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Jay Acunzo
Professional based in Greater Boston
Jay Acunzo is a prominent figure in the marketing and content creation landscape, best known as the founder of Marketing Showrunners. This platform is dedicated to helping marketers craft compelling shows that resonate with their audiences. Acunzo's work emphasizes the importance of storytelling and substance over mere attention-grabbing tactics in marketing.
Professional Background
Acunzo's career spans various roles in marketing and media. He has held positions at notable companies such as Google, ESPN, and HubSpot, where he honed his skills in content strategy and digital media. He co-founded Creator Kitchen, a community aimed at supporting content creators in producing original work.12
In addition to his entrepreneurial ventures, Acunzo is a sought-after speaker and the host of the podcast Unthinkable, which explores the journeys of unconventional creators. His approach encourages marketers to challenge norms and focus on authenticity in their content.135
Key Contributions
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Marketing Showrunners: A platform that guides marketers in developing shows that engage and retain audiences.
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Podcasts: Host of Unthinkable and 3 Clips, where he dissects successful content strategies and shares insights from various creators.14
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Speaking Engagements: Acunzo is recognized for delivering impactful keynotes that inspire audiences to rethink their marketing strategies and storytelling techniques.36
Jay Acunzo's innovative approach and dedication to empowering creators have made him a significant voice in the marketing community.
Highlights
What's the role of a storyteller in society and work today? I have a counterintuitive answer: Storytellers are janitors.
Storytellers are in the sanitation business. You're a thought custodian. You sweep aside limiting beliefs. That's what stories do. They don't present the blueprint. They open people up to new possibilities.
As a communicator, if you want to convey an insight, relate to and connect deeply with someone (especially someone who isn’t exactly like you), sell something in support of a cause or business, change someone's perspective, shift where they're focusing attention, delight or frighten or bewitch or terrify—if you want to do anything like that, then you can't just demand it. You have to inspire it. You can't just tell them your ideas matter. You have to SHOW them why they'd care.
Fortunately we have a very short and wonderful word to summarize all that ranting.
Story.
As a storyteller, what you share is meant to clear away the trash and allow something better to come in. As an expert, maybe you hand them that thing overtly, or maybe you imply it, giving them space to sit and synthesize. Regardless, as a creator and a leader, you're there to suggest a change that would benefit them compared to clinging to the status quo. That's your premise, the defensible assertion you're making, pulled from your perspective—and eventually, the singular idea you own in their minds.
A story clears away the bad, while the premise is the handle they can hold to embrace the good, and then your IP helps it stick and stay—all the things you communicate and use to teach which now have space to enter their minds. Your IP includes things like terminology, methodology (both how-tos and how-to-thinks), and your signature frameworks and additional, signature stories.
As an expert, you're in the business of turning you thinking into your IP. As a storyteller, you're in the business of preparing your audience to receive it.
Stories are the ultimate way to resonate because they first create alignment, then they impart the urge to act. (This is how resonance functions. In the sciences, when two frequencies are aligned, they're considered resonant, and the second is amplified.)
Stories are communication vehicles creating connection first, the energy needed to change second.
“Stories are like one person saying to another, this is how it feels to me? Do you understand what I’m saying? Does it also feel this way to you?” — Ishiguro (Nobel Prize speech, 2017)
Storytellers are janitors. We clear out trash in the head and heart so something better can come in.
I can see no work more worthy in today's world.
Thanks for reading. I’m an advisor to clients who want to resonate deeper with others, not just reach them. I help you turn your expertise into IP and your IP into differentiated messaging, exceptional speeches, and celebrated creative projects. Learn more at jayacunzo(dot)com
The vast majority of my work, nobody has seen.
Some of it, a few have seen.
And then a very tiny bit, a lot have seen.
Same scale for the passionate response. Mostly crickets. My work’s experience is mostly crickets.
The internet has taken away an entire generation’s desire or ability or confidence in simply creating better work and not immediately thinking about the marketing. But that’s the job. It’s not to immediately distribute everything. It’s to create something great, something WORTH distributing. Then market it. The majority of us are not P&G selling commodities. We have something meaningful to say!
But we start with the marketing because these channels meld together creator and audience, creation and distribution.
That’s not a good thing! Make something better, then find a way to share it.
Here’s my favorite moment from a podcast episode in recent memory: Zach Braff appearing on Mike Birbiglia’s Working It Out.
MB: “Particularly early in my career, I had this where I thought, cuz I feel like we’re raised in this universe where we’re like ‘I need to make the thing, but I REALLY need to MARKET myself. Cuz if I could just MARKET myself, people will purchase who I am, and then I will be done. I’ll be good to go. I’ll be discovered, so to speak.’ And at a certain point, I realized you gotta discover yourself. And then you gotta just keep creating, and that the creation is the thing people are drawn to. If you create something that's great, people are really drawn to that thing”
ZB: “No one really cares about you waving your arms. They really dont. And especially because you know you can do it, bc youve done it successfully before, and you know they want more”
MB: "I fall into that trap over and over again ... I gotta get out there so people can find me! No, no, there is no 'find you.' You just have to CREATE because that's the thing people need!"
ZB: "It's funny, one can get so caught up in the, 'I have to do this. Wave my arms.' Really what you need to be doing is creating more work."
MB: "Yeah, that's it. And just getting better."
This is what I believe.
I believe that the vast majority of our complaints and struggles is that mediocre or partway developed ideas simply arent getting traction like they used to, or else we're promised this will be easy and it is of course not. It is emotional labor, which starts and primarily requires us to turn inward to meet ourselves, to make the work strong enough to get a small number of people you can already reach to deeply care, and THOSE steps tend to be overlooked, but those steps are everything!
Get in touch with who you are and how you see + develop the ideas to resonate + ensure they do, with a small number who you already reach.
We leap across those 3 steps -- LIFETIMES of work to be done -- and then, when it doesnt happen, we wonder why, when the answers are right there.
We just dont want to believe it.
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Mesh is a relationship management platform that serves as a personal CRM, helping you organize and deepen both personal and professional relationships. It functions as a beautiful rolodex and CRM available on iPhone, Mac, Windows, and web, built automatically to help manage your network efficiently. Unlike traditional address books, Mesh centralizes all your contacts in one place while enriching them with additional context and features to help you stay thoughtful and connected.
Mesh works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Mesh offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
- Network Strength: Visualizes the strength of your relationships relative to others in your network
- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
- Smart Search: Allows you to search using natural language like "People I know at the NYT" or "Designers I've met in London"
- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Mesh is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Mesh as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Mesh offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Mesh takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Mesh encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Mesh work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Mesh is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Mesh is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Mesh is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Mesh offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Mesh offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Mesh for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Mesh accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
Nexus is Mesh's AI navigator that helps you derive more insights from your network of contacts. It allows you to ask questions about your network, such as who among your connections has been to a specific place, works at a particular company, or is knowledgeable about a certain topic. Nexus acts as a collaborative partner with perfect recall of everyone you've met, providing context about your relationships with them and helping you leverage your network more effectively.
Mesh makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Mesh's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Mesh is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Mesh stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Mesh excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Mesh isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Mesh instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Mesh is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Mesh can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Mesh is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Mesh's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Mesh has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Mesh a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Mesh's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Mesh's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Mesh has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Mesh's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Mesh as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Mesh eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.