Jay Acunzo

From Speaking to Advisory: Quality Over Volume Wins

I rarely do this, but I thought I’d try a short business update and share what’s working, etc. For the last 3 years, I’ve rebuilt my business from a road-heavy speaking business (which was the largest thing I’d ever built until recently) to a high-end advisory business. That means speaker fees have been 10-20% of my income (down from 70-80% before). My fees are up, volume is down, by design. The core now: - 60% = 1:1 advisory with entrepreneurs, experts, and execs, split between premise/IP development clients (clarifying your signature idea) and speaker success clients (premise/IP + signature talk + speaker marketing/lead-gen systems). - 25% = Group programs (after several cohorts of validating the curriculum, I’m expanding from 8-weeks to 1-year of support—application only, for serious speakers and emerging thought leaders/b2b creators… adding 2 annual retreats) - Brand deals are 5-15% depending on the year. I usually do longer term deals and original series with 1-2 partners, avoiding transactional sponsored posts and the like. Reinventing things was a slog. It got bleak for awhile, and I considered giving up and looking for a corporate job 3 years ago. But today (literally today), I booked a talk for a global brand’s marketing meeting and a signature speech intensive client, and I’ve surpassed last year’s revenue—which itself was a bigger year than any other. Until 2026. I feel a kind of momentum I’ve NEVER had. So what’s working? Hard to say, but a few thoughts: - Years of refusing to compromise my values and play the gimmicky social media game finally align with my offerings and market. The tactics to get “bigger” mainly repel serious clients capable of paying five figure fees. HAVING a big audience can help. GETTING to a big audience mostly means appealing to not very strategic or discerning people. Hard to sell premium things to premium people when you signal you aren’t. - Leaning into my speaking and my IP away from physical stages is paying serious dividends and turning sales calls into formalities. Webinars, podcast guesting, networking 1:1/few—relationship marketing 101. A guest talk to 20 qualified people in a mastermind is much more valuable than posts garnering 10k Likes or 1M views. This has meant (1) slower follower and email list growth but a lot more valuable audience with intention and budget, (2) more time spent networking than crafting social content, (3) zero dependency on algorithms, and (4) exceptional conversion rates. In fact, 70% of all prospects who get to a call with me, hire me. Because by that stage, you’re already bought in and we’ve already got a strong relationship, partly parasocially, partly interpersonal. - Getting clear on my offerings. For awhile, I couldn’t articulate this. Crazy. - A return to my roots. I used to freely organize groups and chat with people 1:1 As things got hard, I tensed up. But now I feel the joy in simply being helpful. What else can I share about my business?