Emma Stratton 👊

Punchy is a consulting and training firm that helps the world's leading B2B tech companies win on positioning and messaging.

Our approach connects the dots between your tech and your prospect’s world so your company can tell a story that sticks, stand out in the crowd, and sell more.
 
Basically, we make it ridiculously easy for buyers to see why your solution matters.

And we can either do it for you, or we can train your team to do it themselves.

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Feel free to connect, follow, or get in touch 👊

-- Newsletter: https://www.punchy.co/newsletter
-- Website: https://www.punchy.co

Founder

Punchy is a consulting and training firm that helps fast-growing B2B tech companies win on positioning and messaging. 

Positioning & Messaging Strategy for when you want to:

-- Connect to what your prospects really care about
-- Differentiate from similar solutions and stand out
-- Align your team around a strategic story
-- Clarify your product’s unique value 
-- Create consistency for a growing team
-- Launch a new product
-- Go after new verticals or markets
-- Create a new category

Messaging Training for when you want to:

-- Raise the standard of messaging across your org
-- Give your team a consistent, repeatable process to count on
-- Build your team’s confidence in their own skills
-- Infuse new thinking and ideas into current messaging
-- Cut down the frustration of revisions and rewrites

Learn more at www.punchy.co

I'm building something new and would love your help.

I’m looking to interview a few women freelancers, consultants, and aspiring business owners for short research conversations.

The project is about helping women build businesses that truly align with who they are, so they can experience more freedom, fulfillment, and abundance in their lives.

It explores topics like intuition, mindset, manifestation, and energy in business.

I’d love to hear about your experiences and questions around things like:

-- Starting or growing a business
-- Making more money doing work you love
-- Following your passion and purpose
-- Or anything else that’s part of your journey

These would be casual 30-minute conversations and will help shape what I’m creating.

If you’d be open to chatting, send me a DM. And if you know someone who might be a good fit, feel free to tag them here.

I really appreciate it (and my dog Raven does too 🐶) 💛

Emma Stratton

Messaging for B2B tech | Author of Make It Punchy 📚

Your audience trying to untangle that mess of jargon on your website 🙂 

As a general rule of thumb, Punchy messaging avoids these 3 types of jargon:

1. Corporate speak (like synergy, leverage, and bandwidth)
2. Buzzwords and hype (like best-of-breed and game-changing)
3. Internal lingo (like composable automation or attacker-centric threat intelligence)

You can sometimes sneak in a 4th type of jargon:

4. Deep tech talk (like ML-defined data abstraction) 

But use that last type sparingly. It’s techy jargon only an expert will understand and you risk confusing (or boring) your business buyers.

When in doubt…

Take the jargon out 👊

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Grab my free e-book to help figure out which jargon to ditch (and which is safe to keep)

🔗 Link in comments

One of my mindset coaching clients, a CMO of a tech company, wondered aloud if it was possible to “have it all” — in her case, the job, the money, the time with her family, and the time for herself.

She was very successful but felt it always came at the expense of something else.

I told her that it depends on your definition of “having it all.” If it means you finally have what your heart most deeply wants, then I believe it’s not only possible for us…it’s our birthright. We are meant to have the things that are in our hearts.

But…what your heart most deeply wants doesn’t necessarily look like the traditional list of things we file under “having it all.”

We tend to want things because we think we’ll feel a certain way once we get there. For example:

“If I make more money, I’ll have more freedom.”
“If I stick it out at this job, I’ll have more choices later.”
“If I save enough now, I’ll have more time for my kids.”

We calculate our future with the formula: If I do X, then I’ll feel Y.

But life doesn’t always add up so neatly.

We can get too fixated on the X when Y is what we really want — and these are often things we can feel right now.

You can experience moments of feeling free, even when you’re in a job you don’t love. You can be present with your kids while your finances are imperfect. You can exercise your choice in different ways throughout the day.

I helped my client shift her focus from the many things she felt she needed to be, do and have to what she ultimately wanted to experience: more presence and time with her loved ones.

This was something she could experience right now, even if she didn’t technically have it all. And it shifted her energy towards abundance, rather than lack.

So let’s stop putting off the things we truly want or thinking that we need to earn them.

And see if there’s a way to experience it right now. 

Even if it’s just for a moment 💛

There’s one step we all seem guilty of rushing in the messaging process:


Brainstorming.

It’s like we’ve all collectively decided we can’t share raw, unfiltered thoughts with anyone else so we try to polish them up from the get go.

But you’re only cheating yourself.

Here’s why you should embrace the mess (and forget the fear of “looking stupid”) 👇

Are you cheating yourself out of this crucial step?

Sometimes it’s the thing you don’t chase that’s most meant for you.


For a long time, I didn’t think messaging for B2B tech was my thing.

I even had people telling me that it wasn’t a thing that would work.

So I didn’t chase it.

But I kept getting pulled back to it. 

It took me a while to realize I wasn’t choosing my role as a messaging strategist. Messaging strategy chose ME.

You don’t always find your thing by chasing it. Sometimes it finds you.

All you can do is pay attention to what’s pulling you back.

If you still haven’t found your “niche” (or you’ve been fighting it), maybe it’s time to take inventory. 

Check in yourself and ask:

-- What do people keep asking me for?
-- What part of the project do clients expand?
-- What do colleagues instinctively turn to me for?
-- What comes most easily to me?

That thing staring you in the face might be the thing you’re meant for.

Even if you didn’t plan for it 💛

There’s something I wish more marketers heard sooner:


If your messaging feels complicated, it’s not because you’re bad at your job.

It’s because you CARE about what you’re selling. 

You know how much went into it and you see all the reasons it matters.

So when you try to explain it, everything wants to come out at once.

That instinct to include more, not less, isn’t a personal failure or a flaw. It’s just what happens when you’re so close to the work.

And the clarity you see with effective messaging doesn’t happen automatically. It has to be chosen. Over and over again.

So if you’re staring at messaging that feels bloated or heavy or “almost there,” take a breath.

You’re on the right track.

You’re just at the part of the process where your “care” for the thing you’re writing about needs a little editing.

And that’s a skill you can learn 💛

Understanding messaging isn’t the same as being able to *do* messaging.

You can watch someone walk through the process, you can read the frameworks, and you can follow along, nodding, “Yes, yes, that makes sense.”

But messaging doesn’t really click until you’re the one doing the writing.

When you create messaging yourself (and get feedback as you go), something different happens. 

You get to apply the thinking in real time. 

When you’re making decisions, refining language, strengthening clarity, and seeing how small changes improve the message, your messaging skills get to develop.

And because the learning is happening in the moment, it sticks.

I see this all the time in my messaging training:

Marketers come in unhappy with their first draft because the language feels dry or unclear, and by the end, the messaging is punchy, focused, and something they feel genuinely good about. 

And just as important, they understand WHY it works.

That’s the difference between consuming messaging advice and practicing messaging.

By the end of this kind of work, you don’t just have better messaging. You also have confidence in what you’re created and confidence that you can do it again the next time.

The goal is to get you saying:

“I feel excited about my messaging again!”

If you want to build real messaging skills like this for your team (or yourself), my training gives you space to learn by doing, with guidance and feedback throughout.

I've got an April cohort coming up for individual marketers, and I'm always open for teams 👊

How do you know the difference between your intuition and that mental chatter inside your head?

It’s a really good question, and one I used to wonder about myself.

The easiest way I’ve found to tell them apart is to pay attention to how the voice sounds and how it feels.

Your thoughts are usually very loud. 

They’re incessant. You hear the chatter all day, repeating itself (often on a loop).

And the language typically isn’t particularly loving 😅 It can make you feel a lot of guilt and shame, and usually starts with something you “should” do. 

If the voice in your head is saying “you should be doing this” or “you should have done that,” that’s not your intuition. 

That’s your mind trying to shame you into feeling guilty.

Intuition sounds very different.

It’s quiet.

So quiet, in fact, that you can only hear it when there’s space. When you’re not running from one thing to the next with no downtime at all.

If you’ve had a crazy day, week, or month, and you’ve been constantly in motion, almost everything you’re hearing is coming from your conscious mind. 

There’s little room for intuition to speak, or for you to hear it.

When you do make space, intuition starts to show up in the small things like a thought that gently arises, a soft feeling, or a sense in your body. 

That’s why ideas often come in the shower, while doing the dishes, on a walk, on a run, or even while taking a nap – because things have quieted down enough for that voice to be heard.

And when intuition gives guidance, it’s loving. There’s no shame in it. 

It feels wise, compassionate, and calm. It might sound like, “I’m not going to do that anymore,” or “I love myself enough to choose something different.”

I guess you could say there’s a knowing to it that gives you that sense of calm clarity.

If you want to access your intuition more, try to cultivate those moments of quiet and stillness. 

Give yourself breathing room during the day.

Even if all you can fit in is 10 minutes to close your eyes and focus on deep inhales and exhales…

That can be enough to start hearing that quieter, wiser voice that’s been there all along 💛

If everyone is using the same buzzwords to talk about their product, differentiation is dead, right?

Not quite 😉

In tomorrow's That's Punchy! newsletter, I break down how to differentiate in a way your buyers will actually care about…

Even when everyone else in your category is following the same messaging playbook.

I’ll share:

-- Why features create “same same” white noise that makes customers tune out
-- How to translate your messaging into something buyers can emotionally connect with
-- A formula you can use to build a clear, unique story that sets you apart

Make sure to subscribe in the comments if you’re tired of being overlooked because you sound exactly like everyone else.

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Get better at B2B tech messaging. Join my That’s Punchy! newsletter and get practical tips and techniques in your inbox every other week 👊

A comment from a recent Punchy Messaging student captured something important.

AI can help you write faster, but it can’t decide what actually matters.

One thing I keep hearing from marketers lately is how much pressure there is to produce content faster. And yes, AI can absolutely help with that. But the core work of messaging hasn’t really changed.

You still have to work out what the product actually does, why it matters, and what the buyer truly cares about.

That kind of thinking — the kind that leads to clarity — can’t be outsourced to a tool.

If anything, it matters even more now 👊

Even boring products can be fun to write messaging for if you don’t feel boxed in.

When I do messaging training, I often hear how many opinions the team is contending with. 

Usually there’s an expectation of certain (overused) buzzwords that need to get crammed in. Or there’s a level of "sameness" that marketers feel they have to stick with.

Which doesn’t leave much room to wander and try something new that might surprise you.

If messaging feels heavy right now, look for where you have a little freedom:

-Try leading with a different benefit 
-Imagine your reader in a different moment than usual
-Remove something and trust your reader to fill in the rest

Or (and this is one of my favorites), ask yourself, “What would I try if legal didn’t exist?” 😜

Sometimes you don’t even need the external approval…just the freedom of letting yourself explore. 

Even a small shift can bring you back to the fun in messaging 👊

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✏️ Join my April messaging training cohort. Only a few spots left

What should you do if leadership insists on using the same tired phrases as everyone else?

Don’t tell them why human-first messaging is so much better.

Show them 👀

It’s hands-down one of THE most uncomfortable messaging exercises for people like your executives, marketing team, and head of sales to sit through…

Which is exactly why you need to do it. 

I’ve used this exercise over and over again and it’s never failed me.

So sign up before my next newsletter goes out tomorrow (Wednesday 18th) and I’ll tell you why (and of course, *how*) it works 👊

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Want to get better at B2B tech messaging? Join my That’s Punchy! newsletter and get practical tips and techniques in your inbox every other week 🎉

Following your heart is one of the safest things you can do. 


And yet, we can think otherwise. Especially when your heart is whispering something at odds with your current situation, like:

Work doesn’t feel as fulfilling as it used to…
This relationship doesn’t feel quite right…
I would love to live closer to the ocean…
I wish I could just paint all day…

The voice of your heart is soft, honest, and loving. But our mind gets freaked out by these ideas 
because they point towards change–and the ancient part of our brain equates change with danger.

And so our conscious mind tries to keep us safe in our status quo and speaks up with all the reasons you can’t do those things. Like: 

“If you change careers, you’ll have to start all over again at the bottom.”
“You might not meet someone else in time to start a family.”
“It’s way more expensive to live by the ocean – you can’t afford that.”
“So you’re just going to PAINT all day?! Ha!”

The voice of your conscious mind can sound judgey, pessimistic, and critical. (See how different it sounds from the voice of the heart?) But we label its thoughts as “realistic” or “rational.”

If you find yourself in a moment where your head and heart are in conflict, try this: recall a time in your past where you followed your heart and it paid off. Look back on the roundabout way that things eventually worked out in the end.

Then ask yourself: was that journey or experience something you could have mapped out from start-to-finish beforehand?

Or did it involve coincidence, luck, chance encounters, and seemingly out-of-the-blue opportunities that are impossible to plan?

That’s the beauty of following your heart. You don’t know how it’s all going to work out but you trust that it will. 

Because if the dream or idea is in your heart, then it’s meant for you. Why else would it be there? 💛

Less “how it works.” More “why it matters.”

When someone feels understood, it stops being messaging and starts building trust 🙌 

Thank you so much for sharing Charity Dodd and for the recommendation Yi Lin Pei 🙏

Director of Product Marketing I Product Marketing Certified I Marketing and Content Management I B2B SaaS I K12 Education I Podcast Host I Continuous Learner

This book changed how I think about messaging. It pushed me to focus less on explaining how something works and more on clearly communicating why it matters to our customers. 

Big takeaway for me: good messaging isn’t about sounding smart. It’s about making people feel understood.

If you work in product marketing or B2B tech, read, Make it Punchy by Emma Stratton  

Thanks, Yi Lin Pei for recommending this for me! 

#PMM #ProductMarketing #edtech

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When you write the messaging and convince yourselves clarity can come later (in sales calls, demos, onboarding, etc.)

Except…

You never actually GET to later since your prospects are stuck with that icky first impression of confusion.

Resist the temptation to “explain later.”

(Because you’ll probably never have the chance.)

Make your message clear from the start 👊

The difference between generic messaging and powerful messaging isn’t really about cleverness.

It's about...

How close are you to what your buyer is actually feeling?
How well can you name the moment they’ve lived through?

When you move from surface pain to specific lived experience, the pull gets stronger 👊 

Thanks so much for reading and sharing, Mustafa Jafri 🙏

🚀 Leading performance creatives + paid media @ Scaleup Lab

The more AI fluff I see, the clearer messaging becomes.

Strip away all the noise, and you're left with one job:

Channel desire.

Not create it. Channel it.

Because the desire is already there. Your audience already wants something. They're already in pain. They're already looking for a way out.

Your only job is to show them you understand.

And there are levels to this.

Let's say you're selling a battery protection device to RV owners.

Level 1: Noob level messaging
"Worried about your battery dying? We got you."

It works. But it's generic. Anyone could say this.

Level 2: Alright, you're trying
"Tired of replacing your RV battery every 18 months because it drained while sitting in storage?"

Now we're talking to someone who's lived this exact problem.

Level 3: Now you're nailing it
"Still keeping a jump pack in your glovebox, even with a brand new battery?"

This is intimacy. This is research. This is proof you actually know them.

The deeper you go, the stronger the pull.

P.s. Emma Stratton is the goat of messaging.

Watching someone else write doesn’t make you better at writing.

In my experience, you have to do it.

Candice from my last public training cohort described this nicely in the quote below.

Messaging is a skill. And like any skill, it improves with reps

That’s why my cohort is built around actually working on your messaging during the sessions. Students apply the frameworks live, share ideas, and get feedback.

When you’ve practiced it yourself and not just watched someone explain it,  that’s when things start to click... and stick 👊 

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Join my April training cohort through the link in the comments 🔗

If you’re stuck on your messaging, don’t scrap your whole “big idea” just yet!

You might just be stuck because you’ve been sitting with it alone for too long.

Messaging gets sharper faster through conversation with peers, colleagues, your team, your clients, or the simple act of saying it out loud.

If you can let someone reflect it back to you so you can hear where it lands and where it doesn’t…even better.

Give this a go the next time you feel stuck:

Share a rough version of your message with one other person and ask, “What part feels clear? Where do you get lost?”

I know it’s hard, but fight the urge to be precious about it. 

Now is not the time for perfectionism 😉

You’ll probably get unstuck faster (and waste a lot less time) that way 👊

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