Why the Dash Matters in The-Audible
People sometimes ask us about the dash.
Not the name Audible itself, but the dash in The-Audible.
Yes, we know there’s another company called Audible. They’re about hearing. Books you listen to. Stories read aloud. And that makes sense for them.
But our name comes from a very different place.
Calling an Audible
In football, calling an audible means changing the play at the line of scrimmage.
The quarterback reads the defense, realizes the original plan won’t work, and makes a real-time decision to pivot. Same goal. Same destination. Different execution.
That moment requires awareness, confidence, trust, and leadership. It’s not panic. It’s clarity under pressure.
That’s the heart of The-Audible.
We exist for leaders, founders, and teams who realize that the play they drew up months ago no longer fits the reality in front of them. Markets shift. Buyers change. Technology accelerates. What worked yesterday can quietly stop working today.
Calling an audible isn’t failure. It’s maturity.
And Then There’s the Dash
But the dash does even more work than that.
There’s a well-known poem often referred to as “The Dash,” written by Linda Ellis. It reflects on the dash between the year you were born and the year you die. That small line on a tombstone represents everything you did, built, risked, loved, failed at, and learned along the way.
The dash is where life actually happens.
The dash isn’t passive. It’s active. It’s choices made when certainty is unavailable. It’s showing up, adjusting, committing, and moving forward anyway.
That idea was first introduced to me by Mike Riordan, and it stuck. Deeply. So much so that when it came time to name this company, the dash wasn’t optional. It was essential.
What the Dash Represents for Us
The dash in The-Audible is the space where work gets done.
It represents:
- The decisions between strategy and execution
- The adjustments between planning and reality
- The actions taken between where you are and where you want to go
We don’t just talk about vision. We operate inside the dash, helping teams translate intent into momentum.
Sales lives in the dash.
Leadership lives in the dash.
Growth lives in the dash.
It’s messy. It’s dynamic. It’s human.
Why We Keep It There
That small horizontal line is a reminder that what matters most isn’t the label, the logo, or even the plan you started with.
What matters is how you respond when the defense lines up differently than expected.
At The-Audible, we help you read the field, adjust the play, and move the ball forward. Not someday. Not theoretically. But now, in the middle of the dash.
Because in business, as in life, the dash is everything.