One of my favorites right here, Oli Budgen spills the beans on what he's been doing to make Bud Communications a rip roaring success.
With impact and influence as its core mission, brands are flocking to Bud Communications PR Agency. Whether no one knows about your business or you are in crisis management - Oli and the team have got you covered.
We discuss how it is building a business and the tolerance with terror.
How to invest in the team, when you don't have budget.
How to challenge people and build a culture of curiosity.
How to be compelling and attract the right talent to your business
Oli felt the industry was broken and set out to fix it. He launched Bud in 2020, right into the pandemic, without an established network or a traditional founder playbook. Since then, he’s built one of APAC’s most respected communications agencies, working with ambitious challenger technology brands and deliberately putting culture, curiosity and authenticity at the heart of the business.
But this conversation goes far beyond PR.
We get into the reality of starting from scratch, the decisions that changed everything, the leadership mistakes that shaped Oliver, what scaling a service business really feels like, and the person you have to become when the company starts depending on you.
We also explore one of the biggest questions facing communications today:
If AI can create content in seconds, what becomes more valuable?
Oli and I discuss why human connection, trust, originality and genuine influence may become more important — not less — as artificial intelligence changes the way businesses communicate.
In this episode, we explore:
- Building a company from nothing
- Starting a business during the pandemic
- Why Oli chose challenger brands
- The hardest realities of scaling an agency
- Building culture before scale
- Hiring for curiosity and attitude
- Leadership mistakes and changing your mind
- What actually earns attention in a content-saturated world
- Whether AI makes PR more or less valuable
- Why authenticity matters more in the AI era
- The beliefs that shape Oli as a founder
- What success really means when you’re building something that matters
#OliverBudgen #TimCastle #TheTimCastleShow #Leadership #Entrepreneurship #Influence #Impact
Follow Oli
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oliverbudgen/
Bud Communications: https://www.budcomms.com/
Bud on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bud-communications/
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