How Stories Happen

It's time for a new edition of "Is This Anything?", the miniseries where friends and clients join me to work out new drafts and ideas for upcoming pieces and projects. In this episode, I help Justin Moore design his signature talk, beat by beat.

Justin is the founder of Creator Wizard, which helps creators secure more and better brand deals to grow their businesses. Through trainings, coaching, and his signature course, Justin has made a name for himself in the creator economy.

For both his book and for the next wave of growth that he sees for his business, involving a slightly new group of buyers, Justin wants to develop a talk capable of earning him the main stage, not just breakouts, where he's up against multiple speakers at the same time slot. 

Together, we work through a structure you can use to develop your speeches. We discuss the differences between breakouts and keynotes, virtual and in-person, and why Justin needs his "higher-order idea" or the idea BEFORE the ideas he's known for already, in order to inspire action in his audience and grow his business through speaking.

It's a rare look at the speech development process with two established creative voices, with one entrepreneur playing coach and the other the vulnerable but committed student. I hope this is both enjoyable and useful to your speaking journey!

RESOURCES:

Learn more about Justin's business at creatorwizard.com

Get a copy of Justin's book Sponsor Magnet, or join the waitlist now (coming in January 2025)

Subscribe to Jay's newsletter at jayacunzo.com

Join Jay's membership program for business storytellers and service providers, the Creator Kitchen

Follow Jay on LinkedIn, Instagram, or Threads

Produced by Ilana Nevins

Cover art designed by Blake Ink

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ABOUT JAY:

Consulting
Speaking
Contact
Books

Jay Acunzo is an author, speaker, and differentiation-and-thought leadership consultant on a mission to help you make what matters to your career, company, and community. He's an advisor to experts, execs, and entrepreneurs who want to resonate deeper with others, not just reach them. To do so, he helps you turn your expertise into IP and your IP into differentiated messaging, exceptional speeches, and celebrated creative projects, equipping you with the communication techniques and power of today’s top thought leaders—because he believes in standing out through substance and stories, not hollow hype.

A leading voice in B2B content marketing for many years thanks to his roles at brands like Google and HubSpot, companies like Mailchimp, Salesforce, Wistia, and GoDaddy have turned to Jay to strengthen their storytelling, while dozens of individual authors, speakers, consultants, and service providers hire Jay as their dedicated thought partner and exec. producer to help develop their premise, IP, speaking, and shows.

Jay lives in the Boston area with his family as a proud Yankees and Knicks fan. In the 60 seconds per week he's not creating stuff for work or making his kids laugh, he likes to shoot hoops, sip nice bourbons, cook with his wife, and daydream about telling stories like that of his storytelling hero, Anthony Bourdain.



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JOIN MY VIRTUAL BOOTCAMP: Design My Signature Talk

Happening this November, I'm leading a two-day virtual bootcamp to help you design, package, and pitch your signature talk—the speaking product you can reliably deliver virtually or in-person, to evangelize your message, continually speak and get invited to speak thanks to how brilliant you are in the room, and generate spin-out business from the talk as well.

Some talks are blog posts with a runtime. Other talks stir hearts and engage minds. 

Whether you’re promoting a big launch or your overall business, your signature talk needs to be the latter.

Learn more and see the full schedule at jayacunzo.com/signaturetalk

Space is limited. Register now.

Creators & Guests

Host
Jay Acunzo
I help entrepreneurs differentiate with stronger IP and storytelling // Author, speaker, host of How Stories Happen, and consultant for hire

What is How Stories Happen?

What does it take to resonate? On How Stories Happen, experts, entrepreneurs, and business leaders dissect their signature stories piece by piece. We explore how they found and developed their ideas, how they might improve even still, and how they use a story to show up with greater impact and influence. Hosted by Jay Acunzo.