Unthinkable with Jay Acunzo

In this one-shot, Jay unpacks one of Rocky’s most iconic scenes to better understand how we can approach our own constraints and begin to use them to our advantage. SHARE THE SHOW: Help others find Unthinkable in their favorite podcast player by sharing this link: https://pod.link/jay SUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTER: https://jayacunzo.com/newsletter Every Friday, I send a new idea, story, or framework...

In the first installment of The Concept, we learn about telic and its opposite, paratelic. These ideas inform our own internal motivations -- or that of our teams -- and they can radically change the results we see from our work. SHARE THE SHOW: Help others find Unthinkable in their favorite podcast player by sharing this link: https://pod.link/jay SUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTER: https://jayacunzo.co...

Today, we hear the story of Patreon, as told by cofounder and CEO Jack Conte. More pressing for our purposes as makers, however, is the driving belief Jack shares which is the beating heart of the creator economy -- or should be. There's a coming fork in the road we'll face if we want to create for a living and thrive. The decision is embedded into the very name of the movement: creator economy. ...

In this one-shot, we unpack how we can become more discerning about the real intent behind lists. Jay walks us through a very special ingredient list for his mom’s famous green bean casserole to give us a real-life example of how sneaky lists can be.   SHARE THE SHOW: Help others find Unthinkable in their favorite podcast player by sharing this link: https://pod.link/jay SUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTE...

It’s a team that borders on a circus, bucks baseball traditionalists, and is unapologetically authentic. It’s a team that deeply resonates with fans both near and far, whose players go through “Fan First U” to join the team, and then try all kinds of atypical things to entertain fans -- sometimes off the field, and often, on it. What’s the difference between a fan and a customer? Why should baseba...

What does it take to create work that resonates? This week, Jay unpacks his framing of resonance - why it matters, why we should prioritize it, and how to build it - with one of his creative sparring partners, Jay Clouse.  From dissecting how competition comes into play to analyzing how it differs from reach, they look at resonance from all angles. It’s a raw, messy, and unfiltered conversation th...

Every week Jay waits until the last minute to write his weekly newsletter, why?  In this short episode, Jay unpacks why he puts a weekly constraint on himself and how that has served as a tactic to wrestle with, dance with, and address his persistent maker monster.  SHARE THE SHOW: Help others find Unthinkable in their favorite podcast player by sharing this link: https://pod.link/jay SUBSCRIBE TO...

We often hear one word used to describe a person or team that's built something big: empire. They've built a business empire. For Chris Sharpe and Adriene Mishler, the idea might have applied ... but only at first. Chris (as CEO of YWA's company, Find What Feels Good) and Adriene (as the performer and personality) co-founded something that did expand in such a way that it felt empire-bound. But th...

No matter how new or experienced we are at the craft, inevitably, we face maker monsters -- these internal barriers that hold us down and prevent us from doing our best work. These aren't external factors like budget, time, team, or tools. Instead, they sound like imposter syndrome or fear of rejection or procrastination. Today, we explore the fear of being unoriginal. In the working world, that m...

What does it look like when an organization, project, or individual’s work resonates so deeply that they have passionate fans and loyal followers who declare them a favorite ? This week we start in the sometimes bland, boring space of team training software and follow the story of a surprisingly dynamic, brilliant and captivating idea from 360Learning -- an original series called Onboarding Joei....

What does resonance really mean? In this short episode, we explore the science of resonance and how understanding the definition of the word can help us to focus on making content that matters.  SHARE THE SHOW: Help others find Unthinkable in their favorite podcast player by sharing this link: https://pod.link/jay SUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTER: https://jayacunzo.com/newsletter Every Friday, I send a...

In this episode, we follow multimedia journalist Natalia Aldana, organizer and artist Aisha White, podcaster and indie creator Jay Clouse, and we hear from marketing legend Joe Pulizzi as they (and me, Jay Acunzo) learn to navigate how these maker monsters attempt to take hostage their (and our) sense of self worth.  So many of us conflate our professional success with personal worth, so what happ...

The word "art" is often misunderstood, especially by those who don't consider themselves artists. But make no mistake, if you're in the change business, you're in the art business. In this episode, a short but inspiring look at how. SHARE THE SHOW: Help others find Unthinkable in their favorite podcast player by sharing this link: https://pod.link/jay SUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTER: https://jayacunzo...

So many of us focus on becoming an expert in our professional field. But what if instead, we wanted to become visionaries? Not THAT kind of visionary, mind you -- the over-hyped media machines that become the business world equivalents of the Kardashians. But instead, a type of useful, practical, attainable, and much-needed visionary.  On this episode we begin to unpack what it means to be a visio...

It's time for another one-shot -- a short-form, monologue episode sharing short stories, metaphors, and frameworks from my perspective to complement the longer-form stories about others that we share every other week. In this one, I answer a crucial question -- some might say mission critical to all our careers. Then, I detail why my answer to the question is extremely, laughably biased, and why w...

Why do we constantly underestimate how long something will take in the short-term? In other words, we tend to over-estimate just how much we can achieve right now. Then, when we think long term, the reverse tends to happen: we actually UNDER-estimate what we're capable of achieving over time.  Today, we want to know more about the promise of a popular trend, the creative streak, and whether they c...

In  2019, I helped develop, write, and direct a business docuseries called Against the Grain, which I also hosted. You can find that series at helpscout.com/atg . We told three stories of teams rethinking what success in business looks like. It was epic. But the budget ... was not. It was a lean production, with a small budget and small team. In talking to others in documentary production, they we...

Maker monsters often creep in at the least opportune times, drag us backwards, convince us of defeat, fill us with self-doubt, so where do we go from here?  And what does that mean for our creative, professional work?  We hear from Smithsonian’s Sidedoor podcast host and producer Lizzie Peabody and poet and keynote speaker, Tucker Bryant, about how their maker monster, perfectionism, creeps into t...

What's the worst advice you've ever received? Can you recall? Mine happened in my mid-20s. I'd just been hired to lead a team for the first time. I found myself in my first purely managerial role ... and I was miserable. Trying to salvage my schedule and my career, I marched into my boss's office and declared, "I'm not doing my best work here."  What followed was the worst advice I've ever receive...

We hear from education entrepreneur and former urban designer Saba Ghole, whose own education journey has led her to rethink and rebuild how we can teach young people. She cofounded NuVu Studio, creating an educational space for imagination and innovation to help build creative, critical thinkers and problem solvers.  Writer and researcher Molly Donovan dives into the messiness that is growing up,...

I used to think I somehow escaped the clutches of imposter syndrome. Oh, the ego in that statement. Surprise, surprise, I was wrong. My imposter syndrome grips me as a writer, a podcaster, a speaker, and a creator-of-things-that-people-are-supposed-to-enjoyer.  It's the worst when I face gatekeepers -- people like editors or publishers who decide whether or not someone is worthy of coming onto the...

The company Museum Hack, founded by Nick Gray, was at one point a promising new startup. It helped reinvent and reinvigorate a stale museum experience. It lured people out of their homes, away from their screens, and into groups of people. There, connection happened. Learning. Inspiration. And another concept, pulled from Dutch culture, known as "gezellig."  As I re-air this story, we're in the mi...

As creative people, how we see the world changes how we think about it which changes how we communicate which changes how we resonate which changes the results we see. Want to change you results? Start at the beginning. Consider changing, or at least thinking critically about, how you see the world. It's not often a tiny tactic or hidden marketing channel or technology that's needed. It's somethin...

On the show, we keep talking about the importance of reaching that next rep of your creative process consistently, faster, and better, but often, those ideas are in conflict. Often, we shouldn't move to the next iteration or project quickly.  Then there are other times where taking a break is actually a form of hiding. We want the perfect conditions or the Muse to visit us. How do we spot the diff...

This week, another "One-Shot." These are my short-form, experimental episodes, where I read a short written piece for you, covering an observation I've made or story I've experienced firsthand. Whereas my main episodes share stories from the perspectives of others, these shorts are from my perspective alone. It's all part of the journey we're on to understand how to avoid stagnation, keep improvin...