335: Be Irreplaceable with My Creative Coach Jay Acunzo (Free Time Crossover)

One thing I love about Jay Acunzo is that his body of work is a love letter to craft and quality. We talk about mindset shifts and practices to help you focus more on resonance than reach; how to do work that matters to you so that your work can matter more; how he worked through his own existential creative crisis upon hitting the 200th episode milestone of his podcast; thinking like an explorer, not an expert; and “making the leap from what best practices say you should do to what your intuition is urging you to try.”
This crossover episode originally aired on the Free Time podcast on April 18 2023.
More About Jay: Jay Acunzo is one of the world’s most sought-after business storytellers and brand consultants. He’s worked in marketing for Google, HubSpot, and ESPN before launching his award-winning podcast, Unthinkable, and authoring multiple books on creativity. Today he helps creators learn to increase the power of their creative work, not just the volume, through his membership platform, the Creator Kitchen.

🌟 3 Key Takeaways



Reach vs. Resonance: Reach is how many people see something. Resonance is how much they care. No amount of reach will ensure that people care. As David Bowie’s says, “Don’t play to the gallery.”

“Don’t be the best, be their favorite”: Create resonance with the audience relevance pyramid, starting with the base—how relevant you are in topic and theme. Moving up, your content should be enjoyable and entertaining, then impactful, where you are helping people reflect or take action. At the top of the pyramid is personal, where you (and your content) truly becomes irreplaceable.


Jay’s Mastery 3 P’s: Posture, Practice and Process. Posture is how you see yourself in the world. Practice is the cadence you are creating and shipping on (aim for consistent and purposeful), then process emerges.


📝 Permission: Focus on resonance before—or even at the expense of—reach. Let go of the idea of adding more people until you have a small group reacting in a big way.

✅ Do (or Delegate) This Next: Define your Even More Meaningful Metrics. For example, Jay’s Unsolicited Response Rate (URR): When he publishes something and someone feels urged to respond in some way without being prompted, or Cackles Per Piece (CPP): points during the process of creating that cause so much joy he cackles out loud.

🔗 Resources Mentioned


Jay on the web, Instagram: @jacunzo, Twitter, LinkedIn, Medium


People: Andrew Davis, Hrishikesh Hirway


TV Series: Song Exploder on Netflix

Video: David Bowie on why you should never play to the gallery, and AJ Jacobs: The Importance of Self-Delusion in the Creative Process


Article: The Surprising Thing About Expectations by Seth Godin



📚 Books Mentioned


Jay’s Books: Break the Wheel: Question Best Practices, Hone Your Intuition, and Do Your Best Work


Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business

Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One


Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain


🎧 Related Episodes


Unthinkable: Fine, I’ll Talk About AI; Song Exploder Exploded, Welcome to the Jumble



Podcasts: Mike Birbiglia’s Working it Out, Song Exploder, Radiolab



2 Pages with MBS: Making What Matters Most: Jay Acunzo [reads] ‘Kitchen Confidential’



The Tim Ferriss Show: Managing Procrastination, Predicting the Future, and Finding Happiness with Tim Urban



Free Time: 127: Protect Your Idea Factory, Build a Creative Flywheel, and Go Behind-the-Scenes of Book Publishing with Todd Henry, 014: Why It Matters to Celebrate Wins



Pivot: 287: Solving Pivot Puzzles with A.J. Jacobs, 254: The Practice—On Generosity, Peculiarity, and Showing Up with Seth Godin



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