From Packaging to Powerhouse: How Mary-Catherine Reinert Built a Brand as Bold as Her Heritage

Mary-Catherine “M-C” Reinert (see her bio below) isn’t just a brand strategist, she’s a force of nature. In this episode of The Corporate Couch, M-C shares her journey from a quiet, science-loving kid from Kansas City to the founder of Fortissima, a bold branding and marketing firm whose name (Italian for “very loud”) reflects both her fierce personality and her Sicilian roots.

M-C opens up about the lessons she learned in the family restaurant, the middle school teacher who helped her find her voice, and why she borrowed a friend’s art portfolio to break into design school. We talk about how she transitioned from designing corrugated boxes to launching a strategy-driven agency that fuses data, design, and authenticity.

You’ll hear how M-C's “DIVA mindset” helps clients stop overcomplicating their marketing and start showing up with clarity and confidence. This conversation is a mix of guts, grit, and the debate of "sauce" vs. gravy", with powerful lessons for anyone looking to make their brand (and their voice) impossible to ignore.

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About M-C: Raising the standard of industry norms and practices, Mary-Catherine Reinert (M-C) injects provoking thought leadership, knowledge, and tales from the trenches in all things strategy, branding, business positioning, and marketing alignment. The journey has taken her from a corrugated packaging designer to a luxury bespoke designer to now, a brand strategist and Founder of Fortissima.

With a sole focus on boutique hospitality and luxury lifestyle brands, her well-curated sensorial marketing experiences have elevated hundreds of brands to live louder, strategize more efficient business practices, and deepen their connection with their guests, clients, and customers!

Once you become connected to M-C and the truth of who you are, as a person, founder, brand, business, or marketer — you become Fortissima: confident, proud, and extremely loud!  At the end of the day, if you have a passion and begin to take action in changing the way you do, say, create, and present things — this will begin to change the world around you.