Jay Acunzo

@jayacunzo.com

Speaking & messaging coach helping clients differentiate and resonate: jayacunzo.com 🎤 Host, How Stories Happen: https://episodes.fm/1736586770 💌 My love letter to communicators with expertise and heart: https://jayacunzo.com/newsletter

If you want to be a great public speaker, the difference is really rehearsal time. Rehearse. Full speed. Full volume. Multiple times. Alone in your home. Until you've internalized the material. And can show up to the speech and just... be.

Spoke to English majors at my alma mater this week. They have no idea just how badly the workforce and world need their precise skills and perspectives. So I addressed the cliche question they always get, out loud: “What the hell can you do with an English degree?” Whatever the fuck you want.

Now open! Fall cohort of my Public Speaking Accelerator. Make speaking a superpower. This is tailor made for busy professionals who sell services (whether you get paid to speak or not — and I do share my details and advice on that too). Next cohort begins Sept 8. jayacunzo.com/signaturetalk

Public Speaking Accelerator for Marketers and Leaders — Jay Acunzo

With coaching and lessons from Jay, you’ll develop, practice, and deliver the 3 most important parts of a talk which instantly transform any presentation from meh to memorable. This is built for extre...

jayacunzo.com

Hi friends. I have a small request. If you follow me on here, or anywhere, and have gotten value from what I do, would you kindly rate and review my podcast, How Stories Happen? It takes about 20 seconds. Apple Podcasts is ideal! podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/h... TY!

How Stories Happen with Jay Acunzo

Marketing Podcast · Updated Biweekly · Learn to package and communicate your expertise to resonate. Every episode, hear from exceptional entrepreneurs and marketers as they share and analyze real work...

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Rewatching Parks & Rec and man, I did NOT realize just how much the GOP looked at Jamm and said, "That." Excited for when Chuck Schumer starts prancing around going, "Democracy BORING, guys! Boo! Welcome to TDazzle. It's not policy. It's a freedom-based social media voting experience."

It's really nice that Bluesky's default setting isn't to thrust you into a doomscroll-inducing feed the moment you log in. These algorithms are no longer smart, if they ever were. You click 1 post about 1 topic, and they just open a firehose about that topic at you. It's relentless. It's awful.

Big ideas, well-developed. Personal stories, well-told. Perspective, style, and voice. These have always been advantages to invest in. Now, they're urgent.

Last week's newsletter struck such a chord, I turned it into a podcast episode for this week: "How to resonate with experienced pros (stop being tricked by the internet)" Find and listen to the episode in your favorite app here: episodes.fm/1736586770/e...

How to resonate with experienced pros (stop being tricked by the internet)

Listen to How to resonate with experienced pros (stop being tricked by the internet) from How Stories Happen with Jay Acunzo wherever you get your podcasts!

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I've given keynotes in 25 states, 3 countries. The best advice I was given + give others to get booked more: The speech does the work. The speech is what you pitch (not yourself). The speech is what you share (not "my story"). The speech is what drives invites to speak. 1 gig should = more gigs.

It's not how you start, it's how you finish. But also? It's how you start. Your opener is crucial to get right (and NOT via sensationalized "hooks"). When you open, you're making 3 choices. Knowing them helps you navigate them and create a better experience: jayacunzo.com/blog/stronge...

How to Create Stronger Openers: The 3 Choices You're Making Every Time

“It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.” Ever hear that phrase? I love it so much. It’s full of hope. It lets us know we should remain resilient despite any initial moments of friction or failu...

jayacunzo.com

I'm not naturally competitive in most things, but there is 1 place where my competitive spirit flares up in a big way: Public speaking. Like if I'm at an event, especially a single-track event where everyone sees every speaker? I want to win. I want to leap over the bar set by any other speaker.

One of the trickiest things to navigate as a public voice is how much to remind folks, "I have a business and sell this kinda thing" vs. "I'm helpful, inspiring, and worth following." In my experience, there's a BIG gap b/w "they like my content" and "they know how to pay me, and why they would"

Most people who know me consider me perhaps to be a B2B marketer. But really? Marketing has always been the excuse for me to tell stories both written and spoken.

My wife and I raised a 1-yr-old into a 3-yr-old AND welcomed a baby during a global pandemic. All while my wife landed the most competitive job opening in her field in our area, and I kept my own business going. So nah, bro, your cold plunge-selfie IG reel-"hustle and grind" isn't impressive to me

I referred to a “boss” in a public post elsewhere and multiple people confidently responded by saying “he” in reference to this (female) boss. Sigh. We’ve a ways to go, people.