Agency Journey is a monthly series detailing the happenings of my agency Barrel, founded in 2006.

Below are past episodes along with the topics covered in each.

Agency Journey Episode 20 (Y15M11), April 2022

• A Professional Liability Case
• Our First Ever Barrel Holdings Quarterly Review Meeting
• A Longtime Client Gives Notice
• Shifting C-Suite Responsibilities
• Performance and Standards in Managing Employees

Agency Journey Episode 19 (Y15M10), March 2022

• A Couple of Launches
• Boomerang Hire, Our New Director of Software Engineering
• Staying Tight on Costs

Agency Journey Episode 18 (Y15M9), February 2022

• Hard Realities and Tough Decisions
• Heads Down Execution

Agency Journey Episode 17 (Y15M8), January 2022

• New Business Wins & Outbound Action
• Team Attrition Setbacks & Q12 Worries
• Annual Planning Meetings
• Simplifying the Business with Key Metrics
• We Launched a New Portfolio Company

Agency Journey Episode 16 (Y15M7), December 2021

• Working in New Team Members
• New Launches & New Wins
• Keeping It Simple in 2022

Agency Journey Episode 15 (Y15M6), November 2021

• Containing and Putting Out Fires
• New Launches & New Wins
• Achieving Hiring Goals
• Sharpening My Focus in Key Areas

Agency Journey Episode 14 (Y15M5), October 2021

• Missing the office vibe
• Quarterly Partner Meeting in person
• Choppy Waters: Business Struggles & Team Turnover
• Sports Analogy: Taking Our Eyes Off the Games

Agency Journey Episode 13 (Y15M4), September 2021

• The unstoppable force of human adaptation
• DTC Patterns
• Barrel Manager Growth Framework
• The need to refocus on client outcomes

Agency Journey Episode 12 (Y15M3), August 2021

• Building a Talent Acquisition Discipline
• Modernizing Our Financial Systems
• Launching Vaulted Oak, a New Agency Business
• Staying Disciplined on the New Business Front

Agency Journey Episode 11 (Y15M2), July 2021

• In-Person Partner Planning Meeting
• Mid-Year Reflections
• Barrel Maxims
• All Feedback is Information (How we responded to negative Glassdoor review)

Agency Journey Episode 10 (Y15M1), June 2021

• Celebrating 15 Years
• New Talent Acquisition Manager
• No More Fighting Fires
• Agency Business Model

Agency Journey Episode 9 (Y14M12), May 2021

• Launches & New Business Wins
• Immunity to Change Map
• New Org Structure
• Prioritizing Talent Acquisition

Agency Journey Episode 8 (Y14M11), April 2021

• Wes Celebrates 10 Years at Barrel
• Quarterly Town Hall
• Initiatives Across the Board (Impact of coaching)
• Leadership (Making hard decisions)
• The Downstream Impact of Business Development

Agency Journey Episode 7 (Y14M10), March 2021

• Leveling Up on HubSpot
• Agency One-Pager
• Novus Global Training
• Busting Through the Intuitive Fence
• Systematizing Lead Generation

Agency Journey Episode 6 (Y14M9), February 2021

• Making Meetings Effective
• Sei-Wook Becomes a Dad
• Tightening Up Our Services Offering
• Reimagining the Way We Work (Moving to Asana)

Agency Journey Episode 5 (Y14M8), January 2021

• A Week of Looking Ahead (Annual planning meetings recap)
• Our Director of Client Services Starts
• Profit Share Goes Out
• A Few of Sizable Investments (Professional services membership org and coaching)
• Project Delays and Their Impact
• Team Structure, Utilization, and Leverage

Agency Journey, Episode 4 (Y14M7), December 2020

• New Business Wins Just in Time
• Director of Client Services Hired
• Sales Schema Outbound Campaigns
• Thinking About Business Structure (Pod-based model and accounts)
• Writing Down Thoughts, Visualizing Ideas

Agency Journey, Episode 3 (Y14M6), November 2020

• Director of Business Development (Dan’s promotion)
• Director of Client Services Hiring Continues
• Taking Time Off
• 80/20 Principle and Managing My Time & Priorities
• Vision, Intentions, and Questions

Agency Journey, Episode 2 (Y14M5), October 2020

• Diversity Hiring
• Promotions
• Hiring for Director of Client Services
• Initiatives to Make the Business Stronger (Leveraging software for the business)

Agency Journey, Episode 1 (Y14M4), September 2020

• New Business (Wins)
• Improving the Barrel Team Experience
• Feedback (Team workshop and debriefs)
• Net Promoter Score (NPS)
• Recruiting and Org Structure
• New Business Leads (Marketing to drive more)