Nicole Hands
Director of Marketing
Nicole leads the marketing function for Blueprint Financial Advisors, including:
- Directing overall marketing strategy
- Overseeing brand positioning
- Supporting advisors who join the Blueprint Financial Advisors platform in achieving their business goals through a range of marketing and communications strategies, such as websites, social media, content marketing, email marketing, and collateral
She brought extensive financial services marketing and communications experience when she joined the team in 2021. For seven years she oversaw digital marketing for Heartland Advisors, a boutique asset manager in Milwaukee, WI. During this time, she built and directed the firm’s first social media strategy, which was recognized with an industry award for the best advisor-focused social media campaign. She also led a website redesign that launched one of the first responsively designed sites in the asset management space.
After Heartland Advisors, Nicole led marketing for two New York City based companies:
- Caliber Corporate Advisers, a strategic marketing communications agency focused in financial services and technology
- The Financial Revolutionist, a fintech media and intelligence company
Nicole earned a bachelor’s from Ripon College, a small liberal arts school in Ripon, WI.
Goal Setter, Goal Achiever
Nicole is rarely comfortable settling for status quo, deliberately setting goals for continuous improvement. This approach is evident in her professional life, as well as in how she seeks opportunities to challenge herself outside of the office.
For example, in 2015 she pushed her running shoes to the back of the closet and decided to learn the sport of Olympic weightlifting. Since then, she has participated in several local and national weightlifting competitions.
She and her husband Zak, also aim to take at least one hiking or backpacking trip each year. Their treks in Olympic National Park in Washington and Kenai Fjords National Park in Alaska are highlights thus far.
She’s a Midwesterner at heart, having grown up in Wisconsin, but she grew to love the Carolinas during her husband’s Army career in North Carolina. She enjoys living in the greater New York City metro area currently, but hopes to return to a lower latitude in the future.
