About Us
Our Mission
To enrich your mind, bring a smile to your face, and deliver joy to your heart.
About the Question Guys™
Creating best-selling questions since 1992
Bret Nicholaus and Paul Lowrie graduated from Bethel University, St. Paul, MN, in 1991 with degrees in communication and marketing, respectively. One spring afternoon in 1992, while eating lunch in a Chicago-area restaurant, Bret and Paul came up with a simple book idea that they thought would be marketable and fun to publish: a collection of original questions that could serve as ice-breakers in numerous casual and professional settings.
Within a month they had formed Questmarc Publishing and released a small 350-copy printing of their first book, The Conversation Piece. A few weeks later, they were reprinting, and Bret and Paul spent the next three years tirelessly selling the book around the country. By late 1995, the two authors had sold 20,000 copies of their small paperback. In 1996, Random House bought The Conversation Piece—along with two other unwritten titles—from Bret and Paul. By 2006, the book had racked up total sales of more than 300,000 copies and made multiple best seller lists.
Moving From Books to Boxes
In early 2007, Bret and Paul decided to expand beyond books. Using their knowledge of what had made their question books so popular over the years, The Question Guys™ created a boxed version of question cards called Chat Pack, which became an instant hit. Original Chat Pack is now in its 20th printing, with more than 15 other versions also available, including the brand new Chat Pack for Two and Chat Pack: Celebrate the Family. The goal of the Chat Pack product line is to provide consumers with content that is highly positive, unusually creative, and downright entertaining—or, to put it another way, to offer questions that are G-rated and 5-star fun at the same time. The Question Guys™’ unique recipe for questions makes Chat Pack as popular with children as with adults, and explains their diverse account base—everything from restaurants, car washes, and travel companies to toy stores, museums, and high-end gift shops and chains.
Chat Packs are produced under Questmarc Publishing, an imprint of William Randall Publishing. Questmarc and William Randall Publishing are based in Yankton, South Dakota. Paul Lowrie lives in his hometown of Yankton; Bret Nicholaus lives with his wife and kids in the Chicago, Illinois, area.
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