After encountering the recently launched Idea Mensch web site, OEN couldn’t wait to interview the great mind behind it. Mario Schulzke, who is a principal at Quillion, senior director at marketing ideas agency WONGDOODY, publisher of ScrappyMarketing and a German Ironman-contender-in-training (among many other things), answers a few questions about his own entrepreneurial endeavors – and offers advice for how to be successful in yours.

1) What is Idea Mensch?

Idea Mensch is an interview-driven site where we feature people who are bringing good ideas to life. Interviewees range from ueber-successful entrepreneurs like the founder and former CEO of The Sharper Image to up-and-comers like a recent college drop-out who started a cycling and triathlon training center in Arizona – and lots of people in between.

2) What inspired you to create the site?

Personally, I am obsessed with ideas. I run an ad agency during the day but have at least another ten ideas or projects that I am pursuing. It's probably not healthy. But I’ve learned that no matter how great an idea is, it doesn’t accomplish anything if you don’t bring it to life.

I wanted to use Idea Mensch as a vehicle to celebrate some of the people who are bringing ideas to life – people across all industries, from all walks of life. It has been a fun journey and I’m completely blown away by the smart individuals we've been able to interview. More importantly, there is a community that is starting to form around our site. People are beginning to reach out to one another to help promote their ideas, and there are even a couple of business deals in the making. Good people are helping good people. I love that.

3) How do you select thought leaders and entrepreneurs to feature on Idea Mensch?

You have to be working on an idea and take the time to submit an intelligent and insightful interview. That's it. Once your interview is live, we hope you’ll help promote the site and bring more people to it. I think the simplicity of this format is surprising to some, as we’ve recently been pitched by various PR agencies about interviewing their clients on our site. It’s funny because (as our "About" section explains) you don't need a PR agency to be interviewed on Idea Mensch.

4) Tell us about your own entrepreneurial ventures, and what you’ve learned in the process of pursuing and/or founding them.

I spent the first eight years of my career as an agency guy – giving online marketing advice to large companies. On the side I've always been somewhat of a garage entrepreneur, figuring out different ways to make money online. I published a book on how to write complaint letters, ran some pretty big affiliate marketing campaigns in Europe and currently own a number of different web sites.

Now I’m helping to start a new kind of agency called Quillion – a digital performance marketing agency (where clients pay only for results we achieve). We also own our own digital properties.

In the coming weeks, we will be announcing an online course/community called CareerSparx to help recent college graduates start their careers. We're in a very tough economy and I have seen too many qualified grads who have no clue how to sell themselves to land a job in their field. We are going to help them.

5) What advice do you have for emerging entrepreneurs?

Borrowing from that large shoe manufacturer down the road from you guys: “Just do it.” If you have an idea and you're excited about it, keep moving it forward. Break it into small steps and do whatever you can do gain some momentum. There's nothing worse than a good idea that just sits there. Also, meet people. Help people. Tell them about what you are doing. Relationships make the world go round. You'll be surprised how people you've met (and have yet to meet) will shape your career and successes.