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.
Stopping
I've been doing the math lately. My grandfathers made it into their late eighties/mid-nineties. If I'm lucky, I follow that line. If I'm not, I don't. There are no promises. There's not much certainty at all, actually. What there
Montaigne
Michel de Montaigne died in 1592. That's over four centuries ago. The guy lived in a castle in France, served as mayor of Bordeaux, and survived the plague. We have almost nothing in common on paper. I don't even think he had a cat. And yet,
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
Schulzke Dot Com Newsletter
Join the newsletter to receive the latest updates in your inbox.