Laura Payne-Stanley

Laura Payne-Stanley Commercial advisor working inside the decisions that shape businesses.

Getting ahead for Q4.A lot of my client work this week is focused on what needs to happen next, before the final quarter...
24/08/2026

Getting ahead for Q4.

A lot of my client work this week is focused on what needs to happen next, before the final quarter is actually upon us.

Across three remote advisory sessions and one in-person session, the conversations are moving through:

Q4 income generation and client attraction for Q1 2027.
Review long-lead time contact generation opportunities.
Rebrand strategy, naming and positioning.
Reviewing what has worked this year and where the wider revenue strategy needs to adapt for Q4 and beyond.
Profile raising of founder and company.

Different businesses, but a similar question running underneath all of it:

What needs attention now, so Q4 is stronger when it arrives?

That is often where the most valuable advisory work sits.

Not in constantly reinventing the business, but in seeing what needs sharpening, shifting or protecting early enough to do something useful with it.

A good talk should do more than get applause.Tomorrow I’m running a Strategic Speaker Development intensive.And we won’t...
17/08/2026

A good talk should do more than get applause.

Tomorrow I’m running a Strategic Speaker Development intensive.

And we won’t be starting with slides.

We’ll start with a much bigger question:

What do you actually want this talk to do for you?

Position you differently?

Open doors to a particular audience?

Strengthen your authority?

Create conversations?

Support where you want your business or personal brand to go next?

Because the talk itself is only part of the strategy.

Then we get into the central argument, audience journey, stories, key messages and what someone should still be thinking about the following morning.

Later comes the visual style, refinement, rehearsal, delivery, energy and rhythm.

I love this work.

Big ideas. Sharp thinking. Strong opinions.

And making sure that when someone steps onto a stage, they’re not simply there to give a good talk.

They know exactly why they’re there.

Maybe it’s the child of the 80s in me, but business growth can feel a bit like Frogger.At the start, you’re just trying ...
11/08/2026

Maybe it’s the child of the 80s in me, but business growth can feel a bit like Frogger.

At the start, you’re just trying to get across the road.

Win clients.
Convert sales.
Deliver well.

Then suddenly there are more lanes.

Team. Leadership. Structure. Succession. Exit. Bigger decisions. More consequences.

You still need the basics.

You just need to get better at crossing the road.

A weekend visit to Windsor Farm Shop.Very much my kind of place, good food, beautiful produce and far too many things I ...
03/08/2026

A weekend visit to Windsor Farm Shop.

Very much my kind of place, good food, beautiful produce and far too many things I could quite happily have taken home.

What stood out most, though, was how considered the whole experience felt.

From the choice of baskets, to the ritual of the doors opening, to staff who genuinely knew what they were talking about.

I had a particularly excellent conversation at the cheese counter, which, frankly, is exactly the level of expertise I want when making important cheese decisions.

None of it felt overdone.

It was simply clear that someone had thought carefully about how the place should feel, what customers should notice and what would make the experience memorable.

Perhaps that is why I enjoy the work I do so much.

Helping businesses become more themselves. Sharpening what makes them distinctive. Making sure the experience matches the promise.

The most memorable brands are rarely the ones trying hardest to impress.

They are the ones that have considered every detail, and made the whole experience feel effortless.

Did you go anywhere this weekend that got the details particularly right?

01/08/2026

July looked a little like this.

A drive through a beautiful old arch, on the way to spend time with a rural client — one of those moments that made me pause and appreciate just how varied the work behind LPS has become.

This month included onboarding a new client with a focus on client acquisition, advising on a client website that has now gone live, and seeing newly developed landing pages begin to deliver qualified enquiries.

With one long-standing client, the work has been particularly wide-ranging: supporting the recruitment and onboarding of an exceptional new executive assistant, an early-morning session with the MD, a full leadership team strategy day, and ongoing work around leadership, oversight and future transition.

Elsewhere, I watched a wedding industry client deliver the biggest wedding in their history, helped devise and facilitate a strategic pivot for a scaling hospitality business, and had early conversations with prospective clients around keynote development and a high-level referral campaign.

All alongside the steady, ongoing work with existing clients that rarely makes it onto social media, but remains at the heart of what I do.

And July wasn’t only about work.

There was exquisite food and hospitality at 22 Bishopsgate. Donating blood. Hosting. Brunches. And finally watching

A very full month.

Not in a loud or performative way.

Just a lot of meaningful work, interesting conversations and a growing sense that LPS is moving into its strongest season yet.

AMAZE. AMAZE. AMAZE. I recently watched Project Hail Mary.If you've seen it, you'll know exactly why those three words m...
27/07/2026

AMAZE. AMAZE. AMAZE.

I recently watched Project Hail Mary.
If you've seen it, you'll know exactly why those three words matter. If you haven't, I won't spoil it... except to say i loved it, but you might want to have some tissues nearby.
(full on 😭😭 when I watched it)

It reminded me of something I think about whenever I'm creating a keynote or helping someone develop a signature talk.

When I was preparing my TEDx talk, Brand Seduction, I spent as much time thinking about what people would remember as I did about what I wanted to say.

What phrase would they repeat over coffee the next morning?
What story would they tell a colleague?
What idea would stay with them long after the slides had disappeared?

Most talks focus on transferring information.

The memorable ones create a moment.
People rarely remember every statistic or every framework. They remember the line they wrote down, the story they retold, or the moment something clicked.

Whether I'm developing my own keynote or working with a founder or leader on theirs, that's still one of the first questions I ask:

What's the moment they'll remember tomorrow?

And if you have watched Project Hail Mary... I'd love to know whether "AMAZE. AMAZE. AMAZE." was your moment too or what was it??

What gives someone the right to advise a founder?Is it qualifications? Years in business? The number of clients they've ...
22/07/2026

What gives someone the right to advise a founder?

Is it qualifications? Years in business? The number of clients they've worked with? All of those things matter, but for me, there's something else that sits alongside them.

It's continuing to build.

I want the conversations I have with clients to be informed by more than decisions I made ten years ago. I want them to be shaped by the businesses I'm building today, the markets I'm navigating now and the commercial decisions I'm still making myself.

Every new venture asks the same questions my clients face. Where should we invest? Is the positioning right? Will people buy it? Have we priced it correctly? What happens if this doesn't work? What happens if it does?

Those aren't theoretical questions. They're real ones, with real consequences.

That's one of the reasons I've always continued building businesses alongside my advisory work. Not because I need another project, but because I believe staying close to the reality of creating something makes me a better advisor.

Theory has an important place. Experience does too. But there is something different about advice that's informed by decisions you're still making today, not just ones you made years ago.

I think the best advisors stay close enough to the arena that they never stop learning from it.

Address

Southampton
SO152EW

Telephone

+442382146680

Website

,

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Laura Payne-Stanley posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to Laura Payne-Stanley:

Shortcuts

Share

Category