Capel Group

We've set out to build a new type of global agency network with a focus on unlocking the value and potential of independent agencies.

I'm most excited about the mutual ownership model that we believe aligns incentives, leaves agencies founders to keep doing what they do best and opens up a new growth engine that unlocks the potential of their talent.

Chief Operations Officer

Butter - A Shopify Partner Agency

Working with e-commerce merchants across APAC / Hong Kong on their Shopify Plus strategy. 

Butter has been recognised as a Shopify Plus level partner - giving us access to the best of Shopify in the region, as well as a nice reward for the team to be recognised for their expertise on the platform.

Our expertise lies in:
- Migrating e-commerce merchants to the Shopify Plus platform.
- Geo-expansion of Shopify Plus stores to new markets, complete with localisation.
- Optimisation of Shopify stores with best in class UI/UX and Shopify web development.

Founder

NYU Stern School of Business

Spring Exchange Semester at NYU Stern studying full time. Subjects include: Valuation, Entrepreneurial Finance, Managing Growing Companies and Brand Strategy.

MBA Candidate (Full Time - Exchange)

OMD APAC

- APAC Lead for Nissan Motor Co.
- APAC Lead for Hasbro, Inc. 
- Key member of OMD's regional pitch team.

OMD is part of the Omnicom Media Group (OMG), the media services division of Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE: OMC), the leading global advertising, marketing and corporate communications company, providing services to over 5,000 clients in more than 100 countries.

Regional Business Director - APAC

The Economist

Asia's Acquisition Team lead, with P&L responsibilities. 

Tasked with developing regional digital innovation strategies and pilot digital programs for China and the region.

APAC Digital Marketing Lead

UM Worldwide

Global Digital Media lead for the Cathay Pacific Central Team.

Cathay Pacific Airways (HKG:0293):  Cathay Pacific, Dragonair (now Cathay Dragon), Asia Miles plus Cathay Pacific & Dragonair Holidays.

Global Digital Media Director

Responsible for digital strategy and execution across the Melbourne office. 

Main Clients: 
- Coles Group (ASX:WES): Coles Supermarkets, Coles Online, Coles Insurance, FlyBuys, Liquorland, Vintage Cellars and Coles Group & Myer Gift Cards. 
- Origin Energy (ASX:ORG)
- L'Oreal Group (EPA:OR): L'Oreal Paris, Garnier & Maybelline New York

Digital Strategist 

Agency Managing Partner | Client Leadership, Digital Experience, E-Commerce | I help large brands implement complex digital projects & platforms

With over 15 years of senior leadership experience in both global and independent agencies, I’ve developed a unique skill set that combines paid media expertise, technology implementation, plus strategic business and client leadership. 

I have worked at a regional level across APAC, managing complex businesses and navigating the needs of diverse stakeholders, including C-suite executives and multinational brands.

My experience spans the entire digital ecosystem, from leading large-scale, integrated media campaigns to overseeing the end-to-end implementation of sophisticated digital commerce platforms. 

I have:
- Managed $50M+ in media budgets, optimizing performance marketing strategies to drive growth across APAC
- Led cross-functional teams to deliver large-scale digital commerce solutions, integrating platforms like Shopify and Magento
- Collaborated with senior stakeholders, including C-suite executives, to align media and digital strategies with business objectives
- Delivered measurable results for multinational brands like Cathay Pacific, Nissan Motor Co., and Hasbro, managing complex, multi-market media operations

This combination of senior-level stakeholder management, hands-on platform integration, and deep expertise in digital marketing allows me to drive growth and innovation for large, complex organizations across the APAC region.

"Working with Michael and team was a game-changer for our digital project - providing a quality product that has driven our business to new levels.”  Sam Cooper, CEO - CCW Global

"Michael is vested in our success and his team's cutting edge approach allowed us to unlock our customer acquisition." - Oliver Rust, Head of Product - Truflation

I have worked with leading brands at a senior stakeholder level, including Nissan, Apple, Cathay Pacific, Carlsberg, Estee Lauder Companies, Hasbro, FedEx, MetLife, Tai Ping Carpets, and more.

Michael Ashton

Matt Barker

I make posting on LinkedIn fast, easy and fun. $3M+ revenue driven. 75M+ impressions. 250k+ followers.

I help you grow on LinkedIn using fast, easy and fun to write posts.

Results:

- 50+ clients helped since January 2022
- 2,500+ customers served
- £70k 4 day course launch (The Digital Copywriter)
- 2 x £100k+ digital products launched
- $3M+ in new client revenue driven
- 75M+ organic social views earned
- 200k+ LinkedIn followers gained
- 10,000+ LinkedIn posts created
- 13,000+ email subscribers driven

If you'd like to work together on growing:

- Your LinkedIn profile
- Your team's LinkedIn profile
- Your brand's LinkedIn profile

And growing in a way that is fast, easy and fun to do?

Just DM me so we can discuss how I can help you do that.

Writer

Join 11,000+ readers who get daily tips on attracting dream clients online with digital copywriting.

In 2 months I'll become a first time dad. I'm excited and scared all at once. I can't wait to teach a brand new human about the world. But I'm scared about this:

Keeping a brand new human alive 😂

I've always wanted to be a dad. 

But weirdly the more I've become a teacher over the last 4 years, teaching people how to write on LinkedIn, the more I've become excited about TEACHING my child.

And the idea of being the first man in her life:

That's a BIG deal that I am not overlooking for one second.

It's already giving me a new purpose and new set of "rules" for me to be following internally. And she isn't even born yet.

Not that I was being a rascal or doing mad shit or being a lousy guy. But it makes me think even more about what I'm doing, how I'm doing it, why I'm doing things in certain ways and how that will impact her perception of, not just me, but men in general.

Business wise, I've made some changes and I've been planning.

I'll be taking a break from working 1-1 with clients from March to June. I'm doing this so I can free up my calendar while I figure this whole first time dad thing out. Super blessed to be in the position to do this.

Extra focus will be going into my scalable products. 

Community, products, group teaching.

I've planned my 2026 in business out and it's looking pretty cool.

Excited to see how I can execute to that and make it even more successful than I plan, AND make all the time in the world to watch my daughter grow every day.

Excited to write to you more about this whole journey too.

✌️

Dads: what's your weirdest dad-ing advice?

Ladies: how do I be the best dad / male role model possible?

Matt Barker 

I teach Fast, Easy & Fun LinkedIn Writing. Taught 3,602 people to write on LinkedIn. Investor @ MagicPost. Click ‘Books, Courses + Trainings’ below to get my free books on LinkedIn Writing.

My life looks boring:

No swanky office. Barely any meetings. Calendar usually empty. Amateur photography for content.

And most of my days look the same:

Coffee time with my wife.
Write some posts.
Audit / feedback my client's posts.
Comment and DM people on linkedin.
Run / gym / walk. 
Eat. Watch TV. Think.

I'm on at 9/10 and done by 6 normally.

But my life is anything but accidental.

I built a business from writing. I turned writing into leverage. I make money without being on calls all day. I help people build reputations that open doors. I wake up without that intense feeling of dread. I stop working when I’m done not just to clock in the hours.

While everyone else is enjoying saying how busy they are.

I'm over here enjoying saying how not busy I am.

Why is my way not the norm??

All my LinkedIn writing books, courses and trainings here: https://lnkd.in/eWRj-pd9

I teach Fast, Easy & Fun LinkedIn Writing. Taught 3,602 people to write on LinkedIn. Click ‘Books, Courses + Trainings’ below to get my free books on LinkedIn Writing.

Today, I've got 188,402 followers on LinkedIn. 

But if I search my name on ChatGPT:

I’m STILL pretty much invisible.

Can ya believe it? I’ve put the effort in:

- 4 years of consistent posting
- Published 2,578 posts
- Gotten 59.5M impressions

And my personal brand is STILL not strong enough to be the first name when someone searches for “linkedin writing experts” or “best copywriters to follow on linkedin” or “who to follow to learn copywriting”.

So, simple question:

How do my competitors appear in AI overviews / searches over me?

I am absolutely clueless with this kinda thing.

But here’s what I’m gonna do:

1. Sign up to the Ahrefs​ AI Brand Radar
2. See where + how my competitors show up over me
3. Create a plan to make my personal brand more visible
4. Quickly gain more visibility in AI search and start winning

It’s ridiculous to be putting in years of effort:

- growing my personal brand
- attracting more followers
- spending hours every week on LinkedIn

Only to be completely invisible to anyone searching.

If you’re growing your personal brand, check out the AI Brand Radar: https://lnkd.in/ePqpedcW

(don’t even need an Ahrefs​ subscription account btw. totally separate which is cool)

Time to become more visible ✌️

#ad

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I’ve spoken to 1,000s of LinkedIn users about how much they network on LinkedIn. I was surprised, because:

If you’re using LinkedIn to grow your career or business, networking isn’t a good to do. It’s a must do. ESPECIALLY in your early stages.

The worst bit? 

Most people don’t know how to begin networking.

Here’s the ridiculously simple (and tbh, obvious) 5 step LinkedIn networking process I used to find interesting people to network with (and connect with them):

1. Go to the search bar (it’s free guys)
2. Type “{target audience}” eg “founder”
3. Hit search
4. Filter by “People” (to remove company pages)
5. Filter by “Industry” (to niche down)

By now, you have filtered a search down to 10,000s from 10,000,000s.

After that it’s a case of:

- Scroll down your list
- Click on profiles 
- Check them over quickly
- Send a connection request with this note:

“Hey name,

I do {service} for {type of clients}.

I post every {frequency} at roughly {time}. 

Hope it’s useful for you!

Cheers, Matt”

If they accept - great, on their radar.
If they reject - no bother.

10 of these 5 x a week (do 20 if you can).
That’s 200 a month.
2,400 a year.

Even if 20% connect, that’s 480 new connections.

More than the 0 most people are doing.

Simple networking like this can hold back your network growth, post engagement and follower growth MASSIVELY.

If you’re using LinkedIn to grow your career or business, are you networking here?

P.S. this is the exact process I used to grow my profile here - Matt Barker​ btw.

I teach Fast, Easy & Fun LinkedIn Writing. Taught 3,602 people to write on LinkedIn. Investor @ MagicPost.

4 weeks ago, Jacob and I booked 60 minutes at a recording studio. Neither of us prepared ANYTHING. Ridiculous. But it was brilliant because:

We just...chatted.

You're probably thinking:

"Matt. Why the fuck would you spend time and money to go and chat to someone without preparing anything?"

Well, reader. That's a great question.

And the answer is surprisingly simple:

Because we wanted to.

I know. SHOCK. How dare we do something, that costs us money just because we wanted to?

Today all you'll see online is shit about how everything you do has to have a clear ROI or everything you do has to play into a strategy.

We obviously didn't do this for literally no reason.

Outside of "because we wanted to", a big reason was this:

In 2025 me and jacob started very intentionally sharing insights and nuggets from what we both do in our businesses. What's working, what isn't working. And it helped us both have amazing years in our business. Not just from a revenue POV but from a overall quality of life POV.

We get a lot of enjoyment out of these back and forths.

So we wanted to see if we can translate that to a recorded conversation.

THAT's why we booked 60 minutes at a studio.

Did it work?

Well we ended up going over the 60 minutes by a whole hour.

And we accidentally recorded a 2 hour month by month breakdown of what went well and what went wrong in our businesses in 2025.

(it's here by the way: https://lnkd.in/e9Zwxh99)

We both had such a good time.

And we're doing it again.

My advice for you:

Do stuff you enjoy.

Not because it makes money or anything.

But because you enjoy it and it makes you happy.

Can't be more simple.

✌️

This is my exact follower growth strategy for 2026.

I grew 54,477 followers in 2025. I'll do it again in 2026.

No, follower growth on LinkedIn isn't "dead".

It's all in WHAT you write and HOW you write it.

Here's the 5 step approach (use this on your next post):

1. Start by framing why the advice matters now

If the education isn’t framed to a real lived experience, people won’t value it enough to save.

2. Teach something that helps someone do something later

Posts get saved when readers think: “I’ll need this again.”

3. Use at least one of these formats in every educational post:

- Step-by-step actions
- A concrete example from your own work
- A reusable template or framework

4. Make the education specific enough to reuse

If it feels generic, it feels replaceable and replaceable content doesn’t get saved.

5. Write the post so it stands on its own without you

If someone came back to it in 30 days, would it still make sense and be useful?

There ya have it.

The exact approach behind my growing 54k followers in 2025 and my biggest follower spikes from January 2026.

And it’s repeatable.

(this hasn't changed for FOUR YEARS btw)

Do your posts get polite "nice post" engagement?

And plenty of likes, but your audience isn't growing?

I created a 14 minute FREE training showing you how to grow your LinkedIn followers faster & what to optimise for (not likes).

Get it free here: https://lnkd.in/d29V4rih

Enjoy ✌️

taplio

The Battle

Michael Ashton

Matt Barker

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreMatt Barker's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Michael Ashton

Matt Barker

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Matt Barker's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreMatt Barker's LinkedIn Performance