181: Be Irreplaceable with My Creative Coach Jay Acunzo

Written By Jenny Blake

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“Don’t be the best, be their favorite.” That’s just one of countless gems of creative wisdom that I’ve picked up from Jay Acunzo over the years. Jay is one of my favorite friendtors and coaches, and I know you will love every minute of this conversation as much as I did!

One thing I love about Jay is that his body of work is a love letter to craft and quality. In this conversation, we talk about mindset shifts and practices to help you focus more on resonance than reach; how to do work that matters to you so that your work can matter more; how he worked through his own existential creative crisis upon hitting the 200th episode milestone of his podcast; thinking like an explorer, not an expert; and “making the leap from what best practices say you should do to what your intuition is urging you to try.”

More About Jay: Jay Acunzo is one of the world’s most sought-after business storytellers and brand consultants. He’s worked in marketing for Google, HubSpot, and ESPN before launching his award-winning podcast, Unthinkable, and authoring multiple books on creativity, including Break the Wheel: Question Best Practices, Hone Your Intuition, and Do Your Best Work. He’s developed and hosted original series for Salesforce, Wistia, Help Scout, GoDaddy, and Drift, and today he helps creators learn to increase the power of their creative work, not just the volume, through his membership platform, the Creator Kitchen. Jay’s grandest aspiration-slash-delusion is to be the Anthony Bourdain of workplace storytelling.

🌟 3 Key Takeaways

  • Reach vs. Resonance: Reach is how many people see something. Resonance is how much they care. No amount of reach will ensure that people care. Take a page out of David Bowie’s book: “Don’t play to the gallery.”

  • “Don’t be the best, be their favorite”: The audience relevance pyramid is a way to determine how well you are resonating with your audience. Start with the base: how relevant you are in topic and theme. Moving up, your content should be enjoyable and entertaining, then impactful, where you are helping people reflect or take action. At the top of the pyramid is personal, where you (and your content) truly becomes irreplaceable.

  • Jay’s Mastery 3 P’s: Posture, Practice and Process. Posture is how you see yourself in the world. Practice is the cadence you are creating and shipping on; aim for consistent and purposeful. When you have the right posture, and you bring it with you to a consistent practice, then process emerges.

📝 Permission: Focus on resonance before—or even at the expense of—reach. Let go of the idea of adding more people until you have a small group reacting in a big way.

✅ Do (or Delegate) This Next: Define your Even More Meaningful Metrics. For example, Jay’s Unsolicited Response Rate (URR): When he publishes something and someone feels urged to respond in some way without being prompted, or Cackles Per Piece (CPP): points during the process of creating that cause so much joy he cackles out loud. Figure out what your more meaningful metrics are, and let them determine how “successful” your work is.

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Jenny Blake

Jenny Blake is a career and business strategist and international speaker who helps people people organize their brain, move beyond burnout and create sustainable careers they love. She is the author of PIVOT: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One (Portfolio/Penguin Random House, September 2016). Jenny left her job in career development at Google in 2011 after five and a half years at the company to launch her first book, Life After College, and has since run her own consulting business in New York City. Find her on Twitter @Jenny_Blake and subscribe to the Pivot Podcast. 

http://PivotMethod.com
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