“How to Create a Bingeable Podcast through an Actionable Plan” with Motus Creative Group Co-Founder Christopher Foust
As part of my series of interviews about “5 things you need to know to create a bingeable podcast”, I came across Christopher Foust. He is the co-founder of Motus Creative Group: an agency focused on marketing strategies and branding. He has over 17 years of marketing and branding experience, working with some of the finest organizations in healthcare, entertainment, and personal brands.
Christopher is also an accomplished speaker, presenting regularly on marketing, branding, and company culture. His presentations focus on actionable items that have a proven track record of success and assisted brand after brand in meeting their financial and lead-gen goals. Chris pulls his inspiration for strategic marketing and business from over a decade in the music industry, as a touring singer and guitarist. This experience taught him the importance of exhausting every option to find the right solution, embracing the creative process, and how to leverage emotions for sustained customer engagement. He is also an ex-competitive boxer, and board member for Nashville based boxing gym FIGHTERS.
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Can you tell us a bit of your “personal backstory? What is your background and what eventually brought you to this particular career path?
I never wanted to be in marketing or podcasting. Both my parents were touring musicians and grew up on the road. So naturally, I wanted to follow suit. I played my first paying gig when I was 13 years old. I spent the next 17 years chasing that dream in some form or another and recorded 5 full-length albums, 4 Eps, and 3 singles with a multitude of rock, metal, or blues bands. All of my teens and the majority of my twenties were spent bouncing around from club to club, playing shows, and meeting a lot of amazing people.
I always say that I never made any money, but I made a lifetime of stories. But stories weren’t the only thing performing in rock bands taught me. Those experiences taught me to look at every problem as an opportunity, how to build meaningful relationships through a product, and how nothing can substitute (in business or life) for immediate action.
However, when rock music’s market share started to decline I found myself shifting creatively to other avenues: first graphic design and then into web design. From there I joined a multitude of healthcare organizations, managing small marketing teams, and noticed that no one in the space was utilizing podcasts. One day, my long-time friend and drummer, Todd Schlosser, decided we would attempt to turn podcasts into sales tools for brands, and it worked. We proved the concept and started Motus Creative Group together…and here we are.
Can you share a story about the most interesting thing that has happened to you since you started podcasting?
One of our biggest clients was one of our first, and for us, it was by-far and continues to be, one of the most interesting experiences of my life, and that is getting to work with Senator Bill Frist, MD on his podcast A Second Opinion. Being from Nashville, we know how big an impact the Frist family has made on our town, and it’s been quite the journey producing his show. We’ve been able to sit in on some incredible conversations and get first-hand experience on how healthcare is changing in America. It’s been a ride!
What are the main takeaways, lessons, or messages that you want to convey to podcasters?
Our clients all have very unique brands, service very different populations, and provide value in lots of different ways. The one recurring factor between them is authenticity. When we produce podcasts, we want the listener to connect to the host and brand, much like people connect to music. Since we’re musicians, we inadvertently treat our clients’ podcasts as we would a creative project. We like to provide a dynamic experience for our clients and their listeners, otherwise, they could just go download an audiobook. The listener should feel like they’re a part of the conversation, learn something new, and that’s what we want people to walk away with. Because for podcasts to be effective they have to provide value, otherwise, it’s just more noise.
Check out the full interview in Tracy Hazzard’s Authority Magazine article about Christopher Foust!
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Motus Creative Group Co-Founder Christopher Foust shares the best ways to:
1) Book Great Guests. Focus on one factor alone: providing value. Book guests solely by how much value they can provide to your audience. Every guest isn’t going to hit the mark, so don’t expect 100% effectiveness. However, their content may provide value later down the line or be potential bonus content.
2) Increase Listeners. Providing value will be different for every show, but it’s something that needs to be asked before every show. If your show provides value or utility, people will listen and tell others. Stay consistent. Release episodes regularly, at a similar length, in a familiar show format.
3) Produce in a Professional Way. Focus on your message first, then audio quality, but that’s a VERY close second. Use free audio editing software to clean up external noise, unwanted pauses, and the occasional “um” or mouth breather (also, “Mouth Breather” is one of my favorite Jesus Lizard tunes). When it comes down to it, if it doesn’t sound good to you, it probably won’t sound good to your audience.
4) Encourage Engagement. Create additional assets that people can share on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter. These assets are ways that can get you integrated into existing communities around your subject and hopefully turn you into an authority.
5) Monetize. It’s usually a mix of a few different methods. Some popular revenue models for podcasts include ad-based, sponsorships, listener-generated revenue, lead generation, and merchandise.
One thing to keep in mind is the long play, and how a podcast can affect your other business. If you become a highly listened to podcaster in a specific subject, revenue can be produced by speaking engagements, product endorsements, or other personal appearances. Always think of the long-play and how every opportunity has the potential to generate revenue years down the road.
In your opinion what makes a podcast binge-listenable? What are the ingredients that make that podcast so successful? If you could break that down into a blueprint, what would that blueprint look like?
Check out the full interview in Tracy Hazzard’s Authority Magazine article about Christopher Foust!
