Heather Barnett has turned B2B marketing’s most awkward habits into a comedy career, and after years as a copywriter she has a folder on her laptop labelled examples of terrible copy that could fill an entire episode on its own. Heather explains why fear, not lack of imagination, is the real reason B2B marketing is so afraid to be different, why every website ends up sounding the same once it goes through what she calls the professionalisation machine, and why comedy has become a legitimate, paid channel for B2B brands willing to be honest about themselves.

Heather gets into exactly why B2B copy so often ends up as meaningless jargon by the time it is signed off, and why the businesses saying the most generic things are usually the ones most afraid of saying anything specific at all. She talks through where her sketch ideas actually come from, how comedy lets people recognise their own working lives without her having to call anyone out directly, and why she thinks marketers are trusted less than almost anyone else in a business despite everyone having an opinion on their work. It is a properly funny conversation, but underneath the jokes is a genuinely useful argument for why standing out matters more than fitting in, and why the fear holding most B2B marketers back is far less rational than it feels.

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Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
1:22 From Head of Marketing to Freelance Copywriter
3:09 Why Heather Started Making Comedy Skits on LinkedIn
4:26 Why B2B Marketing Is Too Afraid to Stand Out
7:08 The Folder Full of Examples of Terrible Copy
10:50 Why Nobody Trusts Marketers to Do Their Job
13:44 Where the Ideas for Her Sketches Actually Come From
19:25 Practical Advice for Marketers Stuck Playing It Safe
23:19 Why People Champion the Humans Behind a Brand
28:14 Getting Paid as a B2B Comedy Creator

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