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.

I wasn’t a business developer - until I was.

I wasn’t an executive - until I was.

I wasn’t a strategist - until I was.

I wasn’t a founder - until I was.

I wasn’t a speaker - until I was.

Just because you aren’t yet, doesn’t mean you aren’t in the process of becoming.

So whatever you’re becoming - keep at it.

Until you are.

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This is my quarterly reminder to founders:

GET OUT THERE ✈️

I spent 4 days in NYC this week, and caught up with over 100 people while here.

3 conferences + many co-located events.

An event Christine Olivas and I designed and co-hosted.

Meals and meetups with people who are here in NYC for these events, or are full-time New Yorkers.

Not only did I accomplish a few very specific things with and for some of my clients while here…

But I also strengthened relationships with current clients and partners, and made many new quality connections.

And I learned a lot - particularly at Blackweek. More to come on that next week.

Most importantly… I had a ton of FUN with some of my business besties!

Thank you Christine, Starr Session Varga and Victoria Carrington Chávez✨ for making this week so awesome. Core memory for sure 💖

The hardest thing in business is to say NO.

NO to projects that aren’t profitable enough.

NO to pitches you don’t have a right to win.

NO to people you’d prefer not to enrich.

NO to clients who undervalue you from Day 1.

NO to that one more thing that is going to push you over the edge, mentally or physically.

NO to work that isn’t in your zone of genius.

NO to things that don’t spark joy.

We are so conditioned to people please.

To be yes people. 

Saying no isn’t being difficult.

Saying no is having boundaries and standards for yourself.

As a business owner - it’s also about having standards for the type of organization you are building and leading.

If you lead a team - trust that your Nos and Yeses are being watched very closely by your employees.

It’s one of the reasons I left full-time employment 4 years ago.

And now - saying no is the thing I work on the most. 

Much respect to Pikes Ibiza for their very prominent list of NOs posted at the check in desk outside this storied club. 

I particularly agree with the last one. It’s the #1 NO for my businesses, too.

Now more than ever, it seems that people are afraid to tell the truth.

The safe and sanitized parts are regurgitated over and over as talking points on panels, in op-eds and on the nightly news.

Legal-approved.
Board-sanctioned.
Investor-friendly.

We give the same uncontroversial takes, share the same safe ideas in brainstorms. 

Which then get made into the same neutral and ineffective ads, events and experiences.

No boats rocked. No thoughts provoked. 

And we avoid confronting the truth once again.

Because the truth is incredibly uncomfortable.

Difficult. Painful. Hard. Embarrassing. Shameful, even.

This is why the most important event for me and for everyone to attend is Blackweek.

At Blackweek, the truth is told.

By every speaker. On every topic.

Unvarnished. Raw. Real.

But also empathetic. Hopeful. And in a way that builds community.

Thank you to the truth tellers I was able to witness speak this year at Blackweek 2025 - Don Lemon, Joy Reid, Cindy Gallop and Lola Bakare. 

Your talks were all incredibly powerful, rallying and inspirational.

But most importantly - they were truthful to the core.

Thank you to the founders of Blackweek - Walter T Geer III, Joseph Anthony, Monique Nelson, Dabo Ché, Gabrielle Shirdan, andre gray and Adan Romero.

You have created a world-class event and have programmed what I consider to be the top thought leadership event in the industry.

AND you’ve created an environment and community of complete safety, where we can dare to speak the truth out loud.

This year, I invited two of my friends and clients to join me at Blackweek - Starr Session Varga and Victoria Carrington Chávez✨- both of whom are Black women.

Seeing and hearing how safe, supported, included and appreciated they felt in this space was everything.

I got to see them tell their truth to others. 

And I saw a side of each of them flourish that I know they have to keep behind walls at times, with certain people and in certain spaces.

We should all be free to be ourselves, 100% of the time.

We should all be free to tell the truth, 100% of the time.

At Blackweek, this is the reality.

And it’s why when it’s over every year - none of us want to leave 🖤

In a shock to absolutely no one, LinkedIn doesn’t seem to like that I put the words “truth” and “Black” in the same post.

Nevertheless… I hope my post about Blackweek finds you. Please come over to my page and read it in full. It’s pinned to the top so you can find it.

PS - Blackweek is not just for Black people. Blackweek is for ALL of us.

Christine Olivas and I are in NYC! 🍎

Will we see you tonight at karaoke? 🎤 

Come out, sing a song - and support the BLAC Internship Program 🖤

We have a few spots still available. Text/DM me to get on the list!

Weds 10/8 (TONIGHT!) 5-8p. DM for location 😎

Cherishing time with my family at home before my next stint on the road.

Mick Mize gave me the gift of the mantra FOR NOW - and over the last year I have been working to be as present as I can be, wherever I am.

For now… I’m home and looking forward to celebrating Halloween with my kids - one of their favorite days of the year.

This year, they are being Link from Zelda 🗡️ and a Sloth 🦥 

For now… I’m enjoying the games of chess, bedtime chats and Dave DiNuzzo’s amazing meals (his latest party trick - homemade meatballs and sauce 🍝) 

In November, I will be traveling all 4 weeks of the month. The first three for work, the last one for personal.

I have never done this before. I have traveled 3 of 4 weeks, 4 of 6 weeks… but never 4 consecutive weeks.

While the thought of this is daunting and honestly giving me a bit of the Sunday scaries… I know I can do it.

This is what I have designed my businesses to enable me to do. And these are all incredible reasons to be “getting out there.”

Nov 2-5 in Atlanta for Brandweek.

Nov 10-14 in Austin for a client retreat - my 3rd one with them.

Nov 17-20 in Boston and Rosemary Beach, FL for two events with the 4As ❤️ 

I am so fortunate to have incredible clients and partners who value the time together in-person to exchange ideas, learn from each other, and accelerate our progress.

Nothing will ever beat in-person for collaboration, relationship building and strengthening.

But traveling is full on. It’s exhausting. And I miss my family like crazy when I’m gone.

I’m so grateful to Dave for being my partner that makes this all possible. I could never do this without him holding it down for our kids every day that I’m on the road.

He stepped away from full-time work exactly 1 year ago, so I could pursue my dream of building the businesses I want to run, and believe the world needs. 

For now… this is what we need to do for our family to thrive.

I share this because traveling and building businesses can seem glamorous. And sometimes, it is.

But it also involves an enormous amount of coordination, tough decisions, and sacrifices. Especially if you are a parent or have a partner.

Whatever FOR NOW looks like for you this week, next month or the rest of this year… I wish you peace and presence to enjoy every single moment.

But also - I know how hard it all is, too. And it’s okay to say that out loud and admit it.

Back on my travel grind ✈️ 

Q4 has historically been my busiest quarter, and this year is no exception!

I’m traveling 13 of the next 19 days. 

Next up - Atlanta for Brandweek with RP3 Agency! Come find me if you’ll be there 👀 

Anyone else a road warrior this quarter?

My top tips for staying healthy while traveling during the Fall (besides getting your vaccines):

💦 3X Hydration - water, electrolytes and tea! ☕️ My fave is Throat Coat by Traditional Medicinals - an OG singers trick, if you have to talk a lot for work like I do.

💊 Vitamin Boost - New Myers IVs at Restore Hyper Wellness every other week, and green goodness from JOE & THE JUICE 💚 

💤 Rest & Recharge - I try to limit alcohol and caffeine to maximize quality sleep. Endel is my favorite app to relax and fall asleep to.

Let me know if I can catch you during my travels:

Atlanta - Nov 2-5
Austin - Nov 10-14
Boston - Nov 17-18

The advice I needed to hear from Bozoma Saint John at Brandweek yesterday:

Don’t listen to anyone.

What she said next made us all sit up and lean forward…

“They will advise based on fear. Especially the people who love you and care about you.”

Throughout my career and more recently my moves into entrepreneurship, I received plenty of unsolicited advice and opinions about the choices I was making.

And Boz is right - so much of it came from the people who care about me the most.

I didn’t listen.

Instead, at every turn - I followed my instincts, and trusted my gut.

Boz said because of this, she has such confidence in the decisions she makes - and that even when something can outwardly look like a mistake to others, it’s all part of the path that gets you to your next thing.

I have only one regret in life, which is that I never got to see Prince perform live 💜

But professional regrets? Zero.

Everything I said yes to.
Every time I trusted my instincts.
Each time I didn’t listen to anyone else.

Those are the moments and the decisions that got me to precisely where I am today.

SEEQER

SEEQER bridges the gap between cultural understanding and technological advancement, crafting strategies that help brands navigate an evolving global landscape. We specialize in developing culturally intelligent solutions that address complex communication challenges and shifting consumer perceptions. Our approach combines sustainable development principles with deep cultural insights, enabling businesses to build meaningful connections that endure. Through collaborative partnerships, we help organizations adapt to emerging cultural dynamics while maintaining authentic engagement with their audiences. At the intersection of culture and technology, SEEQER builds proprietary systems that transform how brands remain relevant in an interconnected world.​

Chief Strategy Officer (CSO)

ICA Fund

Advisor

42nd Street Moon

Marketing Director

INDIVIDUAL

Building and developing content and integrated marketing strategies for c- suite executives and thought leaders

Strategically building earned media sales pipeline

Designing campaigns for omnichannel community development and engagement

Head of Strategy

Evante Daniels

Senior Brand Strategist

Wavely

Developed and Managed 360o mid-market penetration campaigns that scaled brand awareness and acquisition by 1,000% in 3 months

Developed and optimized marketplace user acquisition campaigns to scale user acquisition by 400% in 6 months

Masterminded a half-dozen team-produced virtual programs and digital communications that increased 15-day user retention from 25% to 43% Managed agency relationships for SEO, Digital Advertising, and Creative Director for regional and national campaign efforts

Scaled organic content platform following by 300% on four channels in my first two months of employment

Sr. Marketing and Promotions Strategist

Lafayette Education Foundation

Notable Achievements: 
Raising $20,000 in-kind media advertising in less than one month
Increasing volunteer engagement for annual event by 25% in my first year

The Communications Director is responsible for implementing and developing programs that align with Lafayette Education Foundation’s mission, and to support the organizational goals of LEF. In addition, the employee in this position will work in collaboration with the Executive Director on community relations and fund development activities.

In this role I managed several community-based programs, including marketing campaigns, volunteer management, system management, and more.

Director of Communications

Acadiana Center for the Arts

Notable Achievements:
Developed strategic communication guide in less than 3 months 
Launched and Managed over 120 traditional and digital marketing campaigns
Assisted in gathering over $50,000 in sponsorship for Marketing
Managed a department of 4

Managed the Marketing Department, collaborated with outside talent (photographers, designers, printers, etc.), and managed all communications and public relations for the Acadiana Center for the Arts.

Director Strategic Marketing

Magicbird Creative

Notable Achievements: 
Managed a company of 13 employees
Served +200 clients, deployed +50 WordPress websites (all under WCAG standards), developed +50 brands for nonprofits and small businesses

We handle branding and marketing for small businesses and nonprofits. Doing everything from websites and graphics to education and training, Magicbird Creative helps your organization grow in a holistic manner.

Marketing Strategist

Miles Perret Cancer Services

Marketing Strategist, Content Blindspot Obliterator, People’s Advocate @ INDIVIDUAL

I work in cultural physics. Not theory. Not metaphor. Mechanics. I study how perception moves—how it’s shaped by media, pressure, and timing—and how those forces align or misalign people across teams, markets, publics, and institutions. I care about how energy travels through systems. How narrative becomes infrastructure. How attention becomes leverage. For almost two decades, I’ve built strategies that don’t just convert—they reorganize force. They shift cultural temperature, reset alignment, and build structural momentum around the futures that companies, leaders, and nations are trying to reach.

SEEQER is my cultural intelligence firm. We’re based out of WAVI, a cultural studio in San Francisco, but our work moves across sectors. We build, research, and license real-time intelligence systems that track how culture behaves under pressure. We map volatility, read signal behavior, and diagnose how narrative force reshapes perception—through media, leadership, internal culture, and entire market categories. If perception is the battlefield, we build the radar.

Our clients are leaders under tension: founders scaling past $250M, brands in market reset, public-facing executives navigating narrative fracture, and civic institutions on the edge of collapse. They don’t come to us for content. They come for alignment under fire—for narrative clarity, field calibration, and strategy that moves with charge through noise.

That’s what we do.

We design strategy as force. Sometimes that looks like executive alignment. Sometimes brand repositioning. Sometimes cultural rewiring. Sometimes helping an institution recover its signal. Whether we’re supporting a founder mid-acquisition, advising a strategist on perception drift, or designing the scaffolding for a new narrative to hold—we’re working from the same principle: perception is a time-based material. Too early and it misses. Too late and it fractures. In phase, it shifts everything.

I’ve worked across tech, media, public affairs, and culture—partnering with leaders inside Apple, Adidas, and ServiceNow, and advising multinational firms and civic actors under pressure. But I don’t measure value by pedigree. I measure it by movement—by what changes in the system, and who has to reorient when the signal hits.

We don’t build decks for optics.
We build frameworks for movement.
If you’re leading something real—and it’s already carrying weight—we’ll meet you in the pressure.

i wanna see black women get paid 
what they’re worth

evante daniels

being annoyed is the price we pay for connection and community.

community means 
sharing space when it's inconvenient,
showing up when you'd rather stay home, 
or hosting when you're tired.

it’s exhausting. 

but that exhaustion can turn into hyper-independence - strict boundaries, perfect routines, and no interruptions.

and before you know it, you’re not annoyed.
you’re alone. 

everyone wants a village, 
but no one wants to be a villager.

you’ll see the no kings parade today.
it’ll be happening all around the country.
just a word from a strategist:

take the energy you feel today and do something with it. that’s the best part of moments like this. when you realize you’re not alone in how you feel. 

that feeling can spark a lot. 
but you have to catch it. bottle it. 
turn it into something that lasts.

after the protest, go eat. sit down with people. talk about what’s happening not just at the federal level, but right where you live. what’s shifting in your city. what’s breaking. what’s being built.

because you’re right,
we will have no kings.

but pay attention to the ones still chasing crowns on your own block.

the universe it literally telling all of us to go touch some grass and some of yall are writing thot leadership about “how the internet outage taught me 3 things about myself”

these kids act like they invested 6 7
go sit down somewhere

wow. there are a lot of you here now.
i should probably introduce myself.

my name’s evante. i’m a designer by trade. i’ve spent the last 20 years in production (sound, visuals, print, audio, video) and the last 10 in politics, designing media that moves people and makes them believe.

my mother was a desktop publisher and instructional designer. she believed in making knowledge beautiful and accessible; that how you teach something matters as much as what you teach.

i didn’t know it then, but she was the first systems thinker i ever met. the second was my pops. 

what i do now is a continuation of my family’s work for the last 5 generations. i build systems for understanding culture, the mechanics behind meaning. i’m the founder and chief strategy officer of SEEQER, but the truth is, the company came later. 
the calling came first.

seeqer exists because we were never meant to just survive culture. 
we were meant to shape it. to measure it, name it, and protect it.

and to make sure the people who hold that skill: the cultural translators, the bridge-builders (the bipoc women especially) — get paid for the genius they’ve always given away for free.

we're changing that every day.

if you’re new here, welcome.
if you’ve been watching for a while, thank you for seeing the work.
we’re just getting started.

what happens when an ad slows your pace as you walk, catching your eye

and your breathing changes just slightly

because the ad you’re looking at speaks to an ache you know all too well: feeling alone. 

and then just as quickly, you realize this is an ad for the opposite of companionship. It’s for a AI bot. 

what you end up going through, is a level of cognitive whiplash

feeling your values identified, and then deviated from. 

and to the a single ad, this may seem like a small reaction; happening in a fraction of a second. but when this ad is seen by at least 10,000 people per day, we’re talking about a ripple effect that is made to shift how our culture feels about community. 

friend.com is built on a lie that you are better off alone. not only is this wrong, it’s destructive to us.

The Marketing Psychologist™ 🧠 | Brand Ethicist | Non-Manipulative Marketer | Chief Trust Officer

Imagine being lonely enough to want to be heard...
and the only thing that listens is a machine.



That’s Friend.ai, the “AI companion” that launched with a $1M rage-bait campaign across New York City.

More than 11,000 subway ads promised intimacy:
“Always listening. Always here.”
The result?

Within days, nearly every poster was vandalized.
Messages like “Human connection is sacred” covered the walls.

The founder called it proof of engagement.

He said, “The picture of the billboard is the billboard.”
But what it really proved was how fragile trust has become.

We are now marketing directly to the human nervous system.

Every message acts as a biological cue...
signaling safety or threat, regulation or activation.

Friend.ai did do us one favor:
It created a case study on the biology of belonging for this week's article.

---

👋 I'm Chelsea Burns, M.S. | The Marketing Psychologist™

I guide conscious companies to sustainable, scalable growth using ethical branding and non-manipulative marketing.

View newsletter: The Marketing Psychologist

A $1M experiment in rage bait and a masterclass in biological design gone wrong. You step into the New York City subway and immediately feel the noise

Open article: The Biological Cost of Rage-Bait Branding by Chelsea Burns, M.S. • 8 min read

The Biological Cost of Rage-Bait Branding

LinkedIn gimme my recommendations back wtf

they’re spending hundreds of millions trying to buy culture.
they can’t. and you can teach them.

And they’re paying hundreds of millions to prove it. Every major brand is hiring for “cultural marketing," or "cultural leadership." Coca-Cola. Red Bu

Open article: They Don’t Know What Culture Is by evante daniels • 3 min read

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