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[Top Resource Series] Books & Podcasts & Software – The Proven Playbook for Entrepreneurs

Chad Rubin is the Founder and CEO of Profasee, a dynamic pricing platform enabling brands to predict the optimum price for every product.

Jason Swenk is the Founder of Agency Mastery 360, a company dedicated to helping digital agency owners grow and scale their businesses.

Todd Taskey is a Partner at Tower Partners and an M&A advisor at Potomac Business Capital, a boutique investment banking firm helping business owners with sales, mergers, and acquisitions to maximize value.

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

  • [2:25] Chad Rubin discusses building and selling multiple companies and how his AI pricing platform boosts Amazon brand profits
  • [3:23] Chad shares the books that shaped his entrepreneurial mindset, including The 4-Hour Workweek to The Almanack by Naval Ravikant
  • [9:19] Chad highlights the AI-powered tools and apps that supercharge his productivity
  • [11:32] Jason Swenk shares his journey helping agency owners achieve freedom and his favorite books on gifting and client loyalty
  • [13:08] Jason’s top apps, including Trello for visual workflows, and his take on using Slack effectively
  • [15:26] Todd Taskey explains “second bite” deals that accelerate agency growth and his favorite books and podcasts for business success

In this episode…

The pursuit of success often hides a quieter struggle — the constant tug-of-war between ambition, attention, and alignment. Entrepreneurs chase growth, yet time, focus, and meaningful connection remain their scarcest resources. What if the real edge in business isn’t doing more but refining how we think, learn, and connect?

Chad Rubin, Jason Swenk, and Todd Taskey reveal the books, tools, and habits that keep them grounded while driving exponential growth. Chad credits The 4-Hour Workweek, Atomic Habits, and Lost and Founder for reshaping his view of time and leadership — and shares how AI tools like WisprFlow and Readwise help him communicate faster and retain key lessons. Jason points to Giftology and Never Lose a Client Again as blueprints for loyalty, pairing them with Trello’s visual workflow to stay organized and creative. Todd highlights the Same as Ever and The Psychology of Money as reminders that human behavior never changes, pairing wisdom with everyday apps like Maps and Genius Scan to keep life simple and efficient.

In this episode of the Inspired Insider Podcast, Dr. Jeremy Weisz talks with Chad Rubin, Jason Swenk, and Todd Taskey about the books, podcasts, and tools that shape their leadership and innovation. They discuss lessons from entrepreneurship, the power of AI for productivity, and how continuous learning and curiosity fuel lasting success.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Related episode:

Quotable Moments:

  • “I follow wisdom, like really good conversations. Very curated.”
  • “He was actually very down to earth, very different from what I expected. Very thoughtful. Very wise.”
  • “I help agency owners go from ‘f this’ to ‘heck yes.'”
  • “Every age thinks it’s the modern age, but this one really is.”
  • “When you can look under the hood for $150 and learn about your health, that’s pretty cool.”

Action Steps:

  1. Curate high-impact podcast playlists: Focus on standout episodes rather than full shows to gain diverse insights without information overload.
  2. Master time and productivity frameworks: Apply lessons from books like Buy Back Your Time, Atomic Habits, and The 4-Hour Workweek to boost efficiency and reduce overwhelm.
  3. Streamline workflows with smart tools: Use platforms like Trello or NotebookLM to organize ideas, manage projects, and improve team collaboration.
  4. Track and optimize personal wellness: Use wearables or health apps for data-driven self-awareness, reinforcing health as a key to lasting success.
  5. Nurture meaningful connections: Strengthen business relationships through thoughtful gifting and consistent follow-ups to stay top-of-mind with clients and partners.

Sponsor for this episode

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Insider Stories from Top Leaders & Entrepreneurs…

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Episode Transcript

Intro: 00:15

Dr. Jeremy Weisz

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.

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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.

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This is the episode: favorite people, favorite resources. And I’m here with Chad Rubin. And Chad, I want you to tell people what your company does and your website. I do have a very nice, if you’re watching the video, a nice soft t-shirt, Profasee. So what do you do and tell people about the website? We’ll jump into it.

Chad Rubin: 02:20

That shirt looks really good on you. Thanks for sending me that selfie the other day.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 02:24

You’re welcome.

Chad Rubin: 02:25

What do I do? I’ve been in the Amazon space, e-commerce specifically for the past almost 20 years. I’ve sold three companies, two to publicly traded companies and one to a private equity company. And I still run an eight figure Amazon business today. And also I run Profasee.

Profasee is an AI pricing platform that helps find more margin for the top brands on Amazon that sell directly on Amazon and sort of like Uber surge pricing for Amazon brands.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 02:55

And the website?

Chad Rubin: 02:57

It’s Profasee, p r o f a s e e. So Profasee, profit you could see.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 03:05

Three questions I have for you. One is favorite books.

Chad Rubin: 03:12

Okay. It’s like the lightning round.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz : 03:14

Yeah. You know, I just loved it. These are questions I’m always curious about. And so I just want to ask the entrepreneurs I trust. Like you.

Chad Rubin: 03:23

Yeah. So many. I got to go back. I got a couple. I’ll give you a few. Right. The 4-Hour Workweek. That was like the first one by Tim Ferriss that gave me permission to be an entrepreneur. So I definitely like to pay respect to that book. It opened the door for me.

I like the, it’s called The Almanack. It’s The Almanack of Naval Ravikant. And that was also a great book. He’s like a business philosopher. I mean, so many I think we’ve talked about this.

There’s a few like, fiction books, if you are, if you are into fiction. I like self-help books specifically.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 04:08

Like what?

Chad Rubin: 04:09

Well, I think like self-help, meaning like Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell, The Almanack, The 4-Hour Workweek, Atomic Habits, like all those books, are about building leverage, getting your time back, which is the most finite thing in your life, and to increase output. But if you’re like, hey, I’m going on vacation, I just want to check out I really liked Shoe Dog.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 04:41

Shoe Dog is fantastic. Yeah, I felt it was therapy for entrepreneurs. That book.

Chad Rubin: 04:48

Yeah, yeah. Another book I, by the way, speaking of like therapy for entrepreneurs was a book called Lost and Founder.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 04:56

Rand Fishkin. Yeah.

Chad Rubin: 04:59

And I think we also talked about this book To Pixar and Beyond. That was a great book. It was a story about this. It was a story about Pixar and how it got started.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz : 05:12

Yeah, self-help in my realm, I guess. How to Win Friends and Influence People sticks out to me is kind of like in that genre, I guess. Podcasts?

Chad Rubin: 05:29

That’s a really interesting one. You know, everyone always is like, hey, what’s the podcast that you listen to? And for me, actually, what I do is I ask people for their best episode, the one episode that changed your life or that shifted something for you. So I’m more about episodes. So on Spotify, which maybe you’ll put in the notes here on this. I have a Spotify playlist of all recommendations people have given me are called Podcasts Strictly the Best Episodes. And so it’s not one podcast. I don’t follow podcasts. I follow wisdom, like really good conversations. Very curated.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 06:23

What episodes stick out to you?

Chad Rubin: 06:25

Let me see if I pull it up here. So many are on here. And by the way, it’s like such a mishmash of things. Walter Isaacson was on the Lex Fridman Podcast as an example.

Joe Dispenza on The School of Greatness. A Conversation with Charlie Munger. There’s so many. Derek Sivers on the Tim Ferriss podcast, so there’s over five. I think I have like over 500 on here that I’m just listening through, listening to David Sinclair and Huberman, Andrew Huberman, Robert Kennedy Jr on The Joe Rogan Show, so I can keep listening on and on. I guess if, you know, if I was gonna surprise you with one that I thought was very interesting.

Jamie Dimon.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 07:33

The CEO of Chase.

Chad Rubin: 07:35

The CEO of Chase, yeah, was on a podcast called Coffee with the Greats. And it was surprisingly, really, really good. And, you know, sometimes we have preconceived notions about people. We have like mental models that we built up about them. And this really changed it a bit for me.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 07:58

Yeah. So did you not think it was going to be great? because it’s corporate and they’re not allowed to get vulnerable.

Chad Rubin: 08:04

Exactly, exactly. That was exactly what I thought. And it wasn’t any of that. He was actually very down to earth, very different from what I expected. Very thoughtful.

Very wise. Yeah.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 08:20

Apps and software. I know you could probably go ahead.

Chad Rubin: 08:22

Sorry. One more that I recently listened to that I liked, which was Dr. Rick Hanson on the Modern Wisdom podcast. It’s also one that I was surprised with.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 08:41

He’s a neuropsychologist. I think it’s the same one.

Chad Rubin: 08:46

I think he’s a.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 08:48

Change your brain in your life. Is that the same?

Chad Rubin: 08:49

Story about changing your brain? Yeah, I got you. But I think he’s very into Buddhism.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 08:53

Okay. Yeah, it does say his books include Hardwiring Happiness and Buddha’s Brain. Just One Thing, Mother Nurture.

Chad Rubin: 09:02

Yeah, I thought he had a lot of wisdom on that podcast.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 09:06

Next one. Apps and software. Favorite apps and software. Besides Profasee.

Chad Rubin: 09:19

Profasee. Let’s see. I have been using a text messaging software. I’ve been bankrupt. In text messages, I get tons of text messages. I don’t respond to many of them, and I’m always digging myself out. And I use this app called Wispr Flow, w i s p r f l o w.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 09:42

Yep.

Chad Rubin: 09:42

And it increases my words per minute by like 1,000%. And I use it on my computer too. Like I hold down button and I think it’s command. And then I can just transcribe into anything and talk into it, and it’ll fix it up and make it AI polished. So I’m using that a lot right now.

Robinhood for investing. I’m like looking at my phone here. Gemini is interesting. Oh, there’s something called NotebookLM, which not a lot of people know about. You can build a notebook around a YouTube video, for example. So let’s just say you’re on YouTube and you post 15 different videos. I can suck those into NotebookLM, which is a Google product through Gemini, and build an internal wiki around your thoughts on the on the on the videos. It’s very cool.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 10:45

Any other apps on your phone?

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