Table of Contents

• Press Release
• Meet MK Mueller
• Questions for the Media
• Talking Points
• Marketing & Publicity Overview
• Tip Sheet
• MK Photo 1
• MK Photo 2

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PRESS RELEASE:

Contact: Gail Kearns, To Press and Beyond
(805) 898-2263
or gmkea@aol.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Author Available for Interview
Request a Review Copy

The New Self-Help Process for 2010 that Everyone will be Talking About!

(Omaha, Nebraska, October 10, 2009) Life Coach, Keynote speaker and author, MK Mueller’s newest book, 8 To Great: The Powerful Process for Positive Change, will finally give the world what everyone says is the MOST important factor for success - a formula for positive attitude so simple and powerful that anyone can remember it, use it, and teach it to their children!

As you consider what you can bring that is fresh and exciting to your readers for this January’s focus on resolutions for mind and body, check out MK Mueller and her amazing 8 to Great process. She is a fabulous and energizing interview; and a refreshingly distinct voice on well being and feeling good whose only doctorate is from the school of hard knocks.

Everyone is looking for the best process—to lose weight, to become rich, to find and keep their true love. Yet most self-help texts only offer the ingredients. What is needed is the recipe. Like Covey gave it to businesses in the ‘90’s, MK Mueller gives a more heart-based version to the common man and woman in her latest book. Her 8 High-Ways empower adults young and old and her websites are filled with their amazing stories of success.

MK has been a transformational presence in the lives of teachers, students, healthcare workers and business leaders for decades. The simplicity and clarity of her work, such as defining risk as “Run to, not from” and Responsibility as “BC to AD” (Blaming and Complaining to Acting and Dreaming) have been credited with changing thousands of lives.

A former victim of domestic violence, at the age of 34 MK found herself in a shelter. From this place of despair, she experienced life changing insights that the power to change our lives is always within us. What began as a support group grew from five neighbors to over one hundred thousand readers and audience members around the world.

“8 to Great is powerful from cover to cover. MK Mueller has turned ancient wisdom into modern day tools in one of the most original presentations I have ever read,” writes Mike Dooley, featured in The Secret and author of Infinite Possibilities: The Art of Living Your Dreams.

In July, MK was the keynote speaker at the Optimist International meeting in Orlando.

Soon she will address the Lions International in Anchorage. 6,000+ readers read her Key-Mails each month. She has a weekly radio spot where audiences of over 20,000 hear her motivational minutes each week and she travels consistently each month around the country speaking at seminars and workshops. Her 8 High-Ways program for teens was recently mentioned on Dr. Phil.

To learn more about MK, check out her website, www.8togreatbook.com which includes a complete press kit, or call 402.212.3033.

Press Release History

» October 10, 2009

» September 20, 2009

Meet MK Mueller

Why is MK Mueller being referred to, by readers of her latest book, as the next Stephen Covey? Because this single mom took her lessons from a life challenging experience and turned them into an 8-step process that is helping tens of thousands of adults each year, and more recently, high school students, to find greater happiness and success.

8 to Great has become her passion and she now takes it to the boardrooms of Fortune 500 companies, homeless shelters, universities, prisons and the stages of international conferences. Dr. Phil mentioned 8 to Great on his show in January. Mike Dooley, from The Secret, believes her new book explaining the process could change the world.

Like every motivational speaker MK had a rock bottom experience: she spent a month in a domestic violence shelter, leading to life-changing insights which she immediately began sharing with others by starting a support group with five neighbors. In no time, hundreds were gathering to hear her message each week.

In 1997 Mueller published her first book, Taking Care of Me: The Habits of Happiness, which has sold over 80,000 copies and has been translated into Spanish and French. It includes the story of her recovery from domestic violence along with hundreds of success stories from her coaching clients.

In 2003, MK launched her 8 to Great Curriculum for middle and high schools. It is now taught in 12 states by over 600 certified trainers and growing rapidly through word of mouth and a national sales team.

Most recently, she finished the book that the curriculum is based on - 8 to Great: The Powerful Process for Positive Change. The principles include startlingly fresh and simple definitions for risk, dreams, and a positive attitude definition that is sure to be in Webster’s dictionary in the next decade.

Now MK is back on the speaking circuit. In July 2009, she gave the keynote for Optimist International in Orlando, Florida, recognized worldwide as the premier volunteer organization for developing the full potential in youth.

MK has been a regular contributor to One Magazine, Omaha’s premier lifestyle magazine and has a regular spot on Star 104.5 FM, a leading radio station in the Omaha/Lincoln, Nebraska, area where an audience of over 20,000 hears her motivational minutes each Monday morning. Her work has been featured in Ladies Home Journal, Women’s Day, American Chronicles and other publications. Her free monthly e-newsletter, “Key-Mails” reaches 6000+ subscribers.

During her brief respites from her trainings and the speaking circuit, MK loves to write and perform music. One of her songs from her two original music CD’s, “If I Knew,” will be sung this March in a concert at Ground Zero in New York City.

MK Mueller is a Heartland Hero award winner and a former high school teacher. She lives in Omaha, Nebraska, and is the proud Mom of two grown children.

» Download MK's Bio

Questions for the Media:

1. What prompted you to begin writing and speaking about creating positive change in people’s lives?
2. Why do you call them High-Ways? Why 8?
3. Which High-Way do you consider the most important or most life-changing?
4. Which High-Way is most originally yours?
5. What are your favorite stories of life changes after hearing you speak or reading your book?
6. What age groups/genders, etc. does this book most appeal to?
7. What do you say to those who might be skeptical of this kind of process?
8. How are you spreading the message of 8 to Great these days?
9. How does one become a trainer or life coach of this material?
10. It's also an audiobook on CD, yes? Will there be other spin offs from this book?

» Download Questions for the Media

Talking Points - The 8 to Great High-Ways:

• High-Way # 1: Get the Picture
  Belief is a thought you keep thinking until you feel it.
  Visualize the outcome until it feels good is the first step.
• High-Way # 2: Risk
  If I had no fear, what would I do?
  Risk is never running from our fears—it’s always running to our dreams.
• High-Way # 3: Responsibility
  What does full responsibility look like?
  Until we see that we’re in charge of our lives, we can feel trapped in a prison.
• High-Way #4: Feel All Your Feelings
  Opposites are two sides of the same coin—like rage and sadness.
  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 deep 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 good in every person and situation.
  Hope for the Future—knowing that our destiny awaits us.

» Download Talking Points

8 to Great Marketing and Publicity Overview

8 to Great will share a widespread audience both from within the education community and amongst the general readership of self-help books who are interested in learning a powerful process for greater happiness and success.

This title will gain from a well-focused marketing and publicity campaign that will target both traditional outlets and the ever-changing new social media that dominates the 21st century marketplace. Having a successful online campaign is more than just creating a short-lived burst of buzz. It is about creating a means of expression to have a sustained and meaningful brand.

“8 to Great is powerful from cover to cover,” says Mike Dooley, who is featured in The Secret and also wrote the Foreword for 8 to Great. “MK Mueller has turned ancient wisdom into modern day tools in one of the most original presentations I have ever read.”

Indeed, this powerful author (also a keynote speaker and international trainer) has written a life-changing recipe for success. And what comes through distinctively is her rare gift for teaching others how to attain their dreams.

The following list details some of the promotional activity in which the author and her marketing team will be engaged:

1. Speaking engagements. MK’s speaking calendar is so full that she has trained five Master Trainers in her program to travel the country sharing the 8 to Great process. She herself is booked for 30+ speaking engagements for the months of August and September 2009 alone.
2. Continue with her ongoing spot on Star 104.5 FM, a leading radio station in the Omaha/Lincoln, Nebraska, area where an audience of over 20,000 ranging in ages 25-39 hears her motivational minutes each Monday morning.
3. MK will maintain her monthly Key-Mails, an e-newsletter subscribed to by 6000+ readers.
4. Send out galleys to pre-pub trade reviewers (Booklist, PW, Library Journal, Foreword, etc.)
5. Follow up with finished book to pre-pubs.
6. Pitch national/regional consumer magazines for interview and/or feature article.
7. Send out expert letter and press releases through PR firm’s preferred distribution services, targeting editors at newspapers and online media.
8. Initiate a regional publicity campaign (print, radio, TV).
9. Set up book events at national chains and independent bookstores in Omaha, Nebraska, and Cedar Rapids and Des Moines, Iowa.
10. Online marketing plan, to include:
    • Optimizing Amazon product page
    • Blog
    • Webinars
    • Distributing articles over the Internet
    • Outreach to online communities
11. Create list of high level contacts, jointly developed, in the education market, university market, health care market and women’s groups. Goal of 25 key speaking opportunities in each area will be initially targeted.

» Download the Marketing & Publicity Overview

8 to Great Tip Sheet

“8 to Great is powerful from cover to cover. MK Mueller has turned ancient wisdom
into modern day tools in one of the most original presentations I have ever read.”
—Mike Dooley, featured in The Secret

KEY FEATURES AND BENEFITS:

• The missing ingredient in most self-help books can be found within the pages of MK Mueller’s 8 to Great. Many books have the ingredients for happiness and success, but 8 to Great gives readers the recipe.
• Mueller interweaves over 200 quotes from Jim Carrey and Oprah to Gandhi and the Dalai Lama to support the “High-Ways” concepts of the 8 to Great process.
• MK Mueller defines the element that everyone claims is the key to happiness, health, and wealth—Positive Attitude—in the simplest and most powerful definition yet. FGH: Forgiveness of the past, Gratitude for the present, and Hope for the future.
• The author reveals why there’s no such thing as a negative feeling. Feelings are simply feelings, and anger is redefined as “angergy” (energy for change).
• In 8 to Great readers will learn to overcome their fears and make life-altering decisions at each crossroad in their lives.
• The gratitude homework exercise is an empowerment tool that will change lives.
• 8 to Great gives birth to a key “what if” question: What if it’s really that simple and I’ve been struggling all this time?

MARKET INFORMATION:

• Most recent figures are an estimated 40,000 in the U.S. work as life or work coaches.
• Marketdata provides the following statistics: Total of self-improvement market expected to grow 11.4 % yearly. $13.9 billon value of goods and services sold projected for 2010
• Most recent figures: $700 million worth of self-improvement books were sold last year.
• More than 100,000 books listed on Amazon in the self-help category.
• Mental health experts are treating patients with a combination of both tradition and Eastern methods that favors authors like MK Mueller.
• Most of the top 100 magazines based on ad revenue and circulation include articles on a regular basis having to do with self-help.

» Download the Tip Sheet