David Berry — Professor Berry
Professor Berry

Most marketing is theater.
I help leaders cut to the work.

Adjunct, University of Miami School of Communication · Founder of DYNAMO (sold 2024) · Twenty years inside paid digital media

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Selected client and team experience
AVISBUDGETBMWMcCORMICKKEENMERCURY MARINEMetLIFEDUNKIN'DOMINO'SCHUCK E. CHEESE'SOFFICE DEPOTAUTONATIONNISSANFIVE BELOWJAMBA JUICEBOSTON MARKET
About

I do the work. Then I teach it.

Twenty years inside paid digital media. Ten-plus semesters teaching at the University of Miami's School of Communication, with a 4.9/5.0 average across 350+ student evaluations. One agency built, scaled, and sold to an Atlanta-based INC 5000 firm.

I founded DYNAMO in April 2016 carrying personal debt, grew it to a $125K monthly peak with a nine-person team, and sold it in January 2024 — beating my earn-out by 20% in year one running the acquirer's net-new media team. Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses graduate. I also do standup. I take the work seriously without taking myself seriously.

"Every brand is doing the equivalent of skipping the first date and immediately proposing marriage." I help leaders, founders, and operators do the work that earns the second date — and the conversion that follows.
Talks

Six talks, tuned for the room.

CEOs · Operators · Boards

"Your CMO is showing you ROAS. Here's how to know if it's real."

A CEO financial-discipline workshop in marketing clothing. Three frameworks the room uses the same week — the two questions to ask before approving any media plan, the gap between platform-reported ROAS and incremental revenue, and the 90-day audit any CEO can run on their own agency.

Founders · Agency owners · EO/Vistage/YPO

"From debt to seven-figure exit in eight years."

The unvarnished version of the 2016 → 2024 arc — fired from a top-15 agency, declined the rehire with personal debt, founded DYNAMO the same week, sold to an Atlanta INC 5000 firm eight years later. Operator-to-operator, with the specifics the panels skip.

Marketers · Agencies · AMA chapters

"What 350 UM students just taught me about AI-generated ads."

Ten semesters teaching digital strategy to Gen-Z as the AI shift has reshaped what gets through and what gets ignored. Concrete observations on creative response, trust signals, brand vs. performance, and where Gen-Z actually clicks vs. where they roll their eyes.

PPC practitioners · Performance teams

"Using LLMs to audit 6–12 months of paid media in hours."

The actual LLM-driven audit workflow I've built — prompts, inputs, analysis chain, output formats. Applied across $500K–$5M monthly spend portfolios. Practitioners leave with a workflow they can stand up on their own accounts the same week.

Hospitality · Restaurant operators · Trade associations

"What QSR chains know that independent restaurants don't."

Eleven national restaurant brands worth of paid media experience translated for independent operators. Framed in sales-per-cover and table-turn math, not ROAS slides.

Investors · Family offices · Founder-VC mixers

"What investors should diligence about marketing spend."

The 15-minute diagnostic that tells an investor whether a founder is buying real demand or just buying clicks — and the three patterns that nearly always indicate marketing-driven revenue that won't survive the post-close cap-table adjustment.

Receipts

Numbers I can name.

14.58X
AVIS / Budget
$55K first paid social test returned $810K+ in attributable revenue.
194%
Paskho
Revenue grew 194% ($170K/mo → $507K/mo) while ad spend grew only 57%.
5X+
Sonya Dakar
4.17X ROAS in a 90-day skincare test; sustained 5X+ for three-plus years.
26X
Averr Aglow
Built Amazon Ads program from scratch; 26X on Prime Day.
What students say

4.9/5.0 across 350+ evaluations.

My favorite class ever. Best prof I've had at UM and my favorite class I've taken overall. University of Miami student evaluation
Top professor at the school. Makes learning fun and actually useful to what we need in the real world. University of Miami student evaluation
Very hands-on and activity-focused. Easy to apply what we learned to real-life scenarios. University of Miami student evaluation

Forty-plus verbatim student quotes available on request. Professional event testimonials in active collection.

How I work with hosts

Simple, direct, no theater.

Lead time
30 days for custom tuning. 14 days for off-the-shelf delivery.
Format
60 / 90 minutes or half-day workshop. Slides minimal — the room does the work.
Travel
South Florida based. Available nationally with reasonable notice.
Voice
Direct, plainspoken, outcome-obsessed. Light humor when it earns its keep.

Let's talk.

For speaking inquiries, workshops, advisory work — or just to talk about whether what you're spending on marketing is actually working.

Book a 30-min call →