Hi, I’m Jay Acunzo.

My mission Is to help others make what matters

That’s why I founded the Creator Kitchen: to help others create more meaningful things. To resonate more deeply and, in doing so, better serve your career, company, and community.

The shape of my work

After starting in sports journalism and shifting quickly to marketing, I worked in roles at ESPN, Google, two startups (including HubSpot, where I was head of content), and the VC firm NextView.

Since becoming an independent creator in 2016, I’m grateful to have worked on projects like these:

  • My podcast How Stories Happens is like Song Exploder for storytellers — a dissection of craft. Each episode, guests share one signature story, which we then analyze together.

  • My books, Break the Wheel and The Creator’s Compass — fun, funny, but challenging journeys to understand ourselves and our roles in shaping more powerful creative work.

  • The docuseries Against the Grain — a travel-based docuseries about values-based businesses, which I wrote, co-directed, and hosted.

  • Consulting and/or developing shows for brands like Salesforce, Drift, GoDaddy, Wistia, Help Scout, Podia, and more.

  • Years on the road as a professional keynote speaker, delivering talks to everyone from 4,000 marketers to 400 people ops professionals to 40 small business owners.

But few things have been as rewarding and as transformative to me than my writing practice, established in 2005, which I do on the side of everything else.

It’s there that I found myself and learned to trust myself — and to imbue the work with the kind of personality, personal stories, and problem-solving vision that makes me and my work identifiable and unique.

I want this same outcome for every member of the Kitchen: more personal, more powerful work, executed more consistently. This is what makes you irreplaceable in the face of endless competition and increasing pressures from algorithms and AI.

Hey there, I’m Melanie Deziel.

MY MISSION IS TO HELP OTHERS UNLOCK THEIR CREATIVITY

That’s why I’m so excited about launching the Creator Kitchen: to help all of you access your most creative selves, organize your creative processes, and produce the kind of work you’ve always dreamed about creating.

WHAT MY WORK LOOKS LIKE

After studying investigative journalism and arts journalism, I worked on the branded content team at Huffington Post, was the first-ever editor of branded content at the New York Times, and served as Director of Creative Strategy of Time Inc’s 35 US media properties.

Since setting out on my own in 2016, here’s what I’ve been up to:

  • As a professional speaker, I’ve spoken on stages around the world, giving keynote speeches and breakout workshops to audiences ranging from 10 engineers to 2000+ real estate advisors.

  • As an author, I’ve written two books for creators and marketers: The Content Fuel Framework and Prove It

  • As a consultant and corporate trainer, I’ve been honored to with 30+ Fortune 100 companies, advising on content strategies, content creation, and content operations.

  • I’ve worked with several universities to develop Master’s-level courses for degrees in communications, advertising, and journalism, and taught several of them myself.

Regardless of the form it takes, all my work is focused on educating and empowering creators to feel more creative and produce better work.