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You have been successful in the field of marketing for over 30 years, an untypical career for a product of the frum community. What was your background that got you into marketing?
The Gemara in Shabbos (156a) tells us that there are people who are predestined to be involved in a certain type of career. I believe that a person should try to pursue a career they really enjoy; a writer should try writing, someone who is artsy should pursue graphics or interior design or decorating. As a youngster, I enjoyed art and graphics, and I once took an aptitude test which showed marketing and design.
I took courses which provided me with professional training, and in 1989, Rabbi Paysach Krohn arranged a job for me with ArtScroll as junior designer in their graphics and marketing department. I worked under Rabbi Sheah Brander and Rabbi Meir Zlotowitz, and during the time I worked there the first few volumes of the Shas were published.
In 1992, I launched Bottom Line Marketing Group (BLMG), which is a heimish marketing agency producing Madison Avenue work without the negative influences of the non-Jewish world.
In a field dominated by firms that often utilize images which are foreign to our way of life, how do you keep it in line with the lifestyle of frum Yidden?
Although we do not integrate the culture of other nations into our lives, everyone understands that over the past centuries, we’ve adapted some of our techniques to make use of modern conveniences and developments. Although in the shtetl our ancestors traveled by horse and buggy, today we all use cars and even airplanes, so the fact is that Klal Yisrael can leverage advances of the day for our use. Of course, things that halachah does not approve of we keep away from, but there are many we can and do adapt.
As an example, in the 1960s Harav Avigdor Miller began recording his shiurim, which was an innovation at the time. Just look at the proliferation of Torah which followed. Imagine if all the Torah that he taught would not have been recorded?! There would be so many sefarim that never would have been published! ArtScroll raised the bar by leveraging the most cutting-edge printing technology available and used it to put out the most beautiful products as it relates to English-language sefarim.
Our concept is to take the fundamental, foundational ideas that apply to the world of advertising and marketing, such as direct response campaigns, making sure the call to action is clear, what to focus on in a branding campaign, and we can leverage these fundamentals for the mosdos haTorah, organizations, and businesses all across the Jewish spectrum.
When trying to push a product, marketing often disguises the truth, presenting it in a positive way where it hides its deficiencies and negatives.
The Mishnah in Bava Metzia (4:12) tells us that one may not beautify a product which hides defects from the buyer. How does this play a role in your marketing to the Jewish community?
The goal of marketing is that whatever the item, product or service happens to be, we want to package it in the most palatable way in order to engage and invite the target audience to that content. For example, Rav Miller explained that Hashem wrapped apples in a stunning red wrapper, which protects it but also makes it engaging. An apple is far more enticing because of the beautiful color. Likewise, a banana, which has a beautiful peel, protects the inner fruit, and when you see it has that just-ripe yellow color, it is more enticing.
That’s the role of advertising and marketing. For a mosad, we are accentuating the highlights, the part we want the clients to be focused on, which will excite and engage the public, and we are not intentionally hiding a problem. This is true whether it’s a crowdfunding campaign or whether marketing a product. It’s communicating the points to the person who then might be interested in the product. That person can now be aware that this product solves a problem that they are facing, and they can now say, “I’m so glad that I know about it and I will try it.” So the role of marketing is not to mislead, but to highlight the maalos, the benefits, and publicize them to the target market that would benefit from this product or service.
What are some of the mosdos, organizations, and other clients that you have represented?
I consider it a tremendous zechus that BLMG has represented Dirshu on an ongoing basis for nearly 25 years. We have also worked with American Friends of Laniado Hospital, Yeshiva Bais Moshe of Scranton, and many other organizations. On the political side, we did work for Mike Bloomberg for Mayor of NYC, Bob Turner for Congress (2011), and recently for Jack Ciaterreli for Governor of NJ, and although he was not victorious in the statewide campaign, he did extremely well in the frum community. Our corporate clients like Citizens Bank, Investors Bank, Citi National Bank of Florida, Census 2020 and Catapult Learning want us to help them target the Jewish community and the Orthodox Jewish demographic.
You recently published a new book, A Practical Guide to Winning Relationships, in which you offer lessons for building enduring relationships through the prism of Torah. In your introduction, you lead the reader through the guidance you received in your younger years through the association you enjoyed with Harav Avigdor Miller, zt”l, and how it formed the groundwork for this volume. Can you elaborate a bit on what your relationship was and how it serves as the basis for this book?
I feel it’s important for everyone to look back and see the trajectory to wherever they are holding in life, and have hakaras hatov to whoever got them there. It’s also building humility, that it’s not just your own work but a product of what others put into someone.
When I produced the book, which was a work of seven years, I thought to myself, “How did I get here?”
I began my chinuch in elementary school in Yeshiva Tiferes Elimelech, and for mesivta I attended Yeshiva of Adelphia, under the direction and leadership of Harav Dovid Trenk, zt”l, and ybl”c Harav Yerucham Shain, shlita. There’s no question those years and yeshivos had an impact on me and what I am today. After that, for several years, I learned in Bais Medrash Zichron Eliezer under Harav Zelig Friedman, shlita, who was a talmid muvhak of Harav Avigdor Miller.
I heard a lot of Rav Miller’s Torah and advice while I learned there. In addition, my father, zol gezunt zein, who was a talmid of Hagaon Harav Aharon Kotler, zt”l, and learned under Hagaon Harav Yaakov Ruderman, zt”l, and has semichah from Hagaon Harav Moshe Feinstein, zt”l, went to Rav Miller’s shiurim almost every night, and sometimes he took me along. Later, when I was in Beis Medrash in 1987-1988, and 1993-1999, I had the zechus to go on walks with Rav Miller as he strolled through Flatbush, on Kings Highway, and I have great memories of those walks.
I bought some of the cassettes and later the CDs of Rav Miller’s shiurim, and later I purchased the iPod, and until this very day, I still listen approximately three hours a week. I have listened to many of the shiurim multiple times, which is when you really, truly appreciate it. That led to listening to Shiur #376, Counsel of Torah, in which Rav Miller clearly spelled out, black on white, the way the Torah itself provides advice for all practical matters of daily living.
He quotes the Sifri which tells us eitzos hinu Torah. “The Sifri is telling us that the storehouse of good advice [on] how to succeed is the Torah. Good advice [on] how to succeed in life, how to be happy, how to make the most out of the opportunities that present themselves during your span of years, how to deal with a wife, with neighbors, with parents, with brothers and sisters. In every phase of life, the Torah stands by a man’s side and offers him practical advice…” he said in that shiur.
He continues and says, “Once we know this guideline that the Torah is a storehouse of good counsel, then we’ll begin to see that it is so obvious, that we wonder how we ignored it all the years that we read the Torah and repeated its words.” Rav Miller’s words are the foundation and the premise of the book.
Can you lead us through how your work in the field of marketing led you to produce this book?
Beginning in 2015, for eight years, I hosted a radio program, “Mind Your Business,” in which I interviewed many top corporate CEOs and executives from Fortune 500 companies. I interviewed Captain Chesley Burnett “Sully” Sullenberger who safely landed U.S. Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River after a bird strike disabled both engines shortly after takeoff from LaGuardia Airport in New York City. I interviewed Beth Comstock, former vice chair of General Electric, as a guest, as well as Ron Karr, a bestselling author of several books about sales.
Chazal tell us, “chochmah bagoyim ta’amin,” there is practical wisdom which exists in the gentile nations of the world. They shared a lot of amazing insights. As I was ma’avir sidrah week in and week out, I noticed more and more how much of the advice they gave was actually an open passuk!
That’s when I began putting this down, and I bounced my ideas off Rabbi Mordechai Kaminetsky, Dean of Yeshiva Toras Chaim of South Shore, and partnered with Binyamin Rose, a well-known Jewish writer, to produce what might be considered a frum “Dale Carnegie” book [who published the bestseller How to Win Friends and Influence People in 1936]. The objective was to make the book very suitable and applicable, offering takeaways, pointers, and lessons. It’s a practical guide for day-to-day human interaction.
You mention that the book offers practical application of the ideas and the lessons. In the Sefer Shaarei Orah by Rabbi Yaakov Hamburger, a collection of some of Rav Miller’s vaadim that he delivered to some talmidim of Bais Hatalmud, he ends each vaad with what he calls “uvdah,” which is loosely translated as an exercise to incorporate the vaad’s concept into our daily lives. I guess this idea is related to that.
That is exactly the point of the practical application at the end of each microchapter.
While we are on the subject of the format of the book, can you explain how it is set up, and the advantages of this design for the readers?
I spent many hours in conversation with experts before the format of the book was developed. The book is broken up into 35 microchapters. This word was introduced to me by Dr. Debra Jasper, an award-winning communications expert, and although this may not be officially a word yet, it will probably be recognized as one in the future. The idea is so ideal and perfect for today’s short attention span. We take an important concept and boil it down into a very straightforward and simplistic approach, so that each chapter, say on sensitivity, momentum, vision, or time management, is a five-minute read.
The book is divided into six sections: communication, sensitivity, respect, diplomacy, teamwork, and vision, with each section having between four and seven microchapters. This renders it into bite-sized reading, which allows you to easily drop in and out of it whenever you have a bit of time. Even the atypical size of the book, 51/2 x 7 inches as opposed to the regular 6x9, was done with forethought, which allows it to be tucked into the front pocket of a carry-on or briefcase and the traveler can read a chapter or two when they have a few minutes of time on their flight.
Is the book a guide on how to outsmart or outmaneuver someone in order to come out ahead?
Well, I wouldn’t use the words “outsmart” or “outmaneuver” — rather it is a practical guide to winning relationships which is documented with sources in the Torah and/or Chazal, and advice on how to go about it the right way from the get-go. Many of the suggestions come from years of experience dealing with others, and those who lack that experience, and especially the younger generation, can gain the knowledge and be spared from learning the hard way by trial and error.
So, it’s not a matter of outsmarting or outmaneuvering, but rather of using proper techniques to deal with situations properly from the onset, which inevitably will serve you better in the long run and be advantageous.
Harav Reuven Feinstein, shlita, writes in his approbation, “I have no doubt that many will gain enormously from applying these often hard-learned lessons which you have not only observed but experienced in your own life and you skillfully communicate in interesting and engaging ways.”
Are there any other aspects of the book that you would like to tell us about?
I believe that it is important that the points mentioned in the book are not solely when Jews interact with each other, but are also especially important when interacting with gentiles. We live in galus, and we are constantly under the microscope. As a result, we must always be alert concerning how we are perceived by non-Jewish co-workers, customers, and the public. It is a mistake to think that I am not a rabbi, I do not have a beard, so my actions are not a reflection on Jews. Several years ago, I went to a meeting in Manhattan on Erev Shabbos, and the parking attendant told me that he expects me to be back within an hour, because, “You have Shabbos, you have Shabbos!”
Wherever you go, you will be recognized as a representative of Jews, and you have to be mindful of how you interact with people in a manner which projects a positive image of what a Torah Jew represents.
One more point that I think is extremely important in this cyber generation. When using AI, you are interacting with a machine, and although you may receive a wealth of information, you are not utilizing interpersonal skills. This book helps the reader hone their relationship capabilities in a way which ultimately will help them succeed in all walks of life.
As the subtitle suggests, I hope the book assists readers in “building enduring relationships through the prism of Torah wisdom.”
