Who are these Freakin' Guys?

Lori Gertz, Chief Freakin' Genius Visit my LINKED-IN Profile

With over 25 years of solid marketing and publishing experience, Lori brings a wealth of strategic marketing expertise to Freakin' Genius Marketing

An alumnae of publishing companies including Crain Communications, The New York Law Publishing Company, and Meredith, and having run a successful strategic marketing consultancy called Gertzworks for 8 years, Lori has extensive experience in print, direct mail and web development. Previous consulting clients have included the Northbrook Symphony Orchestra, AMFAR, Cincinnati Children's Hospital, Center for Egg Options, Natural Golf, Alternative Reproductive Resources, Chamber Opera Chicago, The No Bull Doc's, Prime Industrial Coatings, International Association of Physicians in Aids Care, Kohls Children's Museum, Jewish Community Youth Services, and countless others.

Her greatest skill lies in hearing the heartbeat of the business she assesses and in developing strategic and tactical actions that reflect the business’s “right” direction. Her intense focus on brand building is further strengthened by her uncanny ability to weave the “product’s” point-of-difference through all of the tactical solutions, most specifically direct marketing solutions.

Lori brings a historical perspective to the mission of the company that is integral to understanding the inherent business model and tactics that must be employed to elicit exponential growth for all clients. She is also an excellent listener, translator, excavator, and mediator.

Lori is the author of numerous articles on various topics and has served as a columnist and editor on multiple publications. She received her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where she graduated Summa Cum Laude. She cut her teeth for 11 years in advertising sales before honing her point-of-difference in the development of a multi-dimensional integrated marketing approach to business. This philosophy is dependent on integrating customized approaches to direct mail to build brand preference.

Peter Lineal, Freakin’ Genius Partner

Peter founded Plum Grove Printers on December 1, 1980. His marketing-focused business philosophy has helped him to position himself as a business printer that serves customers as a consultative partner and as such has successfully expanded into services such as design, fulfillment and now business strategy consulting. He has overseen the growth of Plum Grove Printers from a one-person shop to one with 35 full-time employees. Peter is thrilled to be upsizing PGP in challenging times like this as it further supports the necessity for smart strategic insurance for all businesses. Freakin’ Genius Marketing completes the PGP mission to provide full service direct marketing resources and accountability to every client and potential client.

Peter’s brings 35+ years of solid consultative marketing insight to the Freakin’ Genius Marketing team. He’s involved in multiple communities at micro-levels of giving and prides himself on giving back and being a good corporate citizen. In 2007, with the help of his son Mathew, he began spearheading a comprehensive effort to take PGP to GREEN and in January of 2009 was awarded accolades for being top in his field in environmentally responsible business practice.

Among Peter’s many leadership positions in the Chicago-area business community are that he has served as chairman of the Northwest Suburban Association of Commerce and Industry and has been honored by NSACI with both the Chairman’s Award and Small Businessman of the Year from. Peter has also served on the National Association of Quick Printers Board of Directors. In addition to his accomplished ownership of Plum Grove Printers, he is also the owner of Natural Golf. Peter is the author of numerous articles on marketing, advertising, direct mail and printing for the business press.

He received a Bachelor’s degree from Queens College in New York City, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa.

Linda Bond, Freakin' Genius Artist

Linda has been with our sister company, Plum Grove Printers, since 1995 and has worked in design for nearly 30 years. Her first experience in the field included typesetting and page layout in the trade magazine publishing industry and working with graphic design firms. Linda enjoys the wide variety of projects that she works on, from four-color annual reports and magazines to promotional, direct mail campaigns and branding programs. She is an integral part of the team-oriented philosophy at Freakin' Genius Marketing.

Linda trained at the University of Wisconsin, Northeastern Illinois University and the American Academy of Art. She was co-winner of the Publicity Club of Chicago’s 2004 Silver Trumpet Award in the Nonprofit Annual Reports category for designing the Chicago Crime Commission’s annual report and a multiple year award winner of The American Graphic Design Award.

Adam Haines, Freakin' Genius Web Developer

Having spent several years designing Websites previously, including freelancing, Adam has been with Freakin' Genius Marketing's sister company Plum Grove Printers for the past three years. He is especially adept at creating user friendly sites that provide robust interactivity for all. Adam has most recently developed a proprietary custom web-to-print solution called McTargetted that is currently customized for multi-location clients like Cardinal Fitness (120+ locations) and Extendacare (100+ locations) to streamline their marketing messages offering clients the ability to provide for consistent branding while customizing local messaging.

Adam has an Associate’s degree in graphic design from Gateway Technical College in Elkhorn, Wis., and is pursuing a distance learning Bachelor’s degree in Internet and New Media from The Art Institute.

There is plenty more talent on the Freakin' Genius Team! Wanna know more? Drop us an email! We'll cerebrate for a while and see how Freakin' Genius Marketing can help you grow your business this year.

info@freakingeniusmarketing.com