About Rich
I’m Rich Leigh. PR advisor, agency founder, author, dad of four and lifelong tinkerer.
Through Rich Leigh & Company, I help founders and leaders of small to medium-sized PR agencies build businesses that get noticed and teams people want to be part of.
There’s quite a bit of life behind the advice.
Not the most obvious route into PR
I grew up in a council house in Gloucester. This is NOT a woe-is-me story for a second, but life was: domestic violence, addiction, prison visits and financial insecurity. Good role models were thin on the ground, let alone anybody resembling an entrepreneur (legal, that is).
I dropped out of school at 17, and became a father at 18.
After a couple of years working in fitness, I fell into PR. I found something I was good at, people who gave me a chance, and an industry where curiosity, hard work and a decent idea could take you somewhere.
At 27, I founded Radioactive PR. Over the following decade, I built a seven-figure business, worked with brilliant people and learned what running an agency actually involves. Including plenty you won’t find in most business books - unless it’s mine, Myths of PR, which became a #1 industry best-seller!
That background still shapes how I work. I care about giving people opportunities, building their confidence and creating companies they’re proud to work for. I also know those companies need to make money.
Life beyond the agency
In February 2025, my youngest brother Jordan took his own life. He was 27, the age I’d been when I started my agency, full of hope and ambition. Losing him changed me permanently.
I sold Radioactive a few months later. Behind the business headlines, I was grieving and trying to work out what came next.
My Project Possible podcast became part of my way back. Through conversations with extraordinary people, I’ve explored what we can overcome, build and become. And given it’s amassed a few million views and listens to date, seems to resonate with people, too.
A friend of mine described it as ‘like Diary of a CEO, but for people that have to do the school run’, which I quite like.
Today, I’m putting what I’ve learned into helping other people build their businesses, while continuing to ask questions through the podcast.
If you think we’d get on, and I could help with your business, let’s talk.
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‘About sections’ are weird, especially when written by the person they’re about, so… I’ll go first-person.
I’m Rich Leigh.
Host of Project Possible, exited PR agency founder, best-selling author and unapologetic Possibilist.
I’m fascinated by resilience, reinvention and what human beings are truly capable of, especially when life gives us every reason to give up.
I didn’t grow up around entrepreneurs, money, role models or stability.
My childhood was shaped by domestic violence, fatal addiction, debt collectors, police raids, eviction and prison visits.
At 17, I dropped out of school with no A-Levels. At 18, I became a father for the first of four times, and left the chaos of the family council house without a penny to my name, determined to break the cycle.
By 30, I was a successful PR agency owner with a #1 best-selling book, working with some of the UK’s leading brands, entrepreneurs and celebrities.
Using that influence, I’ve helped to raise more than £1m for sick children.
Just when I felt sure I had broken the cycle, my life was about to change forever, again.
On February 7th 2025, my youngest brother Jordan (on the left) took his own life. He was just 27. His note to me was addressed ‘to the father I never had’. I hit rock bottom. Drinking until I passed out, every night. I didn’t care if I woke up.
In June 2025, I sold my PR agency. I was no longer the leader the company deserved. An exit makes for a good headline, but in reality, I was lower than I’d ever been.
That period forced me to confront difficult truths about grief, identity, purpose and the kind of life I wanted - and needed - to build moving forward, for myself, for my family and to honour Jordan.
Project Possible became part of my way back.
In September 2025, I threw myself fully into Project Possible.
What started as a podcast slowly became something much bigger: a way of rebuilding my life through meaningful conversation and connection, with two episodes every week.
I’ve recorded and shared more than 100 conversations with extraordinary people from business, sport, entertainment, academia and beyond. The likes of actor Brian Cox, Paralympian Ellie Simmonds, entrepreneur Levi Roots and Professor Tim Spector.
People who have overcome unimaginable adversity, reinvented themselves repeatedly, achieved remarkable things, or simply see the world differently.
Again and again, I found myself drawn to the same themes: resilience, ambition, purpose, reinvention, grief, identity and what human beings are truly capable of overcoming.
At its heart, Project Possible explores one simple question:
Anything is possible, if…?
More about the podcast here, including how to subscribe, categorised guests to date and more.
I don’t think grief is something you ever fully overcome. Losing Jordan changed me permanently. That’s why reinvention is the only way forward.
Slowly, through Project Possible, through conversation, through rebuilding my health, my purpose and my sense of direction, I’m finding pieces of myself again, and working out who I am today.
When you grow up without money, self-esteem or connections, you tend to run towards a socially accepted and often-espoused version of success.
These days, I’m far more interested in meaning, connection, resilience and the impact we can have on other people while we’re here.
I now feel ready to build again. To create. To contribute.
To collaborate with great people and organisations doing meaningful things. To share what I’ve learned, both professionally and personally, and to help connect others with the extraordinary people, ideas and opportunities I’ve been fortunate enough to encounter through Project Possible and nearly two decades in PR.
I want to show people what’s truly possible, and remind them that our beginnings do not have to define where we’re heading.