How Stories Happen

It's been a good long while since I've had a good long rant. 

*Cracks knuckles.* 

Let us begin.

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ABOUT ME, JAY ACUNZO

I work with entrepreneurs, execs, and teams on the journey from competent to resonant. To do that, I help transform your thinking into clear, captivating ideas, speeches, and IP. Stop chasing attention. Become the one others seek.
I’m a former marketing leader at Google and HubSpot and globally touring speaker and author. I've spent 20 years building the exact thought leadership I now help clients create—as a practitioner-peer, not a coach with templates.
Work with me 1:1, book me to speak, or explore free resources at jayacunzo.com
Don't market more. Matter more.
Think resonance over reach.
Don't be the best. Be their favorite.

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When you give a presentation of any kind, you don't actually have a captive audience. YOU need to captivate. This is a story structure that can both captivate your audience AND deliver the message or lesson they most need (and you need to distribute to do your job).
As mentioned, there are just a few spaces left in the next cohort of my public speaking accelerator. Grab yours here:
Join the next cohort of Design My Signature Talk (starts Feb. 23, 2026)→
***

ABOUT ME, JAY ACUNZO

I work with entrepreneurs, execs, and teams on the journey from competent to resonant. To do that, I help transform your thinking into clear, captivating ideas, speeches, and IP. Stop chasing attention. Become the one others seek.
I’m a former marketing leader at Google and HubSpot and globally touring speaker and author. I've spent 20 years building the exact thought leadership I now help clients create—as a practitioner-peer, not a coach with templates.
Work with me 1:1, book me to speak, or explore free resources at jayacunzo.com
Don't market more. Matter more.
Think resonance over reach.
Don't be the best. Be their favorite.

***

ENJOY THE SHOW? PLEASE SAY THANKS!

Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 

Leave a rating on Spotify 
Thanks for listening!

Go inside inside my public speaking accelerator, Design My Signature Talk, with this clip from our final group call.
Watch the full video of this episode→
Join the next cohort of Design My Signature Talk (starts Feb. 23, 2026)→
In this episode, hear Brian Piper deliver his brand new signature story as a reliable opener of his brand new signature talk that we developed in the cohort. He used this material to get 3 brand new client leads from his first attempt.
Brian is a marketing consultant and an author who works with people in higher ed. He helps them embrace AI and become more analytical and data led. But for years, he struggled with developing a SIGNATURE speech, instead building new talks every talk. He also struggled to draw from a major source of ideas and identity and stories in his life, refusing to put that material on stage -- a problem we navigated in the cohort to finally crack the code on a stronger opening story for him.
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ABOUT ME, JAY ACUNZO

I work with entrepreneurs, execs, and teams on the journey from competent to resonant. To do that, I help transform your thinking into clear, captivating ideas, speeches, and IP. Stop chasing attention. Become the one others seek.
I’m a former marketing leader at Google and HubSpot and globally touring speaker and author. I've spent 20 years building the exact thought leadership I now help clients create—as a practitioner-peer, not a coach with templates.
Work with me 1:1, book me to speak, or explore free resources at jayacunzo.com
Don't market more. Matter more.
Think resonance over reach.
Don't be the best. Be their favorite.

***

ENJOY THE SHOW? PLEASE SAY THANKS!

Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 

Leave a rating on Spotify 
Thanks for listening!

If you want to book more and better speaking opportunities, this is the episode for you.
I take a closer look at the process most speakers miss, not because they haven't had any success selling their offerings, but precisely because they have. Speaking works in the opposite way to almost everything else. It's an inverted commercial model. We need to embrace this fact and invest our time, energy, and budget accordingly, if we want to book more and better stages, charge or raise our speaker fees, and develop a sustainable pipeline of keynotes and speaking engagements.
There's a paradox at the center of what it takes to do this well. Get ready to reverse your process!
Join the next cohort of Design My Signature Talk (starts Feb. 23, 2026)→
Get the full transcript and visual model from this episode→
Get my best resources for keynote speakers→

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ABOUT ME, JAY ACUNZO

I work with entrepreneurs, execs, and teams on the journey from competent to resonant. To do that, I help transform your thinking into clear, captivating ideas, speeches, and IP. Stop chasing attention. Become the one others seek.
I’m a former marketing leader at Google and HubSpot and globally touring speaker and author. I've spent 20 years building the exact thought leadership I now help clients create—as a practitioner-peer, not a coach with templates.
Work with me 1:1, book me to speak, or explore free resources at jayacunzo.com
Don't market more. Matter more.
Think resonance over reach.
Don't be the best. Be their favorite.

***

ENJOY THE SHOW? PLEASE SAY THANKS!

Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 

Leave a rating on Spotify 
Thanks for listening!

There’s this THING that happens to a public speaker and storyteller that feels addicting. It happens after you’ve internalized your content and put in the reps. You’re no longer consciously thinking about what to say next or how to say it. Instead, you can just walk up on stage, or fire up the camera, or switch on the mic, and just BE.
Few speakers and storytellers have achieved that level of internalized, authentic performance like Scott Stratten (LinkedIn).

Scott is a Hall of Fame public speaker and the founder of UnMarketing. He believes we can build a better business world based on integrity, community, and authenticity. Together with his wife and business partner Alison, they’ve written 6 bestselling business books, while Scott travels the world performing from stages to thousands of people at a time. 
To hear Scott is to experience just that. A performance.

Today, we’ll hear an incredible story Scott tells in his keynotes, then we’ll talk shop about the mechanics of storytelling, the misnomers and opportunities in becoming a stronger public voice, and frankly, we have some of the most fun I’ve had on this show … ever.

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ABOUT ME, JAY ACUNZO

I work with entrepreneurs, execs, and teams on the journey from competent to resonant. To do that, I help transform your thinking into clear, captivating ideas, speeches, and IP. Stop chasing attention. Become the one others seek.
I’m a former marketing leader at Google and HubSpot and globally touring speaker and author. I've spent 20 years building the exact thought leadership I now help clients create—as a practitioner-peer, not a coach with templates.
Work with me 1:1, book me to speak, or explore free resources at jayacunzo.com
Don't market more. Matter more.
Think resonance over reach.
Don't be the best. Be their favorite.

***

ENJOY THE SHOW? PLEASE SAY THANKS!

Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 

Leave a rating on Spotify 
Thanks for listening!