Your Trusted Talent
Partner & Advisor

After an early career as a sales rep for major manufacturers including Lutron and Crestron, Ron Callis — alongside his wife Danielle — takes the plunge and launches Firefly Design Group in November 2007. Ron had a strong desire to help business owners in the AV and integration space solve their business challenges. The company provided system design and documentation services to clients worldwide, and opened its doors with just four employees.

Over the course of several years working with clients at Firefly Design Group, Ron becomes aware of a gap in the industry: the need for targeted marketing services. Firefly Design Group begins adding new marketing services to their product suite, including website design, social media management and a sales portfolio product. In 2012, the company rebranded to One Firefly, and began operating all services under that singular brand.

By 2015, Ron reimagined his business and began to pivot away from engineering and programming, and expand marketing services and solutions. By 2016, the company fully transitioned into a full-service marketing agency, tailored to the CI space. At the same time, One Firefly decentralized the business, closing the office location in Hollywood, FL, and hiring full-time remote professionals across North America. 

Ron Callis, One Firefly’s CEO, and Taylor Whipple, CFO, embark on a discovery process to explore where One Firefly could offer new services or products to further the company’s mission of helping technology businesses grow. They spend several quarters interviewing dozens of dealers, and hear one overwhelming bottleneck to growth repeated over and over again: hiring and retaining talent.

One Firefly officially launches Amplify People to the world at CEDIA Expo 2023 in Denver, CO, to positive reception. Amplify People wins a Residential Systems Best of Show award, which recognizes and celebrates new and innovative products in the industry.

With Amplify People on a path to continued growth, One Firefly brings a dynamic new leader onto the team: Samantha Hodz, who joins as the Director of Talent Acquisition Services. Sam immediately starts gathering customer feedback to refine Amplify People’s service offerings, packages, and processes to better meet the needs of dealers in the industry.

Amplify People ramps up visibility across the industry to spread the message: we’re here to help with your talent needs. The brand hosts a 3-part summer webinar series around talent acquisition, and appears at multiple industry events, including CEDIA Expo, HTSA Fall Conference, NSCA XBO, and CEDIA Tech & Business Summits.

Amplify People continued building momentum with the launch of a new website featuring resources for hiring managers and job seekers, while establishing its first independent brand presence at Lightapalooza 2025. Throughout the year, the team expanded its industry partnerships by joining leading buying groups including HTSA and ProSource, strengthening its ability to support more integration businesses with specialized talent solutions.

Amplify People expanded its mission beyond the custom integration industry, bringing its specialized hiring expertise to adjacent skilled trades including security, HVAC, and electrical. The team also launched its dedicated Job Board to connect employers with qualified talent, while continuing to invest in industry education through webinars, thought leadership, and timely discussions around AI's impact on hiring in the skilled trades.