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gail kearns interviews author MK Mueller about "8 to great!"  

 

Gail: You’re known to have the "World's Best Positive Attitude Formula." How can you claim the "best"?

MK: Get any ten people in a room and ask them how important attitude is to success, wealth or health and they'll all say VERY. Ask them to assign a percentage and most will say 95 percent or 100 percent. Yet that same group will not be able to agree on a definition if you give them all day. Now offer them our simple and easy to remember definition of FGH—Forgiveness of the past, Gratitude for the present and Hope for the future? And they will not only agree, they'll remember it five years later because it's true.

Gail: What are the 8 High-Ways you present in your book?

MK: High-Way 1: Get the Picture A Belief is a thought you keep thinking until you feel it. Visualize the outcome. Imagine it has already occurred. We must connect with our Dreams to be happy. Goals are not enough.

• High-Way 2: Risk Redefining Risk as Run To, Not From (Escape is run from) The decision-making formula: If I had no fear, what would I do?
• High-Way 3: Responsibility Moving from BC to AD-- Blaming and Complaining to Acting and Dreaming If even one person has to change for us to be happy, we have no power. Remember that I am in charge of my life, and I’m not in charge of yours.
• High-Way 4: Feel All Your Feelings Mad and Sad are two sides of the same coin—like fire and water, they must both be accessible to achieve emotional balance. As we overcome the fear and judgment of our own emotions, we can more easily accept the feelings of others.
• High-Way 5: Honest Communication Ask for what you want. Practice of heart-based non-defensive listening.
• High-Ways 6,7,8: Positive Attitude is FGH Forgiveness of the Past—we were all doing the best we could with the information we had. Gratitude for the Present—celebration of the gift in every person and situation. Hope for the Future—surrender when we’ve done our best, knowing that our destiny awaits us.

Gail: How can your message help people today?

MK: "8 to Great" takes people where they are, whether that's at the top of their career or jobless, student of the year or student behind bars, and shows them the way that the MOST successful, happy and healthy people got that way. It wasn't luck. It was a process. One that ANYONE can use.

Gail: The 8 to Great process is transforming people's lives. How is your process different than, say, Covey's 7 Habits?

MK: Covey’s and my first steps are basically the same—begin with the end in mind. From there they are fundamentally different. His are "principles of a ‘character ethic" and they are beautifully written and taught. Mine are the sequential steps that successful people use to achieve that success in the order that they most often use them. That's why we call ours a process. He does not refer to his that way. It's the difference between a list of ingredients and a recipe.

Gail: How do you set yourself apart from a Byron Katie or Wayne Dyer?

MK: Wayne Dyer focuses on our High-Way 1 and High-Way 8. Byron Katie is my most common reference for practicing High-Way 3. Just as "The Secret" was a powerful book and video, it didn't cover the entire process.

Gail: I understand you have an 8 to Great curriculum for high school students and have over 600 certified trainers who go into schools to teach your 8 to Great process. How is an 8 to Great class different from any other classroom experience?

MK: Three fundamental ways:

1. 1.)  The teacher is learning the skills and practicing them right along with the students. This is an adult program taught to students who are making adult decisions every day. Shouldn't they have the best skills?
2. 2.)  All 8 to Great trainers and teachers have their students journal at least once a week for 3-4 minutes. We believe we cannot meet the needs of students until we know what they are. Student will write what they will not say. This creates an amazing bond between student and teacher that has kept over twenty-five teachers in the profession that we know of, so far. 
3. 3.)  No activity is ever forced. This is an empowerment program. Therefore, before each High-Way, the facilitator will ask a question like, "Would anyone here like to know how to make every decision for the rest of your life and know it's the right one for you?" Only if the students say they want the material do we teach it. That's how we achieve 98 percent participation willingly! 7. Do you have a favorite High-Way? That changes from week to week. They are all so powerful.

Gail: Is one more important than another?

MK: The one you're not working is the important one to learn. 

Gail: What High-Way seems the most difficult for readers to carry out?

MK: High-way 3, Full Responsibility, choosing to stop BC - Blaming and Complaining and move into AD - Acting and Dreaming is hard for many who have been blaming and complaining all their lives. Also, Forgiveness is hard for some. The harder it is, the more healing it is when they embrace it.

Gail: Does a reader need to follow your 8 to Great process in order? Or can they pick up your book and start at any point in the process?

MK: They can start anywhere, but they will have to come around full circle. Just as the 8 turned on its side is infinity, the process just repeats itself and continues on,

Gail: What's happening with Michael Lawson, the kid you found jobless who used the 9 High-Ways to get to Hollywood with American Idol?

MK: He just signed a contract with a major TV network, so I cannot say. Watch for him!

Gail: Please share a couple of other success stories with us. How did the 8 to Great process transform them?

MK: We have students who were getting all F's get on honor roll the following semester. Students take six strokes off their best ever golf score. Students apply for MIT and get full scholarships; Young adults make amends with an estranged parent. Singles find their true love; One woman used the process to lose 140 lbs. This book is full of hundreds of those stories in great (and I do mean GREAT) detail

Gail: What inspired you to write the book 8 to Great: a dream, intuition?

MK: Chronicling my own recovery from codependency and my need to understand how to get better. Then once I learned it, I had to teach it, and once I taught it to adults, they begged me to write the curriculum for their kids.

Gail:  How has your musical theatre background played into your speaking career and the message you bring to the world?

MK:  I was one of the first people nationally to sing as part of their Keynote 25 years ago. Now it's quite common. But it's a wonderful way to help those whose left-brains are tired of just facts and words get a "break" and hear the same message through a song. It's often when tears flow. That's a very high compliment to a speaker. It means they let the message in all the way to their hearts!

Gail: What is your next dream?

MK: You mean besides Oprah and an 8 to Great campus and getting an honorary doctorate? My life dream is to give people a way to help themselves and those they love to find the joy I've found. I don't need people to remember my name, but I do believe that I'm leaving a legacy, and that 8 to Great will be taught for decades to those willing to learn and dream.

 

Gail Kearns is the founder of To Press & Beyond, experts in book publishing and support services. They have worked with over 300 authors and independent publishers worldwide. Visit: ToPressandBeyond.com

MK Mueller is an international trainer, motivational speaker and author. To learn more about MK, visit: mkmueller.com

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