I help business leaders become stronger speakers and storytellers. I’m the executive producer behind you, helping clarify & differentiate your message, craft signature speeches & stories, and turn your expertise into an original premise and surrounding IP you can distribute and own. Book a consultation.
[What you know] matters, but [what you say and how you say it] needs to make that clear. The 3 tiny words with the biggest possible impact on your business, career, and cause:
I offer 1:1 advisory, as well as bootcamps and a membership, to elevate the voices of experts, execs, entrepreneurs, and other professionals with substance to offer and the genuine desire to serve an audience. I work as an advisor and coach on your messaging, speeches, and your IP: your big idea (premise) and the thinking, frameworks, and stories driving it.
I’m obsessed with helping others make what matters most to their career, company, and community.
Made in collaboration with Pennant Video.
🧭 How I got here: After establishing myself as a leading expert in B2B content marketing, working for brands like Google and HubSpot, I wrote the book Break the Wheel to help people question best practices and toured globally as a keynote speaker, giving talks to everyone from 4,000 marketers at an industry expo to 40 CEOs behind closed doors. My thinking has been cited by writers in The New York Times and The Washington Post and instructors at Harvard Business School.
⛺ What I do now: Through my 1:1 services each year, dozens of the world’s top entrepreneurs, creators, and thought leaders turn to me to craft better messaging and design their signature speeches, and through my influencer programs, brands like Mailchimp, Wistia, Salesforce, and GoDaddy have trusted me as a consultant, collaborator, and even host for some of their most visible storytelling projects.
🗺️ Where you can learn from me: You can hear me every week as the the host of the podcast How Stories Happen, where guests like Seth Godin, Rand Fishkin, and Ann Handley dissect signature stories piece by piece. You can also read me through my popular newsletter, Playing Favorites.
“Jay’s commitment to craft is contagious. Even rarer, he’s skilled at breaking down and explaining how to assemble specific ingredients for achieving greater resonance in your work.”
—Jenny Blake (globally touring speaker, 2x author, podcaster with 2m+ downloads)
Through a blend of regular calls, accountability and feedback, asynchronous access to me, and a framework-forward process, we partner for a period of weeks to months, as I play the role of advisor and executive producer.
Together, we develop a clear premise and big idea you own, turn that into differentiated messaging and thought leadership IP, and craft, package, and pitch more effective signature speeches.
—Sarah Stockdale (CEO of Growclass)
Hire me to speak to your organization, or retain my services to work with your team, your leaders, or your speakers as a dedicated public speaking and storytelling coach and consultant. I’m lucky to have worked with great brands like these:
The impact of an idea is directly proportional to its value + its originality. It’s time to escape the commodity cage.
✅ You’re smart enough. ✅ You’re expert enough. ❌ But your IP may not be strong enough.
Where are you on the Idea Impact Matrix?
“It felt like he had known me for years. He made my message super clear and powerful to both me and others — waaaaaaay better than I could have done alone. In a few short conversations, he totally understood my voice and gave honest feedback throughout.”
—Shawn Shepheard (business coach, speaker, and podcaster)
My mission is to help others make what matters to their careers, companies, and communities. My premise is that we should all prioritize resonance over reach to grow our businesses, audiences, and causes.
I was an early voice in the rise of content marketing, emphasizing quality, creativity, and storytelling in jobs at Google, HubSpot, a tiny startup, and a premier VC firm (NextView Ventures).
Since starting my business in 2016, I’ve written books and built a six-figure speaking business (with speeches in 25 states and 3 countries and mentions in three different books about public speaking and creative entrepreneurship). I’ve partnered with brands like Mailchimp, Salesforce, GoDaddy, Wistia, Podia, and Help Scout, and I’ve consulted some of the most incredible voices leading the way in their respective niches, helping them turn their thinking into IP and their IP into speeches, shows, messaging, and thriving businesses.
It starts with going beyond “creating content” to learn to craft your thinking into IP: your big idea and all the thinking behind it. This empowers you to develop, distribute, own, and monetize your ideas.
This is about so much more than building a following. This is about making an impact.
Despite what internet gurus would have you believe, you don’t need clickbait or grimy tactics. You need to dig down to the root of your perspective, develop that into readily apparent language and ideas, and distribute that through thought leadership and storytelling. In short, substance can still stand out—if it arrives with story.
Your peers, your industry’s influencers and analysts, and your ideal customers or clients are all together. They swap notes, discuss trends, and share their opinions — but a handful of them can’t stop repeating the same phrase before they speak:
They quote you, cite your ideas, and share your frameworks and stories. Those who don’t know you whip out their phones and join your email list. This represents something more important than followers: actual influence. You didn’t resort to hollow stunts to juice reach. You shared thinking capable of resonating. (That makes the reach bit easier and stickier.)
That’s the power of a well-developed premise and the surrounding IP that helps you grow.
That’s the power of a storyteller.
👋 Just like my client, Michelle Warner.
Michelle is a “best kept secret” among entrepreneurs who sell services for tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, helping them craft their business models and their marketing strategies.
Her audience is discerning, and Michelle needs to be even more choosy so before hiring an outside voice to help her.
“Enter, Jay” she says.
👋 Just like my client, Susan Boles.
Susan is a fractional COO and CFO who also sells bootcamps and other educational offerings to help her clients.
But things felt stagnant and more difficult than in previous eras of her own business.
“I can see how my next offering comes from this. I can see how content comes from this because it’s not just tons of random things, but all beats of the premise. I can see how my sales are easier because of this.”
[Pictured: online training company CEO // Fortune 100 SVP-turned-author // freelance writer // habit and career coach.]
“I never had a creative partner until hiring Jay. He is so strategic and ruthlessly practical. My work ended up lightyears ahead.”
—Mia Quagliarello (Head of Creator Community, Flipboard; prev. Apple, YouTube, Viacom)
“You can go ahead and create more content. Or you can create something special that stirs hearts and engages minds. If you are the kind of person who wants your work to really matter, listen to Jay. He’ll be your perfect guide.”
— Ann Handley (WSJ Bestselling Author of Everybody Writes; globally touring speaker; Partner at training org MarketingProfs)
What does it take to resonate? On How Stories Happen, experts, entrepreneurs, and world-class communicators dissect their signature stories piece by piece. We explore how they found their stories, how they developed their ideas, and how they're using a given story to grow their business and leave their legacy. Hosted by Jay Acunzo.
⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
I partnered with the brand Help Scout to create a three-part docuseries about businesses who believe there’s a better way to build than growth-at-all-costs.
With a diverse range of real-world stories, Break the Wheel offers a simple but powerful way to think for yourself when surrounded by endless advice and conventional wisdom. Say goodbye to average work and hello to doing your best.
“Usually business writing is for people who want to be led, not for people who want to think.
Jay challenges people to think instead, and to remember that we benefit from being whole people not divided into business pieces and not-business pieces. I’ve been reading his work for years.”
- Maggie, a happy reader and think-for-yourselfer
“File this book under completely paradigm shifting.
This will change the way you think about what you need to do to be successful, and free you do do more of what is a unique expression of yourself. It’s easy to get caught up thinking that success lies in best practices. But best practices aren’t best for everyone. Question assumptions and unlock massive impact, revenue, and fulfillment.
-5 Star Amazon Review”
“A rare great marketing book!
A terrific book with important advice for every marketer. It’s not ‘best practice’, it’s how to find what’s best for your specific situation. Smart, well-written and super helpful.”
-5 Star Amazon Review