Founder Interview: Riannon Palmer on how Lem-uhn became a “feel good” PR agency (without burning out the team)
R has a reputation.
Long hours. Agency hustle culture. “Just one more pitch” at 10pm.
So I wanted to talk to someone building a PR agency that doesn’t run on burnout and fast fashion retainers.
In this episode of Wise Words TV, I’m joined by Rhiannon, founder of Lem-uhn — the Feel Good PR agency — to talk about ethical PR, remote work, how to build flexibility without big budgets, and her simplest PR advice for founders.
Q: How did Lem-uhn (and the “Feel Good PR” tagline) come about?
Rhiannon: An evolution and it kind of came with time. Four and a half years ago… I was working in big global… and it was the pandemic, so it was even crazier than usual.
91% of PR professionals have mental health struggles each year… then the pandemic, it was even intensified… lots of my colleagues were put on furlough and those of us that were left were working really crazy hours… start working at eight, probably wouldn’t finish till about 11… work on the weekends as well.
So I wanted to work for an agency basically that cared about its employees and worked with better brands. And I couldn’t find one. So… kind of fell into starting Lemon… freelancing for the first month under the umbrella of lemon… and then the appetite grew from there.
And I think the feel good… was just a bit of an evolution of what we were doing, really working with those good brands.
I’m such an advocate for PR and the power of what it can do to grow your brand. So the fact that you can do it on the good guys and not the bad guys is really important… lots of agencies… growing those like fossil fuel polluters or fast fashion… and that’s not something we wanna be doing. We wanna be growing the people that are making the world a happier place.
Q: Has PR hustle culture actually changed since COVID?
Elle: PR… seems to really have that hustle culture where it’s like you are expected to work long hours… Do you think that’s still the case now?
Rhiannon: I think a little bit. I guess the model is if you have less people doing more accounts, then you’re gonna make more money… but that’s when people burn out… lots of colleagues… leave the industry altogether… so it doesn’t work in the long run.
I think… work life… after the pandemic seems to have gone again. I’ve seen lots of offices trying to call employees back… five days a week… and kind of lost all that they did have… it seems like it’s gone back on itself sadly.
And it seems like it always comes from the top… “I don’t think people are working”…
From an inclusion perspective… lots of working parents… quite often it’s the mom… or people with disabilities or different needs… when we are fitting into that old school work pattern, then it’s leading to more exclusion…
Q: What does flexibility look like inside your agency?
Elle: So how do you do it in your agency then? What’s your employee flexibility structure like?
Rhiannon: We went remote in May, 2023… we’ve always had quite flexible hours anyway, but going remote makes it easier to be even more flexible.
We have a policy for up to 45 days a year… employees can work in countries with a dual taxation system to the UK… employees really wanted it…
Flexible hours… we have core hours of nine till three… and then employees… could even work all the hours Monday to Thursday… or work flexibly around that.
I spoke to a journalist from the Independent… about a trend called micro shifting… I’ll start working about half six… then I’ll go to a gym… then I’ll work again in a cafe… then I’ll have a short lunch break… that pattern…
One of our team does two half hour breaks instead of an hour lunch… dog walk in the morning… later lunch…
We’re obviously a startup… we don’t have the huge budgets… but having these benefits… that don’t cost us anything seems to do as well.
Q: Have you used the “work from anywhere” policy yourself?
Elle: Have you taken advantage of the work from anywhere policy at all?
Rhiannon: I’ve worked in Barcelona quite a lot. Mexico, Bali, Portugal… lots of different places… it’s really nice… I’m in London… “it’s so gray in London”… knowing you could go somewhere is different to feeling like you can’t… even if you don’t actually do it.
It’s something employers can really deliver… but they don’t seem to be doing it… it’d be great to have a world where everyone’s got more flexibility.
Q: Do you use flexibility as a PR angle for the agency?
Elle: Do you find yourself talking a lot about that topic around media… as a leverage to talk about the agency?
Rhiannon: PR is always harder, especially in agencies ‘cause it’s just not that exciting… no one really wants to hear about it.
So it’s always been speaking about employee wellness… I was on BBC Radio 4 doing a slot… another BBC piece on work from anywhere schemes… some stuff on our menstrual policy…
I did a story with City AM… why I launched Lemon… six months into running the company a company with a similar name tried to sue us, so we had to rebrand…
With PR it’s always fitting into the topical stories that people are talking about… flexible work… work from anywhere… menstrual leave…
And more interestingly this month, I’ve done quite a few pieces on the I’m a Celebrity stars and how much they’re gonna earn after the jungle…
Q: Are you good at doing your own PR?
Elle: You sound like you’re good at doing your own PR… do you set aside time and treat yourself like a client?
Rhiannon: We’re not really doing that now… we could do way better… we’re doing a lot more reactive… journalists will get in touch… or if we see something reactive, we’ll jump on it…
But I’m very big on practice what you preach… it’s hard to trust someone if they’re not doing it for themselves…
Really trying… past year and a half… to do more marketing side… it is way easier when you put yourself out there and people come to you rather than chasing clients down…
Q: One “wise word” PR tip for founders?
Elle: If you had one tip… for a startup… one thing they could do to help get their word out there… what would you say?
Rhiannon: First read the news… you should be reading where your target consumers are… see what types… look at where your competitors are covered…
And then… if I was completely new to it, I’d probably go to regionals first… the BBC… local regional section… quite often if it’s a good story it will also get picked up nationally… online piece, TV piece, radio piece…
Go regionally… to get your confidence… PR is really hard… you send so many emails and chase so many people before anything goes live.
Q: How many times do you chase a journalist without annoying them?
Elle: How many times do you chase them before you’re like… I’m probably annoying them now?
Rhiannon: It’s about sharing something that is still useful… a new angle… saying it’s relevant now…
We had an interview… it just wasn’t coming out… I think it took about 10 chases before it actually came out… journalists are so busy…
At the start, maybe every couple of weeks… then depending… once a month or once every couple of months… keep following up… making sure you’re sharing relevant information so you’re not just chasing for the sake of it.
When I started in PR… send a press release then straight away call… and the next day do exactly the same… which is crazy…
Important to build relationships… I’ve seen journalists post on X name and shame…
So it is definitely balance.
Q: Who inspires you?
Elle: Is there anyone… you look up to… who’s inspired you?
Rhiannon: Whitney Herd… Wolf… she founded Bumble… she was on the founding team of Tinder… sexually harassed and got pushed out… took them to court… money… started Bumble… ethos… to put women in control…
She probably took one of the worst moments in her life… and did something incredible with it…
I think she was… the youngest… when she went public… picture holding her baby…
In this day and age where we all wanna try and do it all… it’s nice to think that we can and have inspirational leaders like that.
Q: Tell me about your podcast, Lemonade Leaders
Elle: Tell me the premise.
Rhiannon: Lemonade Leaders… leaders who take life’s lemons and make lemonade… rubbish times… then build incredible companies…
One woman… stroke seven days after having her baby… lost independence… created an underwear brand where you can clip yourself into them…
Cancer diagnosis… burnout… loads of stories… taking it as inspiration… it’s very motivational… if you’re feeling a bit down… “life’s pretty good actually… I should get out and be productive.”
Q: How do you find guests?
Elle: Do you look around for stories or put the word out?
Rhiannon: A Google form… a few different groups… lots of people applied… looked at those lemon to lemonade moments…
We’ve finished up for the minute… back in 2026…
It’s given us something different to speak about… we’ve had some nice press coverage off the back of it… different tool to get your message out there…
Q: Do you outsource, or do you do everything yourself?
Elle: Is there anything you outsource?
Rhiannon: We’ve got a great team… so I don’t have to do all of this all of the time…
We outsource… accounting… legal… someone who might help with the website… but they said they’d have to change it all over to a completely different platform… long project…
It’s always worth someone else to help because they’re gonna spend a lot less time on it and get it done quicker than you would.
Q: Where can people find you?
Elle: Where can people find you if they want to find out more about Lem-uhn?
Rhiannon: Our name is Lemon, but it’s spelled phonetically… LEM dash UHN… website is lem-uhm.com… Instagram… LinkedIn…
I’m on TikTok and Instagram as a Zest of Ri… PR tips and insight…
Our podcast is Lemonade Leaders.
Want your brand voice to stop sounding like “generic agency #47?
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: most good businesses don’t struggle because they’re bad at what they do.
They struggle because their words don’t match their actual value.
If your website copy, emails, or LinkedIn posts sound like they could belong to anyone, you end up competing on price, not meaning.
Book a Wordology call and I’ll help you lock in a voice that actually sounds like you (and sells like you).
