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 […]| Peter Kang
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 […]| Peter Kang
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 […]| Peter Kang
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 […]| Peter Kang
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, […]| Peter Kang
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 […]| Peter Kang
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 […]| Peter Kang
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 […]| Peter Kang
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 […]| Peter Kang