When Jack Rigby graduated from Sheffield Hallam university in 2009, armed with a degree in PR and communications, his career trajectory was clear; he wanted to found his own PR agency. This desire, he says, “raised a few eyebrows” when he admitted it during an interview for his first PR internship at Brazen, but

“I’ve always wanted to go it alone,” says Rigby.

“I did PR and comms at university, and my plan was to set up [my own] agency the day I graduated. I got an internship at Brazen, and went into that environment really bold and confident. I thought I knew everything, but quickly realised how little I actually knew.”

Rigby adds that a “fear” of it being the “wrong time” held him back from taking the plunge.

PRmoment caught up with Rigby to ask about his new agency The PR Barn — which has recently completed its sixth month of trading — the process of founding in 2025, his plans for AI and the future.

You said timing has always held you back, what made you finally go for it?

Jack Rigby: “I had a lot of changes in my life last year. I fell down a flight of stairs on holiday, smashed up my elbow and had a major operation. I was questioning what was next and whether I wanted to carry on with a nine to five [job], and I had some shares paid out so I had some money. It seemed like it was the best time to do it [found the agency], and I had a bit of capital behind me to make it a ‘safe’ move.”

You fell down a flight of stairs?!

JR: “Yes, I fell down in a hotel which had a double height marble staircase. I fell down 12 steps, head first. I was trying to spot my little boy around the pool, so I was looking out rather than down. I went straight down to the bottom…bit of a scary moment. [It resulted in a] nice trip to A&E in an ambulance and then later a flight straight home to get surgery on my arm. It was a ‘stop you’ moment, and then I of course had to work from home because I couldn’t drive. That’s what made me question things [to do with my career].”

Once you were on the mend and had decided to take the plunge to found The PR Barn, was there a moment it started to feel real?

JR: “The first client meetings and going out to have 1:1 [with clients] gave me the confidence to say I can do it, and people have an appetite to essentially come and spend money with me. That was probably in the second week of February this year, where a pipeline was starting to come to fruition; it wasn’t just numbers on a spreadsheet and some hopes and dreams. That was the turning point where I thought yeah this can happen, and actually this is the first month I've properly paid myself [a wage] and that feels like a magical moment in terms of the journey.”

Tell me more about The PR Barn — what should people know about the agency?

JR: “I’ve predominantly got a consumer PR background, so I love to do big campaigns, exciting ‘smack you in the face’ moments and stunts, that’s my bread and butter. I obviously do the traditional PR, thought leadership and news generation. In terms of clients I've got loads of experience in toys, fashion and property so they are my target areas and I've got a good pipeline.

“I’m working with a group of freelancers when I need them, and as things scale I’m hoping to get an account manager. I'm not too far from it but there's still a little way to go to make it [hiring someone] a reality, and I've started to look at desks for office spaces which are all of [factored into] my three, six and 12 month plan.”

So, you’re hoping to hire an employee soon and grow the agency?

JR: “I expected it to be [just] me for at least 12 months, but I'm very conscious that I want the business to scale. I don't want it to just be me, otherwise I would have done consultancy and it wouldn't have had the storytelling [element] to it. I’ve always been thinking about that future and I think if I had just gone with working as a freelancer I probably would have more fear about where that long-term money is coming from.”

Speaking of fear, we all know that economically speaking this is probably quite a risky time to go it alone…how have you found that?

JR: “There’s never going to be a good time, right? I’m damned if I do and damned if I don’t, I went into my career in 2009, when it was the end of the [financial] crash and everyone was saying it's the worst time to come out of university with a degree and get a role in a profession. To an extent it was, but unless you do you don't get. It [founding in early 2025] didn’t give me too much fear, it was more the excitement of being able to open my own destiny and not have to miss football practice with my boy because I don't get home till 7pm. It’s just one of the reasons to get out there and make your own living and make your own journey.”

Will you be factoring AI into your yearly budget? 

JR: “A lot of people complain about AI but hopefully what AI brings to the PR and comms industry is an improved quality of work, and it isn’t yet because people are still finding their feet with how they use the tools, or just using it as a shortcut for everything. What it will start to do is create shortcuts for things you should be shortcutting, and the quality in the final product you deliver [will be better] rather than the quantity [of work] which people are striving for at the moment.”

What has been your biggest lesson from founding The PR Barn?

JR: “People's appetite to pay it forward and help you along your journey is something that will stay with me. I now make a point of trying to pay things forward, too. So, if people come to me for advice on starting a business or students want to interview me, I always try to carve time out to do that. You don’t realise you can do it until you get advice from others so I think that’s really important. The other part is you don’t know where the money is going to come from. I had that pool of clients that I thought would quickly turn into revenue and in reality they’re 12-24 month client opportunities.”