Mary Schmidt Marketing Troubleshooter

From Mary Schmidt's brain to yours - food for thought and action

Entrepreneur Insights

BW Tech Beat Fast Company Joel On Software Guy Kawasaki Silicon Valley.com Tech Crunch Valley Wag (Silicon Valley tech gossip) Wired Gadget Lab A VC Musings of A VC In NYC Venture Valkyrie Post Money Value, Rick's Rants or A VC Loonie with a Toonie. (A down-to-earth VC talks in real-world terms...and he's funny.) Redeye VC VentureBeat Venture Blog The Health Care Blog The Journal Blog (micro enterprise trends, politics, and views) Small Business Trends

Marketing Troubleshooting

Brand Autopsy Bruce Fryer (High tech marketing musing) Copy Blogger Copywriting tips for online success Church of the Customer Seth Godin Grant McCracken (Chief Culture Officer. Do you have one?) Opinionated Marketers Presentation Zen ProfitMeister Wonder Branding: Marketing to Women Ageless Marketing

Web Bytes

Bare Feet Studios (Internet Literacy: Web development, podcasts, video, blogging and everything else) Jeffrey & Bryan Eisenberg - web marketing pioneers SEOmoz Search Engine Optimization that makes sense

Brain Food

Tom Asacker Made to Stick Lip-Sticking freakonomics Richard Florida Doc Searls Tom Peters TED (ideas to share) Gizmodo Beach Walks with Rox (Internet TV Show: Life, business - sometimes serious, sometimes frivolous, always Aloha) Radio Open Source

Life & So Forth

Daily Python Life Hacker (Tech tricks, tips and downloads for getting things done.) The Lazy Environmentalist The Triple Bottom Line Triple Pundit People. Planet. Profit (and why should those things be considered mutually exclusive by some?) Scott Adams Eddie Izzard Ridiculant Ridiculous Stuff From the UK Stuff White People Like Sunset Traveler The Triple Bottom Line

I’ve worked as a hired brain/gun off and on for over fifteen years. My clients have ranged from mega-corporations such as Hewlett-Packard and Unisys to embroynic start-ups and a pre-IPO technology component company. I also work with nonprofits, such as Habitat for Humanity, since I’d like to leave the world a little better than I found it.

For a brief summary of what I've done for some clients, simply click on one of the links under "Featured Projects" over in the right column.

Current Clients

ProtoHIT – product development and launch of workers’ comp treatment optimization software.

New Mexico Community Capital - NMCC provides equity capital and business growth services to qualifying businesses throughout New Mexico, particularly in under-invested areas.

Want to talk about how I might work with you? Drop me a line at mary@maryschmidt.com Or, call me at 505-856-2551. I’m always happy to give a free 15 minutes of perspective and advice!

I've been working since I was 16; I started flipping burgers in high school to help my mom pay the rent and have worked ever since. Paid for college as a cocktail waitress and bartender, a great way to learn people-management and problem-solving skills (You try getting a drunk bullrider to pay for the glasses he ate...)

My clients have ranged from two-man software start-ups to global corporations such as Mitel/Gandalf and Hewlett-Packard. I've worked with clients to do successful IPOs (ah, the good old days), craft licensing agreeements with companies such as Microsoft, and design new approaches to saturated markets.

I'm a proud and happy corporate refugee, having held Corporate HQ staff and executive positions in business strategy and product development for companies such as NEC, Memorex Telex, Verizon, Nortel, and Unisys. I've built and managed international teams and held up to $30M in P&L responsibility. My last "real job" was Director of Strategic Alliances for a technology services start-up, where I was responsible for negotiating and managing channel agreements with companies such as Hewlett-Packard, Cisco, and Verizon.

I also work with nonprofit clients, such as The Loan Fund and Habitat for Humanity, as I'd like to leave the world a bit better than I found it. (And I serve on the boards of the Albuquerque Independent Business Alliance and Duke City Civitan.)

I do my best to live according to a favorite Oscar Wilde Quote, "Life is too important to be taken seriously."

As a marketing troubleshooter, my focus is black & white marketing — timely technology commercialization, sustainable competitive positioning, product development and launch and integrated offline/online marketing strategies. This means that – no – I won't write your brochure or ad copy for "X an hour." That's "color" marketing and there's a lot of work that needs to happen before we get to that. (Tip: If you're just now seeking seed capital, you need to put plan before glitz. And, you don't need to be 'branded' if you don't even have a product yet.)

Focus is Key

As a marketing troubleshooter, I don't do happy talk or give boilerplate advice. I'll work with you to better define your (best) markets, develop those markets, and turn your ideas into (profitable) products or services.

Product Development, Launch & Management

I can help you get going, keep on track... or get back on track.

Tip #1 What you think its the best feature of your product may not be what your customers want, need, or will pay for. (Want, Need, and Pay For can be three different things.)

Tip #2 Effective pricing models take a lot more than mathematically correct spreadsheets.

Business Plans

Advice, Research and Renovation. Even if the only person who ever sees it is you - you need one.

Channel Analysis, Planning & Programs

Having a great product is only the beginning — you've got to get it to market (and a lot of it.) That means channels. You've got to consider things like multi-tier pricing, margins, and ongoing sales and technical support. And, just because the "dominant market player" is big doesn't mean they'll be good at selling your product.

Everyone needs a little help now and then — including free advice.

I wouldn't be where I am today without help from a lot of smart, experienced, and generous people; so I'm paying it forward as best I can online - with the free downloads in the right column and in my blog posts.

And, if you're thinking of hiring a consultant (of any kind) - here's some quick advice:

1. Has he or she actually done work in the discipline for which they're pitching their expertise? Unfortunately, there's nothing preventing anyone from deciding to become a business consultant, life coach, or social media guru. Print a biz card. Throw up a web site. They're ready to roll!

Ask about their actual experience. If they're selling - for example - marketing help, ask what kind of marketing? There's a huge difference between writing ad copy for a consumer product and developing a B2B product.

2. Beware of those absolutely free, risk-free, money-back guarantees! If you read the fine print, there's always a gotcha. ("You didn't do exactly as I told you in binder #3, page 50 on getting 50% return on your direct mail piece.") Wouldn't we all love to think there's some easy, magical solution to all our problems - from weight loss to becoming the next Google? Sadly, there's not. It takes a lot of hard work to succeed.

And, there's really no such thing as free or no-risk. Even if you're not paying actual money - you'll still be investing time, effort and thought. Time, effort and thought that might better be spent elsewhere (like following up/keeping up with existing or potential customers.)

3. Get to know the person (people) behind the logo, web site, and client quotes. If the consultant is going to be truly useful - you're going to be spending a lot of time together. If you don't click, then it'll be frustrating for everyone...and a waste of your money. For example, if you don't like what I'm saying here - or elsewhere on my site - and the way I'm saying it...then I'm not a good choice for you.

You've got a great idea that will change your life, your company…maybe even the world.