John Corcoran is a recovering attorney, an author, and a former White House writer and speechwriter to the Governor of California. Throughout his career, John has worked in Hollywood, the heart of Silicon Valley, and run his boutique law firm in the San Francisco Bay Area, catering to small business owners and entrepreneurs.
Since 2012, John has been the host of the Smart Business Revolution Podcast, where he has interviewed hundreds of CEOs, founders, authors, and entrepreneurs, including Peter Diamandis, Adam Grant, Gary Vaynerchuk, and Marie Forleo.
John is also the Co-founder of Rise25, a company that connects B2B businesses with their ideal clients, referral partners, and strategic partners. They help their clients generate ROI through their done-for-you podcast service.
Here’s a Glimpse of What You’ll Hear:
- [03:56] Should you DIY your show or hire experts?
- [05:01] Why podcasting can be your ultimate business growth tool
- [07:05] How video is now essential for podcast visibility and reach
- [10:38] The biggest editing mistakes that kill podcast listener trust
- [14:21] How to use your podcast to amplify your thought leadership
- [18:58] Why delegating production frees you to grow your business
In this episode…
A podcast can open doors, spark relationships, and quietly become your most powerful business development tool. But in a world where anyone can hit record on their phone, what actually separates a show that drives growth from one that fades into the noise?
According to John Corcoran, the difference comes down to intention and execution. Professional production is not about fancy studios or overproduced edits, but about clean audio, thoughtful structure, strong branding, and a strategy that supports relationship-building and thought leadership. When you treat your podcast as a core part of your business development strategy rather than a side project, it becomes a powerful engine for networking, credibility, and long-term growth.
Tune in to this episode of the Smart Business Revolution Podcast as Chad Franzen of Rise25 interviews John Corcoran about mastering podcast production for business growth. They discuss what separates professional podcasts from DIY efforts, how video has become essential for reach and SEO, and why over-editing can actually hurt authenticity. John also shares advice on leveraging thought leadership and short-form video to expand your impact.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Related Episode(s):
Quotable Moments:
- “It can be the most valuable business development tool that you’ve ever used.”
- “What people like about podcasting is that it’s an authentic conversation between two people.”
- “I actually believe that not relying on that as a crutch has made me a better speaker.”
- “You could get to be like a fly on the wall and don’t worry about excessive editing.”
- “And you can do that so much more authentically in such a deeper way.”
Action Steps:
- Delegate podcast production to a trusted team: Freeing yourself from technical tasks ensures you focus on relationship-building and revenue-generating activities.
- Commit to a consistent publishing schedule: Treating your podcast as a core business strategy builds credibility and compounds long-term visibility.
- Incorporate video into your podcast strategy: Publishing on platforms like YouTube increases discoverability and strengthens your SEO footprint.
- Keep editing simple and unobtrusive: Minimizing overproduction preserves authenticity and builds listener trust through natural conversations.
- Leverage short-form video snippets: Repurposing episodes into dynamic clips extends reach, boosts guest engagement, and maximizes your time investment.
Sponsor: Rise25
At Rise25 we help B2B businesses give to and connect to your ‘Dream 200’ relationships and partnerships.
We help you cultivate amazing relationships in 2 ways.
#1 Podcasting
#2 Strategic Gifting
#1 Our Predictable Podcast ROI Program
At Rise25, we’re committed to helping you connect with your Dream 200 referral partners, clients, and strategic partners through our done-for-you podcast solution.
We’re a professional podcast production agency that makes creating a podcast effortless. Since 2009, our proven system has helped thousands of B2B businesses build strong relationships with referral partners, clients, and audiences without doing the hard work.
What do you need to start a podcast?
When you use our proven system, all you need is an idea and a voice. We handle the strategy, production, and distribution – you just need to show up and talk.
The Rise25 podcasting solution is designed to help you build a profitable podcast. This requires a specific strategy, and we’ve got that down pat. We focus on making sure you have a direct path to ROI, which is the most important component. Plus, our podcast production company takes any heavy lifting of production and distribution off your plate.
We make distribution easy.
We’ll distribute each episode across more than 11 unique channels, including iTunes, Spotify, and Amazon Podcasts. We’ll also create copy for each episode and promote your show across social media.
Cofounders Dr. Jeremy Weisz and John Corcoran credit podcasting as being the best thing they have ever done for their businesses. Podcasting connected them with the founders/CEOs of P90x, Atari, Einstein Bagels, Mattel, Rx Bars, YPO, EO, Lending Tree, Freshdesk, and many more.
The relationships you form through podcasting run deep. Jeremy and John became business partners through podcasting. They have even gone on family vacations and attended weddings of guests who have been on the podcast.
Podcast production has a lot of moving parts and is a big commitment on our end; we only want to work with people who are committed to their business and to cultivating amazing relationships.
Are you considering launching a podcast to acquire partnerships, clients, and referrals? Would you like to work with a podcast agency that wants you to win?
Rise25 Cofounders, Dr. Jeremy Weisz and John Corcoran, have been podcasting and advising about podcasting since 2008.
#2 Our Comprehensive Corporate Gifting Program
Elevate business relationships with customers, partners, staff, and prospects through gifting.
At Rise25, thoughtful and consistent gifting is a key component of staying top of mind and helps build lasting business relationships. Our corporate gift program is designed to simplify your process by delivering a full-service corporate gifting program — from sourcing and hand selecting the best gifts to expert packaging, custom branding, reliable shipping, and personalized messaging on your branded stationary.
Our done-for-you corporate gifting service ensures that your referral partners, prospects, and clients receive personalized touchpoints that enhance your business gifting efforts and provide a refined executive gifting experience. Whether you’re looking to impress key stakeholders or boost client loyalty, our comprehensive approach makes it easy and affordable.
Discover how Rise25’s personalized corporate gifting program can help you create lasting impressions. Get started today and experience the difference a strategic gifting approach can make.
Email us through our contact form.
You can learn more and watch a video on how it works here: https://rise25.com/giftprogram/
Contact us now at support@rise25.com or message us here https://rise25.com/contact/
Powered by Rise25 Podcast Production Company
Episode Transcript
Intro: 00:00
All right. Today we’re talking about podcast production. So everything having to do with podcast production, including short-form video, video versus audio, how to edit podcasts, and how to share your own thought leadership. I’m here today with Chad, who’s going to be interviewing me. And so I’ll be telling you my perspective on all these topics.
So stay tuned.
John Corcoran: 00:18
Welcome to the Smart Business Revolution Podcast, where we feature top entrepreneurs, business leaders, and thought leaders and ask them how they built key relationships to get where they are today. Now let’s get started with the show.
John Corcoran: 00:35
All right. Welcome, everyone. John Corcoran here. I’m the host of this show. And you know, every week we talk to smart CEOs, founders and entrepreneurs from all kinds of companies.
And if you check out the archives, we’ve got Netflix, Grubhub, Redfin, gusto, Kinkos, lots of great episodes in there. And so you can check those out. But of course, today we’re going to be doing something different. And before we get into that, steps are brought to you by Rise25, where we help businesses to give to and connect to their dream relationships and partnerships. We do that by helping you to run your podcast.
We’re the easy button for any company to launch and run a podcast, so if you want to learn more, go to rise25.com we’ve got a completely refreshed website that has lots of great content on there for you to answer all your questions. And with that, I will turn it over to you, Chad, and I’m excited to dive into these topics.
Chad Franzen: 01:18
Yeah, absolutely. We’ll just kind of start out with the main topic, which is podcast production services. Obviously something you’re very familiar with. You’ve probably been doing it as long as podcasting has almost been in existence. But after that amount of time in podcasting, what would you say separates a professionally produced podcast from one that maybe I just hold up my phone and record my thoughts into?
John Corcoran: 01:40
Yeah, well, that’s a great question. So it has changed a lot because I remember listening to podcasts, you know, 17, 18 years ago, there was one called Entrepreneur’s Journey by Jarrod Stark. That was a very early podcast that had no intro. At the beginning, it was just him talking, and then he would interview people, and it was very primitive, but there wasn’t a lot of competition back there. Now the table stakes are different.
Like if you want to be taken seriously, if you want to interview people in your industry that are the thought leaders, that are the experts, if you want to have your prospective clients and they don’t know anything about you, they’re going to judge you based on the podcast. So you have to have better production quality, you know, values, production values. It has to, you know, have professional artwork. It has to have an intro and outro. You know, these things sound intimidating, but they can get done.
And once they’re done, you’ll be fine. You don’t have to record in a professional podcast studio or anything like that. I record just in my office. I spend most of my time not recording podcast episodes. In fact, I just have a microphone over to the side, and then I pull it out when it’s time to record a podcast episode.
So I would say that, you know, it’s very doable today because the tools are accessible, the software is accessible, and if you don’t get stuck in the production process, which you shouldn’t, you know, we’re talking we focus on B2B businesses. So, you know, someone listening to this, if you’re an executive, if you are C-suite, if you’re an owner of a B2B business, it’s not the best use of your time to get sucked into the production process. In fact, you should not at all. I spend no more than 30s after every podcast episode uploading my recording. And that’s it.
I didn’t touch it after that. So I actually oversee production because I have a company that does that, but I don’t get sucked into the weeds of it. And I think anyone who starts a B2B podcast, who gets stuck in the weeds of doing the actual production rather than delegating it and focusing on the highest and best use of their time, it’s not going to last very long.
Chad Franzen: 03:41
So what would you say comes first? This might be a chicken or the egg question. Deciding to find somebody else to help you produce your podcast or to say, okay, we’re interested in podcasting, we’re going to give this a whirl and maybe make a few of our own.
John Corcoran: 03:56
That’s a great question. So some people are a shoot fire, aim kind of person. And others are, you know, methodical and they want to have everything lined up to, you know, to a t sometimes that they can take that to that extreme where they spend too much time thinking about it, planning it. I’ve talked to people that, you know, been thinking about doing a podcast for 3 to 5 years. You know, that’s too long.
So it’s really a question of who you are. You know, some people, I say, just get started like I did 17 years ago. Just start interviewing people over zoom, and then you might find you really like it. You might find that it’s a good tool and you want to take it up a notch and take it more seriously. And then you bring in a company like ours, who’s going to professionalize it.
So really, I think it depends on the personality. I can’t say that 100% of the time people should do it a certain way, because it really depends on them.
Chad Franzen: 04:50
When a company decides to invest in, in, in podcast production services, maybe from a company like ours, what outcome should they realistically expect.
John Corcoran: 05:01
When you make that decision to invest in podcast production services, then one, you have to be committed to it. You have to take it seriously. You have to realize that, you know, this is going to be part of your business development. It’s part of a referral marketing strategy. It’s partly networking.
It’s partly professional development. It’s partially partly personal development. It’s all of those things. And you can’t just put an hour once a month into all those different initiatives. In fact, you’re probably spending a lot more time than that currently.
And part of the reason that I believe a podcast saves you time is because it allows you to do all those things from the, you know, the benefit of doing it from your home or your office. And so it actually will save you time when all that stuff happens. So I’d say take it seriously and then what do you expect. What do you expect is that if you do take it seriously, then it can be the most valuable business development tool that you’ve ever used. And it also can be an amazing professional development tool because you will learn incredible things and it’s an amazing networking tool as well.
As long as you’re using the right strategy, as long as you have someone external who’s holding your feet to the fire, because we’re busy, we have all kinds of different stuff happening, you know, things tugging us in different directions. So you need someone to help you hold you accountable to that. And as long as you’ve got a production team that handles all the back end production so that you don’t get sucked into that, if all those things are lined up, then it can be a phenomenal tool for you.
Chad Franzen: 06:35
Yeah, I could see that. So in terms of the subtopics associated with video, with podcast production, one of them is video services. I know rise 25 provides video services to clients who are interested. As you know, I don’t watch a lot of B2B podcasts on my own time, but of the podcasts that I do watch, I almost watch them all on video. And that didn’t used to be the case for me.
Yeah. How important has video become to podcast growth compared to maybe audio only shows.
John Corcoran: 07:05
It’s become huge. You know, I mean, you know, maybe when I started. Probably less than 5% of podcasts were video. And today it’s well north of 50%. I think probably 60 to 75% of our clients are doing videos well for a number of different reasons, because YouTube is the number two search engine out there.
Also, because of the reason that you identified, because people like being able to watch something. At the same time, it helps capture their attention. And also it’s super helpful from an SEO perspective because you’re putting out content on the number two search engine. It’s transcribable. Google loves to surface YouTube links when people search for different terms.
So there’s a number of really, you know, important reasons why you want to do that. And also you can leverage it and create little short dynamic snippets and things like that and share them on social media. So there’s a lot of different reasons why people would do that. So most of the time these days, unless someone’s really budget constrained, what I say is it makes total sense for you to also do video at the same time.
Chad Franzen: 08:09
Our brands are missing something when they record podcasts without a video strategy in place.
John Corcoran: 08:15
I don’t think that people are missing something. Sometimes it’s better for people to start without video. If they’re going to be nervous about being on camera, or their guests are going to be nervous about being on camera because it just removes one additional variable. If they’re traveling frequently and they’re worried about their different backdrops when they travel and they don’t want to have that be an issue, then that can be helpful as well. But what I will say is that even if you don’t publish the video, you should be doing the interview on video like we are here today over zoom or some other tool so that you can see the person that you’re talking to.
It will make for a better interview because if there are times when you want to interrupt, they can see that, they can see that you want to interrupt. And people are less likely to drone on and on as they would if it was an audio only podcast. So that’s one of the reasons to do it. And also you just want to build relationships with people. You’re doing this for the purpose of connecting with clients, referral partners to teaching partners.
And you can do that so much more authentically in such a deeper way. If you’re doing the actual video, on actual interview, on video, regardless of whether you publish that video or not.