Writers’ Rough Drafts – Episode #48 With Jay Acunzo

Or listen on: iTunes| Stitcher| Spotify| Google Play| Download

Jay Acunzo is a public speaker, the author of the book Break the Wheel: Question Best Practices, Hone Your Intuition, and Do Your Best Work, a critically acclaimed show and podcast host, as well as the founder of Unthinkable Media, which creates documentary shows with brand clients. In the earlier parts of his career, he worked as a digital media strategist at Google, was Head of Content at HubSpot, and was Vice President of Brand at the venture capital firm NextView. He’s also the writer behind one of my favorite new-to-me newsletters of 2018, Damn the Best Practices.

Though he could easily slip into the tricks and hacks of content marketing and thought leadership that so many in the industry like to share, Jay focuses his writing and work on the quality of your ideas and investment in what you are creating. Recently launching an assault-of-sorts on what he terms “Random Acts of Creativity,” he’s dedicated himself to encouraging people to do their best work, rather than relying on the lowest-hanging fruit that will only get them vanity shares and short-term success. Instead, we need to learn to hone our intuition as creatives to make the best decisions, and produce the best pieces. If we commit to craft (something we’re pretty committed to here!), then the art and content will follow. As Jay has said before, “it has never been easier to be average, so be something else. Be the exception.”

What You’ll Learn About Writing This Week:

• How to hone in on your intuition as a creative
• Why your first version of anything will always be your worst
• How to identify and build an aspirational anchor for yourself
• Why you should have moments when you’re bored
• How to go from having a full-time (non-writing) career to being a full-time writer
• How careers are a messy journey of self-discovery, rather than a linear path

Mentioned in This Episode (Links and Resources!):

• Break the Wheel: Question Best Practices, Hone Your Intuition, and Do Your Best Work
• Unthinkable with Jay Acunzo
• Unthinkable Media
• Newsletter: Damn the Best Practices
• (Shout-out to high school English teachers!)
• Cranky Yankee Fan (Jay’s side project while at Google)
• Sammy the Snake (mentioned along with other side projects)
• Dailybreak
• The Stairstep Approach (Rob Walling)
• “Relativity” by M.C. Escher (painting of stairs)
• Aspirational anchor
• Anthony Bourdain
• “How to Work in Marketing When You’re Bothered by Suck”
• Merriam-Webster’s Twitter account
• Merriam-Webster episode on Unthinkable with Jay Acunzo (features Lisa Schneider)
• The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

You Can Find More of Jay’s Writing and Creative Work on:

• Unthinkable with Jay Acunzo: “Resonance vs. Reach” episode with Jack Conte, CEO of Patreon
• His website, jayacunzo.com
• His Twitter account, @jayacunzo
• His podcast, Unthinkable with Jay Acunzo

Tweetable Quotes From This Episode:

• “I like all creativity, but I can use my writing … it’s my most useful thing.” – @jayacunzo on #WritersRoughDrafts
• “Especially as a craft-driven career, [writing] is about building a body of work.” – @jayacunzo on #WritersRoughDrafts
• “Words move people. Words carry so much meaning … it’s a magical thing.” – @jayacunzo on #WritersRoughDrafts
• “I get to feel something when I make it, and then I hand it like a gift to someone else, and they get to feel something too.” – @jayacunzo on #WritersRoughDrafts
• “If you stop searching for the job, the big break, the moment of inspiration, and start focusing on your body of work … you look back and [realize] it all matters.” – @jayacunzo on #WritersRoughDrafts
• “An aspirational anchor is your intent for the future, combined with some kind of hunger or dissatisfaction you have in your work. In other words, you need to identify a behavior change to start reaching your goal.” – @jayacunzo on #WritersRoughDrafts
• The truth about “doing what you love” for a living: “Do what you love, and you’re kinda always working.” – @jayacunzo on #WritersRoughDrafts
• “[As a writer,] you’re not selling the output—you’re selling the process and the point of view that you have.” – @jayacunzo on #WritersRoughDrafts
• “Spend more time creating than you are consuming. Consume second, create first.” – @jayacunzo on #WritersRoughDrafts

Thanks to our Season 4 sponsor: Coworker.com