I help business leaders become stronger speakers and storytellers. Trusted by entrepreneurs, authors, execs, and established creators as a dedicated coach and executive producer. Together, we develop your big idea, tighten your message, craft signature talks, and turn your expertise into a powerful premise and owned IP.
Three ways to work with me:
PUNCH-UPS: short-burst development for speeches, messaging, and key projects
PLATFORM STRATEGY + 1:1 COACHING: dedicated, peer-level advisory and support to develop your premise, clarify and differentiate your message, and craft key projects like signature speeches, frameworks, stories, and sellable offers, all made easier by turning your expertise into your IP.
VIRTUAL BOOTCAMPS: I also run small group intensives, like my latest, Design My Signature Talk.
“Jay doesn’t really help people create a talk, though that is an outcome. He helps them better understand themselves and what they think. There's a lot of business power in that beyond speaking.”
—Devin Bramhall (agency growth advisor and fractional CMO)
Made in collaboration with Pennant Video.
❌ I am not a speaker factory ❌
I do NOT train people in bulk to look and sound a certain way.
My advantage over larger firms is 1:1 context and personalized support. I work with very few clients at any given time to extract your best thinking and synthesize it into the best messaging and stories possible. I only work with experienced people who don’t want to get shoved into anyone’s “simple system” or batch-delivered services.
[Pictured: startup CEO // Fortune 100 SVP-turned-author // freelance writer // career coach.]
Steve Pratt booked me for my short-turnaround “punch-up” offer to develop the keynote associated with his book.
Steve is a veteran of the podcast industry and has worked with clients like Slack, DELL, Shopify, Atlassian, and Adobe.
“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)
—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.”
“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)
A refreshing and inspiring look at the storytelling mastery of guests like Seth Godin (marketing legend with 22 bestselling business books), Ann Handley (WSJ bestselling author of Everybody Writes), Chase Jarvis (one of the most influential advocates for creativity in work and life), Laura Gassner Otting (2x WSJ bestseller; Good Morning America correspondent on work and career), Andrew Davis (globally touring keynote speaker), Rand Fishkin (CEO of SparkToro), and bestselling author Simone Stolzoff, who worked out a draft of his entire TED Talk!
You’ll walk away ready to compete on the impact of your ideas, not the volume of your marketing.
⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
Together with Arbez Films, I created a four-part limited series taking you inside my process of developing and piloting my podcast the year it launched.
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