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[Top Resource Series] Books & Podcasts & Software – Inside the Success Toolkit of Today’s Innovators

Barry Kleiman is the Founder, Executive Mentor, and Workshop Leader at Barry C. Kleiman & Associates, a firm he established in 1979 to help executives and teams elevate performance through leadership development and coaching. 

Jason Smith is the Owner and CEO of Spotlight Social Advertising, a company that specializes in helping businesses grow and scale with Facebook and Instagram ads.

Zach Wilcox is the Founder and CEO of Fide Freight, a representative logistics solution providing a full range of services in long and short-distance freight, specialty haulage, and management of dry freights.

Ian Garlic is the Founder of Garlic Marketing, the brand behind Video Case Story, where they help brands with the strategy and goals for video case stories.

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Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

  • [2:18] Barry Kleiman shares insights on authentic connection and lifelong personal growth
  • [14:04] How author and artist Jay Samit inspired the cover of The Playground Principles™
  • [20:07] Barry’s favorite books and podcasts that spark reflection, storytelling, and growth
  • [31:41] Jason Smith highlights key reads for building a wealth mindset and leadership habits
  • [33:54] Jason’s favorite podcasts and digital tools that fuel creativity and entrepreneurship
  • [36:03] Zach Wilcox introduces his companies and innovations in logistics and the hemp industry
  • [38:08] Lessons from Cribsheet by Emily Oster on how parenting principles apply to leadership
  • [39:59] Zach uses AnythingLLM to connect company data with AI for better team performance
  • [42:30] Ian Garlic reframes sales as opening relationships through storytelling and authentic connection
  • [45:43] Ian’s favorite reads include How to Be Like Walt, Meditations for Mere Mortals, and Malcolm Gladwell’s works
  • [50:07] Apps and platforms that streamline Ian’s creative process and integrate AI innovation.

In this episode…

What do successful leaders, entrepreneurs, and creators all have in common? They’re constantly seeking tools and ideas that help them connect better — with others, their teams, and themselves. But in a world of endless options, how do you know which books, podcasts, or habits actually move the needle?

For today’s guests, the answer starts with curiosity and connection. They share how leadership lessons from sports, creativity, and business mentorship continue to shape their personal and professional growth. From refining time management to building resilience and embracing storytelling, each guest emphasizes the importance of learning from experience and surrounding yourself with inspiration that drives both action and reflection.

In this episode of the Inspired Insider Podcast, Dr. Jeremy Weisz talks with Barry Kleiman, Jason Smith, Zach Wilcox, and Ian Garlic about the books, podcasts, and tools that influence how they lead and live. They discuss how reading fuels creativity, why discipline and mindset are essential to growth, and how digital tools can help organize ideas and inspire innovation.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Related episodes:

Quotable Moments:

  • “Connection has ruled my life — real, visceral connection, not collecting likes, but genuinely blending in and fitting in with others.”
  • “Every playground everywhere had a code — a universal ethos of respect and basic human decency that we’ve lost today.”
  • “Show up and play. See what happens. Compete every day because every day is a tryout.”
  • “Version done is better than version none — just get it finished, even if it’s not perfect.”
  • “No one likes to be closed; people prefer to be opened and do the closing themselves.”

Action Steps:

  1. Prioritize authentic connection: Build genuine relationships that foster trust, collaboration, and long-term growth.
  2. Keep learning: Read books and listen to podcasts to stay sharp and gain new perspectives.
  3. Use tech mindfully: Leverage simple tools to capture ideas, stay organized, and boost creativity.
  4. Show up consistently: Participate in events and opportunities to build experience and connections.
  5. Focus on self-growth: Practice self-awareness and reflection to adapt and thrive in any environment.

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Episode Transcript

Intro: 00:15

You are listening to Inspired Insider with your host, Dr. Jeremy Weisz.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 00:22

Dr. Jeremy Weisz here, host of InspiredInsider.com. This is a special episode where I have some amazing leaders and entrepreneurs share some of their favorite resources, so stay tuned.

This episode is brought to you by Rise25. At Rise25, we help B2B businesses give to and connect to their dream 200 relationships and partnerships. We do this in two ways. Number one, we are an easy button for a company to launch and run a podcast for ROI. We do the strategy, accountability and full execution and production.

Number two, we are also an easy button for your company’s corporate gifting. We make gifting and staying top of mind to your clients, partners and prospects simple and seamless and affordable. Some companies even send gifts to staff from a culture perspective. All you have to do is give us the list of people you want to follow up and keep in touch with, and we do everything else from there. From gift selection to the card to your branding on the box.

We call ourselves the magic elves that run in the background to make it as stress free as possible for companies so they can build relationships and run their business. For me, the number one thing in my life is relationships, and I am always looking at how to give to my best relationships, and I’ve found no better way. Over the past decade than having them on my podcast featuring what they are working on and sharing it with the world, and also sending delicious treats in the mail every few months for years.

If you have thought about starting a podcast or gifting, do it. If you have questions, email us at [email protected] or go to Rise25.com to learn more. All right, this is an episode with favorite people, favorite resources. I’m here with Barry Kleiman and Barry, we’ll talk about books, podcast software. First of all just tell people a little bit about what you do or did and where people can check you out, what, website.

Barry Kleiman: 02:18

Yeah. Good question. Hey Jeremy, thank you for having me.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 02:20

I like the background.

Barry Kleiman: 02:21

Oh thank you. Well, the background plays into favorite books and all that sort of thing. But I spent 50 years in executive search, and that’s a long time. But I really love working with people. And I got into it long before anybody ever knew what AI was. I joke all the time that this this you talk about favorite software. I don’t know if you can see this.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 02:47

No, I can’t, because of your background.

Barry Kleiman: 02:51

This is my database and it’s a big old, I’ll send you a picture. It’s a big old. Probably weighs about 3 pounds metal rolodex and you can hear the wheels clicking. This was my database, right? And as a result. I had people’s names on cards in there before even there was email. There was extensions on their phones in their office. And everything in my life was, you know, for many, many years, analog.

And it was part and partial to whatever successes I had then and what is my brass band or soapbox today. I retired back during COVID after I thought 50 years was enough, and I began figuring out what I wanted to be when I grew up. I counseled thousands of people in that regard as a headhunter. You know, of course, coaching yourself is the hardest thing, but ultimately, I’d written one book already called How the Truth Will Set You in Your Career Free.

You’re going to cop. It doesn’t matter. You can’t see because of the background. And ultimately, connection has ruled my life personally. I know it’s it can be a cliche, but again, I was doing it before people were collecting likes and subscribers and followers or whatever on LinkedIn. I just did it in real time. That’s what we did. Right? And so, in walking around and thinking about again what I wanted to be when I grew up, I decided that I really wanted to dance with who brung me, and I wanted to kind of continue on the mode of connection.

I’ve been a basketball coach for 25 years, although I stepped away from that a couple of years ago, but I did coach. I coached the national team in Israel a bunch of years ago. I love the game, but that was also about connection. You know, there are a lot of people who can draw stuff on a grease board by whatever special sauce was my ability to connect with my kids and my team and players and so forth. And so I would say that what I do now is connect and I write about connection. And I just wrote a book called The Playground Principles, which I’m not going to say is one of my favorite books, but I really do like it, and I would.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 05:19

I would hope so.

Barry Kleiman: 05:19

So. Yeah, but the book is all about connection. And and I think the world changed for the worse when we lost the meritocracy of the playground, which is to say, you know, you know, Jeremy, you played if he is still on, he played, you know, you got to show up and connect with people and learn how to fit in and blend in and not stand in front of a Rolls Royce or talk about your Rolexes, but literally connect in a very visceral way. And I think we started to decline. When we lost that sort of ethos.

And so that’s what I wrote about. And it was really a lot of fun.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 06:02

And you feature some coaches in your book.

Barry Kleiman: 06:04

Well, it’s interesting I feature quotes from coaches in my book. Yes. And ironically, you just asked me to hop on this call. Maybe an hour ago, which I’m flattered.

And I told you that in my text back to you. But in that same period of time, I got a text. I donated a bunch of copies of the book to the Philadelphia Black Basketball Hall of Fame. They had a big induction banquet this past Saturday night. And from that, my friend who runs it, Mo Howard, who played in the NBA and is kind of a Philly basketball legend, he said, Barry, don’t send me 300 books. I don’t want you to break the bank, but send me books for all the inductees.

And I just got literally Jeremy right after you texted me. I mean, within three minutes, a gentleman who is an iconic Philly coach got a copy of the book and texted me. I never spoke to him in my life before, and his text basically said I won’t out him or whatever, but his text basically, Hey Barry, blah blah blah here. Mo Howard was kind enough to give me a copy of The Playground Principles. I am and have been an ardent believer in the pick up game world and the world of provided immeasurable lessons. We’d love to connect with you at your convenience. A schoolyard friend of mine’s executive at Glaxo has been banging the drum about this forever. It would be a blessing for all of us to get together. So there’s a Philadelphia coaching legend, literally. He wrote to me at 1:19 Pacific.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 07:33

We were actually talking, Ian and I were talking about one of my favorites, some of my favorite books is from Pat Williams. And Pat Williams wrote, I think the Tales from the Philadelphia 76ers, a book about that.

Barry Kleiman: 07:45

He did. I actually met Pat and he’s a good guy. And he founded of course, the Orlando Magic, was one of the founders or whatever. But I have one of his books somewhere. You know, when I wrote the book, I reached out to a number of people who I know from all over the country, and I told them what I wanted to write about, and I asked them if, in fact, what their playground experiences were, because I know what mine were and I was never the best player. Whatever.

But there’s a code in a playground that is, it’s universal. And I would tell people all the time, we grew up in the same playground just 90 miles apart, or 3000 miles apart or 50 miles apart or whatever, because there was that code, and that’s what we’ve lost. And getting this text today and some of the code don’t.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 08:40

Is the code don’t get dunked on?

Barry Kleiman: 08:42

Well, I mean, you know. No, no, but, you know, that.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 08:47

Don’t be posterized.

Barry Kleiman: 08:49

Okay. Well, I will tell you, one of the quotes is, you know, if you talk shit, it’s going to come back to you in spades. But that, you know, there’s an ethos and a respect and you know, basic human decency that again, I sound like an old man, which I am, but it is still true that the playground, every playground, everywhere had a code. And I have heard from former players and former coaches and I have my own podcast about this. As you know, I was on yesterday with a gentleman who coached coach for George Raveling, coach for Jerry Tarkanian, and we just sat and we he loves the book. And so anyway, that’s what I’ve done since.

And that’s my soapbox now in my life. And I hope to be able to kind of share it and sort of to get the rest of us somewhat more, you know, tangibly connected. Like this. I never met Ian before, what, ten minutes ago. And I know if I sat down with Ian, we would just have a blast, you know? Because that’s what it is. And that’s what we’ve lost. And so, you know. And some people have it again Ian played. So he just it’s implied.

Ian Garlic: 09:59

Oh my God, I spent so much time. I like when I was in college I spent so much time in like my last two years of high school and on playing pickup, I played till they shut the lights off.

Barry Kleiman:12

Oh, 100%. You know, when I went to.

Ian Garlic: 10:15

And then a little bit more.

Barry Kleiman: 10:16

And then a little bit more till the lights. I mean, in Philly, you know, we always played outdoors, you know, and, and shoveled the court, the, you know, the whole deal. But when I went to Penn State again I’m old. But when I was there Franco Harris was there, the Hall of Fame running back. Who and Lydell Mitchell, they were both All-Americans, and we used to meet them up at the gym at Rec Hall.

You know, I was a little five, nine guy, you know, but greatest guys. And you blend it and you and you connected over pick up basketball. It was not like you suck, just you want to play. You’re out there to, you know, to play. And it was a great I mean it’s competitive. You know everybody wants to win.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 10:54

At this age I just want to not get injured. But yeah.

Barry Kleiman: 10:57

And that’s winning too.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 11:00

Yeah exactly.

Barry Kleiman: 11:01

That’s winning too. You know the great Pete Carill said competition is built into our society. Pete Coach Carill from. Ian, that’s a good book for you to read. And Jeremy, did I ever send you a copy of The Smart Take from The Strong?

I guess I should put that in one of my favorite books.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 11:16

Yeah. So talk about that kind of goes into what are your favorite books? Yeah.

Barry Kleiman: 11:20

Well, I mean, The Smart Take from The Strong could be right up there. And I didn’t think of it until I just brought it up. I will also say that The NBA in Black and White, which is a book co-authored by a gentleman who just passed away maybe ten days ago, Charlie Rosen, who was an amazing, amazing man writer, wrote 25 or so books. He was an assistant to Phil Jackson. Jeremy, you might know a little bit about that because you’re a Chicago guy.

But the book that they wrote.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 11:52

Phil Jackson has some amazing books, too.

Barry Kleiman: 11:54

Yeah, amazing. Well, and some of them you’ll find would be co-authored with Charlie. That’s how amazing it is. And that’s how iconic Charlie was. And again, he just passed.

I did a pod with Charlie. I’ll share it with you. I’ll share it with Ian anyway. But that book to me would have to be near the top, because particularly with everything that’s going on in our world today, it’s a history book about race in the NBA, but it’s written in the most beautiful, with the most beautiful stories.

And coach Scott is a 6’10” guy from Philly, ironically from West Philadelphia high school. First African American coach of the year. It took a lot of whatever, you know, as an African American guy, but he wound up again, first African American coach of the year. But his book is beautiful and he never had a discouraging word, just facts. And he talks about race and how it could be made better and what it was like and how he overcame it.

And so I think stories like that are vital to us, to everybody, because it doesn’t you know, I have this adage, there can be no great with hate. And Ray does a beautiful job of coach got of that. So that has to be one of my absolute favorite books. I mean, gosh, there are so many. Coach Carill’s book, if you’re a basketball person, The Smart Take from the Strong, beautiful book. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, to me, is a Bible.

I personally believe that if everybody just lived the seven habits, we’d all be better off as a society so I could go on and on. I wanted to include my friend Jay Samit’z Disrupt You! book in there because it’s powerful.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 13:48

I’ve had Jay Samit on the podcast a few times. He’s got several books.

Barry Kleiman: 13:53

He does, and he’s actually in the midst of a third. Jay and I became friends, and I joke with Jay sometimes he’s a waste of six five because he doesn’t know if.

Barry Kleiman: 14:03

He’s six five.

Barry Kleiman: 14:04

Oh yeah, I don’t know if the ball’s blown up or stuff, but my background, if you can see it, those shoes hanging over a phone wire is a painting by Jay, and I called him and asked him if I could use that painting to be the cover of my book, The Playground Principles, and he agreed to do that. So.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 14:25

Jay, yeah, I remember I saw a post from him with that picture and I was like, he stole the cover of Barry’s book. I didn’t know that. He didn’t know he painted the picture.

Barry Kleiman: 14:37

Absolutely. vice versa.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 14:38

And I was like, no. I was like, there’s gotta be some connection here because.

Barry Kleiman: 14:42

There is.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 14:42

I know you knew him, but I was like, that’s familiar to me.

Barry Kleiman: 14:46

So he’s been a mentor to me. He’s been a friend to me. I see him every time I go down to the desert. We have breakfast and we chatted, I think, just last week.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 14:56

Yeah. He wrote Disrupt You!, Future-Proofing You.

Barry Kleiman: 15:00

And he’s now writing a third. You know, Jay helped Reid Hoffman found LinkedIn. I mean, he’s a CEO of Sony Entertainment. He’s a pretty big deal. But during Covid he reunited with his acumen for painting. And along the way he just became prolific. One of his first.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 15:22

Does he have a lot of basketball like stuff involving basketball?

Barry Kleiman: 15:27

No, Jay doesn’t know if the ball is blown up or stuffed. He does not, but he happens to wear or wore at the time, turquoise chucks. And so he took that inner city theme, and that was his most iconic paintings. But the gallery that picked him up would not allow any of his paintings to be sold because they wanted to sell them, but they did allow him to sell prints of one painting and it was Chuck’s. So I immediately bought one, and it’s now hanging in my living room wall.

And one night after I got done my book and I’m sitting and thinking about what’s the cover art going to look like there, this thing was staring me in the face, and I called him and I said, how do you feel about. He said, by all means. And if you had a copy of the book, he said, just, you know, write that I did it or like, paint it. I put his name on the cover, you know, share the ball as a playground principle. I got no problem giving attribution to anybody and fist bumping and saying thank you, because again, that to me is what we’re missing.

So anyway, Jay’s book would be amazing and, and you know, but Ray Scott’s book I think is so important right now and and. yeah, Phil’s books, of course, but I don’t know if I answered your question.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 16:39

Yeah. That’s good. I mean, one of my favorites of all time is Wooden. You know, all John Wooden’s books are, you know.

Barry Kleiman: 16:46

Right. Right here.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 16:48

Yeah.

Ian Garlic: 16:48

I was just thinking that.

Barry Kleiman: 16:49

Yeah, yeah. Right here I mean, it is I mean and he’s got a couple. Right. But there’s one just called Wooden. But then.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 16:57

Yeah, Wooden is like much shorter. Like I can get through that in like an hour and a half or two hours.

Barry Kleiman: 17:03

Be Quick buy Don’t Hurry. Yeah. You know, blah blah blah and, and actually and here’s Bo Ryan’s book right here.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz:: 17:10

What’s that?

Barry Kleiman: 17:11

Another Hill to Climb, it’s called. It’s a great book. I don’t, it’d be hard to find, but it’s a great book. You I as being a Wisconsin guy and you would really appreciate it, you know, because he was a legend and he built that thing into a legendary program. I’m proud to say all these guys are Pennsylvania guys, Philly guys.

So, you know, in my book, I describe myself as a 74 year old kid from a Philly playground. Which. Which means I’m old and hopelessly immature. But that’s how I roll. But anyway, yeah.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 17:43

We’ll get to podcasts. I will just say, sure, I’ll let you share some of your favorite podcasts. Michael Husain, who’s a good friend of Duncan Alney, who I and I both know, and he wrote he’d be good for your podcast, actually, he wrote or documentary, The Waiting Game, and it’s a battle between the NBA and the ABA.

Barry Kleiman: 18:10

Duncan wrote that book, Jeremy?

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