Brewing Success with Laura Goodey: The Art of Storytelling in Marketing

On this episode of The Pipeline Brew podcast, Matt Hummel sits down with Laura Goodey, Founder & Partner of Story & Tellers, to explore her marketing journey and what led her to start her own agency. With over two decades of prior experience advising global powerhouses like Oracle, Riverbed, and Vodafone, Laura has always placed audience understanding at the core of her strategies. She dismantles the outdated “content is king” approach, arguing instead that true marketing excellence emerges from deep empathy and genuine connection with your users.

Laura’s philosophy emphasizes the critical importance of creative boldness and strategic flexibility, encouraging marketers to assert their value within organizational structures. Her unique agency model, Story & Tellers, stands out by pairing teams tailored to each of their clients’ specific needs. Laura and Matt also explore topics such as the dynamic between brand and demand marketing, and how modern marketers can create strategies to cut through the noise.
Laura’s story serves as both a practical guide and an inspirational call to action for marketing professionals seeking to elevate their craft beyond mere transactional interactions. Stay tuned in to hear where Laura loves to travel and her advice for those wanting to explore Berkshire, England.

Laura Goodey, Founder and Partner of Story & Tellers, brings over 20 years of expertise to her role as a strategic marketing partner for B2B businesses. Her impressive client roster included global giants like Oracle, Riverbed, and Vodafone. Laura’s passion for marketing, which began during her college years, blends her fascination with people, art, and storytelling to craft powerful marketing strategies.

At the heart of Laura’s innovative approach lies empathy-based marketing, where she places customer and audience insights at the forefront of her work. This method allows her to create resonant campaigns that truly connect with target audiences.

[00:00:00] Matt Hummel: Hey everyone. And welcome to another episode of the Pipeline Brew, the podcast that meets at the intersection of people in pipeline. We’re bringing you fun yet insightful conversations, where you’ll not only hear from marketing experts, but also get to know them as well.

[00:00:21] Hey everyone today, I’m super excited to be joined by Laura Goodey founder and partner of Story & Tellers, a strategic marketing partner for B2B businesses, looking for more commercial success. Laura has helped and advised some of the world’s largest organizations for over two decades, supporting clients such as Oracle, Riverbed, and Vodafone.

[00:00:39] She’s helped her clients achieve their objectives while also winning some really cool awards along the way. Welcome to the show, Laura. How are you?

[00:00:46] Laura Goodey: I’m great. Thank you. How are you?

[00:00:48] Matt Hummel: I am good. Thank you. Thanks for joining the show today.

[00:00:51] Laura Goodey: Thanks for having me.

[00:00:52] Matt Hummel: Absolutely. So, we like to kick off each episode with a little icebreaker to get the ball rolling.

[00:00:58] Thanks You ready for that?

[00:00:59] Laura Goodey: Yes. Yeah.

[00:01:00] Matt Hummel: All right. All right. What is your go to beverage when you need a little pick me up?

[00:01:06] Laura Goodey: I know you’re probably looking for just one beverage, but I actually kind of have a smorgasbord of beverages that I turn to. It’s kind of quite a big ritual for me that if I need to focus on something or, you know, get stuck into something difficult, then, uh, I’d make myself a nice drink and kind of settle down into it with that.

[00:01:23] So, um, yeah, I’ve got three probably. So coffee absolutely is my number one. So either hot and black or like iced with milk. I love coffee like that. Tea, either normal or herbal. Big fan of peppermint tea for a little. Shush up. And do you guys have dash water in the US?

[00:01:43] Matt Hummel: I have never heard of dash water.

[00:01:45] Laura Goodey: I love that stuff.

[00:01:47] So it’s like they use all the wonky fruit and they just really lightly flavor the water, but it’s fizzy. Oh yeah. So it kind of gives you that fizziness, but without like Coke and Diet Coke. So

[00:01:57] Matt Hummel: yeah. Well, I guess we do have, we don’t call it dash water, but we do have, I mean, we call it bubbly or sparkling water.

[00:02:04] Yeah. And it’s got all the fruit flavors. We have more flavors in our fridge than I care to admit, but

[00:02:09] Laura Goodey: my

[00:02:10] Matt Hummel: kids love them. So yeah, so obviously you’ve got a bit of an, an accent. So, you know, you’re from the UK presumably.

[00:02:18] Laura Goodey: Yes. Yep.

[00:02:19] Matt Hummel: So I was surprised to hear you with that in mind, say coffee, because every time I come to London, it is so hard to find good coffee.

[00:02:27] Laura Goodey: It is hard to find.

[00:02:29] Matt Hummel: Do you make your own? What’s, what’s your story there?

[00:02:31] Laura Goodey: Yeah, so we’ve, um, our household has traditionally been really bad with coffee and like go and buy it like fresh and basically from a really nice coffee shop that we’ve got down the road. But obviously over time that really adds up.

[00:02:44] So a couple of years ago we invested in an espresso machine and it is the best thing we’ve ever done.

[00:02:51] Matt Hummel: That’s awesome. The coffee pods

[00:02:52] Laura Goodey: are amazing.

[00:02:54] Matt Hummel: No doubt. Well, very cool. And you mentioned tea as well. Are you a milk with your tea drinker?

[00:02:58] Laura Goodey: Yeah, if it’s like a builder’s tea, like a normal tea or if it’s like herbal tea, absolutely not.

[00:03:04] No.

[00:03:05] Matt Hummel: Yeah, that sounds weird. All right. Well, awesome. Well, again, great to have you on the show. I want to start by just digging into your background a little bit. So before we talk about what you’re up to today, I’d love for you to tell the audience a bit more about yourself, your passions and your background.

[00:03:21] Laura Goodey: Yeah, I guess I have always really been interested in people, what makes them tick and art, you know, anything arty, actually storytelling. How stories work and are structured and are well received and also, you know, how businesses work. So I guess those sort of passions all coming together really, um, helped me to decide that marketing was the route for me.

[00:03:47] It wasn’t actually until I was, I did a module on marketing in my college. course at like 18. And I realized that all those things that I’m interested in could all play a part in the profession of marketing. So I kind of chose it there and then, and just have never looked back. Went on to do my degree in marketing and really have managed to work with some amazing people.

[00:04:09] Like colleagues and clients along the way, really lucky to do something that I love every day.

[00:04:14] Matt Hummel: Oh, I love that. And I know you’ve got a bunch of nieces and nephews. Do they understand what you do for a living?

[00:04:21] Laura Goodey: Not in the slightest, no.

[00:04:25] Matt Hummel: I always find that with kids when, when, you know, if you sell, yeah, I get it.

[00:04:29] My daddy, my mommy sells stuff, but with marketing, my kids have come to the conclusion that. You know, I basically get people to buy stuff they don’t really need or want, which I’m like, that is not entirely true. It’s everything

[00:04:41] Laura Goodey: you fear about your career, isn’t it, that that’s what you’ve got into.

[00:04:46] Matt Hummel: Yeah, it’s so true.

[00:04:47] Well, that’s really cool story. It’s funny. A lot of what you just described is what ultimately got me into marketing. I, I knew I wanted to be in marketing, but I sort of avoided it as long as I could. I started out in, in psychology because, you know, psychology really is obviously all about understanding people.

[00:05:04] But it’s just, you know, it’s hard to translate that to the business world where ultimately I knew I wanted to be. So it sounds like you’ve got some similar passions and interests.

[00:05:12] Laura Goodey: Yeah, definitely. I think you get a bit of everything with, um, when you’re working in marketing and definitely the art side, the creativity that you can apply is, is awesome and, you know, making that commercially successful is like where the business acumen and knowledge comes in.

[00:05:29] So it’s, it’s really the best of all worlds when you’re working on that.

[00:05:32] Matt Hummel: 100%. Well, cool. Well, you know, as part of your background, I’d love to hear kind of what were some of the big lessons you’ve learned throughout your career and did you have any aha moments along the way?

[00:05:42] Laura Goodey: Yeah, definitely. Loads of lessons learned along the way.

[00:05:45] I suppose the biggest one really is that people were often told, um, over time that content is king, but it absolutely isn’t. The audience is and always will be king. You know, they’ve really got a choice whether they engage with you and it’s up to us to make the messaging sort of interesting and relevant and valuable enough for them to think about like what it is that the client’s trying to say.

[00:06:09] You know, and also you’re not competing with your competitors. You’re really competing with all of life. So the tasks that people have got to do, the problems that they have, all the things that are bringing them, you know, fear and worry, joy and happiness in their life. And I think once that clicks and you realize how precious that attention is, you really understand the scale of the task at hand.

[00:06:31] And you’ve got more of a chance then of making something that will interest them.

[00:06:36] Matt Hummel: I love that. You know, you hear a lot of people say you’ve got to put yourself in the shoes of your customers and a hundred percent you do. And you’ve got to really, really know your customers, but I’ve never heard it phrased that way.

[00:06:47] Where. You know, cause I, I don’t think anyone would say, Oh no, content isn’t king, but I think it’s different when you flip it around and say, actually, audience is king because that really, that really pivots your focus away from content as this sort of thing that’s, you know, meant to address your customers and really, again, puts, you Customer’s front and center.

[00:07:08] So I think that’s such a cool perspective and I have no doubt that as we dive more into what makes Story & Tellers unique, that, that will really come to life based on that perspective. Yeah,

[00:07:16] Laura Goodey: it really does. Yeah.

[00:07:18] Matt Hummel: I love that.

[00:07:19] Laura Goodey: And similarly, you know, a lot of my lessons actually really have gone into What we’ve crafted with Story & Tellers but you know, another thing is that it’s all about people and skills.

[00:07:29] Like creative talent is just really vast and very varied, different disciplines and experts within the field of marketing. So people that are making these campaigns happen, you’ve got everything from illustrators, motion designers, photographers. Editors, graphic designers, you know, you name it really. And I’ve seen those different, you know, expertise, different experts working together in a really disconnected and messy way.

[00:07:56] And I’ve seen it work, you know, amazingly well. So, and everything in between. So I’ve really tried to take that with me because it’s selecting, you know, the right talent for your specific objectives is really half the battle of marketing. Um, getting. Those different people to work and coordinate together at the right time across the right things.

[00:08:17] It’s actually an art form in itself. So I think you can get anyone to do something, but it really takes something to get them to do it exceptionally well. So I really think. Helping people to collaborate and getting the best out of people. You know, these people will come from completely different walks of life and their richness of experience and different backgrounds are really what makes their work great.

[00:08:42] But with that also comes big variety of different characteristics and traits. Um, so sometimes it’s a challenge in itself to get everyone on the same page and, and working together in the interest of the client.

[00:08:56] Matt Hummel: Yeah. Ugh. Well said, first of all. There’s so much to unpack there. I think, you know, later on, I want to ask you your point of view on brand versus demand, but just to kind of tie out what you said, you know, you really emphasized a lot around the creative and I think so often marketers lose sight of the importance, the critical nature of standing out and being creative.

[00:09:16] Marketing, in a sense, has become so scientific that I think more often than not, we see them forget. At the end of the day, you’re trying to grab the emotions of the buyers, the hearts and minds, not just You know, thinking about them as, as numbers. And so I think it all goes back to what you said, where the audience is king.

[00:09:34] So I love that.

[00:09:35] Laura Goodey: And then maybe just one more lesson would be just about being more bold. And I think that’s relevant for marketers in a number of ways. The remit for marketers, the task that they have at hand. It really should be that they’re responsible for the customer in the organization. And I think we’ve lost a little bit of that as well, too.

[00:09:54] You know, some marketers are really in difficult positions being at the mercy of different boards and sales teams. You know, I’ve even heard of clients where the marketing people report into sales teams, and so, you know, I really think it’s important to be bold and try to Claim back really what your remit is as a marketer and what you should be responsible for.

[00:10:19] And also, I think once you do come up with ideas, you know, being bold with how you lean into them is often where we find the good stuff. So if you are coming up with ideas, you know, spending that extra time seeing how they could be possible and being bold with those ideas is often where you can find some of the best work.

[00:10:39] Matt Hummel: I love that. I think it’s such a call or a cry for the marketing industry at large. Just be bold and don’t be afraid. Don’t feel like you, you know, yeah, I think to your point, we all report into boards or some, in some cases sales, but I think in a way we’ve done a disservice to ourselves and our profession by not being bold and not really saying, stop with this nonsense.

[00:11:01] We’ve gotta, we’ve gotta stand out. We’ve gotta be different. We’ve gotta go big or else, We’re not going to win. We’re not going to succeed. There’s too much out there. And it kind of goes back to what you said around, we’re not just competing with competitors, you know, and I always say our biggest competitors status quo, not changing, but I think you’re right.

[00:11:19] We compete with everything in their life. Good, bad, personal, professional. There’s so much noise out there, so great call to be bold, so.

[00:11:27] Laura Goodey: And I also just think, you know, it’s quite easy to say, you know, on a podcast or to an individual that they need to be bold, but I think it’s actually the only way for them to claim back, you know, what, what they are responsible for, because once you’re at the mercy of somebody who doesn’t understand your profession, it’s very difficult then to get out of that and to make headway with your goals and your objectives and the things that you’re responsible for, so.

[00:11:53] Yeah, I hope that empowers some people to say, go for it. A

[00:11:58] Matt Hummel: hundred percent. Well, awesome. Well, as we transitioned to our next topic, would you be able to share how you came to Story & Tellers and a little bit about the name?

[00:12:06] Laura Goodey: Yeah, so when I set up the company, I had to spend a lot of time reflecting on what I’ve done for clients over the years.

[00:12:15] I put a lot of energy into that and to thinking about what clients really need. The name is really a descriptor of that process. So I was thinking, You know, most of the time, what I’m doing to help clients is to help them identify their story, know what it is that they need to say, and tell that story in really creative and engaging ways.

[00:12:37] So. That’s how we came to the name and yeah, the impact of storytelling and the connection that we have to it as humans is really powerful. Um, I think it’s super important. It’s how we understand and process and make sense of information, you know, All through history, humans have attached themselves to storytelling from drawings on the walls of caves, campfire stories, you know, plays that have been written and watched.

[00:13:04] And even like how you’re teaching your kids about life is all through, you know, storytelling. So we’re really built to recognize and learn from stories. And it’s really an enjoyable thing on both sides to use that in your marketing.

[00:13:17] Matt Hummel: I love that. Well, I have to give you a lot of credit for the name. It’s on one hand and not in a bad way, but it’s so obvious.

[00:13:24] What you do, but on the other hand, it’s just a beautiful name. And I think you’ve, you’ve created this perfect balance of creative, but it’s very clear what you do. So kudos to you for the thought process that went into that. So I love that.

[00:13:38] Laura Goodey: Thank you. Thank you very much. And then, you know, I think businesses do have a lot of stories to tell.

[00:13:44] You know, they’ve got stories about their purpose, stories about what they can do, of their customers, of their people, you know, what makes them different. So it really feels like an area where clients do need the most help. So yeah, that’s another reason for it being a focus for us.

[00:13:58] Matt Hummel: Yeah, no, that makes sense.

[00:14:00] Well, let’s jump into Story & Tellers then. So what makes you guys, uh, Story & Tellers what makes you different?

[00:14:07] Laura Goodey: Again, when forming, I was thinking about kind of how we identify, and it’s definitely not like a traditional agency, even though we can do what a traditional agency can do, we are more consultative and even kind of more baked into the, to the client’s business.

[00:14:23] I also don’t think we’re exclusively a consultancy or an internal agency. So I’ve kind of taken the best bits from everything and tried to create something different on purpose. So certainly in the way that we operate. We don’t have a permanent team of like 40 to a hundred people that clients are paying for.

[00:14:41] We very carefully select the talent that we work with based on the brief. So that just means that we’re able to give clients a lot more bang for their buck. Budgets are really tight at the minute and it’s really difficult out there for these clients. So it’s really a time when you have to be effective to get it right first time.

[00:14:58] And a lot of brands are losing, or have long lost actually, the luxury of spare or experimental budgets. And they’re really under a significant amount of pressure to have the right team in place for their specific needs. So that’s something that we try to help them with.

[00:15:13] Matt Hummel: That’s smart. I mean, there’s, there’s a lot of conversation around how the world of marketing is changing.

[00:15:20] Obviously, resources are down, budgets are down, targets are up. You’re right. And there’s less experimental budget, if any at all. But what we don’t often talk about is how the rest of the world sort of has to adapt based on, you know, the current state of marketing. So I think it’s really smart how you’ve And I’ve known you long enough to know the quality of your work and it’s, it’s really cool that you’ve been able to carry that, almost call it a thumbprint, you know, across all the work that you deliver.

[00:15:48] It looks and feels very much like Story & Tellers and the type of quality that you want to deliver. And yet you’ve been able to do it in a way. That meets the needs of your customers. And it goes back again to what you said, audience is King, your audience, it’s, it’s marketers and ultimately the audiences they’re serving.

[00:16:04] So that’s cool that, you know, just, it’s a great kind of use case for. Hey, we’ve got to think different because the world around us is different and the needs of, of my clients are different. So that’s awesome.

[00:16:14] Laura Goodey: Yeah, absolutely. And I think that it really accounts for our methodologies because they’re so customer centric.

[00:16:21] So really the audiences that we want to talk to, we put them at the center of everything. But you know, we’re also very customer centric with our clients and their needs. We understand the landscape that they’re operating in and we’ve got their back and we support them in a way that they really need. So I think that’s quite unique as well.

[00:16:41] Matt Hummel: Yeah. Well, I love your website and there was a line that stood out to me. It said, getting your message to stand out amidst all this noise is no small feat. So question for you. What do you think’s driving all the noise? And do you think it’s getting worse? Do you think people are getting exhausted? What are your thoughts on all that?

[00:16:58] Laura Goodey: Yeah, the noise is, is increasing, unfortunately. Um, I think what’s important to understand is that, you know, as it’s everywhere, really humans have this filtering system. So we categorize and make shortcuts to optimize our performance. So we can recognize noise, see it for what it is and dismiss it before it even registers.

[00:17:19] Um, and there’s so much of it, this skill is going to be, you know, more finely tuned over time. It’s going to be ever more important for brands to be just working smarter and making their message stand out.

[00:17:30] Matt Hummel: That makes sense.

[00:17:32] Laura Goodey: In terms of what’s driving it, obviously technology is a huge factor. It’s been a gift in a lot of ways, but a big by product has been this urge for everybody to just talk and talk and talk.

[00:17:45] Um, and when people aren’t heard, they tend to shout louder and louder. And for brands, that means, you know, more media, more content, more posts, more demands to say something or anything really. When actually what they need to be doing is to connect to their audience in a more meaningful way to understand them.

[00:18:04] What they need and give them, give them that, which is why we talk about more rewarding connections because the more rewarding that you make it for your audience, the more they will reward you with engagement, interest, purchase, advocacy, you know, it’s a reciprocal value exchange.

[00:18:22] Matt Hummel: Yeah, I love that. It’s, you know, you think about noise and the point you made, people just talk louder and louder.

[00:18:28] I think about the constant flood of emails and LinkedIn messages that I get. And I know you probably get, and so many others get from BDRs or sales executives, and you don’t know if they’re real or AI, but it just, it’s constant. And it does seem to just there. You can almost feel their volume getting louder and louder as each message comes through.

[00:18:49] And And you’re like, this is not the way it’s not a numbers game. And I, I understand they’ve got quotas to hit and targets to play. But, you know, if you think about it, most B2B organizations aren’t trying to win thousands of new customers per year. And so why do we operate in a way we’re just doing ourselves in the industry at large to disservice by creating more and more and more noise, we’re making it harder for us and everyone else to actually break through and ultimately, you know, align to serve the needs of our customers.

[00:19:20] So I think that’s really cool how you guys think about Creating rewarding, what’d you call it? Rewarding connections. It’s, it’s a really

[00:19:27] Laura Goodey: rewarding connections. Yeah. So the idea of really connecting with your audience in a meaningful way, and that’s as relevant by the way, for, you know, customers, prospects, employees, partners, it doesn’t matter who you’re connecting with or who you want to connect with as part of your, you know, business strategy, it’s really about understanding them and being able to give them what they need so that you can get.

[00:19:50] What you need.

[00:19:51] Matt Hummel: Yeah. Yeah. We almost need a Salesforce dropdown that says, did you have a rewarding connection? You know, somehow we can tie that into an ABM dashboard and connect it back to revenue. So I’m half kidding, but, um, it would be interesting. So, well, or the first time we talked, I remember one of the things that really stood out was This emphasis you put around empathy and empathy based marketing.

[00:20:16] And it’s something that I have personal experience with during my time marketing into nonprofit. The company I worked for sold technology into nonprofits. And when COVID hit, it was one of the most obviously insane times for everybody, but for nonprofits, their workload skyrocketed for all different reasons.

[00:20:34] And yet. They had no idea what to do and how to handle it. And our technology wasn’t a perfect solution to support them. But based on our existing approach, I mean, we would have people saying, why are you calling me? We have workloads that we can’t sustain and this and that, and they were getting like angry.

[00:20:52] And as I took a step back, I thought, oh, that makes sense. We, and so this podcast is not about me, but we completely reshaped our approach. Truly how to put ourselves in their shoe. And that was, I would contend my first real experience in empathy based marketing and it, and it worked shockingly, it worked.

[00:21:11] And so I, I, as you were walking me through your thoughts on this, that’s what came to mind for me and why it was so important because that was such a pivotal moment in my career as I started to really rethink what makes good marketing and it really is empathy based marketing. And so when you said that, I’m like, You’re like a long lost sister.

[00:21:29] Where have you been my whole life? So,

[00:21:31] Laura Goodey: yeah, I’d

[00:21:31] Matt Hummel: just love to hear your thoughts on that.

[00:21:33] Laura Goodey: Empathy based marketing is what we should all have been doing all of the time. I guess, you know, it’s not new to say the audience matters. You know, that’s been important. From the beginning, but I think with the idea of empathy is that it just takes it a step further.

[00:21:49] So you’re not creating profiles for your audiences and trying to put them into neat little boxes. You’re truly understanding them and what they’re going through and what kind of state of mind they might be in, what their perceptions might be, right or wrong of you, of your competitors, of like the world, and then applying that to your strategy and your, your creative.

[00:22:13] So, um, yeah, empathy based marketing is, is really important. I’m definitely not claiming that we started that term, but when we started the company, it really, it, it wasn’t around, so we didn’t, couldn’t find anything on Google about it. Um, so I’m a real champion of it and I, I, I really believe that empathy as a skill is hugely important to then creating great work, um, seeing your audience in a new light.

[00:22:40] Matt Hummel: I love that. Well, if no one else is taking credit for it, then. You know?

[00:22:44] Laura Goodey: Well, I might as well.

[00:22:47] Matt Hummel: Awesome. Well, I want to pivot to our next segment just around this idea of brand versus demand. It is something that you see all over LinkedIn, everyone’s talking about it, and it’s a topic that arguably has frustrated a lot of us.

[00:23:01] So what are your thoughts on the dichotomy of brand versus demand?

[00:23:04] Laura Goodey: I think it’s a big topic for people because they are struggling to know where they should go and what they should do with their strategy. But actually it’s kind of a bit nonsense. Like, I think marketing has this horrible habit of getting in its own way.

[00:23:21] It’s definitely perpetuated by certain bodies that benefit from marketers being confused or thinking that they should be doing The latest shiny thing, you know, you need both brand and demand in an organization. You need to be taking advantage of the low hanging fruit and you need to be building your long term pipeline and the weighting of whether it should be brand or demand or how much of each would really just be dictated by your objectives.

[00:23:48] And I think it’s as simple as that. Unfortunately. It’s overhyped and, you know, people are made to think that they just don’t know the answers. But if you go back to your audience and you go back to your objectives, you will find the answers for, for what you should do with your strategy.

[00:24:03] Matt Hummel: It’s so smart. I, I see more often than not marketers forget.

[00:24:08] It’s not that complicated. You just have to start with the end in mind. What are you trying to achieve? What are your objectives? And that can then shape things you do, which shapes where you’re spending money and where you’re spending your time. So you may have solved the great conundrum with, with a very smart yet strategic thought.

[00:24:26] So I love that.

[00:24:27] Laura Goodey: I’m sure it would be challenged.

[00:24:29] Matt Hummel: For sure. For sure. Well, LinkedIn wouldn’t, wouldn’t be around if people didn’t want to. You know, challenge and have their hot takes. So

[00:24:36] Laura Goodey: very true.

[00:24:38] Matt Hummel: Well, it seems that the, you know, the definition of brand has been lost on a lot of newer organizations or organizations, you know, younger stage private equity backed reporting into sales.

[00:24:50] I, you know, and you and I’ve talked about this before, but there’s this idea of brand as, Oh, it’s your logo. It’s your colors. Or if it’s a brand campaign, it’s It’s, it’s getting on billboards, it’s, you know, it’s getting on TV. And I think from that point of view, organizations have really struggled to say, how, how does this actually tie to tangible business objectives?

[00:25:12] And so I think for marketers out there who are still struggling to say, how should I be thinking about brand? You know, you mentioned it’s driving that longer term pipeline. Is that really the primary role of brand from your point of view? How’d you kind of help marketers start to reframe that discussion?

[00:25:29] Laura Goodey: Yeah, I think it’s significantly bigger than just your, your kind of marketing pipeline or your, your sales pipeline. Brand is what your audience thinks of you.

[00:25:39] Matt Hummel: Yeah,

[00:25:40] Laura Goodey: really? It’s, you know, that, that’s Old saying, what do they say about you when you’re not in the room? That’s what brand is. And, and so many brands, especially, unfortunately in B2B, either don’t exist because they’ve just managed to become, you know, these great big sales organizations, or they do exist, but maybe there’s a lot of misperceptions about what they, who they are and what they do.

[00:26:02] And it’s really interesting working with B2B organizations and we work with marketing teams and sales teams. And actually sales teams talk about brand because when they’re getting on the phone to their leads, their hot leads that they know are in the market to buy, and they’ve shown interest in their, you know, topic or whatever, and then the company says, Oh, we don’t know who are, or you’re not on our list because, you know, we don’t, we don’t work with you or aren’t you that company, that XYZ.

[00:26:33] And it’s a completely different perception to what the company is actually capable of. That’s brand. That’s because they, they’re not aware of you. They haven’t included you in their consideration list. So yeah, I think brand has a big role to play in how you convince audiences that you should be worth their consideration and time.

[00:26:53] Matt Hummel: A hundred percent. I mean, this, this isn’t. You know, addressing everything you’re saying, but part of, part of why we launched what we call branded demand is because we saw our customers were driving leads and organizations. And then when those leads were being followed up on, they’re like, yeah, I remember downloading that piece of content, but I, I don’t remember who the content was from.

[00:27:13] And so it’s sort of this idea of unbranded leads, but then there’s also just the element of shaping perception. So, you know, when you’re making decisions around the, you know, one or two folks that you want to actually consider or ultimately hire, there is that familiarity. And I think that is very much a psychological, you know, value of the role that brand plays.

[00:27:34] So that makes a ton of sense. All right. Well, what, you know, what advice, obviously you work for an agency, but what advice would you have for companies looking to leverage an agency such as your own? in this, in this world that we’re operating in.

[00:27:48] Laura Goodey: Yeah, I think agencies are really there to be a support for organizations.

[00:27:53] That’s the role is to facilitate, you know, the needs that they have and, and to help them to meet their objectives. We chose to really put an emphasis on research inside strategy and messaging, because that’s where I see brands needing the most support. And I think that will continue for the long term.

[00:28:12] So. I think when that, you know, brand companies are thinking about, you know, involving an agency, there’s a lot of benefits to come from that. You know, we’re incredibly street wise. We’ve been there, we’ve done it. We’ve had exposure to the technology we can advise and we’ve got incredible talent. So. You know, the kind of people that want to work with agencies doing things are, you know, normally very well rounded.

[00:28:35] They’ve had a lot of experience. So you getting access to all of that, essentially it’s, it’s worth doing, but really the agency should be doing the things that you can’t do. So if you can do certain things yourself, that’s great. But if you’re struggling in other areas, that’s where you need to be working with an agency.

[00:28:55] Matt Hummel: That makes sense. Well, awesome. Well, I always like to talk to each one of my guests a little bit more than just their work stuff. So I’d like to jump into our final segment and find out what’s on tap for you, Laura. So you ready?

[00:29:08] Laura Goodey: Yeah, I’m ready.

[00:29:09] Matt Hummel: All right. So at the top of the show, we talked about your favorite pick me up beverage, which is three beverages, which I found, I learned so much.

[00:29:16] I learned that your definition of coffee is Nespresso and your definition of bubbly water is dash water. And. There’s really two distinct teas. There’s your herbal or herbal, uh, as, as my Brit friends say, and then there’s a, what did you call the other one? Just more, you said, I said, I’ve never heard of that before.

[00:29:40] Laura Goodey: That’s the term. It’s basically just a normal teabag. Okay.

[00:29:45] Matt Hummel: Yeah. All right. Got it. Got it. I’m going to start calling it that and confuse people. But, um, all right. So I want to flip that question around though. What, what’s your favorite drink when you just want to unwind?

[00:29:56] Laura Goodey: Um, I guess it, I actually recently have got more into craft beers, but, um, if it’s the weekend, I love red wine.

[00:30:05] I’ve, we recently, uh, worked in, for a month in France and, uh, it’s really just cemented that passion for me. So I’m looking even at courses on it because I just love the way That it’s made and the standards they have to reach. Um, it’s, it’s actually quite fascinating. Um, but if it’s during the week, I would go for a trip.

[00:30:27] Do you, you’ve got trip, right? I

[00:30:29] Matt Hummel: have no idea what trip is.

[00:30:31] Laura Goodey: It’s like, um, it’s like a CBD drink, but it, but they come in this whole different flavor combination. So it’s a bit like having a mocktail really. Yeah. It’s nice.

[00:30:42] Matt Hummel: That’s awesome. All right. So trips. Sometimes craft beers and, and red wine and, and France really cemented that for, I’ve not been to France, but I’ve, I’ve heard it’s amazing.

[00:30:52] So did you primarily drink French wines or? It’s the

[00:30:57] Laura Goodey: only wine you get out there, it’s French

[00:30:59] Matt Hummel: wine.

[00:31:00] Laura Goodey: They won’t sell any other country’s wine.

[00:31:04] Matt Hummel: From what I know about France, that sounds right.

[00:31:07] Laura Goodey: Yeah.

[00:31:08] Matt Hummel: Well, that’s awesome. Well, Laura, you’re our second Brit that’s joined the show, although the first one, Howard, who’s a dear friend of mine, lives in the States now, but we’ll, you know, you can forgive him for that.

[00:31:18] But you actually live across the pond, right? In Berkshire? Did I pronounce that correctly?

[00:31:24] Laura Goodey: Yeah, I mean, it’s any way you want, I say Berkshire, but I would have said,

[00:31:30] Matt Hummel: I would have said. Cause I’m from Texas, Berkshire, Berkshire, but do you have any, do you have any recommendations for listeners who may find yourself out in that area?

[00:31:41] Laura Goodey: Um, yeah, absolutely. We are spoilt for choice here, honestly. Like our surroundings are really green. Um, you’ve got Windsor, the Cotswolds, um, we’re 40 minutes from London. There’s probably more farm shops and spas than you can shake a stick at. So yeah, I love, I love it here. Um, and if you do make it here in Windsor, there’s this lovely walk through the Great Park.

[00:32:05] So it’s all land that’s owned by the castle, but you can walk through it freely. And there’s this lovely long path up through the gardens to the castle. You sometimes see deer and parrots. It’s, it’s really lovely.

[00:32:19] Matt Hummel: That sounds beautiful. Arrrgh! Rather, I’ve heard that the Cotswolds is amazing.

[00:32:26] Laura Goodey: It’s stunning, yeah.

[00:32:28] Matt Hummel: That’s cool. I was out at the Babington house a few weeks ago, which I believe is in Somerset or Soho. It’s not Soho. It’s part of the Soho house. Are you familiar with that area at all?

[00:32:38] Laura Goodey: Yeah. Yeah. Really lovely. It’s very, very green and just the countryside is, it gives you, it feeds your soul.

[00:32:47] Matt Hummel: It does. And you know, all the time I’ve spent in the UK really has been in the city.

[00:32:51] And so to get out into the countryside was an entirely different experience and gave me. A new appreciation, I would say for the broader London and UK area, because it was, it was breathtaking.

[00:33:02] Laura Goodey: It’s amazing. Well, next time you’re here, then we should meet in the Cotswolds. Um, when you bring that mug for the pipeline brew.

[00:33:11] Matt Hummel: You got it. Deal. All right. Well, last question. I know you’re a big traveler. What is your favorite place you’ve ever been to and what’s next for you travel wise?

[00:33:21] Laura Goodey: Um, yeah, I do love to travel, uh, seeing other cultures and meeting new people, having new experiences. That’s the kind of thing that really lights me up.

[00:33:31] It’s hard to pick a favorite, but probably, I mean, Jamaica is actually one of the greatest places on earth to visit. Um, it’s really beautiful. The people there are amazing. The music, the food, the trips, you get a lot from that trip. Italy actually is beautiful. Similar. It has similar qualities, but very different, of course, to Jamaica.

[00:33:53] I would have not

[00:33:53] Matt Hummel: guessed that.

[00:33:54] Laura Goodey: Yeah. But just the fact that it’s all, it ticks all those boxes, you know, the trip, the food, the people, the wine. Yeah.

[00:34:03] Matt Hummel: Yeah. Well, I’m starting to, I’m starting to think that you’re the type of person who doesn’t have a favorite. It’s got to at least be two, if not three

[00:34:11] Laura Goodey: favorites.

[00:34:11] So many. Um, and I also love to see live events when I’m away. So actually we came to New York the year before last and oh my God, it was so good.

[00:34:23] Matt Hummel: You loved it.

[00:34:24] Laura Goodey: I loved it and we went to a Giants game and we saw the Knicks play. Um, yeah, nobody on the planet does sport like the U. S.

[00:34:34] Matt Hummel: No, Madison Square Garden and MetLife Stadium, those are iconic.

[00:34:38] So that’s, you did right. That’s awesome.

[00:34:41] Laura Goodey: We did go for it. Yeah. All right. So what about what’s next for you? Yeah. No, I don’t, we don’t actually have a solid plan yet. We’re exploring Borneo to go and see the orangutans, which I would truly love. Um, it’s kind of been a lifelong dream, so I’m hoping that we might be able to get to do that, who knows.

[00:35:01] Matt Hummel: That would be amazing.

[00:35:03] Laura Goodey: It really would. You get to like get up close and yeah, like cuddle the orangutans. How cool is that?

[00:35:09] Matt Hummel: What an amazing, yeah, you have to do it. All right. If we’re going to meet in the Cotswolds, then you have to go see Borneo and hang out with the orangutans.

[00:35:16] Laura Goodey: Deal.

[00:35:18] Matt Hummel: All right. Well, Laura, this has been an amazing conversation.

[00:35:21] I really appreciate you taking the time today and I know our listeners are going to get a ton out of it. So thank you so much.

[00:35:26] Laura Goodey: Thank you so much for having me.

[00:35:28] Matt Hummel: Absolutely.

[00:35:32] Thanks again to Laura for joining us on today’s episode of the Pipeline Brew. I hope you all enjoyed the conversation as much as I did. Please leave me a comment with your thoughts and make sure you subscribe to the show so you’ll never miss an episode. Once again, I’m Matt Hummel and I’ll see you next time.