How I Became the NBA's Youngest Agent Ever

And someone's like, "Oh, you guys should do this every night for five minutes. Like just say some Torah." And we're like, I'm like, "Who wants to hear us for five minutes?" But maybe hear your favorite speakers. And Instagram has like this limit on videos. You can only post like 60 seconds. I'm like, "Let's do 60 seconds." Like it should be a minute every single day. And someone in the comments were like, "Yeah, like meaningful minute." I'm like, "Yeah, that's where it started. That's where meaningful minute came from." March 15th, 2017. [Music] None of your business, Oshi. None of your business, Michael. It's the None of Your Business podcast hosted by Michael Anoshi. Welcome back everybody to another fantastic episode of the None of Your Business podcast. We love that you guys are subscribing, commenting, liking, disliking, getting involved. Give us your feedback. We love every second of it. Thank you, of course, to Prime Source and the family of Prime Source for always being there for our wonderful cameras and our lights and our systems and Stefan and William and all the behind the scenes. We have an amazing episode coming up today. And uh I can't wait to introduce you. So, I'm just going to go straight into it. Guys, take a look at who's here. I don't think you don't even, by the way, the most softly spoken redhead I've ever met in my life. I tell you, yes. I think I'm just tired. I think I'm just I think I once upon a time wasn't softly spoken and now media trained. You know, you know, I'm going to allow you to introduce yourself simply because I can't do that. I don't think you do that a lot. I think you're always the one that has to have other people introduce themselves. Do you typically like introduce your guests or do you let them introduce themselves? I like just recently I just like jumping right in and just incognito. Boom. Like most of my guests don't even know when I hit record and like 10 minutes in they're like, "Oh, when are we starting?" I'm like, "Oh, we started. Well, guess what? We did that 10 minutes ago. Thank you. That's the way, you know. Yeah, that's the way to go. But all the big podcasts, that's what they do. They just dive right into it. I mean, so like if we were just like, you know, uh in a process of getting to know you, what would you say about yourself? Say hello to the world, our fans. I'm curious to know about Naka, your background, where you come from, how you got started in all of this. You obviously didn't just wake up one morning and say, "Hey, let me start a podcast." I'm sure lots of things led up to that. So I'm just curious like where you come from, where you grew up, where you were, you know. Sure. Give us a little bit of your story. I'll answer. What's this button? Is it What happens if I Oh, [Laughter] that answers a lot of I wasn't even sure what I was going to do. This is going to be a none of your business button. We're getting, you know, I was just eyeing that down the entire time. That's smart. That's smart. Um, okay. So, I am now 29. Um, why are you young? I I feel old. Wow. You think I'm young? I did not see that coming. I thought you were old. I will be 29 forever. I'm turning 30 soon, but I'm not going to let go of 29, you know. But that's when it hits you. Once you hit 30 excited for 30 or you're nervous. No, I don't want to age. You don't want to? I still feel like it's I still remember when I was 19 and I wish I was 19 still. That young? No. I wouldn't want to be 19 again. I don't know. That's too young. I feel like I want I'm more developed now and more freedom. I can do what I want. At 19, I was still struggling. I was still like trying to find myself. I'm in my 40s. The 30s was the best the best decade look forward to. Yeah. 30. A lot to look forward to. I'm encroaching on 40 now. And I'm like, now I'm nervous. But 30s was my best 10 years. I just find that the older I get, the more like foods I'm trying. Like kleslaw becomes a thing. It's not Sally Sherman klelaw anymore. Now it's like the klelaw from this guy, it's the pickles from that guy, the herrings from this guy, right? It's like the whole I saw a great billboard the other day. You guys are business guys. You'd love this. It was an advertisement for mayo for mayonnaise. Yeah. And it was a billboard that said um cabbage without mayo. uh kla without mayo is just cabbage. I was like that's so good. And then and it's just like with an ad for mayo and I'm like that's amazing. That's crazy that mayo even needs advertise mayo. Like who like what do they advertise ketchup? How do they do ads for ketchup? Yeah. But they're they're like a universal staple like mayonnaise and and hinds ketchup. They don't need to and they still do marketing. They still do it. Millions of dollars spent a year advertising for milk. I mean this is like you know Got Milk must have Got Milk has to be one of the best marketing campaigns ever. You know got milk. I haven't seen it lately though. the milk mustache thing. That That's probably That should be analyzed. That's top 10 of all time. It's a class mayo. You can say happy Cinco de Mayo to people and put a bottle of mayo in the sink. Okay. Be in your 40s. I'll let you youngsters take over from here. Exactly. So I uh Yeah, I I I started at a young age. Um I was in Shu Far Rockway for high school. I mean, I grew up in the Five Towns. My father owns a newspaper, so media is like in the blood. Oh, what kind of newspaper? Jewish times like really so you know a lot of media a lot of just I guess I never thought that that was a a weird job that he had and it was always like press right so it was always hot stuff happening I'm like oh this is normal and I don't think I don't think it is I think most parents are like insurance brokers or right or like sell real estate or leasing cars yeah leasing cars um but at a young age I I think at high school I felt at some point I'm like I'm wasting time and I was very I think I was mature for my age and I think maybe I halted at some point in my maturity so now I'm like stuck I was stuck you know but I when I was remembering 15 16 in high school I'm like there's no way I'm doing the whole high school like I'm not doing four years of this everyone else like running around having a great time I'm just like I just want to move on and start a career and wow so I I remember I had a tutor and I remember I called her at the end of 10th grade and I said how about we finish everything in 11th and I don't do 12th and I'm the youngest in my family. The youngest is six. My parents are like they had no idea where I was half the time. They were in Israel, Florida. They were traveling the world. I was like my parents are like 72 now. So I'm like really the youngest youngest Benzakunum, you know. So I'm like I'm just trying to finish it all 11th grade. And that's what I did. Not a good student. Really good tutor. Shout out Mrs. Catz. Uh really let you do it. She Yeah, she's like let's do it. And and you got permission from the school. You got Yeah. School didn't care. Indeed. Diploma. What? I got No, I got my reach diploma. I got everything. Yeah, I took I took like five regions. I didn't know you could do that. I took my AC I took the ACT. I took English region. I took Hebrew region. I took I took uh my science or Well, listen, children, finish high school. No, I you know, I'd say high school like most people should finish high school because you'll have a great time in 12th grade. Did you finish high school? I did not. Neither did. Oh, you didn't? Really? I didn't either. You like diploma? I don't have a GED. Nothing. I was sent to Israel when I was 15 years old. Wow. I spent my teenage years in Israel. That's where Look at us. Yeah. Look at us. Exactly. Awesome. What What should we take away from this? Don't go to high school. Is that No. No. I I think what you should take away from it is as a parent, if your child has a idea of a unique a unique way of accomplishing like buy into it. Yeah. Different paths. There isn't just one conformity. You know, you can you can do different things. Like there there are valadictorians from when I was in high school that literally like I'm not going to obviously not say their names. I don't even remember who they are, but I just know like they're they're they peaked, right? And and like as a decline. Yeah. Like you know, as a parent like don't worry if your kid's not doing well in high school. Yeah. Chances are he'll do well in life. It's true. If you look at the pattern, you can really see like the kids growing up that were somewhat of the nerds, you know, I put them in air quotations, but they're very successful today, you know, and the ones that were very cool, they were very sporty and athletic, they're not doing so hot all the time. It doesn't translate. They're still going to their high school's basketball games, 38 years old, right? They're still honing in on that. But, you know, it's not a testament to what's what's to come, you know, but you never really know. So, there are there's always different paths that people can take and and the jury's out, you know. What do you do then? I yeah I I I skipped 12th grade. Um I went to like a yeshiva for like half the day of a blunder of a wineer. It was like a place in the five towns and I started schooling. I started college. I had this dream of being a sports agent. Like it's what I wanted to do. I I was I I remember watching this this documentary on ESPN for 30 for 30. It's called like the dotted line. It was following this this NFL agent. I'm like I want to do that. And I guess I was like I'm very headstrong. So I decided like I want to do that. I'm doing it. And I remember I I went on LinkedIn and I started messaging every single sports agency that was anywhere in the world and say, "Hey, I want to intern." Um, I got a couple of opportunities just watching film and trying to just like write stuff about certain players and whatnot. Wow. And and then um that that started happening. My whole goal was get a degree because in order to get your um NBA players agent associate uh certification you need to have a degree. Um so I long story short went to college you know as any good from Jew. I got my degree in two years somehow, you know. Um, got all the credits, got a bachelor's in who knows what, art, science, I don't know, bachelors and putting stickers on a wall like who knows, you know, like um I did that. I I then um I was interning for an agency and then I went to a different one and and I was getting my feet wet. I was learning the industry which is a crazy industry and I I um became a certified MBA agent. I started Yeah. I I went to their meetings. I was I think the youngest one. I was 19 or I was 20 maybe 20. Good for you. You worked for an agency like you got a job. So So um a couple of stops along the way of like doing sort of like medial work. I I then I worked with this guy um from the city who had a sports agency and he he represented some you know mostly overseas guys in the overseas guys. G-League. I I saw my first client with him. This guy from he played for uh Xavier University Big East. What a feeling. Um yeah, I remember I remember driving home one night and I remember um it was decision day whether he was going to sign with us. His name was James Far. He was 6'10, 270 lbs, big guy. And I'm like, "This guy's good." Like NBA needs big guys. So I I was a whole year. By the way, to sign a guy, you need to be with them all year in their ear at their games, talking to their parents, talking to their friends. What's that Adam Sandler movie where he like he was a Oh. Uh yeah, that was a good that was a good movie. Adam Sandler, it's called uh one of his only serious movies. Literally, it was uncut even this. Did you know you know about this movie? I think I know what you're talking about. That's the life you led. He had to be with him every day of the year. Come on, Steph. Come on. We'll find out. Something ball something. I don't know what it was. Anyways, yeah. So, what an experience to be through that. Yeah. Yeah, it was it was great. I think you know and after after that the movie the movie was Hustle. Hustle. Yeah. Oh, thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Good, good, good stuff. Um, but like, you know, I was watching Jerry McGuire and like that's like, oh, that's the coolest thing ever. I was a huge sports guy. I love sports and I told myself, I don't want to be that guy in SHU on Friday night that's just like hawking about sports with no I I want to be making money from these guys. Like, I want to talk about these players, but actually being You want to be in the game. You want Exactly. I want to be in the game. And so, that's why I pursued it. And I mean, it was great. I think at the peak I I worked for this uh law firm that represented athletes as an agent. I was an agent there and um the agency had NBA players like we had they represented a Robert Coington at some point. Nice. Represented a guy Eric Morland who played in the Cavaliers, played in the Kings. Uh represented a guy on the Wizards. I forgot I forgot his last name. Uh one of these three-point shooters. So my role there was was pretty cool. Like I was we were recruiting guys from college and then preparing all I was like in charge of scheduling all their NBA workouts. It's like I'm like talking to the Warriors, the Knicks, the Nets. At any given moment, I'm answering these teams and trying to like And then we had a guy Damen Dodson who was uh coming out of Houston and he was our client. He played on the Knicks and he got drafted by the Knicks. And that was like the peak I was at the draft with him and his family and my boss and sitting there and and um it was like it's this thing. It was so cool. Like it was like literally the coolest thing ever. Like I see my boss get a phone call from the Knicks and like the Knicks are on the clock. I'm like, "Holy cow, like wow, he's going to the Knicks. I live in New York. This is a dream come true." like I and he got drafted by the Knicks and um me and Damen spent some time together. I was by his games a lot. I drove down to Philly to Sixers games. Uh pick him up in the airport sometimes and you know I went to Warriors Knicks game with Durant Curry and and Damian got some playing time. It was it was it was a lot of fun. It was great. It was great. It was great in the street. It's cutthroat. It's cutthroat. Like you'll be down there in the garden and you're with your client and then Leon Rose walks in at the time was the president of CIA. who wasn't the president of the Knicks and like oh awesome like CIA is going to steal all our clients you know cuz they're big agency yeah they're like the biggest and that's Leon Rose you know Leon Rose used to represent LeBron before LeBron hired his friend you know Chris Paul so um I think at some point in this whole thing I I started something called meaningful minute I was like you know I started editing these small little clips because I didn't have a long attention span I think I was driving to Brooklyn. I was driving a bar park three nights a week. I was taking EMT course. I don't know why. What? Yeah. So during this time that you're exploring the sporting world and being sports world and and and uh I'm also taking an EMT course. So you want to be an Nutella? No. Oh, okay. I I can't deal with blood and I don't know what I don't know. I think a friend like said, "Why do you take an EMT course?" And I'm like, "All right." No, I I I I don't know. It was crazy. I remember cuz at the end of the course I had to take a I had to do a rotation with 911. I had to be in the senior care ambulance. I'm like are you kidding me? Wow. I'm I'm in this thing for 12 hours and I was so scary and I lapsed by the way. I passed and it's been four years since I didn't refresh and every once in a while like maybe I should do it again and I'm like no, you know. So you actually got your certification? Yeah, I became a paramedic. I became EMT. I came and not paramedic but came EMT. Um and what was happening is during those car rides there wasn't a lot of podcasts then. five towns of bar park every night back and forth for three nights a week for five months a lot of driving so what am I listening to I was listening to like sheer and I'm like okay this guy spoke for an hour and 20 minutes and he said like four great things no one's going to hear that because he spoke for an hour and 20 minutes so remember I worked on my laptop once I'm like let me just like cut one clip and I cut a clip and then I cut another clip and then like I I started like sending it out to a few people and and then u long story short. I was on an Instagram live with my brother when Instagram just rolled out this live feature and and we're smoozing and and someone's like, "Oh, you guys should do this every night for 5 minutes. Like, just say some Torah." And we're like I'm like, "Who wants to hear us for five minutes, but maybe hear your favorite speakers?" And Instagram has like this limit on videos. You can only post like 60 seconds. I'm like, "Let's do 60 seconds. Like, it should be a minute every single day." And someone in the comments were like, "Yeah, like meaningful minute." I'm like, "Yeah." So, that's where it started. That's where meaningful Minute came from. March 15th, 2017. Wow. My brother's living room. That's like eight years ago. Something like that. Yeah. On on an Instagram live. I then remember I took out my phone. I made a cheesy looking logo on Canva. Like really ugly. But I'm like, if I don't do it now, it's not going to happen. I started like a an Instagram page, a WhatsApp group, and that started. I remember fast forward a couple weeks at that point, I I woke up at and I started sending out these clips and like uh oh, sign up guys. First it was family, friends and it was people I didn't know. Then I remember like and I was like dude I was like living in my parents house. I was a kid. I was uh is this you said it's 8 years ago. I was 21 20. I was home and like my I my phone one night was buzzing at 5:00 a.m. 4:00 a.m. I was like what is going on? Did someone die or something? I look pick up my phone and it was like this guy from the England who messaged me and like at this point I'm like who England I just live in Lawrence. No the world doesn't exist past Lawrence in Brooklyn. You know, guy from England's like, "Yeah, your your group filled up." So, I I started another one and that filled up. So, I started another one. So, now I have like three full groups of people who want to receive this video. That's WhatsApp groups. Yeah. Oh, that that's when they had a limitation of 26 people, right? Yeah. So, then I'm like, "Okay." So, then like this thing started like developing. Long story short, like we would like boom. Like remember I was by the convention um a year later and we had like 13,000 subscribers and I was like on there like a good alive thingy. I was like this little kid like yeah he started a WhatsApp thing you know like and well I don't understand. So all of this really sounds like is happening organically like you're not marketing this. No it was a ton of effort into this and things are just happening and all of a sudden you wake up one day months later you have 13,000 followers. It's crazy. It's crazy. It was just it was it was just spreading. I think that it was almost the first of its kind like short form Torah content wasn't a thing then. Right. It was a new concept, right? Long either watch a full year or you watch sports, right? And nothing else. Um so that's where that's where you know that took off and and um I would say it started becoming very very serious. Um so right now it's just you and your brother. It was really me. My brother was working a different full-time job. It was just me at that point. So you were the one that was doing most of the work. I was doing everything. I was editing videos. I was running. It was everything everything. And you had the name already, meaningful Minute at that point. Yeah. I remember I was driving at one point and I was with my family and someone called me and said, "Hey, um, can I can I sponsor can I like donate like to Meanful Minute?" I'm like, "Yeah, can I call you back tomorrow?" Yeah. Is that a thing? I'm like, I should make a bank account, right? He's like, yeah. I'm like, I should probably nonprofit also, maybe. He's like, yeah. I called him an accountant, made a bank account. Boom. 51c3. Um, we That's when it really becomes real. Yeah. Yeah. When you have to file paperwork with, you know, with your IRS and all that stuff. When you get a letter with the IRS, like that's the word becomes real. Um, and then they don't teach you that in high school. That's what they should teach you. They 100%. Don't teach me geometry. Yeah. Teach me life stuff. Teach teach me how to write a proper email. Teach me how to how to construct open a bank account or taxes like that. Or taxes or taxes. You know, like that's that's a good thing to know about like not at a high level, but at a very basic level. Very basic. like no, you should not spend every single dollar that comes in because you don't have every dollar that comes in, you know, like um my friends used to make fun of me when I was uh at Medline. I had a pretty straightforward tax return during that time. It wasn't so complicated. So, I used to go to H&R, you know, they advertise all over the place. So, like even now, like my friends, every time an ad comes up, oh, yeah, your one of their customers, by the way, they're they're they're great for people that don't have anything. Is this a paid ad? Is this a paid ad? Cuz like No, no, not at all. Oh, wow. We don't have any of that. Um, what happened to that person that made that comment of the name? Did you ever find that? Yeah. Yeah. No, I did. I did. And she she knows she I mentioned her many times. I think I mentioned her in the Ammy article also. Like I did you get anything? Did you send her something? What' she get? Um, thank you. Of course. Big thank you. Big thank you to her. It was funny. We're like throwing out different names like spiritual this this is that and we're like in Hebrew names this that and she's just show like meaningful in it. It's crazy like she was she's a big part of it. Yeah. She literally just set out this name that now is a household name. It's pretty crazy to think of. It is. Yeah. Yeah. Um, but yeah, at some point I was I got married at 23. Meaningful Minute was baram big. So at that time before you got married, you were already starting to become known. And were you doing the podcast at that point? But it was but there was the clips. It was familiarity and and like in my life at that point I was I owned a sports league in the five towns which was really doing great and it was a single guy. It was great money. Um like you were the commissioner of me and a friend. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Or Ezie Cats, you know. Okay. Um Okay. Shout out to the father-in-law. Um who's your father-in-law? Yeah, I do. Stop it. I don't know how you don't know that. I have no idea. How do you not know that? I don't know. How How would I know that? Actually, I can't believe it. I don't know. Did you know that? I did not know. But you're not You don't play in the league. You play the league. But why would I play that game together? Well, unless somebody says something. How would I know? Cheer you on. Yeah, he was buying my game. Just by seeing you two of you interact, I wouldn't know that your father son-in-law. You could be anybody. And you know, he's the commissioner of leading. talking. Why would I know that? It's very funny. I actually just saw Ezi Catz, by the way. I just saw him yesterday two days ago. Sorry. And Sunday, I saw him and he was eating dinner. He was there with with his wife and friends at a new restaurant. Which restaurant called Mojo? Oh, nice. Yeah, it's in uh T. Yeah, it's where Noobos used to be. Well, thanks for inviting me, guys. Well, I miss. Were they with Were they with any of my brother-in-laws or sister-in-laws? I don't know. I honestly I was being very respectful. I went to my side. I was friends, so I didn't want to, you know, like the B. That's very annoying like when you go out and like you know somebody comes over to you and like you have to give them attention and like h I don't want to be bothered right now and I don't want to bother you. Don't bother me you know st anybody. Yeah. Right. Just because you know each other doesn't mean you have to approach. Happens to be I was on a a date with my wife. This is probably the best thing ever happened. I was on my I think fifth sixth date. It was getting it was getting somewhat serious and we were in fireside and someone came over to us and said are you Naki Gordon? I said yeah. He's like I love the work you do. you changed my life and I'm on a date and I'm like I like hand this guy a hundred bucks like thank you bro yeah that's very well done by the way I know I was like that almost looks scripted it it looks too scripted but it it was really cool it was really Do you get that a lot um yeah and it's nice it's very nice people are very nice I'm sure it can be overwhelming and let's let's Does it happen to you over time does it happen to you like on a daily basis um like if you're going out in the streets in the supermarket or wherever you're going like people are stopping You say, "Hey, you knocking Gordon. Can I take a picture?" Yeah. What do you think? I think I had it happen to me once. That's why he brought it up. Pushing the dream right now. He's living. How do I deal with this fame? I need you to prepare me for that. You should be grateful. No, but I got to tell you, it's a little awkward, you know, like I was caught by surprise because I don't consider myself to be someone that's wellknown. Maybe my inner circle, but that's about it. But I went to somebody's va random place and I was jumping in and out and some guy stopped me and he's like, "Are you Oshi from the podcast?" I said, "Yeah." So, I'm a big fan. I watched all your episodes. Can I take a picture with you? And I'm like, "Yeah, sure. I guess I know what was happening, you know." Yeah. But, um, and in a way, it must be nice. It must feel good that people want to be around you and they're, you know, but it must also be very annoying at some at some point. I would say it's it's more annoying for um family, my wife, kids, you know, like that's like I remember I was in Palisades Mall and and like this whole group of people came over to me and like I have a three-year-old freaking out, you know, I'm always like, "We got to go." And I'm talking to this people like for 8 minutes and and it's very nice. I I think it's I I will never say anything bad about it. Is it overwhelming? Yeah. Um does it create a certain social anxiety for me? Yeah. But that's the me problem. That's not a You were saying you don't even like to be part of big groups. I don't You're not the person in the world. You don't know uh that I live in the Muny area. People still think I live in 510. I don't really go a private person. Yeah. No, I very private. You know, you don't you don't just like share who you are, what's going on in your life with the world. No, me and my wife are like we're very um you'll never see my wife, my kids on my platform, anything to the point like people like read me. They don't know I'm married. It was just funny. It's like and my wife like my wife thinks it's hilarious. Um, and sorry ladies, I have two kids. You know, like, um, but I, uh, it happened, it started happening when I was younger. It was like really funny. I was single. I was like, okay, this is interesting. Um, after the podcast started, it it really got a lot. And now it's now it's When did the podcast start? When did that next phase? So, this podcast started probably a couple years after meaningful men. I'd say 2020, I think, like beginning of co podcast started. I I I just felt like, you know, I was listening to a lot of Guy Raz NPR, how I built this, some Joe Rogan. I'm like, podcasts are cool. There's not a there's not really any in the from world. I think there was maybe one and I'm like, this is this is cool. I remember I made a few meaningful minute events. I've had like what Rabbi Wa Jacobson, Charlie Rari, and we filled up a room with a thousand people and I found that people were just like waiting online for 20 minutes to say two words to them. Like how how awesome would it be if people could like know more about them, right? Like Rab Jacobson is not necessarily always the person you see on that podium. He also like I I interviewed him recently for the second time. He has anxiety. He was pulling his hair out as a kid from his head because he has, you know, he's a real person. These are real people. Struggles. Exactly. And I I saw that cuz I was working like closely with a lot of these rabbis like cuz I was like ultimately like um the biggest marketing tool for them like getting their classes and their speeches out to tens of thousands. It's a win-win. Like I feel like everybody's benefiting from this for sure. And and um so I had this real desire to like get people to know them more. Like completely just remove that gap of like oh that guy is so untouchable. No, you know like what Trump did under Joe Rogan. He humanized himself. He went there and he mingled with the people. He hung out with us for three hours. We got to see a whole different side of him and people feel connected to that person. I think that's what podcast really does. It's almost like what someone's doing today on I'm loving this. Yeah. Who is this real naive? One of the things that I'm thinking about is that a meaningful minute probably takes you hours to put together. I mean, I don't appreciate that. Like, tell me about that. I used to make all of them. Yeah. For the first two years, I edited and I did every single one of them. And I'll tell you, there are times where it took me 3, four hours to make one minute. Wow. Because I was like, "No, no, no. What is the ROI on a 60-second clip? It can't be 10 seconds. It's got to be 45 plus seconds of fire. the guy is giving over a message that could turn a cat into a lion. You know, it's got to be something that is going to send you for the day that's going to be like, "Okay, this is good." And this is before Cap Cut. This is before Cap Cut. So, I'm like learning uh I think it was iMovie or Final Cut. I was like I had a laptop and I just started like that was like the expenses of the organization at the time. It was a phone and a laptop. You know, thank God now we're we're over a million dollar budget a year. So, it's like we'll get there. But it's grown an insane amount and we're we're in the coolest position ever what we're able to do. Um, so yeah, it it took forever sometimes. I What was that first moment? It's co time. You start the podcast. Who's your first guest? I'm curious about finer. Really? It didn't It didn't get better. It didn't get better. The the Why did he agree to do it? Like you were you didn't have a name yet at that point? He you know like he knew my father and like there was some community familiarity. I don't think this is the funny part. I've made events in the white children had introduced. So I had a I had a report with him. We had a relationship. I brought Robert Jacobson to the to the white jewel and it was very good for the white jewel. And what's this white jeul? It's a jewel. It's a white. It's called the white. It's not even white. I don't I don't get it. How did how get? It's a really nice shel. I don't know why it's called white. Is there a black shel somewhere down the street like competition? Like a white house a few blocks further down. I don't think it's a red. Red Red. I don't cuz red jewel used to talk to me like in a red house, right? I don't know. White jewel must have been also in a white jewel. Interesting. Never heard. I think the five times also has a W. W. It does have W because that's cuz it's on Wedgewood. The It's the block. Not because of the world of Atoria. Although some of the guys there think it's the Wor. They like to think. Yeah. I used to die in there. It's the block away from my house. Good times. Good people. Did the rabbi know you even? So he and Rabbi Finer knew me and I I'm pretty sure he thought he was coming to the studio to record like a minute. He wasn't even prepared for what was coming. And all of a sudden I sit down and start asking questions about his life and about and he has a life like he he has a he has one child um which they they struggled for years to have that one child. Wow. And that child was born for the first hour was a perfect baby. And then something went wrong and that baby turned into now which is a probably a 15 16 year old boy who is I don't think verbal non-verbal uh wheelchair you know bound special needs child. Um and that's their only child. that's their only child and I think they were living in Israel even at the time and they they moved here and it it just quite a story of RV being so vulnerable talking about his challenges. So he talked about that. He talked about his experience, opened up. I think that was like the success of everything that you know like meaningful people was just like the first guest set the framework of like this is a thing where you're people are going to be vulnerable and open up and not not try to like you want to inspire others. When you're vulnerable it opens up other people's hearts and they realize you know it's it's gives people hope. But gives people I think one of the things he said is like as a rabbi as a RV a big RV who deals with a lot of the shilas in the five towns a lot of the stuff that comes in dealing with a lot of the you know marital stuff and it's just you know stuff that come up I remember him saying that he cries himself to sleep many nights just based on the on the things he has to deal with what's going on in the community yeah talk about wow someone being human like that's crazy right so that was an amazing episode that like I've used it again that that episode. I don't know. Steph, how many views were you getting early on? Were people noticing? It wasn't a It was I think it was relatively a lot. I mean, it was more than zero. It was probably a few thousand. Uh, I would say audio I'm trying to remember. Audio was getting maybe like a few thousand, 3 4,000 an episode. Um, YouTube maybe like 67,000. Was like, "Oh, wow. This is cool." Like, "This is really cool." Um, and is that when you started noticing that okay, I'm on to something here. Yeah, I think I mean we just it just the goal was just keep doing it and uh re check it out in a year and see if this is good or not. I think that you know it kept going and and um built something pretty special. Yeah, very special. Yeah. Um, you're you're by far, I want to say, the largest podcast, Jewish, Orthodox, religious podcast in the country. I don't think there's anybody that that has a bigger platform than you do right now. I don't think so. I mean, you have an amazing reach. That's what's your your reach is what's amazing. It's not just one direction. It's uh it's more than I even know. And honestly, that's the thing I I I like I turn to the most and pride myself the most on. You know, like in the beginning stages of meaningful minute. I had gotten calls from different bigger organizations that wanted to kind of like swallow it up. Like become one of ours, you know, come here. We have candy, you know, and I'm just and and something in me is like that's where we lose it all. Like you're talking about larger Jewish organizations like an ag type like Yeah. the type like those I'm not naming anybody but I'm saying oh yeah do a podcast for us and you'll be the host we'll pay fores even even before the podcast meaningful minute like do it under our you know we'll fund it you were probably enticed a little bit I was like okay that's really cool but also no you know like good for you I I was not yes I was not modern probably considered mainstream but like I I wanted to cater to the world to the Jewish world to everybody to the modern person to the Baltuva to the guy in Lakewood learning threes. I wanted to cater to everybody. And I think the the coolest thing about meaningful people and meaningful minute in general is that we cater to everybody. Like we really um you can go into a block in Lakewood and ask them if they know what it is and they will. Y and you can go to Tene or you can go to Baltimore or you can go to like Bal Harbor, you can go to Israel. I got to be honest with you. I have non-Jewish friends that it's impacted and I've spoken to them in the past. And the reason is the common denominator is that it's meaningful, right? And meaningful is a language that everyone speaks, right? So it's like, you know, inspiring people want to grow. People have that, you know, feeling inside like doesn't matter where you're coming from. And you know what the real anomaly is? Like what really kind of changed the game is that people are, you know, it used to be back in the day like we were taught from our parents like something goes wrong, you shove it under the rug, you hide it, you don't let the neighbors know, right? You you try to keep everything in house. Yeah. Right now I think in our society today it's become more acceptable where not just acceptable people are very receptive that there are real problems going on in the world. People have real struggles in the world and they're sharing it. They're opening up. They're actually allowing others in and it's making us all better for it. Right? We're all growing from each other. We're all we always say at Prime Source, you know, we're we're not the experts but together we are the experts, right? with all the knowledge that we accumulate from everyone and we sharing with each other, we become stronger. The only way and the only way change happens is if it's it's if it's discussed, if it's grassroots. I think that like maybe post Holocaust there was just so much going on that the world I can't blame them like they weren't going to be like okay well we survived Awitz now let's talk about like it just wasn't right it was like we're alive let's live and they were just I don't know a great point that is a great point of no for real they had bigger problems to deal with they had a lot bigger fish to fry for sure like dude like they literally just even take it a step further the kids of Holocaust survivors grew up and my mother is a she's a order of survivors. What do you think they went through? Like that's it's crazy. It's crazy. And and um how far are we removed from that? A couple of generations. That's it. It's not that far. That's it. It's really not that far. So like how far and we're seeing snippets of that reoccur today. We're starting to see a dynamic that existed then that's really reoccurring again today. We're starting to see some of that. Yeah. It's scary. It is scary. I think that like um God wins the world, but obviously I hope as a Jewish people we are reacting differently. I think we have a little more. I don't know what they had back then. A little more like a little more a little more um we're not going to run and hide. We're not going to hide our Judaism, right? Yeah. How do you deal with the hate? I'm sure there's hate. Do you get a lot of hate as well? In the beginning, I got a lot of hate. Oh, what's there to hate even? Like I'm talking about even people that are hating on Jews. I'm talking about people, that's what you mean. Yeah, I'm talking about everything. All the hate, people from within your circle. And I was talking a different kind of hate, by the way. Yeah, we could address both. After after October 7th, I I went to the city. I sat down. I made a table. I brought a film crew, also security. And the I had a sign that said, um, how does it feel to be Jewish right now? And it was on October 10th. And we had people sit down, a lot of college Columbia students, people who were walking over that were taking their yamas out of their jacket pockets and putting it on their head. they were they took it off and it was a it was it was like really it went viral. It was a few hundred,000 views on YouTube. Um the YouTube shorts from it like also like millions of views. It was really crazy. Um but I think that's the first time as a Jew I felt scared. I'm in the city and I have security armed security, right? I called Richie Taylor to say, "Hey, can you send me some, you know, can you send me some NYPT2?" He's like, "I got you." And he did. And for good reason. Free Palestine. You guys are killing babies. Like people yelling at me somewhere in Yamaka in the city. It's a crazy thing. It's a crazy thing. And if someone doesn't go to the city, someone doesn't have to do these things for their job, they they may not know about it and they could play it down like ah it's not such a big deal. Like no, people deal with this. People have taken off their because people have hidden their like they hide now and it's it's not okay. It's not okay. And um Wow. It was very brave of you that you that you even did that. I'm crazy. That's very brave. My my I don't think my my father is not happy with it. He's like, "Dude, like what are you doing? Like why are you this is what are you do?" I'm like, "I have security. What like this is what this is what we're gonna do. It's Listen, when I was in the sports world, I always worry." And I I could have gone by Michael. I went by Naki. And good luck Damian Dodson saying the word naki. Right. Right. You know, and we're and like this is who I am. You have a questions. It's funny because like remember being after a game in in I think the Wells Fargo Center in in uh in Philadelphia by Sixers game and Damian's like eating shrimp after the game. He's like you want some like you really don't get it, dude. You really like they're oblivious. They don't understand. Most of most of the world is you grow up in Houston and in some like like what do you know the people that we work with like for a long time and they're not Jews. They're like more Jewish than a lot of the people we know. Like they know a lot more like they're very into it. They're very into it. It's true. Yeah. I have to tell you, I was in the city, by the way, that week, uh, the week after, and I went to a rally and I had an Israeli flag and I was walking to my car on the way back and I was getting yelled at and, uh, really like scary times. I didn't have security. I didn't know Richie at the time. Yeah. I have to tell you something what I did and I I think it worked. And I I'd like to give a tip to anyone who ever You told this on the last podcast. Did I say it? You mentioned it. I went I went live. Yeah. I was very smart. What did you do? You went live. I took out my phone and I said, "We're live right now." And nobody wanted to mess with it. We were live. I thought you were going to say just just act even crazier. Like they go crazy like show them a new level of crazy. No. Um listen, by the way, I think it's worse now than it was then. Meaning I think it's worse now. We're in December, a year plus later. It's worse now. The climate in in the city is worse now. If you mean if you go to with an Israeli flag now to Manhattan, I think be unfortunately a lot far worse than it was October 10th. I'm But you understand why? because people are now getting even more upset that Israel is still in this war and there's still no ceasefire. So, they're getting more agitated about it. So, now there are more people on that bandwagon. I think it's I think it's I I don't think it's the reason. I think it's it's it's due hatred. It's it's in the mother's milk with some of these people. It's not it's no more know. You think these people know what's going on in the news? If you ask them to point out where Israel is on the map, they'd have no idea, right? This is not Israel. They're so invested in this. This is not Israel. These are these are just tropes, anti-semitic stuff that have been passed down from generation to generation. This is Asako. Like this is all you say. This is Yeah. I have an employee who lives in Amsterdam, Naomi. She's she's a really big part of our team. A few weeks ago, what happened there? Her and her husband staying indoors because dude, like they're lynching people. Wow. Why should this like this is in Europe in 2024? What what is going on here? you know, um, so to use my platform to speak about those things I also love to do, you know, speak to soldiers, speak to people, uh, who are involved in this, and to sort of like show the truth, show who the Jewish people really are. Um, yeah. The other hate that's that's the hate that we all deal with. Yeah. The other hate is is sort of I think I got very early on, which which is like, who do you think you are? You're 20-year-old, right, kid? You're not you're not Dera, right? You're not a RV. You don't have a beard. You guys hear that? We know who those people probably those people after they went with see they're coming to us now probably. But but like I got that from a young age and it was it was a lot to deal with. I remember I I said this over I was at a I got hired by Pesak Hotel last year and I said this over on on a panel and it was a chabas. I don't think I've ever said this on a podcast. I don't think maybe I don't know but I was in Camp Monk for 15 summers. I was head waiter there. literally like got engaged. I like got engaged in August. I was in Monk that summer. I was dating my wife from camp, you know. I was like very Yeah. I was like I love camp. It was it was amazing. I was head waiter. I was I was camp has a great reputation. I know they hold on to you. But a great place and um meaningful started. I it was it was functioning from there. I had had a computer up in one of the buildings. Sorry Monk. I don't know if you knew that but I had bought my own Wi-Fi. Um, and I got a letter to Camp Monk from Shiner Shul was the address which I learned later which obviously was meaningless cuz Louis Shiner did not send me this letter. Right, Louie? Right. It wasn't him. It was it was someone using it as a front because this letter was four pages. Remember going to the office cuz I never got a letter. I thought, "Hey, mom, you wrote me a letter." Nope, she didn't. It was handwritten this letter. It was typed. It was typed. Okay. It was typed. It was four pages. And I if I could tell you if you ever watch a roast, this was 10 times worse than any roast. Oh my god. It was and this I know this person. This person know me, but it was along the lines of like who do you think you are? You're never going to get married. You you're something bad is going to happen for you to wake up to think that you have a you have a voice in this Jewish world. You're not Dura. You you're pompous. Like I'm just like wow. Reading this letter and I I was white as a ghost and Mrs. Monk was in the office. She's like, "What? what happened? I'm like, look at this. I handed her the papers and she read it and she's like, can you give me a braha? I'm like, cuz you just got ripped to pieces and you're embarrassed now. Give me a braha. Give me a braha for my like I said, give my my daughter should get married. Said your daughter should get married. Daughter got married the next day. No, I'm kidding. No, but her daughter got married. Her got her daughter got married. In a month, but I would have been I know. I know. Um, but I was I was like, "Holy cow." I remember showing it to I sent it to my Revy and he's like, "Welcome to the big leagues." Exactly. Now you know that you made it. Now you know you're doing something. You have a target on your back. Now you know you're doing something right. I hope you have that on your wall somewhere. By the way, I I should know. I had it in my knapsack. You know, like everyone like you get married, you go in-laws this, you have that one knapsack. So I had it in my knapsack. I wonder if it's still there. I had it I carried it with me everywhere, which probably not healthy, but I carried it with me everywhere. And and I had this feeling of like, oh man, I'm going to prove you wrong. You have no idea who you mess with. You have no idea the fire you lit. And as you should know, I had a great rebum in life mostly. 10%. No, I had a great rebum. Um, but high school the way it is and school in general, it's not it's not made for the kids outside the box a little bit. It's just any system. A system is a system and if you fit into hey you have 30 kids in a class I would say a lot of the teachers are b did not get me like who what are you doing you know um and it could be I heard heard some things along the way that were very like dude if you don't do this that's this this what are you going to you're not going to be much and well I'm happy that you didn't live it because this wouldn't have all developed Yeah, it lit a fire. The outcome is phenomenal. Yeah, it lit a fire. I tell you it lit a fire. I I when I walked him into the office today, um I introduced him to one of our employees here, our director of operations, and she follows his his podcast religiously. She watched every episode. You should have seen her eyes light up when he walked into the room. Like, why is light not because like, you know, he's a big sports player. He knows how to dunk a basketball. Because he inspires her. He actually makes a difference in her life that he makes her feel better about herself. and the things that he puts out there, the content that he puts out there gives her hope. It gives her meaning, right? And you're doing this for thousands, hundreds of thousands of people potentially that you're doing this for. It's a huge responsibility, but I think you're doing it well. You should be very very proud of yourself. And I will say this, Michael, I I we have a daunting task ahead of us because we are not inspirational people. Like, you know, like people would ask us, who do you think you are? You're you're a rabbi. Why do you think you have a voice? We probably don't have that kind of voice. Like I see our podcast being somewhat more of entertainment more than anything, you know, and and weigh in on current events. Kosher entertainment. Exactly. Right. We don't want to get, you know, we important. Yeah. Not dirty. We don't want PG-13. Listen, I don't I don't think that I think that I think this changes movies or TV shows on your podcast. Make a reference, but I wouldn't like talk about it, right? We would talk about that here. We would talk about an actor in Hollywood, something that's going on. What's your favorite movie? Oh, that's a that's a tough question. You don't know. Favorite movie of all time? of our dogs. By the way, if you if you Google top 10 movies of all time, pretty much every single like, you know, reputable source will give you the same movie list. So, I'm going to go with one of those like to be safe. Like, you know, Shaw Shank Redemption, you know, that was my But that's a very craziest thing. They showed that on a bus. I'm not going to say who, but like we were in camp one summer and we're going to Niagra and like I think that this one counselor wanted to be rebellious and instead of agent MS, he put in Shashing Redemption. Nice. Nice. He was a celebrity. He's a hero. What? What is this? Is that Is that Morgan Freeman? Like we're in camp. You know, you know when you're in camp, you're in a bubble. Like nothing exists outside of it. Nothing. I'm I'm I'm a little bit older than you, but I I went to Camp Monk. And I remember Oh, you did? Yeah. And I remember first rain day I was ever in camp, they showed Star Wars. No way. Yeah. Really? That's come a long way from there. The first one was on the bus that broke open. That's wild. That's wild. What's your favorite movie? Uh, I said a very safe one. I'm going to change my answer actually. I want to change it to the Godfather. Godfather one, two, not three, not three. I do want to teach you guys something that I've learned recently. When anyone asks me what's your favorite of anything, I respond in what scenario? Where am I? I I respond generally today. Like what's my favorite Yeah. Like I have a different favorite. Exactly. My favorite restaurant when I'm, you know, going out for dinner in Israel is one thing. You know, when I'm in You're both over complicating this. This is very I regret I said Reservoir Dogs cuz that's my all-time favorite. But the funny thing is you're you're I never I never watch You never watch Godfather. I never watched Reservoir Dogs. Yeah. I enjoy I'm a big like I'm I'm a media junkie, right? I love media. I love film, right? I love like the I love cinema like what they're what you're able to accomplish with with movies and I I overthink it. Like I'm not like oh Transformers a sci-fi. I couldn't care less about those things. Um, I think you show me stuff like Defiance, about the Bellski brothers. Great movie. Phenomenal. Great movie about these these brothers who Three brothers who literally saved Jewish lives during the war. Yeah. Daniel Craig, I think that he was excellent. Surprise, surprise. You like meaningful movies. Yeah, I I know. I get it. It makes sense. You know, what's the most meaningful movie that you can that you you have seen that people have to experience? Something like Oscars. I'll say if you have a kid, your kid needs to watch Wonder. Watch what? Wonder. Jacob, Jacob Charmble, the kid who has uh kid has a disease. His face is all what's it called? He has a disease. Uh I don't remember the name, but Julie Roberts was in that movie. Julie Roberts in the movie, but this kid Jacob Trombllay is probably he's probably 5 years old, six years old. He's an he's an actor at that time. But it's about this kid who has some facial deformity and he would wear like an astronaut's mask because he was supposed to bully him. It is a mustwatch for any kid really parents with kids like it's it's you know a movie that will make me think it's thoughtprovoking and and like those things are those things are it's a difference my seven-year-old son I should watch it with Oh yeah like come on they can understand it already like Yeah. Yeah. It just brings home the message about like people have differences right and and that's fine. It's everyone has differences. Some some you see some you don't see right. Oh man it's a line in that movie from Julia Roberts. Oh man, he's not he's not gonna Jamie's on Light Speed. Stefan's on You see how he dives in baseball? That's what he's doing. I'm good. I'm good. I'm not that good. We'll get there. We'll get there. Julie Roberts is Hollywood royalty. I mean, she's uh Is she Jewish? She may as well be. May as well be. Stephan, she may as well be. Uh but probably not. She looks like I want to make those movies. Like like the next state next is that is that on the plan next phase meaningful minute is like production big production like we got to be doing better for Klus like what are we what are we creating you know like yeah we were a part of a production where we helped fund it the Messiah movie with Barl Solomon and I have to tell you that his feeling that he had just making that movie I understand what you're saying but that movie was more of like a documentary I'm talking about like are you talking about making it into like a scripted movie or like a documentary. What I'm saying is is I think something that we don't understand or realize so much is if you ever watch a movie and someone gets on their knees at the side of their bed and they're praying in in Christianity that is funded by the church and they're using cinema as a way to get into the homes of millions of people and we have not mastered subliminal messaging and we need to we need to we're getting into a little bit on social media should be should be broadcasted to the world sublimally. to every single person in the world. It's a great point actually. Like dude, why like the only people that are like they by mistake are you Jewish? Oh, you're not. Well, that's right. They made a movie about Noah I think a couple years ago not um who's the guy from Gladiator. Uh Russell Crow. Yeah. Russell Crow. Russell Crow was played Noah and it was like it was a really cool nothing mentioned. No Torah, right? But like we have so like we're we're all from Jews. Like we have the greatest gift in the world. We were born into this. We have an amazing amazing thing the Torah and we're just like this with it. Like it's ours. But like where my brain goes a lot and a lot of meetings I have with my donors and I have with my with people who fund our operation is like so there's that Jew that lives in Oklahoma that doesn't really know much about his Judaism besides for the fact that he saw his grandmother light candles once on a shabas and that's it. And he he may never see that again. And whose fault is that? It's our fault. So, how would you change that? Like, I'd make it known and make it seen in the world. I would create films. What's a step? One step? Investing millions of dollars into Jewish films. Okay. Create like that's that's the step like um are we are is there less money in our circles than there in in Christian world? Well, we just found out last week uh yesterday actually that the church apparently is like the second largest real estate owner in the world. We have they have that No, I I get that evens it out. They have they have a lot of resources. They have a lot of money. I'm not saying we do what they're doing. We don't have that kind of money, but let's do 5% of what they're doing. Something like you're watching a Super Bowl and there's five commercials about Jesus, about he gets us.org, right? An NFL uh Super Bowl. They have like three commercials. Why why isn't there a commercial with a mother lighting shabas scandals and scan the QR code know more about your Judaism that every single Jew in the world has 10 million people watching this right now that they can oh you know what I think I'm Jewish I'm going to scan this code why do we think so by the way I I'm getting chills thinking I almost feel like we're missing an opportunity I feel like it's a crime that we're have you know there's a there's a vart that I every pes I say my father said it to me we're we're kabar like we My father grew up in Crown Heights is my great-grandfather's a god by in 770 or g labav go back to Russia and and my father said by the seder he said that the rebba says why do we take the we crack the matzah right and we hide the larger half and when the seder isn't over until we you find it find the amen and the rebba says that that larger half that larger half represents majority of cholesterol tonight seder night they are not keeping a seder they don't even No, tonight's a seder. They're not keeping any mitzvah. And our job here is not over until we find them. We got to find them. We got to find them. What are we doing to find them? It's going to be hard to go on our feet and every and and people are doing it. There are curve organizations, but we have been given the gift of social media and people make the mistake thinking that God created all these platforms for Joe Rogan and Elon Musk to have fun with. Who says it's not created for us to reach all these Jews in the world doing this? Who's to say? Like we we literally at meaningful minute we were able to post videos and get millions of views on social media. Who's seeing that? Do I know that there's not a Jew? We get messages all the time of people who are not so connected with Judaism, but they have a spark now. We We need to double down on those efforts like wow. We need to really double down those efforts. I'm just thinking about that letter. That's so profound. I'm sorry. I'm like look at look these ideas that you have. You you are just getting started baby. I'm like but who's to say that would happen without that letter? You know that's important. You know what? Look in the camera and tell that person that wrote that letter what you think. Give give them a response. Like what would you say to them? I honestly I would say that I am sorry that you were in so much pain that you had to write that letter. That's really what I would say. I mean, good for you. Did you hear what he just said? Good for you. He's he he pies him that that person must have been bitter inside that he had to write a letter like that. And that's where it always comes from. The hate comes. It's being fueled by people that are having a hard time that you're being successful and that you're doing well and it doesn't it doesn't sit well with them and they don't know how to handle it. Can you imagine to write a letter like that and hit send to to to type it and and and put in the mail? Lick that envelope. Yeah. And go to a mail. I don't know how to send a letter. Ah yeah. You spent 25 cents on me, you know, but like thanks for the donation. But like I uh I love what you said. The the idea of saying to the other person is the same thing everyone should say when someone gets to you. I'm sorry for you. Yeah. I'm good. I mean, they must be going through so much pain in order to do such a thing. It doesn't make otherwise makes no sense, right? Are you are you very driven mostly by the cause? It sounds like you're really committed to this and you really genuinely care. But there is money to be made like did you ever reach any point? What was the first point rather that you reached and you realized, oh, we can start making money from this. We can actually monetize. We can get some capital into the business. I went to my first meeting ever with a donor. His name was Mosha Majeski. Um, good friend by the way, Motion Group. And I remember I went to his house as a young I don't think I was married. Maybe I was. I was married and I wanted to basically make a meaningful app. Um, because I felt like this is great. We're gaining tens of thousands of followers on every single platform, but that's just amazing for them because they're getting all their data and we're not getting anything from it besides for we're able to reach our content to them. Like, great. We have 300,000 followers on Instagram now, which is amazing, but it's even better for Facebook because they get all that data, right? So now we have our mobile app that has 45,000 users and we have that data. So we have that we have that relationship with those users. So I went to Mosha, I went to his house and I never fundraised a day in my life like not even like Lifeline like everyone who you know never never. You selfunded everything all along the way until this point. It was very I'll tell you there was a lot of small money stuff and we still have that which is the most amazing thing. We have over 8,000 donors that have given to meaningful minute. 8,000 people $50, $100 that have given grassroots. That's like the thing I'm proud of the most. Wow. That I don't I don't I'm not like Mich, but there's no like three people that say, "Hey, listen. We're funding you." Right. No, the people. It's like a politician. You need to get a certain amount of donations from people in order to continue your camp. That's the thing I'm proud of the most. The person who doesn't make a lot of money, but they're like, "This is important to me. I want to see it continue. I want to see $1, $18." I'm curious what happened by Mosha. So, I went to Mosha and um I went to his office and if you know him, he's just like in the middle of a million different things. And I said to him, I introduced myself. I told him what I'm trying to do. He loved it. Um and he's I said, I think I said, "I need $50,000." And I think he said back to me, "So, you need 75." I'm like, "Okay, lesson number one. Thank you. Love you, Moshe." Yeah. Um and he's he's the most amazing guy in the world. I was sitting in his office and he called his wife in. Riff, Griff, come here. Riff, we're going to support this kid's doing. We're We're going to we're going to give and and I'm like, what is going on here? Did he say yes? I don't even know if he said yes. I have no idea what's happen. He's my first donor reading ever. And I got a email. He's on his phone. I'm like, I got an email and it was from our credit card thing that Mosha Majeski $12,000 donation on the spot. I was like, "Wow." He's like, "More of that's coming." That was our meeting. I was like, "You're kidding. What just happened?" You got spoiled. You think every meeting goes like this, though? By the way, I Hashem I I told Hashem like I'm out of my depth. I am not I'm not a trained fundraiser. Like, I'm no Ellie Bear. Like, I don't know how to just walk into a meeting and say, "Yes, we need $12 million." You know, like I'm not that's not my thing, but I have a lot of passion and I and I and I think I'm good at what I do and I know what I need to do. like I I have the the blueprint from God obviously. Um and I told just surrounding me with the right people. Can you imagine my first meeting? First of all, it didn't even that's not even I got the Mosha because Yusti Eisenberger Joe Eisenberger um we made a meaningful in a book before the podcast even a book from Arts Girl right thank you to him Besser about just short messages 200 pages of short messages and I need a sponsor for the book and the Eisenberger I said yeah I'll do it and I'm like who else can I get involved he's like you should go to Mosha Madesi and he set up the meeting with me and Moshe wow so it's like you know mida and and and Moshe has set me up with other people so it's like hashem surround me with the right people. Amazing. You know how they say everybody is every Jewish person you know is two calls away from Donald Trump. It's amazing. It really is. By the way, on that on that note, if I ever need Donald Trump, I'm calling that. On that note, I don't know if I can say this. We'll decide later if we should edit it. I get I get a Did you just press the mute button? I get a a message from Mosha like a video of Ivanka. emotion is very close to Jared and Ivanka and he's close to Trump and he's like, "Post this post this on social media and and make sure it gets views." I'm like, "Okay, I can't make sure it gets views, but it's a good video." Well, it was Ivanka talking about Lashinhara and we posted it and it's at at this point it's got over two million views on That's where our Instagram and YouTube Shorts. It was Emosa told me to post it and I'm like and I'm on the phone Mosha. He's like, "Let's go. I need five million." I'm like, and then all of a sudden I see Amaya Starter shared it. Ivanka reposted it for Meaningful Minute and Daily Mail wrote an article about it. I'm like, am I being used by the Illuminati right now? Like, what is going on? I'm like, Mosha, did someone did this come from the president? Did someone tell you to do this? Cuz like I feel like it was it could very well be. And he's like, don't ask questions, you know, don't ask questions, just do. Anyways, I wake up this morning. I posted on my SS today. Ivanka Trump now follows Meaningful Men on Instagram. Yes. And I had to say out loud a few times, the daughter of the president of the United States follows. She's not just a daughter of the president. She herself has a lot of influence. She's a powerful person on Instagram. I'm like, let me say this like whoa that's crazy. That is crazy. That's like good for you. That's a big deal. It's a huge deal. I'm like I'm like hard. It's like hard to register. Um so you could see who actually follows you. Like you were able to see. I went to her page and it said, "Do you want to follow her back?" I'm like, "Okay. I don't follow women. So, no. No. Like, you know what's great? She She followed you like, you know, in a very discreet way. She didn't like call you to tell, "Hey, I'm going to follow." She just follow because she thought she wants to follow you. Really cool. This is just totally natural. That's what this was. Really cool. It's really cool. It's It's like And again, this is a further testament to what you're doing. You're doing something right. Yeah. Listen, Hashem is running the It's It's crazy. It's like this whole script is just nuts if you think about it. like the fact that every every everything has happened like and and just to pick up chronologically like the podcast started taking off right things started blowing up like big time bigger guest bigger names maybe was big was a pretty big guest soldier was pretty big and I think I enjoyed Ben Shapiro like it was really really interesting um it just you know just to get us to present day we started another podcast recently, Stories of Hope with Spark Gardo. She's under the network. She's amazing. We're big fans of her. We love her. She's awesome. We were so happy that you guys did that partnership. By the way, we're also happy that it didn't work out with us because then she wouldn't be doing the way she could have been working for us. And this was like what she was meant to do. Like she was born. I tell you, the messages we get, I'm like blown away. Someone messaged She gets hundreds of emails per per episode that comes out. It's such a sensitive topic. So, it's like really I mean, we got a message from one of the earlier episodes. Someone had had given up on dating Jewish men because they were so jaded and her episode inspired them to start giving another chance that they're going to speak to the right and have the right people and they're going to start dating Jews again. How many generations of Jews did we just save? That's amazing. How many generations save the world? Literally, they say you save the world. One save the world. How many worlds? Because that Jewish lady could have married a guy and then that daughter could have married a guy and then all of a sudden all those generations of how many kids? Yeah. So like I'm like blown away blown away by but the guy who wrote you the letter wants to know who you think you are and how dare you how letter too soon you know you know like yeah like I I anyone who gets who gets hate with what they do um and it's inevitable if you're doing something good doing something special it's like don't sport gets it also by the way it happens there there are some factions that be like why are you talk why are you talking about love and and I I look at these people I'm What do you mean? It's in the Torah, right? What do you think tubov is? Like, it's in the Torah, love. We can't become firmer than the Torah. We can't make up that don't exist. Why are we talking about relationships? Why are we talking about love? I don't know. Maybe because 50% of people are getting divorced nowadays. Maybe we want to change something. Maybe we want to actually make an impact, right? Like maybe because not talking about it didn't do so well, right? Our track record isn't that great, right? And that's what we're doing a lot of people. Also, by the way, let me ask you, um, when are we starting to roll into the dough? When when does this when's the money following? Like, you're already you're already at a at a place where you're in the 1%. Like, in our community, even the extended communities all over the world, all the Jews, nobody nobody has what you have. Like, you're doing something phenomenal. Like, I I expect some big paychecks, like a big payday. I want to see you with a driver soon. No, you know, in a in a rolls, you know, something like see those things will never happen, you know, like um I I I will invest every single dollar into building this up. You know, I mentioned earlier what our what our budget is, and it's not private information. It's our 990 is public. We're a nonprofit, so it's it's public. Um my my dream, my goal, my next thing we're working on is is to build out um meaningful plus and to have paid subscribers, thousands of them, and to to to really invest in those in content. Like I I want these rabbis, these speakers who don't get paid really well at all to be doing what they're doing, creating creating content like not enough to be doing it more often. I want to bring them onto the network and pay them real money and say like let's take this seriously. Like why is Mr. Beast making more money than you? Why why are these Twitch streamers making like let's literally we live in this world. We see you know there's we're supposed to look learn from what they do and how they utilize technology. There's no reason why we can't do it. There's no reason why we can't take some of the top like I want to make the Mount Rushmore of Jewish thought leaders and creators and say let's go to work. Let's let's create let's create movies. Let's create documentaries. Let's create podcasts. Let's let's double down. Let's make a 50,000 squ square square foot warehouse where is going to be a literal content creation machine because what's the biggest impact nowadays? It's what people are seeing online. It's what they're seeing on their phone. It's what they're what's seeing their computer. It's what it is. We need to invest in it. Seriously. So, like I love that. I think that that's his Rolls-Royce. That's my Rolls-Royce. That sounds like I'm a little disappointed in the answer. I'm not going to lie. I'm not a card. No, I think that's amazing what you're saying and like you're a better person than than most, you know, that you're doing this really genuinely for real authentic reasons. I admire that. Yeah. Like of course I want to take care of my family, pay my mortgage like everyone else. A little bit something for you a lot of hard work over here. You have to contend with, you know, what do you do for fun? Uh I play sports. I play baseball. You guys run a baseball. We won a championship. It's for the world to know. You know, it took a lot of goal, by the way, on my part. And uh you know, I take chances. I'm a risk taker. And uh I I drafted Naki. You took a risk with that wasn't the risk part. I I drafted him onto my baseball team. But then I asked him if he wants to co-sponsor the team together, meaningful, you know, people and and n business. I'm like a no-name podcast. He's, you know, you heard today, you know, what what he's all about. and and he he very graciously accepted. He didn't Thank you for that. I like the name. was very humble about the whole thing and he's even today I'm like listening I'm accomplishing more than most people have done in generations and you're here like you know and you're just like a regular guy and you're that's again that's the message by the way like regular people that's that's who that's what you're my whole message is like everyone I sit down with is regular or I don't know regular is not the word there they everyone I sit down with is is someone who um who probably got in trouble as a kid who probably didn't get good grades all the time, who made trouble, who got punished, who maybe suffers from some sort of stress, anxiety, depression. Every single person I sit down with, um that's that's who it is. Like that is the makeup of the Jewish people. That's who we are. Like we love looking at the uh endgame, the success. Oh wow, look at that. Look what this guy's doing. Look at the impact he's making. And when you just see that, you literally you take away the entire ingredients to the recipe. Like no, no, the stress the I'm not saying bring it upon you don't have to bring stress upon themselves. It's natural. It happens. It does. But that's not things that are going to get in your way. You can use those things like everyone I've spoken to like Abby Finer who dealt with the biggest challenge of a life to to not be able to have kids to have a kid with special needs and that's it. challenge of a lifetime to to interviewing a girl like a lady like Maly Jacobs who was living a amazing normal regular life and then got sick and then got her arms and legs amputated like and she is giving to others. These are these are people that used the things the the worst things that were given to them and they made it into something sweet and beautiful. And everyone listening can do that. Whether in business, whether in relationships, in in life in general, whether you're young or old, you're going to be punched in the face. Um hopefully not literally, but figuratively, you definitely will be. Unless you have like very rich in-laws and I don't know exactly, but then you're getting punched then you're getting punched in the gut. Exactly. That's a whole different kind of uh but you see my take me to mojo. Like um but that's amazing. you're going to get you're going to get punched and and it happens to every single person and the person who's unscathed and untouched is not the person who's successful. You're gaining a tremendous amount of experience and just being around these people and it's the best thing ever. Yeah. I don't know. I when I like see a lot of your clips, I I feel like bad about myself. Like no, that's not that's not the goal. I know. But I feel like there are so many amazing people out there in the world. There's so many people that step up and that overcome. They persevere and they make something out of themselves. It's not just they get by and just they make do. They actually grow. They become bigger and better. And it's very inspiring to see. It really is. It's amazing. I wish I really wish on us, Michael, that our podcast, you know, again, our goal isn't just like to feed inspiration to people. You know, we don't consider ourselves those kinds of people, but we we are regular people, the average Joe, your casual person trying to do the right thing in the religious setting. And we want to be a little bit better today than we were yesterday. Small spurts, little tiny stepping stones. where we grow personally and we grow professionally. We believe very wholeheartedly that the two are infused one and the other. They go side by side. You know, you got to apply your business to your personal values as well. Um and that's what we just try to do here and we try to showcase examples of that and take one little small message at a time. You're doing it on a grand scale. I mean, you you really are playing in the major leagues. I have a great team. I really do. I have a great team. We have a staff of like seven, eight people. Do you do this yourself? Do you host it yourself? Like do you have Oshi or a Michael? I have Momo Bowman. He's my co-host now. And and um you know, when is this airing? Uh probably this week. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Momo is amazing. And I'm sure like we'll have other co-hosts, you know, guest co-host. Like it's it's something that like Oh, so it's not your it's not your partner. Like he's just have on as a addition. He's been on for the last couple years, but you know, um he's amazing. Moving. Why didn't he come? Moy, man. Mo business. Let's invite him. Yeah. Mo's the man. We could do co-hosts together. We could do the podcasters. How often do you do a podcast? How how every week? We put it out every week. Every week. Every single week. And how many episodes are you in? Uh over 200. Wow. Over 200. And Wow. And um it's gotten easier over time. It's gotten better. Yeah. I'm sure things go a lot smoother now. You already know the system. You have it all. I just have to tell you cuz it's on my mind. Sorry guys. You know, um I'm a big fan of therapy. Yeah. And I feel like this is therapy. When she and I talk every week and we just, you know, hear our grievances or we talk about whatever it is. the stuff bill you? Yeah, we we uh we grow through speaking to each other. I always say uh the reason why I believe friends are so important to one another is because it's therapeutic. It's having a friend is is a form of therapy. What you're doing and the impact that you're having on everyone is therapeutic. When when I'm listening to what you have to say or your guests have to say, it's not only therapeutic for them, it's therapeutic for us and us as a nation and us as a people. I think that it's just we need it. And you were you touched upon this while you were talking. And I'm thinking about it the whole time. I'm like, "Yeah, we're Holocaust survivors. We're, you know, we a lot of us have gone through a lot of, you know, challenges in our life and hearing other people's challenges and how they go through it. It's all part of the therapy that we're helping each other." And it's just really beautiful. I had to mention it. It's I was I was the other day working out with uh with a friend. T4. What's that? T4. What's T4? You guys know what T4 is? A workout. No. No. You guys don't know what T4 is? No, I don't know what T4 is. Oh my god. You know what that is? Explain. Yeah. I'll explain. So T4 is like, "Wow, I'm shocked." And Okay, T4 is like, "We may have to edit this because if it makes us look like total idiots, like we live under a rock or something." I'm not gonna let you let you edit everything out. This is staying in. Okay, T4 is your kids never told you what T4. We might know about it if you tell us. Okay, T4 is Let's say you you walk in and you're like, "Oh, my back is killing. The Bentley seats are really not so comfortable." T4 like Oh, like just casually slip inside. T4 is like therefore you're what time is it your Rolex? Exactly. So you're like so I was in the gym yesterday working out. I was killing it pumping 150 lbs. And so I said T4 like so when someone said when someone says to you like honestly if I didn't have that driver I would be so tired right now. You took the words out of my mouth. But I'm I'm glad to learn this new you know because I was going to say oh is she working out? Oh that's amazing. By the way, By the way, I don't know who your friends are and stuff but like you're done. Like every time they open their mouth, every the whole kid is going to be like divor. Oh god. So in school this week is I'm getting roasted. It's happening. Oh yeah. If they hear this. Yeah. Oh my god. Okay. They hear it. Believe me. So you were working out. Yeah. Tell anyway. And now I feel like it. Yeah. Uh I didn't get out on my Bentley to go work out, but I went uh and I was with with a friend and uh the next day I felt extremely sore. Like I couldn't move. Feel so bad. Yeah. I can't even say the story anymore with a straight face. Thank you for that. You totally ruined it for me. And I was trying to make a very important point, by the way. Okay, let's see. I may add, I was I was going somewhere with this. Anyway, so I text I text her. I said, "By the way, I can't move again." And I was like, "Oh, maybe I shouldn't have, you know, you know, I shouldn't have worked out so hard." You see now, I just ruined I just ruined your brain. So then he writes back to me. He's like, "Me too. I'm also sorry I can't eat." Like made me feel better. Like it wasn't just me. I felt like somebody was feeling my pain, you know? I felt like I was commiserating me so to speak, right? Soft landing. That was okay. Yeah. I was going to say I said, you know, I think the reason why people resonate so much with podcasts, especially yours, is that you hear other people's vulnerabilities and you hear other people's struggles and they're sharing, they're talking about it, and that makes you feel a little bit better is that you see that this is happening to others around me, too. And you know, this is how they deal with it. You know, I really wish I could have made this point a lot better and I didn't use I'm happy that it went this way because I was able to teach you something important. Yeah, our kids are going to be very happy. Obviously, how do you say you4? You just T4 or you say T4 right when you start your story? Well, someone said something that sounds someone said something. Roll your T4, you know. Um I I I was I was once in I was at a cafe in in Cedar and someone I was wearing like a sweatshirt cuz I'm a regular person and I wear sweatshirts. Okay. And like people people like why do you dress like on a podcast? Why do you wear a sweat? I'm like so this is the point I'm making like I'm a regular person. I'm not a rabbi. I'm not a RV. I don't hold to be one. I'm a regular uh person who um loves what I do. I'm passionate about what I do. Um and someone said to me that like, you know, I really I I appreciate that there's someone out there that's wearing a sweatshirt that is actually showing that like that's fine. Yeah. Like that's this is you're not you're not a sweatshirt you happen to wear. It's just like Yeah. You don't I think that it's important for all us to know that giving over anything is not just just exclusive to someone with a long beard and a rabbi prefix. It's we're all responsible to to do that and it doesn't matter if you wear a sweatshirt or if your hair is x long or whatever like it these things are so non important. Everybody has something to offer and they could all contribute. We could all we're all a team, right? And everybody has to carry their weight a little bit. We can't just rely on the captain or the best player. Everybody's got to do something if you want to really get a big win. You know, the other day I went to a vart and uh Michael, you know what we're talking about? I'm I'm being very careful like what I'm going to be saying because I don't want you. Don't be careful now. You're being careful about this T4. T4. Yeah. I go to this VR and uh I was going to go out with with friends after the Vart and I didn't want to like, you know, put on a suit and tie and everything and go to the V and come home and change and go out. So like, you know, I'm just going to do what's working for me right now. I'm just going to be comfortable. And I went on my jeans and my uh sweatshirt, you know, and uh terrible idea. I know. I'm kidding. But I did it anyway. And then I I I pull up to the hall. I said, "Wow, it's very busy." Like it was a I guess very popular. Oh my god. I went to a hall at an engagement party with over 100 people. It was a fart. I didn't think it was going to be that I felt out of place. It was going to be like a private meeting. I said to myself at that moment, I said, you know, I'm going to own it. I don't care. I'm just going to walk in and too bad. Whoever doesn't like it, you know. Um and I did. And I walked in and of course the comments came flowing within minutes. You know, everybody's what are you doing? But then there were some people who came over to me like one guy especially Shai Schuler came over to me and he's like well she that's it. You have a podcast now. You could do whatever you want. I'm like you know okay there's maybe there a little bit of perks to this you know but I I I agree. I think that people should podcast get over analyzed. Yeah. People should be themselves be comfortable. You don't always have to be worried about other people going to think about you. Like it's a tough way to live. It's very hard. It's so much better. Obviously, you be respectful and you do things that aren't social norms and and you be respectful. That's the most important thing, right? Um but like was that disrespectful going to the dress that way? Ver was you know it doesn't matter who's already how much you care that's all it's you know. Yeah, I think it's fine. Do you want to show the person that you actually got dressed for this party or not? You know, Michael, we have to wrap up. I have a 12:00 out. Oh, okay. Still middle of the day. We still have uh Thank you. I, you know, we got business over here. You know, we need to function. Yeah, this has been fun. Uh, now I have a question for you. What advice would you give us? Uh, you know, we're we're 20 episodes in and we we care about making an impact simply because it's the brand of what we're trying to do is our journey and growing with us. And we really feel that business and personal are mixed. And that's really what our message is constantly. And we should always have the values and grow. And we're trying to reach an audience. And you know, people ask us all the time like, "Who's your audience? What are you about?" Any advice that you can give us? Cuz we don't know right now. Like people ask us like, "What's your podcast about?" We're like, "I'm not really sure." It's unscripted. We just sit down. We talk to people. It's just two great guys with personalities just trying to talk about things that might make other people feel better is really kind of what we're doing. One great guy. It's, you know, one and a half. Yeah. Um, excuse me. Hello. Two and a half. Thank you. Um, I I think just consistency. Just like just keep doing it every single You do it every week. Yeah. Keep doing it every single week. Consistent. He was very particular about that. Don't Don't take it like I would say don't take a week off. Like it's going to be difficult. It's hard. Um, keep doing it every single week. And um and and just listen to the to what people want more. Like you you'll find you I'm sure you look at some episodes and some resonated more than others. And uh but the biggest message is consistency. Don't don't get don't fall too much in love with the numbers. It's not all about the numbers. Um and if you continue to create good content, the numbers will come. It's just a byproduct of creating good content. It happens. It's not going to happen after 20 episodes. For me, it didn't happen for 20 episodes. And thank God now our our podcast is extremely popular, but it's it's a slow roll sometimes. It doesn't happen overnight. It doesn't it doesn't just uh blow up. Takes time. So, just create good content. That's it. and do do it consistently and be consistent. I appreciate that. Thank you so much, Naki. This has been the another episode of the Nut Your Business podcast sponsored by Prime Source. Thank you everyone for listening. Don't forget to like, subscribe, comment, get involved. Have a great day, everyone. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you.