Tom Buttle , CEO of Chameleon, on the PRmoment podcast

This week on the PRmoment Podcast, in the latest of our life stories series, I’m pleased to welcome co-owner and managing director of Chameleon Tom ButtleChameleon is an independent tech PR firm in London with a fee income of £2.1m and 20 people.The business was originally owned by Helen Holland before Tom Butttle and Tom Berry (what are the chances!) completed an MBO of the business in April 2017.Here’s a summary of what Tom and I discussed:[00:01:08] How Tom was a late starter in PR, having previously worked in HR, but has since had a pretty accelerated career path. [3.8s] [00:03:35] Tom talks about the advantages of moving into PR from a different sector. [0.9s] [00:05:04] Why Tom took a pay cut to move into PR. [0.4s] [00:07:15] Tom tells us how, and I quote, " he fell in love with content and storytelling".[00:09:21] How Tom has benefited from having a mentor in his career.[00:12:56] Tom worked for Flieshman Hillard before moving to Chameleon – he talks us through why this was an important stage of his career. Tom also compares the differences of working in a large agency with a smaller one. [00:16:58] How Tom, when he joined Chameleon, went about updating the content services of the agency.[00:19:21] How Tom and Tom Berry restructured, repackaged and modernised the business.[00:20:10] How Chameleon went about reducing the number of clients their teams worked on.[00:20:21] Why Chameleon resigned a number of accounts whilst they were modernising the business. [00:20:43] How Chameleon managed to win some big-name clients that supported their new strategy. [00:21:28] Why, having initially been bought into the business to prepare it for a trade sale, Tom and his colleague Tom Berry decided that they wanted to take the business on themselves.[00:27:38] When you need a broker, when you need an accountant and when you need a lawyer in the process of buying or selling a business.[00:32:14] Tom talks about achieving a balance between personal investments, loans and borrowing on the future income of a business when raising the finance to purchase a business.[00:34:01] Why it works that Tom and his business partner Tom Berry are "not best mates but just good friends." [00:36:41] Why Tom believes that PR people say "yes" to much.[00:37:45] Why overservicing stops PR firms from being able to nurture your team because you can't promote, reward and train people if you're not making any money. [00:38:57] How the bridge from a client-service mindset as a junior member of staff to the consultative/advisory approach of a director can be difficult in public relations firms.