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Mario was born in Germany, raised with the help of his Prussian great-grandmother, educated by nuns and is in constant attempt to live an interesting life. He has lived in Germany, France, England, Spain, Montana, Seattle, Los Angeles, Portland and now Los Angeles again.
Mario is a principal at Quillion, a digital performance marketing agency, teaches at the Academy of Art University of San Francisco and sits on the board of advisors at the University of Montana business school. He also is the publisher of a couple of different books, ScrappyMarketing and IdeaMensch.
Mario spends the majority of his free time training for an Ironman. He is incapable of writing anything funny to end this bio. After all, he’s German.
What are you up to?
I am in the process of helping to get Quillion, a digital performance marketing agency, up and running which has brought me back to Los Angeles. Our premise is simple. We only get paid for the results achieved by our work. It’s a pretty risky way to build a business, but we’re doing well thanks to very strong creative, great clients and a very soft media market. Simultaneously, I am very excited about Idea Mensch right now. I really want to get a lot of very interesting and creative thought leaders featured on here. Last but not least, I am about to publish a book on how to fight parking tickets.
I am constantly working on a million things, which I understand is a challenge. But my ideas usually aren’t life-changing. That keeps things simple and helps me avoid getting ridiculously rich and famous.
I love learning about people’s ideas and there’s no greater joy to bring or see an idea be brought to life. Last year, I published a book on how to write complaint letters. It ended up being featured on 20/20. In no other time could one take such a simple idea and end up on the national media stage. This is a time of great opportunity and I am running as fast as I can to make things happen.
What are you into?
My personal life isn’t much different. I am training for a triathlon, play soccer, racquetball, ping pong and love fly fishing, camping and just about anything outdoors. Every night when I go to bed I do so with a smile on my face, and I wonder where the day went.
Ideas, what about them? How do you bring them to life?
First of all, I have ideas everywhere and all the time. Unfortunately I don’t do a great job keeping track of them. It’s a problem. I probably own about 100 different urls, half of which I can’t remember what idea inspired them.
You know, I probably haven’t had any truly great ideas yet. There are people way smarter than I, with way better ideas than mine.
But I’ve had some good ones and I am bringing them to life. How? Well, I don’t spend much time planning or thinking about ideas. If I have a good idea, then I will begin working on it. I’ll take a raw idea and get it 80% there, then I make it public. If it catches on, then I invest more time, sweat and sometimes money to take the idea to the next level.
It’s kind of like dating. Don’t spend all your time thinking about how to talk to a girl. Just do it, then see where things go from there. If you spend too much time thinking, you’ll never do.
It’s all about momentum. Is your idea good enough and have you brought it far enough to generate excitement and momentum. Once momentum picks up, good things happen.
Guy Kawasaki always says that a good idea well executed beats a great idea not brought to life any day. I agree. So I try to bring a lot of good ideas to life.
What helps you get stuff done? How do you stay productive?
First of all, I try to only check my email three, four times a day. The time in between checking my email is when I get stuff done.
Google Reader is where I read all my news, which has made such wonderfully efficient. I am an information junkie.
I use different iPhone apps to get stuff done while waiting or being held up in places. My two favorite apps are probably Tweetie and Things.
I use Things as a simple to-do tool, even though, I am not sure if I’ll ever be able to properly and consistently use a productivity tool much less a simple to-do list.
I oftentimes launch quick beta sites using Wordpress, the Thesis theme, and am constantly amazed how easy it is to launch a website these days.
Last but not least, Crowdspring is great for any quick design projects that I need done.
Really…short of coming up with an actual idea, there are so many tools and resources that anybody should be able to bring just about anything to life.
Aren’t Ironman races super tough?
That’s what I hear. I have actually never done one.
But thanks to my usual overzealous attitude, I decided to sign up for one before ever doing a single triathlon. It seemed like something one should do before the age of 30.
If I didn’t have big athletic ambitions, then I would spend all my free time pursuing something else that I feel really passionate about – which could be much unhealthier.
Seriously, I can’t just do things a little bit. I want to do everything, and I want to do it right. Right now, it’s an Ironman. I can say with absolute certainty that it will be something different two years from now.
What are some good books that you’d recommend?
I read both fiction and non-fiction, all on my Kindle, which I’ve been obsessed with for the past two years. The last three books I read were all really good.
Gary Vaynerchuk’s Crush It A very inspiring read about social media, business and pursuing your passion. You can read it in a couple of hours.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Great European crime novel. It takes the author a little while to build up the characters, but once he does, you’ll love this read.
Blue Ocean Strategy I read this book to better prepare myself for our parent company’s strategic planning process. The other two books are more fun, but if you’re serious about growing and positioning your business, then this is a really good read.
Connect:
schulzke.me (a collection of all my personal/professional endeavors)
quillion.com ( a digital performance marketing agency)
scrappymarketing.com (my fairly neglected blog about marketing)
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