Nora DiNuzzo

Blood Sweat & Tears

You’ve worked too hard for it to be this hard.

BS&T is a committed partner to ambitious agencies frustrated by inconsistent growth.

We develop and implement a custom growth strategy that meets you where you are today – whether your goal is to stabilize, sustain, scale or sell your agency.

Co-Founder & Chief Strategy Officer

Pitcher 🍋

Small businesses deserve to grow, too. 

Pitcher is a growth consultancy for entrepreneurs and small businesses (<$25mm).

We work directly with founders to:

+ Diagnose their growth issues 

+ Refine their first-mile strategies (brand, business, content and comms)

+ Optimize their marketing and business development processes to align with growth goals

+ Match small businesses to right-fit service providers

+ Broker strategic alliances and partnerships

Founder & President

Smiths Agency

In September 2022, Smiths Agency (fka Smith Brothers) was acquired by Barkley: barkleyus.com

Vice President of Business Development

Director of Business Development

Business Development Manager

MARC USA

In June 2020, MARC USA merged with two other agencies to form 9 Rooftops: 9rooftops.com

New Business Specialist

Account Manager

You’ve worked too hard for it to be this hard.

Growing up, one thing I never aspired to be was an entrepreneur. 

Running your own company was for the incredibly wealthy (Mr. Burns) or the incredibly innovative (Doc Brown). I was neither.

But what I’ve learned about entrepreneurs over the past few years is that they have one thing in common – they desperately want to fix something that drives them nuts. 

As it turns out – throughout my life and career, a lot of things drove me nuts. 

So nuts that in October 2021, I quit a VP-level job at an ad agency to start my own consultancy – Pitcher – to help small businesses grow.

Because the fact that agencies could rarely find a way to work with companies <$25mm in annual revenue drove me nuts.

Because I believe that small businesses deserve to grow, too. 

In April 2023, I got a call from a friend that I never planned for – with an offer to create something I never considered doing less than two years into being a founder.

A second company.

Because the fact that so many brilliant agencies continuously struggle to grow drove him nuts. 

As it turns out – it drives me nuts, too. 

So nuts that I said yes – and Blood Sweat & Tears was born. 

Yes, born. I have given birth to two human children – and two businesses.

There is not a damn thing women can’t do.

If we've worked together, you know I'm frequently working on matching people up 💞 

I'm not a recruiter - but I have built a really strong network of complementary talent and partners.

And frequently, people need to find each other - and I serve as the conduit for those connections.

With all the layoffs going on, especially in the ad industry (my longtime professional home) - we are in a moment when the right people really need to find each other. 

I am asking for two things here: 

1) If you are unemployed or underemployed and actively looking for a new opportunity - please comment on this post, and share what type of role or work you are looking for. If you are in advertising, please be specific about what agency department/role and level. 

2) If you are an agency, brand or org looking for talent - freelance, project, full-time - please comment here what roles you are looking to fill, and how soon you need the support. 

I have had several connections just in the past day reach out to ask me who they can hire, because they have time-sensitive needs.

The problem? I don't know who is available or looking - because I don't have a recruiter profile on LinkedIn, and therefore can't sort by "open to work" status. 

And, I don't have time during the last few weeks of the year (and my busiest quarter) to do a lot of my typical private matchmaking and introductions. 

So please - help each other! If I can be a conduit for more people to be working when they need it most, you know I'm all about that. 

Picture with my perfect personal and professional match, which I hear increases the reach of these things. Dave and I are always down to help our community. 

We have been where you are, and were helped by many before when we needed it most. Here to pay that forward now.

So let's get connecting, friends!

When your consultancy name is also the name of a 70s band and confuses the hell out of AI... you get bot emails like this. 

The unhinged, Sagittarius season content continues 🔥 

FYI... Blood Sweat & Tears is a growth consultancy for agencies 📈 

Can't really help with the smooth jazz, sorry!

The telltale sign of a successful workshop for a southpaw strategist.

Thanks for the souvenir Hirschfeld team! 🙌

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As a 90s kid, I loved to make collage art.

So I was overly excited to play around this afternoon with Dame Creative's design-your-own holiday card site! 

Kate Black, Susan Betteridge and Meredith Reineck Daca were our very first Clarity workshop participants in December 2023 (thanks to Kate Galecki).

So it was fun to share with Kate today that we just completed our 12th Clarity workshop last week! 

Someone always has to take a risk and go first.

Thank you to the dames of Dame for being one of the first to make a bet on us at Blood Sweat & Tears. True queen behavior 👑 

We appreciate you so much and LOVE this magical little card creator ✨ 

Link in the comments, so you can make and post your own!

My LinkedIn wrap was fun to review, but two pages really stuck out to me.

First - I have been on LinkedIn for almost 20 years! That is wild!

According to my wrapped, I’m in the top 5% of platform users. Not sure if that is cool or possibly sad? It is nerdy for sure 🤓

Second - my first connection on here was Jaime Dray, MA! My first supervisor (even though we were both babies, let’s be real) at my first agency job. 

Jaime and Hollie Geitner, APR are two of my longest-time professional friends (Hollie was my first client at the agency Jaime and I worked at).

It’s amazing how much we have all grown and championed each other over the years. And are still friends to this day!

So really this is a Jaime and Hollie appreciation post. But also, I’m a LinkedIn nerd… and I admit it!

Fun call Fridays are for getting Rickrolled in the waiting room.

Thanks for the laughs this week, Kent Lewis 🤣

AND Jeffrey Mard and .Marilois Snowman. 🇫🇷🥖🥂

A lot of your missed sales aren’t about you at all.

Especially if you have a high-ticket service offer, don’t get discouraged by a low win rate. 

The services I sell are expensive.

Many agencies do not like to spend money on their own brand, marketing or biz dev.

Agency leaders feel they should be able to figure growth out on their own.

When they can’t - they show up to calls feeling frustrated and exhausted by their lack of progress.

Only for me to tell them, you have to do a ton of work to fix the issue - which yes, will take a lot of time and cost a lot of money.

Literally no one likes to hear this.

So most times, I get ghosted for about 6-12 months… 

Until they realize I was right.

I’m not not closing because my offers are not needed - or even that they are too expensive, based on the outcomes I help people achieve.

I’m not closing because people are not ready - mentally, emotionally, financially - to commit to the work and the investment yet.

So I don’t beat myself up about a low close rate. Because what I provide, and know my clients need, is inherently a tough sell.

When indie shops go big, the results are 🔥 🔥 🔥 

So excited to join our friends at RP3 Agency next Thursday to get the behind-the-scenes scoop about how this wildly original idea - getting Kevin Nealon, YouTube hiking influencer (and yes, SNL alum) to challenge Big Dictionary to change the definition of the phrase "take a hike" to support funding for the Appalachian Trail Conservancy - came to life! 

When your client's client is on Kimmel, you do a little happy dance! 💃 

Link in comments to register for this webinar. Particularly non-profits and brands trying to make a big impact on a small budget (or big brands on a smaller budget than ever) - this one is for you 👀

Did you see Kevin Nealon on Jimmy Kimmel Live talking up our latest Appalachian Trail Conservancy campaign last night? Next week, RP3’s CCO Tuesday Poliak and ATC’s CGO Jeri Ward are pulling back the curtain on how we did it — wildly original ideas, small budgets, real results. Save your seat for our December 11 webinar: https://lnkd.in/ggT3pm4Q.

The amount of people (or bots?) sliding into my DMs with notes like this is straight up wild.

I didn’t make agencies and brands $200mm+ as a business developer over the last almost two decades with a “funnel that relies on hope.”

No anonymizing this one. If these are the “vibes” you are dishing out…

Get ready to show up publicly as a case study on How Not To Sell 📉

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Dan Gershenson

Caliber Brand Strategy + Content Marketing

As your Fractional Chief Marketing Officer+ with senior strategic partners in tow, we give 2nd generation business owners in a family business with little or no Marketing Department the invaluable asset they need when it comes to positioning their brand in the marketplace, creating more soundly strategic and compelling content for digital media, discovering real insight from customer interviews and identifying the tactics that make the maximum amount of sense for their audience, goals and budget. That way, they can focus on a myriad of other day-to-day responsibilities, such as the business of running their business.

In Caliber, you don't have a Fractional CMO who's merely about planning and strategy alone. 

You've got a Fractional CMO who can ALSO DIRECT AND DELIVER marketing strategy, target audience identification, website writing and design, content creation, SEO, social media, eMarketing, reputation management and paid advertising. 

Brand strategy. Content development. Creative direction. A proven marketing system for success. Nobody in Chicago brings that combination together at a better value for small business owners than Caliber. NOBODY.

Investment:
Brand Strategy: $1,000 - $2,500 (one time)
Retainer: $30,000 - $60,000 per year (flat monthly fee). Saving you at least $300,000 from a CMO's average salary plus implementation help. Easily.

We currently have 4 slots open for a client who is ready to experience new, inspiring, creative, energizing and revenue-producing possibilities from our direction and thought partnership.

Chief Marketing Officer

Boost Marketing

As the primary point person for creative and strategic branding of this agency, I helped acquire or upgrade 14 clients within 2 years, including developing an entirely new revenue stream based on content marketing. Among 2 of the more heavily involved retainer clients in this program, business was increased by 44.84% and 60% over the previous year.

Client experience: FANUC, Stenzel Clinical, Enshu, SMW Autoblok, Eaglestone, Bloomingdale Signs, Exact Metrology, Colorite, Toshiba Machine, Main Tape, Lapreda

VP of Brand Strategy

Crain's Chicago Business

On a weekly basis, I contributed to Chicago's foremost business publication regarding useful branding and social media topics for entrepreneurs.

Contributing Writer

Personal Branding Blog and Personal Branding Magazine

Each week, I blogged at PersonalBrandingBlog.com, one of the Top 50 Marketing Blogs in the world. Additionally, I wrote each quarter for its print counterpart, Personal Branding Magazine.

The Creative Underground

Co-founding a traditional advertising agency provided me with the ability to grow exponentially as a writer, manager of creative teams, new business developer and builder of client relationships. 

During my time with the agency, my experience helped contribute to a biopharmaceutical company enjoying what was at the time its best period of plasma donation ever, a country club realizing a $700,000 budget surplus in a down economy, a gourmet deli with 26 locations growing its social media presence by thousands within 6 months and a craft beer company beating the likes of the "Big 3" brewers in head-to-head marketplace engagement. 

Client experience: CSL Plasma, DHL, American Bancard, MatchForce, Boca Lago Country Club, TooJay's Deli, Florida Beer Company, 5-Spice Asian Street Market, My First Home, C3 Cloud Computing, Mosaic Business Solutions, Insight Medical Consultants, China Northwest Biotech Corp., Sign-A-Rama, Vinn Vodka, South Florida Business Journal

Chief Strategic Officer

First Marketing

Client experience: Citibank, Farmer's Insurance, H&R Block, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo

Senior Copywriter

DDB Chicago

My experience at DDB showed me that traditionally conservative industries (such as financial, insurance and industrial) can be incredibly creative opportunities. My State Farm role allowed me to produce national advertising campaigns involving print, direct mail, radio, TV and recruitment advertising. It also enabled me to have a hand in rolling out new products for the company, such as State Farm Bank and State Farm Mutual Funds. For USG, I developed campaigns that were originally supposed to be of the typical "3-ad series" and expanded them into over a dozen trade publication print ads with several direct mail pieces to accompany the effort.

Client experience: State Farm, USG Corporation, Budweiser, McDonald's, The Home Depot

Austin Knight Advertising

As the chief Copywriter in the main hub of this mid-sized recruitment advertising agency's network, I was called upon to create new advertising campaigns and website content to help build the business of the Chicago office and several other offices around the country. It gave me the experience of not only understanding how to craft creative messages for many different clients, but also how to bring together the right mix of advertising components to fit under one brand umbrella seamlessly. Within my first four years, I was promoted to Associate Creative Director. 

Client experience: Detroit Tigers, Cleveland Clinic, Nortel, IKEA, Hitachi Microsystems, US West, Salomon Smith Barney, Harris Bank, Advocate Health Care, 1996 Democratic National Convention

Associate Creative Director

HERE'S YOU:
The leader of a closely held family business that's been very successful for years but needs to keep evolving and elevating. You have a good management team but don't really have a marketing department. So your marketing requires a stronger foundation, leveling up from where you've been and an optimized connection to results so you know what's working best. 

HERE'S WHAT KEEPS YOU UP:
Having to explain to your staff to prepare for layoffs. Having to explain high staff turnover to stakeholders. Not being seen as a leader in the industry. Uncertainty on where to spend marketing dollars. Missing goals as a result of not retaining enough clients and repeat business. A lead cycle that feels very unpredictable. Not knowing what content to produce yet knowing you won't have enough time to produce it anyway.

All while you're experiencing light website traffic, little engagement on social media, zero presence on the first page of Google for key search terms, inconsistent email outreach, no solid sales process and more. 

HERE'S YOUR CURRENT PROCESS:
You throw things against the wall to see what sticks and say, "Let's do that." Or "Here's this hot thing that everybody's doing. Let's do that too." Not exactly a system.

HERE'S WHAT YOU'D LOVE:
A strong brand that improves the memorability of your services among your best possible customers, no matter where they are in their decision-making process. As a direct result, your marketing has a true impact in driving bottom-line revenue and growth.

HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED RIGHT NOW:
A full assessment of the marketing methods you're currently using. Recommendations of exactly what you need to change in order to make it successful. 

If you like what you hear, you'll need implementation of any and all tactics recommended: Writing, SEO, social media, email, paid advertising, everything. All of which is tied together in a compelling way that speaks to your ideal customer's real problems and questions. 

HERE'S ME:
Dan Gershenson. I'm different from every Fractional CMO in that I actually strategize AND create the novel solutions for your brand AND oversee everything from my team AND have a proven marketing system. By the way, I'm one of just 23 Master Consultants who can utilize that system in the world.

HERE'S OUR NEXT STEP:
1) Discovery Meeting.
2) If you like that, we deliver a brand strategy within 2 weeks. 
3) If you like that, then and only then do we talk about an engagement.

Serious? Then let's talk at Dan@HighCaliberBranding.com / 773.MY.CMO.16.

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Nora DiNuzzo

Dan Gershenson

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The Battle

Nora DiNuzzo

Dan Gershenson

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Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Nora DiNuzzo's LinkedIn Performance

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