Explore all emails from Jay Acunzo

Not my usual fare but wanted to try.  ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ 96 ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/n4urxdk06dsvhx0zm4vf6h642pv7ru3gdp83q6k2ok89vdvdrppv465zerrrqnrr53qk2g7834qo8vkm3oq646xevm9wgoq8x33zgk909gp36zw3l02rx96r20viok984/dphehmuen05lqxsl/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29t ) The newsletter of Jay Acunzo. Become a stronger speaker and storyteller, so you can compete on the impact of your ideas, not the volume of your marketing. Don't market more. Matter more. Think resonance over reach. Don't be the best. Be their favorite. New here? Welcome! Subscribe free. ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/n4urxdk06dsvhx0zm4vf6h642pv7ru3gdp83q6k2ok89vdvdrppv465zerrrqnrr53qk2g7834qo8vkm3oq646xevm9wgoq8x33zgk909gp36zw3l02rx96r20viok984/m2h7h6u3z8edolhl/amF5YWN1bnpvLmNvbS9uZXdzbGV0dGVy )​ ************************* A Look Inside My Business ************************* The image in my head is always the same. It's like an action movie. The camera chases me from behind, bouncing as I sprint out my front door. Then it swings up, following my gaze as I watch the sky burning, asteroids pelting the earth around me. It all burns down. Okay, okay, that's a little dramatic as a metaphor for my business collapsing, but (A) being dramatic sure is useful as a speaker and storyteller, and (B) it's genuinely how the start of the pandemic felt for me. I'd spent five years building my speaking business full-time. I lost it all in five days. My livelihood was built around travel and large groups. Few things are more perfect for a pandemic to destroy. (Maybe if you're in the face-licking business?) The thing is, when the world reopened and my peers went back on the road, I did not. That wasn't the plan even before COVID. I knew once we started having kids, I'd need to be less of a road warrior, so the plan was to wean off my travel-heavy work and build up a services business I could operate from home. Then the universe decided there would be no weaning to be had. In an instant, everything crashed down around me. I didn't have the option of slowly winding down one income stream and slowly building another. I needed to replace everything. Fast. Of course, I didn't. I spent a few years lurching around. In that time, I benefitted from great friends and mentors, cognitive behavioral therapy, two loving and supportive parents, and maybe a scoop or two of extra delusion that comes with being a creative entrepreneur. Which brings me to this moment and this update to you. *** For the last three years, I’ve rebuilt my business from my road-heavy speaking business (the largest thing I’d ever built—until recently) to a high-end advisory business ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/n4urxdk06dsvhx0zm4vf6h642pv7ru3gdp83q6k2ok89vdvdrppv465zerrrqnrr53qk2g7834qo8vkm3oq646xevm9wgoq8x33zgk909gp36zw3l02rx96r20viok984/dphehmuen05lqxsl/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29t ). It's gotten so much bigger than I can handle alone that I'm starting to think about hiring (already working with a fantastic ops manager, Emily Cresswell ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/n4urxdk06dsvhx0zm4vf6h642pv7ru3gdp83q6k2ok89vdvdrppv465zerrrqnrr53qk2g7834qo8vkm3oq646xevm9wgoq8x33zgk909gp36zw3l02rx96r20viok984/7qh7h2u95ozrovh9/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubGlua2VkaW4uY29tL2luL2VtaWx5Y3Jlc3N3ZWxsLw== )) and planning to string up a basic website under a brand name which isn't my own. This will likely launch in the fall. This advisory business centers on two things: IP development and public speaking excellence. I work with my clients and cohorts to help them articulate their expertise in the most compelling ways possible. They arrive with expertise and a mountain of ideas, and we turn that into 1 signature, influential idea (their premise) and the IP built on top of it which allows them to distribute, own, and monetize their expertise in more memorable, scalable ways. For some clients, we also work on their signature talk and their speaker success systems. About half my clients are paid speakers. The other half uses speaking as marketing. In both cases, they're typically in the business of expertise, selling some kind of service(s) or educational product(s). Thought leadership, public speaking, and business storytelling are direct lines to revenue, and my work with them makes it easier to win more and better clients at higher prices and with less friction. ****************** BUSINESS BREAKDOWN ****************** For the curious, here is a more detailed look at my business... REVENUE STREAMS (YTD % OF BOOKINGS) * One-on-one clients (48%) * Group programs (25.5%) * Brand deals (17.5%) * Speaker fees (9%) Last year, I had my second-biggest year in terms of gross revenue since I was a full-time speaker and basically broke myself in that year. It was all brute-force. I remember one week in particular, I was crushed to be leaving my then-18-month-old daughter for a full week as I traveled to Nashville, Whistler, and Atlanta in the same week. (I lived outside NYC at the time, though we've been back in Boston since 2019.) Last year was the second-highest grossing compared to that year, but it felt far more sustainable. To start this year, I set an aggressive revenue target, higher than last year's, and reader, I still can't believe the sentence I'm about to type: as of last week, my bookings for the year have passed my revenue target. That means before the end of April, I've booked more revenue than my entire 2026 goal. I am gobsmacked, but as my friend and business mentor Michelle Warner told me, "Welcome to product/market/founder fit. When the alignment snaps in, the universe tends to follow." As of this writing, my next opening for 1:1 clients is in August. Learn about my services here. ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/n4urxdk06dsvhx0zm4vf6h642pv7ru3gdp83q6k2ok89vdvdrppv465zerrrqnrr53qk2g7834qo8vkm3oq646xevm9wgoq8x33zgk909gp36zw3l02rx96r20viok984/owhkhwuwdro2rkuq/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL3NlcnZpY2Vz )​ My years of lurching around searching for a focus are over. I feel like collapsing and, honestly, crying. I can neither confirm nor deny that I've done both over the last month. (It helps that I went on a long overdue vacation with my oldest friends in the world last week, some of whom I've known since I was two years old, all of whom I've known for at least 26 years! The sunshine, the deep breaths, the laughs, and the long road to get here since 2020—it all hit me at once.) ​ REVENUE ANALYSIS The rise of group (The Green Room): I maxed out my 1:1 time to start the year, meaning I can't book any more advisory clients until August, which is a strange, wonderful, yet stressful thing to acknowledge to others. That means I've re-thought my group program. Previously, I ran something for $2,250 called Design My Signature Talk. This was an eight-week virtual accelerator to build your talk, and it appealed to a smattering of folks at all stages. But my 1:1 engagements are more expensive (minimum $5k/month for 3- or 6-months). Over time, my existing 1:1 clients started asking about group, while some 1:1-caliber prospects wanted to start with a group program. I had nothing for them. Complicating things, your success as a public speaker unfolds over the long arc of time, not 3- or 6-months. As of now, I've sold 8 of 10 seats into the new iteration of my group program. These are authors, speakers, former execs, and emerging thought leaders ready to go from one-off keynotes to sustainable revenue from the stage. Rather than eight weeks virtually, it's a full-year program, guided by a light curriculum, with two in-person retreats. It's meant for experts, authors, and speakers to build their paid speaking flywheels together -- the talk, the proof, the network, the systems. * I'm finalizing those last two spots this week. Reply if you want to see the sales page with all details. This group program will eventually become my signature offering, while the 1:1 advisory services become a premium-level secondary offering. Both are aligned with each other, serving the same audience in different ways, rather than splitting me across two different audiences. My previous group program showed me just how exhausting it can be to have up- and down-market offerings (or maybe up- and mid-market, given my prices). The Green Room will also allow me to remain application-based, instead of pay-to-join, which I prefer and existing members like better. I can also run multiple small groups and bring on other coaches to lead a group or two, scaling my revenue beyond what 1:1 engagements allow for. All in all, it's snapping into place with 1:1 and group being so aligned. ​ Current roster of 1:1 clients: Here is an anonymized list of clients who have hired me to develop their premise, IP, and signature talks, as well as their audience growth and speaking success systems: * A repeat founder launching a new company helping creators who are at scale stay safe despite how visible they've become. [Repeat client] * A former sales exec in the banking sector who now works with innovative fintech leaders to help them sell into financial institutions. [Also joining the Green Room.] * A former HR executive at global brands who now writes, speaks, podcasts, and consults about the future of HR. [Also joining the Green Room.] * An executive coach previously specializing in neurodivergent leaders expanding to include all kinds of execs and high-performers as a coach, drawing on her knowledge of systems and the brain. [Repeat client. Also joining the Green Room.] * A veteran brand marketer and strategist building her own agency and helping her clients rethink the power of actual brand strategy. * The CEO of a scaling startup empowering professionals through exam prep tools. * The EVP of a midsized software-and-services firm becoming the known, trusted voice for his organization. * A veteran podcast producer building his own agency, serving enterprise brands, learning to step into the spotlight to grow the business. ​ Speaker fees: Looking at my numbers, a few things jump out. Let's start with speaker fees, since that's what started this whole entrepreneurial journey for me back in 2016. My kids are 7 and 4, which means my wife and I can take turns traveling solo without the other feeling totally crushed at home. But it's still pretty exhausting—and not at all my preferred way of working. You can promise me a big bag of cash and a thousand people's laughter and applause, and that still doesn't come close to the feeling of simply being at home with my kids. As a result, speaker fees are where I want them to be. I should end the year with those right around 10-12%. They were 80% pre-pandemic. This year's totals are exactly aligned with the target I set for my speaker revenue when I began to reinvent things three years ago. Finally. The next five years will mean growing those slightly, but I have no plans to return to the full road-warrior mode. Much respect to my favorite humans who are doing that. I'm here to support you from behind-the-scenes! ​ Where speaking fits now: Today, while I can maintain some direct revenue from speaking, most of my speaking is the best possible marketing for my services—and most of those talks happen quietly, privately, to densities of my ideal audience (niche media groups, community groups, and collaborative webinars with complementary service providers, delivered as free sessions). This is a real advantage I've worked hard to earn, but only recently have I realized just how differentiating and powerful it can be for any of us who sell services. If building a keynote speaking business is like playing basketball on a 10-foot rim, defended by NBA players, then giving webinars feels to me like dunking on a Fisher Price hoop, completely alone in the driveway. The bar is SO low that if you can leap over them, some really impressive people want to hire you after a guest webinar. It helps that I can showcase the very same things I help others develop: my premise, my IP, and my storytelling and speaking abilities. (All this to say, if YOU run a media company or community of established entrepreneurs or executives, invite me to speak. I'll probably say yes 😊) Again, I'm still speaking regularly, just at lower volumes, but I'll do as many guest sessions virtually as the world will allow! ​ Upcoming talks: To give you a sense for precisely how speaking fits in my world today, here's a look at a selection of talks I'll be delivering: * PAID GIGS: Two private clients hired me to speak virtually to their marketing teams to set the tone at their off-sites. One is a media and entertainment conglomerate whose characters, properties, and parks help you wish upon a star. The other is an incredible team of marketers building at a leading agency specializing in TV advertising for its clients. For both, I'm giving my signature talk, Resonance Over Reach: How to Compete on the Influence of Your Ideas, Not the Volume of Your Marketing. * FREE SESSIONS: A few friends also graciously opened the doors to their communities of creators, where I'll be giving free sessions about the business of speaking, including Jay Clouse (he runs The Lab ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/n4urxdk06dsvhx0zm4vf6h642pv7ru3gdp83q6k2ok89vdvdrppv465zerrrqnrr53qk2g7834qo8vkm3oq646xevm9wgoq8x33zgk909gp36zw3l02rx96r20viok984/z2hgh7uex3wq3kuz/aHR0cHM6Ly9qb2luLmNyZWF0b3JzY2llbmNlLmNvbS8= )) and Justin Moore (he owns Creator Wizard ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/n4urxdk06dsvhx0zm4vf6h642pv7ru3gdp83q6k2ok89vdvdrppv465zerrrqnrr53qk2g7834qo8vkm3oq646xevm9wgoq8x33zgk909gp36zw3l02rx96r20viok984/p8hehqu4ozxnzdsr/aHR0cHM6Ly9jcmVhdG9yd2l6YXJkLmNvbQ== ), coaching creators on all things brand deals). * BOSTON STRONG: I'm also speaking at a couple events local to me (woo!), including BookThinkers LIVE ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/n4urxdk06dsvhx0zm4vf6h642pv7ru3gdp83q6k2ok89vdvdrppv465zerrrqnrr53qk2g7834qo8vkm3oq646xevm9wgoq8x33zgk909gp36zw3l02rx96r20viok984/x0hph3ue0w35wdfg/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYm9va3RoaW5rZXJzLmNvbS9ib29rLXRoaW5rZXJzLWxpdmUtMjAyNg== ) and B2B Forum ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/n4urxdk06dsvhx0zm4vf6h642pv7ru3gdp83q6k2ok89vdvdrppv465zerrrqnrr53qk2g7834qo8vkm3oq646xevm9wgoq8x33zgk909gp36zw3l02rx96r20viok984/6qhehoule7om7dc9/aHR0cHM6Ly9tcGIyYi5tYXJrZXRpbmdwcm9mcy5jb20v ). * DANCING IN DENMARK: Lastly, I'm honored to be the opening speaker at a brand-new event for content marketers, launched this fall by a successful events organization in Denmark. I'll be traveling to Odense in October to give my signature keynote, plus a breakout about public speaking. ​ *************** WHAT'S WORKING? *************** Reinventing things was a slog. It got bleak for awhile, and I considered giving up and looking for a corporate job multiple times. That all ended about two and a half years ago when things started to click. I started to feel a kind of momentum I NEVER had, and this year, I'm holding something in my hand that's bigger and better than I ever imagined, just trying not to screw it up. So what’s working? Hard to say. A million little things, but a few thoughts: 1) Getting clear on my offerings. Crazy to say, but as I've suggested above, I couldn't really tell folks what I sold in my post-pandemic business until the last couple years. They could be huge fans and holding up wads of cash asking to hire me. I'd shrug and say, "You can hire me for ... things. Yep. Definitely things. Also stuff. Plenty of stuff. Mostly stuff having to do with things I write and speak about." Oof. When you sell high-ticket offerings, it's not about the cleverness of the offering. It's about the clarity. 2) Years of refusing to compromise my values and play the gimmicky social media game finally align with my offerings and market. The tactics to get “bigger” mainly repel serious clients capable of paying five figure fees. HAVING a big audience can help. GETTING to a big audience mostly means appealing to not very strategic or discerning people. Hard to sell premium things to premium people when you signal you aren’t. Some folks have approached me over the years to say something that sounds like, "I appreciate how you don't compromise, Jay. I can't wait until I have the results I need so I can stop playing this soul-sucking game." I tell them the same thing: Pick your clients, pick your future. If you know and respect me, it's only because I've always been this way. You don't play the gimmicky-game, then switch it off. You resist in order to rise. To the extent that I have or am a "personal brand" named Jay Acunzo, I feel like saying to these people: how do you think I became Jay Acunzo? My style, my vibe, my voice, my work's alignment with my values—that's not the byproduct of success. That's the cause. (Be right back. I need to take a shower after writing about myself that way...)​​3) Leaning into my speaking and my IP away from physical stages is paying serious dividends and turning sales calls into formalities. Webinars, podcast guesting, networking 1:1 and 1:few—relationship marketing 101. I mentioned this before, so I won't belabor it here, but a guest talk to 20 qualified people in a mastermind is much more valuable to me than social posts garnering 10k Likes or 1M views. The full embrace of relationship marketing has meant slower follower growth on social media and virtually no email list growth, but about 3x more leads from a much more valuable audience. It's not that my audience isn't growing. It's that I'm shedding folks who aren't relevant and aren't interested in my current focus while adding people who are. The result is an increase in value but not totals, as well as many more qualified people booking calls with me than previous years. This also means I spend more time on networking calls than carefully crafting social content. I still post to social media, but only because it's fun for me to express, poke the bear, and create. I also love to teach and field questions in my comments. I never had and still don't have a strategy for LinkedIn. Maybe that's a mistake. All I know is, the folks who have painstakingly scoped out their content strategy on these channels are constantly reacting, constantly stressed, and currently telling me how the algorithm is reducing their results. Meanwhile, my LinkedIn impressions are up 40% quarter over quarter. Engagements are up 34%. And that's the only time you'll catch me checking these numbers. Lastly, my relationship-focus (versus traffic-focus) has meant exceptional conversion rates. In fact, 70% of all prospects who schedule a sales call with me have hired me. By putting in the work earlier to meet folks as a speaker, writer, and trusted voice, someone booking a call with me is asking questions about timeline and specific work we'd do and how I'd tailor my ideas to their precise situations. The call is a sample of our work together and a means to check availability and alignment. It's not really a "sales" call. They're mostly convinced. 4) A return to my roots. Before the pandemic, I would freely organize groups to talk shop and chat with people 1:1 virtually and in-person. I was here to help. As my network grew and also as things got hard, I tensed up. I stopped focusing on being useful and uplifting and focused narrowly on trying to generate some kind of business result, which mainly looked like "survive." But now, I feel the joy in simply being helpful again. I've been organizing virtual meetups of keynote speakers (let me know if you want to join the next one). I've offered folks my time to talk shop a bit more freely. I've shared more advice and results from my own work and traction, not just big-think concepts. It feels good. If there's anything I wanted to say to you today, it's that. I've felt pretty bad for many years building my business. But today, the sun is shining, the people are kind, and I can see my kids tossing the frisbee with my wife just outside my window as I write this. And nothing is pulling me away from them. ------------------------------------------------------ I understand today's world is uncertain and stressful. ------------------------------------------------------ I know what I just shared might make me the exception. But I promise you, there is a future where things run smoother and get better. I don't say this because I'm in the business of self-help. I say this because I'm the beneficiary of others' help. I say this because I have scars I can point to and stories I can share. I'm here, telling you to keep going, because a little delusion is what you might need. I'm here to say it's possible to align your values and your business, to serve people you adore, and to not chain yourself to the feeds and the terrible decisions made by faraway tech executives who don't care about you or anything but themselves. I'm here to share a message from your future, spoken not as someone who skipped lightly around the world but the guy who sprinted out his front door to watch a sky on fire, convinced it was over. But as we know, that's not where the story ends. Keep going. *** Save or share this essay: ​jayacunzo.com/blog/reinvention ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/n4urxdk06dsvhx0zm4vf6h642pv7ru3gdp83q6k2ok89vdvdrppv465zerrrqnrr53qk2g7834qo8vkm3oq646xevm9wgoq8x33zgk909gp36zw3l02rx96r20viok984/kkhmh2unvlmkl9ak/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL2Jsb2cvcmVpbnZlbnRpb24= )​ *** What else can I answer about my business? Ask me anything in a reply. *********** Bonus Bits: *********** 1) The biggest mistake speakers make when charging a fee. ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/n4urxdk06dsvhx0zm4vf6h642pv7ru3gdp83q6k2ok89vdvdrppv465zerrrqnrr53qk2g7834qo8vkm3oq646xevm9wgoq8x33zgk909gp36zw3l02rx96r20viok984/58hvh8ug2m7rm5i7/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubGlua2VkaW4uY29tL3Bvc3RzL2pheWFjdW56b190aGUtYmlnZ2VzdC1taXN0YWtlLXNwZWFrZXJzLW1ha2Utd2hlbi1jaGFyZ2luZy1hY3Rpdml0eS03NDUxNjI4NTczNDgxNjY4NjA4LTBMN1g_dXRtX3NvdXJjZT1zaGFyZSZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPW1lbWJlcl9kZXNrdG9wJnJjbT1BQ29BQUFQQndCMEJJRjV3QUJWSy1DRGlqUVRtNGhMVUd1Nzd2QUU= )​ 2) RSVP before April 27: How to build your services business without social media ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/n4urxdk06dsvhx0zm4vf6h642pv7ru3gdp83q6k2ok89vdvdrppv465zerrrqnrr53qk2g7834qo8vkm3oq646xevm9wgoq8x33zgk909gp36zw3l02rx96r20viok984/25h2h9u3w2dk22i8/aHR0cHM6Ly90aGVtaWNoZWxsZXdhcm5lLmtpdC5jb20vcmVsYXRpb25zaGlwbWFya2V0aW5n )​ * My friend and business sensei Michelle Warner's upcoming session. I am the beneficiary of her genius and highly recommend learning from her. This talk is for people who are relationship marketing-curious and are ready to see the workflow in action to understand what it would look like in their business. * Join her live on April 27th at 2pm ET. Register free. ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/n4urxdk06dsvhx0zm4vf6h642pv7ru3gdp83q6k2ok89vdvdrppv465zerrrqnrr53qk2g7834qo8vkm3oq646xevm9wgoq8x33zgk909gp36zw3l02rx96r20viok984/25h2h9u3w2dk22i8/aHR0cHM6Ly90aGVtaWNoZWxsZXdhcm5lLmtpdC5jb20vcmVsYXRpb25zaGlwbWFya2V0aW5n )​ * PS: Learn from her format too. These "look over my shoulder" sessions are genius, and we can all run our own! * PPS: She also offers an actual bootcamp to build your relationship funnel. Here's the link to skip the line. ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/n4urxdk06dsvhx0zm4vf6h642pv7ru3gdp83q6k2ok89vdvdrppv465zerrrqnrr53qk2g7834qo8vkm3oq646xevm9wgoq8x33zgk909gp36zw3l02rx96r20viok984/qvh8h8udprn9rdsg/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cudGhlbWljaGVsbGV3YXJuZXIuY29tL3JlbGF0aW9uc2hpcGJvb3RjYW1w )​ Thanks for the work you create, and thanks for supporting mine. I'm back in your inbox next Friday. Reply to reach me anytime. Keep making what matters, —Jay ​ JAY ACUNZO ​Book me to speak ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/n4urxdk06dsvhx0zm4vf6h642pv7ru3gdp83q6k2ok89vdvdrppv465zerrrqnrr53qk2g7834qo8vkm3oq646xevm9wgoq8x33zgk909gp36zw3l02rx96r20viok984/g3hnhwumw3p436s3/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL2tleW5vdGVz )​ ​Explore my advisory services ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/n4urxdk06dsvhx0zm4vf6h642pv7ru3gdp83q6k2ok89vdvdrppv465zerrrqnrr53qk2g7834qo8vkm3oq646xevm9wgoq8x33zgk909gp36zw3l02rx96r20viok984/owhkhwuwdro2rkuq/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL3NlcnZpY2Vz )​ ​Read past essays ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/n4urxdk06dsvhx0zm4vf6h642pv7ru3gdp83q6k2ok89vdvdrppv465zerrrqnrr53qk2g7834qo8vkm3oq646xevm9wgoq8x33zgk909gp36zw3l02rx96r20viok984/9qhzhdudrp9op9bz/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL2Jsb2c= ) - buy my book ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/n4urxdk06dsvhx0zm4vf6h642pv7ru3gdp83q6k2ok89vdvdrppv465zerrrqnrr53qk2g7834qo8vkm3oq646xevm9wgoq8x33zgk909gp36zw3l02rx96r20viok984/3ohphdu3g7ze7vsp/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL2JyZWFrLXRoZS13aGVlbA== ) - listen to my podcast ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/n4urxdk06dsvhx0zm4vf6h642pv7ru3gdp83q6k2ok89vdvdrppv465zerrrqnrr53qk2g7834qo8vkm3oq646xevm9wgoq8x33zgk909gp36zw3l02rx96r20viok984/n2hohquv03rz32h0/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL2hvdy1zdG9yaWVzLWhhcHBlbi1zdG9yeXRlbGxpbmctcG9kY2FzdA== )​ Playing Favorites is an Unthinkable Media property. No longer interested? No worries: unsubscribe here. ( https://e663a8f1.unsubscribe.kit-mail3.com/n4urxdk06dsvhx0zm4vf6h642pv7ru3gdp83q6k2ok89vdvdrppv465zerrrqnrr53qk2g7834qo8vkm3oq646xevm9wgoq8x33zgk909gp36zw3l02rx96r20viok984 ) Update Your Profile ( https://preferences.kit-mail3.com/n4urxdk06dsvhx0zm4vf6h642pv7ru3gdp83q6k2ok89vdvdrppv465zerrrqnrr53qk2g7834qo8vkm3oq646xevm9wgoq8x33zgk909gp36zw3l02rx96r20viok984 ) | P.O. Box 80081, Stoneham, MA 02180

Rut roh.  ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ 96 ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/gkup86o0q6a5hlwg3v2urh8ogezp4h8g2408pkwv3w06x2x2544x9kl7z555pr55l8pwvgn089p30xwe83pk9kozxe6qg3p0o887gw6d6g48k7q8mdv5o6k5vdxc2mkz4/vqh3hmuorv9wl5iw/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29t ) The newsletter of Jay Acunzo. Become a stronger speaker and storyteller, so you can compete on the impact of your ideas, not the volume of your marketing. Don't market more. Matter more. Think resonance over reach. Don't be the best. Be their favorite. New here? Welcome! Subscribe free. ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/gkup86o0q6a5hlwg3v2urh8ogezp4h8g2408pkwv3w06x2x2544x9kl7z555pr55l8pwvgn089p30xwe83pk9kozxe6qg3p0o887gw6d6g48k7q8mdv5o6k5vdxc2mkz4/08hwhgu2r96lnvtp/amF5YWN1bnpvLmNvbS9uZXdzbGV0dGVy )​ ***************** Hello, my friend! ***************** I am deep in the throes of developing a small group program for keynote speakers. If that's you, please reply, and let's have a conversation. (I'm also going on my first adults-only vacation with my wife and friends in years. We're celebrating all of us turning 40!) For now, I wanted to share two rants about The Current Moment. May you find catharsis, a few chuckles, and maybe an idea or two... IT CAN'T BE YOUR ADVANTAGE IF IT COMES FROM A BOX: Public speaking is the least technology-enabled skill you can master. I think about this all the time when folks ask me about AI. I don't know much, but I'm fairly certain your personal advantage will never be a tool that all your competitors can ALSO access for 20 bucks a month. (It doesn't matter the tool, by the way. Swap out AI for anything else.) Meanwhile, speaking is the most personal, transferable skillset which immediately and instantly enhances your value, perception, memorability, and odds of success everywhere you need to communicate. Though I can't force-rank the beloved skills I've worked tirelessly to master (storytelling and writing included), public speaking is arguably the least commonly mastered. There are more great storytellers and great writers in the world than there are great speakers. If you are all three? You can do whatever the heck you want in your work. You'll have a much easier time of it. This is why it has never made sense to me to watch people work tirelessly and invest serious time and dollars into learning a tool when they haven't done the same for foundational, evergreen, and ever-powerful skills. Listen, to hedge a bit: I don't "hate tech." Technology and specifically the internet has powered my creativity and business my entire career, and the majority of people who read, watch, listen to, or hire me right now would not know I existed without technology. I'm all kinds of tech-enabled. But I am also realistic. If you can access something with a credit card for the cost of a couple mediocre cocktails each month, and you can follow a checklist to make it even passable to use, then you aren't likely to benefit nearly as much as the people selling the thing want you to believe. As always, and perhaps more than ever, it's not the knife, it's the chef. It's not the gear, it's the talent. It's not the mic, it's the speaker. It's not the tool, it's you. It's f*cking you. Never forget that. [Find and share this rant here ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/gkup86o0q6a5hlwg3v2urh8ogezp4h8g2408pkwv3w06x2x2544x9kl7z555pr55l8pwvgn089p30xwe83pk9kozxe6qg3p0o887gw6d6g48k7q8mdv5o6k5vdxc2mkz4/dphehmueno9pdlsl/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubGlua2VkaW4uY29tL3Bvc3RzL2pheWFjdW56b19wdWJsaWMtc3BlYWtpbmctaXMtdGhlLWxlYXN0LXRlY2hub2xvZ3ktZW5hYmxlZC1hY3Rpdml0eS03NDUwNTQxODgwNzYyODE4NTYwLVpnVDQ_dXRtX3NvdXJjZT1zaGFyZSZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPW1lbWJlcl9kZXNrdG9wJnJjbT1BQ29BQUFQQndCMEJJRjV3QUJWSy1DRGlqUVRtNGhMVUd1Nzd2QUU= ).] *** "WHY DO YOU HATE AI SO MUCH, JAY?" I was recently asked that on a podcast. Can I be honest for a second (he says, fully planning on being honest for a second)? I've never been more satisfied with a rant of mine. ​Here's what I said. ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/gkup86o0q6a5hlwg3v2urh8ogezp4h8g2408pkwv3w06x2x2544x9kl7z555pr55l8pwvgn089p30xwe83pk9kozxe6qg3p0o887gw6d6g48k7q8mdv5o6k5vdxc2mkz4/owhkhwuwd6mqxebq/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubGlua2VkaW4uY29tL3Bvc3RzL2pheWFjdW56b193aHktZG8teW91LWhhdGUtYWktamF5LWFjdGl2aXR5LTc0NDk0OTQ0NzM1OTc4OTQ2NTYta0lFOT91dG1fc291cmNlPXNoYXJlJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09bWVtYmVyX2Rlc2t0b3AmcmNtPUFDb0FBQVBCd0IwQklGNXdBQlZLLUNEaWpRVG00aExVR3U3N3ZBRQ== )​ Thanks for the work you create, and thanks for supporting mine. I'm back in your inbox next Friday. Reply to reach me anytime. Keep making what matters, —Jay ​ JAY ACUNZO ​Book me to speak ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/gkup86o0q6a5hlwg3v2urh8ogezp4h8g2408pkwv3w06x2x2544x9kl7z555pr55l8pwvgn089p30xwe83pk9kozxe6qg3p0o887gw6d6g48k7q8mdv5o6k5vdxc2mkz4/6qhehoule589z5i9/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL2tleW5vdGVz )​ ​Explore my advisory services ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/gkup86o0q6a5hlwg3v2urh8ogezp4h8g2408pkwv3w06x2x2544x9kl7z555pr55l8pwvgn089p30xwe83pk9kozxe6qg3p0o887gw6d6g48k7q8mdv5o6k5vdxc2mkz4/p8hehqu4o2wqm9sr/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL3NlcnZpY2Vz )​ ​Read past essays ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/gkup86o0q6a5hlwg3v2urh8ogezp4h8g2408pkwv3w06x2x2544x9kl7z555pr55l8pwvgn089p30xwe83pk9kozxe6qg3p0o887gw6d6g48k7q8mdv5o6k5vdxc2mkz4/58hvh8ug2nd6q7a7/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL2Jsb2c= ) - buy my book ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/gkup86o0q6a5hlwg3v2urh8ogezp4h8g2408pkwv3w06x2x2544x9kl7z555pr55l8pwvgn089p30xwe83pk9kozxe6qg3p0o887gw6d6g48k7q8mdv5o6k5vdxc2mkz4/3ohphdu3g25p0gup/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL2JyZWFrLXRoZS13aGVlbA== ) - listen to my podcast ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/gkup86o0q6a5hlwg3v2urh8ogezp4h8g2408pkwv3w06x2x2544x9kl7z555pr55l8pwvgn089p30xwe83pk9kozxe6qg3p0o887gw6d6g48k7q8mdv5o6k5vdxc2mkz4/wnh2h6uq6k20nesl/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL2hvdy1zdG9yaWVzLWhhcHBlbi1zdG9yeXRlbGxpbmctcG9kY2FzdA== )​ Playing Favorites is an Unthinkable Media property. 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Wonder > attention  ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ 96 ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/qdu2w5vr75f7h4p4798ilh8dpzx2qf972dn9pvlr5ln3o2o2kddoevwzqkkkpgkkw9plr7mn9ep5nol095pvev6qo03875pn699z7l3x37d9vz894xrk63vkrxobpdwn3/g3hnhwum9we5xvs3/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29t ) The newsletter of Jay Acunzo. Become a stronger speaker and storyteller, so you can compete on the impact of your ideas, not the volume of your marketing. Don't market more. Matter more. Think resonance over reach. Don't be the best. Be their favorite. New here? Welcome! Subscribe free. ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/qdu2w5vr75f7h4p4798ilh8dpzx2qf972dn9pvlr5ln3o2o2kddoevwzqkkkpgkkw9plr7mn9ep5nol095pvev6qo03875pn699z7l3x37d9vz894xrk63vkrxobpdwn3/owhkhwuw9d4v5psq/amF5YWN1bnpvLmNvbS9uZXdzbGV0dGVy )​ ************************************* "I can't believe people can do that." ************************************* I want to live in a world where we value wonder more than attention. This goes both ways: * We experience wonder, rather than melt our brains into a tiny screen as we waste away our attention. This feels like growth and expansion rather than hiding or withering. * We create wonder in others, rather than constantly and aggressively scrambling for their attention. This feels like giving rather than taking. I want to live in that kind of world. I want to build that kind of world. And I think this happens once we start to realize where the most value and meaning actually comes from when we experience something. The source of something's power isn't really the thing itself. The source of the power is that people decided to make it. When I experience something, it carries more meaning and therefore does the job the thing is meant to do better because I can appreciate that people were behind this. In the same way a bot producing a sketch is less impressive than a human sketching by hand, it is human effort and striving and struggle that matters most when you create something meant to resonate. If you want to influence and inspire, if you want to build an audience of passionate fans and followers (at least one that doesn't make you want to walk slowly into the ocean most days), then we can't omit that part. The proverbial "journey, not the destination" applies here a little bit. But mostly, it's a realization your audience has about the journey which separates truly resonant work from commodity material. *** This week, I was grateful my family and I caught the livestream of the liftoff of NASA's Artemis II mission. (Thanks, Dad, for reminding me. I know you're reading this.) (That's not sarcasm. I'm nothing if not the byproduct of two supportive parents!) Anyway, in the moments leading up to the launch, you could hear astronauts, NASA representatives, and aerospace experts talking excitedly to the media about what to expect and why this was happening. Then, during liftoff and the moments thereafter, you could hear more chatter from people involved, whether from the control room or through additional media coverage. In all of that discussion, I was struck by something. They didn't celebrate the achievements of technology. They celebrated the achievements of humankind. After all, when Neil Armstrong became the first human to step foot onto the moon, he said, "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind." But I just loved what I heard from people involved in the Artemis II mission. It felt familiar, like hearing people talk about the Olympics. This was a moment for humans. They didn't applaud the achievements of metal and plastic. This wasn't a big moment for nuts and bolts. This launch didn't bring together a diverse array of rocket fuels to celebrate this milestone. This was about people. People did this. Wow. Incredible. In those moments, I felt a deeply rooted sense of wonder surround my person. What if we appreciated everything the same way? I'm so sick of people running around the internet going, "Look what AI can do!" I want to see what people can do. I want to see what YOU can do. "I asked ChatGPT..." I don't care in the slightest. What did you ask yourself? How did you answer? What did you find awaiting you, once you decided to examine the contents of your heart? What are the truths you're sharing about your flesh and bones existence? Give me THAT work. Let's build THAT world. I'm certainly going to try. Some people are impressed when an AI tool pops out an animation of a robot running through the woods. I'm not. Not in the slightest. Big whoop. It's built to do that. It was programmed. It didn't make choices or face friction or self-doubt or competing priorities or peer pressure to do that, yet it emerged triumphant. You know who did? The team behind The Wild Robot. That's why lazy uses of AI makes me shrug and that movie made me cry. Err, uh, I mean, it was raining on my face. I had dust in my eye. It was the dog. Shut up. Watching the Artemis II, I had a familiar thought. This thought pops to mind whenever something resonates with me: "I can't believe people can do that." This, my friend, is the true source of something's power and meaning. It's why I feel so much wonder at the world. It's not the thing itself, the "face value" of it. It's the fact that human beings made a decision to do something. Then, so much — so very, very much — went into making it happen. They made choices, overcame a ton of internal and external friction, then created something, achieved something, and made me think and feel something. That required a heck of a lot from them to do it. Meanwhile, we exist in a moment in the business world where content creators are effectively saying to others (as Brendan Hufford has said): "I deserve your time, but you don't deserve mine." What went into the work was virtually no effort, but people still expect others to spend time with it. That makes no sense. But then I encounter something that moves me, and I'm back to thinking, "I can't believe people can do that." The thing is, this thought evolves into two additional thoughts shortly after it arrives. The sentence sounds the same. What changes is the emphasis. At first, it's about the thing I'm experiencing on face value: "I can't believe people can do THAT." The emphasis is on the piece, the project, the experience, the THAT. But then rather quickly, I start to realize, "Wait a second, this thing didn't just exist. It had to be thought out, designed, developed, shipped." The emphasis changes: "I can't believe people can DO that!" Wait a second, they chose to do that! They invested their finite energy and time on this earth to DO that. That's incredible! Yes, the thing itself is great, but the actions required to make it real? That's where the meaning comes from. I'm more impressed and moved because others had such commitment to do it, to pursue it, to try and fail and learn and try again. They chose to DO that. My appreciation runs deeper and the meaning feels grander than the face value of the thing (the "THAT" of it all) because of that journey (the "DO" of it all). And so I think, "I can't believe people can DO that!" But then, dear reader, the sentence takes its final form. This is the best part. It's just ... delicious. Oh man. Oh, dearest reader of mine. It's THE best part. The BEST part. To understand the best part, I need to share one quick tangent. Earlier in the week, days before we watched the Artemis II, I was showing my first-grade daughter, Aria, a music video from Coldplay. We'd heard their song "Higher Power" playing somewhere in the world, and she loved it, so later that day, I found the dance video on YouTube ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/qdu2w5vr75f7h4p4798ilh8dpzx2qf972dn9pvlr5ln3o2o2kddoevwzqkkkpgkkw9plr7mn9ep5nol095pvev6qo03875pn699z7l3x37d9vz894xrk63vkrxobpdwn3/z2hgh7ue6xov06cz/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cueW91dHViZS5jb20vd2F0Y2g_bGlzdD1SRDNXT3dhMGxXRXo0JnN0YXJ0X3JhZGlvPTEmdj0zV093YTBsV0V6NA== ). We sat there together, gawking at it. It's here you need to know something about Aria: she's perfectly named. We couldn't anticipate it, but we gave her a name connected to music, and she's blossomed into the most musical, creative little human. She is obsessed with listening to music, singing songs, and dancing. She's also bizarrely fluid and graceful and advanced in her dance moves and her ability to mimic a singer on stage. (People reading this who have met me in-person or watched me give a talk are screaming at the screen, "IT ISN'T THAT HARD TO UNDERSTAND, DUDE!" Yep, I get it: she got my wife's beauty and grace, and my desire for the spotlight. I love it.) When Aria turned two, she began using random things around the house as microphones. Her grandparents then bought a plastic mic and mic stand, which became her favorite spot in the house during the pandemic. We have a million videos of her tiny vertical ponytail bouncing up and down as she sang along to any song she heard. She'd close her eyes, furrow her brow, grip the plastic blue mic with both hands, and dramatically sing U2's "Stuck in a Moment" and Elton John's "I'm Still Standing." (Thank you, Sing soundtrack.) Once she got a little older, Aria discovered she could sing AND dance at the same time, and so she'd find literally any reflective surface and perform. This means for the last few years of my life, about three or four times a week, I stand at the kitchen sink washing dishes and receive a private musical performance courtesy of Aria, tearing it up in front of her reflection against the back door. Between at-home performances and now dance classes and recitals, Aria has been all-in on musical performances. As she told me the other day, partway through popping and locking across the living room: "Daddy, I love to dance because it's how I EXPRESS." My heart almost exploded out of my chest. Back to the video. Aria and I watched the "Higher Power" dancers, and her jaw slowly dropped. She stood perfectly still for two minutes—an eternity for a seven-year-old. Then she asked me an important question: "Are those people really doing that?" Not because she thought it was fake, but because she wanted to know: Is this really possible? You can move like that? You can make a video like this? You can have a job like theirs? You can EXPRESS like they do? Yes, Aria! Amazing, right?! Satisfied with my answer, she shared the tiniest smile and softest giggle, then started twirling around the room. That was two weeks ago. I've been thinking about that moment nonstop as I encounter things I love in the world. I'll watch a favorite show. Then a moving film. A YouTube video of an author delivering a keynote. I'll read a book. Then a newsletter from a friend. I'll see a clever caption on an Instagram reel. I ate dinner at a local sushi restaurant on a Wednesday and tried on a new jacket for date night on Friday. I enjoyed a latte with foam art. Munched on a pastry from the local bakery. Sifted through some drawings from my kids. Drifted to sleep playing to some music. The Artemis II takes off. "I can't believe people can do THAT." Then the same thought starts to evolve. "I can't believe people can DO that." Then, dearest of all the readers, the most meaningful realization yet: "I can't believe PEOPLE can do that." And there it is. The source of the meaning and power of a moment, a piece, a project, a mission. People can do that. People. "I can't believe PEOPLE can do that." Because, hold up, wait a second, do you know what that means? I'm a people. You're a people. Aria is a people, albeit more graceful and beautiful than the other 8 billion. My son is a people too, although he's a much sillier little goober than the rest. Your audience? People. That crowd for your keynote or webinar today, that prospect or customer, client or colleague? People. "I can't believe PEOPLE can do that." This matters, because it means WE matter. It's meaningful, because it means WE can create meaning. If PEOPLE can do that, imagine what YOU can do. Imagine what WE can do. When I think to myself, "I can't believe people can do that," the meaning and value I receive shifts from the thing itself to the journey to create the thing to the creators of the thing. PEOPLE can do that. That's when I feel the deepest form of wonder at this world. And that's the kind of world I want to create for myself, create for others, create for my kids. If PEOPLE can do that, that means *I* can do that! *YOU* can do that! *WE* can do that! Look at what we're capable of. Look at what's possible. We can do THAT. We can DO that. WE can do that. So what are we waiting for? Let's fucking do it. *** Save or share this essay: ​jayacunzo.com/blog/i-cant-believe-people-can-do-that ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/qdu2w5vr75f7h4p4798ilh8dpzx2qf972dn9pvlr5ln3o2o2kddoevwzqkkkpgkkw9plr7mn9ep5nol095pvev6qo03875pn699z7l3x37d9vz894xrk63vkrxobpdwn3/x0hph3ue20n6x6ag/amF5YWN1bnpvLmNvbS9ibG9nL2ktY2FudC1iZWxpZXZlLXBlb3BsZS1jYW4tZG8tdGhhdA== )​ ----------------------------------------------------------------- ⭐ If you are looking to grow your bookings as a paid keynote speaker in the next 12 months: ----------------------------------------------------------------- I'm slowly rolling out a small group program for speakers to grow their platforms and bookings together. This is invite- and application-only, with no more than 10 people in the group. You'll go from sporadic speeches to a systematized approach, working on the right things, in the right order. Don't "get paid to speak." Build your speaking business. I'm having conversations and fielding applications now. This is a blend of in-person retreats, Zoom calls, and clear work to be done, with some bonus elements (video capture at our retreats; private coaching with me). If this sounds like you, please reply, and I will send you the private landing page to learn more. Thanks for the work you create, and thanks for supporting mine. I'm back in your inbox next Friday. Reply to reach me anytime. 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Break the Wheel.  ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ 96 ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/n4urxdk06dsvhxq7orvf6h6wmnx4os3gdp83q6k2ok89vdvdrppv465zerrrqnrr53qk2g7834qo8vkm3oq646xevm9wgoq8x33zgk909gp36zw3l02rx96r20viok984/08hwhgu2ezxxd0ap/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29t ) The newsletter of Jay Acunzo. Become a stronger speaker and storyteller, so you can compete on the impact of your ideas, not the volume of your marketing. Don't market more. Matter more. Think resonance over reach. Don't be the best. Be their favorite. New here? Welcome! Subscribe free. ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/n4urxdk06dsvhxq7orvf6h6wmnx4os3gdp83q6k2ok89vdvdrppv465zerrrqnrr53qk2g7834qo8vkm3oq646xevm9wgoq8x33zgk909gp36zw3l02rx96r20viok984/g3hnhwum9pnne5f3/amF5YWN1bnpvLmNvbS9uZXdzbGV0dGVy )​ I've been underwater with a combination of client work, typical kiddo-delivered colds, and developing some meaty new projects, so the newsletter has taken a back seat (sorry!). Today, I thought I'd share Chapter One of my book, Break the Wheel: Question Best Practices, Hone Your Intuition, and Do Your Best Work. It's been a long time since I've talked about or shared this book's material, but it still holds a special place in my heart and career. I'm also convinced that, like most things I talk about, the proliferation of AI has only made this stuff even more important to us all. If you like what you read today, buy a copy here. ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/n4urxdk06dsvhxq7orvf6h6wmnx4os3gdp83q6k2ok89vdvdrppv465zerrrqnrr53qk2g7834qo8vkm3oq646xevm9wgoq8x33zgk909gp36zw3l02rx96r20viok984/9qhzhdudw9xxgvbz/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYW1hem9uLmNvbS9kcC9CMDdIUUY5N0o3L3JlZj1zcl8xXzM_aWU9VVRGOCZrZXl3b3Jkcz1icmVhayUyMHRoZSUyMHdoZWVsJnFpZD0xNTM4MDY3OTk4JnM9Ym9va3Mmc3I9MS0z )​ *** ***************************************************************** Break the Wheel: Question Best Practices, Hone Your Intuition, and Do Your Best Work ***************************************************************** CHAPTER ONE: “The day of reckoning is upon us, my brothers! What is life, if not to die a glorious death?” The Viking leader stood at the back of his ship, barking at his men as a storm threatened to overturn them. “Fear not, for tonight we drink in the halls of Valhalla! Row! Awaken, and welcome death!” Seconds later, their ship tumbled over a waterfall... straight into a man’s mouth. Millions of people laughed. Those people were watching the Super Bowl, and those Vikings were part of a commercial for Death Wish Coffee. Television airtime during the big game carries a hefty price tag—upwards of $5 million per thirty seconds—but Death Wish ran this ad for free. For the average small business, a free Viking-themed Super Bowl ad would be the most surprising thing about them, but if we were coffee experts, we might point to something else. If we were coffee experts, we might be surprised to learn Death Wish is able to survive at all, let alone thrive as it is today. In fact, if we were coffee experts, an early decision made by the company’s founder might seem so unconventional, we’d consider it unthinkable. And here’s the thing: It is unthinkable. Until you hear his side of the story. Death Wish founder and CEO Mike Brown mostly wears black hoodies, jeans, and work boots. He has short brown hair and a close-cropped beard—both touched with gray—and a broad, warm smile. Although he loves the work he does at Death Wish, he didn’t set out to start this company. He didn’t set out to work in the coffee industry whatsoever. His journey began in Saratoga Springs, New York. It’s one of those classically northeastern American towns. Squat, brick buildings with local shops and restaurants dot the main street, and plenty of leafy green neighborhoods weave all around it. Lots of blue-collar workers call the area home, while lots of New York City residents, living 200 miles south of Saratoga, call it “that place with the horse racing.” In 2008, Mike Brown felt like his career had stumbled out of the gate. He’d earned a master’s degree in accounting because he figured that’s what a successful professional does. But after landing a job following graduation, he realized he hated accounting. He was miserable, so he quit. After a few weeks of lounging around local coffee shops without any prospects or ideas, Mike decided to start a coffee shop of his own. He called it Saratoga Coffee Traders. As you’ve probably experienced firsthand, most coffee shops look the same. Sure, there are a few incremental differences: a pristine white display case, a new twist on a familiar drink, and, wait a second, is that some extra exposed brick I see? (My millennial senses are tingling!) But for the most part, every coffee shop experience feels identical. Mike knew this all too well. After spending countless hours in those establishments, growing increasingly frustrated with the commodity feel, he decided to build something different. Unfortunately, simply aspiring to create something exceptional doesn’t guarantee you will. You still need to make the right decisions to succeed, and despite Mike’s admirable intentions, he was making some terrible decisions. For instance, to liven up his menu, he decided to sell twenty-five different blends of coffee. Even worse, he carried more than two hundred different types of candy. (Yes! At a coffee shop!) So in one sense, I guess Mike succeeded in building a different kind of experience than the average coffee shop. Of course, as he soon realized, it’s not enough to simply be “different” than the average. Because Mike was tanking his business. “I pretty much ran it into the ground,” he said. He’d been open for less than a year, and he was already in danger of closing shop. “I actually painted out the worst-case scenario. If I lost everything—if I lost all my savings, and I had to sell my house and sell my car—what would be my worst-case scenario?” He figured, God forbid, if all that happened, he’d move back in with his mother. He’d be damned if he’d return to accounting. He’d rather sell all of his belongings and move home. “And that’s exactly what happened,” he said. “The exact worst-case scenario that could have happened, happened. It was even a little worse than that too. I had to borrow money from my mom to pay my employees.” To turn things around, Mike did what many of us would do in his shoes: he sought the advice of experts. Everyone he met, plus all the research he conducted, pointed to one fatal flaw in his business. Without realizing it, he had committed a mortal sin in the coffee industry. Mike was roasting the wrong type of coffee bean. This realization, and Mike’s subsequent reaction, would ultimately spawn the wildly successful Death Wish Coffee brand. But to understand what happened next and why it was so unthinkable to industry experts, we first need to know some basics about coffee beans. The two most common types of coffee beans are called arabica and robusta. Arabica beans represent more than 70 percent of the world’s coffee crop each year. That cute little cafe on the corner? They serve arabica. That bag of beans from the grocery store? Arabica. That grande-skinny-half-caff-Guatemalan-Casi-Cielo at Starbucks? Yeah, arabica. This makes sense, since arabica is delicious. Robusta, on the other hand, can be borderline torture to drink. You typically encounter robusta beans in instant coffees, like those little sleeves of grounds you see in hotel rooms—the stuff you mix into hot water as you sob quietly over your mug. Robusta coffee is the kind of coffee that makes you weigh how badly you need your fix against how willing you are to have Nasty Old Man Breath for the next twenty-four hours. In the minds of coffee experts, there is a right and a wrong bean to roast, and our friend Mike was roasting the wrong one. He came to the conclusion that if Saratoga Coffee Traders was going to succeed, he had to roast arabica beans. That’s the best practice. That’s what he should do. One day, a customer walked into Mike’s struggling shop and asked, “What’s the strongest cup of coffee you can make?” The customer was a truck driver about to embark on another long journey, so he told Mike he wanted something strong and dark. However, after all the research Mike had just done, he knew that “strong” and “dark” usually don’t mix. (Despite what you might think, lighter coffees are more caffeinated.) So Mike did his best to satisfy his customer, pouring the truck driver the darkest roast he’d brewed that day, and the man went on his way. As the shop fell quiet again, and Mike’s anxiety about his business began to creep back into his mind, he realized he’d heard that request before, always from the same type of person: truck drivers, construction workers, and all these hard-charging, hardworking individuals. They would march into the shop and demand stronger and darker coffee. Mike wondered, “What if I surprised that group of people?” He set his sights on a new goal: Mike would create the world’s strongest coffee. That’s a great aspiration, right? But more than merely sounding good, this aspiration helped Mike make good decisions in a very concrete way. By stating his aspiration out loud, he turned that previously vague desire to do something great into something specific he could create. Before that moment, he’d tried everything and anything to figure out what “better than average” meant. Once he was able to articulate it, however, Mike regained a sense of clarity that he’d lost along the way. Without realizing it, Mike had unhooked himself from the endless cycle that we each face whenever we make decisions at work. We’ll explore this cycle in more detail later. For now, just know that it’s the reason why so much commodity work exists today. This ubiquitous approach to making decisions is why so much work and so many careers plateau. Mike, on the other hand, eventually bridged the gap between commodity work and an exceptional career. How can we do that too? WHAT DOES YOUR “BEST WORK” EVEN MEAN? Have you ever stopped to wonder what it really takes to do your best work? What does it take to do anything exceptional compared to the typical stuff shared around your industry? A lot of ink and many more pixels have been used to explore the traits of successful people. The idea here is that, if we can mimic them, we can be successful too. I’ll admit, many of those books are well-intentioned and quite good to read. Unfortunately, most are crap on a cracker. Attempting to learn from others only goes so far. It’s the same as simply relying on conventional thinking. All of this merely provides us with possibilities, not answers, and then it’s up to us to vet those possibilities to ensure they’ll work for us. That’s what ultimately matters most, isn’t it? Unfortunately, vetting ideas or advice is not something most of us have been taught to do. It’s not something we spend much time doing, either, especially when you consider how much time we put in learning from experts, looking for shortcuts, or even tinkering with the latest trends or tools. Rarely do we stop to wonder if we’re making the best possible decisions for our specific situations. By the end of this book, that’s what you’ll be able to do. As we embark on this journey together, unlike most advice books, we’re not looking to learn what it takes for “anyone” to do their best work. Instead, we’ll focus on a much more important question: how can you start doing yours? To figure that out, Mike Brown articulated his aspiration out loud to himself and to others: “I’ll create the world’s strongest coffee.” With that statement in mind, he could begin to vet his ideas, as well as the endless advice of others, to make the best decision for his specific situation. Using that aspiration like a litmus test, he could more easily and confidently understand which idea or approach made sense, and to what degree. For example, when experts told Mike to stop selling twenty-five types of coffee and two-hundred types of candy, he instantly agreed. That advice made total sense for his situation. If you’re going to create the world’s strongest coffee, you can’t be distracted with the cost, logistics, and marketing required to sell hundreds of products. On the other hand, when Mike was told to roast arabica beans instead of robusta, he confidently bucked the trend. Arguably, using arabica coffee was the most widely-accepted approach among coffee businesses in North America. Doing anything else would be foolish, almost crazy, but to Mike, roasting robusta beans seemed like the best decision for him. Why? It turns out that roasted robusta beans contain more caffeine than roasted arabica beans. According to the Coffee Research Institute, one robusta bean is more than 2 percent caffeine, while one arabica bean is just over 1 percent. On average, a single cup of coffee made with robusta contains 83 percent more caffeine than the other stuff. If your aspiration is to create the world’s strongest coffee, this information is pretty darn useful. So, yes, in general, you should roast arabica beans for your coffee. But Mike isn’t operating in a generality. He operates in a very specific situation, just like the rest of us. For Mike, it made more sense to reject the conventional approach and roast robusta coffee. As we know already, the last thing he wanted was to create another average coffee shop. However, only once he committed to creating the world’s strongest coffee did Mike know what “better than the average” meant to him. In our quest to do great work, Mike’s aspirational statement holds a clue for how we might start our decision-making process. In later chapters, we’ll explore the idea of aspirations in more detail and learn about a powerful heuristic called “aspirational anchors.” For now, ask yourself: When you say you aspire to be exceptional instead of average, what exactly does that mean? In a world full of best practices, what are the right practices for you? What is your version of the robusta coffee bean? Once Mike decided to roast robusta beans, he broke from experts in a stark way. But admittedly, conventional thinking still holds some value. It can tell us what worked in the past or what works for others, and when we need results, we’d be wise to consider that information. The whole “stand on the shoulders of giants” maxim feels valid, doesn’t it? So if you’re Mike, and you’re going to break from what experts say to do, you better be damn sure that you’re well-informed. In other words, it’s not enough to merely break from conventional thinking. The goal is to understand our situation enough to know whether or not the conventional approach is right for us. When all Mike did was fight against the commodity coffee shop experience, he tanked his business. Not until he could explain why his way was better than the typical way did he actually see any results. If he started as a rebel without a cause, he then transformed into a rebel with a purpose—and that purpose was something coffee experts could never have anticipated. Working behind the counter at Saratoga Coffee Traders that first year, Mike got to know who his customers were and what they wanted. His customers were truck drivers, construction workers, entrepreneurs, service workers and stable workers at racetracks, and other lace-up-your-boots and pick-up-your-pail types. Mike realized that these customers viewed coffee the same way they viewed Red Bull or Five Hour Energy: as a means to an end. Mike reasoned that if his customers wanted strong coffee, and they viewed coffee as a hasty transaction instead of a long, leisurely activity, then the chocolatey or fruity flavors promised by arabica roasts weren’t as important. For Mike’s customers, the goal was the outcome, not the experience. They wanted the ends, through whatever means necessary. So what “ends” did Mike’s customers want? In finding the answer, Mike was inspired by that simple ques- tion from that one truck driver. Remember, he wanted a dark and strong cup of coffee. What this man didn’t realize, however, is that those two traits don’t typically go together. You see, as all coffee experts know, darker roasts tend to be weaker. That’s because the beans have been roasted for longer, removing more caffeine than in lighter roasts. But if Mike had shared this fact with the truck driver, in addition to losing that customer thanks to a rather condescending reply, he would have made two faulty assumptions that industry experts often make. First, in claiming that “strong” and “dark” don’t typically go together, a coffee expert is assuming that the coffee in question is arabica. You can’t create a dark roast that’s also strong since, to get arabica coffee dark enough, you end up roasting away much of its caffeine. The second assumption is that the other common type of coffee, robusta, isn’t a viable option, given the more bitter flavor and small inventory in North America. So now you have two choices: create a dark roast or a strong roast. You can’t do both. On average, these assumptions are true. But Mike isn’t operating in an average situation. He didn’t act like an expert, embracing what works in general. Instead, he acted like an investigator, looking for evidence of what could work in his specific situation, with his specific customers. His customers drank coffee like those chemical-flavored energy drinks. Robusta beans are fine. Darker and stronger coffee is possible. I’ll create the world’s strongest coffee. Mike’s aspiration was both personal and logical. He wasn’t a rebel without a cause at all. Next, Mike extracted an insight from his data to ensure his aspiration matched what his customers were willing to buy. His data was simple, if qualitative: customers kept asking for strong coffee. Therefore, it’s easy to make the assumption that customers want stronger coffee. But that’s not a true insight—not yet. Instead, acting like a true investigator, Mike kept asking questions. Why? Why do customers keep asking for stronger coffee? What is it about them in particular? Well, obviously, they want more caffeine. No? Sure, Mike thought, but why do they want more caffeine? Well, clearly, they want more energy during their day. Right? Yes, but why do they want more energy during their day? What are they doing all day? It’s here that Mike found a useful insight—one that could challenge industry-wide assumptions of what works “in general” and help him tailor his decision-making. (When the answer to “Why?” stops feeling obvious, you know you’re on the right track.) So, why did Mike’s customers want more energy? Well, he thought, they’re truck drivers. They’re construction workers. They’re racetrack workers. They’re hard-charging and—wait a second—hardworking individuals. Aha! There it is! These people don’t want stronger coffee. They don’t want more caffeine. They don’t even want more energy. No, in reality, Mike Brown’s customers want the ability to work themselves to death. So that’s exactly what he sells. That’s why the name “Death Wish Coffee” makes sense, although we laugh and shake our heads just hearing it. That’s why Mike’s aspiration is strategic, not fluffy or foolish or rebellious. That’s why robusta beans are safe instead of risky. Mike had informed his aspiration with a fundamental insight about his customers. His customers work their butts off, and they reach for coffee for the end result, not the experience. They want the ability to work themselves to death, so that’s what Mike should sell. When we operate like Mike, like investigators, we stop acting like a commodity and become the exception. For instance, in the coffee business, plenty of brands sell strong coffee. Plenty of brands sell caffeine. Some brands even sell the idea of more energy during your day. But Mike and Death Wish Coffee are the only ones who sell the ability to work insanely hard. Had Mike copied the average approach, he’d have missed this opportunity. That’s the danger of focusing on “what works” across a job function, company, or industry. We’re at risk of relying on assumptions others are making about the specific details we face each day. “That works in general, so just follow that.” What if we stopped relying on what works in general? What if we stopped obsessing over everyone else's "right" answers for us and started asking better questions? Because finding best practices isn't the goal. Finding the best approach for you is. *** Get a copy of Break the Wheel for yourself, and while you're at it, grab a copy to gift a friend! Buy it here. ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/n4urxdk06dsvhxq7orvf6h6wmnx4os3gdp83q6k2ok89vdvdrppv465zerrrqnrr53qk2g7834qo8vkm3oq646xevm9wgoq8x33zgk909gp36zw3l02rx96r20viok984/9qhzhdudw9xxgvbz/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYW1hem9uLmNvbS9kcC9CMDdIUUY5N0o3L3JlZj1zcl8xXzM_aWU9VVRGOCZrZXl3b3Jkcz1icmVhayUyMHRoZSUyMHdoZWVsJnFpZD0xNTM4MDY3OTk4JnM9Ym9va3Mmc3I9MS0z )​ ​ Thanks for the work you create, and thanks for supporting mine. I'm back in your inbox next Friday. Reply to reach me anytime. 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So much fun coming up!  ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ 96 ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/75u4e0g860t8h6loqgkuzhwrve696hro3q2rdemp4m209393wqq9zev7lwwwd6wwvrdmpok2rzd429mxr4dezegl9x08o4d2grr7om050oqre78rn5pwg0ewp59i06pq4/n2hohquvqw6557s0/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29t ) The newsletter of Jay Acunzo. Become a stronger speaker and storyteller, so you can compete on the impact of your ideas, not the volume of your marketing. Don't market more. Matter more. Think resonance over reach. Don't be the best. Be their favorite. New here? Welcome! Subscribe free. ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/75u4e0g860t8h6loqgkuzhwrve696hro3q2rdemp4m209393wqq9zev7lwwwd6wwvrdmpok2rzd429mxr4dezegl9x08o4d2grr7om050oqre78rn5pwg0ewp59i06pq4/p8hehqu46kg55gtr/amF5YWN1bnpvLmNvbS9uZXdzbGV0dGVy )​ Hello, my friend! I have a smattering of good stuff for you today. Let's dive right in... ------------------------------------------------ I. Hosting an informal call about paid speaking. ------------------------------------------------ This Friday, March 20, from 11 to 12:30pm ET, I'm hosting an informal discussion on Zoom about paid speaking. Free, informal, and meant for folks who are already charging at least $5k for their talks and/or people seeking to generate $100k+ in annual revenue from speaker fees in the near- to medium-term. If you'd like to participate, register here ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/75u4e0g860t8h6loqgkuzhwrve696hro3q2rdemp4m209393wqq9zev7lwwwd6wwvrdmpok2rzd429mxr4dezegl9x08o4d2grr7om050oqre78rn5pwg0ewp59i06pq4/x0hph3ue289dd3bg/aHR0cHM6Ly9kb2NzLmdvb2dsZS5jb20vZm9ybXMvZC9lLzFGQUlwUUxTZV9rODV3MjNGVV9lREJWX2llMVdCbDIxX05HZ2dYckZ1N2t6ampjZFFVQlVyZVdBL3ZpZXdmb3Jt ). FAQs: WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS? Selfishly? Because it feels good, and because I learn about the pains, problems, and language used by an important part of my audience and market. More generously? Because I want to help people avoid the common mistakes I see in trying to go from a handful of paid gigs to meaningful revenue. They over-invest in the wrong things, or maybe the right things but in the wrong order, like glossy reels, contacting bureaus, and looking for greater fame in their space or overall. None of these are actually the drivers. A lot of advice out there angers me, because it overlooks how paid speaking actually happens (especially when the goal is to be systematic, not sporadic). WHO IS ATTENDING? About 20 people are confirmed to attend already from my network and my LinkedIn post, all creators, authors, consultants, and keynote speakers. WHO SHOULD NOT ATTEND? This won't be relevant and in fact will be the wrong advice for people who are beginners or folks who don't wish to charge a fee for their speaking. This will also be irrelevant to folks who have little to no speaking traction yet. WHAT WILL WE DISCUSS? I'll share some initial, upfront context and frameworks, then we'll talk shop about your actual realities. I'll take questions and offer my input as best I can in the moment, pointing to resources and next steps where I'm able. *** ----------------------------------------------------------------- II. Delivering the final webinar ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/75u4e0g860t8h6loqgkuzhwrve696hro3q2rdemp4m209393wqq9zev7lwwwd6wwvrdmpok2rzd429mxr4dezegl9x08o4d2grr7om050oqre78rn5pwg0ewp59i06pq4/kkhmh2unwg622zsk/aHR0cHM6Ly9ob21lLndpc3RpYS5jb20vbGl2ZS9ldmVudHMvMHc1c2xieGx4ZD91dG1fY2FtcGFpZ249d2ViaW5hci1jYW1wYWlnbiZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9zb3VyY2U9amF5LWFjdW56bw== ) of my series Host Better Webinars in collaboration with Wistia. ----------------------------------------------------------------- This Thursday, March 19, at 1pm ET, I'm hosting a session called Registrants to Revenue, all about how to deepen relationships with your audience after they attend a webinar and accelerate the buyer's journey towards a sale. There is a lot of messy stuff about giving webinars, but we can and should bring a strategic lens to this work—and a repeatable framework. In the session, I map the stages audiences must move through to go from webinar attendees to fans and buyers, and I'll propose a few specific ways you can earn near-term revenue from a webinar while still keeping everyone else in your audience. (No more hard-selling in the short-term at the expense of long-term trust and results. We need sales today, but we also need them tomorrow! Ideally, tomorrow's will also come easier.) ​Register for free right now. ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/75u4e0g860t8h6loqgkuzhwrve696hro3q2rdemp4m209393wqq9zev7lwwwd6wwvrdmpok2rzd429mxr4dezegl9x08o4d2grr7om050oqre78rn5pwg0ewp59i06pq4/kkhmh2unwg622zsk/aHR0cHM6Ly9ob21lLndpc3RpYS5jb20vbGl2ZS9ldmVudHMvMHc1c2xieGx4ZD91dG1fY2FtcGFpZ249d2ViaW5hci1jYW1wYWlnbiZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9zb3VyY2U9amF5LWFjdW56bw== )​ This series has been so fun, and I'm grateful to my partners at Wistia for their collaboration and creativity! *** ----------------------------------------------------------------- III. NEW RESOURCE: How to go from sporadic paid speaking to a consistent pipeline of keynotes ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/75u4e0g860t8h6loqgkuzhwrve696hro3q2rdemp4m209393wqq9zev7lwwwd6wwvrdmpok2rzd429mxr4dezegl9x08o4d2grr7om050oqre78rn5pwg0ewp59i06pq4/58hvh8ugxpkooqt7/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL2Jsb2cvaG93LXRvLWdvLWZyb20tc3BvcmFkaWMtcGFpZC1zcGVha2luZy10by1hLWNvbnNpc3RlbnQtcGlwZWxpbmUtb2Yta2V5bm90ZXM= )​ ----------------------------------------------------------------- I give this advice on-repeat to prospects and clients, so it was high time I actually wrote an exhaustive essay about it! When folks look to turn their speaking into a consistent revenue engine, they often invest time and dollars on the wrong things, or maybe the right things but in the wrong order. In this piece, I lay it all out: * What people typically do first, which is a big mistake. * What you actually need to scale your speaking. * The two best places to focus your time and dollars first. -->Read My New Essay ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/75u4e0g860t8h6loqgkuzhwrve696hro3q2rdemp4m209393wqq9zev7lwwwd6wwvrdmpok2rzd429mxr4dezegl9x08o4d2grr7om050oqre78rn5pwg0ewp59i06pq4/58hvh8ugxpkooqt7/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL2Jsb2cvaG93LXRvLWdvLWZyb20tc3BvcmFkaWMtcGFpZC1zcGVha2luZy10by1hLWNvbnNpc3RlbnQtcGlwZWxpbmUtb2Yta2V5bm90ZXM= ) Read My New Essay ( https://jayacunzo.com/blog/how-to-go-from-sporadic-paid-speaking-to-a-consistent-pipeline-of-keynotes )​ Thanks for the work you create, and thanks for supporting mine. I'm back in your inbox next Friday. Reply to reach me anytime. Keep making what matters, —Jay ​ JAY ACUNZO ​Book me to speak ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/75u4e0g860t8h6loqgkuzhwrve696hro3q2rdemp4m209393wqq9zev7lwwwd6wwvrdmpok2rzd429mxr4dezegl9x08o4d2grr7om050oqre78rn5pwg0ewp59i06pq4/25h2h9u39r4009f8/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL2tleW5vdGVz )​ ​Explore my advisory services ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/75u4e0g860t8h6loqgkuzhwrve696hro3q2rdemp4m209393wqq9zev7lwwwd6wwvrdmpok2rzd429mxr4dezegl9x08o4d2grr7om050oqre78rn5pwg0ewp59i06pq4/qvh8h8udwgo22psg/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL3NlcnZpY2Vz )​ ​Read past essays ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/75u4e0g860t8h6loqgkuzhwrve696hro3q2rdemp4m209393wqq9zev7lwwwd6wwvrdmpok2rzd429mxr4dezegl9x08o4d2grr7om050oqre78rn5pwg0ewp59i06pq4/g3hnhwum976oo5a3/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL2Jsb2c= ) - buy my book ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/75u4e0g860t8h6loqgkuzhwrve696hro3q2rdemp4m209393wqq9zev7lwwwd6wwvrdmpok2rzd429mxr4dezegl9x08o4d2grr7om050oqre78rn5pwg0ewp59i06pq4/9qhzhdudwkz33vbz/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL2JyZWFrLXRoZS13aGVlbA== ) - listen to my podcast ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/75u4e0g860t8h6loqgkuzhwrve696hro3q2rdemp4m209393wqq9zev7lwwwd6wwvrdmpok2rzd429mxr4dezegl9x08o4d2grr7om050oqre78rn5pwg0ewp59i06pq4/3ohphdu3m6499eap/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL2hvdy1zdG9yaWVzLWhhcHBlbi1zdG9yeXRlbGxpbmctcG9kY2FzdA== )​ Playing Favorites is an Unthinkable Media property. 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Our entire process, on display.  ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ 96 ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/68unrgv8kgf8h5r5g3vcohp0qzz0khemk4qeplr0nrq7vkvkw44v6l2gxwwwpzww2epr0moqe6pnqvr3enpl6ldxv375mnpqdeegmr787m4elg5e980wd7lw08vcl0wmz/8ghqh3uoz66k8wul/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29t ) The newsletter of Jay Acunzo. Become a stronger speaker and storyteller, so you can compete on the impact of your ideas, not the volume of your marketing. Don't market more. Matter more. Think resonance over reach. Don't be the best. Be their favorite. New here? Welcome! Subscribe free. ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/68unrgv8kgf8h5r5g3vcohp0qzz0khemk4qeplr0nrq7vkvkw44v6l2gxwwwpzww2epr0moqe6pnqvr3enpl6ldxv375mnpqdeegmr787m4elg5e980wd7lw08vcl0wmz/e0hph0u76335d4f7/amF5YWN1bnpvLmNvbS9uZXdzbGV0dGVy )​ This year, two clients have given me permission to publish details from my 1:1 advisory engagements publicly with you, so you can see what it takes to refine a mountain of expertise into 1 signature idea, powerful IP, and signature speeches and stories. In this series, you’ll learn to diagnose why you might feel scattered in your messaging, why your ideas or posts aren’t creating passionate fans, and what it really takes to earn bigger and better stages, both literally and figuratively. These individuals arrive with plenty of competence. The goal is to help them achieve greater resonance. Like you, they are genuine experts in their industries. Also like you, they’re realizing it’s possible to be deeply respected in your field but still feel replaceable or constantly stuck reacting and chasing. There’s a big difference between being great at Your Thing and being a trusted voice who shapes how people think about the very same topic. If you’re ready to differentiate easier and resonate deeper, if you’re tired of the hamster wheel feeling and ready to grow with more momentum in the market, this series is for you.​About once per month, you’ll get a front-row seat as I help them (1) experience breakthroughs in clarity and memorability, (2) craft frameworks, stories, and speeches, and (3) face the unexpected challenges and regular realities that come with growing a business based on your expertise in a world drowning in advice content, competitor services, infinite noise, and even more infinite (not a thing, but go with me) AI hype. To get started, let’s meet our entrepreneurs… ​Kevin Leahy ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/68unrgv8kgf8h5r5g3vcohp0qzz0khemk4qeplr0nrq7vkvkw44v6l2gxwwwpzww2epr0moqe6pnqvr3enpl6ldxv375mnpqdeegmr787m4elg5e980wd7lw08vcl0wmz/z2hgh7uen220mnsz/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubGlua2VkaW4uY29tL2luL2tldmluLWxlYWh5LTkwMjVhMDUy ) is the founder of the podcast strategy and production firm Podcast Pointman ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/68unrgv8kgf8h5r5g3vcohp0qzz0khemk4qeplr0nrq7vkvkw44v6l2gxwwwpzww2epr0moqe6pnqvr3enpl6ldxv375mnpqdeegmr787m4elg5e980wd7lw08vcl0wmz/kkhmh2unr004o0tk/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cucG9kY2FzdHBvaW50bWFuLmNvbS8= ). He’s a former producer for Guy Raz (the famous ex-NPR host who created the shows How I Built This and The Great Creators). Kevin previously helped Guy build his production company before he started Podcast Pointman, and today he has achieved real revenue and built a small team. But he’s feeling pressure from all angles: * Can he keep the team invested and growing? * How should he reconcile his pride in being a deep technical expert in podcasting with his need to speak to his client’s business and brand realities? * Can he remain a good CEO and business-builder while still supporting his family’s needs, his goals as a dad, and his family’s upcoming cross-country move—from 1 expensive US city to another, even more expensive city? * How should he grapple with shrinking client budgets, while competing with tons of similar firms and freelancers and even (say it with me now) AI? ​Susan Boles ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/68unrgv8kgf8h5r5g3vcohp0qzz0khemk4qeplr0nrq7vkvkw44v6l2gxwwwpzww2epr0moqe6pnqvr3enpl6ldxv375mnpqdeegmr787m4elg5e980wd7lw08vcl0wmz/z2hgh7uen220mmtz/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubGlua2VkaW4uY29tL2luL3RoZXN1c2FuYm9sZXMv ) is a former COO and CFO who then spent several years running her first business, a consulting and education firm called Beyond Margins, helping entrepreneurs run calm companies. In 2026 however, she moved beyond Beyond Margins (heh…) to start a new business, Unpublic ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/68unrgv8kgf8h5r5g3vcohp0qzz0khemk4qeplr0nrq7vkvkw44v6l2gxwwwpzww2epr0moqe6pnqvr3enpl6ldxv375mnpqdeegmr787m4elg5e980wd7lw08vcl0wmz/6qhehoulz8804vh9/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cudW5wdWJsaWMuY28v ), offering services and education to help creators stay safe online as they get more visible. She’s feeling the stress of navigating an unending list of existential questions: * Looming largest is her topic. Safety and dealing with audience members that tip from fans to stalkers isn’t exactly a sexy idea. Most scroll past or want to spend less time thinking about it, not more. How can Susan stake a claim to the idea and build an entirely new brand around it? What tangential topics or broader topics might need coverage across her platform, but without distracting from her core ideas? * What should she keep and what should she kill from her last business, when there’s so much overlap in her focus on “calm” businesses? * How can she juggle the need to win and service clients right now while also modelling out repeatable offerings, signature IP, and all the various projects (website, content, diagnostic tools, webinars, keynotes) that help her actually grow her business? * Will people want to hear about topics like safety, security, and risk? The value they see in working with me is similar, like increasing feelings of clarity and momentum, seeing more passionate support of their ideas and clear impact in their market, and winning ideal clients at higher prices and with less friction. However, each of them have some unique challenges we’re facing together, which will become clear as this series unfolds. Because I work exclusively with folks who already bring expertise and a history of results, I don't shove clients through one "simple system." Part of what I want to put on display is how I’m tailoring and personalizing my approach to different people—so you can take the same techniques and frameworks and apply it in your own situation too. After all, YOUR business, YOUR speeches, YOUR ideas will be unique to YOU. Before Kevin and Susan began working with me, one thing was already clear: * They’re smart enough. * They’re expert enough. * But their IP isn’t strong enough. Through our work together, we’ll ensure they’ll both be able to compete on the impact of their ideas, not the volume of their marketing. This will allow them to truly own their ideas publicly (an empowering feeling) and to “get off the spreadsheet” of competitive vendors and voices. No more chasing attention. They’ll become the experts their clients proactively seek. ----------------------- Their Unique Situations ----------------------- Kevin is scaling. His business, Podcast Pointman, has been going for awhile. Now he’s ready to make growth easier. Kevin is also stepping outside his comfort zone. He’s used to client delivery. He loves it. He told me, “I’m much more comfortable fulfilling the work.” I told him, “That’s great. Let’s make sure you have fulfilling work too.” Kevin is getting ready to become a more known, trusted voice, while leveraging the depth of technical expertise and the nuanced thinking he’s used to build his career and business. Unlike Kevin, Susan isn’t scaling something. She’s starting something. As an entrepreneur, she’s very experienced, and in her industry (safety and security), she’s quite an expert. But her business is brand new. She wants to start strong, having experienced the power of a premise for her last business. (Susan previously hired me to develop her premise and IP for that business too. She’s felt the difference between talking publicly about relevant topics and actually owning your ideas.) ​View a larger version. ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/68unrgv8kgf8h5r5g3vcohp0qzz0khemk4qeplr0nrq7vkvkw44v6l2gxwwwpzww2epr0moqe6pnqvr3enpl6ldxv375mnpqdeegmr787m4elg5e980wd7lw08vcl0wmz/qvh8h8udzmmq32hg/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWFnZXMuc3F1YXJlc3BhY2UtY2RuLmNvbS9jb250ZW50L3YxLzVmZWNhMzA1MzFhMTk4NDcyMjdhZjNiYi9hNDY0NjE1NC0yMmVmLTQ4NmQtYmIwNS1jZTg2OWFiOTU0MjMvRGltZW5zaW9uLnBuZz9mb3JtYXQ9MjUwMHc= )​ ​ ----------------------------------------------- The Difference Between Competence and Resonance ----------------------------------------------- In the end, both our experts will emerge with higher-impact ideas, and they’ll understand how to clearly and consistently communicate those ideas in ways that ensure others actually see them as higher-impact too. It’s one thing for each of us to be convinced of our value and our originality. It’s another matter entirely to convey that to others. What you know might matter, but it’s what you say and how you say it which determine whether others care. With both clients, we’re working across a few key needs for their public platforms: * Premise development (extracting their perspective and shaping it into a logical, long-form argument to buy into their thinking, plus the medium-length language they’ll need to message their premise and the short-form, repeatable quotes that stick in people’s minds and get shared reliably) * IP development (packaging their expertise and advice as branded terms, signature frameworks, repeatable methodologies, and more) * Signature storytelling (turning examples or metaphors about others and from their own lives into their go-to stories, reusable everywhere they go) * Public speaking (deploying what we build as signature talks, and the success materials and systems they’ll need) * Content strategy (making the switch from checking boxes to exploring and owning their ideas in the market) --------------------------------------------------- The Gift and the Burden of Being as Good as You Are --------------------------------------------------- The trouble is, when you’re like Kevin and Susan, you’re far from a beginner. You bring a mountain of material and expertise to this moment. Yes, it contains some gold, which you’ve watched others praise before. That has you excited. But you’re likely also feeling a bit suffocated, because you keep tinkering on language, keep wondering what you are and who you are, in a business context. You can’t figure out what THE idea should be, let alone how to articulate exactly “it.” So you’re searching, you’re feeling scattered, and you’re watching folks get more or better opportunities, as your internal narrator grumbles, “I’m better than them. That should be me.” We’ve all encountered individuals who seem to put all the parts and pieces together. They have real expertise AND a personal style. They have depth of insight AND connect interpersonally. They’re visible yet substantive, like the keynote speaker who is a great performer and storyteller AND wildly practical and useful AND changes how you think and execute forever AND— Those people weren’t gifted that ability at birth. It was learned. Their talks, guest appearances, books, posts, and overall public platforms are higher-impact because they knew how to refine their thinking into the right ideas and assets to elevate their position in the market. Not only that, they figured out the right way to message those things so others deeply care. They understand that the purpose of their marketing isn’t to “get in front of others.” That’s not why we communicate. We communicate so that others might care about the same things we care about. Again, that’s a craft you can learn, but it starts as a choice you must make. The world has enough pretenders who are full of hype (and full of other stuff too). My job is to equip people like Kevin and Susan – people like YOU – with the tools and language and assets needed to stand out and resonate. For that, we need good frameworks and a more focused, repeatable practice. Kevin and Susan have benefitted from their mountain of expertise. It’s gotten them to this point. But to get where they’re trying to go, they need to package and communicate their expertise in more repeatable, scalable, resonant ways. You can do the same thing. Don’t market more. Matter more. When you matter more, they need to hustle and hype less. Think resonance over reach. Don’t be the best. Be their favorite. *** If you see yourself in any of the above, stay subscribed for my monthly updates about Kevin and Susan, or book an exploratory call with me ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/68unrgv8kgf8h5r5g3vcohp0qzz0khemk4qeplr0nrq7vkvkw44v6l2gxwwwpzww2epr0moqe6pnqvr3enpl6ldxv375mnpqdeegmr787m4elg5e980wd7lw08vcl0wmz/g3hnhwumr88x2kb3/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL2NvbnRhY3Q= ) to discuss working together in a similar way. I am taking on new advisory clients beginning in May. You can also reply anytime to reach me directly. *** Save or share today's essay: ​https://jayacunzo.com/blog/client-bts-series-kickoff ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/68unrgv8kgf8h5r5g3vcohp0qzz0khemk4qeplr0nrq7vkvkw44v6l2gxwwwpzww2epr0moqe6pnqvr3enpl6ldxv375mnpqdeegmr787m4elg5e980wd7lw08vcl0wmz/3ohphdu3055v8qtp/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL2Jsb2cvY2xpZW50LWJ0cy1zZXJpZXMta2lja29mZg== )​ Thanks for the work you create, and thanks for supporting mine. I'm back in your inbox next Friday. Keep making what matters, —Jay ​ JAY ACUNZO ​Book me to speak ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/68unrgv8kgf8h5r5g3vcohp0qzz0khemk4qeplr0nrq7vkvkw44v6l2gxwwwpzww2epr0moqe6pnqvr3enpl6ldxv375mnpqdeegmr787m4elg5e980wd7lw08vcl0wmz/n2hohquvm99e43t0/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL2tleW5vdGVz )​ ​Explore my advisory services ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/68unrgv8kgf8h5r5g3vcohp0qzz0khemk4qeplr0nrq7vkvkw44v6l2gxwwwpzww2epr0moqe6pnqvr3enpl6ldxv375mnpqdeegmr787m4elg5e980wd7lw08vcl0wmz/48hvh7umvddk3mfq/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL3NlcnZpY2Vz )​ ​Read past essays ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/68unrgv8kgf8h5r5g3vcohp0qzz0khemk4qeplr0nrq7vkvkw44v6l2gxwwwpzww2epr0moqe6pnqvr3enpl6ldxv375mnpqdeegmr787m4elg5e980wd7lw08vcl0wmz/wnh2h6uqn228dxtl/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL2Jsb2c= ) - buy my book ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/68unrgv8kgf8h5r5g3vcohp0qzz0khemk4qeplr0nrq7vkvkw44v6l2gxwwwpzww2epr0moqe6pnqvr3enpl6ldxv375mnpqdeegmr787m4elg5e980wd7lw08vcl0wmz/reh8h9um4llnpxc6/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL2JyZWFrLXRoZS13aGVlbA== ) - listen to my podcast ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/68unrgv8kgf8h5r5g3vcohp0qzz0khemk4qeplr0nrq7vkvkw44v6l2gxwwwpzww2epr0moqe6pnqvr3enpl6ldxv375mnpqdeegmr787m4elg5e980wd7lw08vcl0wmz/08hwhgu2v66q4qtp/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL2hvdy1zdG9yaWVzLWhhcHBlbi1zdG9yeXRlbGxpbmctcG9kY2FzdA== )​ Playing Favorites is an Unthinkable Media property. No longer interested? No worries: unsubscribe here. ( https://e663a8f1.unsubscribe.kit-mail3.com/68unrgv8kgf8h5r5g3vcohp0qzz0khemk4qeplr0nrq7vkvkw44v6l2gxwwwpzww2epr0moqe6pnqvr3enpl6ldxv375mnpqdeegmr787m4elg5e980wd7lw08vcl0wmz ) Update Your Profile ( https://preferences.kit-mail3.com/68unrgv8kgf8h5r5g3vcohp0qzz0khemk4qeplr0nrq7vkvkw44v6l2gxwwwpzww2epr0moqe6pnqvr3enpl6ldxv375mnpqdeegmr787m4elg5e980wd7lw08vcl0wmz ) | P.O. Box 80081, Stoneham, MA 02180

Don't be a feed-filler.  ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ 96 ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/92ulr5gn65unh60e466b9hzdmlg2va0n59603qz24z6gx5x5k99xoqrmdkkk3ekkr03z2n860o346xzp043qoqvdxpgln436v00mnzg7gn90qml0w72kvgqk27xbg74wq/p8hehqu4mrnnrlcr/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29t ) The newsletter of Jay Acunzo. Become a stronger speaker and storyteller, so you can compete on the impact of your ideas, not the volume of your marketing. Don't market more. Matter more. Think resonance over reach. Don't be the best. Be their favorite. New here? Welcome! Subscribe free. ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/92ulr5gn65unh60e466b9hzdmlg2va0n59603qz24z6gx5x5k99xoqrmdkkk3ekkr03z2n860o346xzp043qoqvdxpgln436v00mnzg7gn90qml0w72kvgqk27xbg74wq/08hwhgu2vn33q3ap/amF5YWN1bnpvLmNvbS9uZXdzbGV0dGVy )​ ******************************************** Stop Filling Feeds. Start Owning Your Ideas. ******************************************** There's a big gap between having a good idea and actually owning it publicly. Whenever I work with a client ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/92ulr5gn65unh60e466b9hzdmlg2va0n59603qz24z6gx5x5k99xoqrmdkkk3ekkr03z2n860o346xzp043qoqvdxpgln436v00mnzg7gn90qml0w72kvgqk27xbg74wq/8ghqh3uozwmmkril/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL3NlcnZpY2Vz ) to develop their premise, we inevitably arrive at a sticking point: whether what we've developed ever gets deployed. There are any number of ways your signature idea shows up and benefits your platform: * Messaging * Public speaking * Guest appearances * Client diagnostics/engagements But making it smaller for a moment, let's focus on your content. When you want to claim ownership of your ideas in the minds of the market, it's not enough to just aimlessly talk topics or share expertise. You have to actually explore your premise in public. That's where things tend to fall apart, as old habits and existing commitments get in the way, plus the pressures of the modern marketing world (aka "checkbox marketing," as Brendan Hufford calls it). Here's how to stop checking boxes and start exploring (and owning!) your premise in the minds of your ideal audience: *** First, let's remember we're not creating content for content's sake. We're using content as athinking tool and IP development system. When you consistently write or speak about your premise, you improve your thinking and language ... while also figuring out elements of your thinking you can use everywhere, like frameworks, branded terms, stories, and more. When I work with clients, I let them know: you won't check boxes or "fill feeds" anymore. Instead, you'll inform your thought leadership content by pursuing focusedcontent “arcs”— multi-week explorations of a single theme, question, or concept pulled directly from your premise language. ------------------------------------- Each arc follows the ARC methodology: ------------------------------------- * A = ASK the logical questions that flow from your last idea and/or from recurring language in your message * R = REFINE your thinking by creating multiple pieces of content exploring that question from different angles * C = CODIFY your ideas into ownable IP Not all ARCs will lead to something as crystallized and memorable as a framework or branded term or a signature story, but they always help you achieve some crucial outcomes, including improving your thinking, internalizing your own language, and building an audience along the way. For example, I might look back at my message and realize, "Okay, if I keep telling folks to think resonance over reach—if THAT is my premise—then to actually message it well and get buy-in from my audience, I need to go explore the idea through content. So I'd follow this ARC: * A = ASKING the logical questions that flow from your last idea and/or from recurring language in your message* “I keep saying resonance. What does that word mean?” * “What is reach in relation to resonance? Opposites? Connected?” * “Why does it matter that we think resonance over reach anyway?” * R = REFINING your thinking by creating multiple pieces of content exploring that question from different angles* Taking just the first question above, posts and pieces I could create include 1 post to define resonance, 1 to explore how resonance works in the sciences (and what we can learn in our world of work), and 1 post pitting resonance vs. reach or showing their relationship. * These might be published initially as 3 different newsletter editions, which can then fuel social posts (smaller passages lifted from each piece, posted natively to LinkedIn’s feed, for example). * All of a sudden, instead of random acts of content, I have a coherent mini-journey to understand 1 idea, improve how I speak about, and cement my ownership of these themes in your mind. Lastly, we arrive at the end of the ARC: * C = CODIFYING your thinking into ownable IP (branded terms, frameworks, definitions, stories)* By the end of the ARC, I have my own definition of resonance that applies to my audience and my business: the energy to act your audience feels when your message aligns so closely with them, their thoughts, feelings, and abilities feel amplified. This is part of my IP. It is my expertise, packaged and communicated in repeatable ways built to resonate. * While there are no signature frameworks from this ARC, maybe I leave with a signature story in the form of a metaphor to illuminate my premise, which only popped to mind because I forced myself to write about resonance for multiple weeks in a row. * I might also leave this ARC with some signature “bits,” i.e. repeatable ways to explain my concepts, which are useful in talks, interviews, and writing (e.g. I'd follow up the definition of resonance by saying, “Reach is how many see it. Resonance is how much they care. We all need our audiences to act, but they only act if they care enough to do so. If they don't act, we don't see results, so it's really resonance that drives results. For as much as we obsess over reach, it's resonance that leads to revenue." *** ------------------------ The Strategy in Practice ------------------------ Here is what I advise clients and how I help them create their own content ARCs. Your mileage may vary based on your own ideas and expertise, and if you haven't tried to develop your own premise, maybe start here ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/92ulr5gn65unh60e466b9hzdmlg2va0n59603qz24z6gx5x5k99xoqrmdkkk3ekkr03z2n860o346xzp043qoqvdxpgln436v00mnzg7gn90qml0w72kvgqk27xbg74wq/vqh3hmuolmzz8qfw/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL2Jsb2cvaG93LXRvLWZpeC15b3VyLW1lc3NhZ2UtZmFzdC10cnktdGhlLWRpYWxvZ3VlLW91dGxpbmU= ) instead. But this is what I tell my clients... First, read the narrative argument we developed together. As you read it, save the ideas it sparks. Sometimes these are a direct reference to the language (e.g. a paragraph you want to share elsewhere or explore in greater detail). Other times, something you read will lead to an entirely new idea for an advice post, a story, a framework, or something else. Save your ideas, all of which will be "on-premise" for you. Second, take another pass with greater intention: think of the logical questions that emerge from what you're reading. These are questions YOU have plus questions you anticipate getting from others. For example: * “I keep saying ‘teach the market how to buy you.’ What does that actually mean? What are the steps? What does it look like when done well vs. poorly?" * “I mention ‘The Category Conundrum’ as a concept. What exactly IS this? Can I define it crisply? What causes it? What are the symptoms? Is there a spectrum that leads to the moment the conundrum begins? Is that spectrum a possible framework of mine?” * “I say ‘innovative leaders’ vs. ‘commodified competitors.’ Do these terms work? Do they need better labels? What are the actual differences?” This part of the exercise will likely lead to some common types of ideas for your content, such as defining words you commonly repeat, anticipating objections from the audience, branded terms you coin to help name a problem or solution, visual frameworks to explain the journey, and signature stories or personal anecdotes/metaphors. Third, create content to refine your thinking: Over 1-2 weeks, write, record, and post multiple pieces exploring the questions and ideas from above. Articles published on your own site are useful for hyperlinking to them in future pieces and for sending links to prospects and clients. (I don't think about SEO at all, so I can't comment on that benefit.) Native social posts are useful for discoverability and audience engagement, but it's worth noting that early in your journey, you're writing to clarify things to yourself. The audience feedback loop is secondary, but it starts to matter more the longer you do this work. On both your site and your social channels, cycle through all the possible pieces and posts relating to that single ARC, rooted in your initial questions and your "on-premise" ideas. Finally, consider if anything is worthy codifying into IP. Consider the IP pyramid below. If you’ve had a breakthrough in something along the way, what elements can you create to help you teach and own the idea? What pieces of your latest content ARC should be packaged into something repeatable and/or visual? ​ ​ ...then move on to the next ARC! *** ------------------------------------- Fair warning: discipline is required. ------------------------------------- This only works if you focus, focus, focus. I don't want to hear that you're distractable as a person. I don't want to hear that you've got writer's block. Clarity of messaging only comes from picking a focus area, then sticking to it, writing or communicating messily ... until we aren't. Consider that if you had a train ticket for this Wednesday at 8am, you'd find a way to get on the train. You get on that train because you said you would and because it's 8am on Wednesday—not because you feel inspired. * Commit a couple of weeks to one arc (no jumping around topics randomly—focus, focus focus) * Publish a few pieces per arc (you need multiple attempts to crack the code on your ideas) * Actually codify your thinking into IP at the end (don’t just “move on”—consider what needs to be developed into a reusable asset ... then publish that too!) * Source arcs from your premise language (not random ideas or "relevant keywords") The temptation will be to say: * “Oh, I should talk about that latest trend or viral news." → NO. Stay on the arc, at least at first. You need evergreen IP, not random spikes of engagement that die and never generate real revenue. Later, you can press trendy things through your premise, because you've internalized your ideas to such a degree you can now color everything using it. * “I have this other idea” → GOOD. Add it to a notebook for safekeeping. Pursue it later. * “This arc is getting repetitive” → GREAT. That’s when you and others both start to internalize your ideas. ------------------------------------ Need a prescription for your output? ------------------------------------ Try this: Start with a longer-form piece to explore the big question or idea. Don’t judge it. Don’t worry if a lengthy article encompasses multiple ideas that you think might deserve their own pieces or even their own arcs later. Just create an earnest first attempt to understand. Write or speak from the heart. Create 3-5 social posts over a 2-week span. Life them from the initial long-form piece if it's easier, but ideally, these will be the natural follow-up questions or ideas from that first piece, or a concept from that piece that deserves a dedicated post. End with another longer-form piece as a kind of book-end to the arc. This can be a revision of the first piece, because now you actually understand your ideas better and bring sharper language to them, or it can be a kind of "so what?" or "what's next?" article. For instance, in an arc about resonance, I might begin by defining the term, then I might end by finally and clearly explaining the relationship between resonance and reach—and I'd of course mention the definition once more. Or maybe I'll end the arc with a visual spectrum to explain something I was just exploring across all my content for two weeks. Regardless, I'll end with another longer-form piece to cap off the arc. Again, that's just a prescription for your next arc (long-form piece, a few short-form posts, another long-form piece), but make it your own! Focus is a strategic advantage. Writing is thinking. Content is both distribution for proven ideas and a means to work out even stronger thoughts. We hear these ideas often, but when it comes to executing them, we often trip or fall. Remember to think and publish in ARCs: ASK the logical questions based on previous content, existing messaging, or your distinct, ownable premise. REFINE your ideas through active exploration and creation. It's the best way to find clarity and sharpen your words. Finally, CODIFY the strongest bits and ideas, as you package your expertise into reusable elements of your thought leadership: branded terms, teachable methods and frameworks, signature stories, and more. In 3-6 months, you'll have developed significant IP, developed, validated, and internalized your premise, and helped orient your audience around certain key themes, all while winning passionate fans along the way. Like you, these fans will emerge with better, repeatable language that they can also use to distribute your message for you. No more guessing. No more checking boxes. Stop filling feeds. Start owning your ideas. *** What do you think about this approach? Reply to reach me directly. You can also save or share this piece using this link: ​jayacunzo.com/blog/content-arcs-own-your-ideas ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/92ulr5gn65unh60e466b9hzdmlg2va0n59603qz24z6gx5x5k99xoqrmdkkk3ekkr03z2n860o346xzp043qoqvdxpgln436v00mnzg7gn90qml0w72kvgqk27xbg74wq/l2heh6uleq88wptg/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL2Jsb2cvY29udGVudC1hcmNzLW93bi15b3VyLWlkZWFz )​ ----------------------------------- A storytelling book worth your time ----------------------------------- The world doesn't need better prompts. It needs better storytellers. In an age of endless AI slop, the most powerful thing you can do is tell deeply human stories that break through all the junk and mediocrity and communicate your perspective in ways that stick. My friend Joe Lazer has a new book out to help you do that: Super Skill: Why Storytelling Is the Superpower of the AI Age ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/92ulr5gn65unh60e466b9hzdmlg2va0n59603qz24z6gx5x5k99xoqrmdkkk3ekkr03z2n860o346xzp043qoqvdxpgln436v00mnzg7gn90qml0w72kvgqk27xbg74wq/m2h7h6u3v2ddwrcl/aHR0cDovL2pvZWxhemVyLmNvbS9zdXBlcnNraWxs ). Joe shared an early copy of this book with me, and it's a funny, insightful, neuroscience-backed guide to telling stories that break through and help you escape the commodity cage. If you have a fire in your chest to make what matters, this book is for you. ​Order now ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/92ulr5gn65unh60e466b9hzdmlg2va0n59603qz24z6gx5x5k99xoqrmdkkk3ekkr03z2n860o346xzp043qoqvdxpgln436v00mnzg7gn90qml0w72kvgqk27xbg74wq/m2h7h6u3v2ddwrcl/aHR0cDovL2pvZWxhemVyLmNvbS9zdXBlcnNraWxs ), and you'll also get complimentary access to Joe's new storytelling course. ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/92ulr5gn65unh60e466b9hzdmlg2va0n59603qz24z6gx5x5k99xoqrmdkkk3ekkr03z2n860o346xzp043qoqvdxpgln436v00mnzg7gn90qml0w72kvgqk27xbg74wq/dphehmuevdlldzhl/aHR0cHM6Ly9qb2VsYXplci5jb20vc3VwZXJza2lsbA== )​ Thanks for reading! I'm back in your inbox next Friday. Keep making what matters, —Jay ​ JAY ACUNZO ​Book me to speak ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/92ulr5gn65unh60e466b9hzdmlg2va0n59603qz24z6gx5x5k99xoqrmdkkk3ekkr03z2n860o346xzp043qoqvdxpgln436v00mnzg7gn90qml0w72kvgqk27xbg74wq/e0hph0u76m88mpf7/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL2tleW5vdGVz )​ ​Explore my advisory services ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/92ulr5gn65unh60e466b9hzdmlg2va0n59603qz24z6gx5x5k99xoqrmdkkk3ekkr03z2n860o346xzp043qoqvdxpgln436v00mnzg7gn90qml0w72kvgqk27xbg74wq/8ghqh3uozwmmkril/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL3NlcnZpY2Vz )​ ​Read past essays ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/92ulr5gn65unh60e466b9hzdmlg2va0n59603qz24z6gx5x5k99xoqrmdkkk3ekkr03z2n860o346xzp043qoqvdxpgln436v00mnzg7gn90qml0w72kvgqk27xbg74wq/7qh7h2u9qdrrd6i9/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL2Jsb2c= ) - buy my book ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/92ulr5gn65unh60e466b9hzdmlg2va0n59603qz24z6gx5x5k99xoqrmdkkk3ekkr03z2n860o346xzp043qoqvdxpgln436v00mnzg7gn90qml0w72kvgqk27xbg74wq/owhkhwuwpx22xnaq/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL2JyZWFrLXRoZS13aGVlbA== ) - listen to my podcast ( https://e663a8f1.click.kit-mail3.com/92ulr5gn65unh60e466b9hzdmlg2va0n59603qz24z6gx5x5k99xoqrmdkkk3ekkr03z2n860o346xzp043qoqvdxpgln436v00mnzg7gn90qml0w72kvgqk27xbg74wq/z2hgh7uen5qq5rtz/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL2hvdy1zdG9yaWVzLWhhcHBlbi1zdG9yeXRlbGxpbmctcG9kY2FzdA== )​ Playing Favorites is an Unthinkable Media property. 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Here's where I stand right now.  ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ 96 ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/n4urxdk06dsvhxmv96os6h6ww0wgga3gdp83q6k2ok89vdvdrppv465zerrrqnrr53qk2g7834qo8vkm3oq646xevm9wgoq8x33zgk909gp36zw3l02rx96r20viok984/58hvh8ugqn37x0c7/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29t ) The newsletter of Jay Acunzo. Don't market more. Matter more. Think resonance over reach. Don't be the best. Be their favorite. New here? Welcome! Subscribe free. ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/n4urxdk06dsvhxmv96os6h6ww0wgga3gdp83q6k2ok89vdvdrppv465zerrrqnrr53qk2g7834qo8vkm3oq646xevm9wgoq8x33zgk909gp36zw3l02rx96r20viok984/wnh2h6uqnkmgmgbl/amF5YWN1bnpvLmNvbS9uZXdzbGV0dGVy )​ ************************** The Metaphor and the Magic ************************** It's been a good long while since I've had a good long rant. *Cracks knuckles.* Let us begin. *** -------------------- Part 1: The Metaphor -------------------- Imagine you have just invented the car. (Great job, by the way.) Once the invention is ready to show off, you drive it to a field where a bunch of people are playing. "Behold!" you declare. "I give you the car!" "WHOA!" they shout. "You CREATED this?" "Why yes, yes I did," you say. "You're so smart!" they declare. "Why thank you!" you chirp. "This is incredible!" they shout. "Aw shucks," you reply. "This thing has FLASHLIGHTS on the front?!" they squeal. "Why yes, this—wait, what?" you stammer. And then all the marketers in the field run around shouting about the flashlights and how you'll never need to manually hold one again and if you don't use these flashlights, you'll be left behind, and they post about 27 Flashlight Prompts to 10x Your Business in 10 Seconds. If that happened to you as the inventor of the automobile, you'd watch in disbelief at the way the world interpreted your life's work. "Yes, the car 'has flashlights on the front,'" you'd groan. "But it's also A CAR. Can we PLEASE focus on the very many CAR-LIKE things it can do?!" This, dear reader, is how I'm viewing generative AI today—or really, the discourse about it. There are SO many use cases for these tools, and the most rinky-dink in my opinion—in other words, the least valuable and the most groan-worthy—is to create content with it. Because sure, it can create content, but it's a content generator in the same way that your car is a flashlight. This myopic obsession with pumping out generic content isn't new. AI just kicks things into high gear, like tossing a Mentos into a bottle of Coke. There's a reason I'm not a "content marketing" speaker or writer these days. It's stuff like this moment that drives me too insane to handle anymore. Longtime subscribers may recognize that for someone who became "known" (at least a little bit) for the idea of content marketing, I don't say the phrase anymore. Maybe that's because the industry has changed and "content marketing" became simply "marketing." But even if that's true, I also consciously changed my focus. I'm glad for it too. The way folks approach generative AI didn't cause my shift, mind you. It's just the latest, loudest symptom of an illness that has plagued this field forever. We don't think about the audience experience enough. Once I left the corporate world of content marketing behind, I spent those first few years as an independent voice beating the same drum, now uninhibited by corporate norms or metrics. I continued speaking about marketing-related themes, but I stood louder and prouder behind my beliefs. My keynotes, my first podcast (Unthinkable), and even my first book ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/n4urxdk06dsvhxmv96os6h6ww0wgga3gdp83q6k2ok89vdvdrppv465zerrrqnrr53qk2g7834qo8vkm3oq646xevm9wgoq8x33zgk909gp36zw3l02rx96r20viok984/8ghqh3uoz2w9wzil/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL2JyZWFrLXRoZS13aGVlbA== ) centered on the ideas of quality, craft, creativity, and giving many damns about the work you create. Then a funny thing happened. My tribe came to me. Yes, some are marketers, but most are not. My audience is full of entrepreneurs and coaches, consultants and speakers, public speakers, lawyers, accountants, HR pros, ops and finance specialists, sales leaders, startup CEOs, YouTubers, podcasters, and more. We're bound together not based on a niche or job title but by shared beliefs. They were already aligned. They just needed someone to articulate what they felt. That's when it clicked for me: when you stop trying to convince an entire industry and simply stand tall in your ideals, the right people come to you. I stopped shouting into the storm and started speaking to those who already saw what I saw. I'm proof that you can disagree with the popular discourse, the trending tactics, the cultural norms of a space, and still build a thriving, growing audience, business, and career. It just might not look like the cookie-cutter path you were sold in school. What might happen if you stopped trying to convince everyone and only focused on connecting with the right few someones? Which brings me to the magic. ----------------- Part 2: The Magic ----------------- To me, debating whether or not generative AI creates good content is kinda missing the point. Because "good" is subjective. It's about the intention behind the work and the perception receiving the work, and AI alone has no "intention" other than to obey its programming (which isn't really intention per se). Its programming isn't focused on making something "good" because, again, what does that mean? Really, its programming is built to match a spec, which humans provide. Sometimes that spec is provided by the creators of the tool. Do this, this way, for every user, says the programming. Other times, you decide the spec. Do this, this way, for me. Getting something to spec might mean we say it's "good," when really, all we can claim is that it's accurate. When the objective is to meet spec, improvement doesn't mean you make things better, not really. Improvement means you get things "more correct." That's what AI does. That's what it's built for. Not making good things. Making "correct" things. But we don't write or speak to "correctly" arrange words. We don't illustrate things or film them to "correctly" construct scenes. We do these things to (A) make sense of this world and our relationship to it, and (B) to connect with the audience. The folks screaming about how great AI is at creating content rarely think about the role of A and seem to forget that the point of this work is B. Getting something we create to look or sound "more correct" isn't ever the point. Getting others to CARE MORE is. And listen, correct things can be useful. Getting things to spec does indeed matter. But when something is only as good as the spec it's given, it's still at the mercy of subjective judgment, and it's that very notion of subjective judgment that people who obsessively support AI as a content creation tool never talk about. Because subjective judgment passed on your work is what has to happen when you hit Publish, and it's only then that someone can decide if the work is "good" or not. Said simply: Creating correct things is not the same as creating effective things. And our jobs depend on us creating effective things—things others deem "good." We can't decide it. Only the audience can. The world of content marketing and indeed all types of content creation need to center more fully on serving the audience, not ourselves. Because they decide. They pass the judgment. Yet they are rarely considered in the debate over whether AI is any "good" at creating content. When toeing the waters of the Great AI Debate of 2026, always remember this simple fact: Generative AI is about making logical predictions to arrive at something as correct as possible. Human creativity is about making emotional reflections to arrive at something as resonant as possible. Notice that in the first sentence, you (i.e. the AI user) decide if AI is doing a good job. Is this correct? In the second sentence, others (i.e. your audience) decide. Does this resonate? And THAT is the missing piece way too often. How are others actually RECEIVING your work? How do they FEEL about it? Ishiguro said it best. He was talking about storytelling, but it applies to anything self-expressive: "Stories are like one person saying to another, 'This is the way it feels to me. Can you understand what I'm saying? Does it also feel this way to you?'" For as excited as people get to create stuff with AI, they sure do forget that, eventually, others need to experience it. Absorb it. FEEL IT. Unfortunately, in my world, once content marketing became a big thing, it attracted people who don't much care for the act of creating content at all. They just saw it as a thing that "works." The idea of human expression isn't something they reflect on much, if at all. Content marketing and social media made writing and recording and speaking and storytelling so important to building a business and so ingrained in our everyday work, we find ourselves in a moment where tons of people are doing those things while also being pretty darn uninterested in any of it for its own sake. They seek to create content as a tactic to transact others, rather than a vehicle to transform (themselves and others). But as with anything creative, the people who are better at it are the ones who make the process the point. They're intrinsically motivated by, even giddy about, the act of creation in and of itself—which in turn makes what they create more effective. There's a word I uncovered years ago that I always return to: "telic." When something is telic, it's done purely for the end result. Another, more negative name for it is a chore. Sweeping your floor is telic. The objective is not to enjoy a good sweep, right? As a result, what do we do? We don’t do it, or we do it poorly,, or we wonder if this new floor-cleaning technology will save us like they promise it will. But really, something else would actually save you: if you somehow enjoyed the process of sweeping. If that was you, you’d have cleaner floors. But sweeping your floors is a chore. It’s telic. Eating ice cream is not. That’s paratelic. It’s done for the process itself. It’s intrinsically motivating. The process is the point. Nobody turns to a friend and says, “Here, eat my ice cream for me. I really just want a dirty bowl.” Nobody heads to their local ice cream shoppe (always spelled that way, obviously), buys a cone, but then wishes they could just … absorb the cone straight into their stomach. No! Because the process of eating it is the point. The experience is the objective. Feeling full is not. Eating ice cream is not telic. It’s paratelic. And as a result, good things happen. We seek it out MORE, and we find ways to do it BETTER. We eat ice cream in extra large cups and extra large cones with extra large amounts of toppings. (Don’t get me started on adults who order kiddie sizes. Kiddie sizes are for quitters.) This is how I’ve always felt about writing, speaking, recording things, telling stories, and creating content in any form or fashion. The process is the point. As a result, I seek it out more. I find ways to do it better. I want it served to me in extra large cups and extra large cones with extra large amounts of toppings. Because this shit is the good stuff. It is not the stuff to skip or delay or outsource. To me, the experiencing of the creative process itself is my objective. I’m not purely focused on seeing outcomes. But as a result? I get great outcomes. I get outcomes most people creating content tell me they’d LOVE to get. That’s how this works. My hack is joy. My secret is fun. My advantage is loving this shit. The business world struggles to make content into a tactic because by definition, it’s not. It's a process, and if they dislike the process, what do they do? They don’t do it, or they do it poorly, or they wonder if this new content creation technology will save us like they promise it will. How in the WORLD do you expect others to enjoy consuming your work ... if you aren't interested in or excited by the process of creating it? If you dislike that part, they can tell. So we return now to AI. The lazy uses of AI more specifically: punching a button and create mediocre content at scale. This is just the latest attempt of a certain kind of person to attain outcomes without enduring the process. Because that's how it feels to them: as something to endure, not enjoy. I see how they talk about AI. The argument is always the same when I question their approach. They point to how close the writing is getting to "correct" writing. Look! You can't tell it was AI! This writing sounds like writing. It didn't hallucinate. It met spec. Because for those people, the process was NEVER the point for them. Just the outcome. Get things to spec. Don't challenge the convention, don't seek to make better things or make the world better. Just transact, with greater velocity. The process isn't the point, just the outcomes, and as a result, they get worse outcomes. Those people were ALWAYS uninterested in the great and terrible power creativity and storytelling. They always wanted to reach more people but never stopped to consider whether their work actually resonated. When finding fault, when struggling to see results, they never point to their own ideas and how others experience their work as the reason the work isn’t working. They always find fault with the channel, the distribution plan, the budget. Never the creativity. Never the story. Never the experience. Because they don’t think about that part. They treat this work like a tactic, rather than what it is to me: a calling. If someone told them that jumping out from behind your customers' bushes was the next great approach to marketing, then they'd stop creating content, stop telling stories, and start doing that instead. But not me. Not you. For us, it’s about the experience. WE want to experience the process, and we want OTHERS to experience something great, something different, something valuable, something original. Something that connects. Something magic. *** Save or share this essay: ​https://jayacunzo.com/blog/my-take-on-ai-in-2026 ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/n4urxdk06dsvhxmv96os6h6ww0wgga3gdp83q6k2ok89vdvdrppv465zerrrqnrr53qk2g7834qo8vkm3oq646xevm9wgoq8x33zgk909gp36zw3l02rx96r20viok984/m2h7h6u3vq2e2pcl/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL2Jsb2cvbXktdGFrZS1vbi1haS1pbi0yMDI2 )​ *** BONUS BIT, because I can't help myself right now: I spoke with a fairly senior person at Meta this week. Did you know they have an AI mandate? They require everyone to use AI in some form or fashion, no matter how useful it actually is, and they track it. You are goaled against it. That's right. Goaled against using a tool, not getting outcomes or upholding values. Nope. Tracked for how often you use specific tech. Like you're in preschool and have to pick up the blocks enough times to be on-pace for your age. This is wild to me. I have a visceral reaction to this. I feel it in my stomach. As an entrepreneur, I know I'm overly sensitive to corporate norms, but this feels too far even for corporate employees who have found happy careers working for larger orgs. Predictably, all the employees hate this, and so they game it. They find the simplest, least-intrusive way to use the tools so they can get on with their real work as usual—the AI equivalent of opening Slack and wiggling your mouse cursor so people think you're actively working when you're home. But now Meta gets to brag about their widespread internal AI adoption of course. They're an AI-powered company, clearly, and they can quietly sprinkle about 80,000 additional "daily active users" on top of their public-facing metrics. If you, like me, want to scream into a pillow most days because of how uniquely and supremely dumb the AI hype feels, I'm here for you. Read this blunt, short post from me ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/n4urxdk06dsvhxmv96os6h6ww0wgga3gdp83q6k2ok89vdvdrppv465zerrrqnrr53qk2g7834qo8vkm3oq646xevm9wgoq8x33zgk909gp36zw3l02rx96r20viok984/7qh7h2u9q6dzdnc9/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubGlua2VkaW4uY29tL3Bvc3RzL2pheWFjdW56b19zYXlpbmctYWktd2lsbHdvbnQtdGFrZS1qb2JzLWlzLXNpbGx5LWFjdGl2aXR5LTc0MTU3NDQxMzI2NDU2MjU4NTYteDl1Vi8= ) and this delicious piece ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/n4urxdk06dsvhxmv96os6h6ww0wgga3gdp83q6k2ok89vdvdrppv465zerrrqnrr53qk2g7834qo8vkm3oq646xevm9wgoq8x33zgk909gp36zw3l02rx96r20viok984/z2hgh7uenk5w5zaz/bGlua2VkaW4uY29tL2ZlZWQvdXBkYXRlL3VybjpsaTphY3Rpdml0eTo3NDI3ODEyNjAwMTI3Nzc0NzIwLz9jb21tZW50VXJuPXVybiUzQWxpJTNBY29tbWVudCUzQSUyOHVnY1Bvc3QlM0E3NDI3ODEyNTk5MjE3NTU3NTA1JTJDNzQyNzgyNzgyNTIwNzkyNjc4NSUyOSZkYXNoQ29tbWVudFVybj11cm4lM0FsaSUzQWZzZF9jb21tZW50JTNBJTI4NzQyNzgyNzgyNTIwNzkyNjc4NSUyQ3VybiUzQWxpJTNBdWdjUG9zdCUzQTc0Mjc4MTI1OTkyMTc1NTc1MDUlMjk= ) from my friend Ann Handley, written as a rebuttal to a ridiculous viral article this week, which was as self-serving as it was incorrect. Anyway, I'm pumped to "get left behind."​ ------------------------------------ Just 2 spots left in my accelerator! ------------------------------------ The next cohort of Design My Signature Talk ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/n4urxdk06dsvhxmv96os6h6ww0wgga3gdp83q6k2ok89vdvdrppv465zerrrqnrr53qk2g7834qo8vkm3oq646xevm9wgoq8x33zgk909gp36zw3l02rx96r20viok984/8gh72vkgu3uoz2w9zefl/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL3NpZ25hdHVyZXRhbGs= ) starts February 23. So far, 18 of 20 spots have been purchased. Let's turn your mountain of material and ideas into one undeniable speech. Over 8 weeks together, delivered through a blend of emailed lessons + live group coaching (plus TWO rounds of video notes from me to you), we will... * Refine your expertise into 1 distinct premise for your talk * Craft a captivating structure and flow you can repeat * Develop a signature story you can share everywhere * Build stronger openers and closers, with a framework to reuse * Improve the "money making" sections of a talk (your advice sections and CTAs) to be more effective and memorable -->Register now. This will sell out soon. ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/n4urxdk06dsvhxmv96os6h6ww0wgga3gdp83q6k2ok89vdvdrppv465zerrrqnrr53qk2g7834qo8vkm3oq646xevm9wgoq8x33zgk909gp36zw3l02rx96r20viok984/m2hg23xza6u3vq2evkfl/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL3NpZ25hdHVyZXRhbGs= ) Register now. This will sell out soon. ( https://jayacunzo.com/signaturetalk ) Thanks for reading! Reply to reach me directly. Keep making what matters, —Jay ​ JAY ACUNZO ​Book me to speak ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/n4urxdk06dsvhxmv96os6h6ww0wgga3gdp83q6k2ok89vdvdrppv465zerrrqnrr53qk2g7834qo8vkm3oq646xevm9wgoq8x33zgk909gp36zw3l02rx96r20viok984/kkhmh2unr5zmr5sk/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL2tleW5vdGVz )​ ​Explore my advisory services ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/n4urxdk06dsvhxmv96os6h6ww0wgga3gdp83q6k2ok89vdvdrppv465zerrrqnrr53qk2g7834qo8vkm3oq646xevm9wgoq8x33zgk909gp36zw3l02rx96r20viok984/58hvh8ugqn37q0s7/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL3NlcnZpY2Vz )​ ​Read past essays ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/n4urxdk06dsvhxmv96os6h6ww0wgga3gdp83q6k2ok89vdvdrppv465zerrrqnrr53qk2g7834qo8vkm3oq646xevm9wgoq8x33zgk909gp36zw3l02rx96r20viok984/m2h7h6u3vq2evpil/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL2Jsb2c= ) - buy my book ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/n4urxdk06dsvhxmv96os6h6ww0wgga3gdp83q6k2ok89vdvdrppv465zerrrqnrr53qk2g7834qo8vkm3oq646xevm9wgoq8x33zgk909gp36zw3l02rx96r20viok984/8ghqh3uoz2w9wzil/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL2JyZWFrLXRoZS13aGVlbA== ) - listen to my podcast ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/n4urxdk06dsvhxmv96os6h6ww0wgga3gdp83q6k2ok89vdvdrppv465zerrrqnrr53qk2g7834qo8vkm3oq646xevm9wgoq8x33zgk909gp36zw3l02rx96r20viok984/6qhehoulz5xorkt9/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL2hvdy1zdG9yaWVzLWhhcHBlbi1zdG9yeXRlbGxpbmctcG9kY2FzdA== )​ Playing Favorites is an Unthinkable Media property. No longer interested? No worries: unsubscribe here. ( https://e663a8f1.unsubscribe.convertkit-mail2.com/n4urxdk06dsvhxmv96os6h6ww0wgga3gdp83q6k2ok89vdvdrppv465zerrrqnrr53qk2g7834qo8vkm3oq646xevm9wgoq8x33zgk909gp36zw3l02rx96r20viok984 ) Update Your Profile ( https://preferences.convertkit-mail2.com/n4urxdk06dsvhxmv96os6h6ww0wgga3gdp83q6k2ok89vdvdrppv465zerrrqnrr53qk2g7834qo8vkm3oq646xevm9wgoq8x33zgk909gp36zw3l02rx96r20viok984 ) | P.O. Box 80081, Stoneham, MA 02180

We all feel them!  ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ 96 ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/e5u7q4dxe4i7hl6w032c8h8ooeo22c52n345pgdqod4xwnwn833wegv97888p088v5pdq2k45epo4wd65opgegm7w6xz2op4m5592dxrx235g9z5lrq8mxg8qrwtz5o79/n2hohquv2lo0gks0/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29t ) The newsletter of Jay Acunzo. Don't market more. Matter more. Think resonance over reach. Don't be the best. Be their favorite. New here? Welcome! Subscribe free. ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/e5u7q4dxe4i7hl6w032c8h8ooeo22c52n345pgdqod4xwnwn833wegv97888p088v5pdq2k45epo4wd65opgegm7w6xz2op4m5592dxrx235g9z5lrq8mxg8qrwtz5o79/6qhehoulx32e53s9/amF5YWN1bnpvLmNvbS9uZXdzbGV0dGVy )​ Last time, I wrote about why I think public speaking is the last great advantage ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/e5u7q4dxe4i7hl6w032c8h8ooeo22c52n345pgdqod4xwnwn833wegv97888p088v5pdq2k45epo4wd65opgegm7w6xz2op4m5592dxrx235g9z5lrq8mxg8qrwtz5o79/kkhmh2unzo9v5pak/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL2Jsb2cvdGhhbmtzLXRvLXRoZS11YmlxdWl0eS1vZi1haS10aGlzLWlzLXRoZS1sYXN0LWdyZWF0LWFkdmFudGFnZS10by1idWlsZC15b3VyLWJ1c2luZXNzLWFuZC1jYXJlZXI= ) we can each possess in the era of AI-fueled everything. Today, we need to address a common question I get whenever I speak about public speaking: nerves. We all feel them! Even the pros. What we DO about them can make or break our ability to speak clearly, confidently, and in ways that captivate. *************************** How to Navigate Your Nerves *************************** Here's a screen shot from some video footage of a talk I gave in 2014. What do you notice, besides my ... unique ... fashion choices? ​ See my left hand? It's crammed into my pocket! As you skip ahead in the video, it remains stuck there. It looks sloppy, and it conveys to the audience that I'm not quite comfortable up there, no matter how my voice sounds. Indeed, watching it back, the hand comes with other symptoms of my nerves: I'm talking too fast, correcting myself often, and apologizing for not being able to include every detail but if you just head to my website or google my name and this other phrase you can find everything you need and in fact there's this really great author who— I remember seeing that footage for the first time. I was horrified. I had NO idea what my hand was doing the whole time. I thought I looked and sounded calm, confident, captivating. I didn't. I could tell, too, even before the speech ended. I remember seeing eyes glaze over and phones coming out—not to take pictures of my slide but to do ... what? Anything but watch me fight for my life up there. Later that day, I got coffee with a friend who'd been speaking for many more years than me. I complained about the audience and how they weren't warm, didn't respond well to my lines or jokes, didn't seem engaged. "So Jay," he said softly. (He lacked today's meme language: "I'm going to hold your hand when I say this.") "So Jay, if an audience isn't engaged, that's not their fault. It's yours." Oof. It was so hard to hear, but I neeeeeeded that advice. I needed to take responsibility for things beyond the value of my advice. I needed to actually do the job of a speaker, which is NOT to be a walking, talking blog post or wall of smarts. The job of a speaker is to transform in the room. Speeches are unique vehicles, tailor-made to break patterns. You challenge the conventional wisdom and replace it with yours. You give them a better way to think and execute. All great speeches create a before-and-after moment with the audience, no matter if you give keynotes, breakouts, workshops, webinars, or share ideas as pitches to clients or internal presentations to colleagues. To do the job you're meant to do, you need to deliver one, seamless experience. Once the audience sees the seams, once they see little missteps or clear signs you're uncertain or haven't internalized your material, they get confused or frustrated and they back out. My hand in my pocket was a small symptom of that. The content could be great! But my posture removed some of its (and my) impact. These small things cause the audience to check out mentally and emotionally, so I can't do my job as effectively. The onus was on me, not them, to ensure they felt like they were in good hands the whole time. And thanks to what MY hands were doing? They didn't. *** The moments before a speech begins is where we all need to step into the posture of a leader about to take the stage or hit Go Live on the webinar. But that is also precisely the moment when your nerves can kick into high gear and cause you to some funky things on stage—whether you put your hand in your pocket, crack a bad joke, fumble to the start, or face-plant onto the stage (literally or, more likely, metaphorically). Sometimes, you feel those nerves in your chest. Your mouth goes dry. You start to sweat or fumble. Other times, you don't think the nerves are controlling you, but watching back, it's clear they are. Wait, I sounded like THAT? I was doing THAT? Uh oh. That's what happened to me. I was enjoying myself up there. I felt confident. But I still let my body's natural reaction to the unnatural act of public speaking get in the way. It's no surprise that this is the single most-common question I get from people of all experience levels, including folks who adore speaking: "How should I control my nerves?" My answer: don't even try. Instead, learn to control something else. Nerves only become a problem for the audience's experience when they change the experience. Sounds obvious, maybe, but we don't often consider how, precisely, they change the experience. Nerves negatively affect the experience because nerves affect your pace. That's how they manifest. If you want to navigate your nerves better, think less about nerves and more about pace. Your nerves are an involuntary reaction, and even though advice exists for handling that reaction, I find it's far easier to address something less involuntary and more controllable, i.e. your pace. When we're nervous, we speed up. This is true whether your nerves manifest as fear or excitement. Me, I'm SO pumped to give a talk each time that I can't wait for the person before me to end so I can get up there. I'm sitting there thinking, "Stop it. Stop the talk. Go away. I wanna go. My turn! Can it be my turn?! MY TURN PLEASE!" (If you couldn't already tell by the everything of me, yes, I'm the eldest child in my family. Cousins included.) So, when we're nervous, we speed up. Unfortunately, the advice we get in response is rather unhelpful: "Slow down." This is unhelpful because it doesn't give you anything to shoot for. It just tells you what NOT to do. "Don't go THAT fast," they seem to say. Okayyyy, so how fast SHOULD I go? ​ "Your pace isn't right." Yeah, I've picked up on that, thanks. So what IS right? Where along the entire spectrum of speed should I be? Here's my advice instead. I think this is more helpful because it gives us a tangible target, and to change an involuntary behavior, we need something to consciously shoot for. If you feel nervous, go slightly slower than you're comfortable. ​ ​ There's this strange phenomenon you experience when you start showing up publicly as a storyteller and speaker: YOU don't hear yourself the same way THEY hear you. There's a gap, and the way you close it is to give a ton of talks and watch yourself back a lot. Only then does the voice YOU hear in your head match the voice THEY receive. This is true for speaking, but it's also true for recording audio and video, sitting on a panel, and even chatting with a client, prospect, or employer. The way you hear yourself is different than the way others hear you. So if you think, "My pace sounds just right," but you're not highly practiced yet, then chances are good you actually sound a bit too fast to others. Nerves will naturally speed you up, in ways you didn't sense. But others can tell, and it hurts the experience. Nerves and pace are tightly linked when we use our voices to communicate, and this becomes even more obvious in a speech. Until you've given tons of talks, you won't know how to control your nerves, but no matter your experience level, you can always control your pace. The way to "get over" being nervous is to have a conscious plan for your how fast you speak. * Internalize your opening lines ahead of time. Having a good opener does so many positive things for your talk and your trust in the room, but in the case of nerves, you can rehearse and learn to feel the content. You don't need to worry about what to say. You don't need to be brave for a full talk, only the first few lines as you remember, "Oh, right, I've got this. This is what this feels like. I'm good. I'm warm. Let's do this!" * Smile, breathe, say thank you to the audience. (Avoid filler words and meandering nonsense. Don't add any "verbal debris" which trips you up and starts the experience with irrelevant material.) * Then deliver your first couple lines slightly slower than you're comfortable. Remember, if you're nervous, that will affect your pace most of all. Response to your body's involuntary reaction by consciously controlling your speed. Go slightly slower than feels right to you, and you'll feel just right to them. ---------------------------------------- Accelerator update! Just 4 spots left... ---------------------------------------- The next cohort of Design My Signature Talk ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/e5u7q4dxe4i7hl6w032c8h8ooeo22c52n345pgdqod4xwnwn833wegv97888p088v5pdq2k45epo4wd65opgegm7w6xz2op4m5592dxrx235g9z5lrq8mxg8qrwtz5o79/m2hg23xmt6u32lnzqrbl/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL3NpZ25hdHVyZXRhbGs= ) starts February 23. So far, 16 of 20 spots have been purchased. Let's turn your mountain of material and ideas into one undeniable speech. Over 8 weeks together, delivered through a blend of emailed lessons + live group coaching (plus TWO rounds of video notes from me to you), we will... * Refine your expertise into 1 distinct premise for your talk * Craft a captivating structure and flow you can repeat * Develop a signature story you can share everywhere * Build stronger openers and closers, with a framework to reuse * Improve the "money making" sections of a talk (your advice sections and CTAs) to be more effective and memorable -->Register now. This will sell out soon. ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/e5u7q4dxe4i7hl6w032c8h8ooeo22c52n345pgdqod4xwnwn833wegv97888p088v5pdq2k45epo4wd65opgegm7w6xz2op4m5592dxrx235g9z5lrq8mxg8qrwtz5o79/7qhrpeqkc2u9dx456gc9/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL3NpZ25hdHVyZXRhbGs= ) Register now. This will sell out soon. ( https://jayacunzo.com/signaturetalk ) Thanks for reading! Reply to reach me directly. Keep making what matters, —Jay ​ JAY ACUNZO ​Book me to speak ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/e5u7q4dxe4i7hl6w032c8h8ooeo22c52n345pgdqod4xwnwn833wegv97888p088v5pdq2k45epo4wd65opgegm7w6xz2op4m5592dxrx235g9z5lrq8mxg8qrwtz5o79/25h2h9u3lqowgrh8/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL2tleW5vdGVz )​ ​Explore my advisory services ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/e5u7q4dxe4i7hl6w032c8h8ooeo22c52n345pgdqod4xwnwn833wegv97888p088v5pdq2k45epo4wd65opgegm7w6xz2op4m5592dxrx235g9z5lrq8mxg8qrwtz5o79/qvh8h8udel6pv7hg/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL3NlcnZpY2Vz )​ ​Read past essays ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/e5u7q4dxe4i7hl6w032c8h8ooeo22c52n345pgdqod4xwnwn833wegv97888p088v5pdq2k45epo4wd65opgegm7w6xz2op4m5592dxrx235g9z5lrq8mxg8qrwtz5o79/g3hnhwumg0zwnlh3/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL2Jsb2c= ) - buy my book ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/e5u7q4dxe4i7hl6w032c8h8ooeo22c52n345pgdqod4xwnwn833wegv97888p088v5pdq2k45epo4wd65opgegm7w6xz2op4m5592dxrx235g9z5lrq8mxg8qrwtz5o79/9qhzhdud4e2rxxiz/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL2JyZWFrLXRoZS13aGVlbA== ) - listen to my podcast ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/e5u7q4dxe4i7hl6w032c8h8ooeo22c52n345pgdqod4xwnwn833wegv97888p088v5pdq2k45epo4wd65opgegm7w6xz2op4m5592dxrx235g9z5lrq8mxg8qrwtz5o79/3ohphdu3xkdgr9tp/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL2hvdy1zdG9yaWVzLWhhcHBlbi1zdG9yeXRlbGxpbmctcG9kY2FzdA== )​ Playing Favorites is an Unthinkable Media property. No longer interested? No worries: unsubscribe here. ( https://e663a8f1.unsubscribe.convertkit-mail2.com/e5u7q4dxe4i7hl6w032c8h8ooeo22c52n345pgdqod4xwnwn833wegv97888p088v5pdq2k45epo4wd65opgegm7w6xz2op4m5592dxrx235g9z5lrq8mxg8qrwtz5o79 ) Update Your Profile ( https://preferences.convertkit-mail2.com/e5u7q4dxe4i7hl6w032c8h8ooeo22c52n345pgdqod4xwnwn833wegv97888p088v5pdq2k45epo4wd65opgegm7w6xz2op4m5592dxrx235g9z5lrq8mxg8qrwtz5o79 ) | P.O. Box 80081, Stoneham, MA 02180

It just got urgent.  ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ 96 ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/92ulr5gn65unh64838kh9hzoxm933b0n59603qz24z6gx5x5k99xoqrmdkkk3ekkr03z2n860o346xzp043qoqvdxpgln436v00mnzg7gn90qml0w72kvgqk27xbg74wq/48hvh7umwl55eqiq/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29t ) The newsletter of Jay Acunzo. Don't market more. Matter more. Think resonance over reach. Don't be the best. Be their favorite. New here? Welcome! Subscribe free. ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/92ulr5gn65unh64838kh9hzoxm933b0n59603qz24z6gx5x5k99xoqrmdkkk3ekkr03z2n860o346xzp043qoqvdxpgln436v00mnzg7gn90qml0w72kvgqk27xbg74wq/qvh8h8udew77wxhg/amF5YWN1bnpvLmNvbS9uZXdzbGV0dGVy )​ Before we begin, a masterclass in messaging in just 2 minutes: As an American, my heart is breaking and my brain is pinging between so many thoughts right now. It's hard to talk about work related themes in this moment full of injustices, but I know work done to help others in any way is work worth doing, so long as I don't ignore the issues around me to bury myself in work. (I recently signed petitions and donated to support the ACLU ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/92ulr5gn65unh64838kh9hzoxm933b0n59603qz24z6gx5x5k99xoqrmdkkk3ekkr03z2n860o346xzp043qoqvdxpgln436v00mnzg7gn90qml0w72kvgqk27xbg74wq/n2hohquv2q880gc0/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYWNsdS5vcmcv ). I also like to send postcards ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/92ulr5gn65unh64838kh9hzoxm933b0n59603qz24z6gx5x5k99xoqrmdkkk3ekkr03z2n860o346xzp043qoqvdxpgln436v00mnzg7gn90qml0w72kvgqk27xbg74wq/reh8h9umkd22z5a6/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc2lnbnNvZmp1c3RpY2UuY29tL2NvbGxlY3Rpb25zL3dlLXRoZS1wZW9wbGU= ) to my representatives, because physical mail is harder to ignore than email.) Anyway, I wanted to encourage you to watch this Instagram reel ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/92ulr5gn65unh64838kh9hzoxm933b0n59603qz24z6gx5x5k99xoqrmdkkk3ekkr03z2n860o346xzp043qoqvdxpgln436v00mnzg7gn90qml0w72kvgqk27xbg74wq/vqh3hmuom0xxrohw/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuaW5zdGFncmFtLmNvbS9wL0RVR056QXlBV3pqLw== ) from Blair Carlyle. It's at once a message we need in this moment AND a masterclass in effective messaging. In his videos, Blair plays a character named Uncle Pappy. He uses an aging filter to hide his real identity (until recently), and he shares messages of philosophy, love, unity, and positivity, typically while he floats in a lake near his Florida home. Anyway, I thought the video was a masterclass in messaging precisely because it shows a restrained, calm understanding of how to be effective when emotions run high: you still need to speak with empathy and meet others where they're at. Unless you're communicating purely to make yourself feel good in the moment, if you want a message to actually be received and for your words to affect positive change, you first need to ALIGN with the audience, then AGITATE the problem, then ASSERT what should be done next, before you INVITE them to do so. I teach that structure through my work, and Blair does a masterful job (speaking as Blair, not Pappy) which you can learn from. Here's the video. ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/92ulr5gn65unh64838kh9hzoxm933b0n59603qz24z6gx5x5k99xoqrmdkkk3ekkr03z2n860o346xzp043qoqvdxpgln436v00mnzg7gn90qml0w72kvgqk27xbg74wq/vqh3hmuom0xxrohw/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuaW5zdGFncmFtLmNvbS9wL0RVR056QXlBV3pqLw== ) I love it for ALL of the reasons. Oh, and just to speak plainly: I am wholly against this administration and everything it is doing. I am so proud of my fellow Americans who are standing up, marching, contacting their reps, and fighting for their Constitutional rights—rights which these sad and weak politicians (let's call them the Never Hugged Enough All-Stars) seem fine shredding. And also, abolish ICE. If anything I'm saying has you questioning your readership, know that I still love you, but also know that the Unsubscribe link is at the bottom of this email if you like. Now on to this week's essay... *** ************************ The Last Great Advantage ************************ You may have noticed a shift in my platform over the last 4-6 months. I've been talking a lot more directly about public speaking. Yes, I always came back around to speaking in some sense (teaching storytelling, premise and IP development, and messaging tends to mean speaking is part of the mix), and of course, my background as a professional keynote speaker ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/92ulr5gn65unh64838kh9hzoxm933b0n59603qz24z6gx5x5k99xoqrmdkkk3ekkr03z2n860o346xzp043qoqvdxpgln436v00mnzg7gn90qml0w72kvgqk27xbg74wq/m2h7h6u325ggzebl/amF5YWN1bnpvLmNvbS9rZXlub3Rl ) certainly provides a lens for my thinking. But over the past half year or so, I've begun creating more resources narrowly focused on all things speaking. * I wrote about how to pitch ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/92ulr5gn65unh64838kh9hzoxm933b0n59603qz24z6gx5x5k99xoqrmdkkk3ekkr03z2n860o346xzp043qoqvdxpgln436v00mnzg7gn90qml0w72kvgqk27xbg74wq/e0hph0u7mvppomc7/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL2Jsb2cvaG93LXRvLXBpdGNoLWV2ZW50cy10by1zcGVhay10aGUtc3RydWN0dXJlLW9mLWVmZmVjdGl2ZS1waXRjaGVz ) yourself to event organizers * I created a central hub of resources for keynote speakers ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/92ulr5gn65unh64838kh9hzoxm933b0n59603qz24z6gx5x5k99xoqrmdkkk3ekkr03z2n860o346xzp043qoqvdxpgln436v00mnzg7gn90qml0w72kvgqk27xbg74wq/owhkhwuwx9kkd9bq/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL3NwZWFraW5nLXJlc291cmNlcw== ) specifically * I've been investing more in YouTube, which will continue (so please subscribe!) and started analyzing speeches ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/92ulr5gn65unh64838kh9hzoxm933b0n59603qz24z6gx5x5k99xoqrmdkkk3ekkr03z2n860o346xzp043qoqvdxpgln436v00mnzg7gn90qml0w72kvgqk27xbg74wq/p8hehqu4r633o0br/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cueW91dHViZS5jb20vd2F0Y2g_dj1ZSEhMaW01UkcyYw== ) and coaching others on their material ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/92ulr5gn65unh64838kh9hzoxm933b0n59603qz24z6gx5x5k99xoqrmdkkk3ekkr03z2n860o346xzp043qoqvdxpgln436v00mnzg7gn90qml0w72kvgqk27xbg74wq/x0hph3uek2rr0vhg/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cueW91dHViZS5jb20vd2F0Y2g_dj1fY09SeVd3Yzg1SQ== ) for all to see. * You can even watch my full keynote ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/92ulr5gn65unh64838kh9hzoxm933b0n59603qz24z6gx5x5k99xoqrmdkkk3ekkr03z2n860o346xzp043qoqvdxpgln436v00mnzg7gn90qml0w72kvgqk27xbg74wq/6qhehoulxrkkemu9/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cueW91dHViZS5jb20vd2F0Y2g_dj1FQ2hVOGlYT2RYQQ== ) about public speaking from a conference last year. So why am I doing all of this? Why the sudden, concerted effort to teach you these things? Because in this era of endless advice, infinite experts, and of course (say it with me now) AI, public speaking is the great differentiator and unfair edge. I'd go so far as to call speaking the last great advantage. *** The other day, I got an adorable voice memo from my friend Jay Clouse. (The cuteness came from his daughter babbling in the background, though Jay does have a certain boyish charm to him. Anywho.) If you don't know Jay, you should. He's one of the good ones in the creator economy. As the founder of Creator Science ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/92ulr5gn65unh64838kh9hzoxm933b0n59603qz24z6gx5x5k99xoqrmdkkk3ekkr03z2n860o346xzp043qoqvdxpgln436v00mnzg7gn90qml0w72kvgqk27xbg74wq/kkhmh2unzwddvxuk/aHR0cHM6Ly9jcmVhdG9yc2NpZW5jZS5jb20v ), he's become one of the most trusted voices teaching creators to build smarter, more sustainable businesses. Jay's increasingly loud assertion to the creator world is that trust matters more than attention, and I agree. Along those lines, Jay went down several AI-related rabbit holes, and as he was resurfacing, he sent me a voice note with one major conclusion: the rise of AI also means the rise in importance and appetite for in-person interactions and groups, and along with it, the increasing, critical importance of public speaking as a skillset. Jay ended his voice note: "Nobody's putting a Claude terminal on stage at their event, know what I'm SAYIN?!" Yes, my adorable friend. I know precisely what you are say-un. I've been framing speaking all wrong. Develop your thinking, your stories, your IP, then worry about speaking. That frames the idea as a "vertical." You do the horizontal things, develop the horizontal skills, then apply those things to all the vertical stuff you must do to build a business or improve a career ... including give speeches. Nay-nay, says Jay-Jay. (Do I mean Jay Clouse? Do I mean myself? Do I mean some weird talking-head combo, blending the scientific method with storytelling excellence? YES PLEASE.) Speaking is NOT a vertical thing. It's a horizontal skill. It informs and enhances everything. It increases your value everywhere. It's one of the most personal and transferable and transformational skills you can develop. And it just got urgent that we all do so. It doesn't matter your job function, your seniority, your business's traction or stage of growth. You could be speaking to an audience of one or 1 million. If you're a human, you should become a great public speaker. It will supercharge you, everywhere you go—and separate you from everybody and everything, including and most especially AI. Professional speakers and world-class communicators (and adorable Jays) understand this. They invest more in developing their speaking skills and their signature material than in learning any tool or technology. They also benefit from using certain repeatable processes and techniques to ensure their speaking isn't a one-off or a lightning strike moment. It's not a vertical for them. To make something a true horizontal, it must enhance everything, which means it must be internalized by you first. See, it's not just the ability to speak scripted words well. That's not what I mean by public speaking. It's everything that goes into it: shaping tons of ideas and advice into a single, signature idea; crafting and delivering stories; interviewing and telling "my story" reliably and in ways that connect; performance on a stage; charm in the meeting; everything and anything and all the things that go into you showing up in the moment with proven material AND improvised thoughts ... all of which deeply resonate. When you become a stronger public speaker, it pays dividends in formal presentations of course: keynotes, breakouts, workshops, webinars, team meetings, job interviews, client pitches, and board presentations. But the skill of public speaking also transforms you away from your presentations too: podcast hosting and guesting, conference hallway chats, coffee and Zoom meetings, job interviews and client pitches, internal meetings and external networking—you name it. It's like an "Enhance Value" button. Or a supercharged super-suit you're always wearing. You press it or step into it (pick your favorite metaphor), and suddenly EVERYTHING gets better and easier. And in a world where people will use AI to do so many things (too many, if you ask me), ain't nobody putting a Claude terminal on stage. Yanno what I'm SAY-UN?! Master the skill and develop the materials, and you've mastered the ultimate differentiator in your career and business. You instantly increase your value everywhere you go, and in this moment especially, it's increasingly clear: you preserve that value for years to come. Sharpen your ideas. Develop your stories. Design your signature talk. Become a stronger public speaker. It's no longer a nice-to-have thing. It's The Last Great Advantage. ​ ----------------------------------------- 2 ways to become a stronger speaker ASAP: ----------------------------------------- 1/ Join me for the 3rd of my 4 webinars in collaboration with my friends at Wistia in a series we've called Host Better Webinars. This one is going to be so fun: it's all about the techniques and presentation structures capable of captivating an audience. ​Learn more and register for free ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/92ulr5gn65unh64838kh9hzoxm933b0n59603qz24z6gx5x5k99xoqrmdkkk3ekkr03z2n860o346xzp043qoqvdxpgln436v00mnzg7gn90qml0w72kvgqk27xbg74wq/58hvh8ug3xvv24f7/aHR0cHM6Ly9ob21lLndpc3RpYS5jb20vbGl2ZS9ldmVudHMvbXM4b2s5NHp2dT91dG1fY2FtcGFpZ249d2ViaW5hci1jYW1wYWlnbiZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9zb3VyY2U9amF5LWFjdW56bw== ). ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/92ulr5gn65unh64838kh9hzoxm933b0n59603qz24z6gx5x5k99xoqrmdkkk3ekkr03z2n860o346xzp043qoqvdxpgln436v00mnzg7gn90qml0w72kvgqk27xbg74wq/58hvh8ug3xvv24f7/aHR0cHM6Ly9ob21lLndpc3RpYS5jb20vbGl2ZS9ldmVudHMvbXM4b2s5NHp2dT91dG1fY2FtcGFpZ249d2ViaW5hci1jYW1wYWlnbiZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9zb3VyY2U9amF5LWFjdW56bw== )​ ​ ​ 2/ My public speaking accelerator, Design My Signature Talk ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/92ulr5gn65unh64838kh9hzoxm933b0n59603qz24z6gx5x5k99xoqrmdkkk3ekkr03z2n860o346xzp043qoqvdxpgln436v00mnzg7gn90qml0w72kvgqk27xbg74wq/dphwgl8dsmued644nxtl/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL3NpZ25hdHVyZXRhbGs= ), is filling up fast! Next cohort starts Feb. 23. Early bird pricing ends Saturday, January 31, so depending on when you read this, there's still time to register at $400 off. -->Let's build your signature talk ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/92ulr5gn65unh64838kh9hzoxm933b0n59603qz24z6gx5x5k99xoqrmdkkk3ekkr03z2n860o346xzp043qoqvdxpgln436v00mnzg7gn90qml0w72kvgqk27xbg74wq/owhe270xswuwx9kkdesq/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL3NpZ25hdHVyZXRhbGs= ) Let's build your signature talk ( https://jayacunzo.com/signaturetalk ) Thanks for reading! Reply to reach me directly. Keep making what matters, —Jay ​ JAY ACUNZO ​Book me to speak ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/92ulr5gn65unh64838kh9hzoxm933b0n59603qz24z6gx5x5k99xoqrmdkkk3ekkr03z2n860o346xzp043qoqvdxpgln436v00mnzg7gn90qml0w72kvgqk27xbg74wq/qvh8h8udew77pxsg/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL2tleW5vdGVz )​ ​Explore my advisory services ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/92ulr5gn65unh64838kh9hzoxm933b0n59603qz24z6gx5x5k99xoqrmdkkk3ekkr03z2n860o346xzp043qoqvdxpgln436v00mnzg7gn90qml0w72kvgqk27xbg74wq/g3hnhwumg9dd57a3/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL3NlcnZpY2Vz )​ ​Read past essays ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/92ulr5gn65unh64838kh9hzoxm933b0n59603qz24z6gx5x5k99xoqrmdkkk3ekkr03z2n860o346xzp043qoqvdxpgln436v00mnzg7gn90qml0w72kvgqk27xbg74wq/9qhzhdud4wqqmqbz/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL2Jsb2c= ) - buy my book ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/92ulr5gn65unh64838kh9hzoxm933b0n59603qz24z6gx5x5k99xoqrmdkkk3ekkr03z2n860o346xzp043qoqvdxpgln436v00mnzg7gn90qml0w72kvgqk27xbg74wq/3ohphdu3xmool2cp/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL2JyZWFrLXRoZS13aGVlbA== ) - listen to my podcast ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/92ulr5gn65unh64838kh9hzoxm933b0n59603qz24z6gx5x5k99xoqrmdkkk3ekkr03z2n860o346xzp043qoqvdxpgln436v00mnzg7gn90qml0w72kvgqk27xbg74wq/n2hohquv2q88pga0/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL2hvdy1zdG9yaWVzLWhhcHBlbi1zdG9yeXRlbGxpbmctcG9kY2FzdA== )​ Playing Favorites is an Unthinkable Media property. No longer interested? No worries: unsubscribe here. ( https://e663a8f1.unsubscribe.convertkit-mail2.com/92ulr5gn65unh64838kh9hzoxm933b0n59603qz24z6gx5x5k99xoqrmdkkk3ekkr03z2n860o346xzp043qoqvdxpgln436v00mnzg7gn90qml0w72kvgqk27xbg74wq ) Update Your Profile ( https://preferences.convertkit-mail2.com/92ulr5gn65unh64838kh9hzoxm933b0n59603qz24z6gx5x5k99xoqrmdkkk3ekkr03z2n860o346xzp043qoqvdxpgln436v00mnzg7gn90qml0w72kvgqk27xbg74wq ) | P.O. Box 80081, Stoneham, MA 02180

Access and analysis content FTW!  ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ 96 ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/r8uxdgo0egtoh3kzx20c2hdovqm66hoen0dovprx8rdw2n2nk002gp546kkkvqkk5ovrxemdogv8d2rlo8vpgpz62lw3e8vdzoo4erw9we0op43o79xkzwpkx92b4l5d7/58hvh8ug3gkv67s7/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29t ) The newsletter of Jay Acunzo. Don't market more. Matter more. Think resonance over reach. Don't be the best. Be their favorite. New here? Welcome! Subscribe free. ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/r8uxdgo0egtoh3kzx20c2hdovqm66hoen0dovprx8rdw2n2nk002gp546kkkvqkk5ovrxemdogv8d2rlo8vpgpz62lw3e8vdzoo4erw9we0op43o79xkzwpkx92b4l5d7/25h2h9u3l34vknh8/amF5YWN1bnpvLmNvbS9uZXdzbGV0dGVy )​ In my last newsletter of 2025, I shared ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/r8uxdgo0egtoh3kzx20c2hdovqm66hoen0dovprx8rdw2n2nk002gp546kkkvqkk5ovrxemdogv8d2rlo8vpgpz62lw3e8vdzoo4erw9we0op43o79xkzwpkx92b4l5d7/g3hnhwumgm6d4rh3/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL2Jsb2cvdGhlLWNvbnRlbnQtaW0tbW9zdC1idWxsaXNoLW9uLWNyZWF0aW5nLWluLTIwMjYtYWNjZXNzLWFuZC1hbmFseXNpcy1jb250ZW50 ) my plans for my own content marketing this year—and urged other experts and creators to consider investing in what I call "access and analysis" content. You might also call this "show don't tell" content: * Recorded coaching calls you publish for all to see * Breakdowns and analysis of examples you find * Documenting the process of improving something for someone else, which you share as a story or step-by-step guide We're exiting the Advice Era and entering the Application Age, where people want to see how you would apply the advice you always share to people like them—or even directly to them—before they trust you enough to hire you for your services. Today, I wanted to share two new examples of this approach which I recently published and which I feel especially excited about. Both are found on my YouTube channel. ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/r8uxdgo0egtoh3kzx20c2hdovqm66hoen0dovprx8rdw2n2nk002gp546kkkvqkk5ovrxemdogv8d2rlo8vpgpz62lw3e8vdzoo4erw9we0op43o79xkzwpkx92b4l5d7/3ohphdu3x34oegtp/aHR0cHM6Ly95b3V0dWJlLmNvbS9qYXlhY3Vuem8= ) (Specific links below, but as you watch these, please consider subscribing to my channel AND switching on notifications, since YouTube is particularly bad at ensuring you see someone's videos reliably unless you do.) ----------------------------------------- First, a new series I'm quietly piloting: ----------------------------------------- Each episode, I'll watch a speech or story and analyze what we're watching together. ​In this edition ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/r8uxdgo0egtoh3kzx20c2hdovqm66hoen0dovprx8rdw2n2nk002gp546kkkvqkk5ovrxemdogv8d2rlo8vpgpz62lw3e8vdzoo4erw9we0op43o79xkzwpkx92b4l5d7/48hvh7umwm654dtq/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cueW91dHViZS5jb20vd2F0Y2g_dj1ZSEhMaW01UkcyYw== ), I watch Ann Handley deliver the opening moments of a 2023 speech at CEX (Content Entrepreneur Expo) called Writing Like the Robots Can't, all about finding your voice and unleashing your quirks. I'll break down what's working and why, point out the hidden things most people won't see or try that causes speakers and storytellers to more easily differentiate and resonate, and I'll share some prompts and frameworks you can use right away to increase your impact wherever you communicate. ​Watch it now. ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/r8uxdgo0egtoh3kzx20c2hdovqm66hoen0dovprx8rdw2n2nk002gp546kkkvqkk5ovrxemdogv8d2rlo8vpgpz62lw3e8vdzoo4erw9we0op43o79xkzwpkx92b4l5d7/48hvh7umwm654dtq/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cueW91dHViZS5jb20vd2F0Y2g_dj1ZSEhMaW01UkcyYw== )​ ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/r8uxdgo0egtoh3kzx20c2hdovqm66hoen0dovprx8rdw2n2nk002gp546kkkvqkk5ovrxemdogv8d2rlo8vpgpz62lw3e8vdzoo4erw9we0op43o79xkzwpkx92b4l5d7/48hvh7umwm654dtq/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cueW91dHViZS5jb20vd2F0Y2g_dj1ZSEhMaW01UkcyYw== )​ ----------------------------------------------------------------- Second, an inside look at the final coaching call from the last cohort of my public speaking accelerator: ----------------------------------------------------------------- During week 8 of the program, I always host a final showcase and celebration call, where volunteers selected ahead of time get to present a sampling of their work. In this case, marketing consultant and author Brian Piper graciously allowed me to publish his portion. ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/r8uxdgo0egtoh3kzx20c2hdovqm66hoen0dovprx8rdw2n2nk002gp546kkkvqkk5ovrxemdogv8d2rlo8vpgpz62lw3e8vdzoo4erw9we0op43o79xkzwpkx92b4l5d7/reh8h9umkmw2g6s6/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cueW91dHViZS5jb20vd2F0Y2g_dj1fY09SeVd3Yzg1SQ== )​ It's a refreshing look at Brian's material, which directly led to booking clients and speaking gigs. ​Watch it now. ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/r8uxdgo0egtoh3kzx20c2hdovqm66hoen0dovprx8rdw2n2nk002gp546kkkvqkk5ovrxemdogv8d2rlo8vpgpz62lw3e8vdzoo4erw9we0op43o79xkzwpkx92b4l5d7/reh8h9umkmw2g6s6/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cueW91dHViZS5jb20vd2F0Y2g_dj1fY09SeVd3Yzg1SQ== )​ ​ ********************************** Only ONE week left to get $400 off ********************************** Just around the corner, on January 31, early-bird pricing ends to enroll in the next cohort of Design My Signature Talk ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/r8uxdgo0egtoh3kzx20c2hdovqm66hoen0dovprx8rdw2n2nk002gp546kkkvqkk5ovrxemdogv8d2rlo8vpgpz62lw3e8vdzoo4erw9we0op43o79xkzwpkx92b4l5d7/vqhq29x7smuomoexz6aw/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL3NpZ25hdHVyZXRhbGs= ). After that, prices jump by $400. I keep these cohorts intentionally small so we can be extremely productive, doing real work on your real skills and speech. I cap these at 20 spots, and we're halfway there! ​Reserve your spot. ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/r8uxdgo0egtoh3kzx20c2hdovqm66hoen0dovprx8rdw2n2nk002gp546kkkvqkk5ovrxemdogv8d2rlo8vpgpz62lw3e8vdzoo4erw9we0op43o79xkzwpkx92b4l5d7/58hz54g6i8ug3gkvrwi7/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL3NpZ25hdHVyZXRhbGs= )​ This is NOT a course. You will receive guided assignments and direct coaching from me, with weekly group calls available (full schedule on this page ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/r8uxdgo0egtoh3kzx20c2hdovqm66hoen0dovprx8rdw2n2nk002gp546kkkvqkk5ovrxemdogv8d2rlo8vpgpz62lw3e8vdzoo4erw9we0op43o79xkzwpkx92b4l5d7/9qhm90e5idud4dzqo8hz/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL3NpZ25hdHVyZXRhbGs= )) as well as get 2 rounds of personal video notes on your rehearsals. We cover: * Speech foundations: Your premise and structure * Signature stories: We'll actively build a story you can use everywhere, including your speech. * Openers/closers: Finally, a plan for how to navigate these two tricky aspects of any presentation—and perform them well! * Advice and CTAs: The "money makers" of your talk. You can shove too much at people, or give them something they don't need just yet. Getting this right is tricky! We need a plan. No more stressing and scrambling before every talk. No more reinvention. Turn your mountain of ideas and expertise into ONE undeniable speech you can reliably deliver to drive leads and revenue, as you influence and inspire in every room. -->Design My Signature Talk ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/r8uxdgo0egtoh3kzx20c2hdovqm66hoen0dovprx8rdw2n2nk002gp546kkkvqkk5ovrxemdogv8d2rlo8vpgpz62lw3e8vdzoo4erw9we0op43o79xkzwpkx92b4l5d7/rehl6020f9umkmw2gpb6/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL3NpZ25hdHVyZXRhbGs= ) Design My Signature Talk ( https://jayacunzo.com/signaturetalk ) Thanks for reading! Reply to reach me directly. Keep making what matters, —Jay ​ JAY ACUNZO ​Book me to speak ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/r8uxdgo0egtoh3kzx20c2hdovqm66hoen0dovprx8rdw2n2nk002gp546kkkvqkk5ovrxemdogv8d2rlo8vpgpz62lw3e8vdzoo4erw9we0op43o79xkzwpkx92b4l5d7/l2heh6ulql60x5sg/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL2tleW5vdGVz )​ ​Explore my advisory services ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/r8uxdgo0egtoh3kzx20c2hdovqm66hoen0dovprx8rdw2n2nk002gp546kkkvqkk5ovrxemdogv8d2rlo8vpgpz62lw3e8vdzoo4erw9we0op43o79xkzwpkx92b4l5d7/m2h7h6u323mg4gtl/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL3NlcnZpY2Vz )​ ​Read past essays ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/r8uxdgo0egtoh3kzx20c2hdovqm66hoen0dovprx8rdw2n2nk002gp546kkkvqkk5ovrxemdogv8d2rlo8vpgpz62lw3e8vdzoo4erw9we0op43o79xkzwpkx92b4l5d7/7qh7h2u9d9wknpt9/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL2Jsb2c= ) - buy my book ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/r8uxdgo0egtoh3kzx20c2hdovqm66hoen0dovprx8rdw2n2nk002gp546kkkvqkk5ovrxemdogv8d2rlo8vpgpz62lw3e8vdzoo4erw9we0op43o79xkzwpkx92b4l5d7/z2hgh7ue5ep4ldiz/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL2JyZWFrLXRoZS13aGVlbA== ) - listen to my podcast ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/r8uxdgo0egtoh3kzx20c2hdovqm66hoen0dovprx8rdw2n2nk002gp546kkkvqkk5ovrxemdogv8d2rlo8vpgpz62lw3e8vdzoo4erw9we0op43o79xkzwpkx92b4l5d7/x0hph3ueke9rqwtg/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL2hvdy1zdG9yaWVzLWhhcHBlbi1zdG9yeXRlbGxpbmctcG9kY2FzdA== )​ Playing Favorites is an Unthinkable Media property. No longer interested? No worries: unsubscribe here. ( https://e663a8f1.unsubscribe.convertkit-mail2.com/r8uxdgo0egtoh3kzx20c2hdovqm66hoen0dovprx8rdw2n2nk002gp546kkkvqkk5ovrxemdogv8d2rlo8vpgpz62lw3e8vdzoo4erw9we0op43o79xkzwpkx92b4l5d7 ) Update Your Profile ( https://preferences.convertkit-mail2.com/r8uxdgo0egtoh3kzx20c2hdovqm66hoen0dovprx8rdw2n2nk002gp546kkkvqkk5ovrxemdogv8d2rlo8vpgpz62lw3e8vdzoo4erw9we0op43o79xkzwpkx92b4l5d7 ) | P.O. Box 80081, Stoneham, MA 02180

Can you nail it?  ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ 96 ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/92ulr5gn65unh64z53li9hzoxm933b0n59603qz24z6gx5x5k99xoqrmdkkk3ekkr03z2n860o346xzp043qoqvdxpgln436v00mnzg7gn90qml0w72kvgqk27xbg74wq/m2h7h6u32q4kvxal/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29t ) A newsletter about how to differentiate and resonate to build your business — and all the storytelling, messaging, speaking, and creativity you can use to become your audience's favorite voice. New here? Welcome! Subscribe free. ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/92ulr5gn65unh64z53li9hzoxm933b0n59603qz24z6gx5x5k99xoqrmdkkk3ekkr03z2n860o346xzp043qoqvdxpgln436v00mnzg7gn90qml0w72kvgqk27xbg74wq/3ohphdu3x2p60xap/amF5YWN1bnpvLmNvbS9uZXdzbGV0dGVy )​ Thank you to the people who responded so positively to my last essay on how keynotes are sold and booked! I worked hard on that one over the holiday break, and I like the ability to visualize complex things in simple ways for people. If you missed it, that's here ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/92ulr5gn65unh64z53li9hzoxm933b0n59603qz24z6gx5x5k99xoqrmdkkk3ekkr03z2n860o346xzp043qoqvdxpgln436v00mnzg7gn90qml0w72kvgqk27xbg74wq/n2hohquv2x7wmmh0/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL2Jsb2cvaG93LXRvLWJvb2stbW9yZS1hbmQtYmV0dGVyLWtleW5vdGVzLXRoZS1lbmdpbmUtbW9zdC1zcGVha2Vycy1vdmVybG9vaw== ). I also put together a single page ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/92ulr5gn65unh64z53li9hzoxm933b0n59603qz24z6gx5x5k99xoqrmdkkk3ekkr03z2n860o346xzp043qoqvdxpgln436v00mnzg7gn90qml0w72kvgqk27xbg74wq/48hvh7umwpxzvlhq/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL3NwZWFraW5nLXJlc291cmNlcw== ) where you'll find that essay plus some other written and recorded resources for keynote speakers (building better talks, pitching to get booked, and more). Whenever I'm asked about getting more speaking engagements, I now send people that page. Hope it's useful for you too! *** ********************* The Coffee Break Test ********************* Here's a thought experiment: You're at a conference, and someone walks up to you during a coffee break and says, "Hey, what do you do?" How long does it take you to explain it in a way they actually get? More to the point of why we communicate, can you say something that ensures they actually care? Speaking clearly is a starting point. Speaking in ways that earn their active interest is the goal. If you're like most of the experts I work with ... the explanation takes too long. You start with your background, pivot to your services, maybe throw in a client example or two. Or maybe you reach for your LinkedIn title, written as we all tend to say it: "I help [people] do [action]." It's not terrible. It's just ... okay. Then you hope and pray they want to learn more, instead of what you really wish happened: they crave it. Your explanation was fine, which means it was forgettable, which leads to a third F (frustration) which leads to a fourth (muttered to yourself in the shower later when you replay this interaction over and over and over...) We've all been there. (Me too!) You think, "I know I'm good, I know I'm valued, I know I'm articulate, but I can FEEL my explanation losing them while I'm speaking." Now imagine this instead: What do you do? "Oh, I help SaaS companies fix the part of their product where users give up and never come back." Or: "I remind fashion designers that their products are for their customers, not their peers, so they can build sturdier businesses." Or: "I work with leaders who are successful by every external measure but feel misaligned with their values." Mine? "I work with experts who have a ton of competence but need resonance to see results more easily." One sentence. Clear. Memorable. Interesting. The coffee break at a conference is just one place where you need to explain yourself. Maybe this week, you're not at an event. Maybe you're guesting on a podcast or interacting on social media or getting introduced to a potential prospect or partner. There are dozens of moments where you're required to tell others about yourself, which is really a question of why you and your business are valuable to others. Unfortunately, if you're like most people, the moment you get asked, it feels like your heart decides it's time to disrupt your head. It was sitting there quietly pumping away in a cozy chair, when suddenly it looks up from the latest issue of Cardiac Quarterly: "Did they just ask what we do? Welp, time to get to work!" It tosses the magazine aside, leaps onto the treadmill in your chest, and punches it to 11. That is ... if you're like most people. Someone who has built themselves a signature talk is not most people. Someone who has internalized their own message and stories (it's in their bones, not their brain) is no mere mortal of communication. They're unstoppable superheroes of storytelling excellence, including and especially when asked to tell others, "What do you do?" I remember the feeling in my own career. Once I had my signature talk built, every other interaction got better and more effective. EVERYTHING felt easier. I felt more confident. People responded more positively. It didn't matter if it was a hallway chat or podcast appearance, a blog post or a keynote. I felt it. My impact increased ... without increasing my effort. At a conference, the same people capable delivering from the stage are often the same calm, confident presences walking the floor. That's not a matter of ego. That's a result of them feeling so comfortable in their own ideas and, more importantly, how they communicate their ideas, that they give off this undeniable energy. They cruise, rather than hustle. On the other hand, the people who struggle and stress in those same interactions? They're stuck grappling with what I call "expertise without architecture." Expertise without architecture looks like this: You have years of experience. You've shared seemingly infinite advice in content and conversation. You've got genuine proof you're at least halfway decent at what you do, with at least some fans and supporters willing to vouch for you. Maybe you've even got a folder of presentations you've given over the years—each probably custom-built for a specific audience. New talks every talk. You're good at what you do. People value your work. But when someone asks what you're known for ... you don't have a crisp answer. You have context. You have nuance. You have, "Well, it depends on the client..." or maybe, "I do this, but really, it's so much more..." or perhaps the ever-tricky stance to take: "I'm a [job title I made up for myself with a little TM on my website which if I'm honest nobody really understands]." That's expertise without architecture. You've got the goods. But the scaffolding and structure and sturdiness and impressiveness are ... let's say emerging, not absent? Expertise WITH architecture looks like this: * You have one core idea, a signature concept you own—your premise—that everything ladders up to. Others talk about similar topic and sell similar things. But you can quickly and confidently convey why you're different and specific. That means you resonate. * You have stories that illustrate the premise. Frameworks to make complexity accessible. Clear messaging and pillar projects online that cement your idea ownership, and a reliable, well-developed talk that fully captures your premise and gets buy-in from others, both in their heads and in the buyer's journey you can measure. * So when the coffee break begins, it feels like dunking on a kids' hoop: you spent so much time doing all the other, harder stuff, that THIS? This is easy, even fun! While your peers get asked the same question, they struggle to pick up the metaphorical ball and nudge it awkwardly through the hoop, with their confusing or meandering or forgettable explanations. Whereas you calmly respond with a 360-degree windmill dunk. Everything in your marketing gets easier when you have a clear premise and a signature speech to defend and distribute it, because you're not explaining a dozen things—you're reinforcing one idea. Best of all, your sales conversations turn into formalities with prospective clients. They're there merely to gut-check that you can personalize your thinking to their situation, or that your timeline and pricing lines up. But because they already understand you, they're arriving at your door practically beating it down. I've spent 20 years honing similar thought leadership that I help others develop today, not because I'm a coach with templates, but as a practitioner-peer. The momentum you feel when you develop this kind of material is undeniable and quite addicting. You cackle to yourself. Counterintuitively, when your ideas feel more like YOU ... OTHERS run your way. You can stop chasing because you're the one they seek. In the case of your public appearances, guesting, and speaking, it all gets better (more fun, more consistent, more lucrative) because conference organizers know exactly what you bring and why you're different and audiences can't wait to approach you afterwards. Your signature talk isn't just a presentation. It's the architecture that holds all your expertise together, everywhere you go. So here's my question for you: What would you calmly, confidently say during the coffee break? Does it make them lean in? Call over a friend or two? Whip out the agenda and find the room where you're speaking later? Or do you have expertise without architecture? Stop explaining. Start inspiring. No more "walls of smarts" or paragraphs of hedging where a memorable, singular concept is needed. One premise, one core argument to embrace it ... one signature talk. ​Design My Signature Talk ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/92ulr5gn65unh64z53li9hzoxm933b0n59603qz24z6gx5x5k99xoqrmdkkk3ekkr03z2n860o346xzp043qoqvdxpgln436v00mnzg7gn90qml0w72kvgqk27xbg74wq/rehlr5knh9umk3694zu6/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL3NpZ25hdHVyZXRhbGs= ) is an 8-week virtual program starting February 23rd where we build your signature talk together—the architecture that makes your expertise visible and memorable, both in your speaking and around your public platform, everywhere. We cover: * Premise Development: The one core idea you want to be known for * Gripping Structure: How to architect your talk so it flows like a single, seamless experience they adore (and you can more easily internalize and deliver) * Signature Storytelling: Finding and building stories that make your ideas actually stick. (It's what they'll tell you they remember 3 years later) * Strategic Openers/Closers: How to grab attention and drive action with calm confidence. (Openers and closers are so tricky!) * The "Business" Bits: How do you offer strategic advice in a talk, share genuinely effective CTAs in talks, and drive follow-on opportunities for your business ... without selling from the stage? (A big no-no.) You'll also get two rounds of personalized video feedback + weekly group coaching calls with me ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/92ulr5gn65unh64z53li9hzoxm933b0n59603qz24z6gx5x5k99xoqrmdkkk3ekkr03z2n860o346xzp043qoqvdxpgln436v00mnzg7gn90qml0w72kvgqk27xbg74wq/08he2pxvtgu2n9l0vrap/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL3NpZ25hdHVyZXRhbGs= ). By the end, you'll have a 30-45 minute signature talk to fuel your speaking, webinars, guest appearances, even content and messaging. You'll have the super-suit you can wear, everywhere you go. Normally $2,250. Early bird pricing means $400 off until January 31. There are only 14 spots left. -->Look inside + save your spot ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/92ulr5gn65unh64z53li9hzoxm933b0n59603qz24z6gx5x5k99xoqrmdkkk3ekkr03z2n860o346xzp043qoqvdxpgln436v00mnzg7gn90qml0w72kvgqk27xbg74wq/n2hq50w0bquv2x7wm0i0/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL3NpZ25hdHVyZXRhbGs= ) Look inside + save your spot ( https://jayacunzo.com/signaturetalk )*** Thanks for reading! Reply to reach me directly. Keep making what matters, —Jay ​ JAY ACUNZO ​Book me to speak. ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/92ulr5gn65unh64z53li9hzoxm933b0n59603qz24z6gx5x5k99xoqrmdkkk3ekkr03z2n860o346xzp043qoqvdxpgln436v00mnzg7gn90qml0w72kvgqk27xbg74wq/reh8h9umk3694ri6/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL2tleW5vdGVz )​ ​Explore consulting & coaching. ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/92ulr5gn65unh64z53li9hzoxm933b0n59603qz24z6gx5x5k99xoqrmdkkk3ekkr03z2n860o346xzp043qoqvdxpgln436v00mnzg7gn90qml0w72kvgqk27xbg74wq/08hwhgu2n9l0v6hp/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL3NlcnZpY2Vz )​ ​Read past essays ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/92ulr5gn65unh64z53li9hzoxm933b0n59603qz24z6gx5x5k99xoqrmdkkk3ekkr03z2n860o346xzp043qoqvdxpgln436v00mnzg7gn90qml0w72kvgqk27xbg74wq/8ghqh3uow2rezmtl/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL2Jsb2c= ); buy my book ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/92ulr5gn65unh64z53li9hzoxm933b0n59603qz24z6gx5x5k99xoqrmdkkk3ekkr03z2n860o346xzp043qoqvdxpgln436v00mnzg7gn90qml0w72kvgqk27xbg74wq/vqh3hmuomvw2lwcw/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL2JyZWFrLXRoZS13aGVlbA== ); listen to my podcast ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/92ulr5gn65unh64z53li9hzoxm933b0n59603qz24z6gx5x5k99xoqrmdkkk3ekkr03z2n860o346xzp043qoqvdxpgln436v00mnzg7gn90qml0w72kvgqk27xbg74wq/l2heh6ulqnx5edfg/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL2hvdy1zdG9yaWVzLWhhcHBlbi1zdG9yeXRlbGxpbmctcG9kY2FzdA== ). Playing Favorites is an Unthinkable Media property. No longer interested? No worries: unsubscribe here. ( https://e663a8f1.unsubscribe.convertkit-mail2.com/92ulr5gn65unh64z53li9hzoxm933b0n59603qz24z6gx5x5k99xoqrmdkkk3ekkr03z2n860o346xzp043qoqvdxpgln436v00mnzg7gn90qml0w72kvgqk27xbg74wq ) Update Your Profile ( https://preferences.convertkit-mail2.com/92ulr5gn65unh64z53li9hzoxm933b0n59603qz24z6gx5x5k99xoqrmdkkk3ekkr03z2n860o346xzp043qoqvdxpgln436v00mnzg7gn90qml0w72kvgqk27xbg74wq ) | P.O. Box 80081, Stoneham, MA 02180

Why speaking confounds so many.  ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ 96 ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/27uqx5zk05soh8leoxku3hgz5m744h0pn620z4vqmv2drnrnl66r84e3xlllzwlle0zvqp7208zm2rvo0mz4845xrodkpmz25003pvd9dp6043k0g9ql5d4lq9rbm0r9d/e0hph0u75rk89ph7/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29t ) A newsletter about how to differentiate and resonate to build your business — and all the storytelling, messaging, speaking, and creativity you can use to become your audience's favorite voice. New here? Welcome! Subscribe free. ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/27uqx5zk05soh8leoxku3hgz5m744h0pn620z4vqmv2drnrnl66r84e3xlllzwlle0zvqp7208zm2rvo0mz4845xrodkpmz25003pvd9dp6043k0g9ql5d4lq9rbm0r9d/dphehmuerpq9xzal/amF5YWN1bnpvLmNvbS9uZXdzbGV0dGVy )​ Hey there and Happy New Year! I have two bits of news before we begin the essay today: * Coming soon: Two wonderful clients just agreed to allow me to share my process with them publicly, so you can get an inside look at everything we're doing. I'll be helping them move from competent experts to resonant voices: premise and IP development, message clarity and differentiation, and public speaking and storytelling. I'm still formulating the right rollout plan for this material, but as a subscriber, you'll get it first. * Now open: Design My Signature Talk ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/27uqx5zk05soh8leoxku3hgz5m744h0pn620z4vqmv2drnrnl66r84e3xlllzwlle0zvqp7208zm2rvo0mz4845xrodkpmz25003pvd9dp6043k0g9ql5d4lq9rbm0r9d/kkh5rd4zf2un4x80peak/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL3NpZ25hdHVyZXRhbGs= ) is now open for enrollment! Next cohort starts Feb 23. Work with me virtually and get personalized support to strengthen your talk's premise, structure, opener, closer, stories, advice sections, and approach to generating follow-on opportunities from your speaking. Whether you speak for free or a fee, we'll turn your ideas into 1 undeniable speech you can reliably deliver. See the full schedule and get $400 off with early-bird pricing. ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/27uqx5zk05soh8leoxku3hgz5m744h0pn620z4vqmv2drnrnl66r84e3xlllzwlle0zvqp7208zm2rvo0mz4845xrodkpmz25003pvd9dp6043k0g9ql5d4lq9rbm0r9d/e0hn2x8xc0u75rk3zef7/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL3NpZ25hdHVyZXRhbGs= ) Plus, secure 2 rounds of video notes from me by signing up now. "Oh my God, this has been worth every penny. Jay's notes are so generous and specific in helping you really see how to get your speech to the next level. I'm so grateful. This was exactly what I was looking for."—Michelle Pollack, 2025 cohort participant (executive coach and former creative exec at CBS) ***************************************************************** How to Turn Your Public Speaking into a Marketing and Sales Engine You and Others Genuinely Adore ***************************************************************** ​ In 2017, I became the youngest speaker—and by far the least famous person—to open one of the world's biggest, best-known events for marketers, Content Marketing World. On Day 1, I delivered the morning keynote to 4,000 people. For years, I'd watched as actual celebrities and business leaders with mainstream fame graced that same stage: Tina Fey, John Cleese, Casey Neistat, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, the CMO of GE, the EVP of Innovation at LEGO. I was neither a celebrity nor mainstream-famous. I was barely known in my niche. I was also not an executive at a famous brand whose logo could help the event sell tickets. But what I did have, my friend ... was a dream. Just kidding. (Though I did!) No, what I had ... was a better speech. A signature speech. I had a speaking product I’d worked hard at consistently refining, customizing, delivering, until I could reliably deliver it to any crowd and predictably generate follow-on opportunities for myself and my business. In 2016, the year before my opening keynote, I’d delivered my signature speech in a breakout room at CMWorld, and I became the #1-rated speaker at the whole event that year, according to audience surveys, among 140 total speakers. This earned me an invite to open the entire event the next fall, from the main stage, and so I busied myself in developing another signature talk throughout the year, which I built, tested, delivered countless times to validate and improve, to once again perform at a high level when CMWorld 2017 arrived. In both cases, 2016 and 2017, my speeches (my signature speaking products) were responsible for my results much more than anything I did online, and I went on to use those two talks to generate hundreds of thousands of dollars in speaker fees on stages across this country and several others. My friend, I am here today to make the case that investing in the speech itself is the key to your speaking success. Your ideas need to be so high-impact and your speech so proven, you’re undeniable in every room. It’s not just a nice creative exercise to build a better talk. It’s your highest-ROI business activity. Unfortunately, for one reason I'm about to explain, most entrepreneurs, execs, and business leaders refuse to see this and insist their speech is good enough already. This actually gets worse the more success a person has had in their career, even though it happened away from speaking. I want to change your mindset around this one issue, so that you can book more and better keynotes, charge a fee or raise your rates, and feel less friction and more momentum in building your speaking pipeline. The success of your speaking depends more heavily on your signature talk than anything you can do to market or sell it. Most people think it’s an awareness problem or maybe a lack of marketing and sales systems. But no, the tough reality is this: Your speech isn’t as good as you think it is. Lest you think, "Jay's a creative, so here he goes, extolling the craft again,” I want to assure you that while I adore the craft (and you should too), this is an essay about sales, marketing, lead-gen, and revenue. This is also about sequencing your revenue-generating work so you focus on the thing that matters most ... first. If you want better talks, create a better talk. If you want more opportunities, less friction, more revenue directly through fees or indirectly through leads, your speech isn't a critical part of the machine. It's the engine. It’s not just about creative excellence. It’s because of a strange issue most professionals don’t understand when they start to pursue keynotes more fully: ---------------------------- Speeches are sold backwards. ---------------------------- I can break my speaking career in two main halves: my years earning a living mainly on the road as a ​keynote ​speaker ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/27uqx5zk05soh8leoxku3hgz5m744h0pn620z4vqmv2drnrnl66r84e3xlllzwlle0zvqp7208zm2rvo0mz4845xrodkpmz25003pvd9dp6043k0g9ql5d4lq9rbm0r9d/x0hph3uexqnvm7tg/aHR0cDovL2pheWFjdW56by5jb20va2V5bm90ZXM= )​​ and a podcast or docuseries host for branded projects, and then the years since, in which I completely reinvented my business to stay home with my kids. I now mainly sell 1:1 advisory services​ ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/27uqx5zk05soh8leoxku3hgz5m744h0pn620z4vqmv2drnrnl66r84e3xlllzwlle0zvqp7208zm2rvo0mz4845xrodkpmz25003pvd9dp6043k0g9ql5d4lq9rbm0r9d/58hvh8ugl65dwgf7/aHR0cDovL2pheWFjdW56by5jb20vc2VydmljZXM= ), working with established entrepreneurs and leaders, as well as run my public speaking accelerator ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/27uqx5zk05soh8leoxku3hgz5m744h0pn620z4vqmv2drnrnl66r84e3xlllzwlle0zvqp7208zm2rvo0mz4845xrodkpmz25003pvd9dp6043k0g9ql5d4lq9rbm0r9d/9qhzhdudn5gv84cz/aHR0cDovL2pheWFjdW56by5jb20vc2lnbmF0dXJldGFsaw== ). In both cases, I serve people who bring real substance and expertise to their work, and now they’re on the journey from informational expert to transformational voice. They arrive with plenty of competence, and I help them achieve greater resonance through premise and IP development, signature speeches and speaking success systems, and doing my best to be the Rick Rubin of business storytellers. In all this time, I’ve seen how nothing kills someone’s success quite like the failure to recognize how sustainable, lucrative speaking happens. Whether you get paid directly or create follow-on interest in other offerings (or both), the same mistake rears its ugly head: they think the problem is their marketing and sales process, when really it’s the speech itself. They tell me they’re focused more on speaking, so they want to build a better speaker page. Create more social videos. Build a flashier speaker reel. Figure out their sales process. You know, the business stuff. As for their speech? "Oh, no, that's pretty much there. I mean, I've been winging it for years, and it works fine," or maybe, "It's probably 80%, and I know it can always be better by a little bit BUT," and then they land where I know this plane was headed all along: “I'd rather focus on getting more and better gigs now." Here's what I've learned: That "little bit" accounts for a huge amount of missed bookings and revenue. It’s the difference between being one of a few dozen breakouts who speak for free at that conference … and being THE keynote who commands a fee. When it comes to keynote speaking, “good enough” is anything but. Because speeches are sold backwards. The problem isn't that these people are lazy or that they don't understand the importance of quality. The problem is that everything they've learned about building a successful business has wired them to approach speaking in the exact opposite way they should. ------------------------------------------ Your marketing instincts are betraying you ------------------------------------------ Think about every other successful thing you've built. Your consulting practice. Your agency. Your course. Your SaaS product. Whatever it might be. You sell these offerings in the same order: Create irresistible marketing → Convert prospects into buyers → Then deliver the experience. As a result, you learned to write copy that speaks to people before they've experienced the product. You've built funnels that nurture the relationship and earn trust over time, in order to get them to buy after. You've crafted messaging and built your brand to create a premium perception and justify charging premium prices, all of which they understand before you close the deal. And you got good at this. Really good. Good enough that you arrived to this moment, where speaking can even be considered a viable next chapter—or at least a major piece of this one. That's precisely why keynote speaking breaks your brain. Because keynotes operate on a completely inverted commercial model—one that betrays every instinct that made you successful everywhere else. Here's what actually happens as a keynote speaker: Someone books you to speak. Breakout, workshop, webinar, or keynote. Online or in-person. Big crowd or tiny group. It doesn’t matter. You show up. You deliver your entire product—live, in front of an audience. And sitting in that audience are your next potential buyers. What's more, these people aren’t merely run-of-the-mill leads. They are your best leads and the single-greatest unlock to creating a sustainable, monetizable speaking engine. The people who already saw you speak close faster. They want your speech in front of their group. You can charge a higher rate, too, if you charge a speaker fee. They “get it.” Deeply. And they want everything you’re selling. Badly. They buy your books or say yes to your upsell of a bonus workshop bundled with your keynote for just a small additional fee. They offer to buy your course for their teams or community members. They invite you onto their shows, quote and link to you around their content, and refer you to others you "really should know" and "gotta meet" because those people need your ideas or even your speech. Your best leads providing the highest possible lifetime value and the most sustainable path to more lucrative speaking are the people who have already experienced your entire speaking product first. This means, when we pursue speaking as the thing we sell (for free or a fee), we must shift our mindset from optimizing for this model: * Create irresistible marketing → Convert prospects → Then deliver the experience. To designing for this one: * Deliver an irresistible experience → Convert prospects → Then deliver the experience again. The people who see you speak and follow-up with you or refer you to others are called "stage-side leads," and if you want an easier time or greater results when it comes to your speaking, you look backwards for answers, not forwards: * "Why didn't my last gig get me 3 more gigs?" * "Why isn't my speech yielding more invites to speak?" * "Where are my stage-side leads?" Sometimes they rush up to you then and there or in the weeks after. Sometimes they contact you a year later. Sometimes, you get an email: "Hey, my buddy Steve saw you speak in Phoenix and said you were great! Would love to talk about having you speak to our group..." It's a tough truth to embrace, but it matters: compared to other things you can sell, speeches are sold backwards. They get your product first, then decide to buy it. Even when you pitch cold, it’s not meant to merely book “a” gig. It’s meant to book a pipeline-feeding gig, one that can branch off into tons of lifetime value—and many more speaking opportunities. If you find yourself pitching, pitch strategically: pitch to kickstart the flywheel of stage-side leads. Target events like industry expos where people sitting there need speakers or know others who do. Because speeches are sold backwards. It's like a restaurant where customers eat the entire meal before deciding whether to pay. Or a student attending a school all semester long before choosing whether to enroll and pay any tuition. It's backwards to every commercial interaction you've likely ever experienced and worked hard to master yourself. That's why your marketing sophistication—the very thing that built your success and prompted you to want more keynotes—is now your biggest liability. The entrepreneurs who struggle most with this process and who resist my advice the hardest aren't the ones who don't understand marketing. They're the ones who understand it toowell. * They're proud of their funnels. * They've built successful lead magnets. * They have an attractive online presence and large following. * They've optimized their site with copy written to convert. * Maybe they even have branded frameworks or concepts people know and share. But what got you here won't get you there. What worked to sell other things doesn't work as well to sell keynotes. Because speaking flips this model entirely. Because (if I say it enough, maybe it'll stick this time) speeches are sold backwards. You are completely at the mercy of what you can deliver in that room, in that moment, with those future buyers watching. Jerry Seinfeld put it perfectly: He has said he only gets about five minutes on stage to just "be Seinfeld.” Then he HAS TO deliver. That's the gig. No coasting on prior success. No feeling special because everyone online has complimented you and your success. You're exposed up there. You've got nowhere to hide. Now show me what you've got. The closest analogy to selling speeches (the “backwards” approach) might be a free trial of a software product. But even then, both sides understand the product is for sale and the trial expires. Buyers begin the experience knowing, "This thing is for sale, and I am experiencing it first for free while also deciding whether or not I want to buy it at the end." Audiences attending your speech aren't thinking that way. They may have no intention of evaluating you. They just want to learn, feel moved, feel entertained, and implement a lasting change in their work or lives. It's different than software free trials. When someone sits down to watch your keynote, they're not thinking, "I hope this is good so I can decide to book them." Which means you also need to be so good that they think, "Wow this is so good and I need to book them!" You have to be so good that, partway through, they're already wondering if they can book you—or afford you. ("Surely, they'll charge a pretty penny to speak for us. Worth it!") That story you just told on stage was the last straw: they immediately search for your contact form. The framework you presented earned you a follower. (Check those DMs. There's an invite to speak for their group awaiting you!) The premise you shared changed their perspective so much, they're already emailing their people. ("We need to book them!") You've heard the phrase, "Be so good, they can't ignore you," right? In keynote speaking, unless you're an actual celebrity, you have to be so good, they want to book you. Speaking is much more democratized than we might think and less about fame or marketing systems than we might want to admit. Because it doesn't feel as controllable. Yet it very much is, so long as you invest in the right things, in the right order, testing and validating along the way. Your speech isn't the creative part that comes after the business work. Your speech IS the business infrastructure. Moreover, every mediocre speech you deliver actively works against you. That event organizer or business leader who was considering you? They just watched you deliver something forgettable. That podcast host who might have interviewed you? They're not going to stake their reputation on what they just heard. We've all encountered the most impressive people whose online platform and business feels like a 10 out of 10, then they start a speech that immediately feels like a 4. We immediately recoil. It's SO jarring and SO uncomfortable—and SO bad for their speaking pipeline. Stand-up comedians understand this instinctively. They don't write a set and then immediately focus on marketing themselves to bigger clubs. They work out the material. They test it. They refine it. They know that the act or set itself is the marketing. But entrepreneurs bring a different operating system. One that says: "I've built successful businesses by creating good-enough products and marketing them brilliantly. Why wouldn't that work here?" Because here, they watch the whole product before they buy. And no amount of marketing sophistication can overcome a product that doesn't deliver transformation in real-time. That’s why I tell clients: ---------------------------------------- 🚨 An 80% speech is a 20% business asset. ---------------------------------------- This isn't about being precious with the craft. This is about focusing on and investing in the things that yield the best results first and most ... then worrying about the rest. Your marketing brain tells you: "Make the sizzle reel more compelling. Write better copy. Build a better funnel. More social media videos! Automated emails! More pitches! MY AIR GAME CAN STILL GET ME GIGS!" To that I say, yes, it definitely can. But that’s not the most efficient or effective approach, and that stuff should come later, once the rest is humming. No sense pouring new water into a leaky bucket. When I book a gig, I want to turn that into more gigs. I’m a squirrel already on a tree trunk—why wouldn’t I follow the branches? That’s easier than hurling myself back to the ground and hoping I find another trunk. The ground is a horror show. Again, investing in your signature talk isn't just a creative exercise. This is about focusing on your highest-ROI business asset. ****************************************** Where to focus your time, energy, & money: ****************************************** ​ Start with what drives results. Stay close to the revenue engine. Improve that. Then move outward. The bullseye in the middle is the signature talk. One ring out is the before-during-after process. Then keep going. Each outer ring depends on the efficacy of what came before it. Chances are, if you're starting your speaking journey or wondering how to book more and better opportunities, you haven't yet nailed the bullseye. When your speech isn't dialed in, pick your poison: * You’re forced to constantly cold-pitch, agonizing over deadlines and competitive speakers. You don’t get invited to speak nearly enough to earn from the stage, or at least make free speeches sustainable. (Here’s a hard truth about paid speaking: Breakouts pitch. Keynotes get invited.) * Your fees stay capped. Event organizers can't justify premium pricing for something that feels "pretty good." They need to see clear, undeniable transformation and tons of audience chatter about your speech in the room and around the event. If they can't articulate exactly what their audience will walk away with, they'll default to paying you like everyone else. Hence, you need your one signature speech pivoting off your distinct premise. * Your positioning stays fuzzy. Without a signature talk, you're “another expert on X” rather than “THE person who does Y.” You might be great, but you're not distinct. And in a world of infinite choice, distinct wins. * Every opportunity takes more friction. Instead of organizers quickly vetting you and giving you a fast pass to a contract, they're asking for more calls, more references, more assets. They take more convincing. Your marketing has to work harder because your product isn't doing the heavy lifting. This process can take hours of active communication and weeks or even months of time overall. Meanwhile, other speakers can give their 45-minute speech and earn multiple additional gigs. But when the speech IS dialed in? Everything flips: * The speech becomes your most powerful sales asset. Organizers watch it and want that for their audience. Not because your website copy told them you’re great—because the thing itself proved it. Show, don’t tell. Show them what you’ve got. * Marketing becomes easier. The speech does the selling most notably, but all your materials now serve a stronger product, with higher-impact assets around your platform (video, testimonials, a speech description, etc.) * Premium fees become justified. Clear transformation = clear value = easier yes. * Compound returns kick in. Every time you kill it on stage, you generate the next opportunity (or several). Referrals multiply. People come inbound because their friend saw you speak last year. Or a friend of a friend who saw you speak last year has been quoting you to everyone they know. You’ve created an army of advocates—thanks to your speech. Your reputation builds momentum, and things come easier. You stop chasing. You’re the one they seek. The skills that got you here—your ability to craft compelling positioning, your instinct for conversion-focused messaging, your talent for selling before delivering—are the things which got you into the position of even asking me about keynote speaking in the first place. But they're the wrong tools for the job at hand. We have to embrace what speaking actually is. This is not “a one-off talk.” And while it’s nice to hear nice things about your speech, they should also arrive with nice opportunities. (That’s even nicer.) The bulk of your time, energy, and even budget should be invested into the things that sit closest to your revenue results. In the case of speaking, that’s your signature talk. The speech you consistently refine, customize, deliver, and reliably use to generate stage-side leads. The combination of your premise and IP, plus a smart and gripping structure, valuable and original content, and an undeniable performance. In every other context, you market and sell before you deliver. Here, your absolute best leads—the key to sustainability and growth—experience everything before they decide to buy. You don’t need a different funnel. You need to play a different game. Play the game you’re actually in. Stop trying to market an 80% speech. That's a 20% asset. Speeches are sold backwards. If you're looking for more and better keynotes, just know: "Good enough" isn't. *** Save or share this essay using this link. ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/27uqx5zk05soh8leoxku3hgz5m744h0pn620z4vqmv2drnrnl66r84e3xlllzwlle0zvqp7208zm2rvo0mz4845xrodkpmz25003pvd9dp6043k0g9ql5d4lq9rbm0r9d/08hwhgu2qlm643cp/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL2Jsb2cvaG93LXRvLWJvb2stbW9yZS1hbmQtYmV0dGVyLWtleW5vdGVzLXRoZS1lbmdpbmUtbW9zdC1zcGVha2Vycy1vdmVybG9vaw== )​ Enroll in the next cohort of my public speaking accelerator: -->I'm ready to Design My Signature Talk ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/27uqx5zk05soh8leoxku3hgz5m744h0pn620z4vqmv2drnrnl66r84e3xlllzwlle0zvqp7208zm2rvo0mz4845xrodkpmz25003pvd9dp6043k0g9ql5d4lq9rbm0r9d/e0hn2xvxi0u75rk3zef7/aHR0cHM6Ly9qYXlhY3Vuem8uY29tL3NpZ25hdHVyZXRhbGs= ) I'm ready to Design My Signature Talk ( https://jayacunzo.com/signaturetalk ) Thanks for reading! Reply to reach me directly. 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Expect to hear from me every Friday. My mission is to help you make what matters to your career, company, and community. As a consultant, coach, speaker, and storyteller, I teach others to become stronger speakers and storytellers, develop differentiated messaging and surrounding IP they own, and generally stand out easier and connect with your audience better thanks to the power of your ideas, not the volume of your marketing. I believe we should all prioritize resonance over reach to grow our businesses and causes, and each time you hear from me, it will be in service to that premise. In brief, here's how I can support you and how my business works: * On my podcast, exceptional communicators and creators take you inside the process of crafting their signature stories. It's a refreshing look at the work of Seth Godin, Ann Handley, Andrew Davis, Rand Fishkin, Michelle Warner, Nat Eliason, Brad Montague, Laura Gassner Otting, and others. Listen to How Stories Happen. 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Or watch this space to get notified about my next virtual bootcamp (here's one about designing your signature talk ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/v8upwn6r4namulgm6dighv3e98llsvz6mwvxo7dg7wk06065mm0po842555x3558vx7dzlwvpxgw07evgxopoq20eknzgxwqvv4z7krkzmvo4nv9rd5qko5dr0tqv8wg/6qhehou746x2l0h9/amF5YWN1bnpvLmNvbS9zaWduYXR1cmV0YWxr )). * I'm also a frequent speaker, following many years of being a paid keynote speaker as my main source of income. You can learn more about my speaking and put a date on hold at jayacunzo.com/keynotes ( https://e663a8f1.click.convertkit-mail2.com/v8upwn6r4namulgm6dighv3e98llsvz6mwvxo7dg7wk06065mm0po842555x3558vx7dzlwvpxgw07evgxopoq20eknzgxwqvv4z7krkzmvo4nv9rd5qko5dr0tqv8wg/n2hohqu324rzg3b0/amF5YWN1bnpvLmNvbS9rZXlub3Rlcw== )​ ​ ****************************** To ensure my emails reach you: ****************************** Gmail users: Add my emails to your Primary inbox. Make sure they're not in the Promotions tab. 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