Feeling icky about traditional marketing?

This week on Culture Crush, we challenge the status quo with Justin Foster, exploring how to create content that aligns with your values and resonates deeply with your audience, regardless of the algorithm. Learn to ditch the funnel mentality, connect authentically, and build a brand that’s not just profitable but purposeful.

Check out Justin Foster’s work: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fosterjustin/

Questions to Reflect On While Listening

• Do traditional marketing approaches make you feel icky? Justin’s unpacks the inherent ickiness of manipulative marketing techniques rooted in fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) at [27:21].
• Do you find yourself diluting your message in order to appease the algorithm? Reflect on this as Justin explains how focusing on authentic expression and brand poetry can attract the right audience organically, bypassing the need for constant algorithm manipulation at [38:05].
• If there were no rules, if there were no best practice guidelines, if you were to allow your inner activist to roar, what would you create? This ties back to Justin’s core message: creating impact through values alignment, elite skills, and a focus on spiritual ROI at [08:05].

Episode Highlights

• The Funnel Mentality is King? Justin challenges the pervasive funnel mentality in marketing, advocating for authentic conversations and invitations instead of manipulation at [13:54]. He argues that treating humans as mere leads to be funneled leads to poor results.
• Direct-to-Consumer Marketing is Always Effective? Justin explains how the high cost of customer acquisition in direct-to-consumer models often leads to compromises in quality and ultimately hurts the brand at [20:40].

• Fact: Marketing Copy is About Persuasion, Not Truth. Justin reveals the dark origins of marketing copy, tracing its roots back to propaganda techniques used by authoritarian regimes, and advocates for brand poetry as a way to express truth authentically at [38:05].
• Practical Techniques for Authentic Marketing. This episode provides practical advice on using brand poetry and simple language, understanding deeper motivators beyond FUD, and avoiding the automation of intimacy at [32:36] and [52:33]. Discover how to create an experience rather than a transaction.
• The Power of Love in Marketing. Justin emphasizes that love—for yourself, your team, and your customers—is the ultimate algorithm hack. Focusing on creating amazing experiences organically builds word-of-mouth marketing that transcends the need for algorithm game playing at [33:27].

Join the Crush

Every episode is co-curated by our community at Culture Crush LIVE, a series of free online gatherings where we connect, reflect, and meet incredible speakers.

Join the next event: https://www.anthem.ooo/culturecrush

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Ps.

Culture Crush is brought to you by Anthem. Visit us if you’re looking to build a thriving business, team, or culture based on connection, not control.

Chapters

00:00 Welcome to Culture Crush

08:05 Values Alignment: The Core of Purposeful Business

13:54 Ditching the Funnel Mentality: Marketing as Conversation

20:40 The High Cost of Customer Acquisition: A Critical Look at Direct-to-Consumer

27:21 Understanding Deeper Motivators: Beyond FUD

33:27 The Ultimate Algorithm Hack: Love

38:05 Brand Poetry: Communicating Authentically

52:33 Don’t Automate Intimacy: Building Genuine Connections