Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to Cut the Tie podcast. Hi, I'm your host, thomas Helfrich. We're on a mission to help you cut the tie to whatever it is holding you back from success in your life. Now you define that success, and if you don't, then you're chasing somebody else's, and today's guest is Jeremy Weiss. Jeremy, how are you Thanks for having me Listen? I love what you guys do. Why don't you just take a moment and introduce yourself and what your business does?

Speaker 2: 0:24

So I run Rise 25. I'm a recovering chiropractor, actually, thomas. My background is in biochemistry. As a chiropractor, I started podcasting 15 years ago and that, by accident, turned into a business. So Rise 25 helps businesses launch and run podcasts. That's what we do.

Speaker 1: 0:41

I love how for listening to everybody how he gave that. When someone asks you what you do, that is you know. For listening everybody how he gave that and someone asks you what you do, that is most direct answer I've ever had. It's like we know what we do. We help businesses launch podcasts, simple um. What kind of business, by the way? Is it? Small, big, little?

Speaker 2: 0:56

yeah, mostly b2b and, like I guess, I think of it as helping people build dream relationships and it's on the back of a podcast. As you know, like you just, I've formed amazing relationships on the podcast, so it's mostly B2B pot B2B. We don't do comedy, true crime, sports podcasts. It's B2B with the. You know, usually it's in a very specific niche with a high client lifetime value.

Speaker 1: 1:18

Yeah, and and, and. I think that's important because when, when any business is out there, right, doing something, if you, even as something as narrow as podcasting, if you don't niche down to exactly what it is, no one buys and you're like, you know, we help B2B services, company meet, people, get brand aware, all that, Like that's very clear. Yeah, I want to hire them versus, oh, we do true crime and we do a sports one too. It's like it's also impossible to produce both. It's a completely different feel, that, uh. That being said, before we kind of get into this, I want you to just to personally maybe tell me why because it's a competitive space, tell me why people should pick you. What's the unique, what makes you you?

Speaker 2: 1:56

yeah, I mean it's a good question. I mean, I think, for for us, it's about three things. It's the strategy, the accountability and the flexicution right, because if someone's like, well, anyone could talk into a mic and throw it up on YouTube, as you know, there's a lot more that goes into it. So, after doing this, for you know, 15 years, there's specific things that a lot of we've made every mistake in the book at this point, and so, really, it's about the strategy piece and how. What's the roadmap to creating ROI for a business? Right? And so, for us, we definitely take a contrarian approach. Right, because, as you may get this too, thomas is like people ask, well, how do I get downloads and subscribers? And that's actually the last thing on our mind. It's not about that, it's about forming amazing relationships, and so it's goes tracks back to having the right strategy before anything else is done.

Speaker 1: 2:49

A hundred percent agree with you. Now listen anybody listening here. We focus on different things in this show, but I think this is so important for any. Just extrapolate If you don't focus on the strategy first, you're going to sound and be like everyone else, and I know in our own. When I launched a podcast a few years ago called AI Nerd it was the first YouTube channel I monetized. No clue, zero clue what I was doing Abandoned it right before anyway GPT probably a mistake, but here's why is because I had access to you could always pick it back up, right?

Speaker 2: 3:19

I mean, it sounds like you were like right at the right spot almost at the exact right time.

Speaker 1: 3:24

My background is consulting AI. I was here's why I didn't. I had access to OpenAI's beta three years prior to GPT becoming what you guys everyone knows as GPT, so I was out there talking about what it could do and YouTube kept flagging me for misleading or false content. So I couldn't get a show out without it getting flagged and I just got frustrated and quit.

Speaker 2: 3:44

Can we still watch those early shows, or no? Yeah, I'm fatter with more hair.

Speaker 1: 3:48

So you'll check it out. What's this podcast interview is my first shot at it, but now I look at it. Yeah, I could pick it back up, but what would I do? And so for this podcast, we launched it and I think this is important.

Speaker 1: 4:01

The strategy was specifically year one let's build presence. So we're going to charge everyone to come on the show, but we're going to give it all back to them to go get a mini subscriber. We could go on YouTube and build, but never buy a follow, never buy a download, never buy a view. And we did that and we got top 5% global podcast on the listeners notes and did the millions of subscribers. That was a business strategy. This year I said we're charging no one and we'll let people promote their show on a pay what you want model and we'll only make it where people really want to get into it. Because we have so much interest coming in, 95% of the people take the option because it's an absolute no brainer to go from audio to a million people on YouTube. Anyway, the point is real strategy worked and so I presented that at podcast. So I so I love what you're doing. Um, so people have a framework as they're listening here. Shameless plug really quickly. How would they get a hold of you?

Speaker 2: 4:45

and then we'll talk about your journey here in a minute yeah, and like I'm all about giving thomas, so like you can check out rise25.com, but my podcast is inspiredinsidercom and there's lots of free content. If you search podcast, you know you can find all the episodes we've. We've produced everything for free so people can consume it from you. Know what software mic do I use? You know how do I launch a podcast so you can contact. There's a contact form on both of those and you can message me there or on LinkedIn. I'm on LinkedIn pretty much every day too.

Speaker 1: 5:19

Love it. Let's start with you. How do you define success?

Speaker 2: 5:24

I define success really well, one I think of health right off the bat, right, I think you know my background is like, like I said, is biochemistry and chiropractor, and I feel like if I don't have health, or people that I know don't have health, they don't have anything else, it doesn't matter how much money, and so I define it with health and happiness. So what makes people happy? The one of my favorite books is the art of happiness by the dalai lama, and it really changed my view on success and it's really that health and happiness combined, yeah, and like, the man with his health has a million dreams, the man without has only but one.

Speaker 1: 6:00

Exactly, and it's really true. If you've ever, like, just sprained an ankle, all you think about is I hope his ankle stops hurting tomorrow. Um, it's really true. If you've ever, like, just sprained an ankle, all you think about is I hope his ankle stops hurting tomorrow. Um, a hundred percent in it. And what I have found and I, it changes with time and so what you're? You know, it's money early, it's finding a girl later, it's whatever. It is right. It does definitely involves. I think the important thing is to find it for yourself in that moment, and then you got something you can actually chase, would be proud of.

Speaker 2: 6:27

Yeah, I mean, I know people with more money than generations can do with and they're just not happy, right, and so, and it's just for me about that, those two things.

Speaker 1: 6:39

Yeah, I mean I look at, happiness is not so much the inputs that make me happy. I give the bucket example. Like you have a Home Depot bucket, the big one, and you got your porn stuff in there to be a nice house, nice car, vacations, savings, kids, whatever, right, and at the bottom is holes cost of the mortgage, cost of the car, cost of the kids and their attitudes. The bigger those holes are, the worse your happiness is, because if you have no holes, you don't have to put a whole lot to fill that bucket, and I think that's. Managing the things that make you unhappy matters actually more than the things you put into it. I don't, that's so. I like metaphors. I love that analogy. Yeah, totally, you can take it. I didn't, I made it. I say Home Depot because I have a bucket out there with a hole in it and it's prostrate. You're doing tiling.

Speaker 1: 7:24

Anyway, on your journey though, you've had to kind of metaphoric tie, so to speak. So maybe talk about your journey a bit. And what tie did you have to cut to achieve that happiness?

Speaker 2: 7:37

Yeah, I mean, we were talking a little before you're recording and I was thinking like what would that be? I mean, for me? You know, for a long time my identity was a chiropractor, right? Uh, my dad suffered with really bad pain and I decided to explore that when I was in high school, worked for the chiropractor that helped him, um, and so I've been in this chiropractic world even since I was, you know, 16. And so the decision to actually not practice anymore, which is tied to my identity I mean a lot of people's that what they do for a living is their identity. You know, it was very, very closely tied together and I decided to.

Speaker 2: 8:20

Um, you know, for a lot of reasons that I was going to pursue, you know, I had clients in this podcasting thing and I decided, okay, because for a long time I was doing both and the schedule was crazy, right, I was like seeing patients for I was doing podcast, you know, the Rise 25 stuff maybe from like seven to nine, and seeing patients from nine to 12, 12 to three in the middle of the day. In between, I was doing rise 25 stuff, three to six or seven, I was doing chiropractic stuff, and then, you know, maybe seven to eight I was doing the rise 25. And then maybe from 11 PM till two or three in the morning I was doing rise. So like the day was crazy and I just couldn't do it anymore. Like I had to choose one right and there were a number of factors that led me to go with the podcasting one over the chiropractic one.

Speaker 2: 9:10

It was a tough decision and I, like you said, kind of it's not even a metaphor cutting the tie, like literally my license is inactive. Also, I don't have to do the continuing ed, so I don't plan on making it active anytime soon. And my daughter jokes around when I adjust her, like, uh, I don't know if I'm going to let you adjust me because your license is an actor. But don't worry, I think I have a couple of decades under my belt here. But it was a tough decision and it kind of throws people for a loop when the people in my, my old world they're like, wait, what You're not practicing anymore? And you know always judgment, like I don't care, but there's judgment, a little bit judgment around it. Um, but it's fine. I think there was uh that it served its purpose for that amount of time and but it was a hard decision to make. You know, I spent a lot of hours, time, money in that yeah right it's one of the hardest ties to cut is the, the social.

Speaker 1: 10:06

You know the sting of social lot of hours, time, money in that, yeah Right, it's one of the hardest ties to cut is the, the social. You know the sting of social status, the sting of the vested time, money, the certainty of hey, I know I'll make this much money, the drawback to dad, like all those things are that's, I mean, that's a major tie to cut, like in in your identity, is wrapped up in what you do in life and I don't think anybody should fight it. Your work and your life are connected. If you're not happy in one, you're not happy in the other.

Speaker 1: 10:28

Typically and good for you, because that is by far the hardest one it comes back to do what I call like the three Ps. Right, there's the passion, your potential, which are your skills, and then there's the problem you solve. Well, if any one of those three bubbles gets small for you, passion went down it sounds like on chiropractor and it went huge on podcasting and you had equal, maybe, skills and problems you were solving, the, the, the one, the one without the passion, goes away. It's, it will be consumed by a bigger passion and if you fight that. That's a hole in the bucket, so to speak. So good for you of doing it. Do you remember the moment, the aha moment, when you're like I am definitely doing this, I'm done?

Speaker 2: 11:09

You know, I don't know if there's a moment, it's kind of like death by a thousand paper cuts type of situation, right, and. But you know my, we lived in the city and my office was a 12 block walk, um, and then we moved to the suburbs when we had kids and so my commute went from like a very short walk to an hour plus in traffic. So, um, I justify that for me. I think I did that commute for I don't know 10 years or something like that, but I was like listening to five or six audio books a week. So I was justifying it there.

Speaker 2: 11:46

I was making, like you know, five to 10 calls in the morning, on the way there and then on the way back, and but it was like became a drag to do that, right, um, and so there wasn't a moment but, but definitely, I would say, and eventually I put a chiropractor in my office to treat patients, um, but still I still had to go and manage it and I still had to kind of be in there, and it was just that, I guess, for me it became this location, independence became very important to me with that drag of a commute and everything like that. So covid definitely accelerated that a little bit. Um, because we actually went to arizona and lived there for three months and I was like this is awesome, wait, yeah, I mean being from the chicago winter, if anyone suffered through that before you're like, just like you when you get to warm weather and you're looking at because you always look at chicago's weather.

Speaker 1: 12:51

We live from st louis, live in atlanta, still go ha you know, then in the summer flip.

Speaker 2: 12:57

Oh, it's 105 there, right now I've lived in st louis and the winters are very mild.

Speaker 1: 13:01

I compare to chicago, anyways are but they're miserable because there's like it's rainy, it's cold, there's nothing to do, and then the whole city in the summer is a million degrees. So there's still nothing to do anyway it's.

Speaker 2: 13:12

So I got a taste of yeah, um, living in 70 degree weather during december and I was like, well, this, this seems good, exactly so it's definitely. There was a lot of things that built up over time.

Speaker 1: 13:30

Yeah, no, listen, it's over time. And then it's like okay, am I renewing this license or not? And you're like you know what? I'm gonna let it go. Uh, and it usually has to have some clients. I love that you bridged one to the other. Stress at home, the stress one to the other. Stress at home, the stress in life, goes way down If you're not forced into it. I was laid off and they're like I gotta do something. No one's going to hire me, um, but I love that. Uh, can you tell me about the how? So it's one thing to know what success is, it's another to feel the journey, the thousand cuts, and then be like, hey, I'm doing it. Then comes the execution of actually doing it. Yeah, can you give me a couple minutes on how you made that move?

Speaker 2: 14:03

I mean the how is over time I was like, obviously, if I'm going to make a shift, it was like overnight to some people. It seemed like overnight to some people that I was like a chiropractor and then I had a separate business, rise 25. Me, as I kind of described my schedule for many years, the how is really just working 70 to 90 hour weeks to make. So that transition is like seamless Right, and so that's really what it was. It was building on and I didn't do that on purpose. Like people were coming to me asking me to help them with the podcast, like you said, I was just kind of open to the opportunity. I didn't say no, I'm busy with this other thing.

Speaker 2: 14:47

I kept open to that opportunity and so I had been taking on clients and we, you know, all our team was remote, so obviously I didn't have people like in Chicago in an office. Everyone was kind of working remotely, but it was really just building up something separately. And my business partner my business partner through podcasting and he also had experience with that. Thomas, he was a speechwriter at the White House and an attorney, and so he calls himself a recovering attorney. He was practicing, but both of they came from service professional businesses to what we're doing now. And so that, how was just I think you said it before which was just being open to what was coming my way, accepting that and then just putting in the time and making it happen?

Speaker 1: 15:43

you're uh, you're describing something really important to uh, and I think if you, if anybody's heard his brand, which he's you, do you do. I'm going to tie it back to something you said earlier. He said people hire us because we're really on the strategic side and then anybody can do the execution. But if you're executing the wrong strategy, you're kind of wasting money, and you're not. You're wasting money in time.

Speaker 1: 16:01

All I heard there is that this guy took a strategy, executed it, put the hard fricking work in and then, when it was right, moved it. So I believe your strategy differentiator more than ever now, because you did it in your life and you did it in a moment when most people are in a forest and they cannot see any trees around them and you're like, no, I need to do it this way, for whatever reasons, we don't, it doesn't even matter. You just did it the right, so good for you. I think that sings very strongly to the brand of which you built with a rise up. You know, rise 25. So give me a second though. What's the impact? So you've made the move, you're through the woods. Now you're looking back at your beautiful land you've created.

Speaker 2: 16:37

Now what's what's been the impact to you, your family, your clients yeah, I mean there's there's professional and and there's personal, um, from a also the personal side. I mean that's, I think, a driving force which is I used to if I commute from the city. It was tough to because you know it's hard to do virtual chiropractic right.

Speaker 2: 17:29

You can't like adjust people through zoom and the couch now lean back exactly there's a simpsons episode on it where he leans over a garbage can, but I don't think that counts. Um, you know, I'd have to really sacrifice, choose, really choose family or business, because if the kids had like a recital or a dance show, I I'd be like, okay, I have to leave like an hour and a half early, it's rush hour. I may have to leave at three, the prime time of seeing patients, maybe after they come and work, and now I could really work from anywhere. I do an office that's like eight minutes away from me and I could just roll out and make all of their events that I need to, and so that was personally fulfilling. I just I think about that every time. One of them just had like a, um, a chorus recital the other week and I was like thinking sitting there, like I'd have to basically um, sacrifice income to be here before, and now I could just be here, right, and so that was.

Speaker 2: 18:34

That was big for me from a professional standpoint.

Speaker 2: 18:37

It was a different difference between like a b2c business and a b2b business, and like the b2c business with, you know, anyone would come in off the street, right, and we'd see them. It was very interesting, um, but it also was kind of nice. Just I'm talking to businesses all day long and get to strategize on what I think is the most important part of business, which is relationships and helping people make those connections and reinforce their actual relationships. Right, so, like a lot of times, people including myself sometimes we take relationships for granted. Businesses realize, like there's people on your phone, there's people in your email that you haven't, that are important to you, that even refer you business that you haven't engaged with in like six months or a year and making a difference, because one relationship can make a huge difference. People form mentorships, they formed referral partners, strategic partners, through what we teach them and that one relationship could make their business, like, exponentially better yeah, absolutely what he was grateful for um, I mean I am grateful for health, my health, like you know, just keeping up with it.

Speaker 2: 20:01

I mean I do have a stringent routine around health, so it's not necessarily lucky, but there is genes that factor into the luck. And then just my family. I mean my wife has been really supportive with everything Right. And so I think back, I'm like I don't know how she endured some of the scheduling that I had around it, but she did and has been really supportive. And then John Corker, my business partner. He's in the trenches with me and he's four kids under 13. So he's got a lot that he's managing on the family front. But just continuing to push forward with what our mission is, that's wonderful.

Speaker 1: 20:43

Let's sum it up for me. That's wonderful. Yeah, let's sum it up for me. What's the advice you're going to give to a listener?

Speaker 2: 20:48

I mean my advice, thomas, in anything and I was talking to my kids about this is like one I try and be as coachable as humanly possible and listen and find the experts who have been there and done that in every facet of my life. So you know, if I'm struggling with something finding a mentor, finding a coach in that specific thing, because that time leaps you. There's a good friend at O'Keefe who wrote Time Collapsing you, at least leapfrog me, okay, and cut the time, money and energy of I would. I would have spent learning it, trying it with someone who already knows the path. So that's been the biggest for me is just finding that coach and mentor in that specific thing I'm trying to solve yeah.

Speaker 1: 21:38

It also sometimes talks you out of something you thought it might do, like, oh, I'm, yeah, I'm not doing that. Um, it's, and that usually is free because you'll meet with the coach, he'll explain what you're gonna have to go do and you're like, oh yeah, I'm not gonna hire you because I'm not gonna go this route. So, and that's a emotional, uh, monetary everything, health, when you avoid those in life. So I did. I could not agree more with that piece. Some rapid fire questions for you. Who gives you inspiration?

Speaker 2: 22:07

You know, I get inspiration from different books. Like I'm listening to three to five books per week on Audible and so depending on what I'm interested in really, I mean I love Tony Robbins stuff actually. That basically is a great perspective and there's a lot of other books that I'm just hearing. That grounds me. The four agreements is one I listened to every year and it's kind of grounds me on what's important.

Speaker 1: 22:35

I love that and you you kind of answer more of my other questions, which, which book you'd recommend is a must read. Uh, do you have any others that are like? You know, if you're going to have one book in your life, this is the one. Maybe round business.

Speaker 2: 22:47

Yeah, I mean listen, uh, I love Dale Carnegie books. Um, how to win friends and influence people. This past year I kind of create, wanted to create a book club of all the education I wish I would have gotten when I was in junior high, and so I gave it to my daughters. I'm like I go, I'm gonna pay you if you read these books. I'm gonna pay you and obviously you read it. You have to give me a summary of it and one one thing you're applying to it that you know they're gonna go gb team like here it is dad yeah, exactly, I got it down um, so how to win friends, influence people.

Speaker 2: 23:19

It's all about relationships, um, you know, adam, all the relationship books. Adam grants book, give and take is one of my favorites. John Rulon, um a rest in peace. Uh, giftology, um is one of my favorite books, like all those books on relationships, cause I think that is kind of the foundation, uh, and how I think.

Speaker 2: 23:39

Yeah, you know if you had to start over you know, and you can go back to any part in your timeline. When would you go back and what would you do differently? Where would I be? But I'm thinking then, the the other side of my shoulder, there's the angel and the devil. Right. It's like, oh, you should have, just you know, majored in business. You'd be so much further along in the business career or doing some kind of cool path. But then the angel's like you know what, like that's the reason, what shaped you with what you are and what you did. And so I'm like, yeah, and I wouldn't have learned all this health stuff that I can apply to myself and my friends and my family to better my health. So part of that is I'm always torn Like was that good, was it not good? But going back, I'm like I guess it shaped who. I am Right.

Speaker 1: 24:38

Exactly, and it's it's things were done for you, not to you, and it's just a mindset shift and if you read any Dalai Lama stuff, as you know, it's all right there. Just things are happening when they're supposed to, and but also it's the influence downstream you know, and so you know what you can do for your kids. So I think there's some pieces you take from that. I can better my kid's life by X, y and Z. If there's a question today, I should have asked you and did not what would that question have been and how do you answer it?

Speaker 2: 25:06

Yeah, I mean I think you asked it. Really. I mean, the most important thing to me is, um, I guess one thing is people will ask me how do I get in touch with this person or that person? They're trying to connect with someone for whatever reason some VIP, maybe it's a partner, maybe it's a potential client and the fastest? I was thinking there's a lot of ways to do it for free, right, you know, and give to people, but the fastest way I've seen it happen is just buy their stuff.

Speaker 2: 25:39

I mean when I look at people, you know, like there was someone who I really respect and like and I'm like, well, how do I get ahold of this? I'm like, listen, I'm just going to literally buy everything that they have, if they have books, if they have audio, if they have a program, if they have a conference, and I just literally bought all their stuff, right, I mean. So it depends Like obviously there's free ways to do it and to give that person, but to leapfrog. I have found supporting that person and buying their stuff actually is a great way to just hire. Hire someone like as a consultant, like I'm trying to get them to hire them for as a consultant for an hour, like I want to pay you, thomas, for an hour of your time. You to be like I don't want to talk to you, like, okay, cool. Like I want yeah. So just how do you leapfrog with relationships? I'm always thinking about how do I give? It's a giving thing, right, so it's an altruistic based approach to serving Listen.

Speaker 1: 26:38

Thank you, you rock. I mean, I would expect nothing less from a person who who runs a podcast Fantastic. Thank you Once again, Dr Jeremy Weiss. Thanks for coming on how and who should get ahold of you.

Speaker 2: 26:49

Yeah, I mean listen. You can get ahold of me on LinkedIn, rise25.com or inspiredinsidercom, and if you have questions about relationships, about podcasting, you know, just message me, I'm happy to help.

Speaker 1: 27:06

Thank you once again so much for coming on today. I'll let you say goodbye, but he's so pro he didn't even say goodbye. He's like you know. I've already said it, I'll mess with it. Listen, everybody who made it this part in the show, you rock for getting here and if this is your first time, I hope it's the first of many. If you've been here before, I hope you're cutting ties. I hope you're doing whatever it takes for you to achieve that success that you've defined for yourself. Get after it. Go get it. Thanks for listening.