Episode Details

In this episode of Scale HER Up – The Female Entrepreneur Show, I’m joined by Nathalie Agnew, Managing Director of Muckle Media, a founder-led communications group delivering corporate and consumer PR, social media and influencer engagement, with specialist agencies in drinks and hospitality now part of the wider business. Nathalie started Muckle Media from her living room after leaving London and moving back to Scotland, and has since grown it into a 30-person agency group working with major brands and ambitious clients.

Nathalie shares the story behind that journey, from struggling to find the kind of PR role she wanted in the Highlands, to gaining experience on global campaigns in London, to returning home and deciding to build something of her own. What began as freelance work soon became something bigger, driven by a desire for team, structure and a business that could grow beyond one person.

We talk about what helps a founder-led agency win against much bigger competitors. Nathalie believes clients are looking for something more personal, more invested and less faceless than the big global networks can sometimes offer. She explains how important it is that clients meet the people who will actually work on their account, not just the senior team who pitch, and why that founder-led energy can still be a real advantage as the business scales.

A big focus of this episode is growth by acquisition. Nathalie has acquired three businesses, starting with an early deal that was creatively structured and paid over time from client income rather than upfront capital. She talks candidly about what she learned from that first acquisition, how later deals were different, and the real challenges of bringing together different cultures, teams and systems while keeping momentum and morale high.

We also get into people, leadership and scaling. Nathalie talks about the shift from being the person clients buy into, to building a business that can operate well without her being at the centre of everything. She shares the phrase her team uses a lot – delegate and elevate – and explains why growth depends on everyone having clarity, ownership and room to step up. She also reflects on becoming “top heavy” after promoting and retaining strong people, and why continued growth matters if you want to keep creating opportunity for the team.

There’s a strong conversation around team culture and flexibility too. With colleagues split across Edinburgh, Forres and remote locations, Nathalie has worked hard to create a culture that keeps talented people in the business, especially working parents who might otherwise leave the PR industry. She shares how flexible hours, remote roles and clearer progression frameworks have helped her build a more sustainable environment for the team.

Nathalie also talks about learning more about herself as a leader, using profiling tools to understand her own natural style, and recognising the importance of building a team with a wider mix of strengths and working styles rather than simply hiring people who feel familiar. She discusses the traction model she keeps coming back to, and how tools like accountability charts, 90-day rocks and competency frameworks are helping her build a stronger operating system for the business.

This is a smart, honest conversation about scaling a service business, staying founder-led without becoming the bottleneck, growing by acquisition and building a business in a way that works around real life, ambition and family.

In this episode, we cover:

1. How Nathalie built Muckle Media from a living room startup into a growing communications group
2. Why founder-led agencies can w