Jay Acunzo’s Post

Woo!! It’s not every day you get a runaway train of an author to review your PODCAST. Huge thank you to Simone Stolzoff (author of The Good Enough Job — last year’s #1 book on work/life balance) for this review of my upcoming show How Stories Happen. Simone had written for The Atlantic, Wired, and the New York Times. He understands storytelling better than most. The trailer is live where you get podcasts, and Ep1 arrives Monday, April 29. Every episode, business experts, entrepreneurs, creators, and communicators dissect a signature story or draft piece by piece. We hear how they found it, how they developed it, how it might improve, and how they’re using it to build their business and leave their legacy. So excited for this. Hope you’ll listen. You’ll walk away inspired to compete on the impact of your ideas, not the volume of your content. 🤘🏼 The full review from Simone: “This is what business storytellers have been waiting for. In a world of hacks and shortcuts, Jay gives you the signal without the noise. What I love about the format is that you’re guaranteed both a good story and actionable takeaways in each episode.”

You can structure an idea to resonate in 4 parts. This is an Empathy Statement. Here's what I mean, plus an example using my new show, How Stories Happen. Resonance starts with Alignment. The science suggests this too: 2 frequencies that align are considered resonant, and the first amplifies the second. It's an energy transfer. We've felt that with content too -- if an idea aligns with us. Then, Agitate. Add some tension, generously and with a mind to serve, w/o preying on baser instincts. Acknowledge their problems, list symptoms, ask bold questions prompting the desire for answers. They're starting to lean in. Next, Assert. Where SHOULD we go? What SHOULD be, despite what is? This is your premise, a defensible assertion you make, pulled from your perspective, which informs your choices and your reputation. It's the idea you own in their minds. Finally, Invite. They already have the urge to act. Simply point them in the right direction. No need to demand action when you know how to inspire it. ----- Here's an example. This has been built over time, as I moved from internal writing to public aeration of my ideas. The below is now my "starter dough" for explaining How Stories Happen. I dip into it anytime I need to explain the premise. Align: • You’re an expert, entrepreneur, creator, or communicator who wants your work to resonate. To do that, you’re learning to tell stories. Agitate: • But the problem with “learning story” is it anchors you to just 1 of 3 parts of mastering the craft -- and it's the part that requires you the least. It anchors you to the process, to the external stuff you can go out and learn: structures, techniques, terminology, and more. Useful, but externalized. • To master the craft, we need the other 2 parts: posture (how you see yourself and the world, i.e. the messy bag of humanity you bring with you to everything. do you use it? it's your unfair advantage) and practice (your routine of shipping that allows you to develop your posture and a process more tailored to you) • Unfortunately, we don't often access those 2 parts from others, nor realize they exist in our own work. Assert: • We should stop trying to "learn story" and learn to BE storytellers. It's not advice but the actual making itself we need to put on display. • Ira Glass says, “Great stories happen to those who can tell them.” He’s not saying, meaningful things ONLY happen to masters of the craft. He’s saying, it IS a craft. • On How Stories Happen, we're learning from the actual crafting. Every episode, guests dissect 1 meaningful story or draft. We hear how they found it, how they developed it, how it might improve, and how they're using it to grow their business. • Great storytellers don’t need to experience anything extraordinary. They know how to imbue meaning into things that are ordinary. Invite • Join me every episode as we bridge this gap between "learning story" and BEING storytellers. • Join me as we explore How Stories Happen

Just about 50 people registered to attend over the weekend. Register for free (your email goes nowhere but the invite itself -- no lists, no CRMs, nowhere)

I have 2 more hours on a train. Let’s try something that may not work: a LinkedIn AMA! Ask me anything. Ask me about creativity, storytelling, content creation, public speaking (as a business or the craft), podcasting (especially interviewing and narrative interviews), what I’ve learned running a membership so far, and anything about my New York Yanks starting strong and New York Knicks claiming the 2 seed!! But mostly the work stuff. Ask me. Anything. (Please? It’s a long ride…)

The other day, my daughter and I had a rather meaningful encounter with a turtle. (To be clear, I saw the meaning. She just saw a turtle. But in fairness, how awesome are turtles?) It reminded me: On your platforms, you face a choice. You can share more basic facts and expertise, or you can choose to bring that information TO LIFE. The story of Myrtle the Turtle shows us that while we lament the “sea of sameness” created by others, it’s the underwater mountain of missed opportunities we create for ourselves that should concern us. Now someone please warn that aquarium staffer… https://lnkd.in/eagqmGFG

How many incredible voices and important ideas have been lost to the desire to appease algorithms and grow followers?

I'm hosting a live clips show, taking you inside my process of how I produced episode 1 of my upcoming podcast, How Stories Happen. The incomparable Ashley Hamer Pritchard (!!) has agreed to interview me. Ashley is the host of Taboo Science, the managing editor at Descript, and the writer behind the only podcast newsletter I trust to improve my craft, The Weekly Tweak. The pilot is crucial. It helps me figure out all the parts and pieces that will drive the entire series from here. It is the model for the show and the proving ground for lots of things. But most people produce pilots to test out EVERY element of the show. This is my third "pilot," and each time, I'm piloting something different, one phase at a time. We'll talk about that, and Ashley will select some clips to play back and deconstruct together with me. You'll hear the choices I made, the existential crises I've had, and how I developed this show to be something I can produce consistently and, I think, really well... without burning out. I think. I hope. Please and thanks. This is a free webinar. Register here to save your spot: https://lnkd.in/eiRuRXZT

I don't use myself as the example much, but this is one of the most obvious reasons why you should develop a premise for your work and brand. You can't own your audience, but you can own an idea in their minds. Like an author or show host or speaker, when you're synonymous with a premise, others remember you and/or refer you. In cases like this one, you get tapped into conversations and meet people you'd otherwise not meet. Your word of mouth happens more organically -- no gaming of any systems required, no slipping towards grimy tactics that someone points to and goes, "Whatever, that's what works." No. Gross. There's a better way. Develop a premise, then use it to inform all your work, amassing IP around the premise as you go. When you prioritize resonance, not reach, the reach gets easier. A premise is how you do that. Imagine an event you aren't attending or don't even know exists, and the keynote speaker quotes YOU. Imagine a room full of your prospects, and as everyone swaps notes, they can't help but say, "Well, as (YOUR NAME) always says..." You get mentioned on podcasts, cited in communities, forwarded via email. (Forget being broadly viral. I want my work to be privately forwardable.) When you develop a deeply resonant premise and inform all your content with it, the reach parts get easier. You get introduced to people and tapped into communities and mentioned in rooms that you'd never know how to reach otherwise -- and maybe didn't even know existed. You're smart enough. You're expert enough. But maybe the reason it's not happening is your IP isn't strong enough. Start by developing you premise, a defensible assertion you make to your audience, pulled from your personal perspective, which then informs your choices and your reputation. The premise is like drawing a coherent circle around everything you do and making that immediately clear. If I spent time with you, I'd discover why I should care, but a premise makes it readily apparent why I should. This is what I coach and consult entrepreneurs and creators to do: develop a premise, THEN develop your IP around it -- signature stories, proprietary frameworks, pillar projects, and more. Focus on resonance over reach, not because the latter doesn't matter, but because the former matters MORE. And speaking of mattering... When you have a distinct premise and inform your work accordingly, you don't need to market more precisely because your work matters more. And when you matter more, you can hustle for attention less. And if you're wondering, yes, my premise is premise. I'm just doing my best Ken impression (impressken?). My job is just... premise. Because I am Jaynough. (And if you didn't just run away screaming, then hey, subscribe to my work at jayacunzo[dot]com or follow along here. You might not totally hate it.)

Every storyteller faces a paradox: If you want to connect deeper externally, you have to go deeper internally. Typically, especially among business communicators, we stop short of that. We try to tell a personal story and it flops, or we don't even share one because we think, "Nah, they don't care about the fact that I have this hobby or had this experience." And that's true, they don't. They don't connect around the action or topic of a story. They connect on its emotional stakes, and mostly, we aren't reaching them when we tell our stories. This is unique to business communicators -- and it weakens our influence and ability to find passionate fans. The folks who made Ted Lasso didn't go, "Oh no, what if they've never been professional soccer players?!" Spider-Man's creators weren't like, "Well, the reader can't thwip through NYC themselves, so maybe let's just kill the concept." That's silly. Well, so is our approach to storytelling in the business world. But your favorite newsletter writers, podcasters, authors, speakers (yes, even in business) don't have that limiting belief. They'll see something on their morning walk, hear something at a conference, observe something unfolding in their industry OR outside the echo chamber, and they'll deftly turn that into stories or metaphors that teach and inspire. Because everything is material in the hands of an effective storyteller. Because every effective storyteller understands it's about going beyond the literal, superficial layers, as if everything had to be a case study or else it's not useful, not powerful, not able to grow your business. BS. Here in the business world, we often don't imbue meaning or emotional stakes into our words, and as a result, the best we can muster are flat and forgettable examples. Please remember that even though you think the workplace is less exciting than sports or pop culture: The way we communicate is a choice. Where you work or what you sell does not make how you communicate an inevitability.

Dear AI Spam Commenters: it takes us 3 seconds to click to your profile, click Comments, and see how fake and low-integrity you really are. Dear LinkedIn: You're getting worse. It's getting unbearable. Instead of MORE community posts, AI-prompts, and lo-fi ways to unlock "Top Voice" badges nobody actually trusts, please *fix your platform* by *actually investing in product.* Sigh. The business world deserves so much better than Business Social Media right now...