Marcus Richards
Milk & Honey PR was founded in 2017, to be a new kind of communications agency. One which recognises the energy, passion and creativity of its team and puts them first.
Over the last five and a half years, that team has grown to 54, expanded internationally into New York and Munich, won awards for every client we have represented for over 12 months and become one of the highest scoring B Corps in the world.
To have been recognised as the best place to work three times, is one of my proudest achievements as founder.
Tell us about yourself?
I have worked in communications for almost 30 years, which is scary when you say it out loud. I have had the great pleasure of working for some of the world’s most admired PR agencies and with an array of amazing clients large and small.
Five years ago, having been made redundant, I decided to set up on my own. I wanted to create a new kind of agency. One where people came first, where everyone could feel heard, where there was time to think. A land of Milk & Honey, hence the name!
If you could go back in time a year or two, what piece of advice would you give yourself?
Don’t sleep on decisions – get the work out the door. Today’s world operates at a relentlessly fast paced and if you’re not acting now, you’re missing it.
Every day, even every hour, there are new revenue opportunities or new media calls for stories. So be prepared to adapt on the fly, to let things go when they are no longer working and capitalise on every idea you encounter.
What problem does your business solve?
Milk & Honey was created to answer the growing calls for change in business. We connect purpose-led businesses with increasingly purpose-driven audiences.
We add colour and inspiration, whilst removing the complication from organisations, helping them to deliver their message in a rich and emotive way.
What is the inspiration behind your business?
Milk & Honey is built upon a people-first philosophy. I may have mentioned that already! This means that our team are at the heart of everything we do, which is why we take the time to fully understand our clients’ unique demands and aspirations.
From this, we put the opportunity to the team to self-select who wants to work on that business. We then tailor our services to create the outcomes that make a tangible difference for our client.
Whether it is lead generation, creative campaigns, brand management or a blend of it all, our team is ready to nurture reputation at every touchpoint.
What is your magic sauce?
Diversity of thought, experience, and background. We work hard to ensure that we have a diverse team – diverse in gender, ethnicity, socio-economic background, sexuality, neuro-diversity, generation, introverts and extroverts.
This stops clinches and opens up collaboration and understanding. It is not the easy path, but we believe the right one.
The individuals within our team have a wealth of different perspectives which works wonders for our creative collaboration. With bravery and respect at the core of our culture, we believe that a diverse and healthy workplace is a happy one.
What is the plan for the next 5 years? What do you want to achieve?
As a B Corp organisation, our goals can be broken down into the three pillars of People, Purpose, Planet. Over the next five years, we are committed to maintaining our negative gender pay gap and to making strides towards our mission of being carbon and water positive by 2030.
We are also excited to extend our charity and pro-bono work and deepen our partnership with the Brixton Finishing School which works to increase diversity in the creative, media, and tech industries.
We are an agency which never rests on our laurels so we will be continuously looking for new ways to build a better world for our clients and our team.
To date we have opened in London, Sydney, New York and Munich. I envisage further international expansion. We have media, content, digital, design, planning and creative talent. I envisage this continuing to expand and communications becoming ever more critical to all businesses and brands.
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?
We have experienced our fair share of challenges – non-paying clients we have had to take to court, cyber-attacks, inconvenient jury service demands when I was still just one person…
In Milk & Honey’s short lifetime, we have been hacked three times. This opened my eyes to the fact that for some jobs, you just need the specialists.
With 70% of small businesses being hacked every single year and the police and Action Fraud doing little to stop it, businesses need to be proactive in protecting themselves from cybercrime. For us, criminals got into our email through our website before changing bank details on our invoices.
Needless to say, we have spent a substantial amount of time and resources on security software, ensuring everything has two-step verification and monthly changing passwords.
So, my advice would be, don’t wait for it to happen to you. Get two-step verification on everything now. Regularly sweep for Trojans, malware and viruses and protect your website’s back-end.
How do people get involved/buy into your vision?
At Milk & Honey, we want to hear from ambitious businesses who are driven by purpose, whether they are at the earliest point of curiosity or are already operating as an established B Corp organisation.
Unlimited by geography, we are an international agency who welcomes clients from all over the world. To get in touch with any of our offices, head to https://milkandhoneypr.com/contact-us/.
