Real Life Superpowers

Since we’ve launched the podcast in July, we’ve had the privilege of interviewing peak performers across several industries. We’ve been inspired by the willingness of winners to share their journey in an egoless and open way. We think we’re starting to identify common patterns among people who are at the top of their game.

Listen on RealLifeSuperPowers website: https://reallifesuperpowers.com/podcast/end-of-2018-special/

In this end of year special, we sat down to reflect on our insights thus far, and to talk about the upcoming year.

Based on the feedback we’ve been getting - it seems we’re tapping into somewhat unspoken forms of deep wisdom, which have the potential to move the needle and inspire people to reflect and take action in their own lives.

We plan on continuing to uncover self-fulfillment formulas in 2019. Thank you for listening. Don’t hesitate to hit us up anywhere on the internet for any feedback.

Some of the episodes we’ve mentioned:

Brian Halligan co-Founder and CEO of HubSpot.iTunes: https://goo.gl/1HoMhQ Stitcher: https://goo.gl/HF8bvy

Roei Deutsch co-Founder and CEO of Jolt. iTunes: https://goo.gl/Yq3FkX Stitcher: https://goo.gl/n98kxa

Rank Fishkin co-Founder of MOZ, iTunes: https://goo.gl/nvNMSe Stitcher: https://goo.gl/WW1363

Yam Regev co-Founder and CEO of zest.io, iTunes: https://goo.gl/8TdYb6 Stitcher: https://goo.gl/XrrBYt

Books mentioned:

Principles: Life and Work by Ray Dalio

Traction by Gino Wackman

Zooming out, if you like listening to this podcast, make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss new conversations with peak performers, serving as a reminder we can all tap into the best versions of ourselves.

You’re also welcome to follow Ronen and Noa on Linkedin

• Ronen Menipaz on Linkedin

• Noa Eshed on Linkedin

And if we may ask for a favor - please leave us a review on your native podcast app.

Some further resources:

• Real Life Superpowers podcast on Ctech

• The podcast website

In this episode we speak with Yam Regev, co-founder and CEO of zest.is - a professional-knowledge discovery platform for modern self learners, aimed at helping busy professionals screen through noise and tap into relevant knowledge sources in order to become better versions of themselves.

Listen on RealLifeSuperPowers website: https://reallifesuperpowers.com/podcast/yam-regev-zest/

Zest is community driven. Machine learning and AI algorithms screen content and submit it to professionals from the Zest community for quality control. Content that’s approved by the community is then served back to Zest users in a personalized manner.

The human factor is crucial in Zest and early on in the conversation it becomes evident that Yam is all about people and human relationships himself. He relates to himself as a “farm-boy from the north part of Israel” and admits he didn’t even have an email address when he founded his first business which was a digital marketing agency. He teamed up with childhood friends, identified an opportunity and went for it.

Ever since that first agency he’s been founding and taking part in ventures whilst listening to his heart and moving on to further challenges, even at a cost of pausing his involvement in successful businesses. When listening to him share his journey, its clear that he’s evidently choosing self fulfillment over comfort time and again.

We discuss the modern dilemma of going to college vs getting hands-on experience. Yam dropped out of college and is a clear advocate of the latter. He aims to surround himself with people who are “doers”. He doesn’t care about titles and academic degrees, he wants to know what the people he works with actually DID. He values practical failure over theoretical learning from the sidelines.

We discuss how the power of relationships and community fuels Zest’s mission and helps users build their own micro learning path.

Yam values transparency, authenticity and vulnerability. He tells us all about his fundraising strategy and how he got 700 potential investors to reach out to Zest by leveraging those values.

Yam’s modesty and honesty is captivating. Checkout the full interview for a real educational treat.

Zooming out, if you like listening to this podcast, make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss new conversations with peak performers, serving as a reminder we can all tap into the best versions of ourselves.

You’re also welcome to follow Ronen and Noa on Linkedin

• Ronen Menipaz on Linkedin

• Noa Eshed on Linkedin

And if we may ask for a favor - please leave us a review on your native podcast app.

Some further resources:

• Real Life Superpowers podcast on Ctech

• The podcast website

In this episode we speak with SEO genius, author and serial entrepreneur Rand Fishkin. Rand built MOZ a 45 million dollar a year venture that’s a b2b software for marketers helping companies rank well in Google.

Listen on RealLifeSuperPowers website: https://reallifesuperpowers.com/podcast/rand-fishkin-moz/

He’s recently founded a new company called SparkToro. He’s also published a new book called Lost and Founder, which is basically a cheat roadmap for entrepreneurs. It’s PACKED with experience based tips on what actually works without BS. It’s egoless and transparent at almost unbelievable levels, and as you’ll hear, such is Rand.

We discuss:

The irony of founding a company that makes millions in revenue but not being able to become rich due the complexity of being venture backed

How so called “lifestyle businesses” are underestimated and essentially only one path is marketed to entrepreneurs, making it appear as if there’s only one choice - to be venture backed “all of the attention and all of the accolades go to a handful of companies that grow fast and have big exits and big fundraising events. You never read in the newspaper in the tech press about a company that makes 2M dollars and 500K of that is profit for its owners, even though that’s a great story that’s wonderful for the founders, that’s never talked about, never read about, reporters don’t investigate. BUT someone raises 2M dollars - that story is everywhere even though 90% of venture outcomes don’t return enough money to be considered a success for the fund”.

The complexity of working with family.

The risks of becoming overconfident and turning down acquisition offers under the assumption that you can do better. “In this world where dollars are chasing, not dollars, not profitable businesses, not sort of good survivable businesses but growth and growth alone, you should recognize that even at small revenue numbers, having a high growth rate is potentially your most exciting asset. And when you have a very high growth rate, even when you’re small, that might be a great time to market and sell your business”

The power of vulnerability.

And so much more..

We hope you enjoy this and learn from him as much as we did!

Zooming out, if you like listening to this podcast, make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss new conversations with peak performers, serving as a reminder we can all tap into the best versions of ourselves.

You’re also welcome to follow Ronen and Noa on Linkedin

• Ronen Menipaz on Linkedin

• Noa Eshed on Linkedin

And if we may ask for a favor - please leave us a review on your native podcast app.

Some further resources:

• Real Life Superpowers podcast on Ctech

• The podcast website

In this episode we speak with Roei Deutch, Co-founder and CEO of Jolt, a startup that’s a school for employees craving to learn and grow in the new employment world. Jolt has campuses in Tel Aviv and soon in London - following a new 7.5 million USD round of investment that was made public a few days after our interview.

Listen on RealLifeSuperPowers website: https://reallifesuperpowers.com/podcast/yariv-bash-flytrex-2/

Studying in Jolt is done via a “gym membership for learning” model whereby people can take as many classes as they want. The school attempts to break the traditional paradigms of higher education. Breaking paradigms is evident in everything Roei is involved in. When Roei has a vision he paves his own path - inventing self tailored methodologies that will get him and his teams to where they want to be. Pushing forward originally in a world of what he likes to call “made up jobs”.

He started his career early, at the age of 14 he founded his first company, which he sold a year later. He has been listed in the prestigious Forbes under 30, founded several successful companies and has already published 3 books.

Roei believes that people connect through vulnerability, so he makes sure to present his real self rather than his ״best״ self. In this episode he genuinely took us inside his world, setting forth his unique innovative way of thinking that is an inseparable part of his impressive track record of success.

He is always asking himself reflective, non compromising questions, and then deciding on his short and long term actions based on the answers to those questions. For example, before starting Jolt he took time to ask himself what type of CEO he wants to be. This type of action structuring is something everyone can apply in their daily doing.

Among other things we spoke about his ideology of extreme transparency in leadership. We asked him if he’s not afraid employees will walk away if you’re transparent with them when things get rough, his answer was:

“People respect what they helped build. When someone has been part of the journey when it was rough and when it was good - when shit hits the fan, they’re actually more committed and more accountable. People are good - they don’t walk away from danger if they feel they were part of creating that danger”.

We also discuss:

- how he structured his company culture based on core traits all people on board have to posses and how to uncover such traits when recruiting

- all about his invented employment model of 2 year “chapterships”

- how his greatest fears drive him

- how he comes up with ideas

- his approach towards fundraising

- the “airport test”

- ..much much more

We hope you enjoy your listen

Zooming out, if you like listening to this podcast, make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss new conversations with peak performers, serving as a reminder we can all tap into the best versions of ourselves.

You’re also welcome to follow Ronen and Noa on Linkedin

• Ronen Menipaz on Linkedin

• Noa Eshed on Linkedin

And if we may ask for a favor - please leave us a review on your native podcast app.

Some further resources:

• Real Life Superpowers podcast on Ctech

• The podcast website

In this episode, we speak with Micha Berkuz, founder and CEO of Giftedd, an employee recognition and customer retention e-gifting SaaS aiming to revolutionize corporate gifting by empowering teams.

Listen on RealLifeSuperPowers website: https://reallifesuperpowers.com/podcast/micha-berkuz-giftedd/

It all started in 2008 when Micha’s girlfriend at the time bought him a Sony Playstation and he realized there were no available online gift cards for buying games for the console. This lead to founding what is now a very successful local Israeli Digital Gift-Cards Solutions company called BuyMe, and of which Giftedd is a spin-off of.

But it wasn’t all smooth sailing. When trying to raise money, Micha and his co-founder were initially thrown out of every boardroom yet giving up was not an option.

As an ex-professional athlete (basketball), who was kicked out of high school, Micha was no stranger to hurdles and overcoming them. Building a company from the ground up despite being turned down by investors was not a reason to step away - it was a challenge to overcome.

“I think that sports brings a lot of good values and methodologies into your life, from working hard, practice is a huge part. You play the game - the game is 40 minutes, you work out the whole week before that to get ready for the game next week. There’s a certain level of discipline that comes with that”.

In the interview, we learn all about his journey. Among other aspects, his theory is that you can’t force someone to do something they don’t like for a long time. So if you’re doing something you like and pair up with people who are good at things you're not good at - you become unstoppable.

Micha has inspiring clarity about his pathway and about where he and his team are heading. Check out the full interview to learn all about his journey and what you can adopt in your own personal path.

Zooming out, if you like listening to this podcast, make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss new conversations with peak performers, serving as a reminder we can all tap into the best versions of ourselves.

You’re also welcome to follow Ronen and Noa on Linkedin

• Ronen Menipaz on Linkedin

• Noa Eshed on Linkedin

And if we may ask for a favor - please leave us a review on your native podcast app.

Some further resources:

• Real Life Superpowers podcast on Ctech

• The podcast website

In this episode we speak with Yariv Bash, co-founder and CEO of Flytrex, a leading consumer drone company and founder of Space IL - an Israeli non-profit that in December 2018 will launch a spaceship to the moon making Israel the 4th nation to land a spaceship on the moon.

Listen on RealLifeSuperPowers website: https://reallifesuperpowers.com/podcast/yariv-bash-flytrex/

Yariv is always in motion, he always has something he’s working on, he’s persistent and an endless optimist (which is probably his superpower). He’s taken on the most ambitious projects with a goal of influencing entire generations and making a dent in the world. He lives to solve problems and he believes he can take on almost anything , especially if it’s a challenge that was solved before.

With respect to landing a spaceship on the moon, I asked him, how did you gain that confidence? How did you know? I mean you must have had some doubts..

His answer teaches a lot of his relentless mindset “So, it’s a problem that has been solved on a bigger scale with more funds nonetheless, but still, the first time it was solved was back in the sixties...”

I interrupt “yeah, solved by countries” but he doesn’t get confused “you know, the difference between individuals and countries is always shrinking”

We learned that one of the keys to success is to believe to the verge of stupidity and despite other people’s skepticism BUT to always validate and have a plan b (and c, and d)

“I found myself surrounded by people who don’t think anything can stop them”. What a magnificent state of mind. We know we’re going to work on this attitude. We hope listening to him will help you too.

You can follow Yariv’s work on:

http://flytrex.com/ and

http://www.spaceil.com/

Zooming out, if you like listening to this podcast, make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss new conversations with peak performers, serving as a reminder we can all tap into the best versions of ourselves.

You’re also welcome to follow Ronen and Noa on Linkedin

• Ronen Menipaz on Linkedin

• Noa Eshed on Linkedin

And if we may ask for a favor - please leave us a review on your native podcast app.

Some further resources:

• Real Life Superpowers podcast on Ctech

• The podcast website

In this episode, we speak with Chen Levanon CEO & Co-founder of SimilarTech (a super SAAS tool that’s a SimilarWeb spinoff) and one of the most influential women in Silicon Valley.

Listen on RealLifeSuperPowers website: https://reallifesuperpowers.com/podcast/chen-levanon-similartech/

Chen was a competitive athlete, an investment banker in Lehman Brothers Inc, one of the youngest female global CEO's in Israel (Clicksmob) and more. Chen's journey started very differently than one might expect - she invested all of her youth on the track as an Olympic-level hurdler. Since then she never stopped competing and jumping over hurdles. As we see it, her superpower is making her dreams a reality by not taking NO for an answer. She changed career paths four times and she never looked back. Once Chen decides what her next goal is, not achieving it is not an option. "I heard that this guy that I wanted to work for was at my gym, he didn’t know that I would be on his team.. but I did".

We believe that every human being has a superpower, the problem is that most people do not recognize their superpower or do not channel their energies correctly. The most successful people, the Chen’s find their specialties during their career and nurture the advantages that make them who they are.

Enjoy your listen.

Zooming out, if you like listening to this podcast, make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss new conversations with peak performers, serving as a reminder we can all tap into the best versions of ourselves.

You’re also welcome to follow Ronen and Noa on Linkedin

• Ronen Menipaz on Linkedin

• Noa Eshed on Linkedin

And if we may ask for a favor - please leave us a review on your native podcast app.

Some further resources:

• Real Life Superpowers podcast on Ctech

• The podcast website

In this episode we speak with Dari Shechter, VP of Creative & Design at MindSpace Inc, a global coworking community with locations in the US, England, Holland, Germany, Poland, Romania and Israel.

Listen on RealLifeSuperPowers website: https://reallifesuperpowers.com/podcast/dari-shechter-mindspace/

Mindspace’s exponential growth is largely attributed to of the unique experience that Mindspace provides. Dari who had no previous experience, is the creative mind that designed and lead the artistic vision for the community and company.

The way we see it, her superpowers are her ability to think out of the box combined with extreme optimism that helps her maintain exploding energies. In this podcast she explains how she acknowledged her strengths and then utilized them. "In the beginning no one listened to me, when I felt like no one cared I started doing stuff without approval. I lucked out because I did a good job, sometimes taking chances is important".

Checkout this episode to learn all about her journey.

Zooming out, if you like listening to this podcast, make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss new conversations with peak performers, serving as a reminder we can all tap into the best versions of ourselves.

You’re also welcome to follow Ronen and Noa on Linkedin

• Ronen Menipaz on Linkedin

• Noa Eshed on Linkedin

And if we may ask for a favor - please leave us a review on your native podcast app.

Some further resources:

• Real Life Superpowers podcast on Ctech

• The podcast website

In this episode, we speak with Brian Halligan the Co-founder and CEO of HubSpot. He’s also the co-author of two books, "Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs" and "Marketing Lessons From The Grateful Dead" AND a senior lecturer at MIT.

Listen on RealLifeSuperPowers website: https://reallifesuperpowers.com/podcast/brian-halligan-hubspot/

In some circles, Brian is referred to as the Steve Jobs of the marketing world. When listening to his world views on leadership and learning about his journey it’s hard not to spot the admirable similarities.

Brian, whose company raised more than $100 million in funding, gone public, and brought in $375 million in total revenue in 2017 alone, doesn’t take any shortcuts. He’s very self-critical. He starts the interview by telling us he’s just stepped out of a meeting about packaging and pricing to which he says “I would give us a C on the way we price it [HubSpot] I think we can do it in a much smarter way”.

There’s a lot to be learned from Brian and his journey. His self awareness and reflection is evident all throughout our conversation. He doesn’t like conventional wisdom, he encourages constant learning and unpacking of information “feedback is breakfast for champions”, he’s never satisfied, he strives to utmost transparency amongst management and he’s very tolerant to mistakes, so long as they’re not repeated.

Brian is a real life superhero - we hope you enjoy this episode as much as we did.

Zooming out, if you like listening to this podcast, make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss new conversations with peak performers, serving as a reminder we can all tap into the best versions of ourselves.

You’re also welcome to follow Ronen and Noa on Linkedin

• Ronen Menipaz on Linkedin

• Noa Eshed on Linkedin

And if we may ask for a favor - please leave us a review on your native podcast app.

Some further resources:

• Real Life Superpowers podcast on Ctech

• The podcast website