We said goodbye to another one of our Barrel Holdings agencies recently. Bolster, the design studio and Framer agency that we co-founded with Henry Alcock-White in 2023, is no longer part of the portfolio. This one was a tough decision. I had personally put in a lot of time and effort to get Bolster off the ground. The work they did on the branding side was very gratifying, and there was some promise with the […]
This episode marks 5 years since I started this series. In 2020, I was looking for a way to write something monthly so I wouldn’t have to keep coming up with new topics. “Why not just write about stuff happening within the agency,” I wondered. And that’s what I did (see Episode 1). Little did I know that the monthly ritual of setting aside a handful of hours to reflect and write would open so […]
We’ve been using a tool for the past month that we developed internally. It’s called Relationship Digest and it sends an email every weekday morning highlighting 3 contacts from my past that I may want to reach out to. The data comes from my inbox, calendar, and LinkedIn and the combination provides useful context. I found myself reaching out to 4-5 contacts of the 15 I get each week, including some people I would’ve never thought […]
We’re officially coming up on 1 year since I moved out of the CEO role at Barrel and handed over the reins to Lucas. Since then, Sei-Wook and I have been focused on building Barrel Holdings. Under Lucas’s leadership, Barrel has had a strong past 12 months, posting high levels of profit and on track to post meaningful revenue growth for the first time in a few years. More than anything, I appreciate the way […]
A professional email inbox that’s been in use for a very long time is an underrated asset. I’ve had my @barrelny.com email for 19+ years. It contains thousands of contacts with people at various points in their careers, some who’ve gone on to found companies or rise up the ranks and become executives. Much like with the thousands of connections I have on LinkedIn, I engage with only a fraction of the people and have […]
We’re starting to see companies using more and more AI tools to do some of the heavier lifting that agencies like ours would traditionally handle. For example, we noticed that for Catalog, some clients were leveraging Lovable to create their marketing websites using AI prompts. This was work that we used to do, but instead, we were asked to focus only on some app UI work (which, too, could be done using AI for the […]
We’re slowly working through a rebranding for Barrel Holdings. Bolster is helping us with our new look. Currently, it’s just a simple Google font with black text on white background. My presentation decks are made using an out-of-the-box minimalist template. We figured that since we’re always talking to a lot of creative/design-focused agency owners and also have some very design-forward agencies in our portfolio, we ought to represent ourselves with a more put-together look. Here’s […]
Exactly a year ago, I wrote about our work around Barrel’s CPG positioning: This past month was filled with various activities that we believe will pay off in the long run. One angle we are pursuing is to position Barrel as an expert firm that helps CPG food and beverage brands get the most out of their website, not only via their direct-to-consumer e-commerce, but by generating greater brand awareness, building direct relationships with customers, […]
I’ve told a few people that these days, working on Barrel Holdings feels a lot like the early years of Barrel (circa 2006 – 19 years ago!), especially the first 2-3 years when it was just myself and Sei-Wook. We were figuring things out and continually excited and drawn to different possibilities. One thing I realize in hindsight is that many of our early explorations and side projects (non-client work) planted the seeds for what […]
What a year it’s been. Last December, I was still very much in the weeds of Barrel’s day-to-day, fretting about our various client accounts, the agency’s positioning, and how we were going to ramp up our sales and marketing efforts. Mid-year, Barrel’s new CEO Lucas Ballasy took the helm and he’s been fully in control of the agency that Sei-Wook and I founded 18.5 years ago. Lucas has been doing a wonderful job (more on […]
This year, I’m grateful for the opportunity to evolve my role in a significant way and take on new and interesting challenges. It’s been about six months since Sei-Wook and I made the shift from agency operators to holding company partners. I’ve enjoyed learning new things, meeting new people, and exploring new ways to create value for the holdco and our agencies. I’m grateful for Sei-Wook–we’ve worked closely together for over twenty years, dating back […]
In early October, we relaunched AgencyDocs as AgencyHabits, a resource for agency operators drawing from the learnings at across our businesses at Barrel Holdings. The reception has been positive and we’ve managed to grow the email list since going live. We’ve posted over a dozen articles and began sending out a weekly email. The goal is to replace the downloadable templates and SOPs currently on AgencyDocs with a tighter and more updated version by the […]
My co-founder Sei-Wook gave a talk this month on digital marketing trends to a private equity group and executives from their portfolio companies. The talk was very well received and may lead to some opportunities for our agencies. Sei-Wook worked tirelessly to create a deeply-researched and engaging presentation, filled with memorable visuals, data, and examples. The presentation opportunity came about as we started representing ourselves as Barrel Holdings, not just focused on e-commerce websites, but […]
When a lead comes in directly to me these days, I usually just loop in the appropriate agency by email and let them take it from there. Still, for a select few calls each week, I end up taking a call on my own first. These are usually opportunities where it’s not totally clear which agency would be the best fit. I enjoy these calls because I can take the time to learn about the […]
It’s been an exhilarating month as Sei-Wook and I fully turned our attention to running our holding company. We have so much we want to accomplish but we know our bandwidth and resources are tight. In some respects, it feels like 2006–it’s the two of us trying to build something new from the ground up. The name of the game is to prioritize and execute one thing at a time. Very hard to do. About Agency […]
In early June, we publicly announced that I would be stepping aside as CEO of Barrel, handing off the role to longtime Barrel partner Lucas Ballasy. It’s been a couple years in the making, and I couldn’t be prouder of the fact that Lucas is more than ready to lead Barrel and take it to a new level. Check out the LinkedIn post of the announcement by me and by Lucas. My co-founder Sei-Wook and […]
Our family enjoyed a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend as we hosted some friends and spent quality time with kids in the pool, eating BBQ, and relaxing in perfect weather. Incredibly grateful for the wonderful time. I still remember the holidays of my past, when I would feel burdened with thoughts of work, convincing myself I needed to devote some hours catching up on proposals and emails. I’d often work myself up to a certain level […]
This is the final month of our lease at our 197 Grand Street office. Next week, we’ll be completely moved out. We’ll be renting a desk and conference room access from our friends at The Working Assembly. It was in 2011 that we first moved to 197 Grand Street. I was on my honeymoon when Sei-Wook orchestrated the move (God bless him, he’s also orchestrating the move out). We were on the 6th floor in […]
A quick update on my LinkedIn posting activities in the first 3 months of 2024: I’ve consistently posted every weekday with the help of Deal Bridge, who keep me accountable for writing new posts and also helping to recycle some older posts for when I don’t have new ones ready. This has been going on since May 2023. Gained about 800 new followers in Q1, not a big number but steady growth. 220k impressions across […]
I’ve been enjoying a biography of Walt Disney, Walt Disney: The Triumph of The American Imagination by Neal Gabler. I’m about 80% through and one of the things that struck me is how, for the first twenty or so years of the business, Disney struggled financially and came very close at multiple points to losing it all as an animation/movie studio. The financing of animation movies was risky business and it took a combination of […]