The Only Way Is Up

Yarin Weltsman is originally from Johannesburg South Africa, she is an award winning UX designer and innovator that focuses on a human-centric approach to translating ideas into tangible strategies and offerings.

Yarin has consulted local startups and global clients such as Barclays Bank, Tech Stars and Google’s Leadership Institute.

Yarin holds a Masters Degree in Design, Innovation & Entrepreneurship and thrives at the intersection of design / tech / strategy.

In collaboration with all stakeholders, Yarin discovers insights and opportunities in order to develop a strategy that will help define the identity of your products and services and emotionally resonates with your target audience to be translated into all digital and marketing assets.

Avital Bayer was born in London and moved to Israel in the summer of 2016. She combines her passion for technology and innovation to inspire and promote change. She founded HiPitched in 2018. The company focuses on compelling branding, strategy, design and scaling.

Prior to founding HiPitched, she was a Venture Scout in Israel for Founders Factory (UK), looking for start-ups with growth potential and before this was Head of Business Development for Venture Capital fund 83North (Greylock) where she worked on scaling and advising portfolio companies.

Prior to moving to Israel she served as the international liaison at the Israeli Embassy in London's Trade and Economic Division, raising capital and securing international partnerships for Israeli companies.

She sits on the Board of Advisors for Dreame, a technology company empowering the imagination through personalised, one-of-a-kind art. She is also a contributor to Humans in Finance, a global movement changing the face of finance through storytelling. 

For all their social media:
Instagram: http://instagram.com/hashcreative.co/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HiPitched/

For all our social media be sure to like our fb page: https://www.facebook.com/onlywayisuppodcast/

and follow us on instagram https://www.instagram.com/onlywayisuppodcast/

Music: https://www.purple-planet.com

Artwork: Leon Weinreb

Before Lisa and her family made Aliyah, Lisa was working as a registered nurse in New York.  She had started in adult organ transplant at Mt Sinai Hospital, and then moved to school nursing at SAR High School.  It was there that she fell in love with teaching.  

When they made Aliyah is 2008, it was difficult for her to leave by job behind.  When she arrived in Israel, she was informed that just weeks earlier the country had cancelled their high school nursing program.  So she worked odd jobs while settling in my family.  

Meanwhile, when Lisa was pregnant with my third child, she developed terrible lower back and pelvic pain.  Even after the baby was born (her first Sabra!), the discomfort did not go away. It seemed as though everything in her body had shifted. Her scoliosis became more pronounced, her hips misaligned, her pelvic floor shot, and her superficial abdominal muscles had split wide open and wouldn’t close back in. 

Nothing felt right. All of a sudden, she was weak and fragile. Her back would go out at the slightest misstep. 

To this day Lisa  can’t remember exactly who led her to Pilates. She think's it was a doctor. Or an acupuncturist? A friend? It’s all a blur. But she has been practicing consistently for more than 10 years. Pilates has completely mended her. 

It became clear to me that she needed to train to teach Pilates.  At first, it seemed like a detour from my nursing background- one that she was overly apologetic for. But the more she learned about Pilates, the more she realized that her nursing training and Pilates training went hand in hand.  In fact, most of the private clients who she works with now had suffered from some kind of injury or medical condition and they feel at ease knowing that she can read their x-rays or understand their underlying conditions.  

It has all come together in ways that she could never have anticipated.  She opened her studio 5 ½ years ago and just this year Lisa launched my online Pilates Program. She is learning every day and she is just so grateful for all of it. 

For all her social media links:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pilatesinapencilskirt/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pilatesinapencilskirt/
Website: pilatesinapencilskirt.com/online-classes

For all our social media be sure to like our fb page: https://www.facebook.com/onlywayisuppodcast/

and follow us on instagram https://www.instagram.com/onlywayisuppodcast/

Music: https://www.purple-planet.com

Artwork: Leon Weinreb

Danni Franks was born in Edgware and went to JFS.  She fell in love with Israel during her 5 month trip to Givat Washington in 1987.   When she landed at Ben Gurion for the first time in my life age 13, she burst into tears, kissed the ground and felt like she'd come home.   That feeling never left her. After Uni she worked in Marketing at Sky TV and Disney.  
Danni quit Disney to move to Israel and 5 months after she made aliyah she had the seed of the idea for Myisrael planted.  It came from a conversation with the founder of Crossroads- one of Myisrael's adopted causes - that she still supports today.  It took her two years to formulate the idea of Myisrael, a year to get it up and running and it was launched in March 2008.  

For all our social media be sure to like our fb page: https://www.facebook.com/onlywayisuppodcast/

and follow us on instagram https://www.instagram.com/onlywayisuppodcast/

Music: https://www.purple-planet.com

Artwork: Leon Weinreb

Born and raised in the U.S., Meirav studied theater and education before moving to Israel to join the IDF.   In 2005, she founded the English-language professional traveling theater in Israel, English On Stage, subsequently writing, directing, and acting in its various original productions to date as well as serving as its artistic director. Her most recent production, Inconceivable, is her first solo (and personal) production which has been gaining attention both in Israel and abroad for its unique take on a still-taboo topic.

For all our social media be sure to like our fb page: https://www.facebook.com/onlywayisuppodcast/

and follow us on instagram https://www.instagram.com/onlywayisuppodcast/

Music: https://www.purple-planet.com

Artwork: Leon Weinreb

Sharonna made aliyah in 2010. She was born in Tel Aviv. Her mum is Israeli and Dad is Scottish. She moved to become a journalist and to write a book about the street names of Tel Aviv. One purim in 2011, she met two entrepreneurs on a bench on Rothschild who changed her life and inspired by them, Sharonna started to part time work on a start up and officially in 2014 Dreame launched.
Sharonna is a creative and social impact entrepreneur. She is the CEO and Co-Creator at Dreame: A platform for co-creating art with 500 artists around the world; inspired by a vision, memory, story or goals. Over 10,000 artworks have been co-created in over 50 countries so far. Dreame is democratising the art world, creating a new genre of art and enabling everyone to become a creator and commissioner of art with their own imagination. 

She is the creator of The Big Dream installation in Rabin Square: the largest artwork in the world puzzled out of yoga mats envisioning the future of Israel, and then the same installation in Jerusalem with a guided visualisation for thousands of participants in Hebrew & Arabic guiding them to the future of co-existent Jerusalem. The installation is now travelling globally envisioning the future of cities. 

She is the creator of Once I was a house; a house turned into art pre-demolition with 80 artists and raised 200,000K for two organisations supporting children in need. She is working on the Street Names of Tel Aviv Book; a crowdsourced book about the street names of Tel Aviv and is the founder of Moment Salon ; a pop up cultural salon in Tel Aviv with jazz, book clubs, poetry readings and more.  

For all of Dreame Social Media:
FB page- https://www.facebook.com/catchadreamer/
Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/dreameart/

For all our social media be sure to like our fb page: https://www.facebook.com/onlywayisuppodcast/

and follow us on instagram https://www.instagram.com/onlywayisuppodcast/

Music: https://www.purple-planet.com

Artwork: Leon Weinreb

Jen met her husband 10 years ago in Brazil, came here to visit shortly after and never left. She struggled a lot for the first 3.5 years with work etc and knowing what she wanted to do. Jen left and went back to England for a year, but decided to come back - that's when she decided to retrain as a personal trainer and things started changing for her here. She found work she was passionate about and for the first time felt settled here.

Jen quickly specialized in pregnancy and postpartum fitness, and her career has been focused entirely on that niche since then. she works with women in the center of Israel helping them to rehab and build their bodies back up after giving birth.

Jen married her boyfriend and converted through Tzohar - and 14 months ago she had her first child - Charlie!

For all her social media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jencurtistraining/

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/jencurtistraining/

Website: www.jen-curtis.com

For all our social media be sure to like our fb page: https://www.facebook.com/onlywayisuppodcast/

and follow us on instagram https://www.instagram.com/onlywayisuppodcast/

Music: https://www.purple-planet.com

Artwork: Leon Weinreb

Valeria was born in NY in 1977, when her argentinean parents were immigrants in U.S. while in Argentina there was a dictatorship. 

After 7 month they decided to go back to Buenos Aires, so this was her very first adventure.

She grew up in a suburban town of Buenos Aires province, in a warm and beloved family. As she grew up, she discovered that in my family we had roots from two religions: Catholic and Jewish. 

The Jewish part of her family was almost completely assimilated and there were almost non traditions and only few stories of how they had arrived from Bessarabia (now part of Romania)  to Argentina, passing through Turkey.

Valeria's upbringing was basically secular and my education was in public school and public university. She graduated from the University of Buenos Aires as an architect and after finishing my degree, she visited Israel for the first time. At that time her father and sister were here, her father being the first to reconnect with Judaism and having done aliyah.

After that trip my great transformation and personal growth began. In addition to exploring other cultures, she began a personal exploration that led me to appear for personal growth. 

Valeria have been living in Israel for almost 9 years. Currently she is dedicated to personal growth through coaching. She founded her company ¨TRIBU coaching¨ and created the program “Architecture of Life”. Her passion and life mission is to help and facilitate her clients transformation process and personal growth to achieve an extraordinary life and well-being in all aspects.

For her website click here:  www.tribucoaching.com 

For all our social media be sure to like our fb page: https://www.facebook.com/onlywayisuppodcast/

and follow us on instagram https://www.instagram.com/onlywayisuppodcast/

Music: https://www.purple-planet.com

Artwork: Leon Weinreb

Gila Levitan, Tour Guide: Originally from Sydney, Australia, she moved to Israel for 14 years ago. In Australia, she was involved in the Zionist Youth movements and spent a year in Israel between high school and university which helped build the foundations for her love and support of this unique little country. After moving here in 2005, she pursued her career in Physiotherapy however, eventually she decided to do become a licensed tour guide in order to pursue my passion for exploring and travelling around Israel. Gila is very curious and likes to know all the little details, which is may be why she loved working in research, but she also loves people and being a guide enables her to teach people about a place that she loves and helps them on their own path of discovery about all the treasures that Israel has to reveal. Gila is the only female guide in the top 10 on TripAdvisor and awarded the TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence for 2019.

For all her social media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/walkaboutisrael/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/walkaboutisrael/
Website: https://www.walkaboutisrael.com/

For all our social media be sure to like our fb page: https://www.facebook.com/onlywayisuppodcast/

and follow us on instagram https://www.instagram.com/onlywayisuppodcast/

Music: https://www.purple-planet.com

Artwork: Leon Weinreb

Stephanie made aliyah from Johannesburg, South Africa 8 years ago and founded a successful high tech recruitment company in Tel Aviv. The company focuses on finding employment or English and foreign language speakers within the start up and hi tech fields with the aim of promoting and encouraging successful Aliyah experiences.

For all her social media links:
Website: www.urbanrecruits.co.il
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UrbanRecruits/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_urbanrecruits/

For all our social media be sure to like our fb page: https://www.facebook.com/onlywayisuppodcast/

and follow us on instagram https://www.instagram.com/onlywayisuppodcast/

Music: https://www.purple-planet.com

Artwork: Leon Weinreb

Rachel Erdos is an award winning independent choreographer born in Newcastle Upon Tyne, England. Currently living and working in Tel Aviv, Israel since 2002

She received her MA from The Laban Centre London specializing in choreography.  Her work has been seen around the world including Israel, UK, Ireland, Italy, Cyprus, Athens, Norway, South Africa, Tanzania, Slovakia, China, Denmark, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Senegal, Germany, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and The U.S.

Rachel won first prize in the AICC International choreography competition in Aarhus, Denmark in 2008 and in 2009 won City Dance Ensemble’s commissioning project, Washington DC. In 2012 Rachel was awarded the prize for artist of the year in the field of dance by The Ministry of Absorption, Israel. In 2014 she was awarded NorthWest Dance Project’s Pretty Creative Commission prize, Portland USA. In 2015 Rachel was awarded prize for independent choreographer of the year 2015 by The Ministry of Culture, Israel. Rachel was one of the featured choreographers in Springboard 2018, Montreal Canada.

In 2017 Rachel choreographed the video for the song ‘did you really say no’ composed and directed by Oren Lavie and starring Vanessa Paradis. 

Her work has been shown in some of the most prestigious venues including The Kennedy Centre, Washington DC, The Joyce, New York and the Royal Opera House London. 

Rachel also teaches extensively to both professionals and non-professionals and in 2018 was visiting artist at Brown University, U.S.A.

For all her social media:
instagram: https://www.instagram.com/erdosrachel/

facebook  https://www.facebook.com/rachel.erdos.7

https://www.facebook.com/rachelerdosdance/

For all our social media be sure to like our fb page: https://www.facebook.com/onlywayisuppodcast/

and follow us on instagram https://www.instagram.com/onlywayisuppodcast/

Music: https://www.purple-planet.com

Artwork: Leon Weinreb