Michael Janda is an executive level creative leader with more than 20 years of experience in both in-house creative departments and agencies working with some of the greatest brands in the world.

Michael founded the creative agency, Riser, in 2002. Over 13 years he led Riser to a 31% average annual profit margin. Riser was a nationally recognized agency creating high-profile work for clients including Disney, Google, ABC, Fox, Warner Bros., NBC, TV Guide and numerous other notable companies. Riser’s work quality and successful business practices yielded some of the most coveted awards in the industry including Inc. 5000, Webbys, FWA, Awwwards, AIGA and Addys.

In 2015, Michael sold Riser to a competing marketing agency named Eli Kirk where he became one of four partners at the agency and its Chief Creative Officer. Following the acquisition he orchestrated a rebrand of the 70+ person agency as EKR. With the new brand in place and following a revised strategic direction for the company, EKR realized significant growth and back to back listings on the Inc. 5000 in both 2017 and 2018.

Prior to his time as an agency owner, Michael served as a Senior Creative Director at Fox Studios where he managed a 40+ person team of designers, content creators and developers.

In addition to his robust experience managing creative and marketing teams, Michael is the author of the book, Burn Your Portfolio: Stuff they don’t teach you in design school, but should, and the newly released, The Psychology of Graphic Design Pricing.

After 15 years and more than $30,000,000 in revenue, Michael stepped away from agency life in 2018 and now spends his time coaching freelancers and agencies, writing books, creating courses, and speaking at design industry events worldwide. He is also known as @morejanda on Instagram where he grew an audience of more than 120,000 creatives in less than a year.