Tricia Barrett of Crowley Webb

 Okay. Thanks guys. Sure. Thank you.

All right. Welcome everyone to year two of Rupp Pfalzgraf’s Empire State Entrepreneurs and New York Business Law Podcast. A really fun and informative form for us to help showcase our clients, strategic partners and community leaders to talk about relevant issues for entrepreneurs and business owners throughout New York.

As you know, my name is David Fallsgraph, and I'm really blessed to be the host of this podcast, which is. Well into its second season now somehow. And also fortunate to be the managing partner at a local law firm known as Rupp Pfalzgraf. We're headquartered down in the liberty building right near this neat studio that we're in.

Thanks to our friends, Mike and Erik at Incept. We always appreciate their willingness to allow us to host these fun podcasts in such a great, great venue. So with that today, really excited to welcome a good friend and great entrepreneur in her own right. And business and community leader Tricia Barrett.

Tricia is the Chief Executive Officer at Crowley Webb in Praxis, and she's involved in a ton of professional and community organizations. In fact as many of you know, probably from reading our own business first, she was recently ranked as high as number 62 in this year's Power 200 lists. So I know I'm sitting with someone of some stature in our community and Trish, welcome to the show.

Really appreciate your time.

Thanks so much. Excited to be here. Excited to see you.

Uh, Trish and I go way back and that, we'll, we'll wait on those stories for a later date or at least later in this podcast. But, um, before getting to our connection, which is a lifelong connection, um, one that I value a, a ton, um, I wanted to, uh.

Have Trish talk a little bit about sort of her upbringing and her western New York roots and you know, education and, and perhaps then what led you away from Buffalo before coming back. So if you could help our listeners, um, better understand Trisha, sort of your, your roots and, and you know, your early, um, stages of, of your life and upbringing edu and education, that'd be great.

Sure. Happy to. So born and raised here in Buffalo, New York, youngest. In a family of three, um, brother, sister, mom, dad, and grew up, um, in Williamsville, but had the pleasure of going to Elmwood Franklin School for 10 years. So formed some, some city roots with wonderful people at Elmwood Franklin and had just an incredible experience there.

My aunt was also an educator and administrator there, so deep ties. That's right. I

forgot about that.

To bring it full circle, my. Sister-in-law teaches there. Now my nephews go there. So, um, long live the Eagles of Elwood Franklin School. A hundred percent. So ended up, um. Started my high school career at Buffalo Seminary and ended up though finishing at Williamsville South High School.

Go Billys and had a great time at South. It was. It was like the high school experience you see in the movies. State championships for football. We had pep rallies. The day I actually visited the school. There was a food fight in the cafeteria. It was. It was my dreams coming true, I think. Uh, so I had a great experience there.

And then school took me to Cleveland, Ohio. I went to John Carroll University in Cleveland, and I wanted to be just far enough away from home that I could get back. Easily, but that, you know, my parents wouldn't show up on a weekend or something like that. 'cause we actually did that to my brother once when he was at Cortland.

Uh, so I loved John Carroll. Had an incredible experience there. Such a

great school.

Studied communications. I tried my hand per my father's wishes in the business school. And when I got to accounting and statistics and econ, I thought, no way. The communications classes came really easy to me and it didn't feel like work.

It felt like a whole lot of fun. In hindsight. Now as a business leader, I wish I had taken more of those business classes that makes

two of us and

taken it a little more seriously. Uh, but had an incredible four years. At John Carroll and actually was afforded the opportunity to do a semester at sea. Um, always been a, a lover of the water.

Um, our family has a home up in Canada on the water and we grew up sailing and um, so I knew that I wanted to do. Something is a study abroad. I just didn't know what…

That's a pretty unique one. Te tell me what it was like to be spending a semester literally at sea. Was it a big boat, a small boat? Was it claustrophobic?

Was it…

All of the above. Um, 134 foot sailboat down in the Caribbean.

Incredible.

So I have an oceanography minor, which stood out on a resume is a little bit unique, but the claustrophobia came by way of the bunk, which was six feet by two and a half feet. And you and all your belongings had to stay there.

Wow. Wow.

But two and a half months and only six hours of engine time that we experienced. So otherwise under sale, which was, that's

amazing.

Pretty cool. And honestly taught me a ton about myself. Taught me a. Ton about independence and taught me a ton about the fact that I could achieve and do anything I wanted to do.

'cause it was such an unusual and unique experience. I remember coming home and calling my dad and letting him know I was gonna continue doing oceanographic research down in the Galapagos Islands, and he said, no, you're gonna go get an internship in advertising or marketing, whatever your degree is, and you know you're gonna pursue your career.

And that, that dream right, became a thing of the past as, as you forged ahead with your career. And before we talk about the beginning stages of your career anyone you still keep in touch with from that, um, abroad experience? Or how many, how many people were on the boat and how many did you love? And how many people did you wanna jump overboard because of?

Yeah. So there were 50 people total. And more than I

thought

we had. Well, there were 50 people total that went out on two boats. So we had 25 on each boat and then 10 crew and um, it was pre-Facebook and pre cell phones. So not a ton of keeping in touch, though some of us found each other on social media later in life.

And have kept in touch. Uh, I still remember the one girl I just feel horrible for. She was seasick the entire time, had never been on a boat, and two

and a half months of seasickness. Well,

when we, when we stopped for the very first time to replenish our provisions, um, she flew home, so, oh

my, so not quite two and a half, two and a half weeks.

Didn't quite make it. Oh my gosh. Well, what a great experience. And I think, you know, it's those. Um, sort of outside the classroom experience that I think can have a, a profound impact on sort of mindset and, and, um, your desire to you know, your curiosity into learning more about, um, not just school or through school, but sort of what, what life really looks like or how it works.

And, and by going abroad or. By traveling, which I know is a passion of yours as well. Yeah. Um, it just, for me at least, it just opens up my eyes that there's, you know, a bigger, a bigger world out there than what, um, I experience most of the time here in Buffalo. So applaud you for doing something pretty bold and in college by being on a boat for two and a half months.

So after the pep talk from your dad, who I love by the way always been one of my faves, but you. Agree with him or you sort of reluctantly agree with him to kickstart your career as opposed to continuing in education?

Yeah, so I, I was in Cleveland. I stayed in Cleveland after college and we. Same roommates moved into a house together, we moved to the west side of Cleveland instead of uh, shaker Heights.

Where in Cleveland Heights where, where John Carroll was. And we all started our careers and I chose advertising 'cause it looked cool in the movies and it's pretty ridiculous to say that, but I think it was. Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt and what women want that, that really did it for me. So chose advertising, didn't realize that there was this whole business side to advertising.

I thought you had to be a copywriter or an art director some sort of designer in order to make it an advertising. And when I learned that there was this business side client service. Project management, relationship management. Again, it was all of the stuff that just seemed to come easy to me. And they say that work shouldn't be hard.

It should be something that you enjoy and something that's easy and something that you look forward to. So it was through a Buffalo connection. Go figure that I found myself at the Wolf Group. In Cleveland and Wolf, what was appealing about Wolf is that they also had a Buffalo office, Rochester, Atlanta, Toronto, New York City, and so I knew that I could maybe travel within the network if I wanted to try and make my way closer to home eventually, which was always a goal of mine.

To come back to Buffalo. I just didn't know when it would happen, and I also really, at the time, believed in loyalty and wanted to be loyal to the company. And if they were gonna give me a shot and give me my first start, then I should be giving back to them. I think nowadays you see a little bit more job hopping and it's a little bit more acceptable and expected.

For me, longevity at a place and having a career was gonna be really important. Yeah.

Uh, really interesting Trisha, I think telling as to the type of person you are, and when you talk about your values, um, or things that have enabled you to have had the success that you've had up until this stage in your career.

What, what a great word, you know, loyalty, just being loyal, um, to the cause and, and. Not, you know, accepting and embracing everything that comes your way, but wanting to have a mindset at a very, um, early stage in your career to say, Hey, look, I'm gonna make an investment in them and they're gonna make an investment at me, and we're gonna see where this goes.

And it's such a great trait or attribute, I think, for, for a leader to have. So I, I applaud you for that. And. Talk to us a little bit about those early years at the Wolf Group working in Cleveland. Mm-hmm. Helter skelter, you know, 24 7 type stuff, or you know, was it learning from a fire hose or you, you enjoyed those formative years?

Yeah, so it Mad men hadn't come out yet, so I didn't quite know what it was all about. But I think one thing that I loved was. Just sort of immersing myself in the creative process and not being a creative executor, but a creative thinker. So I've never been the doer in that sense, but I really respect and appreciate everything that goes in to the creative process.

And I'm just in constantly in awe of the amazing talent that was in Cleveland, that's here in Buffalo, everywhere. For me, it was anything my team needs, anything my client needs, I'm gonna make myself available. And I got really lucky out of the gate because my first supervisor, who has been a mentor to me, she went out on maternity leave and she told.

Our her boss, our, our leadership team, Tricia can do this even though she's young. Give her the chance to step up. She can take over these accounts and manage these accounts while I'm on maternity leave. And so she believed in me, our clients believed in me, and that's all I needed was that. Belief to have the motivation to step up and not let anybody down.

It, it, it probably, I assume, was in part based on what I'll describe as your sort of team first mindset. Mm-hmm. And, and, you know, be curious, as you said, or creativity was, was important and, but what a nice, um. You know, sort of a vote of, of support or confidence that, um, this early, you know, role model and mentor, um, did for you by saying, Hey, look, we don't need to look outside.

Let's, let's look internally and give Tricia a shot. So I assume that was sort of accelerated your career path or your career development when you took on that sort of responsibility. I assume you're in your mid twenties at this point in time.

Yeah, I was, I was young. I mean, 20. 21, 22, and incredible, incredible.

Best part is she didn't come back from maternity leave, and so I got to stay in the role and really probably jump a few rungs up the ladder at that point, at an early age, and I just. Kept thinking if I prove myself day in, day out and put my own proof statements up, put up the agency's proof statements of work for the clients and you know, we keep everybody happy, then I.

Let's keep going.

Help, help our, help me and potentially our listeners. Understand. When you, when you talk about, um, advertising and, and sort of the, those, um, early years at, at the Wolf Group, what type of work were you doing? What type of accounts were you servicing? What was expected of you? Mm-hmm. In terms of being an account manager, an account executive.

Um, during that sort of the, that, that tenure when you were in Cleveland at, at Wolf?

Yeah. So my, my two early accounts were dirt devil, the vacuum cleaners of course. So everybody got vacuum cleaners for Christmas, you know, that year And love it. My other account, which really afforded the most opportunity was the Convention of Visitors Bureau of Greater Cleveland.

So that included a lot of the culturals. It included a lot of the different, they had six flags there. Um, so it really had you working on a variety of. Different businesses, not only from a B2B standpoint and trying to bring convention business to Cleveland, but then also working with the science center and the rock hall and trying to promote customers to visit and come to the area.

And so it was a great opportunity to learn a lot. Learn a lot about the non-profit versus for-profit space as well and really sink my teeth into lots of different kinds of campaigns. Big business like dirt devil, retail versus travel and tourism, something totally different

and And you got the sense at that time, if you can think back that that was a career path that you thought would be meaningful to you or where you could make contributions and add value.

You were sort of. You know, intrigued or excited about the type of work you were doing at that time.

Ad agencies are super fun, so let's call it like, it's, I was, I was in it for so much. I mean, I found the work to be challenging and, but yet really rewarding. And I think for me, being surrounded by the people, you've got left brain, you've got right brain, you've got, you know, analysts and you've got.

Art directors and you're doing television production and it's, it's sexy work. You know, you're excited about the kind of work that you're doing, and at the time it was a little bit of a let's throw something against the wall and see if it sticks. Because it was really hard to measure the results of campaigns.

Nowadays, we can actually prove. That stuff works and that it's effective. And so I think, you know, come full circle where we are today. Yes, the landscape has changed. Yes, we're doing a podcast. There's digital advertising. There's, there's so much different today that we're up against than, than maybe we were 20 some odd years ago, but it's still fun and exciting every day.

H

how long did that run at Wolf go? Or when did you know? Did an opportunity present itself to you, or did you have to go seek out an opportunity to, I assume, transition to Buffalo from there? But why don't you walk our listeners through how, how that transition occurred?

So I was looking to get back to Buffalo and Wolf had an office, so I talked to them about coming back and they were actually going to be closing the Buffalo office and merging and sort of, mm-hmm.

Taking some of their employees to the Rochester and making it just one office. So in my effort to get back, I went to the Rochester office.

Interesting.

Found myself commuting quite a bit back and forth to Buffalo. Still coming back on the weekends, but that was another critical step for me because. I didn't know anybody in Rochester.

I immersed myself in the work and had the opportunity to work on amazing clients like St. John Fisher now University go Bill's and Wegmans food markets, which I fell in love with the Wegmans brand long before as Aian. But being able to work on the Wegmans brand was truly. A gift like no other and learn about just the values and leadership in a company like that.

Um, learned a lot about the kind of leader I wanted to be.

How fortunate, like I talk a lot with my guests on this podcast about, um, turning challenges into opportunities and, you know, there's no straight line path for any entrepreneur business owner. And as I think about your career, Tricia, it's interesting that I.

My gut tells me that maybe there was some disappointment or trepidation when Wolf said that. Okay, we'll we'll transition it, but it can't be to Buffalo 'cause we're gonna consolidate those offices in Rochester. And maybe just a tinge of, I wish, I wish I could be in Buffalo with my family or with my, my, my friends instead though.

Look, look at the outcome. You get a chance to work on one of the foremost, um, advertising accounts anywhere, probably in Wegmans and obviously a great university like St. John Fisher. But do, do you recall your, your mindset and thinking more positively than negatively when it came to, Hey, look, we will transition, but you're gonna go to Rochester instead of Buffalo?

Yeah,

I. I think I was, I was certainly open to it 'cause it was closer and so it was an effort and I knew that it was gonna be another stepping stone, but it allowed me to wait for the right opportunity to show up in Buffalo. And I had incredible experience when I was at Rochester. And in fact, when I finally did land a job at Crowley Web in Buffalo.

I really missed being in Rochester and second guessed interesting myself, and I wrote them a letter back. It was right when Keurig coffee makers came out. Sure. And I wrote them a letter and said, I missed the coffee machine, and wondered if I, if I had made the wrong choice, and if I, I should have gone back.

Incredible. And you saved a coffee, that letter.

I, of course.

And some. And tell me what year that would've been.

So that was 2002.

2002. So some 20 plus years ago.

Yeah.

Crowley recruited you. To come work with them here in Buffalo. So

my mom actually served on a board with John Webb. They were on the musical Fair Board together, and John said, well, we need to get her in to meet Jim Ick, who was our current, of course, CEO at the time.

And. If you know Jim, Jim is a workaholic. He never took vacation, always in the office. And the day that I showed up to meet him, I came in, I said, I'm Tricia Barrett. I'm here for an interview. And they said, oh, he's not here today. He took a vacation day. So I stayed in Rochester and thought, well, that's a sign.

And then in 2003 I tried again and came in and met Jim and it was a Friday afternoon, I'll never forget, and he was in the conference room. Started shooting the shit with Brian Grunert and Dave Buck and these like legends of Buffalo advertising. And I sat down and had a conversation with them, pulled up a chair.

I've never been one to shy away from joining a conversation and we had the most informal interview. I've probably ever had. And Jim said, well, whenever you're ready to start, you know, we'll have you. So that's pretty cool. That's how it all started. Pretty cool story. What a great group to walk into. Joe Crowley used to say, you have to take the cookies when they're passed.

And I think that was a cookie. It's a good

line too. I like it. So 2003, you officially start with Crowley. Correct. Move back to Buffalo and tell me what, what role you, you played. Say from, you know, the next 10 year span at Crowley. Uh, how, how did your, your career develop there?

So, this is a super interesting one 'cause I came in in account management, client service, how I had been.

And the first client I worked on was a company called Praxis Communications. Praxis was a startup out of Nashville, Tennessee, started by three people who left a pharmaceutical company, recognizing a need to recruit patients to participate in clinical trials. Hmm. And they found an ad that Crowley Webb had won an award for, for independent health in a medical marketing magazine, and called and asked if we were accepting new clients, which also just doesn't happen.

So the answer was yes, and I started working on the Praxis business and we helped them as the marketing arm. Patients for clinical research and in 2006, so fast forward a couple of years, they were as big of an account for us as M and T Bank. That's amazing. So really significant business. M and t has been a lifelong client for 35 plus years at the agency, which average agency client relationship is about two and a half years.

So 35

years

we've been really speaking of that loyalty. Right. Of course. Really, really lucky. Of course, telling. Well, an m and T's such a incredible brand and so meaningful to this, this community. So here I am with Praxis and serving as their account person and the economy tanks. In 2008, the owners decide that they don't wanna be in business together anymore.

They're looking to sell the company, and we decide to take a leap of faith. Um, one of our philosophy points at the agency is sometimes the greatest risk is not taking one at all. I love it. What a great lesson that is. We acquired Praxis, so when we acquired Praxis, which was in 2010. Unheard of to have an agency acquire a client.

That just usually doesn't happen either. I went to our leadership team and said, I'm looking for my next challenge. I'm ready to grow in this company. Let me take on the business operations of Praxis with this safety net of Crowley Web behind it. And so I switched out of my. Service role, kind of client account service role, and really into more business operations.

And in order to do that, I had to bring back my right hand to um, who had left and brought her back to run the project management team. Within the organization and we fixed a business model that was flawed. We got lucky outta the gate with some key clients because when we acquired them, they didn't even have a book of business left.

So they had really been struggling and

good brand name, but, but not executing at a, at a high level. Yeah, we,

we use a lot of baseball analogies and it's, I'm not really even a big baseball fan, but they were interested in getting home run. Uh, and we were just interested in getting singles and doubles. So we would say, again, let's go in to Pfizer and let's just help them with, you know, one or two things.

Do a good job, earn their trust, earn their respect, and that'll help open up more doors.

Who, who was the individual that you recruited then to help you with this initiative or help you maintain the Crowley web base as you thought about an operation? More of an operational business. Role with Praxis.

Mm-hmm.

She, she came back as our then, you know, head of account service now, our managing director,

and that's her name's Karen Grobe. Karen Grobe. Okay. So you, you felt, um, confident that Karen would be able to sort of take on some of the role and responsibilities that you had been playing so that you could focus on this new initiative?

Hands down. I mean, Karen is my right hand and I'm, I'm a big believer in the whole, when you look at all the different personality assessments, you've probably taken a million of them. Too

many,

right? But, um, she was always the, you know, they always say opposites attract. She was the opposite of me. And so I was out there kind of.

Big picture thinker, ideas, big strategy. Enjoyed the networking, enjoy the business development, you know, side of things. And she would get everything done that I would sign up for or that I would agree to. You need that person for

sure. Critical. Critical. Did, did that experience sort of hands-on, um, rebuilding Praxis.

Then sort of lead to, to bigger opportunities or other opportunities within sort of the, the Crowley web corporate umbrella, so to speak.

Yeah, it, it was the perfect hockey stick growth model. We, we sort of crushed it out of the gate and we hired the right people. We retained the right people. Like I said, we were doing really solid work.

I think how it changed the trajectory of the agency though the most, is that we were always known as a creative boutique sort of agency, and yet so much of what pharma. Requires is data driven. And so interesting. We had to kind of shift our focus to be more about science and do the science behind the marketing science behind the advertising, along with the art of the creative.

And it was that art and science that really made. Our product successful. And ironically the Latin derivation for the name Praxis is art, science and skill. And so it really was that three-prong approach. Really

cool.

That changed the agency. I mean, we built an analytics department. We now have 10 full-time analysts Wow.

And PhDs on staff. Wow. And people way smarter than I am. And it's, it's helped all of our clients that we can now offer this. Science service, and it infiltrates all of the work we do across the board now because as I mentioned earlier, the old throw it against the wall, see if it sticks. Now we get to prove or predict what it's gonna do.

I'm, I'm certain there must have been challenges along the way, or it took, um, leadership in order to begin to change the mindset of a very successful, very well established, very reputable, sort of best in class. Company and Crowley Webb. But to layer on then sort of the lessons you had learned from working directly with Praxis, tell our listeners as a business owner and an entrepreneur, Tricia, how did you succeed in sort of.

Changing the path, um, that Crowley web was on to have it not reject sort of analytics or data, but to, and engineering, but, but to embrace it and actually, you know, sort of do something sort of bold and different than, than a traditional ad agency would do.

I think the fact that we were sort of two agencies under one roof really helped because.

You didn't have. While we have some people who are dedicated to the Praxis business or dedicated to the Crawley web business, otherwise it's shared services and shared resources. So of the 110 employees, we have a hundred of them touch both. And so I think the way that we modeled it and the way that we set it up allowed for there to just be shared learning and could we do a better job?

Sure. I think you always can, but there's so much of what I. We've learned because really recruiting someone to participate in a clinical research study is the same as recruiting somebody to open up a checking account at m and t Bank. It's just a different set of messaging. Sure. It's a different set of tactics, maybe based on who your audience is.

So you can take, you know, we, we look at it very much from a funnel effect. How are we casting a net? How are we filling that funnel? How are we trying to get somebody to do what we're. Setting out to do. And so you can take a lot of those same principles and apply them no matter what the vertical is, no matter who the client is.

Uh, it's, I think it's, that's a, a really, really good point that businesses never stop evolving or, or changing or, or being able to deliver services to their clients that, um. You know, add value to, to their clients. And that, that lesson about being open to change as opposed to resistant to change in our industry.

Trisha, as you know, you know, AI is, is transformative and it's really gonna, um, disrupt our profession, we think in a very great way. I think other law firms thinking of. You know, in a, in a tough way because it, it, it could, you know, replace a, a young associate attorney because the research and writing capabilities of chat GPT as an example, you know, are, are, are usually pretty, pretty perfect and, and instantly turned around.

And so you don't need two weeks or three weeks of, of research and, and writing time. So our mindset is similar to Crowley Webb's and wanting to embrace and not reject the. Challenges that lie ahead and, and to use technology or analytics, um, or other things like you guys are doing to help us better serve the needs of our clients.

Right. So it's, it's neat that Crowley is sort of a thought leader when it comes to that as well. And I'm, I'm curious, is that a reason you think, Tricia, your, your early adoption, you personally, um, and your ability to help, um, push. Change at, at Crowley Web and Praxis. But how did that end up today or like your, your current role today?

Yeah. To talk to our listeners a little bit about how your role has evolved over the last few years. And I've certainly been a cheerleader from the sideline for it, but, um, so that our, our listeners know your current role today and sort of your, your mindset as a leader at. Ed Crowley. Give us a sense of that.

Sure.

So I was running the agency or running Praxis for the agency and really had stepped away from my Crowley web client responsibilities. And again, I mentioned Jim, hed, our outgoing CEO, and you talk about opposites attract. Jim was a very financially minded. CEO and I was much more of the people minded CEO candidate.

'cause at the time I was, I was still waiting for the baton to officially be passed, but it was in the works. And then COVID hit and like any business CVID just changed things. In such a huge way, huge way. And I remember going to Jim and saying, let me lead, let me lead through this. Because I, again, being more people oriented, felt like I could connect better, differently maybe than Jim could.

We needed him from a stability standpoint, but. I wanted to be the one to lead day to day with things that were ever changing, and I think that was a huge confidence boost for me. It was also scary as hell with everything that was going on. Um, but our Praxis business boomed. During COVID ID and we had the opportunity to work with this little pharma we had never heard of called Moderna and recruit their COVID vaccine trial, which was pretty incredible, right?

So we grew in a major way, whereas so many other companies were, um, suffering tremendous loss. And we, we grew to be the largest the company's ever been and had record years and amazing. We were 150 people coming back. From COVID ID Now that Bell Curve has, you know, gone back to a little bit where it was pre COVID days, um, which has presented its own challenges certainly, but it was an opportunity for me to step up in a new way and have our employees see certainly me.

In a new light, I'm, I'm not gonna lie, there's a level of imposter syndrome when you're taking the reins from someone who's been at the organization as long as Jim had been and, and certainly such a figurehead in the community and in the organization. But going through that process and planning. To have the leadership transition and succession planning that we did with thanks to Rep Fallsgraph helping us along the way.

Shout out to Jamie Bott, who she's the best, led us through that. I, I think it was biggest learning curve for me I've ever had yet. Some of the most rewarding work I've ever done.

I mean, it's a, it's a credit to the confidence that you felt that was then embraced by the organization, and I think it's, it's such a valuable lesson for an entrepreneur that.

The willingness, the open-mindedness, the self-confidence to raise your hand. You know, you knew that you had an ability to serve and that you could excel on, on the people side during, um, a really, really trying time and had confidence that Jim could hold down the financial piece. But your willingness to lead at a time when your company needed it most is, is.

Telling, I think, and also just such a good reflection point or, or lesson for entrepreneurs who may be hesitant to lean in because the, the, the owner has said, this is the way we've always done it. But I, I, I so appreciate your, um, desire to. To, you know, be there when your company needed you most in a role.

That was sort of a new role, and, and it doesn't surprise me, obviously, Trish, that you get to 2025 and your, you know, your role at Crowley Webb has been enhanced through the years, and you're doing a wonderful job at, at. You know, leading a, a real institution in our community. And, um, I'm curious as to what you think, what lies ahead, you know, both for you personally or for Crowley Web mm-hmm.

As, as a business. What, what, you know, what excites you? What, um, what concerns you about the work that, that you guys are doing and, and how you see. Sort of what the future looks like?

It's a great question, and I just wanna touch real quick on the word serve because I have a sign in my office that I wrote that says Serve because I believe that I'm there to serve our employees and our clients every single day.

And that has spilled out into the community as well. And I feel I. A huge responsibility to not only take care of our employees, but to take care of our neighbors and our friends and this community. And so while I put so much effort into growing on the pharma side of the business, that work isn't here in Western New York.

So my time lately has been giving back to our community and really trying to immerse myself here. When I think about though, what lies ahead. We're gonna be 40 next year. So Crowley Webb's having a birthday. Incredible. I hope I get invited.

You'll, it'll be a great,

it'll be a great party, no doubt. But we have introduced to the staff and to our leadership team a commitment to a growth mindset that turns the.

The page on the past and looks forward to the future, and we are challenging our models. We are challenging our process. We're challenging each other. We're making sure we have the right people doing the right jobs. You talk about ai, ai. Is everywhere in our business and it's creating opportunity for us to do even better work than we were doing before in more efficient and effective ways than ever before.

And how every department is utilizing AI and how we can be that champion for our clients and for our community is a responsibility again, that I feel like we have to give back. And it is. Game changing in such a major way. The thinkers are always going to be needed. We might have prompt engineers now.

That might be a new position. Sure. Just like we hired the TikTok specialist that I never thought we would hire, but we did and have added a second person. So it's gonna be totally different. But I, I think how we repurpose people's talents. Is going to be the new challenge because when you culturally embrace someone, you don't wanna say goodbye.

And so how do you find that young associate? How do you find that young designer or account person, and how do you try and grow them into a role that might not be the traditional path that they expected, but I, it was Cheryl Sandberg, I think, who actually said. Of the, of the Facebook fame. She had said, your career is no longer a ladder.

It's a jungle gym. So you're gonna be jumping around.

Great mindset,

and we just wanna adopt that, but try and keep people excited and interested and have this just crave for learning. Because one of our other philosophy points is the more you dig, the more you dig up. So let's, let's figure that out and learn how something like AI can impact.

The work that we're doing and the amount of volume that we can then pump out to help even more companies, individuals, communities.

I, I think I think that's great. Trish and I, when, I think I've talked a lot about my law firm, about the first 25. In the next 25, and for you first 40, next 40. And I like this idea, and I think it's important for entrepreneurs to embrace this growth mindset.

We talk a lot about that at the firm. Two, control growth or manage growth. But, but we want to be growing for sure. And so I'm, I'm curious, when you think about First 40, next 40 for, for you and Crowley Web, what has you most excited about the opportunities? You touched on ai, any other, um, when you think about a growth mindset, how would you translate that for our listeners?

Yeah. I think for us it's. The type of work that we're doing, and we're able to do that. I, again, I think is non-traditional. So for example, we've had. We've had a, there's, there's been things that we've never traditionally done before that we're now able to do, and we've probably always been able to do it, but we've never just said, let's go all in and figure it out.

So for example, we're doing a lot of event activation work. That's something that's not traditionally what you would expect an agency to do.

Super cool.

But for Highmark, for example, we built out this tailgate. Trailer to allow fans to tell their stories and memories from the old stadium and give them a chance to come into a trailer with sophisticated equipment like this to be able to record their stories and their memories, and we're going on over 800.

Pieces of pure content. Content, incredible. From these crazy Bills fans who know and love their team and their community more than anything. And so now it's like, okay, what's the social responsibility associated with telling those stories, getting that out, you know, we, we no longer. Are just doing brochures and websites and catalogs.

You know, we are building brands and we are telling their stories, and I think there's so many new platforms in media, both traditional, non-traditional, paid on, non-paid to be able to do that. So. It's an exciting time to be part of an agency. You know, we're also an independently owned agency and there's lots happening at the sort of, um, commercial level with holding groups and a lot of these big name agencies kind of coming together and merging and becoming these huge conglomerates.

And while they're all in the politics of that fight, little independent agencies get to swoop in. Come up with really cool ideas and present them to really cool brands and do some amazing work together. So that's not lost on us either. That now's our chance.

Big opportunity.

And you can also find people, nowadays.

You can find people because they're. Announcing who they are and where they are. And so let's go, let's go try and make a difference.

Well, look, I, I can speak firsthand knowing the sort of difference you've, um, made, um, with respect to a little challenger brand law firm in, you know, downtown Buffalo, known as a.

Fallsgraph, we've so valued our partnership with Crowley Webb, and you have made us think about the practice law and promoting the practice law in much different ways. And, and I know that, um, everyone back in the Liberty building looks forward to, um, you've. You pushing us and into thinking about ways to promote our business and sort of non-traditional, um, avenues.

And we, we really value the partnership that we've developed with you. So I, I know I can speak firsthand as, as to, um, to our love for quality web and, and the impact you're having on at least a little, little, little law firm headquartered here in Buffalo. So, before I let you go, I wanna touch on a couple, uh.

Topics that I think are, are relevant to you, Tricia, you obviously are 24 7 at at Crowley Web doing a wonderful job leading helping to lead that organization. But I know the community's important to you and that you have interests that are outside, um, Crow lead that, you know, maybe there's some of those great synergies where there's a combination of personal and professional.

Mm-hmm. Can you give our listeners a sense of, um, other things within the community or other passions that you have that, um, sort of relate to or, or maybe even transcend or go outside of, of your day-to-day role at Crowley?

Sure. So I think my. I've tried to take my time outside of work, which doesn't really ever shut off, but those, those other hours when you're not physically in the office space and just try to be way more intentional about my time.

And so the, where I serve in the community, I've really gone down a social justice rabbit hole and wanting to make sure that we're doing work to represent. Equity in our lives, in our careers, um, in our neighborhoods, in our communities. So that, for me has been something that's been really, really important that I didn't know meant so much to me until I really started.

Digging a little bit deeper. So that's caused me to be more intentional about the boards that I serve on. Um, currently with the United Way of Buffalo in Erie County, great

board,

Buffalo Prep, great

organization,

Buffalo Prep, the Buffalo and Agri Partnership. So really trying to commit, um, to doing the good work that's needed to be done in our own backyards.

And then the rest of my time intentionally, a lot of it's spent with family. So adore, adore my family. I don't have my own children, but I think of my two nephews who are 11 and 13 as my own. So lot of time in ice rinks hockey is really, I can only imagine hockey is really, really important. Um, and then we spend a lot of time on the water together in the summers.

Though I've also recently taken up golf. Oh, that's fun. And so that's become a new passion and hobby for me and a great chance to extend the networking out onto the golf course. And I think there's also a lot of opportunities for women especially, and women leaders, and women business owners, to get involved and to network the way we always knew the men did out on the course.

So that's

great.

Look forward to those opportunities to continue.

That's great. And I know that. How you and I probably first met, must have been in our way back in our formative years back at Elmwood Franklin, but it's because of your brother Trey, who has been a lifelong friend. And I understand he might be celebrating an important birthday today.

So yeah, he's so I hope you have an opportunity to, you know, I know you were with him yesterday up at the beach, which sounds like a perfect, perfect way to celebrate a, a fun birthday. So. Um, before I let you go, I know you love to travel. Yeah. You have a great passion for travel as well. You love your nephews.

You're sort of a picking up golf now too. I understand you're one of the best salsa makers in the world, which is something that I love. So I expect the next time we get together, there'll be some salsa involved. But anything else our, our listeners, um, maybe could learn about you, Tricia, today that we wouldn't otherwise know from normal channels.

Well, I think you had asked me to prepare a fun fact or something that people may not know, and I will leave you with this, that, um, if I have to ever play two truths in a lie, one of my truths is that, um, I went fly fishing with President Carter at his home down in. Plains, Georgia

Would've never have guessed that.

Right? I mean, what a great truth. Right? That's an awesome one. Uh, and a, and a great, I think, way to end this podcast with our listeners wondering how in the world did Trisha get to go fly fishing with President Carter? So we'll save that for, for episode two with, with Crowley Webb and Tricia Barrett. But for now, I'll, I'll respect your valuable time and, and.

Let you take off. So I, I can't begin to thank you enough for your time today for education, educating our, our listeners, a ton about you, your background, and about Crowley Webb your incredible company, and, um, really value our time together. So thank you again.

Me too. It's been a blast. Thanks.