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  • Mapping and Leveraging Your Agency Ecosystem | EP28

    Mapping and Leveraging Your Agency Ecosystem | EP28
    2026/02/24

    If your ideal client asked for a recommendation today, would your agency's name come up?

    Today, we break down ecosystems, what they are, what they aren't, and how they compound over time when you intentionally design them. We explain why positioning and service offerings are not the same as an ecosystem, and how depth inside the right one creates pricing power, referrals, and defensibility.

    We also unpack:

    Infrastructure ecosystems and why going deeper than the industry matters

    Why regulated verticals create stronger competitive moats

    The power of institutional referral ecosystems and gatekeepers

    How intersection ecosystems (platform + vertical) accelerate growth

    How to diagnose ecosystem misalignment inside your agency

    Whether you should go deeper or expand into an adjacent ecosystem

    If you want lower customer acquisition costs, stronger referrals, and a real competitive advantage, start by mapping your ecosystem intentionally.

    Key takeaways today:

    📌 An ecosystem is where your agency is known, not just what you do.

    📌 Depth inside a defined ecosystem compounds trust and referrals.

    📌 Regulated verticals often create defensible positioning advantages.

    📌 Institutional gatekeepers can control access to your ICP.

    📌 Intersection ecosystems reinforce momentum from multiple directions.

    📌 Misalignment between desired ICP and actual ecosystem slows growth.

    📌 Agencies must choose to go deeper or expand adjacent, not both at once.

    📺 Watch us on YouTube

    ====================

    Peter Kang on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterkang34/

    Sei-Wook Kim on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seiwookkim/

    AgencyHabits Website: https://www.agencyhabits.com/

    AgencyHabits on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/agencyhabits/

    Barrel Holdings Website: https://www.barrel-holdings.com/

    Barrel Holdings LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/barrel-holdings/
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    27 分
  • Agency Profit Deep Dive: Gross Margin, Sales & Marketing, and EBITDA | EP27

    Agency Profit Deep Dive: Gross Margin, Sales & Marketing, and EBITDA | EP27
    2026/02/17

    Gross margin determines how much freedom your agency really has. If that number is weak, everything else becomes harder.

    Today, we break down gross margin, gross profit, and EBITDA and explain what healthy agency financials actually look like. We show why gross margin is the true funding source of your business and how low gross margin quietly limits growth.

    We also unpack:

    Why 50 percent plus gross margin should be the starting target

    What a healthy sales and marketing allocation looks like

    Why 35 percent EBITDA can actually be a warning sign

    The common myth of "we invested in growth"

    If you want more freedom, better capital allocation decisions, and a stronger long-term agency, start by getting gross margin right.

    Key takeaways today:

    📌 Gross margin is the funding source for growth and experimentation.

    📌 50 percent plus gross margin creates flexibility and strategic optionality.

    📌 Healthy agencies target 20 to 30 percent EBITDA.

    📌 High EBITDA can signal underinvestment in growth.

    📌 Revenue growth without margin discipline leads to long-term erosion.

    📌 Sales and marketing must be measured over longer time horizons.

    📺 Watch us on YouTube

    ====================

    Peter Kang on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterkang34/

    Sei-Wook Kim on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seiwookkim/

    AgencyHabits Website: https://www.agencyhabits.com/

    AgencyHabits on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/agencyhabits/

    Barrel Holdings Website: https://www.barrel-holdings.com/

    Barrel Holdings LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/barrel-holdings/
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    30 分
  • Evolving from Managing Projects to Growing Accounts | EP21

    Evolving from Managing Projects to Growing Accounts | EP21
    2026/01/07
    Growing from single-project engagements to managing multiple, concurrent work streams is a major turning point for any agency. In this episode, hosts Peter Kang and Sei-Wook Kim unpack the structural shift required to turn this complexity into a sustainable competitive advantage. Drawing from their own hard-earned lessons at Barrel, they dissect the common pitfalls like team silos, client misalignment, and leader burnout, that can derail multi-faceted accounts. Peter and Sei-Wook break down the three critical roles needed for success: Account Leadership for strategy and relationships, Program Management for cross-stream orchestration, and Work Stream Leads for tactical delivery. The conversation also covers practical tools like collaborative brief-writing and quarterly planning to keep all stakeholders aligned. For agency owners ready to deepen client relationships and increase account revenue, this episode provides a clear blueprint for evolving your service delivery beyond one-off projects. Key Moments 1. Defining the transition from project management (single work stream) to program management (multiple work streams). 2. The three essential roles for managing complexity: Account Leadership, Program Management, and Work Stream Leads. 3. Why separating client relationship management from day-to-day execution is non-negotiable. 4. Learning from past mistakes: How siloed teams and unclear ownership jeopardized entire client accounts. 5. Implementing structured communication: The value of quarterly planning, brief-writing, and internal syncs. 6. Client segmentation: How to identify high-potential accounts worthy of a dedicated management structure. 7. Calculating the investment: Why program management pays for itself through retention, growth, and lower cost of sale. Real Talk Takeaways 1. Adding services is easy; coordinating them effectively is the real challenge. Plan your operational structure before you sell the work. 2. Never expect a single project manager to handle multiple work streams and the client relationship. It's a recipe for burnout and failure. 3. Clients evaluate your agency as a whole. One failing work stream can sink the entire relationship, no matter how well others perform. 4. Program management is an investment, not an overhead. It pays for itself through higher client retention and account growth. 5. Unify your internal teams. Silos create misalignment, duplicated efforts, and a fractured client experience. 6. Use collaborative brief-writing and quarterly planning sessions to force alignment—both within your team and on the client side. 7. Segment your client roster. Apply a heavier management structure only to high-potential accounts where the ROI justifies the cost. Timestamps 00:00 – Introduction: From Single Projects to Multiple Work Streams 04:00 – The Big Agency Model: Account Leadership, Program Management, and Work Streams 08:30 – Adapting the Model for Smaller Agencies: Separation of Roles and Cadence 13:00 – Case Study: Lessons from Scaling a Multi-Stream Client at Barrel 19:50 – A Cautionary Tale: How Siloed Teams Can Sink an Account 23:00 – Client Segmentation: Identifying High-Potential vs. Low-Potential Accounts Notable Quotes "In a room with a lot of people who throw around ideas and experiences, it's easy to jump onto things. So I think that's something to be mindful of." — Sei-Wook Kim on the danger of latching onto surface-level tactics without understanding the context. "One failing work stream can sink the entire relationship, no matter how well others perform. Clients evaluate your agency as a whole." — Sei-Wook Kim on the risk of uncoordinated service delivery. "As founders in a business for more than a decade and a half, there's a lot of little things that we take for granted. Little activities that we were just doing on autopilot. We spent a lot of time kind of mapping out all these things." — Peter Kang on the necessity of systematizing before delegating. "Program management is an investment, not an overhead. It pays for itself through higher client retention and account growth." — Peter Kang on justifying the cost of a more complex management structure. Links & Resources Peter Kang on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterkang34/ Sei-Wook Kim on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seiwookkim/ AgencyHabits Website: https://www.agencyhabits.com/ AgencyHabits on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/agencyhabits/ Barrel Holdings Website: https://www.barrel-holdings.com/ Barrel Holdings LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/barrel-holdings/
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    26 分