Story22

10/10/2026

Heading to the EOS European Conference in Birmingham? Make sure you come and find us at the STORY22 stand. 🎙️

We’ll be there throughout the conference, ready to talk all things messaging, marketing and making the most of the clarity you’ve already created in your business.

If you’ve ever looked at your VTO and thought, “We know exactly what we’re about, but I’m not sure our customers do,” come and have a chat.

We’d love to hear what you’re working on, what’s proving tricky and where you’re trying to get your marketing to next.

Julie and Sonya will also be taking to the stage for Turn Your VTO Into Results Without Increasing Spend. They'll be sharing practical ideas for turning your VTO into customer-facing messaging that helps the right people understand what you do, why it matters and why they should choose you.

So whether you want to talk through a messaging challenge, get some fresh ideas or simply come and say hello, come and find us at our stand.
📅 19th–20th October 2026
📍 The Vox, Birmingham

We’re looking forward to being there and meeting plenty of EOS leaders along the way.

09/10/2026

Who else knows the people you want to reach?

Networking becomes much more useful when you walk into a room with that question in mind.

The person in front of you might never buy from you, but they could know someone who needs exactly what you do. That’s one of the ideas Catherine Brown explores in Episode 2 of Become The Obvious Choice, out today.

Catherine is the Founder and CEO of Good Humans Growth Network and the author of How Good Humans Sell. She talks about why networking can feel icky and how being more selective about where you spend your time can help you build useful referral relationships.

One idea worth taking into your next networking conversation is to give people something specific to listen for when they’re talking to someone who might need your help.

For example, saying “I help businesses with marketing” leaves someone with quite a lot to work out. You could make it more useful by saying: “If you hear a business owner say they’re spending a lot on marketing but don’t know what it’s delivering, that’s a problem we help with.”

You’ve given them a situation they can recognise in a future conversation, even if they’ve never needed your service themselves.

Building that kind of relationship takes time. But being clear about where you can help gives the people getting to know you a better chance of making a relevant introduction.

For anyone who has come away from a networking event wondering whether it was worth the evening, Catherine offers a different way to approach the next one.

🎙️ Episode 2: Becoming The Obvious Referral

Watch or listen now: https://buff.ly/0ageFS4

08/10/2026

Ever had a buyer say they’re interested, only for the decision to get stuck somewhere between the first conversation and the final yes?

It’s rarely because the product suddenly stopped being relevant.

More often, there are more people involved, more questions to answer and more internal conversations happening that you can’t hear.

That’s why Julie and Sonya are heading to DEMOFEST London to talk about how to create a buyer story and buying experience that people trust, share and say yes to.

They’ll be exploring how businesses can make it easier for buyers to understand what they’re offering, explain it to other people and feel confident choosing them.

Because your buyer doesn’t experience your sales process in isolation. They’re trying to make sense of your offer, get other people on board and feel comfortable with the decision.

That’s where the buyer story and buying experience can make the difference between someone considering your offer and feeling confident enough to choose you.

We’re looking forward to being part of the conversation at DEMOFEST, where sales, presales and marketing leaders will be coming together to explore presales, buyer enablement and how the buying experience is changing.

📅 14 October 2026

⏰ 3:20–4:05pm

📍 Enterprise Hall, Convene 133 Houndsditch

If you’re going to be there, come find us. Book your ticket: https://buff.ly/e2cvvpe

Presented by Consensus

07/10/2026

Networking gets a bad rap. Sometimes, for good reason.

If you’ve ever spent an evening swapping business cards while everyone tries to sell to each other, you might understand why.

Our next guest, Catherine Brown, has a different way of looking at it.

Catherine is the Founder and CEO of Good Humans Growth Network and author of How Good Humans Sell. In Episode 2 of Become The Obvious Choice, she explores why networking can feel so icky and what changes when you stop treating every person in the room as a potential customer.

One idea we loved was that the clearer you are about who you help and the problem you solve, the easier you make it for someone else to recognise when they should introduce you.

The person you meet may never need your service, but they could know someone who does. Giving them a clear understanding of where you can help makes that introduction easier.

Watch the teaser for a first look at our conversation with Catherine.

🎙️ Episode 2: Becoming the Obvious Referral
The full episode launches Friday 9 October.

If you haven’t caught Episode 1 with Matt Turner yet, you can watch it here:
https://buff.ly/0ageFS4

07/10/2026

When a rebrand or product launch doesn’t land, it’s often not a creative problem.

It’s a positioning problem.

If customers can’t place what they’re seeing, who it’s for, and why it matters now, the market pushes back or quietly ignores it.

We’ve shared real examples and what they teach, plus what the best launches do differently.

👉 Read the blog and schedule a free strategy call if you’re planning a rebrand or launch

https://www.story22.co.uk/rebrands-and-launches-positioning-problem/

05/10/2026

Is avoiding a difficult conversation really the kinder option?

Most businesses want to create a positive culture, but a positive culture doesn’t mean everyone is always comfortable. Sometimes, avoiding an uncomfortable conversation leaves someone unaware of a problem they could have had the chance to change.

In Episode 1 of Become The Obvious Choice, Matt Turner puts it plainly: “I think it is unkind not to have a challenging conversation.”

He refers to an example from Radical Candor, where an employee’s performance has deteriorated and colleagues are becoming frustrated. When the employee eventually receives bad news, he asks why nobody told him there was a problem or gave him a chance to correct it.

It’s easy to understand why someone might hold back. They don’t want to upset a colleague or damage the relationship. But if the concern is never explained, the person is left without the information they need to do anything about it.

Matt’s point is that psychological safety makes these conversations possible. The trust has to be built over time, so someone feels able to explain what’s happening rather than worry that an honest answer could cost them their job.

He describes approaching a change in someone’s work with concern and curiosity, asking whether something is affecting them and being open to the possibility that he has misunderstood.

That gives both people a chance to understand the situation and decide what needs to happen next.

A positive culture gives people the support to improve. Sometimes, that support starts with a conversation we’ve been putting off.

🎙️ Episode 1: Culture Is the Delivery of the Promise

Watch now: https://buff.ly/0ageFS4

02/10/2026

We're speaking at DEMOFEST London this October! 🎙️

Buying gets complicated fast, especially once more people are in the room. More stakeholders, more opinions, more chances for the story to get muddled before anyone's actually said yes.

That's exactly the problem Julie and Sonya are getting into at DEMOFEST - how to keep the story clear and the buying experience simple, even when the decision isn't just down to one person anymore.

Their session covers giving buyers something clear enough to repeat to their own team, and building an experience that makes choosing you feel like the obvious choice, not a leap of faith.

There'll be plenty more going on across the day too - DEMOFEST brings sales, presales and marketing leaders together to talk about how buying is actually changing, not just how everyone says it's changing.

We're genuinely looking forward to it, and always up for a good conversation if you're around.

📅 14 October 2026

⏰ 3:20–4:05pm

📍 Enterprise Hall, Convene 133 Houndsditch

If you're heading to DEMOFEST, come find us. Book your ticket: https://buff.ly/e2cvvpe

Presented by Consensus

02/10/2026

A lead is not the same thing as a good customer. That sounds obvious when you say it out loud but a surprising amount of marketing is still measured as though it is.

One of our useful takeaways from Google at UNBOUND was to connect the dots between what happens in your marketing and what happens later in the sales process. Which enquiries were actually qualified? Which became customers? Which were worth having?

That information gives you a much better basis for deciding where the next bit of budget should go than simply celebrating more form fills.

We have written up the lesson, plus what changing search behaviour means for your messaging, in a short blog.

What we learnt from Google at UNBOUND about search intent, first-party data and why good marketing should optimise for customers, not form fills

30/09/2026

AI can help you create more content but it can't fix a confused message.

That's the problem a lot of businesses are running into right now. They're producing more blogs, emails, posts, and web copy than ever - but the message underneath still feels vague or inconsistent.

And because AI is good at making things sound polished, it can actually make the problem harder to spot.

A messaging campaign gives your business a clear message to repeat across your website, sales conversations, proposals, content, and campaigns - so both your team and your AI tools know what they're actually working from.

Our blog explains why clear messaging needs to come before scaling your marketing with AI.

Read it here 👉

AI has made it ridiculously easy to create more marketing content - which is useful, exciting, and slightly dangerous all at the same time. You can ask it

28/09/2026

Does the experience your team delivers match the promise your marketing makes?

When a customer chooses you purely on price, someone cheaper gives them a reason to leave. When the relationship is only about the transaction, a better offer can be enough to tempt them elsewhere.

But when choosing your business makes them feel understood, valued and confident they are in the right hands, you give them a reason to stay that goes beyond what you sell.

In Episode 1 of Become The Obvious Choice, Matt Turner uses a restaurant example that brings this to life.

The food can be excellent, the menu can be right and the surroundings can look incredible. But if the person serving you makes you feel as though you are an inconvenience, it changes how you feel about the whole experience.

You can appreciate the food and still have no desire to go back.

That principle reaches far beyond the person serving you. The feeling starts with how easy it is to book, whether you know what to expect and whether your needs have been considered. It continues through the service itself and what happens afterwards.

You do not always need a conversation to feel that a business has thought about you.

This is why culture and customer experience belong in the same conversation. Culture shapes what your business pays attention to, how it makes decisions and whether customers are treated as people or simply transactions.

Becoming the obvious choice means giving people something to value beyond a price or a list of features. A thoughtful experience can make someone feel that this is a business they trust, that understands them and that they want to choose again.

That is the promise your marketing needs to make, and the experience your business needs to deliver.

🎙️ Episode 1: Culture Is the Delivery of the Promise

Watch now: https://buff.ly/eveImoz

A huge thank you to Clownfish Events for sponsoring and recording the podcast and helping us bring Become The Obvious Choice to life.