Kirsty Leighton
Kirsty is the Founder of Milk & Honey. She has over 25 years of experience in corporate brand PR and communications. Kirsty has a privileged view of the communications landscape having held leadership positions in successful City and financial, technology, corporate and consumer agencies.
She started Milk & Honey determined to put people first, creating a happy and healthy place to work. Where passion and creativity are prized. Where clients are celebrated. One where there is time to think, to go the extra mile. A land of opportunity, hence the name.
- Tell us a little bit about your business…
Hello. We’re Milk & Honey PR, an agency shaped by our values, owned by our team, and bought into by clients with purpose. We were created to cater to the growing calls for change in business.
Our hive is made up of creatives, planners, digital specialists, copywriters, influencer marketers, publicists, designers, branding experts, award-winning journalists, corporate strategists, and social strategists.
Our role is simple. We nurture the reputations of good businesses to connect them with the vast audiences searching for purpose-led brands.
- How did you get into the industry?
When I was six years old my mother put me forward for a competition with Pears Soap. I won and was used in their advertising and on-pack for a year. Then I was invited to get involved in media work with my parents, which I loved. This introduced me to PR. From there, after university I applied to all of PRWeek’s top UK 150 agencies and got 15 interviews. I then approached our governing body, PRCA, for whom I am now a board director, and checked out the best agencies in terms of training, engagement etc. That was some 30 years ago.
- What are the biggest opportunities and challenges in your industry?
Public relations is about communicating with your publics – internal, external, regulators, government, consumers, media, trade bodies. It provides lots of scope and opportunity for creativity. As an industry we are predominantly women, 67%, yet leadership is still stubbornly male. Ensuring that the shape of our industry is more reflective of the audiences we must communicate with is key. DE&I is a huge challenge for our industry and we are proud to be making positive steps in leading the way here. We have a predominantly female board, no ethnic or gender pay gap. Much more work needs to be done around age profiles, neuro-diversity and cultural identity but we are getting there.
The rise and rise of AI is proving itself both an opportunity and challenge. How to optimise the right tools and adapt our working practices is something the industry is playing with at the moment. We have just launched an ethical playbook for AI use as we continue our learning journey.
- How would you describe your leadership style?
My personal style is quite protective. As see my job as Group CEO is one of inspiring others, charting a long term vision and then playing and encouraging role for leaders within the business to make their own path. We are fast growing, named by FT as one of Europe’s fastest growing companies, twice; we are employee owned; both of those elements ensure we are always making decisions for the good of the many not the few and people feel free and encouraged to be brave and try new approaches. It doesn’t always work, but we either win or we learn!
- How do you get the most out of the people who work for you?
Share a vision, share values and critical behaviours then get out of their way! As a business majority owned by the team, we are an employee ownership trust, the feedback and shared direction is baked into our business model. This allows us to empower people and make decisions fast. Direction is agreed, then decision making is left to the team.
- What are the most crucial elements to your business running smoothly and being successful?
We started with an independently ratified quality infrastructure. Having that base in play means everyone knows what is expected from them and how we work together. We have lots of external accreditations to ensure we are holding ourselves to a high standard. We are Consultancy Management Standard, Investors in People and most importantly, B Corp accredited.
- How has the past 12 months been for you?
The last 12 months have been tricky, but conversations with fellow business leaders both in our industry and beyond reassure me that we are not alone here. Yet, that said, we have been recognised by PR Week as being top three of the most successful agencies in attracting new revenue, so we are still moving forward and growing. We also made the call to expand internationally to Asia for the first-time last year. Opening in Singapore under the leadership of an inspiring marketer, Meilin Wong.
- What will the next 12 months look like for your business?
We are poised for further growth. Our newly appointed UK MD Kath Myers has big plans for the home market, and our leads in US, Germany and Singapore are all delivering against an ambitious five-year plan. We have a supremely talented team od partners, one in five of our team are partners ensuring our clients always have senior leadership guiding their campaigns and pushing our clients to be the best they can be. And, it is working. Over the last six years we have been recognised in 120 awards for our work and our culture. Something we are extremely proud of.
- What are the highlights of your career so far?
Starting Milk & Honey. Being recognised as the highest scoring B Corp in communications globally with a score of 165.7. Our commitment to ethical, social and environmental excellence goes beyond B Corp we are also lobbying the UK government to try and change company law from shareholder primacy to stakeholder primacy so we can all become better corporate citizens. I am also blessed to work with some amazing colleagues, who as an employee-owned business are actually my bosses!
- What’s the biggest business mistake that you’ve learnt from?
We learn best from mistakes. I’ve made plenty but I am a huge believer in being brave and trying. We share our mistakes internally so we can all learn from them. It helps us to innovate, to try new directions and ultimately keep improving. But I would warn your readers to ensure their cyber security is as tight as possible. To lean into industry colleagues for advice and also to keep learning.
- What’s the best piece of business advice you’ve been given?
I’ll give you two..
“In a busy marketplace, not standing out is the same as being invisible.”
— Seth Godin, Author and former business executive
“In the past a leader was a boss. Today’s leaders must be partners with their people… they no longer can lead solely based on positional power.”
— Ken Blanchard, Author and motivational speaker
