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 ran 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:
- [00:19] John Corcoran shares his White House experience and how he got involved with The West Wing
- [01:36] The pressure of writing the 1999 “Thanksgiving Proclamation” and its historical significance
- [02:25] How John’s work on the “Proclamation” became a storyline in The West Wing
- [03:03] The Hollywood portrayal of a real-life White House staffer and the actor who played the role
- [03:15] How helping others in unexpected ways can pay off in business and personal life
In this episode…
Are you struggling to find success by only focusing on transactions instead of relationships? Many entrepreneurs overlook the power of simply being helpful and building genuine connections. In the long run, this can result in missed opportunities and a lack of long-term business growth.
John Corcoran learned firsthand the value of being helpful without expecting anything in return. His willingness to share insights from his White House experience with Aaron Sorkin led to his involvement in The West Wing. By always being ready to offer support and expertise, even in small ways, John emphasizes that helping others builds strong, lasting relationships that can open doors to unexpected opportunities.
Tune in to this episode of the Smart Business Revolution Podcast as John Corcoran, Co-founder of Rise25, shares his unexpected journey from White House staffer to TV inspiration. John highlights how saying yes to opportunities, even small ones, can pay off surprisingly. He also talks about the lessons he learned about relationship-building, the power of writing, and the importance of saying “yes” to opportunities, as you never know where they might lead.
Resources Mentioned In This Episode
Quotable Moments:
- “When my friend asked me to talk to Sorkin, I didn’t know where it would lead, but that didn’t matter.”
- “The tradition of writing the Thanksgiving Proclamation felt like a bridge through history.”
- “Seeing Rob Lowe recite my words on TV was an unexpected nod to my behind-the-scenes effort.”
- “In the end, it’s not just about high-security clearance; it’s about high impact.”
- “Being helpful without expectation can open doors you didn’t even know existed.”
Action Steps:
- Seize the opportunity to be helpful even when the outcome is uncertain: This encourages open-mindedness and can lead to unforeseen, positive results, as demonstrated by the story’s progression from a simple favor to a pivotal TV moment.
- Embrace and respect tradition while contributing your unique perspective: Honoring the past while adding your touch fosters growth and continuity, as shown by the reverence and creativity John brought to writing the Thanksgiving Proclamation.
- Share your experiences with those who show genuine interest: By engaging in dialogue and sharing knowledge, as John did with Aaron Sorkin, you contribute to a larger narrative that may enrich others’ work and understanding.
- Recognize and appreciate the historical significance of your role, no matter how small: Understanding the broader historical context of your actions, like the lasting influence of presidential proclamations, can instill a deeper sense of purpose and responsibility.
- Document and celebrate your accomplishments, even if they seem minor at the time: Recording and acknowledging your work can offer validation and, as in John’s case, lead to surprising recognition and replication in other mediums.
Sponsor: Rise25
At Rise25, we’re committed to helping you connect with your Dream 100 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 Google Podcasts. We’ll also create a 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?
Contact us now at [email protected] or book a call at rise25.com/bookcall.
Rise25 Cofounders, Dr. Jeremy Weisz and John Corcoran, have been podcasting and advising about podcasting since 2008.
Episode Transcript
Intro: 00:02
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: 00:19
Have you ever heard anyone say this when they make a movie about my life, I want to be played by Brad Pitt or George Clooney or Rob Lowe. In my case, that actually happened. Here’s the story. Many years ago, when I was working at the White House, a friend who I had worked with in Hollywood called me up. She knew a guy who was working on a new TV pilot about the staff at the White House.
She asked if I would mind talking to him about what it was like working at the White House. I said sure. It turned out the guy was Aaron Sorkin and the TV pilot was for The West Wing. Sorkin had a couple movies called The American President and A Few Good Men under his belt, so I knew exactly who he was. I told him what it was like working at 1600 Pennsylvania, which from my perspective could be pretty mundane.
I wasn’t all that high on the food chain, so it’s not like I was negotiating with the president of Russia on a daily basis. But I told him what I knew, and I answered his questions. By the way, in case the Secret Service is reading this, it’s not like I was giving away state secrets. I didn’t have that high of a security clearance. Of course, The West Wing debuted that fall and it was a huge hit right off the bat.
Pretty soon, Sorkin had a whole host of advisers with serious, high-level White House experience on staff to give him story ideas. He didn’t have as many questions for me anymore. Later that fall, I wrote the 1999 Thanksgiving Proclamation. The Thanksgiving Proclamation is a largely ceremonial essay issued by the president each year back in The Pony Express, days before TV and radio and the interwebs. The Thanksgiving Proclamation used to have more historical significance.
It had been first issued by President George Washington and the proclamation issued by President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War had been credited with helping to heal the rift between the North and the South. Back then, presidents didn’t have a huge staff, and so they didn’t have young staffers like me to delegate their writing to. I remember sitting down to write the proclamation in my office in the basement of the old Executive Office building, picturing Presidents Washington and Lincoln sitting in the White House with a quill pen under candlelight, writing out their proclamations. Talk about some serious pressure. Anyways, I was pretty proud of the end result, so I mailed Sorkin a copy.
I kind of forgot about it. The next fall, I turned on the Thanksgiving episode of The West Wing. To my amazement, the writing of the Thanksgiving Proclamation was a key storyline. Throughout the episode, the speechwriters are running around The West Wing talking about how they have to write the Thanksgiving Proclamation. Then, in the climactic scene, President Bartlet, played by Martin Sheen, turns to read a line from the Thanksgiving Proclamation right before walking out into the Rose Garden to proclaim Thanksgiving, and he reads the exact first line from my 1999 Thanksgiving Proclamation word for word.
So who is playing the role of the writer who produced the Thanksgiving Proclamation? Rob Lowe, and that’s how I got to be played by Rob Lowe on TV. Now, what does this have to do with business? The message here is about opportunities and helpfulness. When my friend asked me if I would talk to Sorkin about what it was like working at the white House, I could have said no.
I could have said, I’m too busy. I could have gotten in hot water. Even if what I told Sorkin was not all that earth-shattering. But I didn’t. I decided to be helpful.
I didn’t know where it would lead, but that didn’t matter. I could help someone else out. That was what mattered. It’s kind of like that in business. If someone asks you for help, even if it’s unrelated to the product or service you’re selling, just do it.
Be helpful. Be useful. It will pay off in the long run.
Outro: 03:49
Thanks for listening to the Smart Business Revolution Podcast. We’ll see you again next time, and be sure to click subscribe to get future episodes.