How Stories Happen
Jay Acunzo
Recent Episodes
"You have a real gift," we say to our storytelling heroes. But do they? Storytelling is a skill. Communicating with greater impact is a craft. It’s not something anyone is gifted. It’s something we all can master.
Today, it’s just me, Jay. Hello! I’m trying a solo episode, sharing my favorite trick for stronger ideas and stories.
Be forewarned: this trick involves sharing your thinking publicly. Not “building in public,” as many like to talk about doing, but by aerating your thinking to sharpen it.
So what “thinking” are you aerating? A very specific kind. To communicate in ways that resonate does NOT require you to experience a lightning strike insight or sensational story. This isn’t about doing something grand and newsworthy either.
No, this trick requires us to do something which our society doesn’t often teach, but it’s free and easy to start.
RESOURCES:
Subscribe to Jay's newsletter at jayacunzo.com
Join Jay's membership program for business storytellers and service providers, the Creator Kitchen
Follow Jay on LinkedIn, Instagram, or Threads
Produced by Ilana Nevins
Cover art designed by Blake Ink
***
ABOUT JAY:
Jay Acunzo is an author, speaker, and differentiation-and-thought leadership consultant on a mission to help you make what matters to your career, company, and community. He's an advisor to experts, execs, and entrepreneurs who want to resonate deeper with others, not just reach them. To do so, he helps you turn your expertise into IP and your IP into differentiated messaging, exceptional speeches, and celebrated creative projects, equipping you with the communication techniques and power of today’s top thought leaders—because he believes in standing out through substance and stories, not hollow hype.
A leading voice in B2B content marketing for many years thanks to his roles at brands like Google and HubSpot, companies like Mailchimp, Salesforce, Wistia, and GoDaddy have turned to Jay to strengthen their storytelling, while dozens of individual authors, speakers, consultants, and service providers hire Jay as their dedicated thought partner and exec. producer to help develop their premise, IP, speaking, and shows.
Jay lives in the Boston area with his family as a proud Yankees and Knicks fan. In the 60 seconds per week he's not creating stuff for work or making his kids laugh, he likes to shoot hoops, sip nice bourbons, cook with his wife, and daydream about telling stories like that of his storytelling hero, Anthony Bourdain.
***
JOIN MY VIRTUAL BOOTCAMP: Design My Signature Talk
Happening this November, I'm leading a two-day virtual bootcamp to help you design, package, and pitch your signature talk—the speaking product you can reliably deliver virtually or in-person, to evangelize your message, continually speak and get invited to speak thanks to how brilliant you are in the room, and generate spin-out business from the talk as well.
Some talks are blog posts with a runtime. Other talks stir hearts and engage minds.
Whether you’re promoting a big launch or your overall business, your signature talk needs to be the latter.
Learn more and see the full schedule at jayacunzo.com/signaturetalk
Space is limited. Register now.
It's time for a new edition of "Is This Anything?", the miniseries where friends and clients join me to work out new drafts and ideas for upcoming pieces and projects. In this episode, I help Justin Moore design his signature talk, beat by beat.
Justin is the founder of Creator Wizard, which helps creators secure more and better brand deals to grow their businesses. Through trainings, coaching, and his signature course, Justin has made a name for himself in the creator economy.
For both his book and for the next wave of growth that he sees for his business, involving a slightly new group of buyers, Justin wants to develop a talk capable of earning him the main stage, not just breakouts, where he's up against multiple speakers at the same time slot.
Together, we work through a structure you can use to develop your speeches. We discuss the differences between breakouts and keynotes, virtual and in-person, and why Justin needs his "higher-order idea" or the idea BEFORE the ideas he's known for already, in order to inspire action in his audience and grow his business through speaking.
It's a rare look at the speech development process with two established creative voices, with one entrepreneur playing coach and the other the vulnerable but committed student. I hope this is both enjoyable and useful to your speaking journey!
RESOURCES:
Learn more about Justin's business at creatorwizard.com
Get a copy of Justin's book Sponsor Magnet, or join the waitlist now (coming in January 2025)
Subscribe to Jay's newsletter at jayacunzo.com
Join Jay's membership program for business storytellers and service providers, the Creator Kitchen
Follow Jay on LinkedIn, Instagram, or Threads
Produced by Ilana Nevins
Cover art designed by Blake Ink
***
ABOUT JAY:
Jay Acunzo is an author, speaker, and differentiation-and-thought leadership consultant on a mission to help you make what matters to your career, company, and community. He's an advisor to experts, execs, and entrepreneurs who want to resonate deeper with others, not just reach them. To do so, he helps you turn your expertise into IP and your IP into differentiated messaging, exceptional speeches, and celebrated creative projects, equipping you with the communication techniques and power of today’s top thought leaders—because he believes in standing out through substance and stories, not hollow hype.
A leading voice in B2B content marketing for many years thanks to his roles at brands like Google and HubSpot, companies like Mailchimp, Salesforce, Wistia, and GoDaddy have turned to Jay to strengthen their storytelling, while dozens of individual authors, speakers, consultants, and service providers hire Jay as their dedicated thought partner and exec. producer to help develop their premise, IP, speaking, and shows.
Jay lives in the Boston area with his family as a proud Yankees and Knicks fan. In the 60 seconds per week he's not creating stuff for work or making his kids laugh, he likes to shoot hoops, sip nice bourbons, cook with his wife, and daydream about telling stories like that of his storytelling hero, Anthony Bourdain.
***
JOIN MY VIRTUAL BOOTCAMP: Design My Signature Talk
Happening this November, I'm leading a two-day virtual bootcamp to help you design, package, and pitch your signature talk—the speaking product you can reliably deliver virtually or in-person, to evangelize your message, continually speak and get invited to speak thanks to how brilliant you are in the room, and generate spin-out business from the talk as well.
Some talks are blog posts with a runtime. Other talks stir hearts and engage minds.
Whether you’re promoting a big launch or your overall business, your signature talk needs to be the latter.
Learn more and see the full schedule at jayacunzo.com/signaturetalk
Space is limited. Register now.
Today, it's a total treat as the one and only Seth Godin takes us into how he thinks about storytelling and the intersection of strategy and story, and then we hear him dissect a signature story. Plus, Seth and I trade stories in the back half of the episode—business storytelling nerdery on full display.
Seth is a world-renowned storyteller and thought leader, a legendary keynote speaker who helped disrupt the format, and the bestselling author of more than 20 books, including Purple Cow, The Practice, and This Is Marketing. His brand new book, This is Strategy, is available now.
Together, Seth and I discuss his delightful story about recumbent bikes. This "super-story" has found its way into Seth’s work repeatedly for over a decade. We discuss the evolution of this story, how he conceptualizes status and affiliation, and why focusing on pedagogy as a storyteller is essential.
Also in the episode: why the idea of your posture matters for storytellers, the role of the storyteller today (and why tiny stories make a big impact), and how can you make yourself, your work, and your stories truly stand out.
RESOURCES:
Learn more about Seth at his website and read his blog
Buy a copy of Seth's new book, This Is Strategy
Subscribe to Jay's newsletter at jayacunzo.com
Join Jay's membership program for business storytellers and service providers, the Creator Kitchen
Follow Jay on LinkedIn, Instagram, or Threads
Produced by Ilana Nevins
Cover art designed by Blake Ink
***
ABOUT JAY:
Jay Acunzo is an author, speaker, and differentiation-and-thought leadership consultant on a mission to help you make what matters to your career, company, and community. He's an advisor to experts, execs, and entrepreneurs who want to resonate deeper with others, not just reach them. To do so, he helps you turn your expertise into IP and your IP into differentiated messaging, exceptional speeches, and celebrated creative projects, equipping you with the communication techniques and power of today’s top thought leaders—because he believes in standing out through substance and stories, not hollow hype.
A leading voice in B2B content marketing for many years thanks to his roles at brands like Google and HubSpot, companies like Mailchimp, Salesforce, Wistia, and GoDaddy have turned to Jay to strengthen their storytelling, while dozens of individual authors, speakers, consultants, and service providers hire Jay as their dedicated thought partner and exec. producer to help develop their premise, IP, speaking, and shows.
Jay lives in the Boston area with his family as a proud Yankees and Knicks fan. In the 60 seconds per week he's not creating stuff for work or making his kids laugh, he likes to shoot hoops, sip nice bourbons, cook with his wife, and daydream about telling stories like that of his storytelling hero, Anthony Bourdain.
***
JOIN MY VIRTUAL BOOTCAMP: Design My Signature Talk
Happening this November, I'm leading a two-day virtual bootcamp to help you design, package, and pitch your signature talk—the speaking product you can reliably deliver virtually or in-person, to evangelize your message, continually speak and get invited to speak thanks to how brilliant you are in the room, and generate spin-out business from the talk as well.
Some talks are blog posts with a runtime. Other talks stir hearts and engage minds.
Whether you’re promoting a big launch or your overall business, your signature talk needs to be the latter.
Learn more and see the full schedule at jayacunzo.com/signaturetalk
Space is limited. Register now.
This week, we’re joined by our first-ever recurring guest. The brilliant Ann Handley (WSJ bestselling author of Everybody Writes and globally touring keynote speaker) joins us for a very special episode of “Is This Anything?”, the mini-series, where friends and collaborators join me to work out new ideas, unproven drafts, and hidden ideas to see if it is, in fact, anything.
But because it’s Ann, we’re renaming it Is This ANNything. Get it? Do you get it? (If you didn’t like that, you’re really not gonna like this episode…)
First, we discuss a story we co-wrote on Threads, sharing back and forth posts to build on each others’ previous ideas. Read that story here (you need to click into the first Thread for the threading to make sense. Oh, Threads…)
Then, we share drafts of our newsletters, each at different stages, and workshop improvements.
It’s a refreshing look at two prolific writers and speakers (and one bestselling author!) in the middle of their process.
Read Jay’s final newsletter version here. (Ann has not written the draft publicly as of this episode’s publish date.)
Listen to Ann’s first appearance on How Stories Happen as she dissects a published piece: “How do we all sign our work?” - Episode 3 with Ann Handley
RESOURCES:
⚫ Learn more about Ann at her website and subscribe to her newsletter
⚫ Follow Ann on LinkedIn and Instagram
⚫ Buy Ann’s book, Everybody Writes
🔵 Subscribe to Jay Acunzo's newsletter at jayacunzo.com
🔵 Join Jay's membership program for business storytellers and service providers, the Creator Kitchen
🔵 Follow Jay on LinkedIn, Instagram, or Threads
🟢 Produced by Ilana Nevins
🟢 Cover art designed by Blake Ink
ABOUT JAY:
Jay Acunzo is an author, speaker, and differentiation-and-thought leadership consultant on a mission to help you make what matters to your career, company, and community. He's an advisor to experts, execs, and entrepreneurs who want to resonate deeper with others, not just reach them. To do so, he helps you turn your expertise into IP and your IP into differentiated messaging, exceptional speeches, and celebrated creative projects, equipping you with the communication techniques and power of today’s top thought leaders—because he believes in standing out through substance and stories, not hollow hype.
A leading voice in B2B content marketing for many years thanks to his roles at brands like Google and HubSpot, companies like Mailchimp, Salesforce, Wistia, and GoDaddy have turned to Jay to strengthen their storytelling, while dozens of individual authors, speakers, consultants, and service providers hire Jay as their dedicated thought partner and exec. producer to help develop their premise, IP, speaking, and shows.
Jay lives in the Boston area with his family as a proud Yankees and Knicks fan. In the 60 seconds per week he's not creating stuff for work or making his kids laugh, he likes to shoot hoops, sip nice bourbons, cook with his wife, and daydream about telling stories like that of his storytelling hero, Anthony Bourdain.
***
JOIN MY VIRTUAL BOOTCAMP: Design My Signature Talk
Happening this November, I'm leading a two-day virtual bootcamp to help you design, package, and pitch your signature talk—the speaking product you can reliably deliver virtually or in-person, to evangelize your message, continually speak and get invited to speak thanks to how brilliant you are in the room, and generate spin-out business from the talk as well.
Some talks are blog posts with a runtime. Other talks stir hearts and engage minds.
Whether you’re promoting a big launch or your overall business, your signature talk needs to be the latter.
Learn more and see the full schedule at jayacunzo.com/signaturetalk
Space is limited. Register now.
Why is candor essential for a good story? How brutally honest should you actually be in sharing a story with the world?
The great Chase Jarvis brings us into his story of self-discovery, with the many twists and turns his professional career has taken, as he works through how to best tell that story ahead of his next book tour.
Starting in second grade when his entrepreneurial spirit was snuffed by his teacher, Chase works to find acceptance by pursuing the “best” path forward, before realizing that maybe it’s not the best path for him. It’s a story that’s brutally honest, surprising, and carefully crafted so that listeners get an intimate look at the real Chase Jarvis and the themes of his book.
Chase is an award-winning photographer, entrepreneur, and the author of “Never Play It Safe," and he's widely considered to be one of the leading voices advocating for the importance of creativity in work, life, and society today.
Together, Jay and Chase extract the various blocks that create the flow of Chase's story, exploring what makes certain segments most compelling and how to best drive the story forward. They discuss how great stories are built, rather than experienced, and the importance of allegory versus illustration.
Whether you’re an aspiring author, artist or entrepreneur, this episode will compel you to slow down, reflect, and connect to your own unique path forward and all the stories that have shaped you and your work.
RESOURCES:
⚫ Learn more about Chase at his website, or listen to his podcast, The Chase Jarvis LIVE Show
⚫ Follow Chase on X and Instagram
⚫ Buy Chase’s book, Never Play It Safe
🔵 Subscribe to Jay Acunzo's newsletter at jayacunzo.com
🔵 Join Jay's membership program for business storytellers and service providers, the Creator Kitchen
🔵 Follow Jay on LinkedIn, Instagram, or Threads
🟢 Produced by Ilana Nevins
🟢 Cover art designed by Blake Ink
***
ABOUT JAY:
Consulting
Speaking
Contact
Books
Jay Acunzo is an author, speaker, and differentiation-and-thought leadership consultant on a mission to help you make what matters to your career, company, and community. He's an advisor to experts, execs, and entrepreneurs who want to resonate deeper with others, not just reach them. To do so, he helps you turn your expertise into IP and your IP into differentiated messaging, exceptional speeches, and celebrated creative projects, equipping you with the communication techniques and power of today’s top thought leaders—because he believes in standing out through substance and stories, not hollow hype.
A leading voice in B2B content marketing for many years thanks to his roles at brands like Google and HubSpot, companies like Mailchimp, Salesforce, Wistia, and GoDaddy have turned to Jay to strengthen their storytelling, while dozens of individual authors, speakers, consultants, and service providers hire Jay as their dedicated thought partner and exec. producer to help develop their premise, IP, speaking, and shows.
Jay lives in the Boston area with his family as a proud Yankees and Knicks fan. In the 60 seconds per week he's not creating stuff for work or making his kids laugh, he likes to shoot hoops, sip nice bourbons, cook with his wife, and daydream about telling stories like that of his storytelling hero, Anthony Bourdain.
***
JOIN MY VIRTUAL BOOTCAMP: Design My Signature Talk
Happening this November, I'm leading a two-day virtual bootcamp to help you design, package, and pitch your signature talk—the speaking product you can reliably deliver virtually or in-person, to evangelize your message, continually speak and get invited to speak thanks to how brilliant you are in the room, and generate spin-out business from the talk as well.
Some talks are blog posts with a runtime. Other talks stir hearts and engage minds.
Whether you’re promoting a big launch or your overall business, your signature talk needs to be the latter.
Learn more and see the full schedule at jayacunzo.com/signaturetalk
Space is limited. Register now.