Building a PR Agency from the Ground Up: Lessons Learned and Challenges Faced

Yeah, good. Thank you for having me today.

No, my pleasure.

Yeah, it depends on how long you have. For me, PR was not the career I wanted to do originally. I wanted to be a geography teacher when I was a child. That was interesting. Yeah, I think it was because when you’re a child, you only really know school. So I thought the things that adults do are teachers. So when I want to be an adult, I want to be a teacher. But when I went to university, I realized that there was perhaps a different opportunity available. I did English literature at university, so I fell in love with writing and reading and the critical analysis of things. And it was towards the end of that process that I was really into video games. I still am. I thought, you know what? I love this space. I love technology. What can I do that involves writing for a career? And that led me on my graduation to start applying for jobs. I applied for some in journalism, some in media, some in PR, and some in marketing. I must admit, at the time, I wasn’t very sure really what PR was. I’d dealt on the other side because I had a fan website in video games that I was using just to practice my skills and build a portfolio.

But this small agency called Bamboo PR invited me in for an interview, and I graduated in 2009. So that was right in the middle of the global financial crisis. There weren’t many jobs going around for graduate- College then, yeah. Yeah. So I was like, I got a job interview. I’m going to go for this. I just need to be employed. But I did the interview and I fell in love with this tiny agency at the time. It was three people in London. And I loved the energy of its owner, a lady called Nicola. And they seemed to like me back and said, Hey, do you want to come on as a junior account executive, helping with PR and the media? And back then, we were just purely PR and comms. We hadn’t expanded into content marketing or digital or social as we have now. But I just thought this, this seems like a great opportunity. And then they never left. So I mean, I’ve been here 15 years in October. I worked my way up as we grew a little bit as a company. I learned a lot from my clients the people I was working with and Nicola.

And a few years ago, unfortunately, she was diagnosed with cancer and she passed away, which is a tough situation to go through, but it meant that I had the opportunity to buy the business from her. And the plan was always together for me to buy a partnership over time, over 15 years. In the end, it wasn’t meant to be, but I’ve had an interesting journey from wanting to be a geography teacher to an agency owner now. But I’ve always loved Bamboo and what we’ve been about the feeling of the company and what we do. And this is how the journey goes and shows you never know where you might end up and how things might happen.

Yeah, it’s true. It’s funny you mentioned digital, particularly, because our digital service was built out for the last few years by someone in our team called Kat Gibbons, our strategic director, and then after that imparting their knowledge to the rest of our team, because it became apparent that we’re fantastic writers and comms people and PR people, but we had overlooked the fact that digital influences that. And likewise, the other way around. Nowadays, you have to write as much for the reader for the search engine. And if you told me, say, 15 years ago, Hey, one day you’ll be looking after an agency that does more than just contact the media and journalists for clients in B2B tech, I’d have been like, Well, that’s interesting you say that. I can’t see it because I love what I do. But when you bring people into your team and they come with skills and experience and they’re engaged and they’re great people, you’re empowered as an owner to take what they’re saying and run with it. And luckily, fortunately, our clients were requesting that expertise at the same time. And yeah, definitely not what I thought we’d be doing after this many years, but I think it mirrors what our clients are searching for themselves.

Yeah, I mean, 15 years in at one company, you’ve got to be passionate to still be there.

One was the support number two, to someone who was running a company. And then obviously my era of taking on the agency and learning how to run a business and not so much being a marketer. But I mean, in the early days, I remember, I didn’t learn PR. So at university or communications, I say I learned how to look at literature. So I remember in a lot of the early years, having to know what is this discipline. How does this work? I remember some quite awkward moments where when you’re young, you don’t want to ask questions because you don’t want to look like you don’t know what you’re doing. But being in early meetings and being like, I don’t know What’s a feature? What’s an editorial calendar? And obviously, the industry has changed a lot over the years. It’s far more integrated online. And I remember a few years into my time saying to my director, we were very close friends by the end of it, saying to her, Hey, look, I think this social media thing is a thing we should be doing for our clients. She wasn’t very into social media at the time, but she said, Hey, look, if you want to try and build out what we do and as an interest, then go for it.

So I think staying relevant in such a fast-moving industry is something I learned with time how to do. And I suppose that then feeds into my phase and my current role, which is, how do I make sure that we stay relevant for our clients? How do I keep the passion in our team there? How do I keep people motivated? How do we balance the needs of the team with the needs of the client the needs of the client’s customers and the marketing that we produce for them? So it’s difficult. It’s a challenge. It’s a fun challenge. It comes with its pros and cons. But I could probably write a book nowadays on all the things I’ve earned for the last three years.

Yeah. I mean, this is a massive topic for me and one that I think stems from, obviously, a very sad event where I had loved the culture that I had seen for the years, I was just a director or a junior or an account manager, all these roles I’ve had over the years. I wanted to make sure I maintained that out of love and respect for the person I worked with, but at the same time think, Okay, how can we do this even better? How can we take a tragic event and use it as fuel for me and our people who weren’t there at the time and make this a positive thing? I was very fortunate, somewhat perhaps in a cruel way, that as I took ownership and took over, we hit a great growth spurt. We started to add more clients. We added more people to our team, and we got larger to the point where now we’re seven people in the largest we’ve been. How do you make sure that culture that was powerful, what the start is maintained? For me, if you just treat your people like people, these are humans.

They’ve got aspirations, they’ve got goals, they’re scared of things, they’ve got stuff going on in their lives. We’re fortunate that we’re small, so it’s easy to be flexible. And we’re a work-from-home company now. So we used to have a London office that we got rid of in COVID and doubled down on this. So we have that challenge as well. How do we stay connected as people and with our clients? But it comes back to time and time again, that people want to be paid well. They want to make sure that they’re being progressed and they’re advancing in their careers. But actually, it’s just being treated like an adult. If someone comes into work and says, I don’t feel well, being like, Okay, go take time and get better. Put your tools away. Don’t come to work. Focus on feeling better. Or people saying, Hey, I’m supporting a grandparent at a moment. They’re not great. I need a bit more flexibility. It’s all these little mini-events that build culture and mutual respect. Then hopefully, if the people are the right people and they’re good people in themselves, they respond with their dedication and their growth.

Another aspect of culture for me is making sure that it’s progressive and healthy. In our industry, there are plenty of agencies out there that have, I suppose, the work hard play, hard mentality. But for us, our guiding light is about working less and living more. And that’s what we use for all our decisions. Does this give people back? Is this a thing that can people back time without obviously compromising on client standards? But I use it all the time to be like, how do we make people enjoy their life? Because at the end of the day, work is the thing you talk about around the dinner table It’s the thing you complain about or you say great things about to your partner or your kids. I feel very responsible for ensuring that the culture we’ve built and maintained means that our people are treated respectfully by our clients and internally, and for helping people achieve what they want to achieve. Asking people, what do you want in life? And it’s surprising what people say. It’s not what you always think. I often ask our team, why would they leave as well. And sometimes even outright, say, Are you thinking of leaving?

Because I’d rather know and understand if it’s something culturally we can improve, or if someone says, Hey, one day, I just want to change. And then you can work in a way together. That means that you know what people want. I can talk all day about this.

Totally. I mean, Everyone says this, but if you do look after your people, your people will look after your company and your clients. It took me a while to understand that I don’t have to do everything. And To be kind. To be kind to myself as well, to be like, I’m doing my best. I look for motivation as much from my team to motivate me as it is my job to keep that motivated. We’re a close-knit team. We’ve been together quite a while, and people know each other well. And there’s a common ground that exists between them. But at the same time, it’s always about making sure we don’t get complacent. And we don’t forget we don’t sleepwalking in a situation that is damaging to someone. I mean, I would always advise any person who wants to set up an agency to know that it’s hard work. It’s a real up-and-down world. But at the same time, you’ve got to stay true to your values because ultimately, that’s what leads it. So if we don’t have clients or people that match that, that’s okay, that’s not a problem.

But we’re going to eventually clash. And that’s the hardest part. And if you think about that from the moment you start, it’s a much easier path than if you just chase the work. You have to be sure of what you want.

I was a bit different from my predecessor because she loved the business side. She wanted to do everything, everything from accounting and payroll to the HR side. I made sure when I took over, what am I good at. And what do I want to be good at? And what do I enjoy? Because those are the things that I gravitate to. I love my craft. I love what we do for our clients. And the hardest part was being okay with being to all of them and saying, Hey, I’m still going to oversee, I’m still going to steer. But I’ve got senior people who are very good at what they do. And I’ve got account managers and other people who are very good at what they do. My time has come to oversee this rather than be the person who writes the blog or writes the PR news announcement. So that was always difficult but necessary. Giving people space to shine and delegating work and then having them delegate to each other comes with just practice and repetition and explaining why and how. The interesting side was, okay, what in the business am I not good at?

Or what do I enjoy that someone else could be better at? And I’ve got two people behind the scenes who handle the majority of the day-to-day now who are much better at me at that. That’s freed me up to focus on growing our brand building our network keeping people happy and healthy, and ultimately focusing on where are we going as a company. And that’s been the biggest transformation, having support on the business side and justifying that as an investment. But I mean, it’s worked wonders for us. And someone, I can’t remember who it was, gave me very good advice early on. And he said, Find a thing that you’re doing, and your job is to make yourself redundant. Go find a partner or a person or a service provider who can do it better. Go slowly, keep adding on until eventually you’re there and you’re almost like, Hey, everybody, what do I have to do? What can I still do? And I think we’ve reached the point now where I’m in my best version of what that is. I mean, for Delegation advice, always explain the why. Because people don’t know what… If they don’t know why they’re doing it, they won’t necessarily do it well, or they won’t want to do it.

And explain the what very clearly. So what are we doing? By when? What’s the expectation, and what do What do you need from me? And what questions do I need to ask? If you do that again and again, it becomes a habit because otherwise, people don’t know what to do or when they should be doing it. It’s just a fight. Communication is a huge part of Delegation.

Yeah, they can find me on LinkedIn. It’s my only platform nowadays. My son’s name’s Jory. I mean, I’d suggest you copy it from the show notes rather than me spelling it out. But I’m on LinkedIn. I’m an advocate of the platform as a way to connect and help. I’m always there to talk about how it is to run an agency, obviously marketing generally. But also a big passion of mine is how people move through grief and the many ways that people grieve. I always tell people, If you have a question, ask. Go seek help. If I don’t know, I’ll find someone who can maybe help you.

No worries. Thank you. Thanks for having me.