WOMEN OF NAMM I BY CASSANDRA SOTOS Tone at the Source
M usicians know this truth better than anyone: tone starts long before the world hears a single note. Long before a pedalboard, an amp or a sound engineer touches anything. Real tone begins at the source — in your hands, your inten- tion, your instrument, your voice. If the source is off, nothing downstream can save the signal. You can polish a bad tone, but you can’t transform it. Not really. And now, as a new year opens up in front of us, I’ve been think- ing about what tone really means, outside of music, too. I’ve been thinking about the tone we carry into our teams, our work and our communities, and how often we try to adjust the output without checking the source, in music, in business and in life itself. In the music industry, we talk about tone constantly. We chase it. Shape it. Protect it. At my company AmpRx, we build products that cor- rect power at the source. Everything we do revolves around giving musi- cians a stable, trustworthy founda- tion to create from. Again and again, I see the same truth: your input always influences your outcome. HONING YOUR TONE In leadership, we often try to fix problems at the end of the chain, whether it’s a communication breakdown or a deadline that slipped or a team that feels worn out. If the tone at the source isn’t clear, grounded or consistent, the noise later on is inevitable. In community, tone becomes
culture. What you normalize becomes behavior. What you amplify becomes direction. What you tolerate becomes permission. Leaders set tone long before they say a word, by how they consis- tently show up. And when the tone is strong — aligned, intentional and human — it gives everyone else something stable to plug into. But tone isn’t just a leadership tool. It’s a way of moving through the world. Tone is how you respond when plans change and what you prioritize when things feel urgent — the difference between reacting and choosing. Tone at the source of leadership looks like knowing who you are
before you ask anyone to follow you. It’s the steadi- ness you bring into the room, especially when things aren’t going well. It’s your pace, your presence, your emotional voltage. It’s how you treat your team, partners and customers. And it’s how you take care of yourself. And here’s the truth I’ve learned over and over again: the only thing we ever fully control is how we show up. Economies will rise and fall. Trends shift. Challenges hit without warning. But intention is ours. Attitude is ours. The way we enter a room, or a new year, is the variable we choose every day. People feel tone before they understand it, and feeling is the currency of our industry. Which brings me back to the moment we’re in, the very beginning of 2026. This is the time when everyone talks about goals, lists, resolutions and metrics, which are all good things, but
none of them matter if the tone underneath is manic, misaligned or forced. A goal with- out tone is just pressure. But a goal built on grounded tone? That’s momentum. So, instead of resolutions, I’ve been asking myself: What tone do I want to walk into this year with? Curiosity instead of certainty. Con- sistency instead of intensity. Presence instead of pressure. None of these require dramatic change, only intention. Tone is a practice, and the beautiful part is
“A goal without tone is just pressure. But a goal built on grounded tone? That’s momentum.”
that you can change it at any moment. You can return to the source as often as you need. You can reset the room, your mindset, your pace, your intention — even in the middle of the song. Because the source is always accessible. And when you return to it, with honesty, intention and a little spark, everything downstream changes. So, here’s to a new year with a tone that’s warm, true, aligned and unmistakably yours. Nurture it. Reset it often. And let the rest of the world hear what begins at your source. MI Cassandra Sotos is the co-owner and CEO of AmpRx, a Women of NAMM committee member and was awarded the 2024 NAMM Female Entrepreneur of the Year.
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