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Schulzke Dot Com

My name is Mario. Last name Johnson.  I kid. Last name Schulzke.

I am an equal parts entrepreneur, marketer, and teacher. Or at least that is what I tell my mother.

re: entrepreneur. I founded IdeaMensch, where we have interviewed and featured over 7,000 entrepreneurs, makers, and doers since 2009.

re: marketer. I spent my twenties running digital marketing campaigns for some of America's biggest brands. Since then I have been doing the CMO thing at the University of Montana, Geniuslink, and now am the COO of Pathlabs.

re: teacher. I teach marketing to both business students and nonprofit leaders at the University of Montana.

My goal in life used to be to live an interesting life. Then I had a child. I am an immigrant, a grandson of refugees,  a (slow)Ironman, and a Costco Exec member. My lifemates are a curly-haired wife, a baby girl who won't nap, a cat named Walter, and a vindictive long-haired wiener dog.

Recent Posts

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Hovercraft

I used to own a hovercraft. Yes, I know. That sounds mighty out of character. I can't say I loved my time with said hovercraft, but it taught me one of the most valuable lessons of my life. A lesson that brought me to America and ultimately enabled the life

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Be Cool

I grew up in West Germany, which America occupied for a bit. That was essentially a positive thing. So many parts of American culture were worth aspiring to. The word cool was one of them. I never thought of it as being a certain way, having a certain car, playing

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Contentment

Nobody will ever look at me and say "Wow, that Mario fella. He's the happiest dude I know." I can be quite stoic, often deep in thought. I can be overly focused on some random task I deem to be important. And yes, sometimes researching REIT ETFs on a Saturday

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Consistency

For a man in his forties, I am in great shape. Not because I've been nailing my nutrition and workouts for the last three months but because I've been working out and living (mostly) healthy for decades. I love marketing and have gotten to be successful at it, not because

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Room for error

Often in life, we need to leave more room for error. We wake up at the very last minute. We cut it too close, trying to get somewhere. We buy things we can't afford, putting our budgets into a precarious situation and leading to financial stress. We wait to do