The What It Takes Podcast Ep 9: Facts About Living in Israel ft. Eli Freedman

Welcome back to another episode of the What It Takes Podcast. My name is Ty Kra, CEO of Blackbird Recruiting. >> Today we have Ellie Freriedman from Cork and Sellar from Israel. We're actually meeting at the Innovate Conference in Owensboro, Kentucky. Today is the day we're filming. Today's May 21st. >> Yeah. All day long. >> Yeah. Yeah. I met him today for the first time. We've interacted a few times on LinkedIn. He met Ali 3 years ago >> almost. Yeah. >> You started a new business from scratch. >> New business. >> Moved without like having pronounced there. >> Um originally before that you were in Montreal. No >> was in Montreal. And I think the the biggest people scared of moving to Israel because >> what am I going to do? I'm comfortable where I live now in in America. But what am I going to do in Israel? >> Right. What did you do in Montreal? >> In Montreal I had my own business. I had a glass business called Echovit and uh we is that French >> glass restoration. Yeah. Echo. Echo is like econ ecological in vitra means glass in French. >> So you speak fluent French. >> I speak fluent French. >> Ahi baguette. That's it. >> I uh I I learned French just from going doing the las picked up French you know >> and then I worked for um guy Heshy Freriedman. And I worked for him for a whole bunch of years and then I worked for I went to work. >> While you were working for him, you kept the classes. >> Yeah. >> Did you do you do sales? How do you manage both? >> Um I'm uh my ADHD is under control right now. And when your ADHD ADHD is under control, you're a able to do a lot of uh you can be a Tati, you can be a husband, you can be and you can you can get a lot done. If it's not under control and is under control without drugs, just alcohol. The alcohol keeps me very calm and uh we can I'm able to uh >> Does it smell like you drink? >> I just got back from the Green River distillery. >> Distillery. >> So I got I had I got two free coupons so I tried two uh two bourbons. Anyways, Mikitzer um then I worked for a guy great guy Shy Steinmets and his partner Shimar Krauss from Tosh. >> How did you manage running a company and having a full-time job? Your boss knew you had this company. >> I ran the I ran I was the manager in the company. I opened the door in the morning. I took care of human resources, ordering, shipping, production. >> What's that? No, >> you had a full-time job working for somebody Friedman. >> Yeah, I worked for him full-time. >> And while you have that, you have a company doing glass restoration. >> I had a manager and and we hired we used to hire Bakram who weren't who weren't in Shiva or having issues. The offices in my house. We had a few municipal contracts. Um, city of Montreal, city of Toronto take. >> How do you manage both? >> There was there wasn't much to >> How do you get a contract with the government? >> It didn't. >> Okay. >> They called me. >> No, really. It's a funny story. It's a funny story because I we had a girl living in our house that we took in. She didn't have a home and we married her off and I and >> what >> there was a girl. >> You adopted a girl into your she was a she was a lab >> and we married her off. We raised the money for the wedding. We walked around to the football and of my neighbor had a business who had had a Gisha partner who died and I bought the business from him for this for the Husen and I told the Husen you're going to work and when you when the business makes back the money that we put into it you'll be my partner. >> How much did it cost to buy that business? >> It was about $50,000. It wasn't nothing major >> but it's a good wedding. >> We we flew out to Denver, Colorado to do training and >> training training. It was a glass. It was a glass restoration business. When you get scratches on glass, we're able to take the scratch out of the glass instead of changing the window. They're replacing glass in big storefronts, big huge windows. People come by and they do they do in Montreal, they do like acid graffiti where it burns into the glass where they take a piece of rock and they scratch graffiti in the glass. Instead of spending $10,000 to replace this massive thing, we this technology had that you can polish down the glass. And they got divorced like two months later. >> Oh, ambitious. So, but hold on one second. Um, my parents got divorced. It's all good. Listen, >> I My uncle is a big dy in Williamsburg. He's involved in a lot of Genon. And I asked him like, "Everybody gets divorced. Like, can they save the marriages?" He said 95% of the people that got divorced could have easily lived happily, beautiful lives. It's cuz they didn't want to. If they wanted to, very hard. >> So, see, in the old days, people people made it work. >> Um, I love that idea. you buy. >> So I bought him a business because he didn't speak French. He didn't have an education. He he had a situation. He couldn't live in New York. The girl wanted to stay in Montreal. She was in school in Montreal. So he said, "Wait, what do you do?" So I this opportunity came up and I said, "I'll take the opportunity. It seems like a good idea." >> But the why'd you go to training to Denver? >> Because they the supplier who supplied the materials had a course that you can take to learn how to use the materials >> and it's like a a sander >> special special sandpaper discs. It was a whole It's a whole thing. >> It's a whole thing. >> Wow. >> The business all the all the customers that I was promised that were client list that came with the business were all >> poof >> poof. The technology was not was it was very difficult to get good results. It was very expensive. >> Um I was price I was being priced out by material costs and labor and I was I was probably negative. I was down below $100,000 my own money. I kept trying to advertise and trying to I kept trying to do everything to save the business. And then a friend of my wife's did an article in magazine about Jewish guys with interesting jobs. So she called my wife says, "What does your husband do?" He goes, "He polishes glass." He goes, "That's who who polishes glass." That's the So she did a story about me and I got a phone call from a fellow in Baltimore, Maryland. And he goes, "I do the same thing as you." I said, "Nobody does this. This is a crazy business. No one no one polishes glass. The whole I'm the only guy in the whole world is doing this. this like he's like no I'm telling you I do it. So it's very interesting because at that point they had called me from Toronto which is the biggest city in Canada and they said we have 8,000 bus shelters and we have a tremendous graffiti problem. Can you come to Toronto and take care of everything? It's a very lucrative contract. And I knew the truth was I couldn't because the way it was going the materials were so expensive. These are massive deep scratches, massive pieces of glass. Each one would take me hours upon hours. There's no way to make money. There's no It's >> How did the city of Toronto hear about you? >> Because the fellow who is running the the because the the bus shelters are owned by media companies who put ads in the bus shelters. >> Okay. >> So, the fellow who was running it had just moved from Montreal. In Montreal, I was I I I I pitched him and I I pitched him a few times and nothing ever worked out at that point. >> What was the What were those contracts worth? >> A million dollars. >> No, Canada. There's no millions in Canada. Canada has very low hogas. >> Quarter million. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. >> For how long? A year. >> Yeah. And it was only in the summer. It was uh that it's only in Montreal. You can't work from from from already before sikas. It's too cold outside. The glass when it's when it's too cold. The glass you can't really work with it all the way until after Purim you know after after Pes you can't really >> So from Pesak Passover for the May. So, so May, June, July, August, September, maybe. That was the whole season. >> 5 months. >> Yeah. So, then we did also autoglass. We did stone chip repair. If you got a rock in your windshield from the highway, we did stone chip repair. We did also graffiti on storefronts, but that was more sporadic here and there. You got a job where, let's say, masons are building a new building and they and they when they clean all the windows, it's a little schmutz inside their um squeegee. So, they scratch up brand new building. They scratch up uh 60 windows. Very lucrative contracts. And what happened was >> polish from the outside of the building. You need those pulley. >> You go up on a you go up on a scissor lift. >> Um, so what happened was is that this guy from Toronto called me and I and I told him, "Yeah, okay." He said, "Come to Toronto to do a demo." So I was already scared. I I was I was I was holling to get this this contract and >> But you had a full-time job. >> Yeah. >> How do you how do you go to Toronto? Well, you >> by lunch breaking. >> By lunch break. I'm I know. I I I had a great guy working for me. His name was Rocky and he was this polish class. >> Yeah. Yeah. He did all the work. I didn't really I I when I had to I did the work. I wasn't really doing the work. He was he would be he would call me all day. Hey, wait. We just we just broke a window. We just had a problem. We had this and I would I would put out fires all day long as a manager, but I wasn't I was I was I was I was dancing at two. So, right then when this guy from California called me from Toronto, I'm sorry, from Toronto. He called me. I said, "Okay, we we we'll figure it out." Right. Then I got a call from Baltimore after the Mishbaha magazine come up and I said, "Can I ask you a question?" I said, "How long does it take you to do an area that's like, you know, like three feet by three feet." He goes, "I don't know. It takes me about uh maybe 25 minutes." I said, "What?" And I said, "After you do it, does does it work quickly?" He goes, "Yeah, yeah, I do it. I do it right away." I said, "Can I ask you a favor?" I said, "I have this contract. Can I pay can I send you a plane ticket? Can you fly up to Montreal? Show me how you do it." >> From Montreal >> from Montre to Montreal and then we're going to drive to Toronto and we'll do a demo. He's like, "Yeah, no problem. If you pay my if you pay my my flight, I'm happy to help another another Jew." He came up and I remember it was in my driveway and we took out a window and we scratched it up like the worst case scenario. He cames and he puts on his headphones like an oldfashioned uh wakman with a with headphones. He used to he he used to be a he was a in for for for chickens in Empire. >> It's a slaughter >> slaughter. Yeah. In Pennsylvania. And he took this materials I never saw before. And he within 20 minutes it was done. It was it was perfect. And I heard angels singing. It was unbelievable. It was unbelievable. It was nothing. I took all the materials that I had and I threw them in the garbage. He says he goes, "I'm happy to help you. Here's my suppliers. Here's what you buy. Here's how you do this." He gave me everything. He goes, "You're in Canada. I'm happy to help you. Just don't come. Don't worry. don't work in my territory. I'm happy to help you. He spent years researching and figuring out the exact way to do it. It was his own It was his own patent. It was his own uh thing. >> What was he using? A cream, a paste. >> I'm not going to say at this point. Someone else someone else bought the business from me. But it was brilliant. And he says, "Here, I take everything. I'm telling you, here's here." He gave me a list of his suppliers. All you have to do is order this, order this, order this. This is the machine that you need. This is the cream that you need. This is the sand mixture. >> A mixture. It's perfect mixture. And we drove to Toronto and we went there and they didn't want to tell us even where we're doing the demo because they didn't want us to prepare. They didn't believe it was possible. And then we got there and we had a generator in the back of our van and we plugged in our machine and the guys stand a bunch of group eight nine guys there in suits and they said, "Okay, let's see you take out this graffiti." And the generator wouldn't start. >> It's your generator. >> It's my generator. Okay. >> I climbed over some guy's house. He was living there. It was on It was on the street in some main street in Toronto. I climbed over his fence and he had a patio there. I plugged in my machine. >> Did he know? >> No. >> I plugged the machine in the guy's back in the guy's the guy's backyard. I ran the wire over the thing wall and we did the demo and these guys were high-fiving each other. They said, "Wow, this is unbelievable. This is unbelievable." And that and the rest is history. >> So, you had contracts with Toronto. >> I had contracts with Toronto. That that was great. That was great. And um 5 months. Good margins. >> Great margins. >> I used to pay I used to pay my boys by the window. They would they would drive out to Toronto. >> How did you bill? >> They would they would drive out to Toronto on a mat shabas. >> How long was the drive? >> 5 hour drive. Saturday night. I would put them up in a hotel for the whole week. I would give them an allowance for meals. They would go to restaurants every night, get a big supper, have a good time. >> And I paid them per window. I was charging per window also. >> So, >> and I said, "Listen, and if you hit 20 windows, you get a bonus. And if you hit 30 windows, you get a bigger bonus. And these guys hustled and hustled. And late Thursday night, they came home and they and they brought me home and they said, "Here, we we did you uh we got 150 windows done >> and I was set." It was It was It was the greatest thing ever. It was just >> How long did that gig last? >> It's still going now. I sold >> But you sold the business. >> I sold the business. >> You bought it for 50 grand. >> Yeah. >> Invested another 150. >> Yeah. But I made it all I made all that back. And >> And that's what you sold it for. I'd rather not say the the the details are private, >> but um I didn't sell it for a lot because the I never the contracts that I had with the cities, I never signed formal contracts with them. They didn't want a contract and I didn't want a contract, but there was no one else to do it. We were the only ones there and they called us back gladly. We gave them great service and it was just a very nice relationship. >> Were you able to mark up the pricing like charge them more cuz it's it's public money or I charge or >> they were very aggressive like hey we need best price? >> No, I wasn't there was no bidding process. I wasn't bidding against anybody. I was only I was almost for them to replace a window would cost them $1,000. >> If you charge them $700, they were happy. >> No, I charged them I believe the way it worked was the first window at V Shelter there's eight windows. Eight wind there's eight glass panels and each one is double-sided. >> So you can have your feet. So I charge per panel per side at when you get to the location maybe $150 per panel and per panel and every additional after the first one is $100 that that was something like that. So you'd want to get to a place and you check and you see how many panels were. So if you had to travel to get to one and there's only one there that was the bad. If you got there and there was six or seven or eight panels, you you you had you did one setup, there was no travel and you sat there and you made a lot of money and it was it was very and we had we had the right to veto like it was too bad. It would take too much time. We're able to say just replace the window. >> Um why did you sell the business? >> Because it moved to Israel. >> So it it was had to be actively managed and I wanted to cut off I I didn't want to uh I didn't want to have any thoughts of going back home. I wanted to totally cut off myself. I wanted to be fully consumed by Israel and uh not even not I don't want to regret my decisions. So I got rid of everything. I sold my house. I sold everything. And >> is this something you always wanted to do? You always wanted to >> I never wanted to move to Israel. My wife wanted to My wife wanted to move to Israel. >> Did she want to move? >> She loves Israel. >> She studied there in her seminary. Like she family >> she loved Israel. And as my children were growing up, she used to tell them every single every single day, no we we didn't go a lot at all. >> No. She used to tell them is our home. As she was nursing them, as she was raising them as little children, she told them is our home. We're one day we're going to get to. She always told them that. >> How many years? >> Huh? >> How many years was she saying that till you guys moved? >> Well, listen. I married um I married uh I married 2 27 years. So, 3 years. >> 24 years. >> The kids the kids always knew that is where we're supposed to be. And we're only visiting We're only visiting in Canada. So, um, >> she's been talking about it. >> She's been talking about it. >> Did you ever try to, um, convince? >> She never bothered me. And if there's anyone out there, never, ever, ever bug your spouse if you want to Israel. She never tried. She said, she told me where she wanted to go, and she always told me, "When you're ready, you'll let me know." >> That's so nice. >> When you're ready. When you're ready, let me know. >> And then, I don't know what happened. It must have been uh the man on the man on the top floor and uh the combination of having our daughter married moved to and had our first child. So we I became a grandfather and it was the middle of co and we were tired already of being locked down and being tortured to take vaccines and it was this a whole situation I guess it was everything in my mind and I figured this is uh I think it's the only time that we have a you can have a midlife crisis and not get divorced, not do anything stupid. One day I just decided I'm ready. I decided I don't know. I can't explain it. I came home. We opened the bottle of wine. Of course, we always open a bottle of wine and I told my wife with tears in my eyes, "I'm ready." She says, "Ready for what?" Said, "I'm ready to move to Israel." She told I said I said, "I'm ready to move to Israel." She says, "Are you serious?" "Yeah, I'm serious." "No." Say, "Yeah, no. Yeah, yeah, I'm ready." She didn't believe me. >> She didn't believe me. And then And it was it was a very happy moment. It was there were a lot of tears and I decided that moment that I will have no regrets. It's an absolute decision. There's no coming back. I knew that things would be difficult and no matter what I'm not going back to. I'm not going back. And uh we began the arduous process of going through all the paperwork and and really the paperwork's very the paperwork gets very difficult and they really I think they really want to shake off the people who aren't that serious. >> Yeah. >> Because it doesn't even make sense. I mean, the amount of you can have a birth certificate from the United States government, >> but you have to send it to a certain place. They put an aastile on it and a red seal and you have to FedEx it to them and they have to approve it and FedEx it back and just like the amount of money I supported FedEx was just like and you have no idea when they're going to open it and look at it and they only work two days a week and there's nobody to call and it's just like you're in the dark and you're hanging in midair because you're talking about the container companies and packing up your house and selling your house and where you're going to be over there and it's such a state of of unknown. It's just a state of like hanging in the air and you have no idea you're coming or going and it's just like and like you don't what are we going to take it and it's going to be now in the summer the end of the summer should we send the kids to camp or not send them to camp and you just don't know and it's very like it's very it could be get very very frustrating that's if you go through that's if you go with um >> now there are people you can hire you can still who charge a lot of money we'll take care of everything for you there services there are people who do it >> well it's it's makes sense it's a lot of money it makes sense process >> but you're also if If you're if you're just like, you know, you're thinking also about the future cuz you know, like I don't know what I don't know if I'm going to make a living in Israel and you you don't want to start wasting money and you don't know what there's so much unknowns. You don't want to start throwing out money to like you know and you know cuz if you if you actually focus and do some work you you can get it you can get it done yourself also. >> How long from when you that night when you decided we're going to Israel till you were on the plane? How long did that take? Okay. >> Probably about a year. >> What was that year for you like? >> Well, listen. I had to put my house up for sale. Okay. >> I had to close out my all my affairs. We had to >> sold your business. >> Sold my business. >> Finding a new place. >> Find Yeah, exactly. Just selling the house is a big deal until you know it's for sure sold and you get your top dollar. And then you want to know where am I going? So, I started looking. We start looking for where which city in Israel we're going to live. There's different options. We had no idea. We had no idea. We had an idea Bamesh that's most people go but uh it wasn't for sure. We looked at bunch of different places but they were like and I love Yusha but I feel that it's very um very busy. I'm I'm not from Burough Park. I'm not from New York and I want I want I want a calm relaxed out of town feel. So Bamesh but then which neighborhood there's so many different neighborhoods in Bamesh. What schools? Which kahila? Which schul? Is your house near the schools? Is your house near the shul? What house could you get? What's the best thing for your family? So there's a lot of there's a lot of you feel you start feeling the either pulls you in or or it throws you out. You'll know right away. You'll know right away if it's meant to be. There are people who come and they just cannot cannot get it in order. and Barak Hashem we had such an easy like it was it was just like I you know the probably the hardest part was buying an apartment in Israel because in Israel as soon as you offer what they're asking you they say wait a second if I would have asked more they would have given me more so they go oh you know what I just realized I have to pay for this and it's very hard mentalities and American mentalities are very different they're like so you have to put your foot down you have to be serious you have to have good legal representation to make sure that everything is being done above board because you don't want to spend all that money and have you have to make sure you the things are for sure taken care of and uh you know you have to set up a bank account and it's not easy to for an American head to plunk down in Israel it you if you stay American when you get to Israel you're going to have a very hard time >> did you change >> I change a lot >> how >> you have to because you have to you have to realize that things don't go your way all the time and you have to be have savvanut patience and you have Let God run the show. Let go. Let go. When you get into a plane, you're not worried about the pilot. The pilot knows his job. You have to just You have to make your efforts. You can't get frustrated. It's very easy to get frustrated. When you get frustrated, you get bitter. You get angry. You get upset. And you start losing the focus of why you got there in the first place. And you forget that this is the right place for my family. This is the place that the Jew belongs. And this is the place where you're going to raise your family. And this is the place you're going to greet Msiah with. You're not going to greet it back there. Don't miss the boat. That's all I'm saying. You can study history and you can say all the people missed the boat back then and we can say it would never happen in America. I'm not going to get into that. All I know is a Jew belongs in the Holy Land and a Jew wants to reach his full potential. It's in the Holy Land. Whether you get there in luxury or you get there not in luxury, it's the place you're supposed to be. The falafel is delicious. [Music] The land is beautiful. There is so much to do there. Fun with the kids. Simple simple activities without going on beautiful vacations and and and and and spending a lot of money. It's a simple life. You go on a beautiful hike, slide down a river, you get ice creams, make a barbecue, and you had the greatest day of your life. It's just simplicity and beauty. And and when you breathe, you you breathe amuna and and and and and you're you're you're literally walking the footsteps of of all the people you learn about when you learn and you're you're you're living their life and it's like why would I be anywhere else in the world? I know it's crazy, but when you live a when you live in such luxury in America and it's a luxury, you might we might think it's simple, but life is easy. So why would a person give up an easy life for a difficult life? Why would you do that? Because the point of life is not to be easy. God, your mother didn't give birth to you so that you should have an easy life. Your birth wasn't easy. >> The birth wasn't easy. Raising you wasn't easy. Staying up all night while you were crying wasn't easy. But your mother did it for you because, >> right, >> you're supposed to do something to complain. >> Things don't come easy. >> It's all right. So, I'm I'm not All I'm saying is that it's not it's not the car that you drive or the house that you live in. It's having happy children and a happy marriage. that is your point in life and get closer to Hashem. That's all you need to do. You don't need stuff to do that. You need a mindset and that's it. It's a mindset. It's all in your head. >> One of the big concerns I'm assuming a lot of people have because they want to move is I have a neighbor of mine. He's, you know, he always says he'd love to move. >> Okay. So, can you move? Okay. So, so in Benef they give you a special paper >> and it's addressed to God and you put down your new address and you file it the paper and now you let God know where you live now and where he was taking care of you but where you live before now he sends the check to the new location. It's taken care of because you think God doesn't know how to send you a check in Israel. A lot of people think they need to do a stabless. >> A lot of people are extremely successful in Israel and a lot of people are not. In New York, for example, a lot of people are very successful and a lot of people are not. Now tell me the difference between the two. One of them you live in and one of you live in. >> Someone went to his Reb and his Reb said you should go. Very exciting. We'll figure out. >> Of course you have to figure out. >> Did you before you moved? I didn't know at a certain point what to do. >> What happened? You had like a ton of money from the sale of your house. So, you're like I um I know this is weird for a podcast, but I woke up. I had a dream. >> I had a dream on Chabas Morning. >> Okay. >> And I I was in the wine space. I I I had a I had a rooms full of wine in my house. >> You always been in wine? >> I was always in wine. I was always buying and selling and trading just for fun. >> Okay. For reference, everyone watching or listening, Ellie has a massive um storage facility in Bamesh and he's a wine concier. People call him all the time to get him specific wines. He actually sells wines, wines that you cannot find here in the US that he brings in from Israel and he sells. >> That's that's a new thing. >> It's a new thing. Talk about it >> in in Israel. We have a wine concierge. It originally started off so so I woke up I woke up one chabas morning and I said >> here in the >> I woke up I was I was living living in Montreal. I woke up one chabas morning and I had this idea and the idea was that people people all the people that I know have wine sellers. They like collecting wine. Wine is an asset class. People invest in wine. People love collecting it. People like collecting whatever it is. But wine you collect it and you age it and it's a hobby. You drink it. You enjoy it. So a lot of people who enjoy who live say my or in Lakewood they have wine sellers in their house now they spend some of the most special times in their life in Israel they go for sukis they go for pes they go for simas to and they have to walk into a store that has barely any air conditioning and and they're you're not they're used to enjoying fine wine and then you make the whole big effort to come to Israel and you lose out on that cuz wine is such an important part of the experience >> these wine stores that are selling that are hot Doesn't it kill the wine? >> Yes. Us for the most part. A lot of wine stores in us will sell people who are coming for sukus lots of extra wines hoping that they're going to drink it. And after sukus when they didn't drink it, it's been sitting outside in their porch in the sun the whole time. The store takes it back for a full refund and the store takes it and puts it back on the shelf. So if you think the next time you come back or the next fool who walks into the store, he goes, "Oh, that's a great bottle. Let me buy that. That would just came back from someone's porch." >> No. All my bottle, all my bottle has yus and it comes in a guarantee. If it's not good, money back right away. It gets replaced instantly. I store I have a facility. I installed expensive refrigeration equipment and it's almost underground and it has security and it's stored perfectly on its side. Most you go wine stores, the bottles are standing up. A few of them are laying down. >> Okay. Depends where in Israel. >> No, it should be laying down. it cost extra space because it's harder to lay it down because they don't sit perfectly in whatever it is. I had designed a few hundred of special um special wooden racks to store the wines. So I built a private storage facility. So each person each member of my club would have a certain amount of area in my wine seller. They can order from me. They can order from I don't care. They don't have to buy it from me. They can come to Israel and drive all over the country. Go to wineries. They can order wines. The wineries send the wine to me. I put a barcode. But I catalog it. I have an app. They see everything. They own it and it's stored in my facility. And if they're in New York and they want to send a present to somebody, all they do is send me a WhatsApp to pull out of my cellar whatever bottle they see on their app. Send it put some chocolates, some cigars, some whatever, put it together, send it to my my kids. They had they had a kid. >> What in the world? >> So that's what I did. That that was my concept. >> You built an app. >> I built my son built the app. >> My my daughter is a copywriter. She built the the website. >> It was a family business. And this was summer. This is this is going back. >> Oh my gosh. >> Just for reference, this was about 3 months before the war started. >> Wow. >> In the summer. >> The summer. So I >> Hold on a second. You moved to Israel. You didn't have a pornosa. >> Now >> I had I had people I had I had people who >> Did you know you want to do something with wine? >> Yeah. >> And that was like was that a plan? You were like do a business with lawyer. >> Your typical Israeli job will not This is This is why people get worried about Pernoso is because if they have to take a regular standard job in Israel, >> you're going to pay 3,000 >> nothing. You can't you can't bokus mishkas. The only way to do it is if you have some kind of remote business, some kind of your own business, >> remote job, a >> remote job or an investments or things like that or a lot of people work American hours. They work whether it's in the cash advance, whether it's an insurance, real estate, title agencies. There's a title agency. Yeah, there's a title agency. Um I think Madison they have an office in Bamesh. So guys learn during the daytime and they come to work at 4 o'clock in the afternoon and they work until midnight. >> It's very hard. >> What's that? >> It's very hard. >> Everything is hard. >> No, but I'm so used to being home at 6:00. >> Okay. So for me >> dinner time or ba bath time home. >> Okay. You you have you have to decide. And you have to decide it's not going to be easy to make it work unless you won the lottery and unless your tati has a lot of money and he's taking care of you. It's going to be hard, >> right? >> But you can't get without being hard. There's no there's no such thing as easy the easy track initi. It's not easy. It's not easy. But don't forget while you live a hard life and you stay happy, you're teaching your kids that not everything goes smoothly. that life takes hard work and not everything works out the way you want it to be and you have a good life there and you're enjoying you're in a special place. So there's no there's no luxury track. I mean people go to they come and stay in rakavia and they stay here and they come at sukus and they have a private chef and they that's not life. That's a special that's that's opulence that's a special vacation is real life. You have to take your kids to school in the morning. You might get a flat tire. You have to go to the grocery store and wait in line and there might be traffic. Life is not like you you don't have a private driver through life. You have to get through life on your own. >> So you moved. What was your like when did you start thinking about an income >> beforehand? Meaning I had a I came to Israel with a business plan. >> What was the plan? >> The plan was to start this wine business. >> Wine concierge. >> Few friends of mine put together some money. We had >> not a distributor. You're a concier. >> Concier. A for private customers only. And >> I'm assuming this is more meant for like someone who's more high netw worth. >> Yes. It was directed at high net worth individuals who are wine um connoisseurs. And before I even started the business, I had a lot of people who committed to me that they would be joining. They thought it's a great idea. They love the idea. People from London, from Mexico City, from California, Chicago, Lakewood, they love the idea. This is fabulous. I love it. >> Hello. Hello. Nice. So, >> I got it. I got it all started. That was the summer of >> What does it cost to start such a business? construction, ventilation. >> There wasn't a con. There wasn't construction. >> The app the app, like I said, the the app the app cost money because we had to hire other outside people to do graphics. >> Um inventory is dependent on how much inventory you want to have, but you don't want to have people calling you and saying, "Hey, I want something." You don't have it. And and it's also a learning curve because I didn't know what everybody would want. I assumed I I I got it pretty I got it probably 75% of the time I got it right. >> So, what did it cost you to start this white concierge business? Like if someone wanted to duplicate this in a different part of the country. >> What is it? A half a million dollars. A million. >> North north of a half a million dollars. >> Wow. >> And how long did it take to be fully set up? >> 3 months. >> Wow. >> In Israel, when you do a commercial lease, you get the first 2 months rentree cuz they understand it takes you time to you're going to start making money. It's called the grass. They call grass. It's like the English word French word grace. >> And how long do you need to rent it for? One year. You make you make a lease. You make a lease >> even for one year. They give you the first two months free if you do a one-year lease. >> No, but typically a commercial lease in Israel will be one year with a 2-year option or or one year one year. One year or it was No, I know. Usually, it's 2 years with a 2-year option, meaning that it's 20 24 months and 24 months. >> Two months for the first two months. >> Yeah. Because they understand that you're just you're scraping by, you're pulling together money, you're setting the whole thing up, and you don't have any income yet. >> Wow. >> It's not it's not it's it's a it's just a minug. It doesn't you don't have to do it. >> No, but it's a nice thing, >> but it's something to ask for. If they didn't know, if the Israeli if you're American and you came and Israel didn't offer it to you, you ask for it. You you'll get it cuz he knows, >> right? >> They also have a crazy thing called hat >> tamud means next to each other. >> What it is is it's a it's based on the inflation index. So they made up this wacko doodle job idea that because his inflation the land owner the property owner wants to protect his income and keep it equal to the price that he agreed to with inflation. So I fell for it in the beginning. So when I renewed my lease I I was able to get rid of it. I said I said I said I said >> price fluctuates or goes up. >> Everything's always going up. There's inflation. So the government comes out with an inflation index number. It could be 1.3%. It could be 0.9%. >> And then it goes up. >> Goes up. Yeah. Yeah. But here in the US, >> so I said I said, "Excuse me, when I sell you a bottle of wine, do I sell it to you with like an inflation index protection to make sure that you give me your 100 bucks, that 100 bucks is still worth 100 bucks. >> A bottle of wine is a one and done transaction. Commercial lease, it's 3 years. It's one year, >> but there are no costly payments." No. The only time it actually makes sense, and I've been through this with a lot of people, >> I have rent I go sign a contract with a landlord that goes up every year. That's that's a rental increase and that's separate from this. That's not what this is. >> Not besides a rental inc. >> Besides a rental, this is a monthly extra cost that has nothing to do with increases. >> Monthly. >> Yeah. Yeah. Monthly. It's whack doodle. Okay. It's absolutely nuts. Off the hook. And and when it does make sense in Israel is that when you're building a you're buying a property on paper and you're not getting the apartment for another 2 3 years. >> On paper means it's new construction. It's not built yet. >> It's not built yet. And the reason people might do that is cuz it's cheaper. >> It's cheaper because the builder has to raise money and show the bank that they can sell it. So let's say material costs skyrocket in those that next year. The guy who sold it, you can lose money on on the whole deal. >> So he might tell you, I'm I need to protect myself. If material costs go up, you're going to have to cover that. >> If you don't like it, go buy somewhere else. >> So a lot of places now will advertise, they'll say, meaning that >> without inflation, >> without inflation index. What the price I'm telling you now is the price you pay. >> These are things you have to talk you have to you have to know about before you get there. >> Callie Freedman if you're looking to do a commercial lease >> call me. >> So um >> so >> so what happened? So as I started the business that was the summer >> you moved when did you land in what time of the year? >> I landed right before Tishabove in 2022. >> And when did you um start working on building out this business? >> I started before I got there and and and that was >> Oh right away like you started working >> August, September, October. Yeah, that was August, September, October, and then came October 7th. >> Wow. >> And no tourism, no. >> The world the world shut down. There's no tourism. And my entire business was based on tourism. So, it was those were dark days for all of us. Forget about business. It was dark days. We're under attack. We're going to war and people lost. People are people people are not traveling to Israel. The planes are just filled with people coming back to fight. Um, people lost their interest in drinking because drinking is a happy thing. Prep partying right now. We're almost in we're in mourning and next thing I know is there's nothing happening and I just started the business and we're just like at the point where now I'm starting to pay my rent and and and and who knows who knows how long this is going to last. So at that point, I know we're at the innovate summit. You have to innovate. You have in a business, you always have to stay on your toes and think forward and what's going to happen. And you can't get frozen like, oh no, what do I do now? I'm like, you know, you know, save me. No one's coming to save you. You got to you got to take new chances. You got to take new risks. So I said, listen, forget about tourists. Let me talk to people who live in Israel. Let me find Americans who are doing well and they live wherever. They also want wine. So I started hunting for people who living, let's say, in Ranana and Natana. they live in Israel. >> A lot of Americans there who are doing very well for themselves. A lot of beautiful homes there. Um and I started focusing on selling in Israel. I started focusing on doing events, wine tastings, >> which um yeah then I moved into I started opening alcohol also in Israel. In Israel all liquor is called alcohol. >> Okay. >> So I started scotches, bourbons, tequilas and then I got into Cuban cigars. People started asking do you have any cigars? Cuz people like to come to Israel and smoke a Cuban cigar. in Israel can have you can have Cuban cigars. >> So, what about Israeli cigars? >> There's no Israeli cigars. There's Cuban cigars. There's there's nine business. >> No, >> none of business. >> Um, there's Dominican Republic and there's >> So, you have the whole alpha male vibe going on. Scotch, cigars, wine, >> right? You can you can come to my cellar and sit you can sit you can sit and chill in the wine celler, open a few bottles and smoke. And >> so, we do that a Sometimes tourists come in and they're only in Israel for a few days and they they love wine and they don't have time to travel over Israel. So I have some people, you know, sometimes tour guides bring their people to my uh they'll tell me by asking what they want to eat. I'll order food for them. They'll come and sit and we'll create a whole chilled out environment. We'll open wines and they'll go shopping and now I have the ability to ship back to America. So people can go and they can they can basically taste every winery in Israel and they can go shopping and I can send it to them. I can send to them back home. pick up at the wineries that what they like and bring it to you and then you give it or >> or they or they buy it for me >> because I have I have wine from every winery at my place. You can go from Yarding to Flam to Carmel to Yatir and Golan Heights and you can go all over and I have everything there. So you don't have to, you know, you don't have to. And I specialize in finding little boutiques that nobody knows about off the beaten path. you know, these guys who are just like, you know, in the middle of nowhere who who are just like they're like settlers and they're just like >> and um so that's what I went that's what I moved into. And then >> how long did it take for you to start making money? >> What's that? >> From when you started the business and then October 7th happened unfortunately. How long did it take for you to start making money? And you like you thought of like event selling to Israelis which wasn't originally the plan. >> That wasn't the plan to to be honest. I wouldn't say that I'm I'm I'm I'm paying my bills. I'm getting by. >> No, but when did it how long did it how long did it take for you to think of the idea sell to the wealthy Americans who live in Israel a month? Like was it >> you got you got you got to we got to keep moving on your feet, you know? It's like uh it's >> I don't know. Sometimes people are like in shock for 6 months. >> Yeah, you can you can you can go into shock, but uh if you're a business owner, there's no time for that, >> right? There's a fire. >> Yeah. >> So So I I I still wouldn't say I don't think I'm making a lot of money. I think I'm getting I think I think I'm scraping by. I'm think I'm paying all my bills. I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm you know I I wouldn't say that I'm a I'm a smashing success. Far from it. >> What would you tell your kids if they want to start working? >> Start working. >> Yeah. >> And what like >> what industry they want to live in Israel? What would you recommend they do? >> Every kid's different. >> Your oldest son? >> My oldest son um took online courses and he's a full stack developer and he makes a lot of money. >> Your next son? My next son is still in yeshiva. I don't know. It depends what he wants. He's also the same thing. If if you can get into if you can learn programming, computer programming, you can work in Israel. You can work American hours, Israeli hours, make plenty of money. >> That's a good industry. >> It's a great industry. There's a big there's a big demand for it in office in Israel, but also but also long the long distance, >> right? >> Um and then what happened was I got a phone call got a I not a phone call, I'm sorry. I got a a message, a Facebook messenger from a fellow in the middle of the from Nebraska. >> Nebraska. >> How do you find you? >> He found me on Facebook cuz occasionally when I post on Instagram, it posted also on Facebook >> cuz it's connected. >> They're connected. >> And he says, "Hey, I uh love Israel. I love wine. could you get me some wine? This I can't find any wine in the kosher wines in Nebraska and I know there's online websites that sell wine, but I've kind of like been tapped out. It's all the same stuff. It's all the same Sheilos and Sagot and you know I've tried everything. I'm looking for new things. Can you get me some wine from Israel? So I learned first I said is yes. I said yes and I said I'll be in touch with you and I just sat there and I said wait a second I know how to ship to America. There are individuals who want wine at their house. Why don't I just ship to America to one central place and from there repack it and send it out to individuals all over America? >> You didn't know? Not necessarily. >> What's that? >> Not necessarily. You didn't. >> No, not at all. Not at all. The fellow who called me the fellow who called me is not Jewish. There are a lot of There are a lot of evangelical Christians who love Israel, who send money to Israel, who buy all kinds of >> Israeli stuff. >> There's all kinds of websites. People people just want to support Israel. They believe whatever they believe. I don't know. I don't know what it is, but they they they love Israel and they want to support Israel. So, people send money. They plant trees in Israel and they they send money to soldiers. So, I said, "Wait a second. You can send money to Israel." Cuz what I do is I focus on wineries that are struggling because of the war, because of whatever it is. They they're not big enough to export to America. There's too much red tape to do it. I figured out how to take care of the red tape. Let me go to these wineries. Instead of them waiting, you know, waiting all day. So, one guy's going to walk in, let me buy one bottle, two bottles. I come in, buy a few hundred bottles, I pack it up, I put together a whole bunch of wines, I pack it onto a pallet, I ship it to America, and let me send out individual boxes to all my clients in America, in >> the central place. >> In the central place. >> So then you I dealt with the issue of liquor license. You need a liquor license to ship across state lines. So I have a fellow I have there's a company, a certain company that has a liquor license in almost every state. I ship it to them. They do 3PL um fulfillment for me and the idea was born. So, I know we're here at the Innovate Summit. Brian Wallace um spearheaded my marketing. He created a beautiful um infographic that is all about the history of Israel with his wine history and the connection biblically and to the land and through history. And uh anyway, it's available in my website if you go to my website >> right there, >> corksceller.net. But remember, seller is spelled with an a not an e. >> I made that mistake. Um, so in the upper right hand corner there's a little menu. You just click on wine club. So you can enroll and if you scroll down over there you'll see it says more info. You see the beautiful infographic there. Um >> I saw it today. It's pretty interesting. >> Yeah. So >> talks about the different minerals and different parts of the country and the soil, different types of grapes. Fascinating. >> Yeah. So if if you love wine and you love Israel, um this is the place for you. Um, it's not cheap. It's not super expensive, but the value is there. You're getting great bottles. You're getting things you never heard of. Some people join the wine club just cuz they're looking to discover without having to travel to Israel and go over the country. Every month they they try brand new things and they see what they like. And I offer the option that say, "Hey, listen. I tried a great bottle last month. I loved it. It was whatever wine. Can you get me more of that?" So the next month when I send my when I send my ship on my container, I'll put together they can they can order a case or two of whatever they want something special and I'll send it to them also. What does it cost just the membership in the club? >> Membership in the club is $395 a month. >> Okay. >> You're you'll get every month is different. It varies on the the the availability and the prices of the wines between three and six bottles a month. Um we will be going into eventually um handpressed olive oils and honey from Israel >> based on the seasons. We're going to we're going to bring it out there and eventually I think I'd like to scale it into tourism. I'd like to all bring all my clients together on a huge trip and go actually to visit the wineries that they've been enjoying the wines from. >> Um that's such a genius idea. >> I think that uh you know because you always want to you always want to just you don't just stay where you are >> before someone else catches up to you. You want to think you know think ahead. There's a lot of beautiful food products that come out of Israel that I don't think people are familiar with. And I usually throw it in as a bonus like I'm not I'm not going to give them less wine, right? >> But I'm going to send in a beautiful bottle of olive oil, maybe before Kaneka or something like that, and maybe honey before Rashana. But there's a lot of there's a lot of amazing uh there's a lot of amazing products that come out of here that I like to share with the world. And I figure people love Israel. They're going to love products from Israel. You know, I'm not going to I'm not going to send a schwarma in the in the box there because I think the the tina is going to leak through and by the time it gets there, it's like, you know, it's not going to be warm anymore. But, uh, wow. >> That's it. That's that's where I'm at. So, I'm I'm hoping that this is really going to take off. We just launched it like a few weeks ago. The world does not know about it yet. Maybe after this podcast, the world will know about it. >> What advice would you give to somebody who wants to know if Israel is number? >> Um, >> it's a real concern. um supporting a family it's it's scary a new country it's another challenge they need to overcome um of course obviously >> yes so I was thinking of saying that then I decided not to say that >> I said >> you have to have a business plan you should not get there and say okay what do I do now you have to think about it in advance and not because that's going to help you because that's the logical thing to do you you can't just go jump dump your family and and not know what you're going to do. You have to talk to people. You have to network. You have to know what you're good at, what you what you're able to do. Talk to people and at least have an idea before you're going. There are many people, a majority of people make a good living, a great living there. There are people who fail and sometimes you can sometimes it's their fault because they're not trying or they're not willing to work hard. But if you're willing to work hard and you make yourself valuable, whether it's to a company in Israel or a company that's outside of Israel, you will do fine. Hashem knows your address. He knows your PO box. He knows your email address. He knows your bank account number. He knows your ABA wiring number for international transfers. He knows every currency. He can send you inkim dollars and Canadian dollars and Mexican pesos and Swiss Franks. Anyway, you need to have will take care of you. You say it every single day, many times in Davening and if you don't believe it, start believing it before you come to Israel because God takes care of everybody and there's nothing else to say about it. If the only reason you don't want to come to Israel is cuz you're scared you might not make a living, so don't come. You don't belong there. >> You need strong Israel at the moment. >> Make a plan, >> right? >> Just like you won't start a business without a plan. >> Don't move to Israel without a plan. At least make a plan. Now, your plan might not work. Your plan might not work. Plenty of plans don't work. Plenty of marriages don't work. Plenty of cars don't work. But make a plan. Have an idea. Maybe have a backup plan and go for it. It's where you belong. >> Dude, what a good episode. Go ahead. >> We have supper now, please. >> Yes. >> Can I Can I Can I get you, please? >> He's in >> No karif. No karif. Thank you. >> At least in an empty room. >> I'm not in an empty room. This room is empty. This room is not empty. No. No hot peppers. Take it out. >> I hope you enjoyed today's episode. What a great guest, Ellie. Thank you. You should go connect with him on LinkedIn. Till next time, make sure to subscribe on YouTube. Take care. >> And don't forget to have a nagila. >> Nagila. What is that? [Music] Welcome back to another episode of the What It Takes Podcast. My name is Ty Kra, CEO of Blackbird Recruiting. Today we have Ellie Freriedman from Cork and Seller.