In this vlog, Ben Sharf (Speaker A) records a week in Tel Aviv, blending personal updates, business insights, and travel anecdotes. He opens with a light‑hearted intro before diving into his 2026 goal‑setting framework: write ten priorities, cut to the top three, and only add a fourth after completing one of the top three. He emphasizes simplifying focus, identifying blockers, and creating short‑, medium‑, and long‑term action plans, while noting that the environment—sunny beaches versus New York winter—can boost creativity. He shares personal milestones, including his recent engagement, and declares 2026 a pivotal year both personally and professionally. Speaker C discusses the importance of maintaining global relationships for entrepreneurship, highlighting how international ties expand deal flow and opportunities. Speaker B reflects on content‑creation challenges, urging viewers to push through intrusive thoughts. The vlog also covers remote work advantages: leveraging Israel’s time zone for early‑morning free time and late‑night sales calls, including a specific sales pitch for a website issue and a bold claim that their company Traxeed.ai will sell for $27 million in two years. Physical activity and travel stories—running the Tel Aviv boardwalk, a sprint to catch a flight amid a looming conflict, and a cold airport experience—add color. The episode ends with a sign‑off, promising more content next week.
Chapters
Tokyo Drift, 'cause you know we gotta slide. It don't really make sense, hoppin' off the day shift. How you got a job with a song on my playlist?
Say less. 27 million in 2 years, let's go.
What's up guys, welcome back to another episode of the vlog. We are live from Tel Aviv, Israel this week. I had to fly here for some family stuff, but figured that I'd give you guys a short vlog. It is hilarious, it is like 50 degrees here and there are people that are wearing like winter jackets jackets and hats and gloves. I feel like this is the coldest it ever gets here because I've never been here in January before. But I have a couple thoughts about my 2026 planning that I want to jump into with you guys in this vlog after I get a few meetings in. So let's jump into it. I don't know if any of you guys can relate to this, but something that I've struggled with over the last couple years is finding like a goal setting framework heading into the new year that works for me. I feel like I just read so many things online and try different tactics and then always end up falling short with like the accountability piece. So I've continued to evolve like the framework that I'm using for this year, and I wanted to share with you guys like how I'm thinking about it for 2026. First and foremost, just know that if it's still— if you're like 3 weeks into the year and you still haven't done it, that's okay, right? Like, I think oftentimes people think that if they don't have it set and figured out by January 1st, then it's a failure because the new year already started and you're a couple weeks behind. I'm in Israel right now. It's the middle of January. I had my engagement at the end of December and life happened and I didn't get a chance to finish everything. So I've been able to use some of my time here to like finalize how I want to think about my priorities for the remainder of 2026. And I'm going to share that framework with you guys. Hopefully it's helpful. So for this year, I want to keep it very simple. It's figure out what are the things that I want to focus on and the framework that someone gave to me was put down your top 10 priorities on a list, and once those 10 priorities are written out, nix 7 of them and focus on your top 3. And until you can successfully complete one of your top 3, then you can't add a 4th priority to your list. I think the thing that I, I really want to focus on for this year is just being very, very specific and focused on very few things and laying out the path to how do I maximize those things, and then what are the things that are preventing me from getting there, right? Like, I think the reflection are great. I think acknowledging your limiting beliefs are great, but simplification has been something that has always given me success, yet I don't— I find that it's something that I struggle to institute into my life because I have a lot of ambition, and I find with ambition and curiosity it can be hard to stay laser-focused. But this year it's about two things: what are my main goals, what are the things that are blocking me and getting in my way from achieving those goals, and what are the mechanisms that I can introduce into my life to remove those blockers? And then what are the short-term, medium-term, and long-term action items that I need to accomplish to get closer to my goals. I, I don't know, for whatever reason, like, goal setting has been something that I've struggled with. I think it's very uncomfortable for me. I find that in certain situations of ambiguity, I struggle to put pen to paper to have like a very clear path to the thing that I'm trying to accomplish. And so for that reason, it's something that I've always picked up and then like I only finish it halfway and then don't do it after that. But I'm making it a goal this year. Like, I want to prove to myself that I can get very clear on very few things, get rid of all the other things in the way. And, and hopefully, like, having a framework like that for yourself that's super simplified is something that can be helpful for you. It's also important that you change the environment that you're in to provoke creativity in a different manner, right? Like, I think one of the benefits of being in Israel, being like on the beach in sunlight, which isn't something that New York has right now, it allows me to change my environment, minimize distraction, think about things differently. Like, I, I really do believe that this year is going to be the most pivotal year of my life, both personally and professionally. And so being able to kind of take that all in and take time to just finalize what that path forward is going to be going into the rest of 2026 is something that's super important for me.
I just finished getting coffee with a couple of friends who actually grew up in Canada and in the US who have moved to Israel full-time. And one of the things I was thinking about was just about the importance of maintaining relationships, especially at a global scale, in the sense that when people move away from wherever you met them, it's so important to keep ties with these people. Because I think especially in the realm of entrepreneurship, having leverage in multiple countries and multiple cities is such an easy way to expand any business that you're building or business that you're affiliated with. Whether it's through increasing deal flow, opening opportunities for people, and just increasing the ability to add value to others as you continue to build your own business and your own brand. And honestly, with traveling being one of my favorite activities, being able to go to different countries and know people there, or have loose ties in the sense that I have friends who know people there, it just makes it so much easier to travel.
And with the world of the internet these days, I realized that building remote is way more possible because you can just be places, meet people, get introduced to new people, and just embracing the serendipity of going to new places and trying new things just makes this whole world of business building worth it. Not the best workout I've ever done, but showing up is half the battle.
I wanted to just share a quick note with you guys if you're watching, which is that despite the fact that I've been making content for several years, I still get the intrusive thoughts and come up with a bunch of excuses in my head at times when I don't feel like making content. But you have to remember that just showing up is half the battle. And I think by being able to share my journey with you guys, although it's hard at times, it reminds me that if I inspire one person to start doing the same thing, then it's worth it. Just remember that starting and pushing through the intrusive thoughts is the only way to overcome the fears that you have. Yeah, right.
The company named Traxeed.ai, and I think we'll sell it for $27 million in 2 years from now.
I'm pretty sure. $27 million in 2 years. Let's go. One of the funny parts about being in Israel during the work week is the time change. So Israel's 7 hours ahead. So in the mornings, I'm basically getting like a bunch of free time where everyone's still sleeping and no one's bothering me. But then late at night, like everyone back in the US is online. So it's 11:30 right now and I have to jump on a sales call because a friend of mine hit me up who has like a problem with his website and wanted to see if it's something that we can fix. And everyone Everyone here knows that sales do not sleep. Carl, what's up, dude?
You know what?
I'm going to synthesize the notes from this transcript and send it over to my co-founder, Mike, because I'm out of the country right now. So I'll have him talk to our head of engineering and then we'll go from there.
Cool.
Sounds good.
Later, dude.
I just got off a call with my homie Carl. Apparently, he sold the brand that he built and he's now taking the CEO role at another business. While he was never a customer of Platter at his old company, one of the first issues they had when he took over was with their website. He hit me up He's like, yo, I just took over as CEO at this new business. They're struggling with their e-com. Can we jump on a call? I want you to meet one of the other owners to talk about the issue we're having, to see if there's potentially an opportunity to work together. So this is like 3 or 4 years later after meeting him and are now potentially going to work with them. And that's why I had an 11:30 PM sales call. So hopefully we'll have a deal closed by like next week. But this is just another example for you of like continuing to just stay top of mind as a sales mechanism and making sure people know what your business does. So the second that they ever run into that issue, you are the first person that they call. It is time to get some rest. We are heading back to the States tomorrow. See you guys later.
I feel like one of the best ways to explore a new city is to just put on a pair of running shoes, go run a couple of miles. I've been to Tel Aviv before, a bunch, but I love nothing more than running on the boardwalk here because it is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. So I'm going to go out and get a couple of miles in right now. Let's go. Sometimes I walk the time. I am not in marathon shape anymore, that's for sure. Oh my God, we were just sitting at the wrong gate and realized 5 minutes before the doors closed, that we were at the wrong gate and there's a war that's about to start and we would have been stuck here. I just had my fastest sprint across the airport I've ever had in my life. Thank God. We were literally the last people they let on the flight. Let's go!
We finally made it back at 5:45 in the morning.
It's freaking cold here. I hope you guys enjoyed this video. We will see you next week.
