Remarkable Content with Ian Faison

In the B2B world, we think about growing our customer base. But one thing B2B marketers often overlook is how to transform your customer base into a community. You may be wondering, isn’t a customer base and a community the same thing? Not exactly. A community is your customer base taken to the next level, with a lot more engagement. It’s a network of relationships based on passion, instead of transactions. And it’s this passion that brings like-minded people together to form a dedicated community that outlasts and outperforms any regular customer base. In 2017, the U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team failed to qualify for the World Cup for the first time since 1986. It was this devastating low point that birthed a community that was so determined to see the underdog make a big comeback. Enter the Scuffed podcast.Scuffed was started by Adam Belz and Greg Velasquez out of pure love for American soccer. And in the last five years, they’ve created, grown, and nutured a robust community of listeners who are engaged across a variety of platforms.In this episode of REMARKABLE, we explore the nuances of community-building, and how you can use it in your B2B marketing.Why the Scuffed Podcast?You’re probably wondering why we picked the Scuffed podcast for this episode. Welp, for one, our CEO, Ian Faison, is a member of the community himself. He doesn’t just listen to their podcast; he also subscribes to their Patreon and hangs out on their Discord!. Ian was drawn to The Scuffed podcast team’s genuine love for American soccer. These guys are INTO IT. And that authentic passion is like a community-building magnet.Scuffed brings together a community of American soccer lovers and lets them choose their own adventure when it comes to accessing content.. They have their weekly podcast episodes, with over 300 episodes that are currently publicly available. Then, they have an additional layer of content for those who want to support the show by paying a little every month. Patrons gain access to exclusive episodes along with Scuffed’s exclusive Discord channels where subscribers chat about recent games, favorite players, stats, share memes, etc. The members of the Scuffed podcast team (Adam, Greg, Vince, Jordan, and Watke) are all actively engaged on Scuffed’s Patreon and Twitter accounts. They frequently interact with followers, chat with them about the show, and even arrange in-person meetups. That right there is a hat trick when it comes to building a powerful community.About ScuffedThe Scuffed Podcast is a weekly show about American soccer with a focus on the U.S. Men’s National Team. On the podcast, hosts Adam Belz and Greg Velasquez recap games, talk strategy, chat about their favorite soccer personalities, and do occasional interviews with players and coaches. Adam and Greg founded Scuffed in 2017 after the USMNT failed to qualify for the World Cup. Since then, they added a Monday Review with Chris Russell and Vince Irvin, a Discord, and a newsletter.What B2B Companies Can Learn From the Scuffed Podcast: Be authentic. We know it sounds cliche, but it’s a cliche for a reason. If you center your business around a product or service you truly believe in, chances are, other people will believe in it too. And a community will be born naturally! The Scuffed guys just love soccer, and they want to see the U.S. Men’s National Team qualify for (and win!) the World Cup. They’ve followed the team for years, analyzing their every move, and can give expert insights about their progress because of it. B2B companies can learn from this by building a brand/product/service that emanates passion and has a common goal audiences can rally behind. Release consistent, timely content. How has Scuffed stayed so relevant for so long? It’s not just that they’re passionate about soccer – it’s also that they’re consistent. By creating a regular and consistent content schedule, they’ve built trust amongst their community. People know when the next episode will drop, when in-person events will happen, and when Adam and team will be responding to replies on Twitter. The Scuffed team also goes the extra mile for their audience and creates reaction episodes for special events, like the release of the World Cup roster. The Scuffed team knows their fans (do you want to bet they’re called Scuffers?) will want to hear about it. So, bottom line: be sure to release relevant, relatable content on a regular cadence, and your audience will steadily grow (and the real fans will be stoked for any bonus content). Interact with your audience. Guess what? Community is a two-way street! So as long as your audience is responding to your social posts, posting in your Slack or Discord channels, or even sending you emails — leaders should be engaging with their clients just as much. It’s this two-way interaction that sets the tone for a community. More times than not, community members (think mega fans of your business) end up creating their own content. User-generated content validates both the work of the contributor, and adds more material to your usual content roster. Scuffed community members often make their own videos and highlight reels that the Scuffed team re-posts on the Scuffed channels, giving credit to their community members. This helps build trust and a stronger relationship with community members. Engaging with your audience across multiple platforms will only help you as you grow your B2B community. Meet your community where they are.  A lot of Scuffed’s success can be attributed to the numerous platforms and channels they offer content to for their community. Whether it’s the weekly podcast, email, newsletter, social media, Discord, videos, and more, Scuffed fans enjoy having options for how to tune in to content. So, give your audience the power to choose how plugged into your B2B community they can be. For example, some people may love interacting with your business every day, via Twitter and Slack channels. Others may prefer to check into the community once or twice every few weeks by reading your newsletter or watching video content. Giving your community the choice on how they plug in allows them to consume your content the way they want.Key Quotes*”When I think of community outside of the context of making a podcast, I think of old kinds of communities. Like rural farming communities or urban communities where people are living together and suffering together, and sacrificing for each other. And so I don't know how to relate that to a Discord server. Like, I don't know what the connection is between those two things, because they're both technically a community. But when you're living online with people, how do you suffer with them or sacrifice for them? Do we even know how to do that yet as humans?” - Adam Belz*“Repeatability is so crucial because you can have a good idea and maybe even execute it once. But if it's not something you can just go back to and be able to do over and over again, it's not something you can offer as a promise to the listener.” - Adam Belz*”We're not very calculated when it comes to building a community or maximizing our reach. We're just kind of doing our thing. We're just some guys making a podcast because they love soccer and they love the national team. And I think the chillness of it was appealing to people.” - Adam BelzTime Stamps[0:55] How to build a community[2:00] Introducing Adam Belz of Scuffed[3:47] What are our takeaways?[8:00] How did Adam start the Scuffed podcast?[13:40] What’s the difference between building a virtual vs. in-person community?[16:48] What assets does the Scuffed podcast have?[19:48] How did Adam grow the Scuffed community?[24:58] How is Scuffed offering different levels of engagement for listeners?[30:20] How do you differentiate yourself from competitors?[33:49] How do you manage negative interactions within the community?[43:37] Why does being authentic attract community engagement?[48:54] What does Scuffed do with user-generated content?LinksListen to the Scuffed PodcastCheck out the Scuffed websiteConnect with Adam on LinkedInFollow Adam on TwitterFollow the U.S. Men’s National Soccer TeamAbout the ShowRemarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both non-fiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today’s episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios), and Adam Belz (Co-Founder and Host of Scuffed). Remarkable was produced this week by Meredith O’Neil, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The word “ensemble” might make you think of a group of performers all working in tandem. But what happens when we apply it to B2B marketing? In 2001, an ensemble of all-star actors outdid any other cast…maybe ever.George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Matt Damon, Andy Garcia, Don Cheadle, Bernie Mac, Casey Affleck – actors at the top of their game.Each one could draw their own crowd. But together? They’re unstoppable. Add in the sparkling backdrop of the Vegas strip and the tension of a high-stakes heist, and you have yourself a blockbuster. That blockbuster is Ocean’s 11, and it upped the ante for what a star-studded ensemble could be.In this episode of REMARKABLE, we take a look at the power of the ensemble in Ocean’s 11 and how you can use it in your B2B marketing.The house always wins. Unless you bring together a powerful ensemble. And today we’re taking the house with some B2B tips on bringing together an ensemble of high rolling sharks.Why Ocean’s 11?Alright, so we all love Ocean’s 11. But why’d we pick it for this week’s Remarkable episode? Because of the insanely hot cast – and we aren’t just talking about their cheekbones. Ocean’s 11 is packed with the best of the best, including George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Julia Roberts, Bernie Mac, Eddie Jemison, Casey Affleck, Don Cheadle, Carl Reiner, Elliot Gould, and Andy Garcia. Even Viola Davis makes a cameo – well, sort of. Remember Danny Ocean’s exit interview from the prison scene? Viola Davis voices the officer. Any of those actors featured in a film would sell out opening night at the movie theater. But all of them billed together is unprecedented! Aside from the star-studded cast, the characters they play have huge personalities of their own. The eleven-character ensemble of criminals boasts a myriad of talents, from pick-pocketing to con-artistry to speed racing. In other words, they have all the important skills needed to pull off a heist.A Quick Ocean’s 11 RefresherIn case you’ve been living under a rock for the past few decades…Ocean’s 11 is a heist movie about a string of Las Vegas casino robberies. The OG movie was filmed in 1960 and starred Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis, Jr. It was remade in 2001, with a cast just as star-studded as the original. The film was one of the biggest hits of the year, bringing in over $450 million in box office. But it wasn’t just the cast that made the movie such a success. Behind the scenes, the craftsmanship was just as impressive. Ocean’s 11 was directed by Steven Soderbergh, who had just become one of only three directors to be nominated twice for Best Director in the same year (he won the Oscar for directing Traffic and “lost” for directing Erin Brockovich). It’s a classic movie formula: an amazing cast + a director at the top of his game = instant classic.Who’s Who?Danny Ocean: The Mastermind (George Clooney)Rusty Ryan: The Right-Hand Man (Brad Pitt)Tess Ocean: The Love Interest (Julia Roberts)The Malloy Brothers: The Drivers (Casey Affleck & Scott Caan)Livingston Dell: Electronics (Eddie Jemiston)Basher Tarr: Munitions  (Don Cheadle)The Amazing Yen: The Grease Man (Shaobo Qin)Linus Caldwell: The Pickpocket (Matt Damon) Frank Catton: The Casino Employee (Bernie Mac)Reuben Tishkoff: The Bankroll (Elliott Gould)Saul Bloom: The Con Artist (Carl Reiner)Pick Your Teams Carefully Why do we connect so much with the characters in Ocean’s 11? Their backstories and skillsets are both distinct and relatable, a combination that helps us empathize with them. But Danny Ocean has also picked a team that compliments each other perfectly. Each character brings a unique set of skills to the table that no other character can do –  imagine if Linus tried to pull off one of The Amazing Yen’s stunts! The characters each have their special talents, and they work well together. That’s what makes them a great team, and it’s why people who’ve watched this movie across the globe root for them. The cast also has amazing chemistry. While watching Ocean’s 11, we wonder – who in our own friends and family is our Danny Ocean, the smooth-talking romantic? We all know rambunctious brothers like the Malloys – and we all wish we knew Don Cheadle!But we relate to characters in movies all the time. Heck, that’s what makes a great movie! But creating chemistry on screen takes intention, effort, and talent. It’s not just the actors working together – it’s the writing, the directing, the costume design, the editing…all of it comes together to create what we in B2B would call a high-value touch point. And the strength of the connections onscreen is what makes this film  Remarkable.What B2B Companies Can Learn From Ocean’s 11Make characters for the personas you’re marketing to. There’s a team member for everyone among the Ocean’s 11 crew. Whether you like the Malloy brothers because they’re jokesters or you relate to Linus Caldwell because he goes against the grain, there’s a character in here for everyone to latch onto. Plus they all have a robust, shared history, which makes them feel more real. So, how’s this applicable to your B2B marketing? For your next campaign, make characters or personas your customers can identify with. Progressive does a great job creating characters to bring their business to life in their ads. They have Flo, their staple insurance spokeswoman; Dr. Rick, a parental life coach who advises people on buying homes; and other characters who tell Progressive’s story. Salesforce is a B2B company that creates characters for their brand narrative, and they’ve created characters so recognizable that people line up to take photos with life-sized versions of them at Dreamforce! That’s the power of harnessing storytelling in B2B marketing – by creating characters that speak to your audience, you have the opportunity to create powerful brand loyalty.Build the best team. Find people who are specialists in their field to fulfill their role in your project or marketing team. Did you know The Amazing Yen, played by Shaobo Qin, was discovered while performing with the Peking Acrobats? Ocean’s 11 was his first acting role. Crazy, right?! In other words, no stunt double required – he actually pulled off that flip in the vault to avoid setting off any sensors near the floor. This casting is a perfect example of finding the right actor and also finding the right role within the heist team. The bottom line: In your B2B marketing, match each of your team member’s strengths to their role, and you can successfully pull off any project.Create a sense of purpose. Danny Ocean and Rusty Ryan bring together their team around a sole mission: a massive heist. Together, they go over the plan and each of their roles within it. Because there’s a reward for successful completion of the mission (about $13M each), it motivates each of them to do their part. There’s also a major caveat that if any one of them messes up, no one will get paid (and worse). So bring your team together around a clear mission with defined roles for each member of the team. Define a shared set of KPIs with clear expectations and work together to achieve your goals.Key Quotes*”There's a lot of different ways there that B2B companies can pull from A-list talent or just creating an ensemble, by having these different characters tell the story of your brand” - Anagha Das*“There's a cool opportunity [for] a business to make an ad where they have their own characters and there's like a story that they build with each one. B2B companies can do the same concept with their personas and create a character based on each persona. Similar to Ocean’s 11, they can even incorporate some of those cinematic storytelling aspects and play that out among the characters.” - Colin StampsTime Stamps[1:17] What's Ocean's 11 about?[1:55] What's an ensemble?[3:10] How successful was Ocean's 11?[4:31] Technique of the week: The Ensemble[5:59] Why does the technique work when it comes to B2B marketing?[9:17] Why is the ensemble an effective storytelling mechanism? [11:04] Who's who in Ocean's 11?[14:15] How do you use the ensemble in your marketing?[18:45] More examples of using an ensemble in B2B marketingLinksWatch Ocean’s 11Check out the Salesforce charactersTake a look at Duolingo on TikTokMeet Dr. Rick, Flo, and more at Progressive.comAnd here’s the Old Spice guyLook at how State Farm is partnering with athletesAbout the ShowRemarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both non-fiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today’s episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios), Dane Eckerle (Head of Development), Colin Stamps (Podcast Launch Manager), Anagha Das (B2B Content Marketing Manager), and Meredith O’Neil (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Meredith O’Neil, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What is puffery? How can you use it in your B2B content?In the mid-2000s there was a King of Puffery. He soared into our lives as the SHAM-WOW guy. But his tour-de-force was the SLAP-CHOP. His name was Vince Offer, and he changed infomercials (and quite literally our lives) forever. In the first episode of REMARKABLE, we examine his use of puffery in the SLAP-CHOP commercials and how you can use it in your B2B marketing. Stop having a boring tuna, stop having a boring life! Let's slap those marketing troubles away and chop up some B2B marketing and content morsels for all to enjoy.Key Quote"There’s an opportunity to do this (for B2B companies). It’d be super interesting if I went on LinkedIn and there was a video from a technology company I follow and it was a fun, infomercial style video instead of a boring product demo…Just to engage with the audience in a different way. I think there’s an opportunity for that.” - Colin StampsTime Stamps*[1:38] What’s the Slap Chop?*[3:33] Who is Vince Offer?*[3:50] The magic of infomercials*[4:55] Why Vince Offer’s marketing technique works*[6:23] The use of exaggeration or “puffery” in marketing*[7:07] Remarkable Technique of the Week: Puffery. Why does puffery in marketing work?*[8:37] How to frame the Before / After in your marketing *[10:08] Other marketing examples of puffery in B2B and B2CLinksWatch the Slap Chop InfomercialRead the Fair Trade Commission ActAbout the ShowRemarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both non-fiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today’s episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios), Dane Eckerle (Head of Development), Colin Stamps (Podcast Launch Manager), Anagha Das (B2B Content Marketing Manager), and Meredith O’Neil (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Meredith O’Neil, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

B2B marketers are always looking for inspiration and ideas. On Remarkable, the Caspian Studios team is bringing you B2B content ideas from Hollywood, B2C and beyond. In each episode we will explore elements of storytelling, design, and production, from studios like Pixar, Marvel, Lucas Films and many more. Then we will apply those lessons learned to how you can improve your B2B content. Welcome to Remarkable! Key Quotes“This is a great podcast that you should definitely listen to!” - Ian Faison, CEO, Caspian Studios“You should tell all of your marketing friends to listen to every episode” - Fian Flason, Anonymous“I like all the different speakers, they are so fun and funny. Especially Meredith.” - Meredith O’Neil“Ian, why do we need quotes for this section?” - Meredith O’Neil“Are you making up quotes and recording our conversation?” - Meredith O’NeilKey TakeawaysWell, since the trailer is only one minute and 18 seconds long, the takeaway is LISTEN IN.Don’t swim on a full stomach.Beer before liquor, never been sicker.Podcasts are good for the soul.Episode HighlightsAgain, it's only one minute and 18 seconds so there aren’t a lot of highlights. We had to make up quotes already. Our first episode is Slap-Chop! Remember that? Choppy chopper thing? Crazy guy chopping stuff? Okay just head over and listen to it.About the ShowRemarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both non-fiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today’s episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios), Dane Eckerle (Head of Development), Colin Stamps (Podcast Launch Manager), Anagha Das (B2B Content Marketing Manager), and Meredith O’Neil (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Meredith O’Neil, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.