Episode Three: Dr. Margaret M. Mueller

Margaret M. Mueller, Ph.D., joined Angela for her latest episode. Dr. Mueller serves as the President and Chief Executive Officer of The Executives’ Club of Chicago, the nexus for connecting and growing the region's business leaders. In this role, she oversees the strategic direction and operations of more than 100 programs annually for 16,000 executives. Check It Out and Be Inspired!

The Women Inspire Chicago Podcast is sponsored by Potbelly.

Margaret M. Mueller Linkedin: Margaret M. Muller
Executives' Exchange Podcast: Executives' Exchange Podcast
Linkedin: The Executives' Club of Chicago

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
I Heard Media Chicago presents the WomenInspired Chicago podcast, hosted by Angela Ingram
I Heard, Chicago's Senior vice presidentof Communications and produced by I Heard Chicago's
Jasmine Bennette. Angela hosts inspiring conversationswith so Much Chicago's top women executives as
they share their personal stories of success, including their triumphs, detours, pitfalls,

(00:21):
and challenges. Doctor Margaret M.Mueller, President and CEO of the
Executives Club of Chicago, joined Angelafor her latest episode, Check it out
and be Inspired. Well, welcomefor you. It's so good to be
here. I am so excited tohave you with us today. So listen,
let's talk a little bit about yourprofessional background. I think I have

(00:43):
had one of the most nonlinear careersof anyone I know. Linear careers like
the new thing now, So Iguess I'm actually sort of modern in a
way that I didn't even know.Harvard Business Review just did a thing on
nonlinear careers, so that is howI would define it. I got a
PhD in sociology or the profess sorefor a bit, and then I decided
didn't want to do that anymore,and I pivoted to the private sector and
I went into market research and customerinsights and brand strategy, which was a

(01:07):
really good place for sociologists to go. It's a lot of people's attitudes and
motivations and behaviors and why they dowhat they do, but doing it for
client problems instead of social issues.And then I started a company when I
was there as an employee that didall of this in the healthcare space,
and then we sold. It wasreally just a confluence of things. I
was hitting my fifteen year anniversary atthe company, I was turning forty five,

(01:29):
and my twins were going into preschoolfull time, and I just felt
like it's time. I said tomy husband in February of that year,
I said, I don't know how, I don't know when, I don't
know what, but I am notgoing to be in this job at the
end of this year. I justfelt like it was time. And two
weeks and I got approached with thisrole, which was not really part of
the plan. I thought, sure, I'll talk to anyone. I love
meeting people and learning about opportunities.The more I got into it, I

(01:49):
thought, this is really incredible tobe able to have this kind of impact
on the city I love and tobe able to leverage my strengths, like
they really needed someone like me tocome in and do some things. I
continue to expand. I mean,a PhD in sociology made a lot of
sense to get into insights and dataanalytics and then brand strategy, and then
I was running a company, andthen to pivot that to a civic organization

(02:12):
where it's all about learning, rightLike a I am a learner. I
love bringing ideas and that's what thisorganization needs. And I also like running
things. I know how to growa business and it really needs a business
mindset too. Here I am fourand a half years later. It's been
so much fun. Our plan it'snot always our plant. No, we
take fifts and dives, and welearned to pivot. I love that word

(02:35):
because that's what it really is,is a pivot. So talk about the
club, and let me do adisclaimer here. I am a member of
our I am being a member ofthe club. Chicago is fortunate to have
so many civic organizations. I mean, that's the blessing and the curse of
Chicago is there is so much youcan do, and it's also hard to
manage it all. But I wouldsay that our mission is actually the most

(02:55):
important of all the organizations because weare the next of the business community.
We are the only place where everybodycomes together to connect, learn and grow.
You walk into one of our eventsand there are fortune five hundred CEOs
and people who are managers and nonprofitleaders and academics and students and entrepreneurs and
everything in between. And nowhere elsedoes it happen. You know, there's

(03:19):
the exclusive organizations. You know,there's organizations for younger people. There are
organizations for certain industries, certain demographics. And to have a place like this
where everyone can come together. I'verealized that there's really nothing like it even
in the country. So we havemembers that relocate to other cities and they'll
call and say you please open achapter. Like in la or Atlanta or
Dallas. I have no way toconnect with the business community here. There's

(03:40):
nothing like it. I'm really proudof it. We have about three thousand
members their service of our mission toconnect and grow the entire Chicagland business community.
We open up many of our eventsto the public so we serve think
this last season we had ten thousandpeople attend to our events. In the
pandemic, it was sixteen thousand becausewe were doing a ton of virtual of
that was really valuable for everyone.So we bring in world class thought leaders

(04:03):
and speakers and panels, and wedo smaller things. We do a lot
of leadership development, We do alot of mentoring. We partner with a
lot of organizations in the city tobring our communities together. Well, it
really is a club by which allothers should be measured. I don't join
a lot of clubs, and myfirst experience with the club, it's absolutely
phenomenal. Clearly that speaks to yourleadership. Let's talk about mentoring. In

(04:27):
networking. Mentoring goes always. Soit is not that younger people are looking
for more seasoned people to mentor them. I mean young people mentor me all
the time. And I know youngpeople often think about what do I have
to give you keep me relevant?That is what you give to me.
Like you are the line of sightinto where this world is going, and
like you're on the front lines andyou know things and are experiencing things that

(04:50):
I'm so far removed from. Ineed you to bring that experience to me
and share that with me. Butthis is what we have to do.
We have to be able to connectwith people and me them, and especially
anyone who's in any sort of businessgrowth role, you know how important it
is. You need to learn fromother people how to do that. It
makes so much sense. And youmention the desire or the need to have

(05:11):
younger people around you. Yes,you know. Sometimes we have a fear
that, oh, they're going totake our job. Oh they're going to
move into our spot in our space. And I've heard women say that,
particularly women, some men, butparticularly women. But I think we have
to move that aside and realize thatthey really do bring something to the table.
They make you better. I know. The best advice I got from
my founder of my last company,Leo Shapiro, the key to your success

(05:34):
is making yourself irrelevant. And Isaid, oh, what does that mean?
And after talking to him and reflectingon I realized what he was saying
is that if you are the onlyone who can do your job, they're
never going to promote you because theyneed you to do your job. And
so what you need to do istrain someone to do your job as well
as you can and make yourself obsolete. So then that freeze up management to

(05:59):
say, Okay, we don't needher in that role anymore. We can
now promote her to the next thing. And so you need to do that.
But it is scary for people.It doesn't want people to know how
to do their job as well asthey can't. They see it as scarcity.
They did as opportunities. You know, they want to protect their position
in their job because if they know, perhaps they won't need me. And
what you're saying is you don't wantthem to need you. No. I
mean, clearly you've been all overthe spectrum, and some of those opportunities

(06:24):
involved detours and challenges, and solet's talk about those. How did you
go from point A to point B? I'm sure it was not a straight
line. It was not a straightline. I have two fun things that
I've learned about this now. I'vestarted to say three lefts make or right,
So you turn left three times,and you actually did end up turning
right. As a sociologist, thereare a lot of philosophers that I studied,
and my favorite quote is by thisphilosopher Storing Carecaguard. Life can only

(06:46):
be understood backwards, but it mustbe lived forwards. So it's only backwards
that we can tell this coherent story. Leadership is getting people to follow you
to a place that they would notnormally go on their own. When you
look back over your career and overyour life, the ten year old Margaret,
what do you see? Did yousee this path? Okay, well

(07:10):
you don't know this about me,And it's such an interesting question because then
when I was eleven, my momdied, so my life was completely upended.
So ten year old Margaret and elevenyear old Margaret were completely different young
girls, and I grew a lotthrough that. I have grown the most
in the hardest, most challenging situations. That is when we grow. We

(07:30):
don't grow when we're comfortable. Wedon't grow when things are easy. And
so you have to look at thesemoments that you're in and yes they're really
really hard, but just know thatyou will get through it and you will
come out the other side better inmany ways. We not know how right
now, you know, but youwill. And so that resilience that I
developed at such a young age hasalso served me really well. The small

(07:55):
things is what really caused me tobe unhinged. Yeah, it's not the
large things. I went through aseason two of the most important people in
my life being diagnosed with cancer,and I just took a deep breath.
I just trusted God. He justopened up a floodgate of resources for me
to be able to handle it.But let me get a flat tire.
Yeah, and the world has justcome to an end. And you're right.

(08:16):
I think our growth comes from thosemoments, unexpected moments. Yes,
I didn't expect either one of thosechallenges, but I faced those challenges and
I'm a better woman today as aresult of those challenges. Yes. So
how do you I've heard you usethis phrase, are your shields down?
I need to share something. Howdo you accept feedback or criticism? Yes,

(08:39):
I mean my husband's going to beso excited that he's being quoted and
I hurt media, so this comesfrom him. I do put my shields
up. I am much better atwork life than I am a personal life.
So in work life, you cangive me all the feedback in the
world. I'm here for it.Thank you. I'm going to take that.
I'm going to learn from it.If he just catches me off guard,

(09:00):
my shields are going to go up, and I'm either not going to
hear him or I'm just going toget defensive, and so when he has
something important to tell me, I'llsay, okay, shields down. Are
your shields down? And when hefirst did it, I was so annoyed.
Don't treat me like a child,like you can tell me whatever you
need to tell me. I don'ttry to manage my emotions for me.
I was super annoyed. But thenI realized what he was doing, and

(09:20):
he was absolutely right. So I'lltell okay, shields down. He's like
okay, and then he'll tell mesomething. You take the note. You
don't have to do anything about it. You don't have to respond to it.
You don't even have to agree withit, but you have to just
take it. You take the note, and so the same thing with feedback.
You don't need to do anything aboutit in the moment. You don't
have to react, you don't haveto have a point of view on it.

(09:41):
Just take it, say okay,and then whenever you're ready, you
know you'll do something about it.What inspires she when you think about women
and leadership in the future, Iam really inspired by the younger generations.
I feel like with every generation we'rejust getting it a little bit more.
And yes, progress can be slow, and we're nowhere near anywhere everyone would

(10:03):
like us to be. But Ireally look at the younger people and think
like they're figuring it out. They'revery humanistic, right, they have values,
they believe in what's important to them, and that was not historically the
American way, right, the individualism, and I've got it, and you're
all on your own, and Ithink we're starting to now move away from

(10:24):
that and understand that we do needeach other, and we do need these
social supports and structures support. It'shard. It's really hard to like have
this family and a job and figureout how to you know, exercise.
Oh and you're supposed to also keepup your looks. Oh and you're supposed
to have friends. You're supposed tobe interesting. You know the question I
hate the most, What are yourhobbies? Yeah, I'm like, shut

(10:45):
up. I expected that we're alwayson, I know, and that is
so unfair. We're human, We'renot always on, I know. And
then you know, we have wefeel pressured to do that. We've talked
a lot about the younger generation,and so we have Jasmine Bennett here,
who is our producer. She's alsoa radio host of our own show on
one and three five Kiss FM,as well as works with our office administration.

(11:09):
I mean, she really has aterrific resume. So Jasmine chime in.
It's funny how we were saying inthe conversation, like the world is
always changing, because that's true.Keeping up with these decisions that you have
to make, it's crazy because youreally have to pay attention to everything all
the time. The quote that Ihad by Isaac Asimov is literally about what
we were talking about. So itsays it has changed, continuing change,

(11:31):
inevitable change that is a dominant factorin society today. No sensible decision can
be made any longer without taking intoaccount not only the world as it is,
but the world as it will be. Yes, you always have to
think about the future, and it'salways it is because it is changed so
quickly, and we are going toplaces that we have never been. We

(11:52):
did a lot of things in thepandemic, so again thinking about crisis as
opportunities, I mean, the pandemicwas a big opportunity for us to expand
our reach in ways that we couldn'tbefore. So the podcast has been fantastic.
It's called the Executives Exchange. Itis largely Chicago CEOs. And what
the hallmark of our podcast is reallygetting to know someone isn't person. I
think we're gonna share your podcast onours and ours on yours and so people

(12:16):
be able to check them both out. Well, Margaret, it's been terrific
having you with us today. Oh, thank you so much. Just so
glad that you stopped by and youshared your afternoon with us. Thank you.
Oh, I'll come back any Wedon't want this to be a one
no, no, no no,we'll do it. We're looking forward to
Thank you so much, Margaret,Thank you too. Thanks for listening to
the Women Inspire Chicago podcast sponsored bypot Belly. Feed your group from small

(12:39):
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