Poised

In a recent internal organizational meeting, I asked our staff about what we could improve on from last year and we were pretty much on the same page, knowing the things that needed improvement and what the priorities are. "How we can best serve our clients' needs" was the topic and something great came out of that 2026 kickoff meeting.

My staff, which I affectionately call the “A Team", had the opinion that we are poised to be operating at an unprecedented high level in the coming year.

The reasons?

Here is the short list:

Our understanding of Andromeda’s AI is a year ahead of most of the clients that Meta meets with. We went immersed into learning how to put bumpers on it and target using the proper amount of interest-based vs. Advantage+ features.

Our clients are committing to provide us the type of content we are requesting so we can out-authenticate and inject magic moments in their ad series.

Using DirectFlow, clients who closely track the origins of “how their customers found out about them” have reported multiple sales from the ad series from clients unwilling to fill out a form that they purchased after seeing the ads.* This is verification that our ad series is also getting to the 90% who will never agree to consent marketing.

The ongoing commitment we have to value the relationships and customize our service and harvesting apps to client specific markets based upon aggressive A-B testing in the beginning of the AI revolution.  

The finishing of Phase #1 of the Dash CRM. Many back end things will become more visible so sales associates will be able to view heretofore invisible prospect buying signs. This will be HUGE for sales associate inspiration and momentum.

The creation of the “Keys to Success” sales support certification program. This program will provide sales individuals of all development levels with a quality sales study course and a certification upon completion. The course is 70% complete and will demonstrate after reviewing the performance of the graduates the value of ongoing sales method and psychological education.

It is gratifying to see the optimism in an unfolding marketing landscape of our team. It is one of resolve. We persevered during the most transformational time in marketing history since 2004-2007 when Google adwords, Facebook, Wordpress and the launch of the iPhone. AI is an exciting, controlled substance with tons of upside that will continue to improve our marketing world when applied “appropriately.”

I am blessed to have a team that embraces change as opportunity. I am grateful for these people who as a team helped us achieve such progress including the ability to add multiple clients/locations during the chaos of 2025. 

Thank you to Clyde for his resolve in taking on the ad placement so we will always have a GM capable of teaching and supervising it. We are thankful also for his creative and sales coaching input.

We thank Lauren for being the communications and administrative glue that keeps the vehicle together as it rolls on down the road.

We thank our developer and fireman Joshua Hoyt who has never failed to work on the capabilities that will get Dash to the vision we have in our heads. One notable, behind the scenes occurrence we are thankful for was his ability to help us survive the AWS global platform going down with only hours instead of days of downtime. 

And last but certainly and most foundationally Tammy, our owner, who gave us the belief, resources and commitment to not only keep going but go past where we were to reach new heights. 

Poised, that is the word that came out of that meeting that painted the picture of the character of it most accurately. Now it’s time to execute. To help our clients bring more music into the world.

I’ll close with a gratifying story from a client who recently delivered a piano he refurbished (he is a tuner, Steinway retailer, and master rebuilder) to an older client who wanted a favorite instrument revitalized for a church. She could afford most of what it needed so he went above and beyond and delivered their piano with as much rebuilding as he could squeeze in for her almost appropriate budget. We, the client and I, were wrapping up a business visit and I made the comment that I believe that about half the people that we help purchase the right piano actually do end up using them regularly and it really does help change people’s lives for the better. That is what prompted him to tell me about the lady in the church he delivered the rebuild to. 

He said there were cameras going off during a tender moment when he sat with her on the bench in front of the keyboard with her overwhelmed and in tears. He agreed that what we do for a living, and the story we have to tell, is that we make people’s lives a better place. The attendees at this house of worship (I assume it to be a medium sized country church on a budget) will benefit from her donation of the refurbished piano used in worship for years to come. I truly love having clients that care about their customers like that. When I said we value the relationships we have with our clients I meant it. Over the last four decades, I have no idea how many lives have been positively enriched by the people I have had the privilege to serve. All the business and sales professionals we serve today carry on the tradition of promoting the benefits of playing and some have been at it for decades as well. Suffice to say that this is the company we chose to keep. We are grateful to be a part of spreading the music by finding people for you all to talk to. It truly is work worth doing so let’s keep getting better at it. 

“The future belongs to those who learn more skills and combine them in creative ways” - Robert Greene

*We recognize and are proud to be a synergistic part of the sum total of all our client’s marketing efforts. We, in no way, have a problem being simply a part and parcel of a client’s sales success without trying to claim any more credit than we deserve. We are just happy to be a laser-targeted contributor.