Chad Rubin: 10:48
On my phone. Seeking Alpha, which is for investing. Robinhood for investing.
And dunt. dunt, dunt, dunt dunt Readwise is an interesting one. I’m going to have to go in one second. Readwise is interesting. Readwise takes any highlights that you’ve made in books and any tweets that you’ve bookmarked and resurfaces them. Because the more you see it, the more you remember them.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 11:19
I like having my favorite people on getting their favorite resources and tools and everything and everything else. I’m here with Jason Swenk, Jason, just tell people what you do, your website, and we’ll launch into some questions.
Jason Swenk: 11:32
Yeah. So Jason Swenk. I help agency owners go from f this to heck yes. And the website is AgencyMastery.io.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 11:43
I’m always telling people to check out your website. And if you’re an agency owner to join and listen to the podcast. On that note, what are your favorite podcasts?
Jason Swenk: 11:54
I love Seth Godin’s podcast. I listen to it when I listen to podcasts just because he’s one of the smartest marketers and just I feel like he has that know-how of what we need to do now.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 12:12
And then just mention your podcast so people can check it out too.
Jason Swenk: 12:14
Yeah, mine is the Smart Agency Masterclass. I’ve been doing it for 11 years. You’ve got us beat though.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 12:22
Yes, but I may have listened to 300 episodes or so. Who knows at this point. So favorite books.
Jason Swenk: 12:30
I like Giftology. Just based on Giftology and How to Never Lose a Client Again by Joey Goldman.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 12:41
Yeah, Joey Coleman’s awesome John Ruhlin Giftology is one of my favorite people. Unfortunately, he passed away, but just an amazing giver individual in general. So I love those two books. Joey wrote another book too.
Jason Swenk: 12:56
How to Never Lose an Employee.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 12:57
Yeah, exactly. You know, just do what works, you know? Never. He just never loses series.
So. Favorite apps or software?
Jason Swenk: 13:08
I would say Trello just because I’m a creative, I’m a visual person. And so it allows me to see things visually within columns and to put cards in. So we use it for everything.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 13:22
Trello is amazing. And it’s free, by the way. Yeah, I’ve used many tools. I’ve used asana throughout the years. I still use Trello for certain use cases. We use heavy on Clickup, so Trello could be used for that project management or whatever you want. So love those. Any favorite apps like on your phone? It could be health or personal, not just business. Are there any favorite apps that you use on a regular basis?
Jason Swenk: 13:49
Slack. I think what is it? Is that the cop out app? But yes, I’m on.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 13:54
Like if someone says Zoom and Slack, it’s like not count, or Google, I should just say not including Ding!
Jason Swenk: 14:01
No, you. You should. But really, those are that Slack I use all the time.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 14:08
Is there something that annoys you how people use Slack? Like I could tell you from me, one, if you need me, please tag me. Right. Because I will be. I can’t be expected to search through every single thread. And also, when people respond to things in slack, I want people clicking on it. So it’s threaded in that particular question, because then if they don’t do that, it like goes sequentially. And you have to find the find the answer.
Jason Swenk: 14:37
Like someone will post a question, but then they won’t hit reply and post under it. So it’s not associated with it. But if one person, that’s the confusing part confusing thing about Slack, if one person already does, then they can actually reply there, but you know they make it. I guess that’s a usability for Slack. So come on Slack.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 14:57
I figure we, you know, pet peeves with that as well. So anyways, Jason, thank you. Check out his website, favorite books, podcast, software apps. Appreciate you. Thank you.
This is my favorite people, favorite resources episode. I’m here with Todd and we’re going to go into favorite books, podcast, app, software, whatever else he you know, bestows upon us today. But let’s start off with Todd, what you do and where people can find you. What website? So what do you do?
Todd Taskey: 15:26
Yeah. Thanks, Jeremy. Thanks to you, we host the Second Bite Podcast so you can go to SecondBitePodcast.com. You can go to Tower Partners, where we help founders in the digital marketing space do interesting second bite transactions. And that’s in the digital space.
Our clients are typically in the 1 to 5 million of EBITDA range that don’t want to do a transaction to exit, they want to do a transaction to accelerate. And we’ve gotten pretty good at that over time. So you can find us at TowerPartners.com.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 16:01
So if you’re an agency owner or, you know, an agency owner and they’re at a certain level, tell them to call Todd.
Todd Taskey: 16:07
Yeah, it’s always interesting, Jeremy, because what I hear most often from people founders is I didn’t know you could do that. You know, I thought if I did a transaction, I was out or I would have a job or I would, you know, whatever else. And it’s not that at all. It can be quite creative and very interesting and very exciting. And, you know, we’ve got a lot of good examples of that. So if somebody just wants to brainstorm a little bit, even if they feel like they’re a year or 2 or 3 out, I’m happy to talk to them. I’m easy to find on LinkedIn as well.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 16:37
I’m in that camp before, you know, learning, listening to the podcast, helping with the podcast. I was thinking the same way. And it’s about accelerating, not retiring in a beach and sipping, you know, pina coladas because most entrepreneurs probably don’t want to do that anyways. They just want.
Todd Taskey: 16:55
Not for more than a week.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 16:55
They want to keep working and doing what they love. So yeah, I tell everyone to check out your podcast. So if you are an agency owner, check it out, Second Bite Podcast. First question is books. Favorite books in your universe that you love?
Todd Taskey: 17:12
Yeah. So I’m a reader, so I’ve got plenty of good ones. I will say I’m reading this right now called The Master Switch. Who’s this dude? Tim Wu, w-u. He is a great business author.
This is a really, really good book. He’s got a couple other ones out. I’m into that one right now. One that I talk about all the time. I’ve read three times now is called the Same as Ever from Morgan Housel. He wrote The Psychology of Money, which is a great book. He’s also got a book coming out, I think, in October called The Psychology of Wealth. But same as ever, you know, is a quick read. It’s interesting. Housel is a great writer, so I would strongly recommend those two.
And then, you know, I found this book the other day at the library. Actually, at the library at this place called Heyday. And it’s the history of the 1850s. And my takeaway from that book was in the 1850s, technology was growing and developing at a speed that we can barely contain in our minds, and it’s changing the fabric of the way we live and work, and it’s always going to. It’s 150 years ago, people were thinking the same thing as they’re thinking now, you know, and was there.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 18:43
By Kurt Andersen. Is that the same book Heyday?
Todd Taskey: 18:46
You know, I don’t know, to tell you the truth, but I will tell you in the beginning of.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 18:50
This brilliantly imagined, wildly entertaining tale of America’s boisterous coming of age sweeping panorama of madcap rebellion and overnight fortunes, palaces, brothels.
Todd Taskey: 18:58
That’s it. It’s a great book. It’s really interesting if people like history, and even in this book, Tim Wu’s book, there’s a quote every age thinks it’s the modern age, but this one really is. So I think it teaches us in repetition that it’s the same as ever ties that whole story together. So anyone that reads Same as Ever can reach out and give me a comment on LinkedIn.
And we can have a book club because it’s a great book.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 19:31
Love it. I feel like you should come out with the book at some point. Is that in your future?
Todd Taskey: 19:37
No, not a chance. Okay, not a chance.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 19:40
Maybe we’ll do that. We’ll turn your podcast into a book. So then, you know.
Todd Taskey: 19:44
If you want to write it, I’ll let you.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 19:45
Okay, cool. That gets to podcasts. So outside of the Second Bite Podcast, of course, what are some of your favorites?
Todd Taskey: 19:57
Two great ones. The All-In Podcast, if you’re familiar with that of other people.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 20:04
Yeah. Of course. Yeah, for sure. No one’s mentioned it so far, actually, but I’ve heard people talk about it.
Todd Taskey: 20:10
The All-In Podcast. If you’re paying attention to anything happening in the future, you got to be on that. It’s just really, really well done and really thoughtful big thinkers, smarter than certainly smarter than me. I learn a lot from that, from how business and politics and finance all kind of ties together. And then the other one is the BG2 podcast, BG2 Pod. Gerstner and Gurley, two great investors. And these guys are big brains. They’re looking around the corner. They understand investment in a way. One of them’s a private investor. One of them he invests, Gerstner invest in private companies. Gurley invest in public companies. You know they’re just smart guys that share a lot and they’re great podcast. Those are my two for sure go tos.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 21:14
Are there any in the agency world besides Second Bite? I mean I know Jason Swenk, Smart Business Revolution.
Todd Taskey: 21:22
Yeah. Jason’s is obviously is excellent agency.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 21:25
And then that one sticks out to me, you know, as far as that goes.
Todd Taskey: 21:32
And Deep Specialization.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 21:36
Corey Quinn.
Todd Taskey: 21:36
Corey Quinn. Yes. Thank you.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 21:38
Yep.
Todd Taskey: 21:39
Don’t tell Corey. I hesitated on that.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 21:42
It’s okay. I won’t send this to him. It’s fine.
Todd Taskey: 21:43
You know, we do a lot of we help a lot of guys that are focused in a vertical. It makes them special. It makes them sellable. It makes them exciting and on and on. And Corey does a great job talking about that and explaining that. So I would in the agency space I would put that in there as well.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 21:58
I love it.
Todd Taskey: 21:59
Yeah.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 22:00
Apps and In software. Favorite apps and software could be on your phone. It could be on your computer.
Todd Taskey: 22:05
Yeah, I’m not super strong there. I mean, all the stuff I do is basics. I will say, you know, I’m looking at my phone, so Genius Scan. It’s an app on my phone. I can scan stuff. Right? So like when I travel.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 22:22
Like, turns into a PDF or something, or you can email it.
Todd Taskey: 22:24
It turns it into a PDF. You can just literally take a picture of it. It organizes it, it sends it out. It keeps it, it costs nothing, you know. So that one’s tremendous. I also like to say I have this one app on my phone that gives me the immediate geography around me and will map out any place that I want to go and get me there without getting lost. It’s tremendous. It’s also on my phone. It’s called Maps, but I say that in jest. It’s the thing I use all like I and people our age I think can appreciate it. Younger people can’t.
I can get on a plane, go to visit you in Chicago, or go to Austin where I have to go in a couple of weeks, or New York City, and I’ll never even think about how to get anywhere. And you remember back in the day you had to order maps and stuff would show up. I’m going to Chicago. I can’t buy a local Chicago map here, so you have to order it and it comes in the mail and then you have to get directions. Oh my God.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 23:26
Well, I had Todd. I don’t know if you know this. I had the founder of MapQuest on my podcast and he talked about, you know, people would have to like, print out like 32 pages from the internet of these maps because you couldn’t find, you know, you couldn’t order the map. And that’s how people did it, because they didn’t, you know, the technology on their phone. They couldn’t just pull it up on their phone.
Todd Taskey: 23:49
I’m not very good with sense of direction. I can follow when my map says turn left in 1000ft and your, you know, your destination is on your right. So I’ve gotten pretty good at doing that. But that’s a game changer that I think is so ubiquitous that people don’t give it due credit. So I’m giving it credit.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 24:09
Yeah. Any, any health apps or stuff that you use? I know that you work out a lot. I don’t know if there’s anything that you use on the health front.
Todd Taskey: 24:18
You know. Not really. I did get one of those glucose readers. You know, people with diabetes have those.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 24:26
Oh, you did okay.
Todd Taskey: 24:27
Yeah. So I got it for, like, two weeks, and you stick it on glucose monitor.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 24:31
Which one did you get? It was like a Dexcom I think had.
Todd Taskey: 24:35
Yeah, that sounds familiar.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 24:37
Okay.
Todd Taskey: 24:37
It was like 200 bucks or 150 bucks. I got two of them. I wore it for two weeks. It told me when my blood sugar, you know, vacillated.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 24:47
It’s like a continuous glucose monitoring. Dexcom is out there. I don’t know if that’s the one you got.
Todd Taskey: 24:51
Yeah. And that was cool. And it was G7. I think it was the Dexcom one. And that was really great. I enjoyed it’s remarkable.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 25:01
Did you learn from it? Like certain. Did certain foods spike your blood sugar or what? What? What was that?
Todd Taskey: 25:07
I think I learned that I’m pretty consistent in in my blood sugar, so nothing to kind of worry about, you know, but when you can kind of look under the hood or get it for $150, you can get that kind of information about yourself and your health, even if it’s just to give you a green light on it. I thought it was pretty cool, so I was happy to be able to do that and get a better sense.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 25:32
Love it Todd. Thanks for sharing. Favorite books, podcasts, app, software and check out Second Bite Podcast everyone.
Todd Taskey: 25:40
Yeah thanks, Jeremy. It was great to be a part of the show.
