What's your story?
Communications makeovers for ambitious organisations
Our clients say...
Daniel Sheriff
CEO, TXF and Proximo; Advisor, Ishka
Lise and Alexi at What's Your Story? have worked on a number of branding projects with us - some of which have not yet launched. The aim has been to design a family of complementary brands that deliver an impact greater than the sum of their individual parts.
The process began with an exercise in which we defined what each brand needed to achieve, before considering brand names that would support this. Lise's approach to naming matches creativity with focus, allowing for the unexpected as well those ideas that were right under our noses.
Having landed on a name, Lise and designer Alexi Vasiliou then work on a visual concept. At the end of each exercise we have a handbook determining brand guidelines, plus full suites of logo shapes and file types, able to be adapted across our many needs, from websites, newsletters and social media profiles, to banners, popups and more.
We find them personable, earnest, flexible and focussed on delivering great work. We began working with What's Your Story? in early 2018. Since then they have supported us with developing our new project finance and infrastructure brand Proximo, launched last year. They re-designed the Tagmydeals logo, enhanced our TXF logo, and worked up a number of new brands set to launch over the coming 18 months.
Each brand helps us attract new audiences to our brand family and to service their niche business requirements, in sectors where skillsets are changing rapidly, as are audience characteristics.
The What's Your Story? team has been able to appreciate the professional landscapes we serve and support us in meeting those changing requirements.
Rory Brown
CEO AgriBriefing
What's Your Story? worked with us on a project by project basis from 2016, initially working with the executive team on developing corporate messaging that reflected the new direction our business was taking. This messaging explained to investors, our audiences, and our own teams, who we are and what we do, given our new focus at the time.
Later they worked on developing our new corporate branding and identity, as we became AgriBriefing. They managed the design work, delivery of design variants, and application of the new designs. The news launch and media outreach were also delivered by What's Your Story? And Lise worked on the text and imagery for the new website.
The next step in telling our story was to develop a corporate video. Lise put together a team of camera operators, graphic designers and editor, supported the script development, worked well with our spokespeople, and delivered a product that we're extremely happy with.
We have valued her strategic counsel on communications matters and her genuine interest in our business and our brands.
For us, What's Your Story? has been an all-round provider of Communications services, delivered on time, on budget, and in a respectful, accessible and reassuring manner. Lise has been great to work with all along the way and I would recommend her highly.
Gehan Talwatte
Serial entrepreneur
Lise Colyer of What's Your Story? has supported many corporate clients I've been involved with, for about 20 years now, on both a retained and project basis.
Lise has developed corporate identities and messaging for new and evolving companies, and managed the associated design work.
She has built media profiles across UK and global media outlets, creating lasting relationships with journalists that continue to serve her clients.
She's also produced corporate videos involving multiple participants and locations and complex dynamics.
She produces content not just for media dissemination, but also for company websites, social media and print publications.
Lise Colyer is insightful, empathetic and diligent, always working hard to get the best for her clients.
Ru Watkins
CEO, Noah's Ark Children's Hospice
Lise of What's Your Story? joined Noah's Ark on a consultancy basis to devise our first ever communications strategy. An initial three-month engagement led to an 18-month+ engagement on a retained basis.
Shortly after Lise joined, we entered a charity partnership with Tottenham Hotspur Football Club. Lise's ability to identify, manage and deliver complicated, high-profile, national and global media opportunities became invaluable.
She worked between the charity's children and families, and celebrity supporters, and the premier league club's communications team to help deliver monthly high-profile media outputs. These outputs included regular film packages produced ahead of appearances with players, screened at Tottenham matches, shared via social media from the club's website, and disseminated to the news media.
Highlights included a Noah's Ark child joining coach Mauricio Pochettino at a pre-match press conference to launch the charity partnership - used extensively in a Sky Sports news package and featured by most of the national news print and broadcast media. England striker Harry Kane visited a Noah's Ark family for Match of the Day and the Sun newspaper. A Noah's Ark child walked on to the pitch with club captain and French national team captain Hugo Lloris. Kyle Walker visited a school attended by a number of Noah's Ark children. Mousa Dembele got behind the till at one of our charity shops to help out. And legend Ledley King continues to support many of our events.
Another key initiative Lise delivered was a call to action to the building industry, asking for the donation of goods and services to reduce the cost of our hospice build. This included developing a relationship with Irvine Sellar, who built London's Shard, designed by Renzo Piano.
She delivered a new, sustainably priced website for our charity, as well as a bespoke site for our relationship with Tottenham Hotspur Football Club. Lise created essential strategic procedures and policies, overhauled our print and digital publications schedule, and enhanced our social media activity.
She provided media training to support us in delivering new key messages.
Her flexible approach incorporated weekend and evening activities. Her ongoing loyalty and support is greatly appreciated.
Andrew Pavord
Founder and director at FilmFixer, Apply4 Tech, LocationFinder.ai and Screen Suffolk lead
Lise joined us on a retained consultancy basis in 2013, at a time when our company was expanding significantly.
Her communications plan was designed firstly to help us talk about ourselves, as the company came to terms with its own rapid change. But also, to deliver the needs of our clients, attract and retain clients, help attract film productions into our locations, and support our efforts to ensure sustainability in a rapidly growing sector.
Our marketing requirements are complex and continue to increase as our company grows. Lise’s coherent approach has flexed and adapted as needed to ensure we are better known, better liked and better understood in our business sector, on an ongoing basis.
Through good planning, strong relationships, and a genuine interest in our business, Lise continues to meet our many priorities. She is a trusted representative for us at many levels, from unemployed young people we are helping to train, to journalists across the news spectrum, clients and prospects.
For us, her greatest value is in the proactive media programme she runs, delivering us and our clients positive publicity on a weekly basis. Her delivery programme also includes website content, social media output, e-newsletter development and delivery, running surveys, and conference support. She steps in with photography and filming when needed as well.
Paul Sheridan
CEO at Accipiter Holdings DAC
I worked with Lise to raise Ascend's profile as both experts in aviation and aircraft finance and as the owners of the best data in the industry.
Because of the global nature of the aviation business, this required work in all parts of the world to respond to local events and present ideas affecting the industry as a whole. Lise did a fantastic job in securing print and film coverage for Ascend in all of the major media outlets including the Economist, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Reuters and Bloomberg as well as local trade and general media in Asia, the Middle East, Europe and the Americas.
She planned campaigns well and worked tirelessly behind the scenes to execute them. Through this process, she created lasting relationships between Ascend and the various media sources making Ascend's experts first on the call list when major aviation stories break.
A sample of cuttings related to this endorsement:
Aircraft leasing - Buy or rent? | Business | The Economist
21 Jan 2012 - Paul Sheridan of Ascend, an aviation consultancy, reckons that of the world's top four owners of airliners, two are lessors: GECAS, with 1,732 ...
Airlines struggle to secure jet financing | Financial Times
25 Mar 2012 - Paul Sheridan, Ascend's head of consultancy in Asia, said airlines were likely to follow lessors in making greater use of the bond markets to pay ...
Narrow-body sales dominate aircraft orders | Financial Times
21 Jul 2010 - Each day has seen a pile of new aircraft orders that the two industry groups ... “ Airlines are still a little bit bruised,” said Paul Sheridan, Ascend's ...
Airbus green light for A320 engine offer | Financial Times
1 Dec 2010 - “It is hard to find too many people in the banking and finance world who think the NEO is a good idea,” said Paul Sheridan of the Ascend ...
Funding shortfall puts aircraft orders at risk | Financial Times
18 Dec 2011 - Paul Sheridan, head of risk advisory at Ascend, another aviation consultancy, says Chinese and Japanese banks, including ICBC and Bank of ...
Boeing in research tie-up with China's Comac | Financial Times
6 Mar 2012 - Paul Sheridan, head of consultancy in Asia for Ascend, an advisory firm, said: “ This collaboration between Boeing and Comac can be seen as ...
Boeing, DAE in Cancellation Talks - WSJ
8 Jul 2011 - Ascend Worldwide's head of risk advisory Paul Sheridan said the ... of its orders on four other occasions in the past year," Mr. Sheridan said.
Should Mexicana's Airplane Leasing Firms Be Worried? - The ...
4 Aug 2010 - Paul Sheridan, head of risk advisory, EMEA at Ascend Worldwide tells me that of the ... Independent of The Wall Street Journal newsroom.
Jet-Leasing Firms Go on Buying Spree - Wall Street Journal
23 Dec 2010 - "Lessors have gone from just being a source of airplanes to being a source of financing," says Paul Sheridan, Ascend's head of risk advisory in ...
Airbus to Update A320 With New Engines and Wings - The ...
1 Dec 2010 - ... does not represent a major financial risk for Airbus or its parent company, ... in allocating engineering and manufacturing resources at a time when it is ... is a good idea,” said Paul Sheridan, head of European risk at Ascend, ...
Airbus A320 engines to get 1bn-euro upgrade - BBC News
1 Dec 2010 - ... C919," said Paul Sheridan, aviation analyst with Ascend Worldwide. ... step change in economics and operating costs," according to Ascend.
Aerospace finance key to new orders - BBC News
20 Jul 2010 - But at the same time, he warned that ever tighter budget constraints meant ... to Paul Sheridan, head of risk advisory at Ascend, an aerospace ...
Boeing's 747-400, a Faded Queen of the Skies - Bloomberg
21 Jun 2012 - “There's not a lot of demand for the 747,” says Paul Sheridan, Ascend's head of consultancy Asia. “They're mostly being broken up for parts.”.
Cashed-up Chinese aircraft lessors spread their wings - Reuters
12 Dec 2012 - International Lease Finance Corp (ILFC), the aviation arm of U.S. ... Paul Sheridan, chief Asia consultant for specialist aviation think-tank Ascend. ... ( Buying ILFC) will help Chinese airlines to get more aircraft,” Ascend's Sheridan said. ... from $8 billion today and to $12-13 billion in five years time,” he said.
Sanjay Sarathy
Chief Marketing Officer at Sumo Logic
Lise did a great job for us when Vindicia chose to enter the UK market. We needed a team that could quickly understand our unique needs in the subscription billing market and Lise, as part of the Tannissan Mae team, was able to create significant coverage for us in a short period of time as we broke into the market.
We obtained coverage in high-profile publications like CNBC and The Guardian as well as in specific, niche publications like RealBusiness and Fourth Source, and were able to create visibility for ourselves through speaking opportunities via the Guardian's Changing Media Summit. Lise's energy level, attention to detail and understanding of the market was a huge asset.
Robert Nisbet
Westminster Correspondent at Sky News
I worked with Lise, when she was Corporate Communications Manager at Southwark Council, and I was a Special Correspondent for BBC TV News. She asked me to speak to her staff in the press office about how to deal with journalists on breaking news stories.
It was clear from the outset that she was hugely respected by her colleagues. Lise is adept at enthusing and inspiring people - I would say she is clearly a people person. She also understands the business from both sides of the fence: what journalists require to do their jobs and their constraints, while understanding how to inject her client's message into their coverage. I have no hesitation in recommending her to any potential client.
Rohit Jaggi
Financial Times
Lise played a key role in setting up a sophisticated infographic on the FT's website dedicated to business aviation, marshalling resources to make it happen. The result, which is still live and updated fortnightly, continues to be a huge success both for the FT and for Lise's client.