Barrel Holdings

What if growth wasn’t about “more” but “better”?

And what if there was a system for “better”?

That’s what we do at Barrel Holdings.

We help agency founders turn strong businesses into scalable, durable companies by installing agency systems that reduce chaos, protect margins, and unlock real value by:

→ partnering with agency founders & leaders
→ shifting founders out of daily sales & delivery
→ installing financial visibility & margin discipline
→ training teams on scoping, pricing & resourcing
→ building frameworks for recurring revenue streams
→ engineering systems for growth without dependency
→ coaching on workload capacity safeguards & burnout

There’s more.

And it is my job to make “more” - and all - of that agency wisdom binge-worthy.

Curious how we acquire, manage, and launch agency businesses?

🔗 Check us out: https://www.barrel-holdings.com/

Marketing Lead

outonomi

There’s no shortage of advice on how to become successful.

The real challenge?

Staying successful.

(In a way that evolves with you.)

My private coaching work is built for executives, entrepreneurs, founders, and thought leaders who’ve built great careers, businesses, and companies - but feel the quiet strain of titles, KPIs, and growth outpacing their vision for life.

Problems I helped my clients solve:

"I’m clear on what I don’t want.”
“This isn’t the life I truly want to lead.”
"This next chapter needs to be intentional."
"For the first time, I don’t have a 5-year plan."
"I’ve outgrown the version of myself. Now what?”
"I’m no longer sure this is my definition of success."
"I just can’t see myself doing this for the next 10 years."
"Success doesn’t mean the same thing it did five years ago."
"I’ve worked so hard to get here, but I don’t want here anymore."
“Ambition isn’t the problem. Figuring out what to do next with it…is.”

Since I’ve lived what you are walking through, I now bring both the personal experience and 7 coaching certifications to help you move through it all clearly, calmly, and efficiently.

My approach blends:

• Designing beliefs that fit your whole life
• Figuring out who you are & what you want
• Expanding your personal capacity for growth
• Building leadership identity grounded in clarity
• Untangling the subconscious patterns you carry

Because success isn’t one definition.
It’s allowed to evolve as you do.

If you’re an executive or founder ready to grow into what’s next, this is where we do that work.

✨ Private coaching application opening soon.

Founder | Private Coach to Executives

Chief

As I infamously said: "Success is just a starting point."

To us, at Chief, success is a place of service.
It is where grace, grit, and intention meet.
It is a place of connection.

It is how we live our lives.

This is why I am incredibly proud to belong to a private membership network that connects and supports the most powerful women executives, sharing playbooks with those who see themselves as both ambitious and empathic, driving change on all levels of their organizations.

Welcome to a place where there is room for all of you - and where we celebrate those who pave the way to bring others with them.

🌿 Here's to building impactful businesses.
✨ Here's to being impactful humans.

Member

IM Digital

Stories power strategies.

I learned that here.

I learned what it means to translate a story into...
→ an impactful initiative;
→ an ROI-driving project;
→ a needle-moving event.

I've learned what it means to champion transformational narratives and had a front-row seat to their power unfolding over multiple cities, continents, clients, partners, projects, and company sizes.

This is all to say...

Our job is not to get the strategy piece first.
Our job is to get the story right. 

If the story is right, the strategy unfolds.

Purposeful storytelling isn't show business; it is simply good business.

Vice President Strategic Initiatives

Innovation is the movement of intellect and imagination in the direction of growth.

It is NOT a result of logical thinking, even though its result should be logical structure.

Its goal is NOT to identify THE thing to say "Yes" to but to identify all the things we will say "No" to. 

In its essence, innovation is about making a bet on a future only few can see and trusting yourself enough to be willing to go on the journey.

👉 Whether through workshops and sprints (over 150 under my belt);
👉 Whether through events big and small (Shoptalk included);
👉 Whether through working with clients (valued at $1,9B)

I have been on journeys that resulted in creating an innovation portfolio, building diversified innovation strategies, and driving top-line growth through innovation.

I have loved every single moment, especially the ones where I served as a "professional needle mover" operating on the intersection of strategy, creativity, and psychology.

💌 In the words of the people I was able to serve: "It's like you borrow us the energy to see change as an opportunity. And then we get to translate the opportunity into clarity, and from there... well, it's easy to grow."

Vice President of Innovation

The role that became a platform for expression.

Our clients.
Our own.
Mine.

Taking over the creative efforts at an agency that was deeply rooted in complex integrations and known for its technological savviness was... a lot.

But I was curious, I loved a challenge, and I saw a gap between the ask and the value we could deliver. It asked for slight restructuring, rebranding, and navigation of 9 - but we made it happen.

🙌 It resulted in a top-performing revenue channel.
🙌 It resulted in the launching of Design Sprints.
🙌 It resulted in a profit increase.

More importantly, it resulted in us re-positioning ourselves as a full-service agency, a place where creativity and commerce meet, with competence and contribution at its core.

Over this period, we launched mid-COVID-19 materials, which led to 3 deals worth over $600k signed in a week, collaborating and partnering with the likes of PayPal, Adobe, and Salesforce, and personally heading tailor-made workshops with target key accounts.

🎯 As I fondly like to remember, that was the moment when we started pushing our brands in new directions, fueling their growth through visual, visionary storytelling.

Head of Creative

From nothing... to - my oh my - quite something.

I was always a storyteller.
I loved stacks of books.
I enjoyed the words.

(I adored their power. 🤤)

This role was the first place where my words found a home.

They got me from a small-town adventurer and aspiring dreamer into the role of blog writer who got her work published on the Adobe website, driving the Mobile Optimization Initiative and spearheading the Magento Imagine efforts.

The words spoke through me, and they were loud, and they were clear. They got us leads (over 130 per venture), they got us on the Imagine Excellence awards shortlist, and they got us into rooms where the impact was made.

It was there and then that I realized...

→ I want to keep talking.
→ I want to keep sharing.
→ I want to keep evolving.

And I want to take as many people as possible with me.

Marketing Director

Inchoo

Marketing and Communications Coordinator

Sales and Marketing Intern

AIESEC

Vice President for Business to Customers

Talent Development Manager

External Relations Team Member

Organizing Commitee of Local Training Seminar

Task Force for Brand Audit

I was always the “behind-the-scenes” girl:

• Servicing $1.9B clients;
• Leading growth and strategy;
• Pushing Inc. 500 agencies forward;
• Starting & scaling 7-figure departments;
• Collecting big brand platform partnerships;
• Evolving agencies from 12 to +100 employees;
• Running PayPal initiatives & Shoptalk workshops…

Eventually, I noticed a pattern, one I’ve seen in boardrooms, exec teams, and inside myself:

Scaling a business isn’t the hard part.
Scaling your leadership, your identity, and your capacity for success happening 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 you, instead of 𝘵𝘰 you—that’s where it starts to ache.

That realization cracked open a question:

What if the goal isn’t just growth, but 𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁?

So I made space for a new kind of success. One that is sustainable. One that included my full self. 

Since then:

→ Got 7x coaching certifications
→ Became a VP & a Board Member
→ Grew from 1k to ~15k social followers
→ Organized events with the US Embassy
→ Spoke at events, panels, and workshops
→ Personally coached 50+ female executives
→ Became a top 3% LinkedIn Creator (Favikon)
→ Became a member of CHIEF (hi, female execs!)
→ Launched my own newsletter for high-performers
→ Confidently moved from the agency world to holdcos
→ Founded OUTONOMI, the platform for sustainable success

None of this happened by accident.

It happened the moment I redefined success on my terms, and built everything else to match it.

That’s the work I now do every week: helping high-achievers recalibrate what they lead, how they live, and who they get to be inside OUTONOMI.

And I’m so grateful you’re here.

———

👋 Follow for weekly insights on leadership, growth, strategy & sustainable success.

🔥 Try my newsletter OUTONOMI—1,500+ women executives subscribe for private insights on sustainable success every week.

🚀 Want to grow your leadership, inside and out? Apply for my private coaching. Next slot available in July.

Ivona Namjesnik

Thibeault Financial Economics Inc.

President

Muaythai Institute Inc.

Closed my class due to getting a second hip replacement in the spring of 2021 along with having to eventually get a knee replacement due to wearing out my hip and knee joints.

President/Trainer

Thibeault and Gray Value Fund Inc.

President, Fund Manager

CMOliver , TD Evergreen, Stephen Avenue Securities

Investment Adviser

Background includes strong macro economic and financial market research skills developed in the past via my education and experience working as an entrepreneur bringing a new product to market in the late 1980s/early 1990s; Investment Adviser; Private Fund Manager for a Limited Partnership, along with having researched and written Market Strategy notes since 2000.  On the physical side, I have also been President of Muaythai Institute Inc. Calgary, Ab, since 2008 and have taught and trained many students "Thai Muaythai" skills - not Western Kickboxing.  I love both high levels of mental and physical activity and also have strong intrapersonal and communication skills.  I closed this class at the end of 2020 due to getting my second hip replacement in April 2021.  I also had started and taught a part-time Muaythai class at the City of Calgary from 2006 - 2016 ( ended right before my first hip replacement).

Key macro research skills include:

- evaluation of the business cycle
- evaluation of term structure of interest rates
- evaluation of volatility and implications
- evaluation of commodity markets
- evaluation of central bank policy


*Masters Research Project focused on Predicting Probabilities of Recessions with Financial Variables ( Probit Model)

- market timing

Micro research skills include:

- sectoral analysis
- strong/weak company determination
- fit between stage of business cycle and asset allocation
- earning's trends
- valuation assessment
- assessment of state of market psychology 
- great understanding of market psychology/behavioral finance
- strong understanding of decision making under uncertainty
- due diligence
- use to write Business Plans

People Skills include:

Great communication skills, written and spoken
Strong motivator of people
Creative thinker
High tolerance to ambiguity
Strong social skills

taplio

The Battle

Ivona Namjesnik

Kirby Thibeault

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