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the becoming of a global speaker

AUSTIN, TX

about

Justin Foster is

his kindness. It isn’t meek or

people pleasing or subtle. His

goodness is bold, open, and a

bit wild, capped off by acute

opinions and raw belief in

the potential of people.

“It doesn't matter that you're the smartest person in the room anym

ore...

The first thing you notice

!

...It matters that you're the kindest person in the room,” he says, before sm

iling

as h

e sh

ru

gs.

If the first thing you notice is his

kindness, a close second is surely Foster’s brain. It’s fast and sharp,

seemingly never idle. In his speeches, he weaves provocative, often poetic,

observations about self-acceptance and compassion easily into conversations you

thought were about ineffective marketing moves and

social media.

!

“We are in the age of the human,” he says. “I believe in the power of brands both in people and in organizations to create beautiful, meaningful things. This is a terrible era to be boring and mean. It also means that if you’re the best kept secret, you probably just suck at marketing.”

You’re listening and laughing before you

realize you’re thinking––hard––in an

exciting new way.

“I reframe thinking,”

Foster says. “When I’m done, I want people to say, ‘I’ve never thought

about that before.’”

The 45-year-old husband and father of two sons has

thrived as a branding and social strategist, speaker, coach, consultant, and author, all under his

Foster Thinking practice. His two books, Oatmeal v. Bacon: How

to Differentiate in a Generic World and Human Bacon: A

Man’s Guide to Creating an Awesome Personal

Brand, introduced and unpacked his original

concept: the world’s most

interesting brands and people honestly embrace

their unique, inherent allure and become

irresistible––

like bacon. !

For more than

a d

ecad

e, F

ortu

ne 1

000 co

rporations and self-aware

ent

repr

eneu

rs h

ave turned to Foster for a new w

ay to think––and be.

Along with partner Emily Soccorsy, he has launched Root + River, a new hive of comprehensive branding expertise,

rooted in organizing brands around their belief systems.

Foster is in dizzying demand as both a

coach and a speaker.

And the rush can be traced back to his

willingness to dig deep, and then jump.

!

“I can't smell wet sage brush and leather, a horse, or diesel smoke on a cold morning and not think of the ranch,” he says. But just as his

kindness is a study in unorthodox chemistry, his past is a testament to how often harshness and beauty insist on

existing side by side.

“The ranch was great. It was my saving grace from my less-than-ideal home

life,” Foster says. Then, his darkened countenance returns to

its characteristic brightness as he begins to describe his

grandparents.

“I feel my grandparents in my blood,” he says.

“My g

randfather was the man John Wayne was preten ding to be.

Foster gre

w u

p o

n a

60,0

00-a

cre

catt

le r

anch

in B

aker

C

ity

, Oregon, a sm

all to

wn in the eastern half of the state.

My grandmother was kind but fierce, beautiful and an

g elic.

That really shaped me and made me wh o I am today.”

!

While working a day

job, he tried Toast Masters, and made a life-altering discovery: the shy country kid was actually a charismatic

public speaker destined for big stages. “It was like finding out you could sing,” he says.

“Maybe you’d sung in the shower and then, you walk into a recording studio, and this producer is like,

‘Wow, that was awesome!’”

In Portland, he met Lynna, and the two fell fast and married young. In 1995, the pair and their first son

moved to Boise, Idaho. “We had this faded Chevy Cavalier station wagon. All the paint

had worn off, so it was primer colored. We called it the primer

wagon.”

W

hen F

oster w

as 1

7, h

is fa

mily

p

acked up and m

oved

to Portland, Oregon.

He smiles as he offers the telling snapshot.

Foster held various jobs during those early years in Boise. He sold ink ribbons for cash registers and computer systems in the early heyday of the Internet. He vividly remembers the first commission check that allowed him to fill the primer wagon with groceries instead of “trying

to make spaghetti last for four days.”

He also began to develop his

gift for speaking.

His first “speaking gigs” were sales

presentations to feed his young family.

“I realized that I can do three things better than

anybody I know. Number one, I can read the room and adjust my content to it. Number two, I

never use notes and can speak completely off the cuff. Number

three, I can articulate ideas for people that they find both inspiring and

actionable at the same time.”

In 2003, Foster became self-employed, and his speaking career launched in earnest. “I said yes to everything. I

spoke at the most obscure associations and groups,” he remembers. “I spoke about what I speak about to this day:

preparing for tomorrow and trends. And how those trends relate to branding, leadership, and

self-improvement. I’ve never billed myself as a motivational speaker,” he adds. “Sometimes I say if

you’re motivated, then great––that was free. But I’m here to make you think

and behave differently.” Foster has given speeches in almost every

state and four countries. He has conducted a workshop on customer evangelism in

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia,

and taken the stage at

the Verizon Future of Marketing Conference––the latter on three hours of sleep, two Red Bulls, and a dose of

Advil, demanded after a whirlwind schedule.

“And I crushed it,” he says, grinning.

!

Communicating a

nd

con

necti

ng b

ecam

e Fo

ster

’s p

assi

on, a

nd he

began to uncover and embrace what set him

apart as a spe

aker.

Foster spent a total of 20 years in Idaho, building a strong reputation before moving to Austin, Texas, in 2014. “In the last couple of years, I’ve changed,” he says. “I was speaking to the

mind, hoping that it trickled into the heart. Now I speak to hearts, then minds, then hands.

I’m able to get people to

feel different,

think different,

and do different,

all in the same speech, not through

manipulation, but through the transfer

of an idea.”

The graduates

were mostly older, mostly blue

collar, and all working toward a better life. On the big day, the event’s organizer asked Foster for his alma mater so that he could wear its colors on stage. “I said, ‘I didn’t graduate,’” he says, eyes wide. “I was terrified. I asked, ‘Can I still speak?’ She said, ‘Yes! That’s even

better!’”

As he was sitting on stage, relieved and accepted, the air thick with cries of I love

you, Mom! shouted at the graduates, Foster noticed a trend. “Every one of them had new shoes on,” he says. He tears up, his voice cracking. “And it broke my heart. These were not 22-year-olds graduating from Harvard. These were working-class people. These were

my people.

“I had been ashamed of being those people. But here they were, and they’d bought new shoes for graduation. And it just

broke me. I totally changed my speech on the spot, to talk about hope––about what they represented. I talked about a yes/no

moment, and opting in versus opting out. And from that point forward, I decided that I was no longer going to

be ashamed.”

Why the change? A couple of years ago, Foster was asked to deliver a com mencement address for a university.

!

“Whether that’s in

business and through a brand, or through leadership,

culture, or social––whatever we’re

talking about, it’s all to get you to value who you are as a human

being,” he says. He never delivers the same talk twice. “I do come with a

warning label,” Foster says. “One, I’m going to tell the truth. Two, I’m going to agitate people. Three, I’m going to make whoever hired

me to speak look good.” He demystifies, connects, and empowers. And in the end, listeners feel accepted

and uncomfortable, at peace and utterly restless, all at once. “I clearly understand how to make the audience feel like my

message is very personal and very applicable to each person in the room, regardless of their status or stage of life,” he says.

Today, all of Foster’s speeches focus on helping people understand and

conn

ect t

o se

lf worth

.

A devout believer in sovereignty, Foster considers himself an independent artist. He does not belong to any speaking associations, hand picks all of his speaking engagements, and negotiates directly

with event organizers. He notes that many professional speakers tend to be detached from the realities of everyday business and life.

“I am not an actor. I am an

entrepreneur,” Foster says. “The

stories I have to tell and the ideas I have to share are from my life and the

thousands of people I’ve met around the

country.”

Foster’s mission

to speak in front of receptive audiences has never been

more urgent. He explains intrepidly, his soul

on fire: “To this day, despite all of the automation and digital

and everything else, a well-delivered speech

changes the world.”

AUSTIN, TX

fosterthinking.com

@fosterthinking

the becoming of a global speaker

bio written by: Elisabeth Carroll elisabethcarroll.com

graphic design by: Angelina Briggs artbystudioA.com