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Short version:

We are throwing our first event on March 30 in Los Angeles (awesome speakers, awesome content, awesome sponsors) and need your help promoting the event. Please check out http://ideamenschla.com for more information, tweet about it, share it on Facebook and please email every person you know in Southern California. Or even better, go ahead and buy a ticket. Use the coupon code: ideamensch for $5 off.

Long version:

A little over a year ago, I started IdeaMensch. It is hard to put my finger on just one reason for doing it, but there were a number of themes that kept flowing through my head at the time:

• Many of my friends were working on super interesting projects, not just businesses but also personal projects and nonprofit ventures. You’d always read about the ideas that made it big, but there was little mention of the millions of other folks who were bringing their ideas to life.
• Also, I was in the process of getting my green card which legally prohibited me from pursuing some of the ideas that I wanted to bring to life. Launching IdeaMensch was one way to channel that pent-up entrepreneurial desire within me.
• Ideas are a dime a dozen. What makes an idea a good idea is if someone takes it and makes it happen. Successful ideas can be lead back not to the person who had it but to the person who brought it to life. I wanted to celebrate those people, as I admired them greatly. More importantly, I wanted to help them.

IdeaMensch started with a few good friends who were willing to be interviewed and then somehow we started interviewing huge role models of mine – people like Seth Godin, Craig Newmark and Gary Vaynerchuk. A few weeks ago we interviewed Matt Flannery, the co-founder of Kiva – the largest microlending organization in the world and just a couple of days ago we interviewed Nancy Brinker – the woman who started the Susan. G. Komen Foundation and arguably has done more to fight breast cancer than any other person in this world. Unbelievable people. It has been an amazingly awesome journey (coupled with a number of breakdowns, no sleep, a few trips to a therapist and even shingles – note to self: you can’t do everything) that will undoubtedly change my life forever. IdeaMensch isn’t a business. At least, not right now. It’s a passionate group of people who get great joy out of helping other people bring their ideas to life. And I am saying people because IdeaMensch would be nowhere without the help of folks like Evan, Bri, Amanda, Rohit, Marc, Scott, Daniella and many more who I am probably forgetting right now. And of course, our community and interviewees who we are trying to help. It’s emails like these that make working on IdeaMensch the easiest thing in the world: Josh Tetrick, Founder of 33needs.com Alezandra Russell, Founder of the Recycled Child Project Zack Arnold, an awesome filmmaker trying to make a  movie about his best friend. These are super nice things to say, coming from a group of amazing people. In a few weeks we are throwing our first event here in Los Angeles (http://ideamenschla.com) which is going to be a series of presentations by awesome people talking about how they brought their ideas to life. I have never organized an event, but somehow we managed to get an incredible group of speakers (people like Jessica Jackley, Dan Gould and Lori Deschene) and a number of super generous sponsors (thank you Activate, Popchips, Matcha Source, Oregon Coast Coffee, I Want Her Job, Project Minnie and SuperFreako Productions). Truth be told, I can’t believe how things are coming together. But that’s probably what happens when you do something you believe in, and you actually do it and not just talk about it. Anyways, I am writing this post because I need your help. I really don’t feel comfortable asking people for help so this isn’t an easy to post to write. But I keep telling myself that the more we can grow IdeaMensch, the more everyone involved and featured gets to benefit. Right now we have an awesome event planned, and now we need an awesome audience. I need your help in spreading the word about our event. We are selling 200 tickets and they only cost $15 during early bird pricing, as I want anyone passionate about ideas to be able to come. We need to sell out this event here in Los Angeles, and then I want to start throwing these events everywhere and help as many people as possible bring their ideas to life. I  need this to work and I can’t think of a better group of people to help me than people who feel as passionate about their ideas as I feel about IdeaMensch. So, if you could… Please help us spread the word about IdeaMensch LA, by tweeting about it, sharing it on Facebook, telling your community or emailing your friends who live in Los Angeles. To make it even more affordable and remove any barrier of entry, here is a coupon code for another $5 off (ideamensch). And if you know of anyone who would want to absolutely come but they really can’t afford the $10, email me at mario at ideamensch dot com and they can be my guest for free. I’d rather lose a bunch of money on this but inspire the right people. IdeaMensch started as just an idea, but it is more than that for me. It’s my passion, and to an extent I am starting to believe that it’s my purpose. IdeaMensch means the world to me. Please help me bring it to life. Yours, working super hard on this and hoping that you can help. -Mario

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