← Coffeez with Joe Shalaby
Coffeez with Joe Shalaby
S2 Ep. 4 | Reinventing Success ft. Rafi Anteby | Coffeez for Closers with Joe Shalaby
00:47:57
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- [00:00]
A
From the streets of Israel to Hollywood's most exclusive circles, Rafi Antabi is a man who reinvents himself at every turn. Martial artist, jewelry designer, entrepreneur, and the creator of Rafi Lounge, where the world's most influential minds come to connect. He built a space where business meets mindfulness, where networking is an art form and where success isn't just about what you do, it's about who you become. Today on KO Fis, we get inside the mind of Rafi Antibe on building a brand that attracts the elite, the power of community, and why the biggest deals don't happen in boardrooms. They happen over coffee. Welcome to the show.
- [00:44]
B
Hello. Hello. Thank you for such a welcome.
- [00:47]
C
Yeah, you know what, Rafi, I'm. We've been hanging out already for over an hour and I'm. I'm a big fan.
- [00:52]
B
I appreciate it. Thank you.
- [00:53]
C
I'm a big fan of everything that you're doing. I'm a big fan of the vision that you have behind this wellness center, what you've done with Bullets for Peace. I mean, and, and you as just an overall human being, you know, we connect at a soul level, right?
- [01:06]
B
Yes. That's what I wanted to tell you. I feel the same. I talked to you now for an hour. I said, some people, you can really see that there's going to be a long time relationship and a very fruitful one in a very pure way.
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C
Yes, exactly. And we're aligned mentally, spiritually, you know, and demographically too. So.
- [01:23]
B
Yes.
- [01:25]
C
Yeah, it's been great. Rafi, let's talk about like some of the vision that you had. When? Well, first off, before I get into the vision of what you had, I like to start every podcast with, how do you start your morning? What is your morning routine? And I want to know this one.
- [01:42]
B
My morning starts at 5:00 in the morning. I wake up. The first thing that I do is I thank God. That's the first thing I do. I thank God. It's a little thing, prayer that says that I thank him for what he gave me and I'm thanking Him for trusting me and putting me back in my body to do what I'm supposed to do for the day and be happy about everything that he'd been giving me. Right after that, obviously I don't drink or I take my shower, but I don't drink or eat. I go straight to workout. The first thing that I do is I will go outside by my house to a tree. It's still early morning. And I do what we call Zhan Zhong qigong, which is a meditation with a tree, the tree. In China there's millions of people that stand by the tree early morning because it's well known to them that the trees throw a lot of chi in the morning and a lot of oxygen, as we all know. And that allows you to rejuvenate all your cells in the body, all the organs. So that's the first thing that I'll do. Any tree, any tree, not a young tree. Like if it's a tree that you see is still young, let him grow. But any big tree fro because tree feeds you tree are probably the most loving, unconditional thing love that they can give to anybody because all they need is some water and sun and they will give oxygen to all of us trees, we wouldn't exist, we just wouldn't exist. So by standing with a tree, the Janzhong qigong is a way that you allow yourself to receive a lot of chi and also to let go of all negative energies to the ground. So it's very important to be. So the, the first thing that I want to do is be in gratitude and then connect to nature. Those are the two things. And right after that I'm going to the gym. I'm going to the gym, I do my workout, I split my workouts to chest, triceps, back, biceps, shoulders, legs and I do two cycles a week. And then I will practice some Tai chi or Kung fu, depends on the day. So by about 8:00, 8:30, I'm ready to come to the lounge. That's really my morning routine.
- [03:45]
C
So how long is the meditative perspective when you're standing in front of the tree and then doing your gratitude, all.
- [03:50]
B
That is about half an hour. Half an hour, you're good 20 minutes or 10 minutes.
- [03:55]
C
And walk me through some of the practice of standing in front of the tree. Is it deep breathing, is it?
- [04:00]
B
Well, the main thing is really that to know that you should breathe always from Dan Tien. We as human being, we start to breathe from here, get fed from here as a baby, before we even were born. And then slowly, slowly we raise up to the chest level. The chest level. In Chinese medicine it's considered as fire chi and that control your emotions. So imagine that something that control your emotion you all the time feed it. That means that all your decisions making going to come from emotion level and not always it should be the case, there should be a balance. So by breathing back to Dan Tien, which is two fingers under your belly button that allows Your rational mind to take over and then you balance. So I breathe from Dantian, I always put my tan up to the upper palate because that connect yin and yang channel in the body and I inhale from the nose and exhale from the mouth very slow, very mindful by my breath and always the yi, what they call in Chinese the intention is very important, what do you do? So I always see that light force coming from the tree penetrate through the Baihui point which is the Hundred Gate here, right here at the top of the head goes into Dan Tien and then expand into the all parts of the body and beyond. Because our physical body and our metaphysical body are two different things. So I go all the way above. They call it in Chinese weiqi, which is surrounding energy or a aura, what.
- [05:19]
C
We call in English Wow, that is very deep. And people just don't know any of this stuff that you're talking about.
- [05:26]
B
I know, I know it's in China, a lot of people doing it, but people don't understand and people don't wake up 6:00 in the morning to see the Chinese people stand by the tree. But if you go to Beijing, to any park, to the Imperial palace anywhere in those hours I was a monkey wood down in China. But anyway, you go early morning you will see hundreds and thousands of people standing by the trees.
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C
And how close in proximity do you have to be to a tree to really see?
- [05:50]
B
About 3, 4ft.
- [05:52]
C
So you'll see people surrounding a tree. Yes, but you have to be in the front row, can't be in the.
- [05:57]
B
Back row, you can be anywhere because really it doesn't matter. I stand very close because there's nobody there. But even if I stand 20, 30ft it's okay because here is the thing, roots of the tree go way deeper than what we see, right? So they go 30, 40ft downwards and sideways. As a matter of fact, if you go there's a place called Trinidad. It's a little secret place that now I'm talking about so it won't be. But if you go to Northern California, Trinidad is one of the most magical places in the world. And they've got a redwood forest that is 5,000 years old and you see some trees that got burned and they burn in the base and they still flowering and have leaves and everything in the top. And the explanation to it is that there's a whole organism supporting life supporting system that's happening underground between the trees in the roots level and they supporting each other and feed each other so they Are very much. When they feel that something needs help, the roots send a lot of nutrition. So the best thing to do is, if you can do it, is really do it barefoot. But it doesn't matter if you're not barefoot, because again, the intention will allow you to go through the process.
- [07:03]
C
Fascinating. Fascinating. Okay. That went deeper than I expected on a morning routine. And that was super insightful. And I'm gonna. I'm like, in my head while you're talking, I'm like gonna think about where I can stand in the morning.
- [07:16]
B
And just to add that any tree, you just go down the street and you find a tree and you stand and it's fine and close your eyes so that nobody look at you and says, hey, what are you doing? But, you know, I mean, you look to any look at Sufi's roomy Kabbalah. Every religion and every scholarship and every esoteric study will tell you that some of the practice is standing or hugging a tree. It's amazing how much it does for you.
- [07:43]
C
You hear about it in a dysphemism perspective, like, oh, they're tree huggers. Yes, but those are the people trying to save trees.
- [07:49]
B
Exactly, exactly. But there's much more to it.
- [07:52]
C
Yeah, there is much more to it. Now tell me the idea of evolving Rafi Lounge into what it is and you know, kind of so the general public knows. What is Rafi Lounge? What is the goal of Rafi Lounge and the vision behind it?
- [08:06]
B
Okay. Rafi Lounge happened because it's really happened in pandemic. When 2020, when we were in the midst of pandemic and everything went really shut down. I actually did something else. I took my jeep and I said, well, God gave me a gift. It's to see America there, no people, and just see nature. So I did something called Untouched for one month. And I traveled all the way to Yellowstone and Trinidad that I found and all those places. And just so nature. When I came back, there was such an isolation and such a fear based mood in everybody. Remember I went to a gas station and I didn't see really many people. And I went to the gas station, I put gas and somebody suddenly jumped on the side. And I said, are you okay? And he was with the mask. He says, well, you're putting a gas without a glove. You remember how fear based everything was. I said, gosh, that's not okay. People are just not okay. So as I'm going in my mind, somebody told me about this balcony here in Malibu. And I came to see it and there was Nothing on it. And then I said I'll take it. And I decided I need to bring community together and let them understand that there is something to say about a number one community and how you interact with other people. That's a very important portion of being healed. Being alone is not necessarily healing. Being in meditation and mountain for years, that's necessarily healing. And number two is to bring the past experience that I have in my life in many modalities. If I was a monk in China, if I was in the entertainment world and bring all those laughter and wellness modalities that are ancient as well as futuristic and allow people to come into a new world where they understand and I think pandemic somehow teach everybody. They really, really realize that actually I don't need four walls to create a whole business. I don't need to be stagnated in a building that is closed to really be successful. And also when I see the people that coming here to the ceiling modalities, I understand that financial is part of that. I see how many people when you bottom line, when you tell them, well, okay, let's do a manifestation course, what do you want to see? Well, I want to see more money in my life is one of the main things. So obviously it disturbs you, obviously it makes you have lack of sleep and it impacts your whole well being. So holistic approach for me was the whole purpose behind Raffy Lounge to bring different modalities of wellness. Anything that comes from ancient modalities like acupuncture, meditation, soundbath, reiki, all those things that we do all the way to more modern one like a body sculpting. And like you do right now we're doing the core plunge and bring all the way to what we call the biohack. And like I told you, Dave Asprey was here the other week at the World Biohack Day and we talk about all the new modalities that are available. So we created also a center of biohacking system here with the hyperbaric chamber, with AVA center machine with so many different things and then understand what's your constitution. You know, I studied Chinese medicine. I never finished, but I have to say it, but I studied Chinese medicine and my teacher was a very old lady and she said to me that one of the main principle is that you never 100% balance. If you're 100% balanced or you're dead, you're. Or you're an angel. But every morning she goes and she checks her heartbeat, she checks her tongue and her eyes. And then she takes certain herbiology and other things to really compensate or see what needs to be balanced. We all always out of balance. And it's okay, we're human, but with it, we can always check what needs to be balanced and go accordingly. And that's what we give here. So we give you balance modalities on the financial side, on the spiritual side, on esoteric study side, and on wellness in general. And the one thing that I don't bring here is politics and things of that nature.
- [12:12]
C
That doesn't help with wellness.
- [12:14]
B
Not at all. Not at all. And it's actually bring a lot of separations lately. And I think unity is key. And if you study Kabbalah, one of the most important numbers actually in Kabbalah numerology, value is 13 because it means love and one cause through unity, we really bring love to everybody. And that's key. That's key to everything.
- [12:34]
C
So one of the things I really admire about the whole Rafi Lounge experience is that holistic approach. Because what we missed the mark on now recently with health, and we were talking about this earlier, is like, people just think health is just, I'm gonna go and work out my chest and my bias and then maybe do some cardio.
- [12:53]
B
Yeah.
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C
Like, they don't think about it as a holistic approach. It's financial, it's spiritual, it's physical, it's, you know, emotional.
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B
We are a very complex machine and we have so many facets to our machine and each one of them contribute. So when you see somebody with, you know, the other day Dave asked me talk about Methuselah Metro. Shelach was living over, I think, 895 years or something like that. And he said, well, people used to live. First of all, they knew what their intake. They took everything from nature. Everything is healthy. There's no chemicals to it. There's no nothing. Secondly, I don't think there were cigarettes at the time. You know, thirdly, even the alcohol was probably a pure alcohol. If anyone drink alcohol.
- [13:37]
C
The air was better. Everything was better.
- [13:38]
B
The air was better and the job was better. I know that I'm a sheep man. I know that I'm going to take care of my sheep. I know that I'm going to come in the end of the day. I know my worries. I know that maybe we have weather issues to deal with or things like that, but everything was much more relaxed with understanding.
- [13:57]
C
They didn't have a $30,000 mortgage.
- [13:59]
B
They didn't have. And you know what? They didn't Have Internet today. We get fed so much information that work out of scarcity, mainly, right? I mean, everybody said to you, oh, do you have that? Do you want to prevent this? Do you want to prevent that? And the scarcity, oh, wow, you know what? And then these people start to get imagination. And one of the worst things that people get is the imagination going the wrong direction. And they start to thrive over their imagination. That's, by the way, anxiety. But if you tell me, Rafi, what was the number one thing that I got ever known here in America is I never failed to fix anxiety in my life. It's a very simple fix, never failed. And anxiety is dwelling about your own problem for the wrong reason. You start to create your own movies all the time within you. And you start to realize that those movies may be a reality when they had nothing to do with you to start with, you understand they're just there. And you just start to accumulate and accumulate and accumulate and it leads to nowhere. So when you drop everything and you just realize everything is okay, everything is okay, you know, and then you realize that you live your life in much more humble way, you know, and we in such a rat race with everything that we get fed, everything that is expectation. You know, the Tao Te Ching. Lao Tzu wrote the Tao Te Ching, which is the bible of the Daoism. You know, it's a philosophy and it's not a religion. But he said, as long as you do what other people expect you to do, you remain the slaves. And so many people doing it all their life sometimes never wake up. And Rabbi Shimon Baruch had wrote the Kabbalah book, the Zohar, the Shining book says that most of the people walk dead in their life because they don't live their own life. They slowly fall into the pattern of following what society wants them to be. And they never really understand that they could shine. And they came here to shine exactly for what they are. So when I teach my manifestation course, the first thing that I go through, I go through letting everybody really understand who they are, who even asking them who they are inside them. You need to really go deep inside who really am I? What really thrived me. What really makes me happy without thinking that's going to make me happy. Because my father or my mother going to be happy, or my wife or my kids or my friends or my family, whoever it is, what really make me happy, if you really get to that and then you hold to it as strong as you can, that's your path and that's really what we're trying to do here with everybody.
- [16:38]
C
So you started this place 2020.
- [16:40]
B
Yes.
- [16:41]
C
And now you've attracted some of the biggest celebrities in the world here.
- [16:45]
B
We have. A lot of people came. A lot of them came from the pandemic time. A lot of them coming now. I have anybody from Jamie Foxx. I have Stevie Wonder coming and surprising me now to my birthday and saying happy birthday. That was probably the treat of my life, you know.
- [16:58]
C
That's amazing.
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B
Yeah, that was really. I can't thank him enough. And I told him that was really an amazing.
- [17:05]
C
You did a birthday party here for Rafi?
- [17:06]
B
Yeah, yeah, two weeks ago.
- [17:08]
C
When was your birthday?
- [17:09]
B
August 23rd.
- [17:11]
C
Rafi, I don't want to tell you this, but I'm August 30th, you know.
- [17:14]
B
Really?
- [17:15]
C
Yeah.
- [17:15]
B
Oh, wow. So we are two Virgos.
- [17:18]
C
Yeah.
- [17:18]
B
I told you. Another one week apart.
- [17:21]
C
One week apart.
- [17:22]
B
That's crazy, right?
- [17:24]
C
Another thing we got checking on the box.
- [17:26]
B
Yes.
- [17:27]
C
You probably had a much cooler birthday than me.
- [17:29]
B
I was fortunate, you know, Stevie came here and he surprised. I didn't expect him to get up and sing. And he was singing Happy Birthday to you. And the crowd was just, wow.
- [17:41]
C
And you did the party, I'm assuming, here?
- [17:43]
B
Yes, of course. All my friends and family and members came and it was just like, I just wanted to share with them. You know, they say that when you have your birthday, it's not time to receive, it's time to share. Because you almost like give a rebirth to yourself. So you have a very original energy of birth. So. And I'm happy to share. I think that the maximum goal is to share. You know, when you share, when you give to somebody, needs something, who's more happy? Yeah, of course you're more happy.
- [18:14]
C
Yes. That's the instinctual, you know, purpose of our life is to serve.
- [18:20]
B
Yes.
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C
As long as we fulfill that servitude like God gives, continues to give you more.
- [18:25]
B
Exactly, exactly. And that's, you know, that's one of the things that I teach it also as well, that I say, if you really want to understand how to receive, know how to give. Because that if not you create your own stagnation in your own vessel, you will never receive. If the vessel is blocking the bottom, it can be filled again. You got to give all the time. Then you'll see the flow.
- [18:47]
C
So what are. What are some practices people can implement who don't have the resources to come to Malibu and spend time in a wellness retreat? Like, what can people do at home to improve their Wellness, you know, I.
- [19:01]
B
Well, a few things. First of all, I always say that, and everybody said that actually, that everything starts and finish in the kitchen. All right? I think that your intake in the kitchen is very important. What do you eat? And I tell you what, I don't know that I disagree. I agree with everybody, include Dave Asprey and others about that. You need to see what you eat and where you eat. But you can start slowly. You don't have to punish yourself. You have. Don't have to torture yourself. But you can look at really what's your intake and really write down for a week, what do you eat? And then look and Google and today you can use AI and you can tell AI, AI. And by the way, that's. That's a little AI thing. But you can tell to AI. You can prompt and say to AI. You need to give the AI the explanation what job description you give it before you start prompting it. So you said to AI, I want you to be my nutritionist. I'm going to feed you with what I ate in the last week and to JET GPT, right? And please tell me what do I need to adjust? And right away it will throw for you a lot of ideas and take some of them and slowly, slowly implement it and see how your life change. Number two is, who would have thought.
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C
That we would have. We all have nutritionists now at home.
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B
Yes.
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C
Better than a nutritionist. You could pay.
- [20:17]
B
It's the best brains of the world. And it comes in one second and for free. Right. Maybe $35 a month if you do the ChatGPT, the new one.
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C
Yeah. I never even thought to write down my diet and prompt chatgpt as my nutritionist and say, you're going to act as my nutritionist. Here's my diet for the week. Adjust it.
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B
Yes.
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C
I drop X amount of pounds.
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B
Amazing, right? Yeah, it's crazy.
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C
Tell me what to do.
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B
Yeah, yeah. And it's amazing. I mean, I can tell anything to. I mean, we do AI classes here as part of elevating our community, and I love it. And I think it just. It's just going to. It's not going to go anywhere. So it's just going to enhance everybody. And if you're not going to make it your friend, then it will be your enemy. It's one or the other.
- [20:58]
C
I said on another podcast that, you know, those who aren't going to adopt AI will lose their jobs to AI.
- [21:03]
B
Exactly. Very true, Very true. It's going to happen. It's going to happen. You know what? It's going to put everybody in check because here, in the end of the day, you will need some humans. We're not there yet. For example, I want to say, well, I want to create a room. I want to create. Design for me a room with a specification, and it will design for me everything. And I will put it into images and everything. It will still have some human feeling that I will need to change things. It's still not catered to the 100%. It will give you the best that he feels it's right. But then you have to come with your human touch and say, that's what I want. I want to create a book, I want to create a movie. You can create it, but you will need your human touch. And that's where we still need to come. So there still will be a place. But for those who understand how to use it and how to leverage it.
- [21:54]
C
And prompt it correctly and, you know, add which directive and Exactly. So what do you think the future is for Rafi Lounge? Like, what's some of your. What do you think the future is for this organization?
- [22:05]
B
Two things I'm looking at, center and broad center. I think that Rafi Lounge gonna become more and more strong here in Malibu and preferably here in this location, that we're going to turn it into a wellness hotel. And the purpose is to create a very big wellness hotel. Not big in numbers because it's a very boutique. But as far as people can come here and can book for the way, I think that everything in hospitality going to turn into wellness. And we want to be the first one to have a comprehensive week retreat hotel. You come here, you get checked in advance. Everything is in advance. We know exactly what you need. From ancient modalities all the way to futuristic modalities. And from the second you step in, from the second you see the doorman, all the way to the second you're in your room, everything gonna be catered to. What are your needs to make sure that we elevate you so that we know that a week later you're not only going with what you experience here and you feel much better. You also get a program that's gonna take you all the way to the next six months or so until you wanna come back again or whatever you want to do next. So that's the center on the broad. We really want to create that kind of modalities throughout the world, but in a. A way that is scalable, because to control a certain thing in a certain level, it's very difficult. You know, I have a friend, his name is Tony, he owns probably, you know, Whole Food. Not so. Sorry, not Whole Food. I said Whole food. He owned L1. You know, L1 market. It's a very big market in LA. Everybody goes to that. It's the whole Food on steroids. It's like all the. Who's in. Who's right there? Everybody. But they're very expensive, by the way. And in one state, somebody from Dubai come to me and said, rafi, I want to open in Dubai, Erwan. So I came to Tony and I said to him, tony. And he just said, about 8 at the time. No, 10 at the time. 6 now. I think he's until 11 1. I said, Tony, I've got somebody who wants to and open one in Dubai. And said, me, I don't want to open. I said, why not? He said, because then I cannot control the quality. And it's very important for me to control the quality. And I appreciate it and I feel the same. But there is a way that you go. You give a. What we call the stamp of approval to what's the quality and create or a franchise or. Or in the way of really open our own places, and preferably even in hotels, you can go into existing hotels and create those things.
- [24:50]
C
But, you know, Rafi, there's only one Raffi.
- [24:53]
B
Yes.
- [24:54]
C
So, you know, part of the.
- [24:55]
B
For now.
- [24:56]
C
Yeah. Part of the glamour of coming to Rafi, you know, to the Rafi Lounge is like, they get to experience you. They get to experience your experiences and all of your education and knowledge. And there's just so much need, like, at a macro level for a wellness center like this, not just in, like, for the affluent, but even if you can, like, downgrade it for, like, the middle class, somehow, if there's a way to make that happen. Yeah, but start with the affluent first, then you could scale down, I guess. But. But how. How are you going to impart your knowledge and experience and expertise and teach people how to, like, really integrate these various modalities, you know, at these new retreat centers, you.
- [25:39]
B
You hit the nail on its head. I always say, being Rafi, it's a blessed. And the curse it's. What happened is that when people come in here, the first thing they ask is, is Rafi here? You know, it's like, it's very personalized and everybody see me here all the time, and to multiply me is a very difficult thing. Not because I'm that special, it's just that I'm a certain person who had certain experiences and to multiply me to many, many places will be hard. At the same time I always say if in the end of the day I didn't remove Rafi out of Rafi lounge, I failed. It has to be slowly that I get up and get out of here and allow myself to be in other places. The main way that I see it right now happening is before I even start to open any other places is really to do weekend retreats because that I can go. So what you do is you create weekend retreats in Miami, in Sedona, in Mount Shasta, in all kinds of places like that. And slowly, slowly you build a community within the community. There will always be somebody who can.
- [26:44]
C
The stand up student.
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B
Exactly, exactly. And become the next one that can open somewhere.
- [26:51]
C
Yeah, that's a great idea. That's how you're going to find your talent. And I think, yeah, doing like a targeted demographic like Newport Beach, Miami, you know, certain areas in Silicon Valley, people are super conscious of holistic wellness.
- [27:07]
B
Exactly.
- [27:07]
C
That's where you'll be able to find your star students. And that makes sense. Yeah, you know, those listening to find top talent. I guess that that is a great solution.
- [27:17]
B
Yeah, I think, I think that's the other way because you know, I taught around the world. I have probably. I teach kung fu and Tai chi. I have more than 4,000 students through the years. Some of them, when I say 4,000, some of them are very steady students in Africa and in Israel. And some of them students that are, that are for charity, like in Myanmar, for monks that are novice, that are home, that are, they don't have parents or things like that. And they live in monasteries. But I had a lot and you always. It's for a teacher. It's easy to identify who's next. Usually. Yeah, it's easy. So when I go through places immediately somebody triggers and says, okay, that person, cadet, you know, it needs a combination because it has to have somebody who understand the business mind too. He's going to run a business. He's going to run. It's, it's, it's still an enterprise. It's an, it's, it's something that you need to know how to run. Not only to come and look good and say, okay, I'm going to teach Tai Chi now and today going to be. It's a process and you must understand this. It takes, it takes many to build it. It's not, I'm not, I happen to hold the brush for this canvas. But there's many Other people that are the paint. We have Karen that does Reiki and she run all the things here for the wellness. We have angel who really manage a lot of things, include the food intake and things. We have so many people here that are part Alonso, so many people that are part of this thing. So you start with one in every one in every place there's a small anchor. You start to taste it. Is he good? Let's see if he comes to the next one. If you come here, if you come there. Okay, now let me pull him in and start to teach him really the ins and outs of everything so that he can go back there. And that's how you build more organically, I think.
- [28:58]
C
Wow. So we talked about this earlier and you know your history where you would practice Kung fu, tai chi for eight, 10 hours.
- [29:08]
B
Yes.
- [29:09]
C
Now, a discipline like that in this modern age, this hyper ADHD society, how are you instilling that sort of balance in, in your members here? I mean, like, because you'll have people here coming here. They'll come six, eight, ten hours, you know, so it's a great level of patience that people are kind of understanding. Obviously it's not with like an 8, 10 hour workout like you were doing before.
- [29:32]
B
I think first of all, my goal was Kung fu. So think about it as like somebody who come to study here at Pepperdine and He spends his 12, 13 hours a day to study it can do that. But even this, in this DNA, what's happening with kids is we have something that's called digital burnout. And that's a problem for a lot of kids that go to all the kids of the NFT world and the meme world and all those things. And. And they really go into depression, a lot of other things and they cannot fix themselves. As a matter of fact, I don't think I can sit next to a phone too long myself. And they have to jump from one thing to another and they have what they call the monkey mind and they really cannot focus. I think that the main thing to do is to understand that if it's part of your daily thing that you insert in different places, you will be more accommodating towards that. So that's why Rafi Lounge, we tell you, come with your computer, do your work, interact, bring your meetings here, and then you can say, oh, sorry, one second, I have a yoga class. One second I'm going to do my core plunge. One second, I'm going to go to the hyperbaric chamber for an hour and rest the other set and then you start to see, oh, I can combine the both. I can create the community, I can work. And the productivity is so much higher. If you go to the hyperbaric chamber and you just rested for one hour and you become so strong when you come out of there. And then, okay, let's go for it, and let's go for the meeting. You feel so strong, you feel so good, and you know that you gave something to yourself. I. I cannot do a business meeting. Well, if I didn't walk on the beach and did my morning routine, it's not going to look the same, you know, so, yes, we do that. And I still hope that there's some kids that can still do the 10 hours a day kung fu. There's some kids that you will like I said, you will pick and choose them one by one. I say, okay, he's been chosen. Not by me, by life, by Tao, by whatever you want to call it. There are those people.
- [31:43]
C
Is there a specific mantra that, like, plays in your head all the time? Like, what is, like, the mantra that you live by?
- [31:51]
B
The mantra for me is always to be in the moment. That's the most important. People that know me at the lounge, they think that I'm like a little kid because I'll talk to you. And, you know, because one of the things that I did here at the lounge, it was an empty balcony. And I said, I'm going to bring back nature here. So, I mean, you can see everything we surround is just all green. It's all green and it's flowers, and we have fig trees, lemon trees, and they're all giving fruits, by the way. And we have so many birds and butterflies coming here now. So we have, like, a whole family of blue jays coming here. So every time when they come here, I stop. I don't care who I'm talking. I'll talk to you and I'll start it. I'll stop you in the middle and tell you, look at the blue jay here. Because it's such a beautiful thing that I like to cherish the moment. So my main mantra is live the moment. All we have is the moment. The past is past. The future, we don't know. So we have the moment. Make it count all the time. When I talk to you, I want to hear you. I want to talk to you 100%. Whether something happened around you that is elevating you. Stop for a second and enjoy, too.
- [32:52]
C
Yeah. One thing I notice about you is you could be very. You're, you know, you have this aura about you. But what's really dominating is that you're very present with me, you know, like, I could feel your spirit there. You know, it's.
- [33:06]
B
I think it's important. I think it's important that you know, like you say, human interaction in ski.
- [33:11]
C
Yeah.
- [33:11]
B
You know, I mean, we all enjoying each other's company when we laugh and we enjoy, you know, and when I. When I'm with you and I'm going to think about, okay, what's going to happen, nothing going to change again. I'm creating more movies that have nothing to do with nothing. So why, why would I care? If I'm worried about something, then let me do the something I'm worried about. But the second I'm with you, stop worrying about this thing, you just decide that you're going to designate that time, enjoy it, you know, on a different level. It's not exactly like that, but Rabbi Berg, who used to own the Kabbalah center, he opened, right. The teacher for Madonna and all those people. And you know, in Jewish religion, you're not allowed to eat pork. And he once said, me, my mom told me that if I ever eat pork and I made a mistake, at least enjoy every bite. You know, once you do something, enjoy that no matter what it is. Don't punish yourself all the time on things. Don't all the time struggle of how I'm gonna get my mortgage, how I'm gonna get this. I'm gonna. When you talk about a mortgage, focus on that. When you talk to your. Your girl, you, you, you are. You are going out with a woman on a dinner. Don't be on the phone. Don't tell her. Sorry, I have business. Stop. Turn the phone upside down for emergency. It's fine. I never leave the phone like that. It's always upside down. I have nothing to hide from her, but I always put it upside down. And I put the time to learn who I'm with to enjoy the time. Right. It's so important.
- [34:43]
C
And one thing I really was fascinated about when I was learning about you was you suffered from a sickness and you healed it yourself from the Chinese, from this holistic medicine. And this is not just a regular sickness like you were you deemed medically blind.
- [35:02]
B
Yeah. Let me explain you. What happened is that I went to a regular check for optometrist. And when he finished the check, he said to me, I think I need to send you to a specialist ophthalmologist. And I went and the ophthalmologist said to me, you're Very lucky. Send it. And he's right. I said, what's happening? He said, you have something called amd. I said, what is amd? He said, and at the time I was studying in the Chinese Medical University. And he said to me, AMD is immaculate degeneration. It's when the cells in the back of your eyes start to break down. And I said to him, and then what? He said, well, then it leads to a tunnel vision and in the end you go blind. I said, well, how blind and how sure is it? He said to me, it's sure thing that you have it and you're going to go blind. And I said, in which eye? He said, both. And I said, when? He said, you have maximum a year before you go blind. And I listened to him and I said, that's not going to happen. And he said, look, we're going to give you some numbers and you have to start to call some people and we're going to make sure that the transition is easy enough for you. I said, what transition? He said, well, if you start to learn how to be blind before you go blind, then it's easier for you after that to know your, you know, space and everything else. So I said, no, no, no, you don't understand. It's not going to happen. It's just not going to happen. He said, we understand. We have a lot of people that come here with this attitude, and it's good to have this attitude, but you also have to be realistic about things. I said, okay, you be realistic about what you know, I'll be realistic about what I know. I immediately go to my professor in the medical university. He start to tell me about certain things. He told me about a man that actually passed away. His name is Dr. Ote. He was in Arkansas. He does acupuncture only for the eyes. An expert in his field went and did two sessions, two weeks in Arkansas. From there I went to my teacher, who was 89 years old at the time. He was one of my teachers here, Master Jia Haochuan. He passed away by now. And he said to me, rafi, let me connect you with the Medical University of Beijing. I'll introduce you to the head of the Qigong Board of China. And I connected with him. He said, come to me, we will teach you the medical qigong course. But you'll have to do it privately because you have to condense everything in two months. I said, okay. And while I was there, my 89 years old teacher said to me, let me connect you to my big brother who is 104 years old. So I went to China, Beijing every morning until evening. I was going to the Medical University of Beijing to study qigong with my teacher there. And after that I would go to the teacher that teach me what they call sound qigong and qigong. Chi Energy gong is exercise, so it's exercise of qi. And when I finished that after two months, this matter said, let me please introduce you to my teacher, my friend who is a teacher in Wudan. Wudang. Wudan mountains are the mountains of Lao tze, the mountain of the Taoist people. Those are all monks that have all long ponytail. And I used to have long ponytail too. And. And everybody lives there and practice Tai Chi and qigong all day. That's what they do there. And I went to the Pepper Cloud Monastery there, stay there for a long time, practice came back, went for a check and it's gone. Wow, gone. And they said, we don't know what you did, we never seen it. But whatever you did, keep on doing it. So I will.
- [38:39]
C
And then you just kept with it?
- [38:40]
B
Kept with it.
- [38:41]
C
It's amazing. What is, what's your favorite quote?
- [38:48]
B
Of course, Bruce Lee be like water, my friend number one. You know, I thought about it the other day. I said my biggest hero died at age 36, much younger than me. And he's still my biggest hero.
- [39:02]
C
How did he die at 36?
- [39:03]
B
You know, there's various theories, various theories. The last theory that came out lately, that he drowned actually that he over drank water. When you over drink water to a big quantities, it also can kill you. There's so much people say drink as much water. No, too much water. Too much of anything is not okay. And maybe he drank too much water. That's a theory that came right now by the Medical Society. So I don't know. I know there was conspiracies about him teaching to the foreigners kung fu and that he was cursed by other big spiritual Chinese leaders. I don't believe that. Even though I do believe that the Chinese society at the time, Kung fu was a very secretive thing in the 70s at the time that he was alive. But I really, if you ask me, because I experienced something quite similar in Hong Kong. When I train, I train like I said, 10 hours a day. And the food that you take or eat in Hong Kong is mainly dim sum and other things that are cooked, all cooked, no fresh vegetables or nothing. So in the end I couldn't sleep at night and I had half palpitations. I over, I overtrained I over trained and my teacher called my students and we had a meeting and he said, please tell Rafi that the only thing that stay alive in his body is his eyes and he needs to leave. And he asked me to stop training because I was over trained. And I think that that can kill you. And I think that Bruce Lee over trained. Bruce Lee was a perfectionist on every level. The way he conduct his body, what he did with his body, he made sure that every muscle. I was following him since I'm 13 years old. I used to walk in the streets for one year with weights on my ankles, not taking them out just because I heard that that's what he did. He perfected his body to the tee and he's the first one that used impulse electric exercises. You know, he took electric impulses on the arms and used to punch and do resistance with the power. So I don't know to what level it impact his body, his heart, many other things, you know, he was doing experimental training. He was a daoist master, no matter how you look at, you know, how many books. He was a philosopher. He was the first MMA fighter. He's the first one to combine taekwondo with karate with hapkido with Kung fu, Wing chun with Pasi Ulam, North Shaolin kicking, Xue Zhao wrestling, he combined boxing. He loved Muhammad Ali. He was the first MMA fighter. The only difference between him and other MMA fighters is that he stays solid to his philosophy. Most of them do not do it. They do it more for the entertainment part, which is sad because I'm a martial artist and I have to say that. But not a lot of them have that teacher that teaches the philosophy and the dignity and everything that comes with being a martial artist, you know, Fascinating.
- [42:01]
C
You know, we don't know a lot about Bruce Lee from the public eye, right? I only know movies, I know posters. I know.
- [42:10]
B
You know, I forgot even the name of the book because for my birthday, Alonso, one of the guys that work here, he just bought me a book that I didn't start reading it because I'm reading another book and I'll read it right after, but it's called. It's called Be Like Water, my Friend. And it's by Shannon Lee that she compiled all his writings together, all his notes, and I'm very excited to read it next. But that's something probably that he wrote the Tao of Jeet Kondo, which that I read many times, but that, that all these notes, it's definitely something I'm looking forward to reading.
- [42:45]
C
Wow. Be like water, my friend.
- [42:46]
B
Yeah. Yeah.
- [42:48]
C
That sounds awesome.
- [42:51]
B
Yes.
- [42:52]
C
So one of the. I like to end the podcast with some personal goals. What's a personal goal that you have for yourself and a business goal that you have for the business?
- [43:03]
B
Well, personal goals are. I think the main thing for me is love. I think I want to surround myself with people. I love that. People that love me. That's the number one goal. Because if not, you have nothing. I can have the most beautiful place over the water to be in the most romantic places in the world. If you're not with the one you love, if you're not doing the people that you love with, then you're staying still alone. So that's really, really my personal goal. Over and above everything in the personal, personal life. I also want to be very healthy. I. I reach a stage now that staying healthy is really key. It always have been, but now so much more. And I want to really see how I incorporate new technologies and biohacking. And I'm studying it inside out to really allow. And I really believe in one thing, by the way, again, that I keep reminding him, but it was really. I love what he said, but they've asked me when he say here that you tell yourselves, have a consciousness. When you tell them I'm 20, then that's what they're going to understand if you tell them. The other day I had a woman here, coming here, and she said to me, here and her husband, and they come from Australia. And I said, so. And they're younger than me. And they said to. I said, what are you doing? He said, well, we making a plan now. We want to retire then we're going to see. We're just going to retire now. So we're planning how to retire. I said, why would you even use the word to retire? You're so young and you want to say already retired. Change. He said, what should I say? I said, say something like, I want to change my life to a different direction. I want to do another chapter in my life. Don't say retired. You're telling your whole body that you retired, that you done. You know, so I'm looking.
- [44:44]
C
Retire means I'm going to die soon.
- [44:46]
B
Exactly. Yeah. I'm in the waiting room for God. Yeah, right. Don't do that. Don't do that yourself. I'm so energetic. I'm so. I've got so much more to do. I've done a lot. I've been. Like you said, I've been a soldier in the army. I was. I had A nightclub in South Africa. I had a kung fu school in Africa. I was a kung fu monk. I had a clothing line, jewelry line, art. I have that. And there's so many things I want to do.
- [45:12]
C
You're just getting.
- [45:13]
B
I'm just getting started. Exactly. Exactly.
- [45:15]
C
That's a winner's mentality, though.
- [45:17]
B
Yeah.
- [45:18]
C
And you're making winners, breeding winners, instilling winners here. And I'm enjoying it because you're serving.
- [45:24]
B
Yeah.
- [45:26]
C
And then a last question I have for you. When you're in front of the pearly gates, what do you think God's gonna tell you?
- [45:37]
B
I'm a man with sense of humor. He's gonna joke and say, how was it, Rafi? He's gonna say, how was it? You know, we always looking and we said, okay, was it. Was it. Was it what you expected? It's like almost we go into a movie and we go out and we say, was that what we expected? And the most important thing that we need to really think that God want to ask everybody, did you use your time correctly? Did you use your time correctly? Are you looking back right now? How many people before they're at the gate, you ask them the last question and they will say, what else do you want to do? They will say, maybe we want to visit another country. I didn't see, spend another minute with my loved ones. How many people say, I wish I could make another dollar before the day.
- [46:27]
C
Not one.
- [46:27]
B
Not one. Think maybe that will change everything of how you're looking at life.
- [46:34]
C
Rafi, it's been amazing. You've been an amazing guest, amazing facility. I look forward to, you know, a mutually prosperous relationship. I myself want to come here and I wish I could spend months here.
- [46:46]
B
You're more than welcome, always.
- [46:48]
C
It's a great thing. And I feel that this needs to be amplified.
- [46:54]
B
Thank you.
- [46:54]
C
Definitely needs to be amplified. Now, if people want to get in touch with you, how do they do it?
- [46:58]
B
Well, we have an Instagram. Rafilounge.com and by the way, I micromanage this one. So whenever people drop a note or whatever, drop a message, I'm the one that always answers. And if everybody having a question, even about AMD or something like that, I'm always happy to help and give them and steering in the right direction or if they want to come here. And that Rafi lounge we have, we post weekly everything that we have here and all the different happenings. And people can come, if they are members, they can buy yearly membership or they can come for a class or for a daily visit. So everybody's welcome.
- [47:31]
C
Founder and CEO of Rafi Lounge. An incredible human being. This place is just magical. Thank you, Rafi.
- [47:36]
B
God bless you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you.