Jay Acunzo

Build a Lead Engine Beyond Social Media Dependence

The 2 long-term investments I'd be making if I sell services to ensure I build something sturdy, especially given the current moment: 1. Building a business that isn't reliant on social media (or even SEO/AEO) for lead-gen. Yes, some business models depend on throughput. You need tons of leads to have a great year. But most of us (at least folks following me) sell higher priced service offerings. It's a better use of our time to give a webinar to 15 highly qualified people than share posts on LinkedIn which get 15,000 views. People are viscerally against this advice whenever I share it (maybe because it's so entrenched to think about one's social media; maybe because it feels scarier to go through gatekeepers and pitch yourself, vs. blast out to a social feed and call it marketing, I don't know). Whatever the case, not all of us need social media much or even at all to have very sturdy, repeatable, growing businesses. If I'm watching where social media is going (and search too), I'm very nervous if I'm selling something that requires lots of traffic. Me, I'm focused on contributing most of my work OFF my platform, INSIDE densities of my ideal audience, rather than purely post to my own site/channels. My friend Michelle Warner calls these "trust transfers," and they are a hallmark of good, growing, relationship-focused businesses and the marketing strategy used to power them. Unfortunately, social media and SEO have both become shorthand for "doing marketing" for too many. 2. Mastering the skills that are the least technology-enabled which most increase your perceived value to others and your efficacy wherever you go. I call these "personal, transferable skills" and the most powerful of them all is public speaking, as it's the least tech-enabled and the most transformational to every interaction you have. It's also the least likely to be mastered by others. It's just a massive advantage and also downright fun to wield as a superpower. Right up there with speaking would be personal storytelling. Can you draw on your own LLM to inform your work, hone your perspective, and resonate more deeply? AI has large language models. People have little life moments. * Downstream of these things are a couple wonderful outcomes, albeit through lots of hard work: - You can stop chasing attention, because you're the one they seek. You're not yet-another option on the prospect's spreadsheet. You're the pick. You can charge a premium for that position, instead of racing to the bottom. - You feel momentum, which people assume happens through speed alone, but remember: momentum = mass * velocity. We're too focused on the latter and not enough on the former. If you stop sharing generic advice and instead explore a premise + turn your expertise into IP, your words carry more weight. - In the end, you win more and better clients, at higher prices, with less friction. Not because you market more, but because you MATTER more.