Once upon a time in a business galaxy far far away those that sought to sell their wares cared passionately about their craft for no other reason that the passion they held for their trade.  Sadly these jedis of artful selling are merely legend today.  But there is a new hope, Jay Acunzo. 

Jay Acunzo launched his podcast Unthinkable this past April in search of what he calls Craft-Driven Content Creators.  The results have been amazing.  Unthinkable is like nothing else that you are going to hear in your podcast feed.  It is a blend of creative process development, business insight, risk taking, and artful execution.  It is a unifying force for anyone that believes that our new media landscape is rich with opportunity not just to pump up our bottom line, but to arrive at our bottom line after having poured our heart and soul into our work.  Finding our success by taking creative risks to tell a story that connects emotionally with our audience,  educates them, empowers them to decide, and transforms our sales force into bards of business opportunity and possibility.

Laying it on a little think you say?  Well if that is your reaction maybe Jay’s call to unify isn’t for you.  But maybe it is and you just don’t know what artfulness looks like today because you are too busying chasing the .01% improvement on your MQL to SQL conversion ratio.  Unthinkable will help you break free of the tyranny of your own marketing metrics to rediscover importance of meeting your audience where they are with exactly what they need at that moment.  An approach, according to Jay, that will naturally nudge them over to your way of solution thinking. 

It is an absolutely incredible episode.  Listen to it more than once.  Share it with your peers who are thirsty to get meaning and purpose back into their work.  Do your part to unite the tribe of craft driven content creators, and defeat the scourge of utilitarian content marketing.

Highlights and show notes

TOO MUCH M AND NOT ENOUGH C

Somewhere along the way our blog posts turned into a firehose of best practices.  Lost in this sea of practical advice is the nuanced drama that exists in your marketplace.  Too much marketing and not enough content. 

THE CONSUMER IS IN CONTROL

Is content really the king or is it attention?  The consumer, after all, has never had more control over which sort of content they’ll choose to give their attention to.  If attention is the thing, than quality matters more than ever before.

ALL MONEY IS GREEN

Jay shares how he has helped Next View Ventures, competing in the very crowded space of seed funding for startups.  The money that flows in that space is fuel, a commodity.  Jay and Next View have differentiated by selling acumen, advice and partnership.  How?  Through creative content of course.

THE MEANS BEFORE THE ENDS

We have a choice when we take on a task to approach it as a mere means to help us get to the end, or to embrace the means and trust in a beautiful end.  What is the purpose, meaning, and value of what you are creating.  Uncover that purpose and place care into the process that gets you to your destination.

WHO GETS TO DECIDE WHAT IS QUALITY?

The Market, ‘nuf said!

SHOW NOTES

Unthinkable – The Show For Craft Driven Content Creators
Jay Acunzo – Jay’s personal site Sorry For Marketing
Next View Ventures – Jay’s current gig
The Next View Podcast – The podcast with quality content for pre-seed startups
Jay on Snapchat