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 📉

graphical user interface, text, application

The Brand Explorer - Taking brand thinking to places it's never been :: Creator of Legend Letters, Founder of Healthy Brand Consulting

In 2015, we walked into a $10 million pitch.

We had it all: big ideas, sharp strategy, stunning creative.

For an hour, we delivered with energy, conviction, even laughter.

We walked out relieved. Certain we had nailed it.

Then came the silence.

A day passed. Then three. Then a week. Two weeks.

Finally, the news: we lost.

Over a million dollars in man hours, straight to the trash.

Why?

Looking back, the signals were everywhere:

- New stakeholders appeared in the audience.
- Our key contact was still new in her role.
- We had the RFP, but never uncovered the *real* goals and desires.
- Engagement was one-way, never true connection.

We missed it all.

That’s when it hit me: **winning is never just about the pitch.**

It’s the “invisible” forces, the “hidden” signals, the fundamentals of human behavior.

Those who understand it, can shape outcomes.

Those who don’t, call it luck.

That loss changed everything.

Because these forces don’t just decide $10M pitches.

They decide products sold, deals closed, ideas spread, lives changed.

That’s why I’ve been obsessed with influencing human behavior for the past decade.

- Mindset
- Branding
- Charisma
- Marketing
- Leadership
- Storytelling
- Psychology
- Negotiation
- Communication

and so on…

It all comes back to the same invisible truths.

I research, read, and write about them every week in my *Influence Anyone* newsletter, aggregating 13.5 hours of research for each issue. (howiechan.com/newsletter)

I interview world experts like Robert Cialdini, Will Storr, Nir Eyal, Melina Palmer, on how to apply influence psychology in real life. (howiechan.com/podcast)

And I help medtech startups go from unknown to unforgettable (howiechan.com/medtech)

Once you’ve seen this world, you can never unsee it again.

If you want to step into this world:

👉 where you can finally *see the invisible,*
👉 master the forces shaping every decision,
👉 get people to buy into your ideas and offers,
👉 and use influence to change the world for the better…

Join me for a **FREE 7-day email course:** The Behavioring Blueprint (Howiechan.com/behavioring)

P.S. If you want the biggest result in the smallest amount of time: Book a power hour (https://calendly.com/howiechan/1-on-1-power-hour)

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The Battle

Nora DiNuzzo

Howie Chan

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The Battle

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Howie Chan

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Engagements

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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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