The StoryCorps Mobile Tour returned to Fort Myers in February 2024 to record meaningful conversations with people right here in Southwest Florida about their lives.
Each Monday for the next several months, we’re highlighting some of the compelling stories from our fellow Southwest Florida residents.
In this installment, we hear Venice Gondolier “Our Town Editor Emeritus” Kim Cool talk with her friend and inspirational speaker MK Mueller about the importance of taking risks.
Transcript:
JOHN DAVIS, HOST:
From WGCU News, I'm John Davis. Each Monday we're featuring conversations recorded through the StoryCorps Mobile Tour stop in Fort Myers earlier this year. Today we hear Venice Gondolier, Our Town Editor Emeritus Kim cool interview her friend and motivational speaker, MK Mueller, about the importance of risk taking.
KIM COOL: Because of my job, I got to meet MK. She was going to be working to help motivate the people at Venice Hospital to be happier in their careers and what all and I was assigned to do a story about it. And she's just so nice and ingratiating and well spoken. And I thought at the end of the interview, “I want her to be a friend of mine.” So, I think you I told you that. And I think it's the only time I've interviewed anybody, and I hate to think how many thousands of people I've interviewed over the years.
MK MUELLER: It’s been such a blessing getting to know you better. Well, “motivational speaker” is this title that people give me that I'm not really comfortable with. You know, “motivate” sounds like I do something that makes them want it, but I love helping them find what lights them up. And so one of my favorite questions to ask: “So tell me, what's one of your dreams?” And I've had the most glorious answers. So, I'd rather be called an inspirational speaker, I think, but just a dream encourager is one of your dreams.
COOL: You Teach life skills. Is there a most important skill?
MUELLER: I do have a couple. One of them is not to give your power away because I watch young people get punched with something like somebody's rude to them, or they flunk a test, or they didn't make the team or whatever. When they get deflated I call that giving your power away. So, I actually say, “Hey, you wake up with 100% of your power every morning, but you can give it away if you want.” But you actually have a choice. We have about 100,000 thoughts a day. So, when you choose more thoughts that feel good, then don't feel good. And one of my fun questions to ask them is “How many of you walked into this room with something you could be grateful for?” And they all raise their hand, and I say, “How many of you walked in the room with something you could blame and complain about?” And they all raise their hand. I go, Okay, if you're talking about the thoughts that feel good, versus the thoughts that don't, I mean, stuff’s going to happen. I mean, somebody could try and cut me off on the interstate and I can tell that story all day if I want to. Or say, “Oh, boy, glad they missed,”and move on with my day. So that's definitely one of the skills I love to teach. Another one is just a basic one. You know, so often we teach kids to be careful. “At risk” has such a negative connotation. But risk taking. I know from my research is one of the things that successful people do differently from the rest of the world. And I just love all the stories of people who weren't taking risks, and all of a sudden, they started to.
COOL: Can you give an example of a bad risk?
MUELLER: I say there's no such thing as a bad risk. If you're running to that's a risk, but if you're running from that's an escape. So something that takes courage that you're running to, is a risk. So one of my favorite stories is my son wanted to go to a certain college, but his test scores were too low. And he said, “Don't worry, Mom, I've got this.” So he called the University and he said, “I don't want to meet with just a professor. I want to meet with the dean for my interview to get into Drake.” And the dean being a risk taker himself said, “Of course, I'll meet with his young man.” And I watched him just pummeled Zach with all these wonderful stories about “if you come to Drake, you're going to get four years of business college rather than two.” And it was just it was awesome. At the end, he looked at the 17-year-old and said, “So Zack, any questions?” Which of course, you know, everybody's gonna say, “Uh, no, sorry.” But Zach knew he had to stand out. So he said, “Out of all the books on these shelves, which one's your favorite?” And the book he put down was “Failing Forward” by John Maxwell, which is about taking risks. So we get in the car and Zach said, “Mom, I got this.” And so we drove to the bookstore. He bought the book. And then (in) his thank you note to Dean Bloom he quoted the book, and he attached with his thank you note, a business card he had made, and his name was on the card and it said “Nike Sales Representative.” So, that was his dream business card now. He attached the fake business card, and the next day, walked up to Dean Bloom and shook his hand and said, “Thank you so much, sir. I wanted to hand this to you. I feel like I've already been in my first lecture. I can't wait for my second one.”
COOL: Brilliant.
Mueller: Yeah. So by the time Zack got home he had an email from Dean Bloom saying, “Zack, you're not just going to be a student here. You're going to be a star and I just did a cartwheel in the hallway in your honor.” Two weeks later, he gets his letter from Drake and he goes, “Oh, Mom, Mom, do you think they changed their mind?” I said “Honey, relax. Deep breath.” And he opened it up and it was a $40,000 scholarship he had not applied for.
COOL: Oh my goodness. What a wonderful story!
MUELLER: And so I tell kids, “Risk taking rewarded.” Not all the times. Risk are risky. But I just love so when I'm, you know, talking with students, the first student who asks a question, I usually give them some kind of prize because I go, “You asked!” You know, 90% of people sit back and go, “Oh, no, that's probably a dumb question,” or, “Oh, no, I don't want to bother them.” Or “Oh, you know, I'm probably the only one that didn't understand what they just said.” And so it's, it's a lot of fun. In fact, one of my things when I do an assembly for kids is I’ll hold up a $20 bill, and I'll wave it at them and I'll say, “Who would like this $20 bill?” And everybody raises their hand. I say, “No, really, Who'd like this $20 bill?” and they're waving their hand and screaming “Me!” “No, I really need it!” So I'm waving it waiting for somebody to come down from the bleachers and take it out of my hand. And if the teachers don't stop them, which sometimes they try to do, but when they take it out of my hand, you know, I'll say, “Whoa, yeah! We have got a real risk taker here. This is the person who I would foretell is going to be one of the most successful people in this whole school.” And it's usually a troublemaker, right? It's usually somebody who's in the principal's office a lot. And, often they'll offer it back to me and I go, “Oh, no, no, you earn that.” And then I love to look back at the rest of the students and say, “What kept you in your seat? You know, what was that thought that kept you from just coming up and grabbing what you want?” So that's one of my favorite things to do. I'm just so grateful we're friends.
COOL: I am too.
MUELLER: Love you so much.
DAVIS: That was MK Muller speaking with her friend Kim Cool. Their conversation was recorded in Fort Myers to the StoryCorps Mobile Tour. This is WGCU News.
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