Consider me the thinking person’s business strategist and the antidote to the “growth at all costs” online business guru. I'm a McKinsey and Harvard MBA-trained Fortune 50 consultant with experience building online and offline businesses... but who also knows her way around a tarot deck.

While others are selling quick wins and "proven formulas", I’m focused on helping you build strong business foundations that make running your business more profitable and easier over time.  No manipulation tactics, no pressure to scale out of doing the work you love, no extractive marketing approaches—I help you create a business with real substance, not just surface-level success.

My approach bridges the gap between corporate expertise and soulful business building, giving you a clear path to predictable profitability that aligns with your values and vision.

No more gambling on tactics that don't fit your business model or struggling alone with generic advice. Just practical, powerful systems and foundations designed to help your expertise-based business thrive long term.

Strategy | Operations | Business Strategist

Jessica Lackey

Y'all - Leaving the Casino hit #8 on the Women and Business Kindle Charts, thanks to Paul Millerd's share of our Q&A yesterday.

I know I keep sharing the sales stats, because I'm honestly blown away by the support and can't believe that the book is even shown on the same screen of these traditionally published books.

It's a true testament that nothing in this game is "passive": I've supported Paul for years, was deeply moved by both of his books, and feel honored to share my story with his readers.

"What made it great, something I’m excited to recommend, is that it goes beyond tactics and pushes people to think through prompts, frameworks, and a well-thought-out process to go much deeper, focusing on the foundation level of your business."

If you want to read our full Q&A, here's the link: https://lnkd.in/e4NtZ__p

Author, Leaving the Casino | Helping experts grow predictably profitable businesses through business foundations | Ex-McKinsey, HBS, Nike

Don’t market more. Matter more. When you matter more, you need to shout less. 

I help you package and communicate your expertise to differentiate & resonate, so it’s easier to attract more and better clients. Build your business on the power of your ideas, not the volume of your marketing, and grow from yet-another option into their favorite voice in your field. 

With my clients, I help clarify + differentiate their message, craft their thinking and expertise into a distinct premise and IP they own, and develop signature speeches and stories to influence, inspire, and drive results.

After starting at brands like Google and HubSpot, I’ve helped organizations like Mailchimp, Salesforce, Wistia, and GoDaddy, plus dozens of individual authors, founders, execs, consultants, and creators with their storytelling and public speaking.

I live in the Boston area with my family as a proud Yankees and Knicks fan (yes, I’m in enemy territory). In the 60 seconds per week I’m not creating stuff for work or making my kids laugh, I like to shoot hoops, sip nice bourbons, cook with my wife, and daydream about telling stories like my storytelling hero, Anthony Bourdain. Say hi via jayacunzo.com

Jay Acunzo

My kind yet firm message to solopreneurs who want to act like creators but sell premium services: you're gonna have a bad time.

Being a creator is a traffic-based approach. Being a consultant is a relationship-centric business. The marketing must match, or else you're always going to feel exhausted or split in too many directions.

There are lots of reasons I say this:
- I've felt the tension myself for YEARS. One small example: I built my newsletter with an audience lens, not a client lens, back when I was focused on being an author and speaker. It took forever for me to re-engineer my list so the newsletter yielded revenue for me, and it's still a work in progress. It's not where I need it to be yet.

- I've seen it from friends and peers: they chase social media spread when they ought to be giving talks to community groups, masterminds, and generally showing up among densities of their ideal clientele. Or talking to referral partners. Or reigniting lapsed leads and former clients. Or heck, even just servicing existing clients BETTER.

- What works on social media is often repulsive to discerning, sophisticated clients who have the kinds of budgets that allow for your four- and five-figure services. Personally, when I see a post on LinkedIn with massive engagement, I immediately assume it's not for me. It's too basic, or else clickbaity, which says something about the idea of the post (not for me) or person sharing it (not a serious person; can't be trusted with my business's or career's or life's trajectory, even if they sell services for those things). To be extra clear, I am saying that, yes, the stuff that works BEST on social media makes me think the person is the LEAST qualified to seriously support my work or life.

- Also, as you gain a massive following, you start feeling your time sucked away from you and your focus splintering. Sometimes this looks like fans of yours (who you may even genuinely like!) that end up somewhere between a slight nuisance and a very detrimental force to your schedule. I'm thinking of the people who have supported me for years who see something new I launch and then ask me endless questions and swear they're ready to finally commit to the thing ... only they don't. But they'll be back with more emails or DMs next time, you can bank on that.

Or I'm thinking about public-facing opportunities that come your way as you platform grows. Some are worth it. Most are not. Many are hard to vet. 

Still other times, your platform gets you sponsorship inquiries from brands, and you get excited (another rev stream in addition to services seems wonderful), but then you have to actually deal with the brand and deliver on the program you create—and there's always way more admin time and stress than you anticipated.

At scale, maybe these problems go away thanks to systems and delegation. But for awhile, it's painful. For sustainability and sanity, it's always a better idea to match your marketing to your model.

I help experts become stronger public voices: speaking, storytelling, messaging. Believer in resonance over reach. Author, speaker, Bourdain fan.

To my fellow American parents: I see you. 

You dragged yourself, your family, and your career out of a *global freaking pandemic,* a once in a century tragedy and hardship. Somehow, you pulled yourself and your children through, and of course you reached the other side, bruised and burnt out, in desperate need of some easy years.

Only to arrive in this fascist mess in our country. You’re watching institutions fail and leaders capable of stopping or at least regulating problems stay quiet, all while social media becomes a firehose of the worst things you’ve ever seen straight to your brains. 

I am just here to say:

I see you. 
I am with you. 
I love you. 
And you’re not alone. 

Also? You’re doing enough. 

When your kids still live with you, when they’re still too young to have families of their own, when you’re on the hook for their EVERYTHING? You have nothing else to give. But what you’re giving now is enough. 

Your part doesn’t need to be anything other than focusing on your kids, making sure they’re good people. People who are loving, empathetic, curious, resilient, and strong. 

You are doing enough. 

Every snuggle is resistance. Every calm lesson a march in the streets. Every giggle and game, every meal and mess, every unseen, undocumented, unposted little thing you do for them is enough. 

Keep going ♥️

Saying "AI will/won't take jobs" is silly.

AI doesn't hire/fire. People do. Boards and leadership teams make those choices. 

By shifting the responsibility (some might say the blame) to a technology trend, it excuses a ton of shortsightedness and even outright bad behavior.

It's like saying we "rightsized" or "reorg'ed." No, you terminated a bunch of people from your team. We can debate separately whether or not that was a good decision, but it was YOUR decision as a person or group of people. 

So f*cking own it.

AI won't take a single job. AI will (and already is) presenting you as a business leader the chance to decide what kind of company you want to build and what kinds of decisions you will make as a result.

The onus is on you, in all decisions, good or bad.

I went down the viral "cop slide" outside Boston city hall to help promote an upcoming webinar on how to captivate your audience as a speaker. I'M FINE EVERYONE, THANKS FOR ASKING.

If your slides suddenly vanished mid-webinar, could you still keep your audience hanging on every word?

Join professional speaker Jay Acunzo live on February 5 to learn how to host better webinars without leaning on your deck. You’ll walk away with storytelling techniques, tension-building tricks, and Jay’s own story structure templates.

February 5 at 1:00 p.m. EST. Save your seat and learn how to turn passive viewers into passionate fans.
https://wi.st/45qY4Z0

An 80% speech is a 20% business asset. The hard part about speaking is you can't coast on your expertise. "Well, since the advice is sound..." or, "I know it can be better, but..."

When you're giving at least some talks each year, the best way to book more and better gigs, or move from breakout to keynote, or charge a higher rate (if you charge a fee) is to drive what you'd call "stage-side leads." People who see you speak invite you to speak or refer you to folks who need speakers later.

These leads close the fastest, will spend the most $ on you, and are more likely to send you even more leads or present you with other opportunities like podcast guesting, book sales, etc.

So, the best way to get booked to speak is drive stage-side leads. Today's gig should spawn more gigs. And the best way to drive stage-side leads is to give a better talk. In a sense, speeches are sold backwards. You deliver the full "product" to people in the room, and THEN they decide they want it (for their teams/audiences/events). Imagine a person eating the full meal before they decide whether or not to pay for it.

If your talk is 80% of the way there, the missing 20% is causing you to miss the majority of your opportunities. While it's tempting to invest in the "business stuff" around the talk itself, unless you are celebrity-level famous, it's your talk itself which is the engine and the premise itself which is the fuel. 

It's not a pure creative exercise to invest more in improving the speech. It's the single highest-ROI business investment you can make. Whether you speak for free or a fee, if you want to make speaking work for you, designing a signature talk is the best investment you can possibly make.

***

Register now for Design My Signature Talk and work with me virtually for 8 weeks to turn your ideas into a killer speech you reliably deliver. We cover premise development and structuring your speech for impact, openers and closers, signature stories, sharing advice in ways that stick, and navigating CTAs and follow-on business.

NOT a course! Get weekly group coaching + 2 rounds of personalized notes from me, guided by regular lessons, templates, and prompts ... so you can make rapid progress on the most important things.

One of the most transformational changes in an expert's journey is to stop creating "content" and start creating IP.

Your IP (intellectual property) is your signature idea and all the thinking built on top of it which empowers you to distribute, own, and monetize your thinking in repeatable, scalable ways.

Because what you know matters, but what you say and how you say it will determine if anyone cares. We need to better package and communicate our expertise to differentiate and resonate, so we can truly own our ideas in the market and move people to act.

So we stop creating generic advice content and start using our content, conversations, and creative time to develop IP.

And the foundation of your IP is your premise. This is the signature idea you own, which informs your choices and fuels your reputation. It's an assertion you make and defend about a topic or space you talk about—which competitors also talk about, but not like you do! 

When plenty of others talk about your topic or niche, it's worth asking: How do you SEE it? 

Said better perhaps: How do YOU see it?

That's what separates you. 

Commodity experts talk topics.

Influential voices explore a premise.

If you want to create clarity for your own choices, a coherent platform publicly, and momentum in the market, don't create content. Create IP.

***

I'll be back here later in the week in this space to talk about the major mistake we make in building our own IP pyramids. For now, think about your premise and how you'd message it, develop IP elements on top of it, and own it.

If public speaking is your approach, consider my accelerator, Design My Signature Talk. It's now open for enrollment at an early-bird discount: jayacunzo(dot)com/signaturetalk

We'll turn your mountain of material and expertise into 1 undeniable speech you reliably deliver to see results—including the premise you own.

It's a snowy, relaxing day here, and I'm tinkering on something new: a series on YouTube analyzing the speeches and stories of other leaders and creators.

In my first edition, it's the delightful opener from a 2023 keynote speech by the incomparable Ann Handley. In the past, I've analyzed this same material from Ann in my own signature talk about public speaking, but in rewatching her work her magic, there's SO much more to notice!

We've all experienced the frustration of a speaker who immediately conveys that this speech will be a rough ride. We've also experienced the addicting feeling of leaning in, feeling delighted, and wanting more from the very first seconds. What's the difference? 

In this debut episode of WHY THEY RESONATE, I watch Ann deliver a wonderful framing for her speech called Writing Like the Robots Can't, all about finding your voice and unleashing your quirks. She opens with a bit I'd call "dance like no one's watching."

I'll break down what's working and why, point out the hidden things most people won't see or try that causes speakers and storytellers to more easily differentiate and resonate, and I'll share some prompts and frameworks you can use right away to increase your impact wherever you communicate.

Find this new video on my YouTube channel, and if you leave a comment, I can send you the place to go in a reply.

I am blown away by the results of this talk from this entrepreneur.

For context, with permission, I just published a video from my last cohort of my public speaking accelerator, Design My Signature Talk. 

In this call, you will see a delivery of Brian Piper's signature opener, which is a story he uses as a metaphor.

Watch it here: https://lnkd.in/enR77bDc

Some of the most remarkable results he shared about using this material on stages:
1. As a performer, he spent years wanting to share stories like this, but never could crack it. We finally did.

2. He had a speech scheduled mid-cohort and used the material we developed. Immediately after the talk, he got 3 new consulting leads. 

3. He attended other talks at the same event and watched as most attendees took out their phones, but for Brian's speech, he says everybody was fixated on him. He saw no phones. (That's a huge win!)

4. By the end of our cohort, he says he had 8 total speeches scheduled to give, all of which he planned to use the material we built in the program.

Brian is on the path towards being an exceptional, consistently-booked speaker. He's also evolving from ad-hoc breakout speaker to consistent main stage presence. It's due to his incredible work ethic and ideas and commitment to the process, and I'm honored to have played a small part in his journey.

"Is my idea original enough?" Here is my counterintuitive response to this question, and how to actually own an idea in the market as your distinct, signature PREMISE for your work...

The absolute best client leads come from 1 source, in my experience.

Your speaking. 

Webinars, workshops, breakouts, keynotes. If you've ever experienced it even once, you can feel it. It's DIFFERENT. Prospects who come to you after seeing you speak are just ... better.

They close faster, at higher rates, with less friction.

They understand your philosophies and approach.

They ask better, deeper questions and build on your thinking with sharp ideas of their own. 

They also refer you to others, even before hiring you. ("You gotta go on her podcast" or "They have an event coming up—you should speak!")

They’ve spent 30, 45, 60 minutes—maybe even hours with your thinking thanks to your session, compared to fleeting moments with content online, and they’ve not only absorbed your advice, but they’ve FELT what you can do. There’s a palpable energy in the room, virtually or in-person, which is tough to replicate through asynchronous content. And so a two-way relationship forms. 

All of this means your absolute best leads come from that speech. 

Sometimes, they hire you. Other times, they invite you to appear in their content. Still other times, they refer you to folks who could use you. And it happens with this undeniable gusto, this confidence from the other person that YOU are the person they NEED.

Again, if this has happened even once to you, you can feel it: speaking can be a serious revenue engine for you. 

So why don't you make it more reliable and more consistent?

Allow me to say the kind but blunt thing: You are smart, expert, and GOOD enough. But you aren’t being held accountable enough.

You don’t need a list of tactics. You need commitment, framework, and wrestling with your ideas with someone who has done it. 

In ONE week, early bird pricing ends for my public speaking accelerator. 

I limit to 20 participants. We’re halfway there. 

8 weeks of virtual guidance and coaching, as we develop your real talk:

- premise and IP
- structure and flow
- content and delivery 

So you can make speaking a revenue engine, not a one-off … and experience absolute joy and confidence in your talks. 

Let’s design your signature talk together. 

See the full schedule and even watch a cohort call (at the bottom): 

jayacunzo(dot)com/signaturetalk

"Is my idea original enough?" Here's my strange answer.

(Don't worry. It's a message of hope.)

Inside my public speaking accelerator, we work to turn your initial ideas into something truly original to fuel your speaking, messaging, and content. However, the real work only begins when we admit this 1 thing.

You can’t see yourself clearly. This is a hard-won realization in my career. 

In your business or for your projects, you often KNOW what you need to do to improve, but it's so much easier to do it for clients than yourself.

Last week, a new registrant for my public speaking accelerator sent me a delightful video intro to say hello. He's a veteran of the nonprofit sector, former communications director, and now an entrepreneur helping his clients grow.

He said something revealing:

"I'm now helping the leaders in my sector, social impact-driven experts, find their voice ... but I need someone to help do that for me."

If you're anything like me, his message sounds familiar. We can't see ourselves clearly. And it's hard to keep ourselves accountable to finally DO what we know must be done so things get easier for us.

The rough reality is, you can't see the label when you're inside the jar.

My friend Kevin—a Grammy-nominated music educator—said something to me last year that applies here:

"Your work only starts to take off once you start seeing yourself the way your biggest fans do."

That's why you need an outside perspective: not because you need someone to make you smarter or teach a long list of tactics, but because you need that external voice and guide to hold up a mirror mirror and show you what's already there so YOU see it too—then give you the tools to reliably deploy that, consistently and confidently.

This is why I built my accelerator, Design My Signature Talk: so I can play that role for you.

This program is NOT a course. This is about making real progress on your real ideas and speech together. We focus on the small number of things that make the biggest difference in your results:

Signature Premise → the core idea you're known for (what are you really trying to say, and how?)

Resonant Structure → the outline and flow which can grip others (and make it easier for you to internalize)

Signature Storytelling → those indelible images and moments that make it memorable and YOURS

Stronger Openers/Closers → where most speakers struggle, but the science suggests we must be our best

Over 8 weeks, with regular video lessons + weekly coaching calls (plus 2 rounds of personalized video notes from me), we'll take your mountain of expertise and crystallize it into ONE signature talk. Not because you lack material (you have too much), but because you need constraints, structure, and someone who's able to see the label on the jar.

My role is to hand you the initial tools and clear next steps, then show up live and tell you, "THAT is what you've been trying to say," or, "THIS is hurting your message."

Early bird pricing ends January 31. ​Save $400 when you enroll now.​​

My firm belief: your best ideas are already IN THERE. You just need the accountability, clarity, and framework to get them out of your head and into the world in the best possible way.

Grab your seat at https://lnkd.in/eisGNzSm

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Jessica Lackey

Jay Acunzo

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The Battle

Jessica Lackey

Jay Acunzo

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Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Jessica Lackey's LinkedIn Performance

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