Build a Mission-Driven Business with Yocheved Ruth Cohen

You're listening to The Jewish Entrepreneur Podcast with Debbie Sassen, Episode 144.

Welcome to The Jewish Entrepreneur Podcast. I'm your host, Debbie Sassen. I went from being a financial adviser, author and chronic under earner to building my business to six figures as a financial planner and money mindset coach. And then, on to multiple six figures as a fulltime money and business coach.

I help entrepreneurs create money making businesses and build wealth, using sales and money mindset strategies in alignment with authentic Jewish values. Now, let's dive into today's show.

Hello, my friends, and welcome back to the podcast. This week, I have a very special guest interview for you with my client, Yocheved Ruth Cohen. I'm going to tell you about Yocheved in a moment, but before, I want to give you two announcements. They're a little bit of a teaser, in fact.

But next week on the podcast, I am going to be letting you know about a new masterclass that I'm offering on September 9th. It is called Meant for More. And in fact, today's episode of the podcast is directly connected with you believing in your bones, down to your tippy toes, that you are meant for more.

There is so much more goodness that you can impact the world with, so much more bigness for you to step into when you really own your power, own who you are, own how much genius and value you have to give to the world. So be here next week on the podcast so that you can sign up for my masterclass, Meant for More.

And if you want to make sure that you don't miss the announcement, get on my newsletter, debbiesassen.com/newsletter.

The second announcement is that my signature program, Wired for Wealth, is upleveling. We are upgrading. I am giving you newer, better, much more dialled-in content for clients who really want to blow it up in 2024 and 2025. Registration for Wired for Wealth opens on the day of the masterclass, on September 9th.

I am reinventing the entire program so that it's better for clients who really want to go big. Again, make sure that you are on my newsletter, debbiesassen.com/newsletter, so that you are the first to know when enrollment is open for Wired for Wealth.

All right, my friends, those are the big announcements. This guest, my client, Yocheved Ruth Cohen, is an incredible individual. She and her partner founded a company in Israel in 2022 that has a mission, a very big mission for providing services, products and support for medical transplants, and especially to fill the critical demand for corneal tissue transplants in Israel.

Yocheved and her partner want to advance healing and improve patient care worldwide through comprehensive services for surgeons, hospitals and patients. I have to say that most of my clients are service oriented business owners. Yocheved and her partner work in a product industry, but there is so much service. There is so much heart. There is so much vision behind their company that it's also service.

Everything we really do is a service for our best fit clients. And I want to point something out. I know that we talked about it in the interview, but this is really important as you're thinking about how you are going to step into the last quarter of 2024, how you're going to step into the new Jewish year.

Yocheved and her partner established the company in 2022 and they invested money in their business. We've been working together, Yocheved and I, for most of that two-year period. In fact, she joined Wired for Wealth in June 2022 before she even founded her company, which means that she has put time, energy and money into her company before she sold her first corneal tissue.

And that is something that so many service based business owners don't want to do, is to put the money into their company before they actually start receiving money from their clients. I've talked about this on my podcast episode, “Debt Free Entitlement”. Too many business owners who are in service based businesses believe that they don't need to invest money in their businesses.

But you are really good at your craft. I work with clients just like you. I have worked with over 50 clients in my Wired for Wealth program alone in the last couple of years, which is why it makes so much sense for me to be reconfiguring the program at this time.

Fear of investing money in your business is going to hold you back from creating something big and beautiful and powerful in this world. So listen to this interview with Yocheved. Really tune in your ears to hearing all of the wisdom that Yocheved has to share. Because the boldness and the bravery with which she established this business has created something really disruptive and transformative in the Israeli medical world.

Their huge vision for moving worldwide just speaks volumes about who she is as a person. All right, my friends, without further ado, here is the interview that we have all been waiting for with Yocheved Ruth Cohen. Let's go.

Debbie Sassen: I am really excited to share a guest with you today. One of my clients, Yocheved Ruth Cohen… She goes by Yocheved and Ruth, and maybe she'll even give us an explanation. Unlike most of my clients, Yocheved is in an interesting business niche in the health care field in Israel, the broader health care field. And she'll tell us a bit about it.

So many of my clients are coaches and creatives. And I think it's fascinating to speak with someone who is in a completely different business model. To talk about how all different types of businesses can work and how you can make your business model work for you as well. Whether you're in a product business, a service-based business or something in between.

So Yocheved is going to give us an introduction to herself and her business. And I know that you're going to get a lot out of this podcast. So welcome, Yocheved.

Yocheved Ruth Cohen: Thank you, Debbie. So, yeah, there's quite a few differences about my business. So, first of all, the company name is Medical Links and we're incorporated as an Israeli company. We were founded in July 2022, didn't start working until May `23, and we provide services, products and technology for medical transplants.

We have a mission to create and empower more healing in the world through the multiple supports that we offer. We work with the surgeons, hospitals and ultimately the patients. When I say we, and this is something a little bit different also from many of your clients, is that I started this company with my partner, Ma'ayan Avitan. She is the director of Beilinson Hospital's tissue recovery and has over 12 years of experience doing that and working in the field.

She has really seen gaps between resources and supplies that's available to the surgeons within the hospitals and what the patients need. Whether it's a long waiting list to receive a transplant, whether it is specific products that are needed to make that recovery time for the patients shorter, faster, better, easier on the patients. Taking it further back to the surgeons, to making the surgery time shorter and easier for them, less mistakes, less risk.

So we've gotten into that field. We're constantly growing, researching and seeing how we can offer more. Our vision is to grow globally and to really work around the world. We have partners in the States, but we offer our services here in Israel.

Debbie: And I know that you and Ma'ayan are friends outside of work, outside of your business, correct?

Yocheved: Yep, we are. And you know what? It requires a lot of effort.

Debbie: Okay, the business requires more effort or the friendship? Or just everything all around?

Yocheved: Well, actually, I think I'll bring it up later, the duality. And whatever arises here is about our partnership, and friendship is friendship, that's separate. And to the point where we even have two separate WhatsApp, like this is for work and this is for friendship.

Debbie: Fascinating, amazing. That's an interesting idea. Maybe you'll talk more about it, because sometimes husbands and wives are in business together.

My husband and I would totally kill each other if we were in business together, so it wouldn't work. But I know that there are businesses where it works successfully. I've seen it most in businesses, in the online space where I tend to hang out a lot, where the woman is the face of the business and the man is the tech doing the behind-the-scenes work.

And maybe in the old school model where it's not online, but it was more brick and mortar, it would be the man who was the face of the business and the woman would be the executive assistant, maybe the secretary, but doing work inside the business and she would be less known.

And I'm sure that each one of those types of businesses had its own unique challenge; when do we go on a date night and only speak about the kids? And when do we go on date night and speak about the business? So you probably have similar challenges.

Yocheved: I think it is the awareness of that, awareness of boundaries, awareness of what our desires are, and what is needed in order to keep those standards going so that there is space for that friendship. I desire a friendship with my partner. I don't want it to be just about the business.

And I also know ultimately that having a friendship with her serves our partnership. If we do not have those boundaries or if we don't purposely go out just to be friends, then we will always talk business, we will always go there. There's always something there because we both enjoy being creative and the business world.

But also, when things get tough, and that does happen or that will happen eventually, we haven't reached something big yet, but I know that there will be a time. How will I allow that to affect my friendship with her? Can I have that separation?

And I think this was something that I walked into very clear boundaries with, because when you try to open up a business with partnerships, there's all those legalities with partnership. It's not the same when you open your own business. You have to have a partnership contract, a work contract, all those things. And what many people will tell you is, “Partnerships don't last. It's just really hard. Most partnerships don't last.” And you just keep hearing that again and again.

And I have to do a lot of work with myself and say, “Hey, that could be a fact in the world, but doesn't have to be my fact.” And what is mine? And how am I going to keep it mine if this is what I want? Now, I'm sure we'll get to this later also. But at the end of the day, it's not in my hands.

What is in my hands is how I show up, and having awareness of how I show up, and what my standards are, and having that flexibility to see others and what their needs are. It's like a marriage. I mean, just like with my husband, I share a bank account. We have to learn each other's languages. We need to go out and do this. Having a partnership is the same thing.

I have two marriages. It requires that same effort. It's not just about we share money, we share a vision. We also share communication. And we don’t have an our communication; it's her communication, my communication. Because then our communication to the world and who we are also is not going to be clear. And how we move forward is not going to be clear.

So it requires investing not just in myself, but in our relationship.

Debbie: Yeah, just like parenting, right? If you're married to your partner, and if your relationship and the way you speak to each other isn't clear, it will affect your kids. There's just no way that it cannot affect your kids.

So I'm curious about this partnership and how it developed. Maybe you’ll give us a little history. You and I have known each other for five or six years. First, I worked with you and your life partner, with your husband, and then you joined Wired for Wealth two years ago.

How did you know your strengths and what you could bring to this business? Because I've met Ma'ayan once. I coached the two of you together on one call, and we still have more to go, but how did you know that you had the right skill set to help?

I don't know if you're implementing Ma’ayan's vision because she saw the missing pieces in the hospital. How did it even come about, this partnership, this beautiful partnership that you've created?

Yocheved: First of all, HaShem leads it all. Like you could really look back, and it's so beautiful to be able to look back sometimes in history and say, “Oh, that was a piece that had to fit into this piece.” And so it's one of those stories. We moved right before Corona, like literally two days before the first lockdown. And we moved into an apartment building, a new apartment building. And Ma’ayan's actually my neighbor also.

Debbie: That was planned in advance, you were already friends?

Yocheved: No, I had no idea who she was.

Debbie: Oh, you just met each other then, during Corona?

Yocheved: We kind of met each other over Corona when the building became a pod so that kids can just have a space to be. And we got to know each other over that time. The entire apartment building lived at each other's houses. I mean, that's where you could go. And so we moved in 2020.

She turned to me in the beginning of 2022 and she said, “I have this idea that I've been sitting on for over five years. And I've just never done anything with it because I don't have the time for it. I'm not a business person. But I think it would be something really good and really amazing. I want to start importing tissues for transplants. I see that that would really help. But I don't make it happen. I see the things you're doing, and I'm wondering if that's something that would speak to you?”

And also, I think this really spoke to her a lot, was the fact that I'm American, speak English, and it would require a lot of work being international, and she wasn't yet comfortable with her English. So I said to her, “I'll think about it.” And then I got back to her and I said to her…

I was also in a time where I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do. I had been working over 20 years as a business management consulting, and I knew that I wanted to do more. I wanted to start fulfilling my dreams. I wasn’t sure what that was. I didn't know that it was something medical adjacent.

But when she had offered that to me, I thought about it and I was like, “I'm not looking to make small income on the side. I'm looking to build something big, where I can offer something big to the world and find fulfillment in it. That’s not what I want.”

So I went back to her and said to her, “No. But if you're willing to dream bigger, and you are willing to look at importing, not just tissues or corneal tissues, but maybe going into heart valves, or offering services internationally and building a company that is known for how we service and help, and offer more healing to the world in many ways with technology and information and many, many different ways, then I'm your person.”

And so she thought about that and she got back to me. She said, “Okay. And I'm leaning on you to show me the way a little bit, because that's not my vision, but I trust you.”

And so we sat down, we figured out a business plan. We built one together; who we are, what our standards are, what our goals are, who we want to be in the world as a company.

And we knew our first service was what she wanted; how she wanted to start. Today, her dreams are huge. Today, we're in the same space, but it took a lot of trust. And I think that's another one within partnerships, the trust falls. Oh my goodness, the trust falls.

Debbie: Yes. Well, like in a relationship, whether you ask your husband to go to the store and buy you a bag of rice and he comes home with oatmeal or something like that... But you learn to trust each other and communicate the right language over time. But repeatedly over and over again, that's the way the trust is built. It just gets built step by step by step.

And I guess you saw that with your kids, in the way you took care of each other's kids and invited them into your houses when you were under lockdown, and just the conversations that you were having. And it can be easily broken. Am I right?

Yocheved: Yeah, there have been times where she'll say, “That didn't make any sense to me.” I mean, not in those words, but she's like, “We should have done it this way.” And I'm like, “Okay, but I work this way.” And we figure it out.

And I think that's one of the biggest things, the desire. And I think that's in any healthy relationship, a desire to figure things out. If there's a desire to figure things out, then it's all figureoutable.

So you come to the table, you'll take a moment, you'll take a breather, you'll get over your own ego, but you'll come back to the table and you'll have a conversation, and you'll be willing to listen. And it might take a little bit longer at times than others, but you both have the same desire to figure it out together. You both choose each other and this vision together.

And I think that is what keeps it going in a huge way, in a growth way and not just stagnant. And what pushes us forward is what helps us break our old glass ceilings constantly.

Debbie: So it's really, I was trying to figure out how that sentence, the whole is bigger than the sum of the parts. Is that the way it works?

Yocheved: Right.

Debbie: So your whole vision is bigger than each one of you. When we talk about our ego… and I like to say ego is edging G-d out. But when you know that there's this vision, and I would even say it's a G-d-centered vision for bringing this healing to the world, right?

I know a little bit about your background. You brought right away, in the beginning, that HaShem, that G-d was part of this plan that you never could have figured it out by yourself. And I know that you also have some mindfulness skills and some somatic healing skills.

How do you use your skillset when you're in this partnership and you have those modalities available to you? I don't know what her background is in that way, but how do you use that when you're maybe in a situation where there's a conflict between you?

Yocheved: I would say that most conflicts between, and there’s not a lot, but the most conflicts that arise are actually, at the core of it, conflicts between me and myself.

Debbie: Oh, tell me more.

Yocheved: I find that in a lot of relationships, even between me and my husband, when a conflict arises there will be some sort of trigger, right? We feel triggered in some way. For me, it's actually taking a step back and figuring out where that trigger came from, where my ego is. What was important to me? What was mine here that she kind of stepped over without realizing?

And taking responsibility for healing. Repairing that within myself before bringing it back to the table and saying, “My mind just works this way. I need to work on being able to hear your stuff. And it will be very helpful if next time you bring it to the table, if you’ll be [inaudible],” instead of this way, that way. And then there might be pushback. There might be pushback of, “I don't understand why I can't just be simple.”

And like, “You're right. It should be just simple. But if we don't break our own glass ceilings, if we don't break our own ego, if we're not able to look at that, then we won't grow. I won't grow past that. We won't be able to create our language for the company.” And so, the semantics, the awareness, the own self-coaching.

When I am doing the work, there is not one day that goes by that I don't meet something new. Because when I'm not doing the work, then I don't have capacity to meet things that are new. And so, I have not given those things. It's working within that.

It's knowing that when I show up, and as you said, with less ego making more space for the divine, then I am the divine force in that very uncomfortable change. But it's exactly what I'm asking for.

Debbie: Thank you for saying that, “that uncomfortable change,” because change is uncomfortable. And building a business is the biggest personal growth journey of your entire life. I don't want to say anybody… I don't want to be flippant or dismissive… but anybody can have a job. But to face your...

And in a job, of course, you're going to face your own ego, and you're going to have to listen to a boss, and you're going to have to work with the team members around you. But when you're building something, so often we just keep getting met by challenge after challenge after challenge. We really have to step back and assess the situation, come back to ourselves, slow down, and take a deep breath.

And as you said, “What's mine?” And that can even be working with someone on your team who's not an equal partner, but someone… a contracted worker who's working for you, could be a website designer, could be a copywriter, it could be a photographer, it could be an accountant, right?...

Just coming back to yourself and trying to figure out what's yours and what's theirs, and just taking ownership for what's yours. Thank you for pointing that out.

Yocheved: And I think it’s also constantly asking this, asking yourself, is this in service to my mission? It helps you stay on that path. Because a little bit off the ego, like working from ego today means the rest of the week I am married to that goal that I've created in ego, rather than my mission and whatever comes from it, knowing that my mission is actually divinely given.

So I'm holding the ego. I have to show up with my ego. If I don't show up with my ego, then who's taking action? It's not me, right? I have to show up with myself within that awareness and that mission that was divinely given, that might be my desire, but I am only a vessel for it.

If there was this idea, either my partner and I can create it with the divine and allow it to be our mission, or the divine will pass it on to someone else. But I need to be able to show up from a place of, “This is the divine and I'm showing up working with divine.”

If I cannot do that, then I go back to a place of what my goal is and how I see this to happen. And there's no space for the divine to give all that abundance of actually… That's the hospital that would actually make the whole thing a shortcut and you'd be able to be this global company within a year instead of doing it your way. Who knows? I don't know that.

But making it mine, solely mine… and when I say mine, I mean mine and my partner's… it makes it human instead of something bigger, divinely created and divinely led, which opens it up to so much more abundance that is beyond this world.

Debbie: I think when you trust in G-d, when you trust in the divine, doors just open up that you never could have expected. I experienced this in my life in the last month. I'm in the process of creating something which, who knows, by the time this podcast is released if it will be out in the world or not. That will remain to be seen.

I want to… It's really touching on three points.

Number one is you chose to go forward with this idea, with this concept. And it does already exist in the world. You didn't create something from nothing, right? This having a tissue bank already exists in the world, but you guys created it.

And I'm just going to point out that we all have ideas, especially those of us who run businesses. I think that our brains are just firing on all pistons all the time with ideas, ideas. And one of the hardest things is to narrow down our minds and say, we're going to go with this one and take all of these 11 million things on the side and just put them on the side. And who knows if I'll ever get back to them?

But taking action is so important to bringing your ideas to fruition. Because if you're not going to take action, somebody else will, right? Because as you said, there's this desire in the world and somebody else will have that divine inspiration and they're going to get going. So number one, you took action.

Number two, and you and I spoke about this before we started recording, is that you started your business, you said in July, 2022, but the first dollar didn't hit your account until May, 2023?

Yocheved: No, that's when we opened our doors, May 23rd. We work in Israel where they actually pay you three months later.

Debbie: Right. Also, and this is something that many of my clients who are service-based businesses are not used to, is investing in your business, pouring money into your business. You joined the first round of Wired for Wealth in June, 2022. That was even before you had a business. I remember we waited or something until you actually had a business so you could pay through the business.

But being able to take that leap of faith and go into debt in your business before you got your first order, before you made your first sale, you had to get all of your government documents signed, sealed, delivered, stamped with happy faces, before you were able to supply tissues to the hospitals.

And then, of course, it's Corona. And then there's a war, airplanes are stopping and airports are closing. And it's also putting another delay in your business.

Yocheved: I knew hard. I still know hard, but I didn't know easy. And when life sends challenges, it's so normal to make it about it being hard rather than allowing the challenge to be mutual and asking yourself, “Where can I create the ease? Where can I create the joy?” Making that the challenge rather than the circumstance, which is just facts.

So that became something that I started working on. And knowing that I was strong enough to fall apart and I get back up again. I allowed myself to fall apart. There were multiple times where I came to the workshops and I didn't know. I just didn't know. And I needed to throw a temper tantrum, and I did. I would throw a temper tantrum.

And then the next day or two days afterwards, come and be able to do a lot. Because I allowed myself the moment, to be human, to fall apart, to say that I just don't have it all. To hold that ego so that the divine could then hold me again.

And also something that's really, really important. And this is why I specifically chose coaching before I even had a business. And that was the strong belief that we are our greatest resources. We're our greatest challenge and we're our greatest resource. If I don't invest in me, if I don't spend time with myself, then I will always be my company's limits. I will always be my company's glass ceilings.

And if I wanted bigger and if I wanted more, then I needed to be able to have the capacity to be able to do that. And that required me to invest in me.

Debbie: Okay, I'm going to repeat that for me, because I just I love the way that you said it. The way you said it is just so beautiful. I think I'm going to put that on a sticky note on my computer screen, and anybody who's listening, write it down.

“I'm my company's limits. I'm my company's glass ceiling. And when you invest in you, then the sky's the limit. You can break through glass ceiling after glass ceiling after glass ceiling.” Thank you for sharing that idea. I really like it. Thank you.

I want to talk about your capacity to take on debt in the beginning of your business. Did you and Ma'ayan have what we call your absolute loss? You were willing to invest X dollars or X shekels and you're like, “If it doesn't go by this amount, then we're folding, and we're going to figure it out.”

Yocheved: Maybe we should have. I don't know. Maybe we were just really naive. Well, we definitely were really naive. We both walked in with an idea, a concept that we researched, but we didn't know what we didn't know until we started getting that information.

And I knew I had already started thinking money. It wasn't just money that we were sinking in. We were sinking in... Well, for me, my time. I didn't take another job. I turned down a job with a really big, global company in high tech to be able to invest my time and effort fully in this.

And then I invested in coaching, which came out of my own pocket because the business still hadn't started yet. So we didn't know it was like as time went on, the more money got invested. But money and time were both resources that we were putting in without actually knowing how much longer it was going to be.

And I think that was one of the biggest challenges. We didn't know when we were going to actually be able to open up our doors. We didn't walk in knowing that. Only a year and a half later were we able to get all the certifications to be able to open our doors. That was not something that we had any idea about. That served us.

That naivety served us and allowed me to be able to show up and to make that choice. And doing that work with you, even before we started this business coaching, we were doing a lot of that work with you beforehand; of being able to see money as a tool, as a resource, and being able to choose wisely about it.

The same way seeing my time and the patience and the energy that I had, all of it, being able to see it equally as, “How does this serve my vision, our mission? Is this something that I want to continue?” And there were times where I had to ask myself, “Okay, is there a limit? Are we getting into a place where it is no longer serving my vision for how I see my life or my standards?” Not just as a career woman, but also as a wife and as a provider also for my family. And what do I need? And then speaking up for that.

Debbie: That's huge. And I don't think the time… Time is a resource, it's non-renewable. You were developing skills. You were developing connections. You were growing as a person. That was investing your time in ways that were growing you. So you could have gone in, whether it was that high-tech job or a different one… I believe that if you had chosen to, you could have figured it out afterwards.

Somebody would have hired you because you're just so gifted in what you do, and you know so much and you're so, so dedicated. But being willing to see money as neutral is huge. And your family was able to eat, right?

Yocheved: That's a huge, huge thing. I had a partner, a life partner who was willing to invest in me too and support it. And yeah, there were times where he turned to me and he said, “I don't know how much longer we can keep doing this.” And then I had to make that decision. Okay, what do I need? What's in service?

And there were times where I said, “Okay, well, I need to make X amounts this month, and I only have this amount of hours to give to it in order to be able to continue to show up. And I'm not ready to raise my hands and say I’m letting go of this dream. Hashem, this is your mission and this is what needs to happen. Figure it out.”

Yeah, I would just get a phone call. “Hey, we need deliveries done for this company.” I would spend two, three days doing those, taking on a project, making that month's salary in three days and be able to focus on the business afterwards. Because I did the ego thing.

And then I did the letting go thing. I did the let go and let G-d. And I had to do that. I had to give space for my partner to be able to say, “This isn't working for me right now. I need to be able to breathe a little bit easier.” I don't know what I would have done otherwise. I don't know.

Debbie: I knew you had a couple of kinesiology jobs, because that's also part of your skill set. At least a couple of years ago you had them. But these short jobs that you had from companies, that was something completely different. Somebody who knows you, knows of your skill set and was just giving you an opportunity. G-d was giving you an opportunity.

Yocheved: It was a phone call. Very much how I really try to hold that duality. I believe that everything we see, comes into our lives in one way or another, is there for us. So if I saw an ad about something, it might be for me or it might be for me to be able to pass on to someone else.

But if I'm in a place of asking the divine to show up for me, to be able to do this, then I will pick up the phone, get that information. If it's in alignment to what I'm asking for, then I'll go ahead and take that action. If it's not, then I'll keep that in mind for someone else who will cross my path. Maybe I'm the messenger for it. But I think it's that.

It's that part, knowing that where am I within all this? This is what I'm asking for. This is what I need. And it's not on me to make it happen. It's just on me to show up and take action. I don't have to have the whole thing figured out yet. I can just take one step at a time. But in order for that to happen, I need to be able to listen. I need to be able to listen to what is being given to me. And that was the work.

Debbie: It's a different level. It's slowing down. It might even be, listening to this episode again, the slowing down and listening and allowing space for G-d to speak to you, allowing G-d to direct you, and also seeing everything that meets you as an opportunity.

And I love the way you said it. It's either for you or for you to pass on. I mean, it could be something that's completely irrelevant. But being even curious enough to know that maybe there's something here that I'm supposed to do something with it and act on that. That's beautiful.

Yocheved: And maybe not, but the only way I would know that is by being able to know what's in alignment for me. What is mine? It's a lot of stuff.

Debbie: There's a lot of stuff. Listen, life just gives us a lot of stuff, especially in Israel. We just get a lot of extra stuff that so many people in the world don't have the opportunity to deal with.

Yocheved: And I wrote to say that I wouldn't have the opportunity to do any of this stuff, or at least on the level that I'm doing it, if I wasn't an entrepreneur. If I was working for someone else, when I was working for someone else, yes, I had to do it. There wasn't a lot of time in my life that I worked for others… Well, in one way, I still work for others, I guess, in a way. But I would even go so far as to say everything is a gift.

Can I see everything as a gift? And is it a gift for me for now or for later? And just being able to observe, I think that has been super helpful in being able to get to that place of neutrality and being able to see everything as a gift.

Debbie: Amazing. I want to ask two questions before we wrap up. The first one, because I have to ask everybody, again, you and I have known each other for many years already. How has your relationship with money changed, besides seeing it as neutral? Can you just give us a little bit more information on where you were two years ago, when you joined Wired for Wealth, and where you are today?

Yocheved: Where I was two years ago, I was able to see money as neutral, but to a certain degree, only to a certain level. And I think we all have those within us. As we grow that, our capacity, we hit another glass ceiling there. Today, I'm able to hold it as neutral and have a goal, a money goal that I want to reach, and still stay neutral as I continue to show up every single day.

In the past, I had this neutral bigger picture view about money and how I was handling money. But then if I needed to make a certain goal happen within a certain amount of time, it would get me off of that. Every once in a while I had to pull myself back into that neutrality.

And it wasn’t a need, it was just desire. I want to hit X amount of income within X amount of time. And I made it mean so much. And that pulled me out of that neutrality. Today, I still want to hit it. The timeline might change and how I get there, but I'm no longer married to.

I have thoughts about it. I have an action plan, but I'm not married to it. There's a lot of room for change there. And it doesn't mean that if I don't hit those goals within that amount of time, it doesn't… or within what I consider a reasonable amount of time… it doesn't mean I won't still get there.

I'm not showing up from that. If that makes any sense. There's more ability to hold that neutrality within the goals.

Debbie: I think it's the level of a more mature business owner and a bigger business owner. I mean, in the beginning of our businesses, a lot of times meeting our goal and meeting our goal in the timeframe that we set out for ourselves, we make it mean something about us as a person, our self-worth. We use it to validate ourselves.

We use it to say that we're a success. “Oh, I'm successful if I meet my goals in 90 days. But I'm not successful if I meet it in 93 days,” right? Or even six months instead of three months. But when you have a bigger business, and let's just use some of the biggest businesses on the planet, whether it's an Amazon or Nvidia or Elon Musk's businesses, whatever they are.

But when you have so much money in your business, there's such a huge goal… Google, Facebook, whatever. Even in Warren Buffett's companies and Berkshire Hathaway's. At some point, the numbers are just so huge. There are so many zeros after the number, I don't know, is there a difference… Maybe you'll tell me when I get there… between 10 million and 100 million? Between 100 million and 1 billion or 2 billion or 3 billion?

Will that change your validity as a person? But you start looking at the numbers as data. And we want to make that happen sooner rather than later. Because when you can see them as data and not meaning anything about you, that's when you can be neutral and you don't get your ego involved. So it makes so much sense.

Yocheved: Yeah. You want to reach those goals because of that data, for sure, but also because you know what that would mean to your business, not what it would mean to you.

Debbie: Right. And the people you're serving; all those tissues, all those people being helped in your business.

Yocheved: Exactly. It's less of a need. It becomes a want, a desire.

Debbie: Which comes from service. It comes from your heart. It comes from your desire to serve people.

Yocheved: Yeah, 100%.

Debbie: That's beautiful. So in wrapping up, what would be one final thought, for anybody listening to this episode today, that you think they should take with them as they grow their businesses?

Yocheved: I would take it back to what we said earlier. Invest in you. Get to know yourself. Get to know what makes you tick. Get to know what makes you explode. Get to know what makes you dream and have passion. Invest in you, even in the ways that don't seem like has anything to do with business.

Because the more space that you can take up in your world and the bigger you can be, the bigger your company can be. The more fulfilled you will be within your company.

Debbie: Amazing. I love that. Yocheved, thank you so, so much for being with us today. And we will share your links and your website in any way that people can get in touch with you, if they're interested in speaking with you or speaking with you about any type of business in Israel or maybe abroad in the healthcare field. We'll be happy to share Medical Links in the show notes.

Yocheved: Thank you, Debbie.

Debbie: All right. Thank you so much for being here.

Oh my gosh. That interview was insane. I know when I was on the call with Yocheved, and now listening to it again, I learn so much for myself as a business owner of what it means to go big and invest in my business. Also, the conversations we had in that interview about partnership, both partnership with your business partner, if you have a business, and partnership with your life partner.

These kinds of deep conversations are what we are having in Wired For Wealth. My clients come to me and sometimes they have done a full sprint in their business. They have gone all out and they feel guilty for wanting to take time off and rest.

And they feel this energy, “But there's something else. There's something else.” And my advice to them is, “To rest, to stop, to give yourself time to breathe, to let your muscles…” Imagine that you're a cheetah, that you're sprinting. Your muscles also need to relax. And you need to really gather more strength and energy.

These are the kinds of conversations we're having in Wired For Wealth; knowing when to sprint, knowing when to go big, knowing when to keep focused on the end point, and when to slow down and give your body time to rest. And also when you're going to stop and look at the data in your business and figure out what the next move is.

So I want to remind you to get on my newsletter list, debbiesassen.com/newsletter so you will be the first to know when my masterclass Meant for More is open for enrollment. And even more importantly, if you know that the last few months of 2024 and 2025 are the years, and are the months and years, that you are going to go big in your business, you need to be in Wired For Wealth.

So get on my newsletter and make sure that you're the first to know.

I will see you on the podcast next week. Thank you so much for tuning in and bye, for now.

Thanks for listening to The Jewish Entrepreneur Podcast. If you want to stop underselling and underearning and close more sales, you need to clear the limiting money beliefs that are sabotaging your business growth.

Head on over to DebbieSassen.com/mindset and download my free Money Mindset Workbook. Uncover and dissolve money blocks, like hundreds of other entrepreneurs who are now building six-, multi-six-, and seven-figure businesses and creating true financial freedom.