Unthinkable with Jay Acunzo

Looking for the video link? Scroll down! For now, a blurb on the episode:

Unsurprisingly, one of the catchiest songs ever created topped the iTunes charts. It beat epic songs by Rhianna and Drake, and narrowly missed topping Adele and even Gangnam Style. Away from the charts, this song sparked a global movement -- merchandise and microsites, mobile games and parodies galore. One song and one video, going crazy viral, and snowballing into something much larger than itself. And while none of that seems all that surprising in our digital world today, when you learn about who created this song -- and the insanity that ensued -- it'll seem like pure insanity. 

You might even call it ... Unthinkable.

LINKS TO KNOW:

The original DWTD video: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJNR2EpS0jw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJNR2EpS0jw) 

The DWTD website: [http://www.dumbwaystodie.com/](http://www.dumbwaystodie.com/) 

DWTD on YouTube: [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7lZ\_iOz3NhA6krGfILerQA](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7lZ_iOz3NhA6krGfILerQA)

Scott Stratten looks every part a blacksmith. He's mastered a rare craft in our digital world today, but make no mistake -- he's a master craftsman. And while he may not work with any type of metal, he still forges his work with red hot fire.

It’s Unthinkable.

LINKS TO KNOW:

Scott on Twitter: [http://twitter.com/unmarketing](http://twitter.com/unmarketing) 

Scott's website: [http://unmarketing.com](http://unmarketing.com) 

Scott's podcast: [http://www.unmarketing.com/category/podcast/](http://www.unmarketing.com/category/podcast/)

If there was a Yelp listing for every industry niche, "Headphone Brand" would appear with the most possible dollar signs.

Big brands use bigger celebrities and spend some of the biggest ad budgets around to promote their products and, really, the emotion they want you to feel when you buy their products. Artists like Kendrick Lamar and Nicki Minaj, athletes like LeBron James, and brands like Apple, Sony, Bose, and more, all slug it out to deliver the same message in increasingly expensive ways: "These headphones are the best."

This is a flashy, fast-paced industry niche.

So what in the heck do we make of Grado Labs?

In 1918, a Sicilian immigrant purchased a small building on a nondescript block in Brooklyn. Over nearly a century, while the world around this building changed at breakneck speed, the world inside plodded along. It was one kind of business, and then, gradually, another. It was led by one generation of Grado, and then, gradually, another.

They don't advertise, not one cent. They don't upgrade much, using the same old equipment in the same old building. And they even make their headphones by hand.

So why are they such a success in the digital age?

It's Unthinkable.

Get behind-the-scenes photos and videos, host commentary, plus this week's "email antipasto" by subscribing to the newsletter: [unthinkable.fm](http://unthinkable.fm "http://unthinkable.fm")

Follow Jay on Twitter or Instagram: [twitter.com/jayacunzo](twitter.com/jayacunzo "http://twitter.com/jayacunzo") // [instagram.com/jacunzo](instagram.com/jacunzo "http://instagram.com/jacunzo")

Hire Jay to speak: [jayacunzo.com](jayacunzo.com "http://jayacunzo.com")

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MUSIC CREDITS:

Calmant - Calming by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100859

Artist: http://incompetech.com/

We call the show "Unthinkable" because anytime someone uses their intuition, it feels like they did something crazy. Maybe they broke from conventional thinking -- that alone feels pretty unthinkable in many jobs and industries. Maybe they came up with an incredible idea in an instant -- that can be tough to understand from the outside looking in. Or maybe they did work that was exceptional, i.e., an exception, from all the average, familiar, safe, down-the-fairway, just-so-basic-I-could-punch-a-watermelon junk.

But here's the catch: When you do that kind of great work, it rarely feels crazy TO YOU. So maybe ... it's not unthinkable at all.

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FEEDBACK & FOLLOWS:

[[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) 

[http://twitter.com/jayacunzo](http://twitter.com/jayacunzo) 

[http://instagram.com/jacunzo](http://instagram.com/jacunzo)

What if intuition was actually the same as the kind of thinking we value in the business world, but it reaches full potential quicker? Wouldn't that be an insanely valuable skill? If you could instantly skip ahead of your peers by seven, 17, or 77 steps or pull from seven, or 17, or 77 sources of ideas ... wouldn't you want to figure out how that stuff works?! Wouldn't you cultivate it? Practice it? Get to the point where you could actually RELY on it?

Intuition. Your unfair advantage. It's Unthinkable.

SUBSCRIBE TO MONDAY'S EMAIL: [unthinkable.fm](https://exit.sc/?url=http%3A%2F%2Funthinkable.fm "http://unthinkable.fm")

FEEDBACK & FOLLOWS:

[[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])

[twitter.com/jayacunzo](https://exit.sc/?url=http%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fjayacunzo "http://twitter.com/jayacunzo")

[instagram.com/jacunzo](https://exit.sc/?url=http%3A%2F%2Finstagram.com%2Fjacunzo "http://instagram.com/jacunzo")

The information age has a downside: Advice Overload. In the face of ubiquitous experts and never-ending best practices and how-tos and secrets, what if you trusted your intuition? Well, for starters, you'd need to focus more on your own context than all that advice.

Luckily, today, we explore one question you can ask yourself to instantly make sense of all the advice in this Information Age. And we revisit one of our most popular stories EVER to see how this question affects our ability to create exceptional work.

SUBSCRIBE TO MONDAY'S EMAIL: [http://unthinkable.fm](http://unthinkable.fm) 

FEEDBACK & FOLLOWS:

[[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])

[http://twitter.com/jayacunzo](http://twitter.com/jayacunzo) 

[http://instagram.com/jacunzo](http://instagram.com/jacunzo)

We use our intuition every single day to make decisions. So why does it still feel like a leap to trust it when it comes to the more meaningful stuff in our work? The answer is more complicated than you think. But your response can be a lot simpler than you image, too -- and that's great news if you want to do meaningful work.

 

SUBSCRIBE TO MONDAY'S EMAIL: [unthinkable.fm](https://unthinkable.fm "http://unthinkable.fm")

FEEDBACK & FOLLOWS:

[[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])

[twitter.com/jayacunzo](twitter.com/jayacunzo "http://twitter.com/jayacunzo")

[instagram.com/jacunzo](http://instagram.com/jacunzo "http://instagram.com/jacunzo")

Last we spoke, we wondered why we don't trust our intuition more. I mean, it's with us at all times, telling us things. But we often feel like it's a LEAP to listen to our intuition. This week, we wonder: How do we cross that chasm?

To help make sense of this, we revisit the story of Alec Brownstein, the Executive Creative Director at Dollar Shave Club, and his incredible side project, viewed by billions: The Google Job Experiment

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FEEDBACK & FOLLOWS:

[[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) 

[http://twitter.com/jayacunzo](http://twitter.com/jayacunzo) 

[http://instagram.com/jacunzo](http://instagram.com/jacunzo)

Technically supposed to be taking a week off but ... I won't tell if you don't!

Send your examples of conventional wisdom, pithy quotes-as-gospel, or popular best practices to [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) -- we might use them in a future show!

Subscribe to the Monday AM newsletter at [unthinkable.fm](https://exit.sc/?url=http%3A%2F%2Funthinkable.fm "http://unthinkable.fm")

Last week, we defined intuition once and for all. This week, we wonder: Why don't we routinely TRUST our intuition? We came up with a practical definition, but why can't we seem to make it practical in our daily lives? Why does it so often feel like a leap?

To help make sense of this, we revisit the story of Neil Pasricha, a bestselling author, TED speaker, and the creator of the blog 1000 Awesome Things.

SUBSCRIBE TO MONDAY'S EMAIL: [http://unthinkable.fm](http://unthinkable.fm) 

FEEDBACK & FOLLOWS:

[[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) 

[http://twitter.com/jayacunzo](http://twitter.com/jayacunzo) 

[http://instagram.com/jacunzo](http://instagram.com/jacunzo)