Rain Bennett
- Apr 16, 2020
- 3 min read

Ep. 44: Discovering YOUR Best Practices with Jay Acunzo

Updated: Nov 28, 2020

This week’s guest is Jay Acunzo, Speaker, Author, Podcaster, and Founder of Marketing Showrunners, a media company committed to helping brands grow their audiences. Rain and Jay discuss discovering your best practices, creating a series for your business, and turning your audience into a community. This episode is perfect for anyone wanting to go deeper in their marketing strategy!

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Have you ever made a decision for your business based off of what you heard are the “best practices?”

“We’ve GOT to use Instagram Stories!,” “I just started a Tik Tok account because Gary Vee told me to!,” or “________ is the next best thing!”

We get in a frenzy because:

We don’t want to “miss out” on a potentially lucrative or popular trend
We want something that will make our jobs easier.

My mom is a 70 year old REALTOR that consistently outperforms all other real estate agents in her area. She doesn’t have a website, she isn’t on Instagram, she isn’t even on Facebook (the social media platform for Grandmas).

No matter how many people try to convince her to get her marketing strategies “up to date,” she won’t budge.

That’s because for her, it isn’t the best strategy.

She is old school. She markets by creating long lasting relationships IRL (she also doesn’t use internet acronyms). That is her best practice.

And that is exactly what Jay Acunzo teaches.

In his book, Break the Wheel, Jay breaks down several different industries’ “best practices” and the businesses that had the gumption to go against the grain and seek out the practices that made the most sense for their unique business.

According to Jay, this is how businesses and brands have staying power.

Instead of constantly pivoting to keep up with current trends, at some point, you have to plant your feet and be consistent in what you offer and how you offer it.

That’s how my mom has been able to stay at the top of her class for over two decades.

“It's not about who arrives, it’s about who stays”

Now, Jay helps marketers reach that point of longevity by creating shows with his brand “Marketing Showrunners.”

As a filmmaker, this is one of my favorite aspects of Jay's platform, because I wholeheartedly agree that creating a show that keeps people coming back to you and what you have to offer is one of the most powerful ways to keep that connection alive for the long term.

“The point of a show is to go deeper in a world trending shallow, which is about the most powerful thing that you can do, if you can pull it off.”

So if you are one of those people who are tired of trying to keep up with what everyone else is telling you to do in your marketing strategy, and you really want to focus on building a long lasting community around the service you provide,

this episode will help you find YOUR best practice!

Some highlights from our conversation:

How to discover your best practices
Going against the grain on purpose
Why you should be “refreshing” as opposed to “different”
Marketing for Showrunners: Jay’s focus this year
The 3 P’s of great showrunning: Personal, Proprietary, and Performative
Trying to go deeper, instead of splitting your time between a lot of projects
Thinking of a show as a serialized exploration
Why marketing should be less about tactics and channels and more about what you are saying
Creating a series gives you more time with your audience
The point of a show is to go deeper in a world that’s trending shallow
Why we need to go deeper than demographics in our marketing
Using psychographics: deciding who you service and marketing to them
Creators don’t get to decide what is good; the audience decides!
Why your content marketing should solve the same problem that your business solves
Issues with general “best practices”
Why you need to find what’s best for you, instead of going by“best practices”
Pike Syndrome: How to combat learned helplessness
Act like an investigator, not an expert
Curiosity: be open to questioning everything
The best tools & why they aren’t as important as you think
Acting to find your answers
Starting with your impact, then thinking about what tech will help you get there
Using one simple story concept
Storytelling as a tool to connect with one another
The first step to marketing: Talk to the people you aim to serve
Creating a community
Adding value
Starting small: it doesn’t matter what’s in your wallet