Bonnie

Buol Ruszczyk

marketing strategist. speaker. DEI consulting. coach. mentor. facilitator. writer. outsourced CMO. 

bonnie@bbrconsults.com

404 423 4433

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Fun Facts:

Bonnie has worn many interesting career hats over the past 25 years, but there’s marketing somewhere under almost all of them because it was always her true path:

  • She was a sales and marketing assistant for a Jehovah’s Witness-owned auto parts company, who tried unsuccessfully to convert her.
  • She once traveled the country with Zach Braff, recording testimonial videos for SportBrain, for which she was a public relations director in Silicon Valley. She even landed the product on the Oprah show (“you get a SportBrain, you get a SportBrain…”).
  • She was an international marketing manager for Turner Broadcasting, where she helped launch TNT and Cartoon Network in Asia.
  • She worked in multiple creative managerial roles with software and financial services firms, which laid the foundation for her passion for and expertise in for professional services marketing.
  • She once owned a sauce company that made and sold marinara, barbecue, chocolate and salsa. Oh, wait, that’s not a marketing job. But it sure was a tasty one.

As a business owner herself, Bonnie just gets you. She loves helping other business owners reach their goals and watch their companies thrive.

I love that what I do is creative yet also strategic. I get great joy and a huge sense of accomplishment when I see my clients smile as they realize the marketing strategy we are suggesting is just what they need to take their firm to the next level.

Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk (like rustic without the “t”) is the founder of BBR Companies LLC, where she provides CMO-level services for professional services firms, co-owner of Rally Rounds, where she facilitates mastermind groups for accounting growth professionals, and owner of the Accounting MOVE Project, where she provides the most comprehensive data and guidance on finding, retaining, developing and advancing women and people of color in the accounting profession. What do all these roles have in common? She is committed to helping firms define and communicate their unique differentiators, find the support they need to grow, and create equitable and inclusive cultures where everyone can thrive.

Never one to rest on her laurels, she earned a Diversity & Inclusion Certificate from Cornell University and is taking additional coursework to expand her knowledge. This is in addition to the MBA with a marketing concentration she earned at Georgia State University and Bachelor of Arts in journalism, public relations and French from Troy (State) University in Alabama.

Bonnie quite literally wrote the book on online marketing for accounting firms, Take Your Marketing Online: Proven Ways to Grow Your Firm in the Digital Age, at the request of the AICPA. She also contributed a chapter to Bridging the Gap: Strengthening the Connection Between Current and Emerging Leaders and is a regular contributor and quote source for industry-related publications and websites. She has been recognized as one of Accounting Today’s Top 100 Most Influential People three times, Volunteer of the Year by the Association for Accounting Marketing and one of CPA Practice Advisor’s Most Powerful Women in Accounting.

Before starting BBR Companies in 2009, she wore many hats, including serving as a public relations director for Sportbrain, a health and fitness startup and precursor of FitBit in Silicon Valley, which allowed her to see the dotcom boom and bust firsthand; international marketing manager for Turner Broadcasting, where she helped launch TNT and Cartoon Network in Asia; and creative managerial roles with software and financial services firms, which started her on the path and laid the foundation for her passion and expertise for professional services marketing.

Never one to put aside her passion for marketing, small businesses and women’s issues when she closes the door at the end of the day, Bonnie also uses her acumen to help others simply because it matters. She is a founding member of the Atlanta Independent Women’s Network (AIWN), a former board member of the Association for Accounting Marketing, and a member of the CPA Consultants’ Alliance.

Click here to download Bonnie's speaker profile sheet.