Fabio Molle

Fabio Molle is an entrepreneur, former international tennis player, and host of Functional Tennis.

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We met Fabio in early 2022. He had been making the podcast based on his company, also called Functional Tennis, for four years at that point. Fabio wanted to collaborate to improve his narrative storytelling while growing his show.

• Evolving the brand: Functional Tennis was a successful show by many metrics, but evolution was needed for the show to grow. We advised Fabio to fully integrate his ‘1% better every day mantra that was present in his business into his podcast. We did this by coaching Fabio to refer back to this slogan. We also wrote questions that could be used across all interviews, teasing out this philosophy of getting 1% better every day. By placing this idea at the heart of the podcast, it brings business and show closer together. It also gave Fabio more scope to interview guests outside of the tennis world. This was because anyone who had knowledge on how to get 1% better every day was now relevant to the show’s audience.

• Coaching: Fabio came from a sports and business background. So he didn't have a great level of knowledge of storytelling. educated Fabio on the basics of storytelling and a three act narrative. We collaborated on scripts to ensure episodes had a sense of progression and closure. We also coached Fabio on how to deliver these scripts. By the end of our collaboration, Fabio had appreciated the importance of preparation. He was a skilled interviewer, able to listen and respond on his feet. And he was able to incorporate a beginning, middle, and end structure into his questioning instinctively.

• Marketing: Fabio wanted advice on how he could make the most of his content. We produced high quality social media content that was well received by fans. We gave him tips on how to use different platforms. This included branding, subtitling, and editing in-app to get the best algorithm boosts.

• Advertising: Fabio had secured a sponsorship deal and wanted help creating ads. We worked directly with the sponsor to articulate their messaging and align it with his show. We also created a high-quality ad for Functional Tennis that could be dynamically inserted and removed at any point.

• Producing at Pace: Fabio had released episodes at a tremendous speed. Usually produces an episode once a week. We knew this was an excellent pace to grow his show. So we became a well oiled machine together to ensure we elevated the production value while maintaining the same rate of release. We turned around guest research, recordings, scripts, and finished edits weekly.

We produced 15 episodes of Functional Tennis, and the results were instant. Fabio’s podcast grew to the top 1.5% globally. Fans on Apple Podcasts or Instagram were very happy with his new format and questions. He had his highest ever episode listenership in a week during his run with OneFinePlay.

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It was always understood that our collaboration with Fabio would be temporary and as much about learning and education as output. In a relatively short timeframe, the podcast increased its average listenership by 15%. His relationship with sponsors and advertisers was excellent. Positive feedback from fans poured in. And Fabio had ‘levelled up’ his own performance as a podcast host.

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Functional Tennis is now one of the world’s top tennis podcasts.

• Sponsorship deal secured
• 15% increased listenership, growing to top 1.5% globally.
• Became one of the world’s top tennis podcasts.