Why They Resonate – Details, episodes & analysis

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Why They Resonate

Jay Acunzo

Business

Frequency: 1 episode/12d. Total Eps: 69

Speakers, authors, experts, and entrepreneurs develop their ideas in real-time, so you can see what it really takes to resonate. Join professional speaker and public speaking advisor Jay Acunzo as you get closer to the process of how exceptional communicators actually craft their materials. You'll hear how new ideas take shape, speeches become great, and stories evolve from meh to memorable. The show is part celebration, part workshop, and you'll walk away ready to compete on the influence of your ideas, not the volume of your marketing.

Recent rankings

Latest chart positions across Apple Podcasts and Spotify rankings.

Apple Podcasts

🇬🇧 Great Britain - marketing
13/07/2026
#86
🇩🇪 Germany - marketing
13/07/2026
#73
🇬🇧 Great Britain - marketing
12/07/2026
#51
🇩🇪 Germany - marketing
12/07/2026
#43
🇨🇦 Canada - marketing
04/07/2026
#81
🇨🇦 Canada - marketing
03/07/2026
#59
🇨🇦 Canada - marketing
23/06/2026
#83
🇨🇦 Canada - marketing
22/06/2026
#64
🇨🇦 Canada - marketing
21/06/2026
#47
🇬🇧 Great Britain - marketing
19/06/2026
#97

Spotify

No recent rankings available

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

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https://jayacunzo.com/
86 shares
https://jayacunzo.com/keynotes
53 shares
https://www.blakeink.com/
45 shares

RSS feed quality and score

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RSS feed quality

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Score global : 63%

Publication history

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Latest published episodes

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What it takes to craft a signature story | Susan Boles, CFO, Business Strategist & Podcaster

Episode 9

Monday, August 19, 2024 • Duration 53:15

What should you include or omit to ensure your stories carry your message, resonate with others, and deliver something that could only come from you? That’s the challenge we encounter today.

In this special episode, Jay is joined by a favorite client, Susan Boles, to work through a draft of a signature story, which emerged on the back of their months-long work together developing Susan’s premise of “calm is the new KPI.” They apply Jay’s Align-Agitate-Assert structure, and they find the two biggest opportunities to improve the story.

Susan is the founder of Beyond Margins and host of the podcast of the same name. She teaches entrepreneur clients how to optimize their business for quality of life, not just profit margin, by making calm their focus and their literal KPI.

In the episode, Jay and Susan dissect her emerging, signature story involving Rand Fishkin, founder and CEO of SparkToro and, previously, founder and CEO of Moz. When one piece of the story runs too long, Jay shares some pointers for how to shorten it without sacrificing the story’s power, and the duo figure out what insights can be extracted and delivered from the story to teach and inspire Susan’s audience.

Whether you’re crafting your next keynote or fine-tuning your leadership communication skills, this episode will have you immediately elevating your storytelling in ways that illuminate insights others remember, share, and apply to their work or lives.

Resources:

⚫ Follow Susan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thesusanboles

⚫ Listen to Beyond Margins: https://podcast.beyondmargins.com/

⚫ Subscribe to Beyond Margins Newsletter: https://beyondmargins.ck.page/21380f9bae

🔵 Work with Jay to develop and differentiate your IP and stories: https://jayacunzo.com/

🔵Join his Creator Kitchen membership: https://creatorkitchen.com/

🔵 Follow Jay on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayacunzo/

🔵 Follow Jay on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jacunzo/

🟢 Created in partnership with Share Your Genius: https://shareyourgenius.com/

🟢 Cover art designed by Blake Ink: https://www.blakeink.com/

🟢 Find and support our sponsors: https://jayacunzo.com/sponsors

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To tell stronger stories, understand yourself first | Ryan Hawk & Brook Cups, Coauthors of The Score That Matters

Episode 8

Monday, August 5, 2024 • Duration 42:44

Storytellers often face a paradox: to connect deeper externally, you have to turn deeper internally. You have to know yourself and get more honest with how you think and feel than others might be comfortable doing themselves. That often means we have to stop caring what people think of us quite as much.

In this episode, we meet Brook Cupps and Ryan Hawk, coauthors of the book The Score That Matters. We talk about how they collaborated on their book together and how they use stories to inspire and lead others. Brook is the head boys basketball coach at Centerville High School in Ohio, while Ryan hosts the popular podcast, The Learning Leader Show.

What makes their partnership one of a kind—and what you'll hear in this episode—is the blend of practical coaching wisdom, deeply personal ideas, and storytelling finesse.

The story we dissect comes from Brook, who shares how he transformed his coaching approach after a pivotal moment with his daughter, which shifted his entire philosophy. Ryan chimes in with insights from his own journey, emphasizing the importance of inner growth, values, and deliberate practice.

It's a refreshing look at storytelling and the tough things we need to embrace first, which then allow us to become more effective communicators and leaders.

BONUS: Hear Jay and Ryan on Ryan's podcast, discussing the art and science of hosting great interviews: https://learningleader.com/episode/330-deconstructing-the-art-science-of-interviewing-with-jay-acunzo/

⚫ Check out Ryan Hawk’s podcast, The Learning Leader Show: https://learningleader.com/

⚫ Learn more about Brook Cupps and Blue Collar Grit: https://www.bluecollargrit.com/about-us.html
⚫ Get Ryan and Brook's book, The Score That Matters:

“You have to work against people assuming they know how this goes” | Danielle Bayard Jackson, Author of Fighting for Our Friendships

Episode 7

Monday, July 22, 2024 • Duration 50:20

How do we compress our lifetime into their runtime? When we’re asked to explain our backgrounds and bios, we need a structure, some practice, and a few anecdotes at the ready. Because our story has to pull triple-duty: clarify who we are, build credibility, and teach whatever it is we’re there to teach.

In this episode, author, PR agency founder, and friendship expert Danielle Bayard Jackson reveals the simple way she responds to that simple question: “How’d you get here?” Together, we break it apart into component pieces and re-build certain aspects, spotting ways to customize the story to the specific audiences Danielle speaks to as a speaker and service provider.

You’ll walk away with a new framework for crafting your own gripping answer to the personal background question (“MBAS” – Mission, Background, Anecdote, Summary), and you’ll get a glimpse into the craft of two communicators reaching geeky levels of appreciation for what it takes to resonate with our words.

Danielle is the author of the new book, Fighting for Our Friendships: The Science and Art of Conflict and Connection in Women's Relationships.

Resources:

⚫ Follow Danielle on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniellebayardjackson/

⚫ Follow Danielle on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thefriendshipexpert

⚫ Visit Danielle’s website: https://www.daniellebayardjackson.com/

🔵 Subscribe to Jay’s newsletter: https://jayacunzo.com/

🔵 Join the Creator Kitchen membership for storytellers: https://creatorkitchen.com/

“I could tell this story in 1950 or 2024” | Scott Monty, Exec. Coach and Speaker

Episode 6

Monday, July 8, 2024 • Duration 53:20

While everyone scrambles to learn the new trends and act like a futurist, it’s the folks who understand what parts of this work are timeless – because they’re based on human nature – that are most powerful of all.

Storytelling is one such thing. It’s been a constant throughout the history of humanity. Why? Because although the world changes in many ways, human nature is one thing that doesn’t change much at all.

So says our guest today, Scott Monty, and it’s part of what makes Scott such an inspiring storyteller – and a leadership advisor, consultant, and coach who has worked for and with brands like Ford, Google, IBM, Adobe, and Walmart. In fact, thanks to his work helping pioneer all things social media at Ford Motor Company, The Economist named Scott #1 on its list of social business leaders.

In this episode, we hear Scott dissect a signature story piece by piece, taking us into the executive team meeting from his time at Ford and how storytelling helped him thwart – then win over – his archnemesis, the curmudgeonly CFO at the time.

After hearing the story, we identify the three tentpoles that help it stand up, plus identify details that could improve – and we hear why the moments that don’t seem to advance the action are actually the most important pieces for this story to resonate deeper.

Scott’s brand is about the idea of timeless leadership – and he effortlessly quotes philosophers and leaders from centuries past to help make his points, both on the show and everywhere he shows up.

Resources:

⚫ Follow Scott on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottmonty/

⚫ Subscribe to Scott’s newsletter, Timeless & Timely: https://www.timelesstimely.com/

🔵 Follow Jay on LinkedIn:

“Words can do WHAT?! Are we serious right now?!” | Tucker Bryant, Poet & Keynote Speaker

Episode 5

Monday, June 24, 2024 • Duration 47:28

How do we craft a metaphor that works? More importantly, perhaps, how do we ensure the metaphors we use pivot to the audience to teach them something in their lives or work, without them getting lost? Do we overtly explain the lesson? Imply it? Some combination? It’s a delicate dance, and few do it like Tucker Bryant.

Tucker isn't just a keynote speaker; he's a poet who has taken the stage everywhere from corporate boardrooms to major conferences, importing what he knows from the world of verse to the world of business innovation. After working at Google, Tucker transformed his own unique perspective and skill as a poet into keynotes that grip audiences by the thousands, leaving lasting impressions on everyone from marketers to HR pros to C-suite executives.

In this episode, we dive into Tucker's signature story about a young poet named Robert. We find a macro-level shape to the metaphor and apply it back in the audience’s more literal world, before re-working some of the story to add some drama, tension, and lessons — all to make Tucker’s message feel inescapable and irresistible to audiences. We talk pacing, pivoting, and probably a third-P (and why lists of three really matter when we list examples.) (For real, that’s in there.)

Whether you're looking to deliver a powerful speech, tighten your brand's message, or inspire action in your next conversation or piece of content, this episode is for you.

Resources:

⚫ Follow Tucker on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tuckerbryant/

⚫ Tucker’s site: https://www.tuckerbryantspeaks.com/

🔵 Follow Jay on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayacunzo/

🔵 Subscribe to Jay’s newsletter: https://jayacunzo.com/newsletter

“We congregate around emotional stories” | Rand Fishkin, CEO of SparkToro

Episode 4

Monday, June 10, 2024 • Duration 35:16

The hardest question to answer when we show up publicly might be the simplest question we receive: “Tell me about yourself.” Who are you? How’d you get here? What’s your story?

We then face a choice: we can make the story about us, or we can make it about the thing we’re there to say. We can make our own stories about the audiences we wish to serve, and we can do so without feeling like we’re bragging and even without any newsworthy moments in our past.

Meet Rand Fishkin, cofounder and CEO of two companies (audience research platform SparkToro and indie video game maker Snackbar Studio). He’s an entrepreneur who’s navigated the roller-coaster of startup life, written an incredible book about it (Lost and Founder), and gone on the journey with hundreds of thousands of professionals following his every move. Rand has spoken at countless events, sharing his (often difficult) journey with audiences ranging from fresh-faced founders to seasoned veterans.

In this episode, Rand shares his personal story as he’d present it from the stage, illustrating for us the power of stories the more “strategic” thinkers among us might think unwise to share: stories of failure, struggle, and genuine emotional turmoil. You’ll hear the power of having an "enemy" to galvanize your cause and attract your tribe, and why sharing failures and other difficult experiences can forge stronger connections and teach more valuable lessons than sharing wins and case studies.

Rand’s style is a breath of fresh air in communities that rarely get so real, and it’s a big reason he resonates deeper than most.

Jump into the conversation:

(01:14) Meet Rand
(10:43) Rand’s Story
(18:46) Dissecting the Story

Resources:

⚫ Follow Rand on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/randfishkin/

⚫ Follow Rand on Threads: https://www.threads.net/@randderuiter

“How do we all sign our work?” | Ann Handley, Author & Keynote Speaker

Episode 3

Monday, May 27, 2024 • Duration 45:23

When so many people are excited to create a higher volume of content, shouldn’t we think more about what gives our work greater power? That’s what our guest today understands better than most, and she draws that power from everyday moments she hunts out, like a squirrel finding nuts in the yard.

Meet Ann Handley—she’s a best-selling author, a pioneer in content marketing, and a popular B2B speaker with a knack for imbuing ordinary moments with extraordinary meaning.

Ann reveals her morning routine, her idea capture system, and most importantly, her process and practice of becoming a word-class noticer of stories during a time when so many people simply stuff a screen in their face or turn to cheat-sheets to produce generic content.

In this episode, we dissect a signature story shared to her newsletter, Total Annarchy, which she sent to just over 50,000 readers. We zero in on a pivot point in the middle that makes the work resonate, and we find plenty of existential debates that unfolded in her writing process.

Together, we discover how to connect with an audience on a more personal level and leave a lasting impression, ensuring your stories aren’t just heard but felt. The best part? You don’t need to experience anything groundbreaking for your words to hit hard. But you do need to become a notice.

Jump into the conversation:
(04:48) Meet Ann
(19:36) Ann’s Story
(26:21) Dissecting the Story

Resources:

⚫ Follow Ann on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annhandley/

⚫ Check out her website and subscribe to her newsletter here: https://annhandley.com/

⚫ Read Ann’s book, Everybody Writes: https://annhandley.com/everybodywrites/

“A story needs a job to do” | Michelle Warner, Business Designer & Strategist

Episode 2

Monday, May 13, 2024 • Duration 52:12

Our guest for this episode is rarely online. But when she is, she’s telling small stories with big meaning.

Meet Michelle Warner—she’s a business strategist and consultant who architects business models and marketing strategies for clients who sell high-priced services. She also hosts the podcast Sequence Over Strategy—an idea that represents her entire platform’s differentiated premise, and one the story she brings to us today reflects.

Michelle has founded multi-million dollar startups, raised capital the traditional way, and generally followed “the blueprint” for business growth before burning out and finding a new path forward. She is an independent consultant and educator who doesn’t need to rely on social media for growth.

What I admire about Michelle is that she’s designed her life and work in a certain way—she’s intentional, genuine, and carefully curates anything she elects to spend time on. These characteristics are reflected in her life, in her work, and in the way she tells stories.

In this episode, we dissect one of her signature stories she recently sent to her newsletter. It was well-received, but the ending needs work, and she recognizes there are some structural problems with the story. We work on that together to turn this into a signature story she can take with her everywhere, and we identify the job this story does for her audience and her business.

You’ll get a deep look at the small changes that you can make to a story to communicate with greater impact.

Jump into the conversation:
(03:39) Meet Michelle
(17:40) Michelle’s Story
(21:28) Dissecting the Story
(23:04) First, Last, Favorite

Resources:

⚫ Listen to Michelle’s podcast: https://www.themichellewarner.com/blog/sos001

⚫ Check out Michelle’s website: https://www.themichellewarner.com/

“The only way to figure out a story is to tell it” | Andrew Davis, Keynote Speaker

Episode 1

Monday, April 29, 2024 • Duration 47:46

I know a ton of storytellers and creators and entrepreneurs, but I know exactly zero other people who have learned how to do what they do from both legendary news broadcasters and Kermit the Frog.

Meet Andrew Davis. He is a powerhouse business speaker who’s given speeches in 35 different countries, at more than 50 events every year. He speaks to audiences ranging from marketers and entrepreneurs to plumbers and physicians — and there may not be a storyteller who is this craft-driven and obsessed with telling amazing stories in the worlds of business, marketing, and customer experience.

Andrew hosts a popular video series called the Loyalty Loop on YouTube, and he’s had a long career crafting stories of all kinds, including jobs as a producer for NBC and a writer for the news legend Charles Kuralt.

As an entrepreneur, Andrew has built and sold a marketing agency, produced docuseries for brand clients big and small, and authored multiple books about marketing and customer experience.

In this episode, we dissect one of his signature stories. It's been with him for almost ten years, and he can customize it across audiences and projects to arrive at basically any insight he needs to teach. It’s a rare look at how a true master of the craft executes the tiny things that create a big impact both for his audience and his business.

Jump into the conversation:
(06:27) Meet Andrew
(14:18) Andrew’s Story
(22:38) Dissecting the Story
(39:02) First, Last, Favorite

Bonus Video:

🎨 Watch a video animation of Andrew’s signature story:

https://jayacunzo.com/blog/how-stories-happen-episode-1-andrew-davis

Resources:

⚫ Follow Andrew:

“A perfectly competent character is boring” | Nat Eliason, Author & Essayist

Episode 10

Monday, September 16, 2024 • Duration 42:27

Telling stories about your life feels fraught. How do you weave together a story that is deeply personal to you and others, contains the right amount of tension without being too dramatic, and feels both gripping and accessible for your audience?

In the case of our guest today, Nat Eliason, his story is about the moment he went from investing hundreds of dollars to having $10 million of his own money on the line, plus more than $100 million of others under his purview, when the whole system was hacked.

Nat recently published his first book, “Crypto Confidential: Winning and Losing Millions in the New Frontier of Finance,” and in this episode, he dissects the choices he made writing his prologue (which he shared with more than 20 people to get right).

Together, Jay and Nat dissect Nat’s thrilling story, unpacking how he grounded the drama, making it feel authentic and relatable, while still embracing the primacy and recency effects in storytelling. Plus, they discuss strategies for getting more valuable feedback on your creative work, Nat’s decision to focus on such a dramatic moment for his prologue, and how to effectively combine educational or technical concepts into a story in a way that doesn’t lose or bore readers.

Whether you are an aspiring author, give keynotes, write articles, or record multimedia content, this episode will make you look a bit closer at how your favorite stories are told—from the very first hook to a perfectly placed detail to the closing line that makes you realize that although the story was specific … it was profoundly universal.

Resources:

⚫ Follow Nat on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nateliason/