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About
Jay Acunzo is waging war on conventional thinking. As a digital media strategist at Google, Jay was responsible for pushing marketing executives and practitioners into the digital age more rapidly, in ways that benefitted both companies and careers. He held multiple leadership positions at high-growth tech startups, including Head of Content at HubSpot, and served as Vice President of Brand and Community at the venture capital firm NextView. On the side, Jay created the award-winning podcast, Unthinkable, and co-founded Boston Content, the northeast’s largest community of content creators and marketers.
Jay’s work has been cited in courses at Harvard Business School and by writers at the New York Times, the Washington Post, FastCompany, Forbes, and more. He’s been called a “creative savant” by Salesforce and was named to the city of Boston’s “50 on Fire” list.
Today, Jay is the founder of Unthinkable Media, which works with fast-growing startups and challenger brands to create entertaining B2B shows. In a world where “storyteller” has become a buzzword, Jay actually understands how to tell great stories — stories that entertain, surprise, teach, and above all, push people beyond conventional thinking so they can do their best work. His book, Break the Wheel, inspires others to do exactly that.
Further Background:
Vice President of Platform, NextView Ventures
Head of Content, HubSpot
Director of Content, Dailybreak Media
Digital Media Strategist, Google, Inc.
Communications & PR, ESPN
Sports Writer, The Hartford Courant -
Video Clips
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Topics
BREAK THE WHEEL: How to Escape Conventional Thinking to Become the Exception Others Love
We live in a world flooding with best practices, conventional wisdom, and trendy tactics. Every day, dozens of supposed “right” answers both internally and externally promise that they will deliver our best results. It’s all we can do to simply keep up, let alone take control, get proactive, and finally do our best work. It’s like we’re trapped. We’re stuck on this always-spinning wheel of reactive decisions and commodity work, and this wheel leads straight to the one place we don’t want our companies or careers to be: average.
It’s time to escape this cycle. It’s time to break the wheel.
In this fast-paced, inspiring talk, award-winning documentary host and former Google and startup brand-builder Jay Acunzo will hand attendees a sledgehammer. They’ll learn how to find clarity more quickly among the noise, cutting through past precedents and buzzy trends that only create sameness in their niche. Through science and story, Jay will share a framework to more successfully think for yourself when surrounded by conventional thinking. This isn’t about being a rebel. It’s about driving real results for companies and careers alike. In the end, attendees will become the welcome exceptions to the status quo.
While everyone around them merely survives, they’ll know how to thrive. Remember: Finding “best practices” isn’t the goal. Finding the best approach for you is. Jay’s presentation will inspire and empower people to do exactly that.
In this talk, attendees will learn:
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The psychological barriers to making good decisions at work.
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The one behavior change that can help them overcome these barriers.
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Why this change can make creativity feel more logical than lofty.
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How to create a personal, team-wide, or company-wide “decision-making filter” to more quickly and confidently find the best approach in each new situation.
BE THE EXCEPTION
HOW BRILLIANT MARKETERS FIND AND FOLLOW WHAT MAKES THEM DIFFERENT IN A WORLD FULL OF AVERAGE
We’ve practiced the best practices. We’ve tried the tried-and-true. But deep down, we have this creeping feeling our branded content is slightly better at best and copying competitors at worst. Noise competing with similar noise.
What if we could break from all that? What if we created more original, more inspired work? What if we could proactively shape the market instead of constantly react to all the generic advice out there?
In other words: What if we were the exception?
In this fast-paced, inspiring talk, award-winning podcaster and former Google and HubSpot brand-builder Jay Acunzo will challenge us to break from conventional thinking. He’ll share stories of innovative marketers who rejected best practices to succeed — and the simple but powerful thinking that guided them.
You’ll learn how to make a daunting leap between average and exceptional seem more like a smart strategy, and you’ll realize the best way forward doesn’t require any “guru” or “growth hack.”
In the end, you’ll walk away ready to create more differentiated content that grabs attention and drives bigger results despite all the noise. In a world overrun with commodity content trying to reach people, your secret weapon will be knowing how to resonate.
Are you ready to be the exception?
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Testimonials
2 people have recommended this speaker
“An original thinker and dynamic presenter, Jay is becoming one of the “must-see” speakers at any marketing and communication event.”
“Smart, funny, entertaining…Jay is the guy you hope you'll get when you settle into your seat at that conference you paid so much for: a super-smart, funny, entertaining speaker who generously shares his unique insights and front-line experience.”
“Smart, funny, entertaining…Jay is the guy you hope you'll get when you settle into your seat at that conference you paid so much for: a super-smart, funny, entertaining speaker who generously shares his unique insights and front-line experience.”