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Andi Graham
Marketing clarity | Storytelling impact | We help nonprofits grow.
Professional Background
Andi Graham is a dynamic leader and visionary entrepreneur, serving as the founder, CEO, and managing partner at Big Sea, a forward-thinking remote-first marketing agency established in 2005. With a remarkable trajectory that has seen her shape and refine the agency’s approach, Andi has positioned Big Sea as a key player in the marketing landscape, particularly known for its partnerships with a diverse array of clients. These clients range from cultural and educational institutions to large nonprofit organizations, museums, and aquariums across the United States. The agency's philosophy centers around the idea of creating meaningful connections between organizations and their supporters, and Andi's commitment to this mission is evident in every project undertaken by Big Sea.
Under Andi's leadership, Big Sea has developed a reputation for being both values-based and results-obsessed. The agency is proud to be a HubSpot partner while remaining platform-agnostic, ensuring that they can adapt to the unique needs of each client. This flexibility, coupled with a laser-focused approach to strategic communication, has enabled Big Sea to navigate the complexities of various marketing landscapes successfully and leverage cutting-edge strategies that drive engagement and foster community.
Prior to founding Big Sea, Andi accumulated a wealth of experience in various leadership roles. Her former positions include Managing Partner at Pineapple Development and Director of New Media at Baisden + Company Advertising. Each of these roles has contributed to Andi's comprehensive understanding of marketing strategies and client relations, allowing her to tailor solutions that resonate with the target audience and yield successful results.
Education and Achievements
Andi Graham's educational background is as diverse as her professional journey. She earned a Master of Arts in Strategic Communication from the University of South Florida, which has equipped her with advanced skills in crafting effective communication strategies underpinned by research and critical analysis.
Prior to her master's degree, Andi completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in Visual Art at Eckerd College. This creative foundation has not only enriched her approach to marketing but has also influenced the visual branding of the campaigns she oversees at Big Sea. Additionally, Andi holds a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Sociology from Minnesota State University, Mankato, providing her with a unique insight into human behavior and societal dynamics, both critical to understanding target audiences in marketing.
Andi's educational journey began at Central High School, laying the groundwork for her future studies and career choices. Throughout her academic endeavors, Andi has demonstrated a commitment to excellence and a passion for learning, continuously seeking opportunities to expand her knowledge and expertise.
Beyond her formal education, Andi's achievements in the marketing world are noteworthy. Leading Big Sea since its inception in 2005, she has turned the agency into a leader in the industry, with a strong portfolio that boasts successful collaborations with notable organizations. Her vision for creating values-driven marketing solutions has not only benefited her clients but has also created a lasting impact on the communities they serve.
Achievements
Andi Graham's journey is marked by significant achievements that underscore her commitment to innovation and community engagement. She is highly regarded for her success in implementing strategic initiatives that connect organizations with their supporters in profound ways. Under her leadership, Big Sea has achieved recognition as an influential voice in the marketing industry, celebrated for its unique approach to client relationships and campaign execution.
Her ability to forge partnerships with various cultural and educational institutions has showcased her talents in marketing and her dedication to social causes. By focusing on the values that drive organizations, Andi ensures that Big Sea’s clients can achieve their mission while fostering meaningful connections with their audiences.
Through her multifaceted experience, she has also demonstrated a significant aptitude for navigating the complexities of digital marketing and new media, ensuring that her clients remain at the forefront of their respective fields. Andi's work has not only benefited her agency and clients but has also contributed to the evolution of marketing practices within nonprofit and cultural organizations, advocating for the impactful use of storytelling and community engagement in the digital age.
Overall, Andi Graham embodies the spirit of an entrepreneur dedicated to making a difference through strategic communication and community-oriented marketing. Her extensive educational background, coupled with her rich professional experience, has prepared her to lead Big Sea to new heights while
Highlights
For too many cultural orgs, the word "membership" means "access to discounts and free admission."
It's all about the benefits, the access, the perks.
It's short-sighted and transient.
One of our fundamental human motivations is the need to belong and form meaningful interpersonal attachments . When this need is met through community belonging, it can foster a desire to contribute back to that community through helpful acts. (PMID: 33134474)
Museums should view membership as a way to foster belonging, community, and deeper engagement with the institution's mission, not just a means to generate revenue through admission perks.
We have to shift the language from "what do I get" to "how can I help."
But ... where to begin?
Start thinking beyond the word "membership" and instead, build a community.
The approach gets a little easier.
And, knowing I'm never one to talk ideas without offering action plans, here are a few simple ideas with no cost to begin:
✅ Create private Facebook, Slack, or Discord groups exclusively for members to discuss exhibits, share photos, get insider information, etc. Use these groups to poll members on programming ideas or potential membership benefits to make them feel invested. Publish BTS and event photo albums that don't show up anywhere else.
✅ Identify highly engaged members and invite them to be "ambassadors" who help promote the museum and recruit new members. Give them some branded swag, some exclusive access, and recognition on the website or social media. Ask them to host local meetups or represent the museum at community events. And, of course, enlist them to provide testimonials about why they love their membership to use in marketing materials.
✅ Develop some member co-creation opportunities. Invite them to participate in focus groups to provide feedback on new exhibits or programs in development. Ask them to submit artwork or writing to be featured in a member-curated gallery or publication. Host "member nights" where members get the opportunity to see exhibits in progress or talk with curators about future plans.
The key is making members feel like they are part of an exclusive community with special access and opportunities - not just transactional buyers of admission benefits.
Need more ideas on how to strengthen and grow your membership program? This is the work we love.
(And check out Episode 3 of The Digital Stage where we talk to Kristen A. Shepherd about this topic!)
#MuseumMembership #CommunityBuilding #Nonprofit #MembershipExperience #MuseumLife #SocialImpact #Philanthropy #MuseumMarketing
You might think a museum in the middle of nowhere wouldn't have much to offer online. Think again.
Nik Wyness MCIM and his team at The Tank Museum, nestled in rural Dorset, UK, have become a digital powerhouse, proving that niche content can be a powerful driver of growth.
They've amassed close to 788,000 YouTube subscribers and now generate almost 30% of their revenue from digital sources.
Their secret? They've embraced the creator economy, using platforms like YouTube and TikTok to reach new audiences and connect them with the fascinating world of tanks.
What can we learn from their success?
🌍 Niche content has global reach: The internet allows you to find like-minded people anywhere in the world.
🤗 Embrace the creator economy: Create high-quality content, use a variety of platforms, and think strategically about audience engagement.
👯 Trust builds loyalty: Leverage your organization's innate credibility and expertise to build a loyal community.
Want to learn more? The full episode of The Digital Stage, hosted by Warren Wilansky and I, is live now wherever you consumer your podcasts (and on YouTube).
https://lnkd.in/edc8hHb3
#museum #nonprofit #digitalmarketing #creator #contentmarketing #tanks #militaryhistory
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Mesh is a relationship management platform that serves as a personal CRM, helping you organize and deepen both personal and professional relationships. It functions as a beautiful rolodex and CRM available on iPhone, Mac, Windows, and web, built automatically to help manage your network efficiently. Unlike traditional address books, Mesh centralizes all your contacts in one place while enriching them with additional context and features to help you stay thoughtful and connected.
Mesh works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Mesh offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
- Network Strength: Visualizes the strength of your relationships relative to others in your network
- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
- Smart Search: Allows you to search using natural language like "People I know at the NYT" or "Designers I've met in London"
- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Mesh is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Mesh as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Mesh offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Mesh takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Mesh encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Mesh work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Mesh is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Mesh is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Mesh is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Mesh offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Mesh offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Mesh for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Mesh accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
Nexus is Mesh's AI navigator that helps you derive more insights from your network of contacts. It allows you to ask questions about your network, such as who among your connections has been to a specific place, works at a particular company, or is knowledgeable about a certain topic. Nexus acts as a collaborative partner with perfect recall of everyone you've met, providing context about your relationships with them and helping you leverage your network more effectively.
Mesh makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Mesh's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Mesh is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Mesh stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Mesh excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Mesh isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Mesh instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Mesh is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Mesh can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Mesh is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Mesh's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Mesh has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Mesh a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Mesh's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Mesh's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Mesh has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Mesh's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Mesh as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Mesh eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.