Is This Anything? with Simone Stolzoff, Author & Designer

08/26/24 • 56 min

You know how a comedian will test out new material, and turn to their colleagues and ask, “Is this anything?”

Welcome to a new bonus episode series—aptly named just that (Is This Anything), that will run on our off weeks from the traditional show, where a guest and I will take their ideas, put it under a storytelling microscope, and find out if these ideas have legs. So what do you get? A front row seat on how the pro’s develop and evolve their stories.

So for this episode, meet my friend, Simone Stolzoff. Simone is a unique voice in the intersection of journalism and design, and he’s has been invited to speak at conferences like TED, where he tackles the big questions around work-life balance and identity with practical, actionable insights.

In this episode, Simone and I dive deep into the art of balancing multiple professional identities and how this balance can transform the way you tell stories. We explore the importance of focusing on small details and individual experiences rather than macro explanations, providing a more relatable and engaging narrative.

Resources:

⚫Follow Simo & check out his work here: https://www.simonestolzoff.com/

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

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

🔵 Learn about Jay’s coaching and consulting: https://jayacunzo.com/

🔵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

You know how a comedian will test out new material, and turn to their colleagues and ask, “Is this anything?”

Resources:

⚫Follow Simo & check out his work here: https://www.simonestolzoff.com/

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

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

🔵 Learn about Jay’s coaching and consulting: https://jayacunzo.com/

🔵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

Previous Episode

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

Enrollment is now open into my Public Speaking Accelerator. Register now for $400 off and secure a 1:1 coaching call with me too: jayacunzo.com/signaturetalk

ABOUT THIS EPISODE:

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

Next Episode

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

Enrollment is now open into my Public Speaking Accelerator. Register now for $400 off and secure a 1:1 coaching call with me too: jayacunzo.com/signaturetalk

ABOUT THIS EPISODE:

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/

⚫ Follow Nat on X: https://x.com/nateliason

⚫ Visit Nat’s website: https://www.nateliason.com/

⚫ Subscribe to Nat’s Substack: https://blog.nateliason.com/

🔵 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/

🟢 Produced by Ilana Nevins:https://www.ilananevins.com/

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

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