Listen to the interview here!
Michael Damon Nagle
Toni Reece: Hi there. This is Toni Reece. Welcome to the Get Inspired! Project for Berks County Living magazine. Today I am with Mickey Nagle. Mickey, welcome to the Get Inspired! Project.
Mickey Nagle: Thank you, Toni. Thank you for having me.
Toni: So, Mickey, tell us a little bit about yourself.
Mickey: Well, Toni, I’m 50. I have operated my own independent floral store on Lancaster Avenue for the last 21 years called Majestic Florals. I like to travel. I traveled prior to opening my store, and I enjoy creating unusual things for people.
Toni: Let’s go into the first question of the Project. What does inspiration mean to you?
Mickey: That’s a tough question. I think for me it’s a mental or physical ability to want to achieve or have success. As far as mental, from a child winning a spelling bee or to an athlete winning a gold medal – something that can be very simple or very complex, but it’s an achievement, and that inspires me.
Toni: So somebody else’s achievement inspires you.
Mickey: Also my own, but yes, other people do really inspire me.
Toni: So really it’s that ability that it took to get to that goal or that achievement; when you see that happen, that’s what moves you and inspires you.
Mickey: That’s correct.
Toni: How you do put that type of achievement and movement and inspiration into practice here in Berks County?
Mickey: In my business in my floral store, when I see a different client come in – it could be for so many different reasons – but if it’s a happy occasion and it’s a bridal couple, seeing and learning from them and getting their vision, and then I can make that and produce that and achieve that satisfaction, and that also inspires me.
Toni: So you’re inspired by the work that you do, but also you’re working side by side with their own achievement, which is why they’re having the flowers for an event of some sort, correct?
Mickey: That’s correct. Just getting to know their personality. Getting to know their colors, their palette, what inspires them, what they’re looking for to make their day special. When I start to draw out a plan of what I’m going to execute for their event, I think of their words of what they’re looking for, and that inspires me to make what I hope they want.
Toni: It’s a pay it forward. It’s your customer coming to you and through the way I would imagine you engage them, you have to talk about what inspires them and moves them, which in turn then starts the wheels moving for you.
Mickey: That’s correct. That’s the starting point. Meeting somebody and listening to what they have to say will inspire me to create for them.
Toni: Do you have an example of the last time you felt really over the top inspired?
Mickey: I get inspired a lot throughout the day, depending on what I’m doing, or just driving and seeing somebody doing some kind of act of kindness for somebody. That’s really a tricky question.
Toni: But it brings to light an example. It can be a very small example, and it can be a very large example. The example you’ve given is work. Give me a personal example of when you were inspired.
Mickey: I’m inspired by so many simple things.
Toni: Were you inspired on the way in here?
Mickey: Inspired and nervous.
Toni: What were you nervous about?
Mickey: Speaking into the microphone and talking to you.
Toni: Okay, but what inspired you about that?
Mickey: Wanting a new experience – something that was interesting I haven’t done before.
Toni: So there you go. There it was; there’s a great example of being inspired. It was a new experience. It’s not a new customer, but I would imagine it’s quite the same.
Mickey: It is the same, but it’s a nervous inspiration that I will work through. I was very inspired to walk in here.
Toni: That’s fantastic. So who in Berks County inspires you?
Mickey: There’s so many local. I have lots of good business associates, friends, and family. I’m going to go right on the Berks County border. A very dear friend of mine is right now a New York cabaret singer. She is not only so talented and so beautiful, but she’s smart, and yet the best thing that inspires me is she’s very humble. She teaches people voice. She does coaching and acting for children. I’ve never seen her be anything less than congenial and encouraging to other people. Her name is Corinna Sowers-Adler, and she is just … she can never disappointment me. I don’t think I’ve ever heard her say a mean word or ugly word about anybody, which that inspires me, because it makes me want to be a better person by being around her.
Toni: There’s that ability and achievement again.
Mickey: That’s correct.
Toni: What do you want your legacy to be?
Mickey: If legacy means as you’re gone, I would hope that when somebody opens up a photo album or remembers a special time that I touched their life, that they would just remember me as being a nice, kind, and nutzy person.
Toni: And probably the wonderful work that you’ve done as far as helping their events come to life.
Mickey: I hope so. That would be the big thing.
Toni: So that would be your living legacy.
Mickey: That’s correct.
Toni: Thank you so much for being part of the Get Inspired! Project.
Mickey: Thanks, Toni. I appreciate you having me.