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Karl Sakas

President & Agency Consultant

Growth is good… unless it gets out of control. Karl Sakas can help you manage your agency’s growing pains, with advice developed from experience guiding hundreds of agencies on every inhabited continent.

As a management consultant and executive coach, Karl has personally advised hundreds of agency owners worldwide. His clients often call him their “agency therapist.”

Through Sakas & Company, he offers custom consulting, executive coaching, and training programs and products to help agency owners “up-level” at their agency. These include his “Agency PM 101” on-demand course—for the reluctant project manager—and his “Work Less, Earn More” agency growth bootcamp—designed to help agency owners achieve their ideal work life.

Karl is a fourth-generation business owner with over 20 years of consulting experience. He’s worked as the #2 person at two digital marketing agencies and written extensively on how to run a better agency. Karl has authored over 400 articles on agency management and several books including Made to Lead: A Pocket Guide to Managing Marketing & Creative Teams. Get a free copy of his eBook, Don’t Just Make the Logo Bigger: Taking Clients from Painful to Profitable when you sign up for the Sakas & Company newsletter.

Outside of work, Karl volunteers with USO of North Carolina and as a bartender on an antique train.

My Story

I’ve been working with agency owners since I first learned HTML back in 1997. One of my first web design projects was for a marketing agency that needed a website.

Although I ultimately realized I wasn’t a great designer, I found I loved working with marketing agencies. Agency owners typically love marketing, design, or development—but running the business side of their agency doesn’t come naturally to them.

As a fourth-generation business owner, I grew up talking about client service and strategic planning. That helped me quickly climb the ranks at two agencies, serving as the owner’s right-hand and confidante while leading project management and becoming the head of business operations.

Today I bring 20+ years of consulting experience to our work together, including more than 600 agencies in 36 countries on every inhabited continent. And I share hundreds of free or low-cost resources, including articles and my books about managing agencies.

What I can do for you:

Candid Advice – I’ll tell you what you need to hear, even when it’s not what you want to hear—but I’ll do it diplomatically and help you to understand why it’s important based on your goals for your agency. I don’t judge you for your past choices; instead, it’s about what to do going forward.

Actionable Insights – I’ll tell you how to do it. Drawing on my agency operations background, I know that advice is only good if you can actually implement it.

Confidential Sounding Board – When it’s time to make a business decision at your agency, you don’t  have to do it alone. I can share what’s worked (and what hasn’t) for other agencies and help you decide what’s best for your business, based entirely on your unique vision for your agency. And I’ll keep it 100% confidential.