Case study

Rated People

The background

Andy Skipwith is the CEO of Rated People, a fast-growing online company which connects home-improvers with recommended tradesmen. Rated People has been able to successfully monetise the concept of creating a network matching jobs with those with the skills to do them.

Andy had been offered the opportunity to make a speech at the Ideal Home Show in London, a high profile event full of Rated People’s target market of home-improvers and extensively covered by the media. He was keen to make a good impact and raise the profile of his company.

The approach

Karen Glossop began by helping Andy Skipwith define his and Rated People’s communication strategy, and then identifying how this new opportunity would allow him to fulfil his aims. A process was evolved over a time frame of four weeks to explore options and make decisions.

Once Andy had identified his specific objectives and what impact he wanted to have on his audience, Karen facilitated a series of brainstorming and feedback sessions together with Andy and Rated People’s copywriter, Sophie Griffths. This enabled them to work as a team to create a succinct speech that was logically and persuasively structured, yet had a relaxed, humorous and engaging style.

Once the speech was fixed, Karen coached Andy with the techniques to relax and deliver an assured performance.

Karen also observed Andy in action on a couple of his presentation slots at the Ideal Home Show, and gave recommendations for fine-tuning his performance.

The outcome

Andy had a very positive experience of speaking at the Ideal Home Show, and has received requests to speak at other events. It has allowed him to meet his stated objective of raising awareness of Rated People as an independent, credible, friendly voice in the British home-improvement business.

What they say


Karen, I just wanted to say a big thank you – I got from ‘totally hating it’ to ‘I guess it’s OK really’ in the space of three days which feels like good progress to me. And safe to say you pretty much saved my standup-career-to-be – so thanks very much.
Andy Skipwith
Chief Executive