"My eight sessions with Steve have genuinely changed the way I think about myself and my career. He has helped me work through mental blocks, some of which I didn’t even realise were there, identify obstacles and gain clarity on areas I had struggled to make sense of on my own.

Steve has a real ability to ask the question you perhaps hadn’t thought to ask yourself, or had been avoiding. He challenges you in the right way and has a knack for getting beneath the surface rather than simply dealing with the obvious. There were a number of occasions where a seemingly simple question opened up a completely different way of thinking about something.

What I particularly valued was that the sessions never felt formulaic. Steve gave me the space to explore where my thinking was coming from, while knowing when to challenge an assumption or push the conversation in a direction I might not naturally have taken myself. Quite often, the most useful insights were things that, somewhere deep down, I probably already knew but hadn’t been able to articulate or properly confront.

The impact has gone beyond simply thinking about the next step in my career. I have a much clearer understanding of what motivates me, what can get in my way, where I want to focus my energy and, importantly, why. I’ve come away with greater self-awareness and a different perspective on some of the assumptions I had been carrying around for a long time.

Steve strikes a very effective balance between listening, challenging and giving you the space to find your own answers. He doesn’t tell you what to think or what you should do. Instead, he helps you understand your own thinking well enough to make better decisions for yourself.

A skilled operator, insightful and challenging when needed, and someone who has made a real difference to the way I think about myself and my career. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend him."

Tom Beastall, Executive Director, Rullion Ltd

“I came to Steve at a pivotal moment — I had a presentation to give about my creative practice and, while I knew the work deeply, I couldn't quite find the thread that would bring it all together for an audience. What Steve did was remarkable. He didn't just help me organise my ideas — he helped me understand the story I was already telling, and then helped me tell it with real clarity and confidence. He has a rare ability to listen carefully, ask the right questions, and gently draw out something that feels both true and compelling. By the end of our work together, my presentation was transformed. The narrative had shape and momentum, I knew how to open and close with impact, and — perhaps most importantly — I felt genuinely confident standing behind it. If you're a creative person who struggles to articulate the value or meaning of what you do, Steve is exactly who you need. I couldn't recommend him more highly.”

Caroline Oleron, Artist, Brighton

“Using CRAFT helped me to reframe my approach and lessen my anxiety ahead of a job interview and presentation I needed to prepare for. I was able to creatively change the narrative to capture the audience attention, whilst meaningfully retaining the aims and scope of the project.

The value of what Story of Business had to offer has been exceptional! I was successfully offered a job following an interview I had prepared for with support from Steve using CRAFT, and I am very grateful to have been introduced to such a creative and useful approach.”

Dr Elizabeth Dudeney, Research Fellow, School of Health and Medical Sciences, City St George’s, University of London

“Steve worked with me to understand key elements of storytelling and engagement, which enabled me to completely reframe the approach I was taking to developing a new University of Sussex “super-elective” module aligned with the Sussex 2035 strategy. In particular, it helped me see how to frame not just the module as a whole, but each individual session, in a way that moves beyond abstract content and instead places the student at the centre of a broken world they are inheriting. The framework gave me a way of structuring the module so that students get a clear sense of the kinds of new thinking they need from different disciplinary perspectives and how this might enable them to play a role in transforming the real world rather than just reflecting on it. Most importantly, it reframed the module as a call to identity — an invitation to students not just to engage with these issues intellectually, but to see themselves as change-makers working on some of the biggest challenges of our time. In that sense, it offers a powerful way of translating the ambitions of the 2035 strategy into a lived student experience.”

David Ockwell, Professor of Sustainability and International Development, Department of Geography, University of Sussex