Mendy Twerski’s Mic Drop: Music, Fame, and Social Spotlight

Okay. Yeah, the mic's on. All right. Casual conversation. The man is not turn off. Yeah. Still the same thing. Okay. And three, two, one. Welcome to another episode of Positivity. I'm super excited to be here today. I wish I knew him a little bit more and better, but by the time he had a few singles, you were a little bit on social media, so mentioned, so we we were able to relate in a sense, we both started on social media at an early age. I mean, I'm a little bit older than you, but still like the idea out there. Um but today you have multiple hit singles including I got Margan Mazingba Kasa intros and translated into many different languages in the Gansvelt chemist. I was telling before my sister that you're going to come on and she was talking to her friend in London. Yay the Kend the song they're telling me that every day in seminary they woke up to it. So like and I'm sure you keep on hearing this from a lot of people. It's such a good energetic song. Um so I'm excited to start this uh conversation. We're just going to make a quick pause for the sponsors and then we're going to get right into the conversation. Fields on camera. Okay, where do I start? Yellow socks for $5.99. Who needs yellow socks? One second. What is that over there? An inflatable swimming pool now in January. I needed that for the summer. No thanks. No deals on a coffee machine. Oh, wait. This is just what I'm looking for. For just $87.99. Yesterday it was 92. Oh, what a deal. Oh, that seems just like the deal I was waiting for. Yes. At Stun Deals, we bring you handpicked deals. Subscribe to our status and get stunned now. Wow. Wow. Wow. Stun stun Deals. Before you continue watching, hit the link in the description to their WhatsApp status. 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And this is not like the ones that you get from the Khalikas or the ones that you get in the in the stores of cheap quality. This is high high and top quality. The reason you're getting it at a better price is because it's coming straight from the manufacturer, delivered to your door. Buys.com. The link is in the description. Check them out and have yourself a wonderful yont. Thank you. You know, I like making you aware of good stuff. Sedua magazine and this is just an incredible magazine. I personally love it and I enjoy reading it. Family can join extra magazine was throwing Canon and Joan. It's just an incredible magazine and if you have an ad for your company and you haven't placed it into this magazine, you the deadline is Monday night. So, make sure I'm going to put the number to Mendy Risman. He is the sales guy, a a good guy. Uh, reach out to him. He is going to help you place your ad. Even if your ad is not ready yet, they can still help you create an ad for your company, for your brand, so that you are seen by over 35,000 people metem on this upcoming yont. Make sure you can send if you want to subscribe to the email list, you can subscribe. send a message to subscribeingman.com so that you can see and get their email or I'll send their WhatsApp number where you can just stay in touch with them and see interesting updates uh about the magazine. Enjoy. So Mandy, how does it feel first of all to be Menyki? How does it feel to be you? So many people look up to you. They follow you. They love your work, your music. How does it feel to be you? So, first of all, it's an honor to be here for you. Thank you so much. And like, you're like, I wonder if he's going to get the 300 votes. You know what I mean? Wow. But you got it. Yeah. like and by the way, but it's just that like somebody mentioned it. I was like, "Okay, but anyway, go ahead." Anyway, so how does it feel to be mandatory? It's a hard question. Yeah, it's a trick question, but the truth is is I know myself beyond social media, beyond what anybody else knows. So for me, how does it feel to be me? I just feel like I have I have you know because I started off in the beginning I I didn't really know what I was what I wanted to do musical you know music and I just I really want people to listen to it and then came and it just changed my whole entire career it just took off you know like and listening it's a whole new game from plane right that's what happened and I I wasn't ready I remember I reached out to Nakman and I was like nah what is happening and then I came back to America and boom homerivately playing just come to my house and play with your guitar for my kids for 5 minutes. I was like I thought there's only weddings and those type of jobs. You can get invited to people's houses. That was crazy. So, how does it feel to be Mandy? I just I'm so thankful to God. So, so so thankful. Beautiful. That leads me to my next question. I feel like we are very different. like I'm what they call I guess an influencer or some would call it maybe a celebrity today's but you're a musician you're an artist but you also the techniques which is social media and Instagram of course to get yourself out there meaning you have more views on an Instagram reel than you have probably on your biggest uh YouTube video right so talk talk to people a little bit about that like how do you see yourself is a sazing singer is artist is a celebrity because when you describe that people called you down to sing a few songs to their kids that doesn't come necessarily because you're a singer that comes because you're also like a celebrity an influencer you have an influence a power question so I'll tell you what I I I think that celebrity means two things statuses celebrities I mean a celebrity celebrity status Miami but you're a celebrity why you a celebrity cuz the famous celebrity status is a celebrity celebrity entrepreneur most of the time because he's not showing off his talent really his Instagram is his business his business is being a celebrity and selling whatever it is whether it's a course or it's merchand but then of course every every artist was a famous of Instagram celebrity status. So, this is definitely a celebrity, but I would I would say that I would I would I would put myself into the artist, you know, I sing, I'm an artist and not necessarily because I'm different than other artists. vague, you get yourself out there because if you if you're a new guy, you just came out of yes and you want to drop your first single, how will people know to listen to it, don't post enough status, like who how is how are you going to get out there? So, let's do the Instagram [Music] algorithm to get out of it. Exactly. Look at that, right? at 21 and you have more views probably than than think of it than MBD can ever have on his YouTube channel or Spotify like do you know already the number of how many views you have like collectively do you have a number is it counting I we have numbers on everything that's some streams numbers and some of streams not of 246 lines a million streams oh wow yeah and 20 which is which is like it's funny I would never think I'll tell you what's I'm curious if somebody like MBD actually has that amount of streams. So on 246 possibly because 246 is is an eye concept 246. He he listens to your song offline and not only you get paid for it but it gets filed. No way. Yeah offline 246 when it comes to connect Wi-Fi it updates itself and you get paid for stream. So on 246 it's possible numbers I don't think a million streams. Wow. I mean it depends because of 246 songs 246. So it's the five six songs that they're listening. Martin Alliance has 550,000 streams has almost 150,000 streams. Another song has like 250,000 streams. It's crazy. 246 is is it's definitely the new base of Jewish music. It's a great plan. I didn't plan to give them a shout out, but the fact that they put up my podcast so effortlessly, like a lot of people asked me, I told my manager, I'm like, you know what, reach out to them, try. They said right away, yes, we'll put it up. I think I'm only in the adult section, so I'm surprised you're saying kids can listen for me. I'm because we talk about mental health and stuff like that. It's possible. I don't know how, but I also So, in the first week, I got like a thousand listens. I think that that's a nice amount. So, and also algorithm for you page. So he got this searched it. Yeah. Either he searched it because Spotify. That's one thing I can say. They're not working like Spotify. Spotify. You might like also this playlist. They put it together through genres and other stuff. How many Spotify listens do you have this year? Like we just finished off a year. in which September we finished off a year and no in December we finished off the year and we had like uh 250,000 streams like just from this year on Spotify which is like yeah I know how much it is cuz I used to do Schnitzers that's also how we connected in a sense because I was doing music for you um Wow that is a big number I know Mah used to bring in about uh I think it was 10 15,000 streams a month like it's a big number but it's not what you just described. 150,000 streams was it blew us away last year was my total amount of streams the whole year like 15 20,000 streams was nice right second year it was like 30 40 the next year was 50 and then the next year 250 right give it up so next year we're projecting a million bye right in 2025 a million streams right that's it um I want to ask you a question a lot of people are saying like Ken and it is funny because some people like I knew them like as a business guy and I know they're selling vice versa insurance and of them the next day hey please post on status my new single like it it did became a little bit like it be it started becoming a little bit of a joke like the amount of people putting out music what are the benefits of that that Spotify YouTube music wasn't in the the in your opinion as an artist so you're about to hear a very different opinion than anybody else because interesting people that come from outside of the music world mention created music. They don't really know what goes into producer but today the world of music is so much more complex. So where would you start? It never stays the same when it goes to the studio. You always have to change it. So that means record, but basically to sum it all up, it costs a lot of money and it takes a lot of time. So when somebody releases a song, he has to know why he's doing it. if you're doing it because it's not it's not an issue and just the opposite beautiful music friends they show me their stuff unreleased music and mommy music compared to this wow like I really feel like that sometimes but the fame. And it's nothing wrong to love the fame. It's it's okay to like the fame, right? But you have to know what you're doing. Don't be stupid. Don't just throw out $10,000 of a beautiful music video. You're not throwing stones in the water. It has to exit the same to you have to look at it as an investment. Yeah, you have to see if you get back for your investment or not, right? Um I I love that you touched on the fame part because I know like part of my business is Weber Media. We do social media marketing and many times I tell people that this is the new way to spread your business to to make awareness is by being out there. And sometimes for business owners, it's a very hard decision like, oh, I'm putting myself out. I'm putting out my face. But I always tell them, so there's the option of staying where you are and your business is decreasing and you're just losing money or just not making money. And there's the option of putting yourself out there doing the uncomfortable and putting yourself out there to yes make uh uh business. So I I do see it as being out there as a very beneficial thing and I think that eventually I think everybody will do it. like we're still sitting here and I'm like in a sense a leader in the podcast industry or in the in the influencer industry, right? Like I think when I started this a few years ago that did this. That's why people like me and you, we were so rare and and you still are rare. But this is funny because upcoming that you see that's going to continue to be creative. Um I think a shift in the that we have that knowledge information they they know more they see more. Um do you feel like your audience is and if yes what is your message to them? How do you try to inspire them? Okay. So, first of all, this is definitely do a certain Z percentage audience is in the age described. I would say the age from like 15 to 25 26 Z% audience I would say like over 30%. Nishans audience it used to be like a year ago it used to be based on that number. It was like 70% at least just in just the age rate. But by now I I blew up a lot. I grew with a lot of following in in the past year. So I would say as possible as mention the fact as they mention right now because they live in an industry, they live in a community for example in grocery store. Yeah. G&G though a real estate company was trying to attract mention they would need it from branding you can brand it either with the owner of a store owner from the store for example I am whatever business models company in New Jersey in New York model. I don't know what the cost is, but I'm assuming it's whatever a couple hundred a month probably as a contract type of Z. So, and now why do you feel that your music is connecting to specifically young people but also even older people but why do why is it connecting to these young? I think because mention people don't believe in themselves until they see uh busy cast and the mirror is successful you will not believe in yourself. Okay. Meaning you don't actually have to be successful right now, but if you can look in the mirror and see a version of yourself that is successful, you will feel better because you believe you have hope. It's called like light at the end of the tunnel. If you see that you can one day be in a good place. So mentioned kicking off journey, you know, I my journey was pretty much on social media social media and now I'm 21. So people saw how the meni that got kicked out of yeshiva and had a ton of hate came on the social media and then 17 years old they saw the meni that started went to Israel and started releasing music but was still a bit like this and then 18 they saw another Mandy and then they they watched me growing of course it's not everybody but I'm sure dedicated like from the beginning somebody came to me actually last week I was by a party and someone comes up to me he's like Mandy comes to me he's like are you Mandy I'm like Yeah. No way. I followed you 5 years ago. You went live with Meny Leon like back in the day. I went you went live then. I'm like, do you remember? I was live with you on Instagram and oh my god, you got so famous. That's crazy. I'm like, it's interesting to see somebody that knew me then versus now and like see how different they look at me like, whoa. Like what happened to you? Did you like did you go for a makeover somewhere? Like it's not just that, but the whole vibe and everything. But and and how do you deal with the fame? At the end of the day, fame is a big thing. And I I see you in Israel and in Israel also people know you because you do Israeli music. You work with Israeli producers as well, right? So how do you deal with the fame? So it depends where And by the way, if I can add for me it's a little bit different because I'm an influencer. I'm I'm supposed to be a people's person. So my fame is not going to influ is not going to influence it so much. But when you have a guy that's always on the music videos and he has a whole career under his name, when you see him in person, it's like, wow, this is the guy. Even when I saw you today the first time, I was like, wow, it is do for a long time. So, yeah, and we haven't seen each other in a long time, but I'm saying like it's how do you deal with it? Because you obviously see the reactions of those people. Do you like it? Does it get to you? Does it bother you sometimes? So, I like it to a certain extent, you know, sometime I love getting I love my fans. I really do because I'm working for my fans, you know, is like, "Wow, Ellie, this food is so good." You feel good, right? So, that's how I feel when people tell me, "Men, I love your music." But it does get tough sometimes. I'm not going to lie. If you go out with somebody on a business meeting and you're like talking, family member, a date even and somebody just walks up to you like, "Oh my god, are you Mandy? Can I have a selfie?" Especially in Israel, I walk on the shook, I can get slammed from one side of the shook to the other side of the shook easily. Wow. Boom. And so I started in the beginning. I was like, "Okay, you know what? I'm I'm done. I I shook. Wow. We We avoided the shook at any cost. It was crazy, right? The shook is probably a danger for you. There's always going to be somebody that recognizes it. But then at a certain point, I I calm down because I realiz they mention it's not what they're doing. What they're trying to do, they want to interact with me. So the second come talk to me. You like my song at Martin? Which part do you like? You like the beginning more or do you like the rap? I love interacting with those people. The second you show them that you're here to interact with them, they're they're light, right? For me, sometimes I feel like it's like healthy validation. Like compliment, I love compliments and I and my love tank is very big. Like you can accept compliments and it's still going to feel good. I'm the same way. And this is the best. Emotional support is real. Every person needs emotional support. Yeah. Right. Right. You know, but that's the point is everybody loves emotional support. Right. But sometimes it gets tough, you know, like people have to they have to know where to mind their business or where to give the space to the artist because social media in person. That is what happens. Your brain goes into a shock. You're like mention I'm like social media and sometimes I forget. So since I have it with myself, I know how to be nice, you know. I hope no celebrity ever had any issues with me. Please, if yes, come talk to me. I hope nobody ever had any issues with me. But but the point is I try, you know, I try my best. Who Who is the biggest celebrity that you were able that told you that they listened to your music and it made you feel good? I think the actual biggest celebrity that came to me that walked up to me. Yeah. So I had to in the within the Jewish community in the community. No way. Mandy I listen I give my kids to listen to every single day. Okay. Wow. That's what beautiful is a good people outside of the industry in the video of Instagram crazy. Right. That's very good. I watched it so many times. It's so funny. Static is big. Static is very big. Can you see yourself do a song with him or you're afraid to ask him or I'm not afraid to ask him actually. I think it would be good. I think it's good for him. It's good for you. Especially the Israeli singers. They're not afraid to make to collab. They're very very collaborative. You know what I'm saying? Yes and no. If they only would have collaborated, you you never see a collaboration like it takes 30 years for a simple collaboration to happen between like I'll tell you the way I look at it collaborations by dimensions of level. I'll give you an example. Imagine influencers have exactly the amount same amount of followers. It's exactly the same famous. They collab. I feel like it brings you up. What do you mean? So it could bring you up, but it also has the potential of people seeing the video. They're like, "Okay, I see two even people over here. Somebody automatically in their head goes up and somebody goes down because I mention I mention celebrities even so let's say English and the English singer are on the same level okay I like the better mention collaborations all the time and you don't feel like lower right much bigger than me I I don't I told you in my opinion I I don't think so. Like respect, nice guy, but right Instagram views. Are you talking about loyal talking about? Yes. Like target audience. Like I told you, I I told Ellie before the podcast, I feel like of the amount of views that I get, only a very very little percentage of that is my actual target audience, which means is the people that I'm trying to target, right? [Music] likes comments. I would say I saw that this is the one for right at least 150 comments then in Palestine like that right why because obviously that they that's what blew up the reel that's what made Instagram should show it to more people that are also within my target audience but in the same time a lot of the views are not my target audience in a sense you also took an entirely different approach that I think you release music just on Instagram am I correct with that I mean not just like these little 30 60 seconds videos so I'll tell you that's an interesting thing by the I don't like it's it's an interesting topic because I was thinking like this after it blew up like so we sat down and the whole team and everybody and we were thinking why did blow up? Now of course there is a billion reasons that you can say but then there's people that are professional at this and they can sit down and see why did this song really blow up? Of course it's a good topic and it's a song that everybody can hear every day. Of course, it's a catchy tune and of course it's a good music video and of course everything. But one of which one of those 10 reasons was the key and we came to the conclusion that the reason why it blew up was because people were already waiting for it before it came out. Let me explain. People did not know that I'm gonna be dropping a song in video people. They didn't know it, but they were expecting to come out. Meaning opening often a parking spot. It's like a product. It's like saying that you're selling a product that everybody already wants. Yeah. Yeah. Instead of releasing a song, hey everybody. So, you're saying it was the topic. You're saying that No, I'm saying is it's the fact that the people were waiting for it before it came. Why were they waiting? You haven't released something in a while or they were just looking for something fresh because was going viral meaning within the community. It wasn't going viral in the but in order for us to viral in comments and likes actual community in same thing on YouTube same thing audience right this is exactly they started loving status. So people didn't even but they were waiting for it. They knew a week before that it was going to come out. They didn't actually know but in their brain it was it was already accepted. Right? So the same how can we make a song that people should accept it before it's out even instead like please I'm begging you go listen to my song on YouTube. Please post it on status. Please do this. How about people would be like, "Please let me post this on Status. Please bring the song to Spotify." Instead of, "Hey, the song is available now on Spotify." So, this is what we started doing. We started coming up with teasing methods and ways to post it on Instagram which if it doesn't go viral okay blamed went viral the same way but it's it's a solid method of making people want your song so that you don't have to ask them please go click the link and listen to it right so I have a question cuz sometimes that's beautiful. Sometimes I ask myself a question like like why do I have the cha as they call it like why are people listening to me? I'm just a 27y old kid. I'm I'm not an entrepreneur and I'm I'm an influencer, but but I'm not, you know, I don't I'm not knocking myself, but at the end of the day, there's I don't have like there's no specific reason as to why people are listening to me and the podcast. These podcasts are are getting now on average like, you know, 10, 20, 30,000 views just that we can track and it's an insane amount. So in a sense the the the question is also the answer. Like because I question why people listen to me. That's why I also try to put out nice content, information, motivation. It's one of the things Leap always told me. He's like as long as people listen to you, you keep on giving out stuff because it shows you that the attention is on you. Um, but my question to you is, how do you feel when you're you you you see yourself you're you're 21 years old in DMAX music that people love and listen to every day that carries a huge responsibility. You're inspiring an entire new generation. So, how do you feel with that responsibility and how do you carry it? So, first of all, the the first time that I I realized that my responsibility was bigger, like right after Martin blew up, it took a few months for me to realize what happened. Okay, the song was viral, the views were going up, but I didn't see it like working in shows and concert, you know, everything just continues specifically went viral in the Jewish community like which was very interesting change. Yes. So, I came back to America, we're going right away. October seven performed to Manhattan 7 a.m. And we we went to sleep like at 12. At 12:00 he dropped me off like literally. Woke up gym out. Woke up gym out every single day. And I I started feeling like really really like out of control because how can I continue my life? How can I post something on Instagram without thinking before is this something that people want to see from me? Because I felt like there's so many more people that actually not only watch me, but they care about what I do. And so, first I chickened out. First I was just, okay, stop posting stories of Instagram. I'll post my links when it's out and that's it. Yeah. And I'm still like I I never came back. Like I used to post a lot of stories like I remember with the coffee I can't do it just because not because I think it's wrong but I think it's unnecessary. I feel like it used to be necessary when I was trying to gain new followers and everything. Right now it's just know but right now it's turning. I don't have to do anything anymore. Yeah. All I have to do is just create more music and a game. But is very very hard, right? So when you write your music, what are you saying like how do you come up with ideas? Because I know you write, you compose, you're the full package, right? So how do you decide? Okay, dread and and the topics in your songs are very up to date. So how do you choose what you're going to talk about and and whatnot? So So I'll tell you what, I'm a person that has I have an opinion on everything. I don't talk a lot, you know. I'm not a person that would like put my opinion out there, but opinion, it goes into my head. And if it's something that bothers me, something like something that makes my heart shiver, anything, whether it's something that makes you happy or sad or if it's something that uplifts you, it goes into my brain and it becomes one of my morals. It becomes one of my things to do. And then whether if it's if I'm just walking on the street and it's a tune plat it happened billion times and some of them like blew up and some of them did not you know that was a song of Route 9 Duncan and it just came into my head and I I called right away let's get it produced and it was out two months later but then we have different songs like Martin that was created in the studio I was like okay song let's see which topic are we going to choose and like oh you know this is Martini studio was like okay project. Okay. So what are the struggles that people are struggling with in the morning? There's nothing you can do. just walk in. But somehow um how you described before your schedule and I'm very interested in this because they celebrinism and you can share as much as you want but you obviously you have a manager right that joins us today. Thank you Nakman for joining. Big shout out big shout out. Um tell us a little bit about that. when did you decide to work with him and does he take your calls and they because in a sense a manager I finally just hired somebody to be my podcast manager because I noticed my podcast it became the number one podcast like in terms of interest and views and so I said it's impossible to manage you can physically see I have a manager sitting on the podcast eight hours a day working on the shorts the reels the the sponsorships editing the videos of the sponsorships putting it in making sure that it's live on 30 platforms. We just launched a hotline, launched it on 24/6. Every episode that comes out, you got to make sure that it's live and and working. Yeah. So, it's a crazy amount of work. So, for you and Basham, I'm grateful for it because I see it as a good business. Like, we have sponsors on every episode. People are reaching out. They they want to work with us. There is memberships to which I'm super grateful to every person. Every almost every day somebody joins the membership. Like, it touches my heart. help what that means. Like they these somebody doesn't just want to see what you post. He wants more. Exactly. It's a great feeling. It's the best feeling ever. They want to see more the behind the scenes and they want to support and they're paying monthly. Like it's a very good feeling. So Taka, thank you for every for every member and thank you for every person that's considering to join. And if you join, thank you. But so when did you notice that? Okay. You got to So what does he do for you basically? And what does the average day look for you especially now when you're here in America? So now when I'm here in America, an average day. Yeah. Of course, every day is different because every day we do something else, but it's basically the way it looks like. He is by me around this this time it's a bit different. So, he comes a bit later. He's by me like around 8:30, 9ish, and by then I'm already after the gym. I'm already You know what I mean? I wake up very early. I need to Nice. I I'm Yeah, I see you're very disciplined and we got to talk about that. You're very disciplined. You're in the gym every day. It's hard work. You I've seen your muscles. This is nice. It's impressive. That really shows something. that gives respect to a person like crazy. Like you know I feel like besides of respect discipline he knows he can do whatever you want. Exactly. Cuz eventually like Yeah. If you have discipline you can accomplish you are unstoppable. Even if you're not successful in your workouts you have discipline. Albert Einstein. Yeah. Albert Einstein that the the law of compound effect that when you do something it builds up and and becomes bigger and bigger like when you invest money and it just grows and grows and grows is it's the eighth wonder you know because it's like a secret killer you know you keep on going to the gym and then one day you notice wow I feel better I look better it's exactly what happened with me and the motivation at that point trust me it goes from 47% to 99 literally like it right so what are what are you focused on right Now, I heard you discuss before you're scheduled already to be in the studio. I know even scheduling the podcast, you have a busy schedule coming up. There was only two dates I was able to schedule. So, you know, so what are you doing now on an average day? You're doing shows. You're in studio producing month. We're focusing a bit less on shows right now because coming up, so we can't really meaning we're put we're working on a lot of shows, of course, meaning it's we're working on set lists and on the whole entire idea, but nothing is confirmed yet. It's we're working on a lot of big stuff, but you know, Sharon, we'll share when the time is when the time is ready, but uh we're working right now basically on content. We're focusing on content. We like to have content backed up since I'm I'm going to be going back to Israel in a month from now. So, when I have videos shot here that you can release, I went back to Israel 5 months ago, we had every single video that I posted on my Instagram in the past half year was already set by the time that I came back to Israel. Wow. Where do you Who does that? That's him. So, it's co. So, of course, or you're that way. I know you're also very creative. Uh, I do I have my stuff that I do. I edit most of the videos by myself. Um, music videos or the shorts? Shorts and whatever. I always I have like a like a eye, you know, like a I don't know what the word is eye or something like that. Very nice. It's more like cinematic like I Yeah. Like because creatives is within cinema like within pictures and videos and in their belt. So like I always like videographer like for example when usually when you make a music video you need to have a videographer and a director meaning very very not very rare on his bench. You cannot find media does not do it is a director is a director and he brings along a videographer with him. So there's all kinds of ways that you can go about it. You can either hire a director and a videographer. But in in my case in every single one of my music videos for the past two years, I was the director, right? I directed my own video. Oh, really? Yeah. Okay. Okay. So that's impressive. I I have another question which is I feel like when it comes in this industry it's like a little bit of a gray area to talk about money right and I'm very curious how how do you make money as in your career and how do you spend money meaning the maka song so it cost to dollars so how do you cover that so I'll tell you what there's of course it's limited how much I I can share about this topic but I can tell you one thing first of It does not cost as much money as people think. Once you've been doing it for a long time and you get the hang of it, you figure out where you can cut out huge amounts of money that are unnecessary. Mhm. Apart from the faction prices, right? And I don't want to say names and and stuff. It's just it's kind of it makes me sad. It makes me sad because the fact is He's not going to be able to figure it out. He's going to get lost in the way. He doesn't know how to direct a music video. He doesn't know how to take stuff to producers because I can produce it by myself. I can get somebody that can do the music and I'll sit with him and I figure everything out. So, this is first of all expenses wise. It does not cost as much as people think it costs. Second of all, I look at every song, not I, me and Nakman together where we look at it as partners. He's like a manager. But yeah, without my manager, I would not be doing what I'm doing because we sat together. And you always need, you probably know this. You definitely know this as a second opinion is sometimes more important than your own opinion about yourself, because they see you, right? You see yourself, of course. I know you think you're awesome. you are awesome, but I know he thinks he's awesome and everything, but like you need somebody to tell you this can go out and I know you think you look nice when you go like this, but nobody wants to see you blowing your nose or something, you know? It's like ideas like that. So, we decided together that it was the smartest thing to do that I forgot what I was in the middle of saying one of the ultimate zing the oh the expenses. So we decided the smartest thing to do is that we look at every project by itself as an investment. So I look at it like this. Yeah. For example, and we're going to be putting it out, right? So we're going to be putting it on all platforms before concerts, right? Because right now we don't have our own concerts. We might get called on to other concerts. We might get featured and all those stuff, but this is not tied to the release. We want to see the amount of money that we're going to put out on this release. How long is it going to take us to make it back before profit? if we can make it back and we have our rules and our our you know the way the business works because that's already that that has nothing to do with social media and that has nothing to do with me as a person or as a singer. It has to do with us as people and and in our business. You know, I'm also releasing music, but I also have a business. It's called Mandatory Music. Right. So, that's why I'm asking about the money part is not because I want to get personal into you. I want to I see it as a huge inspiration. Like, you're doing so much big stuff and I know that it has to be costing a lot of money. It does. So, answer number one is okay that it's there's certain things where you you able to save yourself, which is super smart. Um, another way to to that I'm that probably happens or maybe if you want to talk about it is that you are probably yes making some amount of money and you're managing it well if if I understand correctly with this gam. But we're definitely making money. All sources there streaming platforms, there's YouTube, there's 246, there's Zing, there's all platforms like that. And then we have a lot of ads mention advertised and some sponsors fed videos and there's there's a ton of different ways for us that we're that we're making money. How much money is of course is relevant, but the fact is we make sure that when we put out money from our pockets on a music expense, it's going to come back. We make sure that it comes back. And this is just for business, a business perspective because we don't want to be stupid in the beginning like we were like, but don't be stupid. Just because you want everybody to be able to search your name on YouTube and see that you have a song does not mean eventually you're not going to have to pay this amount of money for music. Okay. Because you know how important it is for business to be different over the other two ice cream stores, right? Restaurant over their restaurants. So everybody needs their niche. So if it makes sense then definitely they should go for it. If not, right, right, you know. Right. Um, one of the things that I wanted to touch on is I know that you had an interesting um, like teen life like growing up like you said 16 17 and you put yourself out there and that's that's one of the first places probably where we connected. Um, what do you think today for somebody struggling going through as a similar experience the 17 18 19 and it's rough for them. What's and I'm sure to mean they all say that's whenever I go to bar park walk around in gourmet glat I see a booker buying a sandwich and then they come over to me they tell me and yeah and so what can you tell um you know to to to to inspire them but also in a sense of how they can take charge of their life like they look up to you they see he took care of his life career and his discipline it is confident at least that's what it looks like right what can you tell them so of course every one of those things but I can sum it up I can sum it all up together and I can say one thing for them I can say as definitely but everything first of all looking at the whole entire picture me looking back at my past I don't see how anything could have gone anything of any kind of detail like I was I wanted to release music and I would be right now I guess you know but like which nothing wrong with it but I wouldn't be where I am right now so Everything that has to happen is happening. So he's got his plan and you're definitely on the right track. As far as career, this is definitely awareness. They don't educate us young that family whatever depending on how you choose your lifestyle, but you're going to have to support the family. They don't really educate us so much on that. Not because they don't want to, but English math and spelling. So there's no place really for this, you know, but I feel like everybody has to take it seriously. Don't be afraid to jump on it and do it. Electronics, figure off the wires and run an electricity company. Jump on on your skills. Don't don't love learning. like social media. So like so I used to be like that. I used to be like okay you know what social media but that's a mindset. It doesn't work like that. That's not contradicting. It's not really contradicting. Everybody should do exactly how they feel comfortable. Right? you know, beautiful, beautiful answer. And I think they're starting to put this into the curriculum already. Like they're starting to give people kids their space. And I think especially recently that just way too many people are not happy and they don't feel a purpose in living. Um I feel like you've created purpose and meaning for yourself again. Yes. Like I it sounds like you enjoyed to live your life and it sounds like you enjoy waking up in the morning. Um how did I bumped into hard times? That's what I'm asking. How did you overcome it? So first of all, I didn't stay quiet when I had hard times. Loneliness. I had times that I was by myself wasn't here still did not know who I was and I was just like in Lakewood, you know. and you know I didn't I didn't feel full until I came to Israel and I realized that you know I I need a different type of life because I'm a different type of person and I need something that works for me but I think that I don't look at struggles as a mistake that you have to fix. I feel struggles is something that you just have to be able to live with it and push it through because eventually because without your struggles you wouldn't have been here. Wow. certain point and I feel successful. Yeah. But everybody has a certain point whether it's everything that you think that you can do when you get there you're like you feel successful and then you look back and you're like all that hard times they brought me here. Yeah. I was it's I I love what you just said because I was saying this morning the similar like I said that the challenges don't necessarily change if if anything they get bigger right because you're growing a family you're finding a relationship you're growing your business your career we all grow but it's the tools that we have and how to deal with them the knowledge the people that we meet along the way that can now help us despite the fact that the challenges or the things that we have in life gets bigger and and bigger. That's true. Um, I wanted to ask you, Visataka, how's the experience in Israel? Have I learned there like seven years ago already, but how is it for you? Why do you enjoy it? How are you enjoying it? Talk a little bit about it like a celebrity. So, it's like I don't know what's the lifestyle over there. First of all, first of all, you're right, but you're also wrong. meaning exactly what it's funny you're like saying what I thought about a year when I first came to Israel. When I first came to Israel, I wasn't as famous as I'm now, but I already felt famous. You know, people were already stopping me and everything because I'm going to lose my name celebrity. But that was only because I was trying to be bigger. I was trying to be a bigger celebrity and I was focusing on the fact that I'm a celebrity and because I was focusing so much on that. Yeah. It was a couple of years and at a certain point I realized this is unnecessary. Unnecessary. Why do I need it? And that's not only the only thing also settled like if you want to have a settled schedule. One of the best things to do is you learn how to cook at home. If you live by yourself, you have to cook by yourself every single day. Breakfast, lunch, supper. Imagine this is already something you're in Israel. This is just another tiny point easier. comfortability. I can get my bedroom by myself if I want mention I think because it's not going to change. You're not going to stop listening to my music. So like it doesn't matter my my my financial state. So, and in general the energy in general the energy is I figured it out because they they they lose their schedule. they start waking up late and that that's what happens because especially in the summer night life is like very popular in Israel you know because it's in the and then you get home at 4 whatever you know everybody has their own time and then you can't go to sleep till late because my schedule 5:00 5:30 5:45 in that range over there I put something into my body and then afterwards by 9:30 I'm already on the street, you know, I do my thing. So everything, you know, they learn but they learn five, six hours a day and then they stay with six hours a day that they have nothing what to do, right? So I figured out how to split it apart in a way that my whole day should be interesting for me and I should lose my motivation to do the rest of my daycert at 19 seconds of the concert and about 29 minutes into the concert. You have to do the same thing with your day. You have to make sure there's interesting stuff, right? So are you working every day on music? Like what do you put into your space? I make sure I make sure every day I do something either I work with it doesn't actually come out on Instagram like okay let's record it and then we'll see eventually how we're going to do it and database unreleased songs not everything is ready to go out of course but like just like if we need it, you know, like we're working on a couple of big stuff, albums and we have to figure it out. We have to know what goes where. Wow. So, yeah, it's impressive. It just like popped out. But, you know, why not? Yeah. Wow. Wow. You know, we got to keep it down. That is the next level. I feel like Right. I feel like the next thing that I could possibly do is drop an album. I've done everything already. Wow. I had a hit song. I had a hit cover. I had everything. Right. That that is my next question. Where do you see yourself? What's taka the next step for you? And do you feel that you're okay? You're ready to handle it like mentally, do you feel do you have you have the capacity for it? Does it scare you? So it definitely it scares me to a certain extent but by now I I do believe that I have the capacity for it just because like I I did not believe in myself a year ago and the amount that I grew in the past year showed me how much I should believe in myself because if you see that everything that you do people like it like we said before the emotional support goes up and up and up and up and at a certain point you feel let me do more for the people. So you're saying it's like it's growing slowly. When you can handle this, you can handle a little bit more. Then you can handle a little bit more. And you know an album. My dream was always to drop an album. That's it. It's over. If he wants to really listen to Mandy and get inspired and hear your message, it's an album. the flow shine music the branding the song picture you know and and and it comes together and everything right but but if I can say Mandy I think performer I don't think I don't think all your future is an album I think your future is in in shows in order to make a show am I right the guy is crazy I saw I saw your videos with the with his pum the mask yeah and you was jamming in a store or something and I was like you deepest you know leaper 2.0 Oh, you know, not to call you names, but you you have that, but in a younger energy stuff. You know what I'm saying? Right. But it's good because it's it's young. You're young. You're 21. You're you're fun. The new generation, right? So, Lipa did this 10 years ago. Exactly. Right. Right. Right. So, I feel like you can be a good performer. You can you can go onto a stage and the traditional the Yeah. like we want entertainment and I feel like you have the personality for it, you have the charisma, you have the the voice for it obviously you have the the the the material to do something like that. So, first of all, it's literally it's literally some of the stuff, you know what I'm saying? Like, this is that interesting. But, uh, the truth is that I I know like I'm aware of the the my my performances and stuff. I I didn't know, but then at a certain point I started performing. People were like, "Meny, what did you just do?" I was like, "I'm sorry. What did I do?" I was like, "No, that was so good." And I looked over the videos and I was like, I started figuring out stuff that I did and I was like, "Okay, let me go a bit harder on this." And then I learned how to do it. And it's also months of practicing like we we did rehearsals for a very long time. Yeah. You had many gigs in Israel, right? Big stages and stuff like different types of gigs like I did I see. I think Mendy is fun. Like it's you don't get it often by the way. It's not something that anizing it. It's it's actually something that you're one of a kind. You're unique. I appreciate it. Yeah. Um I another question that I'm curious is how you deal with like people project. I know for me took suggestions on WhatsApp and I tell people I I do my life and I don't share anything about that on social media like with my audience. Um do you get pressure from that or you just by me it's a bit different. I do I get a lot of messages you know my inboxes messages but uh the truth is that I look at it in a very I used to look at it differently you know I used to look at it in a very immature way I was like wow but then I realized at a certain point as social media videos high quality you post good content if you look good even if you don't look good everybody has their own nice whatever If you look settled on social media, yeah, why should a girl not want to marry you? Right. So, because social media that portrays the most perfect picture of you possible. When you want to find a girl for your future, you want a girl to see the most imperfect picture of you possible. Because of course, no matter if you have a lot of money if you if you are famous or you're not famous because if it's connected to something you're going to lose it. So I really don't want to find anybody on Instagram and I don't want to find anybody through Instagram. I I do believe in the system but to a certain extent like I wouldn't go to just a random paycheck because this is because then they just push they literally push. Yeah. But what I would do I would go to somebody you just have to find somebody in your family in your circle. for you know you're going to screen her. You know, does she want you for you or does does she want you for your career, money, and fame? That's basically what it comes down to. That's basically what it comes down to. But it's also like I regretted the fact that I became famous because Because it's a little bit scary, by the way. Exactly. That's That's exactly what I'm saying is Instagram. But when it comes to seeing the real person, sometimes it's a bit of a And when it comes to making a big life decision, you got to make sure that somebody sees you for the real you. Yes. So, when it comes to dating, I I stay away from Instagram, dating platforms, and all those stuff because what should I do? It's too late, you know? My name is out there. I can't really do anything. But, uh, when the time is going to be right, I'm going to find someone and yeah, I'll make sure it's the right way, you know? Right. Right now, mention, when you have an artist that's single, people always they're always worried for him. They always come up with suggestions. I think it should be exactly the opposite. Mention we're having a hard time, but we don't have a hard time. There's no crisis by where we're at, but God has a plan for us just like he has for for everybody. 100%. Wow. Um, anything? Yeah. Anything that we didn't cover? I see we're already an hour in. I feel like we covered a lot, man. Um, I always try to think about whatever Instagram. Oh, that's [ __ ] checking. Let me check Instagram. Wow. Messages. I have a lot of questions. Okay. What made you go into the line of music? I I feel like we spoke about that. No. Yeah, we can do a quick answer and everything. What made Okay. What made you decide to go into music? The fact that I wrote a lot of songs and the fact and then I blew up. So, I felt like everybody likes it like we said before. Yeah. What made you decide that the culture isn't for you and you're more a music guy? I don't think they question Instagram questions because it's judgmental. Who cares? And by the way, the culture is very much for me. I still join my family. I hit them back at my family. Yeah. This is judgmental. People see it. This is the black and white culture. As they say today, OTD stands for it used to stand for over the day. It's not today for and that's really how I feel like me years ago I would have been been considered like a bum a dropout whatever right today what do you mean like I can wear a t-shirt I'm not a drop the drop exactly yeah mention the views definitely which did he go to Baba 45 yeah I was going to say somebody's asking like when did you decide that you want to look different than your own community which I just want to say that I want to answer the question like what means different what's the community and what means different cuz some person decides to wear all day and different shirt it doesn't work like that we're like we just it's it's the it's the the end game for our journey it's the the endame the end journey t-shirt and then we settle on something that we wear. Love my community and the people that I'm making the music for is my community that I grew up in. So, we love the community, right? There's uh yeah, we we got lots and lots of questions, but I feel like we did talk about all of them. Spoke about all of them. Spoke about all of them. And um one one of the things I love doing on a podcast is bringing a person and introducing him to the world like mention the real Mandy they should know you from the Instagram they should get to know you and I have a very good record on on doing that on introducing people to the world and I'm very proud of that. So thank you Mendy for your time. Good job Ellie. I appreciate it. Um, thank you everybody for being here and listening and please leave a a comment, subscribe to the channel or leave an emoji. Yeah, an emoji, a thumbs up. I want to specifically give a shout out to the to people that give super likes. I started noticing it more and more like there's an option on YouTube. Yeah, like somebody gave last week $100 and I was having I was I was for that day I felt depressed even though that doesn't happen for me often. And the fact that somebody gave $100 just simply made my day. Like it made me feel so good. Like I work so hard on the podcast and guests and editing and it costs money and stuff like that. So it really just means the world to me that somebody goes and puts a super like. Uh you can give $5 or obviously more. And you can also become a member. So, every week when we release a podcast, we also release a extra video um which for example over here after I record this, I'm going to record an extra bonus uh video with Mendy that we release um for the members. So, it's $10 a month and it truly helps and supports the channel. And there's also many older videos with all the other guests that we had um over the last two months where you can watch um extra content uh bonus footage with those people. It's usually sometimes it can be a 10-15 minute conversation that we're just randomly having with the guests so that you can get access to it. And I do that because the money that comes in helps simply support the channel. So, thank you for all of those that are members and to all of those who are considering to subscribe. I'm going to leave the links to Mendy's Spotify and uh social media platforms wherever you can follow him. go check out his latest uh songs and follow him and leave a comment over here so he can see the the feedback. Also, make sure to um check out our sponsors that we mentioned in the podcast, whether it was in this episode or other episodes. I mentioned to them Weber because that helps them come back and they pay us uh some money so that we can so that I can make a living. So, thank you very much. Tell them who sent you. Yeah, exactly. So, thank you very much everybody for being here. I really appreciate it and the support is just overwhelming despite like sometimes negative comments that I really don't read, but sometimes it comes out and whatever. And people are like at the end of the day I feel like the the people are here. They're listening. They they enjoy to listen to me to the work that I do. And these are the people that give me the strength to to go on and share inspiring conversations that help them grow. And I truly feel grateful for this opportunity. But I I throw back the the gratefulness to you guys because if it it wasn't that the channel keeps on growing, I wouldn't continue doing this. Um since I I I did such a long outro. Meny, any final words of inspiration that you want to give to Cli? Definitely. We have to tell Claudius and they have to know it's not it's not optional. They have to know this that they have to understand that God is the biggest and he does vacation, you know. So, like if you're ever afraid and you're thinking like this is exactly says yes, this is how he's helping you. Wow. So, just be calm and you'll get there and years from now, two, three, whatever it is, you'll we'll all laugh together, you know? Right. Right. And you probably deal with that a lot like anxiety, fear, your career, your travel, you do big shows, you do big stuff that you never know how it's going to work out. I I I deal a lot with it and I have sometimes, by the way, people don't know this, like when I'm in Israel is not with me in Israel, so we work remotely, but when I have a show or something, I have to just show up by myself. Oh, wow. So imagine show by yourself. Imagine the show performance songs like it was a big kid celebrity in Israel. It was a big deal. It was a performance chick whatever and I was I I came to the event from the bag you need the bathroom maybe go to the bathroom before it's a lot of anxiety but then afterwards it feels how did you do it? How did you put yourself on stage? So I despite the fact I close my eyes and I look at the situation like as if it's already passed like wow of the stage right it's beautiful that's the way to do that.