Lisa Goich-Andreadis and Jeriel Johnson went from running parts of the Recording Academy to selling a new kind of advantage: Grammy campaign consulting. They report that ahead of the 68th Grammy Awards on Feb. 1, they had 32 clients, who collectively earned 27 Grammy nominations and six wins. The numbers are the easy part. The trickier part is what they had to do to get there without breaking the ethos of the organization they used to work for.

Their company, Awards Agency LLC, started doing the work in July 2024 and officially launched in March 2025. And if the premise sounds slightly taboo, they don’t pretend otherwise. Johnson and Goich-Andreadis both describe a shift in mindset from working inside an awards system that prizes scrupulous non-partisanship to operating on the other side of it, where they are explicitly trying to improve clients’ odds of nominations and awards. Goich-Andreadis puts it plainly: the first year was uncomfortable because she had been at the Academy for 13 years and 14 awards seasons, but she says she’s now used to it because they built a “rhythm,” their business plan is “solid,” and they “found our space.”

What makes their move more than just another boutique service? They are not generic marketers. At the Recording Academy, Goich-Andreadis oversaw the jazz and comedy genres, plus the Special Merit Awards and the Grammy Hall of Fame. Johnson oversaw hip-hop, R&B and reggae, served as executive director for the Academy’s Washington D.C. chapter, and was a co-founder of the Black Music Collective. Both are based in Los Angeles, with Johnson moving back from Washington D.C. in 2022. That background matters because Grammy campaigns are not a simple “spend money, get buzz” loop. They’re a rules-and-timing ecosystem: submission deadlines, eligibility windows, and the kinds of moves that can either avoid a “flag” or trigger one.

In the interview, Johnson describes how this kind of consulting is almost culturally new in music. He notes that in film, studios have “gone all-in” on campaigns for a long time, while music has historically treated awards strategy more like an inside secret, “if-you-know-you-know.” After he left the Academy, he says people kept calling him with practical questions like how the process works, what the deadline is, and who to contact. The repeated calls were a signal that the institutional knowledge he carried was valuable, but also hard to access for labels, managers, and artists that were trying to navigate the system for the first time.

The consulting model they describe is built around plugging into what labels and management teams already do, then aligning the campaign work with Grammy-specific requirements. Johnson explains that companies often identify priorities by early spring. They decide which artists to back, bring their labels and management teams, and then “plug in” so the campaign fits the wider push already underway. But that plug-in has constraints. Their stated approach is to protect the integrity of the process in how they advise clients, not by ignoring the rules, but by living inside them. Johnson says the Academy takes seriously the job of protecting the integrity of the awards process, and he frames their work as: Client A wants X, Y, Z, but here are the guidelines, the rules, what to stay away from, what causes a flag, and what has been successful.

There’s also the “compliance theater” problem that comes with insider-outsider services. Johnson says he had a call with Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason jr., telling him what he was doing. He reports that Mason responded, “OK, sounds good.” Johnson also says they communicate with Academy staff from time to time because they are friends. They also note that both are non-voting Recording Academy professional members. That membership detail is not small. It is their stated way of staying constantly cognizant of acting in accordance with Academy guidelines, as they rely on legal-team questions when they need answers about specifics like FYC.

At the same time, they say they use their positions to help the broader community, including by coaching people on how to become Recording Academy members. Goich-Andreadis describes how many people do not realize they can become members. She ties that to voting and to chapter activities and community touchpoints. She also says their knowledge of schedules and of the people involved helps them reach out to the appropriate teams when questions come up, and she adds that it can “take some of that off of their shoulders” because people call constantly with questions.

Zoom out, and the second-order significance is clear: even if the Academy remains non-partisan in its governing spirit, the market around it is becoming more operational. Consulting firms that understand the rules and the timing can turn campaign uncertainty into a managed process. That changes incentives for labels and management companies, too. If the difference between “a shot” and “a real push” is often navigation of deadlines and avoidance of eligibility or conduct mistakes, then inside knowledge becomes a competitive asset. For executives building strategies across awards seasons, this is a reminder that the most valuable edge is rarely “more noise.” It’s correct moves, at the right time, under the right constraints.