INBOX INSIGHTS: Growth, Dark Data and AI (2026-01-07) - Trust Insights Marketing Analytics Consulting

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INBOX INSIGHTS: Growth, Dark Data and AI (2026-01-07)

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Our 2026 Guiding Word: Growth

I’m not great at sitting still.

Not physically (though that’s also true). I mean mentally. I like to tinker. I like to fix things. I like to chase down the next big idea and figure out how to make it work. And for someone like me, having a single word to guide an entire year can feel… limiting.

Here’s the thing I’ve learned: constraints aren’t the enemy. Sometimes they’re exactly what keeps you from spinning out. (Looking at you, 5P Framework)

The Power of One Word

Let me back up. If you’ve never heard of choosing a guiding word for the year, it’s exactly what it sounds like. Instead of a list of resolutions you’ll abandon by February (no judgment—we’ve all been there), you pick one word that becomes your filter for decisions, priorities, and focus.

No, I didn’t invent this concept. I can’t take credit for it. But I can tell you that it works.

Last year, our word was rooted.

We needed it. There was so much noise happening outside our walls—new AI tools launching every five minutes, competitors pivoting in every direction, the constant temptation to chase whatever shiny object floated past. “Rooted” kept us grounded. It reminded us to focus on our foundations, strengthen what was already working, and resist the urge to rebuild everything just because everyone else seemed to be doing it.

It was exactly the right word for where we were.

So Why “Growth” for 2026?

I know. Growth. It sounds cliché. It sounds like something you’d find on a motivational poster next to a stock photo of a mountain climber.

But hear me out.

When I say growth, I don’t just mean revenue. I don’t just mean bigger numbers on a dashboard. I mean something harder and, frankly, scarier.

I’m challenging every single person on our team—including myself—to grow personally and professionally this year.

And here’s the uncomfortable part: it’s going to look different for each of us.

For one person, growth might mean finally speaking up in meetings instead of staying quiet. For another, it might mean letting go of control and actually delegating. For someone else, it might be learning a completely new skill that feels intimidating and unfamiliar.

For me? I’m still figuring that out. But I know it involves stepping into spaces that don’t feel comfortable yet.

What Stepping Outside Your Comfort Zone Actually Looks Like

“Step outside your comfort zone” is easy to say. It’s a lot harder to do when you’re staring down something that makes your stomach flip.

Growth isn’t:

Taking on more work
Saying yes to everything
Grinding yourself into exhaustion

Growth is:

Doing the thing that scares you a little (or a lot)
Being honest about what you don’t know (this is a big one)
Asking for help when you need it (ok, this is a big one, too)
Trying something new even when you might fail at it
Learning from that failure and trying again

The reason I chose this word is because we’ve built a strong foundation. “Rooted” did its job. Now we actually have the stability to stretch, to experiment, to push ourselves without worrying that the whole thing will collapse.

That’s what earned growth looks like.

So here’s my question for you: what’s your word?

Maybe you’re in a season where you need to slow down and be rooted. Maybe you’re ready for growth. Maybe your word is something completely different—focus, courage, balance, or rest.

Whatever it is, I’d encourage you to pick one. Write it down. Put it somewhere you’ll see it. Let it guide the decisions that feel murky and remind you what you’re working toward when things get noisy.

We’ll be over here, collectively stepping outside our comfort zones. Wish us luck!

Want to hear more about how we’re putting “growth” into action this year? Join the conversation in our Free Slack community, Analytics for Marketers!

– Katie Robbert, CEO

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In this week’s In-Ear Insights, the Trust Insights podcast, Katie and Chris discuss generative engine marketing, or GEM, the AI equivalent of SEM. Just as SEO became GEO, so too is SEM likely to become GEM. Learn what it is, how it might manifest, and what you should be considering.

Watch/listen to this episode of In-Ear Insights here »

Last time on So What? The Marketing Analytics and Insights Livestream, we looked at how to make your own year end review. Catch the episode replay here!

This week on So What? we’ll be refreshing and updating our generative AI skills and basics. Are you following our YouTube channel? If not, click/tap here to follow us!

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Data is the fuel for AI.

Over the holiday break, I discovered a gigantic archive of music – sheet music, in a text-based format called ABC notation – from the 1500s to the 1800s. This sheet music is all stuff that’s in the public domain, far outside any copyright, which means yuo can safely use it with AI or any other content system and not violate anyone’s intellectual property rights.

What’s really interesting about it is that these are melodies that probably have not been heard by many people since the centuries they were written. They’re the epitome of something Trust Insights has called dark data since day one, since the day we opened our doors.

Dark data is data you have that you don’t know you have, or you don’t know what to do with it. It just sits there, taking up space. In the case of old sheet music from eras past, it doesn’t take up much space, but it’s still not data in motion, data in use.

This is where generative AI comes into play. You can, if you have the tools and processes and knowledge, convert that old music into a format that AI can read. A tool like Suno can take an existing audio file and use it as inspiration for a remix. Suddenly, a piece of data that looks like this:

X:50
T:Pretty Girls of Monaghan.
M:C
L:1/8
Z:Transcribed by Peter Dunk 2015
B:Alexander’s 50 New Scotch & Irish Reels and Hornpipes, ca1825
Q:1/4=140
K:D
A|dBAF D2 DF|GFGA BEEc|dBAF DFAF|GBAG FD D:|
|:A|(dc).d.e f2 ed|(e^d)ef eBBc|defg a2 gf|faeg fd d:|
|:d|BdAd BdAd|Bdfd ge e2|Bdce dfeg|fbag fd d2:|

Becomes something that sounds like this, brought to life again by AI:

Pretty Girls of Monaghan - 1825 Scotch Reel

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The key lesson here is that if you want to use AI in ways that other people can’t, start looking at your dark data. What do you have laying around in all the places you store data that you could transform and bring back to life in new, different, and exciting ways?

When everyone else is doing exactly the same thing with AI, you can differentiate yourself with the data you already have that no one else has or doesn’t know how to work with.

Almost every AI course is the same, conceptually. They show you how to prompt, how to set things up – the cooking equivalents of how to use a blender or how to cook a dish. These are foundation skills, and while they’re good and important, you know what’s missing from all of them? How to run a restaurant successfully. That’s the big miss. We’re so focused on the how that we completely lose sight of the why and the what.

This is why our new course, the AI-Ready Strategist, is different. It’s not a collection of prompting techniques or a set of recipes; it’s about why we do things with AI. AI strategy has nothing to do with prompting or the shiny object of the day — it has everything to do with extracting value from AI and avoiding preventable disasters. This course is for everyone in a decision-making capacity because it answers the questions almost every AI hype artist ignores: Why are you even considering AI in the first place? What will you do with it? If your AI strategy is the equivalent of obsessing over blenders while your steakhouse goes out of business, this is the course to get you back on course.

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