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:
- [2:49] Tips on choosing the best AI tool for you
- [7:27] How over-optimizing podcast promotion can stall your show’s launch
- [10:12] Choosing the right guests for strategic podcast growth
- [11:57] Leveraging industry partnerships to supercharge your podcast reach
- [13:13] The hidden costs of launching paid ads too early in your podcast journey
- [15:25] Why download numbers don’t guarantee podcasting success
In this episode…
It’s easy to get stuck obsessing over downloads, promotion tactics, and growth hacks before you ever hit publish. But what if the real key to podcast success has less to do with flashy marketing and more to do with how you show up and who you serve? How should podcasters actually think about promotion if they want results that matter?
For John Corcoran, the key lies in not overcomplicating promotion before the podcast even exists. He explains that many people fall into analysis paralysis, worrying about promotion instead of launching, having real conversations, and letting the show evolve. His perspective reframes podcasting as a long-term relationship and partnership strategy, not a vanity numbers game, which ultimately leads to more meaningful growth and business impact
Tune in to this episode of the Smart Business Revolution Podcast as Chad Franzen of Rise25 interviews John Corcoran about smart podcast promotion strategies. They discuss why launching matters more than over-optimizing, how guest-driven growth really works, and why staying within the same medium boosts results. John also delves into partnerships, positioning, and why downloads shouldn’t be your main focus.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Special Mention(s):
- Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO)
- Karl Hughes on LinkedIn
- Lenny’s Podcast
- Lovable
- ChatGPT
- Claude
- Perplexity
Quotable Moments:
- “I say to people all the time that I would do it even if no one was listening.”
- “The best thing to do is to get to live to launch your podcast.”
- “A lot of times people think that, ‘Oh, if I just get the biggest guest possible, then that will help grow my podcast.’”
- “I would wait for a little while because it probably isn’t going to be the best solution.”
- “I enjoy the ability to have an author of a book that I read that I admired come on my show.”
Action Steps:
- Launch your podcast before overthinking promotion: Getting episodes live creates momentum and clarity that no amount of planning can replace.
- Focus on having real conversations with the right people: Strong conversations build relationships and long-term value beyond short-term download spikes.
- Choose guests strategically, not just based on fame: Guests aligned with your audience and medium are more likely to drive meaningful engagement.
- Build partnerships within your industry ecosystem: Collaborating with associations, events, and communities puts your podcast in front of already-relevant audiences.
- Optimize your message before running paid promotion: Clearly explaining who you are and what you do ensures new listeners can actually convert into opportunities.
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.
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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.
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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.
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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/
Episode Transcript
John Corcoran: 00:00
Okay. Today we’re talking about three topics. One, we’re going to talk about a question I get all the time. How do I promote my podcast? Number two, we’re talking about a book I recommend.
And number three is a person that I want you to know about. I’m going to be interviewed today by Chad. So tell you more about him in a second. So stay tuned.
Chad Franzen: 00:17
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: 00:34
All right. Welcome, everyone. John Corcoran here. I’m the host of this show. And you know, every week we have smart CEOs, founders and entrepreneurs from all kinds of companies.
And we’ve had Netflix, Grubhub, Redfin, gusto, Kinkos, YPO, AEO, Activision Blizzard, lots of great episodes for you to check out in the archives. And of course, this episode is brought to you by our company, 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 have the easy button for any company to launch and run a podcast. We do three things: strategy, accountability, and full execution.
So if you want to learn more about it, go to our website, our recently revamped website, which has lots of great content for you. rise25.com and we’re happy to help. Or you can email us at support@rise25.com. All right.
And I will turn it over to you Chad, and take it away.
Chad Franzen: 01:22
Hey thanks so much, John. Great to be here. Great to talk to you as always. Hey, you kind of mentioned what we’re going to be talking about today. So let’s get right started, a recent podcast that you’ve listened to and that you might recommend.
John Corcoran: 01:34
Yeah, I’ve been listening to this one a lot lately. So it’s called Lenny’s Podcast. I don’t even know what his last name is, but Lenny’s his name. It’s getting a lot of attention. He is a guy who has a background in product management, so he works with product managers, which sounds like I know you’re thinking what a sexy topic, but it deals a lot with technology in the ways that companies are innovating themselves.
Like recently, he had a woman who’s like head of growth for lovable, which went around for less than a year and went from like zero to, I think 200 million in revenue and in about a year’s time, so absolutely insane. And so he has conversations like that. He had another person that was doing some really interesting stuff with vibe coding and lovable. And so it’s really kind of on the cutting edge of the way that companies are, especially technology companies. But even Non-technology companies are innovating with these new technologies, these new AIs that’s affecting every aspect of business.
So definitely check out Lenny’s Podcast.
Chad Franzen: 02:39
Okay. Sounds good. A tool that you’ve used recently. I know everybody kind of has their favorites, their favorite AI tool. Yes, one.
John Corcoran: 02:49
Recently I mentioned ChatGPT. Before I thought we’d talk about the differences between the different tools. So I really like Claude for certain uses. It’s great for, you know, of course coding. It’s got a great coding application called Cloud Code.
They just released something called Cloud Cowork, which is kind of like bringing cloud code to the masses, but it’s really good for writing. So they write really robustly. It writes really robust content. So if I want something, if I want to make sure that a topic is covered very thoroughly, then sometimes I will outline something in ChatGPT, take that and then paste it into a cloud and ask Claude to write an article on it, or write an even more thorough article. And so it can do a really good thorough job of that.
So I like Claude for writing. I like it for coding, I like Gemini because I haven’t used Gemini enough, but a lot of people are saying that it’s now , it’s improved dramatically. So I use it for image generation. I use it to just cross check when I’ll run a search sometimes on ChatGPT and Claude and Perplexity and Gemini and see what the different responses are. And then perplexity.
I really like up -to -date information and research. So if I’m going to do research on something that’s happening in the news right now, or I want something the most topical, then I’ll use perplexity. I really like how it identifies the sources. So in the early days, when it was more of a challenge with different llms in Frontier Labs, hallucinating perplexity gave me kind of more confidence because it had the sourcing right there. And you can click through and you can look at the source that something you know, an answer came from.
So that’s really good. So let’s see, did I cover them all? So ChatGPT Gemini Claude and Perplexity in ChatGPT is kind of my all around. I’ve got a bunch of projects built in there, and so I use those different projects for different purposes, and I create projects that are like coaches in different areas. So I have one for, you know, like around health-related things.
I have one related to, you know, finances. I have one related to marketing, I have one related to various different areas of your life. You know, if you want to have a better relationship with your spouse, you could create one in there and you could have it. Source information from the best relationship coaches in the world, advisors in the world, authors in the world. And so that I find it really powerful for that.
So I have a lot of projects that are built in ChatGPT that I use in that sense. So, ChatGPT is kind of my daily driver.
Chad Franzen: 05:40
Okay. Very nice. So when you say Claude is best for writing, is that stylistically or more thorough research and then written or what do you mean by best for writing.
John Corcoran: 05:50
Both. Yeah, both. So both, you know, depth of coverage, thoroughness and also style too, although I’ll admit that I have not. I’ve been happy with its output for the most part, so I haven’t really tried to make it do an exact different type of style. Usually when I’m using cloud, I’m using it for writing really long form articles and so I will use it.
You know, I don’t worry about it being funny or witty or anything like that because I’m not really concerned about it, you know, trying to mimic that type of style.
Chad Franzen: 06:31
Okay. Someone in your network who has impacted you recently.
John Corcoran: 06:37
So I’m going to mention Karl Hughes, Karl Hughes of The Podcast Consultant, great guy. Another EO member based in Chicago, got to know him last year. Really excited to get to know him even further in the months ahead. He’s someone that has built a couple of different businesses in different spaces and is just kind of an interesting guy, a very positive type of person. And so yeah, I think I would mention Carl as a good, good, good person to know.