Sam (Shlomo Zalman) Bregman

Sam (Shlomo Zalman) Bregman is one of the most noted and influential Jewish voices in the world today. He is an internationally recognized Rabbi and Torah scholar, #1 best-selling author, attorney, and media personality.

Shlomo has been featured hundreds of times in major media publications such as Forbes, Fox News, Inc., Huffington Post, BuzzFeed, Fast Company, Yahoo, Bloomberg Radio, Reader’s Digest, MSN, Medium, and also by America Express, Microsoft, the United States Air Force Academy, and more.

Vocal readers, please enjoy our interview!

Tammy Reese:

What inspired you to get into the media industry?

Sam (Shlomo Zalman) Bregman:

This might sound strange to some, but the seeds of my involvement in the media industry came from trying to resolve a problem that I myself was having! You see, at the age of 24, I was already an ordained rabbi and a newly-minted attorney with my own law firm. By all indications, I was super smart and had also already demonstrated the ability to radically improve people's lives and situations with my knowledge and skills. Yet I also quickly realized that I'd never have clients, or anyone to serve spiritually and, communally, if I couldn't figure out how to get people's attention and convey my value!

And so, thus began my foray into trying to understand the media industry, which to me really centers around the topic of communication at-scale. It was the realization that it didn't really matter how good your product or service may be if nobody knows who you are. You could be the best dentist, doctor, website builder on the planet, but you will be broke if you continue to languish in obscurity.

Of course, the methods of communication I've used to communicate with the public have evolved over time. I began with FM radio, newspapers, and mailers. Eventually, that transitioned to Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, etc. plus the US mainstream media. So while the vehicles that allow us to communicate with the public have changed over time, the challenge has remained the same. If you can't figure out how to get yourself known, your skillset is essentially useless and dead on arrival!

Tammy Reese:

Congratulations on your best selling book. Please tell me about it.

Sam (Shlomo Zalman) Bregman:

Thanks for asking! The book is called 'Short and Sweet on the Parsha.' It's a 550-page work that weaves together thousands of gems of Jewish wisdom from the Torah, Talmud, Midrash, and Kaballah over the last 3,000 years. All presented in very short and easily digestible lessons.

There is a tremendous worldwide thirst for this knowledge, but unfortunately, since the vast majority of people can't speak Biblical Hebrew or Aramaic (ie. the languages in which these works were written thousands of years ago), this life-changing knowledge is historically inaccessible to people.

As such, my book attempted to fill that gap, presented in the English language. To be honest, much like my foray into the world of media, 'Short and Sweet on the Parsha' started out with me seeking to solve my own problem! You see, I'm what we call in Judaism a "Baal Teshuva." It basically means that while I was born into a Jewish family, I wasn't observant of the Torah or particularly learned until later in life.

And so, 'Short and Sweet' originated as my own notes from my own learning and trying to wrap my mind around these nuggets of ancient, delicious wisdom. From my own notebook, these lessons evolved into an email blast that went out, by request, to thousands of people per week. Within a year, this next led to having an hour-long radio show on 97.5 FM in Brooklyn for three years in which I presented these lessons on-air!

From there, my words were printed in the Flatbush Jewish Journal, America's fastest-growing newspaper, and disseminated to hundreds of thousands of people per week. And shortly thereafter, Feldheim Publishers offered to publish and distribute my work worldwide.

I am grateful to G-d for the whole experience and very proud of how "Short and Sweet on the Parsha" turned out. It was the best-selling Torah commentary in the world in 2015 and 2016 and sold out every copy in the United States, Canada, Europe, South Africa, and Israel two years in a row.

Tammy Reese:

Please tell me about Alpha Tribe Media.

Sam (Shlomo Zalman) Bregman:

Alpha Tribe Media is a full-service digital agency that specializes in building massive social media followings and communities that accelerate our clients' influence. We build our clients' online credibility and distribution channels for their messages, allowing them to reach their desired audiences and communicate with them at scale. The most common platforms we navigate for our clients are Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, Spotify, SoundCloud, and iTunes.

When appropriate, I also leverage my own personal media relationships I've developed over the years and serve as my client's publicist, landing them media opportunities on premier outlets such as Fox News, TMZ, ESPN, and US News & World Reports.

In our first nine months in business, we were already selected to run social media promotion on behalf of clients and projects that include Ice-T, Richard Dreyfuss, Vivica Fox, Faith Evans, Waka Flocka Flame, Nickelodeon, Independent Filmmaker Day, and Bruce Beresford. So that list includes those who've won Oscars, Golden Globes, Grammys, and iconic personalities from pop culture!

Of course, a person doesn't have to be famous for Alpha Tribe Media to help you. The same skill set that I've used for celebrities has also massively moved the needle for companies, brands, creators, and entrepreneurs the public has likely never heard of. For example, I've generated hundreds of thousands of perfect and profitable website visitors to the website of one of the East Coast's leading tile and home decor companies. I've also created so much buzz and social media traction for one of the main competitors to 1-800-Flowers that the company CEO landed herself in the last round of Shark Tank.

At Alpha Tribe Media, we stop at nothing to ensure that each client attains success as they define it. While we absolutely can make you 'social media famous,' Alpha Tribe Media can also give the public the opportunity to buy your products, schedule a consult, attend your online conference, discover your podcast, and get you in front of decision-makers that can hire you for a speaking gig or put you on their TV show.

In the aggregate, our promotional content reached more than 41 million people in our first nine months, with 11 million hours of video watch time, and 639,000 Likes and Shares on the content to go with it. And this was accomplished in the midst of a terrible global recession and pandemic, in a time of slashed advertisement budgets. So believe me when I tell you -- we are only getting started!

Tammy Reese:

What are you currently working on?

Sam (Shlomo Zalman) Bregman:

I recently became the Manager for Riddick "Big Daddy" Bowe, the two-time undisputed Heavyweight Champion of the World, Olympic medalist, and Boxing Hall of Famer. I was initially asked to join Team Bowe in the capacities of the Champ's Publicist and Social Media Manager as he charts his personal comeback, as well as for Alpha Tribe Media to assist in the promotion of the upcoming documentary about his life’s story. However, after much initial success, I was asked to continue on in these roles and become Riddick Bowe's Manager altogether.

In addition to the customary responsibilities you might expect of a Manager, through our private conversations, I've also been helping the Champ flesh-out the focus and ambitions for his present and future charitable work. People often ask me, "What's Riddick Bowe actually like?" I have to say that although the Champ had a ferocious reputation in the ring, I've found him to be mild, gentle, funny, and sort-of a big teddy bear of a man these days. All of this has been a pretty unique opportunity for me, as I've been a tremendous boxing fan my entire life, and vividly recall watching Big Daddy’s legendary fights in the 1990s as a high school student.

On a personal level, I can also relate to Riddick’s life story in many ways. Albeit via very different career paths -- both of us have experienced soaring heights of success in our lives, as well as the taste of defeat, being humbled by life, feeling cast to the ground, and needing to start over. As a Rabbi, I am very attracted to comeback stories.

I often quote the verse in the Bible – “For though the righteous one may fall seven times, he will arise.” (Proverbs 24:16).

The ancient Jewish Sages explain this to mean that ‘falling’ is a part of life. It is simply inevitable. The only question is – are you going to get up again after? Or will you stay on the ground? In fact, it is the process of ‘getting up’ and making a comeback that forges our character and makes one into a righteous individual.

Tammy Reese:

What do you think is the future of social media?

Sam (Shlomo Zalman) Bregman:

Social media is here to stay, and its importance for entrepreneurs and business owners of all stripes will continue to grow exponentially with each passing year. In 2021, if you don't have a robust online footprint, in essence, you or your business do not exist.

Not having a well-developed personal brand and an online following is akin to not having an ID in your wallet. Can you imagine being asked at the airport to show your ID and you simply not having one? No matter if a person loves this or hates this -- what I'm describing is the reality for entrepreneurs, companies, and even job seekers in this second decade of the twenty-first century!

Additionally, people use one another's social media presence and the size of one's following as a form of social currency and capital. Human beings are generally lazy, and we use each other's online presence as a digital shorthand to determine who is credible and has garnered the social proof that indicates they (or their business) are worth a closer look.

In fact, everything I've described here has been magnified and indeed accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. There have always been people who've been reticent to jump onto social media and utilize these tools and technologies. Instead, they've preferred to rely upon meeting prospects in person, working in a crowd, shaking hands, and allowing people to feel their energy in person. Well, 2020 pretty much canceled that ... and just about everyone who was unwilling to hop online and take their events, meetings, and messages virtual has descended into obscurity or is out of business.

One industry, in particular, that has become especially sensitive to one's social media presence and popularity is the world of acting and filmmaking. With shrinking film and movie ad budgets, more and more decisions as to who to cast are being decided upon by a talent's online following and presence. Meaning, if there are 2 people who are relatively equal in talent, and one has a million followers and one has only ten thousand, the film studios are choosing to cast the person with a higher number.

This is simply because there is an ever-increasing reliance upon the film talent to use their social media followings as distribution channels for their film promotion, which for the past several years has been incorporated into actor's contracts and has been monitored by Hollywood. All of this is a blessing for me and Alpha Tribe Media because there is tremendous pressure to ethically put one's social media engagement numbers on steroids. And of course, this is my specialty! Look, everyone is walking around and staring at their phones all day anyway. And those individuals who can create authority, relevance, and attract eyeballs to themselves on these digital platforms will continue to reap disproportionate rewards with each passing year.

Tammy Reese:

What advice would you have for anyone who wants to follow your career path?

Sam (Shlomo Zalman) Bregman:

One of my best-known mantras is something I call “Attack the Target Living.” I suggest that you set your goal, decide what you truly want, and then attack it with titanic amounts of action. It’s a mindset that’s actually a lifestyle for me. Don’t lower your standards by chasing what seems easy rather than going after what you want. Never settle for what seems easily attainable, and then make that your goal.

Instead, go get what you truly want. Life is too short to play it safe. I advocate you swing your axe at the big tree if the big tree is what you want. Don’t set your sights on the smaller tree that you don’t want as much simply because it would take less effort to chop it down. At the same time, keep in mind that not all action is equally worthwhile, and strategy comes into play as well. Taking a massive amount of action in the execution of a worthless strategy won’t get you very far. While I advocate staying busy and being active, one should never mistake motion for action.

In other words, just because you’re in motion doesn’t mean the actions are totally worthwhile or appropriate. Simply put: Don’t fall into the trap of mistaking activity for productivity. You have to be brutally honest with yourself, and oftentimes with your staff. I see you’re busy at your desk, but do you really think that the stuff you’re involved with is going to lead you somewhere bigger and better?

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