Jay Acunzo's Recent LinkedIn Posts

It's times like these that I'm reminded of an old adage: If that last trend didn't save your business, don't worry, it's definitely different this time, so please continue to avoid investing in anything truly transformational involving your skills, business foundations, customer relationships, and your offerings, to instead wrap your full identity in whatever technology is buzziest right now, because your main source value and main competitive edge can definitely come from a software tool which everyone else can also access for 20 bucks a month. (Listen, I never said the adage was memorable...)

I'm organizing a small group call about scaling a speaking business. Free, informal, and meant for folks who have experience charging at least $5k for their talks and/or people seeking to generate $100k+ in annual revenue from speaker fees in the near- to medium-term. If you'd like to participate, find my replies to others below for the link to register. Your email goes nowhere but the calendar invite. FAQs: WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS? Selfishly? Because it feels good, and because I learn about the pains, problems, and language used by an important part of my audience and market. More generously? Because I want to help people avoid the common mistakes I see in trying to go from a handful of paid gigs to meaningful revenue. They over-invest in the wrong things, or maybe the right things but in the wrong order, like glossy reels, contacting bureaus, and looking for greater fame in their space or overall. None of these are actually the drivers. A lot of advice out there angers me, because it overlooks how paid speaking actually happens (especially when the goal is to be systematic, not sporadic). WHO WILL / SHOULD ATTEND? I hope at least a dozen good folks will attend, and I'm guessing they'll be authors with new books, creators and service providers with established businesses/revenue/audiences looking to diversify, and anyone who plans to move from periodic keynotes to consistent main stage presence. WHO SHOULD NOT ATTEND? This won't be relevant and in fact will be the wrong advice for people who are beginners or folks who don't wish to charge a fee for their speaking. This will also be irrelevant to folks who have little to no speaking traction yet. WHAT WILL WE DISCUSS? I'll share some initial, upfront context and frameworks, then we'll talk shop about your actual realities. I'll take questions and offer my input as best I can in the moment, pointing to resources and next steps where I'm able. Again, leave a comment and let me know if you want to register. I'll share the form as a reply. Thanks!

I want to live in a world where wonder matters more than attention. Yesterday, my daughter (7) was astounded to learn that the dancers in a music video we were watching could really dance like that. She immediately asked me 100 questions then left the room to create her own choreography. She wasn’t astounded that the video of those dancers *existed.* She was astounded that other PEOPLE could do that. People just like her. So maybe she could do it too. What a feeling! What a moment of wonder. My friend, so much of the value and efficacy of creativity is in the effort. It’s from experiencing something great and realizing, “Wait! A person … did that?! You mean PEOPLE can DO that?” Remove that part, and the project or piece suddenly rings hollow. But that’s the fate of your work which many seem to be choosing as they scramble as fast as possible to create with AI. The only impressive thing about stuff made with AI is that a software tool can do that. It says nothing about the person (though actually, it says quite a lot, if you get my meaning). In other words, you can create content, but the point is connection. A creation isn’t great because it grabs my attention or contains no flaws. I don’t feel drawn to correctness or accuracy. The journey makes it matter … and all the friction and skill and talent and drive and mistakes and persistence and the blood, sweat, tears that went into it. That’s when we might say the work has soul. Your presence in it is undeniable. When I am moved by something — a big project, a tiny post, anything — I am struck by that simple yet profound truth that a person MADE that, and then I think, “Wow, people are capable of that.” I am an unapologetic believer in a life filled with total, all-consuming awe at what people are capable of creating. I am pro-wonder more than I could ever be anti-AI. But I am not excited to learn you pressed a button and out popped the work. Shortcut culture has been irritating to me since I entered this industry in 2008, and now it’s just insufferable. If you aren’t willing to put your own time, effort, and emotions into something, don’t expect others to give you theirs. The effort shows. The journey makes it matter. Ishiguro said it best. He was talking about stories, but I took him to mean both actual narratives and the stories we tell through all created works: “Stories are about one person saying to another: This is the way it feels to me. Can you understand what I’m saying? Does it feel this way to you?” My kids and I are building lives rooted in the pursuit of profound wonder, not cheap acts of attention. I hope you’ll join us.

Nothing Is Boring: How to Tell Gripping Stories About the Seemingly Mundane *** The Quaker Diner in West Hartford, Connecticut, serves the same food as every other diner. It serves the same coffee too: endless amounts of mediocre light-brew generously poured into thick white mugs. Coffee like that tricks my mind into thinking it’s delicious simply because I'm sitting in a diner. The moment contains a little sadness, a little nostalgia, and of course, a lot of coffee. The last time I sat in this particular diner and drank that particular coffee, I realized that despite the same-old, same-old menu, the place exists as something entirely unique to each individual who passes through it. Everyone who knows it knows a different version of the Quaker Diner. This average diner with the same-old, same-old menu was the setting of a writing project for one of my favorite classes at Trinity College: creative nonfiction. Each morning for what felt like a cruel number of mornings to a 21-year-old, I'd trudge down the street from my off-campus house, past broken beer bottles and discarded slices of pizza congealing in the morning sun. I'd swing open the door to the trolley car-turned-diner, grab myself a booth, and slump down with my notebook for some of that Grade-D coffee. Oh, the romantic life of a writer! To me, the Quaker Diner was nondescript, but that semester, my task was to describe it. To bring it to life. To sit with it and poke and prod and think and feel enough to find something, anything to write about. In short, I had find a story somewhere in the seemingly mundane details of life. In our line of work, I can think of no greater skill. Whether you write or speak or podcast or shoot video, design apps or org charts or company cultures, you are in the business of finding something meaningful to say to others to resonate with them and spark action, all while feeling surrounded by a whole lot of mundane details. Unfortunately, we lose our abilities to tell stories the more years we spend away from our schooling -- or, really, the more years we spend feeling like adults, not children. My ability to tell legitimate stories started to erode the moment I entered the world of tech, startups, and content marketing. In my early jobs, for companies like Google and HubSpot, I picked up some Very Important Business Knowledge, it's true. But I was a far better writer at 21 than, say, 25. FULL STORY: https://lnkd.in/etJBmxZF

Half-baked thought about the role your marketing plays to sell services: Marketing used to be mainly about 2 main things: - get found - get on their consideration set But for a long time and even more so with AI now, people are increasingly going right to their preferred pick, go-to resource or provider, or a peer referral (sub "peer" for "Claude" or something). In other words, people are skipping the consideration set entirely and just ... making a selection. Which is good news for folks who aren't stuck on the spreadsheet, weighed against peers, racing to the bottom -- which is normally the winner of the spreadsheet game. ("They're the cheapest. Pick them.") But for everyone else, they've got to catch up, stop playing the awareness-centric game, and focus less on projecting outward, "I'm the best!" Instead, they need to learn how to be the favorite. Be the pick. Be the one others feel an irrational, emotional bias towards, despite the competition. In other words, your marketing's success used to heavily focus on getting found and getting onto the consideration set. Now, it's about getting picked. Can your marketing ensure that even before they are ready to buy, they've already subconsciously picked you? Once it's time to hire someone like you, you're the defacto pick. They don't need to evaluate anyone. Yes, the rest still factors in (awareness and consideration are inescapably parts of this). But it's not where the lion's share of your effort should go as a marketer. This is why I push people on message clarity, public speaking excellence, and premise and IP development and differentiation. You want to become the one others pick even before they're ready to pay anyone like you. This is also why I keep saying these things to people: Don't market more. Matter more. (When you matter more, you have to hustle for attention less.) Think resonance over reach. (Reach is how many see it. Resonance is how much they care. We obsess over reach, but it's really resonance which drives revenue.) Don't be the best. Be their favorite.

Last Friday, I hosted a free, informal discussion about paid speaking. 40 people registered and ~30 attended. Should I host one again? Would you attend?

If you show up publicly to be interviewed or to speak in any fashion, it's time to protect yourself thanks to AI. Given this eye-opening moment that happened to me, here's what I will now be doing: 1. I consulted a lawyer on this and encourage you to do the same thing. Now, I'll be sending an Appearance Release, Likeness Protection, and AI Prohibition Agreement to others, whenever I'm invited to guest appear or speak, virtually or in-person, for free. This includes podcasts and video shows, webinars, conference talks, private sessions to community groups/masterminds, and recorded interviews meant to quote me in written text. 2. Because I also give paid keynotes, I will also be adding it into the contract I use for all those types of speaking opportunities. 3. Along with the signable agreement, I'll have to explain to the other party what it's for and why I'm sharing it while still preserving our relationship, so below is my email template (which you are free to borrow). For the actual agreement, consult a lawyer. *** Hey [Name], So glad we're doing this together. Before we lock in the details, I wanted to share something I'm now asking everyone I work with in this way to sign. It’s a simple agreement that protects both of us in the AI era. It's called an Appearance Release and AI Prohibition Agreement. As someone whose name, voice, and face are increasingly at risk of being manipulated by AI tools (something that has actually happened to me already), my lawyer has put together a standard document that I use with all appearances, regardless of the context. This is NOT a reflection of any concern about you specifically. It's just become a necessary part of how I work. The document is straightforward and shouldn't require any changes on your end. A few things worth knowing upfront. You can use my recordings, headshots, and clips as-is. No approval needed from me. If you ever want to create any assets that alter or manipulate how I look or sound, you'll need my written sign-off first. I'm easy to reach and will turn it around quickly. Promise! Please make sure anyone on your team who touches a recording or image of me knows that these terms apply to them too (e.g. editors, designers, social media marketers, etc.) No AI tools that alter my voice, image, or likeness — that's the core of it. Happy to answer any questions. Once you've had a chance to review, just sign and send it back and we're good to go. Thanks! *** For more context, read my full original post below.

The point isn’t to “generate subscribers.” The point is to write things worth subscribing to.

How do you turn webinar registrants into revenue? As a speaker and consultant, I've given just about every kind of talk you can imagine. In this webinar with my friends at Wistia, I'm sharing my favorite tips for ensuring your virtual talks actually lead to results. The delicate dance? You want near-term revenue, but you still need to build relationships with others who aren't yet ready to buy but would make tomorrow's results easier once they are. It's happening Thursday. Register for free: https://lnkd.in/evXSfiJq

I appeared on a podcast from a large tech company who then used AI to manipulate my image and likeness in ways I didn't approve, even though it didn't look like me at all. It made me feel so violated and ALSO made me realize we have to protect ourselves as creators. Join me and my friend Susan Boles a live chat, who is one of the sharpest minds I know helping creators stay safe online through her business Unpublic, as we unpack what happened to me + what we should all be doing to protect ourselves, including steps I've personally taken. I hate this new reality, but thanks to AI, we can't leave this to chance any more.

Just incredible. For my next webinar in our series, Host Better Webinars, my friends at Wistia pulled out all the stops in this edit. Register here: https://lnkd.in/evXSfiJq

I guested on a podcast, then they used AI to warp my face, change my clothes, put me in poses, and generally create images of Not Actually Me. I feel angry, violated, and also very worried. The image here is the least horrible of the bunch I saw. Oh, and this was all without my approval. You'd ask to use a photo of your podcast guest dug up from the depths of a Facebook album. You damn sure need to ask someone approval to use AI to change their image in any way, let alone give them facial expressions and postures they didn't actually photograph in real life ever. Unreal. Anyway, in the photo attached here, they found an old headshot of mine from 2020, instead of the most recent image I use literally everywhere I show up online, then aged it down, softened it up, put me in a suit for some reason (literally why do that?), and then misspelled my name. Perfection. This would be really funny if stuff like this (and the overall moment we're in) wasn't so genuinely stupid and legitimately dangerous. My friends, this doesn't come without a lesson. For anyone who shows up on stages and on shows routinely as I do, we need to protect ourselves. We need legal agreements with events and shows that if we appear and lend them an hour of our likeness in the form of our voices and video recordings, then we must be protected. We can't have people doing anything they want with our images and voices using AI. That can and will damage people's reputation. It goes so far beyond feeling goofy as to feel violating, to say nothing of the misinformation it could spread in public. I think it's time to protect ourselves and ask events and shows to sign a contract saying they may not touch our name, image, voice, and likeness with AI without our final approval on the assets. Otherwise, we're vulnerable. Some people are well-meaning but make poor choices. Some think they're being clever or hacking some kind of system. Some have actual ill-intent. Maybe it's time we left nothing to chance and protected ourselves. What do you think? Anyway, I'm thrilled to introduce you Jay Azunco, who is 40 and also 14. Somehow. He is available to keynote your event or stand in your wedding party. (Thanks to the AI edit, he's already got the generic suit now.) OFFICIAL BIO: Jay Azunco is a world renowned growth hacker and AI maven. Often called "The Revenue Growth Guy" by his own social media profiles, Jake was a pioneer in SEO, GEO, AEO, and Tic Tac Toe. He's the author of the #1 Amazon bestselling book Don’t Get Left Behind: How to Dominate Your Market with AI, and Grant Cardone and GaryVee once Liked his content, which regularly goes viral. You can read Jackson in Forbes.

"It's not plagiarism because you can't detect any 1 writer in the LLM." OK cool. Here's a burger for dinner. I've chopped up tiny bits of your buddy Jake into it, but don't worry, it's not cannibalism, because you can't detect him. Also I didn't ask Jake for permission, nor will I cite him as being the delicious umami flavor you detect in this dish. And if you think THIS post was stupid, whew boy, you should look around the world of AI...

Do any indie musicians follow me? I’d like to license a song of yours for my podcast. What I’m looking for: - Pop rock or folk rock - The full track as the theme song - Plus some of the instrumentals shared for transitions and other editing needs where vocals wouldn’t work or the music needs to loop - Tone: uplifting, inspiring, momentum that builds - Inspirational Tracks: Homesick (Noah Kahan, Sam Fender), The Getaway (The Strike), Green Green Grass (George Ezra) - Lyrics should be at least distantly relevant to the show, which is about creativity, storytelling, and the desire to resonate with others. - Good example is how the podcast Heavyweight uses music. The closing theme has lyrics about home, moving, furniture, sun in an empty room — and the show is about addressing the weights we carry around in life and relationships in our past. What I don’t want: - A custom track for my show (too slow; I’m ready to pay someone now) - Anything produced using AI. This needs to be your original music (with collaborators is OK of course). - You also don’t need to be a professional musician. If you’re a hobbyist, great! If you’re an indie artist, amazing! I probably can’t afford a serious touring musician with this fee… What I’m offering: - An upfront flat fee of $1,000 - A lightweight agreement we sign with language for what happens if I ever sell the show (While it’s unlikely, yes, podcasts do get acquired and yes, I’ve sold a show before at a very high five-figure fee, so you should get paid a bit from the proceeds if I ever try that with my current show) - Links to your music in the episode show notes and on the show website page - A recurring credit in my episode outros Why I’m doing this: - As my business grows and also we continue to exist in this ridiculous, shortsighted, and unethical moment surrounding generative AI, my goal is to use my platform, expertise, and budget to support more and more artists and creators. I want to proudly point to the actual human beings I’ve collaborated with and supported, and most especially the humans I’ve paid, whenever someone smugly tells me I could have used AI for something. [Feel free to share with any musician friends too!]

Write. Unassisted. For yourself. On a deadline. Without measuring it. It will transform your life.

Do any indie musicians follow me? I’d like to license a song of yours for my podcast. What I’m looking for: - Pop rock or folk rock - The full track as the theme song - Plus some of the instrumentals shared for transitions and other editing needs where vocals wouldn’t work or the music needs to loop - Tone: uplifting, inspiring, momentum that builds - Inspirational Tracks: Homesick (Noah Kahan, Sam Fender), The Getaway (The Strike), Green Green Grass (George Ezra) - Lyrics should be at least distantly relevant to the show, which is about creativity, storytelling, and the desire to resonate with others. - Good example is how the podcast Heavyweight uses music. The closing theme has lyrics about home, moving, furniture, sun in an empty room — and the show is about addressing the weights we carry around in life and relationships in our past. What I don’t want: - A custom track for my show (too slow; I’m ready to pay someone now) - Anything produced using AI. This needs to be your original music (with collaborators is OK of course). - You also don’t need to be a professional musician. If you’re a hobbyist, great! If you’re an indie artist, amazing! I probably can’t afford a serious touring musician with this fee… What I’m offering: - An upfront flat fee of $1,000 - A lightweight agreement we sign with language for what happens if I ever sell the show (While it’s unlikely, yes, podcasts do get acquired and yes, I’ve sold a show before at a very high five-figure fee, so you should get paid a bit from the proceeds if I ever try that with my current show) - Links to your music in the episode show notes and on the show website page - A recurring credit in my episode outros Why I’m doing this: - As my business grows and also we continue to exist in this ridiculous, shortsighted, and unethical moment surrounding generative AI, my goal is to use my platform, expertise, and budget to support more and more artists and creators. I want to proudly point to the actual human beings I’ve collaborated with and supported, and most especially the humans I’ve paid, whenever someone smugly tells me I could have used AI for something. [Feel free to share with any musician friends too!]

I've been a paid keynote speaker since 2015 and now work with others on their speaking. Here's a random list of tips I love, shared w/o further context: •if you’re a designer, you’d say “designer.” put “keynote speaker” in your bio! •if you’re ever given a choice, be the opener, not the closer, every time. •a single signature story or bit is worth more in revenue than a glossy speaker reel, clever marketing automation, or a gorgeous speaker website. •when quoting your fee, don’t offer a speech. offer a package. •great keynotes are actually the MOST practical talk they can experience. •more than anything, a speech is an argument to embrace 1 idea or change. •you probably don’t have an original idea. but you can build one. •do you improvise or memorize? neither. you internalize. •people who create new talks every talk are ensuring they never truly serve audiences or event clients to their best of their abilities (it’s bad business too) •when you give a talk, you aren’t speaking “at” the event. you ARE the event. •is a good keynote speaker a good entertainer or motivator or educator or storyteller or thought leader or practical doer or—yes. The answer is yes.

If you’re not a celebrity, the most sustainable way to get paid to speak isn’t your fame. It’s your game. (And if you thought that was lame? Same.) (For the 17 people still reading this, yes I do think a distinct tone of voice is part of your game. Mine just so happens to be incredibly charming. Right? RIGHT? I’ll move on.) Today I wanted to write some long overdue advice to people who are the “real deal.” That means you have expertise, good raw material, and at least some traction. This is a meaty, meaningful topic, so we’ll need some scaffolding to navigate things: FIRST, we need to address what people typically do to scale their speaking. I think all of us tend to focus on the wrong things, or maybe the right things but in the wrong order. SECOND, I’ll share what you actually need, based on what actually drives opportunities and revenue. THIRD, given what’s most needed to go from sporadic to systematic speaking, I’ll propose the best two places to focus your time, energy, and investment. Ready? Here we go… https://lnkd.in/esUvtfAf

Join us tomorrow with Jay Acunzo, Omar Akhtar, and Liz Lathan, CMP as they unpack what separates forgettable sponsored talks from genuine authority-building moments. Together, they’ll explore how brands can treat event speaking as a strategic platform — choosing the right voices, developing a defensible point of view, and designing sessions that move the conversation forward instead of protecting the product. 📅 Thursday, March 26th 🕛 1:00PM ET 🔗 https://shorturl.at/oYno9

If you’re ready to experience greater momentum & clarity as a speaker, coach, or consultant, this behind-the-scenes series is for you. This year, two clients have given me permission to publish details from my 1:1 advisory engagements publicly with you, so you can see what it takes to refine a mountain of expertise into 1 signature idea, powerful IP, and signature speeches and stories. In this series, you’ll learn to diagnose why you might feel scattered in your messaging, why your ideas or posts aren’t creating passionate fans, and what it really takes to earn bigger and better stages, both literally and figuratively. These individuals arrive with plenty of competence. The goal is to help them achieve greater resonance. Like you, they are genuine experts in their industries. Also like you, they’re realizing it’s possible to be deeply respected in your field but still feel replaceable or constantly stuck reacting and chasing. There’s a big difference between being great at Your Thing and being a trusted voice who shapes how people think about the very same topic. These clients are... Kevin Leahy, founder of the podcast strategy and production firm Podcast Pointman. He’s a former producer for Guy Raz (the famous ex-NPR host who created the shows How I Built This and The Great Creators). Kevin previously helped Guy build his production company before he started Podcast Pointman, and today he has achieved real revenue and built a small team. Susan Boles, a former COO and CFO who then spent several years running her first business, a consulting and education firm called Beyond Margins, helping entrepreneurs run calm companies through their finance & ops systems. In 2026 however, she moved beyond Beyond Margins (heh…) to start a new business, Unpublic, offering services and education to help creators stay safe online as they get more visible. I wrote a primer going into more detail about this behind-the-scenes journey. You can read it here, and if you sign up for my newsletter, you'll get 1 edition of this series per month: https://lnkd.in/eFCDk6Ec

Today: join me live as Susan (founder of Unpublic) interviews me about staying safe online as a creator. I’m sharing openly about things that have happened to me—and what I’m doing to protect myself and my likeness in the age of AI-everything. More visibility usually means more vulnerability. Susan and Unpublic understand that paradox we face of wanting to get MORE visible but LESS vulnerable in our business and for our person. This topic is only getting more critical to understand thanks to AI and the absolute dereliction of duty by regulators and executives right now. It’s on us. It’s up to us.

Too many speaker trainings cause a speaker to exaggerate mediocrity. In other words, they teach you how to perform but NOT how to truly have an impact. "Put your hand here instead of there. Move left at THAT moment. Say THAT with a quiet somberness, then let it linger." Listen, stagecraft really matters. Keynote speakers (the good ones, anyway) are performers. It's gotta be entertaining, and stagecraft allows you to embody and convey the emotions you want the audience to feel too, letting them know the entire time, "You're in good hands." Every audience wants that. But you perform your content. Performance serves content. And your content must fit the structure of the speech. Content serves structure. Said another way: content serves your argument (because effective speeches are ARGUMENTS—they run on logic to ensure others buy into your ideas). And your argument serves your premise, that ONE signature idea which represents the singular change you want to argue for and get the audience to embrace. In other words, the linchpin of a great speech is a great premise. The premise then leads to IP you develop (frameworks, stories, branded terms, repeatable phrases, et al). Then you arrange your IP in the right order, structuring the speech as an argument they can follow each step of the way. Then you flesh out the skeletal structure with all the content needed to bring your argument and your IP to life in an entertaining, immersive, educational way. THEN you perform it. Being a stronger performer doesn't matter if your ideas aren't high-impact. They must be high value and highly original. Just like the greatest actors in the world can't save a bad script, stagecraft for a speaker can't save a commodified idea. I see too many speakers investing THOUSANDS of dollars and TONS of time to learn how to patrol the stage and perform their content, when all they're doing is exaggerating mediocrity. This work is primarily about idea impact. You want your ideas to have an impact in the room (stagecraft) and in the market (salescraft). But the source of everything is your premise, IP, and argument. Can you truly transform the audience? Is there a clear before-and-after moment with you and your ideas? Do you bring something high-impact to them? It all matters, including how you perform. Just make sure you sequence the work according to what the audience and event organizers need — and your work requires. Don't get caught exaggerating mediocrity.

Well this got some incredible humans interested. Really impressed and excited by who showed up in the comments...