spoke about this, you know, in the beginning, but if you had to give them a message of what the most important ingredients ingredient is for success, what would you tell them? >> A quote that comes to mind, I know this is a Jewish podcast, I hope it's safe. Steve Martin is a comedian, really funny comedian, uh, and he had a line where he said, "Be so good that they can't ignore you." And it doesn't mean you have to be the loudest, flashiest comedian on stage, which is how he applied it. But happens to be to these days I find that there are so many people that are just gliding through life or as the term is now quiet quitting where they're just kind of just getting through that if you simply are persistent like I I mentioned earlier and just focus on what your goals are and go through it and be consistent also and constantly day in day out you are going to separate yourself from the crowd. you are going to be successful and you're going to be good enough that they're not going to ignore you. >> Thinking back to like your first two or three years, um you probably had a definition of success and thinking to where you are today, has that definition of success changed or is it more or less the same? It definitely changed on on a very uh immature level. It it was just simply get get me out of this cubicle. Get me into an office. Get me into actually not in an office. Get me onto the street where I can interact with people. Like that was in a very short term. But really what I looked at as success, yeah, I'm immature. Uh when I was younger, it was people that had nice cars, dressed well, seemed to have to have everything going for them. That was exciting for me. um like it is for everybody and I I don't think I mature from that completely. But what I think I've learned is that utilizing your capabilities and feeling like whatever unique capabilities you have given to you and it could be anything. It doesn't need to be it could be the way you care for other people. It could be uh the way you appreciate certain things or the way you research. It doesn't make a difference what it is, but if you feel that you're utilizing your capabilities to a very great extent, I feel like that's what people find not only satisfaction in, but they know they're being successful if they continue growing with those things. I don't know if that makes sense, but to me, I feel like there's it's it's a very difficult thing to measure, but something that when you feel it, you know it. So you interact with all kinds of people all the time within your company and the broader United States. And being a Jew sometimes is a we're a little tiny minority, one half of 1% of world jewelry and less of world population and even less maybe in the United States. So when you get home at night, what makes you most proud of being a Jew? >> What makes me proud is the selflessness that Jewish people have? Whether it's all the organizations there, charity organizations, different ways that people think of to help other people. The selflessness for me shows that people are thinking beyond their ego, beyond themselves. And if that's that doesn't get you smiling, I don't know what will. >> Well, this has been such an interesting conversation. I feel like it's an appetizer because we could get to the main course. How do you like your steaks? >> I would love it to be an appetizer because I would love to just start shooting questions at you. Okay, great. Maybe you interview me on your podcast. >> Yeah, sure. >> So, really, thank you so much. It was a pleasure and an honor and I wish you all the success in the world. >> Amazing. >> Thank you so much. Thank you for listening to Jewish Grit and Oly mentorship podcast. At OM Mentorship, we believe that everyone needs a mentor. What better way is there to tap into your personal and professional potential than with a Jewish mentor at your side. Learn more at olami.org/metorship. [Music] Don't forget to keep listening on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.