Every now and then, a project starts with a hunch that a brand has something to say, but hasn’t yet found the right stage to say it on. That’s exactly how On the Record began.
At the time, the team we were working with (Leadpages) was moving upmarket. They’d built a loyal following among entrepreneurs, but now they were ready to reach modern marketers — the kind who care as much about ideas as they do about results. They wanted to be seen not just as a product, but as a voice worth listening to.
So we built them a platform. Literally.
Truax Marketing created, hosted, and produced On the Record, a video-first podcast designed to elevate executive presence and connect with a new generation of marketing leaders. What started as a simple idea soon became something bigger: a full-scale content engine that blurred the lines between creativity and strategy, marketing and music, insight and entertainment.
The result? More than 900,000 listens and views. A show that stood out in a sea of sameness. And a brand voice that people actually wanted to hear.
Client
Leadpages
Services
Creative Direction, Content Creation, Video Marketing, Executive Thought Leadership
Project goals
Finding the Format That Didn’t Exist
There’s no shortage of marketing podcasts. Most sound the same — talking-head interviews, buzzword bingo, and predictable takes on trends. We wanted to create something people actually looked forward to.
Our idea was to merge marketing and music. Two industries built on rhythm, emotion, and storytelling. Each episode would center around a theme inspired by an artist, album, or song — a creative lens for exploring topics that mattered to marketers.
Think: What Jay-Z can teach us about pricing strategy. What Fleetwood Mac can teach us about brand comebacks. How Radiohead reinvented their business model before it was cool.
It was a simple premise with unexpected depth. The structure gave the show freedom to explore everything from creative burnout to data privacy, all while staying grounded in real business insight.
From the start, we wanted On the Record to feel less like a marketing podcast and more like a conversation you’d actually want to have over coffee (or a drink after work).
Building a Voice and a Following
Before cameras ever rolled, we worked closely with the CEO to shape the show’s voice. The goal wasn’t to turn him into a “podcast personality,” but to help him sound like the person he already was — sharp, curious, approachable, and unfiltered in the best way.
Our team handled everything: scripting, day-of production, post-production, and distribution. We developed a loose but deliberate format : an opening riff, a hook that framed the marketing lesson, and a narrative arc that left the listener with something to think about.
The episodes were filmed in-house with a cinematic look and feel that set them apart. We cut short clips for LinkedIn and YouTube to spark conversation, and distributed full episodes across Spotify, Apple, and major podcast platforms.
The early numbers were promising. Then they exploded.
Within the first few months, viewership snowballed — boosted by share-worthy clips, audience engagement, and consistent promotion across social and email. On the Record quickly became a go-to listen for marketing leaders who wanted insight without the ego.
By year’s end, the show had amassed over 900,000 listens and views. But the bigger win was what it did for the brand behind it.
result
Turning a CEO Into a Category Voice
One of our earliest hypotheses was that the podcast could serve as a Trojan horse for thought leadership. And that’s exactly what happened.
As the audience grew, so did the credibility of the voice at its center. The CEO went from being a spokesperson to being a source, someone quoted, shared, and recognized across the marketing space. His presence on LinkedIn gained traction, his content pipeline grew, and his ideas started influencing conversations far beyond the show itself.
That’s the power of a platform built with intent. We weren’t chasing vanity metrics, we were building authority.
Every episode reinforced the company’s broader move upmarket — not by saying, “We’ve changed,” but by showing it. The topics were smarter. The tone was bold.
Behind the Scenes: The Art and the System
For us, On the Record was equal parts creative experiment and operational masterclass. Producing an ongoing video podcast meant juggling a lot of moving parts: scripting, filming, editing, distribution, and analytics all without losing the soul of the show.
We built a repeatable process around creativity. Each episode followed a loose framework, but we left room for spontaneity — a story that unfolded naturally in front of the camera. The result felt effortless to the viewer, but was backed by rigorous planning and production discipline.
Every topic went through a vetting process to ensure it hit the intersection of cultural relevance and brand alignment. We asked three questions before green-lighting an idea:
Would our audience actually care about this?
Does it connect to the brand’s broader narrative?
Can we say something new about it?
That filter kept the show from slipping into the sameness trap that kills most branded podcasts.
What we Learned (and Loved)
On the Record reinforced a core belief for us at Truax: great marketing isn’t about talking louder, it’s about speaking more human.
When you build a platform around genuine curiosity, insight, and creative storytelling, people show up. And when you make your leadership the face of that story, you build something even stronger than reach — you build trust.
We’re proud of the metrics (900,000 is a nice round number), but what mattered more was the meaning behind them. The show changed how people saw the brand, how they engaged with it, and how they talked about it. It made marketing feel like art again.
And that’s exactly what we set out to do.
