Thomas Mueller: Associate Professor Of Advertising | The Business Blast Podcast #98

Welcome to the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite makes the process of becoming a published bestselling author as simple as sipping your morning cup of coffee. You can learn more about Authors Unite at authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode. All right everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast.

I'm your host Tyler Wagner, and today I have Thomas Mueller with us. He's an associate professor of advertising at Appalachian State University. So welcome to the show, Thomas.

Thank you.

Of course, man. Um, so we will start, uh, with the first question. The first question that I have is, what's the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?

Well, I'll start with a quote. Ronald Reagan, one of our presidents, when he was having one of his issues with the Soviet Union, had a famous quote, and I love this quote: "Trust but verify." And I'll tell a quick story. November '92, right before President Clinton got elected, I did what most good citizens do. I went and got a flu shot. And I had a very bad illness from that shot called Guillain-Barré. It's an autoimmune response to flu virus. Well, I went from a good person to completely paralyzed with no breathing in the ICU. And the point here is coming back, I wanted to trust what all the medical community was telling me, but I was also an ultra runner and I had a lot of ability to optimize myself. And I remember I was coming back and, you know, a couple months coming back out of this paralysis, and I mentioned to a nurse, this was like February, I mentioned to a nurse, I said, I think I'd like to run the Ice Age 50-mile ultra run that was up in Wisconsin at the time. And I never forgot, she chuckled a little bit and said, you'll be lucky to be in a walker by then. So I started thinking, what am I capable of? Trusting they knew what they were doing, but verifying myself. And They would send me to little rehab sessions where, you know, you pull the resistance bands. I'd leave there and go right to the gym. And when I started, I couldn't even put the pin in the stack for Nautilus, but I went to water aerobics with the old folks and I did the Nautilus. But I built myself back and I ran that race that year. Oh, so the point is to optimize yourself and don't always listen to what other people are telling you the parameters are.

And what's the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?

Well, I teach at Appalachian State Advertising, but I'm also a faculty-in-residence for 8 years now. I live among students, and I started an active living community, which is a group of students that live on a floor in a residence hall. And what I would say that's most important is that we live in a very polarized world right now. And I am a huge advocate for respectful public debate. And we have lost that in a lot of respects. It's a shout it down bullying world. And what I'm most concerned of is that we keep our focus on students because they're the future leaders. And I tell students this all the time, my time is not gone yet, but my time is to invest in you because you have to lead. In 10 years, they're the head of politics, they're the head of corporations, So we just have to learn to allow people to talk again and be social citizens so that we can break down this polarization we're currently in.

And what's your best piece of overall business advice, so not necessarily industry-specific?

Overall, I think believe in what you're selling. I gotta look back. I was in sport entertainment for about 20 years, a lot of sales, sponsorship, marketing, but Many times we know it's a tough world. We sometimes fight to get a job. We get in that job. In almost every case, we're representing or selling a product or service. Do we believe in it or not? Because it's really hard over time to think about some things I sold that really didn't deliver the value I thought they might have. So I think it's about, you know, just believe in what you're selling.

And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?

Don't over-promote yourself. I started young. I got out of college with a journalism degree. I became a motorcycle photographer reporter. And over a period of time of hard work, I promoted myself up to the top of a big organization in the industry. I was not prepared for it. I did not have the skill set for that. And frankly, I took a bit of a fall down and had to rebuild. So know who you are. And I was thinking, you know, I'm really good at conflict. I'm trained in it, but it just destroys me emotionally. I'm not good at it as a person. I can do it, but I don't like it. And negotiation, somewhat the same. I know how to do it. I've been trained in it. I have an MBA, but it's not my best, strongest suit. So I guess own it. Own yourself and own what you're good at, what you're not good at. And that would be advice back to me.

And in your opinion, what's the key to happiness?

Find it in somebody else. You know, happiness for yourself, I mean, you can go a lot of places, do a lot of things, buy a lot of stuff, but, uh, and again, I live in around students, but I just walked down the hall before I came in here, and a student that started my active living group, frankly, very immature several years ago, just told me she got a job at a radio station coming out of her graduation. So This to me is happiness, seeing young people perform and start their successful career.

And what's the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?

This will be odd. I don't have a best book because I read all the time, but some book that has been on my mind recently is the Mystic Ancient Book of Enoch because I'm currently writing a book on sort of the social analysis or free thinking model for Christianity. And I'm going through the Bible, and just follow me here for a second. If God killed everybody in a flood, what would be so bad that you'd have to kill everybody, right? So I'm looking in context to this book of Enoch, which talks about fallen angels that come to Earth and have sex with women and start this super race that is evil. And so I'm thinking, well, if Enoch was right, then there was a reason to flood the world, I guess. So my point is, I read obscure things, but sometimes it makes me think.

And what's your favorite quote and why?

First seek to understand, then to be understood. Stephen Covey, you know, that was the big book, Seven Habits of Highly Effective Living, about 25 years ago. But at every point in life, if you just listen and try to understand— again, back to this polarization— if we can just listen first and try to understand another point of view, before we force trying to be understood on somebody else. So I really try to live by that. I'm a pretty good listener and I try to be compassionate to every point of view.

And I love that book. And thank you so much for coming on, Thomas. The last question that I have for you before we let you go is where's the best place for people to find you online?

You know, I got a lot of social media, but I have a website called profwriter.com, P-R-O-F-W-R-I-T-E-R, Prof Writer. That's sort of one of my little handles. And you can find a lot about me there, profwriter.com. And I've got all the social media going. There should be some links there. And there's also a chat box, you know, or a message box. And I'd love everybody to put something in there, ask me a question. I'd love to talk.

Awesome. Thank you. And we appreciate that. And thank you again for coming on.

All right. Thank you.

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