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:
- [1:55] John Corcoran discusses discovering the book Atomic Habits by James Clear
- [3:34] Why ActiveCampaign is a game-changer for email marketing and CRM
- [7:01] Adi Klevit as an indispensable expert in process documentation
- [9:48] Importance of documented systems for company valuation and scalability
- [10:59] Challenges of authenticity in a world of AI-generated content
- [12:50] How SEO content still feeds AI language models and search algorithms
In this episode…
Many business owners set ambitious goals but struggle to achieve consistent results. Often, the missing ingredient isn’t motivation — it’s systems. Without clear processes and the right tools, even the most driven professionals can find themselves overwhelmed, misaligned, or spinning their wheels.
John Corcoran tackles this issue head-on by emphasizing the importance of developing repeatable systems to build discipline and scale sustainably. Drawing inspiration from Atomic Habits by James Clear, John shares how he’s applied simple, effective strategies to automate key business functions — such as using ActiveCampaign to build educational email sequences that nurture leads automatically. He also highlights the value of documenting every company process, crediting Adi Klevit of Business Success Consulting Group for helping companies create SOPs that enable smooth delegation and operational resilience.
Tune in to this episode of the Smart Business Revolution Podcast as Chad Franzen interviews John Corcoran, Co-founder of Rise25, about the systems, habits, and relationships that support business growth. John discusses how to build stronger habits, the value of marketing automation, the role of process documentation, and the growing need for genuine human interaction in the AI era.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Special Mention(s):
- Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear
- The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg
- ActiveCampaign
- SweetProcess
- Adi Klevit on LinkedIn
- Systems Simplified by Adi Klevit
Quotable Moments:
- “You don’t rise to the level of your goals; you fall to the level of your systems.”
- “If you don’t have a CRM or email marketing tool, you’re missing out on growth opportunities.”
- “Every business needs documentation — it’s the foundation of consistency and scalability.”
- “In a world flooded with AI content, real human conversations will become even more valuable.”
- “SEO is not dead — it’s what trains the AI models your audience is searching with.
Action Steps:
- Implement habit-building systems: Start with small, manageable routines that support your goals, as outlined in Atomic Habits. Effective habits are more sustainable than lofty goals without structure.
- Adopt an email marketing tool like ActiveCampaign: Use it to automate outreach, educate prospects, and build long-term customer relationships. A strong email list remains one of the most valuable marketing assets.
- Document your business processes: Use tools like SweetProcess to ensure consistency, reduce bottlenecks, and make it easier to scale or sell your business. Buyers look for businesses with solid SOPs.
- Invest in real human connections: As AI-generated content rises, authentic conversations through podcasting and direct outreach will become your competitive edge. Prioritize genuine engagement.
- Use content for long-term SEO and AI visibility: Publishing thoughtful, keyword-rich content helps boost visibility in search engines and trains AI tools to pull from your expertise. Your podcast and blog are future-proof assets.
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 [email protected] or message us here https://rise25.com/contact/
Episode Transcript
John Corcoran : 00:00
Okay. Today is four topics Tuesday. We’re going to be talking about a resource or a book or a podcast recommendation, a tool, or a person in my network who I think you should know about. And then finally, an issue affecting my industry, which is B2B podcasting. Our interview extraordinaire, Chad Franzen is going to be interviewing me. I’ll tell you more about what we’re going to be talking about in a second, so stay tuned.
Intro: 00:24
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: 00:41
All right. Welcome, everyone. John Corcoran here. I’m the host of the show. And you know, every week we have smart CEOs, founders and entrepreneurs.
And if you check out the archives, we’ve got Netflix and Grubhub, Redfin, Gusto, Kinkos, lots of great episodes in there as well. But of course, today’s episode is going to be a different topic we’re doing four topics Tuesday. And before we get into this interview, this episode is brought to you by Rise25. We help businesses to give to and connect to their dream relationships and partnerships.
How do we do that? We do that by helping you to run your podcast. We are the easy button for a company to launch and run a podcast. We do three things which are the strategy, the accountability, and the full execution. It’s a three legged stool.
You need all three of those in order to be successful. And in that process, we also invented what some are calling the Wix of B2B podcasting. It’s our platform Podcast Co-pilot. So if you want to learn more about that, you can go to our website or email us at [email protected]. All right, without further ado, I’ll turn it over to you, Chad, and you can take the reins.
Chad Franzen 01:42
Okay. Sounds good. As you mentioned, we have four topics that we’re going to be discussing. The first one is a recent book or podcast that you have stumbled upon or/or read or listened to that’s kind of caught your eye. Caught your ear.
John Corcoran: 01:55
Yeah. So I’m probably the last person to discover this book. It’s Atomic Habits by James Clear. I had James on my podcast a long time ago, about 15 years ago, before he wrote his book. He was a blogger back then, and he did an amazing job of just becoming disciplined, implementing discipline into his life.
And so he wrote Atomic Habits, which was inspired in part by The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg, which is a book that I read a number of years ago. Great book, and it’s kind of designed to be, I guess, the practical guide that extends from that book, but it gives you some practical tools about how to implement, you know, discipline in your life. And one big thing that stuck with me was, I think that the quote was something like, you don’t rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems. And the point behind that was that it’s not about setting like these big, you know, ambitious goals. It’s about having systems in place that will allow you to achieve whatever you set out to do and following those systems.
And it gives all these like simple examples like, you know, if you want to run every morning, you know, putting your shoes out so that your, your running shoes are right there, and maybe putting your other shoes somewhere else so that you’d have to walk across the house to get your other shoes. So, oh, it’s easier. I’ll just put on my running shoes and then you go, that makes you go running. So it gives examples like that. So it’s a great book called Atomic Habits by James Clear.
Chad Franzen: 03:26
Yeah that’s good. Those are good ideas. The next one is a tool maybe that we use here at rise 25 that you found to be valuable.
John Corcoran: 03:34
And so a tool we’ve been using for a number of years is an active campaign. There are a lot of different things. It’s an email marketing service. It’s a CRM. It’s a platform that you can use to message people, you know, even with text messages and things like that.
It’s got a lot of automation built into it. In fact, it’s such a robust tool that I just went to a two day training on it because we weren’t doing enough with it, and I felt there was a lot more that we could do. So we’re kind of putting it more on, on overdrive. But if you don’t have a CRM, you should. If you don’t have an email marketing service, you should.
I just got back from a conference in Hawaii where I was talking with someone who was talking about putting out a book, and I said, well, okay, that’s great. So what’s your email list? And they hadn’t built an email list yet. So you should be doing that first before you build, you know, before you write a book or something along those lines. And you can use a tool like ActiveCampaign to do that.
And in fact, going back to James Clear, he had done that for years. Part of the reason that his book became a mega bestseller. And you can’t walk past any airport gift shop without seeing his book there because he had done things in that order. He built an email list, then he wrote a book. Then he published a book.
And even before that, he put discipline in place. He put good habits in place. You know, he started blogging, which then helped to build his email list. So, ActiveCampaign, if you want to be a bestseller like James Clear, ActiveCampaign, or some other email marketing tool is a good place to start.
Chad Franzen: 05:14
Is there something that ActiveCampaign does that you can’t believe you survived without it? Like some things from ChatGPT. Now, I don’t think I could live. I don’t think I could go back to not having it. Is there something that ActiveCampaign provides that where you’re like, I can’t believe we lived without it before we utilized it?
John Corcoran: 05:31
Yeah. You know, just having a one of the things you can do is you can build a very simple sequence to educate your market on what you do, whatever you do, if you’re a CPA, if you’re a lawyer, if you’re, you know, a digital agency or something like that, you know, there are certain questions that you answer over and over and over again. And then people are curious about and, you know, you can either spend your whole life repeating yourself, or you can take that content and put it into, you know, emails that are dripped out to people over time. And so anyone who goes to your website goes and they opt in. You got to create something that is, you know, that they really want.
A cheat sheet or a checklist or a chapter of a book or something like that. So then they download that and in exchange they give you their email address. And then, you know, instead of that being the end of the line, that’s just the beginning of a conversation that happens on autopilot for you for years to come. So each person that comes in, they get sent a series of emails. Email’s still super effective.
Everyone checks their email. And so they, you know, get a series of emails that educate them on the questions that they are most curious about, that they want to know from you. And so that’s going to save you a lot of time by putting those systems in place. You save yourself time over years and years to come.