How to Make Better Marketing Decisions: Unthinkable Wisdom

Do you need to make better strategic decisions? Wondering how to change your decision-making process?

To explore how to make better marketing decisions, I interview Jay Acunzo.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers, business owners, and creators discover what works with social media marketing.

In this episode, I interview Jay Acunzo. Jay is the founder of Unthinkable Media and an expert on the production of docuseries and video marketing for B2B businesses. He’s also a keynote speaker and the author of Break the Wheel: Question Best Practices, Hone Your Intuition, and Do Your Best Work.

You’ll discover common causes for bad decisions and learn four questions that can result in better decisions.

Jay also explains why relying on best practices for guidance might not be in your best interest.

Share your feedback, read the show notes, and get the links mentioned in this episode below.
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Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Making Better Decisions
Jay’s Story
Jay says that even though he’s always wanted to tell stories, he started out as a sports journalist for print publications in Connecticut. In 2008, he joined the in-house PR and communications department at ESPN. Working at ESPN showed him he could use his writing skills and creativity in a business context.

His next career move would’ve been to become a print columnist but he didn’t think building a career in print was the safest move. So he left ESPN and moved to a digital media strategist position at Google.

He enjoyed the customer interactions and the culture at Google but still wasn’t entirely happy there.

Jay recalls the moment when he realized he wanted to do something different.

He had hyped a particular video to a group of friends and was trying to show them the video, but first he had to get through a particularly frustrating pre-roll ad. The experience annoyed him quite a bit.

Jay then realized that he was part of the machine perpetuating that same experience for other viewers. He knew he didn’t want to “be the ad,” he wanted to be the content behind the ad.

So he left Google and led content teams for several startups including HubSpot and Venture Capital. During that time, he launched a podcast for the firm and the power of serialized content made a deep impression on him.

After 3 years, Jay branched out as a full-time speaker and maker of shows.

Now, 2 1/2 years later, he spends half of his time on the road speaking, and the other half creating podcasts and video documentaries with B2B clients.

Listen to the show to find out who one of Jay’s first customers was.
When Should You Stay the Course or Try Something New?
Often, people look to the best practices of others in their industry to guide their own efforts. Unfortunately, finding best practices shouldn’t be your goal. Your goal should be to find the best approach for you and your business—a path and a strategy that works well for you.

To expand on this, Jay shares a recent psychological study from New York University.

The study revealed that in stressful situations, people will often continue on with what they know has worked for others (purported best practices) instead of branching out on a unique path. Unfortunately, what worked for someone else might not work for you.

Jay says that to make better decisions, it’s imperative to understand the context of your unique situation. Once you’ve outlined the context of your situation, you begin to view ideas, precedents, or best practices as possibilities rather than absolute answers or blueprints. You can then vet those possibilities against what you know to be true about your situation.

Jay wrote his book, Break the Wheel, to help people navigate this process by answering six questions.

Listen to the show to hear why Jay thinks it’s more impor...