"SO, What do you do?"

How many times do you hear that question? A random networker, expecting us to sell ourselves in 10 seconds flat. Our brains scramble for an answer, something that makes us memorable, distinctive, unforgettable. A story that turns us from nobody, into somebody they’ll want to work with.  

How many of us actually succeed?

Uniqueness in business is no longer a given. To stand out, you must first stand for something. At Inside Stories, we work with you to tease out the purpose that drives you, and craft the narrative that describes who you are, what you do, and why you do it.  

We dive deep into the heart of your work, tapping into your passion, uncovering your purpose, and helping you dial into what really defines you as a business. Then together, we craft a range of different sized business stories that will capture and inspire your chosen audience, allowing you to authentically engage with the right people, in the right way, every time.  

Whether it’s a 30-second elevator pitch, investor presentation, supplier or franchisee pitch, or even a keynote speech, you’ll be able to deliver a story that will captivate, move and trigger a call to action, always leaving them wanting more.  

We’ll deliver a 60-90 page digital ‘Pick’n‘Mix’ Story Bible, told in your own voice, recrafted and repositioned by us. A narrative that you can recall in the blink of an eye when you need it most.  

A Business Story that’s Meaningful, Memorable and Moving.

The six stage process

Planning your story

Building a narrative that puts the audience first. 

Unlocking Your ‘Why'

Uncovering the purpose that drives and motivates your business. 

Defining Your Behaviours

Identifying the brand culture that differentiates you from the competition. 

Drafting Your Manifesto

Every business with ambition needs a rallying cry, to align employees and engage customers. 

Editing Your Elevator Pitch

Crafting a concise, compelling, and unforgettable positioning statement. 

Finding Your Hero

Structuring your story according to the classic mythological structure – making your brand the hero.

WHAT’S YOUR STORY?

Start-up

For a young or newly established business, storytelling is a compelling and effective way to define the kind of organisation you aspire to be. It’s a chance to determine the change you want to bring to the world with your product or service, as well as establishing the roadmap for how you plan to achieve those goals. A good story will explore the origins of the idea, the expertise you bring to bear, and why investors would want to join you on your journey.

SMEs

There are a number of critical ‘pinch-points’ that can impact the growth and success of any small and medium-sized business. From attracting the next round of investment or expanding the company with new products, services and employees, to exploring new marketing and brand strategies, a clear and coherent story can help get you to that next level. The narrative of your organisation can help candidates, suppliers, investors and partners understand what you need from them, and how they will be instrumental in getting you to the next level in your evolution. Storytelling for business truly is key.

Enterprise

For large businesses, alignment and consistency are essential growth drivers. The challenge is that diverse teams enjoy a shared understanding of the organisation’s strategic direction, as well as their respective role in delivering against it. Collaborative storytelling enables stakeholders to co-create an authentic narrative for the entire business; one that will adapt and flex to reflect the specific priorities of each division. The resulting business story can also inform every aspect of the marketing mix, from advertising and PR to social media and digital, as well as ongoing internal communications and employee engagement programmes.

SERVICES

Full Story

One day immersive workshop for you and your team to flush out who you are as a business and brand. What’s your purpose? What’s your point? What do you bring to the table? Who really are you? 

These emotionally in-depth, highly analytical workshops allow us to create your definitive business manifesto, a branding book that will become your company’s Story Bible. Everything you need for effective communications will be found inside, from audience planning and business purpose, to brand behaviours, tone of voice, elevator pitches and ‘Hero’s Journey’ template. 

Short Story

This intensive one-day program is an introduction to your Business Story, for start-ups and small businesses who want to understand the power of their brand.  

Hosted online via our private, interactive video conferencing suite, over the course of the day you’ll tap into who you are as a company and what your real mission is. We’ll guide you through a range of different workshops to reveal the key, core messaging that underpins your work, concentrating the messages down into several key, salient brand points, including: 

Story before Social

Pre SEO Purpose & Discovery for busy Digital Agencies

If you’re a busy Digital / SEO Agency owner wanting to enhance the discovery and purpose narrative of your customers.
Enabling you to dedicate all your focus on what you do best: to amplify their message through the right channels to reach the largest and most appropriate audiences, at the right time,then read on..

Competitively priced so as NOT to eat into your customers budgets.
Delivering them to you with a complete understanding of who they are and why they matter to their customers.
Confident in their story, with a crystal clear internal and external vocabulary, ready for you to take them on to the next part of their SEO journey.

Story Builder Programme

Learn what it takes to connect your brand to your customer base, with our series of six 90-minute online sessions. Join other entrepreneurs as we cover: 

Just a taste of what can happen with our more in-depth workshops, these collaborative sessions will give you invaluable insight into what makes your company tick, and how you and other business leaders can unlock real growth potential from right inside your brand. 

Meet the team

Terry Bower

The Connector

We all know people who have that innate ability to connect. Naturals in the networking environment, they seem to have some sixth sense about who would be a great fit for who. Inside Stories co-founder and Relationship Director Terry is one such ‘Connector’, finding new opportunities, connecting the dots, and instinctively creating situations where collaborations can truly flourish. 

Gareth Dimelow

The Maven

A natural-born teller of tales, Inside Stories co-founder and Storyteller-in-Chief Gareth has always been able to see life’s narrative. From small situations to sprawling, all-encompassing debacles, Gareth can unpick a hundred individual threads, unravel them with enviable ease, and spin them into stories that bewitch and entrance. Bringing this ability to Inside Stories, he’s helped growing numbers of business owners climb inside their brand identities and really understand what it is that makes them special, different, and unique. 

What our customers say

I thought I knew what messages I was sending out for my business, but the first session with Inside Stories certainly put that on it's butt! I can honestly say that I've never had such a productive business meeting in my career. These two actually care about what you do and what messages you put out there. Having wasted with marketing companies in the past, it was so great to attend Inside Stories 121 workshop. They really pout things in a better, clearer order and made everything make so much more sense. Whether you're just starting out or have been in business a while. Please speak to them, it's amazingly refreshing and well worth the time and money.
Michala Rutherford
Working with Inside Stories changed everything. It's one thing to know what you want to say, but knowing how to say it is another. I was amazed at just how much they not only understood the core of my intentions but also how to draw my story from me in a way that is relatable to a range of audiences. As they help you to fully understand a fructured foundation of an idea and go above and beyond. It was a fascinating and quite a personal process and experience which has given me the tools ans the confidence to go forward with much better understanding of myself, my ambition and story, allowing me to reach a greater audience than I dreamed of. Thanks to some very clever ideas and insightful perspectives. It was an incredible day and one that I would recommend to anyone who's passion drives them to do what they do. They'll help you see more than you thought possible. Inside Stories have opened up a lot of new gateways to success.
Xavier Clarke
Patient 11
Thank you so much for this! I love it.  What can I say! Terry Bower and the Inside Stories experience was mind blowing! I have never been able to explain my vision as articulately as I did in our meeting. Somehow Terry was able to get the information out of my head and onto paper. As the song goes ‘ A kind of magic’ by Queen. Thank you so much for helping me with my award-winning pitch!
Jenny Rayner, CEO
The Lucy Rayner Foundation
What a brilliant team Gareth and Terry are... I have had the most amazing experience with them. They totally got me, my dreams, and my ambitions and what I ultimately want to share with the world. They are genius business story tellers. As Terry says to stand out, you must first stand for something... They have put together an amazing body of work for me to say I feel inspired to go for the next chapter in my career is an enormous understatement!!! It's just so exciting... They have brilliantly articulated my purpose and my passions. I cannot recommend them enough. These guys are the BEST!
Emma Draper
Entrepeneur, Owner of Award Winning Retail Store - Velvet, Property developer, Buy to Let Business. Business Woman of the Year 2023 Surrey and Sussex
For a business that helps companies position themselves to sell more by communicating value. I found it incredibly hard to look inwards and effectively communicate what my company was or what I did. The workshop with Inside Stories was so logical and smooth. I was slightly frustrated that I hadn't been able to do it myself. But this is not uncommon for business owners. Their external perspective and experience were everything and I ended up with punchy articulation that empowers positioning when going to market.
Ben Bennett
Second Voice Pro
In a handful of hours we had fully reconnected with who we are as a business and who we're looking to help! We've since used the outputs from Inside Stories to plug straight into our marketing. To train our team to improve client care and even to inform the refurb of our office space. Eth best outcome of all is that we're now full of giddy excitement about our business. As if we were just starting out! Thank you Gareth and Terry...Just keep doing what you're doing!
Matt Freeman
The Numbers Studio
I loved, loved, loved working with Terry and Gareth from Inside Stories who helped me perfect the Connected Brighton story. Their process is creative and challenging with careful facilitation to get to a narrative that feels right. I highly recommend them!
Lindsey Clay
Connected Brighton
My session with them hepled me lay the foundation for my company's story. It equipped me with a solid framework from which to interact with others about my business in such a way that they listen and are deeply influenced by my message. The outcome was a living, breathing embodiment of my business goals. The why, how and what. All succinctly defined through storytelling. They're my knights in shining armour who helped me to define my purpose over an engaging few hours of soul searching. Peeling back layers and the telling of my story and my journey - and how all my experiences to date have lead me to where I am today.
Lisa Baskott
I can honestly say that the Inside Stories approach to defining our business narrative was the most magical process I've experienced throughout my 15-year entrepreneurial journey. Their understanding and knowledge is second to none. Taking on board all our team's input. Asking insightful questions and getting to know our business inside out. After taking the information away what they created with our story book, manifesto and elevator pitch left me and the team with goosebumps. We now have a cohesive, definitive story to share with our audience and the world. I can't recommend the highly enough. Absolutely brilliant.
Sam Thomas

Get in touch

Hours

Monday – Friday: 9am – 5pm

Saturday – Sunday: Closed