My name is Mario. Last name Johnson. I kid. Last name Schulzke.
My life's work is getting more people to start things. IdeaMensch was the first swing at that - 8,000+ founder stories later, I'm still at it. I cut my teeth in advertising, running big-brand campaigns up and down the West Coast, spent a decade as a CMO, and now serve as COO at Pathlabs while teaching marketing at the University of Montana.
Along the way, I developed a playbook called Slow Bets - a theory of life built on patience, compounding, and placing small bets that grow over time.
I'm an immigrant (indigenous German), a grandson of refugees, a (slow)Ironman, and a Costco Exec member. My life mates are a curly-haired wife, a kid who won't nap, an overly affectionate cat named Walter, and a vindictive, long-haired wiener dog.
Slow Bets
About 15 years ago, I moved back to Germany, locked myself in my condo, and wrote a book I thought I needed to write. It was an incredibly stormy time in my life, where I was questioning everything. The book was about work, life, success, failure, entrepreneurship, marketing, friendships, family,
Walking
When my grandma died, my grandfather decided his house was too big for just himself. Now in his 80s, he found an apartment in a completely different town - not where he'd lived for decades, not where his son lived. When I asked him why, he said he&
Reps
You need volume first, then you optimize. Too many people try to optimize before there’s anything worth optimizing. They tweak systems, tools, and routines when the real issue is simple: not enough reps. When I needed to pay for college, there was nothing to negotiate. I cleaned toilets. That
Vinyl
Last year, I somehow got into vinyl, which is odd because I don’t really like music that much. I still don’t really like music that much, especially since I don’t understand the lyrics of most English songs anyway. Half the time, I’m just nodding along, pretending.
Books of 25
Many of you read this site exclusively via email. That’s totally fine. Beats the fax subscribers. But you might have missed the book page I launched, where I listed all the books I read in 2025. I’ll be doing the same kind of recap this year—hopefully surpassing
Schulzke Dot Com Newsletter
Join the newsletter to receive the latest updates in your inbox.