In this episode of the Digital Agency Growth podcast, I’m joined once again by agency advisor Karl Sakas. Karl breaks down the philosophy and practice behind his new book Calm the Chaos—a leadership guide for agency owners who want to scale smart, delegate more, and reclaim time. We also explore his writing process, the parallels between art collecting and running an agency, and how to think clearly when chaos hits your business.

⏱️ Timestamps

00:00 – Welcome back Karl Sakas + Intro to Calm the Chaos
01:09 – Why leadership is the key to scaling a lifestyle agency
02:22 – Karl’s writing process
05:30 – Blog posts vs. books: Why books matter for positioning
07:45 – AI’s role in writing and idea development
08:31 – Art collecting vs. agency leadership: Taste vs. discernment
13:32 – The tipping point: You can’t be the answer person forever
16:13 – The bottleneck around delegation and how to fix it
21:50 – What causes chaos in an agency?
24:50 – Strong pipeline = better client filtering
29:27 – How to delegate growth and not abdicate responsibility
34:48 – Should you build demand gen internally or hire it out?
37:21 – The M&A market and how to think about valuation and exit
41:51 – The real drivers behind agency exits: Age, tuition, and burnout

🔗 Book a strategy call with Dan: https://salesschema.com/work-with-us/

🎙 More episodes of the Digital Agency Growth Podcast: salesschema.com/podcast

🎁 Get a free chapter of Karl’s book: bit.ly/karl-dag

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